Chapter Five
Rook
After several days of exploring the countryside, I was ready for the big event.
I loved my mountain, but it was refreshing to get away and see something new.
I’d traveled for business many times, usually to big, exciting cities, but this was the first trip I’d ever made just to relax, hang out, and mingle with locals, and it was a revelation.
The Bearclaw Inn was in an area where farms and woodlands were interspersed with small towns, each similar at first glance but with their own personalities when I slowed down and saw them on foot.
Zipping through in a car, the main streets would be a blur of small businesses, and the one thing they did have in common was the lack of chain stores.
I spent one day in each of four towns and learned that the stores lining those commercial districts were owned locally, and one diner was not the same as another.
The town near where I grew up had been kind of run-down and depressing, but that was not what I encountered here.
I’d feared that I’d be so focused on the weekend coming up that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy myself, and was pleasantly surprised to prove myself wrong.
And then it was time to check out of the rental cottage I’d used as a base and head over to the Bearclaw Inn where, if the legend was true, my mate would be waiting for me.
The Victorian home was beautifully maintained, and no sooner did I pull up in front than a dapper older gentleman stepped outside to greet me.
“I’m Franklin,” he said, but I already knew that.
My research had revealed that I could expect a gracious host, delicious food and, of course, an introduction to my mate.
I’d been in business a long time and tended to be skeptical, but maybe this time the rumors were true.
Franklin, as he led me inside and upstairs to my room, certainly filled the gracious host role. “Dinner is a little way off yet, if you’d like to freshen up and maybe have a rest?”
“The room is very nice and that bed does look good.” My cottage rental had charm and a very uncomfortable bed. “So I think I’ll take you upon it.”
The room had an attached bath, and I showered and crawled under the comforter expecting to drift off, but then I wondered whether the omega was here yet.
If there was a chance I truly might meet my mate and begin the life I’d prayed to the Goddess for, how could I waste time sleeping?
He could be sitting in the living room right now…
I scrambled out of bed and dressed, primed for my new adventure, but nobody was in the living room when I arrived on the ground floor, so I followed my nose to the kitchen where Franklin was pulling a sizzling prime rib roast from the oven.
Having skipped lunch, my growling stomach and snarling panther demanded we devour the whole thing now.
I was an adequate cook, I thought, but living alone did not inspire me to create exciting meals.
Mostly, I stuck with simple grilling in nice weather and soups and stews when it was cold and blustery outside.
Filling, tasty, and nothing like the feast Franklin was creating.
And of course, while building my company, I hadn’t cooked at all. There just wasn’t time.
“Not sleepy, huh?” he asked, drawing me out of my obsession with the roast. “Maybe you’d like to watch a movie or explore outside?”
“If you don’t mind, I’d really prefer to help you with dinner. It’s nice to be in a kitchen with someone else. What can I do?”
“If you’d like to assemble a salad, the ingredients are in the crisper.”
“Gladly.” I opened the refrigerator and found three kinds of lettuce, gorgeous heirloom tomatoes, rainbow carrots…too many veggies to fit in one bowl. “Everything? Or can I edit?”
“Put in whatever looks good to you.”
While Franklin placed the roast on a platter and surrounded it with roasted root vegetables, prepared a pan sauce, and ground fresh pepper over it all, I tore lettuce and cut up whatever other raw veggies appealed.
A fresh-herb dressing was drizzled over my creation, and then Franklin sent me off to the dining room to set the table.
I’d had such a good time helping out in the kitchen, I’d almost forgotten why I came here to start with, but when the clean scent of aspen and woodsmoke tickled my nose, my panther dug in his claws and reminded me.
I turned to see the omega standing in the doorway, and he was everything I’d never known I wanted. Most omegas were smaller in stature, but this bear shifter’s large, muscular frame was impressive. I wanted to see his beast; he was sure to be magnificent.
“Oh, good. You’ve met.” Franklin came in with the platter, and the omega hurried to take it from him and place it on the table.
“We haven’t, actually,” he said. “Not yet.”
“And that’s my bad.” I set down the handful of silverware I held and advanced toward him, hand extended. “I’m Rook, and I’m glad to meet you.”
“Idris.” He let me close my hand around his. “And same.”
We sat at the table, three of us, and dug into the delicious meal Franklin prepared—although he insisted on giving me salad credit. Conversation was easy and friendly, but a current of tension ran between the omega and me.
The roast was perfectly medium rare, the potatoes, rutabagas, beets, and parsnips crispy on the outside and tender in the middle. Homemade rolls were still hot enough to melt the butter we spread on them.
I wanted to know everything about Idris.
Where he grew up, what he liked, what he didn’t.
What was important to him. I asked a lot of questions, probably more than was polite, but he fascinated me.
Not only good-looking but well-spoken and intelligent too.
Fate truly had smiled on me if Idris was willing to accept me as his mate.