“Tor, Cora.” He smiled kindly at me. “I’m glad you’ve come to visit. Bee will show you around. Tor and I need to talk.”
A woman appeared behind Sten. She was slender with dark hair and pale gray eyes that smiled warmly at me.
Tor stepped past Sten to envelop her in a hug. “Aunt Bee, how was your trip?”
“Good.” She pulled away to look up into his face. “I’m only sorry I missed your return.”
“Bee, can you take Cora to meet the potential breeders, please,” Sten said.
Wait, what? My gaze flew to meet Tor’s. “Excuse me?”
Tor frowned and opened his mouth to speak, but Sten beat him to it.
“We’d like you to choose who Tor breeds with.”
What the fuck?
Chapter Eight
I must have heard wrong. “What did you say?”
Sten smiled at me as if he were offering me his last Rolo. “You’ll have the privilege of picking Tor’s breeders. Choose whoever you feel most comfortable with.”
He said it as if he was doing me a favor, like it was some kind of honor, but the fact was he wanted me to pick who Tor fucked. Naked, sweaty, and…My chest grew tight.
I looked at Tor, not even bothering to hide my what-the-fuck face.
He bit back a smile and crossed his arms across his broad chest. Okay, so no help forthcoming there. He was leaving me to deal with this, huh. Fine.
I smiled politely at Sten. “No thanks. I’ll pass.”
Bee looked at me incredulously. “Don’t you want to be involved in this? The females chosen will carry your mate’s offspring. It’s an important decision.”
“Unless you expect me to fuck them, I don’t see why I need to be involved.”
Tor made a strange sound, part chuckle, part cough.
He was finding this funny, the fucker.
Sten studied me for a long beat, his expression wistful. “Charlotte said the same thing when Arne asked her to choose his breeders. Well, not the fuck part, but the sentiment was the same.”
Bee tucked in her chin. “I thought we agreed we wouldn’t speak her name.”
Sten’s expression hardened. “You made a suggestion, Bee. I didn’t agree to anything. Charlotte is…” His jaw ticked. “Was my mate for a century.”
“Not your true mate,” Bee retorted. “We’ve finally found one another, and after what she did…” Bee stood taller, her mouth pressed in a line. “No, Sten, I won’t stand for it.”
Sten leveled her with a cool look. “Show our anchor around. Introduce her to our pack. We’ll speak about this later. In private.”
Oh boy. It seemed Sten had found his true wolfy mate in Bee, and she wasn’t happy about him harping on about Charlotte, but the fact that he was…Did that mean he still loved her? Even after what she’d done?
“I’ll find you in a little while,” Tor said to me. “You don’t need to choose a breeder. I’ve no intention of fulfilling that duty just yet. There’s time.”
Well, he could have said that sooner.
And why was that a weight off my chest? I shrugged. “Don’t hold off on my account. You do what you got to do.”
He studied me with narrow eyes, as if he could see right through me, and in that moment, I would have sworn he could.
He leaned in so his lips brushed my ear. “You’re my mate, remember. I can feel your emotions.” He stepped back. “I’ll find you in a bit.”
Shit. So much for my poker face.
Tor stepped into the house with Sten, and Bee joined me on the decking. She exhaled and I noted how her hands were trembling.
“You okay?”
She looked surprised by the question. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”
I arched a brow.
She pressed her lips together. “This isn’t easy for any of us. Least of all for you.” She smiled slightly. “I’m sorry that this is how it has to be, but it would make life easier for you to choose the wolves who might bear Tor’s offspring. It might give you some control.”
“I don’t need control. I trust Tor will make the right decisions.”
And I didn’t want to dwell on it. Best to keep that aspect of the deal separate from our relationship. From our friendship.
“You say that now,” Bee said. “But it’s not easy knowing the man you love is lying with another female, even if it is just to procreate.”
“I’m not in love with Tor. I don’t intend to have that kind of relationship with him, Leif, or Rune.”
Her mouth tightened at the mention of Rune’s name. “You say that now, but—"
Urgh, enough already. “Yes. I’ve heard. But I’m a stubborn bitch, Bee. I’m not a slave to any mystical bonds. I’m my own woman.”
Bee’s smile widened. “I wasn’t referring to the mating bond, Cora.”
Okay, now I was confused. “You weren’t?”
“No. If you have no interest in meeting the potential breeders, I suggest we talk over a spot of tea.”
Oh, thank God. “Got any cake?”
Bee was Tor’s aunt on his mother’s side, and now that the mate bond between Sten and Charlotte was gone, it turned out Bee was his wolf mate. Yep, I’d been right as usual.
“He still has feelings for Charlotte.” Bee sipped her tea. “As I’m sure you surmised. I’m afraid there may not be room in his heart for me.”
“But you’re his mate.”
“Yes, I am. But love and the mate bond are two entirely separate entities. You can have both, but you can also have one without the other.”
“But the mate bond attracts you to someone and makes you develop feelings for them.”
“Yes, it attracts you sexually, but emotions like love don’t always come into it. I’ve known mated wolves who have hated each other every hour of the day aside from when they were rutting.”
Heather’s words came back to me. She’d tried to explain this to me too.
“Not every anchor has been in love with her mates,” Bee said.
“What?”
“History tells us of two such cases.”
Had Charlotte known this? She must have.
“The bond can’t compel you to love your mates,” Bee said. “That’s entirely up to you. If you weren’t attracted to
