“So,” she said quietly, saddling up to me. “What happened last night?”
I blinked. “What do you mean?”
“Come on Tate,” she said. “You vanished for way longer than I thought you would and then you came back all sort of spaced and grinning for the rest of the night…” She trailed off and got a little closer. “And then there’s the fact that you’re walking like an old man this morning.” She waggled her eyebrows. “Something you’re not telling me?”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t quit your day job, Jonica, you’d make a horrible detective,” I quipped.
“Sure, sure,” she said, brushing me away. “But I’m not stupid, something was different about you last night, and something is even more different today.” She put her cloth down on the counter and looked at me sternly. “Let’s ignore the fact that you can hardly walk today,” she said. “And talk about the fact that your mind is completely elsewhere.” She nudged me. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
Wow. She really was perceptive. If it had been any other problem, I probably wouldn’t have spoken to Jonica about it. I mean, I’m her employer and while we’re really good friends it never seemed quite right to mix the business and the personal, it could only really get messy. But I couldn’t really go to Jarrett and tell him that I was pretty sure his brother was my fated mate. I couldn’t foresee that going down too well. Maybe if I’d talked to him before I let his brother fuck my brains out…
“Tate, what’s going on?” Jonica said, interrupting my train of thought. “You went all glassy-eyed and I lost you for a second, what the hell is up? This isn’t like you!”
I sighed. “Well, I…” I trailed off, I couldn’t believe I was about to say this aloud. My heart still thrilled at the thought that it had actually happened. To say it aloud was like I was making it real or something. “I hooked up with someone last night.”
She snorted. “I figured that much,” she said. “Who was it? Anyone I know?”
“Chasen.”
She stopped dead, her eyes widening, her jaw literally hanging open. She stared at me blankly. There were words forming in her head somewhere, the cogs ticking over, but she couldn’t seem to make anything happen. It was sort of amusing. It was a rare day when you’d see Jonica lost for words.
“You’re kidding me,” she hissed. “Dude, that’s the dream! You totally love him!”
“What?” I could feel my cheeks going red. “What are you talking about? I so do not!”
“You absolutely do!” she exclaimed, hitting me with the damp cloth, her display pulling the focus on someone who was sat trying to work in the corner. “You flirt with him like crazy every time he comes in, which is pretty much every day because he can’t seem to get enough of you either, this is the best news.”
“Hold that thought,” I said.
“What? Did you do it wrong?”
“Okay, first of all no,” I said dismissively, though I guess I could have considering I’d never done it before. “But it’s more than that. Chasen is my fated mate.”
“You’re what?”
“You must have heard of it,” I said but she still looked blank.
“Of course I have, but you’re an alpha aren’t you?”
I shrugged. “Not exactly, no.”
She sighed and raised a perfectly drawn eyebrow at me. “What took you so long to figure it out then?” she said. “He’s in here all the time.”
“That’s an even longer story,” I said. “And probably one for another day.” I sighed. “I just don’t know what to do next, I mean, what if he thinks it was a mistake or-”
“Okay, stop this immediately,” she interrupted. “You’ve not even been on a date with this guy yet and you’re already casting it aside and finding reasons for it not to work, that’s crazy. Apart from which, you’re fated mates so your worries are pretty much a non-issue here. You’re made for each other. It’s fated.”
“Well, my track record-“
“Your track record is non-existent,” she interrupted again. “I’m not trying to be mean, Tate, I’m just saying that you have to talk to him before you decide that after one night together, which must have been pretty damn good considering you can’t keep the smile off your face every time I mention it, it’s not going to work out. Call him. Talk to him. Do something other than mooning around here all day, you’re going to lose custom.”
“Oh, says the hungover party of one,” I quipped with a grin.
“Don’t start on my hangover, Tate, or I’ll start broadcasting your antics to the rest of the clientele,” she laughed.
“You already are!” The guy in the corner piped up with a grin.
We both started to laugh a little wildly, hardly able to keep it in as the guy put his headphones on and went back to his work. He was right; we weren’t exactly being subtle, or professional for that matter. We needed to calm down.
“Think of the possibilities though,” she whispered conspiratorially.
“What?”
“Come on, Tate, let your mind wander for a second here,” she said. “The next bonding ceremony we go to could be for you and Chasen!”
“Stop it!”
“Come on!” she laughed. “Let me plan it for you. The color scheme will be pink, silver and white-“
“Jonica-“
“And I’ll have little figurines of the two of you made to go on the top of the cake,” she was giggling wildly and it was contagious. “I’ll make them. I’m not the best artist, so you’ll probably end up looking like a troll doll or something but it’s the thought that counts and-“
The bell over the door rang behind me and I turned so fast I nearly lost my footing. At least when I smiled at this customer it would be real as anything because Jonica had lifted my spirits to no end.
But it wasn’t just another customer. Standing in the doorway in a tight-fitted white shirt and jeans, hair perfect, face beyond perfect, a smile across his face, was Chasen. It was like we’d talked about him so much we’d summoned him to the store. I looked behind myself at the clock, or that it was 11:05 and he was here for his daily caffeine fix. My heart felt like it could float right out of my chest. There was a huge part of me that didn’t think he would come today and I was so tired my eyes started to fill with tears just seeing him stood there.
