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I blinked.
Advice?
They were here for advice?
“We’re coming!” January called out from below me. When I looked down, North and Summer were already at the bottom of the ladder.
Guess I was going too.
I climbed out, and one of them offered me a hand. I wasn’t in the habit of touching men in any capacity, outside of Teris, but even that was a new development. Touching a man would put my scent on him, and his on me.
Which I did not want to do the first time Teris left me on my own after we were mated. He seemed extra possessive at the moment, so I didn’t want to trigger him or anything.
“Thanks for the offer, but I can’t touch you,” I told the man, sticking with honesty as I eased myself out of the hole. I wasn’t used to climbing in and out of caves, but I supposed I’d have to get used to it.
The prospect didn’t scare me or bother me at all, much to my surprise.
“First lesson: don’t touch a mated woman in any capacity, boys,” Summer called out as she followed me through. “Unless you’re looking for a fight, because youwillpiss off her mate if he smells you on her skin, no matter how laid back he seems.”
“The newer the mating, the more volatile the male,” North added, as she emerged. “They neverreallychill out, but when the men become more settled in the relationship, the reactiveness geta a little better.”
“Not a lot better, though,” Mare warned, dusting her hands off on her shorts before leaning over and offering January a hand. January waved her off, and my forehead knitted in worry as I watched her slip out of the hole. Though she didn’t have a problem, it made me nervous anyway.
“It depends on the guy,” January said. “They’re all super possessive, but some are more conniving, while others are more pissy. I’ve never seen Teris lose his temper, but I get the feeling he’s the latter.”
I fought a smirk.
“Lesson learned. Thank you.” One of the men inclined his head toward us. “We require advice on wooing the new human females, now that we’ve thrown the fights with the fae women, as you advised.”
I looked at January with raised eyebrows.
“They’ve all found mates in some of the newish ex-human girls,” January clarified. “They’re not sure how to win them over, so I told them we’d help.”
Damn.
I nodded, even though I was a bit shell-shocked by the explanation.
“Have a lot of people been finding fated mates?”
“Yup. Seems like most of the new ex-humans are fated,” Summer confirmed.
North gestured toward me. “Naomi is probably better with advice as far as fated matings go, since the rest of us fell into the arms of the guys we were connected to pretty fast.”
My face flushed, and all of the eyes turned to me.
I expected to find judgment in their gazes, but there was none of it. No hatred or dislike either, somehow. The men did seem like seelies though, and the seelies didn’t despise me the way the unseelies did.
“Fate is only a small factor in a relationship,” I admitted. “It’s something that draws you together, but you can choose to ignore it. If you want your fated mate to give you a chance, you have to get to know her and learn to understand her. And if she says no, you have to try again. Not if she says no to something physical—that shit isn’t a boundary you should ever push. But if she says she doesn’t want to talk to you, ask again the next day. And the next. And the next. Persistence shows a woman that you mean what you feel, and that you’re not going to change your mind.”
The men nodded, some looking thoughtful.
“And that brings us to lesson one,” January said. “Friendship. Start with friendship, always. The foundation for any real, genuine relationship is always friendship. If you build on sex, or fate, or anything else, it could crumble in a heartbeat. What you need is to know each other.”
“How do I get to know her, though?” one of the men countered.
January launched into an explanation about dates, reminding me of what Teris had said about ourhuman dateearlier, and my lips curved upward.
The other menarrived shortly after our conversation began. All of them, except Teris. I tried to hide my worry at the fact that he wasn’t with the others, but wasn’t sure I pulled it off.
