Page 3

Kieran

“So what do we need?”

I pulled out my phone, looking over the instructions the dads had sent me.

Being the son of bear shifters was fun. Being the son of four guys that expected all of their kids to jump in and help with any community project but refused to accept anything other than the best was even better.

I scrolled through the many, many texts I’d received on the way over here.

Pretty sure at this point it would’ve been easier for them to go to the hardware store and grab what they wanted themselves, but my sleuthmate, Tor, walked up to the many hooks on display and started grabbing stuff.

“Hooks.” He dumped a packet of them into a basket. “Wall plugs. Wire.” It was then he shot me a broad grin. “Done. So let’s get this?—”

“Wrong sized plugs for those hooks.” Mack was the other member of my sleuth, and right now he pawed through the basket, putting everything back. “Wrong sized hooks for the pictures we have to put up and… wrong gauge wire. That’s three for three, pussy cat.”

Tor was a tiger shifter, something that became clear as Mack went to ruffle his dark hair.

You could almost see his beast shift under his skin, laying his fluffy ears back against his skull as he hissed at Mack.

His eyes turned from that weird green colour to a coppery gold, but that just got Mack riled up.

“Least I don’t sniff other people’s butts, dog boy,” Tor shot back.

Mack was a wolf shifter and a big one at that, which meant the two of them seemed locked in some kind of weird dominance fight to the death. Not for the first time, I wondered at the wisdom of a mixed species sleuth.

Trouble is, that was a view most of my kind shared.

Mack sucked in a breath.

“I don’t?—”

“Thirty-five millimetre wall plugs,” I said, grabbing exactly three lots of them, as spelled out on the list. “Twenty kilo weight hooks and screws. Alright, we…”

Get the stuff, hustle over to the community centre to work on the family history project, and then endure yet more pointed questions from my mum about when I would find my fated mate, that was the plan.

So why did it all fall to shit the moment she walked down the aisle?

A little unsteady on her feet, the bear perked up the instant I laid eyes on the woman, blond fur prickling across my skin.

I had iron control over my animal, and yet right now I may as well be a young kid at his first shift.

The bear shoved hard at the bond, demanding to be let out.

He could now. The world had changed and everyone knew shifters existed, but that didn’t help me in this moment.

A massive grizzly bear in the aisles of Bunnings?

That’d have people running, screaming, and if she screamed for me, I wanted it to be for a whole other reason.

Long dark hair that fell in a messy tangle down her back.

Big brown eyes that were a little bloodshot, her skin perfectly pale, I sucked in every detail hungrily, right as I stepped forward.

Mack and Tor too.

Suddenly, all the childish squabbling was shoved to one side, because we were immediately unified.

“Is she…?” Tor hissed.

“Yep.”

Mack barely choked that out, his brows drawn down hard.

“So we—” Tor said.

“Need to go and introduce ourselves.”

As soon as I said that, I was moving, weaving my through the other customers to get to the other end of the aisle, barely resisting the urge to push them out of my way.

The girl, my mate, peered over people’s heads as if looking for something, then shook her head, about to turn on her heel, when I finally came to stand in front of her.

“Oh!” Her voice was like butterscotch, equally parts smooth and raspy.

“Whoa…” The bear and I were of the same mind, his rumble echoing in my ears as she looked me up and down.

“Damn, you are big. Like big all over…?” Those beautiful brown eyes went wide as they met mine.

“Sorry, I need a hook up.” She shook her head, wincing at that.

“I mean I have some pictures I need to hang and I’m not sure what to get. ”

“Thirty-five millimetre wall plugs will work for most walls.” Mack picked up one of the lots I’d tossed in the basket. “Unless you’ve got hollow walls.”

“You’ll need expandable studs if you’ve got hollow core walls.” Tor smirked, edging closer. “And if you’re looking for studs, we can help you out with that.”

At the same time, Mack and I glared at him. Tor was such a damn cat. Shameless fucking flirt, he’d have young women and old eating out of his hand in seconds. Made him handy to have when we were out on a renovation job, but we did not need his cheesy shit right now.

“Oh my god…” Our mate slapped her hand over her mouth, barely resisting bursting out laughing. “You didn’t just say that.”

“This kind of stud.” Tor reached out and plucked a packet off the wall and sure enough, it was a bloody expandable bolt. “Why? What did you think I meant?”

“I…” She shot the three of us a sheepish smile, and that had all three of us stepping closer. “I don’t know what kind of walls we have. I’m assuming that if I use the wrong kind of hook, I’ll wreck the walls.”

“Worse case scenario.” I spoke the words, but couldn’t really focus on them, not when she was so damn close. The loose tank top she was wearing, the cotton worn smooth, draped across her body, giving me tantalising views of what lay beneath. “You could put the picture up, tear a hole in the wall.”

“And never get my bond back.” She nodded slowly. “Probably something best left to the professionals.”

“Something we happen to be.” Before I could drag out a business card, Tor had his out and was passing it over. “We do good work at very reasonable rates.”

I stared at him in disbelief. This was our fated mate. We’d build her a damn house from scratch just to make her smile. There would be no charging her for any job.

“Um… great.” She waved the card through the air, then put it in her back pocket. “Thanks. You’ve been very helpful.”

The bear shoved me hard. Our mate was making a move to turn and go and that was not OK. We hadn’t waited all this time just to let her walk away from us.

