“I don’t know. Maybe?” Brielle admitted. “Don’t get me wrong. I like the idea of being in a relationship with Caleb, but honestly, I don’t know how.”
Misty looked across the table at her curiously. “What do you mean, you don’t know how? Surely, you’ve been in relationships with other guys. Just because those situations might not have worked out, doesn’t mean you didn’t learn from the experience, right?”
Brielle shook her head. “Actually, no. For as long as I can remember, my life has revolved around taking care of either my alcoholic dad or my twit of a brother. There’s never been time to even consider getting in a relationship. I mean, I’ve dated guys and slept with some, but I never had anything I would consider a relationship. Whenever I tried it, Julian would end up ruining it.” She shrugged. “After a while, I gave up thinking it would ever happen.”
“It goes without saying, but that completely sucks,” Misty said with a frown. “I can’t wait to meet your brother just so I can punch him for being such a jackass. At least now, with Caleb, it’s happening.”
“Yeah, it’s happening,” Brielle said quietly. “And I’m a little scared. I mean, this thing with Caleb, it came on kind of suddenly, you know? One second, I’m tumbling into bed with him, and the next, I’m thinking about having a future with the guy. That’s the definition of crazy, right?”
“Yeah. Crazy.” Misty regarded her thoughtfully. “Especially the part where you can’t go five minutes with thinking about him. Or the way you can smell his scent even when he’s not in the room. Oh, and that scary twisting sensation you get in your stomach when you think about not being with him after this mission is over. That’s really crazy, right?”
Brielle started to laugh, sure Misty was teasing her. Until she realized the other woman had pretty much nailed it when it came to what she’d been going through lately. Right down to the funny feelings in her tummy and being able to smell Caleb’s yummy, masculine scent even when he wasn’t in the room.
“Wait a minute,” she said, abruptly realizing that it seemed like Misty was fighting to hold in a smile. “How could you possibly know about that stuff? It’s not exactly normal.”
Misty gave her a disarming smile and ate another bite of cake. “Actually, in this case, itisnormal.”
Brielle sat there, forkful of cake poised halfway to her mouth, waiting for Misty to keep going. Just when it seemed like her friend was going to be stubborn and refuse to continue, Misty let out a long sigh.
“Look, this is something you should be hearing directly from Caleb, but since he hasn’t—and probably won’t—I’m simply going to tell you and deal with the fallout later. Just don’t shoot the messenger, okay?”
Hearing all that made Brielle think maybe she didn’t want to know what Misty was talking about after all. But before she could consider saying that, Misty set down her fork and leaned forward to start, and Brielle knew it was too late to stop her.
“Werewolves have this…legend…for lack of a better word,” Misty said slowly, like she wanted to make sure she got it right. “It says that each werewolf has a true love out there who accepts them for what they are. It’s calledThe Onefor them…aka their soul mate.”
Brielle set down her fork on the plate with a clatter. “Soul mate?” she echoed, the words slipping out in a barely comprehensible stutter. “That’s impossible. I mean, soul mates are make-believe. Right?”
“Make-believe?” Misty asked with a smile. “You mean like werewolves, technopaths, and people like you who can borrow another person’s abilities just by touching them?”
“Okay, when you put it that way, I guess I can see your point,” Brielle muttered, having a hard time arguing with that kind of logic. “But still, how can you be sure I’m Caleb’s soul mate when he doesn’t even seem to know?”
Misty laughed and picked up her fork to dig into her cake again. “Trust me—Caleb knows. Everything you’re feeling, he’s feeling times ten. He’s just in denial. Based on my extensive experience with the phenomenon, it seems that refusing to believe your soul mate is right in front of you is a required part of the process.”
“Experience with the phenomenon?” Brielle said, shocked. “You’ve seen this soul-mate thing happen before?”
Misty nodded. “Oh yeah. We were told that werewolf soul mates are supposed to be rare, like a one-in-a-million kind of thing, you know? But Jake and Jes fell for each other within days of meeting, even though she hated him at first sight. Then it happened again when Harley and Sawyer met. With you and Caleb, that makes three matches in a few months. So I’m thinking this soul-mate thing isn’t nearly as rare as werewolves seem to think.”
Huh.
“And what about you being sure I’mThe Onefor Caleb?” Brielle murmured, trying to wrap her head around everything.
“I’m definitely sure,” Misty said, sipping her milk. “You probably don’t even see it, but the rest of us do. When you two are together in a room, there’s a spark between you that makes me wonder if you’ll burst into flames at some point. The way you can calm him out of his omega rage with simply a kiss is something I never thought I’d see. I mean, the rest of us usually have to smack him to snap him out of it and pray he doesn’t eat our faces off. Literally.”
Brielle considered all that and decided it felt right. There was no denying the connection between her and Caleb. The attraction she’d felt for him the first time they’d met, the way the tension had disappeared when she saw him again in that hotel in Ankara, how light her heart felt when she sat beside him watching him eat peanut butter.
But while she was ready to accept there was something real going on—something magical even—she still found herself wanting to fight the idea of predestined soul mates. There was something about that part that made her feel uncomfortable.
“This soul-mate thing,” she said slowly. “If Caleb and I are meant to be together and if it’s fated, is it real? Do we even have a say? Does love come into this at all, or are we sort of magically stuck with each other like those people who get tattoos when they’re drunk?”
“That sounds like something you need to sit down and talk to Jes or Harley about.” Misty reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “But I can say that neither of them has ever complained about who they ended up with, so I can’t imagine you will, either. You and Caleb are perfect for each other, and you know it.”
“Know what?” a low, rumbling voice asked from somewhere beyond the living room, the question immediately followed by the sound of footsteps. A few seconds later, a barefoot and bare-chested Caleb wandered into the kitchen wearing nothing but a pair of jeans and a curious expression.
Her first thought was that he’d overheard her and Misty talking about soul mates, but before Brielle could ask him how much of the conversation he’d heard, she noticed he had her cell phone in his hand.
“It’s your brother,” he growled, apparently deciding to drop his question now that she’d seen the phone. “He wants to talk to you. He’s in trouble—again.”
Brielle scrambled from the chair, almost knocking it down in her haste to get to her phone and hold it to her ear. “Julian, is that really you? It’s Brielle. Talk to me!”
