by Haley Weir
“Hello?” answered a sweet, sleep-raspy voice.
“Is this Miss Hartley?”
“It is. May I ask who’s calling?” The sound of rustling bedsheets echoed in his ears and Giddeon imagined what she must have looked like curled beneath her covers.
“This is Giddeon Black with Kismet Dating Agency. I called to discuss your profile. It seems you forgot to fill out most of the questions and we’ll need to go over those in order to match you with someone compatible.” Even as he spoke, the words tasted bitter on his tongue. Giddeon disliked the thought of anyone being able to hear her voice in their ear. “In fact, we already have someone in mind if you are willing to complete the survey on the phone.”
~*~
“That was rather quick. Let me grab a pen, and I’ll answer any of your questions.” Casey blinked past the crud in her eyes and shuffled down the hall with one hand over the microphone. She pushed open Olivia’s door and whacked her friend with a pillow. Olivia shot up in the bed with a glare but quickly clamped her mouth shut when she caught sight of the cell phone in Casey’s hand. “I’m ready,” she said through tightly clenched teeth.
This was all Olivia’s fault.
Too many drinks and far too many lonely nights had weakened her resolve against her friend’s compelling argument the night before. Casey put the phone on speaker and sat beside Olivia—whose eyes widened at the sound of Giddeon Black’s deep voice.
“What is it you do for a living, Miss Hartley?”
Olivia mouthed the words, “He sounds hot!”
Casey bit the inside of her cheek and answered. “I’m an executive partner at Technocom Incorporated. It’s not exactly something I like to advertise. Especially on dating platforms.”
“I understand,” he replied professionally. “You also left the portion of the profile empty where we asked you to describe your ideal match. Are there any characteristics or interests you’d like in your partner?”
There was an edge to his voice that Casey couldn’t identify. She shook her head even though he couldn’t see her. “No, I’m just trying something new. I don’t think I know what my type is anymore. It sort of blurs when you’ve been married for six years.”
“Yes, it says here that you are recently divorced.”
“Will that be a problem?” she asked.
“Not at all. We prefer that our clients not have any romantic ties as we are not in the service of providing infidelity. The goal is to prove that romanticized notions of love are not always wrong. Sometimes, it only takes the right person.”
“Sounds great on paper, I’m sure.”
A husky chuckle caused a shiver to course down her spine. “Actually, we have a ninety-eight percent success rate, and it’s been that way for years now.”
Casey was still a bit skeptical, but she went along with it. “Any more questions?”
“Yes, you failed to include your body type.”
Her cheeks flamed. “I’m five feet and four inches tall and...umm...curvy?”
“Perfect.”
Olivia arched a brow at his tone.
Casey shrugged and tried to keep her cool. “Anything else I can help you with?”
“I think I have all I need right now. When will you be available to set a date?”
Olivia snatched the phone. “She has an open schedule.” Casey no longer heard what Giddeon Black said over the phone. When Olivia hung up, she turned towards Casey with a cunning smile. “You have a date tomorrow night at seven.”
“What? Olivia, this was supposed to be my vacation, not a romantic getaway!”
“It’s just one date,” her friend argued. “If the guy turns out to be a total weirdo, then I’ll drop the subject and we can pretend it never happened. Life is about living on the edge and taking risks so you have a cool story to tell your future children.”
Casey collapsed onto Olivia’s bed with a sigh. “I hate you.”
“You love me, and you know it.”
“He said he already had someone in mind for the date.”
“Damn. Already? That was quick.”
“That’s what I said,” she replied. “Honestly, it’s sort of creepy.”
“Hey, if the date goes bad, maybe you can hit on Giddeon. He sounded scrumptious. I’m not the type to get into dirty talk, but if a guy had his voice...I might just break a few of my rules.”
“You have rules? Since when?”
“I don’t have many,” Olivia chuckled. “But the ones I do have are important.”
