I grabbed her hips and held her firmly in place.
“Fine,” she groaned, and stuck out her lower lip in a pout.
It took every bit of self-control I had not to rip her clothes off and take her right there on the couch, but I wanted to give her some time to recover before the big event in a few days.Speaking of that…
“Baby, we should talk about one more thing.” The thought of having this conversation with Tegan, right here and right now, had my heart racing.
But she needed to know what could happen. She needed to know the truth.
Tegan stared up at me while running her fingers through my ruff. Gods, her touch felt amazing. She gave me so much comfort and she didn’t even know it. “And what’s that?” she asked.
I grabbed her hand and held it still right over my heart, the steadythump thump thumppounding under our fists. “Tegan, uh. Wow. This is hard to talk about. Especially so soon.” I puffed out a breath of air. “I don’t want to totally freak you out.”
“I think I know what you’re trying to say.” She brought my hand to her lips and kissed my knuckles softly. “I might be your mate.”
“Iknowyou’re my mate. And when we spend the full moon together, I might try to claim you.” I stared into her eyes, waiting for her to tell me this was crazy. To tell me that there was no way that we could be mates, but it never happened.
With our fingers still intertwined, Tegan leaned into my chest and nuzzled her face into my neck. “I can think of worse fates than spending my entire life mated to you, Atlas Oberon.”
“Are you sure this is what you want?” I asked, needing total confirmation.
She nodded. “I’ve never wanted anything more.”
Thirty-Eight
Tegan
Excitement buzzed beneath my skinas I watched Atlas’s taillights disappear down the driveway. I felt like I was living in a dream.
There was no way this was happening to me.
I went inside and paced back and forth across my kitchen.
This was big, and I needed to talk to someone about it.
Someone who would understand.
So, I did the only thing I could think to do.
I called my mom.
“Please pick up,” I murmured to myself, waiting for her to answer.
After a few rings, she finally picked up the phone. “Hey, honey. What’s up? Everything okay? You don’t normally call me this late.” Her voice sounded rough from sleep.
Shit.It was late.
“Mom, I—I didn’t mean to wake you. I just…” There were so many thoughts and feelings swirling in my head that I didn’t even know where to begin.
“Teg, I’m your mother. You wouldn’t be calling me this late at night if there wasn’t a reason.” She used her stern maternal tone on me to bend me to her will.Moms.
I took a steadying breath. “Atlas just left. We had a pretty serious conversation tonight.”
Before I could continue, she said, “Let me guess, it was about mating?”
“How did you know?” I asked in disbelief. My mom and I were close, so she knew things between me and Atlas were serious, but I’d never mentioned mating. Not even after the whole thing with Jade when Atlas implied I could be his mate.
“I told you about my friend’s niece. Things with her and her mate moved fast. With the full moon coming up, I figured it might be on Atlas’s mind. And of course your brother went off about it to me already.” She sighed as if the very thought of the conversation she’d had with Reece exhausted her.
