Tane padded across the floor to sit in front of me and butted my hand with the top of his head. “Hey, there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything more stunning than you, buddy.”
I scratched under his chin, in awe of the gentleness of the huge beast who let me stroke him as though he was a fluffy kitten. When my fingers dug into the fur at his side, he started purring and my heart melted. “I must’ve done something awesome for fate to have given you to me.”
He made a chuffing sound and dragged his rough tongue over the mark on my neck. Even though he wasn’t in human form, I knew exactly what he meant. “Yeah, yeah. I get it. You’re the lucky one.”
His cell rang from the table on the other side of the bed. He backed up and leaped over the mattress, making me gasp in surprise. After he landed on the floor, he shifted back to his human form and winked at me. “You’re going to want to grab some clothes, baby. It’s my mom.”
“Oh, crap!” I jumped up and raced over to the closet.
“Get some shorts for me, too,” he requested as the phone rang for the third time.
I tossed him a pair of athletic shorts as he answered. “Hey, Mom.”
As I listened to the low murmur of his voice, I yanked on a bra, panties, jeans, and long-sleeved top. Then I started to run my fingers through my hair about five seconds before he called my name. Taking a deep breath to settle my nerves, I walked out of the closet and cringed when he turned the phone screen toward me so I could see the couple squeezed into the frame. The man was an older version of Tane, but the woman’s eyes were an exact match for his. I forced a smile onto my face and tried not to freak out over the fact that my hair looked like I’d spent the past twenty-four hours rolling around in bed…which was fair since that was a pretty accurate description.
“Oh, my gosh! She’s gorgeous, Tane!” his mom cried.
Tane’s dad chuckled and shook his head. “The girl can hear you, honey.”
“Oops, right.” She grinned. “I’m just so excited. I forgot for a second.”
When I got closer to Tane, he wrapped his arm around my back and pulled me close. I gave his parents an awkward wave. “Don’t be embarrassed. I totally get it since I was a little nervous about meeting you.”
“Pretty and sweet.” His mom clapped her hands together. “Fate was generous with my baby boy.”
I tilted my head back to smile up at Tane. “Yeah, fate did awesome for me, too.”
He brushed his lips against mine, and my cheeks heated when I heard his mom sigh. When I turned my head to look at the phone’s screen again, both of his parents were grinning in approval. I leaned my head on his shoulder as he said, “Mom, Dad, this is Calliope. My mate.”
“It’s lovely to meet you, dear,” his mom replied.
Tane jerked his chin toward the screen. “Calliope, these are my parents—Tobias and Cora Ruslan.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Ruslan.”
“There’s no need to be so formal. Tobias and Cora will do,” his dad corrected.
“Or Mom and Dad if you’d prefer,” Cora suggested with a wink. “Since you’ll be with our son for the rest of your lives and will give us grandbabies and all.”
“Don’t scare the poor girl off,” Tobias chided. “I’m sure our daughters will be enough for her to think twice about what fate was thinking getting her mixed up with our family.”
“Hush, now.” Cora rolled her eyes. “Our girls will welcome Calliope with open arms. They’ve always wanted another sister.”
Tobias chuckled again. “That doesn’t mean they won’t be a lot for her to handle.”
“That’s fair,” Cora agreed with a nod.
“Okay, guys,” Tane sighed, squeezing the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb. “Now that you’ve freaked my mate out, I’m going to let you go so I can make sure she doesn’t want to go running in the opposite direction.”
“If she does get away, at least your tiger has always been very good at hunting down his prey,” Cora teased as she and Tobias waved goodbye.
After Tane disconnected the call, he nudged me back a few steps until my legs hit the edge of the mattress. “Sorry about that. I know you wanted to get cleaned up before you talked to them.”
“That’s okay. It’s not as though you could ignore her call,” I reassured him. “At least your mom was cool about my freshly rolled out of bed look—”
“Otherwise known as freshly fucked,” he corrected as he wagged his brows.
I laughed and shook my head. “I’m not sure you can say freshly when it’s been like five hours since the last time we had sex.”