Of course, it wasn't that shifters don’t believe in fate; we just had our own special brand of fate, that related specifically to our true mates. That, as far as I was aware, was the only kind of actual fate that we ever encountered. And there was never a question that's what it was. Brooks, Carrick's true mate, had basically thrown a dart at a map and ended up in our town, playing hockey on Carrick's team, the very last year that Carrick was planning on playing. Not to mention, that Brooks happened to be in the parking lot with Carrick when a werewolf hunter showed up and tried to kill him! That was fairly convincing of fate, if you asked me. And, of course, Rion and his true mate had been paired up by an apartment hunting website. I could think of half a dozen more fun stories like that from my family. I hoped that when I met my own true mate, if I were ever so lucky, I would have an equally good tale.
I rubbed my collarbone again, cursing the sudden discomfort, and then jerked bolt upright in the bed. How many times had I seen Carrick rubbing his collarbone, just like this? The soreness was in the exact same spot where my true mate would mark me.
The exact same spot and the pain only appeared after meeting a true mate. Luck? Was I insane? Was my brain frostbitten?! I chose this town as randomly as Brooks had chosen Half Moon Island. I got stuck in a blizzard, found my way blindly to a coffee shop – one that existed solely because the previous owner had come to my own shop, no less – and then was rescued by a human, who not only wasn't freaked out by the fact I was a shifter, but who proclaimed to me that he was sure I was there because of fate!
I let myself fall backward onto the bed, uncertain whether or not I could keep sitting up. A cloud of his scent washed over me as I hit the comforter. That's what I had been inhaling. Not just the familiar scent of coffee: Louis. I took another deep breath and felt my dick strain against the borrowed pants. Sore collarbone? Check. Arousal at the scent of him? Big check. It even explained my unusual desire to help him save his coffee shop, even though I just met the man. I laughed, as everything just started to fall together. It was more than coincidence. It was more than luck. It was fate. I had just met my true mate.
I sat upright again and started pacing. My God! What did I do? What did I say? I couldn't believe this was actually happening! No. Don't get too excited, I told myself. Maybe I was just being hopeful. Well, there was no way I was going to figure out if he was my true mate pacing around up here. I was way too keyed up to sleep now. I headed downstairs to find him.
~~~*~~~
Louis was sitting at his counter, nursing a cup of coffee. He took a sip and made a face. My true mate hates cats and coffee. Maybe I was wrong… I took a nervous step back upstairs. True mates were supposed to be perfect partners. We were supposed to have the same likes and dislikes. And if any of our tastes did differ, they were supposed to complement each other. I was supposed to eat the pickles that he didn't want and enjoy doing the chores he hated to do. My entire life revolved around my coffee shop and I wasn't sure how a true mate who hated coffee could fit into that. Not to mention in order to become my true mate he'd have to agree to let me turn him into a cat. How could someone who didn't like cats agree to become one?
Before I could get back up the stairs and put a little more thought into things, Louis saw me. My heart raced a little as our eyes met, and I could swear that my cock gave a little jump. Surely, I wasn’t reacting this way just because I thought he was my true mate. The attraction had to be real.
“Can't sleep?” he asked.
“I was thinking,” I said. “I realized, that you're right.”
“Okay…”
I realized that I hadn't even told him about shifters yet. I should probably start there, before I launched into declaring he was my true mate. “So, I'm a shifter.”
“What?”
“I'm a shifter. That's what we're called. And I’m a cat shifter. I can change into a cat at will anytime between sunset and sunrise. That's why I kind of panicked this morning. Obviously, we're not supposed to let humans know that we exist. And it started getting close to sunrise and I was trying to get out of here before I was forced to change back.”
“Why are you telling me all this now? You said you couldn't tell me anything.”
“I thought that. But I realized that you were right. There is reason that I'm here. I thought it was luck. But, there's no way that I ended up here, in your coffee shop of all places because of luck. I feel like an idiot for not realizing it faster. But now that I know, it changes everything.” My words came out in excited rush, and I knew he was having trouble following, but I just couldn't contain myself. “And I can save the shop!”
“Why the sudden change of… perspective?”
“Because I realized that there's a force that has brought me here, to you. There's a reason I'm here.”
Louis looked at me, his expression a mix of confusion, and just a dash of hope. “And that reason would be?”
“Fate.”
Chapter Four
Louis
“You said fate didn't send you here,” I said skeptically. If it weren't for the fact that I saw this guy change into a human from a cat with my own eyes, I probably would have thought he was crazy by now. As it was, I was feeling slightly crazy from having witnessed the whole thing.
“There are signs…”
“Of what?”
He sank into a stool by the counter. “How to explain this… I’m doing a terrible job. We're soulmates,” Cambry blurted.
“Wait, soulmates?” I asked. That was so not the direction I was expecting this to go.
“Well, that's what humans call it. We call it true mates. And it's not the romanticized vision of soulmates that humans have, it's… it's real. We've been brought together by a force, a magical force, that has chosen us for each other.” I'm sure I looked skeptical, because Cambry began explaining in earnest. “You share a bond with a true mate, that you can't share with anyone else. No love between shifters can compare with the love you experience with a true mate. And they're more than a lover, they’re a friend, a best friend, and a confidant, and… everything.” He waved his arms in the air for emphasis. “You'll never get sick of them, you'll never stop loving them, you complement each other in every way, and… you just live a perfect, blissful life together. Forever. And I didn't recognize the signs at first, but even though it's only been a short time, ever since meeting you…” Cambry trailed off and watched me, waiting.
I wasn't really sure what to say. In all honesty, it sounded kind of great. Except for the fact that it also sounded the slightest bit insane. “So, what are these signs?”
“The most obvious one is that aching in your collarbone.”
My hand flew unconsciously to the sore spot. Holy shit. “Why does it hurt?” I saw the slightest flicker of satisfaction his eyes, relief maybe. As if he hadn't been sure what he was saying until I confirmed that my shoulder did indeed hurt.
“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 is fated, and once you’re together: paradise. But sometimes there are circumstances, that can complicate things. I don't know offhand 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...”
Espresso for His Omega Page 3
