Page 129 of Chaos At Second Sight

Oh, fuck. “Thanks, Lucien.”

Lucien ignored me. “Mate...?”

Ruby tilted her head. “Yes?”

He opened his mouth but nothing came out. Fists clenching, he cleared his throat as though it helped his vocabulary and looked down, all ashamed. “Sorry. Lucien doesn’t speak good like Ruby.” He sighed. “Mate so clever.”

Ruby observed him for a long moment, her eyes the definition of inhuman, shining like colors from faraway worlds. She took his heavy arms and wrapped them around her smaller frame.

His heartbeat stopped. For one hopeful second, I thought my beast had died.

“You are clever. And strong. And I…” She hesitated.

“Mate?”

“I love you too.” Ruby rested her forehead against his chest after the confession.

Thank Goddess for all that fur; his cheeks were a fire-engine red.

“We’ll study English together. It’s not difficult when you practice with someone.”

Too soon, Ruby drew back, with Lucien just gawking after her. She wandered a few paces away and glanced over her shoulder, her magnificent tail swaying, seducing the air itself. One flick. Another.

A third flick…and she ran off.

It took Lucien a moment to snap out of his lovestruck trance and understand our mate wanted us to chase her.

“Well?!” I barked. “Go! Go, you giant wuss!” A raging fire slashed through my veins as I watched the tip of her shimmering tail vanish between the pines, daring us. “What if she runs into another male?”

The fur around Lucien’s neck bristled, his gums retracting, and a growl meant only for her rumbled through our chest and rolled out.

“Mate mine!”

We launched after her through the wilderness, her laughter a wind chime, playful and impossible not to follow.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

LOGAN

More than a chase, it was Lucien following Ruby wherever she decided to go.

If Ruby was grace and intelligence, Lucien was the opposite. “Human, you very mean,” he told me and I snickered.

“If you don’t pay attention…” With my hands clasped behind my head, I watched through his eyes. “We are going to smash against a⁠—”

Thunk!

Lucien collided against the trunk of a massive fir. The whole forest shook.

You’d think he’d feel pain or embarrassment. Instead, he just peered at our mate who had stopped several paces ahead. Concern shifted to confusion, until she giggled in a lycan way—cute, small growls.

Lucien beamed like he’d been crowned Forest King instead of today’s traveling circus.

“She’s laughing at you, not with you,” I groaned. “I tackle people for a living, not freaking conifers.”

“Don’t care. Mate laughed.” He shrugged. “In your face, Human.”

I was taken aback. Usually he let me roast him, never the opposite. Had he unlocked sarcasm after finding his mate? Or…was he starting to inherit my personality now that he was popping out more often?