You never should have Claimed me if you meant to do this to me.” Tears threatened and she hated that weakness but damn it, she didn’t want things to be this way. Still, she had no other choice. If she didn’t stand tall now, she’d be she hated and eventually, she’d resent him.

“My mother won’t understand! My friends won’t understand. You can meet them in a few months when it would make sense for me to be serious about someone. Those people today aren’t my friends. They’re Cynthia’s crowd, young, shallow and stupid. I just wanted them to go away. It was about them, not you. None of this changes who we are to each other. And am I supposed to not like f**king you? I don’t hear any complaints when you come four times.”

“Your mother won’t understand? She’s mated to a werewolf. How can she not understand? It’s not like werewolves are a secret. How can you not just tell your friends I’m your mate? My whole family knows about you. You haven’t told anyone about me.”

“My friends won’t understand. My mother, well it’s complicated. Come on, Megan, cut me a break. I’m a doctor living in the suburbs, not a…”

“Not a wolf?” She wrestled with her outrage, her hurt and humiliation and her need to make things work with him. She sighed, her heart breaking. “I’ve waited my whole life to find my mate. When we met, I accepted it. I accepted what you were to me and since you Claimed me, I thought you did the same. I know this won’t be easy. I know you have issues with being a werewolf, but the bond is in place. You were there when it happened if you recall. But you…I don’t know, you’re acting like we’re going steady or. Things have changed. Forever.”

“I don’t know what to say to make you happy. I want you to be happy.”

He did, she felt that. That was the thing that made this all so hard. He looked so forlorn she reached out to touch his face, warm and already familiar to her.

“Yes you do.” She breathed him in, her system totally attuned to him. Leaving would be terribly difficult. Still, it had to be done unless he was willing to talk. To work it out with her. “Are you ever going to move to Seattle? Are you ever even going to think about it?

Will you do the joining ceremony with my Pack, with our Pack and run with me? You

know it can’t work if you stay here and I stay there.”

He grabbed her hand, holding it to his cheek. “Then move here. There are werewolves on the police force if you want to work. But you don’t have to. Have a life of leisure if you want it. Be here with me. Let me take care of you. Why do you expect me to give up my whole life for you? That’s not fair.”

She sighed. “It might not be fair. Certainly not from a human perspective. I’m sure you make more money than I do. This house is much bigger than mine. This life—” she indicated the room with a sweep of her hand, “—is much more glamorous than mine. I mow my own lawn, I weed my own garden, there’s food in my fridge and I let myself get furry and run free and wild as often as I can. But from a wolf’s perspective, it’s more than fair. Because you don’t live as a wolf and I do. I can’t, no I won’t give up what I am, not even for you, Shane. I can’t live a lie. I don’t want to be a human. I need to be touched by other wolves. We thrive with that. I wish you’d give it a chance! But you see it as wrong.

You see what I am as wrong and I can’t live a life where I embrace that. I am not wrong.

I am not a monster. I was born the way I was supposed to be and so were you. Your mother is wrong to have done this to you and your father lives a shadow of a life and has let you do the same and for what? Do I’d ever allow my children to be ashamed of who they are?”

Sadly, she pulled her hand free and stepped away from him. She grabbed her suitcase and moved to the door but he stepped in the way. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You have no right to judge her.”

“This is about your mother? At this time you’re going to… Fine, let’s go there then. I have every right. You gave me that right when you f**ked me and Claimed me without intending to live up to your end of the bargain. I’m going home because I’d rather live half a life with a mate who refuses to love me being who I am than half a life here, pretending to be what I’m not to claim your crumbs of love.”

A horn honked out front.

“My cab is here. You know my number.” Kissing him on the cheek she held her tears back only just barely. “I love you. I know you don’t love me and I accept that. But I can only be who I am.”

He stood there, his back to her, as she walked away. His sadness flowed. His anger and frustration too. But her own welled up and swallowed her as she got into that cab and drove away.

She dialed a number.

“I need you. Can you…I need a plane. I need to come home.”

Lex simply made it happen and told her he’d see her in a few hours.

Chapter Seven

Lex paced back and forth, Megan knew, annoyed that Nina had agreed with her and had made him stay at home instead of picking her up from the airport. She watched him through the glass briefly before she headed inside.

She’d needed the time to compose herself after she’d pretty much cried and cried the whole flight back.

He met her at the top of the stairs, simply putting his arms around her tight and kissing the top of her head. All her composure fell away and the tears came back.