Page 20 of Starlight Mates

I really don’t deserve to be his anything. He is too nice to me. “Okay.”

I brush my hands down my jeans, which are the same colour as my jacket, and underneath I have a black retro top that has a silver Poké ball across my boobs. Rhodes complimented my top immediately, and I just wish Onyx was around to see it. I know he would hate it. Talking of which, I tap the rune on my right wrist a few times for fun. Rhodes unlocks a door with a keycard, showing me how to use it before handing me a new one, which I slide into my pocket. “How is she this morning, Marty?”

The woman who I assume is Marty rises to her feet from her chair at her desk. “No change. I thought we were going to loseher last night, to be entirely honest, but she stuck around.” Her hazel eyes drift to me. “Oh, you must be the runaway mate.”

“This is Gwen. Gwen, this is the other owner I was telling you about. Marty.” I smile at her, but she doesn’t smile back. I get the impression she took Rhodes on like a son, and I’m the runaway mate who broke his heart. I don’t blame her for disliking me. The woman is older, with peppered brown hair, but her expression is soft, kind when she looks at Rhodes. She’s wearing all blue scrubs around her curves.

“Nice to meet you. Are you a vet as well as an owner?” I question.

“I am professionally trained,” she briefly answers. “I’ve had this one to go through veterinary school, but he’s never finished it.”

I frown. “Why not?” He doesn’t answer, to the point where he gets awkward between the three of us. “Who were you talking about before?”

“It’s a sad story. We had a golden retriever in, and she was pregnant. Unfortunately, only two pups survived of eight, and she’s not in a good state.” Sadness washes over me.

Rhodes leans in. “You actually met her in the crowds on your first day here. Remember?”

“I always remember a dog when I meet one. Especially a golden retriever. They are my favourite breed,” I admit. “She was sweet when I met her.”

“Well, she had two pups. One who’s very white and big, and the other one who’s more golden and tinier,” Rhodes explains.

Marty nods her head to the screen, where there is an x-ray up of a leg. “The small one has a leg deformity. I haven’t told the owner yet, but this isn’t a good sign. The white pup is well and feeding good, though. I don’t know if the smaller one will be able to run; if she does, not very well.”

“What’s the owner said?” Rhodes questions, crossing his arms.

“He’s too distraught to make decisions at the moment. He says he’s too old to deal with the pups because they need bottle feeding every two hours on the dot. We will need to keep them at the rescue and raise them here. If we can’t keep the mum alive, I don’t see him taking any of them home. Truthfully, I don’t think we will be able to keep her alive for long, so I might take one of them home and find a volunteer for the other.” She explains the plan. “Such a shame the mum had cancer all the way throughout her body and didn’t show signs until labour.”

Rhodes sighs. “We wouldn’t have known. Dogs hide their illnesses too well.” Rhodes leads me into another room, with glass doors, and in the first kennel on a soft bed is the golden retriever I saw. The pups are nowhere to be seen, but even I can tell she wouldn’t be able to feed them at this point.

The old man looks up as Rhodes lets me in. Marty comes in next. “I remember you from the street. Do you work here?”

“Newly employed.” He doesn’t say anything as I approach them both and then stroke her head, but she doesn’t move or wake from her sleep. “She doesn’t have long left.” Death is easy to sense when you’re used to it. The old man nods, giving me a grim smile.

I clear my throat. “Are you taking the pups back to be with you? They talked about keeping them in the shelter, but I don’t know your plan.”

“No.” His decision is firm. “They need the best chance they can get, and I’m an old man. Getting up every two hours to feed pups—it wouldn’t work. I don’t have a family to help, and my wife isn’t as mobile as she used to be. We were not planning to keep any of the puppies, because her getting pregnant was an accident. She got out one night from our garden. I don’t even know what they’re half of, but I know they are safer here.”

“I’m sorry,” I softly tell him. He inclines his head and goes back to stroking his dog. Marty stays to speak with the owner about the plan with the pups and mum, and I leave with Rhodes.

I don’t even notice I’m crying until Rhodes cups my cheek, wiping a tear onto his thumb. “This is why I believe you’re a good person and I’m not giving up.”

“Rhodes, just stop. I’m not a good person and you should hate me like the others. I deserve their hate, and honestly, when you’re treating me like I’m precious and good, it is more punishing than anything they are doing to me,” I snap.

He keeps his expression blank. “Fine. Let’s get to work.”

Rhodes doesn’t speak a word to me for the rest of the two hours we spend here. He visits every part of the huge shelter, and everyone likes him. Not one person so much as even frowns his way. They all brighten up when he is near. It’s harder to break his heart, I realise, than the others. They are nearly as fucked up as I am, but Rhodes? He just became a good person despite the life he was given. I wish I could be like him. I wish I could let myself be his.

There must be at least a hundred and fifty dogs here, and it seems very well run. Everything is spotless and clean, and I end up back in the cat cafe where I happily serve food to starving Nexus and humans, while petting every cat I can get near. The black one, named Charlie, stays at my feet, and he is my favourite. When the sun has completely disappeared behind the forest outside, Rhodes finds me and tells me we are leaving.

The sound of my stomach rumbling breaks the silence of the car ride back. Rhodes grumbles. “I made sure that dinner was brought up to your room on the days you work with me. I will bring you snacks to eat before and after next time. I didn’t think ahead.”

He is still looking after me.

Oh, Rhodes. My monster would eat you up like a favourite snack if I let her. “Thank you, I appreciate that. I also think I’m getting paid way too much for the work, by the way. You can ask Marty to lower my salary.”

“You get the same salary as everyone else working there,” he quickly answers, but I know he is lying. “We get funding for our staff from the Supreme Alpha and the betas. Including massive donations from your own family. Are you going to see your grandmother at any point? She has asked to come to the academy five times.”

“She has?” I frown. I met her once, when I was five, and all I remember is a bitter woman who hated me. I never understood why she hated me, but I remember her screaming at my mother that she had ruined my father’s life and that his sense of honour was killing him. “I don’t think I want to see her. Not unless I have to.”

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