I stared at Pierce for half-an-hour. At least it felt that long. In reality it may have only been a few minutes. “You’re telling me I got this job because I’m your mate?” I repeated his words over and over in my head as if saying them enough would make them easier to understand.

“For some reason my mom thought you were.”

“And why would she think that?” I picked up my non-cream cheesed bagel and took a bite.

“A book. Technically a codex, but really that’s just a type of book. So a book.”

“A book or a codex. Whatever you want to call it, that’s what gave her the idea?” I turned my bagel around in my hand, not sure if I had enough of an appetite to eat it even though I was hungry. I was full of contradictory feelings. “Right.”

“My life is a little crazy.”

“A little?” I laughed.

He shrugged. “Ok, a lot.”

“I’m not your mate.”

“I’m starting to think you are.”

“And why is that? I mean you haven’t even kissed me.” Hadn’t he just said something about that? I believed all the random stuff he was saying even though it was crazy. Somehow it didn’t feel crazy, and that fact almost scared me more. Was my lack of logical thinking his fault too?

“The more time I spend with you, the more possible it seems.”

“Possible.” I repeated his word. I was at such a loss of what to say or feel.

“Even if you are… I mean, that doesn’t require you to do anything.”

“Oh?” His words stung me in a way I didn’t quite understand.

“Yeah. You can leave. If you stay around you’re going to make me miserable unless we, well, unless things work out. But you can leave.”

“And your line dies.” I knew nothing about true shapeshifters, but if there really were only a few lines, having a line die out was a big deal. Even as an outsider I understood that much.

“Yes, but that isn’t really your problem.” He stared down at the table.

“I’m glad you’re trying really hard to sell this to me.” It’s not that I wanted to mate with a guy I barely knew, but I wanted him to want me. I shouldn’t have cared of course, but I did. Maybe it was just human nature to be wanted by those we want.

“I’m trying to do the right thing.”

I brushed off the sting of what felt like rejection. “Show me that place.”

“That place?” He looked up.

“Yeah, the one you were going to show me last night but didn’t.”

“You willing to miss work?” He rubbed the thin layer of stubble on his chin. I normally liked a clean-shaven guy, but the look really worked for him. It was rugged, and considering he could change into all sorts of different animals, rugged seemed like the appropriate term.

“Your mom is in on all this, isn’t she?” She was the one who brought me to town after all.

He smiled. “Yes.”

“Then sure. Let me get ready.” Maybe playing hooky on my second day of work was a bad idea, but Vicky hadn’t even given me any tasks yet. Besides, compared to Pierce telling me I was possibly meant to be a mate to a shapeshifter, skipping out on a job didn’t seem all that crazy. It’s amazing how quickly your perspective can change.

“Ok. I’ll wait here.”

“I’d hope so.” Did I? Ugh. I pushed some dirty thoughts from my head. Fantasizing about Pierce wasn’t going to help my problems.

I quickly brushed my teeth and washed my face. I figured the jeans I’d thrown on worked as well as anything else, and I grabbed a coat. I’d learned my lesson about going out unprepared.

He was staring out the window when I came out.

I joined him, looking out at the ocean in the distance. “I’m ready.”

He looked me up and down. “I was never a fan of jeans.”

“Never were, as in past tense?”

“Yes. You make them look good.”

“Oh, thanks.” I was sure he’d noticed me wearing them earlier, so why only bring it up now? It was almost as if he noticed more about me the more time we spent together.

He wasn’t the only one. I decided that tight fitted t-shirts looked best on Pierce. I didn’t tell him that.

“I assume this outfit works for wherever we are going.”

“Yes, It’s a good choice for this.” He looked out at the water again.

“Ok, so where are we going exactly?” By his gaze I assumed he meant the beach, but assumptions had gotten me in trouble before.

He turned back to look at me again. “It’s a surprise.”

“It’s not a surprise like the shifting or the mate talk, right?” Surprises took on new meaning when it came to Pierce, and really anything in Willow Harbor.

“No, you’ve had enough of that in the past few days.”

