They walked side by side. He glanced down, looking at her hand. No one was around. He hadn’t told anyone their secret. Taking hold of her hand, he locked their fingers together.
“Phoenix?”
“Please, let me hold your hand. I’ve accepted that you’ve thwarted my attempts to be alone with you by bringing a whole army into my home. Let me have this.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to prove to you that you’re wrong. This had nothing to do with the way you look.”
“I’m still the same age.”
“You’re twenty-three years old now.”
“The age gap is still the damn same,” she said.
“But you’re older.”
“You do know I was legal back then. As I am legal now. All wolves turn around their eighteenth birthday.” She sighed. “You know what, forget it.”
“I knew you were legal but that didn’t make it comfortable for me.”
“No one gives a shit about the age difference. We have mated couples with five, ten, fifteen, even twenty, some even thirty years age difference. Age is a number, it doesn’t account for feelings. And everyone is legal.”
Phoenix smiled. “And I guess when you grow up in a pack and you witness matings, seeing two people come together, it is only natural to them.”
Ashley stopped. “You didn’t grow up in a pack?”
“No, I didn’t. I was found wandering the streets when I was five years old. Thrown into a foster home, left to the system. There was not a lot of demand for a sulky five-year-old, and then as I got older, a young kid with a temper.”
“I had no idea,” she said.
He shrugged.
“You have no idea who your family is?”
“Oh, I know who my family is. I found them, hunted them down after I turned eighteen and the nice little surprise I got during the first full moon …thatwas an experience.”
He heard her gasp. “Oh, my God.”
“Don’t worry. I didn’t kill anyone and I was strong enough to survive, but after that, I had to get answers. So I did. I fought to earn money, and then I started to track down my family.”
“Was your mother part of a pack?”
He nodded. “She was. It turns out she had an affair. I was the result of that affair. Of course, she was pregnant with me before she met her true mate, so she concocted some kind of plan. She gave birth to me, handed me off to some human parents, and paid them to keep me. When she and her mate fell on hard times and the pack did too, the money stopped, and my ass got thrown onto the streets.”
Phoenix looked at her and saw the horror across her face.
“Don’t feel sadness or pity.”
“But you were a kid.”
“I was a moneymaker to the woman.” He shrugged. “I lost value and she got rid of me.”
“That is just so … awful. Nothing like that would ever happen here. At least, I don’t think it would.”
“No, I don’t think it would either.”
Ashley rushed in front of him holding up her hand. “I don’t want you to think this is anything other than … me offering you comfort.”