Page 4

Chapter four

Jake

Shit. This is bad.

I pace around the back room as Beans paces in my mind, begging me to go find her.

Hayley .

When my eyes met hers, the panty frenzy finally made sense. This gorgeous, sweet, perfect woman is my mate.

“I’m so fucked,” I groan to myself, sinking down onto the couch I’ve been reupholstering for Brooks, after his pet duck made a mess on it the other day. Our conversation replays in my mind on repeat, and I wince at how much of an asshole I was. Though, to be fair, I’m amazed I could say anything to her when every molecule in my body was screaming at me that Hayley is mine.

It’s not just internal screaming. Beans wants me to go and scream outside the bodega until she hears my mating call. It takes all my willpower to stop from shifting, reminding myself and my inner raccoon that she wouldn’t understand that and we’d end up with a restraining order.

A painful ten minutes pass before I can’t stand it any longer. I need to find her. Explain that she’s my mate and do my best to make up for my terrible first impression. If that doesn’t work… then maybe we’ll try the screaming.

“Store’s closed,” I shout as I step out of the stockroom. “Take what you want and get out.”

Fortunately, only Mrs. Ghrielle is shopping right now, and she knows my moods, so she drops some cash on the counter and hoists a lamp onto her hip before heading out. I follow behind, not bothering to turn off the lights before I lock the door.

Only the faintest trace of Hayley remains outside the shop, and I’m tempted to shift to my raccoon form so I can pick up her trail more easily. Then I remember she doesn’t know I’m the raccoon who stole her underwear, and if I want to make a semi-decent second impression, I need to keep that a secret. Definitely not something to bring up before a third date.

Beans yells at me that we don’t need dates, we just need to find her and she’ll fall into our arms because she’s fated to be mine. If only that were the truth—it was clear from interacting with Hayley that she didn’t have the same all-consuming need to touch and taste and…

Shit, I need to stop thinking about that before I get hard in the middle of Main Street. We have a bunch of tourists here for the weekend, and I know the mayor will be on my ass if I scare them away with my massive boner. I’m already in trouble for selling moonshine at the last farmer’s market without the proper permits. Why the hell do I need a permit, anyway? Just another sign of the government trying to control our every move until every trace of individuality is scrubbed away and we become mindless worker drones, giving our labor to our oligarchs with a smile.

I make a mental note to start another batch of moonshine soon. Fuck permits and fuck the man. I bet Hayley would like my moonshine. She doesn’t look very conformist, with her pastel hair and flowery jacket. I wish I’d come up with an excuse to get her to open it and show off what she had on underneath. She looks so soft and lush and…

“Dammit, no, stop thinking about her body!” I mutter to myself, and a tourist gives me a wary look and a wide berth as they pass me on the sidewalk.

With no leads on where my mate might be, I head over to the bodega and peer inside through the large glass window. When I don’t see her, I head inside and do a quick lap around the small store. Two of the three Greer triplets are there, Freddie talking to a rabbit shifter at the checkout counter and Bettie stocking shelves.

“Is Hayley here?” I ask, my voice far too loud and strained than what would be considered normal for a casual question.

Bettie turns over her shoulder, one of her wolfy ears perking up, and the warm brown skin of her forehead wrinkling as she assesses me. “Oh, hey, Jake.”

“Hey. Is Hayley here?” I ask again, attempting to seem more casual this time by leaning against the shelf of chips, but my elbow slips and I end up knocking a bunch of the bags onto the floor. “Shit, sorry,” I mutter, scooping them back up quickly and shoving them back on the shelf.

“Are you okay?” Bettie asks, and I want to shout at her that, no, I’m not okay, and she needs to stop asking questions and tell me where Hayley is before I lose my mind and Beans goes on a rampage until he locates her.

