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Tristan
He could hardly believe it. He never thought this day would come. He didn’t want to react strongly, although his impulse was to jump up onto the table and announce it to the entire restaurant.
He wanted to scream, “Hey, my mate wants me. She wants us to be together!”
Instead, he just squeezed her hand. “Really? What changed your mind?”
She ducked her head, and it was really quite endearing. When she wasn’t running from him, he thought everything she did was endearing.
“It’s just been your constant patience. I never thought that would be possible. I’ve always been attracted to you. And I’ve always found you interesting and fun to be with. I just didn’t trust that I could rely on anyone like this. But watching you be a father to our daughter… it’s made me rethink so many of my ideas.”
Was that the first time she had referred to Arabella as ‘our daughter?’ His heart was about to burst.
As it was, his heart nearly beat out of his chest. He wanted to take her home and make love to her. But first he needed some clarity. Too many times in the past they had both screwed up because they didn’t understand what the other wanted.
“So unfortunately, this is going to take the romance out of the moment, but we need to spell out exactly what we’re talking about here. When you say more serious, what do you mean?”
He wasn’t going to be the one to bring up the word mate. It was a happy word for most wolf shifters, but for her it was turbo charged with a lot of negative emotion.
He waited while she seemed to gather her thoughts.
“I would like for us to be mates,” she said. But she hesitated and a crease appeared across her brow. “I want us to be mates, but I don’t want to be traditional mates. I know I’m in no place to be a stickler about rules, but that’s exactly what I have to do.”
Tristan scooted his chair forward. “No. That’s exactly what you should do. I need to hear exactly what you want. And then I can tell you exactly what I want, and then we can go from there.”
“Okay, I can live with you and so can Arabella – on your pack land. But I will need to have the freedom to leave anytime and travel. And there may be times I want to take Arabella with me. Not because I’m trying to punish you but because I’m going to need that freedom to know that I can do it.”
“As long as you let me know when you leave, and let me know that you arrived safely, I can deal with it. I’d be willing to accompany you as well, and I would also support you when you want to travel solo.”
“Thank you. And I can’t be a traditional female mate. I may not go to all of the pack events. I may choose to go spend the night in the cabin with my current pack. You were right when you called them a family. I’ve always hesitated to ever use that word again. But that’s exactly what they are. They’re my family.”
She took a gulp of her wine. “I mean it when I say I’m not going to be like the other wives. Is that going to make you crazy?”
If she had any idea how crazy she’d been making him for years, then she wouldn’t ask that question. But he wasn’t going to joke about that. “I can accept all of that. Having you in my life will be enough. As long as we follow the rules we make for each other.”
“There will be times when you may feel like we’re roommates,” she said. “I also may not be able to follow the pack rules. If Roman makes a decision I don’t agree with, I may not handle it well. I may have to go stay in a place outside the pack. So while I love you and you love me, our relationship may be more like friends sometimes.”
She put both of her hands on his wrist and wrapped her fingers around it. “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t love you. And I’ll still admire you and respect you.”
He really didn’t care about any of that. Now that he’d lived without her, and then almost lost her to some idiot human hunters, he wasn’t going to haggle over some inconsequential pack rules. He wasn’t traditional, he didn’t need her to be. “I can deal with all of that. You let me know upfront and I’m agreeing to it.”
“You don’t need to think about it?”
“I’m just going to put all my cards on the table,” he said. “I was never planning to have another romantic partner. You are my mate, and you were it for me. So if we can work out something that works for both of us, then I am all in.”
“That’s how I feel too. You’re it for me as well.” She looked around the damn restaurant and lowered her voice. “You know you’re the only male I’ve ever slept with.”
“No. I didn’t know that. But I’m glad that I was your first. And I’m glad I’ll be the last one you ever slept with as well.”
