One
Zamir
One day, probably muchsooner than I thought, I would die alone.
My friends at the Sanctuary had found their mates left and right, but I was confident I wouldn't get the same opportunity.
Shade, who—before his mate found him—couldn't even leave the area he lived in, much less the Sanctuary itself, was happily mated before me, and that said everything.
I'd never find my mate.
I was destined to be alone forever, which was fair. Someone like me, someone who ate his friends' life forces to survive, didn'tdeserve a fated mate. I'd end up feeding on their life force too, and how could I live with doing that to someone I was supposed to love?
"Why the glum face?"
I jumped. How lost in my thoughts had I been that I hadn't noticedKeoniarrive? The clatter of his cart could be heard anywhere in the Forest, and yet he'd managed to sneak up on me.
"I'm not glum."
"Yeah, and I have four perfectly working legs," he retorted, one brow raised. His blond curls were as poofy as ever, and his baby-blue eyes were far too knowing as he gazed at me.
Sighing, I stood up, and leaned against the tree I'd been sitting under. "I feel a little lonely, I guess."
"Oof, I know what you mean. Everywhere I look, someone's being all lovey-dovey with their mate."
"Right? Like, I'm happy for them, but at the same time, I can't help but be a little envious."
Keoni nodded sagely. "You know what you need?"
"What?"
"You need to get out of here. Go outside. Get drunk. Have some fun."
"You know supes can't get drunk." And even if we could, intoxication around humans with delicious and so-easy-to-consume life forces wouldn't be a good idea for me.
"Not on human alcohol you can't," he said with a grin. "Remember that bar Haruto mentioned? The Lair? It's owned by a dragon, and he has a special supe menu."
I raised a brow, intrigued. I'd never gotten drunk. Like I'd said, human alcohol was useless to supes, and I'd never heard of a supe-run bar before. I imagined if they served alcohol to supes, they had some way to make sure said supes wouldn't hurt humans under the influence.
Drowning my loneliness in alcohol sounded like as good an idea as any. It would at least let me forget for a few hours, and at this point, I'd take it.
"Okay, I'll go. A little later, though. Drinking is one thing, but doing so in the middle of the day? I haven't fallen that far."
Keoni chuckled, then patted my arm. "Good. Bring me back a bottle of Dragon Fire, will you?"
I raised a brow at him, guessing it was one of the special drinks, and nodded. Keoni was older than he looked, a secret he'd confided only in me, maybe because he knew I'd keep it to myself, unlike some of our other neighbors, who loved gossiping,
Whatever the reason, I was his secret keeper, and I didn't mind. I'd told him some of mine too. He was the only one who knew how much I hated what I was, and he'd never tried to convince me otherwise, just like I'd never tried to tell him that he didn't have to hide his real age.
Nolan
I scratched under our newest family member's chin, and the cat started to purr instantly, turning his head this way and that to get scratches in the right areas. He was around four years old, and I'd named him Dots because he had a big black dot on his back and a small orange one under his chin. He also had one blue and one yellow eye, and he'd been at the shelter for months, and I couldn't understand why no one had wanted a cat as sweet as him.
"Would you like to meet the others?" I asked, and he purred some more.
Smiling, I picked him up, and carried him out of the guest room where he'd spent a few minutes picking up the scents of allthe other members of my little furry family before I introduced him to them.
Clip and Muffin, my two German Shepherd and Poodle mixes, were the first to find us. They were sisters—nearly identical, except Clip's right ear was clipped, hence the name—and got along with everyone.
