His eyes widened. “What? You can’t give me these.”
My brow furrowed. “Why not? I bought them for you.”
“What the… why the hell would you do that?”
I waved at the lake. “So we can go ice skating.”
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You can’t just go around buying me things.”
“Why not?”
He started waving his arms around frantically. “Because… because you can’t… you can’t just… spend money… on me.”
“But why? You’re my viramore. Who better to spend money on?”
His head dropped back, and he stared up at the sky with a long sigh. “I can’t be your viramore, Lanche.”
That made a stabbing pain pierce my heart, but I ignored it. I knew he wasn’t trying to hurt me on purpose. He was simply unsure and couldn’t yet feel our connection. I wasn’t happy about it, but I could be patient. Hopefully.
I knew humans had a harder time feeling their viramore connections, so perhaps werewolves did as well, since they originated from humans.
Hm. That actually made a good bit of sense.
“Why couldn’t you be?”
“Because… because I’m a werewolf.”
My brow furrowed. “Right. And I’m a snow yeti.”
He let out a small groan and rubbed a hand over his face. “I can’t be, Lanche.”
I cleared my throat. “But… you are.”
He sighed again and waved me off. “Whatever. Let’s do this thing.”
I sent him a small smile, ignoring the slight pain in my chest from his constant dismissal of our bond, and stepped forward onto the ice, skating out a few feet before I turned around to face him again. Dain hadn’t moved an inch. He was staring at the ice like it’d offended him. Hm.
“Dain?”
He glanced up with apprehension written on his face.
“Have you been ice skating before?” Surely, he had, right? We lived in Sedoba, for crying out loud. Ice skating was one of the few joys we had in this icy territory.
“Um… once.”
Only once? How was that possible? Everyone in our city skated. “Okay…?”
“Uh… when I was maybe… eight. And I fell… a lot. We were on a school field trip, and I ended up hiding in the bathroom for a long time so no one would see me crying over my sore butt.”
That was kind of adorable, but I doubted that was what he wanted to hear, so I skated toward him and held out my hands. “Hold onto me. I won’t let you fall.”
He bit the inside of his cheek for a few seconds before he let out another sigh and grabbed onto my hands. A spark shot up each arm, our magics reaching out for one another, our souls igniting from the small touch. My heart warmed with theknowledge that yes, Dain really was my viramore. I was more sure of it with every passing second, and that jolt proved it.
I felt Dain jerk as if he’d felt it too. His wide eyes met mine for a moment, and for about two seconds, I thought he was finally going to admit that I was right. But then he shook himself out and said, “You better not let me fall.”
Disappointment rushed through me, but it was easy to push away when I had my viramore right here, touching me. So all I did was smile at him and give his hands a small squeeze. “I won’t.”
Gingerly, he stepped out onto the ice. His feet slid back and forth frantically, and his grip tightened, but even with all his flailing, I was as steady on skates as I was with my bare feet on solid ground. Holding him up was no trouble at all.
