Things had just gotten worse. Whether Ty was right or not, he thought he knew who Mattie was, which meant she was in danger. There was only one place I was going to get answers, and it was my mother. Waking her up wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but waiting until morning was out of the question.

Mattie was safe for the time being. Delpha would protect her. Maybe them becoming roommates wasn’t such a bad idea after all. I felt bad leaving Mattie with no explanation and an apartment full of guests, but there was nothing I could easily say. I wasn’t sure how I felt, which meant pretty much anything I said could back fire.

I hurried out of the library and down the street to where I’d left my car earlier that day. I hopped in and ignored the nagging feeling begging me to stay close to Mattie. I didn’t want to accept what that tugging sensation meant. Instead I shrugged it off. It was all because of the run in with Ty. That was it.

There were still people milling around downtown, but it was desolate once I left the main stretch behind. I rolled down the windows of my truck, hoping the crisp air would help clear my head. I glanced up at the starry sky, and all I could think about was Mattie. As enjoyable as my thoughts were, they weren’t going to help me in the slightest. Even though the night was silent, I knew the woods weren’t empty. There was always someone around; the question was whether they were friend or foe. Luckily I didn’t need to worry about that at the moment. I just had to get to my mom’s house.

I parked out front of the large brick, two-story that had been my childhood home. It hadn’t really felt like home in years. Not after the rest of the family moved away. Because of me. Mom had changed the landscaping up a bit, but otherwise it looked exactly the way it had always looked. The house was much like the rest of Willow Harbor: stuck in time. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a lot of my generation were ready for a change. The protection from the outside world the town provided was important, but so was technology. There had to be a better balance.

I walked up the front steps to the porch, running my hand over the railing. It moved under my hand, and I felt a surge of guilt. I should have fixed it for her already. I assuaged the guilt by promising myself I’d be back to fix it during daylight hours sometime soon.

I hesitated for a moment, trying to come up with another option aside from ringing the doorbell. Mom would not appreciate getting woken up late at night, but there no other solutions. I rang the doorbell and heard the muffled chimes from inside that brought back distant memories from childhood. No answer. I pounded on the door, ready to dig out the spare key when the door opened.

“Do you realize what time it is?” Mom had her bright blue robe tightly tied around her.

“Do you realize how close you got to getting Mattie killed—or worse?” The worse was something I didn’t want to think about. Neither possibility was, but I’d heard it in Ty’s voice. I only hoped Mattie hadn’t.

“And how am I involved with Matilda’s safety?” She was obviously shaken even if she was trying hard to hide it.

“Don’t call her Matilda.” I was annoyed for Mattie. There was nothing wrong with her full name, but she didn’t like it. That was enough of a reason for people to respect her preference for her nickname instead.

“Matilda is her given name.” Mom leaned on the door.

“She doesn’t want to go by her given name. She prefers Mattie.”

Mom smiled. “You care?” She moved inside, and I followed closing the door behind me. You never knew who was watching.

“Yes, I care. Shouldn’t I care about an innocent girl?”

“She’s not just any innocent girl now is she?” Mom’s eyes twinkled, and that wasn’t a good thing.

“Why did you hire her?” The answer to that question would explain a lot. At least I hoped it would.

“You know why. You can drop the act.” Mom took a seat on the love seat.

“I don’t know.” Even if I did, I still wanted to hear it from her. Even more important to the why, was the how. How had she found Mattie to begin with?

“If you had been willing to look at the book you’d understand.”

“I’m not looking at an old book to find out who my destined mate is. It’s a joke. I’m too old to waste my time with riddles.”

“Is it a joke?” Mom leaned back. “Are you sure?”

“I don’t see how a book can predict anything. It’s an old legend. That’s it.” I’d spent my life avoiding the codex, and I had no interest in changing that now. No book would define my future. I would decide for myself who I ended up with—if I ended up with anyone at all.

“Then go look. If it’s a joke, what’s the harm?”

“You looked.” I knew that now. “You looked even though I begged you to stay out of this.”

“Stay out of this? You are my son.”

“Oh, and that’s why you are so concerned? About my happiness?” I paced the room, trying to keep my anger in check. I was done being a tool for other’s use.

“Contrary to what you believe, that is what is most important to me.”

“Not the end of the family line.” I slumped down in a high back chair.

“Of course I don’t want to see that happen.” Mom crossed her legs. “But I care about you and understand you will never find true happiness unless you embrace the one meant for you.”

“What did the book tell you? Was it a riddle like Grandpa said it would be?”

“Go read the book yourself.”

“I already told you I’m not going down that rabbit hole. How did you find her? That’s the important question.” And I needed the answer. I needed to understand how a gorgeous, human librarian from New York ended up in Willow Harbor.

Mom crossed her legs the opposite direction. “She found me.”

