Hadley POV

“That was Mark Meyers. He’s the middle son,” Debra tells me.

“Mrs. Meyers had triplets and the youngest two are kind of wild. Matt, the oldest, is a great guy. He’s married and has a couple of boys who are adorable. His wife used to hold your job but now she works at a high level position in some sort of country club near the wildlife preserves.”Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

“Is that Lilly? I’ve heard a lot about her from Mrs. Meyers,” I told Ralph.

“Yep, that’s her. She’s a doll. Her and Matt are absolutely couple goals,” he gushes.

Debra goes into a story about one of Vivian’s grandsons eating a brownie she had left on her desk while he was visiting with his parents and Debra stepped out of the office for a few minutes. Lilly, apparently, made a big batch and brought them in for Debra the next day and made the little boy apologize to her. The story makes me look forward to meeting Lilly and her sons one day soon.

Jenny is still giving me the cold treatment, though I’m not sure why. She was making minimal effort to talk to me and when she did talk, she directed the conversation at either Ralph or Debra. When she got up to get another drink from the bar, I decided to follow her. Ralph and Debra shoot me an encouraging smile as I walk after her.

“Hey Jenny,” I said as she waved down the bartender. She gives me a cold stare from the corner of her eyes then looks back to the shelves of alcohol at the back of the bar.

“Yeah?”

“Did I do something to upset you? I feel like you have been kind of cold to me all evening.”

She sighs heavily, “Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, I do,” I told her, leaning in so she could see my face, “We’ve been getting along great and I thought we could be friends, but since we left the hotel you don’t seem to want anything to do with me.”

“Can you blame me?” she mutters, “I’ve been trying to get Mark’s attention for months and he can’t even remember my name. You walk in the room and he’s practically begging for yours. So, yeah. I’m feeling a little bitter right now. Don’t worry about it.”

I brought my hand up to the counter, gripping her hand so she would look at me. “Jenny, I don’t want anything to do with a guy like that, and you shouldn’t either. If a guy can’t be bothered to remember something as simple as your name, is he really worth all this negativity you’re feeling? He’s not giving you a second thought. Why should you ruin your night out consumed by thoughts of him?”

She narrows her eyes at me, but doesn’t pull her hand away from mine.

“Easy for you to say. You probably don’t have to try hard to get guys to pay attention to you. He was finally talking to me and then you walked up and ruined it.”

Poor girl. I’m not the problem here. She just has low self-esteem and that playboy bastard is to blame.

“Did you know I moved here to get away from a fiance? An ex-fiance, I should say. He ran around with plenty of women, a new one every day, and only paid attention to me when it was convenient for him. No girl should live like that. I was miserable for years. Years. He never changed. Men don’t change, Jenny. I have a feeling this Mark guy isn’t someone who will change his ways to make you happy, so you shouldn’t lose out on friendship and fun for someone who can’t even remember your name.”

She quirked her mouth to the side as she thought over what I told her. I left her there to her thoughts and returned to Ralph and Debra, who were in a heated debate over if potato salad was actually a salad or not.

A few minutes later, Jenny joins us with her new drink and surprises me by setting a tequila sunrise in front of me with a small, apologetic smile.

I beamed brightly at her and pulled her into a hug, “Thank you! How did you know my drink was almost gone?” I laughed, throwing back the last of my old drink.

Mitch POV

“I thought you said you didn’t have to work tomorrow?” Suzie whined at me from across the table at the bar I frequent that’s closest to the resort. I reluctantly gave in and went out with her tonight, since Mark texted me while I was getting off work to tell me he was busy and couldn’t meet up with me for drinks. Suzie just happened to be standing beside me when I got the text and after she read it over my shoulder I couldn’t easily turn her down.

It’s been a couple of years since she was released from confinement after helping that psychotic fairy boy stalk Simone, and I was assigned by Lady Delilah to be her sponsor and watch her to keep her on the straight and narrow.

No fairies. No b***d sucking. Just the b***d bank appointments twice a month.

Suzie has been a little clingy with me since her release. I think it has more to do with not having any other friends. She works as a viola player at a human dinner theater for tourists, and then she tends to spend the rest of her time alone.

Carlos, her brother, even washed his hands of her. He is mated to Trevor, our Beta. That was a f*****g surprise for all of us. No one knew Trevor was bi, or that he was fighting the mate bond because he was scared of what his parents would think. That is until all the s**t happened with Suzie, and Carlos was spiraling into a pit of despair.

Trevor took Carlos back to the packhouse and claimed him as soon as Luna Mary and Simone were saved and the s**t with Suzie was settled.

“I don’t work at the b***d bank but I still have training at the warrior center.” Suzie is trying to get me to hang out with her tomorrow. She wants me to take her to this concert in the park, but I don’t really want to babysit her on my day off. I do have training at the warrior center, but afterward I always get to hang out with the guys and relax over beers. It’s what I need after the long week I just had.

Lady Delilah has been calling me to her court almost every day after I get off from work. She is nice enough but she still scares the s**t out of me.

“Can I come?” Suzie asked with big puppy eyes.

“You know you can’t. Carli will stake you in an instant,” I reminded her, making her curse and grumble under her breath.

“Will….will my brother be there?” she asks hesitantly. I shrug, because I really don’t know. Trevor and Carlos recently adopted an orphaned werewolf girl that was stuck in the human foster system and they’ve had their hands full with the adjustment.

“Well, if you end up having free time, can you call me? The concert is tomorrow and next Saturday. Maybe we could watch it together then?” She asks persistently.

I was about to turn her down again, but this amazing smell hit me. Lavender and honey.

The scent travels through my nose and coats the back of my throat, making my body hum in need. What is that smell? Where is it coming from?

My eyes travel around the bar, searching for the source. Then, I see her. The most gorgeous, exotic looking woman in this entire joint. Maybe the entire city.

She looks up and when my eyes lock onto hers as she laughs at someone across the table from her, I know without a doubt she has got to be the most beautiful woman in the entire world. Those eyes. I could get lost in them forever.

She is sitting only a few tables away from me, but the distance is too far. I wanted to close the distance, envelop her in my arms and run my nose along her honey-toned skin.

“Mate,” leaves my lips in an inaudible whisper.

“What did you just say?” Suzie furrows her thin eyebrows at me, her face scrunched up in concern.

“Huh?” I asked, trying to take my eyes off the beautiful woman.

“Did you just say date? Like it’s a date?” Suzie asks me. I’m wondering what she’s talking about. I can’t keep my thoughts off the woman long enough to register anything Suzie is saying.

“Sure,” I mutter, just to get her to stop talking as my ears strain to hear the beautiful woman’s voice.

Her laughter carries over to me, and it awakens something inside me that I thought had been frozen over for the last decade.

That woman is my mate, and she has already restored something that I thought was lost to me forever.

Hope.