Chapter 8
GARNER
I’d been awake for a while, listening to the forest breathe, cataloging the small sounds that told me nothing was wrong. Being alert took on new meaning with my fated mate sleeping in my arms.
Elodie fit here, with me. She looked more rested. The shadows under her eyes were almost gone.
My cougar lifted his head in something close to contentment. He settled deeper inside me, no longer pacing. No longer snarling at the world. Just there. Watchful and protective. Satisfied for the moment.
But he wanted to mark her. To complete the mating process so every other shifter would know Elodie belonged to me.
I couldn’t do that without honesty. If I kept shielding her with half-truths, I’d be betraying something sacred, especially when she’d trusted me with her body last night.
I didn’t want to tarnish the precious gift she’d given me. The virginity she’d saved without knowing why she hadn’t felt desire until we met.
When I slid my palm down her spine, resolve tightened in my gut. I’d tell her everything today. But while she slept, I let myself lay here and watch over the woman who’d already changed my life without even knowing it.
Elodie stirred beneath my arm, a soft sound leaving her throat as she shifted closer. Her lashes fluttered, and when her eyes opened, they were still heavy with sleep.
I brushed a kiss over her mouth before she could fully orient herself. Taking her lips felt familiar already, but no less satisfying.
“I’m going to make coffee,” I murmured against her temple. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
She nodded sleepily, her fingers clutching at my shoulders like she wanted to anchor herself there. I covered her hand with mine for a brief second before forcing myself to move away.
The coffee maker hissed softly as I moved through the cabin with practiced ease. I checked the locks and scanned the tree line through the windows out of habit more than concern.
Everything was quiet. Safe. Still, the weight in my chest didn’t ease.
I poured a mug and brought it back to Elodie, setting it carefully on the nightstand. She smiled up at me and wrapped her hands around the ceramic as if it were something precious. “Thank you.”
My cougar was salivating over the length of her neck, so I nodded and stepped back. “Enjoy, baby. I’m gonna hop in the shower.”
I escaped to the bathroom, groaning when I caught a flash of my cougar in my eyes as I stared at my reflection in the mirror. “Fucking hell.”
I forced him down and hopped into the shower, bracing my hands against the tile while the water pounded against my shoulders.
My thoughts were still in the bedroom with my fated mate.
She hadn’t grown up knowing the supernatural world existed.
And from the little she had shared about her childhood so far, it seemed like she’d survived her whole life by being cautious, not trusting too much, and expecting nothing from people.
My cougar stirred again, irritated by my train of thought. He didn’t understand that Elodie didn’t know about him yet, so she couldn't choose all of me.
I shut off the water and exhaled slowly.
Telling her could send her running. But not telling her would be worse. I couldn’t put this off much longer.
When I stepped out of the bathroom, my beautiful mate sat up against the headboard with the blankets pooled around her waist. She’d tugged on the shirt I’d worn yesterday, the neckline slipping loosely over one bare shoulder.
The urge to mark her burned under my skin, but she deserved the truth before the claim.
Steam wafted from the mug in her hands, and she looked at me over the rim.
Her eyes were thoughtful as she murmured, “This might be a strange thing to say, but you moved really fast yesterday. Both times you rescued me, actually. Almost as if you already anticipated exactly where something was going to go wrong.”
My pulse leaped, but I kept my expression neutral.
“And you always seem to know where I am,” she added, her brows drawing together. “Even when I haven’t made any noise. You seem to notice everything.”
Her soft, almost impressed tone felt like an invitation to trust her with my secret. My cougar stirred, wanting to show off for Elodie.
I exhaled slowly, the weight of the moment settling deep into my bones. This was the edge I’d been standing on since I first scented her. “There’s something you need to know about me.”
She set her coffee down and tilted her head to the side. “Okay.”
I didn’t rush it. I stayed where I was, staying next to the doorway and giving her space. The last thing I wanted was for her to feel cornered.
“There are things in this world most people never see,” I began carefully. “Not because they aren’t real, but because knowing about them would change everything.”
Elodie didn’t interrupt. She just watched me with a curious expression, which gave me courage.
“Communities like mine protect those truths.” I swallowed the sudden lump in my throat. “My neighborhood isn’t exactly what it looks like from the outside.”
Her brow furrowed, but she didn’t run screaming from the room. Yet.
Instead, she simply asked, “In what way?”
I took another breath. “Some of us aren’t fully human.”
She blinked once. Then again. “That’s not what I expected you to say. At all.” She bit her bottom lip. “But it kind of also explains some things.”
That startled me. “It does?”
She nodded. “You move too fast. You hear things before they happen. And there have been a couple of times when your eyes looked off for a second.”
I held her gaze. “Because I’m a shifter.”
Silence stretched between us, and I rushed to fill it.
“I can change into a cougar. I was born this way. The animal is part of me, not something that takes over.”
“A cougar?” Her pulse fluttering faster in her throat was the only visible reaction to learning my secret. “And your neighbors? Laina, Evette, Marielle? Their husbands? The others?”
“Laina, Evette, Marielle, and Thora are all human. But Keane, Leyton, Artemis, and Rome are shifters. So are Aaron and Cressida.”
Her eyes widened as I listed off all the shifters she’d met. “Are they cougars like you?”
I shook my head, my inner animal snorting at her question. “No, Keane and Leyton are grizzlies. Artemis is a dragon. Rome and Aaron are wolves. You haven’t met Booker yet, but he’s one too.”
“And Cressida?”
I struggled with how to answer her. “She’s a rare kind of shifter. One whose existence has to remain a secret because the wrong people would hunt her for what she is.”
“Wow. Okay.” She tugged the sheet a little higher on her lap. “And how do I fit into all of this?”
“That’s the part I need to be very clear about.” I took a small step forward, holding her gaze so she could see how serious I was. “You don’t owe me anything. Knowing this doesn’t bind you to me. Where we go from here is your choice.”
Her eyes searched my face. “Why would I feel like I owe you something?”
She’d accepted the existence of shifters much better than I expected, but I worried this was going to be a step too far. “Every shifter has someone out there who’s meant to be with them. Their fated mate.”
She inhaled slowly. “And you think that’s me.”
“I know you are.” I moved just a little bit closer. “When I first caught your scent on the wind, it called to my cougar. Then I saw you in your car and felt desire for the first time.”
She didn’t recoil or laugh, merely whispered, “It was a first for me too.”
I nodded. “That can be confusing for human mates who don’t understand why their bodies don’t respond the way others do. But for shifters, it’s undeniable proof they’ve finally met their fated mate.”
Elodie shook her head with a soft laugh. “Yeah, I might not have any experience, but it’s pretty hard to miss the chemistry between us.”
Hope stirred deep within me. “Because we were meant to be together.”
“Thank you for telling me all this.” She twirled a lock of dark hair around a finger. “Even though it’s a lot to take in.”
It wasn’t acceptance, but it wasn’t rejection either.
“Would it help if I showed you my cougar?”