Page 152 of Alpha Mates

“Not long,” she replies, and I hum idly. It wasn’t long at all, but every day with him makes me feel complete, whole, and that makes each day precious. “Is it his birthday?”

“No,” I dismiss as Aiden comes to a halt, hanging upside down just beneath the post. She pulls a lever to bring him up, and he starts the climb. “I just wanted to bring him here.”

“No reason at all?” she asks while she moves about, opening the hatchwhere the rope slithers through.

“No,” I say, making her hum.

“Well, I think the two of you are very cute,” she says, and when I finally look at her, I find her waiting with a bright smile. It stuns me, and maybe that shows on my face, because she immediately tries to backpedal. “Is it okay to say that?”

She couldn’t know, but her words take me right back to the day we learnt we were mates. The day our worlds finally collided, but not in any way we’d been prepared for. And then, out beyond our lands, an unsuspecting cashier had told us something similar.

Our disgust was probably the only thing we agreed on that day. Goddess, I remember feeling truly nauseous at her statement and now …

“Yeah,” I reply as a gleeful Aiden stops right below us. He’s hanging upside down by one of his legs, ridiculous and alive. It’s so silly and simple, but the sight of him hits me like a warm tide.

“It’s perfectly okay,” I tell her.

“There’s more?!” Aiden blurts the second we’re back in the car.

“Well, obviously,” I say, trying to hide my smile. “I told you, I made plans. But most of it will have to be pushed back until tomorrow becausesomeonewanted to go with the flow.” I cut him a harmless glare.

He shrugs. “I make no apologies.”

“We need to grab lunch first, though. Our stomachs are communicating through Morse code.” I steer us back to the main road, and Aiden snorts as he gives his a pat. “There are some places in the human town, or we can go back to the hotel. Your pick.”

“Why don’t you choose?” Aiden prompts, making me hesitate. “You’ve been doing everything for me since we left home, and trust me when I say I love receiving the princess treatment that I’ve always deserved—” he preens, and I snort. “But you can take this one.”

“But I planned everything for you—”

“Us,” he interjects, sliding a hand onto my thigh. “It’s for both of us, Jewels, so you pick.”

I gnaw on my lip, wanting to argue, but I guess I have been pampering Aiden a lot today. And I do have somewhere in mind that Aiden will absolutely hate, but hedidsay this was for us, so…

“Okay.”

“I take it back. I take it the fuck back!” Aiden looks around the restaurant filled to the brim with enough plants to match its one hundred per cent vegetarian menu. “I want to go to Popeyes!”

“Too late,” I reply over my menu.

“How did you even find this place?” he whispers across the table with sheer panic in his eyes. “Is there some secret veggie group chat you’re a part of?!”

I snort but shake my head. “I saw it when I was researching the area, and thanks to your generosity,” I grin at him, “now,weget to try it.”

Aiden glares at me, but it’s a harmless thing. For all his dramatics, he doesn’t really hate it. I’ve fed him enough vegetarian meals by now that he knows things don’t have to have meat to taste good.

Slumping back in his seat, he flicks through his menu with a deep frown. “Everything here sounds weird,” he mumbles, resigned to his fate but not to stop complaining. “Look—aDouble Barley Pozole, like doubling the barley makes up for the fact that there’s no meat—and what the fuck is a pozole? It sounds like a Spanish dance.”

My lips twitch at their corners, but I’m not about to encourage him, so I bite back my smile.

“Eggplant Parmesan, that doesn’t even sound right,” he continues, and I struggle to swallow my next laugh. “Roasted Broccolini and Red Pepper Garlic Frittata… that one actually sounds pretty nice. I think I’ll try it.”

Laughter bubbles out of me, and I can’t stop it. Can’t, because Aiden knows how to make me laugh, whether he’s trying or not.

“What’s broccolini, though?” he asks next, eyes still on the menu. “Is that like vegetarian broccoli? Isn’t broccoli already a vegetable?”

“No more,” I beg with a hand over my stomach. “Aiden, please. Shut up.”

Aiden snorts, chuckling as he holds his hands up. “Guess it’s not.”