Page 12 of Delivered to My Fury (Mail-Order Matings #19)

Eero

Nothing was done the rest of the day. Instead of working on the new recipes and getting ready for customers, we spent our hours in a group chat with Opal.

There were no lulls in conversation. We went back and forth as though we’d known each other for years. She said she had lost a grant for her work and so was in limbo, work wise.

My wolf howled inside me, wanting a lot more from our interactions than an online conversation.

We were getting ready for the tavern to open when she messaged asking, How about I come visit you three?

“Did she dump you already?” Mabel said, coming into the office to put some mail on my desk.

“What? No. She…she asked if she could come visit us.”

Zyon and Shay barreled into the office a few seconds later. “Did you see the message? Did you see it?” Shay blurted out.

“I saw it. I…what do we do?”

Mabel hadn’t left yet. “I’m gonna tell you one thing. If you three are intending to have a female visit your house, the first thing you need to do is clean that pigsty. Last time I stopped by there, I thought I’d stepped into a frat house, and that’s not a compliment.”

She had come over one time to deliver some time-sensitive paperwork when we were in the middle of a brainstorming session. We were also busy working with a new distributor and hadn’t had time to do much.

It was, of course, the worst our house had ever been. She came in and cleaned up everything, fussing and complaining the whole time.

“We don’t usually keep our home that way. And you shamed us enough that night for a lifetime.” Zyon was clearly still grumpy about it.

“So you’re saying if this female was outside the front door of your den right now and wanted to come in, you would have no qualms about that?”

Silence all around. Sometimes it was the loudest answer.

“Fine,” I grumbled. “We need to do some tidying up but that’s normal, right?”

Mabel raised one gray eyebrow and scoffed. “Not at my house or at my desk. Nor in my bookkeeping.”

“Okay, okay.” Shay patted her on the back. “Point taken. We have to clean up before she comes. Did we even decide for sure that she’s coming?”

“Why would we say no?” Zyon was fully invested. I could feel it through our brotherly bond. “She’s all the things we wanted and… She’s coming, right? You two feel it too.”

Mabel chose that time to bow out of the conversation and go back to her pristine office.

“I feel something for her,” I insisted. “There’s no better way to get to know someone than to have them at your house, in our den, right? Are we on the same page?”

Shay leaned on the doorframe. “Mabel’s right. We do need to take a day and clean up and get the guest room ready.”

“Wait a damned minute. We have to ask her first. Is she serious? When will she come? How long does she want to stay? Worst-case scenario, she lives a few hours away, and we have to leave now and bust our asses like the Goddess is coming to visit.”

Zyon got on his phone. “I’m asking her in the group chat.”

He did.

And we waited.

And waited.

And no answers came.

Silence filled the room. “Wait.” Shay stared at his phone, so I did the same. “She’s typing. See the three little dots.”

Yes. I’m serious. I would like to come visit and see where this thing leads. Unless you three don’t agree? Do we need more time on here to chat?

I looked up at the others. “I don’t need more time to chat on here. I want to see her and scent her and know how she takes her steak and what kind of pajamas she wears. There’s only so much you can get to know someone over chat. Tell me I’m not the only one.”

Zyon huffed out through his nose. “If I had my way, we would be in a car or on a plane on our way to get her already. Shay?”

The bear shook his head. At first, I thought he was going to say no. If he did, it would be goodbye to Opal. We’d made a pact long ago over that campfire in the middle of the woods while we were all running from powers that be that had done us wrong. We would be a fury together, and that meant we would all share the same mate.

It had to be unanimous.

“My bear wants Opal. As much as I was skeptical about the app, I believe she is our mate. I know she’s human and it may take some time for her to realize it, but it would be great to have her here. To know for sure.”

“Message her back. Tell her we want her to come.” Zyon’s seriousness comforted me. He was picky about who came into our den.

Picky about everyone but our mate, I guessed.

We would love to have you at our home. It would be a great way to get to know one another better. Please let us know when you can get here.

It was settled. Opal would come here. We would finally get to meet our mate after so many years of trying to find her. I was nervous about what she would think of us in person, but if Fate had a hand in it, and I hoped she did, she would love us as much as a part of me already did.

“I need to go run,” I announced and made my way to the back door. The frenetic energy inside me was more anxious and excited than nervous but, either way, I had to expend some of it before she got here.