He nodded.
She nodded. Then: “So the pull I feel toward you, that’s the bond? That’s not me choosing anything, that’s just... the universe deciding?”
He shook his head and took her hands in his. “There’s always a choice, Zoe. Always. We can leave right now, and that would be it.”
He said it evenly, but she saw what it cost him. “But we’d always be connected somehow. Even if we walked away.”
"The bond can be–” He swallowed. “Broken."
“It can?”
“Yes. I’d need to work out the specifics. As the Alpha, I’m the only one who can do it, and I’m not sure how it would be for me, but yes. The bond can be broken.”
“Even this early?”
“I’m not entirely certain, but there must be a way. Nothing is stronger than free will.”
“Then why? Why make me feel like this for you at all, if I can just walk away?”
He stroked her cheek with so much tenderness it made her eyes sting. “The bond is the universe telling us we could be twoparts of the same whole. But it’s not a cage.” His thumb traced her jaw. “It shows us the door. We still have to choose to walk through it.”
She turned the explanation over in her head. “So it’s not an imperative. It’s more like... a very strong suggestion from the universe.”
“That’s a very good way to put it, yes.”
She shifted to face him completely and crossed her legs, pulling a strand of grass to have something for her hands to do other than reach for him. “I'm not entirely surprised.”
Rex growl-scoffed. “You were surprised enough, Moonbeam.”
“I was surprised because I didn’t expect to have my suspicions confirmed, not because I hadn’t had them.”
“You suspected?”
“Well, yeah. I’ve been thinking about peeling the clothes off of you since the first second of seeing you close, and while you are entirely too hot for your own good, my reaction was way out of proportion. And when I’m with you, I feel...” She searched for the word. “Safe.”
“Home,” he offered.
“Yes. Which is weird, because I’ve never felt displaced. I’ve always known where I belonged. But with you, it’s different.” She shrugged, a little helplessly. “I couldn’t make myself believe it, though, because I’m human.”
“So is Callie. And a few other mates in the pack. It’s not unheard of.”
“I guess.” She pulled her knees up and hugged them, letting the chaos of it settle over her. The thoughts versus the feelings and the terrifyingly inconvenient enormity of it all. “So now what? What am I supposed to do with this? I’ve known you for five minutes, Rex.Five minutes.I don’t know your coffee order. I don’t even know if youdrinkcoffee. I know you eat beef becausewe had one dinner together. One.” She stood because sitting felt impossible. “The terrifying part isn’t that I don’t feel it. The terrifying part is that Ido. So hard.” She put her fists on her hips. “I’m a rational person. I make lists. I think things through. And here I am, not wanting to.” Defeated, she plopped back down, half on the blanket, half on the grass. “What if I'm not ready to want what the bond wants me to want? To accept it?” She really disliked how small her voice sounded right now. “Is it okay that I’m terrified? Because I feel like I’m supposed to be more... sure.”
He sighed, then took her wrist and slowly, gently, pulled. She went to him. Of course she did. It didn’t matter that he was the reason for her very reasonable freak out; he was still where it was safe to have said freak out. When he settled her on his lap and wrapped his arms around her, her shoulders dropped about three inches immediately. “You’re not supposed to be anything.” He kissed her hair, started stroking her back in long, steady passes. “We can take as much time as we need. Hell, we can stop seeing each other entirely if that’s what feels right for you.”
“Thinking about not seeing you again makes me want to puke.”
“Let’s not do that, then,” he said, and the relief in his voice was so thick it made her sigh. “We can just... date, I guess. Get to know each other.”
“Platonically?”
“Platonically.”
He did not love the idea, that much was obvious, but he would stand behind it if she asked, which only made her swoony on top of everything else. “You’re a living thirst trap, Rex. I don’t know if I trust myself enough to promise I’ll stick to that.”
“Honesty for honesty: if you’re the one who starts it, I don’t know if I trust myself enough to promise I’ll stop it.”
“Gotta love honesty.”
