Chapter Four

Keir

I let out a long sigh and closed my laptop. Nix was right. We were lonely. Yes, we got a huge amount of satisfaction from our business and from helping others. Sometimes we took pro-bono security jobs for civilians or shifters in need, and we encouraged others to do so as well. We had over two hundred employees now.

We could sell out and retire at any time if we chose. We’d done well and handled our money in a smart way.

All that prepping, and what had it gotten us?

A big house where only two voices echoed off the walls and an empty mate suite.

“You busy?” Nix walked into my office.

“Just finished up looking over the quarterlies.” I pushed back from the desk, glancing outside. Smoke billowed from the smoker where I’d put a huge brisket along with some pork belly and homemade pineapple and pepper jack sausage. While I was home, I loved to cook in all kinds of ways. Our dragons preferred everything made by our hands.

Didn’t know if it was a dragon thing or a Nix and Keir thing, but it kept our beasts less growly.

“Everything looking okay?” he asked.

“A bit better, actually, with James and Jeffrey taking on those new guarding positions. Protecting celebrities on their way from the trailer to the set is apparently lucrative.”

He nodded and sat in the chair in front of the small fireplace. I had lit a small fire. The crackling and popping were like friends in the room. “Can we talk about something?”

“I’ve been thinking more about that app.”

I walked over to sit in the matching chair. “The app for finding a mate.”

Nix nodded and sat back blowing out a long breath.

The notion hadn’t left my mind since he mentioned it the day before. “Is it even possible?”

He shrugged. “Plenty of shifters take a mate who isn’t their fated for one reason or another. There are arranged matings. Breeding-centered mating. Mating that has interests for both parties. Not everyone is smiled on by Fate.”

We had thought we were, but Rachel didn’t see it that way. We had been young and fresh out of college when we met. We hadn’t gotten our wings under us yet in terms of stability and financial prospects. She didn’t see our potential and wasn’t willing to support us through the process of finding it.

I still wasn’t speaking her name but, in my heart, she was forgiven.

My dragon perked up at the idea of taking a mate based on mutual interests. Choosing a mate instead of having one chosen for you.

The latter hadn’t worked out so well for us.

“You want us to sign up.” Wasn’t a question.

“I do. But our beasts decided a long time ago that we would share a mate. I can’t do it alone. We have to be in agreement.”

I ran my hand through my hair, longer on the top than on the sides. Yes, we longed for a mate. Yes, this place felt like a house instead of a home without a female to bring life to it.

But taking a step toward mating was damned scary for me.

Loneliness trumped having my heart broken again.

“What do we do?” I asked. “I’m not saying yes. Just walk me through the process.”

Nix said we would sign up and answer a broad spectrum of personal questions. Once we were in the system, the algorithms would find females who matched our needs and who would be compatible with our wants. Once he finished his spiel, he asked me if I wanted to sign up.

“Let’s do it,” I answered after conversing with my dragon. “Worst-case scenario, we don’t get matched with anyone.”

Nix nodded. “Worst-case scenario, we find someone we like who doesn’t like us.”

I had downloaded the app and started to look around, doubting that the process could be so simple and, yet, their attention to detail be so precise. There were throuples, harems, all kinds of relationships.

No shortage of dragons either.

“Do we care if she’s shifter or human?” I asked, beginning the questionnaire. My phone had already autofilled the basics in for me.

“I don’t,” Nix responded, but his eyes never left the screen. “Do you?”

“No. But what if they don’t know about dragons or shifters?” I prompted.

“They wouldn’t be on this app if they didn’t know about the supernatural side of life, Keir. Some of the human females are looking for specific shifters, in fact. We all have inexplicable desires.”

“Huh.”

I answered all the questions over the next hour or so. Nix and I got a kick out of some of the more detailed profiles and conferred over some of the more sexual ones. We would be sharing a mate and a bed. Swords were bound to cross, but we were not attracted to one another.

“Done,” I said, putting the phone down to stop myself from checking the notifications already.

“Me too. There’s someone out there for us, Keir.”

I nodded and got up. “I know. Let’s allow someone else to try to find her now.”

“Where are you off to?”

“To check the smoker. In the meantime, my dragon requires protein and lots of it.”