“Um.” Calliope’s hazel eyes widened, and her teeth scraped against her plump bottom lip.
“No need to look any further,” I growled as I rounded the table and lifted her off her chair. “She’s mine.”
3
Calliope
“I was right! Not finding the guy for you was because you’re a cat person!” Allegra shrieked as Tane cradled me against his chest.
“A cat person, huh?” Tane asked, his brown eyes full of humor. His hold on me tightened before he turned and headed to the front of the house.
My cheeks filled with heat as I nodded. “Yeah, Allegra was trying to make me feel better about not being someone’s mate like her and Larissa. Right before you guys came in, she was joking around about how it must be because I’ve always been more into cats than dogs since most of the shifters in town are wolves.”
He nodded, and a lock of his blond hair fell on his forehead. “She might’ve been joking, but it makes sense to me.”
“It does?” I asked as he yanked the door open and carried me down the steps in front of Zeke and Allegra’s house.
“Yeah, baby. With you being a cat person, you’ll love my tiger,” he explained.
“Tiger?” I echoed, my eyes going wide in shock while I tried to wrap my head around him shifting into a freaking tiger. He was tall, with an athletic, lean-muscle build, but he wasn’t much bigger than Kace or Zeke. It’d been mind-blowing to see their wolves, and I couldn’t imagine Tane shifting into an animal that was at least three times larger.
“My tiger is a fucking beast at six hundred pounds, but he’ll purr like a kitten for you,” he assured me as he walked up the steps to a house across the street and carried me inside.
Six hundred pounds.
Whoa.
Tane must’ve caught the stunned shock on my face because he went over to the couch instead of heading up the stairs that I assumed led to his bedroom. After dropping onto the cushions, he settled me on his lap. “Sorry, honey. I didn’t mean to freak you out.”
“You’d think I would’ve gotten used to all the surprises by now,” I sighed, shaking my head. “I mean, Zeke and Kace shifted for me when I thought Allegra and Larissa were pulling my legs about them being able to change into wolves. But somehow, I’m more shocked that you can shift into a huge tiger than I was by that, even though I’ve had a month to get used to the idea of shifters and fated mates.”
His biceps bulged as his entire body tensed. “Zeke and Kace shifted in front of you?”
“Of course.” A muscle jumped in his jaw. I wasn’t sure why he was so bothered by this. “How else were they supposed to prove to me that shifters are real?”
“Fuck if I know,” he rumbled. “I can’t think straight when it comes to you. All I know is that I want to go hunt down my best friends and kick their asses because you saw them naked.”
I stroked my hand down his chest, trying to soothe him. “There’s no need to get into a fight with your friends. At most, I’ve only ever seen them without their shirts on. When they shifted for me, I turned around while they stripped down.”
“Thank fuck for that,” he grunted.
I tilted my head to the side, and some of my hair spilled over my shoulder and covered his hand. “I thought that wasn’t a big deal for shifters?”
“Anything to do with you is going to be a big fucking deal for me,” he answered as he gave me a little squeeze.
It felt as though butterflies swarmed in my belly. “That’s so sweet.”
“I might have a ferocious beast under my skin, but I’ll always be sweet to you,” he promised, his fingers toying with the ends of my hair. “I’ll also always be brutally honest with you, which is why I need to tell you that my stance on nudity isn’t the same as most shifters. My mom is human, so we weren’t as open about it in my family growing up.”
A surge of happiness raced through me. I liked knowing I already had something in common with his mom. Kace and Zeke both came from a long line of shifters, and I hadn’t learned much about the families of the other members of the Timber Ridge pack. “She is?”
“Yeah, and she’s going to love having you in the family,” he confirmed.
My lips curved up in a big smile. “Really?”
“Definitely.” He nodded. “And not just because you’re human. My mom has been waiting not-so-patiently for one of her babies to find their mate, so she’s going to be over the moon when I tell her about you.”
Tane referring to himself as one of his mom’s babies was so adorable. He was this big, strong guy who didn’t hesitate to show how much he loved his mom, and it gave hope to the little girl deep inside me who’d always craved affection. And as an only child who’d always wanted a brother or sister, I liked that he had at least one. My parents had never given me a sibling, but my mate was going to give me in-laws. “How many siblings do you have?”
Tane traced his index and middle finger over my thigh. Even through the thickness of my jeans, his touch spread goose bumps in its wake. “I have two older sisters. Tabara by two years and Trinity by one.”
“What was it like growing up as the youngest of the bunch?” I asked, leaning my head against his chest.
“My sisters can be bossy as fuck,” he chuckled. “It doesn’t matter to them that I’m bigger in both my human and tiger forms, they’ll always see me as the baby.”
I laced my fingers through his. “Maybe they’ll ease up a bit now that you’re the first one to find their mate.”
“Not a chance in hell.” He shook his head
