Chapter 4
four
JADE
My eyes followed Wyatt across the garage as he walked back to the stuff he’d gathered. I was pretty sure he was planning on doing an oil change. My dad had tried to teach me about cars and engines and whatnot when I was a kid, but I’d always preferred to sit nearby with my nose in a book.
I knew a small amount about the basics, but I was far from an expert.
My head was still spinning with all the new werewolf information, but I felt like I was at least starting to wrap my mind around everything.
Wyatt and I were stuck together for the time being.
That much, I’d processed.
And he was far less enthusiastic about having a soulmate than I would’ve expected.
I’d never been in a serious relationship, so I was more uncertain than unenthusiastic.
My personality tended to scare men away.
They wanted a nice, cheerful woman. And though I was both nice and upbeat overall, I was also intense and driven.
Both of those qualities worked against me in the romance field.
Wyatt wasn’t going to have a choice, though. Not according to Abby and Finn. His wolf had already bitten me, which made his part of the connection permanent from what I understood.
And if my wolf rejected him, they said he was going to die.
So for better or worse, unless I wanted to be responsible for killing the sexy mechanic, we needed to figure out a way to be together.
I watched Wyatt work. His movements were smooth, and there was no hesitation as he used a jack to lift the car a few feet off the ground.
Finally, I followed the path he’d blazed across the garage. He didn’t look up or turn away from his work when I approached, so I stepped around him and took a seat on a closed toolbox. The metal was cold against the backs of my bare thighs.
The muscles on Wyatt’s shoulders flexed as he grabbed an oil pan.
“It sounds like there’s no way out of this,” I said.
“Nope.”
A moment of silence passed.
He either wasn’t a chatty guy or just didn’t want to chat with me. Neither option would’ve surprised me.
Since he wasn’t enthusiastic about the conversation, I might as well start with what was potentially going to be the most uncomfortable part.
“Abby said you were rejected. I take it that means you had a soulmate already,” I said.
“You don’t beat around the bush, do you?” he asked without turning around.
“Not really.”
He grabbed a creeper—the weird name for the wheeled board a mechanic used to get under the vehicle—and his legs flexed as he rolled under the car. “Yeah, I had a mate.”
“What’s the story?”
He didn’t reply right away.
I had no problem waiting. Watching him move made the waiting pretty interesting.
Finally, he came out from under the vehicle. Popping the hood, he started working there and said, “Corinne grew up human in the town I was raised in. There aren’t many human women in werewolf towns. Werewolves are always born male.”
My forehead creased, and I tucked away that bit of information. When I started researching werewolf biology, maybe I could figure out why that was the case.
“We were the same age, and she was basically a part of my childhood pack. Corinne, Aidan, and I were always together. There were no romantic feelings. Aidan and I were waiting for our mates, and Corinne hoped she’d end up paired off with a werewolf of her own.
Being mates was never on our radar until it happened. ”
My eyebrows lifted. “How old were you?”
“Barely eighteen. We’d just graduated a few weeks earlier.
Met up at the diner for shakes after a long day of work, and my wolf decided she was his.
He bit her there and then. We were delusional enough that it felt like a fucking fairytale for a couple hours.
She shifted back at my apartment, and we were excited. ”
“Until you weren’t.”
“Yup.” He kept working on the car.
I waited.
“I kissed her that night. It was… uncomfortable. Like kissing my sister. If I had one,” he said.
I cringed. “Ugh.”
“We spent the next few weeks trying to train ourselves to adjust to it. It didn’t work.
There was no chemistry. The small amount of attraction had existed at the beginning disappeared fast. After a month, we decided to call it on the kissing thing and just try to live together like mates. Sharing a bed and whatnot.”
My cringe deepened. “I take it that didn’t go well.”
“It did not.”
“Yikes.”
“After a month of that, we tried living in separate rooms. We hoped that would help with the attraction, but it didn’t. We stuck with that arrangement and avoided discussing it for about ten months.”
My eyebrows shot upward. “It went on an entire year?”
“Mmhm.”
“Fuck.”
“There was definitely no fucking.”
I snorted. “How did it end?”
“Even more poorly than it started, if you can believe it.”
“Oof.”
“She was waiting in my room when I came home one night. Said she wanted to try kissing again. I wasn’t enthusiastic, but agreed. Not like I could turn my mate down when she wanted me to kiss her.”
“You absolutely could, but continue.”
“We kissed. I thought I felt something, for once. A spark. It went on for a few minutes, until she finally pulled away. She was crying. She said she couldn’t do it, and apologized.
Her wolf finally took over, and walked away.
