Carolline stepped through the hospital cafeteria doors with a great sense of wariness. As casually as she could, she looked around the bustling room. The atmosphere much different than before. The last two times she had been in here, she had run into Dr. Andersen. She wasn’t looking to make it a third.

Three steps into the room, she saw him. He was facing her direction talking to one of the ER nurses Carolline knew. Luckily, he hadn’t noticed her.

She took a step back, her mind focused on escape, and ran into a solid mass. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Jack Bennett. Shit. Devon took that exact moment to look up at her…well, them. Probably because she managed to knock the wind out of the guy behind her.

Jack laughed, sliding his arm around her waist. She wasn’t sure why he did that. She wasn’t about to fall to the floor at his feet. Maybe that’s what other women did when they were in his presence, not her though. His head dipped next to hers, lips close to her ear. “At least you don’t have a hot drink this time.”

Carolline never took her eyes off Devon, who was boring a hole through them. His jaw clenched, nostrils flared.

“Why is he so mad?” she asked softly, more to herself than to the man holding her.

“You know he never went through Dewasa like the rest of us,” Jack commented lightly, not exactly answering her question.

No, she didn’t know that for sure, but it answered one of her questions about him. “I’m not sure what that has to do with him being mad. I have nothing to do with his hormonal changes.”

Jack let go of her, stepping up next to her. “I have a question for you, and I’m hoping you’ll have the answer, or be able to find it.”

Carolline shifted her attention to Jack. “Devon isn’t a hybrid, I’d be happy to help if I can though. A lot of my studies included the pure family lines. It helped to understand the subtle changes when other species copulated and produced children.”

A small grin lifted the corner of his mouth. He looked amused by her rambling. “Can a person over the age of thirty experience Dewasa if they’ve finally found their mate? If said person was married before to a human, who may or may not have been his true mate. A person who claimed someone outside the normal perimeters we all know and tend to follow.”

Her eyes narrowed at his not so subtle description of Devon. “You think he’s found his true mate.”

Jack looked at her pointedly, then back to Devon, who was making his way over to them.

Carolline had no control over what happened next. There was a slight buzzing in her ears as she tried to make sense of what Jack was intimating. Her legs turned to jelly, and she wobbled on her feet. All the blood rushed from her head. She was aware of Jack grabbing a chair and pushing her down onto it. Aware of the murmurs picking up around the cafeteria. The way all eyes were focused on them.

She wasn’t Devon’s mate. There was no way. It can’t be what Jack was suggesting. If that were true, shouldn’t she feel something? Wouldn’t her tigon be scratching from the inside, begging to come out? She was still within the typical Dewasa mate-finding zone, though. She didn’t count the fact that she only had eyes for him when there were other rather attractive men around as a sign. All women had eyes for him. It was the nature of his charm and looks. She also didn’t think the fact that he made her heart flutter and her breath stop up in her lungs as a sign of anything either. She attributed those anomalies to his looks as well. The Goddesses knew he wasn’t charming to her. He’d never said a kind word or whispered sweet endearments in her ear. Devon scowled or glared. Barked commands and was, in general, a righteous ass.

Jack had to be talking about someone else, and she merely wasn’t in on the joke.

While she tried to string together an intelligent response, Devon descended on them, scowl locked solidly on his face. “What happened?”

“I’m not quite sure. We were talking about you, then she looked like she’d seen a ghost. Face turned white, and it looked like she was going to faint.”

Carolline’s head cleared minutely, the initial wave of shock over, and she started to get up from her seat. “I think I’ll avoid the cafeteria from now on. I shouldn’t drink so much tea.” Large hands, Jack’s she presumed, pressed her back down.

Devon crouched in front of her, his hands resting on the sides of the chair. She noted he was careful to avoided touching her. “Are you okay?”

“Carolline,” she mumbled, still a little stunned.

“What?”

Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. Calling on her breathing exercises to center herself. After a couple of breaths, she felt her brain reengage. “My name is Carolline,” she said, her voice steady. I knew it wasn’t anything. “Wasn’t sure you knew.”

Dark brown eyes fixed on her, mesmerizing her. Sending a blast of heat through her. “I know,” he said, his low sexy voice sending a shudder down her spine. He rubbed his hands over her arms. Clearly mistaking her physical reaction as being cold. She was far from it, though. With each glide of his hands along her bare skin, the heat searing her within became hotter and hotter. Her heart beat rapidly, breath came up short and erratic. Her core spasmed and her panties grew damp.

Devon’s nostrils flared, and she knew he was breathing in her arousal. She watched as the very outer edge of his irises began to glow. A thin ring of golden brown, shining like amber on fire and growing by the second.

Something quivered low in her belly, holy fuck, she needed to leave. Actually, run. Carolline jumped from her chair, knocking it back, and did exactly as her head told her to do, completely ignoring the panicked tigon inside.