“I’m so sorry.”
When Shannon returned, she smiled. “This one’s on the house. Maybe you’d like to move to the bar?”
The place had gotten busy. I was sure it was her way of saying I should give the booth over to a group. “Yeah. Sorry. I’ll do that.”
“No hurry, honey. I was thinking there are more people to mingle with over there, that’s all.”
I nodded, getting up and grabbing my beer. She followed me over to an empty barstool.
“Are you sure I can’t get you something to eat?”
My stomach growled at the mention of food. Lunch had been a long time ago. Not sure what I wanted, I said, “Do you have a combination appetizer plate?”
“Sure thing. Coming right up.”
The dance floor was filling up. The music played live. This was a pretty cool place. People had told me about it, but this was my first time here. I should have been out there having a good time. But my luck seemed to go off-kilter every time I tried to have a love life.
My mom used to tell me that love struck when you weren’t looking. “Don’t try so hard,” she’d say.
I wasn’t really all that bummed about my date ghosting me. I liked to look at things optimistically. Maybe I’d dodged a bullet. For all I knew, the perfect person for me was sitting right next to me.
As soon as I had that thought, the guy next to me turned toward me. He was a handsome alpha. A wolf from the looks of him, with a glimmer in his eye and a soft mane of dark golden hair. His smile made my heart skip for a moment. The only holdup—he was an alpha.
I didn’t have any particular hang-ups about alpha/alpha pairings. I simply didn’t seek them. I preferred omegas and assumed he did, too.
“Hi, my name’s Freid.” He held out his hand.
“Ty.” His palm pressed warm against mine. Something about him, an energy or charisma, drew me right in.
My tiger pressed against my skin.Handsome stranger.
He wasn’t wrong.
Look. He’s wearing me.
That made no sense to me until my mind caught up with what my tiger saw. Behind his neat blazer, Freid wore a T-shirt with a tiger on it. I almost laughed when I saw the tiger’s eyes sparkle. The colorful design was trimmed in rhinestones, the stripes flashing pink and purple, the eyes faceted amber.
“What brings you here tonight?” Freid asked.
“A blind date who stood me up.”
“Whoa, that sucks.”
Immediately, as if we’d known each other for years, Ty and I began to talk, asking questions about each other, bonding over wings, beer-battered shrimp, and mini tacos.
“What about you?” I asked.
His story was far more interesting than my own.
“Don’t laugh.”
“What? I won’t laugh.”
He spoke low, as if confessing some sin. “I dreamed I’d meet my true mate here. I was wearing this shirt.” He tugged at the neck of his tiger T-shirt.
“You were actually wearing that?” I didn’t mean for my question to sound critical, so I immediately added, softer, “It’s pretty. I’m a tiger shifter, you know.”
Freid put his hand over the tiger’s head. “You are? I hope it isn’t offensive.”