“Yeah,” I say, swallowing heavily. “Totally fine. Just forgot to tell Hayley something when she came over to discuss a problem with, uh, with—”

“A raccoon,” Bettie finishes for me, her lips twisting into a wry smile. “Did you tell her it was you? Why were you out there, anyway? Did you find anything good?”

“Shhh! No, I didn’t tell her!” I snap, panic lancing through me at the thought of Hayley overhearing this talkative teen.

My loud voice draws the attention of Freddie, who sidles over from behind the counter, crossing his arms with an identical smile to his sister’s. “Why didn’t you tell her? She’s not scared of monsters, dude.”

“I didn’t tell her because it won’t happen again,” I huff, then go up on my toes to look over the shelves and make sure no one else is around to listen in. “She doesn’t need to know, so please be cool and don’t tell her,” I say in a harsh whisper.

“No worries, we won’t say anything,” Freddie says with a slightly perplexed smile. For once, my eccentricities are working in my favor because he’s not questioning why I wouldn’t want to tell Hayley I’m a raccoon shifter .

“Speak for yourself,” Bettie says, her golden eyes narrowing at me. “I’ll keep your secret, but in exchange, I need you to bring me the trash from the Fullsteads’ house for the next month.”

“Done,” I reply, without even considering why she’d want their trash. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that Hayley won’t be creeped out by me before I have a chance to make her mine.

Freddie grimaces. “Eww, why do you need that? Is it because you have a crush on Armand?”

Bettie glares at her brother. “That’s none of your business.”

Before the pair can start to argue about Bettie’s unusual request, I clear my throat. “Is Hayley here?”

Third time asking is a charm because I finally get my answer. “Nope. She hasn’t been back since she went over to talk to you. She’s probably on a date or something.”

My heart stops at Bettie’s words. “A date?”

“Yeah. She goes on them all the time,” Bettie says, unaware that her words are tearing me apart. I grab one of the chip bags and rip it open, shoving a handful into my mouth to keep from verbally freaking out at this new information.

Freddie frowns at me. “You need to pay for those.”

I fish a random bill out of my wallet and hand it over, hands shaking slightly.

“That’s too much,” Freddie says as he takes the bill and sighs. “I’ll get you some change.”

As he moves away, I weigh my options. I can flee this conversation and race around the streets of downtown Hallow’s Cove until I find Hayley. Beans likes that idea, but Jacob wants more info before we go into full panic mode.

I swallow the chips in my mouth and try to give Bettie a friendly look. “So, uh, she dates a lot?”

“Oh yeah,” she replies, chuckling softly. “She’s on a mission to get some monster action. Has been ever since she arrived. We’re taking bets on who she ends up hooking up with and how many people she gets through before she leaves.”

My brain short circuits as I try to parse the overload of information. I don’t know which part to focus on. Or which part is worse—that my mate is actively seeking to have sex with as many monsters as possible, or that she’s leaving .

I cram more chips into my mouth and almost choke as I try to swallow them without chewing enough. Once my coughing fit has subsided, I frown at Bettie. “How many is she up to? When is she leaving? Is she like a monster fetishist or something?”

“Why? Do you want to place a bet?” Bettie laughs, oblivious to my internal turmoil.

“No!” I snap. “You shouldn’t take bets on your boss’s sex life!”

Bettie’s thick brows shoot up to her hairline and her ears pull back. “Whoa, calm down. It was a joke.”

“Don’t joke about stuff like that,” I huff, shaking my head at her. I head toward the exit, too agitated to stay and listen to teen gossip about Hayley’s love life. I yank the door open and turn back over my shoulder. “And if you want that trash, don’t tell her I talked to you!”

“Don’t you want your change?” Freddie calls out to me.

“No! Keep it.” I shout back and storm out of the bodega, shoving my half-eaten bag of chips into my pocket and spilling a few on the sidewalk in the process.

For once, Beans is too agitated to urge me to pick them up and not waste food. No, he’s currently scrabbling around in my mind, making me even more agitated.

What do I do?

