Free Phoenix by Amelia Jade Page A

we weren’t in the middle of anything, you filthy pervert,” she said with a chuckle.
    “So you and he are finally hooking up tonight then?” Courtenay asked, wanting all the dirty details.
    “No! I don’t know!” She frowned. Was she planning on sleeping with Uriel tonight? It wasn’t something she had expressly set out to do, but Sydney found that she wasn’t put off by the idea either. “Maybe? I’m hoping he’ll ask me out on a date.” Her eyes narrowed in confusion. “Wait, do shifters even do that? Do they go on dates? Or am I just expected to be his mate and that’s that?”
    Courtenay’s jaw dropped at the same time her bag hit the floor as she stared at her friend in shock.
    “Holy shit,” she whispered. “You weren’t talking about just hooking up with him, were you?”
    Sydney shook her head.
    “Sydney,” she said, taking her friend by the shoulders. “You realize that shifters either fuck you or mate with you, right? They don’t have a ‘relationship’ setting anywhere in the middle. Do you know what you’re getting into if you expose yourself to him like this?”
    She swallowed hard, looking her friend directly in the eyes, and nodded. “I think so. As much as any human is going to truly ‘get it’ without being a shifter.”
    “You’re sure this is what you want?” There was concern in Courtenay’s eyes, but not for what Sydney was doing, but to ensure that Sydney was aware of it.
    “I don’t know, Court. I really don’t know. But there is some sort of... connection between us. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s more powerful and intense than anything I’ve ever felt before with any man. It’s sexual, yes, but it’s also more than that. It’s a sense of completeness being around him, if that makes any sense. I don’t know how else to explain it.”
    Her friend nodded. “Do me a favor though?”
    “What’s that?” Sydney asked.
    “Go talk to Caia, okay? Just tell her how you feel, and see if she agrees. She’s really nice.”
    “That’s not a half bad idea,” Sydney said, agreeing to the suggestion. She wouldn’t mind talking to a human woman who had been down this path before. Caia was Gabriel’s mate, and like Courtenay had said, she was extremely nice. She had come to live at the mansion with Gabriel ever since the two of them had become official.
    “Good.” A loud beep sounded from the bag she had dropped. “Sorry girl, duty calls,” she said with a grin and picked her stuff up off the floor and headed into her office.
    Sydney turned and moved along to her own office, taking her time. She had an appointment in half an hour, but that was it until Uriel arrived.
    Thoughts of being mated to Uriel swirled in her brain once more, stirred up by the shock of her friend. Was she making the right choice in pursuing things with him?”
    Her mother would approve at least.
    Sydney snorted aloud at that thought.
    “Of course she would. She wants grandkids more than she wants me to be happy.”
    Sydney was one of eight siblings. Each of her other brothers and sisters were now married, and all but two had at least one child. The others were working on it, from what she knew. The only exception had been Sydney. Her sisters were housewives and loved it. She was the one who had been so driven to establish herself in a field and find a career. It wasn’t that she was against marrying and having children. Far from it, in fact. She just wanted to do it on her own terms, after proving herself to the world.
    Her mother didn’t agree with that, and it had been the source of constant fights. If she brought Uriel to meet them, however, her mother would probably be deliriously happy. Even more so if she bore his children.
    How would mother react if I brought home a few mini-bear shifters?
    A laugh bubbled up within her at the thought of it. The look on her mother’s face alone would almost be worth doing it. A smile restored upon her face, she got down to