he Alpha Men's Secret Club 2(4)
Carlo studied her. “He’s not a keeper, you know.”
It was amazing, but she felt really comfortable talking to Carlo. He was probably the only person on campus she could actually talk to about this. And it saddened her that she couldn’t talk to Michaela, the very person she should be talking to.
“I know.”
“So why are you mooning over him? You’re not supposed to take these kinds of things seriously.”
“I know.” She sighed. “But I can’t help it.”
He nodded. “You’ll only get hurt.”
“But isn’t that the same with anyone else?” she challenged. “You can get hurt any which way. The only thing you can do if you don’t want to get hurt is to play it safe. Never give your heart. Only your body.”
Isn’t that what you do? came the unspoken rebuke.
“There’s a balance in what you can give,” Carlo replied. “Sometimes, the two lines blur, and you can’t tell what you’re giving anymore or what you’re taking.”
She wondered if only psychology students talked like this or if Carlo was practicing to be on the chair at the side of the couch.
“So tell me about yourself,” she said. “About who you are. How you came to be.”
He grinned. “He didn’t tell you?”
I didn’t ask him, she thought. Rust wasn’t exactly the easiest person in the world to talk to. Mostly, it was just intensely physical between them.
Carlo said, “We don’t choose to be who we are. We just are. We are born this way, just as you were born the way you were.”
“So your parents were wolves as well?”
“Shifters. We are shifters, not wolves. We are both human and wolf.”
“Are there many of you?”
“Not many of us are left. We are a dying breed.” He grimaced.
She hesitated, and then plowed on. “If a shifter were to breed with a pure human, what sort of baby would the human produce?”
His eyes narrowed. “You’re not thinking of trapping him, are you? Because that’s a bad idea. Bad for everyone concerned.”
“I’m not thinking of trapping anyone,” she retorted. “It’s a factoid I just want to know.”
“A factoid.” He mulled over this, and then laughed. “OK. I like that word. ‘Factoid’. Seriously? There haven’t been many inter-species matings, but you stand a fifty-fifty chance of producing either one or the other.”
She filed this into her memory stash. “So what do you guys do for a living? You integrate normally with the rest of the world?”
“Of course. We don’t live in secret enclaves and run around naked in caves all day.” His expression suggested he would like to do just that. “My folks run a burger joint back home. Mom and Pop outfit.”
“They’re putting you through college.”
“I’m putting myself through college. They have three other kids to take care of.”
“Oh? How?”
“I moonlight as a waiter in an up-market joint.”
“It pays well?”
“That one does. Let’s just say it’s an unusual kind of joint.” His eyes twinkle. “I’d love to take you there one day.”
Her cell phone in her purse went ‘ping’. A text message had arrived.
Carlo leaned forward. Her hand was at her coffee cup, and his fingers brushed against hers.
“You know,” he murmured, “I was thinking maybe if sometime you and I can – ”
She curled back her fingers and moved her hand away. “Excuse me, I have to get this.”
He watched her, eyes glittering, as she retrieved her phone. She glanced at the display and her heart leaped.
It was Rust!
The message said:
‘WAIT FOR A PICK UP AT THE CORNER OF GRANT AND FARLOW AT 6 PM TODAY.’
A pick-up? What did that mean? He was going to pick her up? Her blood churned. So he hadn’t forgotten her after all. He hadn’t forgotten their ‘exclusivity’. He was going to celebrate with her!
Right?
Her jubilance must have shown, because Carlo said bitterly, “It’s him, isn’t it?”
She saw no reason to lie. “Yes.”
“He texts you, and you jump over the moon?”
“He’s just texting me to make a date.” Defensiveness rose in her voice.
Carlo leaned back. The disappointment was clear on his face. “So you are going.”
“Of course.”
“I was going to ask you out on a date. It would be a proper date too.”
She was perplexed. “Why, Carlo?”
“What do you mean why?”
“Why do you want to date me? Because he’s dating me?”