“I’m…” He paused as if he had to think about the question.
“Dude, red flags are going off in my head if you’re having to think about this answer.”
“I’m not trying to lie about my age. I’m just—”
Lizzy blew out a breath. “Good. For a minute, I was thinking you’re like some really old dude who just happens to be hot and looks younger than his actual age. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. You know, I mean, to each their own. Cougars and silver foxes need love, too.”
“You think I’m hot?”
Lizzy rolled her eyes. “I think you know the answer to that question. So, either you’re actually humble or you’re a narcissist looking for compliments. Please don’t be a narcissist. I’ve never thought I could be capable of murder, but after some dealings of the narcissistic variety, I am now completely confident I could kill some of the narcissists I’ve run across. And I’m talking premeditated, first-degree, not that weak little manslaughter crap.”
“I think we all have a little bit of narcissism in us.” Finn’s deep voice rumbled in her mind. “But I don’t think my ego is any bigger than the next wolf’s. The reason I had to think about my age is because Canis lupus age differently than humans.”
Lizzy’s eyes snapped open. She didn’t even flinch at the bright fluorescent lights that glared off the white walls. “Age differently how?”
“We age one year for every six human years. But I’ve noticed that our aging slows down even more once we’ve bonded with our true mate.”
“Oh, so that makes you almost, but not quite, as cool as a dog.”
She heard Finn scoff in her mind. “I’m sorry, did you just say I’m not quite as cool as a dog?”
“Yeah, you age six years for every one of our years. Instead of a dog, which is seven years for every one of ours. So, you are almost as good. It’s okay. Not many people are as good as dogs. I learned that a long time ago.”
“Okay, with the exception of the bit about dogs being better than humans, everything you just said is wrong.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Why?”
She felt him sigh, as if her hand was lying on his chest. She could literally sense the rise and fall like a physical sensation. “Well, first, while dogs are awesome, they can’t speak into your mind like I can. Which makes me cooler. And second—”
Lizzy held up a hand, though no one was around to see it. “Hold on. I’ve never owned a dog. Growing up without a home tends to preclude pet ownership. But I’ve met a ton of them, and I’ve known some pretty intuitive dogs. It certainly felt like they could read my mind. And I felt like I knew exactly what they were thinking.”
She could tell Finn was nodding. “Okay, I’ll give you that one. But still, the rest of what you said was wrong. To begin with, you are not human. So you might as well quit thinking of yourself as one.”
Lizzy gulped. I’m not human. Then what the hell am I? A dormant Canis lupus. Even after all she’d seen, Lizzy was still having trouble wrapping her head around it.
“And your math is off. You’re thinking I age six years while a human ages one. Actually, I age one year while a human ages six.
“And that makes you…?”
“Um, I guess I would be twenty-five in human years.”
“And in werewolf years?”
“That would put me about a hundred and fifty.”
“Oh. I see.” A host of thoughts assaulted Lizzy’s mind. Talk about an age gap. Older men weren’t necessarily her type—not that she had a type. And Finn certainly didn’t look like he was a hundred and fifty. So, I guess it’s not a big deal. But then her mind jumped to the fact that she’d known guys who were actually twenty-five instead of a hundred and fifty. And they had been around the proverbial female block way, way too many times. What did that mean for a man who’d been alive for so long? He must have been around the block, the neighborhood, the city, the whole freaking state. Is this jealousy I’m feeling? What the hell?
“Canis lupus do not seek out females other than our true mates,” he said quickly, having picked up on her racing thoughts.
“Sorry, my copper-headed suitor, but I’m not buying that. Apparently, I’m a dormant-wolf thingie, which means I can only exist if a full-blooded Canis lupus had relations with a human. And from what I understand, which I admit is very little, Canis lupus and humans cannot be true mates. So someone, somewhere along the way, dipped into a cookie jar that didn’t belong to his true mate … or her true mate, I guess. I don’t want to be sexist and just assume it was the male wolfie who was doing the fornicating outside of matehood.” Lizzy didn’t like the fact that jealousy made her blood boil at the idea of Finn putting his hands on another female, especially when she’d not so much as laid her physical eyes on him. Regardless of this true-mate bond he said was between them, she didn’t have any sort of claim on him, or at least she didn’t feel like she did.
He growled again.
“You’ve got to get that stuff under control. You can’t just go around growling.”
“You have a lot to learn about Canis lupus. There will be much growling. And I’m not going around anywhere,” he snapped. “I’m sitting in a box, unable to get to you. My wolf is going stir-crazy because we cannot be by your side. We cannot keep you safe, and that is making us both a little irritable.”
She snorted. “A little?”