“But there’s more surprises?” I was afraid of the answer even though not all of his surprises had been bad.

“Maybe.” He smiled coyly.

“Yes or no?” Afraid or not I needed to know.

“That depends on whether you’re my mate.” He averted his eyes.

“Ok, can you do me a favor?” I grabbed my coffee.

“Sure.” He met my gaze again.

“No talking about mates, shifting, anything like that until I tell you to, ok?” I wasn’t usually a pushy person, but I needed a few hours of sane talk. I downed the little bit of coffee that was left. I wasn’t sure where this walk would take us, but it would be more enjoyable with caffeine in my system.

“But you believe it, right? You don’t think someone drugged you or that you’re dreaming?”

“Strangely enough, I’m starting to believe you.” I was more than starting, but I wasn’t entirely ready to put all my cards on the table.

“Better than nothing.”

“Will I be warm enough in this?” I held up my grey pea coat. I was starting to regret leaving my warmer coat back in New York.

“I’d think so…”

“I forget you’re Mr. I Never Get Cold.” I didn’t really mind, but there was some jealousy there. How much simpler would it be to never need a coat?

“Ready to go?” He gestured to the door.

“Sure. Well, I am taking this for the road.” I grabbed the uneaten half of my bagel.

He laughed. “Not a bad idea, but I promise it won’t be that long of a trip.”

“I’ve learned to be prepared here.”

“Even if you don’t know what to be prepared for?”

“Pretty much.” I took a bite of the bagel. Like the caffeine, having food in my system was a smart move.

He held the door open, and I followed, momentarily doubting the intelligence of following him anywhere. But I wasn’t afraid. That was the frightening part. There was something that nagged at me even though I’d already assured myself it didn’t matter. “Maybe skipping work is a really bad idea. I can’t afford to get fired.”

“What are you supposed to be doing today?” He stopped on the landing before the final flight of stairs.

“Nothing… she told me to take this week to get acquainted.”

“Then aren’t you are doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing?” He winked. “But we can stop by her office.” He reached the bottom floor and the led the way to Vicky’s office.

I picked up a book lying on the floor, set it on top of a bookshelf, and hurried to catch up.

Pierce waited for me outside of her partially closed door. Once I caught up, he knocked.

Vicky set down a book she was reading and smiled. “Pierce, Matilda. Good morning.”

He walked inside, and I followed. “Good morning, I—” I stopped. What was I supposed to say? I was skipping work to hang out with her son?

“Are you showing Matilda around today?” Vicky turned to Pierce.

“Yes. I figure she needs to see some of our town’s natural beauty before she makes a decision about it.”

Something wordless passed between them. “Sounds like a good plan, but don’t stay out too long. There’s a storm rolling in.”

“A storm?” I wasn’t a fan of thunderstorms, but I hadn’t seen any mention of one in the weather.

“Yes, I can feel it.” Vicky folded her hands on her desk.

“Should I bring a rain jacket instead?” It was always better to be prepared. “It’s not lined but maybe I can wear it over my coat.”

Pierce smiled. “Over your coat? I still don’t see how a New Yorker is so afraid of the cold.”

“I’m not afraid of it, but I was looking forward to a break from it.” It was one of the things on my positives list.

“Spring comes early here. You won’t have to wait too long.” Vicky smiled.

“We’ll be back before the storm starts.” Pierce put his hand on my shoulder. It was a gesture that would have normally annoyed me—I wasn’t into non-family touching me— but it felt strangely comforting this time.

“Good.” Vicky returned to her reading.

Pierce moved his hand to the small of my back and led me out of the office. He gently closed the door behind us. “That was her dismissing us. If you’re going to keep working for her, you’ll have to get used to her nonverbal gestures.”

“I guess so.” I nodded at Mr. G on our way outside. He did the same in return.

By the time we reached the bottom of the stairs, I was glad for my coat. The temperature had dropped even more.

Pierce shook his head and smiled, but he wisely didn’t make any other cracks about my aversion to cold weather.

