Chapter 254 Chapter 254
“Kobie? It’s Evanna.”
“Is everything all right?”
Evanna looked out across the land. “Yeah, yeah, no I’m fine. Jesse is fine. Sorry if I panicked you. Jesse gave me your number.”
“I’m just a little surprised to hear from you is all.”
“I didn’t—I wasn’t sure who to call.”
“It’s fine, Evanna, really.”
“Is it a good time to talk?” She bit her lip and tried to think how to say what she needed to.
“Yes, it’s fine. The guys are out checking the property right now, so I have time before training starts.”
“How’s that going?” She didn’t want to blurt out what was on her mind.”
“It’s interesting.” Kobie laughed, “learning how to throw Blair around has been fun.”
“I’d like to see that.”
“Jesse told Calum he was going to show you some moves too while you’re there.”
She glanced back at the trailer where Jesse was mumbling over his laptop. “I’ll have to ask him.”
“Is everything, uh, going well between you and Jesse?”
She looked at the grass beneath her feet, “I think so. Leah hasn’t been out much, so I’m getting to spend a lot of time with him.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
Evanna nodded, “yeah. It’s different being alone with him—here. Which is why I’m calling you; I have questions.”
“Oh, okay, I’ll try to help.”
She scowled at the ground, “I, uh, things are...” she blew out an abrupt breath, “I don’t know how to say this. I know nothing about,” she squeezed her eyes shut, “intimacy with mates and stuff.”
“Oh. Oh, okay. What would you like to know?” Kobie made a strange noise, “I mean, obviously it’s not your cycle or you wouldn’t sound so calm.”
“My cycle?” Evanna opened her eyes, “oh, that. Aunt Tillie explained that. I haven’t had that yet.”
“That’s a small blessing.” She cleared her throat, “so obviously if you were on a mountain alone, you’ve never been with…”
Evanna shook her head. “No. Haven’t done that either.” She glanced behind her to make sure Jesse was still in the trailer, not that she thought he’d listen, but some things she didn’t know how to talk about with him—or if she should.
“Okay, so what part are you wondering about?”
“Uh, the um, mating stuff.” All of this sounded better in her head, but now that her mouth was saying it, none of it was coming outright. “How does all that work? I mean, I haven’t talked to Leah about it yet, but I know she agrees, and we don’t have a problem with Jesse as our mate,” she snorted, “We never imagined we would have a mate, you know because we’re,” she shrugged, “different. Jesse is one of the good ones, right? I know I don’t know a lot about people overall, but I do know how bad they can be, we’ve lived that—” she trailed off for a moment, and had to focus hard to bring her mind back to the task, “we’re lucky it’s Jesse, aren’t we?”
“I haven’t known him that long, Evanna, but yes I believe he’s one of the good ones. Blair and Calum are always referring to him in good ways.”
She nodded, “yeah, I sense he’s a good person, and he’s patient,” she scowled, “which is why I needed to call you, he said there’s no rush, we can take all the time we need, but he’s so patient, it could take years.”
“I know he’s concerned about you and Leah and doesn’t want to force anything before you’re ready.”
“Did he tell you that?” She jammed her hand in the pocket of her jacket and looked at the sky. Snow wasn’t far off.
“No, he didn’t tell me, but he did speak to Shaelan, who brought me into the circle. “
Evanna nodded, “did Shaelan tell him it would be bad for us to, uh, make it official?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Okay.”
“Evanna, tell me what you want to know.”
She shook her head; she was sounding like an idiot to this woman. “What-what is the,” she waved her hand around in the air, “order or-or the protocol of how that works? Like I know the sex part, well, not know—know it, but I know it happens.” She closed her eyes, get it together. “Aunt Tillie told me once things were different with it than they had been long ago and she was glad for it—I don’t know what that means.”
“Yes, sex is involved.”
Evanna nodded her head slowly, “so is there some sort of ritual or something?”
“Not really, oh, actually the female has to consent and mark her mate first before he can.” She made another strange noise, almost like a giggle but not, “they’re not allowed to touch you until you have accepted and marked them.”
Turning, she looked at the trailer. “I just bite him?” She frowned, “with these teeth or Minn’s?”
“I didn’t have to shift,” Kobie said quietly, “but my teeth somehow did, so it’s a cat’s teeth I marked Blair with.”
“They just come out? Just teeth?” She blew out a breath, she couldn’t stand anything near her neck, especially the back of it. Biting her lip, she stood there, trying to figure out if she was going to be okay with him marking her neck. Minn stirred inside her. Taking a deep breath, she focused on settling her heartbeat, so the cat would stay calm.
“Is there anything else you needed to know?” Kobie asked her quietly.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so.” She tried to sense if Leah was close, a prompt in the right direction would have been good. She knew from the journal entries she felt the same about Jesse and Evanna did, of course, she’d never say it straight out.
“I’m always here if you have more questions, Evanna. For Leah as well.”
Evanna nodded, still trying to sense Leah, “I’ll leave a note and tell her that.” Blinking, she blew out a breath. “It sounds so simple, but it’s not really, is it?”
“It changes everything,” Kobie said in a soft voice.
“Changes how?”
“It’s hard to explain,” there was a short pause, “it’s like, even though I thought I was happy with who I was and how I am, once Blair and I were mated, I felt,” Evanna heard her sigh, “complete. Stronger in so many ways, in my mind and heart.” She heard a small laugh, “it sounds silly, but there is no way to really explain it.”
“Do you,” she bit her lip for a second, “do you think it will help Leah and me, you know about what’s going on with us.”
“Oh, um, I don’t know that much about it.” Kobie made a soft noise like she was thinking, “I’ve been around both of you and you’re both strong in different ways.” She made a clicking noise with her tongue, “if anything—in my opinion, it might make you both feel more stable, less, I’m not sure how to word this, Evanna, bear with me a moment.”
Evanna kicked at the ground with, “I can wait.”
“I haven’t noticed it much with you, maybe the odd thing, but with Leah, she’s so unsure and hesitant many times, I think the mates’ bond will help keep her steady, feel more secure in things, does that make sense?”
“I get what you mean. This mates bond, it does that?”
“Yes, Blair and I are more in tune with each other, our feelings and emotions, I can almost sense what’s going on with him now, whereas before I had to keep guessing.” She laughed abruptly, “this is so hard to put into words.”
“Feelings and stuff always are.”
“Yes, they are.” Evanna heard Kobie sigh, “have I helped at all? I’m not really the person to talk to about most of this.”
Evanna smirked, “I thought of Shaelan at first, but she gets all doctorly sometimes and loses me with what she’s saying. I relate to you better.”
“Thank you. I can see us working well together when we go with the team.”
“Yeah, our cats ran well together, so it’s a good sign we could also work together without problems.” Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly. “Thanks for answering my questions, Kobie, I feel better.” She huffed out a breath, “I have a lot to think about, but knowing more will help.”
“I’m happy to help. With all of your doubts, you could talk to Jesse, I’m sure he’d try to help as much as he could.”
Evanna grinned, “it’s hard to talk about the problem with the one that is the problem, know what I mean?”
Kobie chuckled, “I do. Blair had a lot of those moments before we were mated.”
“He’s very distracting.”
“They are until you’re mated, I found out. I think a lot of my issues were my cat distracting me and not my own mind.”
Minn stirred again like she wanted Evanna to go to the trailer. “Yes, this needing to be near him and his cat constantly is a bit much at times.”
“It can be.”
Evanna heard the trailer door before she saw Jesse come around the corner. “I’ll let you get back to it, Kobie. Thanks for the help.”
“Anytime, Evanna, I’ll see you next week.”