Page 10 of I Hate Myself For Loving You (Wolf Mates #7)

Chapter Eight

A very scooted out the sliding glass door like a gang of country bumpkins in Hooterville were hot on her heels, threatening to marry her off to Bodine Cleary—the biggest basement dweller in the land.

She tried to be as nonchalant as she could about it, but when she scratched at the door, Lassiter asked if she had to “make potties.” Avery would have yelled a resounding, “Hell, yes,” if she’d been in human form.

Her legs took the stretch of woods in harried urgency.

Memories from long ago rushed to her mind’s eye. They crowded out everything but what she’d just seen. Every conversation they’d ever had, every secret they’d shared she could remember in vivid detail.

How could he have not told her he was a vampire?

Which spawned the question, why hadn’t she told him she was a werewolf?

Because you just don’t walk up to your best friend and school girl crush and say,

“Oh and FYI, I’m a werewolf. Kinda like a dog, but not quite the same, you dig? You know, woof woof.”

Why hadn’t she smelled him and the difference between a human’s scent and a vampire’s?

Because your hormones were in overdrive?

What the hell did a vampire smell like anyway?

Ohmigod. It all made sense now. His pale skin, his sunglasses, his solitude. They both had their reasons for secreting away, spending little time with their own peers.

Their paranormal bond had drawn them together and neither one had ever been the wiser. Her worry that Lassiter would find out what she was had been for naught.

Each full moon when she’d fretted if they were due to meet, she’d worried he’d find out. Lassiter must have been as worried she’d find out about him.

Had his foster parents known? If vampires needed blood to survive, how had he managed to make it all those years on just Mrs. Fuller’s chicken fried steak?

But he’d had food in his refrigerator.

None of this was adding up and the more she thought about it, the more two plus two equaled something other than four.

Avery pushed her way through a thicket of trees, panting from her getaway.

She found the spot where she’d left her clothes and began to shift. A chill coursed down her spine when she shifted back to her human form.

Nothing could have prepared her for what she’d just seen. Nothing could have prepared her for the shock that Lassiter hadn’t shared the single biggest secret he had with her.

Avery wasn’t sure which upset her more, finding out at all or finding out without the benefit of Lassiter telling her.

Pulling on her clothes and leaning against the trunk of the tree, she sank to the ground, wrapping her arms around her legs. Her head was a mixed-up jumble of emotions. Lost in the memory of conversations they’d had that now had a whole new meaning. She felt confused and lost.

Yet, one thing remained predominant in her mind and it wouldn’t let her go.

This situation also had another meaning.

A bigger meaning than she’d first thought.

Lassiter Adams was no Adams. Not of the werewolf kind anyway.

The liar.

You’re just as much a liar as he is. It’s not like you’ve told him all of the reasons why you so desperately want to save the Adams land.

But that didn’t make much of a difference now. Lassiter had the money it had cost to buy the land. It mattered little that he wasn’t kin.

And this letter. What did it mean? What did it say and why had it brought him here to this specific Adams-owned land?

The Adams name and whatever Lassiter wanted fit like two pieces of a puzzle.

They were tied together with some sort of significance and Avery had to find out what that was. She also had to tell the Adamses.

Cold now from the wind and her shift, Avery rose to make her way back to the house. On stiff legs, she ran a hand over her mussed hair.

“Avery?”

Her head whipped around. Startled, she faltered, tripping on a fallen branch.

Lassiter’s hand snaked out to catch her.

His vampire hand.

Where had he come from and how did he manage to always sneak up on her without her noticing?

“What are you doing out here?” he asked, keeping hold of her hand.

“What are you doing out here?” she volleyed back.

“Looking for a do—” He shook his head. “Never mind. Why are you out here? It’s cold.”

“I’m admiring the trashed landscape,” she snapped.

His sigh carried on the howl of the wind. It held exasperation. “Avery --”

“Don’t Avery me, Lassiter. You’re ruining this beautiful retreat for your own selfish purposes. So you can make a little money to put in your already fat bank account. Damn it, Lassiter, who the hell are you?” she yelled into his face. Vampire or not, she wasn’t afraid to voice her opinion.

As long as he wasn’t into biting. Those fangs had looked pretty damned sharp. Though, she had incisors too.

“I know you’re angry with me, Avery. But I need you to believe, it still isn’t what you think.”

No, no siree, it sure as Hell wasn’t what she thought anymore. She never in a millennium thought Lassiter was a vampire.

Looking down at her hand clasped in his own, Avery yanked it away. “So, why don’t you throw me a bone, Lassiter? What is it if it isn’t what I think?”

