Then I rang Jarrett. He picked up almost immediately.
“I promise that wasn’t a cue for you to ring,” he panted down the phone. “I’m just freaking out of touch I think. I haven’t seen Brent or the kids since the day before yesterday because of the whole ‘not seeing each other before the bonding ceremony’ thing and I’m a little bit on edge.”
“Really? You sound fine,” I said back, trying to hide my grin.
“Ha ha” he deadpanned. “You shouldn’t be enjoying this so much, I’m your brother. Support me.”
“Okay,” I said and cleared my throat. “In the name of support, I’ve made sure that the Alpha Den at the hall has enough alcohol in it to sedate a large rhino and enough snacks that you’ll probably end up with a sugar rush or something. There’s also breath mints in case you throw up.”
“You think I’m going to throw up?”
“In every story Dad told us about his bonding ceremony, how did it start?”
“I’d just thrown up again and blah blah blah,” he replied dryly.
“Exactly,” I said. “I’m preparing for the inevitable. The rings are with me already and I’ll bring them down with me. Anything else?”
Jarrett took a deep breath. “Yeah, am I making a huge mistake?”
“Bonding with your fated mate?” I said, incredulous. “Jarrett, little bro, you’re about to live the dream. You’re getting what we all want. Enjoy it. Rub our noses in it if you can, who knows when Slater and I are going to find ours.”
“Okay, thanks Chasen,” Jarrett said, taking a few calming breaths. “I’ll see you in a few. Sorry you have to work today dude.”
I shrugged. “Duty calls,” I said. “See you later.”
I hung up the phone and shook my head. I couldn’t believe that he would even consider having second thoughts with the amount he went through to be with Brent. He must be nervous. I’d kill for a chance like this, I truly would. Just to get a glimpse of my fated mate, even once.
It was silly. I knew it was silly. I was getting myself worked up over nothing. I needed to focus on the meeting, on making sure I impressed and that we secured the contract. That’s what I needed to focus on.
Then maybe at the bonding ceremony later on today, I would bump into someone who could maybe be my fated mate. I sighed deeply. I could only hope.
The meeting with Mayor Suchy had gone incredibly well. I’d called Preston on the way out of the building to tell him that we definitely had the contract and that businesses would be informed that we would be doing construction as soon as the papers were sorted in a few weeks. I could hardly contain myself.
I climbed into my car and managed to wait until I’d pulled out of the Mayor’s parking lot before I started bouncing up and down in my seat. The wolf in me howled, the power of the full moon tonight lifting its spirits. Everything seemed to be falling into place. My career was about to skyrocket, now all I really needed was someone to share it all with.
I tutted at myself. I needed to not think about it. The thing about fate was that you couldn’t really second guess where it was coming from. But there was something about tonight that had me on high alert, maybe it was the full moon, maybe it was the fact that I was feeling lucky, but maybe tonight, things were really going to start going my way.
2
Tate
“Where the hell are they?” I looked through the office again, rummaging in every drawer, looking beneath every single file, but they were nowhere to be found. I couldn’t find my anti-heat pills and I could feel myself going into a panic about it. I mean, it would probably have been easier to find them if I kept the office at the back of Frostbites in any sort of order but alas, I was a messy little wolf, wasn’t I?
There was a knock at the door. It was Jonica, looking ridiculously radiant considering we were at the end of a very long day at Frostbites, the bakery I had been running in town for nearly ten years. Her curly hair fell loosely around her shoulders and she wore enough highlight to blind someone who wasn’t wearing sunglasses. She looked concerned. I must have looked like a bit of a wreck right now.
“Everything okay, boss?” I hated when she called me boss and she knew it, which was why she smirked at me. “I’m going to head home, you still okay to pick me up on your way to the party?”
“No problem, I’ll be round at seven, okay?” I forced a smile onto my face, but the cock of her eyebrow told me that she saw straight through it. “I’m honestly fine, Jonica, I’ve just lost something.”
“Your mind?”
