She made it to Fate Mountain by the end of the business day and pulled into the Fate Mountain Inn parking lot. She’d already booked her room before leaving and went into the lobby to get her keys. The little old man behind the counter greeted her with a smile and handed them to her.
She carried her suitcase up to the second-floor room and went inside. The hotel room with well-appointed, but felt stale and cold. She quickly turned on the heater and sat on the bed beside it as it warmed up the room. With nothing else to do except wait for tomorrow, Sylvia decided to go out and explore Fate Mountain Village. She’d been here a few times on ski trips in the past and for hiking with her hiking group. But she had never stayed overnight before.
Out in the cool spring mountain air, she looked around the town from the balcony of the hotel and tried to decide where to go. There was a diner across the highway and she decided to get herself a bite to eat for an early dinner. When she walked into the diner she could smell the scent of frying bacon, berries, and waffles. It was the most intoxicating aroma she’d ever smelled.
The pretty blonde waitress brought her to her seat and gave her a menu.
“Can I get you anything to start?” the woman, whose nametag said Lily, asked.
“Just water. And I was curious if there’s anything fun to do around here at night.”
“A lot of people enjoy going to Fate Mountain Brewery in the evening,” Lily said with a smile. “You can always check out the paper for current events. But our annual festivals are usually during holidays or in the summertime.”
Lily walked down the diner aisle to retrieve a glass of water for Sylvia. Sylvia grabbed a copy of the paper and flipped through it. Aside from the rising crime rates, most of the news was congratulations to children for school achievements or winning awards for the 4-H and FFA. Typical small-town news. It did her heart good to read about the simple things.
When she flipped to the back of the paper, there was a full-page advertisement for a website called Mate.com. The website catered to male shifters and the curvy human females they loved so much. Sylvia bit her lip, looking at the male model they’d used for the advertisement. The man had to be a shifter, having the exaggerated proportions most humans had come to recognize in them. He had godly good looks, with piercing eyes that bore into her soul through the ink of the newspaper.
Sylvia had never considered dating a shifter before. It wasn’t that she had anything against shifters or was afraid to date one. It had simply never come up. Shifters were a minority in the world of humans, especially in urban environments like Portland. But she knew that there was a higher proportion of shifters on Fate Mountain. She read the small print stating that the dating site had been created by one of Fate Mountain’s own: a man named Corey Bright. He’d built the Bright Institute for shifters. She had heard about the institute in the last several years. There was a big to-do about how great the education was, even in Portland. Humans were clamoring to get accepted to the Institute, even though it was designed for shifters. And that had led to a whole bunch of other drama that Sylvia hadn’t paid a lot of attention to.
But now that she was sitting in Fate Mountain, staring at the advertisement for Mate.com, the idea of dating a shifter suddenly sounded rather appealing.
“Have you joined Mate.com yet?” Lily asked, setting Sylvia’s ice water on the table and nodding at the open advertisement on the table.
“No I haven’t. I don’t seem to have much luck on dates these days,” Sylvia said, taking a sip of water.
“Maybe you’ve just been dating the wrong men,” Lily suggested.
“I’ve definitely been dating the wrong men,” Sylvia agreed with a giggle.
“Maybe it’s time to try something new,” Lily suggested.
“You may be right,” Sylvia said.
“What can I get you to eat, hon?”
“I’ll have the Fate Mountain burger and a huckleberry milkshake,” Sylvia said.
“Coming right up,” Lily said.
After Lily left the table, Sylvia continued reading the newspaper. When the waitress brought her meal and she started eating, she became convinced that Fate Mountain burgers were the best burgers in the entire world. And Sylvia was not prone to exaggeration, regardless of what her mother believed.
She finished her meal and went to pay at the checkout.
“How was it?” Lily asked.
“So good. I can’t believe it.”
“My husband Shane Keenan cooked your burger today. That might be why,” Lily said with a giggle.
“Oh, I see.” Sylvia looked toward the kitchen to see a chef with his black chef’s jacket rolled back to show off full sleeve tattoos. She recognized the name Shane Keenan from a cooking show way back before the war.
“Is that the Shane Keenan?” Sylvia asked. “Wow, what an honor.”
“You never know what will happen on Fate Mountain,” Lily said as Sylvia paid her bill.
She hurried out of the diner as the sun was setting into twilight. The air had already grown colder and Sylvia wrapped her puffer jacket more tightly around her body. As she started across the highway, a group of men on dirt bikes sped toward her.
“Hyenas rule this town!” one of them yelled as they passed.
Sylvia gasped and shook her head, wondering what that was about before she finally crossed the street.
Back in her hotel room, she tried to relax by watching TV but felt too bored to sit still. Lily had mentioned a brewery and Sylvia seem to remember seeing one not far from her hotel. Grabbing her purse, she went out again and walked down the sidewalk to the Fate Mountain Brewery. Halfway there she considered going back to change out of her navy skirt suit, but decided against it. She had the red lipstick in her purse and that was all she needed.
