Rahel crouches next to him, lips curling in disgust, and gets in his face.
“If I ever see you again, there won’t be enough left of you to identify.”
Derek nods frantically, gathering himself to run off.
Then my man turns to me. “You would never have to visit me in jail, sweetheart. I’ve been disappearing dipshits like that for fucking centuries.” He winks when my eyes widen. Holy shit… “Let’s get you home.”
Four
Chapter 4
Destiny
My phone blares from somewhere in the pile of blankets and pillows I’ve built around myself on Rahel’s massive bed. Wait. When did I… I look around, blinking. I’m surrounded by a literal fortress of softness. His Henley that I slept in. A shirt I found in his closet. A hoodie that smells so much like him I might have rubbed my face on it for like ten minutes. Three pillows from the couch. The throw blanket from the living room. When the hell did I gather all this? I’m in trouble…
But my phone keeps screaming, so I dig through my nest … my NEST, oh my God, I’m nesting!
‘Keke’: approximately forty-seven missed calls.
“Hello?” I ask with a smile.
“DESTINY MARIE JOHNSON.” Keke’s voice nearly blows out my speaker. “What the fuck happened to our shop?! I come back fromoneday off and the door is in freaking pieces, there’schocolate everywhere, and you’re not answering your phone! I’m about to call the cops! I almost called your mama!”
I burst out laughing.
“This is not funny! I thought you’d been kidnapped! Or murdered! Chopped up in somebody’s freezer!”
“Keke…”
“I’ve been calling for HOURS, Des! Freaking HOURS!”
“I’m sorry, I…”
“Girl, you better have a good explanation for why this damn door freaking looks like a goddamn bear broke through it, talking about giggling.” She sucks her teeth.
And my poor best friend sounds so pissed off, so worried that I know the only thing I can say right now to calm her is, “I found my mate.”
Silence. Then: “…What?”
I’m grinning so hard my face hurts. “I found him, Keish. My mate is my dream guy. Shadow Daddy. He’s real.”
More silence. I can practically hear her brain short-circuiting.
“Bitch.” Her voice is deadly calm now. “You better put me on FaceTime RIGHT FUCKING NOW.”
I laugh, switching the call to video, and Keke’s face fills the screen. She’s standing in the middle of our shop … I can see the messed-up door behind her … and her expression is pure “you have three seconds to explain before I lose my entire damn mind.”
“Okay, so.” I settle back into my nest, pulling Rahel’s hoodie tighter around me. “You know how I’ve been having those dreams?”
“Shadow Daddy dreams. Yes.”
“Well, Valentine’s night … God, was it only a day ago? … Anyway, I was working late, filling the special orders, and Ifelt like something was… coming. And then the door just… exploded.”
“Fucking exploded?!”
“Keish’, he broke it down. Because he caught my scent and he just…” I make a vague hand gesture. “He couldn’t stop himself.”
Keke’s eyes are the size of dinner plates. “Des. Destiny. Are you telling me a whole supernatural man broke down our shop door because he freaking SMELLED you?”
