Page 28 of Bone Collector’s Mate

Chapter Twenty

Rook

William had been great, listening to us, sharing what he knew, and not judging us for pretty much being clueless. He was the first of his kind I’d met, and I wasn’t sure if his way of speaking was a vampire trait or left over from his human days, but once I got used to it, I quite enjoyed talking to him and could see him as a potential friend.

As great as it was to talk to him, it was even better picking up Benji and heading for home. Home was the only place my mate could truly be himself. It took a lot of energy to keep shifted into his human head, and, for the most part, when we weren’t home, that was what he did.

The second we reached our property, he shifted back and let out a sigh.

“That’s better, Dad,” Benji said. “I don’t like it when you hide.”

It always fascinated me the way children looked at the world so differently. I saw my mate’s shift as fitting in, whereas Benji saw it as hiding, which was more accurate when I thought about it.

“Can I play with Homer?”

After their initial meeting, I was surprised how quickly Benji and Homer had become best buds. But when he set his mind to something, he always made it happen, and he wanted to be friends with the goat.

“Sure. Dad and I are gonna go inside and make dinner,” I said.

Benji ran toward the pen, and I turned toward my mate. “Come on, sexy, let’s go make some grub.”

“You can’t be serious.” Noir stopped dead in his tracks.

“What do you mean?”

“You just called me sexy. Look at me.” He pointed to his head.

“You’re sexy in all forms.” I ran my fingers over his horn. “Now, let’s go cook some dinner.”

I loved being domestic with my mate. Even when we were making something simple, which tonight we were, it was better doing it together. He set to cutting up the veggies, and I got out the pan and the other ingredients.

I was feeling so much lighter than this morning. I’d never fallen back asleep after that dream. It kept playing again in my head, but now I knew it wasn’t anything to be scared of. Our baby was alive and well. They were a wolf, but also they were connected to Noir’s bone-collector side. Best of all, they weren’t going to have their life decided for them. They were going to get to pick what their future would be.

“Onion diced, right, not strips?” he asked.

“Please and, for the record, you’re the best sous chef.”

“You say so, but I’m not great at getting everything cut evenly.” They were always a hot mess of random shapes, but they all tasted good.

“They don’t need to be.” I grabbed some spices out of the cupboard. “I feel kind of stupid for being so scared this morning.”

“I think being scared is pretty much how parenting is, though, isn’t it? You’re scared they’ll get hurt or be sad, or they’re falling behind at something or trying to fit in.”

That did pretty much sum it up.

“It’s kind of weird, you know,” I said, turning on the stove to heat up the pan. “Knowing that I’m going to be living longer, that you’ll be living shorter.”

“I’d hardly call anything about my life short.”

“True. It’s still a lot to take in. It’s like our mate bond is pulling us toward each other.”

“Isn’t that how mates work?” He didn’t wait for me to answer, holding up a pepper and asking, “Strips?”

I nodded, and he cut them up as I added the onions to the pan.

“Does it bother you? Not living as long?” I asked.

“Absolutely not. I don’t think I want to be…” He paused. “No, I take that back. I know I don’t want to be in the world without you.”