Chapter 26

Anastasia pursed her lips as she thought, a curious expression taking over her face. Similar to her, it appeared that Harvey was wary of opening up to her, especially since they didn’t know each other all that well yet. Either way, she had the chance of asking a few questions before he clammed up and attempted to change the topic, so she had every intention of asking the right questions to extract as much information from him as possible.

Seeing as he knew quite a bit about her already, it only seemed fair for him to return the favour.

“I know that you moved onto neutral territory a few weeks ago, but I don’t know why.”

Harvey chuckled as he dipped his head low to take a leisurely sip from his coffee. When he grimaced slightly, she knew that the beverage was still too hot, and she frowned slightly as he proceeded to take another sip, no doubt scalding his tongue for the second time.

“I see you’ve chosen to ask the tough question straight away.” He chuckled lowly and took another sip, almost as if he needed it to be able to answer her question.

For a moment, Anastasia felt bad for impinging on his privacy, especially when he seemed uncomfortable with it however, before she could let him off the hook, he began with the short tale.

“I moved here to escape.” He began ominously, his voice quiet as he kept his head bowed, seemingly more interested in the remainder of his coffee than meeting her eyes, almost as if he was either ashamed or afraid or unravelling from under her gaze.

“Escape from what?” Anastasia asked softly, gently encouraging him to continue.

“I was born into a pack up north from here and when I turned eighteen, I found my mate in the pack but since she was a year younger than me, she couldn’t sense out that I was her mate.”

“Did you tell her?”

Harvey nodded but still refused to meet her eyes.

“I told her but she didn’t believe me.” He sighed, the sound strained and tired. “I thought that maybe she’d be able to feel the bond when she turned eighteen on her birthday but I was wrong.”

Anastasia held her breath as she listened attentively to the story, very invested in it already as she patiently waited for him to continue. Since her dad was half-wolf, she had grown up learning about wolves as both her parents – even though her mum was human – believed it was important that she embrace all parts of her, even the quarter-wolf part that had been seemingly recessive and pretty much non-existent her whole life.

That included learning about mates so Anastasia knew just how important mates were too each other, each and every pairing specifically picked out and selected by the Moon Goddess. While she made no mistakes, mates couldn’t rely solely on the bond to keep them together but rather, just like a human couple would do, they would need to work to make their relationship thrive.

Regardless of all of that, there was nothing more important to a werewolf than their mate and sometimes, just sometimes, Anastasia scarcely allowed herself to wonder what it would be like to have a mate of her own however, she wasn’t able to dwell on such thoughts for long as Harvey had begun with his story.

“I thought that maybe she needed some time and space since we were still young but, on her birthday, she told me she wanted to go off to college before she settled down with me and like the idiot that I am, I agreed and promised that I would be waiting for her to return.”

“She never retuned?” Anastasia gasped; her decaf coffee long forgotten as she stared at him with wide eyes.

“Oh, she returned.” Harvey chuckled darkly as he shook his head and raised the mug to his lips to take another sip, almost as if trying to use the coffee to wash away the bitter taste the story left in his mouth. “She returned to the pack after four years. Four whole years of not seeing her, with just the occasional text back even though I would text her nearly every day. Regardless of that, not once did she suggest that anything was out of the ordinary or even wrong for that matter so it’s safe to say that when she returned with her fiancé and her stomach swollen with his pup, I was shocked.”

“No!” Anastasia gasped as she held a hand over her heart, beating wildly under her touch as she listened intently.

“Unfortunately, yes.” He sighed, a dark cloud hanging over his head. “I couldn’t stick around and watch them live a happy life together knowing that I was the one that she was destined to end up with, so I packed up my stuff and left. That was a few months ago and now, here I am.”

“I’m so sorry.” She murmured quietly, an apologetic look on her face, her heart hurting for him. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

“No, it’s okay. You didn’t know and I could have chosen not to answer if I didn’t want to.” He shook his head, attempting to smile for her sake, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “After everything that I’ve been through, I just needed to get away from the whole pack dynamic. After transferring to the Silver Claw pack, the Alpha has granted me to live on neutral territory as long as I don’t cause any trouble.”

Anastasia offered him a gentle smile but going forward, she didn’t know what to say next. Before she could wrack her brain for what to say next, Byron beat her to it.

“What about you?” He countered, quirking an eyebrow in her direction.

“What about me?”

“I just told you about the train wreck that’s my life. I think it’s only fair that you return the favour by indulging me.”

Anastasia quirked a questioning brow, a small smile playing on her lips.

“As if I haven’t told you enough already?”

“Humour me.” Harvey insisted, a small smile on his face.

“I’m not completely human.” She chuckled as she said, watching his reaction closely. Just like the few other people that she had told, both shock and surprise were evident on his face.

“You smell human.”

“I’m not sure if I should be offended or not, but everyone says that to me.” Anastasia paused to laugh softly, pushing her coffee away as it had turned cold now so she was no longer interested in it.

Harvey frowned as he watched her intently, even going as far as to squint his eyes, his eyes travelling over her face, almost as if looking for the part of her that wasn’t human. When he was able to spot nothing out of the ordinary, he wondered if she was only pulling his leg but with the serious look on his face, he knew the answer was no.

“How is that possible?”

“My dad is half-werewolf, from his father’s side.” She grinned widely as understanding dawned on him as it did on everyone else whenever she told them.

“That makes you quarter werewolf. No wonder I couldn’t smell it on you.” He exclaimed in awe. “Wait. What about your mum?”

“She’s completely human.”

“She’s your dad’s mate?”

“He’s never met his mate.” Anastasia shook her head. “My dad’s convinced that he doesn’t have a mate since he’s half-human so I guess that makes things easier for them. I would hate to see my dad have to choose between my mother and his mate. They’ve been together for nearly thirty years now.”

“Well, I never saw that coming.” Harvey chuckled as he raised his mug and knocked back a large cup of coffee. “I guess looks can be deceiving.”