I loved the story they were selling me, but I just didn’t buy it. “How do you know, though? You’ve only been married—mated, what? A year or two? You’re both still in the honeymoon phase. And Rand’s not Clint or Boyd.”
Becky gave me a commiserating smile. “I’d say I know Rand better than Audrey does since he’s Clint’s brother. Those guys have a good family. Solid. Clint’s and Rand’s parents are fated mates. When you meet them, you’ll believe it,” Becky promised.
“This is too much pressure,” Audrey said, probably reading my doubtful expression again. “We definitely didn’t come to talk you into anything. Only to lend our support if you need it.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that.” I did. I liked both women, and I believed they meant well, I just didn’t trust this wolf biology thing. I wanted a real relationship based on shared experiences, love and respect. Not on the way I smelled.
“Just don’t push Rand away if it seems too good to be true. Let yourself have him and all that comes with being with a shifter, if you like it.” Becky winked.
I smiled reluctantly.
Yeah, I did like the good.
And she was right—it did seem too good to be true. How could it be this amazing and be real? Or lasting?
I was letting myself have it—some of it, anyway. I just didn’t want to trust that it could possibly be forever.
Not when it was something I didn’t even understand.
17
RAND
A few days after the pack meeting, I pulled up to Natalie’s following a day of installing a tile backsplash as the final touches of a shifter family’s kitchen remodel. I couldn’t help but smile at the sight of her sitting on the porch steps like she was waiting for me.
The sight made my heart gallup, but I forced myself to act casual.
But keeping things casual for a shifter who needed to mark his mate was like teetering on the edge of a cliff for hours upon hours.
Every day that went by without me marking Natalie was a new ordeal. I didn’t tell her this, obviously, or any of the shit with Nathan. Venting any of his issues, which solely revolved around her, was not going to help me with Red. Not one fucking bit.
But I made it through. It was damn hard to prove my love to someone when I was also supposed to be playing it cool and not putting any pressure on. That made no sense to me, but I wasn’t human. I had shifter parents as role models. I wanted a love like theirs, and while it was based on shifter traditions and customs, it was a relationship. A mating, which was pretty much a wolf marriage.
But my wolf couldn’t be denied. It was a part of me, and it had to be tamed and only Natalie could do that. I wasn’t about to go moon mad anytime soon, but it was getting harder and harder to not claim her. Even now, sitting here and staring at her, was I blowing it? Was I doing this human thing right?
Like—how many gifts were too many? How many orgasms? How many fix it jobs could I do at the house without her asking before I seemed presumptuous and intrusive? I had every intention of living here with her. Forever. But she lost her shit over me paying for a fucking fuse box. It was a fine fucking line I had to walk, and it nearly had me out of my mind.
“Hey, darlin’,” I called as I forced my steps to slow down on the way to her. Yeah, I was whipped.
She stood. She seemed to be wearing a bikini under her tank top and jean shorts, which made me fucking crazy to pull off her clothes and see her in it. And nothing else. “I was going to go down to the swimming hole to cool off, but I thought I’d wait for you. Wanna come?”
Fuck, Natalie and the swimming hole? I grinned. “Does a wolf need to run?”
Her gaze caught mine, curious. “Do you?”
I’d been trying not to mention my wolf. It was part of my playing it cool act. I leaned down, meaning to just give her a quick peck on the lips, but instead my forearm looped under her ass, and I hoisted her legs up around my waist, bringing her warm center against my middle, her breasts in my face. I nipped one of them through the shirt.
“When the moon is full,” I admitted. “And when I need to let off steam. It helps keep the wolf in balance. Otherwise, he starts running the show.” I winced, hoping this wasn’t too much again. Fuck, I second guessed every thing I said these days.
“You mean all this… this alpha-ness is you and not your wolf?”
I couldn’t help but grin. “Alpha-ness? Darlin’, Rob’s the alpha around here. I’ve got nothing on him.”