Page 6

Mulder

I turned slowly in front of the mirror. I might not be looking forward to the party, but even I had to admit I looked pretty good. Grampa Swale had been right when he picked out a navy-blue suit instead of the standard black. It really accentuated my eyes and my ass.

He was watching Madeline for me, tonight, too. Well, actually, he was watching a movie, because she had already fallen asleep for the night. It was field trip day at school, and she was exhausted beyond measure when she got home. I wasn’t sure she was going to be awake long enough for me to make her spaghetti, her favorite dinner. Even knowing Grandpa Swale was coming over hadn’t been enough to keep her eyes open. I had a feeling she was going to be up with the sun.

There were plenty of people I trusted babysitting Madeline during the day if I had to go somewhere or if school was out. And I trusted them at night when it came to giving Madeline the safety she needed. But, at night, if she woke up, I wanted someone she considered family there.

And besides, he knew where everything was. He helped build the kitchen table, after all.

I stepped out, not quite ready to go but knowing my ride would be here before long.

“If you need me, call.”

He rolled his eyes. “I know the drill. Quit procrastinating. Go have fun.” He shooed me toward the door with a gesture of his hand.

“You mean go and network and do work things.”

Grandpa Swale shrugged. “I said what I said.”

He turned the volume on the TV up. Not loud enough that it would bother Madeline but enough to let me know that we were done with the conversation. He wasn’t like some betas who were bossy with harsh words and commands. Nope, he was grandpa bossy. Best pack beta ever.

“Fine.” There was no sense in arguing. “I’ll see you later. Did you want me to bring you back anything? I heard the food is great there.”

“Nah, I’m good. If I get hungry, I’ll just dig through your freezer.”

The alpha pulled up just as I stepped outside. I was glad he was driving. I knew where-ish the club was but had never been there before. Besides, walking in with such a powerful man could give me some alpha repellent of sorts. At least, that was my hope. The thought of dealing with alphas who drank too much wanting to get it on was not appealing. Not at all.

My home was about halfway between Wolfe Enterprises and Animals, and I rarely drove in that direction. With the full moon out, it was quite beautiful. Parking, on the other hand, sucked.

The place was packed. Beyond packed. That was great for the fundraising, but less so for me. I was quite grateful the alpha opted to drive, because I very much did not want to be navigating this place. With my luck, I’d end up circling for an hour and missing every opening by a few seconds.

We eventually found a spot—one with a long walk, but that was fine. I could use the air, and the time to brace myself for what was to come. Because it was a charity event, we all needed invitations in order to get in, which was good. It meant there was no line at the door waiting for bouncers to let us in like I’d heard happened often.

I followed Alpha Aspen inside…and the crowd was larger than I anticipated, even with the number of cars.

People were everywhere. And not human people—nope. There were dragons, wolves, bears, a coyote or two, and so many more. If a fight broke out here, my cat didn’t stand a chance. Not that this was a place known for fights, but I’d been in a shifter bar or two in my day, and they hadn’t been great experiences. I kind of carried that with me.

We were barely in the door when the scent hit me. It wasn’t the food or the fancy drinks I smelled now; it was my mate. All pine and cotton candy—two scents that shouldn’t go together and yet somehow did.

My cat was already purring. All I wanted to do was run and find him. Except I was here for work. And before I could process everything that was happening, Alpha Aspen was introducing me to the director of the rescue.

“We’re so glad you’re here and came out to support us this evening.” He held out his hand for me to shake.

If you paid me 50,000 dollars to tell you what our conversation was about for the next few minutes—I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell you a single thing. And then the director excused himself, and I found myself face-to-face with the alpha.

“What exactly is going on with you?”

I wasn’t sure if he was pissed or worried.

“I scented my mate when we walked in.” I wasn’t going to lie to him.

“You what?” Pissed it was. I’d never seen him pissed before and I understood why other packs feared him now. If I hadn’t known he would never hurt me, I might’ve been pissing my pants about then. “You scented your mate here, and you then spent time working and networking?”

I nodded.

“No. Unacceptable. I don’t want to see you again until you have your mate. Go. Get out.”

And no part of me wanted to argue with him. A because he was right. And B because I had already lost enough time.

I wove through people, following the scent, trying to pick it up where it was strongest, most recent. As good as my nose was, it wasn’t easy with so many shifters in the room.

About ten minutes later, I ended up outside, wandering through the lot until I reached a car. That wasn’t surprising. What did confuse me was that there was no alpha in the car. There was nobody at all. And the scent was new enough that the person hadn’t driven away to have a new car take its place. If anything, it smelled like he was still there.

Shit.

I let my head fall against the side window. He didn’t scent like he was a bird or a dragon or anything else that flew. If I put money on it, he was a gray wolf. How could his scent just end here? And it definitely ended—not started—here. Scents didn’t do that. That’s not how they worked.

Slowly circling the car, I tried to figure out what could be going on—when I saw a foot emerge from underneath the car.

“Hello?”

The foot became a leg—became an ass—a very hot ass—became a full-ass person.

No, not a person. An alpha. Yeah. Like a pack alpha. But shockingly…all that power didn’t intimidate me at all.

Because this alpha was my mate. He’d been under the car of all places.

“You.” His eyes went wide as he righted himself. He was a mess, worse than a mess. His suit was wrinkled, full of dirt. In his hands was a key fob. There was even a bunch of dirt on his face. I reached up and wiped it clean.

“You.” He leaned into my touch.

“I thought you… I came here, and your scent stopped. Why were you under the car?”

“Because I’m distracted, and I dropped my key fob.”

“Didn’t you scent me in there?” I pointed to the club. He had to have, right?

“Yeah,” he said quietly.

“And then you left.” Was he going to reject me? I wasn’t sure my heart could take it, which was a weird thought since I still didn’t even know his name.

“You’re my mate. My job is to make you happy. Messing up your family would be the opposite of that, so when you didn’t look for me, I took the hint.”

“Family?” I was still caught up on that part. Did he mean Madeline? How would he even know about her?

“Yeah, your alpha. I saw you guys come in together.”

“That’s my pack alpha. Not my alpha. And my mate was less of a mate and more of a husband. And he’s gone. Car crash years ago. Our daughter has just turned four.”

His mouth formed a perfect little O.

Weren’t we the pair? I delayed finding him, all for a stupid job, and he tried to run away because he thought I was dating my pack alpha of all people.

Things could only go up from here.

Right?