“He did mention how puppy-eyed you both looked,” Chris said.
“It’s cute,” Raquel said.
Yuni swirled her glass of wine, took a sip, and said, “It’s fate.”
“So fated mates, is that a real thing?” I asked. Curiosity started to well up inside me. I’d had so many questions rolling around in my head ever since I found out shifters existed. Gabe was obviously a very solid source of information, but I didn’t want to barrage him with my CVS-receipt-length list of questions. Might as well chip away at some of them now that I had multiple shifters to ask. The bar was loud enough, the patrons were drunk enough, and my questions would be vague enough to keep things under wraps.
Yuni nodded. “I certainly do. Although I think your particular pairing is quite rare. Even more so than fated mates of the same species.” She had a warm but authoritative air about her. I could tell she was second-in-command under Emmy. Gabe had explained that to me one night. How wolf shifters in particular had a very hierarchical structure to their packs. Typically, there was one alpha with some betas and omegas under them.
Emmy was the alpha, and that part was clear in how they all seemed to defer to him, even in their body language. He sat at the center of the booth with everyone’sbody aimed toward him, the waitress coming to take the order and everyone turning to him to go first. Little thing, but noticeable.
“And there’s still the full moon ceremony that needs to take place. That seals the deal,” Dyl noted.
“Is that… something you’re considering?” Chris asked. He sat directly across from me, playing with a gold bracelet, twirling it around his wrist. Raquel had taken his black baseball cap and placed it on her head, so his sandy-blond hair seemed partially flattened.
“I’m going to be honest with you guys, I’ve hada lotto think about lately. I haven’t really had the brain space to focus on anything else.”
“Totally fair, totally fair,” Chris said.
“What does it entail?” I asked.
Yuni set her wineglass down. Her sleek black hair was up in a long ponytail. She reached up and slightly readjusted it. She wore a shirt with an old movie poster ofAn AmericanWerewolf in Parisprinted on the front, her sleeves rolled up and showing off her toned arms.
It gave badass bitch, and I loved it.
“It’s going to entail a blood sacrifice and a ritualistic drowning,” she said, completely deadpanned.
I blinked and leaned my head forward, eyebrow arched. “Excuse me, what?”
“I’m fucking with you. No, no. It’s nothing like that. It’s actually a very beautiful ceremony, performed under moonlight. The biggest shock of the night would be seeing us in, you know, our otheroutfits.”
“Oh, I’ve already seen Gabe, uh, changed.”
“Perfect,” she said, clapping. “That’s probably the biggest hurdle. Well, maybe that and consummating it.”
I could feel heat rise to my cheeks. I thought back tothat night in Gabe’s shift room. Seeing him in his were form, how feral he’d seemed. And then how absolutely insatiable he’d been the morning after.
How he’d given me the best damn sex of my life, all while still being chained up to the wall.
Before I could ask any more questions, Gabe arrived back at the table. I shifted over closer to Dyl so Gabe had room to sit. He slid into the last sliver of bench available, his leg pressed flat against mine. He slid an arm over my shoulders, as if he’d been doing it for years. Natural.
Smooth.
Home.
I instantly relaxed. I hadn’t even realized I still carried so much tension from earlier, from when I thought I had to walk away from it all. I didn’t think I wasreallygoing to be able to do it, but I knew in that moment I had to assert myself.
And thank fuck I did. Because it allowed this moment to happen.
“How’d it go?” Emmy asked.
“Good. She wanted to congratulate me first on coming out, so that was nice. Then she was talking about how the Bruins are pressing her again to consider a jump. I told her I’m not jumping right now.”
The Boston Bruins was a “feeder” NHL team to us Bobcats. Not all NHL teams had them, but those that did usually had solid and reliable sources of talent to pull from. It had been my goal to move to the NHL at one point, but now I may have found a solid reason to stay in the AHL.
“She also mentioned Harrison wanting me to do some DNA testing thing. Something about figuring out our optimal training and nutrition stats. Did you guys get any of that?”
I shook my head, as did the rest of my teammates. Except for Dylan. “My agent sent me an email about it this morning. I told him I wanted to opt out.”
