I watched from my apartment as my mate, Pratt, stopped before leaving the parking lot downstairs. He was so sexy. His muscles bulged out of the tank top he was wearing, and the low slung jeans accentuated his perfectly tight buns. He looked don’t-mess-with-me dangerous and I’ll-show-you-a-hot-time-in-bed sexy. Then, he hung his head and his shoulders slumped. For a moment, I was tempted to race down the stairs and comfort him. He looked defeated. I’d watched him as he walked down Main Street. His eyes had moved back and forth, scanning every inch like he was looking for something. I knew. He was looking for me. His scent had reached me from the street. It was torture. He smelled like forest and earth and wood smoke and spices. Delicious.

I felt bad for him. What a hand he’d been dealt to end up with a defective mate like me. If things were different, I would’ve run after him. We could’ve started up… whatever mates did, and let this thing between us loose to take its course. And everything would be happily ever after. If I weren’t me.

As his bike sped away, I turned away from the window. Some things weren’t meant to be. Me having or being a mate was one of them. Especially having a mate who was in a motorcycle gang in one form, and an apex predator in another form.

I sat back down at my desk and finished writing the review of the latest toy I’d received. Sending it off to the company, I closed my laptop and rested my chin in my hands. I was supposed to be at Denny’s, celebrating the baby girl she’d brought into the world. I could still go. I just… I didn’t know if I wanted to be around a crowd of people. All their mates would be there, so it’d be a house full of men. Instead, I grabbed my phone and shot off a quick text to Muddy to let her know I wasn’t coming and to tell Denny and Raif congrats for me. I’d done my part the night before. Delivering that baby had been easy and natural for me. We bunnies had a proclivity for all areas of reproduction. It was like it was programmed into us or something.

So, another night alone in my apartment, just the way I liked it. Solo dolo. I popped a frozen dinner into the microwave and flipped through the TV channels while it cooked. It seemed like the only things on were romantic. By the time I found a rerun of an old game show, I’d seen two steamy kisses, a woman confessing her love to someone off screen, and a way too explicit for TV bedroom scene. For some reason, after all of that, my mood soured and my meal wasn’t much better.

I curled up in the large chair under the front window and watched as the sun set and the tops of the buildings on Main Street fell into darkness. I suddenly felt so alone. It was an odd feeling. I’d never felt alone before. It kinda sucked.

I was usually fine by myself. I’d been that way since I left my parents’ house at eighteen. Leaving home had, at first, felt like a weight lifted off my shoulders. Then, things seemed okay. Then, they were pretty good. When I got to Helen’s Corner, I’d found my space. In a very short time, things became better than good. The place was like that. It had a special kind of magic all its own. I’d stepped into town and the town became a part of me.

I hated that suddenly those feelings were being overshadowed by the prevailing loneliness. I knew it was a direct result of not accepting my mate.

My dark thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. I jerked upright and pulled my robe tight around me. “Who is it?”

“It’s Charlie. Open the door. Is this locked? Why is your door locked? This is Helen’s Corner.”

I unlocked the deadbolt and pulled the door open. “Wasn’t there just a shooting here a while back?”

“Yeah, but that was completely random. Why’d you blow us off tonight?” She strolled into my living room and went to the window. “Axel is waiting downstairs. He didn’t want to come up. He said he got the feeling that you’re not crazy about him.”

“I like Axel just fine.”

“That’s what I said.” She shrugged. “So, why’d you blow us off?”

I looked around my space for an excuse and came up with nothing. “I…just didn’t want to go out.”

“Liar.”

“Am not.”

“This is crazy, Luna. I know you never come out much anyway, and we accept that you like to hide away in your rabbit hole, but you’re staying in like some sort of hermit now. You’re literally hiding from Pratt. He’s a good guy. You don’t need to hide from him.”

I felt my face burn. “I’m not hiding from him.”

“Lie.”

“I just don’t want a mate, Charlie!” I flopped down in my chair and pulled my legs under me. “Why is that so hard to get?”

She crossed her arms. “It’s so hard to get, missy, because it’s a load of bullshit. We’ve all gone through this. Let me save you some time. Mates win. No matter what crap excuse we use to try to get away from it. I avoided Axel because he was, well, a pig and because I didn’t want to start something and disappoint him when he found out I couldn’t have children. Look at us now. We’re happy, Luna. We’re so happy. And, I’m going to tell you a secret. We’re meeting with someone next Monday about starting the process to adopt.”

