She finds a hay bale and sits on it, and I lean against the post across from her, and listen to the faint breeze moving through the air.A swallow cuts through the rafters.Outside, someone's running the old John Deere along the east field.
"Fine," I say, because standing here in silence with her is driving my wolf insane.My wolf keeps gravitating toward her like she's magnetic north, and I keep correcting, and it's exhausting."Let's use the time productively."
I pull my cell phone from my pocket and open my notes app.She stares at me.
“Crazy wolf do what now?”she says.
"Let’s figure out all the ways we’re not compatible.We’ll make a list of things we don't have in common," I say."The theory is proximity combined with incompatibility breaks the bond.So let’s prove how incompatible we are.”
"I guess things couldn’t go any worse than they already are,” she says glumly.
She shrugs, folding her arms and staring across the barn, chewing her plump lower lip."I hate all pop music that was created after 2010."
I nod in agreement."Who doesn’t?”Wait.Not helpful.
She frowns for a long moment, then brightens.“I like Hawaiian Pizza.There’s no way you like Hawaiian Pizza.”
I force a smile.“Of course I don’t.It’s disgusting.We’d never be able to walk in to a pizza parlor together and place an order.I’d gag.”
I picture it anyway — the two of us pushing through the Cheeze Hut's glass door, the blast of garlic and cheese and that faintly burnt-crust smell that hits you before you're even fully inside, her marching up to the counter, the feeling of her hand in mine -
I cut that off right there.We will not be holding hands, ever.The thought carves a hollowed-out sadness deep inside me, but that’s just because of the stupid fated mate thing, not because I actually care.
She stares at me suspiciously.“You’re lying.You like it, don’t you?”
I groan aloud.“Fine.Yes.I also have freaky taste in pizza.”
Her mouth tightens.She's annoyed, which is fair, because I'm annoyed too."Favorite movie."
"The Princess Bride."Yeah, I’m confident enough in my masculinity to say that.
Her eyes widen in dismay.She takes a deep breath.Her lips part.
"Don't say it," I order her, which guarantees she’ll do the opposite.And why is that such a turn-on?
"Inconceivable," she murmurs.She closes her eyes."Only the best movie ever.Humans make some amazing movies, don’t they?”
I shove my phone back into my pocket.
“Well, it was worth a shot,” I mutter.“And don’t even tell me you like chocolate raisins or hate sleeping with a top sheet.”
She groans aloud.“Why did you even have to go there?And what is the point of a top sheet anyway?To protect us from the comforter?I’m not scared of comforters.I don’t need no stinkin’ top sheet.”
“Are you just trying to make this worse by liking everything I do?”I demand.
"Right.Right.The bond is making us think we have more in common than we do," she says.
"Of course,” I mutter, without conviction.
A car passes on the distant road.A long, uncomfortable silence stretches out between us.“What are we going to do?”I wonder aloud.
“Ignore this until it dies,” she says fiercely.
“For the sake of argument…if it doesn’t die…” I take a breath.“How long can we fight the fated mate bond?”
“What are you trying to say?”she frowns at me.“Surely you’re not suggesting that we…”
“No!I mean…I don’t know.”I know that I think about her all the time.I know that when she’s not with me, my wolf goes crazy.I know that she’s smart and funny and fiercely loyal to her pack.
