Chapter 911 Chapter 911
Sharing his van bed with her had seemed like a great idea right up until he closed his eyes and inhaled. He only had one heavy blanket that was big enough to cover the makeshift bed, so now he lay there, fully clothed, uncomfortable, inhaling her scent with each breath and feeling her warmth against his back. Not one of his better ideas. If he got up, he’d disturb her, so he was lying there looking at the moonlight shining through the trees.
She sighed, and he stiffened. Was that an awake sound, or did she do that in her sleep?
“Foster?” She whispered.
“Yeah?” He wasn’t going to roll over unless she did. He didn’t want to do anything that might make her feel uncomfortable about this situation.
“Can I ask you about something?”
She still hadn’t moved. “Sure.”
“My animal keeps wanting me to bite you, even when we were back with my clan. Is that a mate thing, or is my coyote a sadistic, bloodthirsty dog?”
She didn’t know about mates. He grimaced. Of course, she didn’t. The few left of her clan weren’t, and they new saw any other clan, so it likely wasn’t discussed. He rolled onto his back and then sat up. “It’s a mate thing.” His animal had dialed into the conversation as soon as she said the word, bite. “Mates mark each other. It changes our scents, and others know we’re off limits.”
“Oh my gosh. It makes sense now.” She rolled onto her back and looked at him. “Every time one of the women even looked at you today, she’d start.” Exhaling loudly, she sat up. Shoveling her hair back from her face, she gave him an exasperated look. “I thought she was losing it.”
Foster grinned. His animal was beyond thrilled that she wanted to mark him. “I guess there’s a gap in your education.”
She nodded. “We had no reason to talk about mates.”
“I figured.” Rubbing his hands over his face, he dropped them and looked at her. “Okay, quick lesson. Mates mark each other—” he frowned. “I’m not sure about fliers and water clan…”
“There’s water clan? Orson will be excited about that. He said they were extinct.”
“No. They’re not.” He’d discuss that another time, he decided. “The female has to initiate and accept the male, always. I guess forever ago, it was forced on them, but now it’s one of the main Alliance laws or clan law, I’m not sure which.” He shook his head. “Breaking it is a huge no-no.”
“Should we have already done it? Is that why she’s being like this?”
Before he said the words, he already knew that his animal was going to go out of his way to make sure Foster didn’t get a minute of sleep that night. “No. It happens when you decide you’re ready for it to happen.”
She exhaled a breath of relief. “I’ve been so worried I was screwing up this mate thing, and I already worry about all the parts of being an alpha…”
Foster reached over and took her hand. “You’re not doing any of it wrong.” His animal felt her stress and went quiet. “Let’s try to sleep, okay?”
She nodded and then leaned closer and kissed him softly on the mouth. “Thank you, Foster. I really appreciate you.” She shifted over and lay back down.
Foster looked out the window at the moon and then lay down on his back. Being appreciated was nice. It was good to be appreciated, but he wanted something in a whole other category. He put his hands on his head and looked at the roof. At least her animal wanted to mark him, that was progress, right?
Ena rolled onto her side and put her head on his chest, draping her arm around his waist. “Is this okay? It feels right.”
Foster slowly lowered his arms placing one hand on her back. “Yeah, it’s great.” He officially wasn’t getting any sleep tonight.