“Forget it.”

“I can’t forget it.”

“You’ll have to.”

“Exactly. Now we’re back to square one again. I have to go. I’m cold.”

“Don’t…”

Hearing the regret in his voice, Avery stopped short, hoping he’d spill the beans.

For a mere second, she’d heard the Lassiter that once sat on a park bench with her and told her it was no big deal that she was so skinny.

Someday, boys would be crazy about her. The Lassiter that held her hand when she’d cried because one of the animals she’d fallen in love with at the animal shelter had died.

“Don’t what?” she asked, soft and almost hesitant to hear his answer.

His jaw ticked, his face hardened. “Nothing.”

Being a vampire was nothing? Nothing?

Was being a werewolf ? her conscience whispered.

Oh, the secrets and lies they’d created.

For some reason, tears stung her eyes. Tears for who they once had been, for who they were now. For all of the reasons they couldn’t talk the way they’d once done so adeptly.

On impulse, Avery reached up, cupping his jaw, running her thumb over the rigid line, trying to smooth away the tension. Pulling his tall frame close, she gave him a brief kiss, skimming his lips with her own and moving away with haste before she said,

“I don’t know you anymore, Lassiter, but I’d like to.”

His arms went to gather her close, but she pressed a finger to his lips and moved out of them, knowing what would happen if she let him hold her.

“For old time’s sake, I’m ready whenever you are, Lassiter,” she whispered, hearing the sad tinge to her words.

Squeezing his arm, Avery turned and walked back toward the Adams house.

Her heart thrashed in a painful rhythm with each step she took. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to remember.

It hurt period.

* * * * *

“We have to talk,” Avery said to Max while they sat in the kitchen, sharing a cup of coffee.

Her restless night’s sleep had led to a morning filled with questions and still no answers.

She did know one thing, she had to tell the Adams pack.

No matter how she felt about Lassiter, they deserved to know the truth.

“Go for it,” Max said with a congenial smile over his steaming mug of coffee.

Licking her lips, Avery took a breath of air. “Lassiter Adams can’t be an Adams.”

Max’s chuckle was something Avery hadn’t expected. “I figured as much. How’d you find out for sure?”

“It doesn’t matter. Can I ask you a question that’s gonna seem way out of left field?”

Sipping his coffee, he nodded. “Of course. Shoot.”

She sighed. There wasn’t any beating around the bush about it. She’d just ask and damn the consequences.

“Do you believe in vampires?”

His dark eyebrows rose. “Well, I guess I can’t say as I don’t. I mean, it would be hypocritical if I said I didn’t, seeing as I’m what JC calls a dog, right? I’m a werewolf. So are you. I exist, so I’m sure other paranormal beings exist, too.”

Avery shifted in her chair and rubbed her neck. “Wanna know why I know Lassiter isn’t related to you?”

Max’s handsome face frowned. “If you two had some sort of kinky liaison and he confessed during a good round of shenanigans, then, no, I don’t think I want to know.”

“Max!” JC yelped from another room. “Inappropriate, buddy!”

Avery’s jaw dropped as she fidgeted in her chair. “What do you mean by that?”

“It means I’ve seen you look at him when he’s not looking. Even in the height of your frenzied protests, you looked like you kinda dug him. He looks at you the same way. It doesn’t make me any less pissed that he’s here, tearing the shit out of my land, but it’s there just the same.”

For fuck’s sake. This was ridiculous. Did everyone think Lassiter had a thing for her?

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?” she asked.

“Yes, we all think Lassiter likes you,” he said, reading her mind. “It’s sort of bizarre, the vibes I get from you two. I haven’t been able to pinpoint it.”

“It’s called lust, honey,” JC answered for him, waddling into the kitchen. “It’s what gave me this.” She pointed to her belly and smiled. “I take it we’re talking Lassiter and Avery?” Lowering herself into a chair, JC sat down and folded her hands together.

Max’s head bobbed up and down.

Avery hopped up from her chair and thwarted any further conversation about her and Lassiter. “Do you want to know how I know Lassiter isn’t really an Adams or not?”

“Oh, relax, Avery,” JC chided. “It really is okay to be hot for a bad boy. We’ve all done it once in our lives.

Lassiter is pretty hot, even if he is kinda pale.

Lassiter has some deeper issues than building condos, that’s for sure.

I just don’t know what. But I’ve seen him with that bird and I know he’s not a meat murderer, as you call it.

” Clucking her tongue, JC shook her dark, curly head. “I just can’t figure him out.”

Avery waffled only for a moment before she said, “Well, I did.”