The main street was mostly empty, but we passed a few people who all waved at Pierce and looked at me funny. I wondered if the look was because they didn’t know me, or because I was with him.

He must have read the question in my expression. “They’re trying to figure out whether you’ll be staying around at all.”

“Why? I mean why would they care about that?”

“Because very few humans stay here.”

He was hiding something. “I assume there’s a reason for this town not showing up on GPS too.”

“Of course.” He stopped in front of his truck, temporally halting my line of questioning.

“Are we driving?” We’d planned to walk it the night before.

“You are opposed to the cold, and a storm is coming in. Might as well be smart about it.” He opened the passenger door.

“I’m not opposed the cold. I’m just normal.”

“Normal?” He raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that?”

“Positive.” I swatted at his arm and then stared at my hand. Did I really just do that to a guy I’d only just met? Why was I acting so friendly with him?

If he was surprised by my action he didn’t show it. “Whatever you say.”

“So I’m really supposed to get in your truck?” I looked inside the truck; it looked perfectly normal.

“More worried about my driving than going to a secluded place with me?” He rested his hand on the door.

“Secluded?” I paused just as I was ready to climb up into the cab. “You never told me it was secluded.”

“Didn’t you assume it?”

“No.” I turned back around. “You never told me anything about it.”

“I’m not going to hurt you. We’ve been over this.” He stood right in front of me. If he moved another inch I’d be pinned against the inside of his truck. “Trust me.”

His closeness was making my head fuzzy. “I hope I don’t regret this.”

“You won’t.” He stepped back and gave me enough room to get in. “This will be fun.” He closed my door and then walked around to his side of the truck. He got in and buckled. “Ok, I’ll make this painless.”

“Painless? I thought this was a walk along the beach or something.”

He backed out of his spot. “It is.”

So was he joking? Normally I was good at picking up on those sorts of things, but I was at a loss with Pierce. I changed the subject. I would find out where we were going soon enough. There were plenty of other questions to ask. “Is Delpha really half-Oceanid?’

He stopped short as a girl ran right in front of his truck. “And the other half is sorceress.”

My mouth fell open. How was he so calm? We almost hit a teenager.

He looked over at me before he started driving again. “What?”

“Didn’t that shake you up?” I gestured to the road in front of us.

“No. I have good reflexes.”

“Good reflexes?” I shook my head. “Of course.”

“Any other questions about Delpha I can help you with?” He continued driving.

“Do Oceanids and sorceresses, uh, reproduce a lot?” I hoped my question was polite enough.

“Every combination you can imagine exists, but a lot might be stretching it.”

“Does she have the powers of both?” Although I didn’t know what a Oceanid’s powers even were.

“Yes.”

“That’s kind of cool… kind of scary.” Likely more scary than cool because that’s how things seemed to work here.

“Emphasis on scary.”

I was right. “So if she’s that scary why should I let her live with me?” I looked out the window. We’d left main street and were getting closer to the beach. The waves looked bigger today, and I immediately remembered Vicky’s warning about the storm. Hopefully Pierce knew the signs well enough to get us home before the sky opened up—not that a little water would kill me.

“She’s not going to hurt you, and she’ll hurt anyone who comes near you. Well, unless you want that person near you. Like me.” He glanced over at me.

“First of all, why would she do that? Second of all, how do you know I want you near me?” Of course I did, but that didn’t mean I was going to admit it.

“As to the second, I think it’s obvious. You are sitting in my truck.” His lips twisted into a smile, and I had the sudden urge to kiss the smile off his face.

“True, but how did she know that?”

“She knows things. I wouldn’t linger on it long.”

We drove further away from the center of town until the road became gravel. “Ok, then the first part. Why would she hurt anyone who came near me?”

“She likes you.” He pulled into a sand parking lot and turned off his truck.

I made no move to get out. “Why? I mean what if she changes her mind?”

“She likes you, and she likes me. Also she likes my mom. So you have a triple level of protection.”

“Yet she’s a children’s librarian. I mean being fierce and a children’s librarian don’t go together.”

