“Looks like someone’s carrying a big load.” The burly fella stuffed into the toll booth practically licked his lips at me as he took my four quarters with his thick, pale hand. He was of course referencing the load of pine logs in the back of my truck that I was taking over to Woodcreek Mill to be turned into planks for the new addition we were finishing back up at the lodge.

“Oh, you know it,” I grinned, shifting the beast back into gear and giving it some gas. “Big-loads is my middle name.”

Without waiting for a reply, I gunned the engine and started back up the highway.

It was the first time I’d been away from the lodge and the rest of the pack in a long time, and it felt good to get out. It’s not like I didn’t love the guys, and the gals, but it was nice to have a little change of pace. Carlos and I had been felling trees like nobody’s business out back on the slopes behind the house, and we just couldn’t mill them all by hand anymore, so it was off to the mill to get some help.

There was nothing quite like summer in New England. The sun was shining bright overhead with not a cloud in the sky. I was wearing my total white trash sunglasses and grinning ear to ear as I sipped my hazelnut coffee and brought the truck up to speed.

She was a monster rig and it had been a while since I’d been behind the wheel of something this big. Everyone else on the road got the fuck out of my way, though. Seeing this thing coming up on you in your rearview mirror was enough to make most people change lanes real quick. So it wasn’t long before I found myself at the base of the hill heading up to the mill.

“Here’s the fun part,” I said to myself, wheeling the truck onto the hard slope leading up the hill. “You’d think they wouldn’t want such a steep fucking driveway. Christ!”

The engine whined and growled as it put all available torque into the tires, and slowly but surely, I managed to come up over the ridge and into the front lot of the mill.

A gruff-looking old man waved me in the direction of a large building with a sign that said “Mill 2,” and I wheeled the truck into a turn and came to a stop just outside the enormous double doors.

“How’s this?” I called to him. Both hands on his hips, the old geezer twisted his lips as he eyeballed my parking job. I knew guys like this – bored old men who’d been on the job for far too long, and liked nothing better than to act like their job was more important than it was. He was gonna give me a hard time.

“Bring her back a bit,” he said, his voice gruff with manufactured authority. Raising his right hand, he made a rapid clasping motion indicating that I should move slowly.

Sighing heavily, I put the truck into reverse and backed up. After no more than two feet, the old bastard closed his hand into a fist and I hit the brake.

“Good?” I asked him as I leaned out the window.

He didn’t even bother replying, or looking at me, and just pouted his lips approvingly and nodded at the tires.

“That’s a lot of wood for one man,” I heard a voice say as I opened my door and stepped out onto the ground, which was absolutely covered in wood chips. I looked up to see Henry, the boss, stepping over to me, his hand stretched out.

“Well, ya know me and wood,” I joked as I shook his hand. He was wearing his Red Sox hat today, which meant he was probably in a better mood than usual. I’d only met Henry a handful of times, and while I wouldn’t call him the world’s most jovial man, we got along well enough to do business together.

“How’s the project coming?”

“All right,” I replied. “Place is getting full.”

“So I’ve heard,” he laughed. “Clarence still living up there with you fellas?”

“Sure is,” I nodded. He was referring to Clarence, an omega in our pack that had worked here a while back. How he ended up with us was quite the tale, and I wasn’t sure whether Henry even know the whole story. “He’s a good guy.”

“Well, let’s get you unloaded here,” Henry smiled. “How soon you need this stuff?”

“Soon as you can,” I told him. “We wanna be done before the snow falls.”

“Ah, you got time!”

“That’s what everyone says,” I laughed. “Until it’s winter and your house ain’t got no floorboards!”

An engine roared behind me and I turned to see another truck, slightly smaller than the one I’d brought over, wheel up behind me and turn across the road to Mill 1.

“Busy today!” I remarked as I made my way to the back of the truck to unhook the chains and get things started. A group of Henry’s men came up beside me to help. But as I tossed one of the chains aside, something hit me like a fist to the nose, and I froze in my tracks.

Impossible!

There were people in my life who’d experienced this before, but I never really, fully understood what they were talking about – until now. A scent filled my nose, my lungs and somehow felt like it had invaded my bloodstream and every fiber of my being.

The smell of cut pine was ever-present here at the mill, but even that was gone, completely overwhelmed by the scent that had just swarmed over me like an invading army.

The scent of a fated mate!

I saw his foot first as he stepped out of the cab of the truck. His leg was slim and he was wearing a dusty pair of work boots that desperately needed replacing. His jeans were tight and he wore a dark green sweater. His long brown hair was thick and wavy and hung down to his shoulders, and when he turned and our eyes met, I felt my knees go weak.

“Beautiful…” I muttered under my breath.

His face was innocent, untouched, but there was a sadness behind his eyes that twisted my heart like someone had their first clenched around it.

An omega that beautiful shouldn’t exist…

But there he was. He couldn’t have been over the age of twenty – shit, I’d have been blown away if he was even eighteen!

The world seemed to swell and chime like one of those slow motion movie moments that never happens in the real world. His dark brown eyes seemed to see right through me, and when I saw his nostrils flare, I knew he was feeling exactly what I was.

Nothing else seemed to exist as we stared at each other. My jeans tightened as the rest of my body reacted to him, and all I wanted was to leap on him right then and there. Who gave a shit if the rest of these men were watching? Hell, maybe then they’d know this omega was mine.