Casey sat up and tugged Olivia along as they woke up Diana and Rina. The four of them drove into town for brunch at a local diner. People openly stared at them and Casey felt overly self-conscious. Rina boldly blew a kiss at a particularly rude older gentleman. “What is up with this place? I feel like an alien.” Casey shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
“I don’t think they get a lot of visitors around here.”
“And the ones who do come around are probably around retirement age,” Diana retorted. “I haven’t seen anyone under the age of sixty since we drove into town.”
“There has to be cute guys somewhere or else why would there be a dating agency?”
“Unless...we’re the youngest clients they have.” Olivia laughed so hard that she nearly face-planted into her plate of chicken. Casey blushed as even more heads turned in their direction and tried her best to fade into the background. But she had to admit that the look of horror on Rina’s face had been hilarious even to her.
Chapter Three
Castle Black
Destiny, Alaska
Giddeon couldn’t get the sound of Casey Hartley’s voice out of his head. The Sleuth gathered at the northern entrance of the castle at the exact hour of night. He stood in the lead as his brothers took their positions behind him. The crisp air brushed against his naked body, sunlight illuminating the golden hues of his hair. Giddeon threw his head back and roared. His magic flowed through the land and his people, shifting them into their bear forms with the power of his bloodline. Caleb, Balor, and Seth shifted with their own surge of power and raced into the forest that surrounded Castle Black.
He felt every pop and crack of his bones as they reformed themselves. Giddeon watched his hands jerk and twitch, curling into clawed paws. He ran after his brothers, tackling them to the ground in a playful fashion. They nipped at one another before heading towards the river that cut through the land. Giddeon splashed in the chilled mountain water, loving the way the waves crashed over the muscles that ached from his shift.
Bears played and fished for salmon as Giddeon listened for any signs of danger that may have lurked nearby. Even when the forest proved to be safe, he still hadn’t let his guard down. Caleb and Seth tumbled through the swift current. Balor jumped from a stone and splashed a huge wave that broke up their sparring. It was nice to see them doing something other than arguing—even if it was just temporary.
It was near dark when they returned to the castle. Giddeon had a few men stay behind to gather baskets of fish to feed the young that had stayed within the walls. He broke away from the Sleuth and took the stairs three at a time. A trail of water droplets marred the floor as he walked to his room. Giddeon shook from head to toe in his bathroom and grabbed a towel that he tied around his waist. He laid across the bed and opened his laptop—intending to get some work done.
However, the moment he opened a tab to the KDA website, he was distracted by Casey Hartley’s picture. Giddeon had a list of compatible matches for Casey. The burning ache in his gut told him to hold her and keep her safe. He had never felt such strong emotions about anyone in his life. But there was a vulnerability in her painfully proper picture that reached deep into his soul. It was as if his bear instincts were intrigued by her.
Giddeon enlarged the photo and silently berated himself for acting like a stalker.
He couldn’t let it go. He couldn’t shake the feeling that she was more than just a beautiful face. Before he knew what he was doing, G
iddeon opened his administrative account and dragged his own information into her compatibility algorithm. He stood up and paced around his room as the computer worked its magic. The long blue bar slowly inched its way across the screen, calculating the probability of a successful match.
A loud ding signaled the completion of the process and Giddeon sprinted towards the bed with a desperation he didn’t recognize within himself. He double-clicked the results and held his breath. “One hundred percent compatibility?” he asked aloud. It wasn’t possible. While his goal was to unite soulmates, there had never been a score so high. Giddeon reran the algorithm and continued his pacing, but the second and third attempts produced the same results.
“It has to be an error.”
As an experiment, he ran his brother Balor’s profile and began panicking when the results were only twenty percent. Giddeon snatched up his laptop and hurried down to the dining room where his brothers and several of the other males feasted on their catch. He set the laptop down in front of Seth. “Your program is faulty,” Giddeon claimed.
“Woah...a perfect match? For whom?”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s wrong.”
