“So you were all accidently bitten?”
Wanda had explained how they’d all come to be, something he couldn’t deny because of his situation, but certainly something that would take time to digest.
She bobbed her head and chuckled. “Every last one of us, and we help people who’ve had the same experience all the time through OOPS.”
He’d kept his poker face on when Teddy had declared herself a bear, but this was unreal. Now he found himself riddled with curiosity; to know there were others just like him was incredible. “Was Nina always so testy?” The question slipped out before he was able to contain it.
Wanda’s expression was one of pride, despite her next words. “You mean before she was bitten? She was a horror. But she was pretty tough even without the vampire thing. She’s always been cranky and difficult. She has no filter. She’s very confrontational. But as a vampire? She was a bloody warrior with no fear and no doubt she’d come out on top of whatever we faced. Alas, she always did come out on top…”
Wanda’s voice sounded so gloomy, it left his chest feeling tight, though he couldn’t quite explain why. Maybe because they’d both shared a huge loss? The losses were nothing alike, but they were still losses.
“So how did she become human again?”
She lifted her chin, her glossed lip trembling ever so slightly before she appeared to mentally shake it off. “She saved your sister from a very powerful, crazed Queen in Shamalot named Angria. Nina threw herself in the face of this queen’s rage and sank her teeth into her neck to keep her from killing Toni, who was only trying to save the man she’d fallen in love with,” she said in a hushed tone.
Cormac swallowed, unable to speak. He’d come so close to losing Toni not just once, but twice? He closed his eyes and tried to gather his thoughts. If Wanda was lying, she was damn good at it. To come to him with a story as outlandish as this Shamalot tale was one thing. That alone took an act of pure faith, not to mention courage.
But to then concoct a story about this Nina saving Toni’s life and losing her vampiric powers in the process would be beyond ballsy.
“And Theodora?” he asked, her very name on his lips feeling foreign yet comfortable. “Do you think she’s a part of this thing with Stas?”
Wanda sucked in her cheeks again, taking a deep breath. “I don’t know, Cormac. I can’t get a clear read on her. So we keep her close until we know differently.”
To trust Wanda or not.
That was the question.
The other question was the gorgeous summer-blonde lunatic in the other room. Sure, most guys would be happy to have a woman as beautiful as Theodora “Teddy” Jackson declare them hers.
However, a hot woman and a mate for life were two different things, according to those romance novels.
So what to do about the beautiful blonde with the curvy hips, long legs, raspberry-tinted full lips and startlingly hazel eyes. A woman who smelled like Nirvana wrapped in the meaning of life.
Whoa-whoa-whoa. Why was he espousing her attributes when he thought she was batshit?
Why can’t she be one donut hole shy of a dozen and hot? Is there a rule against it? Some unwritten law none of us are aware of, Pooh Bear?
But wait. Wasn’t this the way every single one of those relationships in romance novels had begun?
One of the protagonists declaring an unwitting, sometimes unwilling partner their life mate? They fight, they have all kinds of sexual tension, they have some sort of inner conflict, coupled with an external conflict that keeps them apart, but in the end they overcome said obstacles, fall madly in love and mate?
No. That was crazy made-up shit.
Yep. Just like all the other crazy made-up shit, Mr. Bear.
Well, hell.
Chapter 4
“So life mate, huh? I had no idea bears even had life mates,” Marty prodded, skepticism lacing her tone as she poured Teddy some tea she’d found by rummaging in a cabinet.
She was as uncomfortable hearing it as she was admitting it. But for the time being, the explanation had saved her hide and kept her from showing all her cards. “We do.”
“What happens in your community if you don’t mate with your alleged life mate? Do you have alphas and such who enforce the mate?”
Teddy sipped her tea and eyed Marty over the rim of her mug, weighing her options. But she remembered the rule about inviting anyone into their private culture. Even if Marty and the others were paranormal, they weren’t bears.
“Do you mean like a leader? Like packs and clans and stuff?”
“Packs, clans, a murder of crows, a herd of dust bunnies. Whatever.”