“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means that I’m not quite—”
“Are you going to bite me?” she asked.
“You didn’t mind it when we used to—”
“Not the time, Ox!”
“Right,” I said hastily. “I’m still not very good at jokes. Or figuring out when is the best time to tell them.”
“You can’t bite me!”
“I’m not going to! I’m not a were—”
“You’re something.”
I was getting a headache. “Not something that can change you.”
“You changed my brother. He told me. He told me he can feel you. That he’s part of you and your… pack.” She spat that last word like it was curse.
And yeah, she had me there.
Shit.
She poked me a third time. “You will tell me everything.”
“Right now?” I asked, trying not to whine. I was the goddamn Alpha. Why was she telling me what to do?
“Right. Now.”
Goddammit.
So I did.
It took a few hours. And I may have stumbled on a few parts (and glossed over others, because even though it had been two years, the deaths of Thomas and my mother were still sharp enough to cut), but I tried to leave as little out as possible. I felt I owed it to her, for all the shit I’d put her through since I’d known her. To give her credit, she rarely interrupted, and only when she didn’t understand something and needed it explained further. The longer I talked (more than I’d ever talked before), the quieter she got.
At the end, she stared at me for a long while. My throat was sore, so I didn’t say anything back, waiting for her to decide whatever she was going to do.
Finally, she said, “And all of that truly happened.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t say much about him.”
I played dumb. “Who?”
She knew, but she said “Joe” anyway.
I tried to swallow down the bitterness that rose like bile. “There isn’t much to say.”
She rolled her eyes. “Aside from the fact that he’s your mate and imprinted on you like you’re some creepy-ass Twilight fan fiction?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know what most of that means.”
“I do,” Rico said. “And I’ll admit that’s not something I’m very proud of right now.”
“You have a mystical moon destiny with Joe,” Jessie said, sounding exasperated.