Page 54 of His Fate

"And lucky for you, that woman is sitting on your hips waiting to hear all the things you think will scare her away when in reality she doesn't need to hear any of it because she already loves you and has no intention of getting rid of you." Then she wiggles and I groan again. "No intention right now anyway, but if you drag this out any longer without the promise of impaling me when you're done I might have to start walking back to Ashland."

I grip her thighs and search her face, praying Posey will in fact stay. "If the things I tell you do not please you, make you question your feelings for me at all I will not be impaling you. So after I say what I need to say for myself just as much as for you, please be truthful with me. I will not be angry if you no longer wish to be with me but I need you to be truthful about that."

I hate feeling so vulnerable, so exposed. I did not anticipate this sort of response to finding my mate but I guess that goes hand in hand with all of the other things I've felt. I am in no way insecure or fearful, and I never allow my vulnerability to be seen by anyone. I am a king, a warrior, and quite frankly, I'm a bit of an asshole so to be so soft hearted, so concerned and unguarded with someone outside of my immediate family—who I was rarely ever those things with—is a tad unsettling and foreign.

Posey smiles down at me, so much warmth and obvious love beaming my way. She leans down and presses the sweetest kiss to my lips then lays on top of me, wraps her arms around my waist and tucks her head in the crook of my neck.

"Tell me everything you think I need to know, Kai, but I'm going to tell you one thing you need to know first."

I hold her tight, nod against her and bury my nose in her hair, a foreign fear that I may lose everything nagging in the pit of my stomach.

"I may not be able to change into a beautiful beast or claim to be part of a clan but I knew in my heart the second I laid eyes on you that you were mine. I don't have to be a shifter or any other magical, mythical being to know that, to feel it so deep in my bones that there is no way I could be with anyone but you. You said your mate is the other half of your heart, your soul and I believe that because I have never felt more complete, more right, than I do right now, laying here with you like this, loving you with all I've got. No explanation or list of things that may happen can change that." Posey presses a kiss to my chest right over my thundering heart. "I will be truthful with you, Kai, but I need you to know that I'm not going anywhere. I love you and I have every intention of doing that for as long as I can."

"I love you, my beautiful Josephine." I sigh and hold her tighter, deciding now is as good a time as any to rip the bandaid off. "And one of the things you need to know about mating, once the ritual is complete, 'as long as you can' becomes a very very long time."

"Even though I'm not a shifter?"

Christ. That is another conversation I'm going to have to have with her. Not now but at some point I'm going to have to figure out how to explain that her father is a dragon without any way of proving it, that she does in fact have shifter blood running through her. We won't know how much until Posey and I produce young or until Henrich is able to run his tests and chat with Hank about her mother and his lineage.

And to be quite honest, there are things about Posey that have baffled all of us from the beginning, the whole memory sharing and seeing my wings bit being a couple of them. Something is telling me that my mate is more than what she seems and that is also a conversation I need to gather evidence for but will postpone until I have it.

Ugh.

I hate withholding things from her already.

It is eating at me but it has to wait. Just as the detailed conversations about everyone she knows being shifters, the murders, the impending war… christ, I am going to lose my shit if I continue keeping so much from her. Which is why I need to get moving on this first conversation, let her decide, hopefully claim her and then turn her world on it's head yet again.

I am not going to be winning mate of the year this year. Not even close.

"If a shifter's fated mate is a human then they will take on certain attributes of their mate. One of those is long life."

"Longer than humans normally live."

"Much. You will live as long as I do. Your aging process stops the second my venom enters your bloodstream during the final act of the ritual. We share what is called a life-bond and because of that your body will no longer age, nor will your mind. It will mature, still develop, gain and maintain knowledge but it will never degenerate the way one's mind can from natural aging."

Posey begins stroking my side, her fingers caressing my skin as she relaxes further into me, inadvertently putting me at ease as well.

"But sharing a life-bond also means we share almost everything. We will be so in tune with each other's emotions that we will feel them as if they were our own."

"If I'm sad, you're sad. If I'm happy, you're happy."

I nod. "Yes, but we will feel it, and very intensely. Anger, fear, rage, joy, sadness, pleasure. Every emotion you can experience will be shared between us regardless of the cause or whether or not we are even in the same country."

"So I would feel it if you went back to Slovakia and missed me?"

"Yes, but rest assured I have no reason to go back and I will never be that far from you."

I feel her smile as her hand drifts and begins stroking the hair on my chest.

"That also means we share each other's pain. Not just emotional but if you were to injure yourself, broke a bone or cut your finger, I would feel that as if I attained the injury myself."

"So it's good for me that you have super healing powers, but it sucks for you because I'm clumsy as hell." Then she smiles. "I bet childbirth will be an interesting experience for both of us."

I will not acknowledge the way my heart melted at the thought of her thinking of carrying my young. No, I will just silently melt and pump my fists in my mind as I start counting down the days until I can scent her fertility.

So instead, I chuckle. "Yes and no. Another gift you will obtain is my ability to heal rapidly. Having human genetics means you are more susceptible to injury but they will heal very quickly."

"That's pretty cool."

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