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I glance around downtown, taking a deep breath. Being around so many people is still weird for me. I’ve been part of the Night Grove Falls Pack for close to four years now, and I still tense when someone says hi or offers to help me with something.

I didn’t grow up in a pack. That’s weird for shifters, but my parents were strange. They believed that packs made shifters weak and reliant on others, so they raised me off the grid. I grew up in a tiny cabin in a forest in the middle of nowhere. No stores nearby, no schools, nothing.

When I was younger, I hated it. I wanted what the other kids had. I wanted friends and school and normal things like going out for dinner or watching a movie. I hated my parents’ methods—I still blame them for my childhood, but I can’t deny that it made me strong and self-sufficient.

My parents were killed in a hunting accident when I was eighteen. That was when I was really alone. I stayed in that little cabin, tending to the garden and hunting the way they’d taught me for close to two years before I realized I was miserable and that I didn’t have to keep living that way.

So I sold the cabin and moved to the nearest town. I joined the pack here and have settled in. I have a job working for the Midnight Haven. I have friends, a community. Still, there are moments when I feel that aching loneliness again.

My wolf paws at me, whining softly. We need our mate.

I nod. I know. We’ll find her.

I’ve been saving up for years, worried that I wouldn’t be able to find my mate while I was living in such seclusion. My plan is to go to the Love Bites Agency and pay them to locate my mate for me. I finally saved enough this week.

I make my way home, taking the back trails and jogging up the back porch steps. I’ve been packing all week, and I think I’m finally set to go. Now that I’ve asked the post office to hold any mail and dealt with groceries, I’m good to go.

I’m nervous but excited to finally put my plan into motion. I hope they can find my mate quickly.

Maybe she’s been searching for us too, my wolf suggests, his ears twitching happily.

I hope so.

My phone buzzes in my pocket as I close my suitcase. I pull it out, smiling as I answer Ansel’s call.

“Hey.”

“Hey, man. Did you already leave?”

“No, not yet.”

“I was going to stop by and grab the key if that’s okay? You still want me to look after the place, right?”

“Yeah, that sounds good. I’m home now.”

“Perfect. I’ll be over in a few minutes.”

“Okay, see you then.”

I hang up and set my suitcase by the bedroom door. I scan the room one last time, mentally trying to remember if I packed everything. When a knock sounds at my front door, I assume it’s Ansel.

I go to the kitchen first and grab the house keys. Before I can open the front door, it swings open, startling me. I lock eyes with an equally startled-looking woman holding a lock-pick set.

We both freeze.

Dark blue eyes stare at me without blinking, her full lips parted in shock. Her hair is so pale blonde that it’s almost white, strands whipping around her face in the breeze. Cheap clothes cling to generous curves, but it’s the exhaustion I notice most—dark circles beneath her eyes and fear written all over her face.

She’s beautiful.

And she looks terrified.

I take a step toward her, ready to demand what the hell she thinks she’s doing breaking into my house, when the wind shifts.

Her scent hits me.

Sweet lemon and poppies.

My wolf lunges so violently inside me that I struggle to hold him back.