“Don’t know what? If she’s your mate?” Fang asks with a surprised look.
“No, I fucking know she’s mine.” I know that deep in my very soul. “I don’t know if I can do this?”
“Okay, Brother, you are confusing me. Can’t do what?” He raises his hand, asking for another two beers.
“Having a mate.” Placing my elbows on the table, I cover my face with my hands. An image of Siena’s face flashes in my memory. Pushing my fingers through my hair, I grunt, welcoming the pain against my skull.
“You don’t want your mate?”
How did he get that from what I said?
“Of course, I want my mate, but fuck, Fang, you should have seen her face yesterday when she realized what I am.” My stomach feels like a ton of bricks have just landed in there. “She was afraid, almost revolted.” That is the worst. My mate looked mortified that she slept with me.
Fang places his hand on my shoulder, there’s a scowl on his face. “She will come around, Brother, they all do. You know that.”
“It’s not about coming around. Have you ever thought that we’re taking our mate’s free will away?”
I have bonded our lives together without her acknowledgement.
“She’s your mate, Brother. The two of you complete each other.” He grunts as he leans back once again. “Yes, it’s a shock for our women to find out what we are, but once they realize that our main goal is to love and protect them, they come around.”
“I don’t know how to face her.”And that is the problem, because I don’t know how to make this right for her.
“Well, you better figure it out, and figure it out really quick because your woman is headed this way.”
I stiffen before glancing over my shoulder to see Siena walking towards us. She doesn’t seem happy.
“Well, hello there, Darling,” Fang says as she comes to a rest near the bar.
Her hands are fisted, and the way her chest is rising and falling lets me know just how angry she is. Her eyes clash with mine and hold, she’s beautiful even when she’s angry.
“Fang, do you mind if I talk to Blue alone?”
“I was just leaving anyway,” Fang says before standing. “Why don’t you take my seat?” With those words, he stands and starts making his way towards the entrance of the bar. Siena walks around the chair and takes a seat where Fang was sitting to face me.
“You drop a bomb on me like you did, wait for me to fall asleep, and then you leave?” she yells, her voice strained with anger.
“I left a note, didn’t you see it?” Looking at her, all I want to do is pull her towards me and take her lips in a long kiss until she forgets all about her anger.
“A note?” The words come out choked, betraying her anger. “After what I found out, you think a note is what I should get?” I stretch out my hand to lay it over hers, but before I can touch her, she snatches her hands away. “Don’t you dare touch me.” Her rejection has my anger rising. Snapping forward, I pull her hand towards me, holding it tight even though she struggles to push me away.
“What do you want me to say?” I have no idea what to do in this situation, all I want is to make her happy, but this is bigger than what I can do. “I know that what I revealed to you last night is crazy to you. I know that nothing I can do will change it. That is why I left this morning, to give you time to come to terms with everything.”
“Come to terms with the fact that I went to bed with a man and he changed into a wolf?”
“Yes,” I snap. I know that she has got every right to be angry with me, but I feel frustrated over the fact that she’s upset with something I can’t do anything about. “I can’t change what I am, but the person you spent the whole day with is the same person you went to bed with. Just because I’m a shifter too, does not change the person that I am.”
She lifts the hand that I’m not holding to push back a strand of hair that has fallen over her brow. “So, now what am I supposed to do?”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
She points towards me and her. “This thing between us, what happens now?”
“Siena, what I said yesterday is true.” I need her to understand that no matter what, our bond is true, and that she’s my true mate. I realize that me being a shifter might be too much for her to handle right now, but I will not have my mate think that she’s free to do whatever she wants with whoever she wants. “We’re meant to be together. I’m sure you can feel the pull between us. The differences in when we touch each other, how it feels when we’re close.”
When she reluctantly nods, it gives me hope that maybe, just maybe, we will be able to somehow work this out. “But what does it mean to be your mate?”
“It means that you are the calm to my storm, you are what gives meaning to my existence. Our bond can only grow from here.”