“In this place, could you blame me?”
She laughed and said goodbye, the second the door closed I could feel myself jumping back to panic. I’d not taken the pills today because I couldn’t find them this morning, thinking they were at work and I got so busy I just didn’t have the chance to.
I’d been taking the anti-heat pills for as long as I could remember. Ever since I met the Ewen brothers in fact. They’d become such a big part of my life over the past few years that not having them, even just for today, was making me sweat. I needed them. Not that I really thought I had any hope of bumping into my fated mate, but as far as anyone else was concerned, I was an alpha, and I intended to let them keep thinking that. I had no problem being an omega, none at all, but I’d sort of got caught in a lie and, well, the anti-heat pills were the most surefire way to stop anyone from figuring it out.
I didn’t know how Slater, Chasen and especially Jarrett, who was my best friend, would react to me not being the alpha they thought I was. It had become such a huge deal now that I just couldn’t let it out. If I let out, I could lose them forever, and I wasn’t about to do that. If I lost them, what the hell would I do with myself? If I lost them then I’d lose my best friend. And I’d lose Chasen.
I’d known Chasen for about as long as I’d known Jarrett and Slater. I sort of met them all at once but it was Chasen that winked at me when I first met him and made my knees go weak and my eyes go all starry. It was stupid. I knew it was stupid, but then he just started flirting with me.
Every time I saw him he’d have a quip for me or a little joke and we’d banter back and forth (which Jarrett wasn’t too keen on) until one of us gave up from laughing too hard.
I joined them on a holiday once, it was a couple of years ago now, but it was the moment that I realized it was just never going to happen for the two of us. We’d gone camping and it was freezing cold and Chasen’s tent had flooded or blown away or something to that effect, I couldn’t really remember, I was so tired. So he crawled into my one man tent and snuggled up next to me. We’d intended on going to sleep, but I couldn’t with him right next to me and he couldn’t seem to either, so we just stayed up and talked all night.
If we were fated mates, we would have known it then. In a moment like that between two werewolves, if you were fated, there wouldn’t have been time for us to stay up talking all night because we would have been too busy lusting after one another. But we talked and found ourselves getting ever closer.
We saw each other almost every day when he came into Frostbites at around 11 a.m. for his morning caffeine fix. We’d definitely have twigged if there was some kind of fate tying us together, pills or no pills, right? Even with the camping trip. At least with the pills, I could live in the fantasy a little bit longer. Until he found his fated and I wound up alone.
I shook it from my head and locked up the bakery. If they weren’t here, they just had to be at my apartment upstairs, there was nowhere else they could be. At least that’s what I told myself as I ran up and barreled through the front door in an absolute frenzy.
They weren’t in the kitchen, they weren’t in the living room, they weren’t in the bathroom. I rushed around my bedroom, practically tearing the whole place apart, trying to find the orange plastic bottle. But they were nowhere to be found. Sweat poured down my forehead and the longer this took; the later I was going to be to Jarrett and Brent’s bonding ceremony. I couldn’t be late. I was Brent’
s best man, for crying out loud!
Snap out of it, Tate, I told myself. Now was not the time to be getting down on myself, I needed to be happy for Jarrett and Brent. And get ready to see Chasen in a suit and try not to swoon so hard I melted in front of him. Pull yourself together.
I took a breath and dug my phone out of my pocket, about to dial the pharmacy before I realized what time it was. They would be closed. They would be long closed and I had left it too late. There was no chance in hell I was going to be able to get anymore pills for tonight.
My usually-tidy bedroom had been turned upside-down, clothes strewn across the bed, hanging out of the chest of drawers that were just flung open, my bookshelves even managed to get caught in the crossfire, a wayward pair of underwear across my copies of A Song of Ice and Fire. I sighed. If they weren’t here and they weren’t at the bakery, I’d definitely fucked up and dropped them somewhere. And I had no idea where. Where could I have dropped them between here and the bakery? It’s not like I ever had time to go anywhere else.
