6. Anders

Chapter 6

Anders

"Anders, what are you doing?"

I leaped up, bumping my head on Isabella's desk, and fell back on the floor. "Ouch!" I lay where I was, staring up at Isabella.

"There are no leaky pipes under my desk, and if there were, I'd be very worried."

Rubbing the back of my head, I asked, "How's Edgar?"

Her face brightened. "Fine. Showing all his friends his war wounds." She held out a hand, and I grabbed it. "But he's not under there either, though he and his siblings have holed up in some off places in our house."

"I dropped something."

"Didn't Waylon call you about the furnace? In the basement?"

"He did." Alpha had returned from holidays, and I scuttled toward the door, calling over my shoulder, "See you later."

There was a hint of my mate outside the community center, and as Isabella had been at the hospital with me and Edgar, I figured she or her son might have come in contact with my mate.

I'd snuck into her office and sniffed her coat hanging behind the door. Her sneakers that she wore around the office and that she'd been wearing when Edgar had his accident were under her desk. Nothing, nada, and no luck!

I was hot, sweaty, and stinky when I finished dealing with the furnace and telling Waylon the bad news: he needed a new one.

Jonah came up behind me and waved a hand in front of his face. "What have you been doing?"

"Working, whereas whenever I see you, you're heading out for lunch."

"My kids are at school, and I'm hoping to get some smooching in with my mate."

I was hungry, as I'd forgotten to eat this morning and instead had been inspecting my neighbors garbage bins up and down the street. My mate had to live somewhere, and he must throw out trash.

But no luck, and all I got for my efforts was getting covered in gods only knew what grossness. My respect for sanitation workers had increased. They needed a raise.

I needed to go to the hardware store and pick up a new pipe wrench and extension cord. If my mate was a DIY guy, I might meet him there. I got in my car and put my foot on the accelerator, convinced the hardware store was the place I needed to be.

Hurry. My beast was fed up with not finding our mate's whereabouts and didn't understand why I had to interrupt our investigation with work. Work, bah!

I raced into the hardware store, a place I visited frequently. Marge, one of the women who worked there, waved and yelled out, "Hi, Anders."

"No time to talk, Marge. I'm on a mission."

"Oh, big project. Can I help?"

"I'm good, thanks."

Which aisle first? If my mate was here, was he in need of paint? Pliers? Nails? Power tools? I pictured him, shirt off, sweat rippling over his pecs while he used a circular saw and cut wood. Oh yeah. I could see it now.

I can't . My snow leopard was bumming me out.

I headed for the power tools, where I could stop and examine the power drills. But I was on a mission, and that was to find my mate! I pictured myself as a swashbuckling adventurer seeking out his one and only, enduring whatever hardship was thrown at him and overcoming it.

My beast groaned, saying I'd watched too many movies.

But after scenting everyone standing, examining, and bending over in the power tool section, my mate wasn't here. Paint was next, and I punched the air when I picked up a residual scent.

He painted. Maybe he was a hobbyist or he was doing up his place or he was a professional painter.

Perhaps he brushed against someone who came to the store . My beast was close to taking his fur and scaring the crap out of anyone who wasn't my mate.

"Marge, have you seen a guy…" Hmmm, I hadn't thought this through. How was I going to describe him? "…A guy who likes to paint and buys paint?"

Her brow furrowed, and she gave me some scary side-eye. "Is this for my birthday?" She did a 360, her eyes flicking in one direction and the next. "There's a stripper about to pop out of a giant paint tin." She hugged me. "I love my job."

"Ummm, it's not today," I whispered to Glen, another staff member. "Better get on that. Marge is expecting something special for her birthday, and you can't disappoint her."

I made a quick exit and sat in my truck, a place I'd spent a lot of time lately, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel.

"Post office!" I reversed out and zoomed to Snowford's tiny post office. It was a place to start, though I hadn't found definitive evidence my mate lived in or near our sizzle.

The place was busy, as it usually was in the middle of the day. I lined up in there while people weighed their parcels, bought shipping supplies, and cashed money orders—or tried to but they'd forgotten their ID.

I frequented the hardware most weeks, but I didn't know anyone who worked at the post office. I couldn't skulk around inside. But if my mate had a P. O. box, I could pretend I'd forgotten my key while scenting the area.

Good plan!

And yet again, I caught a faint whiff of my mate. I inhaled deeply, taking the scent into my lungs. It was the closest I could get to my mate for now, but when we finally met, I wanted to be inside him.

Thinking of being buried in my mate's hole sent heated blood to my cock. It engorged, and I grimaced. Unless I jerked off in the car, I'd have this hard-on for hours while I was at my next job.

It was late afternoon before I was free, and not knowing where to go next, I headed to the community center. My mate might not be there, but my friends would be finishing work and maybe we could grab a bite to eat.

"Back again?" Jonah raised a brow in his very Jonah way so that it arched to a sharp point.

"I'm missing something or someone."

"I know you wish you had a mate but?—"

I cut him off. "No, I do have a mate. I scented him at the hospital."

"Are you sure?" Jonah felt my brow. "Not feverish."

"And I've been looking for him. I get a hint of him in one place, a whiff in another, a trace of his scent somewhere else."

Jonah put a hand on my back. "Anders, I had no idea. Hints, whiffs, traces… sounds like you're cooking up something."

He was teasing me. "This is serious." I detailed where I'd been, causing chaos along the way.

"Oh, was that you I read about causing a turmoil at the gas station?"

Gas station. The guy probably had a car. I'd have to check out all the ones in town. Thank gods Oakheart was a small place.

The smile was wiped off Jonah's lips as I typed "gas station" on my list. "It was a joke."

"What?"

"Never mind." He took my phone and read the places I'd checked off. "You've been a busy man."

I'd had very little sleep the last few days. Even though my snow leopard wanted to meet and mark our mate, he needed to hunt, but I explained hunting for our mate took priority.

"Everyone needs to eat."

Jonah was thinking about his stomach, and I rolled my eyes at him eating more duck.

"Fine, off you go. Is Kyle working this evening?"

He turned me around and around and around until I was dizzy.

Tell him to stop , my beast insisted.

"What did I say?" he asked.

I couldn't recall but said the first thing that popped into my head. "Duck!"

He rolled his eyes. "Eating. The guy, whoever he is, needs to eat."

I glanced over my shoulder at Damon's restaurant. I could sit on the terrace nursing a soda, hoping my mate wanted to sample Kyle's food.

"The restaurant."

"No, the grocery store."

I slapped a hand on my brow. Of course. Why didn't I think of that? I could loiter in the produce section and examine the peaches while thinking about my mate's ass. Stroking the eggplant while imagining him giving me a hand job was a possibility.

"Jonah, you're a genius."

"I know." He blew on his fingertips and buffed his nails on his shirt.

I kissed him on both cheeks and told him to enjoy his duck before taking off. Snowford had one large grocery store, but there were many others in Oakheart I'd visit if I had no luck in ours.

My mate was out there, and I was going to find him.

Let's hope he wants to be found .

He does . Wait, what if he had scented me and he was running away?