I turned, red-faced to the teacher. “I am so sorry.”
She smiled. “It’s okay. Things like that happen all the time. You should hear what some of these kids with older siblings repeat.”
I laughed. “Great, well, I need to head out. Her grandmother will be picking her up today. She had a pretty good morning and slept well last night.”
She dotted down some notes. “No problem. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
I went out the door and watched through the window for a moment before I left. Ari sat with one of her friends at the small table, digging into her yogurt and berries. Though she has been going to this daycare since she was young, leaving her was always hard.
When I got to my car, I took a deep breath, trying to turn my focus to work. Instead, it turned towards the app Aria found. How did it even end up on my phone? I tried to think back, but I couldn't recall ever downloading something like that. The only thing I could think of was girls' night with Kristen. We met in college, and she stuck by me through everything. She always insisted I should get out there and meet someone, and while it sounded nice, I didn’t know if I was ready. For a hookup, maybe, but a real relationship meant bringing someone into our life. I didn’t know how I felt about that.
Unable to help myself, I opened the app. The ‘K’ logo popped up before disappearing to reveal a profile. It was like other apps I’d seen, with a few photos and a short bio. His name was Jasper Leo Hawthorne. It was a bit strange for him to have his entirename on his profile like that. I scrolled through, interested that all the photos were group photos.
One of the men was blond, with blue eyes and tanned skin, like he spent a lot of time outside. Another appeared a bit shorter, with golden eyes and black hair left fairly long. He styled it half back in a lot of the photos and always wore a large smile. The last man was large and gruff, with brown hair and a beard to match. He was much larger than the other two, in height and width. His dark eyes shone bright, but he looked a bit more stoic in the photos.
I scoffed. Why did men always do this? They always posted themselves in group photos as if to hide themselves, though in this case, I didn't know why. They were each so attractive, I would swipe right on any of them. There was one of them all sitting around a table in some tropical place, and another that looked like they were somewhere in Europe. The photos made me a bit nervous. I had never been farther than the next state over, let alone another country. Would we even have anything to talk about?
It also said ‘Enski Mountain Pack.’ That gave me pause. Though wolf shifters and humans had been coexisting for a long time, they tended to stick to their packs and didn’t interact with humans.
We lived in Springwall. It was up in the mountains, which made it the perfect place to sell real estate to rich retirees looking for a beautiful home, but it was also the perfect place for wolf shifter packs. I’d lived here my whole life, right next to Enski Mountain, and I’d only seen a handful of them. They were larger than humans, and of course, I’d heard the stories people told meaning to scare, but I didn’t believe them. Still…
In what felt like a momentary lapse in judgment, I decided to tap the little heart confirming the match. It was a simple act, but one that still made my heart thrum.
I was shocked when the profile whooshed away and nothing else came up. Normally, these apps had more than one swipe, but it seemed once you picked a match with this one, that’s all you got. Maybe it only let you have one match at a time or something.
Oh well. With that out of the way, I tucked my phone into my purse and got to work.
CHAPTER TWO
JASPER
Ileaned back, stretching out over my desk chair. I had been sitting here for hours, finishing up charts.
As I looked back, I noticed Hawthorne was standing there, his arms crossed over his chest, making his large, sexy arms bulge even more.
I smirked at him. “Hey, handsome,” I said playfully. “What are you doing here?”
He walked over, laying an upside-down chaste kiss on my lips. His long beard tickled my nose, making me huff a laugh.
“I wrapped up all my meetings early,” he said, moving to lean against my desk. “Leo promised short ribs tonight, and I wasn’t going to miss that. I figured you wouldn’t want to either.”
Looking out the window, I noticed dark clouds hovering in the sky, looking ready to open any minute. I hadn’t left this room once today, which was made clear with how my stomach rumbled loudly.
“Jas,” Hawthorne scolded. Apparently, he heard my stomach too. “You can’t coop yourself up in here all day.”
I sighed, shutting my laptop and gathering my papers. This was a conversation we had often, but I knew he was right. “I know. We’re just a bit short-staffed. And?—”
Hawthorne gathered me into his arms, his warm, hot body surrounding me, making me feel relaxed. I wasn’t sure how our pack alpha, who was wound up with everyone’s problems all the time, could exude such a relaxed aura, but he always did.
“You’ll figure it out,” he promised. “But not on an empty stomach. I’m sure dinner’s almost done.”
“I hope so,” I said as we made our way out of the clinic back to our home. Many people waved in our direction and paid respect to our alpha. Since I entered a relationship with the pack alpha, people have been a bit weird. And it wasn’t just me, but to Leo too. It was always some mix of fear to cross us, worry about what we would tell Hawthorne, and irritation that we were chosen.
When we got home, I could smell the braised meat and something buttery I hoped were rolls. We stepped into the kitchen just as Leo was pulling the bread out of the oven. He had his blue apron on, the one that drove me absolutely wild. His hair was up in a bun, oven mitts over his hands that were made to look like paws.
He smiled when he saw us, setting the rolls aside before jumping into Hawthorne’s waiting arms. Their kiss was drawn out and passionate, making my cock twitch in my pants. “Glad you didn’t get caught in the rain,” he said as he slid back to his feet.
“Yeah, I got us home early,” Hawthorne said.
