Cassandra is cutting up vegetables when she notices us enter. She stops what she's doing to come over and greet me. Her smile is kind, instantly putting me at ease.

“Ari, I'm so happy to meet you finally. I didn't get to do so at the party. I'm Cassie, Aries' wife. Please, make yourself comfortable.”

Aries leans over and kisses her cheek. Where Aries has light blond hair and the same crystal eyes as Rion, Cassandra's hair is a rich chestnut. Her hazel eyes seem to be assessing me the same way. I duck my head, wanting to draw the attention away from me. She's stunning, after all, and I'm over here in a pair of sneakers, jeans with a hole in the knee, and an off the shoulder T-shirt. Rion said to dress comfortably. Why? I don't know. Maybe he didn't want me to think I had to dress up to come to his uncle's house. But he's not only his uncle. He's a freaking model.

Rion walks with me over to the couch. We sit, him beside me—but not too close—yet near enough where we can keep our hands connected. Aries sits down opposite of us, his smile broad. “Tell me, Ariane, what did your friends think of you spending time with Rion today?”

“Paige was excited.” I chuckle nervously. “I'm sure she'll be texting soon, asking what's going on.”

“It's nice that you have a friend who cares about you.”

“Yeah, all two of them.”

“I'm sure you have more friends than that.”

“Not really,” I say honestly. “I'm kind of a loner. I keep my head down, do my work, and look forward to leaving school every day.”

“No one bothers you, do they?” Rion asks.

“Define bother.”

“Ari, you must tell me if someone is giving you trouble.”

I wave him off. “It's fine. I can handle them. I have been for almost four years. I'll deal with it until graduation. Although,” I turn to face him, “now that Paige posted a picture of us together, I seem to be more popular.”

“Is that why Chad was talking to you?” I don't miss the way he growls his name.

“Yup. He's never talked to me before today. Seems being with you makes me appealing.”

“I'll snap the neck of any male who comes near you.”

“I think you can take it down a notch.” He barely knows me yet is so possessive. What is that?

Cassandra steps in front of us with a plate of veggies and dip. “Here we go. Help yourself. Ari, what would like to drink?”

“Water is fine, thank you.”

Once she steps back into the kitchen, Aries speaks up. “How much has Rion told you?”

“Told me about what?”

“You've read all the books, correct?”

“Oh, no. Not you, too?” He cocks his head at me. “Sorry, Rion told me to reread your book. Then, on the way here, told me it's about your life. I think he hit his head before getting to my school today.”

“What he said about the book is true. It’s about my life with Cassie. How we met. What we went through. Almost everything in that book is factual.” Maybe I’m the one who hit my head and forgot about it.

“Okay, say I believe that. Am I also to believe you can shift into a wolf?”

“If you don’t believe the rest of the story, why would you believe I can shift?”

I look at Rion. “What’s going on?”

“I told you to keep an open mind.”

“An open mind is one thing. What you're both talking about, it's not logical. I'm all for the romance and mystical things that happen in books, but it's fiction—not real.”

Cassandra returns with drinks for all of us and sits down beside Aries. “Why don't you boys go out and play and let me talk to Ari. I don't think either of you know what you're doing.” She gives Aries a knowing look.

“That's a good idea,” he states. “I have some wood that needs splitting. Rion can help me.” He kisses her on the cheek and stands.

Rion releases my hand. “I'll be right outside if you need me.” I nod. What could I need him for? A sanity check? It wouldn’t come from him. That would come from a shrink.

Cassandra gets up to come over and sit beside me. “Let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time, there was a woman who lived a lonely life. Her family moved across the country, and her friends had all gotten married and started having kids. She didn't think she'd ever find someone to love her. Then, one day, while she was at the home improvement store in the plumbing aisle, she saw a handsome man in a pair of grease-streaked jeans and a plain grey sweatshirt. She fell in love at first sight.”

“That was you and Aries.” I remember it from the book.

She nods. “It was. Our story is real, Ari. I met him that way. I lived every day of those pages. Aries showed me how unconditional love could be. These men, these models of Lealla's, when they find the woman they are meant to be with, their souls sing in joy. They see no one else but her. I’ve seen it happen with every pairing in the pack. When Orion comes back into the house, I want you to watch him. Really take in his movements and the way he analyzes things. The way his eyes are either on you or scanning the area around you. You're ahead of the curve. You've read the books. All that's left is for you to truly absorb what they say.”

