Page 63 of His True Mate

He chuckled. “Stop being paranoid and come have breakfast with me.”

“Fine. I’ll see you soon.”

“Is everything okay?” Winnie asked as I hung up the phone, jumped out of bed, and began getting ready for the day.

“I think so. That was just Thomas.”

“Shit! The Alpha noticed you were late? Clay, I know he’s your friend and all, but that’s not good.”

“I’m not late, sweetheart. My shift doesn’t even start until eight,” I confessed. “I think it’s eight. It’s been so long since I checked that I honestly don’t remember. For the most part I just set my own hours and as long as the work is all done then it doesn’t really matter. In general, I just like arriving before all the madness of the day begins.”

“Oh, I didn’t know. You don’t have to run then. I still have half an hour before I need to be there.”

“No, it’s fine. Apparently, I’m having breakfast with Thomas now anyway. I’ll be ready in a sec and will drop you off on the way unless you’d rather drive yourself. I do have a car as well as the truck. Better gas mileage when I leave the territory.”

“Um, no thanks.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure. I don’t know how to drive.”

“What? Seriously?”

“Yeah, I mean there was never a need to learn.”

“Well, we should change that. That way you’ll have the freedom to go where you want when you need. Isn’t that part of why you were leaving the rodeo anyway?”

She considered that for a minute and then shrugged. “I guess. I hadn’t really thought about it like that before.”

“Running in your fur is great but can be a pain when people have a bit of expectation of clothes when you go to the supermarket. Driving will make life easier for you and give you more independence.”

She looked at me like I was crazy. “You want me to have more independence and not count on you for everything?”

“Of course I do.”

“Why?”

“Why? Winnie, I’m not a tyrant. I want to live life with you not for you. We should be in this together.”

“Like equals?”

“Well, yeah. Isn’t that how relationships work?”

“No,” she blurted out. “They’re more like a Pack status with the man as the Alpha of the family.”

I scowled. “I know we haven’t known each other for long, but there is absolutely no way you want that. If you wanted to be told what to do, who to mate, when to be where all the time, you would have stayed with the rodeo. And if I remember correctly, I didn’t pull you from the rodeo, you left on your own accord. I didn’t even play a factor in that. Hell, you told me to go away, that you didn’t need rescuing. Remember?”

“I just thought that’s how things went.”

“Well, you thought wrong.”

I gave her a quick kiss.

“Come on, Thomas is patient, but he doesn’t like to be kept waiting long, and I have no idea what he wants today.”

She didn’t argue but it was almost like I could see the gears turning in her head as she processed everything I’d just told her.

She was pretty quiet on the drive over to the stables, and I didn’t try to fill the void. As usual, I loved that it didn’t feel awkward or even uncomfortable.