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Chapter Twelve

Charlie

I wouldn’t say that Silver and his brothers look exactly alike, but you could tell they were related.

All were tall with dark hair and similar skin tones and facial features, but that was really where the similarities ended.

Some had dark eyes, while others had lighter eyes.

And their hair was all different shades of brown.

Slate was the youngest, and although I was told he was thirty, he was a lot slimmer than his brothers.

The others looked like they were gorilla shifters, which was expected from… gorilla shifters.

“I’m sorry about my brothers,” Silver told me as we were driving back to his place after our breakfast. I could certainly see why it was that he and his brothers liked that place so much.

“Why? They were all polite.” They had been too.

One by one, they’d all come over and introduced themselves to me.

Clay had apologized for this morning, not that he really needed to, in my opinion.

Not really how I would have liked to “meet” his brothers for the first time, but they’d not seen anything.

Silver had gotten them out of the bedroom before I could even think about sitting up.

“I know you probably didn’t plan on spending the day after being claimed by your mate with his four brothers and moving all of your things from one place to another.”

I chuckled at that. This was true. “Yes, but how else am I going to get moved into your place? Well, at least as quickly as they’re going to be able to do it? Sure, you and I could slowly move me, but I have a feeling that your gorilla would much rather I be moved in as quickly as possible.”

Silver glanced at me and smiled. “True. But if you’d rather take it slower, I do understand.”

I rolled my eyes. “Silver, we’ve already claimed each other.

There is no taking it slow at this point.

I should probably message Sam, though, and let her know things went well and you are my mate and all that stuff.

” I wanted to tell her, but I was also a bit terrified to do so.

She had been so pushy, even yesterday, and I honestly didn’t really care for how she’d been acting lately.

Pregnancy aside, that did not excuse her entitled behavior.

“Did you want to swing by her place and tell her in person?”

I looked over at Silver and just blinked.

“No,” I said after a moment. “Justin is probably sleeping since he’s on overnights lately.

That absolutely does not help the situation with Sam either.

Justin is gone all night and sleeps part of the day.

That leaves Sam with too much time on her hands, and she’s redirecting her attention toward me. ”

“All right. Since Sam doesn’t know where I live, and she was seen over on your side of the neighborhood this morning, it’s possible that we’ll end up seeing her at some point today.”

“True. I need to let Justin know what’s been going on.

I just don’t want to call when he’s sleeping.

I don’t really know what his schedule is like.

” I sighed, frustrated with that part of my life.

Things with Silver, they seemed to be starting out well.

But I wasn’t so sure how things were going to be with Sam going forward.

If she was happy now that I was mated and backed off a bit, I’d be elated.

But if she started pushing for more, then we were going to have issues.

“Do you have any sort of specific foods you prefer?” Silver asked suddenly.

“Huh?”

“Food. Is there anything specific that you absolutely love? I’m only asking because if I don’t have it, we could swing by the grocery store and pick up some things.”

“Oh. No, I eat anything, really. I love salads, but you said you eat them too. Do you have salad stuff? If not, I do at my place. We can just bring my food over later. I know we’re supposed to work on moving me in with you, but if we don’t get everything, it’s not the end of the world.

But I do need to be sure I grab my lunches.

I meal prep on my days off.” Although I was probably going to come up short next week because I ended up swapping a day off for today, and I absolutely wasn’t going to be spending the day making up a week’s worth of lunches and dinners.

I would figure it out. I might have to skip some lunches in the upcoming week, but it wasn’t going to be the end of the world.

Silver cleared his throat, getting my attention. “I want to talk to you, but I really think it’s best if we talk about what I want to discuss while we’re at home.”

I looked over at my mate, suddenly worried. “You’re not having regrets, are you? I know it’s becoming real with your brothers helping you move me into your place later.”

“No, that’s not it at all.” Silver stopped at an intersection and gave me a look I didn’t quite know how to describe.

“My only regret is that I didn’t romance you before claiming you.

I plan on showing you lots of romance going forward because you deserve it.

