This one had very dark hair and copper-skin features, like Chael and Chance. She must’ve been Native as well.
“Being the alpha’s mate?” she asked as if I should’ve known. She took my hand into hers. “You’re alpha queen. That’s such an honor.”
“Please call me Reese.”
The women looked between one another, and most of them shrugged. It was then I noticed she was pregnant.
“I mean, I adore my mate. He’s the best thing to happen to me,” the woman said. “George is so protective and loving, and he’s great with our pups…” She trailed off, and a sly look crossed her face as she glanced over at Ms. Elsie and the other women. “… now and again, I wonder what it would be like to be mated with an alpha.”
A few of the other women giggled, and Ms. Elsie flicked her hands as if shooing her away.
“Alpha Queen, don’t you mind these ladies. They’re standing too close to that silver Sera’s got over there. It’s destroying their brains.” She tossed them an admonishing look, and the women laughed harder.
Ms. Elsie laughed good-naturedly.
Though I did have to push down the bit of jealousy that sprouted in my belly at the idea of these women imagining themselves with my mate—I mean, Chael.
“Alpha Queen, we don’t mean any disrespect,” one of the women stepped forward to say, a concerned expression on her face. “You know that, right? We just like to joke and sometimes take it a little too far. But, we wolves are very loyal to our mates.” She glanced over her shoulder, and the other women nodded in agreement.
I waved a hand, dismissing her concern, and shrugged. “Truthfully, I don’t even know what it means to be his mate. I’m confused,” I admitted.
All of the women, except for Sera, gathered around me even closer to start explaining.
“What do you mean?” the blonde woman asked.
I sighed and stared into the distance. “In my world, um, you know, the non-shifter world of humans, we don’t have fated mates. We date around and hope to find someone that likes us enough to want to spend the rest of our life with us.”
The women frowned. The dark-haired one shook her head. “We shifters are lucky. Our mates are decided before we’re born. We don’t have to date around. That seems confusing.”
“So, you don’t get to pick your mate?” I asked.
Sera snorted, catching my attention, but she didn’t say anything else. I watched as she placed an arrow onto the string of her bow and raised it in the direction of the targets. Seconds later, the arrow sailed cleanly through the air, hitting the dead center of the red circle of the target.
“No, they’re chosen for us,” a woman said, bringing my attention back to the conversation at hand.
“Yeah, who would want to do all of that dating around? Let Mother Moon decide who our mate will be,” one of the younger-looking women giggled.
My thoughts drowned out the speculation around me about who would become Chance’s mate. I pressed my hand into my chest to relieve the slight ache that started. Being Chael’s mate hadn’t meant that he chose me. He felt obligated by some shifter force beyond his control.
I moved away from the gossiping women toward where Sera stood, still engaged in her target practice. Though I’d never held a bow and arrow in my life, I needed to get my mind off of the depressing realization that Chael didn’t really want me for his mate. Not without some supernatural force making him buy into it, or however this mating situation worked.
I shouldn’t feel as upset as I did. It wasn’t like I honestly saw a future with the man or anything. I knew from the moment I saw him, he was the type that was out of my league. But my silly imagination had begun its runaway fantasies again.
“Whoa, that’s amazing,” I gushed after Sera had placed three arrows onto her bow and shot all three simultaneously, each of them landing dead center on the three different targets.
She turned to me, and for the first time, I caught a sparkle in her deep, brown eyes. It didn’t last, though, as she blinked and the look was gone, replaced by a stoic expression.
“Would you like to try?” she asked, her tone flat.
“She’s always trying to get us to shoot one of those things,” one of the women said behind me.
“All of us should know how to protect ourselves,” Sera shot back.
“Protect us from what?” the youngest one of the group asked. “Besides, we have our wolves.”
At that, the pregnant woman next to her slapped her arm and mumbled something that I couldn’t hear. The younger woman’s face turned regretful.
“Sorry, Sera,” she mumbled.
