Mymatewasatricky thing, I thought, looking at the note he left me for the tenth time that morning. It was a sweet gesture after an amazing afternoon with him.
Despite not knowing his name, I still felt closer to him. His obvious love for his kids and family was adorable. Sweet alphas just did it for me.
At this point, I kinda liked not knowing his name. True, it was frustrating at times, but it felt like a secret we had between us. He was my mysterious mate, so mysterious I didn’t know his name.
Okay, maybe I was making the best of a bad situation. He was trying to slow things down between us, which fine, I understood when he had three kids at home to look after.
Every part of me longed to find him so badly it hurt. I had to ignore the ache in my chest. Thebond was pulling tighter, quicker, now that I’d been with him outside of my heat. My growing feelings for my mate were only an issue if I didn’t suspect he felt the same for me. I glanced at the note again with a smile.
I noticed Dad glancing at Mom with worry when he caught me rubbing my chest over dinner only hours after I, whatever that stood for, had left.
Ivan?
Igor?
Iain?
Looking up all the names beginning with i was a pain.
My parents were happy, though, when I informed them Orson was taking me on another date later, not knowing it was all fake. A ruse so I could track my mate down. I couldn’t handle this secret any longer.
I’d been messaging back and forth with Orson since I woke up, sorting the details of the plan. Orson was aware Trisha knew of our schemes. I worried I’d overstepped by telling my bestie about him, but Orson was okay with it as long as it was only her I told, which was fair. He understood my need to talk to someone, and I’dextracted a promise from Trisha to take it to her grave.
They were shocked at the information I’d found out in the charter and promised to look further into it. Knowing Trisha, she’d have the history of the town picked apart in days! With all three—or maybe four, if Baxter got involved—on the case, then we’d have a plan for going public with the mates we had chosen for ourselves.
I felt sorry for my mom. She had picked a decent mate for me, just not the one fate wanted me to have. I hoped she would fall for him like I had, in time. They had the same values in life. I couldn’t get over how similar our backgrounds were!
Stuck on the morning shift at the hotel, I was bored. The other manager, a witch called Grace, was in charge. She was much easier to get along with than Kenneth. We were friendly of sorts, but to work with her all the time would mean moving to morning shifts, something I didn’t want to do, since it had taken a lot to get my parents to agree to let me work nights, when there were more people to meet.
Yeah, we were working on our boundaries and expectations. My parents couldn’t expectme to be involved with the hotel if they wouldn’t allow me to work the busier night shift for fear of my safety. Working in Haenvale was as safe as we got. Besides, with a baby on the way, I needed the cash. I didn’t want to rely on my alpha to provide for us. I wasn’t sure what he did for money, though he had told me he had inherited more than the house.
Haenvale’s nocturnal population meant the mornings were slower. I spent a lot of time looking at the system, checking that we had the right amount of staff in to cover each shift, and ensuring we weren’t double booked anywhere. Grace usually handled that side of things, but she trusted me to deal with it while she sorted out a maintenance problem in one of the rooms.
It was late morning, about eleven, when I took a strange call.
“Good morning, Haenvale Premier Hotel. I’m Sullivan. How can I assist you today?”
“Hi,” a harried female voice said. “I’m calling to cancel a booking. I forgot to, earlier. We don’t need the room anymore.” Very short and to the point.
“Alright, if I could just have a few details from you, such as the name it was under and the duration of the stay.”
“The booking was for Ellie and Farah Kalid. We were supposed to stay for two weeks, potentially longer.”
It took me a moment to call up the booking in the system. I lingered over the cancel button, waiting for confirmation they really wanted to end their reservation.
“I’m sorry you won’t be visiting Haenvale. It’s beautiful at this time of year.”
“Oh, we’re still coming, just not sure we’re coming into town. We’re staying with our son.”
I could hear someone in the background complaining about the caller over sharing and waiting until the last minute to cancel the booking. Not that it was too late to be canceling it. There were still a few weeks until they were scheduled to arrive.
“What I mean is, we’ve got a camper,” they amended.
“Okay, well, I can give you the names and numbers of our two campgrounds. They have great facilities—“
“That’s not necessary. Our son, Imri, has land and a house in need of fixing up.” Again I heard their companion complaining about them telling me too much. “We’re visitinghim and his kids.” I could hear the pride in their voice.
The name, Imri, sent a delightful shiver down my spine. “Oh, that’s lovely! Are they young, the children?” A nosy question for sure, but I got the sense the caller was waiting to brag about their grandchildren. Mom always said I had a knack for getting information out of people, part of why I was in a customer facing job.
