“It’s private, what happens during the full moon. The wolves are confined that night. We see them in the morning.”
“You’ve never seen Jeremy’s wolf form?”
“Jeremy wouldn’t want me to.”
Soft footsteps as Ember paced back and forth. “Who exactly is confining Quinn? He should be cared for, not confined. I thought wolves in the animal kingdom look out for the young ones.”
“They’re not in danger from one another,” Lucy said. “They function as a pack that night too.”
“What if something happens? What if Quinn does something wrong, what if he—what if he challenges Malachi, but it’s an accident and he gets—”
“They can’t accidentally challenge each other. That’s not a thing, Ember. Quinn’s as safe with them that night as he is any other day or night.”
“But he’s— You mean—you mean chained?”
Aaron’s shoulders bowed. How could she think that of them? But he had to be fair. This was all new to her.Hewas new to her, though it didn’t feel that way from inside his body.
“No, no. It’s not like in the old monster movies,” Lucy said. “Malachi’s property has a paddock where they stay. It’s—I don’t know, I think about ten acres?”
“So it’s fenced?”
“Invisible electric fence, and they put the collars on beforehand.”
“Who turns on the fence?”
“It’s never off, but it doesn’t shock you unless you’re wearing a collar. The collars are kept in a shed out there. Obviously you can’t get them off without…well, fingers and a thumb.”
The angry fear began to seep away from Ember’s scent. “I want to know everything about this, Lucy. Tell me everything you know.”
“I can’t do that,” Lucy said quietly, gently. “What I know is through Jeremy’s eyes. It’s private, Ember. Each of the wolves speaks about it only to his mate, no other humans.”
“Is that why Aaron won’t talk about it?”
“You’ll have to ask him. He seemed…well, upset for some reason. I don’t know what that’s about.”
“Okay. I’ll talk to him, and…and if…then he’ll tell me.” She gave a long sigh. “I just want to understand.”
She didn’t though, not all of it. Aaron didn’t know how much the other wolves told their mates about the change, but it didn’t matter. He would never speak of it. Despite what Ember thought, she did not want first-hand understanding of what it meant to be helpless beneath the full moon, savage with fangs and claws.
No one wanted to understand the curse of a werewolf.
She wanted to understand. She needed to. There was no choice about it, not if she were going to trust Quinn’s safety to the pack. Not if she were going to follow Claire’s encouragement, give herself and Aaron a chance to cultivate something deep. Of course Aaron had his right to privacy. If Lucy had seen them, even once… If Lucy as a wolf’s mate, as a human, had seen them or even could tell Ember how Jeremy said it was… But she had to respect their custom. She had no right to Jeremy’s private words to his mate. Besides, she didn’t want Jeremy’s words on the subject.
She wanted Aaron’s.
Back at home he and Quinn worked outdoors while she cooked. For dinner she served heaping plates of flawless linguine carbonara, and Aaron’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.
“You made this.”
“Of course.”
He twirled his fork in the linguine and kept staring at it. He leaned slightly over the plate, parted his lips, and inhaled the steam. The rumble in his chest wasn’t amusement or annoyance. It was pleasure. A little quiver of pleasure found her too, deep inside.
“If you think it smells good, wait till you taste it,” Quinn said.
His grin was the first she’d seen since they visited the Freemans. She had taken too long to put that together: from the backyard, Quinn had heard the tense exchange between the adults.
She brought her own plate to the table and watched Aaron take his first bite of her cooking. She knew the food was delicious; she taste-tested her way through every dish she made. She didn’t need Aaron to confirm she could cook. But she wanted to know if her food matched his palate, if the flavors she combined so skillfully would delight him the way they delighted her.
