by Kallie Frost
“True mates mark each other,” Cambry explained. “By biting each other,” he added in a mumble. “It's a process that accepts and cements our bond with each other. That's the spot where we do it, and for some reason it always hurts after you've met your true mate, until they bite you. After that, I'm told, it actually becomes… pleasurable.”
I had chalked the pain up to sleeping wrong in the chair, but it did also coincide with his arrival. But if that was all he had to go on, it was sort of flimsy in my opinion. “What else? Is that it?”
“The rest of it is less… concrete. I genuinely did want to help you save your coffee shop. But I don't think I would have been so eager and so committed, if we weren’t true mates. I subconsciously wanted to help you, because a true mate wants to do anything and everything they can for their mate. And then there's just the… attraction…”
I considered it. His words did resonate somewhat. My willingness to accept his offer to save my shop was a little unusual, when I thought about it. I never liked to ask for help. And Cambry was undeniably attractive. I hated to admit it, but even when he'd been a cat, I had thought that he was the sleekest, most beautiful cat I had ever seen. As a human, as unexpected as seeing him naked had been, it had also been really arousing. He was gorgeous, if I was honest. Looking at him now, standing there in my borrowed clothes, I wanted to take him into my arms and hug him. It wasn't weird to see a stranger wearing my clothes; it was right. I felt a sort of peace that I hadn't felt in a long, long time.
“I'm sure this all sounds kind of shocking… I didn’t mean to spring it on you… A true mate is something that we shifters dream about for our whole lives. It's something that everyone wishes they could have. God, I can't even describe to you how important it is to a shifter. It’s the single greatest thing that could ever happen to us.
I nodded. I could tell from the excitement in his voice how much a true mate meant to him. He was obviously beyond passionate about the subject. I thought about everything he told me trying to mull it all over. I remembered him saying something about marking each other to make it official.
“When you talked about marking each other…” I rubbed my aching collarbone as I said it. Was it my imagination or did the pain actually intensify when I pictured him biting me there? Cambry nodded, encouraging me to continue.
“We are true mates.” I could tell he was trying not to beam while he said it. “But it's not official until you are marked, so we don't have to do it. You could say no.”
The thought of turning him down made my heart race. There was no way I could feel so strongly for someone I had only just met, unless all this true mate stuff was true.
“Can you say no?”” I asked. He sounded as if the entire thing was up to me.
“I would never!” he cried, as if he was scandalized by the very thought of it. “No shifter would ever turn down a true mate. I would mark you right now if you’d have me.”
“Okay then,” I said agreeably. “Why not?”
It wasn't as if I had anything to lose. I might've been a little crazy for agreeing to be his true mate so readily, but it felt like this was the sort of thing I had been waiting my whole life for. I spent so many years basing my actions off some silly idea that cats and my fate were intertwined, that I felt as though I couldn't possibly question this. If I was honest, part of the reason there were no cats in the shop anymore was because I realized that I was starting to get a little obsessed with analyzing their actions. Possibly borderline genuine insanity. I started basing some of my business decisions off of what the cats around me were doing at the time, and I didn't always make the right call. It removed a great deal of stress after there were no more cats in the coffee shop. And yet, from the moment I saw Cambry as a cat, half-buried in snow, I had been asking myself what fate had in store for me this time. And now, he was telling me that he was my soulmate.
Naturally, fate would give me a soulmate who was a cat. I felt like I couldn't question that at all. So, why the hell not?
“Okay then, what?” Cambry asked, brow narrowed in confusion.
“Okay then, I'll be your true mate. What do we do now? Bite each other?” I stifled a laugh at the odd question.
He looked completely taken aback. “You… what?! You'll be my true mate? Just like that?”
I shrugged. “You said it was a no-brainer for you. I mean, you say we’re soulmates… that doesn't exactly sound like something I should pass up.”
“No... I just... humans are a little more hesitant, in my experience...”
Now, I had just a little bit of doubt. “I'm not your first soul-mate?” That bothered me. More than it should have, frankly.
“No, no,” Cambry said quickly. “You're my only true mate. That's sort of what makes true mates so special, you only ever get one. If you're lucky enough to find one, that is. A couple of my cousins met their true mates recently. And one of them was on the fence about being changed. I guess I just kind of expected a little more resistance from you. I haven't even explained everything you.”
I sat down on a barstool, studying him. There was no denying the way he made my heart flutter... and my dick hard. “I guess I do probably need to know the rest… Are you trying to change my mind?” I said it teasingly, and I could tell by his smile that he knew I was playing.
“Hardly. But I don't want you to go into this not knowing what to expect either. There's a bit more of a process before we just bite each other.” I nodded and motioned for him to continue. “Well... first of all, you’re human. In order to be true mates, I would have to turn you.”
“Turn me?” Just for a moment, I had no idea what he meant. Then, I realized he specifically said that I was human. “Do you mean, you’d turn me into a shifter? Like you?”
