Page 17

Sully

My mate was a tricky thing, I thought, looking at the note he left me for the tenth time that morning. It was a sweet gesture after an amazing afternoon with him.

Despite not knowing his name, I still felt closer to him. His obvious love for his kids and family was adorable. Sweet alphas just did it for me.

At this point, I kinda liked not knowing his name. True, it was frustrating at times, but it felt like a secret we had between us. He was my mysterious mate, so mysterious I didn’t know his name.

Okay, maybe I was making the best of a bad situation. He was trying to slow things down between us, which fine, I understood when he had three kids at home to look after.

Every part of me longed to find him so badly it hurt. I had to ignore the ache in my chest. The bond was pulling tighter, quicker, now that I’d been with him outside of my heat. My growing feelings for my mate were only an issue if I didn’t suspect he felt the same for me. I glanced at the note again with a smile.

I noticed Dad glancing at Mom with worry when he caught me rubbing my chest over dinner only hours after I, whatever that stood for, had left.

Ivan?

Igor?

Iain?

Looking up all the names beginning with i was a pain.

My parents were happy, though, when I informed them Orson was taking me on another date later, not knowing it was all fake. A ruse so I could track my mate down. I couldn’t handle this secret any longer.

I’d been messaging back and forth with Orson since I woke up, sorting the details of the plan. Orson was aware Trisha knew of our schemes. I worried I’d overstepped by telling my bestie about him, but Orson was okay with it as long as it was only her I told, which was fair. He understood my need to talk to someone, and I’d extracted a promise from Trisha to take it to her grave.

They were shocked at the information I’d found out in the charter and promised to look further into it. Knowing Trisha, she’d have the history of the town picked apart in days! With all three—or maybe four, if Baxter got involved—on the case, then we’d have a plan for going public with the mates we had chosen for ourselves.

I felt sorry for my mom. She had picked a decent mate for me, just not the one fate wanted me to have. I hoped she would fall for him like I had, in time. They had the same values in life. I couldn’t get over how similar our backgrounds were!

Stuck on the morning shift at the hotel, I was bored. The other manager, a witch called Grace, was in charge. She was much easier to get along with than Kenneth. We were friendly of sorts, but to work with her all the time would mean moving to morning shifts, something I didn’t want to do, since it had taken a lot to get my parents to agree to let me work nights, when there were more people to meet.

Yeah, we were working on our boundaries and expectations. My parents couldn’t expect me to be involved with the hotel if they wouldn’t allow me to work the busier night shift for fear of my safety. Working in Haenvale was as safe as we got. Besides, with a baby on the way, I needed the cash. I didn’t want to rely on my alpha to provide for us. I wasn’t sure what he did for money, though he had told me he had inherited more than the house.

Haenvale’s nocturnal population meant the mornings were slower. I spent a lot of time looking at the system, checking that we had the right amount of staff in to cover each shift, and ensuring we weren’t double booked anywhere. Grace usually handled that side of things, but she trusted me to deal with it while she sorted out a maintenance problem in one of the rooms.

It was late morning, about eleven, when I took a strange call.

“Good morning, Haenvale Premier Hotel. I’m Sullivan. How can I assist you today?”

“Hi,” a harried female voice said. “I’m calling to cancel a booking. I forgot to, earlier. We don’t need the room anymore.” Very short and to the point.

“Alright, if I could just have a few details from you, such as the name it was under and the duration of the stay. ”

“The booking was for Ellie and Farah Kalid. We were supposed to stay for two weeks, potentially longer.”

It took me a moment to call up the booking in the system. I lingered over the cancel button, waiting for confirmation they really wanted to end their reservation.

“I’m sorry you won’t be visiting Haenvale. It’s beautiful at this time of year.”

“Oh, we’re still coming, just not sure we’re coming into town. We’re staying with our son.”

I could hear someone in the background complaining about the caller over sharing and waiting until the last minute to cancel the booking. Not that it was too late to be canceling it. There were still a few weeks until they were scheduled to arrive.

“What I mean is, we’ve got a camper,” they amended.

“Okay, well, I can give you the names and numbers of our two campgrounds. They have great facilities—“

“That’s not necessary. Our son, Imri, has land and a house in need of fixing up.” Again I heard their companion complaining about them telling me too much. “We’re visiting him and his kids.” I could hear the pride in their voice.

The name, Imri, sent a delightful shiver down my spine. “Oh, that’s lovely! Are they young, the children?” A nosy question for sure, but I got the sense the caller was waiting to brag about their grandchildren. Mom always said I had a knack for getting information out of people, part of why I was in a customer facing job.

“Well, the oldest, Rowan—“ I almost stopped listening. What were the chances? It had to be them, right? “He’s eighteen. The little ones, Sandy and Berry, are ten.”

Those two names sold it. Rowan, Sandy and Berry. The ages were right, too. Those were my mate’s kids. Imri’s kids. It felt right in my mind.

I cleared my throat nervously. “Great ages! If you could just confirm the card details we have on file, I can cancel your stay without a fee.”

The caller gave me the info, sounding much friendlier than before. “Alright, that’s your booking canceled. I hope you have a great time visiting the area.”

“Thank you! I can’t wait to see them.”

They ended the call, not realizing they’d gifted me my fated mate’s name.

