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“Good, I want to claim our mate, too.”

“What about the mountain lion shifter that comes around her? I can scent him on her, although it’s fading,”he growls.

“He is nothing but a friend and of no genuine concern. I have a plan, though.”

“We have to get the humans together. They are the ones standing in the way. Although, your human has done his fair share to ensure that this is going to be no simple task,”I say with a glare at him.

“He won’t be standing in the way anymore. I’ve made sure that he keeps himself only focused on her.”

“Good. I want to bring them together, and if I’m right, then we should be able to finally get them to mate with each other,”I say.

He lifts an eyebrow at me.“Okay, what’s your plan?”

“He needs to keep doing what he is already doing, but he needs to do the mating gifts. Has he even thought about those?”

He shakes his head.“Not that I know of. What do you need me to do?”

Huffing, I sit down. I give him all my ideas, and we spend the next hour going over what we will do to encourage the mating. He even throws in some ideas of his own that she can do to help Warrick.

Later, we are nuzzling each other and covering each other in our scents when I pull back from him.“We have to stop.”

He pushes me onto my back as he looms over me. He nuzzles into my neck as I let out a whimper. I can feel his canines runover the fur of my neck. So close to doing what I want him to do, but far enough to only be teasing it.

“You don’t want me to stop. You want me to claim you right now and why shouldn’t I?”He bites down on my neck but not enough to break the skin.

Panting, I say,“We have to get our humans to mate first. Then we can have each other as much as we want.”He applies a little more pressure with his teeth, but I stay firm and tell him,“Wraith, we have to stop.”

Growling, he rips his mouth off of me before stepping back. He walks off towards the shadows of the trees.“We will be seeing each other really soon.”

I watch as he disappears into the trees.

Chapter 14

Warrick

I convinced Aspen to let me take her on a date, although she is calling it dinner and not a date. Semantics. I have one goal in mind with dinner and that is to finally win my mate over. Nothing and nobody will stand in the way of that. After last night, I know she is feeling some of the same things that I am.

“You think you can manage to not fuck this up this time?”Wraith growls into my mind.

Rolling my eyes, I say,“Well, I’m going to try not to fuck it up. Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“I’ve let you handle this up to this point and where are we at? Not between the legs of our mate where we should be. If I had my way, we wouldn’t be anywhere else but there.”

Wraith is fuming. I didn’t know he was this mad about it. I mean, sure, he has bitched at me, but for the most part, he has kept quiet.

“You haven’t been exactly vocal about the issue. What gives?”

A growl rumbles through me.“You have been busy with other females and ignoring the one that we are supposed to be with. I’m done with it. If you don’t fix it, I will.”

With that, he recedes to the back of our shared space, leaving me alone with my thoughts. I finish getting myself ready and pull out my phone. If I don’t get my shit together, prove to Aspen that I’ve changed, and win her over, I will lose everything. I won’t ever be able to mate, settle down, or have pups with anyone if she rejects me.

Can I come pick you up for dinner?

Aspen: No, I’ll walk.

I would like to pick my date up for dinner. It’s the proper thing to do.

Aspen: Well, this isn’t a date, so you don’t need to worry. See you there at 7.