She narrowed her eyes. “No. Happy now?”
“Have you, er, slept with anyone? Since me, I mean?”
“I really don’t see-”
“Just answer me. Please,” Bael said, and Kett saw the desperation in his eyes.
She blew out a sigh. “No,” she said. “I live in the middle of fucking nowhere and there are no eligible men here between the ages of eighteen and eighty. Except for Jarven, and he don’t count.”
Something flared in Bael’s eyes but it was hard to tell what. He drank the rest of his beer all in one go then held it out to Bill. “More, please.”
Bill silently refilled it, watching them intently, and Kett sighed. Bael was clearly really uncomfortable talking about this in public, but equally as clearly he wasn’t going to go away until he’d said it.
Maybe he did know something about the cave. She ought to hear him out.
“Bill,” she asked, “mind if we go upstairs?”
Amusement flared in the landlord’s face before he nodded. “Go ahead,” he said, and Kett picked up her mug of beer and led Bael to the door behind the bar that separated the pub’s private and public sections.
Upstairs was a small parlor, away from the sounds and smells of the bar. But Kett wasn’t used to drinking in such a clean atmosphere, so she lit up a cigar while Bael looked around nervously.
“Talk,” she said.
He sat down opposite her and ran a hand through his hair. “You’re not making this very easy,” he said.
“Wasn’t aware I was supposed to.”
He sighed. “Okay. Here’s the thing. I’m Nasc, right?”
“Right. What’s your animal?”
“Don’t distract me. I’m Nasc. Do you…know very much about us?”
Kett waved her hand to say she didn’t.
“Right. Well. Your cousin is mated to one.”
“We covered this already.”
“Yes, but do you know what that means? Mated?”
“I figure it’s like being married, only more…animally. More sex, maybe.” She blew out a smoke ring.
At the mention of sex, Bael’s eyes darkened. Well, she couldn’t blame him. If it had been half as good for him as it had for her, he’d be desperate for more.
“Well, yes. Sort of. It has a lot to do with sex.”
“What a surprise.”
“Once a Nasc is mated, they can’t have sex with anyone else.”
“Like marriage, then.”
“No, I mean literally can’t. It’s physically impossible.”
Kett blinked, an image of the insanely virile Dark being unable to get it up suddenly flashing into her mind. “Seriously?”
“Yep. And we can only have children with our mates too.”
“So…once you’re mated, that’s it? No get-out clause? No divorce? No shagging around on the side?”
“Nope. Once you’ve found your mate, that’s it.”
“Huh. Well, I suppose it’s a better system than ours.” Her fingers curled into a fist, remembering. “So long as you’re really, really sure you want to be mated to that person.”
Bael cleared his throat, drank some more beer then cleared it again. “Um. Well. That’s the thing.”
She narrowed her eyes. “That can’t be the thing; you already said ‘the thing’.”
“Well, this is another thing. Or part of the same thing. Um. You don’t actually get to decide if you want to be mated or not.”
“You don’t?” Kett scowled. It reeked of arranged marriages to her, and in Kett’s mind, an arranged marriage was like executing a random person when a crime had been committed. You might get lucky and get the right person, but chances were you’d just condemned someone innocent.
“No. It’s sort of a fate thing. Once you find each other, that’s sort of it.”
“Fate,” Kett said skeptically.
“Well, yes.”
“That’s bollocks,” she said.
“I thought you’d say that,” he sighed.
“No, it is. The whole fate thing. Written in the stars and all that. There’s not a thing written down can’t be changed.”
“It’s not written anywhere,” Bael said, looking miserable. “It’s just true. Once you find your mate, that’s it.”
He looked at her then, and those green eyes connected with something inside her. A nasty suspicion started in Kett’s mind.
“Please don’t be telling me what I think you’re telling me,” she said.
“What do you think I’m telling you?” Bael asked warily.
“That you think we’re these fated mate things.”
He swallowed. “Well, yes.”
Kett looked at him. He appeared to be serious. And not particularly cheerful about it, either. Well, fuck this.
She picked up her beer and drank some. Then some more. Then some more, until the mug was empty. Then she went to the stairs and yelled, “Bill, I need more,” and handed down her mug for a refill.
His bushy eyebrows waggled at her as he filled it. “How’s it going up there? Don’t you two stain my rugs.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Kett snapped, and took her beer back.
Bael was sitting where she’d left him, gnawing on one fingernail. She hadn’t seen him look so uncertain since she’d met him-but then, she reminded herself sternly, she hadn’t met him very long before he’d buggered off again.
They hardly knew each other. This was insane.
“Look,” she said, sitting down again. “This is stupid. We can’t be those mate things because I’m not Nasc.”
“Neither is the queen.”
Dammit, he had a point. “Well, are you sure they’re these fated mates?”
Bael nodded morosely. “Yes. They even gave me details.”
A piece slotted into place in Kett’s head. “You talked to them about this?”
“Had to talk to someone! I haven’t been able to have sex with anyone since you!”
A small touch of pride warmed Kett. Then irritation squashed it. “Is that how you found out where I live? Chance told you?”
Warily, he nodded.
“She is so dead.”
“Don’t you threaten my queen.”
He said it mildly, and Kett snorted. “She’s my cousin. And I could definitely kick her ass.”
“Look, we’re not talking about her.”
“No, we’re talking about your recent fit of insanity. I say recent, because based on the evidence so far, they seem to hit with the same regularity as the sunrise. Bael, I’m not your mate. We hardly know each other!”
“Chance and Dark hardly knew each other. In fact, he tried to kill her several times, but they still-”
“Still not talking about them,” Kett said, glaring at him.
He was a loon. Well, she already knew that, but he was twice a loon now. If he thought she was going to jump for joy at his mad proposal-because that’s what it was, a proposal, horribly mixed in with a fait accompli-then he wasn’t just insane, he was also stupid.
Why her? She was a divorced ex-con with a crippled leg and a mad family. She wasn’t young, she wasn’t beautiful and she did nothing but yell at him. All she had in her favor was that she was great in the sack, and frankly Bael could probably get that anywhere.
Kett didn’t like fate. She didn’t like the idea that things were meant to happen and there wasn’t any way to change them, and she really didn’t like the idea that there was a preordained destiny out there for everyone. Especially for herself.
She’d heard enough predictions about how she was going to either go insane, get locked up in jail or die young-or all three-to be completely sick of it.
Even if two out of three had come true already. And sitting here listening to Bael, she wasn’t entirely sure about the third.
Added to which, she didn’t want a mate. Husband. Boyfriend. Whatever. Other people got in the way-they always had, they always would. Other people got you hurt, or they got hurt because of you.
Alone was best. It always had been.
Kett ran her hands over her face. It was just as well she couldn’t currently change her shape, or Bael would probably think it was a sign they really were meant to be together. She needed to make it clear to Jarven that Bael wasn’t to be told-in the unlikely chance that Jarven actually decided to speak to anyone, that was.