Page 63 of Midnight Mate
“What the hell kind of question is that?” he asked, and I was glad to hear some of his temper creeping in. It made me feel more normal somehow. “Of course I’m glad.”
“But you’re mad, too, right?”
He used his free hand to open the passenger door to Travis’s truck. As he talked, he set me on the bench seat. “I’m not mad.”
I took his hand. “East, I need you to bite me.”
He stared at me for long enough that I knew he didn’t understand. Or think I was sane anymore.
“Cat, listen, you’re obviously in shock. I’m going to put you right here in the truck and go find Travis’s keys so we can get you back to town and have your leg fixed up.”
I grabbed his arm before he could walk away. “I’m not in shock.”
His expression made it clear he didn’t believe me.
“I saw a woman. Earlier. Inside the cabin. She said some things.”
His eyes narrowed. “What kind of things?”
I shook my head, knowing I wouldn’t get this right. “A mate for a mate is what the fates demand.”
I could feel his shock in the same way I could feel the pain of his wounds echoing inside me.
“What does it mean?” I asked.
“What did she look like?” East’s voice was hoarse now.
“Tall, thin. I can’t be sure because the lighting sucked, but I had the sense of serious resting bitch face.”
He growled, and I knew it all meant something. Something important. I had a feeling I already knew what. Now, I just had to accept it.
“East,” I said when he stared up at the moon. A vein in his throat was pulsing in the same place my own thudded with my erratic heartbeat, and I knew my gut instinct was correct on this.
When he looked back at me, I shoved the pain in my leg aside and gave him my “I mean business” face. “I need you to bite me. I think it’s the only way to save you.”
“This isn’t about me,” he said, squeezing his eyes shut in a desperation that meant we were running out of time. “This is about you, Cat. I can’t . . . If I bite you, I think it means…”
“Means what?” I demanded. I needed to hear him say it. To know I wasn’t crazy.
And we needed to hurry.
“Okay, listen to me.” He grabbed both my hands and squeezed tight. “I went to the witches. I met with their coven leader, and she said my healing wasn’t up to me. It was up to someone else. A woman whose fate was tangled with mine.”
My brows shot up. “And you don’t believe me because you have another woman in mind?”
“What? No, of course not.”
“Okay, so then why are we still arguing about this?”
“Because.” He hesitated and then said, “I think if I bite you . . . you’ll become a werewolf. Like me.”
Any other night, under any other moon—okay, if I wasn’t already bleeding out—I might have paused over that. But too much had happened tonight, and this was honestly not the craziest part, in my opinion. I didn’t even flinch as I said, “Don’t you think I’ve already figured that out?”
He dropped my hands, jaw hanging half-open. I filed that away for later. For once, I’d made him speechless.
It wasn’t nearly as satisfying as I’d hoped, though. Not when I could already see his refusal in his eyes. And I couldn’t blame him. He’d watched his werewolf father abuse his human mother over and over again. I knew he was terrified of doing anything to hurt me. But I wasn’t her, and East damn sure wasn’t his father.
I pushed ahead, impatience making the words blunt.
