Page 9 of The Fated Mate Bandit

5

SILVER

“No.” The word is more an exhalation than a whisper. It’s almost like he doesn’t want to say it.

Fucking hell. How am I supposed to interpret that response?

“If you don’t want to bond to me, I understand. You can still stay here.” That’s what I should have said at the very beginning. I’m already fucking this up.

“It doesn’t matter what I want,” he repeats. “I’m not a raccoon shifter. I don’t get to choose who I end up with.”

I walk over and sit in the chair next to him. I hate the way his back straightens at my close proximity, his body always on the alert. When we were younger, I desperately hoped that being with me would make him less afraid of the world. I guess Daryl fucked that up along with everything else.

“I’m trying to give you a choice here,” I say.

He lowers his gaze to his hands. “No, you’re trying to give me your choice.”

“What do you mean?”

He takes in a deep breath. “Well, raccoon shifters are the luckiest people in the world.”

“I wouldn’t say that. People hate us.”

Lucas gives me a sad smile. “Because they’re jealous, Silver. You get to bond to anyone you want. It doesn’t matter what shifter species or secondary gender. You can choose anyone—love anyone. Do you have any idea how precious that choice is? Most of us are stuck with whoever Fate chooses for us.” He says the last few words like they’re a prison sentence. Maybe for him they are.

“You don’t have to be stuck with Daryl. If I put my paws on you?—”

“Then you’d be stuck with me,” he says. “Don’t you see? I’d get to have a choice, but you wouldn’t. You’d be saddled with an omega who has swollen feet, stretch marks, and three pups on the way. That isn’t fair.”

Is that all he thinks he is? Stretch marks and swollen feet? I don’t know whether to feel sad or angry. Here Lucas is, six months pregnant, and instead of being cherished and cared for by his alpha, he’s on the run and believes he’s worthless.

If I was a violent man, Daryl would be in a world of hurt right now.

“Look at me,” I say.

He raises his gaze to meet mine.

“I think you’re beautiful.”

He turns away from me again.

“Lucas,” I say. This time I cup his jaw and tilt his face in my direction. “Raccoon shifters have big litters. Stretch marks come with the territory. If you were carrying my kits, I would kiss every part of your skin that stretched to make space for them.”

His eyes well with tears. “Daryl doesn’t feel that way.”

“Then Daryl is wrong.”

He leans into my hand, just like he did last night, so desperate for affection that he’s accepting it from an alpha he doesn’t feel worthy of. I hate this. I want to ignore everything he’s saying right now and just put my paws on him already. It’s clear that he’s miserable with Daryl. But the last thing Lucas needs is another alpha pushing him around.

How could I give him a choice without giving himmychoice, as he put it?

“Maybe we could do a trial run,” I suggest.

Lucas furrows his brows in confusion.

“You still have three months before the pups come, right? What if we pretended to be mates for the next month or so? Just to see how it feels.”

That would solve everything. We’d have time to get to know each other again. I could pamper Lucas the way he deserves during his pregnancy and shower him with the physical affection he craves. Then maybe he would understand how deep my feelings are for him.

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