Page 94 of The Cowboy and the Stray

Tess gave the food a once-over, then looked at me. “So, what’s the special occasion?”

I tried to swallow, but my throat was a mess. “I wanted to talk. Just us.”

She didn’t move. “Is this about yesterday? Because, for the record, I’m not mad you saved me from the pig.”

“It’s not about the pig.” I picked at my sandwich. “It’s about, well, all of it.”

She raised her eyebrows. “All of it?”

I stared out over the pastures. In the falling light, the land was gold, striped with shadow. The water tank glinted in the distance, and the windmills spun lazily as if they had forever. I used to look at this and see a prison. Now it looked like something worth holding onto.

“I never thought I’d get here,” I said. “Not just with you, but with life. I always thought I’d end up alone, digging post holes until the place rotted out from under me.”

She snorted. “You’re not that tragic.”

I tried to smile, but it hurt. “This house, it used to feel like a tomb. Now it feels full. I don’t know what to do with that.”

She went quiet. The only sound was the ice cubes clinking in the lemonade and the hum of the cicadas below. It took me a minute to work up the next bit.

“With wolves, there’s this thing. Kind of like a tradition. When you find the person you want, someone you’d want to marry, you mate for life.” I watched her eyes, trying to see if she’d flinch. She didn’t.

She said, “That’s not unique to wolves, you know.”

I grunted. “Yeah, well, the difference is, for us, it’s actually literal.”

She blinked. “Literal how?”

I tried to explain. “If I choose you, it’s not just romance. It’s a bond. Not like the movies, but real. Sometimes you can sense the other person or know what they’re feeling. If one dies, the other goes with them, sooner than later.” I shrugged. “Usually. It's been known not to happen but it’s rare that one mate survives the death of another.”

She laughed nervously. “That’s awful.”

“It’s not supposed to be. It’s just how we work. Most mates don’t want to live without their other half.”

She sat back, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “What if the person doesn’t want it?”

“Then it doesn’t happen.” I shrugged. “It’s not magic. You have to want it. Both people.”

She looked at the sandwich, then at me. “And you want this?”

My hands wouldn’t stop shaking, so I put them under the table. “Yes. I want you.”

She closed her eyes, just for a second. When she opened them, they were a little shiny. “You’re supposed to wait until at least the second date for those kinds of confessions.”

The wind came up again, tried to take the blanket, but Tess caught it and smoothed it down.

“What’s the catch?” she said.

“There’s a catch?”

“There’s always a catch,” she said.

I thought about it. “You’ll become a wolf. Very soon after our mating, you’ll have your first shift. Then you’ll be able to shift anytime you want, like us.”

She stared at me in shock.

“You’d be surprised,” I said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

We sat quietly for a minute. She needed a minute to process the fact that she’d turn into a wolf if she mated me.