He gave a private smile. “Red flag.”
“Maybe,” she agreed. “Kinda sounds like a green flag to me though.”
Gah, she was fun to talk to.
“I liked your little green crossing guard vest,” he said, hopping off the tailgate to take a picture of the green work vest that sat on the back seat of his truck. He sent it to her. “We match.”
“Blue collar boy, huh?” she asked.
“What did your last mate do for work?”
Another sharp inhalation, and she clammed up on him.
“You can’t claim it’s too soon to talk about him,” Dodger said. “It’s been a decade.”
“It still feels fresh to me,” she said softly.
He narrowed his eyes and closed the back door, then leaned his shoulder against his truck and stared at the repaired fence. “Have you dated since he passed?”
“No.”
Truth rang out in her tone. Holy hell, she was a unicorn.
“Why not?”
“Because I didn’t want to.”
“You were only twenty-three when it happened.”
“So?”
“So, you were young.”
“And I had my whole life ahead of me, with him.”
“You stopped living?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I just learned to like my life without falling in love. It was easier.”
“Were you scared?” he asked.
“I think I should go now.” Her voice sounded strange. Thicker, and more somber.
She had treated the loss of her husband like a mate bond. Humans didn’t do that, did they? She was interesting. “I haven’t dated in over a year. Never dated a human. I wouldn’t even know what to do with one.”
“I think you just take them out and do the same stuff you do with female werewolves.”
“Okay. I’ll take you to the woods, and you can Change into your wolf, and our animals can bond while we hunt together, and eat our kill. I’ll let you eat first and watch your back while you do. I’ll piss all over our territory, and every time you squat, I’ll piss over that too because my animal is possessive. I’ll want other male werewolves to know you belong to me. And then we can Change back and fuck in the woods because you won’t be cold while I’m railing you in the snow. Werewolves don’t get cold like humans. When we fuck, it will be hard and rough, but I don’t have to worry about hurting you, because you will have superhuman strength. We can make a den and get territorial together, and when fights break out in my Pack, I won’t have to protect you, because you’ll be able to defend yourself. When a rival Pack picks a war with us, you’ll be able to kill them and not give murder another thought, because that’s a human emotion and we police our people differently. We will have two pups and when they turn five or six years old, you’ll watch their bodies break with their first Change, and you’ll know on instinct how to grow them into strong, independent werewolves. Your feelings won’t be hurt when they lose control of their wolves sometimes and come after you. If you get bit by your own pups, you’ll heal almost instantly. We will Change together hundreds of times, because that is the single most bonding thing for us—”
“Okay, I get it. You can stop. We’re different.”
“What do humans do for dates?” he asked.
“We go to the movies, and travel together, and eat meals together.”
“I’m becoming territory-bound. Traveling will be harder for me the longer I stay with my Pack. Human movies bore me. That leaves eating meals together. Would you be satisfied with a life like that?”
She sighed. “Is this how you chase me off then?”
