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Connor was happily humming to himself the next morning finishing his homemade waffles when his mated shuffled into the kitchen. He heard a thunk and turned to see her face down at the table.

“Good morning, sunshine,” he said, his smile quickly disappearing in the face of her murderous glance when she raised her face to look at him.

“Shut up and die, morning person. Coffee,” she mumbled.

Right. Note to self. Mate was not a morning person.

He poured a cup of coffee and placed it on the table near her hand along with the sweetener and cream.

He watched as she poured three packets of Equal into the coffee with her forehead still on the table.

He looked on in amazement as she felt around and unscrewed the cap to the cream before dousing the dark liquid.

She stirred for a second before dragging the cup to her lips.

After a few sips she was able to lift her head.

By the time she had finished half a cup she was sitting upright.

When she finished the cup, her eyes were open and she was looking around.

“You should be a coffee commercial,” Connor said, staring at his mate.

“I hope those waffles are for breakfast, I’m starving,” she said, ignoring him.

He went over, picked up the plate he had made for her and walked back over to her chair. She reached up for it but he shook his head.

“You want breakfast. I need a morning kiss. Especially, after you just told me to die,” he said, raising an eyebrow at her.

She winced and lifted her face up for a kiss. He kissed her thoroughly and placed the plate down in front of her.

“Sorry about that. I should have warned you I’m not a morning person. Anything said before coffee should never be held against me,” she said, smiling up at him.

“You’re lucky my eldest and youngest brothers are grumpy. I have plenty of practice dealing with them first thing in the morning.” Connor winked and joined her at the table.

“They would be?” she asked.

“Aleks and Gavin. The beginning and the end.” Connor laughed to himself.

“There are seven of you, right? Is it true your family always uses the first seven letters of the alphabet?” she asked, digging into her waffles.

“Yup. We all get an A through G name based on our birth order, and our middle names correspond to the previous generation’s name.

For example. Aleks is Aleksander Aaron Arkadion.

Aleksander is his name and his middle name is the A name from the previous generation.

Which would be Pa. I’m Connor. My uncle’s name, who is also a C name, is Christian.

So, I became Connor Christian Arkadion. When Rebecca has rug rat number three.

He will be ‘whatever C name’ Connor Arkadion and so on and so on,” Connor explained.

“That is genius in its simplicity,” Madison complimented.

“It sure as hell made genealogy easy. We have a huge family tree dating back over two thousand years. Benedict has been working on a software program that will act as a family database,” Connor said.

“You really love your brothers don’t you?” she asked.

“Of course. Don’t you love your siblings?” he asked in return. She nodded.

“Yes, but then again we’re triplets.” She quieted and put her fork down.

Connor knew exactly who she was thinking of.

“I’m sorry about your sister, Madelyne. I’ll see what I can do to help look for her,” he said, taking her hand. He remembered Maddox’s story about their missing sibling.

She looked up and quickly wiped away a stray tear with her other hand never letting go of his.

“I’m not sure what else can be done,” she said, before picking up her fork to begin eating with one hand.

Connor did the same. It was funny how Fate worked. Less than twenty-four hours ago he had to be drugged to get some sleep. Now, he was sitting at a table eating breakfast with his mate after a perfect night’s rest. He chuckled at his good fortune.

“Are your waffles funny?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Just thinking about how Fate works and how different my life is now, than it was twenty-four hours ago.” He squeezed her hand.

“Twenty-four hours ago, I had packed up my entire life and got on a plane to go visit my brother. No job, no home. Nothing. Now...” She trailed off and looked at him, smiling.

“Why did you quit your job and pack up like that? I was there in the diner the day Doc was talking to you. After being around you, you don’t seem like the type of person that would do something like that on a whim.”

“You’re right. It wasn’t a whim. I really started to hate myself in New York.

I hated my job. None of the cases seemed to matter.

I guess, I was ready for a change. When I heard about what happened with the virus, all I could think about, was that it had been years since I last seen my brother.

That was all it took. I’ll call my personal assistant when we get back, so he can arrange to have my things sent to Arkadia, I mean, if that’s okay? ” she asked.

“Sounds good to me.” Connor took another bite of his waffles.

“So, what are we doing today?” she asked.

