Chapter Five
Andrew
Four days.
Four days of coming up with excuses to hang out with Henrietta and waiting for the bond to weaken.
My mother keeps staring at me with an odd little half-smile, like she knows something I don’t, my wolf is going nuts, and I’m tossing and turning every night, tormented by erotic dreams of my fated mate.
The corn crop is growing faster than it ever has before, with no sign of pest damage.
Silas is satisfied. Carlton is delighted.
My pack is getting exactly what they paid for, and if anyone has noticed that I have been supervising the plant mage situation every single morning despite having approximately forty other things that require my attention, no one has said anything.
At least up until this morning – but I think that’s about to change.
"Move," I say to Henrietta, in a low, urgent voice.
I've spotted Cole off in the distance, headed in our general direction like he’s on a mission. He hasn’t seen us yet, but he will.
"Why?” she challenges me.
"My brother is headed this way. Stop giving me grief, or at least walk while you’re doing it.”
That earns me a middle finger, but she trots along at my side, keeping a careful two feet away from me.
We make it to the north barn without incident. I pull the door mostly shut behind us and check through the gap. Cole has stopped. He's shading his eyes with one hand, scanning the fields. Looking for us.
"Has he spotted us?" Henrietta asks.
"Not yet." I step back into the dim. It smells like hay and oil and old wood in here, the same as it has my entire life. I used to hide in this barn when I was a kid and didn't want to be found for Alpha training with my dad, which involved a lot of broken bones that took hours to heal.
"And that would be bad because—"
I look at her. "Have you met my brother?"
“Unfortunately.” She narrows her eyes at me. “I wish I’d never met any of you.”
That stings, and part of me wants to tell her what really happened the day that I saw her dad in the forest. But he was her hero. Everyone’s dad is their hero. I can’t take that from her; I’ve already taken so much.
She finds a hay bale and sits on it, and I lean against the post across from her, and listen to the faint breeze moving through the air. A swallow cuts through the rafters. Outside, someone's running the old John Deere along the east field.
"Fine," I say, because standing here in silence with her is driving my wolf insane. My wolf keeps gravitating toward her like she's magnetic north, and I keep correcting, and it's exhausting. "Let's use the time productively."
I pull my cell phone from my pocket and open my notes app. She stares at me.
“Crazy wolf do what now?” she says.
"Let’s figure out all the ways we’re not compatible. We’ll make a list of things we don't have in common," I say. "The theory is proximity combined with incompatibility breaks the bond. So let’s prove how incompatible we are.”
"I guess things couldn’t go any worse than they already are,” she says glumly.
She shrugs, folding her arms and staring across the barn, chewing her plump lower lip. "I hate all pop music that was created after 2010."
I nod in agreement. "Who doesn’t?” Wait. Not helpful.
She frowns for a long moment, then brightens. “I like Hawaiian Pizza. There’s no way you like Hawaiian Pizza.”
I force a smile. “Of course I don’t. It’s disgusting. We’d never be able to walk in to a pizza parlor together and place an order. I’d gag.”
I picture it anyway — the two of us pushing through the Cheeze Hut's glass door, the blast of garlic and cheese and that faintly burnt-crust smell that hits you before you're even fully inside, her marching up to the counter, the feeling of her hand in mine -
I cut that off right there. We will not be holding hands, ever. The thought carves a hollowed-out sadness deep inside me, but that’s just because of the stupid fated mate thing, not because I actually care.
She stares at me suspiciously. “You’re lying. You like it, don’t you?”
I groan aloud. “Fine. Yes. I also have freaky taste in pizza.”
Her mouth tightens. She's annoyed, which is fair, because I'm annoyed too. "Favorite movie."
"The Princess Bride." Yeah, I’m confident enough in my masculinity to say that.
Her eyes widen in dismay. She takes a deep breath. Her lips part.
"Don't say it," I order her, which guarantees she’ll do the opposite. And why is that such a turn-on?
"Inconceivable," she murmurs. She closes her eyes. "Only the best movie ever. Humans make some amazing movies, don’t they?”
I shove my phone back into my pocket.
“Well, it was worth a shot,” I mutter. “And don’t even tell me you like chocolate raisins or hate sleeping with a top sheet.”
She groans aloud. “Why did you even have to go there? And what is the point of a top sheet anyway? To protect us from the comforter? I’m not scared of comforters. I don’t need no stinkin’ top sheet.”
“Are you just trying to make this worse by liking everything I do?” I demand.
"Right. Right. The bond is making us think we have more in common than we do," she says.
"Of course,” I mutter, without conviction.
A car passes on the distant road. A long, uncomfortable silence stretches out between us. “What are we going to do?” I wonder aloud.
“Ignore this until it dies,” she says fiercely.
“For the sake of argument…if it doesn’t die…” I take a breath. “How long can we fight the fated mate bond?”
“What are you trying to say?” she frowns at me. “Surely you’re not suggesting that we…”
“No! I mean…I don’t know.” I know that I think about her all the time. I know that when she’s not with me, my wolf goes crazy. I know that she’s smart and funny and fiercely loyal to her pack.
I know that I always felt like something was missing, and when she’s with me, I feel complete.
“We will not be together.” She turns and meets my gaze, her emerald eyes blazing. “I trusted you. When I was little, you…you made me feel safe. And then you ruined our entire pack’s lives.” The hurt in her voice slices me like a blade.
"Henrietta." I let out a tortured breath. "About…About what happened that day—" I’m going to tell her the truth, damn it. The consequences be damned.
"Don't."
“I just wanted to say that I-”
"I said don't." She turns and stalks away.
I stand in the dim of the barn, drawing in and releasing deep breaths in an attempt to calm my wolf, but I don’t last more than thirty seconds before I find my feet moving of their own accord.
I head after her, quickly, and stop at the doorway.
My wolf lets out a mournful howl that reverberates in my skull.
Through the gap in the door I watch her walk straight towards Cole.
I lock my muscles and force myself to stay where I am.
“Henrietta!” Cole calls out to her, sticking his hands in his jeans pocket, and grinning at her.
"Funny thing just occurred to me. Andrew doesn’t usually get down and dirty with the crops.
He spends his time negotiating and writing contracts.
Then you show up and all of a sudden, he’s out here walking the fields every day, acting all weird, staring off into space when you’re not there, and -”
"You can just shut your pie-hole right now. I wouldn't use his pelt to wipe my butt," Henrietta snaps, and stalks off so fast she kicks up clods of dirt.
“That’s not a no!” Cole yells after.