The only thing annoying Camden right then was that he hadn’t realized she was his mate sooner. Subconsciously, he’d mentally segmented the most vulnerable parts of himself—had shoved them into a dark corner of his mind where they could never be touched. In doing so, he’d unwillingly stopped him and his cat from being able to recognize who Aspen was to them … and almost cheated them of their mating.
“It doesn’t make you feel trapped or anything?” she asked.
He frowned. “What, the bond? No. Not at all. I figure you’d pick up on it through our connection if I did.”
“I can sense that you’re agitated about something.”
“Only that I never bound myself to you a lot sooner. It’s my fault that we both spent so many years reluctant to reach for something that we had no clue was ours to take. If I wasn’t so messed up, we would have sensed it.” He could have been the first and only man to ever have had her. Instead, he’d had to watch her date other people, and vice versa.
“There’s no sense in blaming yourself—”
“But I do. And your question was stupid, by the way. Believe me, I don’t dislike a single thing about the bond. Especially since you now can’t claim that we shouldn’t live together.”
She snickered. “You would get all smug that you’re getting your way.”
Rolling them onto their sides, Camden smoothed her hair away from her face. “Speaking of smug … Bailey’s gonna be exactly that when she realizes she was right about you and me being mates.”
Aspen blinked. “She said that to you? When?”
“At the deli. She was encouraging me to claim you.”
“Really? Havana was having the same talk with me while we sat waiting for you to get served. They’re a meddlesome pair,” Aspen grumbled, but her mouth curved.
“I thought Havana might have been trying to convince you to insist that we go back to being friends.”
“No, far from it. She and Bailey don’t disapprove of you, if that’s what you thought. You’re important to them. They don’t push their way into your space; they respect that you don’t want that. But they do care about you. And, yeah, you’re right in thinking Bailey will be smug she was right. So will Havana, for that matter.” Aspen ghosted her fingers down the side of his face. “Did you suspect it?”
“On some level, yes. But I told myself we’d know if we were mates.”
“So did I. It just would have sucked to be wrong, so I didn’t let myself hope. Well, not until my girls pushed me to.”
“It’s good that they did. If you’d played it safe, we might never have known the truth.”
“Even if they hadn’t meddled, I don’t think I’d have denied wanting more when you asked. I wouldn’t have wanted to live a life ‘wondering’ what could have been.” She winced as his fingers absently drifted over the claw marks on her thigh.
He glanced down at them. “I didn’t realize they were so deep.”
“Don’t think I didn’t feel that little spurt of satisfaction you felt when you realized how pronounced the brands are.”
“In case you’ve forgotten, my back is all marked to shit, thanks to you.”
“Are you complaining?”
“No. I’m yours to mark.” He pressed a kiss to her mouth. “And you’re mine. Always have been. Always will be.”
“What a lucky dog you are.”
His lips quirked. “I don’t know about ‘dog,’ but yeah I’m lucky. My tiger didn’t like the canine reference, though. You would not believe how content he is right now. He wants some time with you.”
“Then you’d better let him out or he’ll be back to his usual cranky self.” Aspen edged back to give Camden more room, and then he shifted. The huge white tiger snuggled into her like a damn lap cat. “Hey, Sabretooth. Ew, don’t lick my face.”
He rumbled a series of low, contented sounds as she stroked his fur and murmured nonsense to him. It wasn’t long before her inner animal started feeling left out.
“My bearcat wants to play with you for a while,” she said, knowing Camden would communicate the meaning of her words. “Try not to bite her too hard this time.” With that, she gave her animal supremacy.
Twittering, the bearcat shook her body to settle into her fur. Her mate licked at her head, grooming her. She did not want to be groomed. She wanted to play.
She pushed to her hindlegs, raised her front legs up in the air, and playfully pounced on her mate. The big cat didn’t even flinch.
It didn’t surprise Aspen when her girls turned up the next morning to check on her. They weren’t working that day, so Havana and Bailey wouldn’t otherwise have seen her if they hadn’t stopped by. The moment the two females entered the apartment, their eyes went wide—probably because they’d detected the change in Aspen’s scent.