Page 17 of Predator

I could kiss him for that alone. I’m starving, and though the box of cookies and the bag of chips aren’t any brand I’m familiar with, they’re delicious.

Though they do sit a little heavy in my belly when I realize that my devious mate has an ulterior motive.

We’re sitting on the floor together, backs up against the couch, hips touching as we finish our impromptu lunch. I keep thinking I should throw my clothes back on, but then I’ll catch the heated look in Lucas’s eyes and, well, sue me for enjoying the attention.

Too bad his expression turns from lust-filled to speculative in a heartbeat as he says, “Now that we’re both relaxed and fed, I was wondering something.”

“Shoot.”

“Why don’t you see if you can shift on your own, sucre.”

What? No. “Pass.”

“Fallon—”

I shake my head, wiping the crumbs from my hands on the couch behind me. “I’m gonna, Luc. Promise. It’s just… later, okay?”

So I might be more than a little traumatized after the first one. I can sense my wolf prowling around inside of me, so I know she’s still there, but what if I let her out and get stuck again?

It’s a valid concern. No way I’ll get out of never shifting again, but does it have to be so soon?

I don’t think so. Lucas obviously does, but if there’s one thing my new mate will need to learn and quick, it’s that he might be the Alpha, but that doesn’t mean I’ll always jump to obey.

So, instead, I do a very Fallon thing: I change the subject.

“Let me tell you something. Looks like you guys were right, after all. Jade’s bark really is worse than her bite.” I laugh, bumping my shoulder against his. “She apologized to me. Me! Man, I can’t wait to rub it in when we get back.”

Lucas’s smile turns smug, though the furrows in his brow tells me he knows exactly what I’m doing, and he’s going to let me. “I knew you could understand us.”

Was I not supposed to? Those first few days were rough as my ‘human’ brain retreated to let the wolf in front, but after that… “Is that weird? The way you said that makes me think it’s weird.”

“Not weird,” he assures me. “Just… unusual.”

“‘Unusual’s another way of saying ‘weird’.”

“Nah.” Lucas lifts his arm, settling it over his shoulder. I scoot into his side. “It’s just unusual for a new wolf to understand it when a human talks around them. But that’s because most new wolves are pups. Children. You’re unique.”

“Oh, great,” I tease. “I’m unique.”

He presses a kiss to the top of my head. “You are in many, many ways, my mate, but especially because of what you are.”

Lay it on me, Lucas. “And what’s that?”

“A hybrid.”

Oh. That wasn’t what I was expecting him to say. I would’ve put money down it had to do with me being the new Jolie—and, in a way, I guess it is since she was two different types of supes, just no benefits from it—but now he has my attention.

“What do you mean?”

“I the supe world, you’re either born a wolf or you’re not. Hybrids aren’t really that common. When a shifter has a human mate, their offspring are shifters. Bloodsuckers”—vampires—“can’t have kids ‘cause they’re dead, so there’s no hybrids if a shifter gets stuck with one of those corpses. And witches… they don’t mate out of their coven so I’ve never known a part witch, part shifter… until you.”

And because Jolie had no powers at all, that probably explains just why witches don’t usually shack up with other supes. It reminds me of the Royal Family of yore. Gotta keep those bloodlines pure, huh?

Only… me shifting into a wolf just goes to show that her powers weren’t missing so much as they were latent. If Jolie had lived long enough to be mated, maybe she would’ve been the wolf instead of me.

Food for thought, I guess.

And that’s not all.

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