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Unique. Special? Who were these men?
And would they lose interest when I told them why I was doing this?
Chapter Eight
Koa
Whatever hope I had built up over Druscilla’s profile and picture was thoroughly smashed once we dove a bit deeper. She was a researcher and a writer. Her reasoning for getting on the app wasn’t to find love or a mate. No, her reasoning was to get a cryptid to do an interview for her—she wanted to study us.
She wasn’t looking for her fated. She was looking to secure her financial and career fate.
“She messaged us back,” Orion said, coming to the table the next morning. It was our day off, and we’d had a run the night before and the long night scouring Druscilla’s profile. He put the phone on the middle of our table and came to get his cup of black coffee. We both stood there, staring at it, sipping our caffeine.
Deciding what to do.
After refilling our cups and deciding on some breakfast burritos, I asked the question while getting ingredients from the fridge. “About what? That she wants to interview us?”
Orion’s eyes met mine. I was sour about the whole thing now, and he knew it. My gut instinct was to delete our message and wish for someone else to be our match.
“Yes.”
I stopped stirring the eggs and pushed the pan off the burner. “What?”
Orion sat back and scrubbed his hands over his face. “Yes.”
I tossed the spatula down and leaned against the counter, arms crossed over my chest. “It would expose us, Orion. I don’t have to tell you what happens when we trust anyone with who we are beyond our mates and our family.”
My parents paid the ultimate price for placing their trust in the wrong people.
“We would make it clear that our identities would never be disclosed, and think about it, Koa, we could give her the interview of a lifetime, and she could write about Bigfoots…but this time the actual truth. Centuries of lies and made-up stories—you and I could be the ones to tell the real story.”
I went back to making the burritos. The caffeine had gone to my best friend’s head. He needed something to eat. He wasn’t making any damned sense. His words were coming out clearly, but somewhere along the way he’d lost his sight. “You need to eat.”
Orion chuckled while he got up and grabbed the tortillas and cheese from the fridge. He didn’t cook a lot, only a few things like grilled cheese and scrambled eggs, but he helped as much as he could. “This doesn’t mean she can’t be our mate, Koa.”
“No, that’s exactly what this means. She wants to interview us. Write about us. That’s it. There was nothing in her profile about wanting to mate with a shifter. This is work for her. Cut and dry. Black and white. You saw her profile just like I did.” My words came out a little harsher than necessary.
“Didn’t you feel anything about her? When you looked at her picture? I know you did. I certainly did.”
I sighed and finished off all the makings of our breakfast and put the already-rolled burritos on the table. “I…I don’t know.” Orion growled a bit. It came right from his beast. “Fine. Yes. But that doesn’t change anything. What? You think she’s going to come here under the guise of interviewing us and fall in love? Give me a fucking break. You’ve been delving into the romance novels again, haven’t you?”
Orion chuckled. “No. Okay, maybe, but that has nothing to do with it. My Bigfoot stirred when I saw her. There’s more to this. I know it.”
“Let’s take a breather and then respond. I need to clear my head.”
Orion’s gaze fell on his plate, but he said nothing, and I took that as agreement. We parted ways after breakfast. Orion was probably in his workspace outside, carving something—taking out his frustration on the oak while I went about cleaning the house, even though we both were pretty tidy people in the first place.
I wanted to sit down with a book, but there was too much energy inside me, popping and sizzling just below the surface to be able to sit down and concentrate. I took out everything for a baking session and got to work. I made dozens of muffins and loaves of breads of all kinds until I realized it had gotten late in the day and I was overdue to start dinner.
Orion’s heavy footsteps filled my ears before the back door shut. I knew his process. He had worked all day on some incredible project and would come in, shower, and pretend he was simply killing time or playing around. We had several of his sculptures around the house, and he’d sold a few to the resort. One of the biggest ones was on display right at the check-in counter.
“Smells good.” He came into the kitchen, his hair wet from the shower, but the scent of wood shavings clung to him no matter what soap he used.
“What does? I’ve been baking everything I have a recipe for.”
“Whatever it is, it smells good. That’s all I know.”
Over the course of the day, I had carefully considered Orion’s idea about Druscilla. It would be nice to set the story straight about our kind.
