Page 84 of Mate Me

“Th—the moons?” I stuttered over the words before clearing my voice. “What do the moons have to do with it?”

“She’ll go into heat,” Caius answered.

“That’s an understatement,” Izza muttered.

I looked at him. “Dogs do that with the moon cycles?”

He tilted his head side to side. “Not exactly. Usually just shifters go into heat with the double new moons sync, but Kish does as well.”

“What?” I asked, feeling like I had swallowed sand. “Does that happen to all shifters?”

“Only mated shifters.” I blew out a tiny breath of relief, but he added, “whether or not they accept the bond.”

Still, I was fine. There was no mate bond, and it wasn’t a conversation I wanted to have anymore. He sensed my denial in the silence, but neither of us could bring it up in front of others.

“We have time to?—”

“Talk about it in private,” I interjected, and he accepted my plea to stop having any part of this cryptic discussion. He nodded. “Why don’t you tell me more about Kish. She’s not a shifter, so how is she tied to the moons?”

Caius cupped my cheek, rubbing his thumb over it gently. “Kish is just special. As are you.”

My lips parted. “Did . . . did you just compare me to a dog?” I whispered, and he stammered as he tried to recover.

“That is—That is not what I meant.”

Izza snickered, but she tried to cover it with a cough as she rolled down her other sleeve. My cheeks flushed. I’d had enough of them doing that today. What the hell was going on?

“Verysmooth, my king,” she said before biting her lip. Addressing me, she added, “Don’t hold it against him, milady. He’s a bit rusty in romance, apparently, but he’s just lovely all the same.”

She winked, turning around, and heading for the main entrance to the stables.

“You know I didn’t mean to compare you to my dogs—or any dogs, right?” he asked, turning to me.

“Look, all I know is you just informed me you think I’ll go into heat in this place.” I kept my voice low while I focused on the double doors of the grand kennels. “I can’t very well leave, so if all I get is a well-aimed shovel at your head and a few jabs in public, I’ll take what I can get.” Even though I was certain he was wrong, it was fun to tease him. A smile curved up my lips and I could feel him staring at me.

What I should have said was “I make jokes when I’m feeling awkward and immensely uncomfortable and now seemed as good a time as any.”

The thundering increased as the dogs got closer.

“Well played, my mate.”

“Thank you, my king,” I said, flirting back. I think. Was it flirting? I wasn’t good at this.

Whatever the moment held was interrupted quickly when his dogs came barreling at full speed.

Our attention snapped over to them and he ducked down, arms open, while I took several steps to the side when I realized they weren’t slowing. In fact, when they saw him, they lowered their heads, and stretched their bodies into a harder run until they plowed into him, and he went crashing to the ground in a pile of wagging tails and giant paws.

His face was covered by wet snouts as they sniffed him and licked him, all while he mumbled that it was good to see them too.

Watching the exchange was weird. It was . . . wholesome. Unexpected, to say the least.

All but one had piled on top of Caius. A large brown dog with deep blue eyes sat by the door, regal and confident. I could feel her hardened stare and I knew without a doubt that this was Kish. Her pupils narrowed, her focus solely on me as she slowly approached, head hunched down.

Eres stirred, warning me of the danger I was putting myself in as I lowered myself to one knee.

You do not bow to a dog.

Stop it. She’s the leader of her pack. I’m giving her my respect. She needs to know she can trust me. You can’t just storm up to every animal and expect them to accept us just because we can shift into a unicorn.

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