“You’re strangling a hose. Of course I’m laughing. And don’t worry. I’m still looking for my mate. But…”
“Don’t start. The second the word ‘but’ leaves your mouth, I know it’s going to be something detrimental.”
“But what if Davis was right?” I continued before she stopped me. “Maybe I’m too nice. Too boring. Too routine. Too…this.”
She shook her head. She’d lost. Didn’t happen often for her. “There’s nothing wrong with someone who is kind and warm and cool under pressure. Would he have been happy if you yelled and threw things and was jealous all the time like the other guys he’d been with?”
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t do those things even if that was what he wanted. I like my life. It’s slow and predictable. I have zero anxiety. This is my dream life.”
I heard a car pull into the parking lot. First of the morning. “Customers.”
“If it’s your dream life, then fuck him. I swear, Remi, you choose you and you will find the mate who will meld right in. An omega who will love you for who you are, not who they make you in their heads.”
The day went as all days did. We worked through until lunch. We closed the nursery from noon until one for that time. Some people complained that we closed for an hour during the day, but our employees needed to eat and enjoy their break without hearing loudspeakers announce how busy it was or customers trying to pull them from the break room. I heard those things happened at the big stores. A lot of our employees came from those places, seeking a better work environment.
By the time I settled into bed that night, I’d decided Noel was right.
I was who I was and while I was willing to change some things for a mate, to make a place for them in my life, I wasn’t going to change who I was for them. I loved my life. The stillness. The slowness. The way I was able to make coffee in the morning and dinner at night with absolutely no haste in my movements.
Some people thrived on the busy chaos of their lives and jobs but not me.
I hoped Davis found what he was looking for, just as I hoped I found my own happiness outside of my work.
One day, I would find my omega.
Chapter Two
Bowen
“What are you working on, Bowen?”
Sweat dripping into my eyes, I looked up to see Vera, a newish ranger looking down at me. Her crisp uniform and neatly French-braided hair never seemed to reflect any level of real effort. Our supervisor would not hear a word against her, either. “That’s the thing, isn’t it, newbie? You don’t recognize work when you see it. I’m clearing this branch from the trail so visitors won’t trip over it.”
She ignored my comment about her lack of work, big shock, continuing to study me as if what I sought to accomplish was so beyond the pale, she couldn’t imagine doing it. Lowering herself to do it. “It’s the forest. There are branches everywhere. Rocks, creeks, humps, and bumps. People should watch out.”
I opened my mouth, prepared to remind her that our duty was to make things as safe and pleasant as possible in our park. Sure, there were all sorts of trip hazards that people who went overland could fall over, but these trails were walked by old people, small children, people carrying babies in backpacks. They had a right to know we had their backs. No, we would not catch everything that might get underfoot, but we should do our best.
Tossing the branch into the bushes beside the trail, I pivoted on a heel and marched up the trail, away from the office. I wasn’t going to report to our supervisor about what just happened, how blind to our mission this new ranger was. I’d had that conversation already and been pushed aside, told to give her a chance. She was just learning. So, there was no reason to try again. Our supervisor, a wolf alpha, had already been sniffing around the female. Not in a wholesome mating way.
Just ick.
And Vera’s reviews would all be written by him. Ensuring her career moving forward without the least bit of effort from her. Since she didn’t seem the least bit upset by his flirtatious behavior.
It sure wasn’t this way a few years back.
The national park I’d been lucky enough to work in since graduation with my degree in forestry was one of the most beautiful in the country. Its varied landscapes drew visitors from all over the world, spending their money and making it more than self-supporting. Which had taken a lot of pressure off the staff. Tourists loved it, hikers and bikers. Bird-watchers, wildlife photographers. Campers in tents and RVs and just those who liked to hang off a cliff in a sleeping bag.
So, did I mind picking up a branch? No, no I did not. Because little services like that made things much more pleasant for our visitors and made for a whole lot less paperwork. I’d never take pleasure in an injured hiker, nor judge them for their clumsiness. I suspected there were some among my coworkers who would.
Almost as soon as Vera’s clumping steps faded behind me—probably going to tell her fan-boy that I was mean or something—the wildness closed in around me. The trees in this section of the park soared toward the sky, top branches swaying in the spring breeze. Small animals were everywhere, if you were quiet enough to listen or still enough to look. Big ones, too, but they generally preferred to keep away from the more traveled trails, preferring to go about their lives in peace. Or at least without human interference.
A squirrel darted across the trail in front of me, pausing halfway to turn a sentient gaze in my direction. A shifter, then. I didn’t consider animals non-sentient, but there was somethingdifferent about shifters in their beast forms. Maybe their boldness.
“Hello, little brother. I hope you are enjoying the park.” I crouched to get closer to eye level with him, and he scooted up and bobbed his head at me. “If you need anything, ask for me at the ranger station, okay? I’m Bowen.”
He gave me another head bob and then turned and leapt into the brush beside the trail.
“A squirrel? Really?”
