Page 46 of Cursed by Death

Just thinking about the two of them was enough to sour my mood and put a scowl on my face.

“Leave her be, Hunter,” Ginger said. “I think she’s really cute with him. Our Prince deserves someone who treats him like he’s not a monster. And, personally, I love that she’s not afraid of him when he’s a wolf. Most people probably would have screamed and fainted at being confronted by him in wolf form. She didn’t do either of those things.”

“I’m not most people,” I told her, not bothering to look back at her while I talked because I was driving. “But can we stop with all this talk of monsters, please? You guys aren’t monsters just because you’re not human. That’s absolute bullshit. You’renot evil and you’re certainly not monsters just because you can change shape. It’s your actions and your behavior that make a person evil. Unless, of course, you’re a demon. Demons are just plain evil. They might be capable of pretending not to be when they want but no amount of pretending can change their nature.”

My voice came out sounding bitter, even to my own ears.

Talking about demons made me sick to my stomach. I couldn’t believe that I had been the one to bring it up and into the conversation. Talk of demons made me think of my father and I couldn’t help but wonder if their minds had gone down that same route as well.

A dark sedan pulled out onto the main road behind me and they weren’t even attempting to hide that they were following us. That answered my questions about the bodyguards. I guess they really weren’t about to leave Rally on his own with me. How horrible must it be to never be able to be alone.

I thought about it and realized he’d been alone with me the first time I’d gone to the farmhouse with him to get the Detective. So, what had changed that he now couldn’t be alone with me? Was it just me or was it something else?

I didn’t ask because Rally couldn’t answer me and I didn’t think Hunter or Ginger would know the answer to such a question. And I really didn’t want to hear what they’d guess as answers.

So, I asked another question that had been on my mind. Something the two of them should have no issues with answering. “How come Rally’s called Prince and not King? If he’s only a prince does that mean that the wolves have a king? I don’t know as much about shifters as I’d like to. You guys are better at hiding what you are than everyone else is, which is what helps you blend in amongst the normal humans so well. I know plenty about vampires and demons, because that’s whatmy grandmother had done the majority of her research on. But witches and shifters are an entire different story, because it’s harder to spot you guys in normie land.”

“Normie land,” Hunter said as he snickered. “No one in this car lives in normie land.”

“You’re a mechanic,” I said dryly. “And Ginger’s a… mother.” I almost said housewife but wasn’t sure if that had been true for her before her husband had died. It made me realize just how much I didn’t really know about Ginger.

“Rally is our Prince but he can’t be our King,” Ginger told me. “We already have a king.”

Well, I guess that explained that. “If you have a king then why wasn’t he there tonight, too?” I had more questions now than I had started off with. I hated when that happened.

“There’s a different prince or princess for each territory,” Hunter explained to me. “It’s the same for different animals. But there’s only one king or king for each animal. The wolves have a king. Rally is our Prince and we answer to him because we’ve sworn ourselves to him and we live in his territory. But we all answer to our king, even our Prince.”

Hmm…

That was interesting news. I wanted to know how many princes and princesses the wolves had around the world. And I thought that maybe I’d like to meet this king, just for curiosity’s sake. Though, if I was being honest with myself here, I really didn’t need to be meeting anymore males or the supernatural variety at the moment.

I thought about my Detective.

Okay, so maybe no more of the male variety of any kind. Supernatural or human didn’t seem to make much of a difference to me.

“Do any of these other high ranking people have mates that aren’t shifters?” I asked them. I wasn’t so sure I wanted ananswer to this question. Part of me felt like I was agreeing that IwasRally's mate just by asking the damn question.

I wasn’t admitting that or anything of the like. I was simply too curious not to ask.

Sure, that’s what I would tell myself. Until I could no longer deny what I feared was staring me right in the face.

“Yes,” Hunter said in a very gentle voice that let me know he saw right through me. “Our king is actually mated and married to a witch. Trust me, you being human isn’t actually a big deal. You heard Rally tonight, plenty of our people have mates that aren’t members of the shifter community.”

I didn’t like that he was able to see right through me like that but I suppose I was being more than a little obvious.

“And you mate for life, right?” that wasn’t going to work for me. I had no desire to be tied to one man for the rest of my life.

“Yes,” Hunter said, answering me. “But you are not a shifter, Rally is. Just because he’s only going to want you doesn’t mean he’s all that you’re going to want.”

Did everyone know that I had a thing for my Detective? My cheeks heated in embarrassment and I was glad it was dark in the car.

Then I thought of Ginger with her dead husband and my eyes shot to the rearview mirror so I could see her. She was awfully young for her mate to be dead. That made the whole thing out to be even more tragic, which hadn’t seemed possible before.

“I know what you’re thinking,” she said quietly into the dark car. “But it doesn’t exactly work like that. When my husband died my ties holding me to him were completely severed. If I’m lucky enough I could open myself up to looking for another mate. But I’d have to be open to it and I’m not. Not yet, maybe not ever. Probably not ever.”

Well, the good news was if I died on Rally he’d be able to find himself another mate. That thought should have been disturbing to me but oddly enough I felt nothing but relief.

I didn’t look at the wolf sitting in the passenger seat because I knew he’d be able to see right through me. I knew he wasn’t blind and he’d have to have questions when it came to me and the Detective and I was just waiting for him to voice them aloud. I was dreading having that conversation with him because I felt Rally and I could potentially have something special and I still didn’t want to just tie myself to one man for the rest of my life.

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