So that left ... Logan Vega, the hellhound shifter who was Iz’s fated mate, and Vin Callendar, the mystery man.
From what Keith had said, it sounded like Vin would have been the most intimidating, so Iris was a little relieved that he’d stayed back to look after the office.
“Ready?” Keith murmured.
Iris steeled herself. “Ready.”
They stepped forward in unison.
“Good to see you,” Keith said to everyone. “Seriously, thanks for dropping everything and coming all the way out here, it means a lot. Everyone, this is Iris Lightfoot, my—fiancée, I guess you’d say? And—”
They’d talked about this at breakfast, but he still looked at her for confirmation. She gave him a tiny nod.
“—and mate,” Keith finished with a wide, adorable grin.
There was a stunned second’s worth of silence as everyone processed this, and then—to Iris’s delight—there were genuine-looking smiles all around.
Cooper punched Keith lightly on the arm. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that yesterday!”
“There’s a lot of red tape!” Keith protested, still grinning ear-to-ear. “Iris and I just wanted more of a chance to talk first.”
Everyone immediately descended on Iris like a swarm of locusts. They werefriendlylocusts, but it was still a little overwhelming. She had to admit that she was glad when Keith ushered them back a couple of steps.
“One at a time,” he said, laughing. “I’ll introduce you. Iris, this is Cooper Dawes, my chief.”
Cooper held out his hand. “I can’t believe I was worried about Keith. The guy goes on one real date and he immediately lands his fated mate. It’s great to meet you, Iris. I’m probably immediately going to lean on you to get your soon-to-be husband to take some of his vacation time.”
Iris still felt shy, and she was acutely conscious of how off-putting it must be for her not to be able to match their smiles. Even if they could, like Keith, tell that she was happy anyway, she didn’t like being the only person in an impromptu party who couldn’t really join in the fun. What if they thought she was standoffish?
There was only one sure way to solve that. All she needed to do was handle it quickly, before she lost her nerve.
“I’ll definitely support your cause,” she said. “I’d like to see a little more of the world. And, um—this is awkward, but just so everyone knows up front—I was in a car accident about a year ago, and some of the nerve endings in my face don’t work quite right anymore. My speech might get a little slurred when I’m tired, but mostly I have trouble with smiling. So please don’t think that I’m not really, really happy to be meeting all of you—I just can’t show it in the usual way.”
Keith put his hand on the small of her back, just serving as comforting support.
“Then you’ll just have to make sure to let us know if you’re everunhappy around us,” Simon Park said. “Throwing something usually works. Otherwise, the danger is we won’t take a hint. I know I for one always assume people are delighted to be in my company. I’m Simon, by the way.”
Iris laughed, and just like that, the mood was easy again.
“Evie,” Evie Anderson said, shaking Iris’s hand too. “The saddest part of that story is that it’s true. And he’s even usually right. I hate it when guys have huge egos, and it’s even worse when they can actually back it up.”
“I can’t help being charming,” Simon said. “We all have our crosses to bear.”
Iz Benoit paused to roll her eyes at him for a second before she introduced herself.
“It’s an honor and a pleasure to meet someone who perfectly complements one of the best people I know.”
“She’s a dragon,” Simon said. “They get formal at the drop of a hat.”
“We do that too,” Iris said to Iz.
Iz added to Simon, “Also, they’re calledmanners. They’re what some of us have to work with instead of your abundant charm.” She turned back to Iris. “Logan—he’s on the team too, he’smymate—is so sorry he had to miss this, and he’ll be even sorrier now. So will Vin—that’s our other teammate who had to stay behind to look after the office.”
“They drew the short straws,” Cooper said cheerfully. “So how do we do this? We can take our cars in, right?”
Iris suppressed a shiver.
“You can,” Keith said. “And I’d recommend it, so you’re not leaving them by the side of the road, looking abandoned. I’ll tell the gate to let you in.”
