Tension rolled down Dax’s spine, anger flaring within him. “I haven’t found anyone want.” Not entirely true. “You’d rather I settle for someone I don’t want just to see me mated?”
There was a pause and Dax hoped his dad had come to his senses. How was it fair he was expected to pair bond for the sake of reproduction and not, well, love?
“Yes.” Short. Simple. “I know it’s not what your mother would have wanted, but you’ve left me no choice.”
With that, his father hung up. Dax started at the phone for a minute, trying to get a grip on his emotions. His mother wouldn’t want this, no. She’d rather settle for no grandcubs than watch her oldest son bonded to a mate he didn’t love. Damn the human cancer that had taken her too soon. Emotion pricked at his eyes, but he forced it back.
He was first heir to the Mitchell corporation. He wanted a family of his own. He wanted a partner for life. More, he wanted those things with someone he actually loved. Why wasn’t love coming easily so he could just get on with it?
Frustrated, Dax went inside and dropped off the samples, then drove to the contractor supply store to drop off a materials list for the bakery. His head ached and his body felt too tense. When he made it back to Sticky Sweet, he was wound tight and ready for a beer or an orgasm to help him relax. Both. He could go home and give himself both.
Right, if he had nothing better to do.
Using the front door, Dax stepped inside Sticky Sweet. Amazing smells of sugar and frosting and baked deliciousness filled his nose and immediately relaxed him. His stomach rumbled quietly, and he realized he’d never tried anything from this bakery before. He’d driven past it how many times over the years but had never thought to stop. Allie had been inside—waiting—all this time.
An odd feeling captured him. They’d probably passed each other in town; eaten at the same restaurants, gone to the same stores. Yet not once had his primal senses gone off to draw him to her. His mating radar hadn’t led him to her. But these feelings he had when he was with her were strong enough to make him believe she could be his mate.
So... why hadn’t he found her until now?
Becks stood on a ladder, hanging curtains over the big front windows. She smiled at him as he walked in.
“What if you fall asleep up there? Then you’ll fall and sue me.” Allie’s voice called out from somewhere nearby.
Becks didn’t take her eyes off Dax.
“Narcolepsy doesn’t work that way, smart one. Besides, there’s a really hot guy right here who will have no problem catching me.”
Allie popped up from behind the counter, her hair spilling out in bobbing curls around the purple handkerchief she had tied around her head. Her cheeks were pink, her lips shiny with clear gloss that made them look plump and inviting. A dimple curved into her right cheek as she smiled at a customer and his heart beat faster.
Had she looked this glow-y this morning? It was hard to tell because she was pretty no matter what, but his ego thought maybe she’d prettied up for him.
The fucking urge to blow a load got worse. Forget the beer. He just wanted Allie. Under him, her legs wrapped around him while he drove into her; hearing her scream his name until he fucked them both into exhaustion. Then he’d hold her close and run his fingers through that beautiful hair and fall asleep to the weight of her head on his chest, over his heart.
It took all his will not to rush at her, throw her over his shoulder and carry her off like a true shifter male should. Good thing he was feeling more human than animal today, though that was quickly beginning to change.
She held a paper coffee cup between her hands as she appraised him across the space. A muscle in her jaw twitched; her pupils going round and big. The warmth of her scent increased, making his pulse quicken and his urges to get stronger. She was reacting to him in a very base way—her body saying loudly what it wanted, what it needed, without voicing a word.
A sweet breeze blew in from the propped-open front door. It was a perfect day, warm and sunny, to take Allie to the woods. To show her what a true shifter male could do to her body, to her heart.
Becks cleared her throat as the sound of high heels clicking on the brick floor filled the room. A woman brushed past him as she came inside, not paying him a bit of attention as she beelined it to Allie.
Allie’s hands tightened around the cup and Dax thought she might crush it. The women began to speak in hushed tones; Allie doing more listening than speaking, as the other woman went on and on in a high-pitched voice that grated over his skin.
Becks came slowly down the ladder. She seemed a bit unsteady. Dax rushed to place a hand on her lower back until she’d touched the ground.
She nodded toward Allie. “This won’t be good. MB has had it out for Allie as long as I can remember.”
“MB?”
Becks whispered. “Mega Bitch, Mighty Bitchy, Massive Butthole... you get the idea.”
Allie’s face was tense, and it raised a red flag in him to intervene. He held back, knowing it wasn’t his place. This time.
Dax picked up the older woman’s unhappy tones, and homed in his primal hearing to the sound. She was dressed all in pink with fingernails to match, which she drummed impatiently on the countertop.
Curious, Dax moved closer.
“I’d love to give you an order for a hundred more, Allie Mae, but I’m not sure you’re responsible enough to handle that many. I mean, just look what you did to my clothes the other day.”
