A Curse of Fate (Shifter City Fated Mates #1)

Chapter 11

Chapter

Eleven

HUNTER

I ’d never been a shifter who enjoyed sweets.

My brothers would inhale our chef’s desserts growing up, while most of the time I was satisfied with the main meal. But from the second I scented my mate across the council chamber, I’d been craving chocolate and honey in a way that was driving me out of my mind.

Being trapped in an elevator with her, surrounded in her sweetness, was enough to bring a shifter to his knees. Not that I’d ever kneeled for another, but fuck… to have a taste of Emmeline, I might make an exception.

I followed her to the first floor of my building, feeling the thrumming of satisfaction that she had agreed to live with us. Followed by annoyance that I had to let her go re-join her friend. I wanted to claim her. To drag her back here, strip her clothes away, and lose myself in my mate.

To seal our scent-matched bond with my bite.

It was a primal need, driven by my beast.

I tempered my rage as she stepped out the door, leaving behind her tempting scent. Her rejection that first day almost drove me to lose control of my beast. I hadn’t lost control since I was a fucking pup, but she had a way of getting under my skin. The knowledge that she’d be in my house tomorrow, under my command, calmed me for the first time since we scent matched.

When I returned to my office, Slade’s energy filtered through the hall, and I was unsurprised to find him standing against the bank of windows, staring out into the city below.

“Why was she here?” he rumbled, his annoyance spilling freely in those four harsh words. “I told you not to bring her around me.”

The grumpiest shifter in our pack never minced words, when he bothered to speak at all. “She’s our scent match,” I reminded him, settling into my chair. With anyone else, I’d have had to stand, but we were long past playing dominance games. Even if the grumpy asshole was the only shifter I’d ever had to look up at. “She’ll be living in our house tomorrow, so you need to get used to her presence.”

His beast made a guttural rumble from deep in his chest, and I was reminded that just because he conceded to me taking the mantle of entitled alpha in our quintet didn’t mean I was the strongest. Slade had no time or patience for politics, leaving me to play our role with the city council, but he’d destroy me if it ever came to a fight. Hence why there was no need for games.

Second strongest shifter in America would have to satisfy me, because I was never taking him down. “Just don’t kill her,” I said with a sigh. Managing alphas was a full-time fucking job, and I already had a ton of other work to do.

Slade made no promises, leaving in a cloud of dominant energy. His office was next door, where he lorded over our tech and security footage. My brother had a skill with hacking that was beyond any I’d ever come across. He was second to none in the shifter, witch, or human world. If it was stored online, Slade could find it. If there was a camera or electronic device in the vicinity, he’d own you.

I’d be surprised if he wasn’t already keeping close tabs on Emmeline, even with his dismissiveness toward her. Knowledge was power, and he was powerful in ways greater than just his dominance. I’d need to keep an eye on him while she lived with us, in case he decided our little omega was more trouble than she was worth.

My phone rang and I knew it was Kellan before I even glanced at it. “Brother,” I snapped, “You’ve got to stop fucking calling me. It’s the fifth time this morning.”

“Good morning to you too, asshole,” he chuckled down the line, his good nature both endearing and annoying. “I’m just calling to see if you have any updates on our delicious mate. I’m wearing my fucking hand out thinking about her.”

Curse the damn goddess, I did not ask for this shit. “She agreed to move into the pack house tomorrow—” He let out a whoop which I ignored “—but you cannot be all over her. Get used to your fucking hand, Kel. If you spook her, she’ll run for the hills.”

Our mate was delicious, no arguments there. In more ways than just her sweet scent. The fire in her arctic eyes when she had glared me down earlier had me harder than a fucking baseball bat, and worried my dick was about to punch through my damn pants.

She was tall and curvy with miles of golden skin on display beneath her denim shorts and cropped shirt. And those fucking freckles. If I had one more dream about freckles, I’d lose my mind.

“She is skittish,” Kellan agreed with a sigh. “But when she lives with us, she’ll see that we’re not a threat to her. From the little she shared with Warrick, it seems she’s under the impression that bonding into a pack will get her killed like it did her mom. We can’t scare her.”

“Better keep Slade away from her, then,” I rumbled, shaking my head as tension pain sliced through my temples, “and I doubt Finley is going to be much better. After everything with his family, rejection is his Achilles heel. That stubborn bastard would rather slice his own balls off than give her any concessions.”

