Page 10 of Shifter Marked and Claimed

I turned my head and noticed it was sitting on the roof of the car. I hadn’t even noticed I set it down but must have while I buckled Vada into her seat.

“Right. Right, uh, thanks.”

I grabbed the paperwork and like a big fat chicken, I jumped into the driver’s seat and got the hell out of there.

My head was still swimming in disbelief as I returned Vada to school and went home to curl up into a ball and cry for all the things I knew I could never have, because above everything else, I had to protect Vada. No one could know the truth about her conception and Doctor Micah threatened that very thing.

I could never be intimate with a man because I would never deny Vada as my biological daughter, but how could I explain that I had never been with a man.

My own mother had called her an abomination and I couldn’t bare to hear those words again, not from anyone, but especially not from my one true mate.

I choked on a sob. He was a doctor of all things. He’d surely know the truth if I ever gave in to the mating call I was feeling.

CHAPTER 4

MICAH

It had happened.I met my one true mate, and she was already taken.

Mine!my wolf growled at the thought.

I had recognized the little girl immediately. She was the one at the house in the woods. My wolf had known our mate was there.

What had I done in this life to deserve a mated mate?

How was this even possible?

I stood on the curb and watched her drive away remembering the gut punch of devastation that had hit me when she yelled “No!” and ran from my office.

Of course she said no, she was the mother of a two year old. She clearly already had a mate and no matter what my wolf told me, she could never be mine.

Tarron stopped by at that exact moment.

I wasn’t sure what I looked like staring longingly as my mate drove away, but it was enough to make my friend jump from his car and run to my side.

“Are you okay? What happened?”

“I’m fine,” I managed to say, forcing myself to turn and walk back into my clinic.

Tarron followed.

“You don’t look okay, man. You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

I snorted at the irony. Maybe I had.

“Have you ever wondered what would happen if you chose a compatible mate? I mean before you met Susan. Like if you had and then met her, would your fox have recognized her as your true mate?”

“I don’t have a clue why we’re talking about this, but I don’t think that’s how it works. Once a bond is made your spirit animal shouldn’t look or want any other woman.”

“So what about her then? What if she wasn’t mated and crossed paths with you, her true mate, only you’re already mated to someone else. Would she recognize you as her true mate?”

He growled clearly upset by the question.

“I don’t know, Micah. Maybe? Why?”

“Because I just crossed paths with my true mate, and she’s already mated.”

“What? No way.”

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