“Passing time.”
He said it in a dead voice, and she hated how easily he could flip the switch and turn his emotions off.
“I shouldn’t have told you so much about myself,” she said.
“You shouldn’t do that with anyone. Exposing weakness gives people power over you.”
“You told me about you.”
“I told you I had a good childhood and good friends and a good Pack and a good family and I left no room for you to be curious or ask questions.”
“Was none of that true?” she asked, the fine hairs lifting on her forearms.
“None of it was true. Or maybe it was. Who knows?”
“But you want to drive me home.”
“I don’t want a human dying on my watch.”
“What is this?” she asked, absolutely frustrated at the realization that everything he’d told her might’ve been a lie, and he’d done it easily.
“It’s me satisfying my curiosity. You shouldn’t ask me about fucking. You don’t understand what you are encouraging.”
“A bond?” she guessed. “I do know what those are.”
He set his fork and knife down and flashed his glowing blue eyes up to her. “Why are you here with me?” he asked.
“Because…” She frowned, trying to figure herself out.
“Why, Destiny? Why did you ask me to sit with you yesterday when you don’t know anything about me other than I am a werewolf? Why did you give me your number today? Why did you decide to go out with a man after ten years of not being interested?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“I’ll explain it then. Your human mate was fragile and sick and he died, and now you want something more durable—”
She threw her glass of water in his face. “Stop,” she demanded.
He froze, his fiery eyes on her as she stood up and grabbed her jacket. “You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to take the personal things I told you when I thought we were getting to know each other and throw them in my face. I’m not spending time with you just because you are a werewolf. Do youunderstand the names I was called as a child? You don’t. You don’t understand anything about me. You want to know why I was interested in spending time with you? I saw you yesterday, and I thought you were handsome, and it has been years since I thought that about anyone. I thought I was broken, Dodger, and all the sudden my body reacted to a man. Do you know what a relief that was for me? For my mom? When I saw you at the crosswalk yesterday, I wasn’t thinking, ‘oh, there’s that werewolf.’ I was excited because I recognized your truck, and then I got to talk to you. You,Dodger. Not your wolf. I don’t care if you are human or werewolf. I would prefer you were human, but my body and my heart don’t give a shit about my logical wants, clearly. You’re not even nice,” she gritted out, digging in her purse for cash.
“I’ll pay,” he assured her.
“You’ll pay for your half.” She threw forty bucks onto the table and stormed out, her eyes burning with the tears that welled up.
Stupid. God, she felt so stupid.
She wasn’t ready for this at all.
All she needed to do was get home and scrub this night and these feelings from her mind, and go back to her normal, boring life, where no one made her feel uncertain, or insecure, or question her own intentions.
Chapter Five
Outside of Copper’s, the ice still existed, and Destiny was still just as clumsy. She yanked her heels off and went barefoot as she made her way past the window. She had the tights on but the chill of the cold ground pierced right through them.
A knock sounded on the window, but she ignored it. Tonight had been a huge mistake. Clearly, she wasn’t ready to date yet. Or dating wasn’t ready for her.
She made it halfway to her car before a voice sounded behind her. “Can I carry you?”
“Piss off.”