“That's exactly what it means. I'm afraid you would be a cat though…”
I chuckled. “I'm not that opposed to cats,” I said, partially to mollify him. I supposed that having the power to turn into an animal, even if it was a cat, would be pretty neat. Especially if I got the perfect lover out of the bargain. “What else? Is that it?”
“Well, if you agree to that, we have to get permission from the Alpha Parliament.”
“The what?”
“The Alpha Parliament. They are the governing body for shifters. As you can imagine, we can't exactly be bound by every human law.”
The image of an actual cat burglar popped into my head and I stifled a giggle. No, shifters could not be bound by all human laws. Even my experience with him would have been impossible to explain. If he had somehow managed to escape, I probably would've called the police – after I had service – and told them that someone had broken into my house in the middle of a blizzard, through both of my locked doors, and then vanished again, after rifling through my bedroom. If Cambry hadn’t changed into a human and simply escaped as a cat, I would have had no idea. “That makes sense,” I said out loud. Then, another thought. “There must be a lot of you then, if you have your own government.”
“Not exactly government,” Cambry said. “But yes, there are more shifters than one might think.”
“Okay. So, you tell them about me. And then?”
“Well, traditionally you get three days to decide whether or not turn. If you really want to... they would probably come early since you already made up your mind.”
I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back. Was I being a little too hasty? If people typically got three days to decide, could I really make up my mind so quickly?
“And then they come... well basically to check you out and make sure that you don't have any ulterior motives for becoming a shifter. Like revealing our locations to hunters or something.”
“If true mates are picked by fate, is that really necessary?”
He considered it. “You know, I asked that once too. The meeting itself is what people say is fated, and once you’re together: paradise. But, sometimes, there are circumstances that can complicate things. I don't know offha
nd of anyone who has ever turned down a true mate... Even though fate plays a part, the human is still free to make their own choice. And sometimes they choose, say family, over their mate. Some find it hard to give up their family for someone they just met.” Cambry winced. “Which is something you need to know. You won't be able to stay with your human family. Not only will you be a shifter, but we live uh…”
“It’ll be tough to leave my family.” I took advantage of his hesitation to cut into his nervous speech. My mind was made up. He looked alarmed until I laughed. “I’m kidding; I don’t have anyone. Not since my mother died.”
“Oh…”
I could tell that he was torn between sympathy, but also relief that I wouldn’t change my mind about being his mate. “What would the Alpha Parliament do if I do say no?” I asked. “Not that I plan to!”
“They’d erase our memories,” he said solemnly.
“What?!”
Cambry nodded.
“Wait, both of us?”
He nodded again. “You wouldn’t be allowed to remember anything about shifters or me. And I would never know I met you.”
“Why yours?” I asked. Erasing my memory made sense, as unsettling as it was.
“So, I don’t do anything stupid like hurt myself because I can’t have you. Or change you against your will. Shifters will go to extreme lengths for our true mates. And the grief of losing one, even one we technically never had, can make us do reckless things.”
I shivered at the thought.
“Not to pressure you,” he added quickly. “I only say it because it sounds like you’ve made up your mind.”
“I have,” I said. If I still felt confident after that, surely I was ready to do this. “Besides, if I forget you, you won’t be able to save my shop!”
“Half true. You would forget I’m a cat. That’s part of why we have the three-day limit,” Cambry said. When I furrowed my brows in confusion, he explained. “It's kind this inmate natural magic that makes it hard for humans to remember us. It's sort of what I was going do.”
“What were you going to do?” I asked, frown deepening.
“If I stayed to help with your shop, you’d remember me as a person, but the magic would actually erase your memory of having seen me change. Which is why I was avoiding the subject. The less you knew, the better. In a couple of weeks, you wouldn't remember it at all. Honestly, I would probably have had to make up a story about how we met, in case you asked.” He laughed. “It's funny actually. It would've been really inconvenient to help you with your shop when I couldn't tell you about shifters. It honestly would have been easier for me to just leave town and let you forget about me completely, which the magic would also do, if I didn’t stick around. I couldn't figure out why I offered to help you... but now that I know you're my true mate, it makes perfect sense. I just instinctively want to take care of you.”
“Like how I wanted you to stay.” The words just sort of tumbled out, and I knew it was true. I wanted him here. “Guess we really are true mates...”
A smile spread across his face, that I couldn't resist returning.
I recalled the start of our conversation and realized we hadn’t finished. “So, the Alpha Parliament comes and makes sure that I want to become a cat. Is that alpha, like alpha wolf?”
“Well, they aren’t all wolves,” Camry said calmly.
“They aren’t all wolves? You mean some of them are wolves? Like werewolves?!”
“You didn’t think we were all cats, did you?” he asked with a laugh.
“Honestly, I hadn't thought about it…”
He smiled and patted my thigh reassuringly. His hand was warm, and I was sorry when he retracted it. “There are a lot of different kinds of shifters. And, that leads me to another thing you should know... How do I explain this…” He yawned. “Let me get some coffee while I think about this.”
“I can make it,” I offered, starting to stand.
“I know my way around a coffee shop,” he told me. “Besides, I’m not the sort of alpha who expects his omega to do everything.”