“Have you met the kids in this town?” He raised an eyebrow.

I thought about the teenager who ran into the street without looking. Was he being serious or joking? Not being able to read him on this kind of thing was throwing me off.

He laughed. “I’m joking. She’s crazy about kids, and she’d never hurt any.”

Good. That was a relief.

He got out and walked around to my side of the truck. He opened my door before I could.

“Thanks.”

“My pleasure.” He held out his hand.

I accepted it, despite not being one for those kinds of gestures. He seemed to be doing it out of desire or upbringing rather than to impress me, and that made it better.

I stared out at the dark water in the distance. At least if I was in the boonies I had access to the ocean. “It’s really pretty out here. I get why you like it.”

“You haven’t seen anything yet.”

“Oh really?” I couldn’t imagine what he found even prettier.

“It only gets better.” He walked to the end of the parking lot and onto a wooden boardwalk that rose over the sand dunes.

“And we have time before the storm?” Running from a thunderstorm didn’t appeal to me, especially when there was nowhere to take shelter.

“We’ll be fine.”

“So you say.” I had already put a lot of trust in him, but eventually I would hit my limit.

He turned around to look at me. “We’re going to be fine, and this view is worth it.”

“Ok. Then you can answer some more questions for me.”

He chuckled. “Ok, what else do you want to know?” He started walking again.

“Can you tell me more about the book?”

He stopped short. “I thought you didn’t want to talk about mating.”

I didn’t want to talk about mating. Even the mention of it stressed me out, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t get lots of other questions answered. “Can’t we talk about the book without getting into the whole mating thing?”

“Maybe, but I mean the whole purpose of the codex is to reveal information about the future of our line, and in doing so it give hints as to pairings.”

“Give hints how?” This was news.

“I don’t really know.” He started walking again.

“You’ve really never looked? How is that possible? If it were me, I would have looked the first chance I had.”

“It’s not going to have your name or anything.” He picked up his pace.

I hurried to keep up with him. “It wouldn’t have my name anyway. I’m not the right one.” I waited for his answer.

“Ok. It wouldn’t have any name. Just hints.” He stepped off the walkway onto the sand.

“Clues… like riddles or something?”

“I wouldn’t know.” He started down toward the water. The beach was long, and I assumed it was low tide.

“But your mother looked?”

“Evidently. Somehow it led her to you.”

“Which is weird.” I still didn’t get it.

“My mother is a determined woman.”

“I can tell.” I respected strong women, and I appreciated her taking a chance on me—even if it was for the wrong reason.

He stopped midway down to the water. “I’m sorry about your computer.”

“You’ve already apologized.” I didn’t want to talk about it because that meant talking about what I was upset about to begin with. The messages he’d found.

“But I feel awful. I should have been more respectful. I just saw the message and…”

“It’s over.” I looked out at the waves crashing against the shore. Watching them relaxed me.

“Is it?”

“Yeah. I told you, I forgive you.” I pulled my eyes from the waves long enough to notice the sky darkening.

“I mean with the professor.” His voice was low, but it was heavy with questions.

“We weren’t involved.” Not in the slightest. I wouldn’t have dated him even if he hadn’t been my boss. He was creepy, and pushy, and everything I didn’t like in a guy.

“I know.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I just mean is he still bothering you? Has he messaged you again?”

“Why does it matter?” I asked suspiciously. “I got another message, but I never replied. It’s weird. He never tried to smooth things over while I was there.”

“Yeah, strange.” He looked down the beach.

I now knew he only averted his eyes for a reason. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“Nothing.”

“I need to know.” I walked to his other side so I was in his line of sight.

“My mom’s taking care of it.” He looked away.

I stood on my tiptoes and took his head in my hands. “Excuse me?”

“She is going to take care of it.” Even with my holding his face he tried to look away.

“What does that even mean?”

“It means he’s not going to bother you anymore.”

I released him. Was I crazy? Forcing him to look at me? “It’s fine.”

