Chapter 1
Toby
“What are you going to do without any family there?” my dad asked as he paced my bedroom.
“Pop, come on. I’ve got Porter there. Plus, his clan was very welcoming to me.
I don’t think it’s going to be a problem.
” I folded another shirt and put it neatly in the box.
My instinct was to throw it all in then toss it in the dryer to fluff out the wrinkles once I got to Bluewater, but my mother was in the closet, handing me clothes to fold and put neatly in the box.
It wasn’t worth hearing her sigh every time I did it wrong.
“But you’re not leaving our clan,” Mom said. “How welcoming will they be when you’ve been there for months and months and still haven’t joined their clan?” She sighed as she handed me a pair of pants.
“Anthony and I talked about it. They’re considering it that they’re borrowing me.” I shrugged. “It’s really going to be fine. Besides missing you guys, I won’t be lacking in family or friends.”
My mother tutted, so I walked over to the closet and took the shirt from her hand and tossed it toward my best friend, Wesley, who was also my cousin. He was lounging on the bed instead of helping, which was the whole reason he’d come over.
Tugging my mom toward me, I wrapped my arms around her and patted her head. “Shh, Mommy, I’ll be fine.”
She jerked back and swatted my chest while everyone laughed. “You stop it. You’re not too old to go over my knee.”
“Right, right.” I chuckled as I went back to the box and folded the shirt I’d thrown at Wesley.
He knew the biggest reason I was moving to Bluewater, but I hadn’t told my parents yet.
Nothing would stop me from going to Bluewater now that I knew my fated mate was there.
I hadn’t been able to believe my eyes when I’d been touring the hospital—totally humoring Anthony, the Bluewater clan alpha—and my fated mate had walked up to us.
Like it was no big deal. Just another day. She’d looked at us in interest with a ghost of a smile on her face. She had no clue the bottom of my entire world had dropped out from under me. How could she know?
But I knew. I’d known from the second I smelled her approaching, before she even looked up at me.
My arm had started tingling immediately.
As soon as I’d gotten to my rental car afterward, I’d pulled up my sleeve and sure enough, the outlines of a tattoo were already there.
My clan tattoo, the one that meant I’d found my mate.
I’d been wearing long sleeves ever since.
Clan members would be able to see it and I didn’t want to have to field a bunch of questions about it.
I’d tell my parents when things were more concrete.
I didn’t even know the name of the woman I’d briefly seen at the hospital.
As soon as I saw her, though, name or no name, I knew she was my fated mate.
It was such an instant and visceral reaction that there was no denying it.
My chest practically yanked me toward her, and my arm began to burn like crazy.
Even Anthony was in the dark. I’d only told Wesley, and I’d sworn him to secrecy. I’d been too shocked and thrilled and hadn’t wanted to jinx anything by talking about it too soon. I might not have even told Wesley if he hadn’t noticed my tattoo the other day while he’d been helping me pack.
But that was the moment, the second I laid eyes on my fated mate, that had sealed the deal.
I’d been touring the hospital with Anthony, a doctor there, thinking about taking their open position of the lead nutritionist. The pay was comparable to my job back home, but I’d been waffling back and forth about it.
“Look on the bright side, Aunt Mags,” Wesley said in a cheery voice. “Maybe now Toby will find a nice girl to settle down with.”
I glared at him with my back to my mother, because he was way too close to admitting the truth behind my move to Bluewater. He just grinned cheekily at me with zero remorse in his eyes. The asshole.
“Oh, that would be wonderful.” My mother sighed and brought out a huge stack of clothes, set them on the bed, and folded them herself.
Dad, Wesley, and I stared at her, a little shocked.
Her whole demeanor changed. “Wouldn’t it be great, Chad?
” She stared at my father with a lovey-dovey look on her face.
Dad cleared his throat and nodded. “Sure, Maggie, sure. We could stand a few grandchildren running around.”
Her laugh tinkled around the room. “We’d move to Bluewater if you gave us some grandchildren,” she said.
“Oh, now, Maggie…” Dad straightened his shirt, uncomfortable with the idea of moving. “Maybe the boy will bring his mate back here.”
I held up my hands. “Now, hang on. We haven’t established any mate.” My dragon kicked back at that statement, but I just wasn’t ready to tell anything yet. “Come on. You know I believe strongly that fate will take care of that.”
Mom sniffed and cut me a frustrated glare. “We know.”
But she went back to folding and talking about grandchildren, seeming far happier than before about my move.
Maybe it would work out, after all.
“Come on!” Wesley yelled from across the bar.
My last night in town, and he’d insisted on going out. The trip was gonna be rough tomorrow. Not so much for all the alcohol we’d likely drink tonight. By the time I woke up tomorrow, my metabolism would’ve burned it off. I’d just be a little thirsty.
But I had to deal with the airport, the long flight, being cooped up in a metal tube—a dragon’s nightmare—dealing with the airport again, all to arrive at an apartment which held none of my belongings yet. Those were being driven over by a couple of the younger members of my pack I’d hired.
With a beer in each hand, I crossed the busy bar, which was more than half-filled with people from my clan.
I had to nod to what felt like a hundred people as I crossed.
People I’d known my whole life. It was strange to think I wouldn’t see them again until I came back to visit, and even then, it was likely some of them I’d never see again at all.
Unless my mate was game to move across the country, I’d be staying in Bluewater.
