The Contrary Mate

Jack

She didn’t say anything as she gaped at me with wide shocked eyes, and I was filled with certainty that I had screwed this up. If I had been trying to sell a product to a customer, I wouldn’t have laid out all the reasons that they wouldn’t want to buy it. I wouldn’t explain in a contract bid proposal just why Meteor Security was a terrible fit for the job in question, like I had just done now.

This would have made a top ten list for worst proposals ever if only I’d been filming it. Thankfully I had not been and for once her aversion to technology had worked strongly in my favour. I definitely did not need to be able to obsessively watch her turn me down over and over in an painfully shattering loop.

Hopefully, it was just the timing that was wrong, and I could try again in a few months, a few years. I could wait—

She threw herself at me, almost knocking me over, which was a pretty impressive feat for a slight fae like herself. I was also knocked off balance in the emotional sense as well, since I could only hope that this non-verbal tackle was a positive sign of her acceptance rather than an ineffectual attack at my audacity in proposing to her.

“Aura?” Her name stuck in my throat.

“Of course I will.”

My mind was so muddled that it took me long seconds to register her meaning. “You will?”

“Yes, what else could I mean?” she asked, her voice sounding slightly choked up. Was she crying?

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“Then why—”

“Don’t ask, Jack.”

I just held her while she clung onto me. I wasn’t complaining. Finally she wiped her face and pulled back to look at me and gave me that smile on those lips I loved to kiss so much. But there was one more thing before I indulged in that. I pulled out a ring box. “I got you this, Aura. You don’t have to take it, I wasn’t sure if you’d even want a ring, your father said that they weren’t really something that fae did as a rule. But I wanted to give you the choice. I opened it up to show her a ring with an aquamarine stone that perfectly matched her eyes.

She looked at it with the same consideration she had given the paintings at the gala. I hoped I’d made the right choice. I knew diamonds were probably more traditional—at least where humans were concerned—but I assumed she wouldn’t care about that sort of thing and hoped I hadn’t made a critical error.

“It’s beautiful, thank you.” She smiled at me again, her eyes dewy. Only taking my eyes from hers for a second, I slipped the ring onto her finger. She admired it for a second, and then looked at me again. “I don’t know much about werewolf customs, either.”

“There’s not much to it. You find your mate, mark each other, and mate. It can happen fast, no one blinks an eye. Although I’ve recently been told that perhaps female werewolves might appreciate a bit more effort, as well.” When Lenora found hers, I’d be sure to give a heads up.

She smiled. “Would werewolf males like more effort?”

“Maybe some. But this one is pretty simple. He just wants you.” Her expression was all agreement, so I caught her lips and pulled her against me more securely. She shifted so that she was straddling me while I knelt on the floor, her arms wrapping more firmly around my neck, her chest against mine, just the perfect amount of sleekness and curves. I wound my fingers into the back of her soft sweet-smelling hair, and she moaned, deep and low and infinitely inviting. Everything about her was designed to make me want her.

I wanted her out of her clothing, so I could finally be with the person who I was meant to be with. I didn’t care about all the waiting and second guessing of my younger years, because she was worth the wait.

She pulled back from me slightly, her lips rosy and swollen and looked me directly in the eyes. “You can mark me.”

I nearly let her fall backwards in my surprise before I secured my grip. “What?”

She smiled at my bemusement. “I said, you can mark me. Don’t you want to?”

My wolf was ready to leap out of my skin at her words because I wasn’t acting fast enough. I fought him back. “Right now?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t want you to regret this later.”

“How could I regret this later?”

“I don’t know? When your people all shun you?”

She scoffed. “I’m not worrying about their small-mindedness anymore. I always tried to be the perfect fae, maybe to compensate for my father’s oddities. But you know what? Why should I have to? There’s nothing wrong with being a bit different. I love my dad. He has a rare gift, and I’m proud of him. And I’m proud of you. So mark me. Unless you don’t want to.”

I could have explained how there was nothing I wanted more, but she sounded certain, and my wolf wanted nothing more than to bind her to me as securely as possible. I kissed my way down her neck and earned myself a few more sexy moans, and then I kissed the spot that felt right, before digging my canines deep into her flesh. She cringed and made a small sound of distress which hurt my heart, but my wolf was so intent it was easy to ignore even that and finish the job.

The bond cemented between us, almost like a physical thing. Even though she couldn’t mark me back, my bite on her neck made me just as much hers as she was mine.

I licked her wound and I pulled back to look at her neck. More vibrant red blood pooled, and I didn’t like it. “Did I hurt you badly, Aura?”

“Not really. I’ll heal, and I’m glad you did it.” She smiled at me, her eyes bright and direct.

“Can you hear me?” I asked, switching to the mind link that should now be between us.

“I can,” she said, sounding surprised. “Is that the mind link?”

“It is. You should be able to do it back to me.” Theoretically. I didn’t know if anyone had ever marked a fae before. If someone had they certainly hadn’t left any record for me to dig up. Still, I assumed they would be similar to human mates, just more magical.

“Can you hear me?”

“I can.” I was sweet to have her inside my mind, to feel her happiness flowing towards me through the new link between us.

“So, we’re married werewolf style?”

“I’d be happy to call it that.” More than happy, really.

“We should get you a ring, too, so the humans know to stay away from you. I assume other werewolves will be able to smell me on you.”

“Sure.” It would be inconvenient when shifting, but if she wanted something on me, I wasn’t going to argue. “And you’re right, the other wolves will be able to smell you, as long as we’re together a lot.”

She smiled and looked at me with curiosity. “There’s actually something that fae do, when they make their decision about who they want to spend their lives with.”

“Oh?”

“We give our own sort of mark, although it’s more symbolic than anything.”

Her father had mentioned it to me, and I was already game. Anything that might bind her more firmly to me made my ears perk up, symbolic or not. “Whenever you want to I’d be happy to let you.”

“We usually do it during our joining ceremony, though. I could do it now—but my mother might kill me.” She chuckled.

“Then let’s do the ceremony. If you need anything, I’ll get it for you.”

She leaned closer. “Thanks. But that seems like something for later, doesn’t it?” she whispered, and kissed me again.