Wild Magic Three: The Shade of the Earth- a M/M fantasy shifter romance

2- Mate

***** I'd like to thank my cat Artemis for the inspiration for Sami lollol*****

BOBCAT SHIFTER—

"Robert!" a voice called from behind me. I wanted to turn, to face this new threat, but I couldn't take my eyes off my mate. Everything inside of me screamed that he was mine. I was his. We were meant to be. Fated. Connected somewhere between the soul, the body, and the heart. In a place where all three met.

Mine.

I didn't even notice I had shifted until I had spoken, voicing my claim, and now I stood naked before my mate. I was excited for him to appreciate what was his before he turned away from me almost immediately to face the male who had called out to him. I felt myself droop in disappointment at the way my mate's eyes easily moved over my body with no interest at all.

Was I not pleasing to my mate?

Was there something wrong with my body? I glanced down, not even sure what I looked like. It had been years since I was in my human form, years before that since I actually saw my reflection. I'd no idea what I looked like, really.

"Robert," the man said again as he stepped up far too close to my mate. I growled low, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. The man glanced at me, his own lips rising up to show me his teeth.

The man was only a little taller than me, but he was bigger. Mostly because it seemed I was small in my human form. I barely stood at my mate's chest. Was that why he hadn't shown any interest? Was I too small? Were humans more like animals than I'd thought, where a runt like me would be seen as too weak to live? Would I be a bad choice for a mate?

"Who's this?" the man said, his voice soothing and muted, the way I had heard humans speak to their livestock and pets when they was spooked.

"Just a moment ago, he was a bobcat," my mate replied, raising a brow and giving the man a meaningful glance. As if they shared a secret.

My ire rose and I advanced a step on the intruder. I could smell wolf in his soul, but if I was defending my claim on my mate, I figured I may stand some bit'a a chance against the mutt.

"Mine," I rasped, my voice thick and hard to push out. My lips were chapped and my throat raw. I hadn't spoken aloud in more than a decade, but I held my stance steady as I lowered my head to protect my neck from attack and put myself in between my new mate and the man who seemed far too familiar with him. "Mine. Mine mate."

The wolf held his hands up, his brows rising as his nostrils flared. "Alright," he soothed, using that same tone'a voice I was already getting irritated with. "That's alright. I'm not here to take him from you."

I snorted in disbelief and shook my head, huffing to get some of my hair out of my eyes.

"Can you tell us your name? Mine is Edon," the wolf said clearly, as if I couldn't understand the simple words, his hands still raised calmingly.

"Mine," I replied, unsure if I could push out any of the other words I could remember from Before. Before Ma and Pa had been murdered. Before I had left them in pools of their own blood and never looked back. Before I had left any sense of humanity behind and entered the forest. It had been so long— over a decade, maybe nearly two— since I was in my human form and interacted with humans, I wondered how I could even speak the few words I was managing to force out.

"Alright," the wolf said, his eyes flickering behind me, prolly to my mate. "But you need to calm down, ok? Your mate— Robert— he's human. He's not a mage, alright? He doesn't understand, and he can't feel the mate bond like you can. You're going to scare him."