Chapter 6
Promise hadn’t slept well after waking from the weird dream, so after tossing and turning for hours, she’d woken up before dawn, made a cup of coffee, and sat on the back porch of the cabin to watch the sunrise through the trees. Even without getting to see the full effects of the sunrise, she still loved seeing the light break through the darkness, filtering between the tree trunks and leaves to shower her with golden light.
Once she knew her sister was awake, she video called her and propped the phone up on the dresser while she unpacked.
“Ugh it’s early,” Rio said.
“But you’re an early bird.”
“Maybe I stayed up late partying with the trailer park peeps.”
Promise straightened from where she’d bent to put a pair of shorts into a drawer and stared at her sister. “Did you?”
“Ha! You know me better than that. I was in bed by eleven. But I did hang out with everyone for a while. It was fun, but once my social battery was depleted, I bailed.”
“You and your social battery,” Promise chuckled.
“It’s a thing.”
“Yeah, I feel you. I spent yesterday with two females—one is a snowy owl and one is a hyena—and we had lunch together and then dinner, and then they wanted to hang out around a bonfire. I was so ready to not talk to a soul by the time I made it to my cabin for the night.”
“I’ve never met an owl shifter.”
“Me either. Get this: her dad is a minotaur.”
“Like the goat guy?” Rio’s face scrunched up as she spoke.
“Not goat, bull. Apparently, his whole body changes but he stays on two feet that become hooves and his head is like a bull. So wild. She has a brother too, but I haven’t met him yet.”
She had met the hyenas who lived and worked at the campground, though, including Charlotte’s brothers, and another set of siblings: Cade, Daxton, Varick, and their sister Lorelai.
“Any of them your truemate?”
“That would be way too easy,” she said. “But they sure do grow hot males here. You should definitely come for a visit while I’m here.”
“I’ll think about it. I could use a change of pace.”
Promise zipped up the empty duffel and tossed it into the closet. “I still feel like this is the best thing I could have done.”
“I’m glad you’re happy.”
“I’ll be happy when I find my mate. Until then, though, I’m content.”
“When are you going to the wolf pack?”
“I don’t know.” She put her hands on her hips and looked around the room, and then looked at her sister. “I had a dream last night.”
“If it was a sexy one, save the details for someone else, because gross.”
Promise laughed. “It wasn’t sexy.” She explained the dream and the strange feeling she had when she woke. “I think he might be my truemate.”
“Wow. It sounds like a mating dream, but where on earth would an arena like that be?”
“I have no idea. I don’t even know anything about mating dreams, if that’s what it was. What if my brain is just trying to cobble together a mate for me because I spent so much time thinking and talking about finding him?”
She was fairly certain the entire campground knew she came there to find her mate. Which was fine, but also made her feel oddly vulnerable. Finding a mate was a private thing, wasn’t it? Not a group effort.
“Well, maybe it was your brain trying to give you hope, but maybe it’s just what happens to supernatural creatures like shifters…that sometimes we’re special enough to get mating dreams.”
“I’ve literally never heard of anyone we know having a mating dream, have you?”
Rio’s face screwed up in thought, which made Promise smile.
“No. But could it mean your mate isn’t a shifter? Or maybe he’s a unique kind of shifter. Oooh, like a dragon! Wait, do fairies have mating dreams? You should call London and ask her.”
“Maybe you’re right.”
“It’s been known to happen.”
Promise grinned. “I miss you. I wish you were here.”
“Allen is the right place for me at the moment. But the second I feel like I should leave town to find my mate, I will. I just think by the time it’s right for me, you and your dream guy will already be mated.”
“Well, I’d love to meet my guy soon, but who knows?”
“Keep a good thought.”
“I will.”
They said goodbye and I love you to each other, and then the call ended, the screen with her smiling sister going blank.
Promise finished unpacking her suitcase and took her toiletries into the small bathroom to get ready for the day. She wasn’t sure what the day would bring, but her wolf was optimistic that it might bring her and her mate together.
She was filled with hope. It was a new day in a new place, and she was ready to see where the day took her.
Hopefully into the arms of her mate.
