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“Being scowly?”
“Being around you.”
Each word sounds like it takes effort to say, and I have no idea if he knows the mayhem he’s causing on my body, but I never want this day to end. “I knew you’d admit it one day,” I say to keep the tone light, but I’m melting inside.
He hides his smile. “Concentrate. This path has a lot of ankle snappers, so pay attention.”
“Ankle snappers?”
“Sudden holes your feet find before your eyes do, and by the time you realize, you’ve got a sprained or broken ankle.”
“Yikes.”
“Very.”
I tighten my hold on his arm. “Lucky I have you, then.”
He doesn’t protest me wrapping my arm around his and does his best to keep filling me in on where we are and how to find our way around. He’s got a compass, one he says he doesn’t need anymore, but he teaches me how to follow it, and once we get all the way to Wilde’s, he has me lead the way back. I’m terrible at it, and I definitely would have gotten lost if it weren’t for Lynx, but the satisfaction of learning how to do something for myself makes me forget to obsess over him.
He’s patient and knows so much about everything. I might not be hanging around here long-term, and this thing between us might burn out bright and fast, but in the meantime, I’m going to learn everything I can from him.
“Do you hunt?” I ask him.
“Yes. A few of us here do, but we’re careful to balance our meat intake and have Rooney source for us as well so that we don’t overdo it.”
“If the goal is to be self-sufficient, why don’t you keep your own animals?”
“Because prey attracts predators.” He looks at me like we’re the perfect example of that. “We tried chickens, but they brought in the mountain lions. Even with more protective housing for them, I couldn’t risk the lions around here with Leo running around.”
“You really love those kids, don’t you?”
“No.” He frowns. “I don’t love anyone. It’s my duty to make sure they can protect themselves. Children are weak and innocent. They make easy targets.” He shakes his head roughly. “My cubs will never be easy targets.”
He can say he doesn’t love them all he likes, but it’s there in the way he talks about them. The way he mentions protecting them, like it will kill him if he can’t.
Something tells me that it really might.
“Is that why you hated me for so long? Because you think I’m an easy target?”
He stops walking, something about my question puzzling him. “I didn’t hate you.”
“Seemed like you did.”
“I know what this world is like. I know what it takes to survive. And when I meet someone who has no survival instincts and is stumbling along still going, it grates against everything I believe in.”
“There’s more than one way to survive,” I point out. “You have your weapons, I have my charms. I’m a chameleon, Lynx. I change myself to be who people need me to be. A bratty sub? Too easy.” Antonio went wild for it. “A damsel in distress …” I run my fingers along his jaw. “I needed protecting, and you were only too happy to protect me.”
“You’re saying you purposely manipulated me?”
“I did.” I tilt my head. “Now do you understand? It’s not only the biggest and strongest who get to survive in this world.”
Lynx eyes me slowly. “I’m beginning to.”
“Are you mad?”
“No.” He reaches out, taking my hand, and my skin comes alive at the sudden contact. “It makes me respect you more.”
“Really?”
