The young wolf jogging along behind Wyatt as he entered the police station made him want to swat the kid away, like he was a fly. Mac had peeled off earlier, muttering something about needing to call his mate, Rogue. This kid, who was a rookie cop here in the all-wolven police department of Serenity, had attached himself like a barnacle to Wyatt a month earlier when he first moved back to town. Word of Wyatt's stellar record back at his old department had preceded him here, especially his feat saving that little boy from drowning in the local river late last summer after a huge storm had swelled the river over its banks and caught the boy unawares a few miles downstream where he was fishing with his family.

Damn, he did so-called hero shit like that because he was supposed to save lives. Not because he wanted a worshipful little wolfen dogging his every step.

“Did your paperwork come through yet, Wyatt? I bet you'll be starting any day now. Sure hope we can be patrol cops together.” The kid was all animation as Wyatt strode down the hallway to his cousin's office. “I'm fast, and I pay attention, and my partner now gave me a good commendation during the last evaluation period.”

Wyatt grunted something noncommittal and walked faster. He was barely past the rookie stage himself, having completed his grueling first years of service back in Ohio. He'd gotten restless there, though, and when time came for him to move up in the ranks he'd decided to come back to the town that had been his home until he was seventeen. He'd always liked Serenity, and he still had family here. His dad didn't come back, of course. He sometimes told Wyatt that he didn't think it would hurt that bad anymore, but he didn't want to deal with it. No, his dad was settled into a quiet, safe existence back in Ohio, and had no desire to change things.

Wyatt was the one who needed to change. He needed the change of going back even more to his roots. He never blamed his father, he thought as he rounded the corner with the rookie still hot on his heels, for having uprooted him from his life in Serenity and plopping them down in Ohio. He met new kids, made new friends, got good experience as a cop there.

But he had to admit, being back in Serenity felt damned good. It felt like coming home again, in more ways than one.

Especially seeing Bryony again. That had been an enormous shock. He would have recognized her anywhere, even though the last time he'd seen her she'd barely been into her teens and she was all woman now. But even as a girl of thirteen she'd hinted at the stunning woman she would become, and he'd thought of her now and again over the years since they'd been separated, wondering how she was doing. He never really thought he would see her again until last week, when he'd been out on his daily training run along the river walk and almost literally ran right into her jogging the opposite direction on the same path.

He'd breathed an unbelieving, "Bryony?" when he saw her. It made her stop short and cock her head at him as she tried to place him. Just as he'd been about to remind her of who he was, a huge smile of recognition had filled her face, making it shine like all the light of the sun resided within her.

And just like that, he was a goner. Hook, line, and sinker, he wanted nothing more than to see that smile again every day of his life, preferably because he was the one to put it on her face. That was even before the bombshell possibility that had been dropped into his life an hour earlier. The possibility that she was one of the small, practically sacred group of one true mates who had slowly been appearing, just as promised by the prophecy.

The words of the prophecy drifted through his head, etched there as if in stone. He and pretty much every shiften in the world knew it by heart, though he'd always considered it to be more of a fairytale that would never come true in his lifetime. Wyatt was nothing if not practical-minded and coldly realistic.

In twenty-five years, half-angel, half-human mates will be discovered living among you.

This is how you will rebuild.

Warriors, all, with names like flora.

Save them from themselves, for they will not know their foreordination.

They will not be bound by shiften law, but their destinies entwine so strongly with their fated mates, that any not mated by their 30th year will be moonstruck. Those who are lost may be dangerous.

A pledged female will have free will that shiften know not. Never forget this or it will cause grave trouble.

Her body may respond to any, until she is mated in a ceremony of her choosing, then she will acknowledge only one male, as he becomes her one true mate, and she, his one true mate. He shall be sworn to her in her life’s purpose, to rebuild the shiften race, so that they may fight the evil Matchitehew and protect the humans from him, until the day he draws his last breath.

As it turned out, one true mates were definitely real. It wasn't a certainty that Bryony was one of them, although Mac seemed pretty sure of it. After Bryony had declared both Wyatt and Mac to be nuts, told Wyatt in no uncertain terms that no, she was not remotely interested in having dinner with a classless throwback to the stone age, and had marched smartly away down the path with the human male scuttling along behind her as if he was afraid Wyatt would follow and bite him, Wyatt and Mac had continued their own run, Mac almost dragging Wyatt along at first.

“Let her go for now,” he'd said with the kind of wisdom possessed only by a wolf with a mate. “She's perfectly safe. No one's gotten a whiff of Khain in a while now.”

“Yeah,” Wyatt had grunted in return, his entire body buzzing with the need to run after her and grab her. He'd instead decided being crazy twice in one day wasn't too smart, and forced himself to keep running with Mac.

Mac was kind of a surly, grumpy bastard at times, which actually made him a great running partner. They didn't talk much during runs, just pushed each other hard, thereby ensuring they got their training time in. The burst of words during this run had been welcome, though, as they mulled over the possibilities.

