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“No, I mean he didn’tknow.”

She was looking at me like I was crazy. How could I blame her for that? I wasn’t being clear at all, but it was hard to admit a misstep of this magnitude.

I blew out a breath, uncrossed and recrossed my legs, and fidgeted before I tried again. “Like he didn’t know about magic. Didn’t know about us. He hadnoidea we’re werewolves. I just told him, half an hour ago, that he’s a fucking mage. He had no idea.”

“Shit.” Jillian blinked. “How is that possible?”

“I don’t know. I have no idea who his family is, where he came from.”

“But you went to Howl last night, right? HefoundHowl.”

“Yeah, but the wards just keep out humans. He got in. Why would he think anything of it?”

“Other than the room full of werewolves?”

“Yup. That he didn’t know were werewolves.”

“Fuck,” Jillian hissed.

I sighed. “It’s worse.”

“Worse how?”

“I, uh, Awakened him?”

Jillian’s mouth dropped open. “He was a virgin?”

I flinched, nodding.

“Did you know?” she demanded.

Another nod. “He said he wanted me. Seemed so firm about it. I thought it was, I don’t know, an act of rebellion against an uptight mage family or—or something like that. Then I saw him this morning and I thought, well, maybe it was something more insidious. Like... a trap somehow. With Igarashi.”

Jillian’s face screwed up in distaste. “Jax, did youreallyaccuse him of that? And he didn’t evenknow?”

“I know. Iknow, Jill. I fucked up, and I apologized in his office, then he—he seemed to forgive me, which, you know, great.”

She scoffed. “That’s a hell of a way to forgive you.”

“Yeah, so I asked him to dinner.”

She arched a brow. “Just to dig yourself in deeper.”

I rolled my eyes. “So I’m not as good at one-night stands as I was in my twenties.”

“Or you’re bad at them when you’ve freakingAwakeneda darling little virgin mage who tells you how much he wants you, big strong alpha man.”

“It’s not like that.”

Her lips pressed into a thin line. “Isn’t it?”

I sighed. “It’s a little like that. But I like him, okay?” I liked the way he looked at me, how his eyes darkened and the way he felt when he reached for me—all warm and supple. “And if I’dknownhe was going to be working here, I wouldn’t have risked taking him home in the first place, but what would you have had me do, escort him out of Howl and send him home in an Uber? That’s as shitty and condescending as any other ridiculous alpha impulse I’ve had.”

Jillian sighed, deflating until her arms hung limp against the cushion on either side of her. “Okay, fair enough. If he was going to go home with someone from Howl, it’s probably good it was you.”

“That soundssounconvincing.”

“No, it’s just—” She shook her head, twirling her hand in the air before dropping it back onto her seat with a thump. “Who the hell would go to Howl to lose their virginity? And as a mage? It’s asking to get eaten alive.”