I hadn’t decided to leave my clan yet, not officially. I was very bonded to my people here, and the thought of becoming a permanent member of another clan I didn’t even know wasn’t a pleasant one. Maybe in the future.
“So, what’s the plan?” Wesley asked as I plopped down in the booth across from him.
I handed him his beer, then nodded toward it. “I thought the plan was drinking beer.”
He laughed and took a swig. “No, dummy. The plan with your newly found fated mate.”
“Oh.” I drank and considered his words. “Well, I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I don’t really have a plan. You know I believe fate will do her job.”
Wesley’s laughter filled the booth. “You never change, do you? You’re an idiot, cousin!”
I glared in mock outrage, but we’d been having this debate for years. “I know you think that, but it’s the pot calling the kettle black, isn’t it?”
He pointed his beer at me. “Mark my words. You can’t leave it up to fate. Nail that shit down, and fast.”
“If it’s meant to be, it will happen,” I argued.
“Fate doesn’t suffer fools. Haven’t you ever heard that?” He shook his head. “I know you have; I’ve said it to you repeatedly over the years.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but he leaned forward.
“Fate may have chosen you two for one another, or figured out you’re her most compatible match or whatever bullshit, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to drop her in your lap.
You must believe that to some extent or you wouldn’t be moving to be near her. ”
Well. He did have a bit of a point there. “Don’t be na?ve,” he continued. “It won’t be all sunshine and rainbows. You know what I went through. Having a mate isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
Damn it. My heart sank as I realized the point he was trying to make.
Not long ago, maybe a year now, his chosen mate had met her fated mate. It had rocked the clan, as they had to break their chosen bond and she had moved away with her new mate, leaving Wesley here to pick up the pieces of his heart and life.
Once a dragon took a chosen mate, the bond was damn near as strong as a fated bond.
I’d only heard about a chosen mate finding their fated mate a time or two in my entire life.
It was rare and devastating, especially how unusual it was just for a dragon to find his or her fated mate.
To then have to break up a couple in the process…
Well, it sucked all around, even for the fated couple.
It couldn’t be a pleasant way to start a bonded life.
In the two other instances I’d heard of, the fated mates had ignored the fated mating bond and stayed with their chosen mates.
Not Wes’s ex. The poor guy had barely survived.
“I’m sorry,” I muttered. “I don’t mean to be all excited about moving there and getting to know her when I know you’re hurting.”
He waved me off. “Don’t sweat it. Yeah, it still hurts.
I don’t know if it’ll ever stop hurting.
” A pain crossed his face which made me wince at how it had affected him.
“But that doesn’t mean I’m not really happy for you.
You’re my best friend, Toby. If I could keep you from moving away, I would, but not for this. Not when you’ve met her.”
Looking away, Wes downed the rest of his beer. Still hurting for sure.
After sucking in a deep breath, he slammed his beer on the table and stood. “You ready for another?”
I’d barely taken a few sips out of mine. “No, you go ahead.”
He bent over the table and leaned in close. “I’m happy for you. But I don’t want you going in blind and screwing everything up. That’s how you end up like me. Play it smart.”
The rest of the night went by in a blur of beer, pool, and saying goodbye to the clan. Someone had put the word out among the members that I was here, and it was my last night in town.
I finally made it home, driven by… I wasn’t even sure who.
I didn’t usually get this drunk, but it seemed like every time I turned around, someone was toasting my new future.
At some point, Wes let it slip about my new mate, and I spent a good hour explaining that I didn’t want my parents to know and get excited until I knew it was going to happen for sure, but I wasn’t sure that the damn gossips could keep that one hushed up.
I just hoped and prayed that they’d heard my pleas.
After sleeping like the dead, I got up late. Hurrying, I washed my face and brushed my teeth, then downed three glasses of water. I just got my clothes on when Wes and my parents burst in my front door.
Mom gave me a watery smile. “You ready?”
“Yep. Let’s do this.”
My current place was a rental, but we’d moved all but the bed to a storage unit until I was settled. Wes and Dad were taking the bed back to their place and putting it in my old bedroom for when I came back to visit.
“You all have to come to visit, too,” I said. “I’m going to look for a place with a guest room or two.”
“Now, don’t get something beyond your means just to make room for us,” Mom said. “We can stay in a hotel.”
“Mom.”
She turned around to look at me. “Toby.”
“My new salary is generous. I’ll get a good place, okay?”
Wes arched an eyebrow at me, his lips clamped shut between his teeth.
He knew damn well I’d be getting a place big enough for a mate and hopefully soon, a family.
But he also knew I’d murder him if he told my mother.
I’d almost damn near murdered him for telling some of the clan in the bar, but I’d had too much to drink at that point to be mad at him.
We parked at the airport, Mom insisting on walking me in as far as they were allowed to go. When we got to the security gate, I took my carry-on from Dad and my backpack from Wes and set them down.
Mom rushed into my arms. “I’m going to miss you.” She wasn’t crying, but by the sound of her voice, she wasn’t far from it.
Dad wrapped his arms around both of us. “Have fun, my boy. I’m proud of you.”
He clapped me on the back a few times, then I turned to Wesley and gave him a big hug, too. We’d been best friends since childhood, cousins thrown together all the time. But we genuinely liked one another, so it had worked out.
“Come visit soon,” I said as he squeezed me hard.
“Wild dragons couldn’t keep me away.” He laughed and slapped my back hard, trying to get me to flinch.
But it was okay. I was doing the same thing to him.