“You should go out there,” she said without saying hello. “Seriously. Go out and mingle. Go out and hang on him. Go out and do something. You look so antisocial right now and that’s not you. Are you still mad about him leaving you in the field at the mercy of those pussy cats?”
“No, I---” I wasn’t about to tell Gaia that I’d moved from confused to horny.
“Ah, yeah. You want him to come in here. I don’t think that’s going to happen to be honest. He was out there eating pizza with the kid.”
I was pathetic, wasn’t I? I was pining in my mate’s bedroom because he was hanging out with his kid. What about the true-mate response had done this to me? Was it just me? Was I really that selfish? I wasn’t normally. At least, I didn’t think I was.
“Am I a horrible, pathetic person, Gaia?” I asked her.
She blinked at me and her expression slowly morphed to bemused.
“What?” she asked. “Are you the same guy who rotated in when our hatchlings had colic? Who has never missed a soccer game except for the time he wrapped his car around a tree andbroke both legs? Then still tried to come to the victory pizza party afterward?”
“But…”
“Look, I’m an omega. So, I get why he wanted you to get the rock. I do. I know how it is to be burnt out and you have every iron and your tail in the fire and still can’t get everything done. But at the same time it’s okay for you to want attention. That doesn’t mean he can drop everything and give it to you, but being an alpha doesn’t mean you don’t get to have needs and I’m not talking about sex. If you want them to plan somewhere else, go say so. If he has a problem with it, he’ll speak up.”
“I can’t kick his parents out of his house,” I said.
“Well, I bet you’d feel less bad about it than he would,” Gaia huffed.
“Probably, but that’s not the point—”
“The point is if you’re going to have time alone with that lion, you’re going to have to use that big, stubborn draconic spine of yours and make plans and arrangements. Sure, you’re going to have to work with Jade so that it’s when Jondi is at school or asleep or whatever but just because you met your true-mate doesn’t mean everything is easy. Like Sermon was lowkey mad at me for days when he found out we slept together years ago.”
“And he used to date his best friend,” I groaned.
“So what? They broke up before you two met, right? I mean, they broke up for a reason. Plus, Eran is mated to that adorable Toller and has all those babies.”
“And he kisses lions,” I groaned.
“Okay, I’m not your mate. This is all shit you have to work out with him. Plus, you have to tell him we romped years ago too,” she said.
“What? Why would I—”
“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Gaia sat up. “Okay, out you go. Either go sit with him or start tossing people out the door. I don’t care, but I’m not letting you wallow in whatever this is. Nope. You’re not gonna be one of those alphas who meets their true-mate and turns into a jerk and right now you’re a jerk. Get up.” She tugged on me. “Get up before I have Sermon drag you out of here!”
“Gaia!” I growled.
“Beryl!” she said, rolling her eyes and dragging out the syllables of my name.
“Is there a problem?” Jade appeared in the door, Jondi holding onto his pants leg.
“She won’t leave me alone,” I laughed.
“He needs to go socialize,” Gaia said.
Jade’s kitty cat eyes darted between us and then he frowned. There was definitely a question there he wasn’t willing to ask in front of his kid. Jondi stepped forward and opened his mouth. I thought he was going to say hi or something, but a screechy little bark escaped his lips and he charged at Gaia. She leapt out of the way, nearly knocking over a floor lamp, and ended up standing on the dresser as Jondi continued to hiss, bark, and make other high-pitched, angry otter noises at her. It might’ve been cute ifhe hadn’t started climbing the dresser to get to her with his little teeth bared. Jade scooped him up and nodded for Gaia to leave. After she was gone, he folded back a screen that I thought was a wall to reveal a rocking chair. He sat down and rocked his son.
“She wasn’t going to hurt Beryl. She’s his friend,” Jade cooed to the little guy who was still hissing and snarling.
“He’s ours now!” Jondi said. “Ours! No one messes with us!”
My heart melted a bit. Whatever Jade had told Jondi about us or our connection had made him go from thinking I was going to eat him to understanding I was somehow a part of their little family.
“They were playing,” Jade said.
“He smelled scared!” Jondi said as Jade felt around a table next to the chair until he found a tin of tuna. He popped the top off with the pull tab and handed it off to the little otter who devoured it without breathing. When he finished, he drank down the watery juice and looked at me. “What was she doing to you?”
