Josephine's Secret

22. The Great Bagel

"He's your mate."

"He's my mate." Josephine confirms. Her next words have me grinning ear to ear, "And he's a great one too."

My wolf howls with joy, ecstatic that our mate said that about us and I have to refrain from jumping and punching the air, knowing that now wouldn't be a good time to slip and fall in the shower. "Does he even treat you right?" Nate asks. "All those times Eric, Dad, and I took you out, Sophie, it was to show you how a man should treat you. Does he get you flowers? Remind you that you're beautiful?"

Over the sound of the water, I hear her laughing a little, "He does even more than that, Nate." I'm a good mate. "He helps me get through things in my head that I know I wouldn't be able to handle alone. He cares about me, and I care about him too."

'We care about her more than we can ever express.' my wolf chimes in. The both of us still feel really guilty about eavesdropping on Nate and Josephine's conversation, but we're unable to stop. "Sophie, I know he's your mate, but I'm your brother. If he ever does anything to hurt you- if he has done anything to hurt you, you come to me-"

"Archer's not like that." I can imagine her shaking her head as she says this. "If anything, it's me that hurt us. After you left, Nate, I found out that Archer was my mate, but I never told anyone. I hid from him because I thought that having a mate in my life would distract me from reuniting with you and Elia."

My wolf whines and my grin falters at this information. "I let myself get into some really bad things because I couldn't handle all of it... I hid from him because I was afraid of him getting close and leaving, just like everyone else. I didn't.. I didn't want him to hurt me, and now I'm realizing that I was the one hurting the both of us."

After hearing that, the only thing my wolf and I want to do is hold our mate and tell her that it's okay, and that it wasn't her fault. "Sophie," Nate sighs. "You didn't hurt-"

"Yes, I did." I hear my mate sniffle, making me want to be there even more. "I wasted two and a half years just making things worse for myself. Archer spent that time looking for his mate when I was right there, avoiding him. I thought that I was protecting everyone by not letting him into my life, but I was doing the opposite."

'No. Don't blame yourself for things like that.' I wanted to say to her.

"It's not your fault, sorellina." Nate says. "You just wanted to fix things, and you can't blame yourself for wanting to make things right. You put off your mate for almost three years because you thought it would be better for everyone, and that's not your fault."

What he's telling her is right; neither of us want Josephine to feel like she made things worse. She put a lot of effort into not revealing herself to me and did it knowing that she needed someone to rely on. And although I wish that I were able to support her during that time of her life, I also respect her for focusing so much on her family. It's in a werewolf's nature to put their mate above all other things in their life, but Josephine was able to set all of that aside and focused on her family. For that I will always respect her.

"I just need to know if he's treating you like he should, Sophie. I can't let you be with someone that doesn't make you happy." Nate speaks up after a short pause.

"You don't have to worry about that." Josephine tells him. "He makes me happier than I've been in a while, but he also reminds me that my happiness doesn't depend on him. He gives me my space when I need it and he respects me."

Nate's tone changes to a more positive one when he says, "I saw the way he looks at you."

"It's weird." Josephine laughs. "I keep asking why he looks at me like how he does but he never gives me a real answer."