“A cougar?” Her pulse fluttering faster in her throat was the only visible reaction to learning my secret. “And your neighbors? Laina, Evette, Marielle? Their husbands? The others?”
“Laina, Evette, Marielle, and Thora are all human. But Keane, Leyton, Artemis, and Rome are shifters. So are Aaron and Cressida.”
Her eyes widened as I listed off all the shifters she’d met. “Are they cougars like you?”
I shook my head, my inner animal snorting at her question. “No, Keane and Leyton are grizzlies. Artemis is a dragon. Rome and Aaron are wolves. You haven’t met Booker yet, but he’s one too.”
“And Cressida?”
I struggled with how to answer her. “She’s a rare kind of shifter. One whose existence has to remain a secret because the wrong people would hunt her for what she is.”
“Wow. Okay.” She tugged the sheet a little higher on her lap. “And how do I fit into all of this?”
“That’s the part I need to be very clear about.” I took a small step forward, holding her gaze so she could see how serious I was. “You don’t owe me anything. Knowing this doesn’t bind you to me. Where we go from here is your choice.”
Her eyes searched my face. “Why would I feel like I owe you something?”
She’d accepted the existence of shifters much better than I expected, but I worried this was going to be a step too far. “Every shifter has someone out there who’s meant to be with them. Their fated mate.”
She inhaled slowly. “And you think that’s me.”
“I know you are.” I moved just a little bit closer. “When I first caught your scent on the wind, it called to my cougar. Then I saw you in your car and felt desire for the first time.”
She didn’t recoil or laugh, merely whispered, “It was a first for me too.”
I nodded. “That can be confusing for human mates who don’t understand why their bodies don’t respond the way others do. But for shifters, it’s undeniable proof they’ve finally met their fated mate.”
Elodie shook her head with a soft laugh. “Yeah, I might not have any experience, but it’s pretty hard to miss the chemistry between us.”
Hope stirred deep within me. “Because we were meant to be together.”
“Thank you for telling me all this.” She twirled a lock of dark hair around a finger. “Even though it’s a lot to take in.”
It wasn’t acceptance, but it wasn’t rejection either.
“Would it help if I showed you my cougar?”
9
ELODIE
Isat there for a moment, the weight of what Garner had told me pressing in. It felt like I was standing at the edge of something that could change the shape of my life if I stepped forward.
I considered the man he’d shown me in the short time we’d known each other. The trust he’d built was strong enough for me to give in to our chemistry. To give him my virginity last night.
He had caught me when I fell, fed me when I was starving, gave me a safe place to sleep, and never once made me feel like I owed him for any of it.
All my life, I’d felt like I was slightly out of step with the world. I’d moved from house to house, place to place. Always bracing for the moment I’d be told it was time to go. Again.
Maybe there was a reason for that. One that meant good things for my future.
I stood, the blankets sliding from my lap, and crossed the short distance between us. Garner’s eyes tracked me, alert but restrained, as if he was holding himself perfectly still on purpose.
“You said I don’t owe you anything,” I murmured.
“I meant it,” he replied quietly, fisting his hands at his sides.
“But I think I owe it to myself to find out what being your fated mate means.” I flashed him a soft smile. “And that starts with you showing me.”
