Chapter 8
MIKA
Kissing Gabe was my new favorite thing, but first, I needed to prove my worth by building him some bookcases. Then, we could sit down and talk about the future.
Mom's old bookcases were the kind with a pressed panel backing folded between two eight-foot boards.
When unfolded, they would become the sides and back of the bookcase.
They weren't super fancy, and the dark cherry finish would make Gabe's apartment look even smaller, but that was a minor inconvenience compared to him slipping on a pile of books, hitting his head, and possibly dying on his hardwood floor.
My mate couldn't die the moment I'd finally found him. My alpha instincts had kicked into overdrive when my mom said I could have him.
Gabe helped me with the bookshelf hauling and building, but I could tell something had changed. He wasn't acting like the same carefree omega as when we watched the Meerkat show.
At first, I was worried, but then I caught a few glances when he didn't know I was looking.
He liked what he saw. I only hoped it was enough to get past the force of nature that was my mom.
She was the perfect storm of bossiness, mom instincts, and determination.
Where she was an unstoppable force, I worried my mate was an immovable object, or at least uncertain. After all, we had just met.
He surprised me by asking me to hang out while he sorted the books scattered throughout his apartment into new piles in front of their respective bookcases.
"You could stream more meerkats, if you want.
" He toed at a pile of paint canvases on the floor.
"I binged the rest of the series, so if you want to find something else, I understand. "
"What if I told you there's another meerkat show?"
His gaze snapped to mine. "Really?"
"This one's about rescued meerkats reintroduced to the wild."
"Yes, please!"
I grinned at the return of his sassy tone as I searched for the series on my phone. "Do you mind if I stream it?" His television looked smart enough to handle casting.
"Only if you use my Wi-Fi." He dug through a pile on the floor until he found a sheet of paper torn from a notebook and spread it out on the couch beside me. In neat handwriting, it read, "Single4Life," and "N0t4U."
"The top one is my router name, the other is the password.
" He blushed. "When I first moved in, Becca had gotten in a huge fight with Bruce.
He thought he would fly home for her birthday, but then flights were too expensive and he stayed at school for spring break.
That's when we made our pact to be single for life. "
"A pact she's breaking next week," I reminded him. "Does that bother you?"
"Not at all! I knew she wasn't serious. She's been in love with Bruce since before he could drive. He sent her so many sappy love letters."
I remembered him writing a few of those letters while we talked around him at the high school lunch table. I'd always been envious. From the moment he met Becca at band contest, he'd known she was the one, and then he'd spent years convincing her that fated mates existed.
"I'm not the best pen pal." I grinned, and he laughed.
"Neither am I. I was fucking lucky when she decided to stay here instead of going off to North Carolina with him. Can't string two sentences together to save my life. She would have gotten tons of cat pictures and drawings whenever I remembered to send them."
Gabe and I lived in the same city, only a half-hour drive apart, but part of me selfishly wanted to receive an envelope filled with pictures, drawings, and the like. I returned my focus to my phone, typing in the Wi-Fi information before handing it back to him.
"Thanks for trusting me with this," I said.
He blushed. "It's no big deal."
My gaze caught on the router name before he folded the paper and tucked it into his pocket. "You said Becca wasn't serious. Were you?"
"About staying single?" He laughed. "You haven't met my dad."
From what he'd told me on the drive back to his apartment, it would take a lot to keep my face neutral for that first meeting, probably at Bruce and Becca's wedding.
His dad had boxed up all Gabe's books, knowing he was moving to an efficiency apartment.
Then, he'd said he needed the boxes back a week later to help someone else move, leaving Gabe with no storage for his books.
"How long have you lived here?" I asked.
"Almost a year." His cute blush was back across the bridge of his nose. "I know, I should have looked into buying bookcases months ago."
"I'm glad you didn't." I cleared my throat. "I didn't mean like … I didn't want you to trip over a stack of books and break your leg or anything. I'm glad I could help, even if that meant introducing you to my mom."
"She's lovely!" He planted his hands on his hips and frowned, reminding me of every interaction I'd had with Becca over the years, which was only a handful of times.