“Gid, I just did maintenance on this a week ago. It isn’t faulty.”
“That’s impossible. What are the odds that there’s a perfect match in the system?”
Seth pulled up a command prompt and typed in codes that Giddeon couldn’t even begin to decipher. “There are no errors in the program. The odds are improbable, but not impossible. Weirder things have happened, especially to this family.”
“Anything higher than an eighty percent reads as soulmates. What’s higher than soulmate?” Giddeon asked in awe. “I’ve never heard of a stronger bond than that.”
“We’re bear shifters living in a place called Destiny. Take it as a sign.”
“A sign of what?”
“Change,” Balor answered in Seth’s stead. “It was bound to happen sooner or later. Dad went through it with Mom when he was around our ages.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Our kind is naturally promiscuous, but all of the males and females in our bloodline have always been monogamous. For some reason, we choose to have families over living solitary lives. We find our mate and we breed a new Sleuth. When the time comes that a new Alpha emerges in our ranks, the previous Alphas die together. It’s how our powers are passed on.”
“This is my profile,” Giddeon confessed. “I ran it through the program with one of my new clients. If the score is this high…”
“Maybe she’s your mate.”
The weight of Balor’s words caused the room to fall silent. Forks stilled halfway to his brother’s mouths as Giddeon struggled with the idea of meeting his mate. He sat down at his place at the table—still swathed in his towel—and rested his head in the palms of his hands. “This can’t be happening to me.” What had started as a simple experiment turned into a life-changing realization that had shaken Giddeon to his core.
“It’s happening to all of us, brother.”
~*~
According to the crotchety hostess at the front of the restaurant, a table had been reserved several hours in advance for her date. Casey weaved through the rows of diners until she found her place. The waiter set a menu in front of her and whipped out his notepad. “What can I get you to drink while you wait, Miss?”
“Water, please.”
He disappeared from sight and Casey was left alone with her nerves and the little voice in her head that told her she looked fat in her dress. She tried to turn off that part of her brain, but it continued to point out the way her hips spilled over the side of her chair. The red satin garment belonged to Rina, which meant it hugged every inch of her body. Casey glanced down from time to time to make sure she hadn’t accidentally flashed the other people in the restaurant. The last thing she needed was to get arrested for indecent exposure.
The waiter returned with a pitcher of water.
She smiled politely and tried to pretend he hadn’t been staring down at her cleavage.
A low growl caught her attention and Casey glanced up at a man that stood at nearly six and a half feet tall. His wide shoulders seemed to swallow the width of the room. A gorgeously tailored custom Italian suit accentuated his narrow hips and long legs. Casey blinked several times in surprise as the man sat across from her. “You must be Casey Hartley.”
“Y-yes, I am,” she stammered. “And you are?”
He reached across the table with a smile that made her clench her thighs together. “Giddeon Black.”
“I don’t understand. Aren’t you the CEO of the company?” Casey sat stunned for a moment but reached out to accept his gesture. A strange look crossed his expression, and she felt a tingle against her palm before she pulled her hand back. “Is this some formal way of telling me that my date canceled once he saw me in the parking lot?”
Giddeon seemed to shake himself out of a daze as he answered. “No. Not at all. I know this is a bit unorthodox—maybe even unprofessional—but there are perks that come with being the owner of this company. I’ll be perfectly frank, Miss Hartley: you intrigued me.”
“So you asked me on this date to satisfy some weird curiosity?” she asked with a quirked brow. “How often do you cash in on these perks you’re so fond of?”
“This is the first time. And it isn’t just curiosity that drew me to you, but interest as well.”
Casey didn’t know whether to laugh or look around for a camera crew. There was no way a man as stunning as Giddeon Black was at all interested in her. “Look, if there were no matches for me, then I get it. There’s no need to drag this out and make it into something that it’s not just to keep your success rate up. I won’t give you a bad review if you’re honest with me.”
He seemed genuinely confused by her response. “Why would you think this is an attempt to get a positive review from you?”
