I sat upright and took a picture of the stack of professionally printed flyers on table. I spared no expenses on these things. They were printed on the finest card stock with embossed gold lettering. They featured a portrait of me taken by a professional photographer (just in case my fated mate recognized me from a picture alone), a list of my qualifications and references, and of course, the row of rip-off slips of my contact information. If there is one thing I knew about humans, theylovedrip-off slips.
I snapped a picture of it and sent it to Ulysses.
"Hmm," he said. "It does look quite… Expensive."
"And?"
"If you’re advertising yourself as an affordable manny, doesn't it seem odd to have such a lavish flyer?"
I wrinkled my nose. "I don't think so. Besides, doesn't this say that I’m doing it for the love of the job and not for the money?"
"I suppose,” he said noncommittally.
I pouted. "You hate my flyer."
Ulysses sounded amused. "I didn't say that. It's eccentric, is all."
"Coming from you." I collapsed back on my lounge chair. "Ulysses, what if Ineverfind my fated mate?"
"You will," Ulysses said gently. "You're young, Roshan. These things happen in time."
Even if I knew Ulysses was probably right, it was hard not to be jealous when he had everything I wanted. Then I felt bad for envying my friend who was only trying to help me.
I was tired of moping around feeling sorry for myself. I wanted to get up and do something.
"Well, thanks for talking to me," I said. "Say hi to Ryan and the kids for me, will you?"
"I will. Talk to you soon."
Shoving my phone in my back pocket, I sighed. Talking to Ulysses had both improved mood and made it worse. I was annoyed at myself. Was I not doing enough to search for my one true mate?
I grabbed another cupcake. The first one barely sated my appetite. As a manticore, I had a black hole where my stomach should've been. On one hand, it was irritating because I had to eat so much food in order to be full, but on the other hand it was nice to stuff my face with my favourite food group of all: baked goods.
Thankfully, money wasn't an issue. Like most mythical shifters, my family had amassed enough wealth to keep me comfortable my entire life.
I lived in a gorgeous palace-style home with marble floors and marble statues, a meticulously curated garden, a couple salt-water pools, and the finest furniture in the land.
But all that meant nothing, because I lived here alone. There were paid assistants to clean and maintain the house, but they all went home at night, and obviously none of them were my fated mate. My parents, also manticore shifters, spent most of their time travelling. They'd bestowed this residence on me when I turned eighteen, then told me to enjoy my life before romantically flying off into the sunset together.
Ugh, was I even getting jealous of my parents now? I needed to clear my head.
I roamed the halls aimlessly, taking bites out of my cupcake. If there was one thing that brought me joy on a consistent basis, it was the goodies from Puff Patisserie. Gods damn, that place was heavenly. I didn't even feel ashamed at the hundreds of dollars I spent there on a weekly basis. I was supporting local business, after all.
I paused in front of a marble statue of a manticore and swallowed the last bite of my cupcake. Maybe the problem was that I spenttoomuch time there. What if my fated mate had celiac disease or something? That meant I would never run into him there. I wondered if there were any good gluten-free bakeries in the area.
The manticore statue stared down at me with its teeth bared. I frowned at it, feeling like I was being judged. As if it was saying,you are supposed to be a frightening and powerful man-eater, and there you are standing with frosting smeared on your upper lip.
I licked my lips. Huh. There really was frosting there.
Mm... Vanilla.
Well, whatever. I didn't care what an ancient statue had to say about me. Just because I didn't swallow men whole with my three rows of sharp teeth like they did centuries ago didn't mean I wasn't still a manticore. Hell, if they had cupcakes back then, I bet they would've preferred those too.
Speaking of cupcakes, I roamed back around to the living room chamber where my silver platter lay empty. I gasped. Did I really eat everything while talking on the phone with Ulysses? I grumbled beneath my breath. That meant another trip to Puff Patisserie was on the agenda today.
Perhaps that wasn't a bad thing. The last time I'd been there, all my contact slips were taken. I needed to renew the advertisement anyway.
I was about to walk out of the house immediately, but on the tiniest sliver of the chance that I might run into my fated mate, I spent a few minutes dressing up. I slicked back my black hair and rubbed moisturizer along my jawline, which sported a sexy layer of stubble. I didn't bother spritzing myself with cologne because I wanted potential omegas to notice my natural alpha scent.
