pulls out of me, and I clench around the absence of him, a little sore. We both move to the ensuite bathroom to clean up, and I run my eyes over the runes on his sternum and swallow down the worry that starts to bubble up inside of me. I’m not sure if I fucked something up when I marked him. I hope that Ryker’s orgasm theory is right and what we just did together solidifies the connection just like it has with the others, but I can’t help but worry that it might not. I take the appearance of my Sentinel magic while we were together as a good thing and figure it’s all a waiting game at this point. One way or another, we’ll know soon enough.
I look up from where I’m washing my hands in the sink, and Torrez is watching me in the mirror.
“What?” I ask, my eyes bouncing back and forth between his deep brown irises.
“I just can’t believe that I found you. That I finally have a mate,” he tells me, his eyes soft and his voice filled with wonder.
I give him a sweet smile. “Am I up to snuff, everything you hoped I’d be and more?” I tease.
Torrez chuckles and runs a soft finger over the bite I now sport on my left shoulder. “You know, it’s weird, but I never could picture what my mate might be like or if I would ever find one. I felt inside like I was meant for more. That probably makes no sense, but I just felt like there was more out there for me than pack life and raising pups. I used to think maybe that was just my ego talking, but now, as I sit here staring at you, it all just makes sense to me.”
Torrez’s words soak into me, and they spread warmth as they move from my mind to my soul.
“It makes sense to me too,” I admit. “I never fit in any kind of way in the non world. I saw glimpses of more, and I knew I was meant for that; I just couldn’t seem to get there.”
Torrez nods his head, and I can feel the understanding radiating off of him.
“It’s strange that I’m all over here, like don’t mind me and my six mates, and somehow none of that actually feels weird to me at all. Is it weird for you?” I ask, watching him in the mirror. “You thought you’d have one mate and probably never thought that you’d have to share her with five other guys.”
He shrugs. “So you’re greedy. There are worse traits in a mate.”
I laugh and turn to punch him in the shoulder. He captures my hand and pulls me out of the bathroom and toward the bed.
“Um, there is no chance in hell that I’m getting in that bed,” I tell him and try to tug my hand out of his grip.
“They get a new mattress and new sheets after every mated couple. They give the couple the mattress and sheets for their own use as a present.”
I furrow my brow in doubt at his statement.
“Everything smells clean,” he tells me, folding back the bedding and pulling me hesitantly into the sheets.
They’re cool and soft and smell like pine trees. Torrez’s warm body is inviting, and I press into him for warmth and a much needed distraction from lying in an unknown bed, in an unknown country, in an unknown pack’s territory. He nestles me under his arm, our naked chests pressed together, and plays with the ends of my long hair down my back as we settle in.
“So, Torrez—”
“Teo, call me Teo,” he interrupts.
“But I know you as Torrez.”
“Yeah, but that’s my last name, and we’re all mated for life and shit, so you should call me Teo.”
I’m quiet for a beat, mulling over how weird it would be not to think of him as just Torrez. “So, Wolf,” I say instead.
He laughs. “Fair enough,” he concedes. “Yes, Witch?”
I chuckle at the equally hideous pet name. “Like you said, we’re all mated and shit, so we should probably, you know, get to know each other?” My statement comes out more like a question, and he vibrates with laughter against my body.
“What, you’re telling me you want to know all about my childhood and every detail of my life until now? We might be here for a while,” he teases and then presses my body tighter against him. “Although I suppose there’s nothing