Page 13 of Monster's Mistake

My gaze locks with Meic’s even without me meaning to, and a strange feeling spreads through me. I clear my throat. “I’m going to get a drink,” I tell Anja.

“Okay, I’ll join you in a bit, I’m just going to say hi to Cethin first.”

“Mmhmm.” I’m sure she means it, but I know her well enough to be sure I’ll have a while before she reappears. She’s very easily distracted by her boyfriend, even if she doesn’t mean to be. I don’t mind too much, they seem to be happy together.

I head over to the drinks table and take a look over the options. A part of me is tempted to go straight for the rum, but I know better than that. No one wants to deal with a drunk gorgon, especially one with sassy snakes.

I sigh and pick a fruity cider instead. I pop the cap and head over to one of the corners so I can watch what’s going onwithout having to get pulled into anything. A group of students are already playing a loud drinking game, and there are several couples who should probably work on finding somewhere private before they give us more of a show than they intend to.

“Hello, Nati.”

A pleasant shiver runs through me at the sound of Meic’s voice.

“Hi,” I respond, the sound coming out as more of a squeak than I intend it to. It’s hard to be calm and collected when I’ve spent the past couple of days thinking about how he was with me duringDivination. It was so at odds with how he normally is with me that it made an impression.

“Not much for partying?” he asks.

I shrug. “I like a party as well as anyone else does, but I like to see the lay of the land rather than just jumping in.”

“A wise choice.”

“What’s up with you?” I blurt out.

He raises an eyebrow. “Nothing.”

“Okay.” I look away, trying not to think about how much it bothers me that he’s not acting like himself.

“I don’t really know how to act around you,” he admits softly.

“What?” I turn around to face him so fast that it makes the snakes hiss loudly, the sound echoing around my head. “Quiet down, I want to have a conversation,” I chide them.

Meic cracks a smile that makes me think he hasn’t completely lost his sense of humour.

“What do you mean you don’t know how to talk to me?” I ask, the words spinning around my head as I try to make sense of them.

Meic sighs. “I’ve never really known how to talk to you,” he admits. “That’s what all the jokes were about.”

“Wait, that’s not just your personality?”

He looks around as if he’s looking for some way to escape this conversation. “You’re my fated mate,” he blurts out.

I blink a few times as I process what he’s saying. And the fact that it basically echoes my own thoughts. “You think I’m your fated mate?”

“Iknowyou’re my fated mate.” The earnestness in his voice is impossible to ignore, especially in contrast to his normal tone. “I felt it the moment I met you.”

“And that’s why you kept making comments about how I make you rock hard?”

He groans. “Yeah, I hear how bad it sounds now you’re repeating it to me. But I couldn’t help myself. Every time I talked to you, I found myself saying dumb stuff like that.”

“Oh.” All kinds of emotions swirling around inside me. “What changed?”

“You saw that you were going to meet your fated mate in the tea leaves,” he responds softly. “And Anja might have overheard me talking to Cethin about trying to work all of this out. She told me that I should just talk to you instead.”

“I see.” So that’s what the shift in him is all about. And it explains why Anja got strange when I asked her why Afan didn’t like me because of the fated mates thing. If Meic has already toldmybest friend that I’m his fated mate, then he’s certainly told his.

A warm fuzzy feeling spreads through me at the thought. He’s so sure that’s what I am to him that he’s been telling people. That should scare me much more than it does, but instead, it just feels right.

“I’m sorry,” he says, bringing my focus back to him. “I know that I shouldn’t have said all of the things I did. And that it wasn’t exactly very charming.”

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