He must feel that change in my attitude because he grabs my face, ensuring I’m staring into his eyes.
“I don’t know how this happened Aly, I’m as shocked as you. Feel my emotions, while I’m happy to have the bond, I’m confused as fuck as to how it happened.”
And he’s right, I can feel that. So if he didn’t do it, how did it happen?
Twenty One
Nic
I can feel Aly’s anger simmer down and I know she believed me. I feel a rush of relief, I don’t want her to think I sprang another mate bond on her without a choice.
I really have no idea how this happened, I didn’t use any magic let alone the mating spell.
I can’t say this isn’t the best feeling in the world, though. I have my bond with Aly, she’s officially my mate and nothing can come between us. In my eyes she’s been my mate since I met her, but now it’s official.
It’s crazy to get to experience the bond. You hear about it but everyone says you need to experience it yourself. I understand why. It would be impossible to describe the soul deep connection I have to her and her to me. I feel like we’ve become one.
“Nic, how do mages usually mate?” Aly asks and I realize this is a conversation we should have had sooner. After we figure this out and come to terms with things, we will all need to sit down and talk about it. We don’t want any accidents happening, again.
“There’s a specific spell, you would have heard me chanting if I did it and I wasn’t even using magic,” I respond.
She nods like she understands but I know she doesn’t, because I don’t either. How could we be mated without me doing that?
Then it hits me and I realize what an idiot I’ve been. We’ve all been. We keep theorizing that Aly is a supernatural, but we haven’t thought about what that really means. You only need to complete one side of the mating to be mated. Like how Aly and Jeremy mated the demon way.
Aly and I have probably just mated based on her species. But that still doesn’t tell me how, because we didn’t do any mating ritual I know.
“Aly, I think we mated based on your species. We’ve been thinking about it based on us guys and what we are but without knowing what you are, we don’t know for sure how you mate. We assumed it would be like one of us but clearly it’s something else.”
“Oh shit, so that really does mean there’s something more to me. But if I’m not like one of you, what could I be?” She asks and it’s an excellent question, one I don’t know the answer to.
“I really don’t know but maybe you’re some sort of hybrid or something lesser known. We will just have to prioritize this more,” I say, and she nods in agreement.
She nuzzles into my chest, and we both feel content at the contact. I need to tell her how I feel about this, so nothing like what happened with Jeremy happens to us.
“Aly, I’m so fucking happy to be mated to you. I know we didn’t plan on it, that it wasn’t a conscious decision, but I don’t regret it. You’re my mate and I love that.”
I can feel my heart beating out of my chest. What if she doesn’t feel the same or didn’t want the bond? It’s incredibly vulnerable to be in this situation with Aly and I understand Jeremy a little better now.
“Oh Nic, no I didn’t expect this to happen but I can’t be upset. It feels incredible to have this bond with you. You’ve always been there for me, since the beginning and you’ve become one of my best friends. I’m grateful you’re my mate. Please relax,” she says.
I realize she can feel my nerves through the bond but her words have eased them. I wrap her up tight in my arms and bring her close to me. I hold my mate tight in my arms and enjoy the moment.
“The guys are going to be so jealous,” I say.
She shakes a little with laughter, “they’re going to be mad it keeps happening! I need to know what all the ways to mate are so the rest can be conscious decisions.”
And I agree, “let’s get them all together, and we can talk through how each species mate. We can talk about what happened here too and see if anyone has any ideas. It can’t be sex in general because this isn’t our first time, so something else must have happened.”
“I agree, let’s just enjoy some time together now, though. We did just mate and I just want to be as close to you as possible,” she responds and it melts my heart.
“That sounds great, Aly,” I respond, hugging her tighter to me.
“Nic, can we keep the wall down? I want to feel the bond fully with you. We can put it up if we ever need to,” she asks. I know her and Jeremy had trouble with that and I want to do whatever she wants here.
“Of course, I would love that. I don’t want to dull what I’m feeling at all. I want to enjoy every second of this bond with you, Aly.”
I can feel her smile into my chest and her happiness through the bond. I’m so damn grateful to whatever force brought Aly to me. She’s my whole world and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep it that way.
