by Leia Stone
“How am I supposed to find this guy? And how the hell can a human be my mate?” I asked.
Gretchen’s eyes blazed silver then, her voice deadpan. “He will find you. Fate will lead him to you. Mates are meant to be, no matter what.”
Goosebumps broke out on my arms. Okay … like I said, shit just got real.
*
The entire ride home, I was quiet. Jax and my mom listened to the radio while I tried not to freak the hell out. I may have found my mate, and by the way, he was human and hotter than the sun … and in trouble and lost. Shit.
‘You okay?’
Our twin bond was going haywire. I knew Jax was picking up on my erratic feelings. Twenty years of nothing and then bam! Dreams, fevers, awake visions. I wasn’t used to this like my mom was.
I swallowed hard. ‘I dunno,’ I replied honestly.
He nodded in the front seat and that was that. Jax may have diarrhea of the mouth, but he knew when to shut up and let me think. Twin perk.
Mom, Jax, and I all agreed not to tell dad yet that this guy might be my mate. He would only freak, and Gretchen’s theory wasn’t 100% yet.
After getting home and convincing my dad I was fine and that the witches were looking into it, Jax, Mason, Avery, and I decided to plan a trip to downtown Portland tonight to go out.
Avery sat at the edge of my bed while I got ready. I was sitting cross legged in front of the full length mirror brushing some mascara and lip gloss on.
“So, the witches think he could be your mate, too?”
Avery and I shared everything with each other. I wouldn’t keep my fears from her like I did everyone else.
I set the make-up down and faced her. “What if he is my mate? My mate, Avery! That’s huge. I’m only twenty! It feels serious and amazing and weird at the same time. And then, what if that jumpstarts my Matefinding gift and all of a sudden you and I are hanging out and BAM! I get a vision of your mate and you break up with Jax and he hates me and ...” Tears welled in my eyes as Avery crossed the space to scoop me into a hug.
“Whoa, whoa. Slow down there, crazy girl.” She stroked my hair as I laughed, the tension easing a little.
“I’m freaking out,” I confessed.
Avery smiled. “I can see that. Don’t freak out. If he is your mate, awesome. He sounds hot and you’re single. You don’t need to take up knitting next week. If you start getting mated pair visions then that’s awesome as well because that’s your gift. Your amazing gift that brings couples together so they can be happy and have kids.”
I sighed. Avery was right. My gift, it’s everything to my people.
“What if he’s not real?” Maybe that’s what I was really freaking out about. Dreaming of someone for two months straight you start to memorize the lines of their face, the way they stand. What if it was some cruel universal joke, the dream gods screwing with me?
Avery sighed. “Call it women’s intuition or whatever, but I think he’s real.”
I nodded. Thank God for best friends. Avery was like my own personal therapist.
“Thank you,” I told her.
She smiled holding my gaze and I noticed her dominance had been increasing lately. She definitely took after her father, not her submissive mother.
A knock on the door interrupted us.
“Come in!” I yelled.
Jax entered, looking suave in dark denim and a bright red polo.
“It’s a good thing werewolves can’t get diabetes because I think I just ate 600 lemon squares.” Jax held his belly as Mason walked in behind him. Mason’s hair was gelled back and he looked handsome as well.
“Dude, in two weeks we will be living in downtown Portland without any annoying parents,” Mason declared.
“Hells yeah.” Jax high-fived him.
A loud throat clearing made Mason’s face go red and we all turned to see my father standing in the doorway.
Shit. Mason inspected the fibers of the carpet as Jaxon busied himself with the make-up on my table. I chuckled.
“What’s up, Pops?”
My dad glared at Mason and Jax a little longer than usual but then spoke to me. “Be careful tonight. I just got off the phone with the Alpha council. Some weird stuff is going on. Seems to have a pattern.”
I stood and my wolf rose to the surface. I knew my eyes would be pulsing yellow. “What stuff?”
My father’s hand came out in a gesture that was supposed to settle me. “Just a few wolf kidnappings. It could be random.”
Damn, it happened before. I guess I wasn’t surprised. People who either hated us or were curious, or wanted to show a friend. A couple times a year we heard about these reports. Mostly in small towns with smaller, weak packs.
I nodded. “I will protect everyone,” I said, purposefully trying to ruffle Jax’s feathers.
