Page 53 of Sold Rejected Mate
“Seraphina,” Xeran says, and I get the sense that he’s playfully pinched her under the table.
“Oh,” Lachlan says, his eyebrows hitting his hairline, a French fry in his hand. “You’re talking aboutus?”
“Well, sure,” Phina says, giving me a conspiratorial look that I can’t return through the awkward weight in my chest. “Mostly I justreallywant to attend a fall wedding here, and we don’t know anyone else even close to marriage—well, other than Elle, but we see how that turned out.”
She doesn’t know about the pregnancy, or she wouldn’t be making a joke out of this.
“We are not close to marriage,” Lachlan says, laughing and glancing at me. I laugh, too, play along, even as something squeezes my heart. “That’s not what we’re looking for. We’re looking for chickens.”
“Chickens?” Xeran asks, brow wrinkling as he glances at his wife. “Is that a euphemism?”
“If that was a euphemism, do you thinkI’dknow?”
“You’d know before me.”
As the conversation goes on, it hushes to a dull drone in the back of my mind. I can’t think. Can’t focus on anything except the fact that Lachlan is not looking for marriage.
It shouldn’t matter. He told me he wanted me.
But for some reason, my brain is connecting themarriagething to thewanting kidsthing, and I start to feel more and more nauseous at the thought that he might not be happy about this baby.
He might not even see kids in his future.
“Valerie?”
I stand up, clearing my throat as the three of them stare at me. “Sorry,” I say, dropping my napkin on the table. “I’m going to the bathroom. Be right back.”
As I walk away, I hear them talking in a low murmur. Maybe ask Lachlan what’s wrong.
But he doesn’t know. And I have no idea how to tell him, and whether or not he’s going to want to hear what I have to say.
Chapter 26 - Lachlan
If I’d known Caspian, Aurela’s fiancé, was going to be at this dinner, I wouldn’t have accepted their invitation to come. And I’m pretty sure my mom knew that, which is why she pivoted so suddenly.
On the way home from the farmers' market, Valerie and I had talked about my twin, about her upcoming marriage.
“I just can’t believeAurelais getting married,” Valerie murmurs. “She’s so quiet—where did she and Caspian even meet?”
“My parents set them up,” I say, though my mother would hate that wording. She would much rather I told people they met at a gala, even though that gala was organized by my mother and Caspian’s mother, to get them in the same room.
Their engagement was announced a month later. The timeline Phina seems to think Valerie and I should be on.
I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with taking our time, enjoying this life before we move on to the next one. I’ve already lost ten years with her. I’m not going to rush into the next step until we’re both content with this one.
Thinking of Valerie as my girlfriend gives me a thrill. When it stops, I’ll make her my fiancée. And eventually, my wife.
Not that I care that much about human practices. They’re nice for fitting in, for getting the government benefits. But the real importance is a mating mark—the thing that will signal to other shifters that Valerie is mine, and I’m hers.
So, I think marriage is kind of silly.
And I think my sister’s engagement is really stupid.
More than that, I think her fiancé is one of the most annoying guys I’ve ever met.
“Lachlan,” Caspian booms, grinning extra wide and slapping me on the back when I walk in the door—the annoying, constant kind of physical shit insecure alphas always pull. “How are you?”
“Back up, buddy,” I mutter, which makes Valerie chuckle at my side. At least I’ll have her with me for this, and I won’t have to go through the whole thing on my own.
