Chapter Six

Hemlock

"We should download the app and give it a try." Grendel sat down on a stool and uncapped a bottle of water. "What do we have to lose?"

Ever since we heard about the app, it had been on my mind. What did we have to lose? Hope? Self-respect? The life we'd worked so hard to build since leaving the legion. Demons often mated with humans or other paranormals, so that wasn't strange at all, but, up until now, we hadn't had a whole lot of luck finding the right person.

"What if we don't? It would be one more disappointment." We'd had a busy afternoon with several visits to clients and were just now back at the shop. "If Fate really has someone for us, they should show up, right?"

"You don't think we have to put a little effort in?" He chuckled. "Unless our fated owns a horse who's thrown a shoe, I don't see her having a reason to stop by."

"We have put effort in. All those nights at the honky tonk." Out here in the country, there weren't a lot of night clubs or other places to meet women, which was another reason we were still single. "I think we've met every female in the county. Shifters, humans, fae…all of them. And none of them are our mate.

"Aren't most of those online dating things scams?" Grendel had been hurt more by our separation from the legion and most members of our families than me. At least I had my mom—and she did tend to treat us both like her own. If my father ever found out…well, nothing would happen. Female demons were fierce and even their mates rarely crossed them. One too many males had gone missing when they angered their females.

Oh, they had many good qualities as well. For one thing, the sexy rumors were true, but one too many male demons went missing after a spat about the toothpaste cap or putting the toilet seat down, for my comfort. "Let's sign up, but maybe not ask for a female demon."

He glanced up from his phone then chuckled. "Let's see how it works."

"You already downloaded it, didn't you?" I peered over his shoulder at the small screen. "Awfully sure I'd agree, weren't you?"

"I want to find our mate, and so do you. And if we don't get a match, how are we any worse off than we are now. Unless you want to move, we don't have any other choice."

There were other apps, but none I'd heard of that made a point of matching up paranormals in particular. "All right, I'm in." I just wouldn't get my hopes up too much. "What do we need to do? Bring up the profiles so we can pick someone to go out with."

"That's not how this works." He was scanning some of the pages on the site. "It's not a menu or one of those creepy sites where some gorgeous girl in an underdeveloped country is waiting for you. We have to fill out a few things here before they can match us."

"So we don't get to pick out who we like?"

"Ummm…well, they suggest matches, but we don't have to accept any that we don't like."

"And how much confidence does that give you about the possibility of these matches being our fated mate?"

It didn't…

"Excuse me, but my horse threw a shoe."

We'd been considering closing up early, but the farmer standing in the doorway was one of our best customers and someone who actually brought his animals to us. Many times, we had to attend them at their stables, and even though we did charge a little more for the trouble, it didn't seem to bother most of them. Our time was valuable, but so was theirs.

"Sam, is it Matilda again?"

The client went back out to his truck and trailer and returned leading one of the sweetest horses we ever had to deal with. "You guessed it. I don't know how she manages it when the others don't."

I had some ideas, but it didn't really matter. She needed a shoe, so we took care of that for her then chewed the fat with her owner for a bit. He had news he was anxious to share.

"I'd better be getting home. The missus says the baby won't be here for at least a week, but I haven't taken care of animals this long without knowing when one of them is going to foal."

I blinked at him, fighting a smile. This human farmer's jaguar shifter wife might scratch his eyes out if she heard him refer to her this way. They already had several children, and he doted on them as well as his wife. Still, she would probably prefer he change his terminology. "Give her our best. Boy or girl this time?"

"One of each." He beamed with pride. "So…I'll be going."

As soon as he drove off, I made up my mind. "Let's give this app thing a try."