“Speaking of which, after these cookies are done, I was thinking of making some candy before dinner. What do you think? You want to help?”
Don’t know how.
“Well, it’s a good thing I do. We have extra honey, and I saw this recipe—I think it might be just the ticket to our men’s hearts.”
If our men were waiting for candy to fall in love with us, they weren’t worthy men—but I didn’t tell her that because I knew she was just being silly.
We went back inside and finished her cookies, which were as scrumptious as I’d predicted. Then we worked on some honey candies from three different recipes she’d found. Lily had decided her initial plan of testing one simply would not do.
Each of them was delicious, because Lily was a kitchen goddess in disguise. I was sure of it.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Talon
Our mate was perfect whether she could speak or not, and if she hadn’t been bothered by it, I’d have let it go, but one afternoon when we were making dinner together, she was mixing meat loaf with her hands and trying to get me to give her a spice she’d forgotten to add. Although we’d all been learning some sign, there were still a lot of words I had not yet mastered, and add in the fact that her hands were full of ketchup…I just wasn’t getting it. I saw her gaze dart to her whiteboard on the counter, and before she could cover it up, a sigh slipped out. One time only, but it was enough.
So, I began to research a way to break the spell. Sylvia had been so young when her mother put the spell on her that she didn’t know everything about it. Not much, actually, so I had to take the bare-bones information and make it work.
So much of what I found online was clearly pure nonsense or worse. Potion recipes to buy. Charms tobuy. Actual spell removal to buy. So many people out there ready to take advantage of anyone who was suffering.
Many clearly did not even believe spells were real, but we knew for a fact they were. Partly because we’d always known; shifters understood that magic was real. Our lives were based on magic, of a sort. But in our case, we faced the results of a spell each and every day. Our mate certainly had not chosen as a small child to have no voice.
After a few days of research, I was ready to take a page from our mate’s frustration and give up, but I put myself in her shoes and knew I’d never want to be unable to say the words I wanted to when I chose. Some people never could speak, and if she couldn’t, we wouldn’t love her any less. But this was not an untreatable condition or even one created by her own mind. A spell that acted on her will? Unacceptable. So I delved in deeper and was sitting at the table, hunched over my phone, lips moving in a possible undo spell when I felt someone behind me. Looking up, I found my packmates reading my screen over my shoulder.
“What are you doing, Talon?” Dax shook his head. “Are you thinking of trying to ‘fix’ our mate because I don’t think anything is wrong with her.”
“I know she’s not broken,” I bit out, swiping away the screen I’d been reading.
“Did you ask her if she wants to change?” Archer asked. “Or is this because you would prefer she could speak?” They both took chairs at the table too.
“I didn’t have to ask.” Sharing the experience with them where she’d shown a hint of what lay beneath her smooth demeanor, I saw the realization cross both of their expressions. “She tries to hide it, doesn’t she?” Dax said. “I was trying not to see it. She never wants us to be worried for her.”
“Are you finding anything?” Archer pulled my phone toward him. “Even if you do, you’ll have to ask her in so many words and get her permission on the whiteboard or in clear sign.”
“Don’t worry. I would never do anything against our omega’s will.” Never ever ever. “But I don’t want to bring it up to her unless I have something to offer. A real possibility, which I don’t yet.”
“All right. We are going to run into town. Need anything?” Archer stuffed his wallet in his pocket and picked up his keys.
“No. I’ll just work on this until our mate comes in from playing with Emma then see what she wants to do. We’ll probably start dinner then, unless she would like to shift or something.”
They left and I opened the browser again, desperate to find a way to help Sylvia, if indeed she would like me to. She was coming in the door, smiling as always when she’d been hanging out with the goat, when I found it. A mention in a social media post of all things. A goose shifter who’d been cursed similarly to our mate. I read the post quickly and stood up to kiss her hello.
“How is Emma?”
She’s sweet,Sylvia typed out and tipped her face up for another kiss, and when I went to withdraw, laced her arms around my neck. The scent of her heat was strong again, and as the only one of us who had not mated and marked her, I was instantly ready.
I probably would be ready like this after we’d been together for a hundred years, but in this instance, I had even more reason to bend her back over the table and push her sweatshirt up to reveal her pink-tipped breasts. She protested not at all, just breathed shallowly, watching me carefully.
“Omega, I need you.”
She touched her chest then mine.
Well, that beat need any day of the week. And with what I’d learned, the encounter I’d been waiting for held extra meaning. Since the other males already knew what I was working on, and their only request had been that our mate allow it, I hoped I had the answer for her that she wanted.
Kissing her face and down her throat, I kissed her rounded sweet globes, closing my lips around first one then the other, glancing up to see her eyes half closed. “Is that good, omega? I have been waiting to make love to you until you are ready, but if you aren’t, please say so now.”
She signedyes, and I didn’t know whether she meant yes, she wasn’t ready or yes, go ahead. Trust me to phrase a question in a confusing way.
