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“Fine. I’ll fly with you after I meet everyone who’s gathered, and you can touch me while I meet them. Not intimately, though.” I didn’t think that last part was necessary, but I added it just in case.
He grunted an agreement.
I figured that answer was as good as it was going to get.
“All right, let’s get this shit over with.”
Nine
My gaze was gluedto his perfect damned ass as he strode over to my newest bag of clothes. He pulled out a few things I hadn’t yet gotten through before tugging out a pair of pants that were clearly his.
I looked at the ceiling, pretending I hadn’t been staring at his butt as I drawled, “Putting your own clothing in my bag? Pretty big assumption, buddy.”
“I’m a big man,” he drawled back.
My eyes tried to drop back to his figure, but I forced them to stay trained on the ceiling.
“And it wasn’t an assumption. I knew you’d eventually get curious enough or desperate enough to use my name.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Your magic will grow wilder the longer we go without sealing the mate bond that’s begun growing between us. Mine will, too, but I’ve had longer to learn it than you have. I can shift and fly out the tension that would grow if you refused to see me; you cannot. The longer we’re separated, the more at risk you are of wrestling with your magic until it takes control and forces you to spontaneously shift.”
Damn.
“Flying will help. Physical contact of any kind, too.”
I couldn’t hear him getting dressed, but putting pants on wasn’t exactly a loud event.
His hand touched my elbow, and my gaze jerked toward him as that weird electric shock feeling cut through me.
“Why does it feel like that?” I asked him, tugging my elbow away.
“It’s the concept of mates. Our magic is meant to complete each other. When yours has to nudge mine, or vice versa, we feel the shock.”
“What does that mean, though? Nudge?”
He leaned back against one of the walls, and fuck, something about having him in front of me, shirtless and massive and gorgeous… it messed with me. “Your feet were wounded in the forest, after you’d been running; my magic met yours, encouraging it to heal you faster and more effectively. It also helps with hunger, exhaustion, pain, and a few other things.”
Shit. “Then how can we be compatible with multiple people?”
“That’s only a small possibility. And a connection requires compatible magic, nothing else.”
My eyebrows shot upward. “So love doesn’t matter.”
“Doesn’t matteris subjective.” The man studied me carefully. “My people only started finding mates when we discovered your world, and only a fraction of the women we’ve brought from your world have proven to be potential mates with any of our people. There are no proven rules for mating; all any of us can do is learn as we go.”
He continued, “Among the unseelies, the few mated pairs are not together for love, at least as far as I’m aware. As far as the majority of our people know, a mate bond either happens or doesn’t the moment you meet, but those of us functioning as leaders of a sort theorize that it can happen slowly, too. We haven’t announced that, though, as the women would likely be bombarded.”
Damn, that wasnotwhat I was expecting him to say.
“So when you call me mate and declare that I’m yours, you’re not proposing a romantic relationship? No sex, no kissing, nothing except… touchy, claimy friendship?” I checked.
He remained silent for a moment.
I stared back.
“Shall we get going, as you said?” The bastard gestured toward the door.
