Poison

Chapter Thirteen

"Is that bad?"

"Not bad exactly. She's gonna chew me out for disappearing and not calling or anything. And she'll probably insist that I stop living on my own. And I'll have to explain why I've been avoiding the pack for this long."

"Why have you been avoiding them?" Melanie asked. She hadn't noticed it before, but once he brought it up, she realized he hadn't spent any time with his pack since they'd been living together.

"Uh, just because," Talon mumbled, trying to think of an answer. "They'd get all weird about us living here and stuff."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, they'd insist I move and live with the pack. And they'd find out about you."

"You don't want them to know about me?"

"You make it sound so terrible."

"Are you embarrassed by me?"

"Of course not! It's just… I worry that you'll leave me. And I don't want to go through that whole thing where everyone just feels sorry for you because your mate rejected you. And I also figured that you wouldn't want to go and meet a bunch of werewolves. At least at first. I don't know if you'd be ready for that now though. But I'd rather they not scare you off."

"You think I'd leave you?"

"I…" Talon didn't want to admit that he had his doubts, but he wasn't going to lie to her. "Yeah. Maybe I'm just being stupid. Of course I am. It's just that when I was growing up, I always heard that finding your mate is the most wonderful thing in the world and you know it's forever. And I don't really feel that way. Like I said, I'm just being stupid."

Melanie put her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. He put his arms around her and held her, and for several moments, they just stood like that. "I suppose I should be honest with you too," she mumbled eventually.

"I think I'd rather not know," Talon grumbled, releasing her from his arms. She did the same, but remained close to him.

"Talon, I really like you. I don't know. Maybe… I even love you. But I still get a little freaked out over the whole wolf thing. Not you. You I trust. But I just don't know any others. And I don't know if I can ever be part of a pack. Maybe… maybe we'd be better off, or you'd be happier, if you were with your pack again. I don't want to get between you."

"Melanie," he said softly, pulling her into his arms again. "I'd rather be with you than anyone. Because I love you more than anything else in this world. My pack isn't nearly as important. Hell, we could go be our own pack. Just the two of us."

"If we're going to do that," Melanie said, squirming out of his arms, "then we should probably talk about something that's been on my mind."

"Is it something good?"

"Yeah. I think so anyway. Maybe you won't like this."

"Well, might as well get it over with."

"I want to get a job and help out."

"You don't need to do that," Talon said immediately, then quickly started to worry that he wasn't doing a good job providing for his mate. "I'm sorry I'm not making a lot of money. I can see if I can get more hours, maybe take more jobs…"

"It's not about money," Melanie interrupted. "Really. It's not. You're amazing and you've given me everything I could want."

"No I haven't," Talon grumbled, easily thinking of tons of things he would love to get for her but simply couldn't.

"I just feel like I should contribute something," Melanie continued, ignoring Talon. "You're doing all the work, and I just sit around here all day, and then even when you come home, you won't even let me do anything for you."