The conversation lulls while we snack, then picks up again when she asks me about my parents and school. We avoid book talk. I'm not sure what to think about all this. Furthermore, what is this thing between Rion and me? We met, danced for hours, and now he's picking me up at school and taking me to meet his family. Are we a couple? I've never had a serious boyfriend before. The only thing left for me to do is ask him. But that pales in comparison to what Aries, Cassandra, and he are telling me. I’m not sure what to think anymore.

Aries and Orion come back inside, and it's then I realize what time it is.

I jump up. “I need to get home.” If we leave now, I can get there before my parents do. I'm not ready to introduce them to Rion when I don't even know what we are.

We say goodbye and get back into the Jag.

“Is everything okay?” Rion asks.

“Yeah, I want to get home before my parents do.”

“Do you not want them to see you with me?”

“I'm not sure. What is this, Rion? What are we?” One conversation at a time. That’s how I’m going to take this. We can figure out what we are now and this whole other craziness later.

“I'm sorry. I have to remember how different things are in your world.”

“My world? Last time I checked we live in the same state, not to mention planet.”

“What did you and Cassie talk about?”

“Oh, no. You're not doing this to me again. Tell me what you mean.”

He lets out a long breath. “I was hoping you'd read at least the rest of Aries' book first.”

“Well, I haven't. I want answers. We have an hour in the car together.”

“How about I make you a deal? You reread as many of the books in the series as you can by Friday. Then, Friday night, I'll take you out and answer any questions you have.” Why is everyone so intent on me reading these books? I've read them; however, if it means I finally get the answers I’ve been seeking, then I'll read them again.

“Fine, but I still want to know what you and I are. What's going on between us?”

“I can answer part of that. The rest will have to wait until Friday.”

I groan loudly. “Fine.”

“I want to be with you, Ari. I want us to be exclusive.” I wasn't quite expecting that. I figured he would ask if I wanted to date him, not be with him and only him. Though, given how protective he seems to be, it makes sense he’d want me to be with only him.

“You hardly know me.”

He shrugs. “Sometimes you just know.”

“After a few hours of dancing?”

He turns and smiles, then focuses back on the road. “I knew from the first moment I laid eyes on you that you were mine.”

“I wish I had your kind of confidence.”

“You deny you felt something for me when we first met?”

“I'm not sure if it was something I felt when I first saw you, but I thought you were attractive.” Did I admit that out loud? I need to get home and out of this car.

“It was more than that for me. I saw you from across the room. You were this beautiful creature. It felt like no one else existed but you. The world fell away. What was left was a single path from me to you.” If he keeps talking like this, I'm going to melt on his leather seat. I'll be nothing more than a puddle. “Then,” he continues, “when we touched, I knew you were her.”

“Her?”

“My...forever.”

“Okay this is getting a little heavy. We just met. There's no way you know that already.”

“In all the books in Lealla's series, there is one common factor—the men always knew when they found the person they were meant to be with.” Here we go again.

“They are books. Nothing more. Of course they know. They’re wolf shifters. They have this magic or something in them that lets them know when they've found their mate. Then they spend chapters making the woman understand she is it for them.”

“Exactly.”

“Huh?”

“Keep going.” He's starting to make me crazy. Wait. Starting isn't the right word. He is making me crazy.

“Hold on. You're telling me you feel for me what all those men—in all those books—felt for their mates when they first met them? How everything in their life paled in comparison to that one moment when she appeared?”

“Yes.”

“You need to drive faster.”

“Why?” he asks.

“Because I need to get out of this car. It's a book! A fictional book! This is real life we're talking about.”

“What if they were one and the same?”

“Enough. No more talking until you pull into my driveway.”

“As you wish,” he replies with mirth. I turn my body in the seat to look out the side window.

This is ridiculous. How can he possibly think our lives are like those in books? Okay, sure, Aries and Cassandra met the way that happened in the book, or at least she said they did. Maybe they were mere muses for Lealla. She loosely based their book on their real-life story. She took a real situation and adapted it, adding the paranormal element. That's possible and doesn't sound wildly insane, unlike all these men being wolf shifters. I can't even wrap my head around that.

I spend the rest of the drive trying to remember as much as I can about the books. Stuff that sticks out to me: traits, when the mates met, how the men behaved around them. It all makes my head spin. Rion is right about one thing: I need to read all the books in the series again. Underneath all this insanity, there’s a part of me that wonders about everything he’s saying. And that’s the part that scares me. Nothing to do but read now. Considering there are twelve books in the series, it looks like I won't be getting much sleep this week.