“No.” I shook my head. “Good try. She told me you called. You shouldn’t have done it without talking to me. You’ve put her in danger, and we don’t even know if she’s the right one.”

“Is there something about her you don’t like, or are you really this determined to turn your back on your fate?” Mom examined the master key to the library she always wore around her neck.

“Don’t put this on me.”

“She’s beautiful. Are you going to deny that?”

“Of course not.” She was more than beautiful. She was incredible. I hadn’t noticed just how gorgeous she was at first, but the more time I spent with her the more apparent it became.

“And would you disagree that she is pleasant to be around?”

“Of course she is, but that doesn’t mean I want to spend the rest of my life mated to her.” A lifetime was a long time.

“And why is that? Are there traits in a life partner she lacks?”

“Mom. Things like this can’t be forced.” Fate had no role in my life. I was so close to twenty-five, I wasn’t giving in now.

“No, they can’t. I didn’t force it; I just gave her a nudge.”

“This isn’t fate. Fate doesn’t need a nudge.” And even if it was, it didn’t matter. I refused to play into the role I had been cast.

“She happened to need a job desperately. She happened to need a job in the one field I had a job to offer her in.” Mom sat forward.

“She needed a job because her ex-boss was a jerk.”

“Don’t worry, he will get what is coming to him.” Mom bit back a grin.

“What do you mean?” I asked carefully. No one wanted to be on my mother’s bad side.

“He will know what’s it like to be manipulated and humiliated.”

“Normally I’d argue with you, but he deserves it.”

“He does.” Mom smiled. “At least we can agree on something.”

“We can agree on that, but that’s it. I can’t do this. Mattie has to leave.”

“No. She isn’t leaving. Get to know her. You have time before you make a decision.”

“Time? Were you listening to me about Ty? She’s in danger. And that’s just one of the wolf packs. What about the others? The bears? The lions? The list goes on and on. We both know it.”

“Isn’t it convenient she has a built-in body guard now?” Mom grinned.

“Wait. What?” I froze. “Please tell me you didn’t screw things up with Delpha and Cad.”

Mom shook her head. “I didn’t have to. And this break will probably last just long enough until Mattie’s ready to move in with you.”

“Mom,” I groaned.

“Is there anything else, or may I go back to bed?” Her expression made it clear there was only one acceptable answer to her question.

“Go to bed.”

Mom rose. “Sleep well, Pierce.”

I took my cue and headed back toward the front door in even more of a funk than I’d been in before.

What was I going to do now? I couldn’t make Mattie leave. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. After years of sidestepping fate, it had come to get me and left me powerless.

Sabotaging things was out of the question. I couldn’t. I wanted her whether I wanted to own up to it or not. She called to me body, mind, and spirit, and it was no longer possible to view any other outcome.

But she didn’t know that. She had to want me as much as I wanted her. I'd been rude. She probably didn't even want to see me. A few hours before I would have celebrated that development, but the call was there. I needed to see her. Whether I liked it or not, there was no turning back.

But what had the book said? How had my mother found her at exactly the right time for her—when she desperately needed a job—and for me—mere weeks before my birthday?

My grandfather had warned me that the book was powerful, both with good and evil, and I wasn’t touching it unless I had to. Instead I would work on the part of things I was far more interested in: smoothing things over with Mattie.

---

I clutched the white bag in my hands hoping I had guessed right and knowing there was only one way to find out. I knocked, noting how off it was that this was the second time I was nervously knocking on a woman’s door in the space of one day. At least it was late enough in the morning now that showing up was marginally socially acceptable.

Delpha opened the door in her black velvet pajamas. “Come.” She turned her back to me before I could reply.

I followed her inside, closing the door behind me. No one else was around to look in, but there were always people around to hear. “Is she up yet?”

“Mattie? Yes and no. She got up for a few minutes and then went back to her room.” Delpha eyed the three coffees held in the grey cardboard tray in my hand.

“Oh.” I glanced toward her room, even from the front I could see the missing door.

“She’s not in there. She took my room. Thanks for that.” She ran her fingers over the mark on her shoulder.

“I was worried about her.” I remembered my state of mind when I ripped off the door.

“Sure, sure. You worried about her being with someone else you mean.” Delpha grabbed a coffee and sipped it. Knowing Delpha that was to make sure I couldn’t take it back.

“Very funny.” She was partially correct, but I wasn’t going to admit to it.

“I wasn’t making a joke.”

“Is that for me?” She gestured to the bag in my hand.

“You already have the coffee.” I set the tray down on the counter.

“But not the bagels or pastries you have in there?”

“I thought I was being nice with the coffee.” I was only kidding. I pulled out a bagel and handed it to her.

She smiled in thanks. “She’s weirder than I thought.” Delpha was good at the abrupt conversation changes.

