He settled a puppy-dog look at her, making her heart melt before he even spoke.
“Where do you think we are headed?” he asked softly. “I mean, as a couple?”
Dana was taken aback. She removed her hand from his chin and turned away, her thoughts scrambling for a truthful and suitable reply.
“I don’t know, Rux,” she said. “I mean, I know that I like you, but I feel like we’re still getting to know each other.”
Dana could see him nodding from her peripheral vision. She was afraid to look at him directly out of fear that he would see into her heart and the truth of what she was feeling.
But I need to be brave.
She crossed her legs and turned back to face him, her hand folded neatly into her lap like a politician.
“Are you looking to make something official? Like, attach a label to it?” she asked him firmly, trying not to betray her emotions with her facial expressions.
Rux sighed again, that glassy-eyed look weakening her knees. He selected his words carefully, gazing at her thoughtfully before speaking
“I might be,” he said, “but I think it's because you’re my fated mate.”
Dana couldn’t control the scowl that grew across her face.
“Fated mate?” she repeated. “Is that like some religious thing? Destiny and such?”
Rux smiled at her. She hated how his handsomeness was distracting her, making her heart plushy and sensitive.
“Do you know what shifters are?” he asked her, a delicate lightness to his tone.
Dana indeed knew and had a sense that there was something else going on with Rux. He was ridiculously tall and muscular, for one, plus the way that he looked at her in her bedroom that night they made love …
Like he was being careful not to let anything too wild lose on my human form…
The dawning realization made her heart beat faster in her chest. Curious and intrigued, she shook her head.
“I know of them, but not a lot of info,” she said.
“Each shifter is different,” Rux explained. “They are usually born that way, or something happened along the way that changed them. I was born as a panther shifter.”
Dana’s hands remained folded in her lap despite the surreal sensation starting to descend upon her.
“We can shift into animals, hence the name,” he continued, “but it also makes us far more sensitive to smells, sights … sex.”
A smirk grew on his lips. He was thinking about their first time together, and Dana couldn’t deny that the thought sent something warm between her legs.
“Pretty much every human experience you can think of is enhanced for us,” Rux said. “So, it's the same with finding a lifetime partner.”
Dana nodded.
“So, that’s where the fated mate thing comes in?” she asked.
Rux nodded against his hand.
“Yes, darling. A fated mate is a person, human or shifter, to whom we are linked forever. As the name implies, we are dictated by fate to be with only one person.”
Dana was beginning to feel herself getting overwhelmed. Her breath was picking up the pace, and her mind was racing as if she had just snorted ten lines of cocaine.
“And you think …” Dana began, hesitantly, “… that I’m that one single person?”
Rux nodded again.