The convenient marriage

Chapter 24. How to woo a woman

The interesting thing about it, is that the main protagonist of the book, whilst not so keen to find her mate, and especially does not care if her mate would be a powerful one unlike other women, finds out her mate to be the unlikeliest of them all.' She explained, with her mellow tone having a tinny tiny bit of excitement in it.

'Mates who become spouses... so you mean as in soulmates then?' He asked, turning another page. Though in truth he was not reading any line of the book, he noticed Aria was a bit more comfortable speaking, if he did not gaze at her.

Aria as well kept her gaze directed towards the table, indeed feeling more relaxed like so. Although her entire attention was on Zane, even if her eyes were not on him.

'Yes. The werewolf goddess of that society split their souls before birth, and in their lifetime the werewolves have to find each other to become whole.' She answered, while she lifted a bit her foot, resting her sole on her toes, and gently rubbed with her hand the swollen ankle. 

She felt uncomfortable massaging it in front of Zane, as she had always tried to maintain a well mannered position in his presence, but her feet were really aching her because of the pregnancy, so she could not really help it... she could not abstain herself from trying to alleviate her pain a bit.

'So you mean to say the partners are already decided at birth, then it is already predetermined for them, their fate? They have to be together whether they like it or not? What if they fall in love with someone else? Wouldn't they lack free will this way?' He asked still checking the pages, but with a corner of his eye he had already noticed what the small woman was doing.

'Well normally they would wait for their mate, they wouldn't fall in love with someone else, as they would most likely dessert their chosen partner in favor of their fated one, just like you said. And I also pondered about the free will part. 

So what I liked about this book was that the protagonists had already fallen in love with one another before they found out they were mates. The male lead was especially persistent as he chased after the girl, I think he would have fought even fate, if it wasn't revealed they were indeed mates.

You could say they really were meant to be together, whether it was decided by fate or by themselves. My best guess is the author wanted to show they still had their free will.' She explained with a small smile, remembering the content of the book, as she rubbed her ankle a bit more.

Realizing she was getting absorbed by the conversation, and it was still impolite to continue massaging her ankle, Aria let go of her foot then sat upright again. She was already feeling awkward because of her gesture, and talking about the subject of the book with Zane, only added to her nervousness, for some reason. Although strangely, to Malcom some moments earlier she had offered the same explanations without a hint of reluctance.

'Hmmm... So how did the male lead chase after the girl?' Zane asked, retaining in his mind only this particular part out of everything Aria had said. If Aria liked the book, then it meant she also liked how the lovers started their relationship right? This was a thing he really needed to take note of.

'Ahhh... t-that... I... if you would like you could read the book, I am not that good at summarizing the plot.' She immediately said, stuttering a bit. It felt like Zane had deviated from the main subject... how did they get to talk about how the male lead made the girl fall in love, from chatting about her preference in novels? Not to mention, somehow talking about what the male lead did, it felt like she was suggesting to him how to act as well. It did not make any sense to her, she did not understand why she thought like that, but she could not shake off the feeling.

'You could try, I won't mind your way of explaining. I don't exactly have much free time to read it, and by the size of this book it looks like it could take quite a while to finish it. But if you really don't want to, I won't force you.' Zane stated and put the book down, not insisting on asking her to tell him.