Chapter 2
BEXLEY
Dinner service had barely started, and I already wanted to put my head through a wall.
“Bexley,” Aero called over the clang of pans, “these steaks are—”
“I see them,” I grunted, snatching the pan before he could finish.
The edges were almost burnt, which was unacceptable. I rarely made mistakes like this, but I had felt off for hours.
My bear paced under my skin, restless and irritable. A prep table had wobbled when I leaned on it, and I’d barely resisted the urge to rip the damn leg off and fix it myself.
Even worse, Peppa hovered at my side, fussing about garnish placement, and I almost snapped for her to give me five inches of space.
She was my boss, friend, and a lioness shifter…but even Peppa gave me a wary look. “You’re in a mood.”
“I’m not,” I denied.
She snorted at my obvious lie and walked off with a shake of her head.
I set a perfect sear on the next ribeye, but even that didn’t settle me. Every breath dragged in the usual mix of kitchen smells, but beneath it all was something faint and teasing. Each time I caught a whiff of whatever it was, my bear lunged toward it instinctively.
Then it vanished. Again.
I growled low in my throat, flipping a steak harder than necessary.
Aero slid beside me to plate dishes for table six and gave me a side-eye. “You’re like a bear with a sore paw today. Snapping at everything. Should I warn customers or just duck when you throw a pan?”
“I haven’t thrown anything,” I muttered.
“Yet,” he corrected cheerfully.
I fixed him with a glare, but he wasn’t fazed. Aero was mated and had a son, so it was almost impossible to ruffle his feathers.
He leaned a shoulder against the counter, studying me. “You good?”
“Fine,” I bit out.
He grinned. “Peppa says you’re on a rampage because something’s bothering your bear.”
“Peppa talks too much,” I snapped before scrubbing a hand down my face. “Shit, sorry.”
Aero blinked. “Holy shit. Did the great Bexley North just apologize?”
“Don’t push it.”
He laughed and carried the plates out, leaving me alone with my frustration.
I had no idea what the hell was wrong with me today. All I could do was focus on work and keep my polar inside my skin because shifting into a one-thousand-pound bear in the middle of the kitchen wasn’t an option.
So I plated another dish, handed it off to a runner, and forced myself to breathe.
During a small lull an hour later, I headed into the dining room to see how busy it was, nodding to Booker when I saw him seated at a table with Alara and his parents, Elias and Mira.
Worried I might’ve accidentally growled at the lynx shifter who was his fated mate when Booker introduced us earlier, I tried to soften my expression…
only to catch that elusive, alluring scent again.
My nostrils flared as I tried to drag it deep into my lungs, but failed yet again, pissing my polar off even more.
As more of my friends found their fated mates, he ached for ours. But I worried that fate had already passed me by.
I left Chicago when Peppa bolted from that nightmare head chef at Castagna and decided she wanted something new.
I followed because the kitchen there had started to feel like a cage.
I didn’t know how successful her new restaurant in Timber Ridge would be, but Peppa was my friend, and head chefs who were shifters were few and far between.
Then she found her fated mate not long after we all moved down here.
So did Aero. And then Thora, who was human and hadn’t even known shifters existed when we lived in Chicago, turned out to be Rome’s fated mate.
Which we discovered when the wolf shifter visited during the birthday party we’d thrown for her at the restaurant.
Meanwhile, Larken and I were the last two from Chicago who hadn’t found the person for us, and she seemed perfectly content. Then again, our pastry chef was human, so she might not even have a fated mate out there.
My bear grumbled loudly enough in my head that I had to turn away and push back into the chaos of the kitchen just to keep myself distracted.
It was good that I returned because tickets soon piled up at the expo window faster than I could clear them. I got into the zone at the grill, but then the bell over the front door chimed again, and my entire world stopped.
The scent that had been teasing me for hours slammed into me so hard I had to brace my hands on the prep table.
My bear roared inside my head—mate.
The force of his bellow nearly knocked my knees out from under me. I curled my fingers around the edge of the table, gripping hard enough that a screw popped loose and clattered to the floor.