“You’re calling someone else weird?” Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, but that’s how it was sometimes. People always noticed their own flaws clearer in someone else.

“Yes. She is. She doesn’t think your shifting is hot.” Delpha pulled a container of cream cheese out of the fridge and a butter knife out of a drawer. She was already making herself at home.

There was a lot to unload in that statement. “Um…”

“Well, she does, but she is afraid to admit it. That still makes her weird.”

“So weird you decided to become her roommate. Funny how that happened.” I wanted to pretend I didn’t care what Mattie thought of my shifting, but I did. I most definitely did.

“She needs my protection.” Delpha sipped her coffee. “You know that.”

“Is that why you moved in?”

“It also helps me. Win win situation for all.” She smiled.

“How pissed is she at me?” I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to know.

“She’s not pissed exactly.”

“Then what is she? I know I’m not on her good list.”

“Annoyed, confused.”

“Those aren’t great things.” And it bothered me a whole lot to know Mattie felt them about me.

“But they aren’t pissed.”

“True.” Although I wasn’t sure if annoyed was much better.

The door to the second bedroom opened, and Mattie walked out.

My eyes slid up and down her body, taking in her jeans and fitted sweater only after noticing how cute her hair looked pulled up into a high pony-tail.

She put a hand on her hip. “Why are you here?”

“Good morning to you too.” I smiled, trying to hide how nervous I was.

“You ran out of here like your life depended on it last night. Why are you back? To see Delpha?” Her hard expression did nothing to put me at ease. She was angry, and she had every right to be.

“I’m here to see you.” I wasn’t going to lie.

“What happened between then and now?” She frowned, and I instantly wanted to wipe it from her face.

“I went a few hours without seeing you.”

Delpha snorted.

Mattie shook her head. “Ok, you’ve seen me. You are welcome to go.” She walked over to the door and opened it.

“Do I have to?” I sounded whinier than I intended, but she didn’t understand. Things were moving so quickly, too quickly.

“I can’t keep up with you. It’s like whiplash.” She held onto the door as if debating what to do.

“And you’ve only known him forty-eight hours. Wait until you’ve known him years.” Delpha smirked.

“I’m not sure I will know any of you in a few years.” There was something sad in her voice. Was she feeling the pull too? Was it to the town, or to me?

“What do you mean?” I fished for information. “You aren’t planning on leaving, are you?”

“Either I was drugged or delusional last night. The door to my room is missing, and I’m done.” She closed the door, and leaned back against it.

“You know you weren’t drugged nor delusional. It’s okay to admit you believe everything.” I spoke carefully, hoping I didn’t come across as pushy, but she needed to accept this was real. Either that or she needed to leave, and I wasn’t about to suggest that possibility.

“But that means it’s real.” She slunk down until she was sitting on the floor. She looked so tired, and I worried she hadn’t slept the night before. I’d never worried about someone else’s sleep before.

“It is real.” More real than she could possibly imagine.

“Why did you run off last night?” She looked up at me.

“Because I needed to clear my head. What Ty said scared me.” I offered my hand to help her up.

“What part of what he said?” She accepted my hand. “A lot of it seemed scary.”

I smiled. “Very true.”

“Why’s your birthday so important?”

“And on that note I’m out of here.” Delpha slipped around me toward the door.

“You’re wearing pajamas.” Mattie said it as a statement.

Delpha turned around. “Yeah, so?”

Mattie shook her head. “Ok…”

“See ya later.” Delpha left, closing the door behind her.

Before Mattie could ask any more questions, I picked up the white bag. “I brought bagels and coffee.”

She smiled as if amused. “You guys like bagels here.”

“Don’t you like them? I assumed you would since you are from New York.”

“I do, but Delpha brought them over yesterday.”

“Oh.” So much for my original idea. I’d been trying to come up with some way to make things up to her.

She smiled. “But I could eat them every day.”

I wasn’t sure if she was just trying to make me feel better, but I would run with it. “Great.”

She took two plates out of the oak cabinets and set them down on the table. I pulled out bagels for each of us. I’d gotten them pre-sliced because I wasn’t sure what kind of kitchen tools my mom had stocked the kitchen with.

“You can do your bagel first.” She nodded at the cream cheese before pulling a coffee from the tray. “This is what I want most.”

I smiled. I could relate. If I hadn’t already had a large cup I probably would have reached for the same thing.

She slipped into a chair and sipped her coffee. “I’m starting to think this is a nightmare that never ends.”

“You aren’t dreaming.” I sat across from her, loving the normality of sharing breakfast with her.

“I wish I were.”

I tried to swallow down the lump in my throat. “No. It’s not so bad.”

“Says the guy who seems to think I’m in danger.” She picked up the knife and stared down at her bagel as if trying to decide if she had the energy to spread it.

“You are in danger, but between Delpha and me you will be fine.”

