Mated

Eleven

Mid sigh, the door pushed open and closed again. James stood in my room, leaning against the door with a hand tucked behind his back.

"She did die." He spoke low without looking at me, eyebrows furrowed and face twisted in a sort of scowl at the ground. "Evangeline. She died."

I searched his face for a better sense of his emotions. He walked forward and sat down beside me then scooted backward close to the wall where he laid his head back against it. The action made him seem young and genial–well as genial as James Evers could look.

I didn't move, frozen in place at how at ease he seemed like it wasn't only the second time he'd come into my room and the first time he'd climbed on the bed. I stayed quiet, despite my rapidly growing bowl of questions, and he continued.

"I'd just left my dad and was settling into this area when I met her. She worked at her mother's bakery when we met. I could smell the foul scent of the bond from a mile away but I didn't understand until the moment I saw her through the window.

She was half Jilo, werewolf Hunter. Product of her mother's affair with our sworn enemy. One day Danny, who wasn't a member of the pack yet, tracked me down here. Told me there had been a terrible fire at the bakery. By the time I got there—" he paused to look at me. Though his wolf expertly hid his emotions so that I couldn't sense them, I saw the sadness nestled deep for a split second before it was gone.

"By the time I got there, the bakery and their apartment above it were in flames. It was too much for firefighters to get inside. I snuck in to retrieve the bodies. Her mother, siblings..." He pinched the bridge of his nose and breathed deeply.

"I'm sorry," Instinctively, I placed a comforting hand over his. He looked down at it and I pulled it back, thinking it inappropriate. Thinking I'd made him realize that he wasn't being his cold self for just this moment, for long enough to tell me the story of how he was once mated. My wolf stirred inside me, wanting to feel his skin again.

"She'd been burned so badly and inhaled too much of the smoke, she was dying. Her mother's sister was a healer. Eva's wounds were too great, in order to save her, her aunt used all of her power."

Eva had been two-thirds human.

"If a healer dies saving a human's life, it kills the healed victim and the magic brings them back as the new healer." I said recalling the tale of the Great Guinevere, a tale my Grandmother would read when I was little.

"I thought it was a myth."

"It is very rare," James said. "It requires everything from a healer. Eva died. The mating bond was broken."

I had to ask. "Are you still in love?" He rolled his head side to side against the wall, thinking.

"Our romance was lost when that bond was broken. Evangeline is our healer and my trusted advisor." He looked at me and raised a brow over narrowed eyes. "She made me realize my temper with you. Leading to my failed attempts at apologies."

I was to go to lunch with James the very next day. Colby told me so the next morning when he heard me awake. I found a pair of fitted slacks, a warm sweater and tall boots that stopped mid-calf.

Would he be the same James from last night or the arrogant Alpha I've come to know as my mate?

I walked over to my vanity near the windows overlooking the large property and sat brushing my thick hair which was still wet from my shower. My mane of flowing blonde and gold streaks reached past my face. I decided to put it in a simple braid. Mascara darkened my lashes and made the bluish-gray of my eyes conspicuous.

"He can push all he wants, but I will make it hard for him," said to my reflection. He was my Alpha, my temperate mate, and I wasn't going anywhere. My plan was to do everything in my power to make ignoring the bond harder for him to do. I felt my wolf nod in approval.