Chapter 1

Sylas McCallum yawnedas he came around the corner of the supernatural hotel during his afternoon rounds. His tiger was on alert, even if he was currently the most exhausted he'd ever been in his life.

He and his siblings—his brother Ronan and his sister Taryn—had come to the supernatural town of Belle Terra when they'd been on the way to visit Jonathon Black, head of the National Were-Fighting Association, that allowed shifters to fight each other for the entertainment of humans for money. They'd planned to join up with the alpha wolf's fighters and use their ability to travel within the states to hopefully locate their truemates.

Sabertooth tigers like themselves were able to procreate only with their truemates, and they located their truemates through mating dreams. Ronan hadn't had a single mating dream until they'd crossed into the state, and then they'd ended up rescuing his truemate Alanah, a fairy who'd been imprisoned by her king. Then Taryn had found her truemate in a warlock named Dredge, who lived at the supernatural hotel, and the couple were opening a magic supply shop next to the hotel's flower shop.

Which just left him and the weird dreams he'd had since Taryn and Dredge got together. All he saw was a moonlit night. Not even a full moon, as far as he could tell, just a generic moon which could be waning or waxing, he never could really see clearly, and he had no clue what the moonlight was actually revealing. Woods? City? Some barren desert in the middle of nowhere?

He leaned against the corner of the hotel and scanned the parking lot. Two weeks ago, they'd come to Belle Terra after rescuing Alanah and joined up with four other sabertooth tigers who called the town home along with their mates. Then someone had put car bombs near the entrance to the hotel and nearly killed his brother and his new mate. And then someone had tampered with the electricity at the hotel and the club owned by the vampires, collectively known as a kiss.

His sister and her mate had caught the culprit who'd left toxic flowers at the vampire club down the street soon after, knocking out many people inside and creating havoc. They'd realized that vampires were targeting the kiss-owned properties, but after the males who'd targeted the place escaped, the only thing they knew was that the culprits were vampires. No one knew the reason for the targeting.

So everyone was on alert, from the vampire kiss to the club where many of them lived underground, including master Caleb and his saber mate Lia, to the hotel where sabers worked alongside humans and wolves to cater to guests whether they were supernaturally gifted or not.

"Anything?" Slade, one of the other sabers at the hotel, asked as he walked out of the hotel and spied Sylas.

"Nah," he said, straightening. "I wouldn't expect vampires to come after anyone during the daytime, though."

"True, but they did find ways to attack the hotel during the daytime."

"Good point. But no, I don't see anything out of the ordinary."

Slade nodded, scanned the parking lot, and then turned to Sylas. "You look tired. You need a break?"

"I'm fine, just having weird dreams."

Slade, who'd never had mating dreams about his truemate because he met her and shifted on the spot, nodded. "I remember Alaric complaining about them, and Galen too. What do you see?"

"Just moonlight."

"In the woods?"

"No clue, I literally see moonlight, like I'm looking up at the sky, but I have no idea why and I haven't seen anyone or anything."

"Maybe your mate is traveling," he suggested. "That's what happened with my brother Galen. His dreams were really fuzzy, and it was because his mate was out of town."

"I sure hope my mate lives in Belle Terra and is just on vacation," he said. He didn't want to have to join the NWFA and start beating people during fights for a living, just so he could travel. The government didn't like shifters moving without a lot of red tape, but a traveling organization like the NWFA allowed members to travel easier. If he didn't find his truemate in a few weeks, he'd join up with Alpha Black and his fighters and go on tour.

But in the meantime, he'd keep his fingers crossed that he'd meet his truemate sooner rather than later. He'd like to get the next chapter of his life started, and he definitely was looking forward to finding his forever girl.

Slade clapped him on the shoulder as they headed into the hotel. "I hope your mate shows up soon too. As my mate would say, we'll keep all our fingers and toes crossed."

Sylas nodded and moved behind the front desk, where a human named Jenny was checking a couple into their room. He inhaled silently and picked up that the couple were human.

"We're in town for the fight tonight," the male said. "The owner told us to stay here because it's the best place in town."

"That's nice to hear," Jenny said. "If you need a ride to the fight, there is a shuttle that we can call for you."

"We've got a car, thank you," the male said.

