Her face might not sink a thousand ships to some men, but for me, it did. She was a woman to go to war over.

Thankfully, Eli had seen sense and wasn’t putting anything in the way of us getting to know one another.

I had to wonder if that was because of our conversation, his mate’s good sense, or if he’d just accepted that two mates couldn’t be kept apart.

That was something Lara didn’t understand. But she would.

She thought she could fight the attraction between us, thought she could evade it, but there was no avoiding your fate.

It was an unfair disadvantage, and while she was squirrelly enough to make me wish it wasn’t the case, because I knew she wouldn’t appreciate the lack of free will, I wasn’t about to argue with how things had worked since the first shifters had roamed the earth.

“So, let me get this straight, if Austin died, Sabina would die as well?”

I nodded. “That’s how it works. When, in the aftermath, Sabina died, Ethan and Eli would too. But don’t worry, she wouldn’t want to live without them.”

Her eyes bugged out at that, and I instinctively recognized that was the wrong thing to say.

Even though I cursed myself when she snapped her hand away from mine and leaned away from me, I muttered, “A mate bond isn’t something you can live without once you’ve had it. And as years pass and it cements itself deeper into your being, it’s not something you can exist without. Until death isn’t something to fear, but the promise of peace.”

Her gaze on her drink, she mumbled, “That’s how my mom was with my dad.”

“No, it isn’t,” I denied, the idea that she could compare the joy of the mate bond with her parents’ foul relationship was abhorrent to me.. “They’re human. There’s no comparison. She might have been obsessed with him, she might have been submissive to him, but it wasn’t a mate bond.”

“How do you know?”

“He hurt her, didn’t he?”

Her mouth tightened. “Yes.”

“Well, there you have it. Even Kingsley, who was a bastard, whose rages were known from this pack to the next, never beat on his mate. His son, he did. It’s how alpha whelps were reared in his line, which is what made him the sick son of a bitch he was in the first place.” I ground my teeth. “It’s to my dying shame that I let that go on, but until my father died, I didn’t have—”

She tilted her head to the side when my words waned. “You didn’t have what?”

Knowing she wouldn’t get it, I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I think it does.”

I worked my jaw at that, hating that I’d backed myself into a corner, but I explained, “I’m not like the wolves around this pack.”

“Why?”

“Because my line is Korean.”

“Wolves are wolves, aren’t they?”

“No. They’re not,” I hedged, before I cleared my throat. “Anyway, as I was saying, everyone was free game, but Kingsley never beat his mate. He was insane. A psychopath. And though there were rumors, if anyone would have seen Lina hiding bruises, it would’ve been my family. We were in the inner circle because we had to clean it,” I grumbled.

She reached for her glass then, sucking on her straw, evidently processing what I had to say, before she asked, “Do you mind being my Wikipedia?”

“Of course not. Whatever you want to ask, ask. But first… why did you wince when you sat down?”

Pulling a face, she muttered, “You know I was attacked by a hyena, don’t you?”

My nose crinkled. “Yes.”

She frowned, then wafted a hand at me. “What does that mean?”

“You smell of it.”

“Of the hyena attack?” Her mouth dropped open. “Oh crap, why? I’ve showered a bunch of times since then.”

I shrugged. “Did they get close to you?”

Her eyes narrowed at me, before she muttered, “Yes. I was attacked because I ran over what I thought was a cat that darted out onto the road. It wasn’t. It was a hyena. And her mate was there, he saw it happen, and that’s how he knew it was me who’d done it. He got a couple of good licks in.”

“You’re lucky to be alive,” I told her gravely, wanting to reach out and hold her hand once more but knowing she wouldn’t appreciate it.

She had a ‘hands off’ sign all over her, and I wasn’t going to breach that until she was ready.

“I know I am. If Sabina hadn’t helped me, I’d be dead.” She sucked in a breath, and I knew, point blank, she was about to change the subject. “Sabina told me that only mated shifters can have children together. Is that true?”

“Yes.”

“Are all mates the same?”

“No. What makes you ask that?”

“Well, the hyena died, and the man didn’t die immediately.”

“It’s not an instant process. Merinda, Eli’s mother, lingered on for two years, although that’s an aberration. Mostly it’s a couple of months. But hyenas are different anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“Each animal shifter has a different means of finding their mate,” I explained.

“No way!” she retorted, but she sounded enthused, like she was intrigued, and I knew I’d keep her so informed with the random shit that was unique to our world if it meant watching her bounce on her seat, and keeping her with me all night.

“Yes way,” I teased her gently. “Hyenas don’t sense their mates like wolves, bears, and foxes do.”

Her brows rose. “There are so many different species?”

“If it’s a predator, it’s likely there’s a shifter.”

“What about a great white shark?”

“Never seen one, so I can’t say. I think they’re our version of Bigfoot,” I joked.

“How about mosquitos?” she questioned, her eyes twinkling.

I grinned at her. “If only. But I don’t think so. We wouldn’t have seven billion people on earth if that was true.”

“Shame. We could kill all the mates and then eradicate them forever.”

I snorted before I began explaining, “Shifters are mammalian. But not every race is the same—some cats, lions, for example, hyenas too, they have different means of finding a mate.”

“How?”

I tapped my nose. “They can scent if a woman is genetically viable to carry their child. They focus on numbers, we focus on a soul deep connection.”

“Huh?” she whispered, gaping at me with surprise.

I nodded, but my smile held a trace of whimsy as I told her, “Strange, isn’t it? Our way is far more romantic.”

“Well, I dunno about that.”

“I saw you in the forest, and the second I did, I knew what you were to me. And you did too. You approached a circle of wolves, in a vulnerable state, and you came to me, moved from your sister’s pack into my pack’s circle, and you reasoned with me. You wouldn’t have done that unless we were tied.”

“Of course I would have,” she scoffed. “You were trying to take Daniel away from Sabina!”