“Is it? The guy made it nearly impossible for you to get a job—albeit I’m glad you ended up here, but still, it’s wrong on so many levels.”

“But why should your mom be involved?” That was the million-dollar question, wasn’t it?

“She likes you, and you were wronged. She doesn’t put up with things like that.”

“What’s she going to do?” I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to know. I hated my ex-boss, but that didn’t mean I wanted anything too horrible to happen to him.

“He will live through it.”

“Live through it?” I froze. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”

“Don’t get upset. She isn’t going to hurt him, but she is going to make sure he doesn’t pull something like that again. Maybe you are out of that situation, but I’m sure he’ll have plenty of other young women working for him.”

“True.” And I never wanted something like that to happen to anyone ever again.

“What are you thinking?”

“I’m wondering if I should feel guilty.”

“Why should you?” He appeared completely confused even though it was obvious to me.

“Someone is going to go through hell because of me.”

“The same person who put you through hell.”

“Why did you tell her? I’m surprised you’d want your mom to take care of it…” I crossed my arms.

“I didn’t tell her.”

“Then Delpha?” I didn’t need another reason to be annoyed at my new roommate, but I was running out of possibilities.

“My mom already knew. She knew before you got here.”

“Oh.” Is that why she hadn’t asked for a reference? I’d assumed she’d been as desperate to fill the position as I was to find one. “How much did she know about me before I got here?”

“My guess is a lot.”

“Your guess?”

“Ok. I know. She found you for a reason.”

“But I never told anyone. Not even my parents because I didn’t want them getting involved.” I never wanted anyone to find out. The plan was to get a new reference and move on.

“They don’t know?”

I walked further down the beach. “No.”

“Then how did you explain not getting a job? With your grades…”

“There aren’t a million library jobs open right now, but I couldn’t even find a volunteer position. My parents figured out it was a reference problem, but I let them think I didn’t do a great job.” I stopped walking right before the line where the water hit the sand.

“Wow. That must have been hard.”

“To let them think so?” I shrugged. “Not really. Like I said, it was better than them getting involved.”

“Would it really have been so bad if they got involved?” He asked with what seemed to be genuine curiosity.

“Yes. Bad for all of us.”

“Care to elaborate?” He walked down the beach horizontally.

“Not really.”

“Please.”

“They would have freaked and threatened to sue or something. I didn’t need the drama.” I walked with him, enjoying the cold wind more than I expected. It was salty, and seemed to be full of whispers of possibilities.

“Gotcha… I think. And you really didn’t tell anyone else?”

“Trying to figure out how your mom knew?” I wrapped my arms around myself to ward off the cold wind blowing off the ocean.

“No, trying to understand how you didn’t have a single person to trust.”

“I’m lame.”

“No.” His face paled. “You’re not.”

I started walking ahead, completely uninterested in continuing our conversation.

“Mattie?” He caught up with me.

“Yes?” I looked over at him.

“You don’t really think that about yourself. Do you?”

I sighed. “It’s pretty much the truth.”

He stopped, taking my hands in his so I’d stop too. “No, it’s not.”

“How would you know?”

“Because I do.”

“You barely know me.”

“I barely know you, yet I know you better than anyone. It’s weird. It’s crazy. And I’m kind of sort of okay with that.” He looked deep into my eyes. “Are you okay with that?”

I nodded, and he leaned in, his lips crashing into mine. He wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me against him. His kiss was hard, demanding, but his lips were soft and warm. He pushed for access to my mouth, and I gladly gave it, soaking in the salty yet sweet taste awaiting me. I wrapped my arms around his neck, needing him closer. I wanted to stay inside that kiss forever, to forget about the rest of the world.

The sound of thunder in the distance had me stepping back. “Wow.”

He grinned. “Wow is a good way to describe that.”

“Uh, we should get back to your truck. I heard thunder. The storm is here.”

He grinned even bigger. “Oh yeah? Is that your concern?”

“Pierce.” I didn’t want to argue with him. I wasn’t sure I could.

“We can’t turn back yet.” He took my hand and led me further down the beach.