Lion’s Crossing (Love Sync Mates Season Two)

Chapter Three

Knox

Two hours had passed since I boarded the train. We’d picked up more passengers in Torago. They must have boarded another coach since ours was full. Our next major stop was Saramto, my destination. The alpha beside me still hadn’t said a word, only typing into his phone on occasion at the beginning of our trip, but he hadn’t for a while. It was as if he remained engrossed in whatever he listened to, or he didn’t want anyone to disturb him. Maybe he’d fallen asleep.

But I had to pee. My morning coffee was ready to come out, and I needed to leave my seat and use the facilities. Only I had to get past the alpha first. He didn’t seem mean from our brief interaction when boarding, yet I worried I may trigger that side of him if I bothered him in his focused state or worse, woke him up.

I raised my hand from the armrest, unsure if I should touch his arm or his leg to get his attention. As the train rocked on the track, I ended up leaning to the left and toward him, touching his arm before I had a chance to pull my hand back.

His body shook as if startled, and he removed his sunglasses and turned to me, the bridge of his nose wrinkled, and his eyes narrowed. “Everything okay?”

“Um…” I couldn’t tell if I’d upset him, but I really needed to go. “I need to get past you. I need to use the bathroom.”

“Oh.” He nodded then stood, allowing me to pass. “There you go.”

“Thank you.” He nodded again with a faint smile, and that’s when familiarity hit me. I knew him somehow, but I couldn’t remember where from. Was it from the high school? Was he one of the alphas that hung around, gawking at the almost- legal omegas who attended, ready to fill their heads with false promises of being their mate then dumping them when they got pregnant? There weren’t any alphas I knew from the area that I hadn’t seen at work, around town, or when out with my cousin. Maybe I’d gone to school with him, but he’d changed a lot in looks since then. On my way down the aisle, I wracked my brain trying to recall how I knew him. Nothing came to mind. Not on the way there, while using the washroom, or on my way back.

As I returned, still struggling with my memory, the train swayed back and forth, much more aggressively than before. I held onto the backs of the seats as I stumbled down the aisle to keep my balance. Then the train began to slow, the brakes screeching as they gripped the wheels. By the time I reached my seat, the train had stopped.

The alpha got up immediately, as if he’d watched for me to return.

“Do you know why we’ve stopped?” I asked as I passed by him.

He shook his head. “It just happened, so your guess is as good as mine.”

A saying I often heard from my parents. Yep, he definitely had grown up in or around Shifter Crossing.

“Hopefully it’s nothing serious.” My vacation timeline depended on being on time or even early for everything.

He nodded. “Yes, hopefully.”

With his short answers, the alpha still didn’t seem like he was in the mood to talk, and since we weren’t moving, I decided to pull my own earbuds out of my bag.

“Attention passengers,” the voice came over the coach’s static-filled PA system. “There has been a brief delay in our travels, and we are working quickly to get on our way again.”

That didn’t tell us much. It could have meant there was a problem with one of the passengers, or there was an engine malfunction. Either way, I hoped to be moving again soon. I was supposed to arrive ahead of the check-in time at my hotel, but with the delay, I would likely arrive right on time.

The alpha beside me began typing furiously on his phone, so I leaned back and pressed play on my music streaming app. I had my playlist on shuffle, so I didn’t know which song would play first. “Fated For Forever” was the first random song I heard, sung by the pop group FNL about how when an alpha finds their fated mate, they will love them forever. The group had since disbanded, but I still enjoyed the music they had released. I wasn’t a huge fan of theirs, didn’t know all their names or anything, but appreciated their sound. A short clip of the group played on the app, showing the group dancing to the music. And that’s when I realized the identity of the alpha sitting beside me. He was a former member of FNL.

I froze for a moment, hoping he hadn’t looked over to see what music I listened to on my phone. I didn’t want him to think I was some crazed fan who would be all over him because of his celebrity status. Leaning into the corner of my seat, away from the alpha, I switched to a new song then brought up my search engine. Looking up FNL, I tried to find a list of the members to figure out which one sat beside me. After checking out a few fan pages, I learned his name was Linc, he was a lion shifter, and he lived in Shifter Crossing before heading to Saramto to become a pop star. And after leaving FNL, he’d become a music producer for Adan Records.

It all made sense why he hid his identity. I would have, too, if I rode on a train with all these people. Most wouldn’t care about his identity, but one fan pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable behavior would be enough to ruin the ride. And I didn’t want to witness that, either.

I made a mental note to only talk to him about being from Shifter Crossing. That was, if he decided to talk to me. Because, so far, he seemed engrossed in his phone. Even though we weren’t moving, I returned to looking out the window and listening to my music. It wasn’t as if I could do anything else.