Page 6 of How I Met My Mate

Dax’s brows draw together in a scowl. “This is a problem.”

“You think?” I stifle a groan.

Yes, it is a problem. The peace treaty between humans and shifters is an uneasy one, and if humans hear about shifters losing control in any way, they could panic. It doesn’t matter that so far, none of the three shifters turned violent when they shifted. The problem is, this is something that has never happened before. We shift voluntarily, and we always retain our human minds and ability to understand and to communicate when we are in wolf form.

Humans are already afraid of shifters because of our superior strength and healing powers. We can’t afford to make them even more afraid of us.

And yet, all I can focus on is wooing and winning my fated mate.

Focus. The future of the pack may depend on this – and of all packs, I scold myself.

Great. No pressure there.

I take a deep breath. Alexis has set her coffee cup down and she’s taking pictures of a couple of little boys who are eating cupcakes that they just bought from a booth. The soft smile on her face sends longing singing through my veins.

What will our children look like?

Since my brother, the Alpha, is not here, Dax is waiting for orders from me. Also, fuck my life.

“Go to the coffee shop, find out who was working today, compare it to who was working the other days. And I want you to have at least six of your security team hang out at the coffee shop at all times in case this happens again. They need to be undercover, eating and drinking, and after they’ve been there a couple of hours rotate in new guys so it’s not too obvious.”

“Roger that.” He frowns. “Do you think that the shop owner has anything to do with it?”

The shop owner is one of our pack members, Stephen McFiggins. He has a wife and eight kids. “The shop is his livelihood. I can’t see why he’d do something that would jeopardize his business, and his family. I mean whoever is doing this potentially faces the death penalty.”

Dax’s cold blue eyes blaze with anger. “I’ll be the first in line to deal it out, too. This is unacceptable.”

I’m trying to focus, but my attention keeps being pulled back to my fated mate. “Yeah, it is. Uh…there was something else…” I frown, trying to focus my lust-fogged brain on the urgent problem in front of me.

Why are the fates doing this to me?

“Yes, Alpha Regent?”

“Well, number one, stop calling me Alpha Regent.”

By-the-book Dax gives me a blank look of confusion. “But it is your correct title.”

I shake my head in exasperation. Alexis is drinking the latte again. Sunlight catches Alexis’ short black hair, and her blue eyes drink in the scene with a wonder that makes me want to be the first one to show her everything in our world.

Meanwhile, I’m supposed to be talking about the future of our pack with Dax, but my wolf is frantically pacing and howling with need.

She licks a bit of foam off her lip—just a tiny bit, nothing that would even be PG-13—and my entire nervous system lights up.

She crosses one leg over the other, smooth and unhurried, and my wolf gives a low rumble of appreciation that I have to cover with a fake cough.

Yup. Totally focused on the investigation. 100%. Not at all thinking about how she’s somehow managing to make drinking a cup of coffee look like foreplay.

Dax follows my gaze. “She’s attractive, for a human,” he observes dispassionately.

The words are barely out of his mouth before my wolf loses its mind.

Heat explodes through my veins, sharp and electric. My skin prickles, fur pushing at the surface like it’s fighting to break free. My fangs drop so fast I bite the inside of my cheek. A low, dangerous growl builds in my chest and my lips wrinkle back in a snarl.

Dax stares at me. “Alpha Regent? Were you at the coffee shop too? Nobody told me you were at the coffee shop. Do I need to call for backup?”

I force a breath through my teeth and shove the wolf back down, hard. It takes every ounce of control I’ve got to make my fur recede, to dull the razor edges of my fangs, to pull myself back into something resembling civilized.

When I can finally speak, my voice comes out rough and gravelly. “Don’t look at her.”