He stared at her. The woman just chattered and chattered.

“Oh all right, down to brass tacks. The deal is that I was human and had no real idea of the mate bond thing either when it happened to me. Here I was enjoying some, uh, horizontal interaction with Lex and then bam! I passed out and then he tells me his magic sperm has now changed my DNA. Oh man was I pissed off at him.” She snorted.

“Anyway, it took a lot of adjustment. There aren’t a lot of things about my first few months with Lex that went smoothly. But I’ll tell you right now, Ben, he’s the best thing in my life. I know this all seems very woo-woo and spooky and you probably resent your lack of choice in the matter, I did too. But she’s meant for you. Give it a chance. You don’t have to love her yet, but you want her. I know you do. So why not go with that for now while you get to know her?”

And she made sense. Suddenly it all made sense. He could do that. They could continue to date and get to know each other. There was no harm in that. And if they were meant to be like everyone kept saying, it would happen the way it was supposed to.

“Do you think that would work for her? That she’d go for it?”

Nina nodded. “She understands you’re upset. She didn’t know, she wouldn’t have just bound you without telling you. She’s a good woman, Ben. One of the best people I know. I trust her with my life. With Lex’s life.”

He sighed. That was high praise. He knew how much Nina Warden adored her husband. “She’s off at five?”

Nina grinned. “Yep.”

“Your family, er, Pack will be okay with it too?”

She shrugged. “Look, I’m not gonna lie to you, wolves are pushy about Packmates.

They’re downright annoying when it comes to their family. Tegan’s brothers are the top dogs, um, wolves. So they wanted to come here, beat your ass and drag you back to the house and give you to their sister to make her feel better. That’s what they do. That’s what brothers do. But as she quite unabashedly held a Glock to Cade’s head at the very threat, he’s backing off for the time being to try and let you two work it out. I’ll do what I can to help. But if you hurt her, you’ll wish Cade or Lex had found you first because I’m not playing around here. Tegan is special, you will not harm her. You have her heart, you willbe careful with it or I’ll hack your balls off with a plastic spork and feed them to feral ducks while I make you watch.”

He shifted in his chair uncomfortably. “All right. I’ll call her when her shift is over and arrange to see her.”

“Call her now. She’ll feel better and you will too. I promise.” Nina stood and went to the door. “Oh and Ben? Welcome to the family.” She winked and left.

The woman was f**king scary. He snorted as he picked up the phone and dialed the number Tegan had given him.

She must have seen his name on caller ID because she answered, “Hi.” He felt her sadness and relief through the phone lines. Weird. Still, he wished like hell he could touch her to ease her worry.

“Hey. I’m sorry about last night. I didn’t know what to do or say. How are you today?”

She chuckled. “It’s been a day. I held a gun to my brother’s head earlier.”

“I heard.”

“Ah, Nina’s been by.”

“She said a lot of stuff. Most of it went over my head. She talks a lot. But some of it made sense. Can I see you tonight? Make you dinner at my place so we can talk?”

“Yeah. I ‘d like that.”

He gave her directions and she arranged to come over at seven. And he did feel better when he hung up.

Tegan took a deep breath as she got out of her car and stood in Ben’s driveway. She liked the look of the unassuming rambler. The front yard was nicely landscaped with Japanese maple trees and pretty shrubbery. Nothing fancy, but it was kept up and Tegan felt like the place was taken care of by someone who cared about it.

For her, the matter was simple. He was her mate. But at the same time, she didn’t think she could deal with waiting around until he figured out just what he wanted either.

She was a patient woman, the years after Lucas’s death had taught her a lot about waiting and truly being ready for the big things. Ben was her big thing.

How she’d balance her need to respect herself and let him find a way to accept what was between them wasn’t something she’d worked out. She wanted to give him time.

Wanted to help him through what had to be a very confusing situation. That would be her starting point because he was hers and she knew the joys of having a mate connection and she very much wanted it again.

Tegan had spoken with her grandmother earlier that day. All Grandma would say for sure was that things are thrown in our path for a reason. Ben was there and it was Tegan’s destiny to deal with him.

And while she respected her grandma very much, Tegan felt like she’d had her damned share of things thrown in her path for a reason and wondered why something easy couldn’t be her destiny instead.

Brushing the front of her clothes, she gave herself a mini pep talk and headed for his front door.

He opened it before she even knocked, standing there looking masculine and sexy.

“Hi. Come in.”

She walked past him, trying to ignore how much the scent of his body made her weak in the knees. The place was warm inside and a fire was going in the fireplace on the far wall.

The feel of his body behind her washed over her as she tried to hold herself together, wanting to touch him but not knowing if she could bear to be rejected.