Page 10 of Flock Around and Find Out

“I know.” At my lifted eyebrow, he went on. “I wish I could say that it was just a physical need, that it’s nothing more than a feeding that occurs because it has to, but I know better. You’ve always had a connection with him beyond that. I don’t like it, of course, but I accept it.”

“How? How can you just accept that when you said you want me to become your mate?”

“Because I know you. You aren’t the type to be tied down, not to just one person or one thing. You never have been. If I were to try it, I’d only end up hurting you.”

I frowned, oddly unsettled by his statement. Was he giving up? It wasn’t that I wanted him to sit there and pine over me, to keep wanting me even if I weren’t available or anything.

Well, I mean, who didn’t want someone else to love them unconditionally?

But that was different. I was just disappointed because despite us never really getting past the enemies-to-lovers thing—or at least annoyance-to-lovers thing—I’d always held a bit of hope that we would.

I hadn’t realized that until I was faced with losing it. I’d never really considered how much I cared about Galen or how he’d spoiled me by always being there, no matter what. The idea of losing that…hurt.

“You’re worrying over nothing,” he pressed. “I didn’t say I wasn’t interested anymore, didn’t say I was giving up.”

“But you said—”

“That I know you won’t settle down with one person, and after taking enough time to think about that, I’m okay with it.”

Thatstopped me. Sure, Kelvin was fine with me fucking whoever, because he was a filthy pervert. Harrison had somehow seemed okay with the whole thing, probably because it was partly due to my issues with Kelvin.

But Galen?

Strait-laced, by the books Galen? He was okay with some weird harem idea? With me screwing around as I wanted? I couldn’t quite figure that out, couldn’t make sense of it. He was the sort to be possessive and difficult and domineering, but he was telling me he was fine with whatever this was?

I wasn’t sure if I liked that or not.

It almost felt like him saying he didn’t care all that much.

Which made no fucking sense, but when had I ever?

“So you’re fine with anything?” I asked.

“No, not anything. I’m not a doormat, Grey. I just have come to understand that the way Weres do it isn’t the only way. I trust my instinct enough when it tells me that you’re it for me, that you are meant to be my mate. It wouldn’t lead me wrong, after all. So beyond that, what our future looks like, that might change. It might not be exactly what I expected, what I thought it would be, and that’s okay. Before I changed, I didn’t expect to become a werewolf. This wasn’t at all the future I saw for myself, but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It doesn’t mean that this didn’t work out.”

I blew out a long breath. “You sure put a lot of faith in instinct.”

“You learn to when you’re like this, when you have an entirely different being inside you. My wolf—my beast—it isn’t me. It isn’t a part of me. It is a different creature who shares my skin, and instinct is one of the things that guides us both, that helps us work together. You have a different being inside you as well—your crow. You have to figure out how to coexist.”

I thought again about Trey. I hadn’t seen him since that night, since I’d saved him and he’d saved me and we’d somehow managed to survive it all. How was he doing? Was he still suffering?

The damage done to him had been reversed, at least some of it, but that didn’t say how much of a recovery he’d make. It might not be enough, after all.

“He’s doing okay.”

I jerked my gaze to Galen at his very right guess. “How’d you know what I was thinking?”

“Because as much as you may hate it—I know you. Trey’s doing better than expected. The damage wasn’t all reversed, of course, and he still struggles with his control, but he isn’t in danger of execution anymore.”

“Is he back in school?”

“No. He can’t stop his shifting, so even in a school with mostly Spirits, he runs the risk of having issues if he turns into a bear all of a sudden.”

“They should just make him a mascot—all fixed.” The joke lacked any real feeling, but that was fine. I made it more to defuse the situation, to lessen the anxiety inside of me just a bit.

And the guilt…

“He doesn’t blame you,” Galen tacked on, voice soft. “None of it was your fault.”

---