“Good morning Tate,” he growled, that grin of his stretching right up to his dark brown eyes and making me go weak all over.
“Good morning, Chasen,” I said, taking a breath and trying to regain my composure. “What the hell time do you call this? You’re five minutes late, I was starting to worry.”
He crossed over to the counter, a mischievous glint in his eye. “Oh you were worried about little old me?” he said. “Nice to know that I even cross your mind.” He winked at me.
“Cross my mind?” I giggled. “You’ve been running around it all morning.”
Chasen pulled his dark brown eyes away from me, which seemed a tad unfair given how much I was enjoying getting lost in them, and looked over to Jonica. “Is that true Jonica? Has he been thinking about me all morning?”
She sighed and nodded. “Yeah, and before you walked in he couldn’t stop talking about you either.”
“Jonica. What the fu-?!”
“Are you Beetlejuice, Chasen?”
He blinked. “What?”
“Well, he said your name so many times I’m pretty sure he summoned you here.”
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered, watching my coolness turn to tatters around me. If there was any doubt in his mind about the two of us, this probably cemented it. I waited for him to walk away and end it. Well, the fantasy was good while it lasted; at least I got to have sex with him. I could fantasize about that one for the rest of my life while I was forever alone.
“Not Beetlejuice, Jonica, sorry,” Chasen laughed. “Do you think you can handle the bakery for the rest of the day? Tate, here, needs to come with me.”
“If it gets him out of h
ere and stops the two of you sweet talking over the counter and making me feel sick, I can handle anything.”
Chasen laughed again. “Good. I wasn’t going to take no for an answer anyway. I’ve got plans for this beautiful man today and I wasn’t about to change them.”
Heat immediately rose to my cheeks, no doubt lighting me up like a damn Christmas tree. I looked at him and he looked me right in my eyes. How did I get this lucky? What stars aligned to let all of this happen to me? It didn’t seem possible that I could get all of this happiness and yet, here it was stood right in front of me. My fated mate.
“You’re sure you can handle it, Jonica?” I said, not able to tear my eyes away from Chasen.
“I swear to god if you don’t get out of here immediately I’ll throw you out myself, you guys are making me sick,” she quipped, but I could hear her smiling. She was happy for me. Who could ask for anything more than that?
“Let me get my coat,” I said quietly, just so Chasen could hear. I watched the words dance from my lips to his ears, and enjoyed them making him smile. Lucky lucky lucky, that’s what I was.
I grabbed my coat and gave Jonica the keys so she could lock up at the end of the day. I had no idea where Chasen was going to take me but I was pretty sure at this point I would have let him take me anywhere, all it would have taken was a glimpse of that smile and a wink and I was putty in his hands. And gladly too.
I walked towards the door but was stopped by Chasen, who opened it and let me go through first. I blushed a little at the gentlemanly gesture. There was something about it that made me want to laugh, we’d known each other for years so this just seemed overly formal, but it won me over. My heart sang as I walked out of the door and into the bright and warm Monday light.
“Where are we going?” I asked as we walked the familiar the streets, our relationship suddenly the thing that was unfamiliar.
He reached down without a word and took hold of my hand, his fingers quickly finding the spaces between mine and making my heart skip. It was as if they were always supposed to be there and my entire body thrilled at the thought.
“Just a little place I know,” he said, squeezing my hand. He looked down at our hands. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Not at all,” I breathed, surprised I could even form words at this point. “So long as you don’t. You shouldn’t feel like you have to do that just because we’re…” I trailed off. What were we?
“Fated?” he said with a broad smile. “Honestly, it was the happiest news I could have possibly had.”
We stopped outside a place called Hellas, a stunning Italian restaurant with ivy climbing up the outside of it that looked like something out of a film. It was so fancy I couldn’t even afford to look at the menu. Chasen opened the door for me and ushered me inside. I couldn’t hide the shock on my face.
“You’re kidding,” I breathed. “You’re not taking me here, are you insane this place is the fanciest place in town it’s-“
“A perfect place for our first official date,” he interrupted.
I blinked. “A date?”
He snorted. “What did you think this was, Tate?”
The waiter came over and Chasen told him he had a table booked for noon. He really had thought this through. When did he even have a chance to plan this? Had he done it all this morning? The restaurant was already heaving, even this early on in the day. What strings did he have to pull to even get us a table?
The waiter took us to our table and Chasen pulled out a chair, gesturing for me to sit down. Suddenly I was blushing again, unable to keep the red from my cheeks, to stop myself from getting giggly and childish. Was this truly happening?
“After you, Tate,” he said.
“Thank you,” I replied. “A perfect gentleman.”
As he took the seat across from me I couldn’t help but let my mind wander as Jonica’s had this morning, to our future. To the next few days, months, years, to our bonding ceremony, to our forever. Oh God, please let this be the beginning of our forever.
