I wished the floor would open underneath me and drop me away from this moment.
“Ty, can you please look at me?”
I shook my head.
“Babe, I know we’re in this together. I don’t know how, but we are. I feel it, too. Why do you think I gave you that shirt? The connection between us. Plus, you’re one really hot alpha.”
What? Did he just say I was hot?
“I’ve been trying to figure it out for so long,” he continued.
Abruptly, his words stopped. I couldn’t even hear his breaths now. It was as if reality had been disconnected. All my senses froze.
The lights in the club flickered. Suddenly my mouth and lungs were filled with the scent of orange blossoms.
“Do you smell that?” Freid’s voice dropped with wonder.
My head came up. Our gazes met. “What is that? It’s—it’s amazing.”
“It’s wonderful.”
Mates. Here. Now.
We both jumped out of the booth and spoke at the same time. “He’s here.”
Chapter Five
Freid
Ty’s birthday was a very special night. And I was tickled to have found a shirt like mine to give him. When I spotted it online, I’d planned to keep it for myself. Mine was definitely getting a little frayed at the collar and the marinara sauce stain toward the bottom would never come out. But then I remembered one time when we were joking about how mine was looking sad, and Ty said it didn’t matter, it was a magic shirt. And if he had one, he’d never give it up.
In fact, he pulled off his very nice button-down, revealing golden skin and faint dark hairs scattered over his chest. We’d been meeting here every Friday and Saturday for three years—and I’d never seen him shirtless. We’d never shifted together or gone out anywhere else, and until this moment, I’d never wondered why. For three years, we’d been sitting here on these barstools, visiting and sharing about our lives, our week, and, of course, enjoying the atmosphere at Animals. Every time was different depending on who was there and what antics they were getting up to.
Sometimes, I even forgot why we were there—or why I was—in the fun relaxation of being with Ty. My wolf adored him, and I hated when the evenings ended. My friend. Another alpha. Not my mate. But seeing him there with the shirt over his head and his pecs flexed, just wow. I wanted him to take the rest of his clothes off. He wouldn’t be the only one. Although nudity wasn’t really club wear, those about to shift undressed first, and none of them that I ever noticed went to a bathroom for privacy. If they had, they might have had trouble getting back out again.
He pulled it on, and it was a little tight. Not a bad thing.
And then, everything broke loose. Our three-year vigil was over. I knew it as well as Ty. But the club was packed, wall-to-wall shifters, witches, vampires, and fairies. A few humans. Karma, one of the owners was human, they said, and her mate, Warren had started letting them in when he met her. How would we ever find him?
The scent led us through the bar and across the dance floor, bumping into people, animals, and things with wings, apologizing but never slowing. Music pulsed around us, the vibration increasing my desire to find him. I had no words for the scent except maybe intoxicating. Unlike anything I’d smelled anywhere before. Not a wolf, not a cat… What could he be?
The club had never seemed so big to me before, but then I’d been sitting at the bar for three years, and just in the spot of my dream, watching the activity, but never really moving around. And it seemed that this was the busiest night of the year. Nothing special going on, no charity events or anything.
Didn’t these people have other places they could be besides keeping us from our mate?
I stumbled over a fox and stopped to apologize before taking off again. There had to be an easier way to cross the club than the one we were taking, but if so, it was not the most direct one to get to our mate.
“This way.” Ty grabbed my hand and pointed toward the back of the club. The kitchen door. “He’s over here.”
I let him tow me in that direction, the scent growing stronger, my wolf whining, heart slamming against my chest. So many years, and he was here, just yards away. Everything would change in a matter of moments. All I’d been told about meeting a mate, leveling up, standing together forever.
And I had two.
When we were a few feet from the kitchen door, I saw him. But he was facing away from us.
A man stood speaking to Zevo, the manager of the club. He held a box in his arms and was saying, “I guess this delivery is for you?”
The manager took the box and turned the man to face us. “And these two alphas knocking down everyone in their path? I think they’re here for you.”
