“Either way. Walk, drive. I’d offer to fly you but I’m not that big a crow.” I wiped my hands on a towel. “Let’s go have lunch there. I have some sandwich makings.”
He bounced on the balls of his feet. “That sounds great. You know it’s the weirdest thing. When I’m with you, I have a tendency to not ask questions. The ones anyone would like, where do you live and can I see your other form.”
“Let’s drive. It’s a pretty decent walk and we’ve still got a lot to get done today.”
“Fine.” Joshua started for the door. “But I have a question to ask you when we get there.”
Intrigued, I followed him down to his truck and we drove over to my place. As the crow flew, it was not far, and the road required a farther trip, but it was still faster than walking. Joshua climbed out of the car as soon as he turned off the engine. “Wow, so this is your place. You have a lot of trees.”
“Yes, I do. Nothing like yours, though. You have that one section of late peaches that are unlike anything I’ve ever had anywhere else.”
“I sure hope you can help me save them.” He sobered, and I regretted reminding him of the problem.
“You can do most of it yourself. They just need to be loved.”
I took him inside my house and let him look around. It truly was nothing exciting, although it wasn’t bad. Basic furniture: sofa, coffee table, dining room set.
“How long have you lived here?” he asked. “Your whole life?”
“No, but a long time. Why do you ask?”
“Because you’ve been helping me to get my house ready, when you might be wanting to do things to yours. Would you ever consider moving?”
“Omega, if you have questions for me, just ask. But I need context to give you the information you probably want.”
“All right. Can we sit down?”
We both settled on the sofa, but before we said anything else, I remembered. “I promised you sandwiches.”
“I’d rather have answers first. Like, are you immortal?”
“Oh, omega. No, I’m not immortal, but I am very long lived. Before you ask for clarification, I’m not even sure exactly how old because it’s not important to me.”
“So, you are going to outlive me, then.”
“Maybe. But I need to explain that to you.”
He shifted closer to me, and I put my arm around his shoulders. This was going to be difficult to explain, I felt, and I didn’t want him to misunderstand. “I am not immortal as I said, but before I am mated, there is no real end to my life. It can go on forever if nothing horrible happens. I’m not immune to a bad car crash for example.”
“And after you are mated?”
“It depends on who my mate is. But basically what it comes down to is, I will age as my mate does. Human or shifter.”
“So mating me will kill you? I don’t want to lose you.”
Kissing his forehead, I sighed. “No, you won’t. Living alone without my mate, now that we’ve found one another, would be living death. I would be missing you for centuries, and I couldn’t stand that.”
“So, I don’t know what to do.”
“What do you want to do, omega?” I stroked the hairs back from his temples. “Because I don’t want to decide for you.”
“I want to be with you. As long as we can.” He buried his face in my chest. “But that feels so selfish.”
“It’s not selfish to love someone, Joshua. It’s selfish not to.” I kissed him and one thing led to another, led to nudity, led to blessing this house with making love to my mate. And this time, while my knot swelled, I marked him. Shortening my life but adding meaning to it. Lying cuddled together on my couch, I never wanted more space between us than this.
“Alpha, do you think you could bring yourself to move into my house with me, when it’s ready?” he asked. “If not, I’d move here.”
“It’s time for me to move, Joshua. I’d be honored to start our life together in the home we’re repairing. We will still have all the trees.”
