Page 62 of Rejected Moons (Rejected Moons 3)

He rolls off me and pulls me with him, and I end up lying with my head pillowed on his shoulder and my arm draped across his chest. I breathe deeply, recovering, unable to keep a smile off my face.

He speaks first. “That was good.”

I feign offense. “Good?”

He chuckles. “It was amazing,” he says. “There was something special about it, wasn’t there? Do you think it was because we’re both hybrids?”

“Does that have something to do with it?” I ask, surprised.

“I don’t know,” he admits. “I just know that I’ve never had it that good before.”

“I’ve only been with Nate,” I say. “And it’sdifferentwith you than it is with him. I don’t know if I’d say better, but there’s definitely something else going on. It could have to do with our being hybrids.”

“Different with me, is it?” a voice asks.

I sit bolt upright, grabbing for my shirt as if I’d been caught doing something I shouldn’t, but Nate is laughing. “No one could possibly have slept through the racket you two were making,” he says.

“Sorry to wake you,” Milo says, but he doesn’t sound sorry at all.

“Yeah, well, I probably would have gotten up anyway,” Nate says. “I’m still hungry.”

“You’re always hungry,” I tell him, laughing. I tug my shirt over my head. “Let’s eat. There’s plenty of rabbit left.”

“All right, let’s eat,” Milo agrees. “But after we do, it’s my turn to get some sleep, and Nate gets to stand guard.”

Nate roars with laughter and goes to stoke the fire.

Chapter Forty-one: NATE

“SoyouandEm,huh?” I ask Milo once Em has eaten and fallen asleep under a nearby tree.

“Looks like it,” he says coolly.

This guy really is as bold as brass. I mean, I don’t care what Emlyn does, but we just met himtoday, and already he’s acting like he has every right to be with her.

He does have every right to; I’m just surprised by his confidence. I didn’t feel as confident with Emlyn as quickly as he does. But maybe this is part of the thing where they’re both hybrids. I can already see them connecting on a level that doesn’t have anything to do with me.

Milo tears off a chunk of rabbit meat and passes it to me. “Listen, I like you,” he says. “I wouldn’t have gone there if Emlyn hadn’t told me that you’d be comfortable with it.”

“You asked my permission?”

“Not permission. I just asked her what would happen if we went ahead with it. She said you wouldn’t care.”

I shrug. “Yeah, I don’t.”

“She’s not your mate?”

“We just met a few days ago. We hardly know each other, really.”

“You seem so close,” he says. “It’s hard to believe that you haven’t known each other for a long time.”

“Believe it,” I say.

“Are you planning to stick with her for the long haul? I know you’ve both left your packs behind.”

I hesitate. This is a hard one to answer because that’s not what I’ve been planning to do with Emlyn. I had completely different plans for her.

But maybe I’m going to have to revise those plans. Because every hour—everyminute—in her presence is convincing me more and more that I don’t want to take her back to her wolf pack. I can’t be responsible for her death. And if I take her to them, they are definitely going to kill her. There’s no doubt in my mind about that.

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