Chapter One

Iris

“Order up!” I jump both internally and externally, and try to contain my surprise as much as possible. Gods, there was a time when I didn’t sprint to the heavens at every loud noise but not anymore.

“I’ve got it, Bessie,” I called out after scanning the diner as the bell above the door rang.

I picked the noisiest place to work on the planet. Or perhaps it chose me.

I delivered a huge stack of pancakes to a table of two young women who had already gotten their savory breakfast items and were talking over iced coffees. “Here you go, ladies. Right off the griddle.”

“Thank you.” Unlike some of the customers who came into Bessie’s Diner, these two were polite and hadn’t given me shit for bringing their breakfast out in stages.

I grabbed the bus tub and gathered the dishes from the next table over. With Bessie’s famous giant pancakes, the tabletops were endlessly sticky, but I’d gotten used to washing my hands a hundred times a day or more without complaint. When I ran out of gas in front of her diner, Bessie let me stay in the tiny apartment above the diner for free.

If the only thing I had to fuss about were sticky tables, then I considered myself blessed.

“Where did she find her mate again?” one of the young women I’d waited on just moments ago asked the other. The word mate crawled down my spine like black sludge. I couldn’t even remember the last time Killian had called me my name. He called me “mate,” my station in his life instead of a person. Perhaps that helped him stay cold to the things he did to me.

“The Mail-Order Mating app…” the woman said. “I actually downloaded it.”

“Let me see.” I peeked over the connecting booth at the app before she handed her phone over.

“Amber said you can put anything on there and they will find a mate for you. Or more.”

A gasp from the second girl. “A harem? Damn, I want to be a harem’s princess.”

They shared a giggle over that.

“There are females who get on here for research purposes. Widows. Breeders. Orcs. Grizzlies. You name it. I’ve heard there are even dragon shifters.”

Dragons. My ex had been one of the largest, most malicious alpha bears in the nation. He kept me from all the pack’s business since I was human. I couldn’t help but overhear his end of phone conversations or his visitors who knocked on our door in the middle of the night. I’d learned his pack wasn’t doing well and was constantly attacked and sabotaged.

If he treated his pack as he did me, it was no wonder they were in turmoil.

“Table three,” Bessie yelled, a bit softer this time. She saw me at my worst the night I’d arrived here. Not a shred of dignity or self-worth. Chased until I had nothing left. When I turned, tub on my hip full of dishes, she winked at me. The softer tone had been on purpose. Bessie hired all kinds of women and men who had fallen on hard times, and I was no exception.

I picked up the order and delivered it to a pair of construction workers. One still wore his hard hat while ordering until his buddy reminded him. They got a belly laugh from that.

Once I gave them their food and delivered the ketchup I’d forgotten, I went to the back and sat on a stool, in view of the patrons. No matter what I did, I always had one eye on the front door.

“Dogs barkin’?” Bessie tipped her chin at my secondhand tennis shoes. I’d left my last apartment with nothing but the clothes on my back and barely a half tank in my tiny Corolla. She’d loaned me some money to get some clothes, and I paid her back in tips the next week.

“Always.” I laughed.

“You don’t look as green today,” she added, scraping her gigantic metal spatula against the griddle, sliding the bits and pieces off into the hole in the front and to the trash can.

“No.” I moved my hand to my belly instinctually. “Little man is giving me a break, it seems.”

“You’ve got a bit of a break now. Get some of that French toast in you.” She pointed to a plate of French toast piled with strawberry and blueberry compote. Bessie might’ve been a short-order cook, but she was classically trained. Her hollandaise sauce was beyond divine, and so was her compote. She added a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg to it, along with some chia seeds. There was nothing better, but the cub inside me hadn’t permitted breakfast in a few weeks.

While I ate at the round table in the back, I downloaded the app the girls had been talking about, simply out of curiosity. My new station wouldn’t last. There were already signs of Killian and his pack on my trail, and the car parked outside the diner with its brights on was one I had seen before. While I couldn’t make out the person inside, the car belonged to one of his betas.

My time in this place and maybe on this Earth was fleeting.

Once Killian decided to come for his prey instead of playing with me, I might not breathe ever again.

That was, unless the cub inside me saved me from his wrath.

That wrath was why I’d left him in the first place. No way in hell I was going to give that asshole another punching bag, and especially not a child of mine.

The young women had been right. There were all kinds of mating situations highlighted on the app. Monsters seeking breeders. Monsters seeking mates. Shifters seeking one mate. Two mates. Multiple mates. Humans seeking shifters. Humans seeking monsters. Some looking for someone to turn them into a shifter. Latent shifters. This place was the hub for anyone seeking a mate, and for a myriad of reasons.

Dragons could protect me from Killian and his entire pack with one blow of fire from their mouths.

While I finished my food, I signed up for the app, making my intentions clear. The last thing I wanted was to enter into a setup, mating with dragons thinking I was trying to manipulate them.

Human female, pregnant from ex mate, seeks two dragon mates for protection and mating.

“Mind bussing those tables?” Bessie asked, chuckling as she looked over my shoulder. “Or are you looking at dragon porn?”

I pushed the phone into my pocket after posting my note on my profile. There were a ton of questions I hadn’t answered, but I would do that later.

After my shift was over, I ate the meatloaf and mashed potatoes Bessie served up for me and showered. The hot water poured over my body, loosening my muscles a bit, but I wouldn’t ever really relax until my little one and I were safe or Killian was dead.

Then I settled in to finish my profile. I hit the complete button with a little prayer to any god who might be listening. I needed a safe haven for me and my young.

Before I fell asleep, there was a call on my phone. Tears ran down my face as I reached for it. A number I knew well flashed on the screen of the burner phone bought at a gas station.

He was already here, and his hunt had begun.