When the heat of our mating frenzy faded, things became tense again as Whitney and I gathered our undamaged clothes and started to head back to the cabins.
We walked in silence, neither of us sure what to say or do. I could feel the tension rolling off of my mate, and I knew she was angry with me, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. The mating was done, and there was no changing it.
Still, I was sure she would be furious when she woke up in the morning and realized that she was bound to me for the rest of her life. She had fought so hard to prevent this very thing from happening, and now she was stuck with me.
“You’re thinking too loud,” she finally said, breaking the silence between us.
“Sorry,” I muttered, glancing over at her. She was walking beside me, her arms crossed over her chest, a scowl on her face.
I couldn’t help but smile a little. She was even more beautiful when she was angry, and she was definitely pissed off.
“Why are you smiling?” she asked, her voice low and dangerous.
I sighed and ran my hand through my hair, trying to gather my thoughts. “I’m not sure, if I’m being honest.”
“Oh, I bet. You’re definitely not cheering in your head about winning this little standoff I’m sure.”
“No,” I admitted, glancing over at her. “It’s…you, I suppose. Even though you hate me and probably want to kill me right now, I’m happy that you’re here. I know it sounds crazy, but…it feels right. You feel right, even if you don’t believe it yet.”
Whitney let out a snort as we rounded the corner, approaching the front door of my cabin. “I don’t understand how you can say that. Don’t you realize how messed up this is?”
Her voice caught in her throat, and I reached out to put my arm around her, but she shook me off, scowling. “Don’t touch me,” she said, her voice cold as ice.
Fine. If she wanted to play it that way, so be it. I’d already gotten what I wanted, and she could stomp around for the rest of the night about it for all I cared. I knew there was no way she would leave me after what had happened between us, even if she was still trying to deny it.
“Look, Whitney, I know this is hard for you. It’s not easy for me either,” I said, opening the front door and stepping aside so she could walk past me into the cabin. “But it’s done. Now you’re safer and stronger. It’s not like you didn’t gain anything from this.”
“You have no idea what I gained or lost from this.”
I shut the door behind me and followed her into the kitchen, where she grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and sat down at the table. She looked up at me, her expression unreadable. “I don’t know what story you’re telling yourself inside your head, but this changes almost nothing between us. I never planned on having a mate. I’ll use whatever extra strength I get from you, don’t get me wrong, but I’m still going to be a demon hunter. I resent the hell out of you.”
“And I’ve already told you,” I growled, reaching out to grab her face, forcing her to look up at me, “Your fire is what makes you my perfect mate.”
“Stop saying that!” she hissed, jerking away from me. “I don’t care how you feel about me! Now that Laura is free, you’re just…a means to an end. Nothing more. My magic will be stronger now, and my senses. You’ve given me the tools I need to do my job better, and that’s all you are.”
“Bullshit,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “If that’s all I was, then you would’ve done everything you could to prevent this from happening. You wouldn’t have given in so easily.”
She scowled at me, “I did it to save Laura.”
“Maybe,” I said, shrugging. “But what about afterward? When we were alone in the woods? Did you fight me then, when we were both naked and vulnerable? No.”
Whitney’s cheeks flushed, and I knew I had her there. “Just…shut up. Please. It’s done and I want some time to unwind.”
“You’ll stay here tonight,” I told her matter of factly. “The mating ritual magic will make it almost painful for us to be apart this close to the mating.”
“I know,” she still sounded angry, but also tired. “I was raised in a pack too, you know.”
Feeling a little more confident that she wouldn’t run, I grabbed the takeout I had ordered for after the ritual, knowing that she would need calories after such exertion. I threw both containers into the microwave and brought them both to the table when they were finished.
Whitney jumped when I sat the food in front of her like she had been totally lost in thought. I’d ordered two enormous servings of pasta with extra chicken for protein, and while I saw interest in her eyes, she stopped halfway from picking up the fork.
“Is this one laced with sedatives too?” she asked, her words full of acid.
I reached across the table with my fork and speared a bite of her chicken, and then a forkful of noodles, popping it into my mouth to show her that it was safe. “It’s not. I’m not stupid enough to try the same trick twice.”
“No,” she said. “You’re just stupid enough to think I’m going to stay here and let you keep me.”
I smirked as she stabbed at her noodles, taking an angry bite. “I didn’t expect you to let me. You’ll come around in time.”
