Green - a werewolf story

17. Treasure Trove

It turned out she wasn't ready to meet a half-goat at all that day. Perhaps part of it was her wanting to show Maria that she wasn't at her beck and call, but mainly she became caught up with the city.

"I can't believe I've been in the US for a decade and I never went here before," she exclaimed to Green as they took the tram down the hills. "So many years wasted."

"You've only been in the US for ten years?" Green asked, shocked. "Where were you born?"

"It doesn't matter," Vanessa said, furious with herself for letting that information slip. She blamed the city. The bustle of it, the colorfulness, the inclusion of everyone no matter what they looked like was getting to her. She was relaxing her defenses.

"Of course it matters! Wait, are you Canadian?"

Vanessa hesitated. She normally didn't mind lying. People didn't always deserve the truth and she had no problem serving up a scoop of BS when the situation called for it. Now she couldn't determine if the situation called for it. She told herself that she simply didn't want to complicate her situation with a lie. It had nothing to do with the way Green was looking at her as if he could see right through her to whatever she was hiding.

"Let's go," Vanessa said, changing the subject. "We need to visit that shop and I should do some work. I have deadlines coming up and I don't want my clients to worry about my going AWOL."

"Why don't you want to tell me where you're from?" Green asked as he followed her to the tram.

"Because it's none of your business," Vanessa said.

Green glared at her and she could tell he was holding back from giving her his old "I'm your mate I should know everything about you"-spiel, could see that it cost him.

"I don't see why it's such a big deal," he said instead.

"It's not," Vanessa said and told herself that it wasn't a lie.

"Then you might as well tell me."

"No."

"So it is a big deal?" Green said, "Or you would tell me. Interesting."

"Why is it interesting?" Vanessa asked, consulting the maps on her phone to make sure they were heading in the right direction. She still wasn't sure about voluntarily walking into a magic shop where she knew there would be at least one type of creature she hadn't encountered before was a good idea, but it was better than letting Green find out more about her past.

"Because it makes me wonder why you would care to keep your past hidden. Are you embarrassed by it?"

"I think it's time you accept that we have very different outlooks on our relationship. I'm not trying to get to know a mate that I'm going to spend my life with. I'm trying to get along with you for a few months so I can spend the rest of my life without you."

"Ouch," Green said, rubbing his chest. "If I didn't know you were lying and trying to provoke me to distract me from noticing how nervous you get when you think about your past that would have hurt."

"I'm not trying to provoke..."

"But since I know that's what you're doing, I won't take it personally."

"That's completely..."

"The store is right up ahead," he said and moved past her.

"... idiotic... what? How do you know that?"

"I was here a couple of years ago. My sisters like to shop."

"You've been here before?" Vanessa asked, jogging to catch up to him.