True Mates Book One: The Setlist

Chapter Twenty-One: Teritorial

*******Aurora's POV*******

After being off for weeks while I was dying, I finally had to go back to work. But now I am exhausted. I unlocked my door and went inside, ready for a nap.

"Aurora."

I screamed, jumping back towards the door.

"Baby, it's me," Jimin's voice said.

"What the hell, Jimin?" I asked, closing the door behind me, and reaching over to flip on the lights. "You scared the crap out of me. Why are you sitting here in the dark?"

"It's not dark, baby," he told me, standing up to walk over to me.

"It's not exactly light either," I said. I set my bags down, then wrapped my arms around his neck as he leaned in to kiss me. "I thought you had rehearsal?"

"I did," he said. He kissed me again. "But it ended and I missed you. I actually thought that you'd be home by the time I got here. Why are you just now getting home? It's almost seven."

"Why does everybody think that a teacher's day ends at three?" I asked, rolling my eyes. "We have all kinds of shit to do. And I still have more to do tonight."

"Being a teacher sounds exhausting."

"It's not for the faint of heart," I said. "So what are you doing here?"

"I missed you," he told me. He pulled back and took my hand, leading me over to sit on the couch. "And I need to talk to you about something."

"Uh-oh. That sounds bad." I sat down next to him on the couch. "Have you decided that you don't want to be my Mate anymore? Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"Don't even joke about that, Aurora," he told me. His brows knitted together in a frown as he watched my face. "You're mine. And I'm yours. Always. We're True Mates, baby. There's no getting out of that."

"I'm sure that there's some kind of loophole if you really want t-"

"I don't," he growled at me. "I never will."

"Good, because...Petra told me something." I took a deep breath, looking down at his shoulder, instead of his handsome face. "If we don't umm...mate, then she and I are going to die. And this time it will be final."

"I...uhh...What?"

"Something about when the witches turned her village into werewolves, they messed up the spell, and now there's a time limit on the amount of lives we can go through without mating with our True Mate, or we'll die. And this is apparently our last chance. And it has to happen soon. Like really soon."

I said it all in one breath, rushing through it.

"If we don't mate, then you'll die?" he asked me. "For good?"

"Yes, so if you do want to get rid of me," I said, trying to make light of the situation. "Then this is your chance. You won't get stuck with me in your next life."

"Why are you making a joke about something like this?" He frowned, his dark eyes watching me intently.

"Because I'm freaking out, Jimin," I tried to explain. "And humor is how I deal with things. I...I don't want to die."

Jimin sighed and reached for me, pulling me over to sit sideways on his lap, then wrapping his arms around me to hold me close.

"I would never let that happen to you, Aurora."

"But you haven't even mentioned actually making me your mate, Jimin," I said. I pushed my face into his neck, inhaling his sweet apple scent. "So I just figured maybe you didn't want that."