Page 63 of Venomous as a Snake

He snorts, then shakes his head. “We shared a mate.”

I want to ask for more details but think better about it. We don’t know each other that well, and I don’t want to overstep. I like Collin and Forrest. I don’t want to make either of them uncomfortable.

The kangaroo peers at me over his shoulder. “No follow-up questions?”

“It’s none of my business.”

“She rejected us,” he confesses with no anger, coming to sit on the sofa with me. “Her other mate has money and influence. He didn’t want to share her, so he made her choose.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. We dodged a bullet.” Collin glances at my arm and grimaces. “Maybe we had a few grazes.”

I aim for reassuring, but I’m really pissed off on their behalf. “You’ll find someone who chooses you. That’s a whole other experience… Something different from being fated.”

“What do you know of being chosen?” he challenges. “Your mates love you.”

“I know what it’s like to choose, what it’s like to want someone badly enough that you form a bond despite not being a fated mate.” I look at my hands as I smile to myself. “So, maybe not much, but he had to choose me too. And he chose so hard, he didn’t notice the difference between the two bonds.”

“That’s powerful love.”

I laugh as I nod in agreement. “Yeah, well, he’s a stubborn dick, so he doesn’t know the difference between powerful love and sheer determination, either.”

“You chose Walker?” he guesses immediately.

I shake my head. “I’ll never tell… But it is a Lawless brother. Ali is my fated mate, although I almost killed him before I caught his scent.”

“Whose scent?” Drew asks from behind me.

“Ali,” I answer.

The honey badger frowns. “He’s still outside.”

“That’s not what we were talking about,” I tell him. “How’d the hunt go?”

“We lost them,” he grumbles as he stalks into the kitchen. “How is your arm?”

I look down at the neatly wrapped bandage. “It burns, but I’m fine.”

“Kody?” Ali calls from the doorway.

“She’s fine,” Drew responds.

“Relax,” I demand him as he storms into the room. “It takes more than a scrape to knock me down. You, of all people, know that.”

Ali scoffs. “Fighting and being shot are two different things.”

“I know,” I retort. “And they did not shoot me. They nicked me.”

“I can smell your blood through the neighborhood,” he growls, his voice holding the rasp of his dragon.

“You’re still on edge from hunting,” Walker declares, agitation making him short-tempered.

I stand and hold my hands out. “I was bleeding. Now I’m not. That’s all. Collin cleaned my wound and bandaged it up.”

“Thank you,” Drew says from the kitchen.

“No problem,” Collin replies, watching the massive reptiles in the room.