“Excuse me?” Jax stood to his full height and faced off with me. I grinned, rolling my shoulders to relax them as my brother’s eyes met mine.
‘Challenge,’ my wolf declared as I continued to stare.
Jax set his jaw and stared harder.
“Here they go again,” Avery groaned.
“Jaxon, it’s okay that I am more dominant than you. Girl power,” I teased.
Jax’s upper lip broke out in sweat. “I am your protector. I’m stronger than you,” Jax said aloud.
My father’s voice boomed around us. “Physical strength means nothing with a weak mind.”
Jax growled, stepping closer to me; we were nearly nose to nose. I wanted to look down so god damn bad. My legs felt like jelly, sweat beaded my upper lip. You thought Zumba was a good workout? Try staring down a dominant werewolf for a full minute. My heart was jackknifing in my chest, and I swear I was going to pass out, but Jaxon groaned and finally broke his gaze, looking down at my chin.
“Yes!” I jumped up.
Mason stood. “Sixty-eight seconds. That’s a record.”
Jaxon looked at me and grinned. “Longer this time. Admit it, you almost looked down.”
I smirked. “Almost.”
Avery gave me a fist bump and ignored Jax’s glare. Then we all headed outside.
Before we reached my car, my dad pulled me aside as the others piled into Jax and my White Land Rover.
“Do you really think it’s smart to go gallivanting around downtown the same day you had your first vision?” He placed his hands on my shoulders and stared in my eyes. Gallivanting? Well, he was making his age obvious. My dad was over 200 years old.
“Pops,” I held his gaze and he smiled at the term of endearment, “I’m twenty years old, I’m a werewolf, and Jax is a psycho, smaller, overprotective version of you. I will be fine.”
He chuckled then and I broke his gaze because dammit, it was getting hard to hold. Sweat beaded my upper lip. That mofo was super dominant and I was way too tired from my stare down with Jaxon to even hold his gaze for more than five seconds.
“I love you, Anya. Be safe,” he said in Hindi as I smiled and kissed his cheek.
*
Portland’s motto was ‘Keep Portland weird,’ and I might mention recreational marijuana was legal. What more could you ask for in a place to call home? So going to the city to have some fun was just what the doctor ordered after this shit storm of a day. After the one and a half hour drive into downtown, it was pitch dark out and we had all decided to go to Pixels. It was a bar that had all of the old arcade video games and more importantly it was werewolf owned by a pack member.
“I think it sucks that we can’t get drunk or high,” Mason bitched as we parked the car and fed the meter.
We chuckled. He was always on and on about this stupid topic. Werewolves metabolized too fast so it was really damn near impossible to get messed up.
“Not true,” Jax stated.
We all looked at him skeptically as we walked down 8th Ave.
“Mom told me that there is this stuff called witches’ wine. It gets you messed up on one glass. It’s illegal because it’s so good a
nd it works on werewolves!” Jax said excitedly.
Mason stopped walking, mouth hanging open. “How long have you been withholding this information?”
Jax laughed. “Dude, it’s like near impossible to get, illegal and all that.”
We were almost at the entrance and I could hear the music blaring through the front door.
Mason was still in shock. I could see his mind calculating how to get his hands on the witches’ wine.
“Come on, Mase! We’ll figure out a way to get you drunk another day,” I called back to him, snapping him out of his trance.
Vinnie, an Italian twenty-something werewolf in our pack nodded as we walked up. “Hey, guys. Glad you could make it out. Sick DJ tonight.”
Avery and I gave him a hug and the boys fist bumped as he opened the door and let us in without carding. Score. Werewolf perk. It’s not like we could get drunk anyway. The boys drank beer just to look cool and manly.
The barrage of smells that assaulted my sensitive werewolf nose were almost stress inducing. Vampire, werewolf, witch, human. I shook my head trying to make sense of it all. The humans who hung here did so knowing full well who we were. The stupid werewolf tattoo gave that away, and the vampires were easy to spot. Pale, gorgeous, and unbreathing. If there were vampires in here, it was only the nice kind, only ones who had alliances with my father. Vinnie wouldn’t let any others in. Since the downfall of the psycho bloodsuckers that shot humans up with heroin to get high and drink them to death, the remaining ones have been pretty chill. Asking for blood donations and keeping to themselves. I heard some even had willing relationships with human donors but nothing too crazy. The government and my dad kept them in check.
