Page 321 of Warlords, Witches & Wolves

Light pink bloomed over her cheeks. “Me. I like to sketch.” Without taking her gaze off the drawing, a soft smile lifted on her lips. “I came here one summer. My mother dumped me with Joan because she had better things to do. It was the first time I met my grandma and the only time I spent with her.”

She paused. I held my breath waiting for her to say it.Wantingher to say it.

“I befriended a wolf. It wandered out of the forest the first day I arrived, and every afternoon after. Thick black fur, long nose.” Her smile widened. “He had this one brindle patch on his chest. And the most haunting ice-blue eyes.”

Her palm rested on her chest, in the spot where my wolf had the brindle patch.

A tremor quaked low in my gut. I clenched my jaw, sending the impatient bastard a silent message to wait his turn. Or maybe it was my way of delaying the shift. I mean, I wanted to show her, I needed to, but…shit. What if she freaked out? What if she hated me for not telling her earlier?

What if she resented me for what happened with Joan?

She turned to face me and laughed. “Sounds silly, I know, but I swear that same wolf was here in the yard tonight. It growled at me until I hurried back inside the house.” She looked at the sketch.

My heart thumped so hard it made me want to vomit. I slid my hand in hers, lacing our fingers together. “It’s not silly.”

“Over the years, I often wondered what happened to him. I left so suddenly. Did he sit in the yard waiting for me to come back? Did Joan shoo him away or scare him with her shotgun.”

I returned every afternoon in wolf form and waited for her. For goddamn years. Joan sat on the back porch in an unspoken truce. Then one day, she told me the girl wasn’t coming back. So, neither did I.

My chest squeezed tighter. Joan wasn’t like the others. I hoped Mia wasn’t either.

Now was my opportunity, the most perfect segue to tell her about me. If I shut this down and didn’t answer, I may not get another. I needed to go for it. To man up and tell her.

I stared at our joined hands, amazed at how naturally they fit together while I considered my words. I didn’t want to come across too eager and blurt it all out at once. Where was the manual for this? Liam told Ivy when they were kids. Kids accepted anything, without judgement or bias. Adults? Not so much.

I lifted my gaze to hers. “The wolves in the woods behind your house have been there for generations.”

She frowned. “But it can’t be the same one. I didn’t think they lived that long.”

“Once they reach adulthood, they age slower.”

Shifters, not ordinary wolves.

Her eyes narrowed. “But slow enough to still be here fifteen years later?”

I nodded, ’cause words were a little hard right now.

“I’ve only ever seen one here.” She peered through the kitchen, in the direction of the forest. “I wonder if he ever found his mate.”

“He did.”

My breath stalled. I didn’t mean to say that aloud.

“How do you know?”

Another tremor quaked in my gut, harder this time. My wolf was an impatient bastard. He wanted to show Mia too, I knew that. Showing her was the only way to prove it beyond a doubt.

I hoped she didn’t freak out when she discovered the wolf she befriended all those years ago, the one that shouldered her pain every day, was the same man she’d gotten to know over the past fortnight. The man who loved her from the moment he first saw her in that window fifteen years ago and pined for her every day after she left.

I squeezed her hand. Now or never. “I want to show you something, but I need you to keep an open mind.”

“Okaaay.”

Still holding her hand, I led her out to the back porch and flipped on the light. Shifting inside the house never ended well, wolves had a tendency to break shit. Plus, if Mia freaked out, I didn’t want her to feel like she had no safe place to retreat.

At the top of the stairs, I let her hand slip from mine as I descended onto the lawn. She held back.

I swallowed, trying to clear the big lump parked in my throat. “Close your eyes. Picture your wolf.”

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