“Come on, everybody’s excited. It’ll be fun!”
I turned to Juno—our next-door neighbour—and gave her a small smile.
She was rambling on about a party some frat house was throwing this weekend. If I wasn’t so worried about Ariana, I would’ve paid more attention to what she was saying.
Why wasn’t she back yet? Her classes ended hours ago. What if she had some sort of breakdown? What if she was in trouble?
“Can we talk about this later?” I interrupted Juno. “If I don’t leave now I’m going to be late for an appointment.”
“Right, I’ll call you later.”
Juno left and a few minutes later I was on my way out. I grabbed my phone and pushed it into my pocket. Just as I turned, there was a soft knock on the door.
I was not expecting to see my sister passed out in the arms of a boy. A human boy!
“What did you do to my sister?”
His eyes narrowed. Without answering he pushed past me and carried Ariana over to her bed. I rushed forward to pull the sheets down and then stepped back to watch them.
He lowered her and then surprised me when he moved down to pull off her shoes.
“She fainted,” he said as he straightened after covering her with the sheets. “And then she fell asleep.”
He looked so surprised that I actually burst out laughing. It made his eyes snap to mine. My laughter faded as our eyes locked. I could feel the pull between us. It was the same pull Dad described when he told us how he met Mom.
Well fuck.
I struggled to pull my eyes away from him. The moment our eye contact was broken, I sucked in a shaky breath and instantly regretted it.
He smelt good.
“How do you know my sister?” I hated the fact that my voice shook.
“We have the same classes,” he answered.
After some hesitation, he lowered Ariana’s bag to the floor. His eyes locked on my sister’s face for a few minutes before they dropped to the ground.
“Make sure she eats something sweet when she wakes up,” he said. “I think her blood pressure’s low.”
I hurried around the bed and stopped in front of him before he could reach the door. Holding out my hand towards him, I smiled.
“We haven’t met before, obviously. I’m Eva.”
“Lucas,” he said as he slipped his hand into mine.
We both sucked in a sharp breath when out skin touched. Tingles shot up my arm and slowly spread through the rest of my body. Could he feel them too?
As soon as the question flashed through my mind, he ripped his hand from mine.
“I need to go,” he breathed.
And then he was gone with his lingering scent the only sign that he was ever in the room in the first place.
***
I found my mate.
A human.
The species Ariana feared the most. Was he only my mate or was he Ariana’s mate too? Grandma was sure that we’d share a mate just like she did. It was rare but not impossible.
I frowned as I stared down at Ariana who was still sleeping. There had to be something there otherwise she would never have allowed him to touch her.
But a human! How could my mate be human? What if he was only my mate and not hers? Was she going to live the rest of our lives in fear of my mate?
It was a disaster!
More so, the last thing I wanted was a mate. Eventually I’d like to start a family but not yet. There were so many things I still wanted to do. I still couldn’t get over the fact that we were destined to have a human mate.
How the hell were we supposed to tell him what we really were?
Sucking in a breath, I closed my eyes and slowly blew it out. It shouldn’t matter now. We’d manage and there was still time to figure things out.
“Eva?”
My eyes snapped open at the sound of my sister’s weak call. I was on my feet in an instant.
“I’m here.” I took a seat on the edge of the bed and reached for the glass of water. “Here, drink some of this.”
My eyes darted over Ariana’s pale face before dropping to her shaky hands. Concern filled me. Remembering his earlier words, I got up and searched through my bag for the chocolate bar.
Pulling the wrapper off, I handed it over to her.
Of course my sister didn’t start eating it like any sane person would. She sniffed at it, inspected it critically and then tasted it with the tip of her tongue.
“Ari, just eat the damn thing,” I ordered.
She swallowed loudly and then took a tiny bite. I watched as she carefully chewed it a few times before she swallowed. My shoulders sagged in relieve when she took a bigger bite.
“He left,” I said when I realized that she was searching for him. “Your friend.”
Ariana watched me silently from beneath her lashes. Should I tell her that he’s my mate? Should I ask her if she felt the same thing I had when they first met?
I chewed on the inside of my lip as I debated whether to tell her or not. It would make things easier but it would also complicate a few things. She’d want to call Dad and tell him, and then we’d have to explain things to the human. Ariana would want to mate and go back home.
She hated it here no matter how hard she tried to hide it.
But I didn’t want to leave.
I wasn’t ready to be stuck with one person for the rest of my life.
The first thing we needed to do before any of the things I mentioned above happened, was to figure out if we shared a mate or not.
“You set me up,” Ariana accused when the chocolate bar was finished.
I frowned at her. “What?”
“We were supposed to meet for lunch. You never showed and you didn’t text me.”
“I—”
“You should’ve just told me from the start—”
“Don’t start this, Ari.” I got up and walked over to the window. “How are you feeling now?”
When she didn’t answer, I looked at her over my shoulder. Ariana was leaning back against the pillows with her bag on her lap. She was searching through it. Ariana must’ve found whatever she was searching for because she slowly relaxed.
“I feel better,” she finally answered my question.
“Good because Dad called. We’re meeting his friend in two hours.”