Chapter Five
Zephyr
“How about a long, hot shower?” Cypress asked, picking me up off the bed. My phone buzzed, and I sighed. “Go turn on the water, please. I’ll meet you there.”
“You got it, mate. It’s probably your shop going super viral again, and someone wants to make Trees a franchise.” He smirked, well aware that franchising was a hard no for me.
“Never!” I ignored the phone for a few moments, watching him go. His fast metabolism and shifter physiology kept him in peak condition no matter how much ice cream he ate.
Lucky.
The notification was just an email, but there were others I hadn’t noticed, and I spent a few minutes answering them.
Until Cypress came back into the bedroom and put his hands on his hips, drawing all of my attention. “The water’s hot, mate.”
“Is it? Hey, look at this.” I held up my phone. “I keep getting these ads and emails about a Mail-Order Matings app? It says, Have a mate? want another one? Form your own reverse harem. What does that even mean?”
Cypress pressed his lips together and came over, sitting next to me. “How long have you been getting these?”
“A few days. It’s crazy though, right?”
He studied the ad. A little too long. “I believe this is an app geared to shifters. At least I think I’ve heard that somewhere.
“I’m human, married, and have the mate of my dreams. Who else would I want, when I have you?”
He handed the phone back but said nothing else to me about it. “Shower, mate. If you don’t get to sleep, you’re going to be very tired and grumpy.”
I scoffed. “I am not…” I let it sit for a moment. “Okay, I’m grumpy when I’m tired.”
We showered together. Cypress washed me head to toe and mated me again with my back pressed against the marble of the shower wall. He picked me up as though I weighed nothing.
I took my time washing him and then we got out together and toweled each other off. Another part of our curated routine.
Who could want anything more?
But Cypress hadn’t said anything else about the ad or the fact that I kept getting it on my phone. We had never talked about anything remotely close to a reverse harem and I’d never considered it. I thought it was something from romance novels, not real life.
But when I asked him about the ad, he went silent.
Was my mate not satisfied with what we had?
We dressed in pajamas, and he curled up next to me. I turned my phone on airplane mode, as I always did for the night, but I stared at it as Cypress’ breaths grew deeper behind me.
The ad revolved in my thoughts. The woman, clearly happy between two men, looked a lot like me. Long blonde hair. Arm wrapped over the neck of one man. The other man’s hands on her waist.
It felt wrong to even think about such a situation. It felt like cheating.
I was happy with Cypress. The happiest I’d ever been in my life. I owned a thriving business.
It would be selfish to even consider anything else. And I wasn’t considering anyone else. How could I?
When we first got together and Cypress told me about being a shifter, he was explicit.
Shifter marks and mating was for life. Stronger and more solid than a marriage certificate could ever be, although we had married, mostly because my family expected it.
Even if we parted, Cypress would never find another mate or wife.
He would long for me, as would his wolf, until he passed away.
“You’re thinking too loud, baby,” Cypress cooed in my ear. “Tomorrow can wait.”
I nodded and snuggled closer to his heated body. He wrapped his arms tighter around my stomach and kissed the back of my neck.
Even as I closed my eyes, the ad stayed in my mind.
Cypress was right. Tomorrow could wait. And I couldn’t let something as silly as a randomly placed ad fuck with my sanity.