Page 19 of Tangled Hearts

“I’m going to roll down the windows a bit,” I said, seeing her nod.

I pushed both buttons letting a little bit of fresh air in, when her window kept going down after I released the button. Glancing over to see her pushing the button, looking at the window in fascination as it went down. I couldn’t help the twinge in my heart from how adorable she was.

She looked over at me blushing fiercely, taking her hand off the button. The wind was blowing the tendrils around her face and I smiled.

“Sorry,” she laughed. “Uh, how do you make it go back up?”

“Pull up on the button,” I said, showing her on my side.

She pulled up the button and her eyes widened when the window went back up.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to today's technology,” she said, looking at the dashboard. “Now you can light up entire cities, listen to music and watch movies on phones. I am in awe of what has been accomplished in two hundred years.”

Her face lit up as she spoke, giving me another reason to admire her and fall for her.

“It’s only been the last fifty years that humans have really made some impressive strides,” I said, clearing my throat.

“I think it's absolutely amazing,” she said, taking a closer look at the radio. “Is this what controls the music?”

“It’s called a radio,” I said, pushing the number 4 that played country music, but it wasn’t clear.

Her eyes grew as she hit number five and classical music came on.

“Wow,” she whispered, hitting the number six.

A pop song started to play as her eyes grew even bigger.

“I know this song!” she clapped her hands. “I’ll tell you what I want. What I really, really want. So, tell me what you want. What you really, really want.”

Oria’s singing surprised the hell out of me.

“How do you know this song?”

“Tay, brought me an iPod a few years ago.” Her smile went away. “It only had a hundred songs, but this one was on the device.”

Fuck, I really hated Taylin.

“An iPod? That must have been nice to have and listen to,” I said, trying to get her to smile again.

“I love that little music box,” she sighed. “It brought me so much comfort and made me less lonely. The last few decades have been hard.”

“Just the last few decades?”

She was quiet for so long that I thought that she wasn’t going to answer me.

“After I was almost taken, mother never let me leave,” she said, looking out the window. “Before that, I was only allowed to venture to the local village for a day every few months, but that ended because of my safety”

“That sounds awful,” I said, wanting to grab her hand to give her comfort.

She gave a forced laugh. “Things got better when Taylin arrived, but now that I think about it. I was so starved for attention, for human touch, that I would have been fine if an old wrinkly man had come and talked to me.”

“Did you only ever interact with Laima?”

“Yeah, she was my only source of human interaction every day or well, most days,” she said, looking over at me. “She was never overly affectionate, and I guess it was because I wasn’t her daughter.”

A tear rolled down her face and I could feel her sadness. It killed me to see her like this. As a wolf, I craved people, I needed to be around people, and brush up against them. My wolf needed a pack.

Gray and Soren had gotten used to me being close to them because in a pack, that's how we bonded and how we showed affection, and I needed it. Being alone would have made me go insane. If she hadn’t had Max, what would have happened to her?

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