"Aristo, what happened to your hand?" Diablo asked his friend that had just arrived home.
"I injured myself while I was taking a survey around the premises in my other form." He replied. Aristo was also from Hellion but unlike Diablo and Davos he was a shapeshifter. His favorite form was a small ginger brown cat that could easily stay undetected.
"You rarely take trips and come back home this late." Davos who was still around asked teasingly with his playful demeanor.
"I went to a clinic to have the wound checked out since it was a bit deep." He replied.
"You have another scent on you. That's also rare." Davos winked as he looked at the jacket that Aristo was holding. Aristo glanced at Diablo who was quite, silently pleading with him to save him from their talkative friend but Diablo also seemed interested in where the conversation was heading.
"It's also a feminine scent." Diablo added making Aristo sigh as he realized he was on his own and he had to answer his naughty friends' questions.
"I found my mate." He said bluntly leaving his friends rather surprised. He had found his soulmate on earth and not somewhere back in their realm which was truly surprising. It was something that had a 0.001% chance of happening but here he was, destined to love a human girl. He had felt a pull towards her the moment she stood next to him at that bus stop. He knew she was the one from the way her scent seemed so pleasant and the accelerating rhythm of his heart at her mere presence. Unlike other males of his kind that immediately accepted and bounded with their mates, he had done the exact opposite which was to ignore and silently reject the pull towards her. It's not like he undermined humans but he had his reasons. She was human, which meant the mate bound only affected him alone unless he marked her and made her his but that was not a sure guarantee that she could stay.
'What if she woke up one day and decided she no longer wanted him?' he thought, leaving him broken and possibly unable to love again. He had seen his eldest brother lose a mate and the blow had been fatal. He had lost her to child birth. He honestly did not want to ever feel an emotion called fear. The fear of losing that one thing that made one's life whole, a mate.
"That's surprising." Davos voiced out his thought, making Aristo snap out of his.
"It is indeed." Diablo agreed, carefully studying Aristo's rather emotionless face. The man did not seem so happy about his findings.
"You do not look that happy." Diablo pointed out. Aristo sighed as he decided to tell them about his insecurities. He hated being vulnerable and having a mate apparently made him feel something akin to that.
"You shouldn't reject a possible chance to living a fulfilling life because of worry that things will turn sour. She maybe that one star that will light up your life even on the darkest nights." Davos said after listening to his friend. Aristo was quite for a long time considering what his friend had just said and he decided that maybe Davos had a point but he was not about to readily stake out his cards for a probability game. It was a complicated situation, going against emotions, instinct and following logic instead. He placed his hands in his pockets as he turned and walked away, going to his room to rest. If he was going to act on the bond, then he had to study his mate to know what kind of person she actually was which meant secretly stalking her! Diablo watched Aristo walk away and he could hardly imagine what he was going through because in his kind, there was no such thing as one having a mate which gave them a bit of freedom to love whoever they wanted. Hellion was inhabited by three races, the valerians who were like Diablo and Davos and the Felines (cat people) who were like Aristo and they could shift into any animal of the cat family and lastly, the canines. These were also shapeshifters but were mainly versed in the dog family for example lycanthropes and werewolves but apparently, the mate bound was only for the shapeshifters.
"I could have loved it if I had a mate too." Davos said as he watched Aristo walk away.
"Oh shut up, playboy." Diablo said to him.
"I am not one anymore." Davos replied cheekily.
"Oh, really?" Diablo asked skeptically.
"Maybe I should call Joy, Careen and… Kathy to confirm that." Diablo added earning him a glare from Davos. Those were the girls Davos was currently entangled with.
"You should have seen the look on your face." Diablo teased as he chuckled.
"Am out of here." Davos replied as he picked up his coat and said his goodbyes.