Pressed against Briar’s side, I nuzzled his fur and groomed a section that still had pine needles embedded in it. He purred and turned his head to rub noses with me while Leo moved about with his camera, taking shots from different angles while muttering beneath his breath about the different hues of ice that almost made it look like there were images embedded in them.
He gets as into his work as we do.
Briar’s voice in my head was a mix of awe and admiration.
That’s a good thing, right? That means he won’t get upset with us for working on recipes at three in the morning.
He’ll probably be right there at the kitchen table drawing and taste-testing our efforts to get the recipes right, once we work out our living arrangements, that is.
Do you think he’ll want to live with us? You don’t think he’ll want to do some kind of long-distance thing, do you? I think that would suck. I’m already growing attached to him, and it’sonly been a day. What happens if he decides on long distance and then meets a human that he likes better than us? We’d lose our mate. I don’t want to lose our mate when we’ve only just found him.
Mav, breathe. You’re getting spun out again, and I’m starting to think it’s because your hormones have been going crazy ever since you caught the first whiff of him.
Shit, I’d forgotten that lesson from biology class. Maybe I hadn’t been paying as close attention as Briar thought I had. I recalled it now that his words had a chance to sink in. It was on multiple mates in a household, and the way omegas in a home together tended to sync up their heat cycles, ensuring that batches of younglings born to them would be close in age. Shit. That was a hell of a thing to forget.
I’d gotten so spun out I hadn’t even noticed that he’d finished taking pictures, not until he brushed off a spot on the rock beside ours, sat down, and started studying us.
“It’s weird, but I was just hit with the sudden impression that you guys were worried about something,” he said as he leaned in and rubbed noses with each of us, staring us in the eyes as he did it. “I really think we need to have a conversation when we get back to the cabin to make sure we’re on the same page about this whole mate thing and get a bunch of questions out in the open, ‘cause I’ve got more than a few, and I’m sure you do too. I’ve loved watching you guys romp and enjoy the snow today, but next time we come out exploring, I hope you’ll do it in skin so we can interact more. Please don’t take that wrong; I don’t ever want you guys to feel like you can’t be shifted when we’re together ‘cause I’d be super sad to ever learn that I’d made you feel that way.”
Leaning in, I placed my head on his shoulder, wanting to reassure him that I understood where he was coming from and his need to be able to talk to us the way Briar and I werenaturally able to do with one another when we were in our snow leopard forms. He was right, though. There was a ton of talking that needed to take place and questions we had too.
“Thank you,” he replied, hugging me tight.
Briar got one paw on my shoulder and another on Leo’s, joining in the hug. If another human had happened upon us, they’d have probably mistaken the moment and confused it for an attack, with the way he was teetering, like we were about to topple him over.
Then my stomach growled, and I let out a grumble and a huff as Leo chuckled.
“Guess we’d better get you guys fed, huh?”
I licked his face in response and scooted back on the rock I was sharing with Briar to give Leo room to unpack the picnic he’d tucked in his backpack along with the rest of his things. I really expected him to just unwrap the wax paper Briar had rolled each sandwich in and lay it on the rock in front of us. Instead, he fed us by hand, breaking off bite-sized pieces of our lobster rolls for us in between taking bites of his.
“I can get used to picnics like this,” he remarked. “Usually, I’m off in the woods on my own, since most of my friends don’t really enjoy being outside, unless it’s on a patio or poolside with a drink in their hands.”
He’d never have to worry about that with us; we loved being outdoors, for obvious reasons, though it would be a bit of an adjustment for us, doing it in human form. We’d figure it out though; we’d have to now that we had Leo in our lives, because the last thing either of us wanted to do was lose him.
Chapter 10
Briar
The trouble with necessary conversations was always where to begin. With the three of us freshly showered after our romp in the woods and comfortably lounging in the living room,The Curse of the Black Pearlon low, we were as settled in as we could possibly be.
“So I, umm…” Leo began at the same time as Maverick started asking a question.
“Do you know if anyone….”
They both stopped, pink spreading over the bridge of their noses as they started insisting the other go first. Seemed like it was a good time to step in and settle the debate for them.
“Leo, how about you ask your question, since I think I know what Mav wants to ask.”
“Yeah, um, okay, I just, um, was kind of curious about how much different shifter mates were from human life partners,” Leo said.
Mav perked up, as did I. This was exactly the opening we’d been hoping for and, just like I thought, would get Mav the answer to the question he’d intended to ask too.
“Well, I can’t speak for how all shifter matings work, because different animals have different rules within their society, but like I explained last night, for snow leopards, finding our mate means that’s our forever,” I said. “We don’t do divorces, we don’t have side relationships, so you never have to worry about one of us cheating on you, and we don’t hurt our mates, ever, and I don’t just mean physically. Mates, in our culture, have such a close bond that we can pick up and read each other’s emotions. Couples like our grandparents, who have been together for decades, swear they can feel it when one another gets hurt, even if it’s something minor, like stubbing a toe on a chair leg; they are just that in tune with one another. It’s that level of closeness that makes it so we instinctively consider our mates’ feelings and what their reaction will be before we make choices that will affect us as a family.”
I watched Leo’s expression as I spoke and was glad to see that the seriousness with which I addressed the subject was having a real impact on him. There had been tension in his shoulders and the way he’d been sitting on the couch that had concerned me when we’d first started the movie. Now he started to visibly relax.
“So, it’s normal that when we were in the woods, I started to pick up on things from both of you?”
