Page 18 of Delivered to My Fury (Mail-Order Matings #19)

Eero

The brewery never looked so good to me as it did when we gave our mate a tour. We were trying not to call her that until we knew for sure she was going to stay, but what else could we say? Or think? My wolf had her pegged as our mate from the first glimpse of her profile. And Shay’s bear? I could hear him grumbling from here, wanting to get her back to his den, no doubt, and get her mated and marked.

Where shifters were much faster than humans to recognize their mates, our animals did it at lightning speed. I wasn’t even sure how, but I’d never heard anyone say their animal had made a mistake in recognizing a mate. Oh, it didn’t mean said mate was a nice person or would give them a perfect life. People were people no matter what kind. But in our case, Fate had bestowed a golden gift. Even in the few hours we’d spent together, I recognized qualities I’d always dreamed of in a mate.

She was sweet, a little shy, very intelligent, and had a dry sense of humor that caught me off guard more than once. Beautiful? Yes…but that was a bonus. I was old enough to know what was inside mattered far more. Still, I couldn’t dismiss what my eyes showed me, nor would I want to.

We rarely allowed anyone into the production area because we didn’t want to contaminate anything, but when I sorted through the white coats on the rack, trying to find one for her, I remembered the few distributors and others who had been in. We kept a variety of sizes, just for those occasions, but I couldn’t find one small enough. “Sorry, Opal. We require a coat to go in, but you’re going to swim in any of these.”

She grinned, showing white teeth and a dimple in one cheek that melted my heart. “That’s all right. I’ve been in a lot of labs over the years and usually had to bring my own coat or have one altered. It’s amazing how often they only stock the larger sizes.” Then she flushed. “I mean…I don’t mean you did anything wrong. You are all big men.”

“Here.” I held up the smallest one we had—a men’s large. “Let me help you put it on. We’ll order one for you in your size.”

“Don’t go to any trouble.” She adjusted the shoulders and shrugged. “You’re doing so much for me already.”

I wanted to squeeze her so hard, to kiss all over her face, and tell her we would do so much more just for the pleasure of her smile, but I didn’t want to freak her out by being so effusive. As a trio, we were already a lot. “Well, then, if you’re ready, this is the production area where we brew our beers and over there in the corner is the lab area, or the closest we have to one.”

She followed as we showed her each tank and barrel and our various processes, but I could see her gaze go over and over toward the area I had identified as the lab. Zyon, who had grown up learning a very traditional method of ale brewing, was explaining the changes we had made to modernize the brewery. And make it so our product was legal to sell in a human-dominated world.

She drifted toward the corner and looked at the high stool and counter where Zyon primarily, but all of us at some time, worked on flavors and other components of our brews. “This”—she patted the stool—“is where the magic happens.”

We looked at one another, puzzled, and back at her. Sure, we worked things out there, but where the hops and malted barley, yeast and water, changed from their individual forms into beer and ale and stout and porter… Nobody came in and asked for a handful of hops. But as she stroked the counter, I caught the yearning in her eyes and wondered if…had Fate given us even more than we knew?

“I’m glad you like our little lab.” Shay moved closer to her. “It’s not like what you’re used to, but then we’re not chemists like you.”

“No, but from what I tasted last night, you make a damn fine beer. Oh!” She clapped a hand to her cheek. “I forgot. I brought you a present. It’s in the car.”

“I didn’t see anything else in the back seat,” Shay said. “What did we miss?”

“It’s in the trunk, but it can wait until we get home. It’s nothing big, just something I picked up along the road that I hoped you’d like.”

I heard the others suck in a breath at how she said the word home. She probably didn’t mean anything by it, but try to tell my wolf that.