I took a seat on the edge of my bed staring around me, my mind swirling, wondering what the hell I was going to do until I could get to a pharmacy tomorrow to get new ones. I was stuck. I couldn’t skip the wedding. That wasn’t an option, I needed to be there.
It will be fine, I said to myself, taking a deep, steadying breath before getting to my feet and starting to tidy up. I knew everyone that was going to be at the ceremony anyway, and what were the chances that my fated mate was going to show up? They were so slim that I didn’t even need to think about it. Tonight wasn’t about me anyhow; it was about Jarrett and Brent. And a little bit about Chasen.
I took a shower and pulled my finest suit out of my wardrobe. One thing that would definitely take my mind off not being able to find my anti-heat pills would be seeing Chasen all dressed up in his finery. Gosh, I’d have to keep myself in check tonight, with a little bit of alcohol and a run at the full moon, I’d definitely be struggling to control myself around him.
We were always pretty flirty when we got near one another but we’d never actually done anything. I was never sure if he really liked me or if he just did it for sport. Let’s be honest here, Chasen could have absolutely anyone in Furbitten Falls, Howling Hills and beyond. He could have his pick. Why would he waste his time on me?
I double checked myself in the mirror before I left the house. The suit was fitted just right, my hair was the right amount of casually tousled to look at its best and I wore cologne that Chasen had told me before that he liked. If nothing else, I would get an ego boost off him tonight with a little flirt and have something to keep my imagination satisfied until I saw him next. I’d be okay without my pills for one night. I was just being overly cautious. Nothing was going to happen tonight.
3
Chasen
We’d been in the Alpha’s Den for a while, me trying to keep in the good news so that I didn’t pull focus and Jarrett looked like he was about to throw up. I didn’t know what he would be like if Slater and I weren’t here. I wondered if he’d have run off by now, or at least thrown up once or twice. He was definitely keeping it together to keep up appearances.
“So, are you nervous or what?” I said, leaning back in one of the armchairs, putting my feet up on the table. “You look seasick.”
Slater kicked at my legs. “Feet off the table, what the hell are you some kind of wild animal?”
“Only at a full moon,” I grinned.
“You’re impossible,” he groaned.
“And you still have paint in your hair!”
He rushed over the mirror and started running his hands through his blond locks, trying to find a non-existent bit of paint. He was so easy to rile up.
“Of course I’m nervous,” Jarrett mumbled, still looking a little bit green. “Wouldn’t you be?”
I shrugged. “Not sure, you’re the first one to find your fated mate, remember?” I ruffled his hair. “You’re the trial run.”
“And you’re making it worse,” Slater said, jabbing me in the side. “We’re very proud of you, little brother,” Slater added with a smile. “And you know Dad would be too. He’d have loved to have been here today.”
“Even if it was just to give you the sex talk again,” I laughed. “Not that you need it. Three kids Jarrett, you seem to have the sex thing down.”
Slater jabbed me again, “You’re a pig.”
“Why no one has snapped me up yet is beyond me, I mean I-“
I cut myself off as a scent hit my nostrils. I sat up straight as it stirred something deep inside me, something I’d never felt before. Something was waking up in me and causing my wolf to prowl through my veins. Was it nerves for Jarrett? Was it the full moon? No. That wasn’t it. I was suddenly short of breath, intrigued by what was here, what wanted me to leave this room and track it down. My cock was suddenly rock hard and I was incredibly glad I was sitting down so my brothers didn’t notice. Slater eyed me carefully, I swallowed to try and calm myself.
“Yes, Chasen?” Slater said, an arch in his eyebrow. “You feeling okay buddy, you stopped yourself mid-brag.”
“Maybe he’s the one feeling nervous about his little brother getting married before he does,” Jarrett said, looking at me through the mirror, a smile in his eyes, a smirk tugging at the edges of his lips. But I couldn’t bring myself to focus on him, my focus at the door instead, in the direction that the smell was coming from. It was all-consuming and was filling my head. I felt dizzy. The wolf in me started to stalk my veins. It was awake. It was my fated mate. I knew it was. How could this be happening now? I mean, the timing was terrible but holy hell, this was actually happening.
