What could he tell her? That only a shapeshifter could do it? She’d freak right out the door. He needed another way. A semi-quasi answer that will keep her happy yet not reveal the whole truth. He paced around the room.
Oh, he was screwed. He said the first thing he could think of. “She was trained.”
“Excuse me?”
“Once we hit puberty we’re taught how to hide and reveal the mating mark. The small island we’re from has a unique alloy that is in our blood. It’s a minute fraction, the only way anyone has noticed a difference is we’re just a bit hairier. The women hate it because they have to shave all the time.” He gave her a quick smile. “We learned that the tattoo from our mating was unique and learned how to hide it from prying eyes.”
“Can I be trained?”
“Never tried to teach anyone, but we can try.” He pulled his shirt from his shoulder to reveal his mark. “Place your hand on my shoulder.”
She gave him an odd look but did as he asked.
“Now say bhfolach.” His tattoo faded from sight when she repeated the words. “Good, now say nochtann.” It reappeared. “Now place your hand on your own shoulder and say those words. They mean hidden and reveal in Gaelic.”
He watched her as she mumbled the words to make her own tattoo appear and disappear. She kept her focus on what she was doing when she spoke. “So where do we go from here?”
“Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know.” She looked at him. “We barely know each other yet we’re basically married? What if we end up not wanting to be near each other?”
“This might not be something you want to hear, but no couple who has mated has ever hated each other.”
“That’s actually nice to hear.” Alicia paused. “I’m worried about how people will respond to me. I am an outsider.”
“You’re my mate and they will respect that.” She seemed to be coping with the information better than he had hoped.
“And if I decide that I don’t want to be your mate?”
“I’ll respect that decision.”
***
Alicia sat at the little table Jacob had in the kitchen, sipping one of his teas. She didn’t know what to think. This whole mating thing had thrown her for a loop. Yet Max had been so sincere when he tried to explain it. Would he really let her go if she decided to walk away from him? The real question was could she live without him in her life? This mating changed the way she saw her attraction to him. She figured she was a fling to him and once they had found all the Tears he would disappear out of her life.
Now he might want to stick around.
“Mind some company?” Catherine asked as she snagged a cup.
“What?” Alicia looked up. “Oh, sure. Sit down.”
“You okay?” Catherine tilted her head as she studied Alicia.
“I guess.” She wrapped her hands around her cup. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“What is there to talk about? Max told me a little more about my new tattoo and how he feels bad that it happened the way it did. He even offered to walk away if I decide that I don’t want to make this mating real.”
“Really?” Catherine looked shocked. “Is that what you want to do?”
“You sure are full of questions. Do you plan on running to Max and telling him everything I say?”
“No.” She frowned. “I’d like to think we’re friends and want to be here for you.”
“Sorry.” Alicia sighed. “I don’t know if I should be mad or happy. Lots of women would love to be in my situation. Max is handsome, rich, and can be quite charming when he wants to. He wants to be with me. I should be happy. Yet I didn’t ask for any of this. I had hoped I would have met the man of my dreams and we would have dated for a while, fallen in love the way I see it in the movies and at some wonderfully romantic place he would propose to me and I’d say yes. My parents would meet him and fall in love with him too and I’d have a nice small wedding with my family and closest friends.”
“You haven’t lost any of that. You and Max can fall in love; he knows you’ll want to have a wedding ceremony for your family and friends. Knowing him, he’ll want to make it magical for you.”
“What about the other side of him, the arrogant jerk who believes he’s privileged or something? The one that won’t take no for an answer? The one who oversteps his boundaries without a thought.”
“Yeah. That’s Max all right.” Catherine laughed. “He’s very protective of those he cares about. At home he is the golden child. People go to him for advice. In his business he’s in charge. Max doesn’t let other people do the work. He’s very much a hands-on type of person, so he’s used to people accepting his word without question because he always knows what he is talking about.”
“Still, he botched this.”
“You’ll get no argument from me. I wanted to smack him when I realized what happened. But he knows it too. You have a lot of power right now because of this.”
“I do?” That was the first piece of good news she had heard since she learned about the mating.
“Max will do anything to make this up to you and will do anything to make you happy.”
That made her smile.
***
“Have you ever heard of the Black Irish?” asked Catherine.
“Yeah.” Alicia nodded. “The Spanish tried to conquer Ireland. Anyone with black hair or dark eyes has Spanish and Irish blood in them. Or something like that. Max told me a little.”
“So you know it’s part of Max’s heritage. He ended up keeping the Spanish name. He looks more Spanish than Irish anyway.” Catherine shrugged.
“So let’s talk about the island.” Alicia wanted to know more about the tattoo and since Catherine was willing to talk she was going to get as much information as possible. “There is no way you can keep an island a secret. Not with today’s technology.”
“You can if you have technology just as good if not better than everyone else’s.” Catherine looked at her. “Our little island was in just the right spot to avoid prying eyes. No one knew we were there for centuries. That’s also why not many of us left our island. It’s our world and we feel safest there.”
“So you’re telling me you guys all come from some island off the coast of Ireland and you’ve been able to keep it hidden?” Alicia narrowed her eyes at Catherine. “That’s hard to believe.”
“Maybe you’re not ready to understand the tattoo. I can wait until you are.” Catherine took another sip of tea.
“That’s not fair.”
“Of course it is.” She looked up over the rim of her cup. “If you scoff at the idea of a little island hiding, then you won’t believe the tattoo and how it shows up without going to a parlor and having it engraved on your body. It would be too farfetched for you.”
