Page 59 of His Treasured Mate

“Pretty sure I would have noticed eventually,” Patrick argued.

“Really? Let’s be honest here.”

They both shook their heads at me.

“We’ll think about it,” Elise conceded.

It was a step in the right direction. I knew by the end she’d make the right decision and let me in.

Oscar came over to join us where we sat, all the grown-ups sprawled out on blankets and in lawn chairs just catching up. I was mesmerized watching the young man before me. He wasn’t a child anymore, and it was hard to imagine when exactly that had changed, but at eighteen, he was a full-grown man now.

“Oscar, you still haven’t shifted?” Thomas asked him.

I noticed he squirmed at the question and tried to avoid it. Pinned down by a dozen eyes waiting, he shrugged. “Still no wolf.”

“Could be a tiger,” Jack offered, sounding hopeful.

Thomas stiffened once more.

I reached over and linked his hand with mine, forcing his wolf to settle and for him to calm down.

Something seemed off with Oscar. I didn’t ask right away. Instead, I waited until he got up and walked away, and then I excused myself to follow him. I cornered him, and the interrogation began.

“Spill it. What’s going on?”

His eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

“You’re eighteen, and you’ve always had signs of a shifter for as long as I’ve known you. You’re healthy, and—” He squirmed under my scrutiny—“You’ve already shifted, haven’t you?”

Oscar turned his big brown eyes on me. I’d always been a sucker for those eyes. “Aunt Lily, you can’t say anything. I’m not ready to admit it. I know Mom’s going to be disappointed.”

“Tiger, huh?”

He shrugged, his head dropped, and he slowly, sadly nodded.

“How long?”

“Huh?”

“How long since your first shift?”

Oscar looked around uncomfortably. “Almost two years.”

“What? You’ve been keeping this from them for almost two years?”

“They’re so certain I was going to be a wolf. I just, I don’t want to disappoint them.”

“Oscar Westin, you look at me right this second.” I waited until he looked up. “You are not a disappointment. You never will be. Your mom isn’t going to care that you shift to a tiger instead of a wolf. She’s going to be proud of you no matter what . . . though I’d probably leave out the ‘I’ve known for two years’ part for a while.”

“But Aunt Lily, I’m a cat in a pack of dogs. How can they not be disappointed?”

“Aunt Jenna is a cat in a pack of dogs. Do you love her less than me because of it? Wait, don’t answer that, of course you love me more, cause I’m your favorite aunt. So, do you love her less than Aunt E?”

Oscar laughed. “No. I love you all equally.”

“But me just a tiny bit more, right?”

He hugged me. “I love you, Aunt Lily.”

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