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I shake my head to clear it and drop my eyes for a second, again wiping my hand over my face,forcingmyself to concentrate. I exhale slowly and lift my head.

“Thank you,” I say, managing by some miracle to keep my voice steady. I hold out a hand to her, my fingertips only trembling a little bit. “Can I eat it? In my tent?”

She smiles and nods, stepping closer, handing me the thermos.

“Will you come with me?”

She hesitates for a second, glancing at the tent and then up at me, wrinkling her nose. “Isn’t that a little scandalous, Cole?”

I smirk. “Only if you tell Shayne. She’llmakeit scandalous.”

Nadia twists her mouth to the side. “I don’t know, Cole,twogirls in your tent in one night – in onehour–“

I snarl and step to her side, placing a hand on her lower back and sweeping her forward. Nadia laughs and lets me, looking up at me as we go.

“I mean, am Iallowedto keep my top on? Or is that like, a rule in your tent –“

My snarl only deepens, and her laugh gets louder as Nadia ducks into my little room. I take a deep breath and then follow.

My breath hitches when I stand as straight as I can in my tent and see Nadia already seated quite comfortably at the head of my bed, her back against my pillow, her legs crossed beneath her.

Yessss,my wolf sighs.Now our pillow willsmelllike her and we can fall asleep with the scent –

But then we remember that Rose was just in that same spot, and that she had skin contact, and that their scents will be mixed. I hide my sigh and sit at the end of the bed, one foot on the floor, as my wolf howls.

“Thank you for this,” I murmur, starting to unscrew the top of the thermos, my stomach rumbling when I smell the lovely stew inside. I am hungry, but in all the worry and confusion, I didn’t notice.

I take the spoon and the crackers out of the container on top and dig in.

“Whathappenedwith Rose, Cole?” Nadia whispers, leaning closer to me, shaking her head. “That was…crazy.”

I grumble something around my full mouth, not really wanting to talk about it, even if I know Nadia deserves an answer.

“Look,” Nadi says, her voice more serious than it was a few moments ago. I raise my eyes to hers. “You…don’t have to kick her out of your tent for my sake, okay?”

I just stare at her.

“We’re like…” she hesitates, blushing a little, lowering her voice, “Cole – I know that you think we have some kind of romantic tie but…we’re not dating, okay? If you want to entertain…other people. That’s fine.”

My very dramatic wolf yelps and falls to his side like he’s been shot. I just nudge him with my mental foot, rolling my eyes. Even if Ilookall serious on the outside like my dad, inwardly I’ve clearly still got some of my mom’s dramatic flair.

I shake my head slowly, looking back at my soup, forcing myself to eat even as my heart squeezes. “Even if that’s true,” I say, as calmly as I can, “I’m notinterestedin Rose and all of her games, Nadia. I didn’t ask her to leave for you. I did it for me.”

Only half a lie.

Nadia’s quiet for a moment. “All right,” she says quietly. “But if there’s anyone else that you…”

My eyes snap up to hers, and she goes still.

“There’s no one else, Nadia.”

She stays still, except for a little piece of her ponytail that slips over her shoulder, curling over the fabric of her hoodie. I watch it, wanting quite desperately to brush it back.

“But I hear you,” I murmur, paying attention to my dinner again and lifting another spoonful to my mouth. “If what you’re trying to say is that…you’re not expecting me to be faithful or something because we don’thavea relationship. Then all right. I hear you.”

She still doesn’t say anything.

“But in turn, you should hear me when I say that there’s not going tobeanyone else.” I eat the spoonful of stew.