Artem’s beast was huffing impatiently as he walked around the campground toward a group of cabins. He didn’t think there were any renters in the cabins, but he did remember hearing from his parents that Ally had said a she-wolf from a pack in Kentucky was coming to hang out for a couple of weeks. She was on some kind of search, but he couldn’t recall what the search was for.
And he wasn’t sure why she popped into his head. At the time, he remembered thinking there wasn’t anything in Little Hope that would draw someone from out of state, unless they really liked hiking in the mountains.
His beast grew more anxious as the cabins came into view.
He inhaled and picked up a sweet, honey scent in the air and he paused, letting his beast out enough to locate the scent.
With a growl, he moved forward, letting his beast lead him to one of the one-room cabins. As he neared the small cabin, the front door opened, and a gorgeous brunette stepped out. She wore shorts that hugged her curves and a tank top with a daring dip in the front that gave him a tantalizing peek at her cleavage.
She pulled the door shut and then froze, her hand tightening on the knob.
Letting go of the knob, she faced him fully, her gaze clashing instantly with his.
His beast bellowed happily in his head and a happy snort sounded entirely too loud in the quiet as it escaped his nostrils.
Her brows drew down and even from the distance that separated them, he could see her eyes turn amber.
The visiting she-wolf.
She was his mate.
His one true mate, the other half of his heart, and the only one who could save him from his fate.
Moving forward to close the distance between them, he opened his mouth to say something but the only thing that came out was a grunt.
She leaned forward, planting her hands on a short railing in front of the porch.
Her eyes widened as he came within a few feet of her before he stopped.
Finally feeling like he could speak, he said, “I’m Artem.”
“Promise.”
“Promise what?”
“My name is Promise.”
“I like it.”
“Oh, well, I’m glad,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve had it my whole life. It was a gift from my parents.”
He realized she was teasing him and some of the tension eased from his body. She had a great laugh and sounded just like the female in his dream. He wanted to hear it all the time.
She stared at him for a long, quiet moment, and then said, “You’re Isolde’s brother. The minotaur.”
“Yes. And you’re the she-wolf who came here to look for something.”
“Well, not exactly.”
She stepped off the porch and stood in front of him. She was shorter than him by a foot, all petite and curved in just the right places. His hands actually ached for want of touching her.
She stared up at him and bit her bottom lip for a moment. “I came here looking for you.”
He frowned. “Me?”
“I came here to start my search for my truemate. I knew he wasn’t in my pack. I’m a healing wolf, and so are my mom and sister, so I thought I’d go out on my own and look for my mate. I hoped when I found him, that his people would want a healer around to help out. Because that’s what I really want to do.”
“Help people.”
“Well,” she said with a smile that made his whole body feel warm. “I wanted to find you first, and then see about becoming the healer to your group. Which I guess is the hyenas?”
“It’s just me and my dad who are minotaurs, but yes, we’re part of the hyena baro.”
“I met your parents when Charlotte and Isolde took me on a tour of the campground. They’re really nice.”
“I’m glad you got a chance to see the campground and meet my parents and sister, too.”
His hands were sweating and his knees were weak, and his minotaur was bellowing so loudly in his head that he thought he’d go deaf from it. He couldn’t help but reach for her with trembling hands and pull her close. As he buried his face in the crux of her neck his whole body jolted with joy at finally finding her. He inhaled her honey scent and everything inside him quieted for the first time in years. He could feel the aggression already leeching away from him as his beast recognized fully that they’d finally found their truemate and they could relax.
No more threat of turning into a monster with no hope for reprieve.
No more need to fight to stave off the aggression.
Pulling her even closer, his beast hummed as she wrapped her arms around him and returned the tight hold. He could feel her trembling too.
“I’m so glad I found you, Artem,” she whispered. “I feel like I’ve been looking for you forever, but this is the first time I left home to search.”
“I can’t believe you’re here. I can’t believe you’re real.”
She leaned away slightly and smiled, her eyes fully amber and the honey scent of her morphing to smell like the woods in the fall. “I’m here and I’m real. And I’m yours.”
He crushed her against him, their lips meeting for the first wild and sweet kiss. She was temptation in the flesh, more beautiful than he’d dared to imagine his mate might be. As the kiss deepened, the woods came alive around them as if in celebration, and his beast let out a happy bellow.
They’d found her.
Finally.
Their truemate’s name was Promise.