Page 35 of Bewitched By the Werewolf
Chapter 19: Ryder
When I walk downstairs after a restless night, the last thing I expect is to find Hunter waiting for me. I eye him suspiciously. The fact that he’s here at all after not returning home last night means it’s something important.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, getting straight to the point.
“I live here, remember?”
Freaking smart ass. “Yes, I remember. I also recall you not coming home last night. So, I ask, what are you doing here? Have things gone south with Lottie already?”
Hunter chuckles and grins shaking his head. “Not in the least. She’s knows what I am and was surprisingly calm about the whole thing. Once she realized I was still me. I stayed the night to keep an eye on her. Vincent has shown interest in using her as leverage against me and I’m not going to let that happen. I left her with Ginger at the cabin. She’s keeping an eye on her until I return.” He pauses and looks me over. “Sit down. There’s more.”
I follow him to the living room and sit in a chair near the couch where he sits on the edge, elbows on his knees. He’s struggling over whatever he has to say.
“Just spit it out Hunter. You know I prefer candor over sugar coating. Whatever you have to tell me, just tell me.”
“It’s not that I don’t know how to tell you, it’s just I’m still trying to comprehend it myself. It means change for shifters. I told you before I had Fynn looking up info on mate bonds, with humans?”
“Right. I still don’t know how that could be possible.”
Hunter shrugs holding out his hands then clasping them together again. “I have no idea either but apparently, it is.”
“What?” He couldn’t have possibly said what I think he just said.
Shifters cannot mate with humans. Period. Never have. We can have mixed children and marry them, but forming a permanent mate bond that allows them to live as long as we do and create a magical psychological connection has never happened, that I know of. I would think something like that would have spread throughout the shifter community if anyone were able to.
“Fynn believes that a human descendent of a non-human can now form a mate bond with a full-blooded shifter. If their ancestor wasn’t too far back in their lineage.”
“How? We’ve never been able to form the bond with anyone who wasn’t at least half non-human.”
Mate bonds don’t have to be between two shifters, as long as they are both at least half non-human, it can happen. Children of a pairing between a shifter and say a fairy, could be a full-blooded shifter or fairy. There are no shifter fairies, just a shifter or a fairy. The only half-breeds are those made with humans. Something to do with the magic in our blood and lack of it in a humans. Why would that change now? After thousands of years of not being able to bond with a human, why now? What’s changed?
“I don’t know. I don’t think Fynn really knows why either. His best guess is evolution. Our low dwindling population numbers leading to the next evolutionary transformation. The need for more mate bonds and full-blooded shifters forcing our genetics to mutate to suit our needs. Something like that. He thinks a child born from a pairing like this might result in a full-blooded shifter instead of a half-breed. Either way, I believe Lottie is my mate and I’m pursuing it.”
“And she knowsallthis?”
Hunter leans back on the couch and rests his hands at his side. He looks like he’s been going through a lot, dealing with Lottie and his pull towards her. My finger taps restlessly on the armrest. I wonder if what I’ve been feeling for Tess is the same thing Hunter has been feeling? So far, I’ve only smelled her, an alluring scent alone is not enough to conclude a mate. It’s a strong indicator, but since Tess is a human and this whole mating humans thing is a recent development, I can’t for sure say it’s a mate pull. She could just smell really nice.
“Yes. I told her last night. She’s very open to the idea. There’s still a lot to learn but I’m optimistic.” Hunter smiles wide, his gaze unfocused in the distance.
It must be nice to be so confident in your love life. Mine has been…minimal in recent history. Now it’s complicated to say the least, if non-existent. I still don’t know what this has to do with me and Tess or if it has nothing to do with us at all. I could be completely wrong in what I’m feeling towards her. Since I’ve never felt the mate pull and a shifter rarely feels it more than once in their life, I have no idea what it really feels like, or if it’ll feel different towards a non-human, human descendent or whatever.
“I just wanted you to know,” Hunter continues oblivious to my own internal strife with the matter. He’s too absorbed in his own happiness to realize. I don’t blame him, I would be too. “It’sa big change for shifters and if it happens with a human for you, I want you to know it’s possible.”
What would be the odds of that? Two human descendants of non-humans arriving in town completely unannounced, being the mates to the alpha and beta shifters? Highly unlikely, that’s what. What I’m feeling for Tess has nothing to do with a mate pull. And yet I can’t stop thinking about her. Not all my thoughts are good ones. She’s still a pain in my ass and now that she knows what I am, is even more unbearable than before with all her questions and prodding. I don’t mind her scent following me around town though. It may be mildly distracting, but pleasant.
Still, no matter how much I don’t believe Tess could be my mate, I still need to figure it out for sure. I’ve waited decades to find a mate and to find one so young as a shifter would be a blessing I would be stupid to not grab ahold of with both hands. If she is my mate I need to know, so I can either pursue her or kick her out of town.
Either way, her and her website are still problems I need to solve.
I stand abruptly, startling my brother. “Thank you for letting me know,” I say before spinning and heading towards the front door.
Hunter doesn’t say anything more as I leave the house and head for town. I have a mouthy redhead to find.
~
It takes an absurd amount of time to find Tess and when I do, it’s in the most unexpected and infuriating place; talking with Roman, the elf spying for Vincent. A possessive fury washes over me as I stride towards them. I was heading for city hall, but as soon as I saw them, I pulled over and parked next toDottie’s.They’re standing in betweenDottie’sandCloset Carousel,and I don’t like how close he’s getting to her.
In a matter of seconds, I round the building and appear at their sides. My appearance apparently not a surprise to either of them. The scent of wild apples invades my senses. Tess grins at me and places a hand on her hip, while Roman leers down at Tess and her tight black outfit. I want to punch him in the face. Maybe rip out a few piercings. Tess can’t see his true form, but I can, and it would be so easy to shift one claw just long and sharp enough to cut off the end of one of his pointy ears.
