Chapter
Four
Axel wokeand reached for the phone to check the time, but a banner filled the top of the screen.
Congratulations! We've found your fated mate.
He sat up, still staring at the screen. After four years of waiting, there it was. He opened the app, his heart pounding.
100% MATCH. Night Owl. A smiling woman with wet hair and a sunburned nose. There was a big mountain lake behind her. She was a twenty-six-year-old human. The bio said,Just moved to a new town to start over.
He had no idea what town that was. She could be in Seattle or Singapore or standing in line at the bakery down the street. He'd never know until she told him.
His inner wolf restlessly pulled at him, urging him to go find her, though he had no idea where she was. He took a slow breath and let it pass.
He got up, made coffee, and sat down to write to her at the kitchen table. He wrote a message, deleted half of it, and startedover. The second version was shorter. The third was shorter still. When he was done, only three sentences remained.
Hi, I'm Axel. A match like this can knock the wind out of anyone, so take whatever time you need. I've gotten good at not being in a hurry.
He read it one more time and pressed send.
He got dressed and ran up the ridge trail behind town, pushing the pace until the wolf relaxed. The town lay small below him. She could be down there or half a world away. He came back down the trail, drove home, and checked the phone again. Still nothing.
He showered and went down to work. He patched the camera firmware at the lumber yard and rebuilt a password vault for the dentist on Third. He kept checking his phone. She still hadn't responded.
Ryder came to Axel's desk in the afternoon with a drone battery in each hand. "You said you'd finished that vault an hour ago. Why are you still in it?"
"It needed a second pass."
"Nothing ever needs a second pass with you." Ryder narrowed his eyes. "What's going on?"
"Hand them over." Axel held out his hand, and Ryder surrendered the batteries and the line of questioning in the same motion.
After work, Axel went upstairs, made dinner, and ate by the window with his phone beside his plate. Still no reply.
He washed the dishes, got ready for bed, and lay under the blankets wondering why Night Owl hadn't answered. She had built the profile last night and was matched instantly because he was already on the app. Either she hadn't opened the app since, or she had opened it, seen the match, and was avoiding him. Both options ended the same place.Wait.
After two days, there was still no answer. He was restless enough to go down to the gym in the basement of the building. He found Blaze hitting the heavy bag. Axel wrapped his hands, held the bag through two combinations, and got to what he'd come down for.
"When you matched with Stella," he said, "she didn't answer you at first, right?"
Blaze stopped mid-combination. He steadied the bag with his glove and looked at Axel over the top of it. "Eleven days," he said. "Why?"
Axel took out his phone, opened the profile, and turned the screen around.
Blaze glanced at it. Then he pulled his gloves off, took the phone in both hands, looked at it more closely, and grinned. "Your fated mate."
"I messaged her right away," Axel said. "It's been two days, and she hasn't replied."
"Brother." Blaze said it with his whole chest. Then he looked at the photo again and the grin changed shape. "Hang on. I know her."
The wolf surged up, clawed at his eyes, and shoved the breath out of him. Axel kept his voice level. "From where?"
"She's a dishwasher at Fate Mountain Diner. Her name is Reese." Blaze snapped his fingers twice, reaching for it. "Walker. Stella hired her a few months ago. Says she's a closed door with a ponytail." He handed the phone back. "She looks a little different in that photo."
Ten minutes ago, she had been a smiling stranger who could have been anywhere on earth, and now she was Reese Walker, who worked down the street at the Fate Mountain Diner.
He stood there and let himself want her.
