Chapter 18 #2
The kid threw the coat and literally disappeared.
She knew that wasn’t what happened. She knew he had shifted and bounded away, and in the dim and the snow, her human eyes couldn’t distinguish a white wolf.
Mateo’s eyes tracked it, though, and a single finger lifted at his side. Most of the wolves ran after it.
One wolf didn’t move, the gigantic one with the scar, and in seconds, he was a scarred, naked, gigantic man. Cat’s eyes flew to the black above her. She hadn’t seen this many naked men in her life before the wolves came to town.
“He came from upwind,” the man said. “There’s a cliff at the end of this valley. I had no idea it was even possible to scale.”
“I’m not angry. I don’t think he’s ever left these woods.”
“Doesn’t smell like it,” the giant muttered.
“He was always going to be able to reach us, Nico,” Mateo said.
“So we prepare for war?” Nico asked with far too much glee.
“Wasn’t this supposed to be a vacation?” Mateo asked, looking exhausted.
“No, you do not prepare for war,” Cat said firmly. She had to put an end to this.
Mateo turned to her in surprise.
She put every bit of conviction into her being as she met his gaze. “You don’t.”
“The witch speaks for you?”
“Leave us,” Mateo said.
Cat felt a spurt of hurt, but Mateo pointed to the wolf.
“But—” the large man said and stopped as Mateo’s eyes flew to him. He was gone in a puff of snow in moments.
“No, you don’t,” Cat said firmly. “I never should have come here. You’re not going to kill anybody. You’re going to go home like Nonna says. You’re not going to start a war, not with my coven, and not with the local pack. You’re going to go home.”
“We can try New York...” he said, sounding doubtful.
She shook her head. She’d been living in a fantasy land full of orgasms, but they could not do that forever. If he wasn’t strong enough, she would have to be. “I’m not going.”
“What are you saying?” he asked.
“This wasn’t ever going anywhere. We both know that.”
“We’ve barely tried. There is so much more to try. I make software for a living; believe me, there is no end to the things that you can try to solve a problem.”
“The person you love shouldn’t be a problem to solve!” Love. Her brain stopped. “I didn’t say that.”
He smiled. It was deep and sweet and hurt her heart. “You did, though.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
He stepped closer to her. “This? This is not a problem. This is perfection. You smell so good. You are so beautiful.”
“You can’t build a life on that!”
He held up his hands. “Okay, fine, there’s a magical cosmic connection between us. Every time you hold my hand, my wolf gets more powerful, which I didn’t even think was possible.”
“I know.”
“How is that not perfect? How is that not everything that both of us have wanted our entire lives? The rest is details.”
“Mateo, only CEOs and alpha werewolves can ignore the details and get what they want in life. For the rest of us, it’s all details all the way down.”
“Well, not if you give up before we’ve even started!”
“This isn’t like a dream you work hard for and one day achieve.” How could she make him understand? “I wish I could fly. But it’s never going to happen, and sometimes dreaming is about learning what’s possible and living with it.”
“You think I don’t have obligations? You think I can fly? I’ve got twenty wolves looking to me to keep them safe, keep their wolves under control, and keep the pack going. I’ve got an order of magnitude more employees whose livelihoods depend on me. I am the least free person you could ever meet.”
She shook her head slowly and sadly. “You’ve proved my point. Your grandmother will never accept us. I’m never moving to New York City. You’re never moving here. I don’t speak Japanese.”
“Well, neither do I.”
“I heard you at the house.”
He winced. “That was Chinese, but point taken! It’s a good thing we both speak different languages. Now you don’t have to learn Chinese.”
“Mateo!”
“I’m guessing you don’t speak Italian either.”
She shook her head, smiling for the first time. “You are not responsible for my family. I will fix this. And then you have to go back to your life, and I go back to mine.”
“I’m not letting you confront an entire coven full of witches by yourself.”
“That entire coven full of witches is my family.”
“That doesn’t make it better. Most of the violence committed against other human beings is from people they know, and the most likely way that a woman dies is at the hands of her family.”
She crossed her arms. “Yeah, at the hands of her husband or boyfriend. That’s a statistic about domestic violence, not two old women.”
“With magic. Two old women with powerful magic.”
“Okay, fine. Fine! You help me do this last thing, and then we say goodbye, and you go back to your life. There is no place for me in it.”
He was silent for two long minutes, and she prayed he would accept this. They had to live in reality.
Finally, he took a deep breath and stepped away from her. “What’s the plan?”
She laughed long and hard. “Hell, this is just one in a million ways we’re different. You’re the planner. I was just going to storm inside.”