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I studied him. The magic had—well, still did honestly—connected him to me as well as the others. And he’d called me “mate.” Maybe he knew something about it. I patted the spot next to me on the wooden porch.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” I offered part of my muffin. “I’m happy to share.”
He perched on the step a bit uneasily. I wondered what he thought I wanted to talk about.
“Do you know anything about this mate magic in Silver Springs?”
“Mate magic?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
I shifted in my seat a bit nervous. “Well, a lot of people seem to have multiple mates.” I waved a hand. “Like Amber, she has three.”
He nodded. “I did notice that.”
“And Peppermint, she has three Vikings.”
“Well, Pepper is a shifter.” He popped a bit of muffin in his mouth.
“But isn’t that odd, even among shifters?”
“Yeah, I guess so. Unless you’re a bear,” he said. “They always mate in groups.”
“And in Silver Springs, they have been known to have spells go awry and start mating people. I think Pepper said something about a pair of skates?”
He shrugged. “I haven’t been here long enough to hear about anything like that.”
“But when we fell in the fountain the other day . . . you called me a mate.”
“I did?” He rubbed his ear as if checking what he’d heard.
I didn’t think he was really confused, but he wanted me to think he was unsure. Didn’t shifters know their mates immediately? Was he just teasing me?
“And I saw magic, orange magic, connecting me to four guys,” I said. “You were one of them.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know about that . . .”
I crossed my arms over my chest. If he didn’t want to admit it, it must have been because he didn’t really want a mate . . . or, probably, me. I was trouble for any supernatural. He’d probably hated being unable to shift when I lost my necklace. “I think it must have been some kind of mistake.”
His gaze jumped to mine. “You do?”
“My magic is all wonky anyway, and things have been going wrong at the aquarium for a while now,” I said. “At least, that’s what Tripp says.”
“He does?”
“Yeah, it’s not like anyone wants to get saddled with a messed-up witch like me.”
Hudson scowled, and I realized I hadn’t really seen him without his ever present smile. He crossed and uncrossed his arms and turned away from me to look into the distance.
I swallowed. I’d been right. Even if we were mated, he was going to reject me. I took a swallow of my coffee. I should have known this was how it would turn out. Levi thought I was only a curiosity, Tripp hated me, and I hadn’t even seen Roman since we kissed.
Hudson turned back to me, and he reached out and set aside my coffee and my muffin. Then he took my hands in his.
“You’re a very powerful witch,” he said. “Anyone would be proud to have you for a mate.”
My lips twisted. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to say here, and my heart was already feeling bruised. It was stupid of me. I knew better.
“Including me,” he said, kissing my knuckles.
“What?”