“What’s an omega?”
“Oh.” Cambry paused halfway through measuring out coffee beans. “So, there are three kinds of shifters. Alphas are one. Historically we were the leaders. We’re also the only type of shifter that can change a human into one. Humans turned into shifters become omegas. They’re er… traditionally they were the homemakers. They took care of the alphas, and the betas, raised the children, that sort of thing. Of course, I’d never expect you to give up your shop for our children.” He started the coffee grinder and raised his voice. “As soon as you’ve recovered from giving birth you can jump right back into working, if you want.”
Obviously, I misheard him over the whirr of grinding beans. “Okay,” I called agreeably.
After a couple of pulses, he nodded in satisfaction and started spooning the ground coffee into a filter. “I’m also just as happy to let you take as long as you need after we start having kids,” he added. “I guess it depends how quickly we want to do things. True mates are extremely fertile. My cousins’ true mates both conceived oh, probably the night they were changed. Or at least sometime in the first week or so, judging by when their kids were born.” Cambry stiffened and looked at me in alarm. “Sorry! I’m just assuming you want kids…”
“I…” Wait, had I misheard him? “I’ve always wanted children,” I said honestly. “But uh… I’m not sure where you’re going with this…”
His eyes widened. “Right… right. Carrick said humans find this one tough to swallow…” he muttered. “Omegas bear children. All of them.”
“So, I…”
Cambry nodded. “If you wanted to.”
“And they’d be yours?”
His mouth stretched into a smile I felt compelled to return. “Ours.” He tapped the edge of the grinder thoughtfully, then added, “I should warn you, gestation is only three months.”
“That’s… fast,” I said. “We’d have a kid by spring.”
Even though I was joking, his cheeks flushed. Somehow, the idea of having a kid in just a few months didn’t seem that horrible at all. Especially not one with Cambry. It was clear he liked the thought too. Man, this true mate thing was weird. Last night I was stressing about keeping my shop open another year, now I was fantasizing about having children with a man I hardly knew.
My stomach churned nervously, loud enough for Cambry to hear.
“Hungry?” he teased.
“Nerv – yeah, actually.” Now that he mentioned it, I was hungry. “I’ll make something,” I offered. I didn’t add that I was embarrassed to have him rooting through my meager cupboards.
“Great. While we eat, I can answer your other questions, if you have any.”
Chapter Five
Cambry
The entire time that Louis was making lunch I watched him, grinning like an idiot. My true mate. He was my mate and he had agreed to be turned. And now he was making me lunch. And he owned a coffee shop. Well, he didn't really like coffee, but that could change. Right?
I could make the perfect cup of coffee for anyone. I was sure that I could find one that he would like, besides, what did it matter? In the end I had a mate at last. And who knew, in three months I might even have a child!
I wished I hadn't left my phone on the beach, I wanted to call Carrick and tell him immediately. On the other hand… My thoughts drifted to Rion, who showed up unannounced at my aunt and uncle's house with his true mate and new baby in tow. In fact, Verona hadn't even been a new baby, she was practically crawling by then.
Maybe it would be better to just show up and surprise the family like Rion had. It would certainly be fun.
Louis set a sandwich down in front of me, before sliding into his chair.
“Sorry,” he said. “I don't have much to choose from.”
“It's okay.” I took a bite of the sandwich and smiled. “It's delicious.”
“I hope you like tuna.”
I grinned at him. “Well, I am a cat.”
He laughed nervously. “Right. That's going to take a lot of getting used to.”
“We have time,” I said with a smile.
He nodded in agreement. I took another bite, savoring the first meal my true mate made for me. It was indeed delicious, maybe a little bland, but I couldn't complain, not if Louis had anything to do with it.
“So, I think I've explained most things…” I was trying to think if there was anything else that he needed to know before making his decision, even though he seemed pretty committed.
Louis nodded. After a long silence he asked softly, “So, you said your parents are dead?”
“Yeah. They died when I was still a baby,” I added, noticing that Louis was about to extend his sympathies. “They were killed by a Hunter.”
“Hunter? Like a…” He hesitated.
“Like a werewolf hunter,” I said. “Yes. My mother was actually a wolf. My father was a cat.”
“And yet, you're all cat?”
“Yes,” I said with a chuckle. “There aren't any weird animal hybrids in the shifter world.”
“No, cause that would be much weirder than humans who turn into normal animals every night,” Louis said, with a charming grin.
I returned it with a shrug. “It doesn't seem weird when you've been doing it your whole life.”
“How does that work?” he asked. “If one parent is a cat and the other a wolf.”
“You become whatever your sire is. That’s either which of your parents is the alpha or who turns you. My father was a cat and an alpha, so I became a cat. Since I'm going to turn you, I’ll be your sire, which makes you a cat.” Louis nodded along.
“So, your parents could never have had any wolf children, since your mother wasn’t an alpha?”
“Exactly.”
He pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Which means…” he said slowly. “Your father didn’t change your mother. Otherwise she’d be a cat?”
I smiled, pleased by how quickly he was catching on. “Right.”
