Delivered to My Elves (Mail-Order Matings #18)

Chapter Five

Misty

I’d been sitting at my desk for two full hours but done nothing.

Rob was now engaged. Another punch to the gut. Two days ago, I saw him eating out his mate on his desk and today, he’s engaged.

He had the audacity to walk up to my desk, hand in hand with his female, and handed me an invitation to their wedding. Shifters rarely bothered with a wedding, and neither was a human, but his mate was the type to want the biggest fuss possible.

I’d been a fool. Clearly they had been together for some time and had time to have invitations printed.

A ring with a diamond bigger than my eyeball adorned her finger.

As they walked away, I flipped them off under the desk, like a child.

There was no fucking way I was eating a piece of their congratulations cake in the breakroom.

Forcing myself to focus, I worked through until lunchtime.

“Hey, you wanna go get some food with me?” a coworker asked. Nate was tall and stocky. A ton of muscles. My bear didn’t like him for some reason.

Yeah, I was listening to my bear now. Should have about Rob, but that was in the past. “Sorry, I already have plans.”

“Oh.” He stepped from side to side. “Okay.”

Needing a break from the office atmosphere, I walked to the local Greek cafe and sat at an outside table. I took a few bites but I opened my phone quickly. I’d heard it buzz a few times in my desk earlier, but personal phones were forbidden to use on office time. One of the company’s steadfast rules.

“Holy…” I said a little louder than I should’ve, gaining the attention of some of the other people eating.

I had a match.

A match for two males looking for a breeder. Someone to have children with. That would be my only purpose in their lives. Have their babies. Be the children’s mother.

What happened once the kids were grown up? What if we had sex and I never got pregnant? What if their true mate showed up one day, staking a claim on them?

A thousand questions and more popped up in my mind, but the alternative was so much bleaker.

Waiting around for someone who may or may not be out there.

I looked through their pictures. They were elves. Not shifters. I didn’t know much about elves. I thought they were similar to fae but wasn’t sure. Did they have magic?

It didn’t matter. Sure, I was curious but they were so handsome, and my bear was as calm she had been the night I’d signed up for the app.

She approved. Of course, I hoped she would have more of a reaction once we met them but…wait, was I seriously considering this? Going to meet two strangers and enter into an agreement to have their children?

As I scanned their pictures for a second time, I acknowledged that yes, I was entertaining this situation. This was my chance to have a family. An unconventional family, but that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be care and respect.

I was so damned tired of waiting on love.

Instead of accepting the match immediately, I finished my lunch and walked back to the office. I sat at my desk and noticed Rob’s office door was closed. The lights were off, the blinds closed.

“We were supposed to have a meeting in five minutes,” I whispered to another coworker. While we hadn’t ever spoken badly about Rob explicitly, she and I had exchanged some looks when he did something off the wall.

“He’s in another meeting,” she snickered. “His engagement cake is going stale in the breakroom, and he’s not with his—” Wendy started to type, ticking her chin to the office. The lights turned back on and the blinds opened.

I answered some emails, or pretended to, while the office drama unfolded.

The female emerging from Rob’s office wasn’t his mate.

She was an intern from another floor. I recognized her from her interview. She straightened her dress as she left the office, and she was missing one of her earrings.

To think I’d had a crush on this asshole.

I had my meeting with Rob a few minutes afterward. His office stank like sex and lust, making my bear want to shift and get out of here.

If this was how fated mates acted, I wanted none of it. Not one second.

At home, I showered and got into some comfortable clothes while I ate dinner.

My mind was made up.

I got on my phone and accepted the match and then sent Aerin and Callon a message. I didn’t need to wait for another match or see anyone else.

This time, I was following my gut feelings. And my beast’s feelings.

I may not ever have the love of a mate, but I would have the love of my cubs, and that would have to be enough.