Mate Claimed

“But I can’t stay here. I have a business to run—my sister’s on her honeymoon, and my mother can’t do it all by herself.”

“It’s Sunday,” Diego said. “You’re closed anyway, right?”

“We catch up on Sundays. I can’t just disappear, no matter what Eric thinks. My mother will get frantic and call the police.”

“No harm in telling her where you are,” Diego said. “Eric’s not trying to keep you prisoner, he’s trying to protect you. So am I. Eric’s right—you’re safest here.”

Iona seethed, but even her frustration couldn’t keep her from resuming her breakfast. “What is this Challenge anyway? Why are you letting Eric and Graham fight over me?”

“It’s Shifter tradition,” Cassidy said calmly. “The Challenge was created to keep Shifters from arbitrarily stealing one another’s mates. Shifters used to be pretty bloodthirsty, and with females scarce, males went all out to fight for them. The Challenge keeps it civilized.”

“That explains almost nothing,” Iona said.

Diego gave her a nod. “I’m right there with you. But go with it. I’ll put it this way—it’s better than Graham trying to rip Eric’s head off and run away with you slung over his shoulder. Eric knows what he’s doing. As far as I understand it, whatever the outcome of the fight, you can still choose whether to accept the mate-claim. Right, Cass?”

“Right. Doesn’t mean Eric won’t keep trying. He can be persistent.”

Iona laid down her fork, but only because her plate was empty. “You two are very sanguine about Eric bringing me home and fighting this guy because of me. You don’t know anything about me. Why are you being so accepting?”

Both of them fixed her with stares, Cassidy’s green one over her plate, Diego’s dark one from the stove. They each seemed to know what the other wanted to say, and Diego got to go first.

“I did some research on you after you called me the other day,” he said. “I didn’t know about you being part Shifter, but the info about your business and family is there for everyone to see. You work hard, make decent money, and pay your taxes.” He gave her a small smile. “Nothing underhanded about you.”

“Scent tells me a lot,” Cassidy said, still tackling her flavorful eggs and cheese. “You’re half-Shifter, unmated, and fairly open and honest. You don’t hide anything. And to tell the truth, Eric’s lonely. Crazy lonely. He doesn’t admit it, but I see it. I think you’d be good for him.”

Iona stared at her empty plate. “But will Eric be good for me?”

Cassidy nodded, her expression matter-of-fact. “He’s the leader of Shiftertown, which means you’ll be the alpha’s mate. That’s a good place to be.”

“I might think that if I’d grown up Shifter,” Iona said. “But I grew up human. I have a human life, a house, a career, things I worked very hard for. You and Eric expect me to give it all up without a fight.”

“You’re also young, for a Shifter.” Cassidy’s voice gentled, and she laid down her fork. “I’m not. Iona, all those things—the house, the business, whatever place you carved in human society—they don’t last. A hundred years go by, the world changes, and Shifters watch it all.” She glanced at the sunny backyard, and her hand returned to her abdomen. “This Shiftertown, the restrictive laws humans put on us—they won’t last either. Life in Shiftertown has been only a small part of my existence, and it will disappear in time. Humans will get used to Shifters, or figure out they can benefit by using us, or we’ll force the situation to change when we’re ready. Nothing is fixed and forever. In another hundred years, all this will be gone.”

Diego finished at the stove, brought over the rest of the mixture in the frying pan, scraped more onto Iona’s plate, then finally filled a plate for himself. He returned the pan to the counter and sat down to start eating.

“It weirds me out to hear her talk like that,” Diego said. “I grew up human, like you did. But Cass is right. Everything is mutable, even when it seems like it will last forever. What does last though—and I had to figure this out the hard way—is family. The people who love you and what you feel for them—that never goes away.”

“Yes, it does,” Iona said, a little less hungry now. “You lose people. I loved my stepfather, and he’s gone.” She felt a pang, as she always did when she remembered sitting those last days with her stepdad in the hospital.

“I know,” Diego said. “I lost my dad when I was a kid. But you still love him, don’t you? You still think about him—I bet part of why you work so hard is to keep up the business he built and not let him down. And that’s what I meant. They’re never really gone. You miss them like hell, but they’re still a part of you, part of your life. That’s what lasts—not houses, not businesses, not money. All that can change on the spin of a coin.”

Iona forked up the last of her eggs and lifted a piece of the sweet toast, trying to push her emotions aside. Emotions made her jumpy, and hungry, moving her again toward frenzy. “You two should be philosophers or something,” she said lightly. “‘How to live life, the happy way.’”

Diego laughed, his stern expression softening. “My mom wouldn’t think so. I’m mouthing things she said to me growing up, when she needed to get me and Xavier through some tough times. I guess growing up rough makes you philosophical.”