My mouth popped open. I couldn’t believe he’d actually listened to me. A silly smile tugged at my mouth. Did this really mean he’d let me go? My barely formed smile faded. Or would I just wake up back in this apartment tomorrow morning if I tried to leave? I watched Sam remake the bed with the clean sheets from the hidden compartment in the matching sofa ottoman.
There had to be a catch. Sam had told me a tied pair didn’t part until completing the claim. When Clay had scented me, and I recognized him openly, the Elders saw us as a tied pair. They in turn announced it to everyone over their mental link. Every werewolf, whether in a pack or Forlorn recognized our tie. If my words truly changed Clay’s mind, great! But Sam’s question caused me to begin to doubt and I struggled to come up with what I’d overlooked.
“The truth,” I answered Sam. “I pointed out that I needed to go to school. Let’s say he is my mate. He’s an uneducated man from the backwoods. How are we going to live? I can’t turn on the fur like you guys can and live as a wolf like he’s done for most of his life. Where does that leave us? I need an education to get a good job to support myself because he can’t.” Sam had stopped remaking the bed and looked at me in disbelief. “Well, I said it nicer than that,” I defended myself.
He gave me a disappointed look and said, “You don’t know anything about him, Gabby. He may have lived most his life in his fur, but it doesn’t mean he isn’t intelligent, or more wolf than man. You may have caused yourself more trouble that you intended.”
I shifted against the door. I knew I had to be missing something. “Hold on, I didn’t say either of those things to him.” Granted, I did tell him he needed to bathe. “And what do you mean ‘more trouble’?”
“He said that you suggested he live with you to get to know each other better.”
I froze in disbelief. That is not what I said. But more importantly, I asked, “Did he actually talk to you?”
“Well, I had to put on my fur to understand him since he was in his, but yes.”
Sam’s kind communicated in several ways when in their fur, typically, through body language or howls. Claimed and mated pairs shared a special bond using an intuitive mental link. Once establishing a claim the pair could sense strong emotions and each other’s location. Mated pairs had the same ability to communicate with each other as the Elders had with everyone in the pack.
I closed my eyes and thought back to what I’d said. “I didn’t say we should live together, but that he should come back with me to get an education.” Fine, I hadn’t worded it well, but how did he get ‘hey, we should live together’ out of that?
“Like I said, you’ve got trouble.” Sam said with another disappointed look. He folded the bed back into the sofa and then picked up his bag from the floor. He strode to the bathroom, closing the door on any further conversation.
Crap. I needed to talk to Clay again and find out what he intended. I’d been counting on his feral upbringing and his need for freedom to cause him to doubt my suggestion. A suggestion that hadn’t included him living with me, but finding a place nearby so we could go through the motions of human dating, which was the extent of my willingness to compromise.
Leaving the apartment, I stole through the deserted hallways, pausing to put on shoes before opening the main door to the pre-dawn darkened sky. Silence embraced the dimly lit parking yard. The yard light cast shadows near the vehicles, disturbing me, creating places for things to hide.
Walking across the empty expanse alertly, I found the repaired truck, but no Clay. My stomach knotted seeing the truck whole again. Sam’s words about Clay’s intelligence haunted me. A man raised in the wild knew how to dismantle and put back together a truck. I’d underestimated him. No matter which way I looked at it, it all pointed back to the fact I didn’t know enough about Clay to try to guess what he’d do next.
Back in the apartment, Sam waited ready to go. I didn’t bother with a shower, but remade the bed and grabbed my own bag. Retracing my path, we made it to the truck with no sign of Clay. Sensing my mood, Sam didn’t say anything to me as I climbed in and we started the long drive home. It was several hours into the ride when I finally stopped looking behind us or stretching my second sight looking for werewolves. There’d been no sign of Clay following us, but then there’d been no sign of Clay following me the night before last either.
Chapter 5