Sawyer

  “Come with me. Don’t worry, Josie isn’t around, and we’re not even doing anything wrong.”

  Clare’s words made me laugh as I finally stood up from the couch in the living room/kitchen that belonged to Clare’s guardian.

  What was funny was the way she was trying to persuade me to step into her bedroom like a bad boy trying to fool a naive girl into his bed.

  “Why are you laughing?” She asked, even though she was laughing along with me, too.

  “Why are you laughing too?” I asked, laughing as she led me through the narrow hallway to her room.

  “I’m laughing because you’re laughing. Now, why are you laughing?” She complained, turning to glance back at me repeatedly.

  “It’s because of what you said. It sounded like some jock guy in the movies trying to fool a naive girl into his bedroom with false justifications. Don’t worry, my guardian isn’t around and we’re not even doing anything wrong.”

  “Oh, I see.” She agreed with a giggle.

  I smiled as I felt the tension I’d seen in her demeanor and smoky eye bags since I arrived at Josie’s home finally bleed out at this small joke.

  Even though she had pretended that she was completely alright since she saved Queen with her magic, I could see that using it again still filled her with apprehension as she sat on her bed and directed me to lay on her bed with my head pressed to the pillow on her laps.

  Because the back of my head was facing her, I stared at the small reading table right opposite where she was seated. It was littered with piles of books and textbooks, which showed how much time she spent studying when she was in her bedroom.

  Other than her textbook, there were a few plants lining the wall of her window. For real plants that seemed to be grown indoor, they were incredibly healthy with lush green leaves. I had tried planting indoors in an entire balcony and even with all the knowledge in the world, they hadn’t been able to stay alive for long, not just because I was possibly a plant killer but also because indirect sunlight was just not equivalent to direct sunlight.

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  As I tried to assess whether my plants had all lost their lives pretty quickly due to my plant killer attributes or because they were bad seeds, I slowly descended into a drowsy sleep.

  I wanted to shake myself awake, but I seemed to have lost control over my body and could only close my eyes, falling into a drowsy, dreamless sleep.

  When I woke up again, I was lying on Clare’s bed but at some point, I’d turned from facing her reading table and window to facing her where she was lying on her side beside me. She slept with her hands placed together to pillow her head while the rest of her body was folded into a tiny space, leaving a large expanse of space. Other than slightly furrowed brows, her face looked pretty peaceful in her sleep.

  It was the first time I was seeing her like this and my greedy eyes couldn’t move away from her for a single second. For several minutes, I traced her face with my gaze, trying to build a mental picture of every contour and angle of her face in my mind.

  I’d spent so much time with her and I knew without a doubt that she was my true mate and thus, the second half of me created by the Moon Goddess to complete me.

  However, after observing her and dropping tiny hints over and over into our conversations, I knew she had no idea about the supernatural connection we shared. I didn’t know why, because every research I’d done showed that true mate werewolves recognized each other at first sight.

  I didn’t know how to tell her about it, either. I loved the way we interacted already, but I could sense that Clare didn’t think that we were long term. I didn’t like that feeling and I was tempted several times to just confess that we were made for each other, but I was afraid because I didn’t know how she would react to it. So I kept silent about the whole thing, hoping to convince her that we were long term without bringing up our supernatural connection.

  Because my mind was faraway thinking about her while staring dazedly at her, I didn’t notice when Clare woke up until she opened her eyes and locked gazes with me.

  Whatever she saw in my gaze made her entire face flush to a lovely pink peach color as she sat up and put several inches of space between us non-subtly.

  “How are you feeling now?” she asked. “Does your head hurt in any way? I hunted down each of those bugs and crushed them all…spiritually, that is.”

  I smiled and sat up, yawning as I stretched. “It feels great, actually.”

  I gave her a grateful smile. “I’m really grateful for your help. You’re my darling angel, sent down to me by the Moon goddess.”

  Her peachy face flushed harder as she shook her head. “I’m just glad I could help.”

  We were both quiet for a few seconds before she started speaking. “We should probably leave the room before Josie comes back or she’ll get the wrong impression.”

  I smiled, secretly enjoying her awkward, flustered look. “Sure. Do you want me to tutor you on your Physics before I leave?”

  “Yes, please!” She said with a grin as her awkwardness easily gave away to a wide happy smile as she rushed to her reading table to take the necessary study materials.