He sighed and dropped his head to stare at his lap for a minute. After he took a few deep breaths, he met my gaze again as the tension between us disappeared. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I do know you better than that, which is why you’re my second in command.”
Many alphas didn’t bother to apologize, and Kace’s choice to admit when he was wrong was one of the reasons he had my respect. But I’d noticed he’d been doing it more often than usual over the past few months. “Is there a reason you’ve been so damn grouchy lately?”
“I’m not sure what’s causing it, but my wolf has been on a shorter leash. I noticed it in September, but I think it started before then,” he admitted, shaking his head. “I haven’t been able to figure out why he’s so damn edgy.”
“Maybe you should go for a run,” I suggested. Sometimes the wolf side of our nature needed to work off his excess energy just as much as the human did, especially for those of us who hadn’t found our mates. The female fate intended for us was the only thing that could truly soothe the beast inside our skin, but neither of us had found ours yet.
Kace considered my advice before he nodded. “That’s a good idea. Things have been crazy around here lately, and I haven’t had the chance to go on a run since the last full moon.”
I crumpled up the paper and tossed it back at him. “Since I just solved your grouchiness issue, how about you get someone else to head over to Stewart to fix the liquor issue.” I pointed at the half-eaten plate of wings and added, “My plans for tonight didn’t include dealing with anything other than a full stomach.”
“Sometimes we’ve got to do shit we don’t want to do.” Kace shrugged but didn’t look too worried about ruining my night as he grabbed a couple of my wings for himself. “Sending Tane won’t send a strong enough message. It’s got to be you since you’re my beta.”
“Damn,” I groaned, flipping the handle on the side of my recliner to send my leg rest down. “Fucking Stewart.”
Kace chuckled and tossed his chicken wing bones onto the side of my plate. “I don’t get it. Why do you sound like I’m sending you to your death?”
I wasn’t the kind of guy who got embarrassed, but I felt heat fill my cheeks as I remembered what had happened when I was in Stewart a few days ago. “My mom wanted a pecan pie from the diner over there to go with the pumpkin one she baked for Thanksgiving. I ran into an issue picking it up for her.”
“It couldn’t have been that bad if you didn’t tell me about it.” He leaned back, stretching his legs out to prop his feet on my coffee table. “What kind of trouble did you manage to get into in a college town full of humans?”
“The new waitress could’ve passed for an octopus shifter with how handsy she tried to get with me.” I shuddered just thinking about it.
Kace cringed at the analogy. “Hopefully, you can duck into their place without her spotting you.”
“It’s not just her, man. I swear, all the girls who go to that school are boy crazy,” I grumbled as I got to my feet. “Whenever I’m in Stewart, at least one of them tries to throw herself at me. If she were my mate, I’d be all over that shit, but none of them have been, and they don’t take no for an answer. Then when I finally manage to untangle myself, their fucking scent clings to my skin, and it’s all wrong. My wolf gets pissed, and the drive feels as though it takes for-fucking-ever before I’m back home and can wash it off me.”
Kace grabbed the last few chicken wings before standing, too. “Maybe you’ll get lucky this time around, and the girl throwing herself at you will turn out to be your mate.”
“It’s not gonna happen. I’m just not that lucky, as proven by you barging in here and interrupting my night,” I denied with a shake of my head. “That’s not taking into account how I’m headed to a town full of humans who don’t even know shifters or fated mates exist.”
“I wouldn’t care if my mate was human as long as I found her.” Kace flashed me a chiding look, and I felt like shit since I shouldn’t have needed the reminder. My irritation over my change in plans had me saying shit I didn’t even mean. “It won’t matter if yours is a wolf shifter, human, or can turn into a fucking goldfish. She’ll be the best thing that’s ever happened to you because she’s your mate.”
“Damn straight,” I agreed with a small smile as I pulled my coat off the hook by the front door and shrugged it on.
He slapped me on the back as he passed me to head down the sidewalk to where his car was parked at the curb. “You never know. Fate works in mysterious ways sometimes.”
Kace’s parting words echoed in my brain while I drove to Stewart. It wasn’t surprising since mating was a driving force for all shifters. We didn’t feel complete until we found our mates, the other half of our souls. I’d put up with that irritating waitress a thousand times if it helped me find her...the one who was meant for me.
After parking a few doors down from my destination—on the opposite side of the diner because it was insane to think that running into the waitress would actually help—I climbed out of my truck. My wolf pushed against my skin before I even got the door shut, and it took a moment for the reason to click in my head.
The faintest hint of a strawberries and cream scent filled my nostrils. It was unlike anything I’d ever smelled before. The alluring scent could have only come from one source—my mate.
Mine.
It took all my willpower to keep my human skin as my wolf fought to break free. As it demanded we find our mate. Now.
The only reason he pulled back was that my human half was just as anxious to track the sent to my mate. Scanning my surroundings, I didn’t see anyone nearby on the sidewalk. But the car that had just pulled away from the curb as I had turned into my parking spot was only a couple of blocks down the street. Thinking back to the moment before it had left, I remembered that a woman had climbed into the back seat. She had been less than ten feet away from where I was currently standing so the lingering scent had to be hers.
My head swiveled in the direction the car had gone, and I sprinted toward the horrifying sight in front of me.
3
Allegra
My gratitude that the driver hadn’t called it a night before picking me up quickly turned to terror when we approached a red light, and the car started to skid sideways instead of stopping. He wasn’t able to stop the slide, and we kept going into the intersection. The accident happened in seconds, but it felt as though a lifetime passed before we crashed into the light pole on the other side of the intersection. The vehicle slammed into it so hard, the front end crumpled.
My seat belt prevented me from flying forward, but it hurt like heck where it pulled against my body. I was dazed when the car finally came to a rest, and I slammed back against the back seat. The crash was hard enough that the airbag went off in the driver’s face, and he was slumped in his seat.
Other than the snow falling, everything around us was still. My head felt as though it was spinning. I blinked a few times in an attempt to clear my vision, but it was still fuzzy around the edges. When I tried to undo my seat belt to get to the driver, I discovered it was stuck. The driver hadn’t moved or said anything, and I was starting to freak out. I stretched out my arm to shake his shoulder as I asked, “Hey, are you okay?”