Page 46 of Fated to the Wolf Cowboy

My mate.

That didn’t even seem real, which was probably why I was just as curious about them as I was him.

“I know it’s the weekend, but I’m going to head into work anyway,” Kenneth said.

“Check on your brother,” Peyton said.

“Of course.”

“This is crazy,” I finally said as reality started sinking in. “I can’t disrupt your family like this.”

“Yes, you can. Look, I don’t know what all that mess was this morning. I’m just really sorry you had to witness it. Brady’s a good guy. Really, he is. He’s just been going through some stuff lately. We’ve all been worried about him, but maybe some tough love is exactly what he needs. So stay. Please. With you in his room he certainly won’t be coming around to disrupt everything and hopefully in a few days what it is will pass.”

I still felt guilty about kicking him out of his own house, but the thought of sleeping in his room, surrounded by his scent, well, it might just be more than I can handle. Tingles of anticipation pricked my skin just thinking about it.

I might regret sticking around, but I was certain I would regret not staying because I’d be wondering every day for the rest of my life if I’d made a mistake by not giving him a chance.

A mate.

I almost squealed with excitement.

I had a mate.

Never in my life had I allowed myself to dream that he might exist out there somewhere—somewhere like Collier, Wyoming.

*****

“He didwhat?” Lily shrieked.

“He is losing it, Lil. I’m so worried about him.”

“But you kicked him out of the house?” Ruby asked.

“Sort of. More like he voluntarily left.”

I wouldn’t have called it that, but I thought it best if I kept my mouth shut about it.

“Are you okay, Tricia?” Lily surprised me by asking.

“Me? I’m fine.”

“Well, that had to be scary,” Ruby said.

“Not really.”

I was from the city, something I suspected none of them could even comprehend. I’d awoken to drug addicts more terrifying looking for a high in some of the sketchy places I’d lived. And there was that time I was living on the streets and the lady a few yards down went into labor in the middle of the night. You would have thought someone was slicing that baby right out of her stomach. And then there was the time I witnessed someone getting shot right beneath the window of the hotel we’d been staying at while my dad was on a gambling roll.

I’d witnessed plenty of scary things in my life. Brady was not one of them.

But I didn’t share any of that with them.

They all stared at me like they were waiting for me.

I sighed. “New Yorker here. I’ve dealt with much worse.”

I decided to leave it at that. Short and sweet. They could fill in the rest with their own imaginations.

“Huh, well, okay then,” Lily said. “So you’re sticking around for a bit.”