Once we got to the rink, I rented two pairs of figure skates for us. After putting them on, we went onto the ice and held hands as we skated around in a large circle. I could tell Jasmine would be easy to fall in love with.
After skating for some time, we exited the rink, and I bought us some hot dogs and hot chocolate from the concession stand. We sat on the bleachers surrounding the rink, far from others, and I snuggled her close to me as we ate and drank.
Suddenly, she turned to me and said, “I’ve been wondering something.”
“What is it?” I looked into her eyes. I could sense she felt nervous. I instinctively put down my hot chocolate and took her hands in mine to calm her.
She looked down. “That day you came over my house when I was in heat—you didn’t want me to return the favor. Why was that? Was it because you thought I’d be bad at it?”
“No, that’s not it at all! Is that what you thought?” She looked up at me and I searched her eyes.
She looked down again and continued, “I don’t know. I thought that might have been the reason, since I’m not experienced. I know that you’re probably used to being with someone who knows what they’re doing.”
I shook my head, wondering how I kept getting everything wrong, and replied, “That’s not the reason at all. Trust me, I wanted it so badly. But when you said you’d never done it before, I felt like it would have been wrong to ask you. I knew if you hadn’t been in heat, then we would never have gone that far, especially since I still hadn’t told Lucy anything about us yet. Mostly, I didn’t want you to end up doing something that you’d regret later.”
“Oh,” she said, looking down.
“I was trying to do the right thing. And I feel terrible if I insulted you. It doesn’t bother me at all that you’re inexperienced. I’m just trying not to rush things. But if you wanted to take things faster, I definitely wouldn’t complain.”
She laughed nervously, continuing to look down. “I think I do want to take things faster. When I’m around you, I just have all these feelings. But I’ve never acted on them before, so I don’t really know what to do.”
“What kind of feelings?” I asked, knowing because I felt them too. Plus, the mate bond allowed me to sense what my mate was feeling. I could feel myself going hard, forcing me to adjust how I was sitting so it wouldn’t be obvious. I was dying for Jasmine to tell me using her words.
She laughed nervously again. “Well, you know—I know you feel it too. I get really warm and turned on, especially when I smell your scent.”
“Yes, I know exactly how you feel because I feel it too.” She looked in my eyes as I smiled at her, wishing we were somewhere more private. “How late can you stay out tonight? Instead of taking you home, I could always bring you back to the packhouse. But I won’t be hurt if you say no. I don’t want to rush you into anything you don’t want to do.”
“Yes, I’d like to go to the packhouse tonight,” she said. I brushed her hair back with my fingers, kissed her, and we smiled at each other as we separated. I wished we were already there. I could only imagine how good a blow job would feel with the added bonus of the mate bond. After we finished our hot chocolates, we returned our figure skates, and I drove back. The anticipation was killing me during the drive home.
I opened her passenger door and helped her out of the car. I had asked the office manager to get someone in right away to fix the hole in my bedroom, and it had been fixed yesterday, thankfully. That definitely would have been an awkward story to explain.
When we entered, Blake was home. He greeted us and smirked at something when he looked at Jasmine. I gave him a hard stare, wondering what he could be smirking about. Then I noticed his eyes glossed over, turned skyward, clearly in a mindlink, and her face turning red. He walked away from us to go do something else. My body tensed in rage that they were sharing secrets, and right in front of me no less!
Once we were in my room, I asked, “What did Blake mindlink you?”
“Oh, Goddess, it’s so embarrassing. I can’t tell you.” Jasmine covered her face with her hands, covering a flush that crept across her cheeks.
“What is it? Please tell me.” She shook her head. “Please,” I asked again, more softly, taking her hands so I could look into her eyes. “I’m your mate. You can tell me anything.”
I let go of her hands and looked on as she stared at the floor, clearly deliberating on whether to tell me or not. She finally sighed and said, “While you and Blake were out on Sunday all night, I slept in the guest bedroom here. I don’t know if Blake told you the whole story, but I went into heat and Jack bought me a vibrator. I completely forgot about it and the housekeeper discovered it.”
“Blake definitely failed to mention this story to me, and I have so many questions now.” I tried to keep my voice even as I spoke, clenching my fists into balls as my muscles quivered and my body heated.
“It was a weird situation. I couldn’t go back home because my parents would expect me to go to temple service, which was obviously out of the question. So, Blake had his mom call my parents and tell them I’d ingested wolfsbane so they wouldn’t know I was in heat.”
“But why was Jack involved in all this?”
“Did you know he’s gay?”
“Jack’s gay?” I was shocked. I couldn’t believe that I had been friends with Lucy’s entire family for so many years and had never known.
“Yeah, I didn’t know either until Sunday. I didn’t even know werewolves could be gay, to be honest.”
“Yes, they can, but you probably don’t know of any because Alpha James would banish them from the pack. That’s probably why Jack was never open about it.”
“But when they get mates, are they male or female?”
“Male.”