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“You’re awake!” he exclaims when he sees me. “How are you feeling?”
“A little tired, but good,” I admit. “It’s not every day a guy gets to meet his true mate.”
He leans the mop against one of the chairs and moves away from the part of the floor that’s been cleaned. He has a wry smile on his face when he looks back at me.
“Sapphire Faris, writer for Bold Woman magazine in Cressidan City. Who would have guessed Scarlett had an identical twin sister?”
“They might look alike, but Sapphire … She’s perfect for us.”
“I can’t believe you got guided by the fates. I thought that was a myth. I’ve never known anyone who got to experience it. What was it like?”
“It’s hard to explain. I knew she was my mate the second I looked at her, and I knew she wasn’t Scarlett. Considering how unusual our situation is here, I guess that was enough for the fates to intervene to offer some reassurance, or whatever you want to call it.”
I can’t help wondering if that reassurance was for Sapphire.
I was sure. I knew the second I saw her face.
She might have taken a little longer, and I don’t blame her for that.
“I think the fates might have needed to reassure her that I knew she wasn’t Scarlett.”
Bishop sighs. “I wondered if that might be the reason they were involved.”
“It’s a pretty crazy situation we’re caught up in here.”
It’s way rougher for him than it’s going to be for me, but I think he knows that.
“I feel pretty stupid,” he confesses. “And I’m sure Scout does, too. Rueben might be excited over the whole twin thing for a while, but that’s not going to last once he realizes our mate isn’t too impressed with most of us.”
I snort. “He watches way too much daytime TV.”
As much as part of me wants to gloat, I know Bishop’s already ripping himself to shreds over this, trying to see the moment when he should have figured out his choice was the wrong one.
He’ll torture himself enough over it, because mistakes in our line of work can get someone killed.
“This isn’t a fire,” I tell him. “So don’t go retracing your steps to work out where you might have done something different or better. There’s nothing you could have done differently for things to be better now. You guys all felt a connection to Scarlett for a reason. It’s not your fault it turned out to be crossed wires, or whatever you want to call this mess. It’s not something any of us could have foreseen.”
“Maybe,” he says, nodding. “But you knew, and you didn’t waver. All three of us were sure about feeling a connection, but all three of us had moments of doubt. We should have known that meant something. Even if it wouldn’t have been possible to figure out what.”
It doesn’t matter what I say, he’s going to beat himself up over this.
Scout will do the same, and Rueben will do it even harder once it hits him what it means.
I don’t want my pack to feel punished over something that was outside of their control, but that’s down to what Sapphire wants now. Her feelings have to come first. My pack brothers can roll with the punches. They’ve been doing it for long enough. They can handle waiting for a little longer.
Chapter sixty-five
Sapphire
It’s dark when I crack open my eyes to find out I’m lying on a bed in an unfamiliar room.
I sit up quickly, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the absence of light. It doesn’t take long to remember I passed out in Scarlett’s neighbors’ kitchen.
Right after I met hot neighbor number four, a.k.a. Gus, who instantly accepted me as his fated mate.
He knew I wasn’t Scarlett. I saw that … or felt it … somehow.
My grasp of what happened feels like it’s slipping through my fingers.
