“Well, someday you won’t be busy and you’ll be alone.” He met my eyes, stone-cold serious. “Make the time.”
Jorge had lost his wife to cancer so he knew about being alone. It was kind that he wanted me to find a love like he’d had, but he didn’t understand how complicated it would be for me. Werewolves had one mate for life, one person in the entire world that was destined for them. For a while, I tried to search for her. My parents had told me stories about how my father’s wolf had recognized my mom the moment they had touched skin to skin.
Over the years, I’d held hands, kissed, and I’d even had committed relationships, but none of them had made the wolf inside me howl—no recognition of my one true mate. And now that I’d witnessed some members of my pack finding their other halves, it made settling for less seem…meaningless.
Our previous Alpha, Allen Caldwell, had taken fate out of the equation. He’d been on a mission to expand our pack rapidly. Caldwell assigned pack members to a female, dubbing them “mates” in the hopes of bringing more werewolves into the world. I hadn’t participated in the forced coupling, drawing a line in the sand, but I had turned a blind eye to the humans Caldwell had been changing into werewolves against their will. I had chosen not to notice the bitten men and women Caldwell had kept locked in an abandoned storage facility, breeding them.
Like cattle.
I clenched my jaw, fighting the guilt that constantly dogged me. Maybe it always would. So even though the new ranch manager was beautiful and intelligent, I didn’t see any point in spending more time with her.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I lied.
Jorge nodded and let it go.
I focused on my work. Work was all I needed.
It was after seven o’clock by the time I finished my final ranch call and pulled into the veterinary hospital.
Piper, the newest vet at my clinic, met me at the back door. “Jackie left you a note about Serenity Farms. The new manager wants you to call her.”
Madison.
“Okay.” I nodded, wincing at the screech as I lifted the lid on the bed of the utility truck.
Piper covered her ears and shook her head. “How can you stand that? It’s like an ice pick to my brain.” She lowered her hands and chuckled. “Shane told me I’d have heightened senses after I became a werewolf, but I was only imagining the good parts, not squeaky hydraulics and having to give up my ear buds because it’s too loud no matter how low I set the volume.”
Piper was Shane’s mate. He’d come from Kentucky all the way to Sedona as a lone wolf looking for revenge as the last surviving member of his pack, and instead had found the other half of his soul in Piper. She’d been here on the other side of the country.
My head hurt just trying to calculate the chances of that.
Regardless, it had happened.
I was older than Shane by a few years. Hell, I was turning forty later this year. I was the eldest of my pack brothers. For all I knew, my mate was already married with kids and living a blissful life.
Humans didn’t have the one-mate-for-life instinct. She’d never know I was searching for her.
This was fucked up. I could either accept my fate and be alone, or settle for a relationship that would always feel empty.
I glanced over at Piper. “I’ll give her a call. How did everything go today?” I carried my used equipment inside to be sterilized. “You’re here late.”
“Actually, I was waiting for you.”
I looked back over my shoulder. “Something wrong?”
“No.” She shook her head. “But we’re planning a baby shower for Wendy on Saturday afternoon, and we want the whole pack to be there.”
I groaned as I washed out the equipment. “Single guys don’t go to baby showers.” I turned off the water. “Plus, I’m Wendy’s doctor. I should get a pass.”
I wasn’t technically a “doctor” per se, but as werewolves, we couldn’t risk going to a hospital when we were sick or injured. If a lab tech got a sample of our DNA under a microscope, our secret existence wouldn’t be so secret anymore. Shifters would become lab rats, or worse yet, they’d be hunted. So, as a vet, I was the closest thing our pack had to a doctor.
Piper crossed her arms. “There’s more to it than that. Maybe you should sit.”
Shit. She had my full attention now. I sat down on a padded stool and barely bit back a moan of relief. It had been a very long day today, even with my added werewolf strength. “Okay, why is it so important that I attend a baby shower?”
“Chandler’s sister is going to be there.”
I frowned. “And that’s a problem because…?”
“She’s human.” Piper groaned and took the chair across from me. “We need an excuse to cover for why Wendy is already the size of a house. Werewolf gestation time is only four months instead of nine, and Wendy is having twins. How are we going to explain to his human sister that even though she and Chandler only met a few months ago she’s about to give birth?”
Oh shit. Piper was right. I leaned forward on the stool, pulling my hair back from my face. “She doesn’t know he’s a shifter.”
“Right. She has no idea werewolves and jaguar shifters exist, let alone that her brother is a jaguar shifter and her new sister-in-law is a werewolf. Chandler doesn’t want her to find out, either.”
“No baby shower.” I shrugged. “Problem solved.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s not that simple. Once the babies are born, they’re not going to look premature. What are we going to do?”
I blew out a frustrated breath. “Chandler’s going to have to either tell his sister the truth, or keep her away from the babies for a few months.”
Piper crossed her arms. “He’s afraid it’ll put her in danger if he tells her the truth. Our pack enemies will see her as a weak spot.”
Damn it. Our enemies did seem to be expanding lately. Between the jaguar assassins up in Flagstaff, the Transparency Collective determined to expose our existence to the world, and the biochemists at Evolution Defense trying to power up super soldiers with werewolf DNA, Chandler’s sister would definitely be in danger if they found out she was related to one of our pack members.
“He’s probably right.” I mulled over the options. “Okay, so we tell her Wendy has gestational diabetes. I’m monitoring her closely, but the babies will be large and might be premature. A doctor would know they’re not months premature, but…” I lifted my gaze to her face. “Shit. Please tell me his sister isn’t a doctor.”
“Nah.” Piper laughed. “She’s not a doctor. I think he said she’s in sales and marketing.”
“Good.” I forced myself back to my feet to work on sterilizing the equipment. “That should get me a pass on the baby shower, right?”
“Wrong.” She came over to stand beside him. “We’ll see you Saturday at two o’clock at the pack ranch.”
“Fine.” I smirked.
She crossed to the lockers and took out her purse and keys. “’Night, Cole. Don’t forget to return that call to Serenity Farms.”
“I won’t.”