Page 68 of Midnight Mate
It didn’t matter how many times we’d made love over the past three days, I couldn’t seem to get enough. Neither could Easton, it seemed, and we’d spent the better part of seventy-two hours naked and in bed.
Today, though, we had to get up.
Easton’s mom was due home from the hospital—and Tobias had asked to meet with me. East assured me there was no pressure about joining the pack. According to him, wolves opted to remain packless all the time, but as a new wolf in Tobias’s territory, I needed to go and give him an answer.
“Keep that in mind when you’re standing in front of the entire wolf pack later,” East added with a devilish grin.
“You’re evil, you know that?”
“Just making sure you remember which animal you’re going home with.”
Dropping a quick kiss on the tip of my nose, East rolled away and helped me sit up. I looked around, surveying the damage. Clothes and dishes were strewn everywhere, thanks to us both spending so much time here the past few days, but I didn’t mind it. I had the hottest nurse on the planet.
“Hungry?” East asked.
“I could definitely eat.”
He leaned in, pressing kisses to my throat. “So could I,” he whispered, sending a shiver of pleasure through me.
“East.” I shoved him away, laughing. “We’ll be late.”
“Fine. But tonight, you’re the dessert.”
“I didn’t choose to become a wolf just so we could spend the rest of our lives in bed together, you know.”
“Of course not.” He held out a hand to help me up. “We should change it up once in a while, just to keep it interesting. Maybe have a quickie in the woods later.”
“You’re terrible. Besides, you’re the one who busted your leg up just so you could come back to town and see me.”
He grinned. “Best idea I ever had.”
I shook my head but didn’t answer.
We hadn’t directly addressed it yet, but the truth was his leg had healed itself the night I’d changed. I was too afraid of what that meant to ask much about the details. And East had been weirdly quiet about the whole thing, including how much longer he planned to stick around.
Something told me today would be different. Especially since Tobias wanted to talk to us both.
After breakfast with Rudy, who seemed to have put most of the pieces together despite the fact that neither of us had told him about my change yet, we drove out to the meeting site.
Tobias had chosen neutral ground; state park land that butted up against the witch’s property. Easton had already warned me to keep an eye out for glamours or anything off, but the day was perfect.
Sunny, warm, and full of promise.
My wolf wished we’d run instead of driven, but I kept that to myself. Instead, I twisted my hands together as my nerves grew. East reached over and threaded his fingers through mine knowingly.
“It’s going to be okay,” he assured me, smiling as he glanced over.
“Yeah, I’m sure it is.” I smiled too, but it felt forced.
Nothing would be okay until I knew when East was leaving town. It was like waiting for the rug to be ripped out from underneath my feet. Packless was one thing, but I had no desire to do the lone wolf thing. And even though I knew jack shit about how it all worked, I had a feeling my beast had picked East as her mate—which meant I wasn’t going to get over him leaving a second time.
“Hey, how’s your mom?” I asked while we drove, mostly to change the subject.
We’d been to see her every day since I went through the change. One of the only things we’d left the house—and bed—to do. In the moments when East had left us alone, I’d found myself bonding with her. We’d both been hurt by men who thought it was okay to treat women like trash. And we were both healing in ways that went beyond the physical.
I liked her a lot. Spending time with her made the ache left by my parents’ death hurt a little less.
“Good. I told her we’d skip today’s visit.” He shot me a look. “We’ll do lunch tomorrow.”
