Sentiments & Reason ✓ (Dogs, Bats & Monkeys series, Book II)

Chapter 32

"It's true." Keri nodded. "Being apart from your mate..."

She pursed her lips and for a few seconds there was silence between the five of us. She then took a deep breath, looked Horace straight in the eye and went on:

"I recognized Callum as my mate years ago. I thought that with his way of living and the way he behaved, and the way I thought he felt about shifters, he wasn't a good choice, that he'd somehow hinder the pack, so I stayed quiet about it. I didn't tell anyone, and I've been in agony ever since. I can't stay in the same room as him without wanting to touch him, and kiss him, and for him to hold me..." Her voice had been strong until this part, but now it faltered. She cleared her throat and went on:

"It isn't healthy. It's driving me insane. The mate bond isn't something you can fight, Horace. You'll have to give Billy a chance. He might surprise you."

"It happened to us." Riley smiled gently at Rhys and scooted even closer to him on their couch; my brother took his mate's hand and kissed it.

"I had to be careful how much I told Riley, but in the end, it worked out," my brother said.

"And I'd been wrong about Callum," Keri spoke up again. "He doesn't hate shifters; he just needed some time to get used to the idea that we exist. And there are so many good things about him - how loyal he is, how he cares about others - that I... Now that I look back on how I behaved, I... I think I was an idiot not to give him a chance sooner."

She snorted, her eyes on the hands that fidgeted in her lap, and then muttered:

"And apparently it took me trying to convince someone else to give their human mate a chance for me to admit all this." She looked up at Horace again. "Human or not, they are our mates; we must have faith in the Great Spirits and pursue these relationships."

Rhys and Riley both smiled at her while I gaped, happy that yes, our Alpha had a mate, and surprised that I'd only guessed she had a crush on Callum instead of realizing it was way more than that. Horace was still. No more trembling, no more fidgeting, but I wasn't sure the lack of movement was a good thing.

"But Billy is a boy," he finally whispered.

I almost groaned. Why did that even matter?

Aside from fear of Jasper's reaction, of course.

"You really felt nothing for him before your birthday?" Riley asked.

"No," was Horace's first reply, then he bit his lip. "I mean, I liked him before I reached the Age of Recognition, but I think it was just as a friend. I was happy when he texted me, and when he spoke to me at school and when he praised me after a soccer game."

Maybe a little bit too happy, I thought as I recalled Horace's reactions to Billy. Back then I'd put it down to Horace being shy and not used to hanging out with people - especially human people - his age, but now I wasn't so sure. He seemed more affected by Billy's praises than when I complimented him on his goal keeping skills.

"What I don't understand," my friend began to wring his hands again, "is how come I didn't recognize him at school on Thursday? That's when my birthday was. But it wasn't until Friday morning that..." He trailed off and he didn't need to finish for us to know what he meant.

"Because you were born in the afternoon so you were still fifteen when you saw him in school on Thursday," Keri supplied.

"You mean, it's not only the day, but also the hour I was born at that counts?" Both of us were surprised by this new little morsel of knowledge and given Riley's inquisitive look, so was he.