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“See you when you get back.”
Lucian stood to leave. Geflin’s phone rang and he answered, then said, “Shit. Hold on. Lucian?”
Lucian turned around. “Yeah?”
“There are some ravens at the front door. They’re demanding their leader back.”
“Well, isn’t that interesting?”
“Get your team and go handle them.”
Simon appeared at the door. “How the fuck did they get here so fast?”
“Doesn’t matter. They leave on their own, immediately, or you will take them into custody,” Geflin said.
“Another night in paradise,” Lucian said.
“Let’s go take out the trash,” Simon said.
“Dude,” Lucian admonished.
“What?”
“That’s the most clichéd phrase in cop shows since 1980. Please tell me you were being sarcastic.”
Simon grinned. “Not clichéd,classic.”
“Good grief,” Geflin said. “Get both of yourclassicbutts out of here and get to work.”
CHAPTERTHREE
Mia glanced at the clock on her computer and grimaced; it had only been two minutes since she’d looked last time. The day was dragging as if someone had put lead weights on it.
She’d been working for the Wilde Creek Credit Union since she was a senior in high school. It had started out as just an after-school job until she decided what she wanted to do with her life, but it had turned out to be what she wanted to do until she started a family. When she was younger, she figured she’d be mated in her early twenties and already have rugrats running around the house. Of course, in her idealistic teen years, she’d always hoped that Lucian would one day magically see her as more than his best friend’s kid sister and want to make a life with her.
Not too long ago, it had been hard for pack members to mate with humans. If a wolf mated with a human, they were exiled from the pack, and their family and friends were forced to treat them as if they’d died. Then Acksel’s sister Eveny chose a human for a mate, and Acksel changed pack law to allow their members to mate with whoever they wanted. It didn’t hurt that not too long after that, he chose a human mate himself – Mia’s bestie, Brynn. Some pack members had objected to the changes and left but most had stayed. Even her brother had mated a human and adopted her son as his own.
She would’ve left the pack for Lucian, though.
Now, she wouldn’t have to.Ifhe wanted to be her mate.
Her nerves kicked up a few notches. She cracked her knuckles and pushed all thoughts of Lucian and the dinner at her brother’s into the far recesses of her mind. The day would pass quickly enough, and she’d soon be getting ready to face her destiny. One way or another, tonight she’d know if Lucian was really meant to be hers.
* * *
She was possibly the most nervous she’d ever been in her whole life. Which seemed silly, since she wasonlygoing to dinner at her brother’s, something she’d done many times over the years.
But this was more than a dinner, and there was no use fighting the nerves that crawled up and down her spine like ants, making her wolf twitch under her skin. She parked in front of Malachi and Nila’s house, the house she’d grown up in. Mia had moved out into her own place after high school, and her parents and brother had opted to leave Wilde Creek and join their uncle’s pack. Malachi came back last year and rejoined the pack, and he had taken the house over from Brynn, who’d rented it for several years.
She got out of her car and took a deep breath, letting the chilly evening air wash over her. The front porch lights were on, illuminating the cheery welcome mat. She didn’t see another vehicle in the driveway to suggest that Lucian had arrived, which made her wonder if he was even coming.
As she walked up the stone path to the front door, she heard the distinctive creak of the screen door off the kitchen at the back of the house. Moving off the path, she walked to the side of the house and saw a shadowed figure moving away stealthily toward the woods at the back of the property.
She didn’t have to see his face to know who it was.
“Lucian?”
The figure froze, and she hurried along the side of the house. She reached him a few moments later, but he didn’t turn to look at her. She stared at his back, covered in black leather, and inhaled, catching the spicy scent of him. Whatever cologne he wore, he’d been using it since he was a teenager, because she always attributed the scent to him. It was darkly spicy, like something exotic.