Jenny finished their check-in, handed over two key cards, and pointed toward the elevators. "Enjoy your stay."

Then she turned to face him, giving him a sweet smile. She was pretty and friendly, but she wasn't his truemate so he wasn't interested in starting anything with her, even though she'd been flirty since he'd joined the hotel staff.

"Have you ever been to one of the fights?" she asked.

"No," he said.

"I wouldn't mind going sometime. A friend of mine went with a wolf shifter, she said it was pretty wild."

"I'm sure it is," he said. His phone buzzed and he excused himself before Jenny's hints got any bigger and he'd be forced to tell her he didn't casually date because he was waiting for his truemate.

"This is Sylas," he said.

"It's Alaric. Can you pop into the office?"

"Sure thing."

Sylas left the lobby and walked down the hall to the head of security's office. He knocked on the open door and Alaric waved him in, then hung up the desk phone. "How's it going?" Alaric asked.

"Good. You?"

"Well, Aubrey's having some wild cravings that I'm having trouble keeping up with, I mean have you ever had to find tiramisu at one a.m.?"

Sylas chuckled. "No, did you find it?"

"Eventually. It wasn't easy. Anyway, I called you in here because I wanted to ask if you'd like a change of pace."

"From being a security guard? I just started like two weeks ago."

"Not from being a guard, but being somewhere else. After the toxic incident at the club, one of the things we suggested is that there should be shifters guarding the kiss's office during the daytime. We've been relying on the cameras to keep an eye on things during the daytime, but we need to have people actually there. The kiss handles security overnight since they can be outside during that time, but they need people from dawn to sunset."

Curious, Sylas took a seat in one of the chairs across from the desk. Alaric explained the job, which was very similar to what he was currently doing, except he'd be patrolling an empty office building during the daytime.

"I don't want you to think that this is some kind of demotion," Alaric said.

Sylas frowned. "Why would I think that?"

"Well, I brought in one of the wolves and he thought guarding an empty office building was a waste of his talent," Alaric said, his upper lip curling as he air-quoted waste of his talent.

"It pays the same, right?" Sylas asked.

"It actually pays more," Alaric said. "There are cleaning people and some office staff who work for the kiss, but they're fully vetted like anyone who works there or at the club. You could work four twelve-hour days, six am to six pm, which would cover sunrise to sunset, give or take a few minutes depending on the time of year."

Sylas hummed. "Sounds like a good deal to me," he said. "I don't think of it as a demotion, I mean the kiss needs to be protected and the offices are just as vulnerable as any other business. When would you like me to start?"

"Tomorrow," he said. He handed him a keycard to clip onto his belt. "Can you report around four a.m., just so you can get the tour from Nash, Caleb's right-hand male, and get acclimated before sunrise?"

"Sure, no problem."

"Awesome, thank you," Alaric said, extending his hand. "I'm glad you guys came to town, truly. We really needed some more people to add to the security team, and the wolves can be temperamental."

"How so?" he asked.

"Well, the two packs won't work together, so we've got the northern pack at the hotel, and the southern pack at the club during the daytime. It's kind of a pain in the ass."

"I'm glad we're here, especially since my brother and sister found their truemates, and I hope to hell I'll find mine soon too. Belle Terra seems to be good luck for love."

"I said the same thing when we came here," he said. "Our family all had their truemates within the first week, Galen's was the last one since Serena was out of town. Maybe your truemate's out of town, and that's why your dreams aren't showing you anything."

"That's what I'm hoping for. But either way, I'm glad to be here and be helpful as long as I can be. If the time comes that I need to leave because my truemate hasn't shown up, I won't leave you hanging."

"No worries. Let me know if you need anything."

"Just a good night's rest and my truemate."

He left Alaric's office and stopped in the restaurant to visit with his siblings, who were enjoying dinner. He grabbed his dinner to go after he explained his new job.

"Good luck tomorrow," Ronan said. "You need anything, holler."

"Will do. See ya."

Grabbing his dinner, he headed to the apartment on the fourteenth floor of the hotel, a two-bedroom that had a nice view of the river and a balcony with sliding doors he could leave open when the weather was nice. As he ate his meal, he rubbed the space over his heart. Somewhere out there, his truemate was waiting for him.

He hoped he didn't keep her waiting too long.