Page 203 of Pucking Feral: Part Two

He shakes his head once.

Then his expression shifts.

Not much. With Wraith, the shifts are subtle. The set of his brow, the angle of his jaw, sometimes a head tilt, or the way his blue eyes narrow and soften. On a face with the skin completely gone below his eyes and nose, he shouldn't be capable of expression.

But he is.

And right now, he looks concerned.

About me.

My eye twitches.

I disagree with you, by the way, he signs.

I frown. "About what?"

That you're bad for Ivy.

I go still. My fingers grip the bottle tighter, the plastic crinkling, and I force myself to relax before I crush it and spill water all over the floor. I don't need Plague riding me about slipping hazards in a room full of knives.

"I didn't say that," I tell him.

You didn't have to. His eyes hold mine. I know what it looks like. When someone thinks they're the worst thing that could happen to the person they love.

I should deflect, make some dry remark or do literally anything other than stand here in this dark kitchen with a feral alpha who sees straight through me.

"I'm not good," I say under my breath instead. "Not like you."

Good is relative.

"It's really not."

Ivy doesn't think so.

"Ivy doesn't know me."

His head tilts again, teeth flashing in the light. She knows enough.

"She knows nothing, Wraith. She knows I showed up at the wrong time in the tunnel she was hiding in, then at the right time to break the right knee. That isn't knowing someone."

He watches me.

I watch him back, my eyes narrowing.

His eyes crinkle.

It's the closest thing to a smile he has. The skin around his eyes bunches and the blue warms, and despite everything that should make this expression terrifying, it's not.

It's fond.

I hate this. I fucking hate having a pack. Having emotions. Having⁠—

He's signing again. I take a long, deep breath and watch his hands move.

Ivy is fierce, he signs. She can handle you.

The breath I just took in escapes me in a shuddering laugh. "She knocked me unconscious with a fire extinguisher," I tell him.