Kellan was silent for a beat as he considered our other brother and his teammate. “I’m going to talk to him at training this afternoon.” Hope still threaded his tone. Poor bastard . Even if I did occasionally envy him his unjaded outlook on life. “I’ll get him to at least agree to ignore her and not make life harder while she’s getting to know us.”

“Yep, you try and smooth him over before she arrives. I’ll do my best to keep Slade from accidentally murdering her.” No one controlled Slade, but he could be persuaded. Occasionally.

Kellan might have a chance at getting Finley to agree to ignore her, or I could use dominance on him and force the issue. It had to be a last resort though—our pack of alphas only worked because I didn’t overstep my control.

To force them over Emmeline would only create more animosity between them and her.

Kellan recovered his upbeat tone quickly. “I know you’ve been putting in solid hours stalking her at night, in your control-freak obsessive ways. But tomorrow… I’m picking her up.”

Control-freak and obsessed was accurate. Emmeline had cast a spell over me, and I’d be pissed about it, but I was too busy obsessing. “You sound like an overgrown puppy, Kellan. All I can picture is you bouncing around with your tail wagging.”

His snort of laughter filtered down the line. “You’re half right. Parts of me are definitely wagging. I’m just so fucking excited that we finally found her. Years I’ve dreamed of a scent match, and she’s so pretty and snarky and smart. And those freckles, broooo. I just want to kiss a path across them.”

Fucking freckles. “You need to pull yourself together. Do not slobber on her when you pick her up from Annandale Pack house tomorrow. I don’t have time to chase her down when she tries to skip town again.”

“No slobbering,” he promised. “I’ll be a good boy.”

This asshole and his praise kink. I hung up the phone before he could say anything else, and turned toward the pile of work I should be getting to. But fuck, all I could think about was Emmeline, and that crackle of intensity anytime she was in the room with me.

My new craving for chocolate would not be satisfied with anything less than a taste of a cagey, smartass, strawberry blond shifter.

Pushing to stand, I wandered toward Slade’s closed office door and knocked. Only a fool would enter his domain without permission—many of us had learned that the hard, extremely painful way.

“Enter,” his arrogant ass called.

Pushing the door open, I found him sprawled back in his chair, eyes locked on me as he tracked my movements. The first time I’d seen him do that, I’d prepared to be attacked, but it was just his way. We were all prey to his beast.

“Have you dug up any more information on her background? Who were her parents? Where the fuck did she come from? At this stage we only know she’s twenty-five because Warrick updated us.”

Slade almost smiled. “You only know that because you threatened to burn his house to the ground with his pack inside if he didn’t disclose all pertinent information.”

I shrugged. That wasn’t even the worst threat I leveled against the other entitled alpha. He had my mate; he was lucky to be alive. “What else have you dug up?”

Slade crossed his arms, letting the silence extend until it was almost uncomfortable. But I was used to his ornery ass by now, and my wolf barely reacted. “What makes you think I’ve been digging into that insignificant shifter?”

Alphas didn’t roll their fucking eyes, but I was close. “Because you would never let a person into our pack house without a thorough investigation.”

And because a part of you is just as curious about her as the rest of us .

He’d never admit it, but we both knew the truth.

As always, I appreciated Slade’s lack of time for lies or sugarcoating the truth, even when he used that gift to rip you a new asshole in less than ten words. “She’s a ghost. There’s no paper trail. There’s no social media. There’s no sign she exists at all, except for the fact that she’s standing here in Golden Claw, a physical person.”

“How is that possible?”

“I don’t know,” he grumbled slowly, “but I’m going to figure it out.”

Great, he’d be an even bigger pain in my ass until he got to the bottom of our mysterious mate.

Leaving him to it, I returned to my office, throwing myself into work, pausing only to call my managers at Luxuria, our high-end nightclub, and Golden Fin, our seafood restaurant. By the end of the calls, I had a schedule worked out for Emmeline, with a mix of day and night shifts. All except Sunday, which was reserved for family bonding time.

Emmeline Anders was about to learn what living under my roof entailed. I’d be subtle about it in the beginning, but she was already under surveillance whenever she left her temporary accommodations, and I was there every single night.

Watching my prey.

Once she came home to us, I’d have her exactly where I wanted her.