She sat up, looking alarmed. “Fully mated? Does that mean you’re going to turn me into a werewolf?”
I shook my head. “No. There are ways to turn a human into one of us, of course, but it’s not necessary for us to be mated to one another. The mating creates a bond between you and me that will protect you from most human ailments.” I paused and looked her in the eyes. “And it’s the only way for a human and a shifter to have children.”
A zing of electricity pulsed through my body at the thought of Reese carrying my pup. It was an inevitability as far as I was concerned.
Her eyes widened, but she quickly shook her head and then clutched the side of her neck. “Will you have to bite my neck and suck my blood?”
“What?” My head fell against the wall as I laughed. “No. Those are vampires, babe.”
“Oh, right.” She laughed too.
“We’re more civil than vampires.”
Her eyes grew to the size of golf balls as she pulled back. “Wait, you’re telling me vampires do exist?”
I grunted. “I try not to think about it, but yeah. They’re real.”
“Are they a part of the Alliance you told me about?”
“Unfortunately so.”
“But, I thought werewolves and vampires didn’t get along,” she inquired.
“Rarely,” I explained. “Our bond is a contentious one. I don’t trust them.” I had a suspicion that it was possibly the vampires behind all of the problems with my pack’s sites. But, I hadn’t scented a vampire in the vicinity of Pines’s home. And I had more than enough reason to believe the two issues were related.
“Then why are they a part of the Alliance?”
I pulled her against my chest and kissed the top of her head. When she settled against me comfortably, I started talking. “It’s nature. Just like most humans hate insects, without them, your population wouldn’t survive. Nor would ours. It’s the same with shifters. We all need the other’s populations to thrive to ensure our existence. There has to be a balance. Vampires are a part of that natural balance. They go extinct, and we’re next.”
“Hm.” She didn’t say anything for a long time. Instead, she played with my hands, running the tip of her finger along the lines of my hands. But I could feel her mind wondering.
“So, your Mother Moon decides everything, including who you mate with?” she asked. “You don’t get to choose.” Her eyes lowered.
I tipped her chin. “There is always a choice,” I answered, lifting her chin so that her eyes met mine. “Is that what you believe? That Mother Moon somehow forced me to mate you? That you weren’t my choice?”
She nodded.
I honestly had fucked this entire thing up. That night on the back porch, I overheard her talking to Henry. I should’ve known from that moment that she would’ve doubted us. Not us, me. She would’ve doubted me.
I cupped her face and brought our foreheads to touch. “Do you know the moment I knew you belonged to me?”
She rolled her eyes. “You told me. You scented me on the sunflowers I took to Savannah.” Her lips pursed. “I still don’t think I smelled that bad.”
I chuckled but shook my head. “That’s a partial truth,” I confessed. “I followed you out to the parking lot. There was a moment when you stopped and took the hand of an elderly woman in a wheelchair. You smiled at her. And your smile lit up a darkness that I didn’t know I’d been carrying around with me for all of these decades.”
Reese pulled back and stared, her mouth agape.
“You humans say a picture is worth a thousand words, but your smile is worth millions. Its tenderness speaks to how insanely big your heart is. At the same time, the sharpness in your eyes when you smile tells of your strength and endurance. You captivated me with your smile. It was you who never gave me a choice to even think of anyone else since the moment I laid eyes on your smile.”
Her eyes watered as she blinked. She didn’t say a word, seemingly in a trance. After a minute of total silence, she let out a shaky breath. “Oh.”
She laid her head back against my shoulder.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” I said.
“I, um, what happened to your parents?” She leaned sideways to peer up at me.
It was a question I had expected for some time, but I rarely spoke about my parents to anyone. To say my feelings around them were mixed would be understated.
