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"What are you thinking about so hard?" Her voice penetrated his thoughts.

His head cocked to the side, still thinking about it all. He said nothing.

Ismena has her own problems too. "Oh, God, I'm so dead. Now, Sandra already has the knowledge that we know each other...! She might even think we're dating and I've been hiding it from her. How do I explain to her that you're a changeling? That you morph into a cougar? That you ain't even the changeling I'm sleeping with but another one entirely? And that you only helped me come back to my world? How do I—?"

Alphose held her shoulders gently, forcing her to lose him in the eyes. "Ismena, calm down."

"I'm calm, I'm calm, trust me." A nervous laugh, "It's just that I don't want my best friend to feel bad that she has been crushing on a man—telling me all about him, including how she has been having wet dreams for him and all these while, I've pretended not to know the man? And not only that, I've been ruthlessly sleeping with him behind her back—"

"Wait, wait, slow down. You have NOT been sleeping with me."

"She doesn't know that."

"And wait. You said she has been wet-dreaming about me? She...likes me?" The cougar definitely approved, wagging its tail like a puppy. The man felt warm in his chest.

Ismena took a deep breath and exhaled. "Yes, she does. Sandra likes you a whole lot." She admitted at last.

Her hands waved around helplessly, "Which is complicated because you're a changeling, and y'all only get really involved with your mates and all that, and I don't want my friend to get hurt—"

"Your friend, Kassandra, might be my mate, Ismena." Saying it out loud, made him realize how real all these might be. His mate.

That woman in there might be his mate. Or she might not.

But what if she is?

Ismena was speechless all of a sudden. "Wait. What?"

"Kassandra might be my mate." He repeated, his voice taking in a deeper baritone. "She does not have the scent of a potential mate or even the scent of an Alpha's mate—which is confusing as hell— she does not have any of those scents, just like you did before the Alpha King began touching you. But all the other signs are there."

Ismena was trying to wrap her head around everything, "You're saying that my best friend might be your mate, but at the same time, she might not be?"

"Yes." His voice went deeper. The cougar suddenly wants out.

A shift. He was fighting a shift.

"Your eyes..." Ismena trailed off incredulously, "They are green..."

Alphose turned away from her, held the rails tight, and squeezed his eyes shut. The cougar was banging at his head. He has no idea why his other half wants out, all of a sudden.

Ismena waited quietly behind him when she realized what was going on. She'd seen it enough with her own mate—with Wolfaraine, she quickly corrected—to know it for what it was.

God, at the same time, she's also trying to contain her excitements too.

It'll be so much of a great thing if her best friend is Alphose's mate. She'll be in Naturiah with her. Sandra will keep her company. She'll never be so lonely ever again!

Ohmigod! Ohmigod!! Ohmyyyygod!!!!!

But, even with all the excitement, she was trying to contain, she was still holding her breath while waiting for Alphose to get himself under control.

When he did, all the corded muscles in his arms and neck relaxed. He released a very deep breath too, before he turned to face her. His eyes were back to gray again.

"Are you okay now?" She asked him, concerned.

"Yes." A nod, "We have to bring her back with us to Naturiah, Ismena. You have to explain everything about what I am to her."

"I have no idea how to tell her everything. She'll think I've lost my mind." She pointed out, truthfully.

Alphose thought so too. His head was working too.