7
Chasen
He looked so ridiculously cute. From the second we’d walked in the door of Hellas, he hadn’t been able to keep the smile off his face. It was what I wanted to see when I saw him. I wanted to see Tate happy. He deserved it.
After the run yesterday, I’d made my excuses and got myself home, immediately starting to plan how I could make Tate feel special and really show him how much he meant to me.
The fact that he was my fated mate still blew my mind. How could he have been right under my nose this whole time? We’d lost so much time for…for what? I still couldn’t work it out. I’d have to ask him, there had to be a reason.
We ordered and I found myself unable to stop staring at him. He was so beautiful, it really wasn’t fair. His eyes sparkled every time they caught the light and even though he’d been working all morning, he still managed to look so damn perfect. With the exception of his apron, he was just wearing his work uniform and he looked stunning. How could it be that this man, who I had shamelessly flirted with for the last five years, could be my fated mate?
“What are you looking at?” he said quietly.
“Just you,” I said.
“You look like you want to say something,” he replied. He had read me correctly; I did want to say something. There was so much I wanted to say, in fact, that I didn’t really know where to start.
“Okay,” I said, leaning back in my chair and taking a sip of water. “Can I start with the obvious elephant in the room?”
“Yes, that seems sensible,” he said. “Because I’m not sure what it is.”
I laughed. I couldn’t help myself. How was this happening to me?
“I’m talking about Jarrett,” I said. He seemed to freeze in that moment, staring at me like I’d just said the wrong thing. “You know why I’m talking about Jarrett, right?”
“Yes, yes of course,” he babbled, shaking his head. “Yeah, I probably should’ve thought about…well, I have thought about, it’s just… I don’t know where to start with it.”
“Things have gotten a little complicated.”
“I know,” I said. “Less than twenty-four hours and it’s already gotten…well, weird.”
He sighed and poured himself a glass of water from the bottle that was already on the table, taking a long sip.
“I know he’s your best friend,” I started. “Which obviously means this breaks some kind of cardinal rule of dating, like, you’re not supposed to date your best friend’s siblings or something.”
“Yeah, it’s definitely in some kind of guy code,” Tate said with a grin. “Oops.”
“Or I’m not supposed to make a move on you, or whatever, but we’re fated,” he said it plainly. “And, I mean, holy shit, how perfect is this? We’ve been flirting with each other for years-“
“Have we?”
I blinked, suddenly wrong footed. “Haven’t we?”
He laughed. “Of course we have,” he said. “That was…” He trailed off and cleared his throat. “That was flirting. God, it’s so much harder to do when you’ve seen each other fully naked.”
“Well, anyway, I want to make this work no matter what,” I said, feeling my heart start to pound as thoughts of forevers crept into my head. “Jarrett is going to have questions, I mean, he walked in on us so he would have seen something for sure, but I want you, Tate. I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”
I leaned forward and took hold of Tate’s hand. It seemed to startle him, but he started to stroke the back of my hand with his fingertips. God how I wanted those hands on my body again. The wolf in me stirred. I’d had a taste and now I wanted it all over again.
“And do you usually get what you want, Chasen?” Tate whispered, leaning in a little closer.
“I like to think that I do, yeah,” I said.
“Good,” Tate said. “Because I’m going to let you have it. God, I’ve wanted you for so long, I just never thought…
” He trailed off.
“What?” Chasen said. “Never thought what?”
“I don’t know if I should say,” he giggled. “I don’t want to inflate your ego.”
“Inflate my ego?” I echoed, incredulous. “Try me.”
He sighed. “I never thought that I would ever have a chance with you.”
I snorted. “You’re full of it, look at you!”
“Stop!”
“Come on,” I said. I couldn’t believe it. Why would I not want someone like Tate? He was cute, attractive, had a great personality, eyes that you could just get lost in. He was so creative and passionate about his store and baking. Plus, he made a Danish that could change your life. Why would there be a single person in this world or any other that wouldn’t want Tate? I could feel my eyes getting misty. “You’re perfect. One hundred percent perfect.”
“Nobody’s perfect,” he said, looking down into his glass.
“If you say so,” I said with a smirk, squeezing his hand again. “I do have one question for you though.”
He looked up at me, suddenly appearing nervous, his eyes staring a little wider. Seeing him like that made my heart hurt, knowing I’d caused it made me feel all the worse. I didn’t want to be the one to make him look that sad. Ever.
“It’s not something to worry about,” I said, quietly. “I just want to know why you had me thinking you were an alpha all this time. We could’ve been together years ago.” A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. We were okay. Thank God we were okay.
“You’re going to think I’m stupid,” he mumbled.
“Try me.”
“You won’t laugh?” he warned.
“I only won’t laugh if it isn’t funny,” I teased. He smiled so he knew I was kidding at least.
“Okay,” Tate said, seeming to gather himself. “Because I like you.” He said it so plainly and suddenly that it took my by surprise. It didn’t really make sense.
Furbitten Falls Alpha's: A Wolf Shifter Mpreg Romance Bundle Page 17