Her scowl deepened. “I doubt that.”
“We’ll see.” I knew better than to argue with her, so I dropped it. She was too tired to fight anyway, and she needed food if she wanted to heal faster.
Whitney ate in silence, her eyes fixed on the plate in front of her. I watched her as we ate, unable to keep my eyes off of her. Even though she was exhausted and filthy from the ritual, there was still a fire burning in her eyes, and I couldn’t help but feel mesmerized by her.
She was my mate, and she would be mine forever.
“Stop looking at me like that,” she said, glaring at me. “I’m not a piece of meat.”
“No,” I agreed, leaning back in my chair. “You’re a beautiful woman, and my mate. I’m allowed to look.”
She didn’t respond with words, her mouth full, but flipped me off instead.
“You can have the bed tonight,” I told her, pushing my empty plate away and standing up. “But it will be more comfortable for us if we share it. The mate ritual magic should be faded by tomorrow afternoon…but you’re welcome to stay here with me as long as you want.”
“Yeah, no. I’ll be moving back to the other cabin with Laura.”
“So you still intended to stay the full two weeks?”
Whitney rubbed her face, looking defeated. “Mating or not, the demon threat is still out there, and you weren’t lying about the clues we might find around here. There’s no point in letting this derail me any further. We’ll get it done and go home. We’ll deal with the mating stuff when it starts to become a problem.”
I almost felt bad for her. As good as it felt to have her, I couldn’t help but wonder how different things might have been if she had come to me willingly. My reputation will be even worse with the other packs if Whitney makes it public knowledge that I manipulated her to get the ritual finished, and she might always see me as a burden. It made me…sad. An odd thing to feel when I’d spent so much time being angry.
I could be a good man for her if given the chance. A good mate. But I just didn’t see any avenues left for more chances.
“Look, Whitney. I know you’re pissed with me, but we could really be good for each other. I’ve told you I won’t try to stop you from doing your job or hold you down. What in the hell would it take for you to consider giving me the time of day?”
At first, I thought she would bite my head off again and tell me to fuck off. But maybe it was the leftover mate magic or her exhaustion, but she didn’t immediately balk. “It’s not happening. But let’s say that I was more open-minded in some other world where you weren’t a complete jackass…I guess the first step would be telling me what in the hell really went on with you and the Red Canines.”
“And by that you mean you want to know about Naomi, right?”
She patted her mouth with a napkin before taking a drink. “Well, yes, but I have a feeling there was a lot leading up to you having her poisoned. You’re the worst, but you’re not stupid.“
I pushed my now empty plate away and sighed. “I don’t like to talk about this shit.“
“You asked what it would take for me to consider your presence as anything but antagonistic. And this is the start.”
“Fine. But I don’t expect a Silverfang Creek to understand my point of view on anything. You all are so stuck up your own asses—" I caught myself before I dug the hole any deeper, but the anxiety was already growing inside me when talking about this with her. “Never mind. I don’t think you could despise me any more than you do right now, so let’s just get into it.“
“Good.“ Whitney leaned back in her chair, and a hint of a smile was on her lips. “Before you get started, did you get any dessert?“
I almost laughed. Providing for her fulfilled some desire deep inside of me, but I didn’t want her to see I was taking any pleasure in it, considering she was doing everything possible to make me unhappy. “I did. Chocolate cake or cheesecake?“
“Cheesecake,“ she said without hesitation. “And like, two bites of the chocolate cake too.“
I got up and grabbed the cake, placing both plates in front of her.
Whitney looked at the cake, then me, then the cake again. “You don’t want any?”
“I’ll take a bite of yours if you don’t want it.”
She narrowed her eyes and pulled the plate closer to herself, stabbing a large piece of the cheesecake with her fork. “Fine.”
“So…how do you want me to start? From when Danny and I were kids? The beginning?”
Whitney chewed for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, if you know where the root of it all is.”
“It’s…complicated. There are a lot of factors.” I leaned forward in my seat, rubbing my face. “I mean, I can just give you the short version, but I think you would appreciate more of the history.”
“Just start talking, Julian,” she said, her tone flat. “I’ll decide what’s relevant.”
I let out a long sigh and began, knowing she wouldn’t be happy with any part of what I had to say. “Fine. So I’ll skip the shit with my parents, but basically, they dumped me with Peter when he was still the Alpha, and I grew up alongside Danny…”