Page 22 of Alpha
“You said male werewolves shift at the age of sixteen but female werewolves don’t—why?” I asked. It seemed a bit sexist, if you asked me.
“Female werewolves only start to shift once they find their mate,” he began to explain and I frowned.
“Why?” I asked the question, but I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like the answer to it.
“There are a lot of things that get triggered in the female werewolf when two werewolves mate. Once the werewolves mate, the female werewolf begins the cycle of going into heat until she falls pregnant. It’s like nature’s way of ensuring the female werewolf has a male werewolf to take care of her needs and keep her safe.”
Oh, hell no!
My frown deepened. I didn’t like the sound of that at all.
“When the werewolf belongs to a pack, the werewolves are able to talk to each other in their minds, like a mind-link.”
That sounded cool. It was pretty much the only thing that sounded cool.
“With two werewolves that have mated, the link between the two runs deeper and the two mates are able to feel each other’s emotions and stuff like that. It ensures the male werewolf knows when the female werewolf is in danger.”
“How do werewolves find their mates?” I asked, wondering if it went along the same lines asTwilight. What had they called it? Imprinting? And it happened when they looked at each other, didn’t it?
“Unlike what most books or movies portray, finding one’s mate isn’t accomplished by just seeing them. The mates have to touch each other. The touch has to be skin to skin.”
“What happens when they touch?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me. It wasn’t like I was going to be hoping and praying that I’d find a mate; I was happy on my own, and I wasn’t interested in finding a mate.
“They know straight away.”
“If we have to go into that much detail, we’ll be here all night,” Cade said as he stood.
“I’ve just found out I’m a werewolf and I’m entitled to ask all the questions I damn well please, so if you don’t want to listen to it, then leave,” I said, putting him in his place. Momentarily surprised at what I had said, his eyes widened and then they narrowed in anger.
“Fine,” he said angrily as he sat back down on the bed.
I looked to Blake.
“Finish,” I instructed, ignoring the other seething alpha in the room.
“All werewolves are born with a birthmark on their hips and mates have matching birthmarks.”
I couldn’t keep my fingers from straying to the place on my hip where I had a birthmark of two teardrops. It was a lot of information to digest. I could feel my head begin to throb and I rubbed my temple.
Cade pushed off of the bed and strode from the room. I looked to Blake, who just shrugged.
“So how do werewolves mate?” I continued with my questions.
“The male werewolf marks the female werewolf and then the mating is completed with sex,” Blake explained without batting an eyelid. This was probably so normal to them.
I couldn’t help the blush that set into my cheeks at his answer.
“How does the male werewolf mark the female werewolf?” I asked.
“He bites her.”
That was barbaric. There was no way in hell some male werewolf was going to bite me.
At that moment Cade strode in with painkillers in his one hand and a glass of water in the other.
“Here, drink this,” he instructed as he dropped the tablets into my hand and gave me the glass of water. I didn’t argue; instead, I put the pills into my mouth and swallowed some water. The throbbing in my head had gotten worse and it was just a matter of time before it turned into a full-blown headache. It also probably had something to do with hitting my head in the accident.
“Thank you,” I said, still holding onto the glass of water. Cade remained quiet as he sat down on the bed, facing us.
