Page 16 of Unforgivable Fate

“Looking at me like that.” She shrugged her shoulders, jostling the large backpack, “It’s making me uncomfortable.”

“I’m sorry.” He apologized instantly, “The last thing I want is to make you uncomfortable, Nova. I just… I can’t stop looking at you because you’re beautiful.”

She rolled her eyes, “I see the mating heat has already taken hold.”

“It’s not that.”

“Sure.” She all but snorted.

He tilted his head, “Do you really not know that you’re absolutely gorgeous?”

“Smooth talking isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. I grew up with two older sisters. Luna is the gorgeous one. Maya is the mysterious one. I’m just the cute little sister at best.”

His lips quirked at her self-description, “You are cute, and little, but if nobody else has realized you’re beautiful, it’s because they’re not looking.”

She snorted, “They look. Trust me, they look. But all they see is the Pack Alpha’s little sister.”

“Not me.”

“Yeah well…” She paused, frowned, and a little furrow appeared between her eyes. “You know what, I don’t know why we’re talking about this. It’s irrelevant. I was leaving before you showed up here like a stalker this morning.”

“Okay.” He smiled easily, “Let’s go.”

“No.” she huffed, clearly getting frustrated with him, “I’m leaving. I’m leaving you. That’s the whole point.”

“No.” He countered, “You said I should be the one leaving when I offered to walk you to the bus stop.”

Her eyes narrowed again, “So you’re going to catch the bus and I can go back inside and get some sleep?”

“No.”

She growled and he chuckled. Oh he liked that sound. And from the way his wolf all but purred in response, so did he.

“I’ll make you a deal. We’ll walk to the bus stop together and if I can’t convince you to give me a chance by the time we get to town, I promise you that I’ll get on that bus and leave you alone. You can stay here with your family and you won’t have to worry about me or the bond ever again.”

Nova stared at him for a long moment and he tried his best not to grin. She hadn’t immediately said no. That was progress. She hadn’t totally shut him down. And before she’d caught herself she’d been opening up to him. With some more time he might actually be able to convince her that he wasn’t the devil reincarnated.

“You promise?” She finally asked, studying his face and he did let himself grin then.

“Pinky promise. But you have to swear to actually talk to me while we walk. Get to know me before you decide to send your fated mate away.”

“Fine.” She didn’t look happy about it but eventually she nodded, “But I’m not doing a pinky promise because I’m not touching you and letting the bond grow any more than it already has.”

He shrugged, “Deal.”

If she thought it took touching to strengthen the bond, that was her problem. He knew enough to know that a bond would form whether they were physical or not. Proximity alone was enough and opening yourself up emotionally was far more conducive to creating a strong bond than pure animal magnetism.

From the way she kept frowning, he had a feeling she knew that just as well as he did but didn’t want to concede the point.

“Let’s go then.” She huffed, moving carefully past him, not waiting to see if he would fall into step.

She surprised him when she didn’t take the path he had walked in on. Instead she looped around her house and he quickly jogged to catch up to her. She didn’t say a word as they left the little clearing that served as her backyard and headed into the tree line. He trusted that she wasn’t taking him to the middle of nowhere to kill him and hide the body but still, he decided now was as good a time as any to try for another first impression, maybe one that didn’t lead to her fainting in terror.

“How about we start over?” He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, “My name is Griffin Clary. It’s nice to meet you.”

Nova’s lips pursed, “I really wish I could say the same, Griffin.”

He sighed, realizing she wasn’t going to play along and instead decided to tackle the issue head on, “I’m not him.”

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