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Chapter Sixteen
In a moment, Alani’s whole life had turned around. Sure, things were still the same—technically. She still had two beautiful daughters waiting for her back home. There was still a semester of school to finish, a diploma to obtain, and a career to build. Yet somehow the foundations of her life were just a little shakier now that she knew Ivo was a shifter.
What other mythological creatures were real? Vampires? Werewolves? Elves and fairies? Where did someone draw the line?
Massaging her temples, Alani closed her eyes for a moment and tried to calm her racing thoughts. One thing was for certain—she had fallen in love with this man. She hadn’t realized it, but somehow what had started as a mild interest had blossomed into something so much more. It was like her spirit knew that Ivo was the man for her, yet her brain was scrambling to catch up with such an outrageous realization.
But as she looked back at him, passed out and snoring, she knew it to be true. She had fallen in love without even realizing it—and fallen for a bear shifter at that.
What was she going to do? Alani had never intended to fall in love here. She had a life back in Hawaii. Her heart was there, not here, and yet somehow it had happened. Did he feel for her too? Had he fallen hard and fast? Was that why he showed up at her apartment tonight?
Exhaling deeply, she stood just as she started getting a headache, then pulled the blankets up and pressed a hand to Ivo’s forehead. He burned hot, as he always did, but Alani stayed there a few moments longer than necessary to see if she could discern a fever from his usual body temperature.
Nibbling her lower lip, she also checked under the blankets for any active bleeding, of which there was none. His wounds had closed in the span of an hour. It was incredible. It was impossible.
She should have been in a full-blown meltdown by now, and yet somehow Alani drifted back to the main area of her apartment in relative calm. She could handle this. She had been a single parent for years now. She could figure out her love life without dissolving into a weeping mess on the floor. She was strong enough for this.
Maybe. Hopefully. She’d never dated a shifter before, of course.
Mind awhirl, Alani fixed herself a plate for dinner and ate in front of the TV, its volume only a few notches above mute. She watched the evening news in silence, staring but not really processing, her thoughts miles away. She was so far gone that she didn’t even hear Ivo’s usually heavy footfalls stomping across the bedroom—but the sound of the doorknob turning made her jump, and she looked back sharply, heart racing, to see him emerge.
“How are you feeling?” It was an automatic question at this point—Mommy Alani was in the building whenever someone she loved was hurt. “Come sit down.”
Ivo complied without a word; shuffling over, towel around his waist again, and plopped down on the couch. Before she could ask if he wanted some food, he made himself comfortable by setting his head on her lap. The sigh he made reminded her of the one dogs do when they’re curled up on a squishy dog bed, totally content. Unable to help herself, she combed her fingers through his hair—what little of it there was.
“I feel… tired,” he said after a long pause, “but better. Shifters heal fast.”
He shot her a wary look, as if gauging her response to the mention of the S-word. Alani just nodded, knowing he didn’t need her scrutiny right now. She believed him. He’d proven to her that he was a shifter at great pain to himself. There were a thousand questions she wanted to ask, but Alani just combed her fingers through his hair instead until his eyes closed and his breathing evened out.
“Alani?” She looked down at him in surprise when he murmured her name. He’d been quiet for so long that she assumed he’d just fallen asleep again. Ivo’s muscular arms wrapped around her suddenly, pulling her closer, his head on her stomach now. “I have to tell you something.”
“Are you also some other supernatural creature I didn’t know existed?” she quipped, which made them both laugh more than it should.
“No, no, I’m just a black bear shifter,” Ivo insisted when the chuckles finally died down. “I can’t imagine being a hybrid with something else. I’m not sure if that’s even possible. The shifter gene is pretty… uh, strong, I guess.”
“Huh.”
She hadn’t considered his condition from a genetic standpoint before, but Alani didn’t know enough about the subject to comment on it. She had been an arts girl, through and through, from kindergarten all the way up to now. Science had too many constraints for her in school. Still, it would have been nice to know a little more so she could do a bit of reading. Maybe somewhere out there, someone had studied shifters at some point and published a little-known article about it.
“But Alani, there’s something you need to know,” Ivo told her. He then sat up and pulled her legs across his lap, keeping her close as he took one of her hands in his. “In the shifter world, we are all destined to be with someone.”
“Like a soulmate?”
“Exactly like a soulmate.” Ivo licked his lips, his voice catching. “But we call them fated mates.”
Alani frowned. Where was he going with this?
“Fated mates can be born on opposite ends of the Earth, but somehow they always find each other. I don’t know how to explain it other than magic, crazy as that sounds.”
“Trust me,” she interrupted, holding back a smile when she finally sensed where this was headed, “magic is the least crazy thing I’ve heard today.”
He laughed, almost nervously, and gave her hand a squeeze. “Yeah, I guess.”
“So tell me about fated mates,” Alani said as she sought out his stare, holding it with hers. “I want to know more.”
When he tried to pull away, she held tighter.
“Fated mates feel it in their… their essence,” Ivo told her. “I always thought it was bullshit before, or that shifters were just making excuses to be possessive over the person they clicked with. We have a lot of animal instincts in us, most of them easy to repress, but shifters are incredibly protective of their mates. Fated mates… You just know. And once you find them, you can’t stay away.” He cleared his throat, eyebrows steeped and body tense. Like he was bracing for something. “Alani…” Those dark eyes met hers, unflinching. “You are my fated mate…”