But that’s not what I wanted to talk about.

” Silver sighed. “If you have nowhere to go, I’d like to head home and have that talk. ”

I nodded. I wasn’t going to freak out about what he’d said.

We were mated. He couldn’t suddenly dump me.

Could he? I looked out the side window to try and get my emotions under control.

Silver seemed to be able to scent them quite well, and I didn’t want him to know that I was low-key freaking out here.

We were mated. It was normal to have conversations. Serious ones at that.

I was so lost in my own thoughts I didn’t realize we were suddenly parked in Silver’s driveway until his face suddenly appeared in front of me, and then the door opened.

I looked out the front, and there we were.

Home. That still felt a bit odd, but I wanted to think of Silver’s place as home.

It was where I was going to live with him.

He reached for me, and I undid my seat belt before I turned and placed my hands on his shoulders.

“I can get out myself, you know. Not that I dislike sliding down your body,” I told him as he slowly let me do just that.

It was amazing how something such as that would bring back so many memories already.

“Yes, but then you wouldn’t be thinking about being naked and pinned against the door while I slid my cock in and out of you, would you?”

I took a deep breath at the sudden surge of heat I felt throughout my body. He was absolutely right. I was definitely thinking about that.

I cleared my throat, trying to get my voice to work. “When do you think we can revisit that again?”

Silver chuckled. “I will most happily pin you to the wall at any time. All you have to do is ask. But I do wish to have that discussion with you first. I feel it’s important, and it will benefit both of us.”

Drat. I nodded because my desire suddenly waned a bit. We were going to be having that talk, it seemed. “Very well. If you’ll lead the way, we can go and discuss whatever it is that you want to.” I had no way of getting into the house, so Silver had to go first anyway.

Instead of leading the way though, he grabbed my hand and pulled me along with him.

“We need to be sure to put one of the keys my brothers gave back on your key chain,” he said as we walked up to the front door.

We noticed there was a piece of paper taped to it about the same time, and as Silver pulled it from the door, he looked around.

“Is something wrong?”

“No. This is my dad’s handwriting.”

Oh. Well, maybe that was better than his parents showing up? Wait. The note was on the door. That meant they had shown up.

I started looking around, wondering if they were waiting in the bushes nearby or something. Not that I was against meeting his parents. I wasn’t.

“They’re not here,” Silver said as he tugged me into the house. He closed the door behind us and gently pushed me against it. He leaned in, making me believe he was going to kiss me, but I heard the lock slide into place. “Oh, I’m going to kiss you,” Silver said. Had I said that out loud?

Silver leaned further down, and when he kissed my nose, I smiled.

But when his lips quickly moved to mine, I moaned.

It had been entirely too long since his lips had been on mine.

Unfortunately, Silver pulled away before the kiss could go anywhere.

He stood and winked at me. “You could kiss me again instead of winking. Although that will probably get you lucky as well.”

Silver chuckled. “Here,” he said, holding out the note. I took it, not sure what to do with it. “You read it,” Silver said before he leaned down and picked me up. I squeaked again but figured I should probably get used to him picking me up.

“How?”

“That’s what we’re going to go talk about,” Silver said. “Dad said congratulations and that he’ll hold Ma off until the weekend, but beyond that, I’d be asking for too much.”

I looked down at the letter, and that was basically what it said, word for word. “Umm…I’m not against meeting your parents. I’d like to, actually.”

“And they are excited to meet you. Slate shouldn’t have told them though. Hopefully, his sore jaw reminds him to mind his own business in the future.”

“Clay didn’t need to do that,” I said. Silver sat down on the couch, keeping me in his arms.

“Yes, he did. Actually, I should have been the one to sock him, and I probably will still. It wasn’t Slate’s news to share,” Silver said. He looked at me, then reached up and ran his fingers through my hair. “Do you know anything about the mate bond?” Silver asked.

I hadn’t ever heard of that. “No. Is it what we have since we’re fated and could scent one another?”

“That has something to do with it. It’s only present between shifters and only those who are fated. You said Sam is mated to a human.”