Page 50 of Plus-Size Mate

With fresh morning light filtering through the crack in the curtains where moonlight had been when he had fallen asleep, Eddie felt the most content he had been in age.

That was, until he rolled over to find the other side of the bed cold and empty.

Does she regret last night?he thought bitterly.

“Winter?” he whispered, barely daring to say her name.

Surely, he couldn't have dreamt all that up. She had been here in bed with him, hadn't she?

He glanced around, half expecting the dream would fade and he’d find himself once more in his bed at the manor.

Even when he blinked several times and sat up to rub his eyes, nothing changed. The room was still Winter's, and she still wasn't here.

It was the sound of voices that drew him from the bed. He recognized them, he was sure of that. But they were coming all the way from the other end of the apartment, and with the bedroom door closed, it was difficult to hear properly.

Grabbing his jeans, Eddie pulled them on quickly and picked up his T-shirt, already headed out the door.

He recognized those voices. One was Winter’s, that much he could tell, and the other was that of a friend. She was in no danger, and yet a protective urge to hurry to her side madeEddie walk quicker than he ever had in his life. In fact, he barely managed to stop himself from running.

And when he made it to the kitchen doorway, he stopped dead in his tracks.

“Jack!” he exclaimed, finding his alpha sitting at the breakfast bar. “What are you doing here?”

Jack turned on the stool, smiling at Eddie with a knowing look in his eye. For a werewolf with the nose of a hundred dogs, it didn't take much to guess what they had been doing last night.

“I'd like to say I just popped by to congratulate the happy couple, but unfortunately, I needed to talk to Winter,” Jack said, glancing at her as she leaned over the counter to shove a hot mug of coffee towards Eddie.

“You were sleeping so peacefully, I didn't have the heart to wake you,” she said, offering him a half-smile.

Damn….Eddie's insides fluttered at the sight of her. That smile, the way her eyes beamed, how she looked bathed in the sunlight that filtered through the kitchen window. He wished he could burn this memory into his mind for the rest of eternity, looking at it like a picture every time he was away and missing her.

Fuck, what is wrong with me?Eddie thought. He had never been so damn sickly sweet as that.

“Might I be allowed to know what you came to talk to my mate about?” Eddie asked, crossing the room. He ignored the mug and went straight instead for the woman who had offered it.

Hooking his hand around the back of her neck, he drew her in for a kiss, hoping to gauge how she truly felt about the night before.

And he was more than a little relieved when she gave him a quick yet passionate kiss before pulling away.

“Jack has been questioning Christopher all night,” Winter explained, and when Eddie rested his hand on the counter, he was surprised that she laid hers on top of his knuckles.

When she did, he noticed how she was trembling.

“What's the matter?” Eddie asked, looking at her before he looked to Jack and asked, “What’s he said?”

Jack cleared his throat and looked at Winter as if somehow asking for permission before he finally answered, “Christopher has enlightened me as to Winter's parentage.”

He felt Winter's hand tightening on his.

“I, um…my mother is a witch and my father a werewolf,” she said, as if that were something to be afraid of.

“I know,” Eddie said, twisting his hand under hers to link their fingers.

He felt the shock run through Winter. And when he looked at her, he found her eyes were almost bulging out of her head.

“Last night,” Eddie pointed out, and Winter began to blush.

“I'd almost forgotten all about that,” she admitted, glancing down, and Eddie wished he could take the memory away from her for good. She had no need for it. They never should have been in her shop in the first place. His hackles started to rise just thinking about it.

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