Connor’s eyes narrowed. “Who is he?”
“One of my dad’s friends. He’s sixty, if that helps with the possessiveness.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Well I obviously don’twantto marry him, so I don’t think you should feel threatened.”
“You want us to get married instead, because…”
“Because it’s the only part of the contract that I can’t deal with on my own. There’s a plan.” I held up one finger. “I don’t own my apartment, so they can’t have the bank take that away from me. They’ll just get me kicked out. Emmy’s never going to sell her yellow house near the university, so I can stay there until my parents have given up on trying to make me homeless.”
My second finger went up too. “They’ll get me fired from the university, but they can’t touch my bank account. They can’t take my degree either, which means I’ll be able to get a new job whenever they stop actively trying to ruin my life.”
I lifted a third finger. “The marriage thing is what they’ll use to try to force me to comply. They’ll send out invitations to make me play along, and they will physically force me into it. That’s where you come in.”
“Okay.” His expression was unreadable. At least to me.
“If I invite everyone my family would before they have the chance, my parents will have no choice but to come to the wedding and act like they support the marriage. After we sign the papers and make the vows, it’s a done deal.” I eyed him. “You’re looking at me like I’m insane. I’mnotinsane. My family is, but I’m just… prepared.”
“I don’t think you’re insane. I’m just trying to wrap my mind around this.” He gestured between us with a finger. “So you came to the book club meetingexpectingto end up mated.”
“Yeah. The probability was extremely high that a mate bond would occur. When you consider how many billions of potential partners there are for every werewolf in the world, and the likelihood of four of your six single pack members mating with four women from a six-person friend group, the numbers getpretty insane. It’s definitely not a perfect science, but it did seem pretty likely.”
“And you were right.”
“Thankfully, yes. I didn’t factor in my potential death, though. I’m lucky you were there.”
He folded his arms and leaned back against the countertop casually.
“Your sandwich is burning,” I said, matter-of-factly.
Connor smoothly removed the sandwich and stacked it on top of the rest of the pile, then turned the stove off. It was definitely darker than the others, but he didn’t seem to care.
Then he resumed his position. Arms folded, lower back leaned up against the cabinets.
“Youwanteda mate,” he said.
I grimaced but nodded. “For the record, I do feel bad for trapping you. If there was a better way to go about it, I would’ve gone with that route, but this seemed like the most-likely way to both ensure future happiness and protect myself. I hoped I could make a potential mate happy too, but I did take the selfish route.”
“A mate bond isn’t a trap.”
“I mean, technically it is.”
“No. It’s a connection.”
“One you can’t get free of,” I pointed out.
“One that satisfies the animalistic part of a werewolf in a way nothing else can.”
I blinked.
“You understand what it means to have a mate, and you’re choosing it,” Connor said. I wasn’t sure if it was a question or not. It was phrased like one, but he said it like a statement.
“Yes.” I eyed him.
Why was he asking me the same question in so many ways?
He lifted a hand to his face and ran it slowly over his mouth.
