Doubting Fate (Fate Beyond the Binary #1)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Cameron

“For the last time, Shay, you’re going to end up locked in a fish tank in someone’s basement if you’re not more careful,” Cameron said, hitting the enter key on his laptop with a little more force than necessary.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Shay’s voice rang out from Cameron’s phone. Even across several states, multiple time zones, and sketchy cell towers, he couldn’t miss the bored drawl in her voice.

“I don’t think it’s dramatic to ask you to stop meeting people from dating apps at their house!”

“I sent Audrey my location on the way there. Besides, we met on the sidewalk in front of her house.”

Cameron hit the backspace button so hard, he nearly flipped the laptop off his lap.

With a huff, he closed the lid and shoved it onto his cluttered coffee table.

He was supposed to have clocked out hours ago, so it seemed like as good a time to stop as any.

He leaned his head back onto his couch, his poof of ginger hair providing minimal padding against the wooden frame.

“Okay, so you met this six-foot alpha, who advertised on her profile that she’s a professional boxer, on the sidewalk in front of her house, and if things had gone south, you were just going to… What? Shift and bite her?”

Shay’s laugh cut through the relative quiet of Cameron’s living room. “Ba and Pa always called me an ankle biter for a reason.”

They hadn’t called Shay that in years, but it had been one of their favorite nicknames for her growing up. She’d shift into her alligator form and chase them around the house, nipping at their heels like a puppy.

“Have you spoken to them recently?” Cameron asked, scooping up his phone and curling his legs beneath him so he could get into a slightly comfier position. He wasn’t very tall, but what height he did have was mostly in his legs.

Shay let out an exaggerated sigh, and Cameron couldn’t help but smile.

Their beta Ba and omega Pa had adopted both of them when they were little.

While Cameron had known all he ever cared to know about his birth parents, Shay’s past was somewhat of a mystery.

Her birth parents had opted for a closed adoption, and their parents knew only the sparse details the adoption agency had shared with them.

Adoption was quite common nowadays, given that only alphas could impregnate and only omegas could conceive, but closed adoptions were a little less common.

When Shay hit her teens, she began asking questions about her birth and the first year and a half of her life, and sadly, their parents hadn’t been able to answer them.

They encouraged Shay to seek out other alligator shifters and fully supported her decision to attend college and graduate school in New Orleans to further explore her Creole and alligator heritage.

Nowadays, their relationship was stronger than ever, even though she had stayed in New Orleans while their parents still lived in the Pacific Northwest. Distance definitely made the heart grow fonder…even if it also made the nagging parental phone calls more frequent.

“I’m assuming they’re asking about your dating life again?”

“Why do you think I’m on this stupid app? According to Ba, I ‘might as well see if my fated mate is on there,’” Shay groaned.

Ah, yes, their parents’ never-ending mission to get both of their children happily paired off with their fated mates.

They were seahorse shifters, some of the most romantic fated mates on the planet.

Hell, their elaborate mating rituals were used as examples in school textbooks.

Their parents still did their mating dance several times a week and would spend hours holding tails in their backyard pool.

“And just to clarify, the rude alpha who spent the entire date interrupting and talking over you was not, in fact, your fated mate?” Cameron teased.

Fated mates were most common between alphas and omegas, so Shay, a beta, had grown up skeptical of the whole thing.

Fated mate bonds had been known to happen with some betas, and while alphas and omegas were typically only fated to those of differing secondary genders, betas could form fated mate bonds with alphas, omegas, and other betas.

Some people claimed that because of the abundance of options, the bond felt different for betas, almost as if it were less binding.

Their Ba claimed that was a total lie, though, which made sense given how strong his bond was with Pa.

Either way, Shay had never been interested in mate bonds, fated or otherwise.

Evidenced by the fact that she was now making a horrible gagging noise. “Don’t even joke about that, Camy. There was definitely no supposed mate bond.”

While a lot of betas never found their fated mate, many still entered into lifelong partnerships.