As she made her way into the parking lot, classic rock music spilled out of the brewery and into the night. Inside, a group of brawny looking lumberjacks stood around the pool table, staring at a group of college girls sharing a pitcher of beer. The bearded bartender with full arm tattoos chuckled with a group of tourists.
“What’ll you have ma’am?” the bartender asked, walking over.
“What’s good?” Sylvia asked.
“Most people are partial to the Fate Mountain Lager,” he suggested.
“I’ll have a pint of that then,” she said, diverging from her usual white wine.
The bartender turned and expertly poured her a pint of brew before setting it on the bar in front of her. She took a sip and smiled at the smooth, light taste. It was good and she could tell that it was also quite strong for a light beer.
Sitting in the brewery by herself, she thought about how much of a disaster the last date she had gone on had been, and she couldn’t help but let out an irritated groan. Luckily, the classic rock music was loud enough that no one around her heard it. Instead of once again going over every single bad date she’d ever had, she pulled her phone out of her purse and started to navigate to Mate.com.
When she opened the application, she was first asked to fill out a ridiculous questionnaire. The questions didn’t seem to make any sense or have anything to do with anything. According to the website, its algorithm could match a shifter with his one true love.
Sylvia knew that shifters were supposed to have a one true love that they called their fated mate. Not being a shifter herself, she couldn’t say for sure if it was true or not, but truth be told, she kind of thought it was a scam.
After she finished the questionnaire, she was invited to fill out her profile. She quickly filled in some information, uploaded a picture from her social media, and hit enter. Right after that, her matches started to load. She watched the screen as the little bar started to fill, her heart picking up the pace. She didn’t know why she felt nervous. Or maybe it was hopeful. Either way, she knew she shouldn’t take it very seriously.
A hundred percent match was a fated mate. The instructions had also told her that most male shifters would not be interested in dati
ng women who were not a 100 percent match because they only wanted to date their fated mates. As the profiles loaded, Sylvia was blown away by how attractive all of the men were. She scrolled down the screen past the 75 percent match and the 80 percent match and the 92 percent match until finally at the very bottom of the page she came to her 100 percent match.
Her heart practically jumped out of her chest when she saw his picture. He was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen in her life. He could have been a model or a movie star.
He wore a cowboy hat, dirty work gloves, and a dusty flannel shirt next to his bright red pickup truck. Someone had snapped the picture while he was working, but the sweat and dirt on his brow didn’t detract from the slap-in-the-face of his masculine presence. In fact, it only made him hotter.
Sylvia felt weak at the knees, and she was just looking at his picture on her phone. She shook her head at herself and took another long swig of beer. This guy could not be for real. She decided that this was surely a scam. Men like this just didn’t exist, especially in her world.
She giggled at herself and opened the chat application so she could send him a message. She texted him, through the fuzzy haze of her growing beer buzz.
“Hi Boss Bear,” she said, using his profile name. “I’m your fated mate. Want to get married and have babies?”
She was laughing at herself for being so daring and for calling the scam for what it obviously was. It was less funny, however, when not two seconds later he walked through the door.
Chapter 6
Leland walked through the door of the brewery and his phone pinged. A wave of delicious scent hit him as the music washed over his body. He’d come down to Fate Mountain Brewery to try to relax before his meeting with the auditor in the morning. Standing in the tasting room with the sound of pool balls smacking and rock music playing on the jukebox, the scent of beer, fries and woman hit him like a ton of bricks.
Woman. Mate.
His bear grumbled. Disoriented, he pulled his phone from his pocket and checked what had caused the ping. There was a message from Mate.com on his phone. He’d joined the shifter/human dating website years ago, when he’d come home shortly after the war. He didn’t even remember downloading the app onto his current phone.
His inner grizzly was in a frantic state, clawing behind Leland’s eyes. Leland could barely think straight and was pushed from behind as another bear shifter maneuvered through the front door of the brewery. Leland grunted, moving out of the way. He flicked his thumb over the message to bring it up on his screen.
“Congratulations. We’ve found your fated mate.”
He stumbled toward a table in the corner, the scent of his mate filling his nostrils. He looked around the bar, shocked that she could be here right when he found her on Mate.com. His grizzly growled inside him, his heart pumping him full of adrenaline. Could she really be here?
He clicked on the link in the message and brought up the woman’s profile. When he looked at her sweet, heart-shaped face, full red lips, and hourglass curves, in that cute little business suit, he had to keep himself from crushing his phone from the sheer excitement.
A message came up on his screen. “I’m your fated mate. Want to get married and have babies?”
Her. He looked around the room again, convinced she was in this very bar. His nostrils flared as he sniffed the air, trying to locate her scent among all the other scents in the room. The smell of her was so overpowering, there was no way he could get it out from under his skin. He went to the bar and ordered a pint of Fate Mountain Lager, downing it quickly to calm his nerves.
“Leland Kincaid. Haven’t seen you around these parts in a long time,” said the bar owner as he filled Leland’s second pint.
Leland knew his name was Drew Bock, a member of the Rescue Bears crew. The shifters in this town knew each other well. Too well. The gossip moved fast.
“Drew. Looking good, friend. How’s the family?”
