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“Trust me, it’ll be fine.” She snuggled into my chest and my wolf preened his approval. We both wished we’d been brave enough to claim her first, but unlike Tanner, we’d been trying to take it slowly. Eva had had a lot to deal with, with her abusive guardian and also with us. It was a lot and while she’d made great progress, she still had a long way to go.
The door swung open and my two idiot brothers staggered inside. I was happy to see Tanner had some nasty gouges out of his side, which would likely scar. Served the fucker right.
“You two finished?” I asked.
Tanner’s gaze was on Eva, but Cole nodded. “Yeah.”
From the bite marks on Cole’s neck, it was clear Tanner had won the fight, which didn’t surprise me. Cole was a powerful wolf, but Tanner had the edge on him, hence why the local packs called on him to resolve security issues and other problems. If there was a wolf or a human that needed putting down, Tanner was the guy to get the job done.
“Eva, come here.” The edge to Tanner’s words that told me his wolf was acting up. Most likely because he hadn’t spent enough time with Eva to cement the mating bond between them.
Wolves typically holed up with a new mate for several days after mating, to allow the bond to settle. It helped to prevent explosions of aggression when other wolves were around. One night together was not enough. To be honest, it surprised me that Tanner hadn’t gone full psycho on our asses just for looking at Eva, but it was likely because his wolf recognized that Eva was our mate too.
“You’re hurt,” she said, sounding upset about it.
The asshole smiled. “I’m fine, baby. I’ll be right as rain in a couple of hours.” Eva didn’t look convinced, but she allowed him to pull her into his embrace.
“Is someone going to explain what’s going on?” We all glanced at each other in surprise at the steel in her voice. Our little human had come a long way in the last few weeks. She was finally finding her backbone.
Good.
She’d need to stand up for herself once we started mixing with the shifter community. The unattached pack females in the area all thought they had a claim on each of us, so once they learned we were no longer available, fur would fly. We’d protect her, of course, but she still needed to show them she wasn’t afraid of their shit.
“Tanner?” Cole snapped. Our brother rolled his eyes obnoxiously and sighed.
“Fine, I’ll explain!” Eva turned to look at him expectantly. “We didn’t just have sex last night, Eva. We mated. When I bit you, it sealed the mate bond.”
Eva
Tanner’s words made no sense to me. What did he mean by ‘mated’?
We’d had sex, I got that. My first time. Great sex. I was still in shock about how good it was. Aside from what little I’d read in the occasional romance novel purloined from work, or overheard at school, I had very little experience of what sex was all about.
Sleeping with Tanner had been a revelation. It was like a switch had unlocked inside me. Every time I looked at him, I felt a strange pulling sensation deep in my chest. My body craved his touch, and when he was near, I relaxed.
The fight between him and Cole had been excruciating. Panic had nearly overwhelmed me when they fought. Even though it was all over, I was still buzzing with adrenaline. While the rational side of me understood Silas’s explanation that fighting was normal for them - and I’d seen them fight before, so it was hardly a massive surprise - knowing and seeing it were two different things.
The thought of Tanner being hurt made me feel sick. I could barely look at the nasty gashes on his torso. It was only the warm heat of his hand possessively gripping my thigh that kept the panic at bay.
My head hurt. “I don’t understand.” I reached around and touched the place where he’d bitten me. In all the confusion, I’d forgotten about it again.
When he bit me, it had hurt, but the high that followed had erased the pain from my mind, and by the time I awoke this morning, aside from some minor discomfort, I hadn’t noticed it. Then we’d appeared for breakfast because Tanner insisted I needed to eat more, and shortly after, a fight broke out.
“When we find our mate, we seal the bond with sex and our wolves come to the fore and bite our mate. This leaves a permanent scar that shows other shifters the wolf is now claimed.” Cole made it all sound perfectly logical, but it still wasn’t making any sense to me.
“But I’m not a wolf.”
“No, but you are my mate,” Tanner growled.
My nose scrunched up in confusion. “I’m human, so how does that work?”
“That doesn’t matter. You’re still my mate.” His hand squeezed my leg possessively. It felt like we were going around in circles and from the way Silas rolled his eyes at Tanner, it was obvious he had left a lot out.
“Eva, Tanner isn’t explaining this very well,” Cole said with a deep sigh. “Shifter-human mate bonds are rare, but not unheard of. Fated mate bonds are even rarer, but this is what’s happened here. We all recognized you were our mate when Silas rescued you, but Silas and I agreed to take things slowly, so you could get used to the idea of us being shifters.”
What did he mean by we all recognized you were our mate…?
I froze. Was he saying the attraction I felt to Silas and Cole was something more than me finding two hot guys, well, hot?
