7. Tate

SEVEN

TATE

The holiday weekend had gone by without any incidents. I hadn't seen anyone acting shady or strange. Though, that wasn't true. I had been acting strange. My dragon had taken over my body and had used my voice and mouth. That had never happened before––not to me, and not to any other shifter I knew. After that, I'd probably been pretty shit at looking for hunters. Hard to concentrate when the beast inside you was demanding to mate with a human.

Steff and I were at the office early on Monday since we'd all planned to meet up and debrief over the weekend's activities. Blayne and Miles were running late, so we started without them.

"Weekend was a wash. No sign of anything other than drunk tourists, screaming kids, and partying college students. I never saw anything remotely close to a hunter. Not that I'd ever seen one before," Steff said.

"Me neither. Pretty quiet." I didn't go into detail about the weirdness that was my weekend.

Steff leaned back in his chair and sipped at his coffee. "Do you think Miles might be wrong? About there being hunters, I mean. If they were here, you'd think they would have acted by now, don't you think?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe they're being cautious."

His expression said he didn't buy it. "The last attack was pretty far from here and actually going in the opposite direction of the others. Even if they are in the area, maybe they're moving away from us."

"Miles said it was an hour outside of town. That sounds pretty close to me," I said.

"Okay, yeah, but an hour's drive is still like seventy-five miles away. To me, that's pretty far."

"Well, either way, until they act or show themselves, we're at a dead end."

Steff looked at me and frowned. "Are you okay, Tate?"

Immediately anxious, I asked, "What do you mean?"

He glanced down at my leg. I followed his eyes and saw my leg bouncing nervously while my right hand was picking at the fabric of my jeans.

Steff said, "You seem a little more on edge than usual. Are you sure you didn't see anything strange this weekend?"

I'd gone over what had happened with me and Harley a hundred times since Friday night, and I was coming up blank. The dragon had been clear. The words that had come out of my mouth hadn't been mumbled or incoherent. Mate . It had needed to get that into my head. Steff was one of my best friends, but I had no idea how to broach this subject.

Finally, to break the awkward silence, I said, "Have you ever heard of a shifter being mated to a human?"

Steff's head jerked up, and he shook his head, almost like I'd thrown a glass of water in his face. "What?"

"It's just a question. Have you ever heard of that?"

Steff shook his head slowly. "Nah, man, because it's not a thing. Shifters aren't fated to mate with humans. A fated mate is always another shifter. At least, that's the way it is with bears."

I'd asked Harley what she was, thinking the abrupt question might throw her off guard and get her to reveal herself. Instead, she'd looked at me like I was crazy. None of my senses picked up anything magical about her or her kids. As far as I could tell, she was a hundred percent human. What the hell could have happened to cause my dragon to react the way it did then?

Steff was looking at me with concern. "Why are you asking about this?"

I could almost see the wheels turning in his head. He was smart enough to figure it out. I slumped in my chair and opened my mouth to tell him, but the others walked in before I could. I clamped my lips shut.

"Hey, guys," Blayne said, taking a seat beside me.

I nodded and watched Miles close the door and sit on the desk. From the corner of my eye, I saw Steff studying me. Trying to ignore him, I went back to bouncing my leg and plucking at the seam of my jeans.

"Anything?" Miles asked.

Glancing over at Steff, I noticed the realization dawning on his face. He'd figured it out, or at least was on his way to it. It was now or never.

"Yeah, something did happen actually," I blurted.

Miles and Blayne's eyes widened, and they leaned forward.

"What the hell was it?" Blayne asked.

"So, my New York chick? The new neighbor?"

They all nodded, looking like children ready to hear a ghost story around a campfire. Rapt attention. Sweat pooled in my armpits.

"Friday night, she and her kids were at that food festival in the park. I was chatting up with one of her daughters, and then Harley came up. This wave of, I don't know, sickness, swept over me… Dizziness, sweating, racing heart. When they left, I watched her go, and it got worse. It was so bad that I had to go behind a tent and get on my hands and knees. Like, I was absolutely pouring sweat. My dragon was going crazy inside, too. That's where it gets weird."

Miles looked shocked. "Wait, this isn't even the weird part?"

I shook my head. "No. I'm sitting there trying to pull myself together when my dragon suddenly takes control of my body. It used my mouth to say a word. Not once, but freaking twice."

