CHAPTER SEVEN
Maeve
Maeve had hoped things would go differently at the bar. It’s why she had gone there. Despite being a part of the hotel, it was often frequented by locals, including many of the local shifter clans. It was good cover, but Ronan wasn’t as easily fooled as she had hoped.
A part of her admired that about him. He wasn’t a pushover or a fool. She might have gotten over on him once when he didn’t know who she was, but she’d be hard-pressed to push him further. The worst part was the longing she felt for him.
“Rebekah, have you ever met a shifter that you felt connected to in some way?” she asked over lunch the following day.
“Connected? Like how?” Rebekah asked, slowly navigating her way through a plate of fish and chips.
“Like you barely know him but he’s all you can think about.”
“Sounds like infatuation.”
“No. It’s more than that. I don’t mean I just think about him. I crave him . . . like my body yearns for his.”
“How long have you known him?”
“Not long at all. I was like a one-night stand, I guess. He blew me off after that.”
“What a dick.”
“Well, not entirely his fault. I didn’t tell him the whole truth about myself, and he has a good reason to be wary.”
“Okay. So, you met some guy and slept with him once. Now, you’re obsessed with him?”
“More than obsessed. I told you, it’s like I’ve known him all my life and need him.”
“Sounds like he imprinted on you.”
“He did what?” Maeve asked. She’d heard the word before but never experienced it. Of course, most people only do experience such a thing once, and then they are partnered with that person for life.
“That’s what it feels like. When someone imprints on you, they become a part of you forever. Even if they reject you, you’ll always be drawn to them in a way you can’t explain.”
“That’s rubbish! What if I don’t want to be drawn to them?”
“You do.”
“I do not.”
“If you’d not been open to imprinting, he’d not have been able to do it.”
“So, I’m doomed to pine over some guy that has no interest in me past a one-night fuck?”
“Yes and no. You’re stuck with being overwhelmed by him, but it’s mutual. Like I said, it takes two to imprint on one another. If you can’t stop thinking about him, then he can’t stop thinking about you either. He didn’t just imprint on you. You imprinted on each other.”
Maeve laughed, and Rebekah stopped midbite, cocking a single eyebrow up in her direction.
“I don’t think so. You didn’t see the way he dismissed me last night when I ran into him at the bar in his hotel.”
“You went to the bar in his hotel?”
“Yes. Just for a drink. I didn’t know he would be there.”
“Yet, you chose to go to the one bar that afforded you the best chance of running into him . . ..”
Maeve looked at her sheepishly and then launched her fork into the Shepard’s pie in front of her, filling her mouth with a bite rather than answering right away. Rebekah smiled at her knowingly. Maeve finished her bite of food and then replied.
“Maybe.”
“Aye,” was all Rebekah said in response.
Maeve sighed and put down her fork, leaning forward.
“What am I going to do? I’m all hung up on a guy that I barely know.”
“Get to know him. You’ve imprinted on one another, so you are natural mates. He’s the one you’re meant to be with.”
“No. That can’t be true. I can’t be with him. Not him.”
“Good luck with that. You still have free will. You can still pull away from him, but you won’t stop thinking about him. You won’t stop longing for him, though. Even if you move on to someone else, get married, have a family—he’ll be the one you really want.”
“Are you saying I can’t love someone else ever? I’m stuck like this?”
“No. You can love someone else and you can be happy, but it will never be like it was with him. I’m guessing that the night you spent with him was that sort of breathless, passionate romp you’ve always dreamed about.”
“You’d guess right,” Maeve said, a smile creeping across her face.
“Then, find a way. Whatever your issues are, get past them and go for it.”
“We’ll see,” Maeve replied.
The conversation shifted to other things. Rebekah asked about the council meeting, unaware that the Alpha Maeve was telling her about from there was the same as the man she’d spent the night with and imprinted on. They parted ways after they finished their meal, and Maeve went for a walk along the water through Dublin Centre.
Her thoughts were filled with moments in time from her night with him, and her body reacted accordingly, her libido rising to the point that she had to try and push down the memories and think of something else. She focused instead on her plans for her clan and how to make them happen. Beyond that, there were her personal plans, and being imprinted on by a McNally had certainly not been a part of them.