Chapter 1 - Liv
“You are just so darling!” I squealed, bouncing Isaac up and down as he giggled and burbled. “You’re the best baby in the whole world.”
Rachel’s lip curled in amusement, her eyes sparkling as she watched. “I’m pretty sure that you say that to every single baby you come across,” she teased.
“Yeah, but this time it’s the truth,” I cooed, grabbing Isaac’s adorable toes and wiggling them as he laughed. “Isn’t it? Yes, it is!”
Isaac giggled again as he looked up at me with the most adorable baby grin I had ever seen.
“You’re just lucky I don’t kidnap him and take him home with me.” I looked at Isaac as I held him in my arms. “You would like that, wouldn’t you? Do you want to come home with Auntie Liv?”
Isaac squealed and clapped his hands, his cute little face scrunched up in a delighted smile.
“I think Sam would have something to say about that if you tried to do that on a permanent basis,” Rachel said. “Though, if you ever wanted to take him for a day or so, I wouldn’t mind being able to take a nap. Just give me a heads-up before you whisk him away.”
“I’m always happy to help when you need a break,” I said. “It’s nice getting to spend time with him. The kids at work are great, but there’s something about babies that just makes me so happy.”
“You could always start a babysitting business. Sam told me that the Oracle mentioned that she had seen more pairings during her scrying,” Rachel said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the pack has an influx of babies in the near future.”
My insides froze. The rhythm of my bouncing knee hitched for the span of a second.
“Really?” I asked, trying to keep my tone neutral, almost indifferent. “Any idea who might be next?”
Rachel shook her head. “We haven’t figured out a pattern this far,” Rachel said.
“Granted, it’s only been two of us at this point.
If it were anyone other than the Oracle, I might think she was just pairing people at random, all willy-nilly.
But so far, it seems as though she knows what she’s doing. ”
“So you think that whoever’s next is probably going to be paired with their true mate?” I asked, still keeping my tone casual.
“Definitely looks like it,” Rachel said. “Assuming the Oracle keeps on her streak.”
I gnawed the inside of my cheek, a little twinge of anxiety piercing through the pleasant day. I forced a smile onto my face.
“Sounds delightful,” I said.
Rachel frowned, studying me, concern creasing her features. “Are you all right, Liv?”
I forced the smile back onto my face. “Oh, I’m fine! I think Isaac might need his diaper changed, that’s all. I can take care of it for you.”
Without another word, I whisked Isaac over to his changing station in the next room, giving myself time to think and gain my composure.
Once I was alone, I let myself take a deep breath.
The problem was that I knew who my mate was.
I had known since I was a kid. I could still sense the pull, even after I had promised myself that I would have nothing to do with him.
It was worse whenever I stumbled across him in town.
My heart would still stutter, and my stomach would still lurch, and I would still feel that wild need for him that had never fully disappeared.
The day he had rejected me was one of the worst of my life.
The person I was sure I could trust, who I knew would love me because we were mates, had told me he felt nothing. It had torn me to ribbons.
Still, in a way, I couldn’t hate what had happened.
I had needed the wakeup call. It had forced me to start loving myself instead of wallowing in self-loathing.
I had hated myself so much as a kid. It wasn’t until Drake shattered my world that I realized I couldn’t wait for someone else to love me, and I had to be kinder to myself, because no one else would be.
I had him to thank for that. It didn’t mean that I had any intention of being with him, fated mate or no.
Don’t think about it, I told myself. Just because the Oracle is pairing mates doesn’t mean that it’s going to be you next.
That mantra could only give me so much comfort. The problem was the second bit that always crept in after I reassured myself it was never going to happen: What would I do if she did?
***
“No, I didn’t—”
“Yes, you did—”
I looked up from my desk to see two boys in a heated argument, shoving one another and baring their teeth.
“No, I—”
“Hey, you two, knock it off,” I said. “You don’t want Ms. Amelia to see the two of you arguing.”
They separated, looking more than a little sheepish.
“Sorry, Ms. Liv,” they said in unison.
“That’s better,” I said. “If you two are still annoyed at one another in ten minutes, I’m sure you can ask Ms. Amelia to let you spar on the mat under supervision to settle it.”
