Then Xander said, “You’ll come with us, though. Won’t you?”
I stared at our mate as a whole range of emotions flickered across her face. “Um... you want me to go with you? Where? To your wolf pack? In the outside world?”
The way she said it, with a mixture of awe and anxiety, made me want to scoop her up in my arms and hold her close.
“Yes,” I answered for both of us. “We still want to help our pack and break the curse. But you’re our mate, and we don’t want to be anywhere without you.”
She stared at me, then Xander. “And you both want to... share me?”
Not really.
“We believe that Fate makes no mistakes,” Xander said, his tone dark and a tad angry. “Which means that, if you’re Kyle’s fated mate as well as mine, it’s meant to be.”
Part of me wanted to laugh at the expression on his face. He looked like he was in pain, his lips twisted and his brow furrowed.
Did I have the same look on my face?
“What about you, Monique?” In our jealous haze, I suddenly realized, we hadn’t asked her whatshewanted.
“Me?”
“Yes. Do you want us? Both of us? Or... just one?”
The questions had to be asked, even if the answers weren’t to my liking—or Xander’s.
She stared down at the table, as though the empty plate in front of her held all the secrets of the universe.
I glanced at Xander and lifted my eyebrows in question. What if she rejected us? What would happen then?
“I... felt a similar thing in the forest, when I saw you,” she admitted. “For both of you. But I don’t know about the soul mate thing. We don’t have anything like that here.”
So, we had to convince her? That sounded like fun.
“Would you allow us to spend time with you over the next few days, then?” I asked. “More than just providing a convenient place to sleep to help out the high warlock.”
From what I’d walked in on, I was assuming she wouldn’t be able to resist Xander for long. Hopefully, it would be the same between her and me.
She stared directly at me. My chest ached with the longing inside of me. I wanted to look at this woman every day, for the rest of my life.
And universe willing, I would.
“Are you sure you’re both okay to share?” Her voice was a mere whisper.
Oh, so that was the problem.
“Look, sweetheart.” I leaned over and gripped her left hand. Xander had already picked up her right. “We never expected to share a wife, and jealousy runs strongly in wolf shifters, especially when it comes to their fated mates.”
“But we’ll get over it,” Xander inserted, sounding gruff again. “We have to. There’s no one else for us but you. We will make it work, because that is obviously what Fate has decreed for us. If you’ll have us.”
The intensity in the room squeezed tight on his final words. Would she reject us? And if she did walk away, Xander was right. Therewasno one else. We would be alone forever, mourning the loss of our woman. We didn’t have a choice here, but she did.
“You mean... you won’t find another wife if I choose not to go with you?”
I nodded, a lump forming in my throat. “That’s how it works. Fate gives you one mate. If that doesn’t work out—for whatever reason—then you don’t get another.”
Monique squeezed my hand tightly, and I had to assume she did the same with Xander. “Well, then, it looks like I’m in. For the dating, and chatting, and whatever else happens over the next few days.”
I grinned at her, light filling my heart. “And you’ll come home with us?”