“Well, we have a ton of board games, including my favorite. Trivial Pursuit,” Connor said, looking up to catch her blush.

“Oh. I thought that we would…”

Connor grinned and waited for her to finish the sentence.

“Would what?” he teased.

“Oh, I don’t know. Fuck like bunnies?” she suggested.

He shook his head.

“Nope,” he said, his lips popping the P.

She shook her hand loose.

“Why the hell not?” she demanded.

“Because when we come together it will be for me to claim you or not at all. When you’re ready to be claimed I’ll be waiting for you to seduce me,” he said, standing up and taking their plates over to the sink.

“Un-fucking-believable,” she grumbled.

Connor turned back around smiling brightly.

“Monopoly?” he asked and held back his laughter as her head banged on the table.

“Yahtzee! Take that!” Madison yelled and jumped up to do a happy dance.

Connor couldn’t believe how much his mate had relaxed since yesterday.

All day she had been opening up more and more.

Now, it felt like they had known each other for years.

He thought that maybe Madison’s change of heart was too quick to be genuine, but then he remembered what Aleks had said about his first date with Rebecca.

That after being together for only a few hours everything seemed to slip into place.

That as a couple you start to fill the voids in each other’s hearts and how years of dating seemed to compact into hours.

“Cheater,” he said, taking the dice.

“Don’t hate. I’m running to get some chips, want anything?” she asked.

“Can you grab the mint chocolate cookies?” he asked, pouting.

Laughing, she leaned down and kissed him before heading to the kitchen.

Connor leaned back against the couch and laced his fingers behind his head.

Yesterday, he was a hated kidnapper. Today, he was her best friend.

He was congratulating himself when he heard her screech his name.

Jumping up, he ran to the kitchen to find his mate standing on the chair.

“Mouse!” she yelled.

He looked at his mate. “Really?”

“Yes really, over by the fridge. There.” She pointed.

He motioned to her in the chair. “No, I believe you about the mouse, I meant, you. You’re really up on a chair over a mouse?” he asked, eyeing his mate in disbelief. Movement caught his eye as he saw a black blur dart to the pantry. She screamed again.

“Get rid of it!” she yelled.

“You shift into a four-hundred-pound tiger, you get rid of it,” Connor said incredulously.

“Three hundred and fifty pounds, thank you very much. And what the fuck is my tiger going to do with a mouse?” she asked, her hands on her hips.

“I don’t know, eat it?” he asked.

“You want me to eat a rodent?” she gasped.

Connor looked at his mate’s horrified expression and quickly reassessed the situation.

“Of course not, I was kidding. How about you draw a nice hot bath. I’ll deal with Mickey Mouse, and when you get out I’ll have a gourmet dinner and a glass of wine waiting for you,” Connor said, helping her off the chair.

He prayed she would never know he had been serious.

Her eyes narrowed at him and she sniffed.

“That sounds wonderful. Be out soon.”

As she walked past him she leaned in and whispered.

“Nice save.”

Connor let his forehead thump against the wall.

When she walked out of the bedroom nearly an hour later dinner was almost ready.

She walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. He breathed deeply and his knees nearly buckled.

There was the scent again, like apples. At first he thought it was her shampoo, but she didn’t have it with her.

Then he realized that was her scent to him.

He took another deep breath and a second scent had him gripping the counter.

She was aroused. She had to be dripping wet for the scent to be so strong.

He spun around and walked her backward until she was against the wall.

“I’m about to fuck you and claim you. Say no only if you truly mean it,” he said, his voice sounding deeper.

“All I had to do was walk out here with no panties on to seduce you?” she asked, breathless.

“Works for me,” he said before pulling her lower lip between his. He bit and devoured every inch of her mouth. He trailed down her neck and bit lightly at the tender skin below her ear. She moaned and squirmed, pressing her legs together.

“None of that. Every drop of that honey is mine.” He lifted her and carried her to the rug in front of the fireplace. He set her down and pulled the large T-shirt off, leaving her completely nude and open to him. He stared at her body and didn’t know where to start.

He pulled his shirt off over his head and threw it to one side. He quickly removed his jeans and watched as his mate cupped both her breasts together, offering them to him. Guess he knew where he was starting.