“The how?” Troy asks.
She turns to him. “Yeah. How did you become werewolves? Were you born or bitten or cursed?”
“Born,” he answers without hesitation. “You can’t become a werewolf if you aren’t born of the bloodline.”
“Oh.” Some of the tension melts from her shoulders, and she takes another sip of her coffee. “That’s good. So you didn’t bring me here to bite me and turn me. Got it.”
“We might bite,” Sebastian says before I can stop him. “There’s claiming bites and love bites, and they’re both very enjoyable.”
“Sebastian!”
Both Troy and I snap out at him, and the kid blushes to the roots of his auburn hair. His eyes go round, and he slaps his hand over his mouth. And I instantly know what’s happening. His fangs are popping, probably at the thought of putting a claiming bite on our mate, and he doesn’t want to scare Emma any more.
If she screams again, if she rejects him…
I might be a hundred percent sure she’s the one we’ve been searching for all these years, but if she hurts Sebastian?—
Emma carefully sets the still-steaming mug on the coffee table next to Sebastian. Then she takes his wrist and gently tries to pry his hand away from his mouth. When he refuses, she halts her movements.
“Will you show me?” she asks.
With a panicked glance at me, Sebastian finally lets her move his hand. His incisors have lengthened, his human teeth sharpening into fangs. He drops his gaze to his lap—so he doesn’t see Emma’s expression, but I do. She’s not screaming. Or running away. Instead, she’s watching Sebastian’s mouth closely, her body leaning toward him.
“Does it hurt?” she whispers.
Sebastian shakes his head.
“Can you show me more?”
Finally, he lifts his chin, and the fragile hope that flares in his eyes is a punch to my chest. We’d all been hoping to find a mate who would accept us—but we’d all thought she’d be a supernatural like us. That’s why we chose to buy this land as ours, to establish our new, small pack in the area. In recent years, more and more monsters have been settling in the woods surrounding Clearwater, drawn in by nature, the ley lines running under the earth, or gods know what else.
We never imagined we’d get a human woman as our mate. One who’s beautiful and soft and smells like peaches and summer meadows and isn’t afraid of us anymore.
Oh, she’d been scared out of her mind earlier. The acrid scent of her panic was the worst thing I’ve ever smelled, because it made me want to shift and rip into whatever had caused her to feel that way. Only the threat had been me. And Troy, to a lesser extent. She’d taken one look at my face and backed away.
But now she’s encouraging Sebastian without so much as a whiff of apprehension, and I have to wonder if she’s in shock. Or maybe she’s a few cards short of a full deck. She should be more afraid of monsters than men, yet she’d been terrified of me when she’d thought I was a human on the side of the road.
Sebastian doesn’t wait for my permission before he partially shifts in front of her. His face changes, his jaw thickening, his teeth growing even larger. He stretches out the seams of his t-shirt until they rip, and his furry shoulders are on full display. His hazel eyes turn golden, his curly hair more pelt-like, though it’s still reddish-brown in color. His true wolf form is a gorgeous russet brown.
A surge of pride courses through me at the thought that he’s a part of my pack. He joined Troy and me and trusted me enough to wait when I said we’d find our fourth mate eventually. Through several years of moving around the country, even going abroad, he stuck with me as his alpha. As did Troy, never once faltering in their faith that I’ll eventually bring our mate home to us.
When we were drawn to Clearwater, Maine, I’d thought it was because of the supernatural population in the area. We’d attended fucking picnics and fall festivals trying to find the one destined for us.
And now she’s here, completely unexpected and yet so damn wonderful.
I can’t help but lean in again for a sniff. Despite Sebastian’s half form, she’s not panicking. She’s got nerves of steel, it seems, which is good because she’ll need them.
Having three mates is unusual in the human world. Seeing us sprout fur won’t be the only adjustment she’ll have to make in the next couple of days. It’s why I’ve been trying to get Troy and Seb to slow down, but for once, they’re done listening to me.
“Wow,” she whispers. “This is…wild.”
Sebastian runs a clawed hand over the longer fur on his head. “You’re not afraid.”
His voice comes out a low, guttural growl, but the words are still clear.
Emma blinks. “You can speak!”
Troy’s quiet laugh tells me he’s enjoying this. Of course he is. If Emma is this calm about Sebastian’s monster, she might not freak out over Troy’s either, though that’s more of a stretch.
