Page 18 of Beginning Fate

“Shit!”

I jumped up and ran after her. By the time I reached the front door, she'd already left the house.

Seeing her up ahead as she headed for the trees, my instinct was to call out to her.

“Kylie! Kylie, stop!”

Then it dawned on me . . . she couldn't hear a word I was saying.

“Idiot!” I chastised myself.

My feet pounded harder as I picked up speed to close the gap between us. I was going to have to catch up to her. It took longer than expected but when I finally did, I reached my arm out and grabbed her by the shoulder.

She didn't scream exactly, but she did begin to make some sounds as she flailed her arms around trying to escape me.

By the time she realized it was me, I was ready to kick my own ass.

She looked terrified.

I held my hands up in the air and took a step back.

“K-Y-L-I-E, sorry,” I signed.

We stood there a moment as she tried to calm down. I didn't reach out to her again, but she also didn't try to run away.

“I thought you liked me,” she finally signed.

I had to channel my wolf vision to help me see it more clearly. I wasn't even sure where we were, just somewhere in the woods around the lake.

“I do like you. You're great,” I tried to explain to her.

“But you don't want to flirt with me and take me to bed.”

I growled and it must have shone on my face as she took a step back in surprise.

“I thought you liked me,”she said again.

“I do like you, just not like that.”

“You were nice. You know A-S-L.”

“Yes. But I also have a M-A-T-E.”

I spelled it out, not wanting her to confuse my words.

“You do? They sounded like you are a . . .”

I wasn't sure what the last thing she signed was, so I had to ask her to repeat. When she did, I still didn't understand.

She huffed. “P-L-A-Y-B-O-Y.”

I rolled my eyes. “No.”

She looked confused. “But . . .”

“No,” I sighed again, aggressively snapping my first two fingers against my thumb.

This was Lauren's little sister. I didn't think it was my place to tell her about us, but I also couldn’t have her thinking I was a male slut either. Because I wasn't. Sure, I liked to flirt, but I was very picky when it came to sexual partners.”

---