I startled against him. “What do you mean?”

Low growls were rocking from his chest. It seemed to take him a few moments to be able to speak again. “I don’t know, babe. I can only think of one possible explanation.” He ran a hand over his face. “Do you remember that story Mom used to tell us, when we’d ask about broken mate bonds?”

No fucking way.

I didn’t have to think hard about it. Of the many stories from the Compass parents, that one had stayed with me. Jo had been the supe I’d always gone to for love tales, since I had no mother of my own. Deep down a part of me was always trying to gather facts about mate bonds. I think even back then I’d been trying to figure out how to be with Braxton.

“The one about the lion-shifter?” I asked, barely above a whisper.

We sat on the bed. I was still naked but I knew Braxton didn’t mind.

“Yes,” he said. “The shifter with the two mates.”

I shook my head, there had to be another explanation. That story was an urban legend – the female lion shifter who had two true mates. It was said that when she found the first, a bear shifter, the mate bond didn’t properly form, so they didn’t realize they were mates. It was only when she found her second mate, a lion shifter, that the bonds kicked in, and it was then she had to choose. Once she made the choice, the bond formed with that supe.

I wrinkled my nose. “We can’t seriously be contemplating the thought that I might have two mates?”

Braxton let out a huff of air. “I don’t know. What else could it be?” He looked unsure, which was so not my dragon man. Not to mention there was something simmering behind those mesmerizing eyes, something that seemed a lot like pain. Which made me want to punch myself … in the face.

I tried to think of any other possible scenario. “Maybe it’s just about my strange dragon mark, Brax. No reason to jump to the worst conclusions yet. Let’s wait and let it play out.” I reached up and cupped his cheeks. “Besides, even if it was true, I don’t need to find a second mate, I choose you.”

He quirked an eyebrow. “Unfortunately, my beautiful shifter girl, if this is the same as that female, it’s not a decision you can make. Not yet anyway. Remember what Mom said, when the lion found both of her mates, there was some sort of test. In the end the mate best suited to her was the one.”

“So this might be what that misty vision was about?” I didn’t believe in coincidences, and the weird narrator voices had been talking about mate choices, and now Braxton was saying the same thing.