2. Collide, boom, what?
I’m hugging my duffel bag, staring unseeingly out of the window on my train car.
The last two days have been… not fun. Definitely not fun.
The night I brought Cal home, I stayed out until I was sure he was gone. Only then did I go back to apartment, my proverbial tail between my legs which was pretty fucking annoying since I haven’t had the chance to let my wolf out in a while.
For the first time in my life, I thought the worst of my twin. I should’ve known better. True, the initial shock of having her fated mate walk into her apartment hand-in-hand with her twin took a few minutes to wear off enough, but when it did? She instantly noticed I’d disappeared. Leaving Cal behind, she went after me—but I was already in another car, speeding away so I could put some distance between me and the happy couple.
I scared her by running off. I’m Jeannie Lipton. I don’t run off. I stand my ground and fight… but I didn’t this time. And since I left my phone behind when I bolted, she couldn’t even call me to promise and swear up and down that she’ll reject him if that’s what I want her to do.
Oh, no. She just waited until I was back home to pack my shit before she unloaded that on me.
The worst part is that she meant it, too. She’s sacrifice her fated mate and any future happiness for me in a heartbeat and never think twice.
And that’s exactly why I told her that I’d never forgive her if she did. By that next morning, the last of my heartache switched over to joy for Lorelei. She deserves a happy ending.
As for me, at least I have a job to do.
To get to Winter Creek, it takes three separate trains: two that are actual human-run trains on a normal schedule, and the final train that’s operated by supes. Makes sense. This is a sanctuary city, a place where supes go when they need to hide out from the rest of the real world, and it’s been like that even before the curse that kept the small town trapped in time.
It’s not the only supe retreat. There’s on in California, another in Georgia, and the larget sanctuary is a mixed community of witches, vampires, and shifters up north in Dyea, Alaska. Winter Creek is the smallest of the three; it’s also bloodsucker-free which is nice since I can’t stand the scent of rotten meat that clings to most vamps.
Not like the witches smell any better to my shifter’s nose…
There’s one in my train car now. Wearing the uniform that marks her as an employee of the supernatural train line, she has an innate rich, earthy smell that has undertones of pure shit.
She keeps her distance from me, though her customer service-friendly smile is infallible.
“We’re arriving at Winter Creek. When we reach the platform, make sure to take all your luggage with you. There’s a bridge to cross over, then stairs that lead you down into the sanctuary. If you choose to leave, our next trip will be during the next new moon. Thank you for riding Arcane Express.”
Because she did such an amazing job with her speech, I make sure to keep my lips together when I return her smile.
Under the shit, I can sense just how nervous I make her. She’s probably hoping like hell she’s not working the train when I do need to hitch a ride back to New Jersey.
If I need one…
My plan wasto slip into the sanctuary city unaware. Thanks to the stasis curse that was placed over the town seven decades ago, the supes here don’t often get visitors. How can they when any supe who enters knows that they’re trapped here until the curse is broken?
That’s why Fallon is here. As the reincarnation of Jolie Bordeaux, she’s the only one who can break it. And if she can’t? Well, there are a couple of perks when it comes to being Luna-touched. If I want to leave, the stasis curse won’t keep me here.
The curse won’t, but my dedication to doing my duty will. Until the Luna releases me from it, it’s on me to keep an eye on Fallon.
It was easy to do that when no one around us knew I was a shifter. It’ll be impossible to hide that secret in a supe sanctuary, and I”m not even going to bother trying. It’s better if I find a spot to watch from a distance, only letting her know I’m around if I have to.
That was the plan—and it goes to hell the moment I leap down the last few stairs on the other side of the ‘creek’ that gives the sanctuary its name and land in a crouch on the solid ground again.
Creek. Right. That’s a raging fucking river under a rope bridge that led from the train platform to the stairs. I’m lucky I didn’t fall when the Luna-damn thing started swaying. If I had? I’d probably have gone splat against some of the boulders being slapped by the rapids down below.
So distracted by the death river and the bridge that is basically the anti-welcome to this place, my wolf warns me too late that two seconds after arriving in Winter Creek, I’ve already been caught.
His scent reaches me a spit second before he steps out of one side of the trees that line the dirt path in front of me. It’s earthy. Salty. I get… sea spray that can’t be the freshwater creek, and… sage. Yes. Sage.
Male.
Mate.
Mine.
My breath catches in my throat when I see him.
Like Cal, he’s about my age. Undeniably a shifter. There’s something in his the lazy grace of his prowl as he eases out onto the path, eyes locked on me. They’re blue. That throws me for a second; I don’t know many wolf shifters who have blue eyes. But then, despite the sunset and the shadows, I see them flash from blue to stark white and I think: Beta. Whoever this is, he’s a beta wolf.
Oh, and unless I lost my mind from boredom during the three train rides, I think he might be my fated mate.
He’s limber. Lean. Beneath his white t-shirt, I see toned arms and the outline of a sculpted chest. His hair is longer in the front, short on the sides, and a rich golden color that makes me instantly wonder what it looks like as fur.
