Harper’s breath caught, and Imogen’s eyes widened as they overheard the conversation Domino and Valentina were having. Mating? She had no idea what that meant, but she agreed with the alpha. He needed to talk to her about it sooner rather than later.

“Please, don’t tell him we overheard,” she whispered, looking at Imogen.

“My lips are sealed.” The other woman made the gesture of sealing her mouth and locking it before throwing away the imaginary key. “I want nothing more than to see Domino happy. If that’s with you, then I’m not going to screw it up for you two.”

Her mind was reeling, but something felt off. If their sense of smell was so powerful, shouldn’t he have known she was there? Did he mean for her to overhear? Whatever the truth of it was, it didn’t matter in that moment. What did matter was finding Daisy, and Harper dearly hoped that they were getting closer to doing that.

When they rounded the corner, they almost smacked into Domino and Valentina. His eyes locked on her, and she could feel her blood heat under his gaze.

“Any luck?” The alpha’s voice broke the trance that she seemed to go into around Domino.

“Not as such. There is a faint trail leading off just up there, but I thought this one was stronger, which is why we kept following it,” Imogen said.

“She must have circled the block a few times for her scent to still be so strong. Let’s go check out the other path you found,” Valentina said.

The four of them wandered down and across the street, Imogen and Valentina leading the way while she and Domino walked behind. When his hand found hers, she bit her lip, twining her fingers through his as her heart thumped in her chest. Could she do this? Be part of this strange world she’d never even known existed? Be the mate of a bear shifter? She didn’t know the answer to either of those questions, but one thing she did know was that she was willing to find out, and that thought surprised her.

“Here!” Imogen’s voice was urgent.

Harper’s heart jumped into her throat. “Is she okay?”

“Something’s up with one of her back legs,” Imogen said, her body still hiding Daisy from Harper’s sight. When Imogen turned around, her arms held the little dog that had stolen Harper’s heart from the first moment she’d seen her. There was blood on her back left foot, and she held her leg at a strange angle.

“I don’t have a vet yet,” Harper breathed, unsure what to do.

“We will take her back to the shelter, and our vet will fix her right up,” Valentina’s voice sounded from her right.

When the other woman put a hand on Harper’s shoulder, it was like she was standing next to a fire. Warmth and strength radiated out of her through that one touch, and she could see why Domino and Imogen considered her the alpha of their apparently unusual pack. She nodded numbly to the people surrounding her, and they all moved away back to their cars, speeding back to the shelter and to the veterinarian who could fix Daisy up.

Standing in the staff lounge waiting was the worst part. She just wanted to know what was wrong and how they could fix it. It didn’t help that people kept coming in and out and giving her funny looks. When Domino came back in, her heart froze in her chest. He walked straight over and hugged her. The warm and woody scent of him filled her nostrils, and the steady beat of his heart under her ear calmed her.

“Harper?” an unfamiliar voice asked.

She gently pushed away from Domino and saw a younger man standing just inside the door of the breakroom. He looked tired but friendly. “That’s me,” she said.

“I’m Jason, the vet here at Wardens of the Heart.” He extended a hand to her.

She shook it. “Nice to meet you. How’s Daisy?”

“She’s fractured her fibula and two of her metatarsal bones in her left rear leg, which is why the leg was hanging at a strange angle. I think she was probably clipped by a car when she was having her adventure off leash. The damage could have been a lot worse, so she got off pretty lucky. What I need to do is go in and place a plate and some pins to hold the bones while they heal. The plate and pins will be permanent, and she’ll require a decent amount of post-surgery care to make sure she isn’t licking the surgery site or putting weight on the leg, things like that. If you’re okay with that, then I’ll need to keep her here for a couple days to make sure she recovers from the surgery okay. If everything goes according to plan, she can go home with you the day after tomorrow.”

“Whatever you need to do, please do it,” she said. Her credit card was not going to be happy with her, but she wasn’t about to sacrifice Daisy’s ability to move around.

“Will do. I’ll have one of the nurses bring out a consent form for you to sign, and I’ll start prepping for surgery.”

Just like that, he was gone again, and Harper felt like she was stuck in an ocean that was drawing her further and further away from the shore.

“She’s going to be fine. Jace is an excellent vet, and he loves Daisy just as much as the rest of us do.”

“Thanks.” She sighed and leaned against him.

His voice rumbled through her, setting her skin on fire for him. “Once you sign the forms, I’m going to take you home. I’ll give you an hour and a half to shower and change and do whatever it is you want to do, and then I’m going to pick you up and take you out to dinner. We will have heard from Jace before we get to the restaurant, I’m sure, so we can eat in peace.”

“Don’t I get a say in this?” She smiled.

“No, Lola, you don’t,” he said, kissing her neck right as the nurse walked in.