Page 24 of Entering a New World

The human part of me got it, even though his words still fucking hurt. The animalistic part of me did not understand how he could say something like that because, to him, our connection was obvious. To me, too. I felt it with every fibre of my body. His scent called out to me, the most tantalizing mix I’d ever smelled. And just being close to him put me at ease. I couldn’t even explain it; there was just this part of me that knew.

Levi coughed, finally turning his head towards me. Upon seeing my expression, he winced and grimaced. “I take it you do believe in soulmates?”

“It’s not really soulmates I believe in,” I said. It was the moment of truth, and my heart was beating out of my damn chest with nerves. “And it’s less believing than knowing. I know there are fated mates. I’ve seen countless fated pairs. It’s quite a common thing in shifters.”

“So… shifters do find their soulmate?”

“Their fated mates. Yes.”

Levi nodded, but his brow was still furrowed, his full lips pinched into a straight line, and doubt clouded his eyes. “How do you know? I mean, for humans, it’s not uncommon to say your spouse is the other half of your soul. So, one could argue humans find their soulmates, too, when in reality they just have a healthy, happy relationship.”

“Shifters recognize their mates by scent.”

Levi blinked.

“You mean they smell really good to each other?”

I nodded.

“That’s weird.” He bit his lip and cocked his head, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “And how do you know someone smells good because they’re your fated mate and don’t just… wear a cologne you really like?”

As dire and serious as the conversation was, I couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

“It’s definitely different. First of all, most shifters don’t really like cologne or perfume. Our noses are really, really sensitive, which means many strong scents can hurt our noses. Perfumes tend to not smell good, but overwhelming. Also, perfumes and stuff are artificial, that’s actually something we can smell, too. I guess you could argue we might still get fooled by perfume made from essential oils, and yes, those can be more tolerable for us. But it’s still easily discernible from scenting your fated mate. Like… I was still miles away when I picked up your scent, and I just knew. My wolf knew. It’s really difficult to describe because it’s just a part of me, part of my nature, and…”

“Wait.” Levi held up one hand, turning his whole body to face me. “You… you want to tell me I’m your fated mate?”

Fuck.

“Uhm… yeah?”

He shook his head, and my heart crumbled, splintering into tiny pieces. I rubbed my chest and tried to breathe as an invisible rope tightened around my throat, making it impossible to get air into my lungs.

I felt like I was dying, suffocating right in front of my mate.

“But I’m human,” Levi said, waving with one hand up and down his body.

“Doesn’t matter,” I croaked, still trying to get my lungs to start working again.

My wolf paced restlessly inside of me, wanting to burst free, to show our mate that we were worthy of him. To convince him we really were his mate.

“How can it not matter?”

I shrugged.

At least he was still talking to me. That meant not everything was lost, right?

“It doesn’t matter to me. Yes, human mates are rare, but not unheard of. We have a few human-shifter pairs in our pack.” I didn’t mention that two of them were here because the shifter had been cast out of their own pack for mating a human. Shifters could be incredibly narrow-minded. While most shifters liked to pretend we were better than humans, we really weren’t. They had their prejudices and beliefs, and so did we.

“But…” Levi grabbed his hair with his hands and tugged. “How am I supposed to know, huh? You’re saying you can smell that I’m your mate, right? And now you’re what? Willing to enter a lifelong commitment? Marry me?”

Basically, but I didn’t tell him that. It didn’t look like he was ready to hear that.

“But what about me? How do I know? Because I sure as shit can’t smell the difference between you and other people. How do I know? You can’t expect me to just take your word for it. That’s… ludicrous!” He kept pulling his hair, his face a mix of disbelief and pain, and so many other emotions I lost track of them. “You can’t expect me to give up my life, move here and marry you because you’re telling me I smell good to you, can you? Do you?”

I wanted to reach out, wanted to pull him into a hug, desperately wanted to tell him everything would be okay and we’d figure things out together.

But I didn’t dare touch him right now. I wanted to be his source of comfort, but I was currently the source of his agitation—and I had no idea how to make it better.

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