It’s no life for anyone. There’s a reason Fate hasn’t given them a mate yet. Assholes.
But Ronnie’s Matestone will only protect her for so long. While active, it gives everyone a fighting chance to woo her until she chooses—but she has to choose. If she doesn’t, Fate chooses for her. The second she entered our city limits and breached our wards, she lost her old life and her time to choose a new one began to tick away. I don’t know her well, but judging from the way she reamed out Chuck and fought me, this news would not go over well.
I stomp back to our meeting room, slam my fist down on our cracked table and glare at everyone in attendance.
“Church is in session. VP, fill us in on our new houseguest,” I snarl at Darren who looks uncharacteristically furious with me.
He clears his throat, crosses his arms over his chest, and fixes each of us with a purposeful stare before speaking. “ At approximately 0500 this morning, our wards in Quadrant Five were momentarily breached. A decision was made, because the breach was so short and not sustained, to investigate the cause. I came across an older minivan on the shoulder with one woman inside. After interacting with her for a few minutes, she pulled a Matestone necklace out of a bag and put it on.”
The rest of the pod shifted in their seats and on their feet. They’d felt it too.
Darren let his words sink in for a moment before continuing. “I do not believe she understands what it is. The Matestone was activated and I got a whiff of the wolf scouts. I made the decision to bring her back here and arrange for us to tow her vehicle. She had a visible reaction to my touch, Bryan’s, and now the Prez’s. Trevor has not touched her yet but my guess is that the reaction will be the same. Chuck touched her and did not receive the same shock, so it feels as if it’s pod-related rather than Club-related. She became combative after an incident with Glenda seeing the Matestone. She bit the Prez. The wolves know she’s here.”
With each word out of Darren’s mouth, I feel myself fighting the urge to shift harder and harder. This completely upends everything we’ve built here and I am floundering.
“We have to tell her. It’s only fair. She’s in this life now. If she chooses us, and I hope she does, because goddamn she’s gorgeous, she has to understand. But if she doesn’t? She has to know what is out there. We owe her that.” Trevor speaks up, his Australian accent is more pronounced than normal and I can only guess what is going through his mind at that moment. Probably the same thing that is firing through mine.
“Agreed. We protect her. No matter what,” Darren glares around the room until everyone nods in agreement.
“Do we know what she is?” Bryan finally asks, looking uncomfortable.
Darren looks down at the table before shrugging. “I couldn’t get a read on her. She’s not shifter, at least not full-blood by any means. She’s not vamp. She doesn’t feel witchy. She could maybe be part nymph? Otherwise, she smells human.”
I slam my fist on the table again and growl.
“Humans can’t wear a Matestone. We know this. Even if Fate made an exception, this is no life for a human. It’s too dangerous. Find out what she is! Make this a priority. Once we know what she is, we can make a plan.”
No one will dare contradict me. The tension builds in my shoulders, threatening to explode outward and the bite on the back of my neck burns.
“So, we find out what she is. That’s our first priority. We convince her to stay here, that’s Item Two. And, we tell her who we are. Item Three. After that, what? We convince her to be ours?” Trevor drawls, his characteristic sarcasm dripping from each of his words, “I see nothing that can go wrong with this plan. Nothing at all.”
“Do you have a better plan, dipshit?” Darren snaps. “No? Then shut your mutt face.”
My VP is wound tight and I suspect it’s due to his morning ride with Ronnie. I’ve barely spoken to her and the woman has already tied me up in knots. Darren feels things deeper than most and if he’s worked up over this woman something is up.
“Ok. You heard the plan. Get to work.” I hammer the table to adjourn the meeting when Trevor pales.
“YES?” I SNARL AT HIM,
“Prez, the Festival is this month.. We won’t be able to keep her a secret for very long.”
All around me, my men swear. Trevor’s right. The annual Misty Cove Surf Fest is held here every year. The town is about to explode with singles, loners, packs, pods and everyone else.
As soon as word of an unclaimed Matestone female gets out, we will end up with representatives from the entire continent here.
I sigh heavily. “First things first. We tell her,” I say finally. Our uncomplicated life is about to explode into action, and I’ll be damned if I let whatever Fate has in store slip through our flippers.
CHAPTER SEVEN: RONNIE
“LOOK. CHUCK. YOU’RE a good kid. I don’t want to hurt you, but if you don’t let me go right now I will be forced to deal out some damage. Just let me go and we’re good. Ok?” I advance on him slowly, but he doesn’t move. He just shakes his head. Infuriating.
“Ronnie,
