"You guys better not be talking about me behind my back," Ashe mumbled as he plopped down on the floor, resting his back against the couch.
"Nah," Quinn said amicably, trying to soothe him. "We were just having a chat about good ol' puberty."
Ashe stuffed a huge piece of arugula into his mouth. "Great. Guess I'm not invited."
Despite my sour mood, I did feel bad for Ashe. He was the second oldest out of all of us, yet he hadn't gone through puberty yet. His dads Dax and Morgan kept reassuring him it would happen when it was time, which obviously wasn't helpful at all.
"Oh, don't be such a grumpy deer," Lupa said, clapping Ashe on the shoulder. "Listen, it's not even that big of a deal. You get smelly and moody and that's about it. Oh, and you get away with less crap 'cause you're not a cute little kid anymore."
"Easy for you to say," Ashe mumbled. "You're always the first to do everything."
"Fine," Lupa said with a huff, flopping back into her previous position. "Don't listen to me. Eat your dumb salad."
"It is not dumb." Ashe pouted as he picked up a blackberry. "Anyway, Zak, congrats."
"Thanks," I said, letting out a breath. Ashe sounded genuinely happy for me even if he was probably jealous. Hell, I didn't blame him. I would've been in his situation, too.
"Anyway," I said, leaning on the back of the couch. "Now all I've gotta do is find me a fated mate. Then I'm set for life."
Lupa snorted loudly.
"What?" I barked.
"Weird goal, but okay," she said.
My previous irritation came back, flaring up. If I was in my wolf form, my hackles would be raised. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Lupa craned her neck back to look at me. "Do you know how rare it's supposed to be to find your fated mate?"
I blinked, caught between confused and angry. "But all of our parents--"
"Are outliers and should not be counted," Leveret said.
My jaw hung open. How was I even supposed to respond to that?
"Well, Iamcounting them," I said. "There's no way six pairs of people being fated mates is a coincidence. There must besomethingthat caused it."
"Correlation does not equal causation."
My eye twitched. "Okay. Then maybe they have some gene that makes them find their fated mate or something and we all inherited it."
Leveret turned the page of his book. "Unlikely."
I scowled as my temper flared. I was literally two seconds from grabbing his stupid book and throwing it out the window. "Fine, then I'll just be alone my whole life. How about that, Lev?"
"It is a distinct possibility," Leveret said.
A growl made its way out of my throat. He was frustrating to talk to sometimes and I was so not in the mood for his blunt words.
"Put your fangs away, Zak," Lupa warned me. She was extremely protective over her twin. I forced myself to relax before there was a scuffle in the living room. When she saw me visibly calm down, she added, "Anyway, Lev's just stating the truth. It's supposed to berarefor shifters to find our fated mates. Our parents were like, super lucky. Do you know how many shifters out there are either single or dating someone just to pass the time? Plus, there's tons of pairs just for convenience, you know?"
My skin crawled. I hated thinking about that. I didn't want to be alone, but I certainly didn't want to be with someone who didn't truly love me, either. I wanted someone who looked at me the way my parents looked at each other. Was that too much to ask?
My cheeks flushed as embarrassment hit me. It felt sappy to be thinking this way but I couldn't help it. Still, I'd never say any of that stuff to my cousins. I had to keep up my cool persona.
"Whatever," I said. "I know I'm gonna find my fated mate."
Quinn put down his weird contraption and smiled at me. "That's a good attitude. You'll never know if you don't try, right?"
