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That news rattled me. I thought about my parents and so many things fell into place. "It's my dad. It has to be him. He's so full of secrets, and he would be gone for days at a time. But he hates shifters."
"That's sad." Waylan's voice was soft and tender. "He must really hate himself."
"And he hates me. That's why I left, among other things."
"I'm sorry." He kissed my forehead.
There was a long silence between us while his hand gently caressed my side. I felt comfortable with him, but also the dreaminess of the afternoon was starting to feel a little bit alarming as the changes of the day began to catch up with me. "Waylan, what's happening?"
He drew back and looked into my eyes with a concerned expression. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, this." It was my turn to gesture at the air between us. "Do you feel it? This isn't normal. I mean…" I sat up and pulled the comforter to my chest. "I turned into a fox today! And I’m an omega and you’re an alpha…and I think my shift has something to do with you."
He took a deep breath and let it out. "Yeah, it does have to do with me."
I was scared of what he'd say next. Somehow, I knew it was going to change my whole life. But I waited patiently, like I could hear him gathering up his thoughts.
Finally, he sat up next to me and smiled, though he looked sad.
Waylan explained that I was a halfbreed and got something called a latent gene, which meant that my shifter genes wouldn't present until some kind of event occurred.
I nodded, mostly understanding. "So…the event was meeting another shifter?"
Waylan looked down, as if it was hard to look at me. "Not exactly."
I was starting to feel nervous, thinking there must be something wrong with me. Why else would he be so hesitant to tell me? I'd always felt like there was something wrong with me, and now Waylan could see it too. I buried my face in my hands, bracing myself for whatever he was going to say next.
"See, a lot of times, latent shifters don't shift until… Well, until they're mated."
"What?" I looked at Waylan from between my fingers.
He was still looking down at his hands as they were tying the fringe of the comforter into little knots, then undoing them again.
"But I'm not mated to anyone, if that means what I think it means."
Waylan's face slowly turned red. Like the sky slowly brightening at dawn, the meaning of his words became clear to me. Waylan was my mate.
Finally, he turned and looked at me. The pain on his face made my chest ache as his eyes searched mine. "I'm sorry."
I couldn't understand why he would be sorry, unless he didn't want me. But some long-closed gate had busted wide open inside me, and I knew there was no going back. At the core of my being, I knew better than I'd known anything in my whole life that I was Waylan's mate.
And the idea that he might not want me felt like the end of the world.
Chapter 9
Waylan
I couldn't look at Joe for very long. I felt terrible for trapping him like this. Here was this young, gorgeous man with his whole life ahead of him, and I'd just thrown everything off track.
"Joe, I didn't mean for this to happen. I'm so sorry. I can't choose my mate." My words came out in a tumble. "But being a shifter is really great. I think you'll learn to love it. And I swear, I'll leave you alone, you can leave if you want or you can stay and keep doing work. I'll still pay you, obviously."
Joe’s brow furrowed for a moment, and then he leaned forward and kissed me. Smiling, he pulled back and put one finger on my lips, as if to shush me.
That was all it took.
My desire for him took over, and we fell back onto the blankets, kissing like I'd never kissed before. I reached down and caressed his hard and pulsating cock. Joe moaned and closed his eyes as he began to thrust his hips into my hand.
The aroma of his slick sent me into a frenzy as I grabbed his hips and guided him on top of me so I could admire his whole. I wrapped my fist around his dick and continued to stroke back and forth, harder and faster.