Chapter 1
Chapter One
Aitor
Present Day
“ A re you packed?” My mate had picked up his phone on the first ring, which made me think he’d been scrolling social media instead of getting his things together for our trip. After five years together, I knew how he operated. He’d wait until the very last minute and shove things haphazardly into a bag, hoping for the best when he unpacked at his destination.
“No, not even close. I wish you’d just tell me where we’re going.”
I rolled my eyes. We’d already had this conversation before I’d left for work that morning. “That would defeat the whole purpose of it being a surprise, my love.”
“Ugh. I hate you, Tor.”
A smile spread across my face. “You’re a terrible liar.”
“I know.” Ikal let out an exasperated sigh on the other end of the line, and I could almost see the way his lips turned down as he let out the little huff. “What time will you be home?”
“I have one more patient, then I’ll be on my way.” I glanced at my watch. “You have an hour and a half. Maybe two if I get stuck in traffic.”
“Oh good.”
“But we have to leave the second I get there if we are going to make our flight.”
“And you’re sure you don’t want to tell me where we’re going?”
“I’m sure.”
Another big sigh. “Fine.”
“I love you, maitea.”
“I love you too. Hurry home.” There was a wistful note in Ikal’s voice. The last six months had been hard for him—for both of us—which was why we needed this little vacation. I wished there was a way I could take my mate away for a month so he could relax and let me pamper him, but between his job and mine, we’d have to make due with only a week.
“Be there as soon as I can.”
The call disconnected, and my fingers traced over the framed photo of the two of us that held pride of place on my desk. It had been five years since we’d met, and his face was still so precious to me. His features—wavy light brown hair, the perfect cerulean blue of his eyes framed by long dark lashes, the strong lines of his jaw, the freckles across his nose, and his full, soft lips—were as familiar to me by now as my own, but they never ceased to steal the breath from my lungs. Ikal was as gorgeous and as perfect today as he had been the minute I’d laid eyes on him.
In the photo, my claiming bite on his neck was barely visible above the collar of his shirt, but I knew it was there, and my cock twitched remembering the night I’d claimed him as my mate. I’d known since the moment I laid eyes on him that he was fated to be mine.
And that love and desire for him hadn’t faded even a fraction in all the moments since.
Not even over the last six months when Ikal had tried treatment after treatment to try to get pregnant.
Not even when sex became a scheduled routine planned only for days of supposed maximum fertility.
My mate had been brave through it all, still smiling and carrying on as if his heart wasn’t breaking every single time a pregnancy test showed one line instead of two. Ikal wanted a large family to love, and it had been killing me to not be able to give him the thing his heart desired most.
It wasn’t uncommon for sea turtle shifters to have trouble conceiving. They didn’t have a traditional heat cycle, so it was difficult to know when they had the best chance of getting pregnant—it was why sea turtle shifter nests were so fiercely protected—but I had started to feel like maybe it was my fault. I was forty to Ikal’s twenty-nine, and while we were fated, we were the only jaguar and sea turtle pairing I knew of.
I’d even spoken with my colleague Dr. Everett Voda—who was a shifter OBGYN and a little bit of an expert about mixed species pairings—about our likelihood of even being able to have babies. He’d agreed to consult on Ikal’s fertility treatment and given us hope that we would be successful.
We were between treatment cycles, and we needed to make a decision about how, and if, we were going to proceed.
But first, my mate deserved some time away, and I wanted to spend the week worshiping him and reminding him he was all I needed in this world. Babies were a bonus. Having Ikal by my side was the real prize. He was my best friend, my partner, and the undisputed love of my life.
Before I met Ikal, I was going through the motions of living, but one day, one twist of fate, changed everything. He brought sunshine into my life, and I’d do anything to protect his light.
Anything.