2. Anders

Chapter 2

Anders

"Coffee, Anders?" Darcy asked as I sauntered over to Damon's café.

"Nah, slow day, so I'm treating myself to lunch." I bypassed the coffee shop and sat outside the restaurant next door.

"We're out of duck." She handed me the menu.

"Don't like duck." It was too fatty for me.

Darcy giggled. "Not you. Jonah." She jerked her head at my friend as he loped over from the community center.

"That's fine. I'm cutting back on the duck." He patted his belly, but his pained expression suggested he was disappointed.

"Sit." I pulled out a chair, and he plonked himself down. "How's life?"

"Great. Bit hectic at work with Waylon on vacation."

Waylon was the Snow Leopard Alpha, or the head of the sizzle as we'd named our group.

Jonah was Waylon's right-hand man. With the sizzle expanding and new members arriving every week looking for a place to live, searching for schools, and asking all the questions newcomers needed answering when moving to a new town or neighborhood, the staff at the community center were overwhelmed.

"Sounds like you need to hire more people."

"We do, we are. Isadora and I are conducting the interviews."

Kyle, the restaurant's head chef, popped out onto the terrace and kissed Jonah on the head.

"Hi. Are you on a break?"

"If you can call spending one minute kissing your mate a break, then yes." He waved at me before racing inside.

Everyone around me was mated, or that was how it seemed. I was often around the center when parents were dropping their kids off or collecting them from the toddler group. Or I had a job near the school as kids were streaming out, telling their folks about their day and showing their drawings. Movie night at the center was full of couples smooching, whereas I only had popcorn and soda to keep me company.

"He's a good man." I jerked my chin at Kyle as he disappeared before ordering fish and chips, and Jonah said he'd have the special which was shrimp in white wine sauce.

"Oh no, I hear the ‘I wish it was me' tone in your voice.' He took a slice of bread from the basket and dipped it in olive oil.

"Sorry." Maybe I should keep my complaints to myself. My friends, who were all mated, must be tired of me wishing I'd met my one and only.

"No, I shouldn't be so hard on you." Jonah put a hand on my shoulder. "Have you tried looking outside of the sizzle?"

Damn, I hadn't wanted to voice my thoughts on this issue, but now he'd brought it up.

"Not yet, but I was thinking maybe this isn't where I'm supposed to be."

"Where aren't you supposed to be?" Our friend, Dylan, pulled out an empty chair. "And can I join you?"

"What would you do if we said no?" Jonah asked.

"I'd move to the next table and listen to your conversation." Dylan grinned.

"I doubt that." Jonah elbowed him. "You'd be joining in and be almost as close to us as you are now." He chuckled.

"Maybe." Dylan studied the menu. "Oh no, I see they don't have any duck." He snuck a glance at Jonah.

"Why does everything think I always order the duck?" Jonah's voice was loud enough for all the diners on the terrace to hear.

"Because you do," everyone said in unison, and we all burst out laughing.

"Forget ducks." Dylan leaned forward. "What were you saying, Anders, about not being where you're supposed to be? Do you have a client with a flooded basement and you're here eating lunch?"

"No. I would never do that." I'd skipped many meals and had sleepless nights where I'd been out on emergency jobs, especially in the early days of the sizzle.

"So spill." Dylan added butter to his bread before tearing off a mouthful.

"I'm considering leaving the sizzle."

"What?" Dylan glanced at Jonah who shrugged. "You can't do that. This is the one place where snow leopards congregate in a group."

We were solitary creatures, and before Waylon and the council elders created the community in Snowford, we lived alone, often with none of our kin close by.

"I'm lonely." Now that I said it out loud, it sounded silly. I had friends, my own business, I got invited to dinner and barbecues. From the outside looking in, I had a great life.

"Shifter dating apps. They're perfect for anyone looking for a mate. There's one that's been popular for years, but I think it's recently changed hands. Can't recall the name." He got out his phone and scrolled through different sites.

Chatting to someone on an app wasn't my style. I preferred meeting an omega organically. But no matter how long I lingered in the library, or pretended to be choosing the right avocado in the grocery store produce section, I never met anyone. There was one guy who complained I was squeezing an avocado and bruising it. Or the omega at the library who tried to snatch a book out of my hand when we both reached for it. Neither was mate material.

"No, I can't do an app. But thanks for trying to cheer me up."

As I was a contractor, I could start a business or get a job somewhere else easily. The upheaval of moving away from friends when I'd only been in Snowford a few years would be stressful, especially as I might not meet my forever mate outside the sizzle.

But the ache in my chest, which wasn't from heart failure, needed an antidote. And that was finding my one true love.

Sure, there were alphas and omegas who never mated and seemed content. But that wasn't for me. I was supposed to be part of a couple, I knew that deep down.

A howl from across the road had us swiveling as Isadora, holding one of her twins, Edgar, blood streaming from his hand, staggered out of the community center. The three of us jumped up and charged over to her.

"He fell and cut himself." The little boy had a towel wrapped around his hand, but the blood was leaking down his arm and he was whimpering. Poor kid. "Can one of you drive us to the hospital?"

"My truck's right here." I unlocked the doors and settled my friend and her little one in the back seat.

Shifters would have been able to heal themselves by taking their fur, but Edgar hadn't met his beast yet, and he was in pain and losing a lot of blood. He'd need stitches.

"Don't speed," Jonah yelled as I swung into traffic and did exactly that. Edgar's crying and Isadora's comforting her son tugged at my heart. The way she held him and brushed hair from his brow, her murmuring how the doctors would make him all better told me how much she adored her son.

I swung into the hospital driveway and stopped at the emergency entrance. Isadora and Edgar were helped out of the truck and bustled inside. I yelled I'd follow her after I'd parked, but she probably didn't hear me.

The parking lot was full, but this hospital wasn't in Snowford but in an adjoining suburb. Most of the patients were human. I drove around and around, hoping a car would pull out, and when it finally did, I parked at an awkward angle and jumped out, not bothering to straighten up.

But a scent so strong that I fell back against the truck, thrust itself at me.

What was that? My snow leopard had been asleep during lunch, as talk of food bored him, unless it was prey we were discussing.

The intoxicating scent had to be coming from the hospital, but I had to stay with Isadora and not be roaming around the building, shoving my head into patients' rooms looking for the source.

Is that—? I cut off my beast with a growl because we couldn't make a mistake about this.

It appeared to be a scent that matched my own, that was the other half to mine, calling to me saying, "I'm over here." But it might've been my mind playing tricks. How much of a coincidence was it to be talking to my friends about finding my mate and then bam! Scenting them less than thirty minutes later? Didn't seem likely.

Find it , my beast insisted.

But I had to check on Edgar first. It took a while to discover Isadora and her son were with the doctor. I couldn't barge in and say, "Hurry this up because I might have found my mate."

And so I waited. Why were the chairs so hard? And why were they such an awful color? And why were the walls so bland? I filled my mind with nonsense while trying not to think of my mate somewhere in the hospital.

I leaped up. I'd assumed my mate worked here, but what if he was injured and on life support? Or being operated on with only a slim chance of surviving the operation.

"I'm coming," I yelled. "I'll find you, mate."