Bruce liked to keep her to himself. When we saw each other, it was my duty as his friend to tease her about Bruce, and she responded as his biggest cheerleader.
She had perfected the stance, shout, and ponytail toss. The only thing missing was a megaphone.
"Mom's a lot," I said. "I know this. Even she knows this. Everyone dating a Mears must answer to her. Every meerkat shifter therapist in the United States has probably heard of her."
Gabe dropped his arms to his side with a far-away look. "But she liked me."
"Of course she likes you!"
His gaze snapped to mine again, his expression a mixture of hope and anguish.
I wanted to punch whoever had told him he wasn't good enough.
Instead, I stood and raised my arms to my sides, inviting him in for a hug.
He crashed into me, burying his nose against my chest, and I held him, taking in the fruity mixture of aftershave, botanical hair products, and sugary omega scent.
"I like you," I whispered into his gelled curls.
"I like you, too," he said. "You're right, this is a lot."
I stepped back, hands resting on his shoulders, unable to let him go completely. "Thank you for telling me. What can I do to help?"
He shook his head. "Stop being so perfect, sit your ass on this couch, and watch some meerkats while I sort through the wreckage of my life."
I sank onto the couch, and he flopped beside me, a hand raised to his forehead. Then, he bounced to his feet and winked. "I am also a lot, in case you missed the memo."
I watched him bend at the knees to grab the first leaning stack of true crime novels.
"Let me know if you need help."
"You're here." He flashed a grin at me over his shoulder before turning back to the bookcase closest to the apartment door. "That's enough."
An overbearing alpha would have picked up stack after stack of books and started shelving them willy-nilly.
I still felt the pull to help, but I silenced it with a few clicks on my phone.
Once the show finished buffering, the cheerful introductory music played, and I settled down to watch another hour of meerkat education.
By Sunday afternoon, everyone in my family knew my fated mate's first name.
I wasn't even surprised when I got a text notification from Bruce the minute I stepped onto the front porch after family dinner.
He sent me the location of a bar on the way back to my apartment, and I agreed to meet him there.
"Leaving already?" Mom asked from behind me.
I turned to face her, holding my phone up so she could see Bruce's smiling face at the top of our chat conversation. "Bruce wants to meet me for a drink."
She frowned. "The builders aren't going to wait forever."
I'd come outside to avoid any talk of moving back to the compound, but Mom wouldn't let me go without reminding me of her offer. "Gabe's not ready for that."
"That's what you said about Sunday dinner." She rolled her eyes. "You're looking at a ten-month build. That's how long you have to convince him to move in with you when it's done."
"Mom."
"Mika, my second-oldest child, oldest son, and nearest and dearest to my heart, after your dear dad and siblings, of course."
I chuckled at her contradictory description, which she often paraded out to guests, along with Dad, my older sister, three younger siblings, and me. "Mom, he's not like us."
"How so?" She leaned back against the side of the house under the porch awning, drawing me in. Just when I thought she would be combative, she always turned it around with genuine curiosity.
"His alpha dad left when he was young."
"Left the home, but he's still in the area, or …"
"Or." I didn't know where Gabe's dad had moved, but I got the impression it was too far to drive in a day.
"That's rough," she said. "His omega dad never remarried?"
I shook my head. "He has really high standards, or so Gabe says."
"The usual standards?" She grinned at me, but the humor didn't reach her eyes. "You know where you can stick those alpha standards, baby."
"I know, but it wouldn't be the first time an omega rejected me for not meeting them."
"He's your fated," she said. "I could smell it on him." This time, her eyes lit up when she laughed. "It's weird—his tattoo almost seems like it's scratch and sniff. His scent is stronger there."
"Mom! Why were you sniffing my mate's tattoo?" I leaned up against the stucco wall beside her, letting it hold me up now that the threat of confrontation had passed.
"It was completely innocent, I swear!" She bumped her shoulder against mine. "I asked to see it, and yes, his scent was stronger."
"Omegas have scent glands on their wrists."
She rocked her shoulder against mine again. "Did you forget he's human?"
No, I hadn't, but, "Point taken. Okay, I'll give his wrist a sniff when I see him again."
"Which is when?" She shuffled sideways and opened the door behind her back, signifying our conversation had run its course.
