Page 6

“Hey, what’s the emergency?” Rain came out of the kitchen, a huge sandwich in his hands. He made sandwiches that were as big as that mystery-solving cartoon dog.

“I think I might’ve found our mate.”

He caught the sandwich after almost dropping it. “Where? Did she come into the bakery? How did you find her? How do you know?”

Warren walked in right in the middle of his twenty questions. “Who are we talking about?”

Rain took a huge bite of his sandwich. No matter what was happening, that man was hungry. He chewed and swallowed. “He said he found our mate.”

“I said I might’ve found our mate. Don’t you two check the app anymore? I saw a new match this morning.”

Warren rolled his eyes. “We get those all the time.”

“This one isn’t like the others.” I plucked my phone from my back pocket. “Come and see.”

They gathered around me as I pulled up the app and then Evren’s profile. Even her name felt like home in my mind.

“That’s her?” Rain asked. His sandwich had been plated and pushed to the side.

Warren’s shoulder pushed against mine as I scrolled through the pictures. “She’s beautiful. I…my wolf is…”

“Yeah,” Rain agreed even though not much was said. They were both involved now. Our bond hummed between us.

I already knew the link we had with this female. A connection that was unexplainable. Cosmic. Fate. I’d never even heard her voice and she was on my mind and on my animal’s mind as well.

We stared and went through the pictures. The profile. There wasn’t a whole lot about her. Nothing in the travel section of her questions. Not ever mated. In a pack from what we could deduce.

“Don’t packs usually mate within the ranks?” Warren pointed his question toward Rain. He was in a pack before us. His father was legendary as one of the guards for the alpha and was sometimes contracted to guard members of the Shifter Council.

The pack dissolved over power struggles, as many packs did. The old alpha challenges were becoming frowned upon and sometimes banned. If no one could decide who was in charge, a wolf pack, crumbled.

Wolves needed stability. A hierarchy. Everyone had their place.

Rain shrugged. “Many times fated mates are right there in the pack. Or people mate each other without looking for a real mate or arrangements are made from alliances.”

I let the whole thing sit. Rain returned to his sandwich. Warren made a cup of coffee. I heated up leftover meatloaf and mashed potatoes from the night before. Threw in a cornbread muffin because it seemed right. Breakfast for me was never pancakes or omelets.

“What are we doing here?” I asked. “Why are we hesitating? This is the reason we got on the app, and here she is. Evren is on the app and looking for her mates, her pack. That’s us.”

Rain nodded. “I say accept the match. I think this pack has waited long enough.”

Warren lifted his head, brows lifted. “Are you sure, Rain?” Even though we had no spoken pack hierarchy, Rain was a natural leader and an alpha by his wolf’s power. His father could’ve been an alpha but that wasn’t his choice.

“I’m sure. My wolf knows. Don’t you?” He asked the both of us.

“My wolf is sure. That’s why I rushed home. This is it. This is the female we’ve been waiting for.” I was so eager that it seeped through my tone.

“Then accept the match. Talk to her? I don’t even know what we do next.” Warren pushed off the island and got on his own phone. As a pack, our accounts were linked. We would have all the same access to her profile and messages once we accepted the match.

“Rain, you have to accept the match too. Then you can see the message.”

“Yeah. Okay. I’m on it.”

Within minutes, all three of us had accepted the match. I itched to send her a message but also didn’t want to push the envelope. We’d done the accepting. If she wanted us, she would message us back.

Still, I didn’t put my phone down. Not messaging our mate, or who I thought was our mate, seemed wrong.

Chapter Seven