She looked down at herself. “You’ve seen me, right?”
His dark gaze flickered over her appearance, leaving behind a blazing trail of renewed tingles. Giddeon relaxed in his seat and licked his lips. “I have.”
“Then you know that I’m a little more than just curvy.”
“What do measurements have to do with anything unless they’re being calculated in handfuls?” The heat was evident in his voice, and yet Casey couldn’t help but think she had stumbled into an alternate universe where guys like him were attracted to women like her.
“You could have anyone you want. I’m sure Hollywood actresses are lining up to jump into your bed. Why on earth would you want someone like me?”
Giddeon crossed and uncrossed his long legs beneath the table. “Like I said, you intrigued me. Why does it have to be more than that? You said you were keeping your options open. I’d like to be one of your options. Actually, if we’re being honest, I’d like to be the only option.”
Woah.
Casey was taken aback by the intensity in his gaze. He was serious? Clearly, there was something wrong with him. Either he was an ax murderer or he had a creepy doll collection in his basement. “All right. Let’s say this isn’t a prank or a temporary lapse in judgment. Tell me something about yourself. All I know is that you own a dating agency.”
Just then, the waiter returned to take their order. Giddeon made a sound that was almost too deep to be human. Casey dismissed it and ordered the chicken. Giddeon ordered something French she couldn’t pronounce and a bottle of wine. When the waiter finally left to fulfill his duties, Giddeon leaned over the table a bit. “I’m the eldest of my siblings. I have three brothers, and we were all born exactly two years apart. My mother died when I was sixteen, and my father died shortly after. I inherited a large fortune as well as a throne that no longer matters to anyone outside of our estate. So, if you were going to insinuate that I was in debt and looking to find a wealthy—but desperate—woman to leech off of, you’ll have to come up with a better excuse.”
Casey
was embarrassed, for she had been thinking along those lines. “Fine. What made you want to start a dating agency?”
For the first time since he sauntered up to her table, Giddeon looked truly uncomfortable. She got the impression that he wasn’t a fan of talking about himself.
“Despite how much the world tried to prove them wrong, my parents taught me that true love existed beyond the pages of fairy tales.” He held her gaze for what seemed like forever.
Strangely, Casey didn’t feel the need to fill the silence with meaningless blabber. She simply enjoyed his company as the waiter served their meal. Giddeon ate with impeccable manners that seemed second nature to him. She watched his powerful hands lift the fork to his mouth with a surprising amount of elegance. The way his lips slid across the silver caused her cheeks to flush. Every bite was followed by a low growl or a moan that was just loud enough for her to hear over the chatter at the table beside them.
It took a moment for Casey to realize that he had been eating sensually just to provoke her. She blushed wildly at having been caught staring. A breathy chuckle vibrated in the air between them. “You seem to like looking at my mouth.”
“I wasn’t meaning to be rude.”
Giddeon shook his head with a smile curling those lush lips. “Rude would be if I offered to show you that my mouth is good for more than just eating dinner and paying you compliments.” He winked and returned his attention to his plate.
Casey was grateful for the opportunity to look away from his tantalizing gaze. She felt the need to fan herself but stifled the urge by taking a sip from her glass of water. Though the wine paired nicely with the meal, she wasn’t ready to let her guard down around the charismatic Cupid anytime soon. Her reservations stemmed mostly out of insecurity, but there was part of her that didn’t trust herself around him. Giddeon was far too sly for her comfort.
Chapter Four
Giddeon walked Casey to her car after dinner. They talked about her childhood growing up in Massachusetts and her college days at Yale. He listened intently to all of her stories and even shared a few of his own. Giddeon regretted the short distance from the restaurant to the reserved parking, for he felt a wave of grief at the thought of watching her drive away. He hesitated beside her door, glancing everywhere but into the enchanting hues of blue in her eyes. “I hope you enjoyed yourself tonight, Miss Hartley.”
