Chapter 21
CLIO
My breath stalled. “What?”
“I want to be more than your fuck toy. I want you to give us a real shot.”
Oh.
Oh.
I was trying to kick him out while he was telling me he wanted more, not less. Tears swam in my eyes again. Why in the hell was I still crying? Jeez, I needed to get a grip.
“Um, I–”
“I can tell by your reaction that we need to talk.” He massaged the back of my neck. “We haven’t spent much time together not fucking.”
I pulled back enough that our eyes met. My thoughts were a muddled mess. “Yeah. Okay.”
He grinned, and it was genuine and natural and all for me.
My heart was still pounding over discovering he was a shifter and all the unresolved emotions that had followed.
I couldn’t date another wolf. I wouldn’t.
But kicking Sam out right now felt like an impossibility. Even if I still wanted to, he’d told me he wouldn’t go.
I’m not gonna be punished for what some other wolf did to you.
He’d let me set the rules up until now, but I had to say, I found his assertion of authority hot. Our age difference completely disappeared every time he turned dominant with me.
I tucked my head against his chest and breathed in his scent. It calmed me. I felt safe with Sam.
Yeah, maybe it was time to renegotiate our arrangement. He’d proven tonight he was worth more than just the amazing orgasms.
He might actually be… partner material.
Wait. No.
He would be if he weren’t a wolf.
“I can’t be with you beyond sex,” I blurted.
Sam’s brows slammed down. “Why not?”
“Won’t you eventually need to mate a wolf or something?
” I couldn’t help the bitterness from spilling into my voice.
I’d had the rug ripped out from under my feet before.
Ted and I hadn’t talked about the future, but I’d known his secret.
I’d watched him miraculously healed from burns over half his body after a crash and without a hospital and way too quickly.
After that, he confided in me what he was.
I’d been fascinated. I’d thought we were a team. Thought we had a future together.
I didn’t care about him anymore, and Sam was right–I shouldn’t punish him for what Ted had done, but I’d be an idiot to make the same mistake twice.
Sam relaxed, his signature confidence returning.
“No, I won’t. Come here, Sparks.” He grabbed the Prosecco bottle and set it on the bedside table.
“We’ll drink and talk right here.” He settled on the bed, his back propped up against the headboard and patted the blanket beside him. “I need to explain something to you.”
I eyed him for a moment then climbed in beside him and let him gather me against his body. Part of me was still trying to resist his charm. Especially now that I knew he was a wolf. But another part of me still needed comfort from my breakdown. My thoughts rolled into a tangled knot.
Sam handed me a glass of Prosecco. “What do you know about mates?”
I downed half the glass in a couple of gulps, trying to reconcile my conflicting emotions as warmth seeped back into my limbs. “I know you have to mate with another wolf; otherwise, your kids won’t be able to shift.”
Sam scrubbed a hand across his jaw, brows knitted together. “Well…it’s true that diluting the bloodline can lead to the inability to shift.” He searched my face with a mixture of concern and sympathy. “Is that why you didn’t tell JT’s dad about him?”
A ball of emotion that felt like it had been stuck under my ribs since the day Ted broke things off with me suddenly surged forward. I tried to trap it. To keep it contained. I hated losing control.
My nose burned. Throat closed. Sam’s compassion made it all flow out. I nodded, tears leaking from my eyes.
Sam pulled me closer and kissed the top of my head. “Fuck, Clio. That sucks. You shouldn’t have been alone through all that.”
I swiped at the tears with the back of my hand.
“When he was breaking it off with me, Ted made it plain that his family and pack thought I was a lesser species. It was fine for him to have sex with me because sex isn’t a big deal with them.
But long term? He said it couldn’t happen because they’d never accept me.
If we stayed together and had kids, they wouldn’t want a halfling. ”
Sam groaned. “Fuck. That’s low. Really low.”
I sniffled. “Yeah. But at least he didn’t tell them that I knew his secret, or he said they’d have my memory wiped.” I searched his face to see if that was even a real thing, or if Ted had just been trying to scare me.
Sam winced, and I knew it had been true.
“I haven’t been able to talk to anyone about this because I’ve been protecting his damn secret. Well, it’s JT’s secret, too, I guess. So you knew about JT?” I wondered.
“Yeah.” Sam tapped his nose. “He smells like a wolf.” He smiled. “And climbs like one. He’s strong and fearless.”
My mouth quirked because my little man was both of those things, which scared me to death sometimes. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“I would’ve, but there are rules.” Sam’s forehead wrinkled with concern.
“Right. The rules.” I pushed away from him, that heaviness returning. Wolf packs and their damn rules. “Because humans aren’t supposed to know.”
“I figured you probably knew about our kind, since JT is half-wolf, but I couldn’t say anything until I knew for sure that you did.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Were you ever going to tell me?”
“Yeah, Sparks. I was. As soon as I could. Because you’re my mate.”
I blinked.
“Your mate?” I shook my head. What in the hell was he talking about? Was this another one of his smooth lines? “But…I’m not a shifter–just JT is.”
“See, that’s where your ex’s pack got it wrong. Shifters can mate humans. They do. It used to be unusual for a shifter’s fated mate to be human–forbidden, even–but it’s happening more and more often in our generation.”
“And you’ve decided I’m your mate?”
He shook his head. “No. I didn’t decide. Fate did.”
I stared at him. He’d totally lost me.
“There are mates, and there are fated mates. A mate is the shifter form of a spouse. A fated mate is determined by nature. It’s that one in a million chance. It’s when you’ve found “the one.”
“I knew the moment I caught your scent that you were mine.”