Meg
As soon as the door to the bedroom closed behind me, my wolf started to panic.
This is a bad idea. Impulsive. Reckless.
I had to agree with her. Nothing about this place felt like home. We were in a strange territory. A whole house devoid of life. In Cerberus Pack, I couldn’t even breathe without smelling someone familiar nearby. Now the only scents were chemicals and cleaners and stale air.
I resisted the urge to throw open the door and chase Roman down so I could cling to the fading notes of his leathery, spicy scent.
That’s exactly what we should do.
I ignored my wolf.
Of all the scenarios I’d worked through in my life and in every plan I’d carefully laid out, not one of them prepared me for my mate being a human in the city of purist humans, who I was being forced to marry, even though he looked like he was repulsed by this situation.
My wolf growled her displeasure.
I was all for a good enemies-to-lovers, but I didn’t want to stab the guy. And he’d been a perfect gentleman, except for the very clear fact that he wanted nothing to do with me.
I wished I could talk to Dad about this. He’d been through the same thing with Mom when she was ignorant of their bond, but he’d won her over in the end. I needed advice. To talk to my family.
For the first time in my life, my head was silent of voices other than my own.
That wasn’t good. Without their worry and problems and issues to be solved, my thoughts would continue to get louder and they would spiral.
Let’s stay busy. I vote for chasing our mate.
Please be quiet for a minute.
I tried to force my brain to slow down.
Everything had been a blur of chaos since this morning.
Morrigan had refused to answer any more of our questions, and Alec had a ton of them.
The drive into the human city had been packed full of frustration.
Then the goddess had disappeared before I could demand the truth after the meeting with the council.
Saying goodbye to Alpha Kera and Aunt Coral and my sister had taken more willpower than I cared to admit.
I’d almost cried.
I never cried.
It took a really, really good book to get me to maybe shed a tear.
I’d kept it together—barely—so they didn’t worry. I should’ve let them know about Roman, but I was afraid all hell would break loose and it would somehow jinx this whole thing.
Why hadn’t Morrigan just told me I’d be marrying my human mate? Dad would’ve come. Mom too, probably. Heck, half the pack would’ve showed up to celebrate and make sure I sealed the deal.
Unless she didn’t know.
She knew. I’d seen the look on her face.
Then let’s stop wasting time and the gods’ gifts and go drag him back to this room.
I took a steadying breath as I looked around the bedroom I’d been unceremoniously dumped in.
The whole place was immaculate. Not a speck of dust in sight. Two chairs sat facing the window that took up half the wall and overlooked the gardens below, while heavy curtains and a mechanical roll of some sort of canvas lined the top.
The right wall had a fake fireplace with no true chimney space, and a flat, see-through glass hung as some sort of picture above the mantle.
Strange.
My wolf sniffed as I opened the door at the back of the room. An empty walk-in closet, almost as big as my bedroom back home, held a diamond-encrusted light and mirrors positioned at every corner. I caught sight of myself and backed up slowly, watching four of me shut the door again.
Past the bed sized for a king was a second door leading to an ensuite bathroom. I ran my fingers over the porcelain double sinks and stone counters, eyeing the large soaking tub with attached showerhead longingly.
Whoever did the cleaning here was thorough.
A knot formed in my stomach as I thought of my business and what would become of it with me gone. Alec never really cared to keep it going, and with Trish out of the picture, it didn’t stand a chance.
Maybe Aunt Kera was right. I wasn’t ready to lead a pack.
I couldn’t even get my own sister to carry on my work in my absence.
That was a management issue. And right now, all I was managing to do was get myself worked up about everything falling apart while I figured out how to chase a human mate that didn’t want me.
We’ll convince him he wants us.
That’s really not how I’d hoped my mating would go.
A knock at the door pulled me from my spiraling thoughts.
Thank the gods.
The gods got us into this mess.
I hurried to open the door.
The human woman on the other side wore her hair slicked back into a tight bun and a pleated apron with perfect folds. I knew right away she did the cleaning here. The scent of chemicals lingered on her clothes. My nose twitched, detecting a hint of something else buried in the folds of fabric.
But I couldn’t put my finger on it before she took a step back and gave a slight curtsy.
“Hello, miss. I’m Katrina, the housemaid.” Fear turned her scent sour as she raised her eyes under her lashes to look at me. “Is there anything you need?”