The two kids nodded, one of them scuffing their shoe against the floor. I gave a laugh, and both of them perked up.
“All right, you two get on in there before you’re late,” I said.
They nodded, scurrying off.
I grinned as I began running through attendance on the computer.
One of the best decisions I’d made in the last several years was quitting my job at the store and getting out from underneath the thumb of my old boss, Jenson.
I almost hadn’t, considering I didn’t have anything lined up after.
But once Rachel left, there was nothing really holding me there, either.
When Amelia, the woman who ran the training school for kids who were beginning to shift, heard I’d quit, she offered me a job as an admin at her school.
It was the perfect fit. I loved working with kids, and getting to help them even in a small way made me feel like I was contributing to the pack. Amelia was a fantastic boss, and I was good at the job.
I went through my routine, and just like always, before I knew it, Amelia was ushering the last of the kids out, and we were closing up for the day.
“See you, Liv,” Amelia said as I walked out the door. “Thanks as always.”
“Of course!” I winked. “It’s almost like you pay me for it.”
Amelia laughed, and that sound carried me out of the building and into the warm summer evening. Everything seemed perfect.
My stomach plummeted when I saw an older woman with long gray hair on the other side of the parking lot. She stood tall, and all her attention was locked on me, as if she had been waiting for me. I had a horrible suspicion that she had been.
As I expected, the woman walked toward me. I thought about bolting, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good. Instead, I stayed rooted to the spot, watching as her wrinkled face broke into a warm, grandmotherly grin, one that I couldn’t return.
“Hello, Liv,” the Oracle said. Her voice was soft and soothing, just the faintest hint of her age showing around the edges of the words. “Why don’t we go on a walk?”
I chewed the inside of my cheek as I glanced around. A wild, impulsive urge to spin on my heels and race away washed over me. I shoved it down. There was nowhere in town I could run to get away from the conversation I knew was coming. I forced a smile on my face and nodded.
“Of course,” I said.
We walked in silence through Silver Falls, the town that had been my home for my entire life. We wandered down the narrow streets, past the cute boutiques, the ice cream store currently overflowing with kids, the local diner. It was a small town, but I loved it.
Eventually, we came to the oasis, the heart of the town.
A waterfall trickled down from a great mountain, spilling into a crystal-clear basin.
At some point long before I was born, the elders had decided to turn the oasis into a sort of swimming hole, creating a stone pavilion around it and lining the edges of the pool so people could relax beside it.
When I was a kid, I hadn’t come here often, too self-conscious about my body to even consider wearing a swimsuit.
It wasn’t until I grew older that I started lounging by the oasis, enjoying the ambience and the water.
I wished I’d had the confidence to do so sooner.
It was a warm, early summer evening, and the oasis was full of people.
Kids and adults bobbed in the water, splashing and swimming.
Others sat at the edge, their feet dangling in the water as they chatted and spread gossip.
The yellow-orange light of the dimming sun bathed the oasis and the pavilion in gold, giving it an almost magical, ethereal quality.
The pack had always believed the oasis and its water had healing properties, and, standing here, feeling the sun on my back and watching the light spread across the lush greenery and the water, making it glitter like sapphires, it was hard to argue with that.
The Oracle watched with a small smile, leaning on her cane like a shepherd might their crook. “This place has always been special,” she mused. “Ever since I was a little girl, I felt the magic thrumming through here.”
I turned to look at her. There had always been rumors that the Oracle had some witch blood somewhere in her family tree.
It was the only thing that explained her ability to get glimpses into the future and help guide the pack.
But the pack also had a stigma against witches, even now, and so the Oracle had never confirmed it one way or the other.
This was the closest I had ever heard the Oracle allude to the fact that she had known about her powers since she was a child.
“That must be interesting to feel,” I said.
“Oh, I think everyone can feel it,” the Oracle said.
“At least a little, even if they don’t realize it.
There’s a reason everyone believes the oasis has healing properties.
I think they all sense something at their core.
” She gestured at the group with a fond smile.
“It’s why I think people feel so drawn to it. ”