Page 12 of Ruby's Strength

Eight

Ruby

What have I done? I’ve totally screwed this up. I wasn’t even sure I wanted a mate, and now I’ve mated him, partially, without asking if it’s something that he wants. Screw that, he has no idea that shifters were anything more than a story until about fifteen minutes ago. I run until I get to Cole’s house and bang on the door still in my bear form.

“Ruby?” Cole and Aubree say at the same time when they answer the door.

“What happened? Did he hurt you?” Aubree asks, and I shake my head no.

“Who is he?” Cole asks with an edge to his voice looking at Aubree and then at me.

“Ruby had a date with Rett tonight.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me that my baby sister was going out with a man for the first time?” Cole demands of Aubree.

Hands on her hips, she squares off with him giving him the same look he’s giving her. “Excuse the hell out of me? Am I your mate or your fucking secretary?”

Cole’s face immediately changes and the hard edges soften. He holds her face in the palm of his hand and strokes her cheek with his thumb. “You’re my mate, always my mate first.”

Aubree’s anger quickly deflates, and she turns and looks at me. “Do you want clothes?”

I nod and watch as she disappears into the house. Cole closes the door and comes out to stand with me.

“Why didn’t you tell me you found him Ru? I thought we were closer than that. Finding your mate is huge.” I want to answer him, but I can’t. He goes into the house and comes back out with a blanket and drops it on one of the rocking chairs. “Yell if you need something. If I don’t hear you, I’ll wait for you inside.”

I wait for him to go back in before I change back and wrap the blanket around my body. I go into the house to find Aubree and Cole locked in an embrace. Seeing the clothes she pulled out for me, I grab them and go to the bathroom to change. When I come back out wearing some black leggings and a hoodie, Aubree and Cole are sitting on the couch with three mugs of something hot waiting on the table.

“Ready to talk?” Cole asks, much calmer this time. Aubree really is good for him and what he needed to take the edge off.

“Not really, but I guess now is as good a time as any.”

I sit on the loveseat, the same place I sat the night before with Rett and take a sip of the tea they made for me.

“I have a mate.” I start, and Cole and Aubree give me a deadpan look.

“It’s Everett,” I add and Cole raises his eyebrows telling me to get on with the part he doesn’t know.

“And I just bit him, while we were-”

“Ah, ya ya ya. I don’t need to know those details.” Cole jumps up and says making me and Aubree laugh.

“He doesn’t know we’re shifters, Cole. Or he didn’t know, but he might now since I ran out of the house naked and then shifted, in the snow.” I wince, thinking about what I just did and how rash I was. Maybe if I had talked it out with him, this could have been avoided. He is my mate after all.

“I think you made it worse by leaving him alone to come up with answers on his own. You need to go back there and explain it to him.” Aubree says gently.

“I know you’re right. Man, I messed up so bad. I think I freaked myself out when I bit him. I didn’t even think, it just happened.”

Cole sits down beside me and wraps his arm around my shoulder. “Ru, you have to tell him what he’s in for. He deserves to know.”

“I feel foolish.”

“No one is perfect Ruby. We’ve all made our fair share of mistakes. It’s how we come back from them that matters more.”

I hug my brother tight. Thank God I’ve got a family that can talk some sense into me.

“You want me to give you a lift back to your place?” Cole asks.

“Yeah, thanks. Aubree, I’ll get these clothes back in a couple of days.”

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