I saw that Brady was manning the bar, along with Amanda. He was a mid-level pack member who brewed his own beer. When he saw us, he tipped his head in respect. I wasn’t exactly royalty but being the Alpha’s daughter did get me a fair amount of special treatment.
“Want anything?” Brady asked.
Mason stepped up. “One glass of witches’ wine, please.”
We all busted out laughing and Brady looked confused.
“Never heard of it. How about a beer?”
Mason grumbled, “Fine.”
Mason was determined to get drunk at some point in his life.
The bar was packed, and as I turned to check out if my favorite video game was occupied, I froze. He was here. My breath stilled, heart hammering in my chest as I gazed upon the hottest guy I had ever seen. Ten feet from me, leaning up against my favorite Pac Man game, was the guy from my dream. He wore Converse shoes, dark worn jeans, and a tight blue t-shirt. His dark brown hair was wild and his green eyes pierced right through me as he held my gaze. My skin began to burn up, as I slowly panted. My wolf rose to the surface, the sounds in the bar faded away, and my body ached to get closer to him.
“What the?” Jax asked and followed my gaze.
‘Dream guy,’ I told him through the twin bond because I wasn’t sure I could speak. Something was happening inside of me, my wolf … she was … taking control.
Jax’s eyes bulged at my declaration. Dream guy finally lowered his eyes to my lips.
‘Let’s go talk to him.’ Jax began walking and I followed, as if I was a magnet being pulled to my other half. Dream guy, and yep, he had dimples. Holy shit. Marry me now.
When we were two feet from him, a blonde girl stepped in front of me and hugged him.
“Hey, babe, sorry I’m late,” she purred.
Frickity frack. Of course he had a girlfriend.
I bit the inside of my cheek as Jax grabbed my hand and we took a sharp left to go outside. Weaving our way through the crowd we walked out onto the patio where everyone was smoking.
“Well, that was interesting,” Jax said. I could feel him scanning my emotions to see if I was okay.
“Whatever, he’s not my mate. He still might need help though. Should I call Mom?”
Jax frowned at my words and seemed to consider it. “No, she will get all helicopter mom and drive over here and kill our night. How about Mason and I go chat him up. Say we like his shoes or some shit.”
I nodded. Pretty brilliant. “When I was a few feet from him, before the blonde bitch cut me off, I smelled something.”
Jax creased his brow. “You think he’s a supe?”
Jax’s term for supernatural.
I shrugged. I hadn’t gotten close enough, but I did smell something weird.
Jax gave me a knowing smile. “Blonde bitch, eh? You sound jealous. I thought he wasn’t your mate?”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.” Was I? I didn’t even know this guy but Gretchen’s words came back to me. Fate. He found me.
Avery and Mason came outside with beers. “Thanks for ditching us!” Avery groaned.
Jax kissed her cheek and whispered something in her ear, her eyes widened.
“Come on, Mason,” Jax said and Mason followed him, beer in hand, leaving us girls to talk.
“Dream guy is here?” Avery whisper shouted as her eyes widened in shock.
I chewed my lip. “Yeah, super-hot, and super-taken by some other chick.”
She frowned. “Hmm.”
Yeah, I didn’t really want to talk about it. What kind of messed up higher power thought sending me a vision of some gorgeous guy who was already taken, was a good idea? That didn’t happen with mates. When my mom got visions, both of the people were single and the timing was perfect. Damn, I was acting jealous and I didn’t even know him. So stupid.
“Let’s go play games. Screw this dream guy.” I grabbed her hand and she trailed after me. Let Jaxon figure out what was up with this guy. I would be out having a fun night and hoping my heated connection to this guy vanished after tonight.
Crossing through the entrance back into the bar, I hurried inside and turned the corner hoping to avoid getting an eyeful of hottie dream guy.
“Oouf!” I slammed into someone.
Looking up, I saw that it was him. Just my luck. He had his hands on my upper arms to steady me as we stared into each other’s eyes. I felt mine go yellow. ‘Mate.’ My inner wolf claimed him. What? No! I had to tamp her down so I didn’t scare him. His gaze roamed over my face to my neck tattoo. A slightest amount of fear flashed in his eyes but then it was gone. I inhaled deeply. What the hell? Not a vamp, not a warlock, not a werewolf, but not exactly human. Some special scent lingered on his skin, sage, and sandalwood, supernatural.