Some would even mate with their partners, forgoing fate and forming their own mated pairs.

Shay had never seemed particularly interested in dating in general, but at least once a year, she’d download a fated mate dating app and put on a big show for their parents.

Cameron just wished that it didn’t involve going to strangers’ houses.

“Shaybay…are you sure you’re actually into alphas?” Cameron asked, pulling out his own childhood nickname for her.

“I’m not sure I’m actually into anyone—you know that. I figure I should cycle through primary and secondary genders once a year just to double check, though,” she said with a lighthearted snicker.

Cameron tilted sideways until he came to rest on a throw pillow his ba had made him. “You know Ba, Pa, and I would love you all the same if it turns out you’re not into anyone, period.”

He could practically see her shrugging from here. She was probably rolling her eyes, too.

Unlike Shay, Cameron had pretty strong feelings about fated mates…

and they weren’t good feelings. While things had worked out well for his adopted parents, his birth parents were another matter.

Cameron didn’t trust fate as far as he could throw it, and since he wasn’t even sure if he owned workout clothes at this point, that wasn’t very far.

When he was a kid, he had read every book he could get his hands on, both fiction and nonfiction, trying to figure out how fate could have gotten things so wrong for his DNA donors.

Thankfully, he only had a few years of memories with them, but what he did have was abysmal.

Raised voices, objects flying overhead, and—

“I know, Camy,” Shay said, pulling Cameron up and out of his darkening thoughts.

“For all that they’re obsessed with fate, I know that all three of you are more obsessed with me and love me just the way I am.

” She added a sing-songy lilt to the end of her sentence that dispelled the rest of the lingering bad thoughts.

Shay liked to say that Cameron had a tendency to hurt his own feelings by dwelling on things he couldn’t control. She wasn’t entirely wrong.

“How am I obsessed with you?” Cameron asked, not liking the way the question came out sounding more like a whine.

His eyes landed on the series of photos on his mantle showing him and Shay throughout their childhood and early adulthood. Shay was his best friend in the world, and he wasn’t ashamed to admit that. As far as he was concerned, being best friends with his sister was cool.

“You literally call me every day.”

“You’re so far away! If you would just move here, I could see you once or twice a week, and I wouldn’t have to resort to such drastic measures.”

His inner omega squirmed uncomfortably. He missed Shay just as much as Cameron did.

After college, Cameron had moved to New Orleans to be closer to Shay for a few years.

Ultimately, he’d ended up following his career to the East Coast, but Shay loved the city and was clearly happier there.

Cameron had grudgingly accepted that they would probably never live in the same city again.

He’d come to appreciate the hustle and bustle of his own city…

even if Shay would probably say that he didn’t leave his house anywhere near often enough to fully appreciate it.

“I know, Camy. I’m just kidding,” Shay said, her voice doing that older sibling thing where it went all low and concerned, making Cameron feel simultaneously warm and loved, but also a bit itchy. He squirmed around, the urge to shift overtaking him as it often did in moments of discomfort.

“Camy?” Shay’s voice was even more concerned now.

“Yeah?” Cameron asked, turning around so he could press his forehead into the back of the couch. He already knew what was coming because they had this conversation every time Shay went back on the dating apps.

“I know you’re not really looking for a mate right now, but it couldn’t hurt to get out there and meet some new folks.

Maybe they turn out great, and you get a partner out of it, or maybe they become a good friend.

Either way, you’re not going to find anyone if you spend all your time working or in alleys—”

“I do not spend time in alleys!”

“In alleys, behind a bar where you refused to socialize with anyone but me for over five hours, and then when I started flirting with the guy who was trying to flirt with you, you tried to go to the bathroom but instead ended up in an alley, where you were once again hit on, and even though he also could have been a potential date or new friend, he wasn’t, so you should keep looking, but not in back alleys—in dating apps. ”

“Did you take a single breath in that sentence?” Cameron asked, rather impressed.

