5. Cedric

"Cedric, what happened? Did something frighten you?" Reed glanced over my shoulder and sniffed the air. Harry did the same. Maybe these guys needed allergy pills.

I lifted my head, the tears streaming over my cheeks and dripping onto my tee. "It was huge."

The pair shared a glance, and Reed stared off into the distance. I turned, mucus dripping onto his shirt. Oh gods, even if I wanted the job, me running out of the woods blubbering hysterically and getting snot over him probably wasn't the way to do it.

But what had I seen that got me turned upside down? A bear, a grizzly. I'd worked at Reed's company long enough to recognize one from a brown bear. I didn't know they were indigenous to the area, not that it mattered. It wasn't as though the bear was going to look at a map and think, "Oh I don't belong here. I'd better leave."

"And then he vanished." My shoulders shuddered with each sob and I was having a hard time catching my breath.

"Into thin air?" Harry arched a brow. He mouthed something to Reed and looked like, "Fae," but my brain was so confuzzled, it could have been, "We need to get Cedric to a hospital."

"And then…" I took a breath. More than one. "And then…" I waved my arms around because what else was I supposed to do with them? "A man appeared, a naked man. The same man who you tried to match me with at Mr. Lucas's."

"Whoa." Reed held his hands up in surrender. "Nope. That's not my job." He jerked his head at Harry, but Harry put his hands on his hips and glared at his boss.

"Over. To. You. Harry." Reed emphasized every word, and a muscle in Harry's cheek twitched and his jaw tightened.

"You participated," he said, his words erupting through gritted teeth.

"What's going on?" I looked from my boss, who was also Harry's boss, to Harry and back to Reed. "I just saw Gage appear where a grizzly once stood, and he was naked and aroused."

Harry bit his bottom lip. Maybe I'd shocked him or he was stifling a laugh. I didn't know him well enough to say which.

"Wait here a moment." Reed dragged Harry away, and they put their heads together, talking animatedly. I caught a word here and there. "Can't," and "Have to," and "Cruel not to," and "Ask Uncle."

I tapped my foot and repeatedly looked at my phone. "My phone." I'd captured the grizzly, but had I filmed Gage? My fingers shook as I tapped the photos icon and played the video.

"Here. I can show you." Reed and Harry rushed to watch the video on my phone.

"Ohhh," was my boss's response.

"Ohhhh," was Harry's.

"There's your answer." Reed stabbed the display with one finger.

"I'll call Uncle." Harry walked away and tucked his phone under his ear. He spoke softly into the device, and when he returned, he said, "He agrees."

"Is he coming here?"

"No. He's taking a nap that I interrupted. Said we could handle it ourselves."

"Great," Reed deadpanned.

"Maybe we should go inside." Harry took my arm.

"And Gage might join us."

"Might?" I turned on my heel toward the woods. "He's here? Or is it the bear?"

"Gage." Reed ushered me into the office, muttering that he'd get Gage a towel to protect his modesty. It was too late for that, but I kept my mouth shut.

I sat on the office couch and tucked my legs underneath me while hugging a pillow to protect me from whatever they were going to tell me. Maybe I should book a flight home tomorrow and have a staycation while searching for another job.

Nothing had worked out as planned. Not my relationship or this trip, and I had to take control of my life and stop waiting for other people to do it for me.

Harry strolled into the office and sat behind his desk while Reed arrived, almost dragging Gage, the towel wrapped around his hips. Reed needn't have bothered covering up the guy's crotch because the towel was so small and he was so big, it was stretched so tight and left little to the imagination.

Reed got Gage into a chair and stood in the middle of the room. He looked at Harry, but his employee shrugged. I guess it was over to Reed!

"Gage and I are very similar," he began. Gage was studying his nails and didn't look up.

"Are you both into preserving the environment?"

"You could say that." He sighed. "This will take a while."

He launched into a long roundabout tale about ancient times and animals living in the forest. I was hoping he'd get to the good part because my mind was wandering and it was going straight to Gage's crotch.

"And those animals came out of the forest and walked on two legs."

"Rewind. Two legs, like a bear on hind legs?"

"No, as in a human but they kept their animals inside them."

I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands. "As in prisoners?" I thought the day had started weird, but this was weird times ten, or twenty.

"A little help, Harry." Reed waved his hand at his employee.

"I'm not a shifter." He grinned at his boss.

"Shifter? What's that?" I was lost again, or I'd been lost since Reed started talking.

"It's probably easier if I show you." Reed removed his coat. "Though you've already seen Gage shift. And just as he was, I will be naked."

Harry snickered, and Gage pulled the tiny towel around him. Like me, he hugged a cushion. Maybe he was as uncomfortable as I was.

Reed tossed off the rest of his clothes, and I looked down, not wanting to be caught staring at my employer's cock. But everything Reed vanished and was replaced with… with a sloth. I'd never seen one up close, but Reed had photos in his office when he'd worked in the city, and stickers of sloths were stuck on his laptop. His laptop wallpaper was a sloth.

I hunkered down in the corner of the sofa, my nails digging into the soft cushion until the sloth vanished and Reed reappeared. He turned his back to us to put on his underwear, and Harry yelled, "Nice ass, boss."

I slid my gaze to Gage who was staring away from me out the window. He looked so out of place I wanted to tell him he could go back to the woods, but he'd need clothes. Maybe. Getting naked in public seemed to be a thing in Riverford. Or maybe not in public but in the forest and in an office.

"I'm a shifter and so is Gage and Mr. Lucas."

I'd been taking in Gage's profile and got Reed to repeat what he'd said. I let the information sink in. Gage had a bear and Reed a sloth. What did Mr. Lucas have?

"What about you, Harry?"

"He's fae," Reed said matter-of-factly, as though he was reading out the weather report. "And Gage is your mate."

Gage leaped up and yelled, "No. I will not accept that. My lifestyle leaves no room for a mate."

"You weren't supposed to say that." Harry furrowed his brow. "You should have stopped after you explained shifters."

I'd had enough of being left out of the conversation and threw the cushion into the middle of the floor and got to my feet.

"What is a mate? Like a friend? Is it similar to those organizations where you buddy up with someone?"

"It's the shifter version of marriage, but unlike for humans, there are no take-backsies." Harry shrugged. "You and Gage are fated mates."

"I will not be matched with anyone." Gage stormed out, only to race back inside when a group of school children arrived for a tour of the nature reserve.

"Did we make a mistake and it's a naturist reserve, as in a place for naked people?" The teacher asked as she shuffled the kids behind her.

Harry took charge of the group, saying his friend had had an unfortunate accident. He led them away on the tour.

Gage peered out the window and asked if he could leave.

"Of course. You're not a prisoner."

"Feels like it." Gage turned to me, and my heart pumped faster than it ever had except when I'd run a race at school. "I'm sorry. But I'm not the mating kind, no matter what fate says."

He left, and Reed and I stared at the space where Gage had been.

"He'll never be able to mate with anyone else. He'll be alone for the rest of his life."

Compared to being cheated on, being alone sounded pretty all right. "Not everyone needs to be paired up, Reed." I picked up the cushion Gage had hugged and sniffed it.

Reed stood beside me. "But why do I get the impression Gage is putting up a fight, not because he doesn't want to mate but because he's scared to?"