Page 71 of Fated to the Wolf Cowboy

I tried not to let myself think too much of it because for me it was actually a very big deal no matter how much I played it down.

“No one back home would do something like this for me. No one.”

“Not even your Alpha?”

She scoffed. “He’s become kind of worthless. Bad influences have corrupted him or at least he turns a blind eye to it all.”

“Is that why you left New York?”

All I had were pieces of the puzzle of her life. I needed answers.

“Not exactly.”

“Can we talk about it?”

She looked around the room uncomfortably and I realized it was probably because there was only one bed.

“We can go back out to the living room and sit,” I added.

“Can we just lay in here?” she surprised me by asking.

“Uh, sure.”

I wasn’t sure a bed was the best place for us to have this conversation. It was too important for the possible distractions. But if that’s what she wanted, I’d do my best to behave.

I waited for her to lay down first and then I joined her as she bounced a bit from my weight on the mattress.

“I guess an air mattress is better than nothing.”

“It’s perfect.”

Once upon a time I would have agreed with her. Having grown up with only the one twin mattress for the four of us, Oliver and I had always slept on the floor. When we’d moved into Peyton’s at first, I thought an air mattress was the greatestthing in the world. But then she had bought me my first bed. Hell, she’d bought us all a bed of our very own.

To this day, I still cherish that bed. It means the world to me.

I laid on the far side, not daring myself to reach out and touch her, not even to comfort her. We still needed to talk.

“Talk,” I whispered to myself. “Just talk.”

“This isn’t easy for me to talk about,” she confessed.

That certainly put a damper on any inappropriate thoughts that might have been stirring.

“Take your time. It’s your story.”

“I wish it weren’t. I guess I should start at the beginning. Hi, I’m Tricia and I’m a witch.”

“Hi, Tricia, I’m Brady and apparently I’m very attracted to a certain witch.” I winked at her and she lightly smacked me.

“I’m not going to get through this if you’re just going to flirt with me the whole time.”

“I’ll try to behave,” I told her. “But no promises.”

My teasing flirtations were relaxing her. I no longer felt like she was about to bolt.

“Have you heard of the Raglan?” she asked, sobering me quickly.

“Yeah. They kidnapped Lily from what I’ve heard.”