When both pairs of eyes swung to her questioningly, Tameka shrugged. “She’s family. I wasn’t going to hide it from her. Did I break some sort of law?”
Kiesha looked at Mark, who held his hands up. “Don’t ask me. You’re the alpha. It’s your call.”
“Gee, thanks. I can see you’re going to be a lot of help.”
“Hey, you’re the one that decided you’d do a better job than Carol of explaining things. I’m just following your lead, O
Mighty Alpha,” he said laughingly.
Kiesha turned and caught the expression on Tameka’s face before she could erase it. “Sorry. I just don’t understand what this,” she motioned between Mark and Kiesha, “has to do with anything.”
“I’m the one that should be apologizing. You have some legitimate concerns and here we are joking around. Let me explain. I’m not sure how much of our earlier conversation you remember, so if I repeat myself, bear with me. Alex and I are newly mated. Since he’s the pack’s alpha that made me alpha as well. Alex asked Carol to come and speak with you today but when I found out about it, I pulled rank. That’s what Mark is teasing me about. My understanding is that you want to know how life will change now that you’re a shifter, right?” Tameka nodded.
“Carol’s never been human. I felt the two of us would do a better job of explaining things since we’re both the human half of a true mate couple,” Kiesha finished with a smile.
“Makes sense to me,” NeeCee commented.
“So where do you want to start?” Mark questioned.
“First, I think Kiesha should sit down before she falls down.
Is it my imagination or are you bigger now than you were just last week?” The question was too personal to be asking someone she’d just meet but the size of Kiesha’s belly startled it out of her. It was easily twice the size.
Kiesha lowered herself into the seat with a sigh of relief.
“No, you’re not imagining things. This baby is growing by leaps and bounds.”
“Is it a baby? I mean, you guys don’t have puppies, do you?”
“NeeCee!”
“What? Like you weren’t curious?”
The thought hadn’t even crossed her mind until NeeCee mentioned it.
Fortunately Kiesha thought the whole thing was hilarious.
Mark answered while Kiesha composed herself. “We have babies. When they’re first born, they look no different from human.”
“I’m sorry,” Kiesha snickered. “I asked the very same thing when I discovered I was pregnant. You should have seen the look on Alex’s face.”
“How long have you been mated?” Tameka thought that was as good a place to start as any. There was so much she needed to know but now that the opportunity presented itself, her mind was curiously blank.
“For me it’s only been about four months. Maybe I should tell you a bit about my mating experience and Mark can tell you about his. Then you can ask your questions. Will that work?”
“Yes. To be honest, I don’t know what to ask,” she confessed.
“I do,” NeeCee stated.
“But you’re not the one who’s turned into a werewolf,” Meka reminded her sister.
“Shape-shifter,” Mark and Kiesha chorused together.
“Whatever.” She still didn’t know what the big freaking deal was. It was the same thing. “The point is, I’m the one that needs answers.”
“Actually, you both do,” Mark corrected, “though I’m sure my mate would disagree. Ms. Emma carried the gene that allowed her to mate Mr. Ned and now you, her granddaughter, are mated to Chad. There’s a very good chance that NeeCee could be someone’s mate as well. This thing seems to be heredity, carried predominately on the father’s side. Of course, finding one’s true mate occurs so rarely that there’s still a lot we don’t know or understand about the process.” Meka glanced at NeeCee to find her staring at her in a meaningful way. She knew what her sister was thinking. If this thing was passed down through the father, then NeeCee didn’t have anything to worry about.
“What’s wrong?”
Tameka turned at Kiesha’s question. She was debating how to answer without betraying NeeCee’s confidence, when NeeCee revealed in a matter of fact tone of voice, “Meka and I have different fathers.”
“Oh.” Kiesha looked back and forth between her and NeeCee, studying their features closely. “You both must take after your mother because you look a lot alike.” Meka smiled while NeeCee snorted.
Mark ignored her, saying to Tameka, “I can’t say I’m happy to hear that. A lot of our guys are looking for mates and there’s just not enough to go around. It would have been nice if your sister was a match for one of them.”
“Nice for whom?” NeeCee asked, eyebrow arched.
“Uh…” Mark floundered, appearing to be lost for words.
Kiesha started talking, covering his gaffe. “One Friday night, a little over four months ago, I was home in my bed asleep. I woke to find myself hanging from a tree, in the woods, in the middle of the night. I was freezing my butt off with only a nightgown to cover me when five of the biggest wolves I’d ever seen in my life came out of the darkness and sniffed me. Then one of them licked me and nodded his head. The others stepped back. The wolf transformed before my eyes into Alex, my mate. I passed out. When I came to, he told me this incredible story about my being his true mate, the woman he’d been waiting for to complete him. Of course I thought he was crazy. The thing is, I couldn’t explain how I ended up in those woods, three states away from my home. Nor could I doubt the evidence of my own eyes. I’d seen him shift from wolf to man. The part about being his mate took some convincing—frankly I wasn’t looking for a commitment—but I eventually believed him and now I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life. We’re getting married in four weeks, even though by shifter standards we already are.
That’s my story.” She leaned back in her chair with a sigh and rubbed her swollen belly, a contented expression on her face.
“Mark, your turn.”
Something Kiesha said tickled at the back of her mind, troubling her, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. She was still trying to figure it out when Mark began his story, capturing her attention.
“I met Carol while in college, when I was close to completing my degree. I was immediately bowled over. I had to have her. Chased her day and night until she agreed to go out with me. We couldn’t keep our hands off of each other. It was a wonder we both didn’t fail that semester. Then she told me what she was. I thought she was playing games, you know, trying to break things off but didn’t have the guts, so she came up with this bull story…until she shifted. No warning or anything. One minute she was there; the next a wolf. Freaked me out big time, but it proved she was speaking the truth. While I was still coming to terms with what I’d seen, she explained about the mate bond and how it was changing me. All I could think was, I’m changing into that? A monster straight out of a horror movie? That’s what I shouted at her, along with a lot of other things that don’t bear repeating. I stormed out of her apartment and stayed away for a month. I couldn’t eat. Couldn’t sleep. All I could think about was her. How much I wanted, needed, and loved her. It was the last that drove me to her, begging her to forgive me and take me back. The pain I felt when we were apart…I’ve never felt anything like that in my life, and never want to again. I may not be the human I used to be but I wouldn’t revert back even if I could.” When he finished, he pushed his glasses back up on his nose and settled against the dresser, ankles crossed in a relaxed posed.
“What’s this mate bond you keep talking about? And how can you already be married by shifter standards? I don’t understand.” NeeCee asked the very question that was nibbling at the back of Tameka’s mind.