“You look familiar,” he stated as his eyes scanned my face again. His warm, rich voice made my stomach heat up and I swear to God I was two seconds from shifting.
‘Mine,’ my wolf claimed. Oh, shit. What was going on? Stop it!
“You look familiar as well.” I tried to play it cool, but my voice cracked and his hands finally dropped to his sides after he realized he was still holding me.
Avery was watching us in fascination.
“I’m Avery.” She extended her hand to him. Thank God she was at least trying to bait him into normal conversation. What the hell was I doing? Staring at him like an idiot and trying to keep my wolf from humping his leg.
“Gavin.” He shook her hand but was still looking at me. Avery quickly pulled her hand away.
“You’re burning up,” Avery exclaimed.
He paled, looking embarrassed but recovered swiftly. “Yeah, haven’t been feeling well lately.”
“I’m Anya.” I spit out. Stupid. I was acting too eager. Chill out.
He gave me a dimple-loaded smile. “Anya. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
I could only nod; the way he said my name was making my wolf rise up again.
“You know, Anya hasn’t been feeling well lately either,” Avery said as I stepped on her toe to quiet her.
Gavin’s eyes roamed over my vintage Pac Man t-shirt and skin-tight black jeans with worn holes at the knees and then finally to my faded pink Converse shoes. He gave the barest hint of a smile before his eyes locked on mine once more, his gaze
flicked again to my neck tattoo.
“I’m a werewolf,” I blurted. Jesus! Was I twelve around this guy? It was like that awkward stage in middle school all over again.
He smiled. “I figured.”
After an uncomfortably long stretch of silence, he put his hands in his pockets. “Okay, well, it was nice to meet you. I’ll see you around?”
The heat flushed my body and all of a sudden I was burning up, feeling faint. I could only nod as he walked away and back into the crowded bar. My wolf raged inside of me, pushing me to go after him. To turn around and scream his name, but I shook the feelings off.
Avery grabbed my arm. “You said he was hot. THAT is not hot, that’s … that’s ...”
I nodded. “I know. He’s too beautiful, barely real. Way out of my league.”
‘Mate,’ my wolf said again, but I shut her up with a growl.
Avery frowned, her eyebrows scrunching. “What’s going on with you?”
I shook my head. “Nothing, let’s find the boys.”
It took a few minutes of searching, but we found Jax leaning against a zombie pinball machine talking to Gavin and his girlfriend. Great. We had to go through this crap again. Mason had his arm around a human girl. He was such a sucker for humans, loved that damsel in distress thing.
Jax sensed me through our twin bond and turned. “Hey, sis.” He called me over.
I scanned Gavin’s girlfriend up and down. Girl was hot. She had it going on. Long blonde hair, perfect skin, light make-up and good style. A light growl ripped from my throat, but I disguised it with a cough. Avery and Jax looked at me with concern. This was not like me; I didn’t get jealous, I was confident, until now.
Gavin eyed my shoes again and smiled. Yeah, our shoes matched, but it didn’t make us mates. My wolf needed to calm the hell down. I was seriously worried she was going to hump his leg if I didn’t get some fresh air.
I was about to suggest to my group that we go home, when an ear-splitting shattering noise thundered throughout the bar. I instinctively stepped to the side to be closer to Gavin and threw him to the ground, lying over him as glass rained down on top of us. The humans were screaming as the bar filled with smoke canisters. My eyes met Jaxon’s as the realization washed over us. We were being attacked! Oh, hell no. I couldn’t stay human if I tried. Not with danger present and a guy that my wolf thought was her mate. The music skidded to a stop and the dense smoke had completely filled the bar, leaving everyone coughing. I jumped up, throwing off my clothes. “Shift! Protect the humans!” I shouted to my pack over the screaming and coughing. My dad was Alpha, my mother was his second. In a time like this, everyone took orders from me. Whoever was messing with us was about to die. I heard cracking bones and growls as the pack shifted around me. Then, a girl screamed and … was that a gun shot? What the hell was going on?
