Kaz looked like he almost didn’t believe him. “How the fuck did you swing that one?”
“She wanted to write a book about me,” he answered, lips curling into a rare smile. “Apparently, she’s wanted to do it all her life. You should see her home. It’s covered in pictures of my fog.” And she’d been tickled to learn that at least a handful of those photos actually did have Cal in them, though no one but him would ever know it. “She figured out that I visit the Aerie sometimes, so she booked a pilgrim’s stay and summoned me.”
“You still go to the Aerie? What for?” A deep frown settled into the grooves of Kaz’s mouth and forehead. “Do you need help? I thought we figured out how to get you things when you need them, Cal.”
He shrugged, not meeting his friend’s searching gaze. Instead, he looked at the rows and rows of bottles behind the bar when he answered, “I don’t really know why I go there, after everything. Sometimes I just need something familiar.” He cleared his throat. “But I don’t have any reason to go there anymore. I have a home now.”
“With Elise?”
Cal’s smile crept back onto his face. “Yes.”
“Good,” Kaz grunted. “Better a story-sniffing writer than the assholes who tried to brainwash you.”
“Agreed. Elise is a much nicer alternative.” He had trouble imagining anyone better, if he were being honest. “And our deal was painless. She wanted to write a book about me and I wanted to know what it was like to have a mate. Simple.”
Kaz stared at him for several long, silent seconds before he said, “…Uh-huh?”
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“S’nothing.” Kaz took a long pull from his beer. His eyebrows seemed to have permanently adhered themselves closer to his hairline. “Just… ah, that’s quite the deal you made, fog man. I’m surprised she went for it.”
Cal clenched his jaw and fought off the urge to snap at his friend. “Why? Because I’m a murderer?”
“No, you prissy fuck, because there’s no pretending to be mates. You either are or you aren’t. Trying to fake it is a recipe for disaster and I’m willing to bet she knows that.” He eyed Cal warily. “I’m guessing you’ve been on some dates? Met up to talk about the book, maybe? She probably let you hold her hand or something, right? And now you’re head over heels for the first woman to—”
“No,” he snapped, “it’s not like that.”
Kaz’s dismissive tone sent a roar of anger through Cal. He hated the way he alluded to their relationship like it was some passing fancy, or like Elise was merely indulging him. It was more than that. Cal felt it in every damn cell of his body.
“She brought me to her home, and when she learned that people usually only want to take advantage of me, she tried to back out. She said she didn’t want to hurt me.” Even now, weeks later, he felt a stab of panic at the thought. “I wouldn’t let her back out.”
“Why? Sounds like she has a bit of good sense.”
Cal curled his hands into fists on his thighs. “Because she’s my mate. I don’t care if she uses me. She’s mine. I wasn’t going to give her up.”
“Uh-huh. And how’d she take that?”
He lifted his chin. This part, at least, he knew he got right. “She kissed me.”
Kaz looked both impressed and dismayed. “Yeah? And after?”
“What do you mean after?”
“I mean what happened after that? Has she kept to the deal? Are you still seeing her?” Kaz blew out a breath. “And what exactly were the terms of that deal you made?”
Cal leaned an elbow on the bar top and smiled. “Of course I’m still seeing her. We’ve been living together for three weeks. That was the deal.”
The orc sputtered, choking on a gulp of his disgusting beverage. When he’d cleared his airways enough to speak, he wheezed, “Wait, you’re living with her? She let you into her nest?”
“Yes.” Cal took in Kaz’s stunned expression with a pinch of unease. “Why? Does that mean something?”
It meant something to him to be allowed into her home, but that was because he’d never set foot in one before. It never occurred to him that it might mean something to her, too.
Kaz let out a huff that was somehow both disbelieving and amused. “I mean, if she were orcish it would mean a fuckload, but I’m guessing she’s not, if you’re here complaining about not being permanently mated. An orcish woman doesn’t let anyone into her nest except her mate and babies. Not even family.” His eyebrows pinched thoughtfully as he swirled the last of his beer around the bottom of his bottle. “Still, though— Living with a woman. Yeah, that’s…” His eyes crinkled at the corners. “That’s a different thing, fog man. What else have you done?”
“We spend most of our time together.” Except for when he felt the itch to be out of his skin and his duty to watch the city came up, they were inseparable. Where she went, he did. “We go to the beach. Sometimes she likes to dance with me. We watch entertainment feeds and cook together. I met her parents.”
Kaz put his bottle down on the bar with enough force to send a crack through the glass. “Well fuck me, you should have led with that!”