Maddie whimpered. “If only I could. My lion won’t let me. He’s my fated mate so I’m going to be alone for the rest of my life.”
Haley gripped both of Maddie’s forearms and pushed her back, staring her in the face. “Do you honestly believe that stuff? Not everyone goes in for that one-true-mate business.”
After wiping her face with her bedsheet Maddie nodded. “It’s real. I felt it the first time he and I kissed. No, even before that—when we met, he pissed me off, but I could already feel the pull.”
Harley looked at her alertly, her pupils half-covered and one eyebrow lifted. “Are you sure you didn’t just imagine it?”
Maddie grabbed her sister's hand and placed the palm on her chest above her sprinting heart. “You feel that? And that’s just from him standing outside the door to my house. Yes, I’m sure. Do you think I want to be fated to a guy who’s ashamed of me? That’s what you call a deal-breaker.”
Harley looked away, clearly avoiding Maddie’s gaze as she continued her denial. “You might be working a bunch of nonsense up in your mind.”
Maddie folded her arms over her chest. “So now I’m a nutcase? If there’s nothing to the fated mate, explain my mom and our dad—a cougar and a house cat.”
Harley shifted her weight. “You got me there. Before he met your mom, I always thought he should have married mine, but he said the Tomcat in him wouldn’t let him settle down. A few years later, he follows home a cougar and falls head over heels in love.”
“Right? They shouldn’t work but they're perfect.” Maddie bit into a cookie and chewed.
“At one time, didn’t you think Davis might be the one?”
Maddie finished chewing and swallowed. “I’ve been pondering about that. Sometimes when I looked at Davis, I’d get bits and pieces of feelings here and there, but they always disintegrated fast. He and Abram are cousins. Perhaps our soul mates are imprinted in our DNA. Maybe my internal love thermometer was picking up the genetic similarities but never got past warm and fuzzy.”
“But you feel red, hot passion with Abram?”
She sighed. “More than I can say.”
Haley kissed her on the side of her forehead. “What are you going to do?”
Maddie leaned over and cuddled with her sister. “I don’t know, but I can tell you that these damn cookies are the first food I’ve felt like I could hold down since I walked away from him. I sleep for two hours at a time. I can’t get him off my brain. I close my eyes and I see his face and can smell his scent. That son-of-a-bitch has ruined my life.”
“You want me to shift into my calico and scratch his eyes out?” Harley squeezed Maddie’s hand.
She shook her head. “No, but I wouldn’t mind if you turned his shoe into a litterbox.”
Harley scrunched up her nose as she picked up a throw pillow and then bonked Maddie with it. “Gross.”
The two girls caught each other’s gaze and cracked up laughing. Maddie smiled for the first time in days. “Oh, my God. I can picture his face when he stepped in it—priceless.”
“Ew! That’s too foul even for your dark sense of humor.” Harley jumped down off the bed and then grabbed each of Maddie’s ankles. She yanked her until her butt was nearly hanging off the edge. “No more sulking. Get up and take a shower now. And for God’s sake, brush your teeth.”
Chapter Seven
Abram removed his shirt and threw it down on a hay bale in the barn behind the main family house. The structure wasn’t nearly as big as any of the barns at the ranch, but it was big enough for four shifters to embarrass the hell out each other by getting naked and transforming where they could all see. “I can’t believe I let you guys talk me into this. It’s fucking awkward.”
“Awkward? What planet are you from?” Craig, Abram’s nineteen-year-old cousin, rolled his eyes as he shook his head. “You’re the one who still has your pants on.”
Jason, a married cousin in his mid-thirties who was already naked, smirked. “You scared your pony is going to suffer by comparison?”
Craig glanced at Jason’s flaccid cock. “Yours lacks gallop.”
Davis motioned for them to cut it out by moving his hand back and forth in front of his neck. “Could you guys shut it? That’s not what this is about. Abram’s been doing well re-acclimating. Don’t spoil it. He’s already shifted and gone for a run with just me a couple of times. It’s time for him to get accustomed to a more communal experience and your childish teasing isn’t helping.”
Jason’s cheeks brightened and he smiled. “Sorry. I didn’t mean anything. This is completely normal to me; I don’t think about it.”
“Getting naked in a barn with a bunch of guys is an ordinary occurrence for you?” Abram asked, cocking his head.
Craig shrugged. “Actually, it’s more of a holiday thing when it’s all the cousins, but ever since I could shift my mom and dad and I would all let out our horses in the barn and go out for runs. It didn’t seem weird. After my sister was born, she was part of it too.”
“Nudity isn’t a big deal for most shifters. But we won’t be bringing any chicks into Abram’s immersion therapy until he masters male bonding,” Davis explained.
Abram rubbed the side of his face and grimaced. “Do we have to talk about it? It makes it sound like we’re circle-jerking.”
Craig stripped off his boxer shorts. “Come on, cousin. Be a proud equine shifter. Let’s do this.” He bowed up his arms, flexing to show off his toned, teen form.
“Ugh! Dude, stop.” Abram held his hand up between his line of
