Page 15 of Thor's Unexpected Mate

Flynn narrowed his eyes for a moment, but finally sighed. “Yeah. You’re probably right.” He took another sausage link from the plate and munched on it happily. “I bet that hallucination was because of my Nana. She claims there are wolves all over these mountains. Especially the eastern one.”

I laughed again, stuffing my mouth full of omelet before I could say anything stupid. Flynn did remember me in wolf form, although thankfully he easily dismissed it. His Nana however, how the hell did she know about the wolves or the eastern mountain? Had the Skoll pack shown themselves to her? She wasn’t a witch as far as I knew, but then again, I’d never met her. Maybe she was something else, another type of creature that I didn’t know about. It wasn’t like werewolves were the only thing living in these hills. It was only two years ago that we had to kick a siren out of the hot springs that kept trying to drown the guests. I didn’t even know they could live in freshwater until that happened.

Flynn just shook his head. “Old people! Am I right?”

“They sure are quirky!” I laughed, again maybe a bit too brightly. It was easy to tell Flynn was already suspicious of me on multiple levels. I needed to find something we could do that would get us past this awkwardness. “So… uh… do you want to go down to the hot springs to relax for a bit?”

Flynn lifted an eyebrow. “After I just ate? Aren’t I supposed to wait a half hour or something before swimming?”

“The pool is only a couple feet deep at the most. And we have seats installed.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t mind trying it out. I’ve never been to a hot spring before.”

“You mean to tell me your grandma has been living there her whole life, and she’s never brought you up here?”

Flynn’s face fell. “My mom didn’t let me come out here very often and Nana… well, she’s not very well off financially.”

“Oh.” I glanced down at my plate, pushing a roasted beet around the edges. “I guess this place isn’t very cheap, is it?”

“Not really.”

“That could explain why our client base has been dwindling for a while now. This place was built as a luxury resort where people stayed for days to weeks. But nowadays we’re lucky to get people for a night or two once a year.”

“Not a lot of people have those luxuries anymore,” Flynn replied. “Especially around here. Anyone that comes here has got to be from pretty far away, right?”

“Mostly Manhattan, Chicago, and Boston.”

“That explains all their weird accents.” Flynn crinkled up his nose, speaking like he had a severe cold. “They all talk like this!”

I couldn’t help a warm smile. For someone who had been through it in the past fourteen hours, he was in pretty good spirits. Baldr’s magic had worked wonders on him. But he was also a goof and for some reason, I found that deeply attractive. Maybe it was because I didn’t have a lot of guy friends or maybe it was because werewolves were just too damn serious all the time. But there was a severe lack of laughter in my life that Flynn was quickly filling with his charm, wit, and smiles.

“You’re funny,” I said genuinely, although it came out awkward, anyway.

“Thanks.” He took another sausage link before pushing his plate away. “Most people just think I’m sassy because I’m gay.”

“You know, I was gonna ask,” I started. “I mean, when I called you cute, you didn’t even flinch. I figured you couldn’t be straight after that, but I didn’t want to pry.”

“Yeah, I’m a platinum gay.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Platinum?”

“I’ve never touched a vagina in my life.” He could see the look of confusion on my face, so he explained. “A gold star gay is one who has never had sex with a woman but was born naturally. A platinum gay is that but born through a c-section. That’s me.”

“Oh.” What an odd thing to label. “Okay.”

“And I’m guessing you’re straight but curious.”

“No actually,” I started. But then I paused. “Well, I’ve been with women before.”

“Probably all the time by the looks of you.”

“Not as much as you might think. But I’ve never been curious about men.”

“So… what makes me different?”

I couldn’t tell him he was my fated mate and we were destined by the moon goddess to be together forever. That would send him running for the hills. Or well, crawling. No, I had to come up with something else that was still honest, but not the truth.

“I can’t quite place my finger on it,” I said at last. “You’re very attractive, you have beautiful eyes, I like your red hair, and you just smell really good.”

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