Page 47 of Mated

Cain nudges me, and I realize I’ve been staring.

“I need to have a shower,” I stammer. “And get changed.”

“There should be a change of clothes for you too,” Cain says. “Is there, Bardo?”

“Yes.”

Bardo barely speaks aside from when he absolutely has to. He’s kind of absolutely terrifying. I am glad to escape back to the grungy old bathroom and have a shower under lukewarm water, wash the filth of the previous days from my skin and hair while playing the image of Cain shifting and then un-shifting over andover in my head. I do not know what I did to deserve him. He is absolutely the most incredible man I have ever met.

He came for me.

I ran, and he came, even though he must have thought about not doing that. Or maybe he didn’t. Maybe he meant what he said when he told me that I am his mate and that I belong to him forever. Maybe he’s not escapable. That’s an exciting, frightening thought.

There’s a tap at the door.

“Come in?” I call out somewhat timorously.

“There’s some clothes for you here,” he says as he comes in.

He’s brought me a very comfortable pale beige jumpsuit and matching sneakers. It’s the sort of outfit that probably costs thousands even though it looks casual. He stands in the bathroom and watches me dry myself and put the clothes on. I don’t mind. His presence feels protective, though I know I don’t deserve it.

“Why did you come for me?” I mumble the question, deeply embarrassed, knowing I don’t deserve his attention.

“You’re my mate.”

It really is that simple for him.

“So that’s it. I’m your mate, and it doesn’t matter if I’m human trash?”

“Coming from humble beginnings does not make you trash, Kira.”

“I mean, it doesn’t matter what I do, I’m just your mate, and it’s that simple?”

“I don’t recommend you push the boundaries of that. You won’t like the results. But yes. It is that simple.”

I fall silent, feeling guilty for having asked. What a mess I’ve made for him. And it just keeps getting worse.

“Why do you want to find my aunt and cousin? What do you think will come of it?”

“I want to know your family. Where you come from. Your bloodlines. Who your father is. Who you are.”

Cain

She looks at me with big eyes. “Where I come from, my bloodline, my father… none of that is who I am. At least, I hope it isn’t.”

That response makes me stop for a moment. I have been doing what the pack wants me to do, what Linus demanded I do. I have been trying to track down her heritage so we can place her in the tapestry of our kind.

I have done everything besides simply get to know her.

“Kira,” I say, “it’s time I took you home.”

I take her by the hand and lead her out of the stinking, dilapidated hovel she fled to out of a sense of duty. She is loyalto a fault. That is something I know about her. Something other than the color of her pelt or the humbleness of her origins.

The helicopter is still waiting. I leave Bardo to his job. He is not alone. I came with several dozen pack members, knowing that there was trouble afoot in this little town that time and the law seems to have forgotten.

Kira

I remember the first time he took me in a helicopter, how he held me in his lap and made me feel so incredibly safe. That was before I ruined things, broke his trust, made myself look terrible in front of his pack, and generally destroyed the best thing that ever happened to me.

---