He groaned when he reached his desk and saw the pile of papers sitting in the center of it. He already knew he needed to put in an order for new ink. That was kind of a given. It was the bills he didn't really want to deal with.
Maybe he needed to start playing the lottery. He'd heard that some guy back east had actually been the only winner of over a billion dollars in lottery money. Luca couldn't even imagine something like that.
He sat down behind his desk and picked up the paper on the very top of the pile. Water bill. Okay, well, it wasn't like he could not pay that one. Without water, he was out of business. Granted, his shop didn't use tons of it, but he still had to clean equipment, make coffee, and occasionally go to the bathroom. Water was kind of a must.
Luca glanced through the other bills that were due before bringing up his banking on his laptop. He quickly paid the bills that needed to be paid and then entered everything into his accounting program. He was good with an ink gun, not numbers. If he didn't write it all down when he did it, bad things happened.
Once he was done paying the bills, Luca started figuring out what supplies he needed to order. Some stuff was ordered every single time, like black ink and paper towels. Other stuff was only ordered if they were out or if there was a special order.
Luca pulled open the center drawer of his desk to get a pen and a pad of paper, but then paused when he saw the picture sitting inside. Luca drew in a shaky breath as he pulled the picture out and stared down at it.
He grimaced even as his heart pounded a little faster. He had conflicting emotions concerning the handsome man in the picture. On one hand, his heart ached every time he saw Randal. Even if he wasn't a shifter, Luca knew they were meant to be together. He knew what mates were and he knew Randal was his.
The other side of that was his growing discontent with people keeping them apart. He understood the need to hide shifters from normal everyday humans, but this was a shifter town. It was required by town mandate that anyone living here either had to be aware of shifters or related in some manner. Made sense. It kept everyone safe.
Luca's anger came from the fact that even though he knew about shifters and lived in a shifter town, he wasn't fully accepted by them because he was human. Worse than that, it kept him from being together with Randal.
He had always been taught that mates were important, true mates even more so. Randal was his true mate. Luca knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, and Randal knew it as well. And yet, they were forced to meet in the dark when no one was around. Luca couldn't even acknowledge Randal if he saw him on the street.
Luca saw how much it was eating away at Randal every time he saw the man, which wasn't often enough, in Luca's estimations. He wanted to shake the people keeping them apart, to rage against their stupid rules that said bears had to mate with bears.
It wasn't fair to Randal and it wasn't fair to Luca.
"Hey, boss man?" Trent stuck his head in the office doorway. "There are a couple of guys out here that want to talk to you."
"Thanks, Trent. I'll be right out." Luca set the picture back in the drawer and pushed it closed. He could moon over Randal another day, and usually did. Randal was a beautiful example of masculinity. Tall, buff, and just enough hair to make Luca's toes curl.
It didn't hurt that he had a soul as sweet as candy either.
Luca walked out of his office and headed for the reception area. His steps slowed when he saw three incredibly large men standing there. He immediately pegged them as bear shifters. As big as they were, he didn't see how they could be anything else.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen," he said. "How can I help you today?" When they turned, Luca gasped, and then quickly tried to cover up his surprise with a cough. His eyes hungrily ate up the one in the middle, the beautiful one. He wanted to run into Randal's arms and hug him, talk to him, find out if he was okay.
He forced himself to stay where he was.
Randal had warned him of what would happen if they were caught. Being run out of town would be the least of their problems. He'd more than likely be running for his life.
"Luca Buchanan," Randal began, "I'd like to introduce you to my alpha, Rob Colton, and his enforcer, Jeb Taylor."
Luca blanched. "Enforcer?"
Randal smiled weakly as he shot Trent a quick look. "Is there somewhere we can talk privately?"
"Yes, of course," Luca replied as he waved his hand back down the hallway. "We can talk in my office."
Luca shot Randal a frown before turning and leading the way back to his office. When he got inside, he walked to stand behind his desk and gestured to the seats on the other side. "Can I get you gentlemen anything to drink?"
Rob sat in one of the chairs. Randal moved to stand on the far side of Luca's desk. The man named Jeb stayed by the door after closing it.
There was a tension in the room that thickened Luca's throat. He wanted to ask what was going on, but he was afraid to. Were these men here to run him out of town, or worse?
"We're good, thank you," Rob replied. "Randal here says you know about us."
"Yes." That wasn't a secret.
"How?"
Luca's eyebrows lifted as he glanced at Randal. He had explained it to Randal. Why hadn't Randal explained it to his alpha? "I grew up here. My nana is a bear shifter."
