Bear the Burden: McMahon Clan 3 (Fated Mates Book 6) by Rochelle Paige

in confirmation. “Absolutely. From now on, you’ll never have to look far to find me. I’ll be exactly where I belong—with you.”
    “How do you know exactly what to say to make me feel better?”
    “Easy,” I answered. “I was made for you the same way you were made for me.”
    “There you go again with the sweet.”
    “Was it enough?”
    She tilted her head, brows furrowed. “Enough for what?”
    “To sweeten you up, and convince you to loosen your death grip on my fingers and go inside to meet my brothers and their mates.”
    Letting go of my hand, she giggled. “Yeah, you’ve managed to do the impossible. I’m ready now.”
    She still seemed nervous, but she put on a brave smile anyway. I figured it was for my benefit, that she didn’t want me to worry. Out the corner of my eye, I saw the door to my dad’s house open and several heads peeked out at us. I knew they were watching us, but it didn’t matter. I pulled her into my arms and claimed her mouth. By the time I was done, we were both gasping for air and I’d forgotten we were being watched. They didn’t forget about us, though. That was made obvious by the loud clapping coming from the front porch.
    Selene’s head swiveled in their direction and she gasped. “It looks like we have an audience.”
    “Well, the good news is you don’t have to go far to meet my family.”
    “Watching us suck face wasn’t exactly the introduction I was hoping for,” she sighed.
    “I think if you look at their expressions, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.” A furtive glance at the porch confirmed my guess. Alasdair and Braden had huge grins on their faces. Finley was smiling while crying, and Tahlia gave me a thumbs up.
    “Alrighty then. Let’s do this thing.”
    She waited for me to walk around and help her out of the truck. By the time she stepped down, she was smiling again, and it was genuine. We only made it to the bottom of the porch steps before everyone descended on us. Finley was the one to break the ice when she hug-tackled Selene, almost taking her to the ground. Luckily, I had my hand at the small of her back and was able to hold her up as Finley barrelled into her.
    “I’m Finley, Alasdair’s mate,” she said, leaning back, but still holding onto Selene. “It’s wonderful to meet you. I’ve never known a witch before.”
    “Finley,” Alasdair growled, “we talked about this earlier.”
    Finley rolled her eyes at my brother and then flashed a smile at Selene. “Whatever. He wanted me to ignore the elephant in the room, but c’mon. So Camden’s mate is a witch, big deal.” She pointed to Alasdair. “He mated the daughter of his father’s enemy and that worked out fine.”
    “It turned out a hell of a lot better than fine,” Alasdair protested, pulling her into his arms and resting his hands on her rounded stomach.
    “Which just goes to show everything will work out for your brother and Selene. They’re fated mates, like we are. Even if she’s a witch, they have the whole prophecy thing going for them too.”
    “You guys already know about the prophecy?” Selene asked.
    “Yeah,” Tahlia confirmed, stepping forward to give Selene a quick hug. “Your mom and Carrick filled us in on the situation at breakfast this morning.”
    “It seemed best since we weren’t sure you guys would make it over anytime soon,” Braden joked.
    “Like you two were any better when you were newly mated,” I responded.
    “It’s not as if we’re any better now either,” Tahlia added.
    “C’mon guys, let’s not crowd your brother and Selene,” my dad called from the door. “They’re probably hungry, and lunch is ready.”
    “I could definitely eat,” Selene murmured as everyone turned to walk up the stairs ahead of us.
    “We certainly worked up an appetite.”
    “That, we did,” she agreed before mumbling under her breath, “Lions and wolves and bears, oh my!”
    “Does that make your mom and Tempest the wicked witches and you