Before I could stop myself, I stood up and walked towards the door. I could hear someone saying my name, maybe Slater, maybe Jarrett, but I had to know who was outside the door; I had to know who was coming towards me. After all this time, this was it.This is what Jarrett said happened when he found Brent, the scent of Brent filled his head as he approached that meeting and he couldn’t focus on anything else. It seemed so impossible, so stupidly unlikely that I could have stopped myself and turned around then but the thrill of it was making my heart pound.
And yet the sweet scent of my fated mate was overtaking my head, like a part of them were now running through me, opening my eyes, brightening the colors of the world, everything suddenly saturated. But there was a heaviness to it, a heaviness that sat in the air like a dead heat that I have to swim through just to reach him.
“Chasen?” Whoever it was that said my name shouted it now as I approached the door. I had the strength to respond this time.
“I just-I think-I can’t-” The words wouldn’t form in my mouth, like something had been put in the way, the only words I wanted to speak to anyone was to my fated mate, whoever it was, whoever was waiting for me beyond that door.
I opened the door, expecting to see some handsome stranger standing behind it waiting for me, but was instead met with an empty corridor. I stepped outside and looked down it, still there was no one, not a single soul.
“What the hell has gotten into you?” Slater asked, suddenly at my side, pulling me back from the corridor and looking me right in the eyes. He searched me for something, trying to read me in some way. I didn’t want to say it, I didn’t want to risk sounding stupid or being wrong, which seemed to be my place among my brothers. I was the joker, the one who was always ready to laugh about something and not let anything be serious for all that long. And I’d just gotten myself so caught up in the idea that this could be my fated mate coming towards me that I let my guard all the way down without so much as a second thought.
Wow, Chasen, way to make this day all about you. Fuck. I shook my head and brightened my face, meeting Slater’s gaze.
“I thought I heard somebody,” I said. “I think I’m just on high alert, that’s all, I want today to go well.”
Jarrett sighed, visibly untensing at the vanity table. “Phew,” he said. “For a second t
here I thought you’d hired a stripper or something and I was going to have to kick your ass, and their’s, out of here.”
I threw my hands up. “Hey, you made it abundantly clear at your bachelor party that you didn’t want strippers and frankly, that’s your stupid loss,” I said with a laugh, trying to ignore the scent becoming stronger once again. “I think we could all do with seeing a stripper every now and again, don’t you Slater?”
He clapped me on the shoulder. “Glad to know that the real Chasen is still in there,” he said with a smile before stepping back into the room.
I was about to join him when my curiosity got the better of me and I simply couldn’t resist one last look out into the corridor to see who was there, or if I was just losing my damn mind.
“What the hell is this, the welcoming committee?” I looked around sharply to see Tate Heeley at the end of the corridor, a gift under his arm, a sly grin on his face. He looked positively outstanding in a navy blue suit, his hair just the right amount of “I woke up like this” and he stared right at me. The wolf inside me howled, my entire body suddenly on fire and wanting to be near him, wanting to touch him, grab him, kiss him?
I blinked.
What the fuck?
How could this be?
Hang on. Wait.
It couldn’t be Tate, it just couldn’t. After all the time we’d spent together, after all the flirting we’d done, the coffee we’d had, the parties we’d been to, how on Earth could it be Tate? I ran through every encounter in my head, all of them skipping past like a sped up montage and at no point did I ever scent him, at no point did I breathe in the air around Tate and suddenly lose all my senses.
And now I could hardly breathe. He was my brother’s best friend, how could this be happening to me? But it was happening, and Jarrett was just a little way behind me and I had to stop myself from pulling Tate into a kiss or slamming him into a wall and taking him here and now. I had to have him. What the hell would Jarrett think? Did I even care?
Furbitten Falls Alpha's: A Wolf Shifter Mpreg Romance Bundle Page 14