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“No.” It had been hard to stop—he was so used to monitoring her activities, to watching over her in his way, that ceasing to do so had felt strange.
“Do you still dream of her?”
Isaiah stilled. “How did you…”
“Your father used to dream of his. It stopped when we imprinted. But before that, she’d invade his dreams.”
Isaiah rubbed at his nape, uncomfortable. “It doesn’t happen as often as it used to.”
“They’ll occur less and less as you settle into your mating,” Koen assured him. “Once a bond forms between you and Quinley, they’ll cease altogether. Hand on heart, I don’t regret not having been able to claim my own fated mate. Your mother and I have something very special. I can’t imagine that I would ever have been happier with another woman. It’s a ludicrous thought.”
“That may seem hard to believe, but true mate bonds aren’t the be all and end all, Isaiah,” said his mother. “They certainly don’t guarantee happiness. The only thing they guarantee is that your mate never has an out.”
That was the thing about imprint bonds: they could reverse themselves if the relationship deteriorated, or if either of the couple or their inner animal withdrew from the mating.
“What we’re trying to say is that you haven’t missed out on the chance to have something special,” Andaya continued. “It’s just that you won’t have it with the person you originally thought you would.”
Isaiah liked to think he’d have a mating as solid as that of other imprinted couples around him—not only his parents, but Deke and Bailey, and also Bree and Alex. But… “It’ll be hard when I don’t have my cat’s support. For as long as he holds back from Quinley, it’ll put a strain on our attempt to form a bond.”
Koen nodded, sighing. “Like it won’t be difficult enough to form one with a relative stranger. Imprinting is always harder for shifters entering an arranged mating, because they generally weren’t a couple before then. They’re usually two relative strangers thrust together, like your mother and I were. But if this FindYourMate website is as successful as it claims to be, you have a better chance than most at making it work.”
Isaiah looked from one parent to the other. “It was four months before you felt the stirrings of imprinting, right?”
“Yes, which is fairly good,” said Koen. “But don’t be disheartened if you have to wait longer. I know you, son. You get annoyed if things don’t move at your pace. You can start to believe you’re wasting your time—something you hate to do—and then pour your energy into something else. Imprinting moves at a pace we can’t control or understand.”
Andaya nodded. “Don’t lose hope or positivity if things drag out—that would only slow the process down. Be patient. Focus not on forming an imprint bond but on building a relationship. You can’t have one without the other.”
“I just don’t like that I won’t get a chance to meet him before the celebration,” complained Raya, drumming her nails on the kitchen countertop. “I want to feel sure that you’re mating someone who’ll be good for you.”
Quinley briefly looked away from the dish she was washing. “None of us can be sure of that. Isaiah and I don’t know each other—”
“That’s my point.”
“This is just how arranged matings work. You know that.” Her sister just liked to moan, especially if she felt left out. “I haven’t even been in a room alone with Isaiah. Why should there be an exception for you?”
“I’m special. We all know that.”
At the table, Adaline snorted. “Yeah. Special. We’ll go with that.”
Raya glared at Adaline, affronted. “You’re insinuating I’m not?”
“It wasn’t an insinuation.”
Her lips thinning, Raya shook her head. “And you wonder why I insist that Quinley is your favorite.”
“I don’t have a favorite—I’ve told you this, like, a gazillion times.”
“Because you’re a liar.”
“Or you’re wacked. Which I say with love,” Adaline added softly, her face serene. “Pure and unconditional love. That is what I feel for you.”
“But you feel more of it for Quinley.”
“That doesn’t mean she’s my favorite.”
“How is that not favoritism?”
Quinley bit back a chuckle and plopped the clean plate on the drainer. The two women constantly teased each other in a way that would seem plain harsh to those who didn’t know them. No real hurt was caused. They just each had a dark sense of humor.
