Accidental Surrogate

frown at him, starting to get angry again. “What does that even mean, Dominic!? You just know – well obviously if I just knew, then I’d have told you definitively yes or no!” “Well, maybe you do know and you’re trying to spare my feelings!” My eyes go wide then and I lean forward, staring at him, a little appalled. “I am trying to figure out a very important question about my life and my identity, Dominic,” I growl. ” So no, I am not trying to spare your feelings I am asking you to help me. So please, tell me how it is that a person would just know.” Sinclair sighs in frustration, his eyes narrowed at me before he shuts them and does his best to think.

“Sometimes I forget,” he murmurs, ” that you’ve only had your wolf for a few months. Please, Ella, forgive me. I – there must be some things that are instinctual to me, and to Roger, that to you and Cora are…harder.” “Yes,” I say, nodding, agreeing. “So .” I hesitate now, because I’m about to ask him for details that I’m honestly not sure that I want. But I steel myself, knowing that I need them. “How did you know…that Lydia was your fated mate?” He sighs a little and opens his eyes to look steadily at me, a question in his expression. I nod seriously, letting him know that I understand what I’m asking.

So, he sighs again and begins.

“It was…instant,” he explains, his eyes going a little distant with the memory.

“The intensity of it was like my attraction to you – because I was always attracted to you, Ella, even when you were just the human nanny that lived down the road. But with Lydia? When I saw her after I reached my majority, the bond was instant.” I think back to when I saw Calvin for the first time and – well…I did notice him, didn’t I? And when he looked at me, I couldn’t look away? Was that… “Can you tell me more?” I push, needing more details. “Like…what did it feel like?” He nods, continuing though I can tell it is hard for him. “I was just fucking sixteen. She was…god, she was Roger’s lover, his girlfriend, and they were very serious. But the first time I met her again after I’d reached my maturity, I felt her come into the room. And though she was across it, and in a group of people, my eyes went instantly to her, and I was immediately aware of what she was to me.

The bond – my wolf instantly knew, I instantly knew, and there was no doubting it.” “And then for two years?” I prompt. ” You just…knew?” “It was more than just knowing,” he says shaking his head at me. “It was my wolf pining for her, and having very strong, carnal, bodily reactions to her presence whenever she was around. And she felt the same way – but Roger, we all thought, was dad’s heir. And that,” he says with a shrug, “was more important to her than the bond. At the time.” “So, she was able to…deny the bond?” “Not really,” he murmurs. “Her wolf, I’m sure, was as crazy for me as mine was for her. But Lydia was a very determined, calculating woman. She had a great deal of willpower, when properly incentivized.” We both lose ourselves in our thoughts for a moment, and I have to admit that jealousy coils in me even though I know that Lydia is dead, and that our own fated bond is stronger than theirs ever was. Still…it’s not easy to think about Sinclair loving anyone else but me.

It really does make me want to defend my claim on him in a very real, bodily way.

So, on some level, I suppose I do understand his reaction last night – his very real need to end the threat to our relationship.

honestly, I’m not sure that

and I look up to see him

don’t know,” I

his throat, urging me to speak, and I take a second to collect my thoughts before I cock my head to the

he nods, but I’m grateful he doesn’t go into detail. “It was all I thought about for two whole years, Ella. It was consuming. And I’m sure she felt it too and every mated pair

don’t feel at

stop?” I scold, “again, like with what I said about Roger being hot, it’s just an observation – it is a fact that Calvin is a very good looking man – ” The growl deepens and I can’t help it – I laugh. “Stop!” I say, swatting at him

mate, and you expect me to sit calmly while you say you think he’s handsome!?” “Okay, I take it back,” I say, sighing and rolling my eyes. “He’s very ugly – complete trash, face-wise. A toad – ” Sinclair groans, burying his face in the pillow, because he

connection with Calvin but what you said about like, knowing instantly? Or like…pining for him, and your wolf

don’t have any of that.” My mate sits up now, staring at me eagerly. “Are you serious?” he

mate.” My big, scary, sweetheart mate gives a heavy groan then, falling back on the mattress and covering his face with his hands in relief. A huge smile finds my

head, that