“In that case, I like it.” Beaming, Ruger pulled more insistently on his hand. “I’m not changing my mind, though. You’ve been inside for days.”
He gave a few more grumbles of protest, just to hear his mate laugh again, though his efforts were half-hearted at best. At the door, he paused long enough to pull on his shoes, then allowed himself to be dragged across the threshold.
“Where is it you want to go?”
“Let’s just walk around the lake.”
He liked that idea much more than a trip to the castle, but it honestly didn’t matter where they went. Wherever Ruger led, he would gladly follow.
Chapter six
Rugerhadlongagooutgrown the compulsion to shift during the full moon, but he still felt the effects of the lunar phases. That tug near his navel, the siren call to shed his humanity and embrace his more primal instincts.
Living in a place like Los Angeles sadly hadn’t afforded him many opportunities to embrace that side of himself. Now that he had relocated to Echo Falls, he planned to take full advantage of the open fields and seemingly endless forests.
Even better, he didn’t have to do it alone.
“I do not think this is a good idea.”
Glancing at his mate from the driver’s seat of his mid-sized SUV, he smirked. “So you’ve said. About a dozen times now.”
“Yet, you do not listen.”
“I listen,” he argued. “I just disagree.”
Apart from one dinner at the castle and a stroll around the lake, Luka still hadn’t left the cabin. He didn’t seek out the company of others. He didn’t interact with anyone beyond Ruger.
And he got it. Experience had taught him to expect the worst from people. At the same time, he worried the guy’s continued isolation would only reinforce those beliefs.
No matter how many times he tried to reassure him that those perceptions had changed in the last four hundred years, he knew Luka didn’t truly believe him. Why would he when he had no evidence?
Tonight, Ruger would give him that proof.
Slowing to a stop near the curb in front of his brother’s house, he smiled at the inflatable skeletons illuminated on the front lawn. Since Remi couldn’t be bothered to celebrate his own birthday, let alone Halloween, he could only guess the decorations had been Kol’s doing.
“Your friends are weird,” Luka commented, eyeing the skeletons with an arched brow.
One advantage of him spending all day inside was that he had started picking up bits and pieces of modern language from the movies he watched. He still didn’t use contractions, and hemisusedquite a few terms, but he was trying.
“I know,” Ruger agreed. “Isn’t it great?”
“This is not the word I would use,” he groused. “Let us hurry so we can leave.”
Ruger ducked his head to hide his grin. It probably made him an asshole that he found the situation so funny, but the guy was kind of adorable when he was grumpy.
“We’re going to a party, not storming the gates of hell. Please try to enjoy yourself.” When he didn’t receive a response, he reached across the center console to rest his hand on Luka’s shoulder. “Are you listening?”
“I am listening. I just do not agree.”
He rolled his eyes at the jab, but honestly, he’d had that one coming. “Fine. Let’s go.”
Luka still didn’t move. “How do I exit this steel carriage?”
“Just pull the handle on the door,” he answered, gentling his tone. It was little things like this, things he didn’t even think about, that really drove home how foreign the world must feel for his mate. “Give it one hour. After that, if you really hate it, we can leave.”
Luka considered him for a moment before nodding in agreement. “That is fair.”
“Thank you.”
