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The beautiful woman broadens her smile. “No, we do whatever we like, so long as we contribute a fair share. The foxes like to garden, so they make sure to plant enough vegetables for those who want them. And a few of the bears like to build the houses. The cats like to do the nitty gritty, like plumbing and electrical.” I keep my mouth shut and try not to show my surprise. The foxes were shifters. Holy shit. We have foxes back home, they could easily be shifters and I would’ve had no clue. This is going to make such a good story. It will give us ammunition to demand more information about the shifters. The Authority keeps so much a secret it’s fucking criminal.
“I’m not sure what everyone does exactly, but as long as the Alphas approve of their role, we don’t question it. There’s no reason to.” Although this is all good information, I find myself focusing on the fact that she may or may not have slept with Owen and Luke. I shift my weight onto my left foot and decide to ask some questions to hint around it. I don’t want to make an enemy of her.
“So I always thought shifters were monogamous.”
She seems surprised by my confession, her brow arching. “Well, most are.” She looks down and toys with the threads on the comforter. The comforter that I slept under with Luke and Owen. “Some species don’t have fated mates, so they aren’t— Like dragons. Dragons aren’t known for mates at all anymore. But bears and wolves are, and cats prefer to be monogamous, but they don’t always have fated mates, so you know. It doesn’t always work.” Her eyes go sad at the thought, but only for a moment. “And then some mates deny the connection. Which is just really awful.”
“What do you mean?” That sick feeling in the pit of my stomach grows.
“About what?”
“About denying mates.” I hope I’m not giving her the impression that denying them is exactly what I plan on doing.
“Oh, well from how I understand it, it’s the animal part of the shifter that feels the connection. So long as the human and animal are on the same page, it’s easy to feel their mate. But if they aren’t, they could miss their mate or feel it, but not give in to the pull. And then there are instances where one person doesn’t feel the connection and denies their mate’s animal of their partner and it completely wrecks the animal.”
“Wrecks the animal?” I question as my blood pressure rises.
“Yeah like, sometimes they lose their ability to shift altogether. Or an Alpha who has a mate, like Owen and Luke having you, well they get more powerful, stronger, and their ability to use their dominance over others grows. But if they’re denied, they become weaker. So it’s fantastic that Owen and Luke found you!” Her voice is all peppy at the end as she fills with excitement.
“But they aren’t monogamous.” Suddenly I find myself hoping that she has fucked them. It would give me a good push to leave and forget the fact that I would be hurting them simply by leaving. Their wolves will get weaker, but that doesn’t seem that bad.
She tilts her head and gets a sad look in her eyes. “They aren’t? Why would they do such a thing?”
“I just assumed.” I close my eyes; the weight of her response denies that she’s been with them.
“Well as far as anyone here knows, they’ve only ever been with you.” She scrunches her nose. “And I can tell you I’ve never smelled them on anyone else before.”
I heat with embarrassment and bite my lip. “Are all you wolves good at smelling?”
She laughs at my irritation. “I’m not a wolf, but most shifters are good at smelling.”
“What are you?”
“Lion.”
“So you can shift into a lioness?”
She smiles and nods. “I don’t much though.”
“Why?”
“She’s a bit aggressive. It’s rare that a female possesses so much dominance. I try to repress her, but she doesn’t like it when I do. So I just don’t shift much.”
“I don’t understand. That sounds awful.”
Her tone drops slightly, almost uncomfortably so. “Well when dominance is expressed, it’s challenged. For a female surrounded by stronger males, especially males who aren’t her mate, that’s not good for her.” She offers me a sad smile. “It’s why I left my pride.”
“Oh my God, they didn’t—” I can’t even finish my thought, but she adamantly shakes her head, stopping any assumptions from turning dark.
“No, my family would never hurt me. But my lioness kept picking fights and would sulk when she would be beat in a match. It was just too much for both of us to handle. I think she wants to be tamed, but only by her mate. And I haven’t found him yet. We were both miserable, so I left, hoping to find my mate.” She shakes her head. “But after a year, I never found him so I just stopped looking.” She looks sad but resigned. “A lot of shifters never find their mates. When you get to a point in your life, you just have to make a decision of whether you’d rather have a small bond with someone else, or no bond at all.”
My eyes search hers. “What did you decide?”
“I haven’t made my decision yet, but I’m getting to the point where I need to.” My heart aches for her as she changes the subject, not so subtly. “Ooh I can smell your heat hitting you.” She wrinkles her nose comically.
“So heat means what exactly?” I find myself sitting on the bed beside her. All of this is exactly what I was hoping for. My fingers itch to snag my recorder but I resist on the off chance that she’ll stop giving intel if she knows my intention.
“It’s the time of the month when you’re most fertile.” I nod my head and immediately feel like an idiot for not figuring that one out on my own. Heat…like a dog. “And shifters get super, forgive my bluntness, horny around that time.”
