AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I knew exactly why she liked it. My Bigfoot called her that as a term of endearment. Because she belonged to me. And I was sure once my best friend touched her, we would know that she belonged to both of us. That’s why I was late coming down for breakfast. I hoped they would somehow touch while I wasn’t there.
Didn’t happen yet, but it would.
“Are there other shifters around here? Does your kind not have packs or rages?”
That one was new. “What is a rage?”
“A rage is a group of Orcs. Not Orcs like Lord of the Rings but Orcs with tusks, and they have green skin. Doesn’t matter. You don’t live in a group like this?”
We did. Once. We lived together in a community. Soon after we split up. Koa’s family moved a bit away, but my parents and his stayed in touch, and I told her that. But the rest wasn’t mine to tell. It would pain Koa to tell the story to her, a human, but this was what we signed up for.
“My parents befriended a human family. I played with the brothers outside. We went fishing together. Hunting,” Koa said.
Druscilla leaned forward. “They knew what you were?”
Koa nodded. His pupils had enlarged, and his brown eyes darkened. “ Yes. I always assumed my parents trusted them enough to tell them, or they had caught them shifting.”
“Humans,” she whispered. “You speak of your parents as if they are no more.”
Koa lifted his gaze to mine. I took it as a cue. Though it had been over a decade, the pain of losing his parents was a knife that twisted more inside him every time he had to recall the events.
I told the story, making sure I was as respectful as possible. “My parents didn’t hesitate,” I told her after the gory parts were spoken. “Koa came to live with us. My mom set up a bed in my room and, from then on, he was my brother and best friend.”
“But you moved out?”
I nodded. “Our animals let us know that we would share a mate once we got older. My parents had more children to raise, and so, Koa and I saved up and found this property. It took us two more years to build this house, although we’re always adding on and improving it, and we’ve been here ever since—awaiting our mate.”
Druscilla sighed, unshed tears in her beautiful eyes. “That’s why you were on the app. To find a mate. Not someone to come here and pry information from you.”
Koa stood. “I’m going to make tea. Don’t worry, Druscilla.” He put his hand on hers. “We are fine with who we met.”
The instant their skin touched, I watched in complete awe as the knowledge poured over my best friend and now the mate of my mate. Again, Dru’s eyes widened and she stood and stepped around Koa. “I have to use the bathroom.”
Same thing that happened when I touched her.
“It’s her,” he whispered. “I was afraid she was only your mate, but she’s mine, too.”
I stood up and put the kettle on. It was what he was doing before touching her. “Were you worried? That’s why you were looking like that yesterday and all day today?”
Koa nodded. “No poker face.”
I chuckled. “Not at all.”
By the time the kettle whistled, Dru had come out and had busied herself with her notes, but her eyes kept shifting back to us. “Do you want tea?” I asked, breeching the silence.
“Do you have chamomile?” she asked.
“Yes. Of course.” Her tea selection gave her away, or I was looking too much into it. Chamomile was calming and even across the room, I could hear her fluttering heartbeat.
We sat around the table, sipping our tea. She drank hers down in no time, while Koa and I took long swallows.
My mind was made up about something. Now that I knew Dru was both of our mates, we no longer had to dance around the hard things. I wanted our mate to know it all.
“I’ve got an idea. We’ve been doing a lot of standing around. Druscilla, would you like to see our other sides?”
She put her cup down. “Really? Already? I won’t video you or anything. I’ll even leave my phone inside.”
“Yeah. We trust you,” I answered. “Let’s go outside.”