Some monsters are totally cool with polyamory and share their mates with multiple partners. Until this moment, I assumed that I’d be cool with that, too. I’ve never tried being with more than one partner, but to be fair, I haven’t really tried many committed relationships at all. Most people don’t stick around once they realize my quirks aren’t a joke.

When I think about Hayley with other people, though, I want to scream. She’s mine . She’s my mate, not anyone else’s. She’s the most precious treasure I’ve ever stumbled upon, and I’m too greedy to share her.

Logical Jacob knows that this practical stranger is absolutely not mine, and will definitely never be mine if I don’t find a way to stop freaking out. But that’s far easier said than done.

I need to burn off all of this energy and cool off. If I do something reckless now, I know I’ll fuck things up. So instead of heading back into my shop, I decide to go for a power walk around town. Maybe grab some of those muffins that Beans wanted so badly.

That feels like a great solution, because by the time I get to the cafe, my frantic energy has waned and Beans is now at least alternating between yelling at me to find Hayley and salivating over getting to eat muffins.

I make it a foot in the door before that calm evaporates. Even with the coffee aroma infusing the air, I catch Hayley’s scent now that I’m attuned to it. I step inside, anxiously scanning the space for her, and when I see her sitting alone at a table, my heart leaps.

Was Bettie wrong about her being on a date? I can’t believe I let her gossip get to me. Of course my mate wouldn’t be dating around. Everything is fine. I just need to take a breath and figure out what to say to her now that I’ve found her.

I force myself to get in line rather than making a frenzied beeline toward my mate. Her soft scent tortures me even at a distance, and I’m glad for the chips crammed in my pocket because they’re hiding my boner as I order two muffins.

One for me and one for Hayley. A peace offering. A reason to go over and talk to her.

My palms sweat as I carry the two plates toward her table in the corner. She looks up and smiles in my direction, and a warm, fuzzy sense of rightness washes over me.

God, is there anything better than her smile?

A lanky demon steps past me, a drink in each hand, and sets one down in front of her with a cocky smile. “A honey oat milk latte for a lovely lady,” they say, winking at her .

Hayley flushes but accepts the drink, and the demon sits down across from her.

I startle at the sound of something shattering, and realize the sound came from me dropping the plates in my hands. Ceramic shards and muffin bits scatter around my feet and I let out a pained yelp that has nothing to do with the lost muffins.

Hayley’s beautiful face twists in confusion as she looks toward the commotion, and I see her plush lips form my name in a question, but I can’t hear her voice over the panic ringing in my ears. I turn and bolt, almost knocking over a petite redheaded human as I run out of the cafe.

Fuck. Fuck. That was a disaster. She was on a date, and I made myself look even crazier than I normally do.

By the time I’ve run all the way back to my shop, reality sets in. I’ve found my mate, but she’s not interested in anything but casual fun, like Bettie said. And even if she were, I’ve ruined any chance of her wanting me in return by acting like a total psycho.

What was I thinking? I’m not mate material. I’m too odd for a beautiful, charming woman like Hayley. Of course she’s on a date with a hot demon, who I’m pretty sure is really rich, instead of a weird thrift shop owner and absolute dumpster fire of a person.

As soon as those self-deprecating thoughts rise, indignance follows in their wake.

I’ve never been ashamed of who I am. I like what I like and if that makes me weird, who the fuck cares? I’m happy with myself and I’m not going to beat myself up because a biological quirk picked the wrong mate for me .

This has to stop now before it gets worse. I never thought I’d find a mate and was perfectly fine with that. Just because I found one now, doesn’t mean I need to do anything about it. We’re not a good fit, and that’s okay. Hayley will leave once her aunts return, so all I need to do is avoid her until then.

Luckily, I have a lot of experience sneaking around unnoticed. Everything will be fine.

Beans screams at me, in direct opposition to my measured thoughts.

“Sorry, buddy,” I mutter. “It’s for the best.”