Page 27 of Eternal Mate

He opened the door for me, then took on a thinking expression. “Actually, maybe. I’ve never thought much about it.”

We lined up, got our lunch of frozen pizza, then sat down at an isolated table, where I asked, “So, you made him look crazy just because you thought it was funny?”

He shrugged with one shoulder, chewing on a bite. “It was only because I thought he was full of it on the mate bond thing. And also because he kept following me after I told him to buzz off.”

I raised my brows. “He did that? You did that?”

“Yeah. It’s a long story, but the gist of it is that my research into demons told me that my chances of having a soulmate were zero. So, when this guy comes up claiming that we’re soulmates, I took it with a grain of salt. But then he somehow kept being able to locate me, and the bond kept getting stronger even without us being in close proximity, and you know the rest.”

“The bond kept getting stronger?” I repeated. This was the first I’d heard of that. Other sources said that bonds grew weaker without prolonged contact, or could be broken entirely; absence made the heart go yonder, in other words.

He nodded, looking down at his plate. “Yeah. At first, it was a weird little tug; easy enough to ignore. Then, I was more and more aware of where he was at all times. Then, I started feeling little random twinges of emotion. After the attack, we started being able to speak through it, and now it’s stable. I think.”

“It was the opposite for me and Sariel,” I confessed. “It got weak when we were apart and didn’t get stronger unless we were together.”

“Huh. Weird.”

We ate in silence for a bit, both of us thinking this over. Halfway through the pizza, he said, “You know, I wasn’t really happy about having a soulmate.”

I straightened up. Sariel had told me something about this. “No?”

“No. I was more than fine with never having a soulmate since I’m pretty happy by myself. The ‘jump the bones of this stranger you’ve never met before’ part wasn’t appealing, either.”

I thought back to how my wolf had rolled over and shown her belly to Sariel when he was still being a total asshole. In a sense, I could relate.

“I know I’m a shapeshifter, but the thought of trying to, like, use that to seduce information out of someone always made me want to crawl out of my own skin, even if it was totally fake and wouldn’t go anywhere serious. Having to do that because some force beyond my understanding said so was just a creepy and invasive idea.”

“And what do you think now?” I pressed, subconsciously anxious for Auren.

He grinned at my obvious worry. “I would’ve preferred to make friends with him the old-fashioned way, but this is fine. I’m not being compelled into anything I wouldn’t otherwise be okay with.”

I settled some. At least he wasn’t having second thoughts. “I did hear you say that you wanted to choose someone for yourself.”

His eyes suddenly narrowed on me, putting my angel on edge for no reason. It took me a second to realize that he hadn’t told me that much directly; I’d heard it through Sariel.

“Oh, right, you two have a bond too,” he eventually said, then returned to his meal. I willed my angel to calm down; there was really no reason for her to start acting up like this. “I’ll never be happy about the choice being made for me, but, yeah, it’s fine.”

“You’re taking it pretty well,” I observed.

“If I took it poorly, I’d just make myself and everyone else miserable for nothing.”

I could sympathize with that. “But if you don’t want to ‘jump his bones’ and are comfortable with this, doesn’t that mean that the bond kind of respected that?”

He stopped mid-chew, looking somewhat surprised. It took him a few seconds to collect his thoughts, keep chewing, then swallow.

“Auren did say he was never interested in romance, and neither was I,” he said slowly. “I’ve always gotten along best with introverts that take themselves too seriously, so I guess that makes this a perfect match… huh.”

“Is that right?”

Ashe and I jumped in unison, then turned to Auren, who had snuck into the dining hall and come up to us at some point. Had we really been that engrossed in conversation?

Anyway, Auren looked a lot better today. His aviators were on, his arms were crossed, and his skin had a healthier glow to it. The one thing different was his overgrown hair, which was the same red shade as Sariel’s; maybe they couldn’t find an electric razor here.

Ashe huffed beside me, mirroring his crossed arms and giving him a side-eye. “You said you were too busy to eat, yet now you’re here, intruding on a private conversation. I feel lied to.”

“I was too busy. I was also expecting you to have left already since you’re usually a fast eater, but since you’re still here, I had to come find you.”

Maintaining rough eye contact with him, Ashe picked up a now-cold pizza crust and crunched it between his teeth. “Well, I’ve decided to go slow on the eating today, bub,” he said, crumbs flying everywhere.

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