“The one about the lion-shifter?” I asked, barely above a whisper.
We sat on the bed. I was still naked but I knew Braxton didn’t mind.
“Yes,” he said. “The shifter with the two mates.”
I shook my head, there had to be another explanation. That story was an urban legend – the female lion shifter who had two true mates. It was said that when she found the first, a bear shifter, the mate bond didn’t properly form, so they didn’t realize they were mates. It was only when she found her second mate, a lion shifter, that the bonds kicked in, and it was then she had to choose. Once she made the choice, the bond formed with that supe.
I wrinkled my nose. “We can’t seriously be contemplating the thought that I might have two mates?”
Braxton let out a huff of air. “I don’t know. What else could it be?” He looked unsure, which was so not my dragon man. Not to mention there was something simmering behind those mesmerizing eyes, something that seemed a lot like pain. Which made me want to punch myself … in the face.
I tried to think of any other possible scenario. “Maybe it’s just about my strange dragon mark, Brax. No reason to jump to the worst conclusions yet. Let’s wait and let it play out.” I reached up and cupped his cheeks. “Besides, even if it was true, I don’t need to find a second mate, I choose you.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “Unfortunately, my beautiful shifter girl, if this is the same as that female, it’s not a decision you can make. Not yet anyway. Remember what Mom said, when the lion found both of her mates, there was some sort of test. In the end the mate best suited to her was the one.”
“So this might be what that misty vision was about?” I didn’t believe in coincidences, and the weird narrator voices had been talking about mate choices, and now Braxton was saying the same thing.
He touched my face gently. “I guess we’ll find out when it happens. For now I’m glad we have the bond even if it is partial. You’re right, let’s fight one battle at a time.”
I could agree to that. No point creating worries, we had enough without searching for more.
Braxton stood and held out a hand to me. “Now we shower, dress, and eat, because I don’t know about you, but I’ve moved to that place past hungry where I’m ready to rip someone’s head off.”
I took a deep breath. I was hungry too, but that wasn’t what filled my mind. “How do you know the mate bond isn’t complete?” I took the hand he offered and got to my feet. We strode toward the bathroom, our movements in sync.
A sense of sad unease was heavy in my stomach, threatening to burst up through my body and expel itself from my mouth. I was about two-more-stressful minutes from barfing.
Braxton’s hand curved around my neck and began to gently rub. “The same way I know you are really freaked out right now. I can feel you in my heart, but I can’t hear you in my head.”
It was strange but he was right, I was rocking so many extra emotions in my chest. The tie I had always felt toward Braxton was stronger now. Although, what was he talking about with hearing thoughts?
“Mates can’t hear each other’s thoughts,” I said, as he reached around me and hit the lever on the shower.
Braxton stepped back and gestured for me to enter the stall first. I didn’t move straight away, I narrowed my eyes and processed his information. I’d known lots of true mates, even my parents, and not one of them had ever mentioned they could hear the thoughts of the other. It was not written in our history or taught in any of the classes. And we had extensively covered supernatural mates in our kinship and race diversity classes.
Braxton shuffled me back into the stall, and followed. “Dragon shifter mates can. It’s a special bond. We don’t exactly hear every thought, but we can definitely communicate mentally.”
Okay, I did not know that. Why the hell did I not know that?
He read my expression. “No one knows but dragons. We’re born instinctively with this knowledge. I figured it wasn’t worth sharing.”
“Why did you figure that?”
He shrugged, giving me that sexy half-smile. “I chose you a long time ago, Jess. Either you were my true mate and you’d discover the mental speak the fun way, or you weren’t and it wasn’t worth worrying about what we didn’t have.”
All I heard from that was: I chose you. The extra emotions in my heart swelled.
I was distracted by another one of his devilish grins. “I’ll bet you also didn’t know that all dragons can communicate with each other while in our beast form.”
His shocking revelations continued. Seemed I needed to get some dragon workshops going or something. This information was better hidden than the secrets of the fey.
“Why did I not hear you in Faerie then?”
He lifted me into the water, my question cut off by a cascade of warmth flowing over me. He followed even though he was still wearing a pair of shorts.
“Because you haven’t connected intimately to your dragon yet. You’re still … distant. When the true merge happens, you’ll understand what I mean.”
I melted against him, my hands straining to pull him into me. We’d had sex not that long ago, but it wasn’t enough. Something told me it would never be enough. But before I initiated any frisky business, I needed a few answers.
Pressing my breasts against his chest, I glanced up, the slightest of smiles on my lips. “How do I connect to my dragon? And is that the reason I couldn’t shift on command when I was falling?” I exhaled, trying to keep my focus despite the distraction in front of me. “We couldn’t reach each other. There was this energy wall between us.”