Page 42 of Married into the Mob

“No. Somehow Draven discovered you were meant for me.”

Huh? Back up, I told my brain. What did he say? Meant for him? I’d heard that or something similar earlier in the day.

“Nope. I am me and?—”

He charged ahead, talking over me. “In the shifter world, many relationships are… ummm… preordained. Not all. But fated mates are determined by the universe or destiny, if you prefer that word.”

More new information knocked at the door of my brain, demanding to be let in. I didn’t want to hear any more, but he’d left me wondering what this had to do with… shit, no. Not Draven. He couldn’t be my destiny.

“We recognize our mate by their scent, and we fall into one another’s arms and mate.”

Shoot, not Draven, thank gods. But that left the man… the not-human who was the only other occupant of the cabin. The one who’d just said I was meant for him. And that word mate that had been bandied about in the panic room.

“Mate?”

“Partner, beloved. The person we walk beside until the end of our days.” He looked everywhere but at my face, and words tumbled out. “We mark one another by drawing blood, and a scar remains so all shifters know we’re mated.”

Draven had wanted to marry me, not cut me and have blood spurting out of the wound. I pulled my hand out from under the quilt and studied the scab that was forming on my palm.

I shoved my hand into Hunter’s face, so close his warm breath billowed over my skin.

“This? This is a mating… mark? You mated me because you’re a shifter, not to do with a mafia custom.”

“That’s right. But I did it to protect you. No shifter would come between us. Mating is sacred. Draven understands that, and he was trying to deliver the greatest hurt one shifter can give another.” He hurled the words out rather than spoke them.

That was the reason for his actions and dramatic flowery language. I was supposed to be his life partner.

I found my strength and stood, pushing past Hunter and pacing the floor.

“Can it be taken back? Like a divorce?”

“Well, that’s?—”

“Hunter, answer the damned question.”

“Humans can disregard the bond, but in the shifter world, it’s for life. Unless one of us dies.”

I was linked to this mafia man… this shifter… until I took my last breath.

I could freak out about us being mated and how I was going to finagle my way out of it. I’d need to look deep down inside and ask myself if I really wanted to.

But we’d come here to devise a plan to stop Draven and his cronies.

“So when and how do we figure this out?”

SEVENTEEN

HUNTER

“I need to think on it some more.” Odell was remarkably calm, considering what I’d revealed and how he’d been catatonic in the car. “How about you get some sleep and we’ll discuss it in the morning.”

He checked his watch and held out his wrist. “It’s after midnight, so technically it is morning.” He said we should do it now, so I grabbed two notepads and pens from the desk drawer.

Where to start? “A list of characters should be our first step.”

Odell tapped the pen on the side table. “How about we do a timeline. You know, like in the detective shows. They have a… not sure of the name… like a vision board. But we’ll use text rather than pics.”

“Good thinking.”