“I didn’t see you at breakfast. I thought you might want something to eat,” she said, handing me the bundle.
Inside the linen towel was a steaming biscuit and a couple links of sausage. Seeing the food, my stomach gave an angry twist, and I popped one of the sausages into my mouth.
“Thanks,” I said.
Linnea sighed. “So, how confident are you?”
“About the fight?” I shrugged helplessly. “No idea.”
She turned and looked at me, her eyes weary and anxious. “I’m worried about you. You still can’t shift yet, right?”
Biting angrily into the second sausage, I shook my head. “Nope.”
“Eugenia is older and more experienced than you are, June,” Linnea said, her voice full of trepidation. “How are you going to get through this? I can see how much she doesn’t like you.Everyonecan. There’s no way of knowing if she’ll hold back.” Linnea put her hand on my shoulder. “She could kill you, June.”
As I let her words sink in, I finished the food, chewing and swallowing before responding.
“All I can hope for is that the adrenaline and the fear will finally allow me to shift,” I said. Itwasmy hope, but I had no way of knowing if that would happen.
Linnea shook her head. “That’s been known to happen, but it’s not a guarantee.”
“I know,” I said.
Sometimes, shifters had their first shift early due to circumstances. There were records of kids as young as six being put into life-and-death situations and spontaneously accessing their inner wolves to save their lives. Though, now that I thought about it, that hadn’t happened when the Red Maw men attacked me, which meant it was probably unlikely that it would happen during the fight. Which meant I’d either get incredibly lucky, or Eugenia would tear my throat out in a few seconds.
I crumpled up the cloth and handed it back to Linnea. “Thanks for breakfast.”
“There’s something else wrong with you.”
Unconsciously, I glanced behind her toward Levi’s cabin, barely visible through the trees.
“Yeah,” I said with a sigh.
Linnea lowered herself to the ground and patted the grass beside her. “Sit. Talk.”
I snorted a laugh, but I sat down beside her and told her about my fight with Levi and how I thought he was still hung up on his old mate. By the time I was done, I felt a little better about everything. Getting it out helped.
Linnea frowned. “So, you think he’s still in love with Naphele?”
“Yeah. You can see it in his face when he looks at that painting, and he’s always comparing me to her.”
“Well, that’s to be expected,” Linnea said. “I mean, you’re close to your grandparents. If they died, and you somehow lived a hundred extra years, would you still love them?”
“Yes,” I admitted, “but you don’t find new grandparents later on. It’s not the same.”
“Sure. I get that, but this isn’t something most people go through. How many people do you know who’ve been blessed to meet not one buttwofated mates.”
“Right,” I said, unable to keep the chuckle from accompanying the word, but soon the smile faded. “I worry that he can’t truly love me if he’s always comparing me to his last mate.”
As I spoke, I gazed at Levi’s cabin.Couldyou love someone when you were always measuring them against someone else? Or were you simply trying to see the first mate in the new person, and latch onto the things that resembled the first? That was the real question, and it was something Levi and I wouldbothneed to answer if this was going to go any further.
“Juniper?”
Linnea and I both turned to find a younger woman staring at us, shuffling her feet in nervous trepidation.
“Yes?” I asked, getting to my feet.
“Uh…I was told to come and find you. I have news,” the girl said.
