Page 25 of Mated to Fenrir
I pulled my coffee off the machine and set it down next to the stove so that I could make some porridge. Maybe it wasn't the most romantic breakfast to make, but it felt good to be doing something so mundane while he was in the kitchen with me.
"So, last night," he said.
"The sex?" I checked.
"Nearly biting you," he responded.
"Oh." I reached up to touch my neck. "Thank you for that. I know I didn't react the best..."
"You reacted in a natural way. But I promise, Delia, I wasn't rejectingyou, or your wolf. Far from it. I was worried that if we carried on like we were, then Iwasgoing to bite you."
"I know." I pulled out the bag of oats and measured two portions into the pan before adding milk. "I truly do. I can't even explain why I felt so disappointed that you didn't do it. I don't want to rush into anything either."
"Probably because it's something that comes from a part of us that isn't necessarily in sync with our logical brains."
I laughed. "That's one way to describe the wolf." I leaned back against the counter while stirring the porridge without really looking. "Sometimes, I feel like she's a separate entity from me. Except when I shift. That's when we feel the most at one."
"That's how I feel about mine too." He picked up his coffee and took a sip. "Kudos to your ex, by the way. This is good coffee."
"If I ever talked to him, then I'd tell him you thought so."
"Would that be my cue to act all protective and possessive?" Fenrir joked.
"Do you feel that way?"
"No. I trust my partners to act in a way that matches the rules of our relationship."
I frowned, trying to work out what he meant. "What?"
He shrugged. "I've had all kinds of relationships over the years. Some of them have had different rules about what was acceptable and what wasn't. If we agreed to be monogamous, then I would expect my partner not to sleep with anyone else.But if we agreed to an open relationship, I couldn't hold it against my partner if they did."
A growl escaped me without it meaning to, and I covered my mouth. "I'm sorry."
"Okay, so no open relationships for us," he said.
"No. I mean, yes. I mean...eurgh." I checked on the porridge, discovering it was done. I split it between two bowls and headed over to the table, putting one of them in front of Fenrir along with a spoon. "I would be open to discussing it, I guess. It's just not really for me."
"That's fine. I didn't love it either," he said.
"My ex wanted an open relationship. The one who gave me the coffee maker. He was surprised when I said no. But not as surprised as I was when I found out that he was sleeping with other people. So much for fated mates on that front, right?"
Fenrir grimaced. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine. The feeling from my wolf had faded by that point, and I knew deep down that the end of the relationship had come. I just held on because I felt like I should. I'd already had three failed mate bonds before that, and I didn't want another one. And now you must think that I'm going around making mate bonds with just anyone."
"Not at all."
"But you've only had two in the past eight hundred years," I pointed out.
"Two successful mate bonds," he corrected. "I must have had a couple of dozen failed ones. Some of them didn't even last beyond a couple of days. Others lasted a bit longer. And that's without counting the period of my life where I insisted on avoiding all wolf shifters and dating without any intention of finding my fated mate."
I dug my spoon into my porridge. "Do you think all wolves go through that phase?"
"Almost certainly," he agreed.
"It was kind of fun," I admitted. "Not having the pressure of the mate bond. I was going to a load of Jinx events in the hope of trying to find someone that I connected with without one, and that's where I met Todd."
"Your recent ex?"
