He blinked, raising his eyebrows.
“It was really nice of you.”
He shrugged. “It’s an umbrella. It’s not that big of a deal.”
“Well, um, thanks, anyway.” I bobbed from foot to foot as heat continued building across my face.
He studied me, his eyes seeming to dig into me, looking at me in a way no one else ever had. Beneath that grumpy demeanor, there was a shrewd intelligence that was currently scrutinizing me.
“Is that really the reason you wanted to talk to me, Liv?” he asked.
Hearing my name on his lips made my heart flutter and stomach lurch. It just sounded so perfect, so right.
“No,” I muttered.
He took a step closer, close enough that he could reach out and touch me if he wanted, though his hands remained in his pockets. I could barely breathe.
“Then what is it?” he asked, his voice low, even more enticing than normal.
I hesitated, my heart thundering so loudly in my chest that I knew he must hear it. But still, he waited for me to speak, giving me the chance to breathe and say whatever it was I needed to get out.
It was now or never. I needed to tell him before it was too late, before I lost my nerve.
This is a horrible idea, a voice in my head said in one final warning.Tell him never mind and walk away before he can hurt you. This can only end badly.
I couldn’t walk away, though, not until I tried. Even if it hurt, I had to know.
“I think we’re mates,” I blurted out.
The words hung in the air between us, seeming to hover there, looming like fog. I held my breath, all my attention locked on Drake as I waited for his response.
His response wasn’t what I had hoped for. Drake blinked, not bothering to hide his surprise. “What?”
“I know it sounds weird,” I babbled, heat spreading up my face. “And that it’s probably a lot for me to say, but I’vebeen thinking about it for a while, and I can’t shake the feeling. Somehow, I just know it’s true.” I trailed off, unsure what else there was to say about it.
Drake remained silent. He glanced around, looking behind him, as if for his friends, then back to me.
“Liv, you have to know that true mates are a fairy tale,” he said. “They don’t exist. They’re for hopeless romantics. They don’t actually happen.”
He spoke gently but firmly, the words perfectly crisp and clear. Despite that, I couldn’t believe I had heard him correctly. Everything seemed to sink around me as they washed over me. My chest constricted as I stared at him. Out of everything I could have imagined, this was the worst response.
“You can’t actually believe that, though, right?” I said with a half-laugh.
“I do,” he said. “Sure, some mates work out, but that doesn’t make them fated or whatever. It just means they were smarter about picking their mates than other shifters. That’s all.”
My mouth had parted slightly as he continued speaking. The words didn’t make any sense. I had never met anyone who openly admitted they didn’t believe in fated mates.
“Some people might not find their true mate in their life and mate with someone else, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist,” I said.
Drake shrugged. “I think it’s a thing people tell themselves because they want to believe it,” he grunted. “It gives their relationship more meaning. But that’s all. People wanting something to be true doesn’t make it so.” He gave me a pointedlook, one that said, quite plainly, that he was talking about my thinking we were mates as much as the general concept.
“You’re telling me you don’t feel anything,” I said. “Between the two of us.”
He shrugged again, glancing away. I waited, hoping against hope. I could have sworn I saw a flicker of…something dance across his face. Whether that was doubt, guilt, or resolve, I couldn’t tell.
After a long, agonizing moment, he turned back to me.
“I don’t,” he said, and that last tiny bit of hope shredded into a million pieces.
