Ruby
“Ineed coffee for this.”
I pulled away from Cassie, ignoring the flash of hurt on her face, and practically stumbled to the counter to pour myself a cup of coffee. Grabbing a carton of almond milk from the fridge, I returned to the table to doctor up my drink, ignoring my bodyguard’s penetrating gaze.
“Let’s back up,” I said after I took my first sip of coffee. “I want to separate fact from fiction. Tell me exactly what it means that you think I’m your fated mate.”
Even as I said that, I somehow knew it was true. Five minutes ago I couldn’t have explained this sense of closeness, of connection, of peace that I had when I was around Cassie. I’d beat myself up last night after I went to bed, trying to figure outwhat had gotten into me to kiss her the way I did. But now that she’d named it, now that she’d mentioned fated mates, it was all making a lot more sense. But I needed to know more.
Cassie looked thoughtful.
“When you’re a supernatural kid, you hear these stories about finding your fated mate. It sounds like a fairy tale. There’s one person in the entire universe who was born to be with you. Your perfect match. The other half of your soul. You see someone for the first time, and you know immediately whether or not they’re your mate.”
“How?”
“I think it depends. Definitely your inner being, the vampire or wolf or whatever you have, knows right away if you’ve met your mate. It starts freaking out, instinctively wanting to bite the person to seal the bond and join their souls together forever. Then there’s the smell. Your fated mate has a distinctive scent, it’s hard to describe but it’s like the best thing you ever smelled in your life.”
“I was all sweaty the first time you met me,” I said suspiciously.
Cassie shrugged. “The scent of your mate still comes through. It’s like, you know how you get close to someone and you can smell the coffee on their breath, but you can also smell their shampoo or cologne or whatever?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s like that. And then there’s the touch test. When you touch your mate for the first time, skin on skin, it’s like touching a live wire. There’s a surge of energy which is the initial creation of the mate bond.”
“I thought that was just lust,” I said, almost to myself.
“That too,” Cassie laughed.
“You put all that together… the wisdom of the other part of you, the scent, the zip of electricity, and suddenly you feel different. Like all your priorities have shifted and your mate is the most important thing in the world now. Some people describe it as finding a soulmate or finding some part of you that you didn’t know was missing. Whatever it is, you meet your fated mate, and you know. You know that they’ll never be another person for you again, even if you don’t end up together, because no one else exists for you now, in a romantic sense.”
“But not all supernatural beings have a fated mate?”
“No. In fact a high percentage of us don’t. It’s more common with shifters to find their mates compared to vamps and the fae or some of the other nonanimal beings. Most supes simply find someone they’re compatible with and fall in love the regular way, just like humans do.”
I thought about this for a few seconds.
“What about your parents? Were they fated mates?”
She huffed out a bitter laugh that I didn’t understand.
“No. My parents settled for each other, or at least my dad settled for my mom, and he never let anyone forget it.”
There was a world of meaning behind those words, but somehow I knew not to pry. I had the strongest instinct that I should comfort her. Deciding to go with it, I walked around the table and put my arm around her shoulder, pulling Cassie into a one-armed hug. She stiffened, then almost instantly relaxed, leaning her head back against my shoulder with a small sigh.
We stayed like that for a few seconds before I returned to my chair.
“What does this all mean for us?” I asked, deciding that I shouldn’t press her about her parents. It was obviously a sensitive subject.
“My number one priority right now is to keep you safe. That has to come before anything personal. Lois has already put a second agent on this project to ensure that I don’t get distracted.”
“Wait, your boss knew I was your fated mate before I did?”
“Yeah, I’m obligated to report to her anything that could impact my ability to do my job. In fact, knowing what you know now, I should give you the option to work with another close protection agent.”
She looked miserable, like the words were causing her physical pain.
“You want someone else to be my bodyguard?” I asked in surprise.
