Chapter Four
Rafe
I scented my mate on the wind of the High Sierras a decade ago. Following my nose, or rather my wolf’s snout, we found him on the brink of death. It felt so cruel, so pointless, but nobody asked me if that was how I wanted things to go.
My mate was someone whose name I didn’t even know. I’d asked around, but nobody ever said they knew who he was, and so after finishing the semester, I moved south to San Diego. It was too painful to stay up there, grieving for the mate who should have been mine.
Other than the annual visits to his wilderness grave, marked only by a small pile of rocks, I kept to the San Diego area, having accepted a position with a large corporation there. It was a blessing because I had no desire to return to my birth pack and have to answer questions about when I was going to find my mate. I couldn’t explain it to anyone. From my perspective now, sometimes it seemed like a dream.
I tried to tell myself that I was lucky to have met him even for that long, but it was hard to be grateful for it. They all said Fate made no mistakes, but if that was true, then I’d had my mate and why bother trying to find love?
I’d resigned myself to being single for the rest of my life and rarely dated. The only time I did was when someone fixed me up and wouldn’t take no for an answer. It wasn’t for lack of desire, just a surety that nothing could come of it in the long run. It would be unfair to the other person and me as well to pretend that I still had a mate out there somewhere like the rest of my single coworkers and friends.
I carried my briefcase through the revolving doors of the building I’d been working in for nearly ten years. Through hard work and perseverance, I had worked my way up through the corporate ranks of the financial planning firm where I still worked. Risen until I reached the level below full partnership. And after all this time, I hit the position right below the top. Anything further would have to wait for someone to resign or die. And, according to the group text several of us in the office shared, one of those things had just happened.
Old Mr. Jenson, one of the founders of the company, had keeled over in the middle of a working dinner in the conference room last night, face planting in his plate of roast beef and mashed potatoes with gravy. What a mess. And a surprise. Somehow I’d always pictured him eating mush for dinner with a big spoon.
His demise meant the rest would shift up a step, leaving the lowest position in senior management open. Interviews were beginning, and a decision would be made in a relatively short time. It would likely be the only such opportunity in at least the next decade, and I planned to do whatever it took to reach that level.
My life was fine, mostly work related. I enjoyed going out to run in wolf form, playing tennis and golf, softball, all sorts of sports where dating was not an issue. I found that those who joined me were far more interested in what we were doing at that moment than my private life. So, no pressure.
Even my pack, that had surprisingly accepted my choice not to return home to live, only nagged me occasionally. As in…whenever I visited, there would usually be a stray omega at dinner, eyeing me with interest, but no one ever mentioned why they were there. I limited my trips to every year or two anyway because I hated disappointing my family and their “sneaky” fix ups.
Before the sleek steel elevator doors closed, my boss, Jonah, joined me in the car. “Good morning, sir,” I greeted him. “Busy day ahead.”
“As always.” He adjusted his jacket, facing front in perfect elevator etiquette. “I guess you saw the text.”
“I did. A great opportunity for someone.” Me! An opportunity for me! “I thought I would make a run for it.”
“When I was in your position, eight years ago, I made sure everything about my life was going to pass muster.” He flicked a glance at me. “At the other levels, as long as you’re not doing anything criminal or immoral, you’re fine.”
“Does someone check up on us?” I blurted, without taking a moment to think. The very idea horrified me. This was a human-owned company, and I wasn’t sure if anyone knew some of us were shifters or other paranormals. So that could be a problem. I had a lot of time vested here. “I’m not sure how I feel about that.” Oh…I was sure how I felt, but I’d gotten myself under control enough to speak in a more measured way.
“No, no. Nothing so formal.” Sure. “But for this upcoming opening, there is a background check for things like a clean record criminally, which I am sure you have.”
“Absolutely!” I asserted. “I’ve never even had a parking ticket.”
“And they will want to meet your family, husband or wife, socially.”
I slapped the stop button and faced him fully. “Jonah, I think you should know—”
“About your lack of a spouse? You’re single, aren’t you?”
I sucked in a breath. “No, about the fact that I am a shifter. A wolf. And also single, but you already knew that part.”
“This company is equal opportunity, and whether you’re a wolf shifter or a fae like Cindy in reception, matters not at all as long as you do your work.”
“But being mated…married?”
“Some of the older partners are very old-fashioned and think that being married or mated means you are more stable. They also have in mind that you will be traveling for business and will likely bring your spouse as well as hosting dinners in restaurants or your home. Or other events. Your mate represents us in social situations.”
“So, is it even worth trying? I’m not likely to meet someone and fall in love this week or anything.”
“You have more time than that, and it’s always worth trying. You have my vote. I’m just trying to tell you what Goddy and Stew have that you don’t. No question, you are better qualified from a strictly business standpoint, but that’s a factor.” He shrugged.
“And I guess as a single partner, I could meet someone unsuitable and then you’d be stuck with them at all these social and business events.”
“That is the concern of some.” As the alarm began to ring, indicating the elevator might have a problem, Jonah punched the button for the top floor and set it in motion again.
“But not you.”
“No, not me.” The doors opened, and my boss exited the elevator, calling over his shoulder, “Just remember what I said.”
How could I forget? Going down again to my less-lofty floor, I tried to school my thoughts and find a work-around. Nobody had ever mentioned a company policy requiring partners to have a spouse. Most likely because it would be illegal in some way. But a conversation in an elevator, where nobody could hear, would never stand up in court. He was letting me in on a secret, the kind of secret I would be expected to keep when I took my place on that floor. I only hoped it would be the only one, since I’d put too many years and too much effort into this job to walk away.
But it left me in a quandary. If I didn’t have a mate, I was unlikely to get the job I was more qualified for than the other applicants. My boss said as much. Since it was a rule that seemed to be more at the behest of the older partners, maybe when they retired, it could be phased out in time.
Unfortunately, while that might help future candidates, it did nothing for me now, and I was going to have to figure out a way to get past this blockade to my career. Jonah knew I was a shifter, but he didn’t know I’d already lost my mate and probably didn’t understand it well anyway. Had he had to make this same decision? He had married right before he became a partner. At the time, I’d thought how fortunate he was to find the love of his life and achieve his career goals within the same month.
Now, I was fairly certain my envy had been misplaced. Hopefully he was happy—his husband seemed like a nice guy when he stopped by the office, at least. And Jonah was satisfied enough with his decision to recommend, in a roundabout way, that I do the same.
Time to find a contract husband. At least that way, my spouse-to-be would know what he was getting into.