CHAPTER NINETEEN
Poppy and I stood in the middle of a forest, the tree limbs high above interconnecting with one another to create a canopy that blocked the sun. It would have been great if it was summer during a heat wave, but it was closing in on winter now, and the simple white t-shirt I wore wasn’t cutting it against the freezing wind.
The devil had kicked us—literally—off the train.
In the middle of Wolfe’s land. His land had a lot of trees.
I shivered and crossed my arms. “Are you sure you’re not turned around? I think we’ve already gone this way before.”
Poppy scowled at the way she wanted to go, indicating clearly that she had no fucking idea where we were. “I know directions. Wolfe just has a big estate.”
“It’s not the only thing he has that’s big.”
“Congratulations to you. You have a shifter with a big ass cock that’ll rock your world for eternity.” She started glancing all around the dead leaves, searching everywhere with her gaze.
“What are you looking for?”
Poppy straightened and smirked at me. “A trashcan so I can vomit in it.”
“Ha ha.” I sighed through another shiver, the chill biting at my exposed flesh. “I’m just happy. He makes me happy.”
“I knew that feeling once.” She marched in a completely different direction than what she had indicated before. “Hold tight to that happiness. Don’t ever let it slip away.”
I hurried after her. “I don’t plan to. Somehow, that man flipped me upside down.”
A flicked glare. “Is that another sexual reference?”
I laughed full out, little puffs of white showing my breath. “Not at all. I’ll stop with those, by the way. I just meant the world seems to rotate in the opposite direction when I’m with him, like the world that I thought was going the right way was suddenly clear it was actually the wrong way.”
“Sounds like the start of love,” Poppy murmured.
“I feared as much. I haven’t known him very long, though. Is it too soon?”
“Everyone falls in love in different ways. Don’t judge yourself by what others do. That leads to a path of destruction.”
“Good advice.” I pumped my shoulder against hers. “Are you sure you’re not older than me?”
“Sorry to disappoint, but you are the oldest out of the two of us.”
We kept walking. And walking.
My teeth chattered when I asked delicately, “How do you feel about being a human again?”
“Other than the blister that has now formed on the back of my right heel?”
“Ouch.” I grimaced. “Yeah, other than that.”
“I’m not entirely sure.” Her red brows snapped together. “I need to let it settle a while in my mind. The frailty of the human body? It’s something that I’ll need to come to terms with and accept, and then move forward.”
“I think that’s incredibly wise of you. You’ll get through all the changes that come with it. You’re a fighter.”
We shoved through thick shrubbery and stopped.
Poppy’s face lit up in a grin. “See? I told you I knew the way.”
My jaw was hanging open. I whispered, “That’s Wolfe’s house?” It was a mansion, like all the rest of his ilk lived in, but it was a mixture of a log home and a rock castle, all beautifully stitched together.
“Indeed, it is. And it looks like he’s back from the office by now. From what I’ve heard, he normally leaves after lunch and comes home to work the remainder of the day.”
