Chapter 1
Wayne
“What did you think was going to happen?” Jace asked. The laughter in his voice made me want to crawl into a hole.
“I don’t know. I didn’t expect to find a mate,” I said.
Anthony smiled at me with sympathy on his face. “Man, we never do. But you had to know it was possible for you to find someone at any given time.”
I didn’t have to know that, and I hadn’t known that. “No,” I said sullenly. “I thought I knew everyone in Bluewater Coast. I figured I was safe.”
Jace snorted, so I glared at him. “You’re not helping.”
Anthony chuckled and eyed Jace. I turned my frustration on him. “You’re not much help either. Both of you are mated to humans. I figured you’d have more advice than some laughter.”
My alpha and friend rubbed his eyes. “Man, I’ve got twin toddlers and a newborn. I’m too tired to be helpful.”
His wife had given birth to their third baby, a boy, just a few weeks before. I couldn’t help but soften my face and smile at the new father. “How’s it going?”
Anthony sighed and smiled. “Great. Jason is amazing. And the twins took to him far better than I expected them to.” He turned his gaze to Jace again, his new son’s namesake. “Get ready, man. When’s Bri due?”
Jace’s face lit up, too. Man, these guys started having kids and turned into big mushy softies. “November 18. About three months to go.”
“Well, that’s great. But if you don’t mind, as happy as I am for you both, I’m still trying to figure out how to deal with a fated mate. I’m nowhere near the kids stage.” God willing. “How do I proceed? What do I do?”
Anthony took pity on me and leaned across the desk in his office.
I’d stopped by on my way to cook for a client, and had been happy to see Jace’s car here, too.
I figured if anyone could give me advice, it was the two of them, both mated to humans.
Fated mates. Our other buddy, Porter, Jace’s brother, had chosen a human mate, but that was a little different. Probably easier, really.
“Wayne, what do you want? Do you want a relationship? Are you ready to settle down?” Anthony raised his eyebrows. “These are the first questions you have to ask.”
I leaned back in the leather chair across from his desk and sighed.
“I don’t know. I mean, I’m not like, against a relationship, but the thought of starting to date someone gives me anxiety.
” When I’d gone into Bianca’s place and realized that she was my mate, I’d nearly blown getting the job because my dragon had almost made me lose my shit.
But I wanted the job. Anything more than that, I had no idea. All I knew was that it made me feel as if I had heartburn to think about it.
“But are you against the idea of a romantic relationship?” Anthony asked.
I shook my head. “Not against, no.”
“Good,” Jace muttered. “I was totally against it and it literally nearly killed me.”
Rolling my eyes, I sighed. “I’m not as stupid as you are.”
Jace slapped the back of my head while Anthony chortled. “He’s not wrong,” Anthony said. “Your whole refusal thing was pretty stupid.”
Jace nodded good-naturedly. “I know. But it all worked out in the end.”
Barely. He literally had almost died by refusing his mating bond, and now look at him; Settled down, practically an old man, about to have a dang kid.
“I’m not against it. I just don’t want to jump into anything.
” I hesitated. “I’d rather not pursue anything at all, but if it happened, I wouldn’t run from it like Jace did. ”
Anthony shrugged. “That might make the difference. As long as you’re not completely refusing the bond, you might not get sick or suffer any ill effects.”
Hopefully, he was right. I didn’t have time to miss work or slow down because of some stupid fated mating bond.
Jace leaned over and clapped me on the shoulder. “All kidding aside, just try to enjoy yourself. You never know what might develop.”
The last thing I wanted was to go through what Jace did.
That, if nothing else, was reason enough to acknowledge that I’d met my life’s mate.
“Thanks, both of you. I do feel better.” And I did.
We all felt pretty sure that as long as I didn’t completely deny that Bianca was my mate or try to reject her, I could go super slow.
Like, sloth trapped in peanut butter slowly. Just because I acknowledged Bianca didn’t mean I wanted to move in next week or anything. I could go into this on my own terms, even if fate was making me its bitch. I wanted to get to know Bianca a lot better before moving forward.
