“Redacted?” he echoed, frowning thoughtfully.
“I don't suppose you’ve ever heard of that happening before?”
“Definitely not,” he answered. “But I know someone who might.”
“Seriously?” I was afraid to get my hopes up, especially since he had a vested interest in telling me what I wanted to hear.
“I can’t make any promises, but I’ll ask around.”
His green eyes glimmered with sudden mischief. “But I’m gonna have to ask you a favor, too.”
“What?” I asked warily.
“Don’t blow me off again, yeah? I really wanted to talk with you.”
I sighed. “Deal. I’m sorry about that.” I wasn’t, but sitting in front of him, it was kind of hard not to be. “If you want to talk, I guess we can do it now.”
He glanced around and was visibly relieved, likely because he didn’t see Alistair around. “I’ve been studying imprinting,” he said. I got the feeling it was probably the first time in awhile he’d deliberately picked up a book.
“Yeah, and?” I said stiffly.
“And,it really does look like it’s impossible for a werewolf to imprint on a different species. Which means that’s probably what you are--despite the fact that your scent seems pretty human.”
“I doubt that,” I replied. “Wouldn’t they have told me I’m on lockdown on full moons if that’s the case?”
“Maybe it’s distant ancestry,” he suggested.
“And what about Alistair? Are you saying I might be some kind of hybrid?”
He hesitated, and I could tell he hadn’t thought about that. “Well…that reallyisimpossible,” he said. “Vampires and werewolves can’t interbreed. That’s even more unlikely than you being a completely different species from me. Unless he’s lying, of course--and he could be.”
I blinked. “Why would he lie about that?”
Dean shrugged. “Maybe he just thought you were hot and thought it was a good pick-up line. Who knows? He’s a vampire. There’s no telling what’s going through their minds.”
I rolled my eyes. “I somehow doubt I’d be the first on his list if that was the case.”
“Why not?” he asked, like he legitimately had no clue what I was talking about. I decided I was flattered.
“Let’s just try to figure out what’s going on between you and me,” I said, leaning on the table with my arms folded. “Say you’re right about me being some distant werewolf-human hybrid or whatever, and you really did imprint on me. What does that mean?”
He looked uncomfortable again, his piercing green eyes falling to the table in front of him, like he knew I wasn’t going to like whatever he was about to say. “It means I need to be with you.” He must have seen the incredulity on my face, because he quickly added, “Not that. I mean, yeah, I’d obviously like that…”
I scowled.
“But that’s not all it is,” he said defensively, holding up his huge hands. “I’m going to need to be around you. Close to you.”
“How close?” I asked, afraid of the answer.
He shrugged again. “There’s no hard and fast rule, as far as I can tell, but the closer, the better. I need to know you’re safe.”
“Look around, Dean,” I said, glancing pointedly around us. There were guards stationed at each of the two entrances to the lunchroom, their keen eyes watching everything we all did. “Not much can happen.”
“You’d be surprised,” he said in a somber tone that made me newly wary of my surroundings. “But it’s not just about that. In case you haven’t heard, werewolves get testy when we think we’re separated from our mates.”
“Mates?” I echoed. “That escalated quickly.”
He gave me an apologetic grin, just crooked enough to be charming rather than enraging, like I wanted it to. “Potential mates, at least.”