What’s she scared of?
I think it’s you.
Me? She sniffed again. We weren’t even pushing out any alpha vibes, but my wolf retreated a bit more anyway, making herself small so as not to frighten the woman.
“Please, call me Meg, and I don’t need anything,” I said, keeping my tone gentle. “You must be in charge of the cleaning here. You’ve done a wonderful job.”
Even if I didn’t know how to soften myself and be less alpha to get things done, as a general rule, I believed that everyone in the service industry were the unsung heroes of the world and deserved to be praised as such.
Katrina gave a brisk nod as she stood up straighter. “Are you sure you don’t need anything?” Her sharp eyes made a quick assessment of the room behind me, probably noting my unpacked bag still on the bed. “Are you hungry? Thirsty? Need help settling in?”
She couldn’t have been much older than me. I’d put her in her late twenties. Yet she carried herself with a weight I was familiar with. Someone with far too much on her shoulders and the inability to let others down.
I discreetly sniffed again, wondering what I was missing. Things had been strange since my arrival and I was still learning their culture. All I knew was that I didn’t want to be a burden while I was here.
Mom said that humans didn’t eat like shifters anyway, so I would have to learn to be hungry for a while. It wouldn’t kill me.
Speak for yourself.
“I would like to know when… um…. Roman and Helen are coming back?” I prided myself on remembering his mother’s name. The councilwoman seemed nice enough, but I imagined it’d be difficult to win her over, seeing as I was here and being forced to marry her son.
Maybe she’d think differently when she found out we were fated mates.
Though I still had to tell him that.
“Roman?” Katrina’s eyebrows furrowed, but the crease eased as quickly as ironing out a shirt. “The family is expected tonight for dinner at six and you’re to join them. Don’t worry, it’s not a formal affair.”
Her gaze shifted ever so slightly to my bag on the bed again. I resisted the urge to step to the side and block her view as I glanced out of the window, trying to figure out where the sun was positioned.
The gardens below were a welcome sight, but the buildings beyond them and the angle of the house made it impossible to see the full sky.
For the first time in my life, I felt a sense of disorientation. “What time is it now?”
Katrina’s smile was pleasant and the last of her fear seemed to dissipate. “Quarter to two. Would you like some help connecting online?”
“Online?” I asked, trying to think back to what Mom had said about their strange customs here.
“The holograph TV.” Katrina nodded to the glass panel above the fake fireplace.
Television. I knew what that was. Uncle Jareth had a big black box we used to watch movies on when we had sleepovers with Aunt Coral and Aunt Ophelia when me and my sisters were young.
Thinking about the three of us together brought a pang of homesickness. My pack must’ve been well on their way back to Cerberus Territory by now, and I was here. Alone.
My heart fluttered again. I touched my chest, fear suddenly icing my skin. If Roman didn’t come back, would I get moonsickness too?
We need to get out of here.
“Oh, no, thank you,” I rushed to say, swallowing down my worries so as not to scare the poor woman who was only trying to help. “I’ll just take a nap.”
If you want to lie there going crazy…
“Are you sure?” Katrina put her hand on the door, stopping me from closing it, as sympathy filled her eyes. “We also have a library if you’d like something to pass the time.”
Thank the gods.
I sighed, blowing out a grateful breath. “You might just be my new best friend.”
*
It’s like Beauty and the Beast, I squealed to myself as I touched the rolling ladder, glancing up at the floor-to-ceiling walls packed full of books.
Except we’re the beast. My wolf snickered. I couldn’t help but smile.
“I take it you’re a reader,” Katrina said as she waited by the door.
I nodded. “I didn’t think you’d have real books here behind the wall…” My voice trailed off as I thought about what I’d said, hoping it wasn’t too offensive.
“Perks of working in a government house.” Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “That shelf near the bottom has some lighter reading if you’re hoping to fill the time.”
I bent to peruse the authors and titles, seeing Elle Kennedy and Meghan Quinn and Lucy Score. All good and spicy romance authors I adored.
But where were April L. Moon and Adie Hart and Anne Willoughby and Reece Barden?
“Any paranormal or witchy romance?” I asked.
“Like with… magic and monsters? Science, no,” Katrina whispered as if I’d broken some taboo rule.
The joke was on her. Those were lighter and fun fantasy romance authors that I read. She’d probably choke if I got her into the real monster romance.