“But wouldn’t I be safer if I left?” There was a faraway look in her eyes as if she was already picturing that outcome.

Not anymore. “No. You won’t be safe for at least another few weeks.”

“And this all somehow ties into your birthday, huh?” She set down the knife.

“Pretty much.”

“And your birthday is important because…” She watched me intently.

I debated. Could I really hold her off any longer? Would she find out from someone else? “Ok. This is going to sound crazy.”

“Crazier than you turning into animals?” Mattie tilted her head to the side, revealing her neck. I wanted to kiss her there, to run my lips over the sensitive skin.

I snapped myself out of the fantasizing. “Maybe not crazier than that, although…” I sipped my coffee to buy myself some time.

“Just spit it out.”

“Fine.” There was no reason to hold off any longer. “If I don’t meet my mate by my twenty-fifth birthday, the shapeshifter line in my family dies out.”

“Uh…” She stared at me.

“Yeah, I told you it would sound crazy.”

“It does. The term mate is crazy when you’re talking about humans. Animals, well, that’s another story.”

“I’m not human.” I set down my coffee harder than anticipated, spilling some coffee onto the wood table.

“Oh.” She got up to get a paper towel. “I suppose humans can’t shift like that.”

I grabbed the paper towel. I wasn’t going to let her clean up my mess. “But you’re a human.”

“What do I have to do with it?” She watched me clean as if she were uncomfortable sitting back.

“You did hear Ty.” I set the wet paper towel aside. “So technically this is discussing a human mating.”

“Wait.” She fell back into her chair. “You aren’t saying.” She started to laugh. “Good one.”

“I don’t know for sure either. I mean I kind of do, but I’ve been avoiding finding out.”

“Finding out?” She leaned forward on her elbows.

“Yes.” Even talking about it had my heart rate accelerated. I already knew the truth. The problem was I wasn’t sure if I was ready to accept it, and I knew for sure she wasn’t.

“And how would you do that?” She leaned her chin on her clasped hands.

“I’d kiss you.”

She laughed even harder. “Wow. Good one.”

“I’m not lying.” Technically I wasn’t. I was nearly positive, but it couldn’t hurt to get more of a for sure sign.

“If you wanted to kiss me you could have just said it… or wait, this is just a way to make me feel stupid.”

“No. Definitely not. And I don’t know if I’m ready to find out. If we are being perfectly honest.” I felt like being honest. I had no desire to lie or hide anything from her.

“I’m not your mate. You just said I’m human.” She seemed relieved to be saying it. I couldn’t blame her, but I was about to burst her bubble.

“Yes. I always assumed my mate would be human.” I watched her like a hawk, noticing the way her eyes widened.

She sighed. “This is something else.”

It was time to spill on everything. “And you are in danger because Ty, and plenty of others, would rather my line die out.”

“And why is that?” She straightened. “Shifter disputes?”

“More than that.” Being a true shapeshifter had its perks, but dealing with other shifters wasn’t one of them.

“Care to explain?” She sipped her coffee. She seemed more relaxed now that we weren’t specifically talking about the possibility of her being my mate.

“I can shift into any animal I’ve seen.”

“So you’ve explained.” She waved me on with her hand.

“Right. So no other shifters can do that.” Generally, I resented my unique identity, but explaining it to Mattie made me proud.

“Yes, you are a true shifter. Delpha told me.”

“Well, the others don’t like it.”

“Why not?” She held her coffee in both hands.

“How can I explain this?” I needed to choose my words carefully. “Ok, if there was something super special about you that defined who you were, would you want someone else to be able to do it?”

“But there are more than one of each shifter, right?” She furrowed her brow. She looked adorable when she was focusing on something. Who was I kidding? She always looked cute—well, way more than cute.

“Yes, but it is what makes them what they are. The bears are the bears. The wolves the wolves. You know? I’m not one of them, yet I can pass for any of them. That causes problems.”

“But you aren’t the only one who can, right?” She set down her coffee. “You aren’t the only true shapeshifter.”

“Not in the world. There are a few others.”

“A few?” Her eyes widened. “As in a few?”

“What else would I mean?”

“I didn’t know if you were being literal or not.” She turned her coffee cup around and around on the table.

“I was.” No reason to hide that from her now that she knew everything else.

“And you aren’t worried about losing your line?”

“I gave up a long time ago.” And I couldn’t help but wonder how much easier life would be once it was all over. That was one thing I couldn’t admit.

“Why?”

“Because finding a mate somewhere in the whole world is a tough thing.”

“If it’s so hard, then how can I possibly be your, uh, mate?” The word mate seemed to get stuck on her tongue, and she struggled to get it out. I didn’t blame her.

“You’re here.”

“Huh?”

I looked straight into her eyes. “Why do you think you’re in this town?”