food. Silas was only doing that to be an asshole and make a point to Henry, but it escalated too quickly for it to just be chest-bumping and posturing. Henry circles back to check on you, even if you don’t know it.”
I shook my head more. “That’s all for show. It can’t be real. Otherwise why did he... why would he agree to go back to his old pack? If he thought there was something between us, why run away?”
Deirdre gnawed on her lip as she watched me, a debate clearly raging in her head. After a very long time, she took a deep breath and said, “What if he thought you would go with him?”
I blinked. “But—”
“I know.” She held up her hand to cut me off. “It’s insane, right? You’ve known each other what, two weeks? It would be ridiculous for the thought to even cross his mind that you would want to go traipsing off to Montana to stay with his old pack for three months.”
I nodded vigorously, launching to my feet to pace. “I know! It’s crazy. It’s completely off-the-wall. No sane person would...”
“They’re not sane,” she said, a quiet smile softening her expression. I knew she thought about Miles as she went on, because her eyes drifted far away and took on a dreamy quality that only meant love. “Not when it comes to a mate. Miles would absolutely have expected me to move with him, if it came up, and it wouldn’t have crossed his mind to ask. In their world, of course I would go with him. Just like he would of course go with me if I got called somewhere. With mates, they expect... It’s difficult to explain. It’s not that you stop being an individual and become a pair, it’s that... You’re more than the sum of your parts when you’re together. You’re a team.”
“You sure argue a lot for a team,” I said under my breath, and she laughed.
Deirdre leaned back in her chair, still huffing with amusement. “Well, Miles is an asshole and thinks he knows everything, and he’s an alpha as well, which makes it worse. It’s important to put them in their place every now and then. It’s easier because we’re witches, not wolves, and they don’t know what to do with that.”
I put my head in my hands. “But do I have to... I mean, I might be his mate but I don’t know if I’m... if I can...”
“Again, this is something you should talk with Henry about,” she said. “But my advice would be to relax about it. He’s not going to push you into anything you don’t want. He’s not like that. Henry isn’t the overbearing dick that Miles is, and even then... when I needed Miles to back off, he sensed it. They know, Ophelia. I don’t know how, but they can sense when it’s too much and you need space. And sometimes—God, don’t ever tell Miles this—sometimes they know a little better what you need than you do.”
I could tell from the twist of her mouth that she hated admitting it, and it was enough to make me laugh, too. “If you ever piss me off, I’m holding that in my back pocket to tell your mate. Just in case.”
“I know how to hide bodies,” she said, and even though she was smiling, I figured the glint in her eyes revealed the truth.
I leaned my head against the back of the chair and stared up at the ceiling. “This is very strange. I never thought that I would... You know, I just meant to stay here a few weeks, work on a better disguise, and figure out where I’d hide next. It was just a stopping point so I could throw Rocko off my scent, then move on to somewhere else. I never thought I might actually stay here.”
She made a thoughtful noise, then got up to retrieve a book from one of the many shelves. “Then we ought to work some more on your magic. I had some thoughts about what might help you after you lost control this afternoon. Obviously emotions play a part, but I think the biggest factor is you being afraid of your magic.”
The conversational whiplash left me reeling. “What’s that?”
“You’re afraid of your power and what you might inadvertently do,” she said. Deirdre handed me the slim volume, some kind of memoir or diary. “I’m guessing when you were very young, something bad happened when your