“No. You’re smart, but what you said is dumb.”
“Enlighten me,” I growled.
“You said it’s not in the cards, but how do you know? Are you a mind-reader? A psychic? Is there some kind of prophecy about you where you never have kids?”
He was being so ridiculous that I didn’t want to humor him with an answer, but as the moments passed, I realized he was seriously waiting for one.
“No,” I admitted, feeling foolish for playing along.
Sage brightened. “Exactly! Then you have no way of knowing. You canchangestuff about your life if you don’t like it, y’know.”
A strange feeling took hold of me. I was both hopeful and afraid. Sage’s words were like a drug I desired, but one I couldn’t accept.
So I did the one thing I was good at doing: I lashed out, hoping to push him away.
“Okay,” I sneered, “let me go pick a baby off the baby-tree.”
“There you go, saying dumb things again,” Sage said, unbothered. Then he grinned. “That’d be cool, actually. Instead of dealing with all that annoying pregnancy stuff, just pick a baby off a tree.”
He laughed at the mental image. I didn’t think it was funny, but sitting next to him, his laughter felt contagious. I smiled, just a tiny bit, before smothering it. I didn’t think he saw.
“Have you… ever been pregnant?” I asked.
It was a ridiculous question, spurned on by Sage’s ridiculous aura, and I immediately felt stupid for asking. I already knew the answer. He only just had his first heat the other night. I blushed in utter embarrassment.
But Sage didn’t point it out, if he even noticed my blunder. “Nope!” he said cheerfully. “I’ve only seen Len and Morgan go through it. It looks difficult.” A soft smile lit up his face as he turned to me. “But if you get a baby at the end of it, then it can’t be so bad, right? It’s gotta be worth it.”
Our eyes met. I couldn’t look away. I didn’t want to. The bright, innocent kindness in his face drew me in like a lure, his hair like the glow of the sun. For a moment, hewasthe sun.
I broke first, forcing myself to look away.
If Sage was the sun, I was a shadow. We were opposites. We couldn’t be together.
And besides that, he was a wolf. I already knew how wolf and mountain lion pairings worked out. They didn’t.
Ugh, why am I even thinking about this like it’s an option?
“Earth to Xander,” Sage said, waving a hand in front of me.
“What?”
“You never answered me.” He smiled, oblivious and upbeat as usual. I didn’t know how people like him existed in the world. How could he be so happy?
Some primal feeling stirred inside me, like my inner mountain lion was prowling restlessly in his den. Maybe it was because I was older than him, or because I was an alpha, or because he was a meek little wolf and I was a powerful big cat—but undeniably, I wanted to protect him. I wanted to protect that ball of sunshine that existed inside of Sage.
But he wasn’t my responsibility. He was a man I’d only just met. I had no obligation to him.
So why did I feel this way?
“Yes, it must be worth it,” I said distantly, finally answering him.
He let out a contented sound. “Yeah, I think so too. Len and Morgan, and Hugo and Dax too, they seem so fulfilled, y’know? Like having kids made them a better version of who they were.” He scratched the back of his neck. “I guess that sounds kinda sappy.”
“Not at all.”
He traced a finger along the grass. “Guess you need a mate first, though. Which is like, a whole other obstacle.” His smile faded slightly. “My brothers were lucky. They knew their fated mates at first glance.”
The mention of that phrase froze me. Fated mates.
