Duncan looked at me with wide eyes. “Yes, but no.” He frantically started shaking his head.
“Charlie said you had roommates.”
“Yeah. We rent a two-bedroom apartment. I share a room with Mark. He’s okay. He’s another shifter, which works for me. He’s an omega too. Jake and Chris are both humans, and they know we’re shifters, but they don’t really seem to care too much either way. They’ve not ever been assholes about that. They’re just assholes in general.”
I blinked a few times. “Got it. So you share a room with Mark. In a two-bedroom apartment.”
Duncan sighed. “Yeah. It was all I could afford at the time. I could probably afford something else, but I’ve been saving to hopefully get a newer car. I’ll get funds saved, and then some disaster always seems to happen, and then I lose most of my savings and have to start all over again.”
I nodded slowly. “We can talk about all of that over dinner. Are you okay with diner food? It’s this great little diner that has amazing home-cooked type food. Very eighties feel, and it’s one of our favorites.”
“I love all foods, and I’m not going to say no to anything, really,” Duncan said. “Like I said earlier, I didn’t have anything else going on, and I definitely didn’t want to go home. There is probably a ten percent chance that the cops don’t get called to our place tonight.” He sighed. “And it’s really difficult to sleep when your roommates are blasting music or yelling at some video game or something.”
I glanced over at Duncan. “So where were you going to sleep?” I asked.
Duncan looked out the window. “I had decided the best place was probably at our apartment complex in my spot. It’s a station wagon, and I keep a blanket and pillow in the back just in case.”
Just in case? Just in case of what? I had more questions than I did earlier, but I was going to do my best to ease Duncan into answering them. Later. Over a nice diner meal. And then I’d figure out how to convince him to spend the night at my place. There were several beds to choose from, and I would without a doubt prefer if he were in mine, but I would certainly respect his choice to sleep upstairs. Now that he was in the cabin of my truck though, I knew without a doubt that Duncan was my mate. I just had to figure out how to get him to understand that because I had a feeling that my adorable mate had a not-so-great life, and the last thing I wanted was for him to feel like I was taking over. Baby steps.
Chapter Four
Duncan
I was many things at the moment. Nervous, horny, embarrassed, a little terrified. I was all of those things and more that I couldn’t quite describe. Why? Because I was so out of my league that it wasn’t even funny. I knew from how Charlie had talked about Silver and his brothers that they all had their lives in order. They were successful business owners, and all owned their own houses.
When Clay had pulled up in the massive truck that looked new, I couldn’t stop the comparison of the differences between us. We were very much in different places in our lives. He had his together, and I was still trying to figure things out and survive.
“I know we’re going to be at the diner soon enough, but I’d love to hear anything about you that you’re willing to share,” Clay said.
I tried to smile over at him, but my mind was just too stuck on things. “I’m not sure what to say. I don’t have an exciting life. I’m just trying to survive.”
Clay nodded slowly. “Have you always lived in Whispering Pines?”
“I think so. I’m not sure when I was a baby. Or even when I was little, I guess.”
Clay glanced over at me when he stopped at a red light. “Understood. Any siblings? Cousins? Things like that?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t have family. I don’t even know exactly when my birthday is, to be honest.”
Clay scowled. “We’re going to have to discuss that.” He looked forward and started moving with the rest of the traffic once the light changed.
“I can understand that,” I said. “I grew up in the system. I was never adopted. I was told that I was abandoned at a fire station when I was a baby. I didn’t have anything with me. No note, documents, nothing. Babies are usually adopted, but for some reason, I never was. Or if I was, I was returned because until my eighteenth birthday, or what was guessed to be around that time, I lived in a group foster home.”
Clay sent me a quick glance and then looked back at where he was going. “I…that doesn’t mean anything negative for me. But I do need to ask if you’re certain there was no note?”
I shrugged because obviously I wasn’t nearly old enough to know for certain. “I was always told there wasn’t one. It wasn’t really the greatest place, and the people who ran it weren’t exactly the nicest. We mostly just stayed quiet and did as we were told so we didn’t get into trouble.” I did not have fond memories of that place. I knew there were worse places, and we weren’t beaten or anything, but if we got into trouble, we wouldn’t get extra food or get to have weekends free. It just was what it was.
“I can help,” Clay said as he turned onto a side road.
“Help how?”
“Our company is security, but we also work in cybersecurity. I can have Mica look into your records, or even hospital records around the time you would have been born.” Clay parked on the side of the road and put the truck in park before looking over at me. “I’m just saying I can, not that I have to. It’s completely up to you if that’s something you would want done. If not, I’ll leave it alone.”
“I wouldn’t know what to say. Where to even start,” I told him. “I’ve been Duncan Smith my entire life, but I’m not sure if that was the name I was given when I was born or not. I don’t know anything about my parents. If they were a couple or not. If they were mated or not. I couldn’t tell you my actual name, date of birth, anything. I have documents because the agency that took me in from the hospital applied for them.”
“Someone there named you?”
I shrugged. “I think one of the nurses at the hospital. I honestly don’t know.” I had always thought that maybe there was a note or something and they just didn’t tell me, and maybe it was better that they didn’t. I had no way of knowing.
