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“Two years,” I say through clenched teeth, unsure why I’m not leaving the house like I told myself I was going to do.

The longer Rallan stares at me, his eyes softening, I find my troubles easing. He hasn’t started mocking me yet. He hasn’t thrown his head back and laughed at me for thinking Simone might even look at me again. He doesn’t do anything I was scared he’d do.

“We should sit,” Rallan says, turning without giving me a chance to tell him whether or not I want to sit and talk with him.

Do I follow him over to the living area and take a seat on the couch when he takes a plush chair near the fireplace? Yes. Yes, I do. I also watch Rallan’s reactions to the house. I didn’t do any decorating because I wasn’t sure what he’d enjoy for decorations. I did make sure the couch and chairs were all comfortable, and even reworked some of the furniture until it fit what I knew Simone would like. She told me once that she wished she could live in a giant marshmallow because it would be so comfy. I knew she was joking, but I’ve also found that she enjoys things that are soft and comforting.

“This is a nice home,” Rallan says after long minutes of just looking around. “How near is it to the brother who is the blacksmith?”

“I was told the male who does that is a little over a novice, so the job is yours if you want,” I say.

I try not to let embarrassment stop me from saying what I need to say. I planned all of this out in meticulous detail because I wanted it to all be perfect. The one thing I didn’t take into account was that Simone had almost died and that they both blamed me for it. Though, Rallan isn’t treating me like someone he thinks tried to kill his mate.

“Ralleth told me about your occupation. I wanted to make sure everything was ready for you and Simone when you got here. So, there’s an open workshop a few houses down. I went ahead and moved all of Kal’s old blacksmithing stuff and figured if you weren’t interested, we could always move it back to his workshop.”

Rallan’s eyebrows rise just like they did earlier, and this time, I realize it’s actual astonishment. “You did all of this.” He motions around the house. “And you prepared a workshop for me to work in?”

I grind my teeth against one another, my hand fisting in my lap. “I wanted to make this work.”

Rallan leans forward, elbows on his thighs. “What did you want to make work?”

The humor in his voice is gone, the amusement in his eyes has vanished, and an eerie seriousness has taken over. I don’t realize how comforting Rallan’s carefree attitude is to counteract how high strung I am until it’s gone.

“She loves you,” I say, keeping the words low. I hate how they curdle my stomach because I know what her love means for her relationship with me.

“She does.” Rallan doesn’t deny the statement. Why would he? He can read Simone as easily as me, maybe even better, if he’s already learned how to deal with her when she’s being her difficult and amazing self.

“And I love her.” I straighten in my seat, rolling my shoulders back to sit up straighter. “I’ll do anything for her. She wants you and me, great. She wants just you. I’ll learn to deal. I want her happy, and I want her safe. Think as little of me as you want for how she arrived here, but trust that I didn’t know about it. If I had—“

I don’t need to explain what would’ve happened because the human skin flickers from existence as my energy becomes too much to control. Tendrils of me spread through the house, energy crackling and sizzling, looking for something to break. I rein it all in as fast as I can, not wanting to scare Rallan. I don’t need him going to the others and telling them that I’m dangerous. It could throw a wrench in this whole thing.

When I seal my energy back up tight and plaster the human skin firmly in place, I turn my gaze back to Rallan. His eyes are wide, and his smile is even wider.

“Oh, I think I would have liked to have known what you would have done for her if you had known,” Rallan says, a hint of awe in his voice. He shakes his head and then stands from his chair. He walks over to me, places a hand on my shoulder, and stares down at me with that same carefree look he was wearing when he came into the great hall with Simone. “You wish to woo her again?”

“Do you think I have a chance?” The question is meant more as a deflection, but it sounds desperate for an affirmation.

“Do you know how many times I had to hear, ‘Oh, he is not so bad’?” Rallan rolls his eyes, the hand on my shoulder squeezing softly and then falling to his side. “She has probably already forgiven you, but we both know she is not anywhere near close enough to admitting it to anyone.”

Rallan takes a step passed me, toward the front door before his words really settle over me. It hits me like a lightning bolt, and I’m scrambling out of my chair and following him to the door.He looks over his shoulder, smirking slightly as though to say that now I’m the one following him when he was just following me. Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’ll care once I get some of that dignity I lost a long time ago back.

“She’s forgiven me?” I ask. The feeling in my chest is all-consuming, threatening to engulf me in either despair or pure joy, depending on what Rallan says to me next.

“Of course she has.” He gives me an incredulous look. “Our mate is prickly, though.” He rubs his chin, thinking about what to say next, and I’m just standing here hanging on his every word. “You will need to woo her, and with everything you have. It will take much.” He looks down at me, one brow cocked higher than the other. “Do you think you can do that?”

“I was mated to her for two years,” I say defensively. “I can woo her just fine.”

“Good,” Rallan says. He taps the doorframe twice before stepping out. “You will live with us then. It will move faster that way.”

I grit my teeth together to keep myself from blubbering my thanks to him. So much for me thinking I’m above all of the emotions of this species. I live here during one storm season, and I’m already about to cry because this male is willing to help me get our shared mate to forgive me and give me another chance.

“If she kills me, it’ll be your fault,” I warn him, knowing Simone might actually have an aneurysm when she realizes that not only does everyone expect her to share a house with Rallan but also with me.

“She has yet to kill me, and I have tried to get her to try for many, many days,” Rallan says, laughing over his shoulder as he walks toward the workshop with his blacksmithing supplies. “She is with her sisters now, but she will be at the house at some point tonight. Figure out if you want her to know tonight or inthe morning that she is living with two males she pretends to hate, okay?”

Rallan doesn’t turn around to see me nod, and I don’t answer loud enough for him to hear. He assumes I’ll do what he says. He assumes he’s my only chance at fixing whatever I broke with Simone. He’s right on both accounts.

At this point, he could tell me to dance naked around the great hall, and I’d do it. I thought he hated me, but I’m pretty sure he’s my only hope of making the woman I love fall back in love with me.