Snow Leopard's Lady (Veteran Shifters 1)

But she couldn’t help looking for Wilson, of course. He was up front, sitting calmly and watching the ceremony.

As she watched him, though, he twisted around to look at the entrance. Watching for her?

He must have been. Because his eyes settled on her moment later, and his whole face transformed, from a carefully polite expression to a smile that lit up his whole face.

That smile had to be telling the truth. Didn’t it?

Though Mavis didn’t think Wilson was lying about being mates. She was convinced that he was a good, honest man, who wouldn’t make up any kind of story to get a woman to stay with him, let alone something so potentially hurtful.

But it did seem possible that he was confused. Presumably he’d never felt a shifter mate-bond before, since he was single now. So maybe he was just...amplifying their connection in his mind. Blowing it out of proportion.

The music started, and Mavis tried to put her doubts out of her mind and simply enjoy the ceremony.

It was simple, but beautiful. Cal and Lillian stood up together and spoke their vows to one another; they’d written the words themselves, and Mavis was struck by their straightforward truth:

With these words, I am showing what’s in my heart. We are one, and we will never be parted, for the rest of our lives.

Had the two of them just known? Had they been as sure as Wilson was now?

When the ceremony was over, Mavis stood with the rest of the congregation. Nina was following the couple out, beautiful in her classic sheath bridesmaid’s dress, and Mavis teared up a bit, thinking that one day soon, Nina would be the one in the wedding dress, standing up with Joel.

That gave her an idea.

As everyone gathered outside to congratulate the couple, Mavis found her daughter. She hugged Nina first, and said, “You were so beautiful up there.”

“Lillian outshone all of us,” Nina said, and looked over to where Lillian was standing with Cal, resplendent in a gorgeous white silk gown that flowed softly over the curve of her belly and accentuated her generous figure.

“They both look so happy,” Mavis said softly. Then she turned back to Nina. “You said that you knew, when you got together with Joel, that you were mates. Is that how it always works? Is that how it was with Cal and Lillian, too?”

Nina hesitated. “Sort of. What I understand is that shifters know, instinctively. I think Lillian had a bit of trouble, because she was still human when she and Cal met. So she didn’t realize at first that the connection meant that they really were mates, and not just—you know. Very attracted to each other.”

“Right,” Mavis said. She thought about that. “And there’s no way for a shifter to...get it wrong? You definitely know it, no way to make a mistake or anything?”

“Definitely not,” Nina said positively. “It’s really, really obvious. Even if you had no idea what it would feel like beforehand—and I definitely didn’t!—when it hit me, I knew for sure.” Then her eyes widened. “Mom,” she said slowly, “why are you asking me this?”

Her eyes had flickered to a spot behind Mavis’ shoulder. Mavis turned around, and sure enough—there was Wilson.

“Excuse me,” he said, smiling at Nina. “I just wanted to make sure I had a chance to speak with your mother before she left.”

“Oh, sure,” said Nina. “Of course. We were done. In fact, I have to go now, I see Joel waving at me.”

She vanished so quickly that Mavis suspected her of using shifter abilities somehow.

Wilson turned to Mavis, his smile fading into an intense focus. “Hello.”

“Hello,” she said nervously.

“I need to talk to you,” he said. “I know you don’t trust that what I’m saying about us being mates is true. Can I ask you why? Is there anything I can do to show you that it’s the truth?”

Mavis let out a breath in a long sigh. “I know why it is,” she said. “It’s because I want it to be true so badly.”

Wilson closed his eyes, and Mavis saw his chest heave with the force of his inhale.

He felt that strongly about my answer, she thought wonderingly. He really cares about me.

He opened his eyes, and she was struck once again by the depth of their silver-grey color. “Then help me,” he said. “I want you to know that it’s true as certainly as I do.”

“It’s hard,” Mavis tried. “Because it’s not—it’s not anything you’ve done, or haven’t done. It’s because I have a hard time believing that something so wonderful could really happen to me. I already had one miracle happen: I got Nina back, after being sure she was gone forever. I can’t have another miracle in my life. That’s too much.”