Chapter 7 Asher
ASHER
My eyes were closed, but there was something unfamiliar on my chest. It wasn’t heavy, but the scent had me wanting to curl up with it and go back to sleep.
My eyes snapped open after rustling to my right. Weston had his arm draped over me, and he was drooling a little. I could have wiped it but didn’t want to disturb him.
That’s not why. He marked you last night.
Shush and let me enjoy this moment before I have to consider the repercussions of that act.
Weston’s beard was softer than it appeared, and memories of him brushing it over my cheek resurfaced. I resisted the urge to run my fingers through it before I was swept up in reality.
Heat swarmed over my skin, but instead of desire, this was a stinging version that signaled I was about to panic.
Weston marked me, and my hand went to the curve of my neck where the bite had already healed, but a scar remained. My mate was human, so was it just passion that caused him to leave his mark? Perhaps it was instinct. I couldn’t delve into my mate’s head.
You didn’t give him your mark in return.
Because he doesn’t know.
Claiming involved both participants being in agreement. Weston had no clue about shifters. They didn’t exist in his human world except in fantasy. And now we were bound together in a way he couldn’t understand. We’d done this ass-backward.
My beast was confused by that last remark, but I wasn’t about to explain it to him.
I'd let Weston mark me without telling him the truth. My bear didn’t understand why I couldn’t bite my mate now. We were side by side, his bare shoulder was beside mine.
What’s the problem?
But if Weston and I had any chance of beginning our lives together, nothing could happen until I explained who we were to one another.
I slipped out of bed and gathered my clothes from where I’d scattered them across the floor. The mattress squeaked as Weston rolled over and buried his face in the pillow. It was the one I’d slept on, and it must scent like me.
Instinct was pushing me, just as my bear was doing, to bite or scratch him, but I resisted the urge and got dressed.
The hallway was empty, and the B&B was quiet early in the morning. I made it to my own room, grabbed my keys, and was out the front door before I could talk myself into going back.
My mind was on my mate and going around in circles about how to resolve this dilemma as I drove to pack territory. I’d made a mistake leaving because Weston would wake up alone and think I’d deserted him, that what we had was just a one-night stand.
I slammed on the brakes and almost swerved onto the other side of the narrow road. Not that there was much of an “other side” because it wasn’t much wider than the truck.
But I had to get my head sorted before I could return, and there was one person who could help me with that, my best friend. We might disagree about almost everything, but I needed a different point of view.
Anita was in the pack’s communal kitchen making coffee. She took one look at my face and poured a second cup without a word.
“Rough night?” She slid the mug across the counter to me.
“You could say that.” I wrapped my hands around the warmth and tried to figure out where to start.
Anita had been my best friend since the day Aaron brought me home. She was two years older than me, and being the Alpha’s daughter, she’d appointed herself my protector from day one. We'd grown up and hunted together and argued about everything. If anyone would understand, it would be her.
Or she'd tell me I was a fool. That was also possible.
“I found my mate,” I blurted out.
Her eyebrows rose, but her face didn’t register shock. She also didn’t jump up and squeal and yell congratulations. “Ummm, that's good, right? Or it should be. What happened?”
“He's human.”
“Ah.” She took a sip of coffee and studied me over the rim. “And you're freaking out because we don’t trust humans and you especially never wanted anything to do with them?”
That was significant in her eyes, though that hadn’t entered my head when I met Weston.
“He doesn't know about shifters. He doesn't know what I am or what we are to each other.” The words tumbled out.
“And last night he marked me. He bit down and claimed me, and he doesn't even understand what he did.
And I didn't mark him back because how could I?
He'd wake up with a mate bite and no explanation.”
“Asher.” She set down her cup. “Breathe.”
Oh yeah, breathing was a thing. I did as she suggested, but it didn't help much.
“That’s what mates do.” She reached out and took my hand. “The universe guides them toward one another and they mark each other. Sometimes it's messy and complicated and nothing goes the way you planned. But it's still a gift.”
That made me teary, thinking of what Weston had given me, and yet I’d taken off to get my head on straight.
“A gift, yeah, maybe it is when mates are upfront about who they are.” I stared into the coffee cup, hoping it’d provide me with answers.”I lied to him and let him assume I was human too. How is that a great start to a relationship?”
“You have to tell him the truth.”
“Just like that?”
“You're scared. I get it. But running away isn't going to fix anything. And it's sure as heck not fair to him.”
She was right, but the thought of going back and facing Weston and explaining brought on a bout of nausea.
“What if he doesn't want me once I tell him?” Anita couldn’t predict the future, and it was unfair of me to expect her to provide me with an answer.
She tilted her head. “If that happens, he’s a fool and you deserve better.”
Big problem with that. I wouldn’t find anyone else. Tales of shifters who rejected their fated mate had been handed down through the pack generations. It never worked out well for either one, but who was to say that was worse than spending a life with someone you hated.
“But you won't know unless you try.” She paused. “But he marked you, and though he might not understand what he did, some part of him did. A part of him chose you. Give him a chance to choose you again.”
I avoided telling her Weston and the scientist were the same person because I didn’t want to hear her opinion. If that made me a coward, so be it. I’d wear the label as long as I got to spend my life with Weston.
When I made it back to Bramble Woods, it was getting dark. The B&B was quiet when I let myself in, and Bobby had a pencil tucked behind his ear when he looked up from his desk.
“Hi, Asher. You left early today.”
I told him I’d had errands to run and asked him if Weston was around.
“No, he headed out a while ago. You might find him at Mike’s.” He added that Weston said the wifi was better at the restaurant than the B&B. He chuckled. “Not that it’s great anywhere in Bramble Woods.”
I headed back out before Bobby could ask me any more questions.
Mike’s was busier than it had been last night, and I scanned the room, looking for dark hair and a beard, but didn't see him. But there was a man sitting alone at the bar, nursing a beer.
Memories rushed into my head as though someone had fast-forwarded a film. I recognized that face. It was a lot older than when I’d last seen him at six years old, and his hair was streaked with gray.
I dredged his name from my memory. Zach. And he’d been kind to me as a kid.
“Zach?”
He looked up, and his expression was blank, but then his eyes widened. “Do I know you?”
“You did.” I put my head close to his. “My name’s Asher, and I’m the den Alpha's son, or I was.”
The color drained from his face. “But Asher disappeared, and they never found the body.”
I pulled back my collar and showed the scar that ran across my shoulder from Kipp’s boot, not the fresh one from Weston's teeth. I summarized the details about my stepfather and being rescued by the pack.
“You have your omega father’s eyes,” he said. “I always thought something was wrong about that day. Kipp came back alone and said you'd wandered off and that he couldn't find you.”
My stepfather was savvy enough to have tracked me if that was what really happened.
“I left after you disappeared.” He got a faraway look in his eyes. “I couldn't stay in the den, not when Kipp played the grieving stepparent. Your father was never the same afterward, though.”
“You couldn't have known, and I survived. I'm okay.”
Zach slid off the stool and hugged me. “You are the rightful heir to the den.”
But my mind was on Weston, not if I would ever take my place as den Alpha.