Page 29 of A Queen and Her Knight

“So, do you want them to look at you?”

“No!” Tim raised his head. “Or, not like that. I’m practically human to them. I’mnothing—er, no offense. It’s a town of werewolves.”

“I know.” Dr. Finch did seem to know that and not be offended. He rolled his wrist. “Go on. Did something happen on the way here? Something with someone else noticing Nathaniel?”

“Nathaniel didn’t drive me today.” Tim sensed the raised eyebrow before he saw it. “Zoe did,” he explained. “Nathaniel was—is—was breaking up a fight between some weres. Fighting over him.” Goddamn it, Tim wanted to claw something. “Nathaniel didn’t even have to get physical. He just… was there, you know? A presence.”

Trying to explain Nathaniel had been impossible. Tim had finally just introduced them one day, made Dr. Finch go out into the waiting room to properly experience Nathaniel Neri in all his glory.

“He had to remind them,” Tim continued, a howl locked inside of him. “Nathaniel had to remind these weres about me. They were tourists, but still, I’m barely a real were andIcan tell if someone’s mated.”Now. Tim could tell thatnow, and it had taken a lot of work. “Which means those weres could tell he was taken and they didn’t even fucking care. They saw me around town and they—” Tim swallowed, although his pain stayed trapped in his throat. “I can’t complain to him. I can’t just remind him of what a skinny little half-were I am. I can’t say, ‘too bad you’re stuck with me’ because he hates that. Hehateswhen I say that, and I’m tired of him having to reassure me. He shouldn’t have to do that. He has enough to do. Being a leader is…”

“Lonely, you said.”

Tim dropped his head back to his knees. “There’s no one in town at his level. Being at home is his time to not be the king. He gets to relax and be a dork, andnottake care of people for once.”

Dr. Finch was so, so quiet. Even his heartbeat seemed muted and far away as long as Tim didn’t look. “What about you?”

Tim shrugged. “He spends enough time taking care of me.”

The pen scratched against the paper. “So, you—his mate—are not at his level?”

“I’m a Dirus!” Tim snarled and jerked his head up. Dr. Finch opened his eyes wide but didn’t say anything. Since staring down the psychiatrist he was paying for was ridiculous, Tim finally went on with a small huff. “I asked Zoe to drive me. She was off today, so I asked her instead. Nathaniel was…” confused,probably hurt. “But he’ll have me all figured out by the time I get back. He’s going to make a big deal out of letting me know he loves me, and we’re mated, and it’s okay. And I hate it and I can’t tell him that either.”

“Because?”

The gentle prompting was really annoying.

“Because that’s what he does?” Tim waved his arms furiously. “He takes care of me and I like it but fuck! It’s no wonder I—look, it’s fine. He’s not going to leave me. He can’t.” Sometimes, Tim wished Nathanielcouldleave him. If it was a possibility but he stayed, then maybe Tim wouldn’t feel like this sometimes, like he was an obligation, or useless, or a failure of a mate.

Dr. Finch leaned forward. “Do you think he wants to leave you? You’ve never said that before. Did you talk to him about this?”

“Are you not listening?” Tim dropped his feet back to the ground with a thump. “Even human ears should get this. Ican’ttalk to him about it. It’s a werewolf thing and it’s a Nathaniel thing! All that will happen is he’ll end up reassuring me, which is some bullshit.”

“Bullshit?” Dr. Finch echoed. “You think he’d be lying?”

“No.” Tim scowled at him in all his humanity, because the man didn’t understand. “Nathaniel will mean every word. Because he’sperfect. Because he doesn’t understand flaws, and I am onegiantflaw, and as frustrated as I make him sometimes, he fucking believes in stupid romantic movies where love cures this stuff. I might be new to dealing with my emotions, but I know that’s not true. If it did, there wouldn’t be broken matings or even broken hearts.”

Broken matings.Oh, shit. Oh, God, Tim had said it. He’d said those words and that was how magic worked—he’d made thepossibility real. He stared down at his lap, at his shaking hands, and sucked in a breath.

He waited. He waited for Dr. Finch to call him out for those words, and his real—so fucking obvious now—fears. But there was silence for what felt like hours.

Then Dr. Finch spoke, voice level and calm. “Whose idea was this therapy?”

Caught off guard, Tim glanced over. “His.”

Dr. Finch had closed his notebook. His heart was steady. “Why?”

“Because I’mdamaged.” Tim dragged out the stupid word, becauseduh.

Dr. Finch smiled, still with no teeth. “So, he didn’t think his love could fixthat.”

He wasn’t asking, but Tim answered, slowly. “No. No, I suppose not. But—but he didn’t mean it for this stuff. He meant it for the other stuff.” The silence from Dr. Finch was incredibly annoying. Pointed silence meant Tim was supposed to draw his own conclusions. Like how Dr. Finch always said that this stuff and the other stuff were related. That what happened with his uncle, and Luca, and Tim’s years on his own, had made him into this person. That the past was present, and all that shit.

“Timothy,” Dr. Finch prompted quietly. Tim pulled his lower lip between his teeth just to bite something, but looked over. Dr. Finch smiled, a real one, with a hint of canines. “Sincesomeonesat in silence for the first twenty minutes of his session, our time is up for today. But I have no one else this afternoon, if you’d like to sit a while longer.”

“Zoe’s waiting.” Tim stopped biting his lip in order to speak. “I shouldn’t have made her drive me out here. I shouldn’t make her stand around.” But he didn’t move. “The weres,” he said.

“The weres?”

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