“How can that be? You should have recognized you were mates when you turned eighteen,” Dana, Malekai’s mother, questioned.
“It happened because I recognized Cassie as my mate on my eighteenth birthday, and I couldn’t let her know, or she would have given up all her dreams and stayed here in Bloodstone,” Malekai explained.
He sighed and continued, “I wanted Cassie to be happy and follow her dreams of going to college and being a police officer in Seattle. I knew we were mates as soon as I saw her on my eighteenth birthday. I went to Miss Maggie the next day and told her I didn’t want Cassie to find out we were mates, at least not then. She told me that I needed to give her a gift that she would wear and never take off, preferably a pendant or bracelet of some kind. Something with a chain
