Page 7

“Remember how I told you about when I met Gabriel at that Halloween party he knew right away I was his mate?” Jane asked.

“Yeah, but I thought it was like a love at first sight kind of thing.”

“It’s more than that. There’s like a… I don’t know, a biological imperative for the shifter to claim his mate and to mark her or him as taken. They basically go crazy with this intense kind of lust.”

“I’m in perimenopause. My boobs are saggy and I have to get up twice a night to pee. No one’s lusting after me, believe me.”

My words were dry and comedic, but I felt kind of sad as I said them. It’s not that I regretted taking care of my kids, but it would have been nice if I wasn’t a middle-aged woman who needed reading glasses by the time they left home.

My mind went back to the moment I saw Ollie. If I’d had to guess what kind of shifter he was, I would have guessed bear. He had the physique for it.

Ollie was huge, at least six-four, with wide shoulders and thickly muscled arms and legs. I was tall for a woman, and a solid size twelve, it took a lot for me to feel small next to someone, but standing at the Harvest Festival with that intense stare aimed at me, I felt petite for the first time since… well, possibly forever. He had this face that looked like it was carved from granite, all hard edges except for those soft brown eyes that had stared at me in wonder.

No one had stared at me in wonder before.

I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t felt the stirring of attraction. I’m pretty sure any red-blooded heterosexual woman would. There was something so commanding about him, yet I didn’t get any alpha hole vibes from him. If this was one of the romance books I read, he’d be described as a cinnamon roll.

“There’s no such thing as being too old for your fated mate,” Jane continued. “I’ve seen shifters in this town that are eighty years old if they’re a day and they’re all touching and kissy like they’re teenagers.”

I winced. No way I wanted to see that.

“I’m not in the right state of mind to date, let alone do anything else,” I said firmly. “I’ve spent my entire adult life taking care of other people -- my husband, my kids, my parents before they died, coworkers. I’ve waited a long time to be able to focus on myself and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”

I couldn’t say why my words made me feel a pang of sadness, but they did.

That night at dinner all anyone could talk about was my run-in with Ollie.

It was family dinner night at the Rosewater house. Pepper’s mate Charles and Jane’s mate Gabriel were there as well as Sage’s other daughters Cami and Meri, along with their mates Stephen and Preston, several adorable kids, and another cousin named Maggie who I wasn’t totally sure if I was related to, and her mate Gregor.

It was funny, all of the Rosewater daughters and cousins were witches, except for Meri who was psychic like her father, and they’d all ended up with various shifters as mates. I suppose that’s why they were all so excited about Ollie.

“Finding your mate is a wonderful gift,” Sage told me, giving me one of those looks that made it feel like she was looking right into my soul.

“I don’t want a mate,” I said firmly. “I don’t plan on seeing that guy again if I can help it.”

Even if he was the first guy in years to make me feel that little tingle between my legs that signaled attraction.

Several chuckles erupted around the table.

“Every single one of us tried to fight nature,” Cami explained when the laughter died down. “But in the end, the draw of a mate bond is just too intense. The good thing is that eventually you come to realize that fate doesn’t make a mistake.”

She squeezed Stephen’s hand, giving him a look so full of heat and love that I had to look away. Everyone here had a story about how they met their partner, but Cami’s was one of the funniest. She’d tried to do a mate locator spell for her sister Pepper and it backfired, calling Stephen instead.

Pepper eventually met Charles when she took one of his cooking classes, but not before being present for countless mate recognition moments throughout Greysden. And it was still happening, based on today…

Eventually the conversation turned away from a certain bear, and I was able to relax. It was interesting being around family like this. Other than Sage and Jane I’d never met the rest of them. I wasn’t sure what happened with my mother and grandmother that made them pull away from the Rosewater side of the family, but they were awesome. They seemed pretty tight, too, with weekly family nights and various activities that they did together.

“You should come for a run with us sometime Nora,” Meri called from across the table as if she’d heard me thinking about them doing activities together. And maybe she had, given that she was psychic. “We try to go twice a week. We’ve got a nice group going now.”

“I’m not much of a jogger,” I said before remembering the self-help book I’d listened to on the drive from Indiana to Colorado. It was written by the lady who was responsible for several super popular television shows. She’d spent a year saying yes to every opportunity that she was offered as a way to expand her horizons and break out of any fear holding her back.

“We run pretty slow because we do a lot of talking,” Meri said. “We can adjust our pace for you and do a walk-run if that’s easier.”

I looked around at my cousins. They all seemed to genuinely want me to join them, but then again, they were all five to ten years younger than me. Of course I could always walk back to the house if it was too strenuous for me.

Just say yes. I swear I could hear that narrator’s voice in my brain.

“Okay, I’ll try it,” I said.