“He was obsessed with her their whole lives, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah. He started fights with anyone who looked at her too long. Threatened more than his fair share of human guys, too. He says he knew she was his when they were kids.”
“He thinks they’re fated?” Surprise lifted my voice, and my eyebrows.
“Yup.”
“What do you think?”
Bo was silent for a moment before he answered. “I think it’s natural for shifters to get attached to a person because of the way they smell or the time we’ve spent around them. That obsession isn’t a statement about fate. We’re just animals.”
I nodded.
He had mentioned a little bit of an obsession with me, and we obviously weren’t fated.
Bo definitely hadn’t threatened everyone who came close to me, either. Artie did that. And Bo had fucked women while I was listening, just to try to prove to himself that he wasn’t interested in me. I was pretty sure fate would’ve frowned on that.
So yeah, we weren’t fated.
If Hudson and Callie were, their connection had to be a lot different than ours. Bo and I hadn’t even been friends until… well, today. While the other couple had been basically inseparable their entire childhoods.
“What other drama has happened in the clan?” I asked.
“They decided to stop shunning me.”
“Seriously?” My eyebrows jumped upward.
“Yep. The thing with guys deciding to live with their mates has started to change things. One of the couples already has three kids. Reed and Wren.”
“So they’ve realized that liking your mate actually leads tomorechildren among extremely fertile shifters? Shocking.”
Bo chuckled. “Right. They’ve been worried about our numbers for so long that they’ve actually hurt them more by pressuring us to accept arranged bonds.”
“Morons.”
“The whole lot of them,” he agreed.
“How’s your dad? I’m sure he didn’t get back with your mom.”
“That’s never going to happen.” There was no doubt in his voice. “She died a few years back. Overdose.”
“Shit. I’m sorry.”
“Wasn’t your fault.” He squeezed my thigh, and loosened his grip afterward. “My feelings around her were complicated, anyway. Are complicated. She was still my mom. But it’s hard to forget what it was like to sleep on the porch during winter with an endless pit in my stomach at five years old because she was too high to remember that I existed.”
My throat swelled.
Life hadn’t been great for me, but it was nothing like that. Not even a little.
“You deserved better.”
“Every kid does. Which is why I’m not risking a mate bond.”
“Unless you meet the perfect woman and your bear refuses to take no for an answer. You know we’re controlled by our animals, when it comes down to it.”
Bo snorted. “My bear is too fucking obsessed with honey and chocolate to notice any of the very few women I interact with.”
He was talking about me.
