Emory lifted his head to see his best friend’s crotch.
He tilted his head up further to look at Ronan. “Everything okay, Em?”
“Everything’s fine. Your party is wonderful, as always.”
Ronan gave him a “you’re full of shit” look and sat down next to him, pressing their legs together in a comforting gesture. “Everything doesn’tlookfine. Did Christopher speak to you about your cousin? And where’s Cameron?”
Emory sighed and sank further into the couch. “Yes, Chris told me there were rumors going around, and I managed to waste the first half of our time here trying to track them down,but I wasn’t very successful. Cameron was just here, but he left rather abruptly to get us drinks. I think…I may have upset him by asking one too many questions.”
“From the little you’ve told us, it does seem like he can be a bit evasive.”
Emory could only grunt in agreement at the reminder that he was not just failing at this whole dating thing, but he was also failing as a friend. He had barely spoken to Ronan since Fall Harvest, exchanging a few one-on-one texts but mostly relying on the other two to carry the conversation in their group chat. He was just so busy at work. He was lucky he got to see Christopher in the office. Otherwise, he probably wouldn’t have spoken much to him either.
Ronan leaned forward, studying his face. “I haven’t known you to be a sad drunk.”
That was true. He wasn’t usually a sad drunk. To be fair, as of late, he wasn’t usually a sadanything. He’d grieved his father greatly during the first year, but there came a point where he had to get up and get on. His mother, the company, and the pride depended on it.
“I haven’t had much to be sad about. Almost all I do is work or try to figure out this new relationship—and truly, I don’t have any complaints. Cameron and I are still very new; I suppose it's natural we may encounter some…challenges,” Emory said, gaze shifting back to stare at the floor.
Ronan huffed. “You don’t have to give me the party line, Em. Or the pride line, or whatever that was. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to find your fated mate, and to find out the experience is nothing like you expected.”
Gods, his friend knew him too well. Emory had always envisioned a future for himself where he was a good partner, a good mate, and possibly even a good father. In other words,he thought a fated mate bond would look like his parents’ relationship.
Thus far, his budding relationship with Cameron had been nothing like that. His parents had always described their meeting as an earth-shattering event that launched them into a whirlwind of mating, and not just starting a family but also running a company together. While meeting Cameronhadbeen life-changing, thus far, it had been disruptive and confusing more than anything else. The somewhat aloof water shifter, who had strict ideas about dating, falling in love, and mating, would open up to Emory one moment just to run away the next. Whether via text or in conversation, he was always joking, evading, or now physically leaving his side.
“It has definitely not been what I was expecting,” Emory admitted.
He didn’t feel right speaking ill of his fated mate. There really wasn’t much to speak ill of; it was mostly a feeling of always being caught flat-footed.
“You always did assume you’d end up with another lion shifter. I’ve been trying to warn you it’s much less common for the newer generations,” Ronan said.
Back in the Before Times, there had only been alpha men and omega women, so that was always how fated mate bonds would form. After the Great Sickness, most omegas, across all species, died out. Religious texts and history books disagreed on what happened next, but most people believed that evolution stepped in and the last remaining generations of omega women gave birth to not just male alphas and female omegas, but also male omegas who were able to conceive and continue their species. Most texts didn’t discuss genderqueer individuals, whether that be their primary or secondary genders. It seemed safe to assume they had always been there, or at the very least emerged around the time of the Great Recovery with the male omegas.
The recovery didn’t happen for all species. Back then, there was no interspecies reproduction, so many species went extinct, but the ones that adapted began to thrive.
Over time, however, there became too few alphas for how many omegas there were, and evolution had to run its course again. This was how female and genderqueer alphas who could impregnate omegas came to be, as well as sterile female, male, and genderqueer betas.
After that, fated mates began to occur between individuals of all different primary and secondary genders. Interspecies mating also began to take place, with some appearing as early as Emory’s great-grandfather’s generation. Nowadays, it was actually more common to be interspecies fated mates.
“It’s not even that,” Emory said. “While I’m sure there are a lot of cultural differences that will influence our relationship, right now I can’t even pin him down long enough to discuss them. It truly feels like dating a stranger, or someone I met off one of those apps, except that my lion–and my mother, gods have mercy on me–are already planning our future together. Meanwhile, I feel I know so little about him.”
Ronan grimaced. “Well, you did say you’ve been doing nothing but work. You’ve only gone on, what, this makes three dates, right? I’m not surprised you haven’t been able to connect as much as you’d like.”
Emory closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the plush couch, and his lion began to pace anxiously. He hadn’t been able to connect with his best friends recently, either, and he couldn’t help but hear the criticism in his words yet again. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew they understood. They saw how much pressure Emory was under at work and how stretched thin he always was, but he still couldn’t help but feel like he needed to be doing more. He just didn’t know how to givemore than he already was, and it was clearly showing in every facet of his life.
“I feel like after knowing each other for a month and having three dates, I should know more about Cameron, but I just…don’t. Or at least I don’t feel like I know much of importance. I want nothing more than to get to know him and see how our lives can fit and grow together, but I somehow keep messing it up. First, I wasted so much time this evening, then I said the wrong thing, and now I’m a little afraid Cameron may have left, possibly for good, and?—”
A throat clearing interrupted Emory’s spiraling monologue. He snapped his eyes open to find Cameron standing right in front of him. His lion gave an indignant huff, scenting the air and grunting at Emory for not catching his mate’s scent.
Likehehad done any better!
“I’m sorry it took so long. I couldn’t remember exactly what you liked in your drink, so I had to find Christopher to ask.”
He could have sworn he heard Ronan mutter “whoops…” but he didn’t have time to deal with that.
“Thank you, honey. That was very sweet of you.”
He accepted the glass from Cameron, and there was an awkward pause as Cameron gazed uncertainly at Ronan, who was taking up the only available seat.
