Page 8 of Piper's Perfect Mate

“Why? Why deny both of us this?” I waved my hand between us. “Was it because I was a virgin?”

“It was because you were nineteen and hadn’t even had a boyfriend.”

“How did you know that?”

Michael gave a chuckle, and I knew what he’d say.

“Arwen. She likes to talk, and when she’s around me, it’s always about you. Except how the two of you met. She never mentions that.”

I put my head down and hid my face in his neck. It wasn’t that I was embarrassed, but my childhood hadn’t been the best. No doting mom or dad in my past. I’d never known my father, and my mother had made sure I knew she’d never wanted the brat she’d gotten stuck with.

“Hey.”

Michael nudged my chin until I glanced up.

“There’s nothing you ever need to hide from me, Piper. We all have pasts. Good, bad, ugly. Hell, I was a lone wolf until I met Bastion James and joined his pack. The James Pack was small then. Still growing. I was staying in a rundown motel when Simon Hollister showed up, Bastion’s personal guard. I watched him walk through six wolves without breaking a sweat. I swear that man’s a machine. More predator than anyone realizes. Except Bastion and the rest of the inner circle. Which includes you now.”

“What? I’m not.”

“You’re my mate,” he stated as if that decreed otherwise, and it probably did. All of the mates were part of the group that stayed closest to Bastion James and his mate, Raina.

“Why were you on your own?” I asked, unsure what to say about being his mate. I still couldn’t wrap my head around it. It felt as if we’d moved at warp speed as soon as we’d started moving.

“I’ve been on my own since I was a teenager. My dad was an alcoholic, which takes real effort with the metabolism of a shifter. My mom was little more than a punching bag. When I tried to intervene, she told me to stay out of it and babied him. He gave her a black eye and a bloody lip. I repaid the eye. I didn’t want to be around that. I wanted better, and I knew I wouldn’t find it in that house.”

“My dad was never in the picture,” I confessed. “I don’t even know who he is. Not sure if he left knowing about me or if he had no clue. My mother never wanted me. Made sure I knew. I left when I turned thirteen and stayed where I could when I could. Arwen found me in an alley outside the restaurant where she worked. She gave me food then took me home with her.” I shrugged. “I never left.”

“I like her more now,” Michael confessed. “Even though she talks a lot and loudly.”

I laughed. “She’s amazing. She’s like the older sister I didn’t realize I needed.”

“I can see that. You’re opposites, but it’s easy to see the love between you.”

“What about you? Who do you usually hang out with?”

“Myself, for the most part. Unless I’m doing something for the pack. I guess I’ve hung out with Anthony and Donovan a few times, but they’re closer than any two wolves I’ve ever met.”

“How?” He’d piqued my interest with that comment.

“They like to share.”

“They live together. That makes sense.”

“More than a house, Piper. Women.”

My cheeks heated. I couldn’t control it.

“I’ve seen several wolves sharing women. Especially, after a run.”

Michael shook his head.

“They always share, as in they never engage with women separately. It’s either both of them or neither of them. I have no doubt that, when they mate, it’ll be to the same woman.”

“Are they together together?”

“I’ve never asked, but I don’t think so. And we have them to thank for getting us together, so don’t be uncomfortable around them.”

“Why do we have them to thank?”

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