“When we claim our mate, it causes us to knot them. We only ever knot our true mates.”
Zhuang frowned as he watched the blood drain out of Xias’s face. The terror that filled his beautiful green eyes concerned him greatly. This should be a time of great celebration, not fear.
What was going on here?
“Xias?”
“He’ll kill you,” Xias whispered. Tears started to trickle down his pale cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to… I’d never… I didn’t know.”
“Snow leopards don’t mate that way?”
“Snow leopards don’t have true mates.”
Zhuang reared back. “Of course they do. Every shifter does.”
Xias shook his head. “Our alpha decides who mates with who.”
Zhuang snorted. “Your alpha is an ass.”
Xias didn’t disagree with him.
“There’s a true mate out there for every shifter.” Zhuang called upon the knowledge he had been taught growing up. It may have been more than a few years, but he’d never forgotten what he’d learned. “The fates set it up that way because our life span is so long. They wanted us to have someone to travel the years with.”
“It won’t matter,” Xias said. “My alpha won’t allow it.”
“Now that I’ve claimed you, there’s nothing he can do.”
Xias snorted. “You don’t know my alpha.”
“And I don’t want to know him.” Not if he was as much of an asshole as Xias was saying. “He’s not my concern. You and the cubs are.”
Xias drew in a shaky breath, fear flaring to life in his eyes again. “I can’t give you cubs until these ones are two years old, but I will. I promise. Just don’t—”
Zhuang sighed, his heart feeling heavy. “I will not harm the cubs, whether we have more or not. I would never do that. Besides, the moment I claimed you, they became mine to protect. That is shifter law.”
He had thought it was a stupid law when he was growing up, but now it made sense. Omega shifters didn’t have to be mated in order to have cubs, but it helped. The law was set up so that if the omega giving birth met his true mate, he didn’t lose his cubs.
Zhuang’s father told him it came from a time when omega shifters were sold or traded about like a commodity. Many had died of a broken heart after losing their cubs. The number of omegas was so low now, they had almost died out.
Zhuang had been blessed and he knew it.
His father would be thrilled.
“I don’t understand,” Xias said. “My cubs belong to my alpha. I stole them. I’ll be executed if I’m caught. You can’t protect me from that.”
What in the hell had this alpha been teaching Xias? “Your cubs belong to you, Xias. Not your alpha, not anyone else. Any cubs you give birth to belong to you.”
Xias started to shake his head as he glanced back at his cubs. “They’re mine?”
“It’s shifter law, Xias.”
“But…” Desperation glowed in Xias’s eyes when he turned back. “He’s the alpha. He said we all belong to him and he can do whatever he wants with us.”
“He’s lying.” Zhuang had no idea why the alpha had lied, but looking at his beautiful mate, he had a pretty good idea. Zhuang walked over and squatted down in front of Xias. “You are an omega shifter, Xias. That makes you special.”
Xias’s gaze dropped to his lap. “I don’t want to be special.”
“We are born what we are, Xias. We can’t change our nature.”