“Cameron Klein.”

Cameron groaned. “Please do not second-name me.”

“Cameron Augustus Klein,” Shay said, humor returning to her voice just enough to remove the sting.

“Shay, you know how much I hate dating apps. You know how much I hate dating in general. After Thomas—”

“Who was a dick,” Shay interrupted yet again.

Cameron took in a slow breath through his nose.

“Yes, who was a massive, festering dick. He also made me not want to date anymore in general, but definitely not on dating apps, where I will undoubtedly meet someone who, once they get to know me and learn one too many things about me and my past, will decide I’m not worth their time.

Or I am…but only as their omega, and they’ll want to keep me in an aquarium. ”

Okay, so maybe he shouldn’t have watched that late-night special about a serial killer who targeted aquatic shifters on dating apps so he could keep them in aquariums. His octopus was rather small and would be easy bait for such a predator, so the idea had gotten lodged in his head.

The man had been caught and prosecuted over a decade ago, but still.

It seemed more likely than a date actually going well for him, given everything a potential partner would have to put up with in Cameron.

Shay sighed loudly. “I believe in your ability to extricate yourself from a bad date. Especially one that might result in you being put in a tank.”

Cameron didn’t miss the fact that Shay ignored his other concern. His real concern.

He traced a run in the fabric of his couch, starting up by the headrest and curving diagonally down across the cushion. He added it to his never-ending to-do list. See? He was too busy to be dating anyway.

“And no, you’re not too busy to be dating. I know those long hours you pull aren’t mandatory. You forget I’m friends with your boss’ boss.”

Gods dammit, why did his sister know him so well?

“How dare Catherine out me like that!” Cameron said.

“She didn’t have to. We get happy hour drinks all the time; meanwhile, you call me at 8pm on a Thursday, and you’re still working. One of these things is not like the other.”

Catherine was the VP of the nonprofit Cameron worked for, and she lived in New Orleans, a few blocks away from Shay.

They had all gone out to dinner one night, and after his third random anecdote about global warming, she’d offered him a job as the manager of a tiny environmental project they were working on.

Over the past four years, Cameron had nurtured the project into a full-fledged program with its own budget, marketing materials, and page on the website.

That had eventually prompted his move here, where he now ran the program, working long hours to avoid how empty his life was.

A fact that his boss, his boss’ boss, and apparently his sister were all well aware of.

“I just want to get through the holidays. Once this giving season is over, I can put my focus on other things,” he lied.

Giving season was every season as far as he was concerned, but the next two months really were busy with the Fall Harvest Festival in November and the Winter Solstice and New Year's in December.

“I can’t wait to see you next week,” Shay said, changing the subject to something Cameron would much rather discuss.

“Same! I’m already working on new dessert recipes for the harvest dinner.”

They spent the next hour discussing side dishes, and Cameron reopened his laptop to make some adjustments to his plan. He didn’t bake for himself often, as he didn't see the point when he was just one person, but he loved baking with his family. Cooking, however, he never liked.

As the night wore on, Cameron dug deep into his saved recipes folder, and Shay began reading him horrible first-liners she’d received on the dating app.

After a horrid opener from Phil and before Shay could read the “truly awful” one from Charles, Cameron allowed his thoughts to drift.

He let himself imagine one day bringing a mate home for Fall Harvest. He wondered if they’d appreciate his cooking or enjoy Shay’s stories.

Maybe they’d help Cameron finally nail down the perfect song to go along with his parents’ mating dance.

For a non-seahorse shifter, the beat was hard to keep up with, and he’d been looking for over two decades for a song to match it with.

For all his pessimism, Cameron had long nurtured a tiny kernel of hope that his life would turn out as happy as it had for his parents.

After they hung up, Cameron started getting ready for bed, and he couldn’t help but roll his eyes when Shay sent him a link to set up a profile for some new dating app.

After the holidays, he told himself. He would think about this after the holidays.