“What?!” I stood up and pulled her into a hug. “That’s amazing, Charlie! Way to bury the lead!”

She pushed me back down. “It’s not the lead right now. No one else knows that yet, by the way. You’re the first. The lead is that you’ve got to give Pratt a chance. Carter tried to avoid Alec. Look at them. Carter, Alec and Jellybean are like the three musketeers. They couldn’t be happier. Denny tried it. Sonnie tried it. Muddy tried it. We’ve all fought against our mates tooth and nail. It just doesn’t work. Mates are fated. You can’t change it. Whatever it is that’s holding you back, Pratt is probably just what you need. I’ve figured out something. The magic of this town is not that it cocoons you away from all uncomfortable issues that you’d rather avoid. This place heals the issues by waiting until you’re ready, then forcing you to face them head on. You can’t do anything but let it happen and be fucking happy it did. You deserve to be happy. Pratt can do that for you.”

I shoved myself out of the chair and stalked to the other side of the room. “I am happy. Perfectly happy.”

“You’re surviving, not happy. Trust me, there’s a difference. I thought the same thing.” She sighed and grabbed my shoulders. “Come on, Luna. Why are you fighting this so much? The man already did most of the work. He moved here to be close to you. He’s building a house because he wants to have something to offer you when you come around. He’s living straight as an arrow, like Axel, now, because he wants to be a good man for you. He’s given you all the time and space you need, but the poor guy walks around the town long-faced just hoping to catch a glimpse of you.”

I shook my head. “You don’t get it.”

“Then help me get it.”

“I don’t want to be with a man.”

She stepped back. “What? Are you a lesbian? Not that there’s anything wrong with it. I just had no idea.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not gay, Charlie. I’m just…I guess I’m scared.”

“Oh, honey. Why?”

I looked up at the ceiling and groaned. “Do we have to get into this? Axel’s outside waiting on you.”

She plopped down on the sofa, elbows on her knees, and propped her fists under her chin giving me her full attention. “Talk.”

I let out a slow sigh. “My dad was not a nice man. He was a mean. Really mean. And he liked to use his fists. Also, belts, chains…I have scars… I thought that when I got away from him, I was okay, but turned out that my taste in men ran somewhere closer to my dad than I’d have liked. My first and only real boyfriend turned out to be just like him.” I shrugged then raised my hands in front of me before Charlie could say anything. “I know that not all men are like that. I know. But, well… I might want to paint my living room purple today.”

She scrunched up her face. “Huh?”

“I can do what I want when I want. If I want to do something even if it’s painting the living room a deep shade of purple, I don’t have to run it by anyone else. I don’t have to get anyone else’s permission. And, I don’t have to compromise. My life. My rules.”

Charlie’s mouth opened like she wanted to say something, but then she closed it. Then, she opened her mouth again, and again, closed it without saying a word. So, I continued.

“And, I don’t have to take a chance that some man will come in and slowly and methodically steal away little snippets of my freedom until I wake up one day to find myself a prisoner. I don’t like my odds of repeating history. So, I choose to stay how I am. Surviving.”

Charlie wrapped me in a hug and squeezed. “You’re safe here, Luna.”

I forced out a laugh. “I know. It’s just, I’ve spent most of my life not having freedom, now that I do, it’s not so easy to give up.”

“Luna, Pratt isn’t that kind of guy. He doesn’t want to take your freedom, he wants to enhance your life. You can be free together. He’s trying so hard to improve himself, be a better man. And, he’s already a good man. Axel vouches for him. He’s known Pratt since they were kids. You’re not going to be repeating any cycles. He’s safe.” She grinned. “Plus, if he ever even raised his voice at you, you’d have four angry she-shifters and a vicious little human woman here defending so fast his head would spin. We’d cut his nuts off and feed them to him.”

Eww. I shuddered. That wasn’t a pleasant visual. “Why is this so important to you?”

She sighed like I didn’t get it. “I like you. We all like you. It’s time you came down from your tower, Cinderella.”

“Cinderella wasn’t in any towers. That was Rapunzel.”

“Well, whatever. It’s time for you to get back in the pumpkin or try on the glass slipper, or whatever. I want to see you happy with Pratt. You both deserve it.”

It looked like, whether I wanted her or not, Charlie was my new fairy godmother.