Page 5

Othoni

“Ni!”

Mori said, hitting the floor with a thud as I kicked the door shut behind me. “What has gotten into you?”

I snarled at him. The hair on my back and neck raised high to make me look big as I stood on the wolf’s chest. He was going to listen up and listen up good.

“Othoni!”

My carrier’s voice sounded off a warning over our family link, but I ignored him. I had business to tend to or I was going to eat my best friend. He could wait.

“Ni!”

Mori said my name again, hands up by his head.

“Listen up, wolf. Listen up right now,”

my jaguar hissed.

“Ni, I’m listening! I’m sorry I didn’t believe you about the storm. If I knew it was coming in, I’d never have let you go after Teddy alone.”

“Teddy is mine!”

I hissed over the pack link. “He is mine. My mate. Mine. No more bad talk about him. No more echoing your sire. Mine! Teddy is mine and I will eat you if you chase him off! I will eat you bite by bite and you will—”

“OTHONI!”

My carrier yelled into my thoughts again. That old cat was annoying as the birds in the canopy back home. What the heck did he want that couldn’t wait a few damn minutes?

“Look, I’m not going to try to take Teddy. If you remember I didn’t want him in the first place, Othoni. It’s a good thing you met your mate, right? This is a good thing?”

“Mine! No chasing him off!”

I snarled.

“Othoni,”

Mori sighed. “I’m not going to chase your mate off. No one can chase a dragon anywhere. They’re too big for all that but I’d appreciate it if you let me up. I know this can be a confusing time for you, but I think I have carpet burn on the back of my neck from being down here.”

I stared into his eyes for a long moment. I loved Mori like a brother but the things he and his sire said about Teddy were burnt into my memory. I didn’t want to be forced to choose between my best friend and my mate. How could I choose? I knew what fate would force me to do but I didn’t want to lose Mori. We had plans. We were going to open up a paranormal investigation firm and help others deal with the crazy things that spooked around their lives. We couldn’t do that if he made me choose between him and Teddy.

The door opened but I didn’t turn to look at Teddy. He was Mori’s friend too, but I trusted him enough to be on my side and not give me a swift kick to the ass with his big foot. Mori’s eyes grew huge.

“Wait!”

I hissed over the pack link. “He didn’t put on pants, did he?”

I turned to look over my shoulder. Teddy had managed to wiggle into black boxer briefs, but I didn’t see much more of him as he scooped me up off Mori and turned me to face him. He looked into my eyes as if he were checking for ghosts and then down at Mori.

“He wanted me to know you belonged to him,”

Mori told Teddy.

“Uh… Mate, Mori and I were never like that. This is the first time we ever met in person. So, stop it. Not cool. I’m going to have friends. You’re going to have friends. Heck. Mori is your friend too. I think he was your friend before he was mine. What’s up with you?”

What was up with me? What was up with my jaguar? I didn’t believe for a moment Mori wanted to steal Teddy away. I wasn’t that shallow or catty. I didn’t want him to be mean to Teddy. I didn’t want him to hurt the feelings of the dragon I’d spend the rest of my life with. Only, I wasn’t about to tell Teddy how much Barry disliked him or how relieved Mori was to announce Teddy wasn’t his true-mate.

“Othoni,”

my carrier sounded off into my thoughts again.

“What?! It’s hard to be here and there at the same time, you know?”

I snapped at him.

“Calm down,”

my carrier said over our family link. “This is why the potion is the best way. It lets you get all of this out of your system while you’re in your astral form. Seriously, calm down. Take a breath. No one is going to hurt him. No one thinks he belongs to them. Seriously. Mori isn’t a threat to him and Teddy is a big boy. He can take care of himself. Your sire met him dozens of times while we were separated. Just calm down. Do not let your jaguar take over and ruin your life.”

Ruin my life? What hadn’t he told me. Now wasn’t the time to worry about it. I had to protect Teddy. Dern had shot him twice already and Mori---

“Has done nothing wrong,”

my carrier cut back into my thoughts. “Do you really want your best friend to have the hots for your guy?”

No. The answer was a resounding no.

“You okay?”

Teddy asked, his voice gentler this time.

I brushed my fingers against my jaguar’s fur again but still found that he had no give. I was stuck inside my beast form. Was the potion a necessary step for us to meet our true-mates? It couldn’t be. Others before me had met their true-mates without it. I was here with Teddy, wasn’t I? Or was I really losing my mind?

“We’ll be right back, Mori,”

Teddy sighed. “Pants and all that. Sorry that he knocked you over.”

“The true-mate response can make some people into temporary jackasses. I just hope it’s temporary,”

Mori frowned in my direction.

Back inside the room, Teddy heeled the door shut behind us and sat me down on the edge of the bed.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on,”

he said, kneeling on the floor so that we were eye-to-eye. I breathed in his scent and begged my jaguar to relinquish control. If only I could get back out, I could explain everything.

