Every Were Gets A Mate

Chapter 25

No. No-no-no. Not again. How many weres are going to claim I'm their mate? Have I become the punishment for all weres who don't truly deserve a mate? Or do I really have more than one?

I closed my nasal passages and breathed through my mouth. I would not smell this person. If he tried to touch me, I would jump away from his hand.

Triads usually involve siblings, most often twins, occasionally lifelong friends, people so connected that they feel each other's emotions. One can't feel love for someone without the other feeling it too. Cade would have mentioned someone like that. I'd have met him already. He would have been with Cade last night.

No! I want Cade. Just Cade. Only Cade!

Cade didn't react at all. Nothing. It was as if this Kevin person hadn't said anything.

Kevin closed his eyes again and slowly turned his head side to side. "Mmmhmmm." He reveled in my scent and opened his eyes to look at Cade again. "She smells like chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. De-licious."

Relief flooded my body, and I understood Cade's calm.

Cade said, "No. She smells like red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. Because there is a cake in her car, and she has spent most of the last three days in that cake-containing vehicle. And when you do find your mate, she'll smell better than cake because mates don't smell like food."

Kevin narrowed his eyes with suspicion. "Red velvet cake, you say?"

Cade repeated the words slower. "Red velvet cake."

"Are you sure? Have you tasted it or asked her?" Kevin shook his head. "Because it smells too chocolaty to me."

"No, I haven't tasted it or asked."

Kevin's eyes widened and shot to me. "What? You have a very stingy mate, Cade." He finally spoke directly to me. "It smells like you aren't sharing other things too. The least you could do is share your cake with your mate, Jessica. Cake – mate. They even rhyme."

I saw the amusement in Kevin's eyes and knew he was teasing me. "I would be happy to share my cake with my mate. A lot has happened since Cade knocked on my hotel room door last night. That cake has not entered my mind even once until this moment."

Kevin folded his arms across his chest. "You were in the car, with the cake, when you came here today. Weren't you?"

"Yes, but the cake was definitely not the best scent in the car with me."

Kevin grinned.

Cade laughed and squeezed my hand. "You don't have to share your cake with me, Jess. I figured you were saving it to share with your family."

I smiled at Cade. "No, I just brought it since it seemed a waste not to. I'd be surprised if my mom doesn't have a birthday cake waiting for me when we get there. We can have it with dinner, share it with your squad."

Kevin interrupted us. "Who gets the cake isn't important. What kind of cake is it?"

I didn't understand the priority and wasn't sure if I should answer.

Cade said, "Oh. Jessica, this is Kevin Turner, the second-best tracker in Traveler Pack."

"Ha! No. Your mate is the second-best tracker in Traveler Pack."

I looked from Kevin to Cade and back again. "Alpha Fidoro called Cade one of his best trackers, so the rankings seem to be in contention."

Kevin said, "Yes, and what kind of cake it is will settle the matter, for the moment."