Franny groaned. “Don’t think of it like that.”

“I did it so at least I had a choice before tonight. None of us know how our wolves are going to react.”

“I thought your wolf hated Mateo,” Franny said.

“She did, but I don’t know, I guess the whole closeness makes the heart grow fonder. I don’t know. All I know is something is different. I’m nervous, but for some reason, she isn’t. She trusts him.”

“And does that bother you?” Franny asked.

“A little. I don’t know if I can trust him. I don’t know if this is all a ruse or what. I don’t know, and that part is where I’m totally going crazy.”

“Why don’t you forgive him and talk to him, and try to move past it?”

He heard Harper sigh. “You know what, I want to do that, but I can’t help feeling that a part of me is giving in. His rejection hurt.”

“Men are assholes, Harper. You’ve witnessed it time and time again, with male mates coming here as a last resort because they had forgotten some anniversary or birthday,” Franny said.

“Yeah, well, we’re not exactly talking about Mateo forgetting a birthday or anniversary.”

“No, you’re right, he did forget all of those.”

Mateo gritted his teeth. He had always been tempted to get her a gift to celebrate her birth, and there had even been multiple times over the last seven years where he had thought about getting her an anniversary gift, but to him it felt insensitive.

He was fucked either way. Why did he always think he knew best? He sensed his wolf agreeing with him. Fuck!

“So, once this full moon is over, you’re just going to send him back to his own pack?”

Mateo held his breath, waiting for the cruel rejected words, that he knew deep down he deserved.

And he waited.

“I don’t know,” Harper said.

There was a brief silence.

“Well, isn’t that, like, I don’t know, a shock of a lifetime?” Franny said. “I was expecting you to say you wanted nothing to do with him, and that’s final. So come on, tell me, what has changed?”

“Again, I don’t know. Nothing has changed and yet everything. It has been amazing having him around the past couple of weeks, and not just because he can lift those large boxes or anything. I’ve liked having him here.”

“I see that smile, Harper.”

Mateo remembered to take a sip of his coffee before it got too cold. It was just at the right temperature.

“I know, I feel like smiling when he’s around, and that’s crazy as well, right?”

“No, of course it’s not crazy. If anything, I think that’s more natural.”

Harper chuckled. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, because I don’t want to string him along or give him false hope. But I don’t want him to leave either. It’s all confusing.”

There was silence.

“Have you considered going back with him?” Franny asked.

“What?”

“Well, think about it. You have two choices to make. Either you choose to mate with him and go back with him, or you stay here and tell him once and for all that you and he will not work. How does that make you feel?”

“I don’t know,” Harper said. “I don’t even know if the Fox pack will accept me.”