She tilted her head to the side in contemplation.“I guess so.I felt that peace I told you about before.Even though I was nervous and feeling a little lusty, I also felt calm and safe.”
“Would you say those are normal feelings for someone who’s on a first date?”
She snickered.“Nope.”
“Well, then…”
“I guess.”She pondered that a second.“I should ask Ryan how he knew I was his mate.How he knew to show me that golden link thing.”
Trip snorted.“Understatement of the year, honey.That golden link thing is very important.”
“I can imagine.Can he only do that because he’s the leader of the Pride?”
Trip nodded.“It’s a very unique gift.”
“He seems to have a lot of them,” she retorted dryly.
“It’s why he’s the leader at such a young age.You get used to him being an overachiever,” he confided with a grin.“But ask him, he’ll tell you how he knew.”
“How did you know?”
“Scent.”
“I smell good?”
“Yup, but more than that, it’s visceral.My Lion responded to your scent.He’s usually very disinterested in who we fuck.”
“We haven’t fucked yet,” came the coy retort.
“Yet being the operative word, I hope,” he said ruefully.
She just smirked at him.
“I was in the back office at Feral when you and Ryan were on your date.I might have had the CCTV trained on you.”
“Were you spying on us?”she demanded, but she sounded more amused than aghast.
“Maybe.”He peered up at her, then grinned.“I was curious.”
“It would seem so.”She shook her head.“Don’t spy on me in future.I don’t like it.I have enough people watching me without you doing it too.”
“I understand,” he said softly.“But you have to realize, we don’t take many dates from Pride in Love.The requests are there, but we don’t accept them all.We have to get the feeling, you know?”
“The feeling?”
He nodded.“It’s just a good vibe.Instinct, you’d call it, but our Lion’s involved.When Ryan said he was responding to you, we all read your profile and felt the same.So, that’s why I was watching.I saw him do his spider web trick and knew you had to be our mate, otherwise he wouldn’t have shown you.”
“But what about when you met me the other night?”she asked, sounding a little disappointed by his answer.
“Couldn’t you tell?I was nervous as hell,” he admitted wryly.“My palms were sweating so badly, I nearly dropped the vodka twice on the way back from the kitchen.It’s a wonder there was any frost left on the bottle.”
She giggled.“But that doesn’t tell me how you knew… or was it just a secondhand response from knowing Ryan realized we were mated?”
“No.My Lion sat up and sprung to attention the moment you were close.”He closed his eyes, a reminiscent smile on his face as he explained, “You have to understand something else, El.We’re essentially alone from birth, with the huge weight on our shoulders of knowing that unless we’re a Triad, we won’t ever have a woman of our own.”
“Ever?You don’t have girlfriends and stuff?”
He shook his head.“Not really.Not once you meet your Triad brothers.”
