Chosen Mate: Lion Shifter Romance (Cybermates Book 5), Candace Ayers [big screen ebook reader .TXT] 📗

left a message on James Construction’s voicemail giving them the good news about needing my kitchen redone.

Seconds after I hung up, I sensed Elin’s shift in emotion from joy and contentment to sorrow. Then I scented her pain. It was sharp and bitter and hit me like a fist.

Fix it. I was her mate. She needed me, and I’d do whatever it took to make this right for her.

We had an hour or so before twilight.

“Mind if we go for a little drive?”

“I don’t kn—”

“Please. I promised to explain things, about why I ran off after we first met, and I never got the chance. I want to show you something that I think will help do that.”

She shrugged, reluctantly agreeing.

I drove us to a destination just outside of Miami where I pulled up and parked next to the eight foot tall wrought iron fence. The entrance gates were open.

“You brought me to a cemetery?”

“My mom’s buried here.”

She nodded reverently and opened her door to get out. Before she could, I was around to her side of the truck lifting her. I placed her gently on the ground, and she let me take her hand and lead her silently to the marble headstone. The word “farewell” was cut into the stone. Underneath in smaller letters read:

Mary King

Beloved wife and mother

“My best and worst memories were of my mother.” I glanced at Elin who was watching me closely. “She was soft and tender hearted. She died when I was seven.”

“I’m so sorry. How did she die?”

“Cancer.”

Elin stared at me for a second, before her eyes narrowed. I could see her mind churning, formulating the question that I hoped she’d ask.

“Forgive the question, but I thought shifters were immune to human diseases.”

“We are. Usually. The shifter doctor said my mom was the only case of cancer he’d ever seen in a shifter. Said it might have been some sort of genetic mutation, from her half human side. But I knew…everyone knew…she gave up.” I stooped to clear the area around the gravestone of small twigs and debris that had collected since the last time I’d been there. “If it wasn’t cancer, it would have been something else—some other disease—no matter how rare or unusual—that she fell victim to. Because she gave up the will to live. She wanted to die.”

I heard Elin gasp. “And you watched this happen to her? As a child?”

I nodded. “I wasn’t old enough to understand the dynamics of adult relationships, but I knew enough about what was happening with her. Whenever my dad would come by, she was distraught. When he left, she’d cry for weeks. Sometimes she’d just stay in bed for days, not eating.”

Elin looked puzzled.

“My mom didn’t grow up around shifters. She had no idea about the structure of a lion shifter Pride. When my father took her as a wife, she hadn’t a clue that he already had six wives or that she’d be his seventh.”

“Wow. That must have been a shock to her.”

“Yes, I’m sure it was.” I wasn’t sure if Elin was grasping what I was getting at. “The thing is, when she found out, she didn’t leave my dad. She was already bonded and pregnant. Instead, she withered away, a little more each day, until she finally died.”

“Dylan, I’m so sorry.”

“I brought you here for a reason. To help explain why I did what I did. When I met you, dressed in a Klingon uniform.” I grinned at the memory. “At first I didn’t understand what I was feeling. Only that you knocked me off my feet. I was literally hours from starting my own pride. When I realized what was going on between us, I couldn’t get past comparing us to my parents, and the horrible fate that awaited you unless I protected you—by pushing you away.”

“Wait, you’re telling me that I reminded you of your mother?”

“She was like you in some ways.”

I sensed her anger bubbling. “Dylan that doesn’t make sense. Were you planning to lie to me and marry six other women behind my back?”

“No! I was scared and stupid, and I’m sorry for pushing you away. It was the wrong move. Do you think you can forgive me?”

“I don’t know, Dylan. It hurt so much…” She kicked the toe of her shoe at the dirt. “The thing I wanted most in the world was a family, to be enough for someone. I wanted to find a man who loved me and appreciated me—flaws and all—and wouldn’t leave. What I found was a man who didn’t want me until he found out I was pregnant. I’m not sure that I can just pretend like that isn’t something that happened.”

I nodded, not wanting to downplay her concern. “It wasn’t how I felt. It was never that way for me. It wasn’t ever that I didn’t want you or that you weren’t enough. When you questioned me about me wanting to be a part of your life, and whether I would be asking if you weren’t pregnant, what I meant was that the pregnancy made me face my fears. I never meant that I didn’t want to be in your life when you weren’t pregnant. Because I did. I missed you every day. I stalked you, for god’s sakes.”

Elin’s eyes went wide. “What? You stalked me? Why?”

With a finger, I tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and ran my fingertip along her jaw. “Because you’re my mate.”

“I am?” She sounded shocked. “Wait. Everyone said that lions don’t have mates.”

I grunted. “They don’t. Usually. I’ve never known any lion to have a mate, other than my mom…and me.”

19

Elin

Dylan flashed his megawatt smile, and I tried to contain the excitement building in me. The way he was talking, it made my head spin. He’d used the M word. I’d convinced myself that I would never have a mate, and now he was dangling it like a carrot—the thing I wanted it more