Gabe turned back to his two friends, not surprised to see them smirking at him. “Do I make fun of your mates?”

“Have any of them given you such a good reason to?” Adrian took a sip of his own beer, his gaze straying over to his pale fiancée. She sat on the sofa behind them, her sensitive eyes carefully shielded from the strobe lights by big white sunglasses. She was laughing and chatting with Becky and Belle. Rick hovered over the women, a small smile on his face as he listened to them chat, his massive arms crossed over his chest, hard, cold eyes softening as they rested on Belle.

“I don’t think any of our mates would be, ah, brave enough to step out onto the dance floor like that,”

Simon laughed, his own gaze straying to Becky’s wild head of curls. The big glass artist’s face was full of happiness.

Gabe rolled his eyes, his attention drifting back to Sarah. Jim was laughing at something Sarah had said or done, but he kept his body at a distance, possibly fearing for his limbs. Gabe was okay with the way they were dancing together…for now. The moment a slow song came on, however, he was going to be on the dance floor. There was only so much he could stomach. Seeing Sarah in another man’s arms was not an option. “I still need to mark her.” And he had to do it before Jim got any closer to Sarah than he already was.

“You should have taken care of that before you left.” Gabe shot Simon a look. The Beta slammed one large hand down on Gabe’s shoulder. “What the hell were you waiting for?”

Gabe grimaced. “The Hunter who trained me told me it would make things a lot more difficult for both of us.” He ran his fingers through his hair wearily. “I’m beginning to think taking his advice was a huge mistake.”

Simon frowned. “Damn. Six months, knowing who your mate was but leaving her unclaimed? The dreams must have been driving you insane. I know they’re what finally made me realize what my Puma had been telling me for months. I just wish I’d acted sooner, before she got hurt.”

Gabe nodded. Simon would probably never forgive himself for not claiming Becky before Livia, the rogue Puma who had tried to make Emma and Becky’s lives hell, had managed to hurt her. “Seeing the hickey I gave her in one of those dreams was surreal. It just solidified for me how big a mistake it was.”

It took him a moment to realize that the two men were staring at him, shock on their faces. “What?”

Adrian was the first to recover. “You bit her in a dream and the mark showed up for real?”

“Hickey. I gave her a hickey.” What would have happened if he had marked her in the dream? Would they be going through this now?

“Whatever.” Adrian frowned. “As far as I know, that’s impossible.”

Gabe shrugged. That jived with what Gabe knew, but nevertheless the mark was there. “Obviously not.”

Simon kept watch on the women while Adrian and Gabe chatted, but Gabe could tell they had the Beta’s full attention. The fact that the Alpha and Beta had been made, not born, meant that the two men occasionally ran across some aspect of being a shifter that was still new to them.

And wouldn’t he have loved to be a fly on the wall when Jonathon Friedelinde, the old Alpha, had bitten the two men? He wondered how all of them had handled the inevitable arousal that would have spiked between them. He’d heard the sensation was incredibly intense. He figured their girlfriends must have walked funny for a week afterwards, but no way in hell would he say that out loud where Emma and Becky could hear it considering they’d been dating Livia and Belle at the time.

Come to think of it, perhaps he shouldn’t mention it in front of Rick, either.

Adrian shrugged. “Well, as far as I know, the mate dreams are just that: dreams. What you do in them has no impact on your mate whatsoever.”

“I know that’s how it normally works, but she knew it was there. She even covered it with her hand.”

Gabe watched as Sarah attempted to twirl and nearly fell on a nearby couple. Jim’s quick hands stopped her from a nasty fall. Gabe grumbled and wondered if he’d actually have to thank the asshole.

“Could it have something to do with the fact that she’s the Omega?”

Gabe felt everything in him still. For the third time that night he was stunned. “Excuse me?” Omega?

She’s the Omega? Since when?

Then something else occurred to him. But that means… He turned, glaring at his mate as she danced with Jim. That means she knows exactly how I feel about her being with Jim. Omegas were the heart of the Pride. Just as the Marshal could feel the physical well-being each Pride member, the Omega could sense their emotional state. Together they allowed the Alpha to zero in on individual problems within the Pride that he might otherwise overlook.

His grin was feral as he caught her eye and held up three fingers. Oh, baby. That’s three. He wasn’t surprised to see the hint of wariness on her face before she turned her attention back to her dance partner.

“Yeah. It’s been informally confirmed. We all agreed to hold off on the formal announcement until after you got back from your training.” Simon shrugged, looking vaguely uncomfortable.

“Really.”

“Gabe.” He turned back to Adrian, who was frowning at him. “You weren’t here. From everything we saw and heard you were pursuing Chloe, not Sarah.”

“What?” His jaw clenched. Sarah had leveled the same accusation at him. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Simon began ticking things off on his fingers. “The bracelet you gave Chloe for Christmas when you didn’t bother giving Sarah a gift.” Gabe flushed. He had a present for Sarah, he’d just wanted to give it to her in person. “You talk to Chloe almost every day, but don’t call Sarah at all.”

“Sarah stopped answering her phone.” Gabe was becoming pissed. Even the Pride leaders thought he’d betrayed his mate with another woman?

Things were worse than he thought.

“And Chloe constantly talks about you and what you’re doing, while Sarah knows next to nothing.”

He frowned. That wasn’t what he’d intended at all. Chloe was supposed to befriend Sarah, keep her company. When she’d stopped answering the phone he’d become worried about her. And from what Chloe had said Sarah was spending a lot of time with…

Aw hell. Please tell me that Chloe didn’t deliberately sabotage my relationship with Sarah. “Christ, what a mess. I have to fix this.”