“You have very nice hands. But, um...”
She narrowed her eyes with a sharpness his eagle frankly envied.
“Is this about me flipping out about the fire condor in the shower? Because that was startling, and I was unprepared. I won’t be again.”
“No, but these are dangerous birds,” Teagan tried.
“Okay. So is it safer for you to have someone help you, or for you to try to do this on your own?”
At Teagan’s silence, Ros nodded decisively.
“Okay, then. How about this? I’ll do whatever you say, because you’re the expert here. If you can get some folks to come and help, I’ll happily make sandwiches and lemonade when they show up. However, if I can help, you have to let me, all right? Because...”
She paused, and for the first time, she looked uncertain. Teagan tilted his head curiously.
“Because?”
“Because we can’t do this if it’s you doing things and me watching,” she said. “It’s bad for a relationship, and it’s definitely bad for me. You can’t just wrap me up in cotton wool and expect me to like it.”
Teagan sighed.
“Does it make sense that that’s kind of my first instinct?”
“Is it a shifter thing?”
“I think it’s an oldest kid in the family thing, and also a shifter thing. And a true mate thing.”
Chapter Nine
∞∞∞
The moment Teagan said those words, true mate, it was like the air in the room shifted. One moment they were having a relatively normal conversation, and the next, every bit of Ros was focused on him, his body, his face, his eyes. He had given her a word for something she had until now only felt.
“Explain,” she managed, but at the same time, her hand seemed to move of its own volition to take his. Teagan’s palm was rough and warm, and he seemed as relieved by the contact as she was.
“It’s something that all shifters are capable of,” he said, never dropping his gaze. “Somewhere out there, we all have true mates, people we’re meant to be with. Maybe it’s biological, maybe it’s mystical, but it’s real, absolutely real. We meet the right person, and we just... Well... we just know. Immediately.”
Ha, I knew it! something in Ros crowed.
“And… you never question it?”
To her surprise, Teagan laughed.
“Oh hell, no. I questioned it a ton. A lot of us do. We’ve come up with all kinds of theories, mostly having to do with evolution and biology and genetic drift, all sorts of things. But...”
“But?”
“Then we meet our true mates, and all those theories go out the window. Whatever it is, it's real, and once it hits you, you can’t argue with it. There’s nothing in you thatwantsto argue with it. Suddenly, you look at someone who was a stranger a moment ago, and you know there’s no way you could be strangers to each other. You’re true mates, and it’s as simple and as complicated and as terrifying and wonderful as that.”
With every word that Teagan spoke, something in Ros wound up tighter and tighter. It wasn’t that she doubted him. It was more that there was nothing in her that did. She could never doubt this man and what he was saying to her. She knew it, and more than that, she felt it, throughout her body, straight from the core of her and out to her skin.
She opened her mouth to tell him so, but different words came out instead.
“Do you smell something burning?”
One moment Teagan was staring into her eyes as if he could find everything there that he'd ever needed, and the next he was out of his chair, swearing inventively and heading for the glass sliding door. After a startled moment, Ros was right behind him, and when he pulled up the blind, they both stared at the enormous pile of dry branches that had appeared as if by magic on the deck. Even as Ros watched, a few wisps of smoke came up from the pile, centered on the large golden bird turning around at its center.
“Is shenesting?”