“So. She ticks off every box in the prophecy,” Mac had thought out loud as they ran their usual route. He and Bryony had also known one another for years, though when they'd first seen one another again at the hospital a few months ago when she'd been there for a checkup and Mac had been taking a statement from an accident victim, it simply hadn't occurred to him to mention that Wyatt was back in Serenity as well. “She's just shy of twenty-five. She's definitely warrior-like. You're a dumbass to piss her off so much, by the way. Hmm. Is Bryony a flower name? I never really thought about it. Just always figured it was some sort of girly name.”

“Yeah,” Wyatt had grunted back, putting on a fresh burst of speed as all the implications whirled around in his head. “It's a little white flower on a climbing vine. It actually means 'to sprout.'”

When Mac side-eyed him, Wyatt had shrugged with some self-consciousness, huffing a bit as they tackled a low rise. “Well, we were pretty good friends when we were kids. She told me a lot of stuff.”

“Really.” Mac's tone had been speculative. “How much did you tell her?”

Everything. Wyatt had told her everything. He had never had any secrets from Bryony, not even about being shiften. Which was supposed to be a pretty damn big secret. But it had felt natural to tell her, when they were kids playing in literal sandboxes and then riding bikes in their neighborhood, even though he was older and should have ignored a snot-nosed little kid like her. She'd been his little shadow, following him everywhere, trying everything he did, even if it was kind of scary for a girl three years his junior. Like climbing trees to the very top, or leaping off the swings at their apex and flying through the sky to land on the hard ground. She'd been cool, though, and a total tomboy. Fearless and daring, she could keep up with all the older kids on their bikes, swimming in the river, running around playing mock battle games in the woods. She had an uncanny knack for physical activities, like she knew what would happen before it did. Which, as it turned out, she did. He'd told her everything over the years, and she'd always taken it in stride, like it was no big deal at all.

Like it was no surprise to her that he could shift into a wolf. She'd just accepted it as a part of who he was, solemnly swore to never tell anyone, and still treated him like a normal friend.

After he and his dad had moved away and he'd lost touch with her, he'd told himself she probably thought it was all make-believe, the way kids did. Like it had been their own private version of Narnia, and once she grew up, she'd forget all about it. But dinner the other night had proved she'd forgotten nothing. Then like a fool he'd gone and pissed her off, behaving like a maniacal caveman that night by growling and lunging at a guy who looked twice at her while she and Wyatt strolled along the riverwalk. She'd stormed off, snapping over her shoulder that if he wasn't ready to be an adult, she didn't need to know him again.

He'd planned and plotted every second since that night to see her again, but running into her on the same riverwalk had been a very unexpected, welcome surprise. Until he'd gone all jackass on her again. He shook his head in savage fury as he ran. The way he was blowing it with her, he'd be lucky to even see her again before she jetted from Serenity, let alone wine and dine her again just so he could soak up every moment of being in her presence.

But he had to see her again. Something deep inside told him if he didn't, he was blowing the biggest thing that would ever happen to him in his entire life. Such as the fact that she might be his mate. His one true mate.

By the time Wyatt had run off enough steam to consider that he might be thinking clearly, he and Mac had decided the only way to know for sure if Bryony was a one true mate was to ask the local citlali, or spiritual leader, a wolfen named Wade whom Wyatt had known as a boy. A citlali knew many things, and Mac's citlali would surely be able to discover if Bryony was a one true mate.

But now, when Wyatt knocked on Wade's office door, it went unanswered.

Standing there for a minute, trying to figure out what to do next, Wyatt forgot about the rookie kid until there was a sudden “Sir” uttered behind him as crisp and clean as any ranking officer could want. Wyatt turned around to see Mac bearing down on them, his expression so stark that Wyatt felt it like a gut punch.

“Wade in there?” Mac's voice rapped out harsh and loud, turning the heads of a few cops chatting in a nearby doorway and silencing them with its sharp edge of worry.

Wyatt shook his head, a cold feeling shivering through him. For some reason, Bryony's features laughed through his mind, filling his head with her presence. That had been happening ever since he'd seen her again the other night, but right now it felt stronger. More intense. In sharp focus, almost as if she stood right in front of him. “What's wrong?” His voice snapped low and quick.

Mac drew to a stop in front of the door, staring at it and then Wyatt with a grim fury. “Khain's grabbed another one. Another possible one true mate. He dragged her into the Pravus right in front of her family. He knows who the one true mates are, and he's going after them.” He looked Wyatt square in the face. “Rogue is safe, but you've got to get to Bryony. Now. If she's a real one true mate, then he knows where she is. Do you?”

Wyatt felt all the blood surge to his head with fear and fury as he slowly shook his head. He had no idea where Bryony was right now.

He'd left her unguarded and vulnerable, making him worse than a jackass.

It might make him an unwitting accomplice to the unthinkable if she was indeed special, and had been snatched by that fucking evil demon, Khain.

Every terrified, longing sensation in his body told him the truth. Bryony was special. She was very special to him, and that meant one thing only.

Turning, he sprinted blindly down the hallway, heedlessly barreling down on open-mouthed cops and ignoring the confused exclamations that breezed in his desperate wake.

“Where are you going?” Mac barked behind him, his own feet and another set, probably belonging to the eager rookie, pounding along as well.

“To find her,” Wyatt shouted into the echoing halls. “To find my one true mate, and save her.”