Free Trial by Heart (Trial Series Book 4) by Lizzy Ford Page A

meetings, and solve problems. There’s not much room, or time, for purely social discussions.”
    “But you have siblings and I’m sure, friends,” I point out. “Don’t you talk to them?”
    “I generally listen. I’m not much of a talker.”
    “I see that.” I roll my eyes. “You texted me a lot that one night.”
    “You’re fun.”
    My brows furrow. I don’t know how to take this comment. I don’t think he means it in a derisive way, but it doesn’t seem like someone as smart as he must be in order to create a plan to outsmart a two thousand year old curse would find me fun. In fact, I don’t see him having fun at all. Ever. With anyone. He’s cautious and serious in everything he does. I don’t see him running away with me like Tristan would or drinking beer all night at a bar with Myca. I’ve always been reckless and wild, but he’s …
    “We’re kind of the opposite, aren’t we?” I voice aloud.
    “ Completely the opposite.”
    I start to smile again. “That can be good. I can make you laugh and drag you out of boring meetings to go skydiving, and you …” Wrong. Again. Pretending there’s a life, or world, without the curse is foolish.
    “… bring you shoes when you wander into the forest without them?” he finishes.
    “Something like that.” I shouldn’t, but I like this line of discussion and imagining what it would be like to draw someone as reserved as he is out of his shell. “Though if you’re willing to risk everything to break the curse, you’ve got bigger balls than me.” Fuck. Sometimes I seriously need a filter. “I’m not commenting on your balls. I just mean your risk tolerance is …” I sigh. “I’ll be dead in four days, so you won’t have to worry about trying to talk to me anyway.”
    He says nothing.
    I’m suddenly angry again, this time at myself. Feeling a little reckless, a whole lot raw, I decide to complete the impression he must have by now that I’m a babbling idiot and leave him no doubt as to why I shouldn’t be trusted with something as important as the fate of the Community. “So I read through a lot of your texts because I’m a complete bitch,” I start. “I noticed that everyone in the entire Community seems to come to you for stuff. Who do you go to?”
    “For what?”
    “If you have a problem or need to talk, who do you turn to?”
    “I don’t.”
    I twist to see him over my shoulder, disturbed by his answer and the fact I can’t see his face to gauge if he’s joking or not. “You never need help with anything?”
    “Not really.”
    “Is this some sort of werewolf male ego thing?”
    “Not to my knowledge.” I hear the smile in his voice.
    “That’s really … sad, Ben,” I say, unexpectedly touched by the admittance. “You’re all alone.”
    “I’m the alpha. If I can’t handle it, who can?”
    Clearly no one. I’m not sure if I should be impressed or concerned for him.
    But I also believe him capable of handling anything and everything.
    “I’ll help you,” I volunteer. Something about Ben makes me say the stupidest shit. “I’m currently the biggest charity case on the planet, but if there’s somehow anything I can do … I have no idea what that’d be. Maybe help you lift your couch if you move in the next few days. Whatever. I’ll help you.”
    “It’s sweet of you to offer.”
    I don’t know how to take that. He’s pretty candid, so why am I trying to read into his responses and get him to open up? Is it because of the mate-thing? Because I’m curious about the man who might’ve been destined to marry me, if I weren’t supposed to either kill him or die in the process?
    Tired of sounding like the fool I am, I shut up the rest of the walk back to his home. The smell of meat on a bar-b-cue reaches me before I spot the light of a bonfire on the back porch, and the two familiar forms standing near it. Ben’s dogs are lying nearby, too, and a table with food sits a safe distance from the