Page 11 of Wrong Mate

“You must not ever be tempted to use dark magic,”Lucinda said.

“I won’t.”

“That is how Olivia and Greta will try to get you toturn. If they can take you away, fill you with dark magic, they will use you as a weapon.”

Leah had heard of these nightmares before. She was not going to be anyone’s weapon.

“I know, Lucinda.”

“I must go, Killian is approaching. Think about what I said.”

The door to the hotel room opened and Lucinda was gone.

“Who were you talking to?” Killian asked.

“The wall.” Leah got off the bed and moved toward him. “I wondered if you had gone and built up a whole drive-thru since you’d taken that long.”

He snorted, then closed and locked the door. “I had to make sure I wasn’t being followed.”

They sat down on the foot of the bed, and he handed her a brown paper bag. It was warm and the scents made her mouth water and her stomach growl.

“Sorry I took so long,” he said.

She opened the bag and saw several wrapped packages.Leah was starving. She unwrapped a burger and after only three bites, it was gone. Using magic always made her hungry. Killian hadn’t asked, but she had put another protection spell around their room while he was gone. Also, to help him not be tracked, she had hidden his scent, even masked it. No one would be able to detect him. She glanced over at him, watching as he ate his burgers.

“Can I ask you a question?” Right now, she hated Lucinda. Her pesky friend and guide, always meddling, always making her curious.

“Can I stop you?”

“No, I would ask anyway.”

“Fine,” Killian said.

“If I wasn’t a witch, would you have rejected me?”

Killian held a fry poised to his lips, but he didn’t eat it.

She waited.

He turned his gaze toward her.

“It’s a perfectly reasonable question. Would you have still rejected me if I had been … a vampire? A wolf? A human?”

He ate the fry but she saw that he waschewing it slowly.

“The answer doesn’t matter.”

“Actually, itmatters to me. I had to deal with your very public rejection in front of your whole pack. I was just wondering if it’s my witchyness that puts you off.” She gave a shrug. She was not going to cry.

“Yes,” Killian said.

“To what? My witchyness? Or me being something else?”

“Your witchyness puts me off. If you had been a wolf or a human, then I would not have rejected you. You would have been mine by the end of the night.”

Okay, that didn’t sting. No, it fucking hurt.

Her appetite faded. She wasn’t hungryanymore.

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