“We’re doing well. My mate Quinn is pregnant with our third cub. We couldn’t be happier.”
“Good to hear.”
“Speaking of mates… I can’t help but scent something is going on here.”
“You can smell it too? Where is she?” Leland blurted out, looking around the bar.
He was already feeling the effects of his two beers. Mixed with the heady feeling of his mate being in the room intoxicated him further. When he finally saw her walking toward him from the bathroom, he was stunned into silence; she was like a vision from a dream.
She was wearing a smart blue shirt suit with nude pumps. Her hourglass curves were so gorgeous they slapped him right across the face. Her thick black hair hung in soft waves all the way to the small of her back. Horn-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of her delicate nose, and her luscious, full lips were painted an enticing shade of red. If he hadn’t been sitting on a bar stool, he might have fallen right onto the floor.
Mate! Mate!
His grizzly growled and scratched in his mind. She walked right up to him and smiled shyly. Without a word, she showed him the screen of her phone. There was a picture of him with the words “100% Match” over the top.
“Boss Bear, it’s you,” she said with a giggle.
“Sweet’n Sassy,” he said, holding up his own screen.
“That’s me. My name is Sylvia.”
“Leland,” he said, reaching out to shake her hand.
“This is so strange. I never expected this to happen. I thought it was a scam, to be honest. I mean, how can a website predict your perfect match?”
“I didn’t even know I was still signed up for that site.”
“Then we’re both equally shocked.” She laughed nervously, looking around.
“Please, join me,” he said, remembering his manners and motioning to the seat beside him.
She slid onto the stool and he ordered another round of drinks. He was so excited and nervous, he couldn’t quite think straight. How had his mate ended up in the brewery at this exact moment? He was from Fate Mountain and knew that fated mates had a way of finding each other around here. But he’d never fully believed it until it happened to him.
“So, you want to get married and have babies?” he teased.
She blushed furiously. “I thought it was a scam,” she reiterated.
“Ha. I’d probably think that if I were you too. What brings you to Fate Mountain?” he asked her, trying to put her at ease.
“I’m here on business,” she said, drowning her own nerves in another pint of beer. “And you?”
“I’m from here, originally. Just came back after a long time. It’s been rough.”
He didn’t want to get into the drama with his ranch with her, not on their first meeting. Learning about his father’s debt, and his brother’s lack of involvement didn’t seem like first date information. He had to play this cool. His woman was obviously a professional and probably too good for a crusty old cowboy like him.
From her profile, he’d learned she was six years younger than him, and from Portland. She had her whole life ahead of her, doing her thing in her own life. If he wanted a chance with this woman, he couldn’t scare her off.
Instead of telling her about his ranch, or his problems, he asked her about her life. He asked her about her childhood. He asked her about her family. She told him about her parents; her mom who set her up on one bad date after another, and the lack of good men out there.
When she mentioned that, she put her hand to her lips and apologized. He could tell she was getting tipsy and it suddenly dawned on him that neither of them should be getting too drunk. She was in town on business. And he had an important meeting, first thing tomorrow morning.
“We should probably pace ourselves,” he said, when Drew asked if they wanted another pitcher of beer.
“You’re right,” she giggled. “I’m pretty tipsy.”
“Can I walk you back to your hotel?” he asked, trying to be a gentleman. He should have thought about that befo
re she’d gotten so lit up. She was curvy but still a lightweight. He reprimanded himself for not taking better care of her.
“Sure. I’m just at the Fate Mountain Inn,” she said, sliding out of her stool.
She slid her little hand into the crook of his elbow and the sensation almost did him in. It was the most gentle, sweet gesture he’d ever felt. He put his own rough hand over her smooth one and held it there for a moment, looking into her pretty brown eyes.
“Let’s get you back,” he said gently.
She nodded with a smile and they made their way out of the brewery, leaving the sound of music and the smell of beer behind them. They walked down the street to the Fate Mountain Inn and took the stairs to the second floor.
“This is me,” she said, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear.
He should have held back. He should have been a gentleman, but the scent of her skin and the twinkle in her eyes made his grizzly rear up inside his mind. He leaned in and cupped her cheek in his hand, pulling her toward him as he brushed his lips over hers.
The scent of the warm gush of her desire washed over him as she met his kiss. She pressed hard against his lips, groaning softly. His tongue slid through her lips and the heat of her mouth enveloped him. That was all it took. There was no stopping the beast now. He started walking her backward through the open hotel room door and kicked it closed behind him with his work boot.
She looked up at him with her big wide brown eyes, her lips parted. The expression on her face was so vulnerable and beautiful it made the grizzly inside him crave so much more. Sylvia was his mate and he had been waiting so long for her. He didn't realize until that very moment that his life had been incomplete before she had stepped into it.
He gathered her to him and kissed her deeply, sliding his tongue over hers in a splendidly erotic dance. They were entwined in each other's arms, touching and caressing and holding each other tight. Leland pulled her out of her coat before sliding her suit jacket off her shoulders. With deft hands, he undressed her as he kissed her and she kissed him back. She was left standing in her bra and panties.
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