“What the hell?”
Aero’s voice faded as I stepped away from the line. I didn’t go far, just to the edge of the pass, close enough to see the front of the restaurant without crossing the threshold.
Then I saw her.
She stood just inside the door, brushing wind-tangled blond hair from her flushed cheeks as the host reached for a menu. She looked tired, but her posture was straight in a way that hit me right in the chest. Like she refused to bend beneath whatever strain she was under.
Greenish-hazel eyes scanned the dining room, filled with a cautious curiosity.
Her skin was pale, her cheeks pink from the wind.
She wasn’t tall, but nobody was compared to my six feet six inches.
And her curves made my dick punch against my zipper so hard I wouldn’t be surprised if it left marks along my shaft.
I’d never felt anything like it before, and the overwhelming rush of desire was undeniable proof of who she was to me.
After years of wondering if fate had skipped me, I had finally found my mate. Only when she turned to give a polite smile to the hostess, my stomach dropped.
She wasn’t reacting to the scent. Or searching the room for me.
There was no flicker of recognition in her eyes. Nothing.
She had no idea what just happened, which only meant one thing—my mate was human.
“Shit,” I breathed, barely audible over the clatter of the kitchen.
Aero shot me a look from behind the line. “Bex? You okay?”
I wasn’t even close to okay. My bear was already lunging toward her, demanding I go claim what was ours. To drag her into my arms, bury my face in her neck, and breathe her in until the world made sense again.
But my mate probably didn’t know shifters existed, so I forced myself to stay rooted to the spot, my muscles locked tight. I had to go slow.
My bear snarled at the idea, but I shoved him down with everything I had. The woman was utterly unaware her life had just collided with mine, and I couldn’t risk losing her by barreling across the dining room like a feral beast finally let off a chain.
I stayed half-hidden behind the pass-through window while she followed the host to a table near the window. The second she sat, the restless fury in my chest eased just enough that I could breathe again.
The server brought her water, and I watched how she wrapped her hands around the glass as her eyes drifted over the room like she was trying to absorb every detail at once.
When she placed her order, I didn’t even wait for the server to drop the ticket at the pass. I plucked it from Zelda’s hand. “I’m cooking this one.”
Peppa raised an eyebrow from across the kitchen. “Really?”
“And I’m comping it,” I murmured, already reaching for the ingredients.
She smirked at me. “So that’s what’s made you impossible today.”
I didn’t dignify that with a response.
Zelda’s grin was far too knowing. “Bexley? In case you’re curious, her name is Rowan. She’s Eleanor’s granddaughter, the one Gerald’s been trying to find.”
I stilled mid-chop, my brows drawing together. “Cooke?”
Her smile softened. “Yup, I heard she just got to town today.”
I felt a pang of sorrow for my mate. Losing a family member was hard enough. Learning about it months later had to cut deeper.
“Thanks,” I murmured.
“Figured you’d want to know.”
I put everything I had into cooking her meal, making sure every flavor was perfectly balanced. I plated it carefully and wiped the rim of the dish until it gleamed. Then I carried it out myself.
Rowan looked up just as I reached her table. The hitch of her breath was barely more than a whisper of sound, but my bear heard it like a shout. He surged toward the surface, his claws scraping under my skin.
I forced myself to move slowly and set the plate in front of her. As I pulled my arm back, her fingers brushed mine. A jolt snapped through us, and she jerked slightly, staring down at her hand as though she couldn’t understand why it suddenly tingled.
My entire body locked to keep from reaching for her.
“Enjoy your meal,” I managed, the words rougher than I intended.
She looked up, confusion flickering in her eyes. But I saw desire swirling in the hazel depths. She felt the pull between us, even if she didn’t understand it.
Behind me, Mira whispered, “Told you he was in a mood today.”
Elias murmured back, “Looks like it broke the second he saw her.”
They were quiet enough that Rowan didn’t hear a thing, but I did.
And my bear gave a satisfied rumble.
As I turned to walk back toward the kitchen, one word reverberated through my head. Mine.