"Saturday, at the latest." My phone dinged with another notification. "Shit. Bruce is waiting for me."
She leaned forward and kissed my cheek. "Text me when you get home."
"I will." I'd gotten off easy. Usually, she asked me to call her, and I would have to rehash everything we'd just said, along with whatever Bruce and I discussed at the bar. Maybe I was her favorite, after all.
The street in front of Bruce's hole-in-the-wall bar had no open parking spots.
I found a tiny lot behind the building, also full.
When I turned back onto the street after circling twice with no luck, I almost hit a fancy sports car angling into the street.
I slammed on the brakes and held up my hands, mouthing an apology they couldn't hear over the screech of tires as they peeled out.
Not how I'd wanted to find a spot, but I took it anyway.
It was easy to find my friend, the tallest man seated at the bar. Per usual, the humans steered clear of his alpha pheromones, so I had my pick of the stools beside him. I chose the one on his right.
"You and Gabe, huh," he said without looking up from his mug of tap beer.
"Hello to you, too." I gave the bartender my order, a virgin lime soda, since I still had to drive home.
"Nathan says you don't like him," I said, diving into the conversation I'd been dreading since my youngest brother had blurted it this morning.
"I don't dislike him." He sighed. "I've always been a little jealous, not gonna lie. Becca spends a lot of time with him. As long as we've known each other, he knew her first. He'll always know her better."
"Will he?" I took a sip of my drink through the metal straw, letting it cool my raspy throat before continuing. "She already lives with you. You see her more than he does, and she's going to share more of her days and dreams with you."
"They have a history." Bruce took a big swig of his beer and set it down with a sigh. "I missed out while I was away at school. She's still pissed about that."
"You came back," I reminded him. "You two worked out your shit, and you're still together." I couldn't believe I needed to remind him of this, but, "You're going to marry her in less than a week!"
"Shit, right? Where did the time go?" He chuckled. "I'm the luckiest man in the world. So many times, she should have left."
He took another long pull on his beer. I waited for him to swallow before reverting to our original topic of conversation. "Gabe is my fated mate."
Bruce still choked a little. "Mate? Are you sure?"
I nodded. "Pretty sure. He fell asleep on my couch Monday night, and I shifted just to be close to him."
Bruce shook his head, like he couldn't believe it. "You only shift at the compound, where you feel safe."
I nodded. "I felt safe with him. He's my mate."
"The heart wants what it wants, I suppose."
I'd expected congratulations from my best friend outside my family, not his resigned sigh. "What is it?" I asked. "What's wrong with him?"
"It's not him." Bruce turned toward me so I could watch the emotions play across his expressive face. "It's me, or alphas like me. Gabe's dad thinks I'm the prime example of what an alpha should be, and nothing I say dissuades him."
Bruce was taller than me and outweighed me by at least seventy-five pounds, if not a hundred or more. He was soft-spoken and gentle, but he also knew how to end a bar fight.
"He's human, and Gabe's alpha father was human from what I can tell, but his dad's beliefs about alphas rival the strictest wolf packs." Bruce rested his head in his hands. "I wanted you to know what you're getting into. Remember what happened to Steve?"
Poor Steve, alpha hamster shifter, had been rejected by his fated mate because he was half-a-foot shorter than she was. Gabe wasn't that shallow, was he? Would he reject me for not being alpha enough?
"Congratulations on finding him, at least. Knowing is half the battle." Bruce raised his mug, and I clinked my glass against it. Then, he drained the rest of his beer. "Enough about Gabe and his family. Buy me another drink. I'm getting married in less than a week!"
I obliged and listened to him vent his fears about married life. Thankfully, he strayed far from Gabe, or even Becca, to the same universal fears I had. "What if I'm not ready to start a family?" He asked.
"You know what Mom would say."
He chuckled. "Yeah. Start one anyway."
I clinked my glass against his mug again and we both drank. "Your dads would say the same thing," I reminded him. "You don't have to do it alone. You have a pack."
He sighed. "I know that, and Becca knows that, but her dad, and Gabe's dad …" he trailed off. "I'm not marrying her family."
We drank to that.