The relationship had been miserable, but the pain when the bond shattered was still excruciating. I didn’t think I’d make it.”
“You survived it, though. Obviously.”
“I did. Spent the next day in the forest, wrestling my wolf, but eventually came stumbling back to the apartment. Walked in on her and Aidan hooking up on the couch with matching mate marks. Fate had paired them earlier that day. Apparently, she’d been pouring her heart out to him about the mess of our bond for the better part of the year.
I grabbed some cash and the key to my bike, and left. Never looked back.”
“Wow. It really did get worse.”
“Yup.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Eleven years, give or take.”
“Pretty long ago, then. Do you feel like you’ve moved on?”
He was silent for a moment.
I waited for a no. To hear that he was still bitter, that he wished he’d figured out a way to work it out with Corrine.
“The moment I drove away, I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I’ve never gone back to my hometown, but I’ve never regretted leaving.”
Damn.
That was a much better response than I’d hoped for.
Then again, it was worse in some ways. He definitely didn’t want another mate, which was going to be a problem.
“Why haven’t you gone back?”
He shrugged. “It would be really fucking awkward.”
“Valid point. Are your parents still there?”
“Yeah. They’re so relieved I survived the rejection that they’ve never tried to get me to go back.
They come to see me every year. I’ve thought about visiting, and I’d like to, but I know Corinne and Aidan would come by.
I can’t say I’m happy for them, or that I’d like to see them, so it’s easier to stay away. ”
“I’m not surprised you don’t want to see them. She cheated on you. He was a willing participant. The situation might’ve been shitty all around, but cheating is cheating.”
“She didn’t cheat.”
“Jones, I don’t know much about werewolves, but in the human world that would be what we call an emotional affair.”
He was silent for a moment.
Hopefully I hadn’t just reignited anger or any other feelings about the situation that he’d moved past a long time ago.
“I guess I can see that,” he finally said. “Doesn’t matter at this point, though.”
He stepped away from the engine and rolled back beneath the car. After he came back up with a pan of oil, he carried it across the garage, disappearing behind one of the vehicles. I could see his silhouette through the windows of the furthest one, so my wolf didn’t flip out.
Then again, I had yet to see any evidence that she would lose her marbles when Wyatt was out of my sight.
“It would probably be best if you and I just aimed for friendship,” he said, his voice echoing a little across the oversized garage.
My eyebrows shot upward. “Why?”
“You weren’t looking for a mate. I wasn’t either. If we just go with friendship, no one gets hurt.”
“We’re supposed to have a ton of sex after my wolf bites you, Jones. Does that sound like friendship to you?”
“Friends can have sex.”
“I don’t have sex with my friends. When was the last time you hooked up with one of yours?” I countered.
His silence answered that question.
“I’m not thrilled about this magical connection thing either, but I think it’s way too soon to decide what the extent of our relationship will be. We don’t even know each other.”
“You already know more of my past than any of the guys in my pack.” Wyatt made his way back toward me without the oil pan.
“A person’s past is a tiny part of who they are. I don’t know what you like to do. Or eat. Or what your sense of humor is like, if it exists. Or how you treat people.”
He looked slightly unnerved by my response. “You should try to wash the grease out of your hair. I don’t know if it will damage it.”
Wyatt was changing the subject rather than bringing up whatever he thought or felt. Interesting.
I didn’t beat around the bush, but maybe he did.
“I’m more worried about how it will affect my nipples,” I said, pulling the neck of my shirt away from my skin and making a show of peering down.
When I lifted my gaze, I found his face red, and his eyes fixed on my chest. He peeled them away quickly, but not fast enough.
Wyatt might not have been attracted to his first mate, but he was attracted to me.
That alone seemed pretty significant.
I crossed the garage, passing him as I neared the door into his house.
“You didn’t have to put that on,” he said. “I could’ve grabbed a clean shirt for you.”
“I’m not afraid of a little grease.”
“Why aren’t you?” He almost sounded interested.
“I basically grew up in a garage like yours. My dad was a mechanic. Do you have any dish soap I can use on my hair?” I slipped into the house, peering around quickly as I did.
The wood-like tile was a warm shade of light brown, and the walls were a coordinating neutral.
There were no decorations or art as far as I could see, and the furniture was sparse.
He grabbed some dish soap from the kitchen as we passed it. “The spare bathroom is that way, but my shower is a lot bigger,” Wyatt said. He gestured toward the rooms as he mentioned them.
The guest bathroom would’ve been safer, but considering he was already trying to talk me into being just friends, it seemed like I was going to have to be the one who pushed him a little.
So, I headed for his bathroom.