Chapter 5: Saturdays

At three that night I got out of bed and walked to the kitchen without turning on a light.

I stood by the window and did not touch the curtain.

Across the road, the grey truck's headlights came on.

I put on Otis's boots and went out in my nightshirt and my coat.

The gravel was freezing.

Conall got out of the truck before I reached it and stopped with the door between us.

"You can't hear me through a wall and a road," I said. "Wolves hear a lot, but not that."

"I heard your door."

"My door doesn't squeak."

He had no answer for that, so he gave me a different one.

"I don't sleep much."

"That's not what I asked."

"I know."

I waited.

He looked at the dark house, and then at his boots, and said nothing at all.

I should have pushed.

I was too tired, and Tobin was asleep sixty feet away, and I wanted this over with.

"Here are my terms," I said. "Say yes or leave."

His head came up.

"Saturdays. One hour, at the Spruce Cafe on Main, in public. Not at the cabin and not at school."

"Yes."

"You don't say 'come home.' Not once."

"Yes."

"You don't say the word 'mate' either, to me or to him."

"Yes."

"And you don't tell Tobin to forgive you. He decides that, or he doesn't."

"Catriona, yes." He drew a breath. "Whatever you want. Yes."

"You also don't sit in a truck outside my brother's house at three in the morning."

A muscle moved in his jaw.

"That one I can't promise."

"Then I'm calling the county sheriff, and you can explain to a deputy why the Alpha of Hollow Pine is sleeping in a Ford."

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