Snow Leopard's Lady (Veteran Shifters 1)

“Good,” he said in his slow, deep voice. “Because I have something to tell you.”

“What is it?” she asked, curious, feeling that same fearful anticipation rising inside her.

“I don’t know how much you know about shifter—marriage, and romance,” he said tentatively.

“I know that shifters sometimes meet their true mates,” she ventured. “Like Nina and Joel, or Cal and Lillian. There’s some kind of—I don’t quite understand it. A mystical connection of some kind. So that they know that they’re meant to be together. It’s a permanent bond.”

If only humans had the same thing, she might’ve avoided ending up with Daryl, and married a better man. If only.

Wilson reached across the table for her hand, and kissed the back of it, as he’d done on the couch earlier. “Mavis,” he said, his eyes locked with hers, “you’re my mate. I realized it when we were—together.” His hesitation gave her no doubt about what he meant. “I know it more surely than I’ve ever known anything in my life. You’re my mate. We’re meant to be together.”

Mavis blinked.

It took her a few minutes to even process what he was saying. She was his mate? What could he possibly mean?

When her brain finally got through the words to the meaning, she found herself just as unsure. Wilson was saying that she, Mavis, was the one person meant to be with him forever. As a snow leopard shifter’s mate.

Her first thought was that it couldn’t be, because she was human. But she knew that wasn’t true. Lillian had been human before Cal changed her—and so had her sister Teri, before she met her mate, Zach. Leah, Jeff’s mate, was human. There were plenty of humans who were shifters’ mates.

But not her.

Mavis didn’t have any hint of the sort of magical grace she saw in all of the women in the snow leopard pack. She always imagined that there was some kind of ethereal presence about them, especially when they were with their mates. When they were together, the love and connection practically wafted off of them.

That wasn’t any

thing that belonged to her. It couldn’t be.

Wilson’s grip on her hand tightened, and she realized she was shaking her head.

“I don’t think—I don’t think that can be right,” she managed. Her voice broke a little, but she kept going. “I agree that we have a—a connection. There’s something between us. But you’re mistaking it for something else. You must be. We can’t be mates.”

“Why not?” he asked. The warmth and care in his voice, which usually made her feel calm and cared for, now seemed like too much to take. Like she was looking into the sun, and it was too bright to survive.

“Well, because—because it just isn’t possible, that’s all.”

Why was she arguing? She could remember just a couple of hours ago, thinking how wonderful it would be if she and Wilson could be together forever.

But that had been a pipe dream. The sort of wistful fantasy of a perfect life that was never actually realized.

Mavis had already had one impossible dream come true: she had her daughter back. There wasn’t any room in her life for another one. Right?

“Why isn’t it possible?” he asked her. God, his voice was so terribly gentle.

She pulled her hands back. “I don’t—I don’t know,” she managed. “It just isn’t. How could it work, anyway? You live in Washington.”

“That’s what I want to figure out together,” he said. “I want to be with you. If that means leaving Washington—”

She pushed away in a quick, violent motion, coming up out of her chair. Her robe was gaping a little, she realized, and she clutched it tighter around herself. “No, you can’t just leave your job for no reason—”

“It wouldn’t be for no reason,” he said calmly, getting up as well. “Mavis, I’m sorry if this is upsetting you. That’s the last thing I want to do. If you need some time to think about it, that’s all right. Would you like me to go?”

Then she was frozen—she didn’t want him to leave.

But she didn’t want him setting up impossible things, making it seem like everything could work out, fantasy-like, into some beautiful picture of true love, when that was clearly not right.

She couldn’t make a move in either direction, so she waited, still frozen, while he came over to her, kissed her gently, and said, “Please think this over. I’ll see you tomorrow morning at the wedding, and we can talk again then.”

And then he was gone, and she was left to wonder—could this be real?