Orson came to the door to pick me up like the gentleman my family thought he was. With a friendly smile, he endured ten minutes of my parents grilling him over our date plans, which were a picnic date and maybe a movie. We’d agreed to keep it vague to make it easier to fudge the truth later.

If I got my way, I wouldn’t be coming home later. I’d be staying with Imri!

Every time I thought of his name, the better it sounded.

When I got in the car, I noticed there were bags in the back.

“Are you going somewhere?”

“If you’re going mate hunting, then me and Baxter are leaving town for a few days. We’re going to try being without our inhibitors.” Orson pulled away from the curb, then glanced at me.

“No way! That’s awesome. I hope he’s your fated.”

Orson smiled. “Thank you. I do, too.” Anxiety tinged his expression. “You probably think I’m being a coward, running away.”

“No way! I’m scared to confront the town, so I don’t blame you for taking a few days away from it all.”

“You don’t?” Orson appeared relieved.

“Orson, if I could skip all the arguments that are gonna come with being with Imri, then I would.”

“You know his name, then?”

I knew I looked smug. “I do! Now, drop me at the meeting spot and have a great break.”

I was processing Orson’s decision to escape Haenvale and the probable fallout of my mating when I got into Trisha’s car. She’d already told me she couldn’t borrow her dad’s truck because it was recharging.

“Honey, you better explain that look on your face!”

Outlining everything Orson and I had talked about only took a matter of minutes. She was happy they were giving their relationship a go, away from prying eyes.

I loved this woman. She had been in my life when I’d really needed someone. As one of the fae, she was seen as neutral, so my parents were cool with her. The fae had a bad rep back on earth, but here, in Pangea, they weren’t chaotic or bad. They just liked nature and could do magic. Trisha had beautiful translucent wings she kept glamored. I wished I could fly sometimes.

“I’m still so angry about the inhibitors!” she cried, looking the most upset I’d ever seen her. “Dad helped spell the inhibitors. He never said a thing about this!”

“Right? Just shows how little we know about Haenvale. Are all towns like ours the same?”

“Who knows?” She shrugged. While it looked like she was brushing it off, I could see the knowledge weighed on her. We shared a look, then we both tried to push it away. “I’m going to work on some more of the charter, and gather more sources.”

“I’ve got some notes stored in a crystal.”

Trisha had pulled the car over to the side of the road until she got answers out of me. She turned the engine back on. “Should we eat and decide if you still want to find this guy?”

“Imri, and I need to see him.” I rubbed at my chest. The bond aching. “Life might be complicated for us in Haenvale, but he’s worth the fight. I still want the mate fate picked out for me. I’m not settling, Trisha.”

“Okay, then.” She took us back to her place where she made us a tofu curry that was heavenly. We didn’t talk all that much, both of us lost in our thoughts.

I felt like Imri was coming around to the idea of being together, which was good since I was carrying his baby. Keeping the secret was shitty, but I wanted him to want me for me, not the baby I carried. We were so close to having a plan in place for dealing with Haenvale. Learning his name felt like fate.

One of the great things about Imri was that he was from somewhere else. Me being prey never seemed to bother him. He’d told me he had practice being around prey shifters. I’d seen firsthand how he hadn’t struggled at all with me when we’d met, though that could have been our bond.

It was a great counter argument for my parents and the wider town when they protested about me being with a dingo shifter and having his baby.

I felt so bad for Baxter and Orson. Hopefully, they were fated and they could have a life together that was long and happy, not one where they worried about Baxter losing control and eating the sparrow shifter.

“Do you still want to do this?” Trisha asked after we’d loaded the dishwasher.

“Yeah. I have to. It’s making me… it hurts.” I rubbed at my chest again.

“Okay.” She drove us out to the road where I was sure Imri’s truck had driven along. Not too far in was a decent turning circle, a shed, and a pretty big mailbox.

“Sully, my car…”

“It’s okay. Do you want to wait here? I’m just going to plead my case and give him my number.”

“No. It’s not safe. I’ll come with you.”

We left the car and walked the dirt track for about a mile.

“There’s a lot of magic. It’s trying to turn us around.”

I stepped forward, using a guess, I spoke Imri’s name like a password. The pressure to go back where we came from vanished.

“Well done, Sully.” Trisha beamed at me, her pretty wings on full show. Instead of walking, she fluttered above the ground.

Finally, a house came into view. Clearly, it was a work in progress. There was a large camper van and a smaller trailer parked in the yard, a decent sized vegetable patch nearby.

Homey. The place was nice. There was a sweet vibe to the area. I liked it instantly.

“There’s a ward here, Sully,” Trisha warned moments before half a dozen people came rushing out of the house, looking alarmed.

“Hey, Imri!” I called with the friendliest smile I could muster.

His footsteps paused. “Sully?”

“Yeah, I wanted to come back, clothed this time,” I chuckled nervously. Everyone was just standing on the porch watching me. “I won the game!”

Imri grinned. “That you did.”

“I didn’t come alone.”

He spared Trisha a glance. “No, you didn’t.”

“I’m not willing to wait any longer, Imri. I’m your fated mate, and I’m ready to fight the town just to be with you.”

There were gasps of shock. Heads kept moving between us. We only had eyes for each other. I waited for him to say something, worry churning in my gut the longer the silence continued. All while Imri’s dark eyes were fixed on mine, his expression was complicated.

“You are who fate picked out for me. That has to mean something. Don’t you want to at least try?”