My duffel bag drops from my hand. Slowly, I rise up from my crouch.
The guarded look on his face melts away to one of surprise—then wonder.
“You…”
My heart thuds against my chest. I feel a pull toward him. No… a tug. It’s like there’s something stretched between us, this gorgeous stranger on one side, me on the other, and it takes me a second for my brain to catch up with my instincts before I can put a name to it.
It’s a bond.
I have a bond with this Beta who looks like he belongs on a movie screen.
“Mate,” I whisper.
He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t move. He just looks at me.
I’m Jeannie fucking Lipton. I’m not the type of she-wolf who sits back and lets things happen around her. I either remove myself from a situation, or I attack it head-on.
In this case? I start to jog toward him.
For a split second, I’m sure he’s going to disappear into the trees before I can reach him. But then he moves, closing the small gap between us, and we collide.
My hands start at his waist. His drop on my shoulders before skimming over my biceps, tracing the curve of my sides and my hips. Our mouths find each other right away. It’s a messy kiss. Our teeth clash, and though I haven’t summoned my fangs, maybe he has because I taste blood and something that must be uniquely this male.
I skim my hand underneath his t-shirt; despite the cold, he’s blazing hot, another tip-off that he’s a wolf like me. I’m already feeling feverish, and I’m panting into his mouth as his finger latch onto the waistband of my jeans.
“Yes,” I moan, angling my hips to give him easier access as he pulls his head back long enough to run his attention from our kiss to my jeans. “Touch me. Take me. Do whatever you want to me...”
“It’s you. I… I can’t believe it’s you.” A flick of his finger and the button is done. He doesn’t bother with the zipper. Without the button, there’s enough give for him to dip his hand into my panties. “I’ve waited so long?—”
I’ve only known I might actually have a fated mate for two days, and already that seems like an eternity without his possessive touch.
Whenever I take a lover, I make them wait a while before I sleep with them. But with his scent in my nostrils, his taste in my mouth, and the Luna whispering he’s yours, my child, the one you’ve been waiting for in my mind, there’s no reason to wait.
The Luna picked this male out for me. From the way he reacted, he recognizes me as his mate, too. We have forever to get to know each other, to learn to love each other. We can’t even finalize this newly forged bond until the full moon when the Luna is at her peak and intended mates can perform the mating ceremony.
But with our instincts pinging and our hormones raging, we can mate just because?—
Two of his fingers slide through my folds. I fight the urge to throw my head back and owl and just that touch, and the only reason I manage not to is because my fated mate suddenly goes still.
I’m heavy-lidded with lust, and it takes a second for me to notice that something… something’s not right.
He gulps.
I wait.
“You’re wet,” he says. “For me?”
Well, duh. He’s acting like he’s surprised about that. “Well, yeah. Because you’re my?—”
I never get to finish my sentence. Before I can, the male who was certainly eager enough to unbutton my jeans and dip his hand inside of my panties yanks it back out again as though he’s been burned.
Stunned and confused by his sudden… panic? Is that panic? I think it’s panic… stunned by his shifting emotions, I don’t do anything as he backs away, putting distance between us.
I recover quick enough to demand in a throaty voice, “Where are you going?”
I don’t mean to do it. Putting a hint of the Luna into my voice… I promised her when I was a young pup that I would never abuse the power I have as one of her guardians. I never did—but just now? I couldn’t stop myself.
One thing that makes an alpha wolf shifter an Alpha is the ability to lead their pack. They have their own gifts from the Luna, too, and it helps them do that. That’s why their rank has the ability to tell when one of their packmates is lying.
My ability is a little different. With the Luna’s power filling my voice, I can compel someone to tell me the truth. I can’t do anything with it or make them change their minds. Plus, we all know what they say about the truth hurting… but my soul is in agony at the moment so what’s a little more pain?
My fated mate is walking away from me and, Luna damn it, I want to know why.
Is it me? What did I do wrong? Two seconds ago, he was into it as I was… so what happened?
What changed?
Where the fuck is he going?
The words are all but ripped from the male, but no matter how strong he is as a beta, my wolf is stronger.
“I’m going to the lake.”
“What? Why?”
And then I realize just how much worse the ache can get when he looks down at his hand in something that’s the complete opposite of the wonder, the lust, the marveling expression from before?—
“Because I have to wash your scent off of me before I go back to the pack house.”
Oh.
Oh.
Wow.
Okay. I… that was not the answer I was expecting from my fated mate.
He takes advantage of that to lope into the trees. Toward this lake he mentioned? Probably.
I take a couple of steps after him.
“Hey… hey, you.”
I let him put his hands down my pants. I would’ve mated with him without a second thought—and I don’t even know his name. He doesn’t turn around, doesn’t even respond, and mere minutes after I met my fated mate, he’s fucking gone.
Two more. I give myself two minutes to feel sorry for myself. Then, after dipping my hand inside of my jeans to readjust my panties, do the button on the front, grab my duffel and do everything I can to put what just happened out of my head.
I’m on duty, after all.