Every woman I’d tried to date so far had been a disaster, ever since I opened up my personal chef business. But shit, the money was so damn good, I couldn’t stop doing it. “Well, I’ve gotta get going.” I tapped the desk. “Thank you for taking a minute to make me feel better.”
Anthony nodded. “Any time. I’m always here for you.”
As I stood, they both joined me. Jace slung his arm around my neck. “Me too. And I promise I’ll give you a hard time every time, too.”
I rolled my eyes and elbowed him in the side, which didn’t have the effect I intended.
Instead of removing his arm, he tightened his grip around my neck.
I couldn’t let that fly, so as we walked out of the office, I punched him in the ribs, not at my full strength, but hard enough to make him grunt.
“Stop it,” Skye hissed from her rocker in the living room, which was just outside Anthony’s office. “If you wake the baby up, I’ll beat up all three of you; I don’t care how strong you think you are.”
Her wide eyes and flared nostrils told me she meant business, as did the bassinet beside her, which emitted a soft tune from a little radio clipped to the side. Skye rocked it slowly with her foot.
Jace let go immediately, and we both straightened. On my tiptoes, I walked over to peek into the bassinet at the little bundle with a tuft of black hair. “He’s so sweet,” I whispered.
Skye smiled down at the baby. “Thank you.”
I winked at my alpha’s mate and tiptoed to the door, waving at them all one more time before letting myself out and closing the door behind me as slowly and quietly as possible.
Outside in the warm mountain sunshine, I sucked in the air. August was a great month to live in Maine. It was humid, as usual, but the heat rarely rose above the mid-eighties. Great for going to the beach and flying.
Too bad I was on my way to a job. No rest for the wicked.
Tonight was a dinner party at one of my least favorite clients’ houses, but she tipped well and kept hiring me for my highest rate packages, so I kept taking the jobs.
The older woman, one of the dragons in our clan and a widow, loved to flirt with me the whole time I cooked for her, but she was pretty harmless. More annoying than anything. And this was a dinner party, so hopefully she’d be so focused on her guests that she’d leave me the hell alone.
I pulled around to the back of Ms. Parker’s gigantic house and started unloading the food. She’d given me a generous budget for the groceries, so I was going to be able to go all out for her little six-person dinner party, sure to all be older, wealthy ladies from our pack.
Sure enough, when I walked into the kitchen through the servants’ entrance, the sound of wine glasses clinking came through the door to the dining room. Ms. Parker had told me she’d handle the appetizers, I just had to do dinner.
My main course was prepped and would just need a half-hour in the oven. Chicken stuffed with asparagus, and my secret ingredient, slivers of bacon. Wealthy people liked to pretend they didn’t like bacon, but I found if I cut it thin enough and hid it in the food, they fucking loved it.
Pretention robbed them of one of life’s most delicious foods.
My side dishes were prepared in advance as well; the easiest of them being a garden salad with their choice of dressings.
The first thing I did when I hit the kitchen was preheat the oven.
Then, while that warmed, I pulled out Ms. Parker’s serving cart and loaded the salad ingredients in white bowls.
Before going through the door to the dining room, I donned my crisp white apron and made sure no stray hairs clung to my tight-fitting black shirt or slacks.
Had to look the part for the pervy old ladies.
“Good evening,” I said in a smooth voice once I’d eased the silver cart through the door. “Can I interest anyone in a garden salad?”
“Oh, lovely,” Ms. Parker said. “We’ve just finished our hors d’oeuvres.”
I gritted my teeth and smiled at the almost-empty platter on the table. She’d made what looked like frozen potato skins.
Why in the world had she hired me to make a delectable meal if she was going to ruin it with store brand appetizers?
As I moved around the table, I smiled and made small talk with the women I’d known all my life. Now that I was a grown man and doing this job, they treated me differently. Which was almost worse. How had they been able to go from seeing me as a child, growing up in the pack, to someone to ogle?
