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Come to think of it, no wonder I was exhausted.
It was well past dark when I arrived in the itty-bitty town. Even the diner was closed. If there was a bar, I couldn’t see where it was. Everything was quiet. I’d seen pictures of it, but now that I was here, I fully appreciated the size. If I blinked while driving through, I could easily have missed it.
I pulled carefully into the drive of the address I had been given and shut my car off. I grabbed my suitcases and made my way up the front porch of the house, trying to remember where my brother said the spare key lived. I could bother his Beta if I had to, but I preferred to handle this myself.
From what I could see, it was an adorable little house, but with the trees casting shadows with what little moonlight there was, I couldn’t quite see how much it might need in the way of cosmetics. Part of me hoped at least some. It would give me a project to do while I waited for all of this arranged mating stuff to work out.
It still didn’t quite feel real, but it was, and soon enough my life was going to have an even more drastic change than it was already undergoing.
“Look at you.” I smiled at my new home.
This would be a little place of my own. I knew that even if there were cosmetic things that needed to be adjusted, it was in good condition for me and Jayce to live in. My brother had inspected it himself.
Of course, when I was mated, my mate might want us to move or have Jayce move out. Or maybe Jayce would want out. I guess I hadn’t thought about a lot of things, and time was ticking.
I hefted my one bag inside the door, making my way through the entryway toward what I hoped was the living room. I tossed the bag onto the couch and turned to grab the other from the porch when the couch let out a screeching yell.
And because I was apparently a walking sitcom tonight, I yelled in return, yelling long enough that when I was done, an alpha was standing toe to toe with me, his body an entire head taller than me.
“Who the hell are you?” I said and swung my fist, as if that was going to do anything.
The man was clearly bigger than me, and if I took just one moment to take in his scent, I would realize he was a bear. My brother taught me how to defend myself, but all of those scenarios started with them lunging for me and me turning their momentum on them. That wasn’t the case here. He was standing there, looking me dead in the eye.
The man caught my fist. He didn’t strike or try and harm me. He simply stopped my attack.
“Who the hell am I? Who the hell are you?” he barked back.
“I live here.” Or at least I thought I went to the right house. No, I did. I double-checked. He was just messing with me.
“Nobody lives here,” he said.
“Well, I do,” I said with a stomp of my foot because that made me sound oh so much stronger.
This didn’t make sense. Had my brother given me a home that was already occupied by this brute? Where was a light? I could hardly see in the dark. Some shifter I was.
The alpha moved away and brushed past me as if I was nothing. That’s when his scent hit me—a delicious aroma of leather mixed with tangy metal and grease. The light flickered on, and I finally got a good look at his face. He had to be a good eight inches taller than me, if not more. His shaggy black hair curled around his ears and at the nape of his neck. He narrowed his eyes at me. They were brown as far as I could tell.
“Corey,” he said. “Are you Corey? You look enough like Aydan to be a sibling.”
“Yeah, I’m Corey. Who are you?”
“Zane.” He stepped closer to me and stuck out his hand. His nostrils flared as if my scent hit him for the first time. The sweet scent of arousal mixed in the air. He stepped back. I stepped forward.
“Oh no,” he said, running a hand through his hair. “This… Shit. I’ll come back in the morning. Why don’t you get some sleep? There’s a bedroom through there.” He pointed, but I didn’t look away from him. His scent was wrapped around me now, capturing me in its allure. I was entrapped.
“Why were you here sleeping on the couch?”
“Your brother asked me to greet you.” He took another step back until he hit the wall. Then he started scooting away as if he couldn’t get away from me fast enough.
“Shouldn’t we talk about—”
“No.” He cut me off. “Were your travels safe or did something happen that made you late?”
I ran a hand through my hair. Clearly, he wasn’t going to address the elephant in the room. “I passed an accident that slowed down traffic and then I had a flat tire and there was some construction.” None of that mattered, not with… not with his scent stealing all of my attention. Why was he so far over there? Why?
“But you’re all right?” Concern clouded his features, and for a moment his bear roared to the surface.
I nodded. “I was able to put on the spare, but it’s one of those smaller ones, so I had to drive slower.” Even at that, I drove on it far more miles than I should’ve.
