"Not having a twin of my own, I'll have to take your word for it. Well, this is your opportunity. Have you thought about what you're going to do?"
"Not really. I'll let things settle for a while. Give myself time to adjust to these changes before deciding where I want to go from here. After all, I just had two major life changes—a new home and a new job. Let's save something for next month, okay?"
Laughing, Kiesha agreed with her. They spoke of more mundane topics until they finished eating, then they carried the brownies into the living room with them. Once they were seated comfortably, Kiesha turned to Mary Elizabeth and began.
"I'm going to tell you some things that will be hard for you to believe, but I want you to know that it's the absolute truth."
After that introduction, she began telling Mary Elizabeth all that happened to her, beginning with Alex finding her hanging bound in the woods, right up through the funeral three week ago. She explained about true mates and the effects of the bonding process. Mary Elizabeth sat there listening quietly as she spoke, saying not a word until Kiesha was finished.
"So you're telling me that Alex is a werewolf, and you're slowly changing into one as well?” Mary Elizabeth found it difficult to believe what she was hearing.
"Don't let Alex hear you say werewolf. They prefer the term shape-shifter, but yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Do you believe me?"
"It's a lot to take in. It's evident that you believe what you're telling me. I'll need some time to think about it. What made you decide to share? Why not keep it to yourself?” If it was me it happened to, I wouldn't have told a soul, she thought.
Kiesha shrugged, then grinned. “Because you're my best friend and I desperately need someone like me I can talk with about this. It's all new to me, too. But more importantly, because this affects you as well."
"In what way?” Try as she might, Mary Elizabeth couldn't see what Alex being a werewolf had to do with her.
"Well, Alex is the Raven pack's alpha. That means he's their leader. When I became his mate, that made me alpha as well."
"That's very generous and forward thinking of them, but I'm still not getting the connection. How does this affect me?"
"Because you are my friend, Alex extended the pack's protection to you, making you an honorary pack member. Remember what I said about true mates and the logic behind them?"
"Yes. True mates are the one person that can speak to both the nature of the human and beast. They are recognizable by scent and taste. In human mates, the human has a gene or something in their DNA that makes them compatible and allows them to mate and have offspring together.” Mary Elizabeth spoke by rote.
She'd listened to every word Kiesha said. The jury was still out on whether she believed any of it. But for right now, she was willing to give her friend the benefit of the doubt.
"Good, you were listening. What I didn't tell you is that most of the males in the Raven pack are looking for mates. All of them are anxious to meet you to see if you could be their One. That's why Alex put you under the protection of the pack. This way he'll have control and you won't have all of the unmated shifter males bombarding you at the same time."
Mary Elizabeth drew back in surprise. “Wait a minute. There are more men like Alex around here? And they all want to meet me? Just how many men are we talking about here?” Maybe she hadn't been listening as well as she thought.
"Well, Alex said there were about seventy men in his pack. Of that seventy, about half are unmated."
Quickly doing the math in her head, she looked at Kiesha in shock. “Thirty-five! We're talking about thirty-five men sniffing me to see if I could be the future mother of their children?” Even if she didn't believe this shifter nonsense, that was still a lot of men. Maybe coming here hadn't been such a good idea after all.
Kiesha waved away her concern. “Don't worry. Alex is taking care of it. That number may be slightly exaggerated. I don't know how many are too young or too old for a mate, and some of them who are of age may not even want a mate. Alex is having a party to introduce me to them. All of the members are required to be there. He wants you to come as well so that you can be introduced. I think it's a good idea. The men can get a sniff of you without being obvious about it and you can meet some of the locals."
"What if one of them decides I'm his mate? What happens then? I have enough going on in my life right now without a man trying to complicate things.” She shook her head forcefully. Not going to happen. Not if she could help it.
Kiesha smiled at her in sympathetic understanding. “No one will force you to do anything. But if it's anything like what happened to me, no one will have to. The attraction will be mutually overwhelming. Alex and I could barely keep our hands off of each other."
She must have saw that Mary Elizabeth needed further convincing. Kiesha laid her hand on her arm. “Look, you won't be the only single female there. We just had a new young female join our pack. She'll be introduced at the party as well. Her name is Shannon McFelan. She's the CPA I hired to handle all of the store accounts. You two will be seeing a lot of each other at the store, so it'll be a good time for you to meet."
"When's the party?"
"Friday night at our place. I'll give you directions to the house. Go out and get yourself something stunning for the party. Consider it your ‘coming out.’ Just think, these people don't know Babs. You can be you without anyone making comparisons."
Mary Elizabeth liked the sound of that. A ‘coming out party’ to introduce the new her, only no one there would know it was a new and improved version of herself. She'd have to think about the other part—the part about the men. She didn't have a lot of experience and she wasn't sure she was ready to be the object of so much attention.
Kiesha rose to leave, but not before making one final remark. “See you Friday. Wear something sexy and let them see how attractive you really are. Stop hiding. Be the attractive woman God created you to be."
"I'll think about it.” She gave Kiesha a hug and closed the door behind her. As she cleaned the kitchen, she thought about Kiesha's tale. It was hard to believe, but what did she know. There were a lot of things in this world that couldn't be explained. Believing that humans were the only intelligent species on earth was as arrogant as believing that humans were the only intelligent beings in the universe. Humans came in all sizes, shapes, and colors. She shouldn't be so surprised that there were other species, as well.
She thought again about the attraction Kiesha spoke of between mates. For some reason, Hugh came to mind. It was a foolish thought. He was as human as she, and as far as she knew, wasn't even attracted to her. As for her, well, she liked his size and how small and feminine it made her feel, but that was as far as it went. Like she'd said to Kiesha, she didn't want a man in her life right now. Maybe later, when things settled down somewhat and she'd adjusted to all the changes in her life. Even if she were interested, her taciturn landlord would not be a consideration.
Chapter Four
Mary Elizabeth was ready to scream. The walls were closing in on her. She needed to get out of this apartment. This sitting around with nothing to do was driving her crazy. As she looked around frantically for something—anything—to do, her eyes fell on the leftover brownies. The sooner she got them out of the house, the better. As bored as she was, she'd eat the whole pan and with her the saying was true—"Once on the lips, forever on the hips."
It was almost four. Anne should be getting off soon. Maybe Anne would take them home with her. She put on her shoes, grabbed the keys and the brownies, and walked quickly out the door before she changed her mind. These things couldn't stay in the house another moment. She had to catch Anne before she left.