I nod. “Of course. You miss Chelsey all the time, don’t you?”
Tipping her head to the side, she studies me for a minute. “Yeah, I do.” A beat passes, and I think she’s going to gaslight herself into thinking this whole thing is a dream because, I admit, this is unusual. But then she asks another question, and I think instead of fighting it, she’s accepting of all of this. “When you find your mate, will you want to move away, too?”
“My mate likes Carrot Creek, and being here would be a new start for her,” I explain, knowing what’s in her heart. That’s not a special power, I simply saw the adoration blooming in her irises when she first laid eyes on her sister’s cottage, when she took in the expansive valleys and colorful florals. She loves it here, but she thinks because she isn’t in love yet, that she can’t live here.
I’ll show her she’s wrong.
“Is that right?” she asks, smirking. “Well, whoever your mate is, she’s a better woman than me. I don’t think I could be cooped up in this small town my whole life.”
I drum my fingers on the table, and smile at her. “You’re beautiful.” I can’t seem to keep the compliment inside me a moment longer.
The compliment seems to have the opposite effect, and Esther shifts in her seat, a frown pressing down on her features. “You said I’m the only one who saw you shift.” She shakes her head. “How is that possible?”
My cheeks flame. “I shift on full-moon’s. That’s non-negotiable, even if I can’t see the moon and the moon can’t see me.”
She peers out the cottage window into the forlorn sky. “No full moon tonight.”
Face still burning, I nod. “I know. I also shift on Easter.”
She nods. “Makes sense, being a bunny-friendly holiday and all.”
I nod. “Yeah.”
She prods. “When else? Because it’s not a full moon and it’s not Easter.”
I lick my lips, studying her cupid’s bow, and the fullness of her pout, imagining the velvet soft feel of her kiss. “The only other time were-bunnies shift are when they’re near their mate, and ready to breed.”
We stare at one another, blinking slowly as I wait for her to understand.
“My sister?” she offers weakly, the truth resting in her eyes as the flush on her cheeks spreads down her throat, curving along her collarbone.
I shake my head. “I’ve lived next to your sister for years. She’s not my mate. Trust me.”
Her swallow is audible, and her nerves are visible, lining her eyes, worry etched into her forehead. “You’re saying… I’m your mate?”
I nod my head slowly, but it doesn’t matter how slow or fast I move. The news I’m delivering to her is pretty hard to believe. It’s going to take some time, but I’m prepared. I know I have Esther here until the Eggstravaganza.
“I’m just a girl,” she says, the words wobbly and endearing.
Boldly, I reach across the table and cup her cheek in my palm, trying to infuse the awkward moment with tenderness. But it abruptly backfires when my nose begins to burn and swell, and in the place of my human one, my bunny nose appears. Snatching my hand back, I rush to the window and push it open, bracing my hands on the sill. Dunking my head into nippy night air, I take a deep breath in, trying to calm my racing heart and burning loins.
My mate is here, and my bunny urges are more overwhelming than they’ve ever been. I need to mate her, I need to make her mine or else these random shifts won’t stop. And more than that, I need to mate her mine because that’s our fate.
Esther Basquette belongs to me.
The air douses my desires, because shock can pretty much kill even the biggest flare up of need. Closing my window, I duck back inside and return to my seat, finding Esther wide-eyed, cheeks red. “You were—you were gonna shift?” she questions, ducking her head beneath the table to check my feet. She points at my nose, returning to human form. “Your bunny nose is going, well, now it’s gone.”
I shrug. “I’ve never been around my mate before. I didn’t know that contact would start the shift. It’s different for every were-bunny and their mate. My brother Peep would burst into tears when his mate was around.”
She smiles, and so do I.
“But… I won’t touch you again,” I tell her, leaving out the part that as soon as she accepts me as her mate, I can stay in whichever form she pleases, or whichever form I please. Until then, I’m at her mercy.
After blinking at me for a quiet moment, Esther erupts into laughter, soft and buoyant, then gets to her feet. She pulls open cupboards and looks beneath magazines, digs through my trash and even tears towels from my linen closet. I let her, because all of my brothers and sisters told me that if my mate is a human, there will be an adjustment period.
“Where is it?” she seethes, the laughter all gone, replaced by frustrated anger. She’s so beautiful to me that as the veins bulge in her neck and sweat glistens on her forehead, my cock thickens, excited by this side of her.
I cross my legs and stay tucked beneath the table, because if I stand, she’ll see how hard I am for her. The whole were-bunny thing is already hard enough to digest, but knowing that I actively want inside of her and will lose myself there? That once she accepts me I will be utterly obsessed with her, tethered to her for eternity, my sole goal to please her and breed her?
