Shirley No. No. It’s impossible. You’re wrong, I tell Cicy, my body beginning to shake. There’s no way. I can sense it, Cicy tells me in return, unbothered by my efforts to calm her. He can’t be, I insist. You’re just confused. That’s all this was - confusion. Cicy had to be mistaken, misreading signs. And maybe she was just hopeful due to the other mating bonds we’d witnessed lately - even Jean’s that we literally watched snap into place. However, Cicy’s excitement over Keith’s possibility of being my mate formed my own confusion. For years - or even for as long as I could remember - Cicy and I had been in agreement that mating bonds were a waste of time. Neither of us wanted one, and now she’s singing a different tune, disrupting our peace. It’s nothing,