Morgaine gasped. “What? My Goddess! What happened?”
Roz was unprepared for such a strong reaction. “Morgaine, I had to call it off. He lied to me.”
Morgaine stared at her, open-mouthed. When she finally spoke, she didn’t ask what he lied about, as if she already knew. “Well, of course he did!”
Roz blinked. “What do you know about it…and how?”
“Duh, psychic, remember?”
Roz had to chuckle. “Okay, so if you know what he is, maybe you know what I should do about it.”
Morgaine reached over and squeezed Roz’s hand. “Put yourself in his shoes. If you had the kind of secret he has, would you blab it to everyone you knew right off the bat?”
That thought stopped Roz for a moment. “I’m not just anyone, Morgaine. I’m his…I mean, Iwashis girlfriend.”
Morgaine shook her head. “You were a lot more than that, sweetheart. You were his mate.”
There was that word again. “He’d said that a couple of times. Well, not when he thought I could hear him. It…confused me.”
Morgaine’s lips thinned, and anger brewed in her eyes. Her expression made Roz uncomfortable.
“If he’d chosen me for his mate, I’d be damn grateful. He’s one of the few men who never judged me. Instead, he pickedyou.And it sounds like you’ve judged and condemned him and tossed away any hope he ever had of a happy life.”
“What?” Roz frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Wolves mate for life. Or didn’t you know that?”
“N…no. I didn’t,” she said in a small voice.
Morgaine placed her hand on her hip. “Well, at least you know he’s monogamous.”
Roz straightened.Merry had said the same thing about falcons. Would knowing that information have made a difference?“But there’s still the physical danger, isn’t there?”
“Clearly you know nothing about wolves. They don’t attack humans unless they’re protecting themselves or their families. Tell me what youdoknow,” she demanded.
“I…uh, well—”
“That’s what I thought. You didn’t bother to find out, did you?”
“It…it was such a shock. How often does a girl hear that she’s been dating a werewolf?”
Morgaine took a deep breath, as if finally remembering Roz’s point of view. “Look, it couldn’t have been easy, but I pushed him to tell you. I don’t know how he went about it, but I guess he wasn’t all that tactful. What did he say?”
Roz felt tears forming. Yes, she had jumped to conclusions. No she didn’t know the first thing about it, but a werewolf? What was there to know?
“Well?”
“Huh?” Roz looked up and realized Morgaine had asked her something. What was it? Oh yeah. She wanted to know how he’d told her.
“We went skydiving, and his parachute failed to open properly. He came down in the trees so hard, I thought he was dead. Honestly, my heart was in my throat. He was bruised and bloody, but thank God he was alive. Only a few hours later, I caught him naked in the hallway without a mark on him.”
Morgaine leaned toward her. “And that’s bad, because—?”
“Well, because he lied to me. He pretended to be a normal guy.”
“So it would have been better if he’d crashed and died.”
“No! Look, I’m more confused than ever. I don’t know what to believe anymore. Does he turn into a monster at the full moon? Am I in danger? What if we had kids? Would they be normal? Would they be in danger if he shifted?”