“Kieran.” I thrust my hand out and her eyebrows shot up to disappear behind her hair. “Kieran Blackthorn.”

“Nice to meet you, Kieran.” I watched her lips move, her cheeks flush just a little, but that all felt like it was happening to someone else as her palm slid across mine.

Back when I was an apprentice, I’d stepped into a puddle of water someone left an extension cord in and those electrical pulses were nothing compared to what I felt right now.

Fur rippled along my arm, claws threatening to push free, but I kept them back.

“I’m Harper, and if I could just get my hand back. ..”

“Tor.” My sleuthmate was shouldering forward, taking her hand without asking. “Just in case you want to know the name you’ll be calling out later.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

Harper jerked her hand back in time to set it on her hip.

“When you ring me to come and hang your pictures up.”

Tor’s sly smile made clear he knew exactly what he was insinuating.

“OK, so we have Kieran, Tor, and…” Harper turned to Mack, and that’s when Tor and I stiffened.

The look on his face, the way his arms were firmly crossed against his chest, were giving major bugger-off vibes.

“I have to guess?” She shrugged. “Fair enough. From all of this.” Her hand waved vaguely in his direction.

“I’m thinking something kind of butch, like Buck.

” Tor sniggered at that. “Rock? Stone?” Mack shook his head slowly.

“Dax!” Another head shake. “What about Mack?”

Of course Harper guessed his name. What we were, it was written in the stars. She just didn’t know it yet.

“Yeah, it’s Mack,” the wolf shifter admitted grudgingly. “And we need?—”

“Bitch!” Another woman came sauntering up, then thrust a sausage sandwich in front of Harper’s face.

“Got you your sandwich. Two sausages, one bun, just the way you like it.” That had me thinking things I had no business considering, when the friend realised we were standing there.

She smiled as she looked each one of us up and down. “Who’re your friends?”

“We’re—” Tor started to say.

“Going.” Mack’s tone made clear there would be no arguments. “Find out what kind of walls you have, then get the right hooks. You’ll be fine, Harper.”

The other girl frowned slightly, but she wasn’t my focus. I couldn’t look at anyone, not when Harper was right there. She smiled slowly, nodding to herself, then look back at her friend.

“These guys were helping me work out what hooks I need.” Harper shot her a meaningful look. “So I can put those photos up of Nan?”

“Oh? Ohhh… gotcha.”

“I’ve got their business card.” Harper retrieved it from her back pocket, only for the friend to snatch it from her grip, then take a photo. “What the hell, Daria?”

“You might forget it's in your pocket and put it through the wash.” Daria grinned. “Wouldn’t want to lose the number of such nice, helpful guys.”

Suddenly this Daria was a whole lot cooler in my eyes.

“So we better get going.” Harper lifted her sandwich. “Walls to inspect. Sausages to eat.”

“Maybe we should leave picture hanging to the professionals?” Daria said. “The only stud finder I know how to use is?—”

Harper slapped her hand over her friend’s mouth then started pushing her down the aisle.

“Thanks again!”

“Let us help.” I couldn’t help it. I stepped forward, feeling like my heart was ripped out of my chest and left beating frantically for everyone to see. “We’re spending the day hanging up pictures at the bear shifter community centre. Doing a couple more for you is nothing.”

“Bear shifter…” When Harper’s scent soured, I felt like the floor had disappeared out from under me, but just as quickly it became sweeter, more floral. “So you’re…?” She pointed at Tor, then Mack. “And you’re…?”

“Tiger shifter,” Tor said, letting a little of his purr bleed into his voice.

“So what are you?” The fire had gone out of Harper’s voice. “A lion?” Mack stared at her steadily. “Y’know, lions and tigers and?—”

“It doesn’t matter what I am.” Mack’s eyes shifted from blue to silver in that second, his wolf pushing forward. “Nice to meet you, Harper, Daria.” He turned to us. “C’mon, or we’ll be late for the working bee.”

As I watched him walk away, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Didn’t he feel the bond as well? He had to. That was how this worked. We formed a sleuth when we were still apprentices, a bond that formed from working under some tough bosses. That meant my fated mate was theirs.

“Wolf shifter,” Tor explained. “They are grumpy pricks on a good day, and Mack is one of the grumpiest. So, about these pictures…”

He sidled closer.

“You want to come around and hang Harper’s pictures for her?” Daria asked with a grin. “She’d love that, wouldn’t you, Harp.” Love wasn’t the word I’d use to describe Harper’s expression, but we had an in and I’d take it. Daria turned to us. “Her number is…”

She rattled it off fast, especially as Harper was starting to move, trying to cut her off, but Tor was actually useful for once, tapping it into his phone.

“We’ll be in touch,” he said, then looked down at where Harper’s fingers were digging into her bun. “Enjoy those sausages.”

The bear didn’t want to go. His paws planted hard inside me, making clear his intention, so I was forced to haul him away. Later, I promised.

“We are going around to Harper’s place tonight,” Tor said as we walked outside after paying for the supplies. “Even if I have to drag Dog Boy with us by the tail.”

“No need,” I said, finally allowing myself to grin like an idiot. “This? It’s fate. There’s only one woman in the world for us and that’s Harper. We just need Mack and then her to realise that.”

Easier said than done.