Alicia let out a breath of pent-up air. “Throwing my words back in my face isn’t fighting fairly, you know.”
“Hey, I’m just being honest.”
“I know. That’s what I hate about this whole thing.” She adjusted herself on her chair. “All right, I’ll keep an open mind. Hit me with your best shot.”
“A little cliché, isn’t it?”
“Hey, you’re asking me to stretch my imagination, you can put up with the goofy phrases.”
Catherine sat her drink down. “Now, I’m going to start at the beginning. I have to explain the old ways for you to understand the new ways.”
“Good thing I have my tea.” Alicia held up her cup in a gesture.
“Be serious.” Catherine brushed her hair back from her face. “My mom told me a story as a child. Our little island was the most beautiful of them all. Greener than the Emerald Isle. Our flowers were sweeter, the songs of our birds were clearer.
“We never left the island because we were happy there. When parents saw their children playing they would watch how their daughters interacted with their neighbors’ sons and if they felt the match was good for them the parents would make a pact to merge their families.
“The boy and girl would be marked with a symbol on the right shoulder blade so other people knew they were meant for each other.”
“Marked?”
“We used a local root that died the skin permanently.”
“And what about this merging you were talking about?” Alicia asked.
“The two families would move in together while the children were still young. Give them the chance to be around each other all the time, but still be under a family member’s watchful eye.” Catherine took a quick sip of her tea. “It also helped the in-laws get along. You spend that much time with each other you either hated them or they became your closest friends. If the families couldn’t get along the children weren’t forced to mate.”
“What if the children were in love?” Alicia never understood arranged marriages.
“You misunderstand. The match is always about the mated. If the two destined can’t stand each other they are never forced. If their families don’t get along they have the option to walk away from each other, too.” Catherine ran a finger around the edge of her cup. “But that sometimes can be a very bad decision.”
Alicia nodded.
“The tattoo was always drawn on through many generations. Then one day they just started to appear on the shoulders of the two betrothed. How it started has been lost to the ages. We never questioned it. The tattoo then started to mark those who should be together. Each would carry the same design.”
“So Max’s looks like mine?”
“Then you’ve seen his.” Catherine smiled. “I wasn’t sure if he revealed his. He can be secretive at times.”
“Never noticed,” she said with sarcasm. “He’s annoyingly secretive.”
“But it’s such an endearing quality.”
Alicia snorted. “So you think that the tattoo showed up because Max and I are destined for each other?”
“Yes.”
Alicia didn’t think she’d get such a blunt answer. “Aren’t you jumping the gun right now? Don’t I have to get to know him a little better and then fall in love?”
“I bet you use that excuse all the time. I know many couples who only knew each other for a few weeks, married and have been very happy. How much time do you need to realize how you feel for Max?”
***
Max heard their voices from the kitchen so steered clear and headed to the garden in the center of the house. He always loved it here. It reminded him of his mother and her loving touch.
“Sir.”
“Yes?” Max turned to face Jacob. “I have tea for you, sir, and you have a visitor.”
“Who?”
“One of Sonora’s men.” Jacob stepped aside.
“What do they want?” Max stomped past him and headed to the main foyer. He hated this.
The young man stood in the doorway, looking very uncomfortable in his master’s enemy’s house.
“What do you want?” Max didn’t feel like dealing with pleasantries.
“My queen has asked you to call on her. Now. She has a proposition for you.” The young man then turned on his heels and left.
Max looked back in the direction of Alicia and Catherine. He needed to be here to find out how their conversation went, but knew if he ignored Sonora he would end up regretting it. She had her ways.
“Let them know I’ll be right back if they look for me.”
“Yes, sir,” said Jacob.
With a sigh, Max grabbed a jacket and walked to his Hummer. Maybe he could find out what the little pest wanted and be home before the women knew he had left.
It didn’t take long for him to get to Sonora’s office. He knew she would never let him into her home so there was only one place for them to meet when she requested it.
He barged through the door of her office and plopped into an oversized chair in front of her desk. “Why do you plague me?”
“It is you who causes all the trouble.”
Max shook his head. “Nope.”
“Why do you do that?” she questioned.
“What?” He knew what she was talking about, but did it just to upset her.
“Speak to me in the old way then suddenly switch to the hedonistic slang these humans destroy the language with?”
“Because it drives you nuts.” He sat back in the chair and made himself a little more comfortable. “You believe the old ways are the best. You need to embrace the world as it is now to survive.”
“Why? Why must I change?” She stood up and rested her hands on the top of her desk.
“We have had this conversation too many times. You can live the way you want as long as you treat people properly. But you don’t. To you, humans aren’t worth anything. They are the lowest from of life.”
“They are destructive and mean.” She slapped her hands hard against the desk. A splintering sound came out of it. “Why should I treat them any different than the way they treat us?”
“You have to forgive and move on.” Max watched her. “Not every human is destructive.”
“You speak of your mate now.” Sonora crossed her arms over her chest.
“Alicia is a very unique person.” He wasn’t about to discuss his mate with this woman.
“Why? Because she fits the legend? I think you are using her as an excuse to force me to conform to your ways.”
He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Alicia isn’t your enemy. Neither am I. Why do you keep treating us like one?”
“Because you keep making demands on me to change.” She glared at him. “You want to tell me how to live my life. You want to take control away from me.”
“You haven’t had control for a long time. I will only say this once.” He stood and placed his hands on the desk as well. “You won’t gain control over me by threatening my mate.”
“Really? Now you’re going to tell me what to do?”