As she spoke, she moved forward a little at a time until she stood directly in front of him. She was tall, even for a Female Werewolf, but Devin stood much, much taller. Lena had to strain her neck to look up at him. In his arms, she’d feel tiny. It would be nice, for a change.
“Twenty-two, huh? You’re barely out of diapers.”
She grabbed his chin and pulled his head down so she could kiss him. His beard scratched her face, and she pretended she didn’t notice. His mouth pressed surprisingly soft even as it was firm against hers. For a second, he resisted the kiss. But just for a second. Then he took over.
Lena lost herself in the essence that was Devin Owen. He’d left a string of heartbreaks behind him when he’d left, the girls, who had been so much older than she at the time, had called him a force of nature. She could see why he warranted that description. If she didn’t take care, she’d be swept away in the torrent that was Devin. His kiss consumed her, taking over her senses. Nothing existed but Devin.
She’d saved herself for him, knowing she belonged to him. Suddenly, all she wanted to do was to lose her virginity. Yes, that was a great idea. They’d make love and then he’d never be able to doubt who she was to him.
Devin broke their embrace. He pushed her off him before storming to the other side of the room.
“Don’t do that again.” He shook his head, his brown eyes haunted. “Whatever you’re thinking, I’m not good for you.”
“But of course you are.” Lena didn’t have much to feel optimistic about in life, but this man—this mate of hers—she’d held onto the thought of him for so long there was no way she was going to let it go without a fight. He just had to realize what they were to each other.
“You don’t know anything about me. I can’t imagine I’m even attractive right now. Go find a boy your own age to play with. I’m bad company.”
“You’re my mate, Devin. I’ve known it since the first time I was in your company when I was seven years old.”
Devin gripped the side of the table he stood next to like she’d struck him. “No.”
“No?” She hadn’t expected the pain of his rejection. She’d known he might not believe her at first. Tears she refused to shed clogged her throat. “It’s not ‘no.’ I’m your mate, such that I am.”
Lena knew she wasn’t an ideal Female specimen. Her skin frequently broke out in horrible bouts of acne, although she looked pretty clear at the moment, her chin jutted out too far, her hands were not dainty, and when she shifted, her Wolf form frequently had trouble coming to a stop at high speeds. More than once she’d collided into trees, bushes, and other Wolves.
But she knew she was a nice person. She could work hard, and she never asked anyone for anything but common decency. She’d be a good mate to him, and he shouldn’t be rejecting her outright.
Unless he found her absolutely repulsive to look at….
“You’ve made a mistake. Whatever you thought you smelled when you were a child was the wild fantasy of a young girl. You should be over it by now.”
She sighed. “Devin, I can still smell it. I promise when you get to know me, you’ll find out I’m not wildly fanciful. I live in the real world.”
“I can’t smell it on you. Not at all. I’m sorry, Lena. You seem like a nice kid, but if you can really smell mating from me, then it’s one of those rare occasions where one Wolf feels something the other doesn’t.”
Lena had heard about those situations. It was every young Wolf’s deepest fear. Something went askew with the chemistry. One Wolf felt mated and the other one didn’t. They could even mate with someone else.
“I think you should go home and work on getting over whatever this is because, at least for my part, it is not a mating.”
Lena’s heart might explode from her chest. She turned on her heel. What else was there to say, really? He’d said no. He didn’t feel it. She’d waited fifteen years for him to come home, and it had been for nothing.
She kept her head upright until she reached her bedroom. Even in her own house, she couldn’t cry. It would upset her parents, and Mom had enough of a burden with Dad’s Decline. There was no money. There never would be again. She couldn’t finish school. Her sisters had all gone off to live their lives. There would be no mating to look forward to.
Lena would be alone for the rest of her life, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
She closed the door and sank to the floor. Her sobs were silent. If her parents could smell her agony, they left her alone.