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“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your family?” she asks, confusion and hurt painted across her sweet face. I step away, trying to get room to think, and run a hand through my hair.
I fucked up. I really, really fucked up.
As I pace, I steal glances at her. Can I make Antonia my mate? Can I live for the rest of my life with this woman? For the first time since meeting her, I begin to question everything. When it was just the two of us, falling for her so quickly seemed to make perfect sense. Now that I see the stakes, I can’t believe I’ve let this get so far. Is she worth throwing away the relationship I have with my father?
“Listen, baby, I have to go talk to my father and smooth things over,” I explain, rubbing her slim shoulders calmingly. “I’ll meet you here tomorrow, okay?”
“I don’t understand. I thought I was going to meet your family.”
“You will,” I promise. “They are very secretive, and I should have warned them before bringing an outsider to visit.”
“An outsider?” Her tone is somewhere between confusion and offense.
“The only time we allow outsiders into our village is if we intend to take them as our mates,” I explain. “I didn’t declare that to my father before I brought you.”
“But youdointend to take me as your mate, right?” she questions, and I hesitate. If she asked me that yesterday—hell, even earlier today—the answer would’ve been a resounding yes.
“Of course.” The lie slips easily off my tongue, but she eyes me warily. “I just need to talk to my father first.”
“Are you sure?” she asks, anger lacing her words.
“It’s you and me, my love. Now and forever,” I tell her, capturing her lips with mine. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Right here.”
“I love you,” she says as I turn to walk away.
“Me too,” I respond, the sentiment churning in my gut for some reason.
Quickly, I shift into my owl, letting him take the reins as I think over what to do.
We cannot mate that woman, he says adamantly.
What? Why?I ask, shocked by the strength of his resolve.
This is the first time he has expressed displeasure at the thought of mating Antonia.
Isn’t it? Since I met her, I haven’t felt him much at all. I guess I haven’t shifted much either. I try to think back to the last time I flew and can’t recall. Strange...
My wings falter a bit, and I lend my owl some of my strength to even us out.
Something’s wrong. My owl projects the words into my mind seconds before I’m forced back into human form. I fall sixty feet out of the sky and land at the edge of the village with a loud thud.
Everything goes black.
As I come to, I am aware only of my father’s voice booming across the room.
“What was he thinking? Bringing her here?”
“He was thinking that he’s in love, and he wanted to give her a reason to stay.” My mother’s voice, much calmer, reminds him. “Spiros, do you want him to leave us?”
I try to move, but my muscles protest. Everything hurts.
“What? No. Of course, I don’t. Why would you say that?” My father’s tone is offended.
“Well, what did you think would happen? He would just bid her goodbye next week and forget she exists? They’re probably both trying to convince each other to stay or go.”
“Rita, she’s not his mate,” my father argues, as if that is all anyone needs to know about the situation.
He and my mother are true mates and believe that I should wait for my own true mate. At twenty years old, I’ve almost given up hope. At eighteen, I traveled for a year around Greece and even Europe. I’ve had no luck finding her.