A shocked silence descended over the room. Our beasts were always inside, and a significant part of who we were. What I saw in their eyes told me that this was as crazy for wolves, bears, and panthers, as it was for dragons.

"What did it say, man?" Steff asked, sounding desperate.

I looked at each of them in turn. "It said: mate. When I looked at Harley again, it said it a second time."

The air seemed to get sucked out of the room, and they all looked like I'd slapped them. Steff looked less shocked, as I was pretty sure he'd already had it figured out before I said it. I sighed and relaxed in my chair, relieved to have it out.

"Are you sure that's what it said? Maybe you misheard it," Blayne said.

Miles nodded. "Right. You said you weren't feeling well when it happened, so it may have been something else."

I shook my head. "Nope. It used my voice, my mouth, my tongue. I didn't misinterpret that. It was clear as day. It was telling me that Harley is my mate."

Steff said, "She doesn't know what you are, right? You didn't let that slip at some point in New York?"

It was a ludicrous question. Humans did not know about shifters. It would cause a panic and be incredibly dangerous for us as a race. Hunters were a small but dedicated group, and even then, they caused fear and chaos amongst shifter clans around the world. If everyone knew, the number of hunters would grow exponentially. We would have to go into even deeper hiding than we were now.

The few humans who did know about us were very high-ranking government officials. Presidents, joint chiefs, people like that. Other than those, a few very select people and very close friends were sometimes let in on the secret. Shifters did sometimes take humans as lovers, but they were not mated to them. Being a fated mate was a much deeper, more intense connection than simple human marriage. If I had to gauge it, maybe a tenth of a percent of a tenth of a percent of the entire human population knew. Probably less than that, honestly.

"No, bro, of course I didn't tell her. I'm not insane."

Steff leaned back and raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "Sorry, just had to cover all the bases."

"This is bananas, guys. What are we even talking about?" Miles said. "Humans and shifters cannot be mated."

Blayne, who had gone very quiet, spoke up. "I think it can actually happen."

I pinned him with my gaze, eager to hear what he was going to say.

"My brother loved a human woman. Fell head over heels for her. And she loved him right back. It was super intense. He even revealed to her that he was a shifter, and she didn't bat an eye. I'm not sure if they were fated mates, but they might have been."

Blayne's face became very solemn. His brother had died not long before we found him. Blayne was nearly feral when we did, almost too far over the edge to come back. Losing his last living relative had almost stripped him of everything but the animalistic needs he had. Steff, Miles, and I had brought him back, but just barely. None of us thought for a moment he was lying or exaggerating.

Hearing this made me wonder if a shifter and a human really could be mated. The pull I had toward Harley was real and undeniable. I even remembered how homesick I had been in Toronto. At the time, I just thought I wanted to go home, but maybe it was Harley. My body and soul had been so desperate to get back to her it made me physically ill. I'd woken up every day feeling more and more like shit. That had never happened before, so maybe it could be true.

We let Blayne's story settle, then Miles asked, "Did you feel anything when you first saw her?"

My mind drifted back to that night, and I went over every detail as best I could remember. I shook my head. "I know my dragon took notice, but it was nothing like what it's doing now. It was purely noticing that Harley was a pretty woman and alone. I did the rest. There was no pull, no racing heart, nothing like this, and I definitely didn't have a desire to claim her as my mate."

"This isn't natural," Blayne mumbled. We all nodded in agreement.

Steff looked up. "What if she's a witch?" he asked, almost sheepishly. "Maybe she cast some sort of love spell."

I laughed, so did Blayne and Miles. Witches were real, yes, but incredibly rare. They weren't the goths who liked to play with tarot cards and herbs and worshipped nature you saw all over the internet and in bigger cities. They were the real deal—spell casters, soothsayers, mystical beings similar to shifters. None of us had ever seen one, but even though I'd never met a witch, I had a hard time believing Harley was one. I said as much, and the others agreed. Even Steff, though grudgingly.

Miles stood and walked around to the computer on his desk. "I need to do some more digging. Maybe I missed something."

There was very little chance that was the case. Miles was the resident private investigator for our firm, and he was incredibly good at what he did.

"Hang back until we're sure Harley isn't a true threat. Stay away from her," Miles said.

That pissed my dragon off. A sudden surge of irritation and anger flared within, and a deep reptilian growl escaped my throat. When they looked at me in surprise, I sighed and slumped in my chair. The winged beast inside me was absolutely not on board with staying away from Harley. If I even tried, it would give me hell for it.