“Vampires are just another Tuesday for me. A good friend of mine—we met before she knew what she was, and we’ve stayed close.”
“No kidding.” Lucy studied her with what might be new esteem. “I thought young emerging vampires lost their minds and lost their friends. Had to start over.”
“It varies a lot. Some of them do, but Claire didn’t. Not with me anyway.”
Lucy nodded and was quiet a moment. “I have some good friends among the other mates here. We can be real with each other like that.”
Maybe hedging, though Ember couldn’t parse what about. Well, whatever. “So what’s with the mate thing anyway? It sounds Stone Age at best.”
Lucy laughed. “In town I’d never say it. Among the pack though, it’s…well, it’s ours.”
“I’m guessing it means partners for keeps, but I’m not really seeing the difference between mates and marriage.”
“For one thing, the beginning tends to move faster. A wolf doesn’t have to date you to know you’re the one. He just knows. It’s like…an instinctive physical awareness of you along with the usual attraction and interest. And a protective instinct that’s off the charts. Jeremy’s tried to describe it to me, but all I can really tell you is for them, it’s visceral and intense.”
“Suppose the woman wants to date and figure it out? Suppose she doesn’t ‘just know’?” It sounded impossible to navigate, except Lucy had, and she said she wasn’t the only one.
“That’s why it’s challenging for both people. The wolf, if he’s a good guy, is trying to respect that she doesn’t know yet and not overwhelm with his certainty. The woman, if she’s really interested, is trying to figure out what she wants while not wanting to hurt him.”
“But if it does work out, it’s for life.”
“Oh, absolutely. And wolves who lose their mates, even at a young age, tend not to find another.”
She should go home the minute the moon began to wane. She’d never get over hurting Aaron, and she would hurt him if she tried to do this, tried to be this and somehow wasn’t able to. Whereas if she left now, he’d have no chance to see her this way. Because surely this wasn’t what he’d meant last night. Surely this wasn’t thedeep intense thinghe’d stammered about.
“Um, Lucy, how long did it take Jeremy to know?”
Surely a week. At least a week.
“He knew the hour we met.”
Claire’s voice echoed in her head.Oh, dear Hades.
That Aaron could hear everything they said had clearly not occurred to Ember. He rewrapped Zane’s hand, which was healing nicely, no redness or discharge from the stitches. And he listened in on every word from the living room because he couldn’tnothear them.
Ember had asked Lucy about wolves and their mates.
What did it mean?
“Am I done, Aaron?” Zane bounced in place on the counter.
Aaron lifted him down, and pain knifed up his thigh as he bent his knees. “You’re all done, buddy. You’re doing great.”
“I’m going to ask Mom if I can play with Quinn, since I’m doing great.”
“You can. I heard her say so. Let’s go; Quinn’s in the yard.”
He let Zane take his hand and lead him to the sliding-glass door. Aaron shoved the door aside, and his leg gave another hard throb. Out in the yard, Quinn sat on one of the swings, turning himself until the chains twisted from the top beam all the way down. Then he lifted his feet from the ground and leaned back, and the swing spun him into a blur of head and feet.
Zane ran out into the yard. “Quinn, Quinn, can I do that?”
Quinn ignored him until the swing stopped spinning. Then he jumped to the ground. “Sure, kid. Hop up.”
Aaron stepped from the patio onto the grass. The Freemans had no deck and thus no stairs, a relief at the moment. When he reached the swing set, Quinn was still spinning Zane.
“Rough sometimes, hearing like a wolf.”
Quinn shrugged, but a blush rose into his face. Aaron clamped his teeth together to keep from speaking against Lucy, but announcing a teenager’s hero-worship in his hearing wasn’t fair. He set a hand on Quinn’s shoulder.
