Mates Since Birth (Half-breed Shifter Series) by Miranda Stowe Read Free Book Online

because you’re a bonded shifter and she’s a simple human?”
    He frowned, looking insulted by the mere idea. “Of course not. But your mother is a special case. When I bit and bonded to her, she couldn’t return the favor, yet that didn’t seem to matter. We love stronger than any pair of mates I know.”
    With a sigh, Ari patted his knee. “Then she should understand the intensity of shifter bond perfectly.”
    Brow furrowed, Knox debated her answer a moment before his shoulders slumped in defeat. “Shit,” he mumbled. “She’s never going to forgive me for not telling her about this, is she?”
    Ari smiled softly. “I’ve never known her not to forgive you for anything, Dad. But if I were her, I’d probably stay pissed for quite a while. She seems to care for…for…” she couldn’t say his name aloud, so she adlibbed, “…these Griffins very much.”
    “She did,” he agreed sadly. “Before you and I came into her life, they were her entire world.” Lifting his face, he cringed. “Are you pissed at me too, then?”
    Ari shrugged. “For what? Separating me from my mate, knowing it would deplete a part of my soul—my very life source—to be far away from him?” She made a face. “Actually, no, I’m not that mad. I don’t remember him at all or how vivacious I must’ve felt around him, so I had no idea what I left behind. As for what you just did…I appreciate your protective concern. But I’m an adult now, Dad. I’ll take care of this situation myself. Don’t touch him again.”
    The mere idea of anyone trying to hurt Dane made her want to break out into her fur and start snapping necks with her big-bad wolf teeth.
    Knox didn’t answer as he watched her with an unreadable expression. But when he gave a single nod, she decided their problems were resolved. Sending him a smile, she pushed to her feet. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I guess I have a mate to tend to.”
    Knox scowled but didn’t respond to that. “Ari?” he murmured when she turned from him. When she paused and glanced back, his eyes crinkled with worry. “Did…did being apart from him really…deplete your life source?”
    She smiled softly. “Yesterday, I would’ve said no, I don’t feel as if anything has been depleted. But now that he’s here, close…” She swallowed, unable to lie. “I’ve never felt so alive, Daddy. I already feel compelled to get closer to him, so when he leaves, I’ll probably follow if for no other reason but to feel this animated.”
    He closed his eyes and nodded. “Then…I’m sorry for that, at least. I never meant to take anything from you.”
    Realizing he wouldn’t apologize for anything else, Ari followed the smell of fresh blood back to her old childhood bedroom and to the source of her energy jolt. Her mate.
    * * * *
    “This used to be Ari’s room,” Jaycee said as she instructed Dane to lay belly-first on the full-sized bed.
    His nostrils flared as he settled down onto the soft mattress, inhaling scents he’d long since ingested into his brain. The scent of his mate.
    “I can tell,” he murmured, and flicked a finger toward the wall shelf where a menagerie of stuffed animals sat. “I remember buying her that jaguar.”
    She’d always loved petting him when he was in his cat form, stroking his fur for hours. Dane hated being treated like an animal, but with Ari, it wasn’t so bad. Felt nice, actually. He had lounged with her and purred, relishing the swipe of her gentle fingers through his mane.
    There’d been nothing sexual about it, but her loving ministrations had endeared her to him in ways he’d never felt toward another human or shifter. He remembered buying the stuffed jag for her to pet for those times they couldn’t be together.
    When he bought it, he had no idea they’d be separated for twenty years.
    Jaycee chuckled as she seated herself by his hip and carefully began to tug the blanket off his shoulders and down his back to bare his wound. “Did you