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“It matters because we know nothing about her.” Warren wasn’t combative but defensive. All of us would protect this pack against anything, even ourselves. The last thing we needed was tension within our own pack.

“That’s why she’s coming here. So all of us can get to know her.” Lark slipped his phone into his pocket. “Look, I know you’re skeptical. That’s good. You’re making sure none of us get hurt, but I’m willing to take a chance on this female. Listen to your wolf.”

Warren snorted. “Maybe my wolf is conflicted.”

“Bullshit.” Lark said as the bus came into view. “If my wolf likes her, then yours does too because we’re a pack. A pack meant to share a mate. If she’s my mate, then she’s your mate. I know you don’t trust her, but trust me, Warren.”

“He’s right,” I said as the bus slowed and it felt like a year before the brakes hissed. “We have to trust each other through this.”

That broke Warren’s attitude. A little. “Yeah, okay.”

The bus’s doors opened, and people climbed down the stairs. My heart sped up and my heart didn’t do that for anyone. Not a threat. Not danger. But a mate? Clearly.

“There she is,” Lark said and a smile grew on his face.

“Are you sure?”

He nodded. “I am.”

She stepped off the bus and looked around, scanning the area. Good girl, watching out for her surroundings. She A bulging had a pack hung on her back. It was unzipped at the top, and a stuffed bear hung out the top.

She was dressed in jeans and a hoodie three sizes too big for her. Her profile picture didn’t do her justice. Even from here, I could smell her fear.

Doubt.

Worry.

Those scents did nothing to mask her natural scent. Her musk, dark cherries and oak and vanilla, punched me and took away most of the concern about her not being our mate.

She was. Almost 100 percent sure of it.

“She’s….that’s her,” I stumbled over the words. I never got frazzled. Ever. I was in civilian security, had faced enemies foreign and domestic in service of my country. Not being worked up over nothing was kind of my whole job description.

“Of course it’s her.” Lark turned toward the female, and our bond vibrated like her presence strummed a tune on the strings between us.

“I-I” Warren stammered. “That scent.”

“How is this possible?” I asked myself and my packmates and anyone who would listen. We’d found her on a screen, or rather she’d found us. Technology was amazing and necessary now, but this? Finding your mate online?

That same day, she was on a bus on her way to us?

“Evren,” Lark called out and raised his hand. I was starstruck. Frozen in place. Warren didn’t move either.

I didn’t even know how to act. Our mate was here. The one we’d been waiting for.

She turned back and looked at us. For a moment, she didn’t seem to recognize us.

The wind kicked up, pushing her scent toward me again, and my wolf went wild.

Our mate was here.

After all this time.

And I had no clue what to do about it.

Chapter Eleven

Evren