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I took one step down. Then I took another. The way I moved felt dreamy, but I knew it was all real. I felt in my soul the very weight of the truth. Comfort should have come from that. Yet all that came was more questions.
As soon as I was back in my seat, the alphas welcomed me with gentle head nods. Liam took my hand. I squeezed him as hard as I could muster, which probably didn’t mean a thing to a superhuman creature like himself.
“Mates,” I whispered. “What does that mean? Are we married?”
Blake shook his head. “Not necessarily. There’s usually a ritual we perform.”
I touched my throat. “Ritual?”
“It’s noninvasive,” Troy rushed to explain. “It’s simply an elder using sacred oils to draw symbols on you and your mate. You can say vows and trade rings. It’s a lot like a wedding ceremony.”
I looked down at my hand that was tangled with Liam’s. “Does that mean he’ll never leave me?”
His responding squeeze crushed my knuckles and caused me to wince. He relaxed instantly, rubbing his thumb along my palm as an apology.
Troy and Blake traded a glance. I didn’t like that uncertainty there, not quite knowing what was going to happen next. And when they turned to face me again, I thought I saw a sliver of worry in their expressions. It was gone before I could determine whether it had truly been there or not.
“We can’t determine his loyalty,” Blake began.
“But we can say that mate bonds are for life,” Troy finished.
I lowered my gaze to the table. At least that was somewhat of a relief. I hadn’t told Liam about it yet, but I wanted more than anything to be a mother. Between the good news of being pregnant and the thrill of getting to that point, it would feel too anticlimactic to walk away.
Still, even with the reassurance of a mate bond being for life, I didn’t exactly feel welcome as a human. It felt more like a condition of my pregnancy than anything.
“What do I have to do?” I asked. “Is there anything I need to sign?”
Troy frowned with confusion. “Unless you’d like to seek care within the pack, we don’t have any requirements for legal signatures.”
“Laws within the supernatural world are different,” Liam interjected. “We obey human laws, of course. But when we’re within the confines of our world, we rule according to our own morals.”
My staring match with the table lengthened. “Is that how you handled Phil? According to your own morals?”
Blake tapped my hand lightly. “Who’s Phil?”
Liam stammered over a response while I stood from the table. The alphas invited me to sit back down, but I wouldn’t listen to them. I was feeling numb from the conversation, however brief it might have been. I just felt like I was lost in my head about everything. That could have just been the hormones too.
A warm hand snagged my elbow. “Ani, wait—”
“Let her go, Liam.”
“She needs to think. Let her walk and explore the pack.”
A chair scraped the tile floor. “I can’t let her go by herself.”
“Easy, soldier.”
“Go on, Liam. Be well. And go on.”
Their voices faded behind me as I rushed to the door. I snatched my coat from the hook, swung the door open, and stepped outside without shutting the door behind me. This was the second time I was hauling ass away from the three shifter men. But could anyone blame me?
In one day, I’d found out I was pregnant, discovered that Liam was a wolf shifter, and then had sex with him on the couch. I watched kids no older than four shift mid-air and then shift back to their human forms. I met two alphas and got paired up as a mate to Liam.
It was so much. It wastoomuch.
I had to just let my feet carry me wherever I needed to go.
For a while, I just shuffled along the side of the road with my hands in my pockets and my head in the clouds. I watched the sky turn onyx with sparkling silver specks and milky clouds drifting past a crescent moon. Lights from porches reached the street, dusted my boots as I walked past a gorgeous array of trees that still clung to their rusty leaves.
