He sighed and ran a hand across his face. “It’s acting like you’re my fated mate.”
“You’re kidding,” I said. I knew what that meant. Everyone knew shifters had fated mates. It was a magical connection to whatever mate they were supposed to be with forever.
“I’m not, Maddy. I’m really not. As soon as my wolf scented your blood, all I wanted to do was be near you. To take care of you. There’s no denying the feeling. Even my friends noticed it.
“The thing is, if you have even a drop of shifter blood in you? You’re still a shifter. If you take a shifter mate and accept his bite, it will probably strengthen your blood. It could even make it to where you can shift. The mating bond makes both parties stronger. I hate to say it, but I’m a strong shifter. One of the strongest alphas around. I think my bite really could bring out your abilities. If that’s the case, then the royals are going to want you dead. For him to be so hell-bent on taking you down means Javi’s family must have descended from one of the families that revolted and helped kill Edemas and his family.”
“So, he’s trying to kill me because of something that happened hundreds of years ago?” I asked.
“If his family swore a blood oath or something to the royal family? Then yeah. He’d be honor-bound to do their bidding. That’s the only thing that explains why Javi would involve himself. If I know one thing about Javi? He’s a fucking man of his word.”
The whole planet felt like it was spinning off its axis. I walked across the room, not knowing where I was going, only to turn around and walk back. I felt like a cow in a slaughterhouse, waiting for the final blow. There was too much to process. Too much to think about. I hadn’t even started thinking about the fact that Nico had said we were fated mates, destined to be together. How the hell could I think about that when it sounded like everyone wanted me dead? It was hard to think about the future when every second, it could be ripped away from you.
Everything he’d told me sounded completely impossible. Yet, it all kind of made sense, crazy as it was. Was I really a shifter? It was nothing I’d ever even entertained. Had my parents known? Is that why they’d gotten rid of me? To protect me? Or to be rid of a death sentence?
“Can you find my birth parents with this information?” The words popped out of my mouth before I even knew I was going to say it.
“I’m not sure,” Nico said. “If they’re still alive, I’ll do everything I can to help find them. If nothing else, it would help us get answers. And answers are what we need right now. More than anything.”
The whole crazy story started to crash into me. I was a royal shifter. I was being hunted. I was supposed to inherit a fortune in gold and jewels…maybe. Not only all that, but Nico was my mate? The voice in my head that had been telling me he was mine was making more noise. A definite
I-told-you-so vibe was coming from it. As all that spun through my head, I didn’t even realize I was starting to hyperventilate.
I giggled and turned to look at Nico. “I don’t want to alarm you, but I think I’m gonna-” Everything went dark as I fainted.
NICO
“Shit,” I yelped as I jumped forward to catch her, halting her fall right before her injured head could smack into the tile floor.
After stopping her collapse, I lifted her and carried her up the stairs to her room. I managed to get the covers pulled back and laid her down without waking her up. I hoped she’d sleep all the way until the morning. She needed it after everything I’d dumped on her. It made me feel bad about forcing so much into her life so fast. In a week, everything she’d known had been turned completely upside down. I wondered how I would react if something similar happened to me.
Before I turned to leave, I looked down at her one last time. Her eyes were closed, and the long dark lashes twitched as if she was dreaming. Maddy’s face was calm and serene. And beautiful. An ache formed in my chest and grew stronger the longer I looked at her. I leaned down and brushed a strand of hair from her face, letting my thumb trace the curve of her cheek as I straightened.
My mind circled back to all the feelings I’d had for her since that first night. The drive to protect and take care of her. The need to be around her. The…other desires. Maybe she truly was my mate. There was a flash of anger from my wolf. Apparently the word maybe wasn’t good enough for it. That was the last thing I needed to focus on at the moment, though.?If Maddy truly was a descendant of Edemas, then things were going to get very interesting. And dangerous. Javi had been right when he’d said I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.
I tugged my phone out of my jeans as I closed her door to let her sleep. I called Luis and told him to grab the others and get to my house. I headed downstairs and sat at the kitchen table as I waited for them. I tried searching the internet for more information on Maddy, clicking away on my computer, searching for news stories and items of interest from the days and weeks when she’d been put up for adoption. Mostly, what I looked for were stories about murdered couples. Her parents were either in hiding or dead. It was the only thread we had to follow at the moment.
Ten minutes into my search, I heard the guys coming in the front door.
“Nico?” Luis called from the foyer.
“Kitchen,” I called, slapping my laptop closed.
Luis, Sebastian, and Felipe rounded the corner and walked into the kitchen. They’d all been grinning and smiling, but something about the look I had on my face sent those expressions fleeing and morphing into serious concern.
“What’s up, brother?” Felipe asked.
“Take a seat.”
Sebastian snorted. “Well, that’s not ominous as shit.”
Once they were all seated on the couches, I took a seat on an ottoman and faced them, trying to figure out how to say what I needed to say. Would they even believe it?
“So, about Maddy…have you guys noticed she’s a little different?”
At first there was no response, then slowly, all three of them started nodding. “Yeah,” Sebastian said. “She, uh, smells funny. She’s also hot as hell, but I don’t think that’s what you’re talking about.”
I gritted my teeth, my friend’s typical humor setting my wolf on edge. Even hearing him joke about how gorgeous she was sent my beast into a jealous rage. But I choked back a pissy response and nodded in agreement. “Anything else?”
Luis leaned back and crossed his arms. “Can we stop beating around the bush, my man? Get to the damned point. You’ll tell us whether we play fifty questions or not.”
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling a headache starting to come on. “Do you guys remember the stories about Edemas? When we were kids?”
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