"I grew up in a traditional tiger pride," I told Sebastian. Since I was doing this, I might as well start from the beginning. "That meant that though we lived in the suburbs alongside humans, contacts with them were purposefully limited. We cubs were homeschooled, to be protected from anything that might erode our shifter traditions."

He nodded. "You were expected to take a tiger shifter for a mate. Or at least another kind of cat shifter."

"A tiger was considered ideal, yes. Unless my fated mate came along – that was the only exception allowed."

I poked a kimchi with my chopsticks. I was hungry but I knew that with what came next in my story, any food would sit like lead in my stomach.

"I was resigned to my fate – I would eventually be sharing my bed with a male capable of giving me pure tiger cubs – until my parents died in a car accident when I was 17."

"I'm sorry, Samantha." He pushed his cup towards me.

Wow. Sebastian was not just sharing but giving me his drink? He must think this part was bad, but he was yet to hear the really bad stuff.

"Thanks." I washed the uneasiness down with a sip. "I had the pride taking care of me, but we were short on funds so when I turned 18, I was allowed to work. I was just a barista in a neighborhood coffee shop but boy did that job plunge me into the world of humans. Seeing how they interacted with each other, listening in on their conversations – my universe expanded in no time. Their freedom to be themselves, to do as they see fit, to be with whoever they want... It became my dream to live like that."

"Some traditions of our kind are so fucking stifling and senseless," Sebastian grumbled, "that the only reason they are still observed in some shifter groups is their members don't know an alternative exists."

"Exactly."

Our order arrived in that moment, one long plate for me and five plates for Sebastian. The food barely fit on the table, as we had not touched the appetizers yet.

Once Jin-soo left, I continued right away, before I could lose my nerve. "It wasn't long until I became infatuated with a human. Collin was a university student, easy-going and adventurous. He wanted me as his girlfriend even though we had to date in secret because of my 'crazy relatives', as I had described the pride to him. That was years before the existence of shifters became human knowledge, so..." I took a long sip of tea. "I was hiding who I was from him, my tigress considered him unworthy as a mate, but I guess the idea of the freedom Collin represented made him irresistible to my young, inexperienced self. That's why when I eventually had to choose between him and the pride, I chose Collin. For me, he abandoned his studies and we moved somewhere far from my family."

Sebastian, who until now had listened attentively without touching his food, told me, "Even though it couldn't work between you two, it was good you left the pride. A shifter should be free to choose their own path and the rules they live by."

I nodded. Dean hadn't told me why Sebastian wasn't with his birth pride anymore, but now I thought I knew. Though some of his actions since our first encounter were caveman-ish, it sounded like Sebastian didn't adhere to the oppressive traditions both of us had grown up with.

With some tea courage, I kept going. "It didn't take long for me to realize Collin and I weren't meant to be. I was being only half of myself with him, constantly worried what would happen if he saw my eyes change to amber or if I scratched him too deep in passion. I could have told him the truth, contrary to shifter rules, but I was afraid of his reaction. He was already growing resentful because of how he had had to leave his studies and friends behind for me... So I said nothing and kept pretending everything was fine. Until I met Bruce."

Drinking the last of my tea, I noticed Sebastian's shoulders tense. He must be sensing that the next part of the story was where the shitshow began.

"I was working at a restaurant, and one evening this company of shifters came in. I went to serve them and bam! My tigress was enchanted by one of them. His looks, his scent - I was like a deer caught in the headlights. For a moment there, I even thought I had found my fated mate."

Thankfully, Mother Nature wasn't that cruel. Though it was ironic how I kept meeting my men in food and drink establishments.

"What kind was this fucker?"

Despite the crappy moment, a smile tugged at my lips. 'Fucker' was a nice way of putting it. "Bruce was a wolf shifter."

Sebastian bared his teeth in distaste.

"Yes, I know wolves and cats usually don't mix. But I felt crazy attracted to Bruce and he was right there with me in that department. His pack members were giving me the evil eye but he started hitting on me and by the end of the evening, he wanted me to leave with him. My tigress was all in but I wasn't going to do that to Collin. So when I went home, I finally had the talk with him. About our relationship not working for me."

I had felt like a total bitch that night, only to discover I hadn't been the only one dissatisfied with the relationship but postponing the inevitable.

"Collin took the news quite well," I told Sebastian. "He himself had been trying to find the least painful way to break up with me. So, on that night my two-year relationship ended and by the next afternoon I was already living on my own. Collin had barely left, in a hurry to go back to his old life, when Bruce showed up. He'd had no problem finding where I lived as the Beta of the biggest shifter group in that city."

Back then, I had found Bruce using his connections to locate me, hot. To be chased by the one you desired was thrilling... until you discovered he was a predator hunting his prey.

I took a deep breath in. "Me and Bruce became a couple and not long after, I accepted his invitation to move in with him. I had my concerns about joining a pack of 30 wolves but did it anyway because I was young and in love. In short, plain stupid."

"You were inexperienced," Sebastian corrected me. "You had to learn from trial and error that relationships with humans rarely last, just like you had to see for yourself that a cat shifter doesn't thrive in a wolf pack."

"Whether you call it stupidity or inexperience, Sebastian, the result is one and the same. And that result makes any common future of ours a no-no."

"How did the wolf hurt you?" Sebastian sounded as if he would go kill Bruce right now.

I sighed. It was time for the hardest part of the story.