Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to deal with it,Kieran thought, as he began to reach for them – only to be stopped short by the sight of a hand reaching for the exact same can of beans.
It was a very elegant hand, Kieran couldn’t help but notice – its nails were beautifully manicured, and there was a very tasteful emerald ring on one long, slender finger. But that didn’t change the fact it was reaching forhisbeans!
Well, they’re not mine, actually,he thought, as he turned his head to glance at the woman the hand belonged to.I was just – holy moly! She’s gorgeous!
And she was, too: long black hair swept up in a ponytail, and beautiful, long-lashed eyes, and a cute heart-shaped face. She was a little shorter than him, and though she was dressed down, she had a kind of indefinable elegance to her that took Kieran aback. She lookedhigh class,in a way he wasn’t really used to – he’d grown up in the world’s messiest house, and had usually been sent to his run-down school with whatever had been in the cupboard or fridge that morning in his lunchbox. Sometimes that had been a granola bar and an apple; other times it had been a piece of suspiciously hard cheese. The point was, he wasn’t someone you’d say wasclassy.
He wasn’t sure what it was about this woman, but something about the way she held herself told him that she was alady. And even though his mother might not have sent him to school with a proper lunch most days of the week, shehadalways told him that ladies came first.
“Sorry,” Kieran said, his hand dropping to his side. “You take them – I don’t really need them.”
The woman blinked, her long, dark eyelashes fluttering slightly, along with Kieran’s heart.
“Oh… are you sure?” Her voice was deep for a woman’s, but all the more melodious for it, Kieran thought. “I was just going to buy them on a whim – I don’t have any specific plans for them. If you need them, you should definitely have them.”
“No, no, not at all!” Kieran held up his hand. “No plans – canned beans are just easy and simple, so I thought I’d grab some in case of some kind of laziness emergency. Definitely not the kind of thing I should really encourage in myself.”
She laughed, the sound sending a delicious shiver right down Kieran’s back. Shewasbeautiful, as he’d noticed right away – but there was justsomethingelse about her, something warm and attractive and sexy, that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. Whatever it was, however, he knew he’d never been more attracted to anyone else before in his life.
“Well, if you’re really sure it’s not a problem,” she said. “I hate to steal beans right out from under someone.”
“It’s not stealing if I just give them to you,” Kieran laughed. “Really, take them. I don’t need them. Look at this basket – it’s practically bursting as it is.”
It was true – it was possible he’d gotten alittlecarried away with his shopping. He really didn’t need beans on top of everything else.
“Here.” To show he really did mean what he said, Kieran grabbed the beans from the shelf, passing them to her. “Enjoy your kidney beans, on me.”
A smile curved its way across the woman’s full lips, and she reached out her hand to take them.
“All right, if you insist,” she said. “Than— oh! Ouch! Sorry about that!”
The womanmighthave said something aftersorry about that,but Kieran had to admit he didn’t have the faintest idea of what it was.
Because in the next moment, the only sound he could hear was his blood rushing in his ears, his heart pounding in his chest, and the sound of his griffin letting out a piercing shriek as it roused itself from its lazy slumber.
Mine!!
Sweat broke out across Kieran’s body as he realized what exactly this meant, the knowledge rushing in on him like a tidal wave.
She’s my mate – this woman. Our fingers touched. And a griffin always knows its mate at first touch.
Or, perhaps, even at firstsight– Kieran had been stunned by this woman’s beauty from the first moment he’d seen her, of course, but that hadn’t explained the incredible pull of attraction she’d had on him. He’d seen a lot of beautiful women, after all, but none of them had affected him the way she had. From the first moment he’d laid eyes on her, he’d known there was something special about her, even though he’d only chatted to her for a few seconds about beans. Canned beans, at that.
We must tell her! Immediately!
The griffin’s voice thundered through his head, momentarily robbing Kieran of his senses. Its insistence was so strong that for a moment he thought he was going to go into one of his uncontrolled shifts, and turn into a griffin right in the middle of the canned food aisle.
I can’t – the only thing shifting now would do is terrify her! Not to mention everyone else in the supermarket!
He fought down the griffin’s wild, roaringneedto show itself to its fated mate, struggling against the strength of its feelings.
But she is our mate! She will know us!
Kieran swallowed, closing his eyes, feeling sweat break out anew across his forehead.
She won’t – she’s human. We would have sensed it if she was a shifter. If she’s human, she won’t understand what’s happening. We have to get to know her first before we show her anything!
“Hey – uh, are you okay?”
