I tensed because I suspected I was the source of that.
“You'd prefer to be elsewhere, and I wonder why that is.”
“I’m here.” I spread my arms wide and almost spilled my champagne. “That’s what matters.”
“I’m not so sure.” She tapped one finger against her lips. “But after watching and listening to you, I’ve made a little discovery.”
I rummaged through my head, trying to find what she had found out about me. She knew I didn’t want to be here, so what else was there? I worked too hard? Guilty. Father and I didn’t have an easy relationship? True.
Bex leaned close, and I bent down to catch what she said. “I think you’ve already found your mate.”
No. She was fishing because she couldn’t possibly know that. Or could she?
“What?” I threw champagne down my throat. “What makes you think that?” Damn, that wasn’t a denial. “That’s impossible.”
“Impossible you’ve found your mate or impossible I could detect it?” Her grin widened. “The goddess works in mysterious ways, Kingston. Or should I call you King? Sometimes she answers prayers we've forgotten we made.”
Before I could respond, she flitted away.
She called you King. Only one other person has done that.
Don’t remind me. I didn’t want to think of Merrick tonight, not in this place where shifters were hungry for a mate.
She couldn’t have known despite her pixie powers. After placing my empty flute on a tray and taking another, I lurked and loomed from the sidelines. A wolf shifter approached, but I snarled, and he scurried away. After fifteen minutes hiding by the champagne fountain, I checked my watch. My duty was done, and I was going to head out.
I was heading for the exit when the scent hit me, and the champagne flute slid from my hand. A shifter nearby caught it and gave me a “you found the one” look.
Merrick, our mate.
I spun around and pushed people aside as I followed the scent. It was stronger in some sections of the ballroom and faint in others. I was frantic, shoving shifters aside and coming between the recently mated. Five years I’d spent suppressing that scent, and only when I was desperate did I bury my face in his shirt.
Fury curled into a ball in my belly. This had to be Bex’s doing. She’d used her pixie magic to trick me by creating a phantom scent of my mate. All because I didn’t drop to my knees and worship her ability to match make. She was tormenting me, oreven worse, she’s attached Merrick’s scent to some other omega to trick me into bonding with someone else.
Tears pricked my eyes as a vision of Merrick faded in my head. I’d be forced into a mating arrangement and possibly forget about my one true love.
I had to get out of the ballroom and far away from here, hoping that whatever trickery she’d used wouldn’t follow me. But the mating instinct was too strong, and I followed the scent through the dance floor where couples swayed. I raced around the ice-sculpted swans and toward a Staff Only door.
My bear’s instinct told him our mate was here, and I couldn’t reason with him. Not that I could argue or overcome my own intuition.
A guy dressed as a waiter was headed toward the door. Yes, he had the same dark hair as Merrick and a similar build, but it wasn’t him.
He pushed through the door but didn’t go into the kitchen. Instead, he raced along the corridor and galloped down a set of steep stairs.
His scent was all-consuming. Everything screamed it was him, my mate, but what was the likelihood that my human mate was working at a shifter matchmaking ball?
The stairs were dimly lit, but with my shifter sight, I didn’t hesitate or stumble.He was headed into the wine cellar, and I followed him in. The door clicked behind me as he turned on a light.
“Merrick.” It wasn’t him, but my brain and my beast couldn’t tell the real omega from the impersonator.
“I’ll be right there. I’m just getting more of the Bordeaux.”
His voice mimicked my Merrick, but it couldn’t be him—until he turned. The sight of the face I hadn’t seen in five years punched the breath out of my lungs and left me gasping. Either pixie magic was more powerful than I imagined, or this was my mate.
But he didn’t react as I’d imagined a thousand times. Shit, the mask. I yanked it off, and he shrieked.
“King. It really is you.” He backed away, which was wrong. Why didn’t he fling himself into my arms?
In my mind, we’d embrace and vow never to part. We’d exchange details on how we couldn’t find one another, and I’d wait until he finished his shift and take him home.
