Very Bearly Mated by Rebel Carter
Excerpt from Birdie and Emmett’s story
Birdie pointed a finger at Emmett. “Where the heck do you think you’re skulking off to?”
“I’m not skulking!”
“You totally are,” Birdie took a step closer to the man, her heart squeezing when he mirrored her movement in the opposite direction. “Stop! Where are you even going? You’re my mate.” The words should have felt perfect coming out of Birdie’s mouth. What else would a shifter feel when finding their mate? Euphoric, blissed out, utterly at peace? Sure, she thought those were probably all viable options when a shifter stumbled on their mate.
Or at least they would be if said mate wasn’t edging away with wide eyes while shoving a book cart between them. She frowned watching him. It just had to be a human, didn’t it? They were twitchy when it came to shifter ways and Fey magic. If her mate had been a shifter they would have understood. They would have felt the pull, the tenuous feeling coming to life in Birdie that made her ache when she watched Emmett bump into the bookshelves behind him in his scramble to put distance between them.
Why did this have to happen to her? Why a human?
“You’re my mate,” she said again, and the words felt sour in her mouth. Heavy and sharp-edged, a knife twisting and sinking into her belly with each and every inch Emmett put between them. “Where are you going?” Birdie whispered, hands clenching into fists. She wanted to chase after Emmett, to touch him, to smell his cinnamon and cloves scent wafting to her in the space of the library.
“Oh no,” Rosie murmured, hands covering her mouth as she watched. Birdie ignored her friend and forced herself to stay where she was even while Emmett’s head whipped back and forth, searching for an exit route. She couldn’t bear seeing the look of sadness and pity in Rosie’s eyes. If she did, she might break.
“I have to get out of here,” Emmett said and threw out his hands. “Now.” He looked anxious, panicked, definitely like he was two seconds away from bolting from the library. Birdie thought he might have if she hadn’t been between him and the aisle that led to the door.
“Where?” she asked, voice coming out in a croak. She’d never imagined meeting her mate would go this way. Yes, a human mate was the most challenging to have. They didn’t get it the way a shifter, fairy, or even a witch did. Witches were hard, but they understood the magical nature of the world and how the ancient arcane made the rules when it came to things like mates.
Non-magical humans didn’t have the same kind of understanding. And from where Birdie was standing there didn’t seem to be a single magical thing about Emmett. A pity really.
“Anywhere!” he exclaimed.
Birdie winced and swallowed hard. She didn’t like hearing he needed to get away from her, but she chose to be optimistic. He was human after all. “You need time. I understand.”
“I need more than time. I need space.”
Birdie took a step back and nodded. “I can do that,” she told him and then took another step back, “I’ll give you time.” This would be overwhelming. Luna, it was overwhelming her and she was a shifter. She’d been brought up to hope and wish for her mate—and now she’d been given her fated mate. There had been no mistaking the silver spark leaping between their fingers when they’d touched. Emmett, the new librarian, was her fated mate. She wished he wasn’t looking at her like his back was up against a wall.
“Space. I need space, I can’t do this.”
She stopped walking and looked over her shoulder at him. “Can’t do what?”
“This. I’m not anyone’s mate,” Emmett spluttered. “I’m a librarian.”
Birdie arched an eyebrow. “What does that have to do with anything? You can be both.”
“I’m just-” he broke off, “I’m just saying, this is not what I expected moving here, okay? I thought this was going to be a safe haven for me. Not a place where I’d get saddled with a mate.”
The knife Birdie had felt in her chest dug in, cutting her deeper and she blinked away the tears that sprang to her eyes. “Saddled? You think this is what I wanted? A human mate?” She let out a scoff and shook her head. “This is my worst nightmare.”
Emmett crossed his arms. “And what’s wrong with a human mate?”
“Everything,”Birdie told him. “This is the worst case scenario for me. I don’t want this any more than you do. A human mate is the last thing I wanted, buddy.”
Now Emmett took a step towards her and it was Birdie’s turn to move away from him. The earlier panic she’d seen in her mate vanished. In its place was an intensity that put her on edge. There was a change happening in her mate, but what? And why did he have her adrenaline pumping? “And what kind of mate would you have wanted?” Birdie sucked in a breath when she heard his voice, it was lower, throatier. If he was a shifter the man would have been growling.
“Anything but a human,” she told him, standing her ground when Emmett came closer.
Emmett chuckled. Birdie frowned. “What’s so funny?”
“I’m not human.”
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