Mostly they were just too flirty. Nothing I couldn't handle. But when I got around to the last guest, a newer pack member who had moved to the area after her husband had died a few years back, she took it too far. Ms. Dottie, as she preferred everyone to call her, didn’t just reach out and touch my bicep like the other ladies had done, she had to reach back and pinch my ass.
“Ma’am, please don’t do that,” I said softly. They were all dragons, so there was no whispering so they wouldn’t hear, but I did the best I could. “I don’t appreciate it.”
Ms. Dottie sat up straight and glared at me. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”
I nodded my head once. If she wanted to play it off like an accident, that was fine, as long as it didn’t happen again. She chose her dressing and I finished serving her food, then made my way back to the kitchen to get the food in the now-warm oven while they ate their salads.
I’d noticed their wine glasses looking empty, so after I put the chicken in the oven, I grabbed one of the bottles chilling under the counter. Ms. Parker had shown me on my first day where she kept the wine for parties like this. I knew this was the next bottle she wanted to be opened.
Once again, I made my way around the table to lots of batted fake eyelashes, hand and bicep touches, and simpering giggles.
Man, all these women smelled like floral perfume. Ugh.
And once again, when I got around to Ms. Dottie, she pinched me on my damn ass.
“Ms. Dottie, do not do that again,” I said in a firm, no-arguments voice. I didn’t lower it this time.
“Son, you’re only here for me to do that,” she said haughtily.
“If you weren’t so pretty, we’d have a female in here.
” Dottie sniffed and stuck her pudgy nose up in the air as my blood boiled.
I was in no danger of causing her physical harm but dumping the wine on her expensive-looking dress wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.
I loved my work, and I was damn good at it. I turned my gaze to Ms. Parker with my eyebrows up. If she wasn’t going to handle this, I would. Ms. Parker stared at me with her lips pursed. “When will the main course be ready?” she asked.
“Around thirty minutes,” I said through my teeth. “Please make sure this doesn’t happen again.” She needed to step up and speak to her guests while I was in the other room.
But Ms. Parker’s face hardened. “Wayne, please just do your job. Cook and look handsome.”
Nope. Hell, no. I wasn’t about to let this fly.
“With all due respect, I’m not a stripper here to entertain your friends.
I’m a personal chef. I’m highly sought-after, and you had to pay me extra to keep me coming.
” That much was true. I’d had to keep putting her off because I was booked.
Tonight was supposed to be a night off, but she’d offered a generous bonus on top of my normal fee.
“You’re in danger of losing your job,” Ms. Parker said stiffly. “Please leave us.”
With a sigh, I took off the apron. “I’m keeping what you’ve paid me so far, but the rest I don’t want. The chicken will be done in…” I tapped my smartwatch and checked the timer. “Twenty-five minutes, and good luck with the side dishes. It’s all in the kitchen.”
After throwing my apron on the table beside the perverted Ms. Dottie, I stalked into the kitchen and went through the food and supplies, taking anything that belonged to me and leaving the rest. I hated doing it this way, but there was a point at which I had to stand up for my principles and damn the rest. The rumors would spread, but I had to believe that people would realize that I wouldn’t have walked off a job unless it was extreme.
I had a lot of loyal clients. They’d know it wasn’t like me to do this.
Damn it!
After throwing my bag in the back of my truck, I got in and pulled out of Ms. Parker’s fancy driveway as fast as I could, heading for my parents’ land.
I needed to shift, soon. My temper rode me hard all the way, and as soon as I knew I was on my mom’s property, I pulled over and headed into the woods.
There was a clearing near the road where I could shift and work my way deeper into the woods to fly over the trees.
As soon as I was out of my skin and into my scales, my tension eased. I had plenty of clients to pick up the slack. And this was supposed to have been a night off, anyway.
But my reputation wouldn’t be irreparably scarred by this incident. Most of my clients were outside the pack, anyway. There might be some tongues wagging within the clan, but my mother would nip that in the bud, anyway.
Ugh, though, that meant I had to tell my mother about it.
Ms. Dottie was in trouble.