Page 20 of Mated in the Stars

“Okay,” Fred said. “We’re listening. We’re not big, bad wolves going to blow it down.”

“Umm… Do wolves here have tornado breath? I’ve seen it in sheep but never in--- You know what? Never mind. This isn’t the time to talk about livestock or predators. I don’t know if I’m Lotus. Well, I know I’m not her now. I don’t know if I ever was her. I’ve had dreams of Teddy as a little boy surrounded by these other kids. I remembered how to do a dance called a waltz trot the other night. I’ve never heard of such a thing until I remembered it. So, maybe I was her or maybe I wasn’t her. If I am her, don’t like me just because of that, okay?”

“Lotus is dead,” Fred said. “My wife has been dead for a long time. Have I waited on you if you are her? Yes. I have.”

The air was thick with so many unsaid words. I wasn’t sure if he was going to say more or if it was my turn to speak again.

“But we will love you because you were her. You couldn’t be who you are now without being her first,” Elio said.

“You know this would be funny if you’re not her at all,” Fred said, laughing.

“Is it bad that I sorta hope I’m not? Not because you guys aren’t great from what Teddy’s told me but because then life would be simpler.”

“That sounds like such a fucking Lotus thing to say,” Fred laughed.

“Can you open the door now?” Elio asked.

I could but I wasn’t sure I was ready to. Would I ever be ready to? Being stuck in limbo wasn’t a great place to be but what if I was the mate they were waiting on and they didn’t like me? Or worse! What if I didn’t like them or only liked one of them? What if I hated them both and Teddy lied and they were horrible people who ate wooly pigs for dinner?

“Calm down,”my dragon grunted.“There is only one way to find out if they belong to us. There are a million options flowing in both directions for either answer. There is no way to narrow it down except to open the door.”

“I’m going to feel like an ass either way, aren’t I?”I asked him.

“Probably. Love and sex and mates make giant asses out of us all,”my dragon nodded his giant head.

“Are you ready?” I asked, buying myself a few more seconds.

“Have been for a long time,” Fred said, and I unlocked the door.

I took a few big steps back from it until my legs found the chair arm. Then and only then did I tell Fred and Elio to come inside.

Chapter Eleven

Fred

“Are you ready?” I asked both Elio and Nelum in one breath.

Maybe I asked myself too. I was ready, though. More than ready and so was my dragon. I was ready to find out if Nelum was the man we had waited for. From my first week on Starscale 1 and on, I knew there was a good chance Lotus would come back as a dragon. She’d been a dragon before: a Starscale dragon at that.

“Ready,” Nelum called from inside.

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,”Elio said over our mating link.

My fingers lingered on the doorknob, remembering the door my wife had left through. She had sprinted off into the Other World and afterlife with her grandma.

“Fred? Are you okay?” Elio whispered.

I turned the knob and let the door open. I curled my fingers into fists to hide their trembling. I’d met true-mates two times in my life so far. I met Lotus while fighting for my then toddler son and being shot at by a bunch of Hemlock Wolves and I met Elio straight off the ship and nearly burnt him up. I prayed to Frost and his glittery balls that this one went at least smoother than those times.

“Eh, don’t knock my good memories,”my dragon chuckled.

Elio stood immobile in the doorway. He sniffed the air and glanced up at me. Nelum’s eyes were squeezed shut and he was breathing heavily. I held my breath. If I held it long enough maybe this whole situation would work itself out.

“I need a cigarette,” I said and turned on my heels to head down the walkway.

“Freddie!” Nelum called after me and I froze in my tracks. Not many people called me that these days.

“I---” I tried but was tongue tied.

---