I opened my eyes and met his gaze in the mirror. “What do you mean?”
“Your feelings and preferences will play a role in whether or not she chooses me. One of the men in my pack was rejected because his fated mate was only attracted to women. Another was rejected because his mate was in love with and engaged to another man.”
“So rejection is pretty common?”
Cucumber—Nico—shook his head. “Only one in every several thousand mate bonds ends in rejection. Fate is usually right.”
“Then how big is your pack?”
“Eight of us live on the pack’s land. Two of those are a mated pair. The other three are paired off with women and living in themain part of Moon Ridge. Only one of those three come around very often, but he brings his mate a lot when he does.”
“So it’s complicated, but basically eight or ten?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Six is the typical pack number, so we’re a little different. There are six different roles among werewolves. Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma, Omega, and Sigma.”
“I’ve only read about three of those.”
“The roles aren’t like your books claim. And my pack doesn’t use them anyway.”
“You’re mostly men?”
“Yeah. Everyone in town calls us the Feral Pack. It started as an insult, but at this point, we’re just the odd men out.”
“Odd how?” I checked.
“We live outside the city, and are more in-tune with our inner animals than most. A lot of them pay us to train them to find peace with their wolves so their shifts are less painful.”
“And two of you are rejected.”
“Four.”
My eyebrows shot upwards. “But not you?”
“No. I’ve never had a mate.”
“Until now.”
His eyes darkened.
I didn’t let my gaze wander down to the obvious tent in his towel. “Should I apologize for potentially ending your bachelorhood?”
“No.” His answer was quick, his voice gritty.
“You said that way too fast for me to believe it.”
“I thought fate had decided I didn’t need a mate. I was content with it. Most of us end up paired off before we reach our mid-twenties.”
“And you are…”
“Thirty.”
Relief swept through me. I had nothing against women who were with men a lot younger than them, but considering my career, I would feel pretty weird for being mated to a college-aged guy. “I’m twenty-eight,” I said.
“Young for a college professor.”
“That’s the point of the program.”
He nodded once. “Do you need to go to work? I can stay through your classes so your wolf doesn’t panic.”
