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Aero and Ramsey’s friend—the wolf shifter who was apparently my fated mate—snarled at him before answering. “Thora.”
Kace aimed a soft smile at me. “But does she know yours?”
A giggle bubbled up my chest at his question. I’d heard the guy say a grand total of six words and knew only what Aero had mentioned about him. Luckily, that included his name. “He’s Rome. Arbor is named after him.”
Rome’s nose wrinkled at the reminder that everyone used the baby’s middle name, making me laugh again.
“Then I guess we can skip introductions.” He turned toward Peppa. “Now that Thora is here, can you please tell Larken to bring out the baked Alaska?”
“Sure, since you said please,” she teased as they walked away.
Rome shifted his hold on me until we were facing each other. “Happy Birthday, mate.”
There had only been two matings in the pack since I moved to Timber Ridge. Aero had gone up to the Wilderness Pack to hunt Ramsey down, so I hadn’t been around to see how things went down for them. I hadn’t been at the hospital when Peppa and Cason had met after the birth of his niece and nephew, but their connection had been obvious even to me when they’d come into the restaurant six days later. They’d been so darn sweet together. It was what started my dreams of finding a hunky shifter of my own. And now I apparently had one.
“Is it really as easy as that? We see each other from across a crowded room, and boom…we’re mates?”
Rome scanned the room before tugging me into the kitchen, where we’d have some privacy. “What have you been told about the mating process?”
My cheeks filled with heat as I thought about how Peppa had blushed when Larken and I had teased her about all the sex she and Cason must’ve had during the almost week he’d kept her away from Timber Treasures after our opening night. “Um…mostly just that you only feel desire for your fated mate, so there’s lots of, uh…orgasms involved. Because of all that pent-up need. And some biting.”
“Yeah, pretty baby. There will definitely be as many orgasms as you can handle.” I couldn’t tear my gaze away from Rome’s mouth as his lips curved into a satisfied smile. “Gotta take care of all that pent-up need for you.”
“Uh-huh.”
I was too dazed to come up with a better reply, but Rome didn’t seem happy with my answer. My head jerked up when his mouth pressed into a flat line, and a growl rumbled up his chest. “Fuck, I…shit.”
I couldn’t imagine what he could be upset about when finding your fated mate was supposed to be the best day in a shifter’s life. “What’s wrong?”
“There’s no other way to say this than to just get the words out there.” He wrapped one of his hands around the back of my neck. “And you gotta understand that your answer isn’t going to change a damn thing between us.”
I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but it sounded serious. “Okay?”
His wolf flashed in his eyes the same way Peppa, Aero, and Bexley’s did when they were feeling a strong emotion. “You mentioned that shifters don’t feel desire for anyone other than their mate, but you’re human. The lack of passion also tends to hold true for human mates, but unless they grew up around shifters, they don’t know why they never feel chemistry for someone. Sometimes, they think it’s because there’s something wrong with them, and they attempt to fix the issue by trying to force it. Sleeping with people in the hope they’ll find the right person to unlock the desire that’s waiting for their fated mate, if only they knew they had one out there.”
Rome struck me as a man of few words, and my brows went higher and higher as he rambled through his lengthy explanation. My lips parted on a gasp when I finally realized what he was trying to ask. “Until I moved to Timber Ridge, I thought something was wrong with me, but I never did that. I was too busy focusing on my career as a chef to worry about why I hadn’t found a man who made me feel how you do. And then when I found out about shifters, I was hoping it was because I was someone’s fated mate.”
“Not someone’s,” he growled, stroking his other hand down my spine to splay his palm against my lower back. “Mine.”
“Yours,” I reassured, pressing my body closer to his. “All yours.”
“I would’ve found a way to understand if you hadn’t waited for me, pretty baby.” He dropped his forehead against mine. “But I’m so damn happy you did.”
“Is your wolf happy, too?”
“Happy doesn’t begin to describe his reaction,” Rome murmured with a shake of his head as he pressed my palm against his chest. “You’re the other half of my soul. Finding you has soothed my inner beast unlike anything else.”
That was the sweetest thing anyone had ever said to me. Sniffling, I pressed my cheek against the other side of his chest, needing to take a moment to appreciate the precious gift that I’d been given.
3
ROME
Iwrapped my arms around my mate, my inner beast growling at me because it sounded as though she was close to crying. He wanted me to fix whatever had upset her, but I had no idea what I’d said wrong.
Stroking my hands up and down her back, I pressed a kiss against the top of her head. “I’m sorry, baby.”
“Sorry about what?” she asked, tilting her head back to stare up at me with wide green eyes.
