Page 30 of Bearly Yours
Emrie was my mate.
If she didn’t reject me...if she wanted me...if she could see herself loving me in the future—we could be together. We could live together, go to bed together, cuddle together, wake up together, eat together, spend every daytogether...have childrentogether.
I put a palm to my wildly beating heart, and blinked the tears from my eyes.
My best friend, my heart, my soul, my fire, was my mate.
My hand shook as I dug my phone out and dialed Draven.
I needed a friend who’d known me several hundred years to chime in. He was also a certified counselor, which certainly didn’t hurt when I wanted to talk things over with him.
“I think you’re just flirting with me now,” he said as he answered.
“I would never flirt with you. Mia would kick my butt.”
He laughed. “She’d try. I don’t know how successful she’d be.”
“Don’t let your wife hear you say that. Mia if you can hear me, I want to go on record as saying I think you’re intimidating and fierce.”
Draven was relating to her what I said in a low tone, with his mouth away from the phone, and I could hear Mia laughing in the background. “I didn’t mean to interrupt if you guys are having an evening in or anything.”
Mia stole the phone. I could hear her wrestle it away from a protesting Master Vampire.
“Thank you for giving us Emrie’s information,” she said slightly out of breath. “She’s darling.”
I smiled. Well,Ithought so, but I might be slightly biased.
“You’re welcome, Consort Mia.”
She sighed. I could still hear her fending Draven off. I think maybe her tiger familiar Zian was involved now because I could hear him growling lightly, and the growls didn’t sound friendly.
“Roarke, just call me Mia. I keep telling you.”
“And I keep ignoring you. It’s a matter of respect. Also of survival. Draven would drain me dry if I disrespected his wife.”
“Ha! He told me if you two ever fought he’s sure you would win. Nice try.”
I could hear Draven protesting her sharing that last bit of information with me. “Don’t make me sound like a wuss, love. It offends my manly pride.”
She giggled. “Zian don’t maim him too badly.”
“Thanks, love. It’s good to know you care.”
She laughed again. I could hear Draven muttering under his breath, and a tiger yowl.
I leaned my head back against the couch and closed my eyes, content to hear my friend so happy and so obviously in love. They’d married a few weeks back, and had gone on a brief honeymoon to Italy. Then they’d come back to deal with the mess of his succession. For a whole week Moonhaven had looked like a vampire convention as the ruling vampire families had come to pay their respects to their new monarch.
But the vampire families had cleared out now, so we were back to our normal population of vampires in Moonhaven.
Which was fortunate because most vampires made me tetchy.
I mean, really, most paranormals and humans made me tetchy too. It was possible I was just a cranky individual. Emrie would definitely agree with me.
Emrie
I massaged my chest.
I missed her, and I’d only been apart from her for a few hours. This mate situation would be an uphill climb, but Emrie was worth it.
