“Oh yeah, I was gonna go get that for you.”
“No, I don’t need it. I just thought…” He reached over and wiped something off my face. “Steak sauce.”
“Oh,” I stuttered, “I didn’t realize I spattered. I wanted to make sure it was still good, in case you didn’t like the sauce I made.”
“How could I not?” He put his fork in and brought it to his lips. The alpha was trying to kill me. “It’s delicious. Maybe one day you can teach me how you made it.”
I picked up my fork to give me something to do. I had to think before I spoke. If I wasn’t careful, I was going to mess everything up.
“How was the den?”
“They were good.” He told me about his day between bites, and then I took over, telling him about the store, the pie, and making a new friend.
“I was wondering where Liam went.” He served himself seconds, and I felt like taking a victory lap. “Liam’s a good guy. Everyone likes him.”
I could see why. “He thought maybe we could play darts someday.”
“Prepare to lose.” Zack chuckled.
“Is he that good?” Liam wouldn’t need to be very good to beat me, but it sounded like he had skills.
“He’s that good.”
For the first time, it felt easy talking to Zack. After my initial nerves fell away, the conversation flowed naturally. My dragon wasn’t pushing, he was just enjoying the moment, which allowed me to do the same.
Eventually, the discussion shifted back to the den, which was good. There was so much I wanted to know. Was I fishing for information? Yes. I didn’t feel bad about it. I wanted to understand the relationship that my mate had with them, what it was like growing up there for him, why he left, and if he still loved them. And the big one, why did he spend so much time there if he preferred living alone?
Then he told me, not holding back a single bit. He talked about when he was a child, about his first shift, about the time he thought about moving away. The more he spoke, the more I understood. Just like me, he had complicated relationships with his loved ones. Only, even after all these years, he still mattered to them and they did to him. Whereas growing up, I never mattered in any real sense. I was shunned and treated as less-than.
To Zack, the den wasn’t just the group he belonged to, not in the same way my flight was to me. It wasn’t a place, although his physically was. That den was part of him. That should’ve mademe happy. He had what I’d always wanted, and it was on his own terms. Shouldn’t that be how life was?
Only I wasn’t happy. I felt sick.
I’d made the right choice not to claim him because Zack belonged here, in Bramble Woods—in this climate, in this house. He needed to be with his den, his roots. The thought of taking him from that made me queasy.
Instead of explaining all of this to him, like I knew I should, I pushed my fork around my plate, trying to look like I was still enjoying my tasty meal.
Zack noticed.
Of course he did.
“Why’d you go so quiet?” he asked.
“Not so quiet. Just looking for the best mushroom.”
“Ford?”
“It’s nothing.” I stabbed a mushroom that I had no intention of eating to prove I’d been telling the truth despite lying.
“Look up at me, please.”
I did.
“You’ve barely said two words in the past two minutes.”
“I’m fine.”Finewas the biggest lie I’d told, and he gave me a look that told me how untrue it was.
I picked up my fork, planning to force myself to chew and swallow that mushroom down and hope my stomach made itthrough. I knew if I didn’t tell him how I was feeling now, I wasn’t ever going to.
