Chapter 9: The Cabin

Opal's cabin stood alone on a ridge in the Laurel Highlands, two hours from the city.

By the time the fire caught, Mathias was sitting on the rug in front of it with a blanket around his shoulders.

His claws were gone.

His hands still shook around the mug I had put in them.

"You promised you'd tell me why the full moon matters," I said.

"Opal promised," he said. "I didn't."

"That's not funny."

"No." He rubbed his face with both hands. "I'm sorry. I know what I'm asking."

"I'll tell you everything the night before the moon. I want you to have nine good days before you hear it."

"If I hear it, you'll be afraid, and I would rather you were with me first."

I sat down beside him.

I was angry, and I was also sitting with a man who had been shaking for hours.

"One more day," I said. "I'll give you until the hearing, and then you tell me, or I leave."

"I'd never keep you," he said. "Thank you."

He leaned his head against mine.

For a while the fire popped, and we didn't talk.

"My mother was human," he said. "She died when I was eleven."

"She had cancer. She sat in that chair, right there, and told me wolves aren't what you think they are."

"She said the wolf is only a part of you that loves too hard."

"I've never forgotten it."

My throat hurt.

"My father held his wolf in for the rest of his life after that," Mathias went on.

"He died five years ago, and Alden ran the pack for me until I was ready."

"I have never felt ready."

"You look pretty ready," I said. "You made a man scrub my door on his knees."

He smiled, a little.

Then he took my face in both hands and kissed me, slowly this time.

There was no rush in it.

He kissed my mouth and my chin and the corner of my jaw.

I pushed the blanket off his shoulders and pulled his shirt over his head.

The firelight moved on his chest.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Fated to My Homeless Billionaire Alpha from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.