“But Mori and I are just friends,”

Teddy continues. “Just friends. I know things are different where you come from, but I have plenty of omegas who I’m friends or acquaintances with. I’m still friends with some exes. I slept with Jacob Leem. Hell, I slept with my best friend not long before he met his true-mate. My life is an open book to you. You don’t have to worry about me keeping some big secret.”

I bunted my head against his shoulder, wishing more than ever my jaguar would just give up control. This was one of those conversations where human tongues were definitely needed. Mori knocked on the door and we startled apart like we were caught in the act.

“Let me get some pants,”

Teddy sighed and kissed the top of my head.

“I can go if you want,”

Mori called back through the door. “I talked to your carrier though, Ni. He said he’d been trying the family link, but you weren’t in the mood to speak with him. Not that I blame you. The last person I’d want to speak to if I were horny for my true-mate would be my carrier. So, I get it. I’d understand if you didn’t want to talk to me right now either. I’m sorry about what I said. Well, sort of. I meant what I said. Me and that person wouldn’t have worked out at all but he is my friend. I think you and he know that but I’ll go if you want me to. Maybe I can swing back by Dern’s and see if I can get him yapping.”

“Don’t go. Not yet. I’m not---”

I didn’t know what I was not because I was frustrated with everyone and everything. My jaguar was in the mood to eat faces if anyone looked at Teddy cross. I glanced at him as he fastened his jeans and bit back a sigh. It was a shame for a man with thighs as thick and muscular as his to ever wear pants. For a second, I considered knocking him over and licking them. Then I remembered Mori on the other side of the door.

“Want me to let him in?”

Teddy asked.

I nodded my consent, and a second later Mori sat down in front of me on the floor. His wolf’s eyes were out, and he looked contrite. I was a jackass more than a jaguar when I knocked him over. I knew that but there were rules about this and being nice to my true-mate was one of them.

“I didn’t know this would happen when that was said,”

Mori said. “If I had, I’d never have said anything. I don’t know what I want in a true-mate. Not really and that’s part of what drives my sire crazy. It’s like I can’t even narrow it down but I don’t think it matters if I narrow it down or not because I’ve already picked him in the Other World. I know it’s hard right now. I know the true-mate response messes with everyone’s head but I don’t want to lose my friends because of it.”

Sighing, my jaguar relinquished his control and let me back out. My ears, tails, and whiskers stuck around as they sometimes did when he wasn’t sure how safe the world was. Safety was thousands of miles south of here. Well, except for when it stormed there.

“I shouldn’t have knocked you over, I’m sorry,” I said.

“It’s okay. No one got hurt,”

Mori said. “Your carrier started talking about coming up here, but I convinced him that would only make things worse. If it’s a territorial issue, it’ll probably calm down after your claiming vows. I mean, this whole thing is probably the reason your family leads the pard. Not because you’re all assholes but because you act on those instincts that not everyone does and keeping an alpha alive long enough to make cubs with would’ve been very important at some times in history.”

I blushed and fought off the urge to kick Mori. This was one hundred and fifty percent not the time to talk about kittens. I glanced at Teddy who stood with one arm leaning against the dresser and both of his eyes on me. I wanted to climb him like a tree. Then I could eat Dern and inform everyone who we knew if they even looked at Teddy sideways I’d eviscerate them and use their finger bones as styluses for my tablet. There would be zero exceptions to that rule. He was mine and I’d keep him safe.

“You do know he’s a dragon, right?”

Mori teased me over the pack link.

“Yes, yes. I know but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t need protection. Look at his tattoo!”

I nodded at his arm where his lotus tattoo was besmirched by one of the bullets.

“He has a better chance of surviving a gun shot than you,”

Mori pointed out.

“I’ll call my ancestors to drag off all the people who would shoot him,”

I said, feeling my jaguar’s fur rise on my legs again.

“How about not?”

Mori laughed. “Can you calm him down or do I really need to leave? Hell, if even you can calm him down do you want me to leave?”

“What about Dern?” I asked.

“We can go if you really think it would help,”

Teddy answered before Mori had a chance to speak.

“It would. Well, would’ve beforehand. I don’t think it’s a good idea right now, though, Teddy. I think Ni might eat him for shooting you,”

Mori sighed.

Teddy smirked and Mori rolled his eyes.

“You two deserve each other,”

Mori laughed.

“What? That would totally be hot, Mori, and you know it!”

Teddy laughed and the sound wrapped around me like a warm blanket.

“I have an idea,”

Mori said. “What if I leave for now? Go take a shower or something for a few hours and then we can meet up around dinner time if you two feel up to it?”

“That works for me, if it’s good for you,”

Teddy glanced at me.

“Okay. I don’t want you to feel chased off, though,”

I said to Mori.

“I don’t. This is the way things are supposed to go. I’m sorry but I’m not into watching live action pornography, okay?”

Mori laughed.

“Good because he’s mine,”

I said, and I meant it but managed to laugh too.

I hugged Mori before he left and let Teddy hug him too. It wasn’t infidelity that worried me. Teddy smelled sad and melancholy enough all up close and personal as we had been. No one else needed to make him sad and no would else would get by with it on my watch.