“You know after she pepper sprayed me twice and tried to run me over with her car.”
At that, my older brother chortles in pleasure. “Yeah, Ana has always been the most hot headed out of all the Roys. She got that from Dad. She got a lot from our dad.”
“Whatever, so did all of you! And for the record, Alex is waaaayyyy more hot headed than I am.”
“The Marine?” A.D. questions, proving he’s paid attention when I’ve gone over my family tree during our one-on-one dates.
I glide my hand back to his thigh to show my gratitude again, receiving the same low, content groaning I did earlier.
“Yeah, also my twin.” Al abandons his fork yet not the conversation. “And Alex isn’t hotter headed. The military gave him a much-needed attitude adjustment.”
“Like I’m sure unsuccessfully murdering someone with a car might,” Min taunts with a good-natured grin.
“No, that just made Tiny Toes pissier,” A.D. immediately informs.
“How did Fate introduce you?” I repeat the earlier spoken question. “And how long did it take you two to officially bond? And do mice bond differently than dragons because he hasn’t told me like anything about the bonding experience despite the fact I keep asking.”
“Bonding is damn sure a Leprechaun’s Breath conversation and really, really not one I wanna have with my fucking little sister.”
“Bonding does vary from kind to kind,” Min replies regardless of how it makes my brother cringe, “however, it’s custom – which I know you can appreciate – for the shifter to explain the process to their Fated Mate.”
My gaze momentarily moves to A.D. “This is why Dae won’t tell me anything?”
He doesn’t hesitate to nod.
“What’s with all the secret society shit?” I huff in unhappiness. “Why can only a mate tell a mate?”
“It’s basically shifter chivalry,” Al answers to my surprise. “They possess an overwhelming need to care for their Fated Mate and part of that includes being the one to lead their way around a world they weren’t born into. Stop looking at like it like an annoyance and start looking at it like a gift.”
“Don’t use your Patch Adams’ voice on me.” The teasing is accompanied by a smirk. “I am not one of your patients.”
“Wait, I thought you were a pediatric dentist?” A.D. investigates, voice riddled with confusion. “Not a fictional Sleeper movie character.”
“First off, Patch Adams is a real guy,” my brother promptly insists. “What you just heard is a running joke from the comedian you’re Fate Mated to. I have a rather goofy demeanor and slightly more well-rounded approach to my work than most of my colleagues. My view of patient care varies vastly from the majority in my field on both sides of The Fog. And yes, Ana, I do tend to other types of creatures at the office. I’m one of the only ones in the city that does and completed a degree in order to do so. I don’t have a hang up that a couple of the others do when it comes to having humans as patients.”
“We actually met through one of the ones that doesn’t deal with Sleepers,” Min picks up where he stopped. “My Sleeper goddaughter, Iris, needed a Pedodontist, but the one my best friend wanted claimed to be full – really just didn’t deal with Sleepers –, so he referred us to Al, and the minute he walked out of the back in Smurf scrubs and clown shoes, Minky, my inner mouse, lit up like a moddamn Christmas tree.” She smiles wildly at her other half. “Logic kept screaming to Fate ‘please not this one’ but all my instincts demanded otherwise.”
“Since Min was the patient’s godmother and not the parent or legal guardian, technically I wasn’t breaking any sort of rules by agreeing to go out with her for a drink after work.”
“See,” A.D. all knowingly hums, “technicality for the win.”
“Not the same thing as cheating against a five-year-old.”
“Five and half!” my niece chirps from where she should be watching cartoons.
“Turn up the T.V.,” her father swiftly scolds.
“Won’t matter,” Min gingerly reminds. “We have excellent hearing, and terrible eyesight, remember?”
“Not sure I could ever really forget,” my brother murmurs under his breath.
His wife flashes a chastising glare. “I heard that.”
“What really happened during that date?” I cautiously ponder, breaking up the possible fight that’s brewing. “Why do I now feel like we didn’t get the real story?”
“You did. I just left out the part about being Fate Mated to a mouse shifter, the mark, and practically agreeing to other realm marry the hot blonde I just met because my gut told me to.”
“You have a mark?!”
He flashes me his wrist, pushes aside the band to his fitness watch, and reveals a tiny mouse silhouette.
Another taunting smile takes root. “Manly.”
“Fuck off,” Al lightly laughs along with A.D. and Min.
“How long did the union take?” my Fated Mate curiously inquires.
“From the time we met to our official bond was about thirteen days,” Min announces.
“Thirteen days?!” Squeaking is unavoidable. “You told us you’d been together for months!”
“Technically, I didn’t,” my brother argues with a small head bob. “I said days and The Fog does what it does. It hid the truth.”
“And thirteen days is actually really long to a shifter once we’ve found our mate,” my sister-in-law promptly explains. “We operate much different than Sleepers. Like once we’ve found the person that we’re meant for, that’s it. We wanna bond. We wanna have offspring. We wanna tie our souls together. Every second we have to wait unbonded is pure torture.”
I send my gaze to A.D. to verify the last comment.
“Pure. Agony.”
“The type that drives some rejected mates to do some insane things,” Min meekly warns.
Guilt immediately begins to spread throughout my chest.
“But I know in the end it’ll be worth the wait,” he sweetly coos, bringing the smallest blush to my cheeks. “There’s not a single doubt in my fucking mind about that, Tiny Toes.”
“Mommy!” Minnie calls out collecting everyone’s attention. “I got sauce in my hair!”
Min looks at her recently retrieved fork in defeat prompting me to suggest, “How about I help you get it out while we let your mommy, daddy, and uncle A.D. finish eating?”