4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Cedric

My mate.

Willow was my mate.

This beautiful, free spirit of a human was my mate.

The thoughts were rolling around in my head like loose marbles spilled onto a linoleum floor. I kept my face neutral. I couldn't risk scaring him.

I found my mate driving a purple truck of all things. Well, not driving, but with a purple broken-down truck on the side of the road, but same thing. It was almost as if fate had heard my father's conversation and was like, "Nope, don't listen to him. I got you."

And they did. The only problem was my mate was human, and that meant I had to tread lightly. He had already been a little standoffish at first. Humans weren't keen on taking random help from strangers, nor should they be. Shifters could scent out trouble, but humans were left nearly defenseless. They were so fragile.

Telling him I turned into an animal and wanted to keep him always and forever probably wouldn't go over well. Humans didn't have fated mates, and most of them really didn't know about wolf shifters. He'd probably dive headfirst into the river and swim as if his life was depending on it if I told him. And that river was the last place he should be during this weather.

The thing was, Willow felt it too, though he might not have known what the words were. But I could see it the second he scented me—the way he relaxed, the tension from earlier just vanishing out of nowhere. He knew who I was to him on some level. I just had to figure out what to do from here because messing this up was not an option.

He climbed into my car and buckled up, not saying much along the way other than repeatedly thanking me. I could scent it, though—he was as aroused as I was—and I really hoped that he didn't look into my lap and see just how true that was. Humans were not as amenable to the jumpstart of relationships that shifters tended to have. They were all about the wooing and courting, taking their time. At least that was my understanding of their rituals. Which I had only leaned from watching movies. I'd never dated a human—never considered it, really.

"It says ‘Private.'" Willow pointed to a sign as we turned down the main dirt road that led to the packlands. It was less of a road and more of a two-track. If we encountered anyone leaving the packlands, we'd have to pull over so they could get around us. Not that anyone would be heading out in this weather.

I wouldn't have been gone so long, except I had to pick up the craft supplies, and of course, just as I was about to head back, my mom called asking if I could pick up just a few more squashes and gourds from the neighboring den. They had extra, and we wouldn't want to run out.

There was no way we'd run out of pumpkins, squashes, or gourds. We planted seven acres of them.

"Yeah, but it's private for the people who live here, and I live here." It was mostly to keep hunters away. The last thing any of us wanted was to be running through the woods and getting a bullet in our butt because some asshat didn't know we were people too and didn't understand there was no season for hunting wolves here. Or anywhere.

"Oh, so like HOA stuff?"

"I guess." I wasn't sure what an HOA was, but if that answered the question for him, for now, it would do. He'd find out soon enough, though. It wasn't as if I could keep him from discovering what I really was. He was my mate. It would come out eventually.

Anxiety threatened to claw at my chest, but I kept it at bay. First, I needed to get my mate someplace safe and dry, then I'd worry about how to tell him what I was.

I also wanted to get to know him and hear all about that truck of his that he seemed to treat like a precious child.

We drove in closer, and he started to see some of the cabins. The rain was pelting now, and they were blurry messes through the glass, but visible.

"What is this place? Is this like a vacation rental, like where people come for the season? Are there hiking trails around here? I love hiking. I guess I should have researched the areas I was driving through, huh?"

I could see how he thought that. Once upon a time, humans had a lot of places like this where people would rent cabins in the woods so that they could all be together and "rough it" while not roughing it at all. But this wasn't that. This was my home. This was my packlands.

The pack was about just under five hundred people ranging from days old to over a hundred. We'd been here since the Silverpine pack first began, and we had no plans to ever leave.

"No, my family just inherited a huge plot of land a long time ago." Ten generations, but he didn't need to know that. "And now there are multiple families."

"A cult?" He put his hand over his mouth and looked at me wide-eyed. "I mean—"

"No." I placed my hand on his knee. "Nothing like a cult. It's just less expensive this way." Please let that be enough for him. I hadn't considered he'd jump straight to cult land. I knew of more than one pack that'd had to squash those rumors about them being a cult by humans who didn't understand why we lived the way we did.

I pulled in front of my cabin, the windshield wipers swishing the water away, but not very effectively. It was a full-on downpour. The water made a mess of the land around my cabin. I didn't do landscaping, and since we were in the middle of the woods, I didn't have a lawn to speak of. It was mostly bare dirt. Now it was a mud pit.

We ran inside, wiping our shoes on the mat outside the door. I wasn't going to be able to get away with not explaining things more later, but for now, this would do. The rain was going to keep us inside, which would prevent him from seeing any of the wolves before I had a chance to tell him who and what I was.

But I couldn't hold a secret like that for long. He was going to need to know. I knew that. But also, I didn't want to tell him when he was trapped here because that wasn't fair to him. And until this storm was over and we got his truck working, he was stuck here.

"This is it… my place. Let me grab you a towel."

I kicked off my shoes and ran to the bathroom for towels. When I came back out, he had his shirt off and was using it to dry off his hair.

"Those were supposed to be a thank-you," he said, pointing to the box he had set on my counter. Thankfully my mom had come over and tidied up my cabin while my father and I had been out hunting. I wasn't a messy person, but I didn't exactly prioritize keeping crumbs off the counter. "I think they're ruined. Baked good weren't meant to get drenched in rain, I guess." He let out a laugh.

I tossed him the towel and picked up the box. "I'm sure whatever it is is fine. And there is no need to thank me, I'm happy to help in whatever way I can." If I had it my way, he wouldn't be leaving this place again. I couldn't say that out loud though, it sounded serial killer-ish. It didn't really matter. Not in the grand scheme of things. My mate was thoughtful, and based on the faint scent of sugary goodness, he was also quite skilled.

"Well, it's treats that I baked. In my food truck."

I opened the lid to find an array of different cookies, each one looking better than the one before.

"You made these? In a truck?" I picked one up, and a little speck caught my eye.

"Yeah, I bake, but also, I cook. I use a lot of lavender in my food, which is why my truck is purple and why you think you see a bug."

"I didn't think it was a bug." Although now that he mentioned it, I could see why he might think I did. "They look delicious."

"There's not the only thing," he mumbled. When I looked at him, he blushed. "Sorry. I don't know what came over me." He seemed to battle with himself, turning away from me, then turning back as if he couldn't look away from me for long. I understood. I felt the same.

"I do." This wasn't the conversation I'd planned for now, but here I was.

"What's that?" He swallowed, his throat bobbing. A droplet of water ran down his neck, and I had the intense urge to lick it off. My cabin filled with the scent of his arousal and mine, the two scents mixing together. Just as our scents would when we mated.

"I'm attracted to you in a way that defies reason." And at the same time makes complete sense . That explanation would come with time.

"Same." He took a step closer and placed his hand on my wet shirt. His palm was warm against the thin material, the heat radiating to my chest.

"Listen, we're here because I wanted to help you. We don't need to—"

"But I want to." He cut me off with a finger to my lips. "I don't… do this."

And I wanted to argue with him, wanting him to have a choice and a full understanding of everything that was happening. But then his lips found mine, and all thoughts of being good were gone.