Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 116662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
“Yes, I do. And I know I’m too young for you to claim; I don’t expect you to do anything about this yet. But you can’t sign a mating agreement, Zaire.”
He slashed a hand through the air. “Okay, enough, I need you to listen to me.” He pinned her gaze with his. “We’re not predestined mates.”
Her cat bared her teeth, the hairs on her back rising. “Yes, we are,” Quinley upheld, sure to her bones that she was right.
“If you were mine, I’d feel it on some level. But I don’t.”
Yeah, I noticed. “Which means something’s blocking the mating frequency on your end. We just have to figure out what it is.” They could do that here and now.
“There’s nothing to figure out. Whatever you’re feeling … it’s just a crush. Maybe you’re too young to see that right now, but that’s all this is.”
Her spine snapped straight. Like she was naïve and didn’t know her own mind? Quinley felt the edges of her temper fray. “A crush? You really think I’d confuse a crush with the pull of a true mate bond? I’m unranked, I’m not stupid.”
He gave her an appeasing look. “I never said you were stupid, just mistaken. You’d be surprised how often it happens.”
Quinley took a determined step closer to him and lifted her chin. “I know that we’re mates. I know that this is real. And I know that if you sign a mating agreement, I’m going to lose my shit.”
His eyes flaring with frustration, he stalked toward her. Dominant vibes rolled off him and beat at her skin.
Quinley was submissive—most black-footed cat healers were—so it was elementally instinctual for her to lower her gaze. She tried not to, but her eyes burned and watered from trying to hold his, so she dropped her gaze to the bridge of his nose.
“I was trying to let you down gently,” he clipped, “but if I have to be harsh to get through to you I will.” He leaned closer. “We. Are. Not. Mates.”
The words were like bullets. She inwardly flinched, and a hiss sputtered out of her inner cat.
“I don’t feel anything toward you that would suggest we’re mates—not curiosity, not protectiveness, not even a pull to talk to you.”
Fuck, he might as well have stabbed her right in the gut.
“Neither does my cat. He doesn’t feel compelled to be near you or watch over you. That right there is a very telling point.”
Her feline hissed again, now just as infuriated with his animal as she was with him.
“I don’t go for submissive shifters, so it wouldn’t make sense for my true mate to be one. Again, a telling point. I know this isn’t what you want to hear. I’m not saying it so bluntly to upset you. I’m doing it because I need the facts to sink into your brain so that you’ll let this go. We’re not fated. What you’re feeling is just—”
“A crush,” she bit out, forcing her gaze back up to his. “I got it.”
He studied her expression carefully. “Do you?”
“Yep. You’re right. It’s all clear now.”
He didn’t look convinced of her complete turnaround. And so he shouldn’t. Because despite how deeply his claims cut and how much she wanted to slam her fist into his jaw, she knew as surely as she knew her own name that Zaire was her true mate.
But he clearly believed what he was saying. He wouldn’t have otherwise rejected her so fiercely and with such finality. And she knew she could argue until she was blue in the face, but it would make no difference. For whatever reason, he wasn’t ready to accept this yet. Maybe he never would be. Because if he couldn’t sense it while she was right here with her scent surrounding him, if her claims weren’t even making him consider they were fated, she wasn’t sure what would.
His shoulders relaxed slightly. “I’ll tell no one about our conversation here, and we’ll forget it ever happened.” His lips pursing, he gave her a considering look. “I will give you full points for risking Nazra’s wrath. If she knew about this, she’d outright challenge you to shut this down. And, well, you don’t look to me as though you have a chance of taking her on.” With that casual put-down, he skirted around Quinley and walked away.
Her throat thickening, she rubbed at her aching chest. It felt like an ice-cold dagger had stabbed deep and was now lodged there.
Half-turning, she stared at his back as he walked into the nearby lodge without a backward glance—their conversation already forgotten. Her cat sulkily hunkered down, glaring at the small building in lieu of him.
She’d known he might refute her claim at first, but she’d thought she could convince him to consider she might be right. She hadn’t expected the ugly condescension and sheer dismissiveness. Hadn’t been prepared for just how agonizing it would be to have him turn his back on her like she was nothing and no one to him.