Ollie closed his eyes, nodded once, and looked up at Tiffany again. "I'm going to tell you something, and you're not going to believe me, and then I'm going to show you it's true. I knew from the moment I laid eyes on you that you were the woman I wanted to be with for the rest of my life."
A slow smile crept across Tiffany's mouth, but as she took a breath to speak, Ollie lifted his hand, pleading for a moment's more time to explain. Her eyebrows rose, but she nodded, and Ollie plunged onward. "I know people talk aboutknowingthe first time they met someone, but this is even more than that. I'm what's called a shifter, Tiffany. I have a second shape, an animal form, and that shape has a voice that tells me—tells people like me—when we've met our fated mates. The person we're supposed to be with."
Now her eyebrows were rising higher in skepticism. Ollie felt his smile go nervous. "See, this is the part where I tell you and you don't believe me, so now I'm going to show you."
There was literally nothing else to say or do. He shifted into his koala form, and waited.
CHAPTER 15
The first thing Tiffany thought was exactly the first thing she said: "Oh my God, youactuallyhave an inner koala, that's not fucking fair! My inner corgi is justimaginary!"
There was probably something else she should say. Something smart. Something insightful. But her brain was mostly caught up in 'that isn'tfair!' and she was honestly having a hard time getting past that. Her boyfr—uh, hernew friend, they surely weren't in boyfriend/girlfriend territory yet (although she didn't knowwhatterritory 'so I'm a koala' fell into, to be honest)—anyway, whatever he was to her, he'd just turned into a koala, and…
And mostly, yeah, mostly Tiffany just thought that was outrageously unfair.Shewanted to turn into a koala. Or a corgi. Something small and cute and fluffy, anyway. She had the incredible urge to pick the little bear-thing up and hug it, although she didn't know if koalas liked hugs.
Of course, humans did, and this koala was also a human.
She had never had the opportunity to try to read a koala's expression before, but she was pretty certain this particular koala currently looked relieved. "Do you—wait, can you talk?"
The koala shook its—his?—head no. For all she knew, that wasn't something regular koalas could even do, any more than they could look relieved. "Then come back. Do your whole family turn into koalas? Oh my God! Can you teach me to turn into a corgi?!"
Ollie did come back, sitting in the exact same position he'd been in. Hedefinitelylooked relieved, although also apologetic at the last question. "I'm sorry, but no. You're a true human, and I'm a shifter. It's not something that can be taught."
"Aw,man!" Tiffany took that in stride, sort of. Somehow she was taking Ollie being a koala in stride, so maybe finding out she wasn't secretly a corgi wasn't that bad. "Wait, so does that mean the rest of them are or aren't koalas? Oh my God. This is why you were laughing at me with the whole inner koala/corgi thing. Because you reallyarea koala. Wait, soarethe rest of them?"
"I wasn't laughing at you," Ollie protested. "I was wondering if I could explain it. And no. Most of them are grizzlies." Now he sounded both apologetic and also possibly a little embarrassed.
Tiffany stared at him a moment, then laughed. "The Torbens? They're all grizzlies? That makes sense. I mean, that's waaaaaaay too much bear for me, I'm not gonna run with the grizzlies, but that makes sense. They're all huge. Holy shit. You…wait." Her heart lurched and tightened up all at once, sending a thrill of excitement and nervousness through her. "You said…what did you say? Fated…mates? Does that mean we're…what does that mean?"
"It's just what we call the person we're supposed to be with." Ollie spoke so very softly, like he was afraid he might spook her. Given that she hadn't fallen out of the dozer when he'd turned into a koala, she didn't really know what he was worried about, but she loved his soft-spoken intensity anyway.
Lovedit.She would have said that was impossible, even though she'd felt an incredible connection to him from themoment they'd met. Her hands were trembling with emotion. She had been perfectly happy as she was, but now she felt like she was on the verge of something so much more incredible that she thought she might fly apart with it.
Ollie, still very gently, went on, saying, "Our animal selvesknow, when we meet our mates. Our partners, if you like that word better. We know that we're meant to be with that person. I know it's a lot, Tiffany, so if you want to take a step back?—"
Tiffany threw herself forward into his arms. Ollie caught her with a grunt, his hands big and warm and comforting on her back, and his smile something she could feel against her hair. "I guess you're not stepping back?"
"Why would I want to step back when I have you to step forward with? It'sreal?" Tiffany moved back a little, trying to see Ollie more clearly, but she also didn't want to let go of him. "This is really real?"
"It really is." He brushed a strand of hair away from her cheek, then framed her face in his hand and brushed his mouth against hers as gently as he'd moved the hair away. "So we may have to work out the details, but I'm never leaving you, Tiffany. Not if I have any choice in the matter. You, we, don't have to grasp this one desperate night together because it might be all we have."
"What if we want to?"
Ollie smiled, his eyes suddenly bright in the streetlights. "That's a different matter entirely."
"Excellent." Tiffany bit her lower lip, examining him from up close. "I have an important question."
"I can't wait to hear it."
"Where do your clothes go?"
He laughed. "They go with me. Even my glasses."
"Mmmhmm. Can you make themnotdo that?"
Oliver made a thoughtful face, then laughed. "I might be able to, but I need you to think about that whole suggestion. Because I get what you're going for. Sexy shifter suddenly naked beneath you, is that it?" At Tiffany's eager nod, his grin got bigger. "Right. Yes. It sounds great. Except for the part where I have to turn into a koala to make the clothes vanish. I'm pretty confident that you don't want to find yourself sitting in a koala's lap, no matter how briefly."
"Oh! Oh no!" Tiffany recoiled. "Everything else aside, I'd squish you!"
