Gifted with Hydrangea by Tigertalez Page A

was so
much to learn, and he didn’t want to miss this ranking information, as it
sounded too important. “Okay, so after the enforcers are?”
    “ The trackers. Those are Nix, Kace ,
and Ryker. Now, remember how I said the alpha can make his own rules?”
    Heath vaguely remembered something like that. It was a
lot of information to process. He nodded, so Enzo continued.
    “ Well, because our pack is so big, he actually created
another rank. The rank of sentry. Not all packs have extra ranks, but an alpha
can do just about anything he wants. Sentry is our lowest rank. There are no
other officer ranks, so everyone else is equal to one another. I would say the
only exception is the pack doctor.” Enzo chuckled. “He’s probably the only one who
could defy Alphy , and not get hurt doing so. You can
think of him as like a silent partner in the pack. He even attends the officer
meetings at times.”
    Heath leaned back on his hands and swung his legs as
he thought about the information. There was really one other thing that he
didn’t fully understand, and it bothered him.
    Enzo interrupted his thoughts. “Please tell me, Heath,
what are you thinking? Let me help you understand whatever it is that is
bothering you.”
    Heath raised a brow as he gave a pointed look at Enzo.
“I didn’t think I was that transparent.”
    “ Not outwardly, but paranormals have a keener sense of smell than humans. And shifters have one of the keenest of
all paranormals . I can smell your emotions. That is
another thing. You can’t lie to a paranormal because we can scent them.”
    “ Wait, so no one lies?”
    Enzo shrugged. “We have our villains, as do humans, so
there are those who lie, but it’s incredibly tricky to get away with, so it’s
unnatural to us.”
    “ Oh, ok, I guess.”
    Enzo gave him a pointed look. “So what was it you were
thinking that left you so unhappy?”
    Heath leaned forward again and sighed. What he was about to reveal was
embarrassing, but he really liked Enzo, more than logic should dictate, so he
needed to clarify things before his heart got further invested. As it was, he
was going to be nursing the biggest broken heart he’d ever endured.
    “ I really like you, Enzo, even if you aren’t human.
It’s obvious you didn’t mind having some fun with the same sex, but if you got
mated, well, I don’t think my heart could take it. I’m looking for a lifelong
relationship. No one wants to be the ‘good for now’ lover.”
    Enzo twisted himself to face Heath and grabbed both of
his hands. Heath looked up into his extremely serious face.
    “ Heath, listen very carefully to me. I know I told you
this last night, but given the day you had, I understand you probably don’t
remember, or didn’t understand what it meant. Shifters mate for life. All
paranormals mate for life. We live longer lives than humans, so fate grants us
the ability to sense the other half of our soul, our mate. It’s a rare gift to
find, because we get only one, but once we find them, we’ll want no one else.
After we mate with them, we can’t even get it up for another.”
    Heath’s heart started to ache. Enzo had just confirmed
to him that they couldn’t be anything more than friends. But in spite of the
freaky shifting part, for some reason he wanted more with Enzo.
    “ Don’t you get it?” Enzo sounded urgent. “ You are my mate, Heath. We don’t choose
our mate, otherwise we’d mess things up, so fate chooses our most perfect mate,
and that perfect someone for me, is you. I don’t, and will never again, want
another. It’s you or no one.”
    A flicker of hope pulled on Heath’s heart, and a
flutter tickled his stomach. “So you’re saying I’m your soul-mate?”
    “ Yes. Be prepared, because I’m going to spend the rest
of my life begging you to mate with me.”
    Heath tilted his head. “Mate? You keep using that
term. Does it mean marry?”
    “ Sort of, but it’s more permanent for paranormals.
There are no