Page 4 of Fated to Him

Delilah’s tripping habit that occurs when someone tries to touch her made her stumble right into his table, tipping his bottle onto his crisp white shirt. I’d nearly laughed. Jerry’s reaction had killed my amusement.

I chased Jerry out, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t dying tonight. He tried to put his hand on my mate. Clenched his hand in a fist. Stared at her body as if he were picturing her naked. All of which are crimes with one punishment.

Death.

As Delilah reassures her boss she’s okay, I slip out of my seat, place a note for Delilah that’s a promise of what’s to come, and follow Jerry out.

I step into an almost pitch-black parking lot, letting the door slam shut behind me. A fire-engine red truck tears out of it with a squeal of rubber, whipping my hair into my face.

“Fuck,” I quietly curse as I shove my hair back. Looks like Jerry lives to see another day.

My cell phone I stuffed in the back pocket of my jeans vibrates. I pull it free as I stalk across the parking lot to my navy-blue truck, answer the call, and raise the phone to my ear. “What?”

“The others know.” Benji, my second-in-command, gets right to the point. “You better get back here soon before all hell breaks loose.”

Shit.

I pause and wedge my phone between my shoulder and ear to fish out the keys for my truck. “Any trouble?”

“Not yet,” he says as I yank open my door and slide inside.

But there will be.

There are no packs in the country with an Alpha who has a human mate. Maybe not even the world. Pack Arleigh is about to become the first.

“She’s still skittish, but my wolf is getting antsy. I’ll be bringing her home tonight.”

Antsy is an understatement.

When a shifter finds his mate, he cannot wait forever. Not if he doesn’t want to lose control of his impulses and eventually his wolf. It’s bad enough when a less dominant shifter finds his mate, their fate-chosen life partner. All shifters have one. Not all are blessed to find them.

Somehow, I’ve found mine. And she’s human. I don’t know if that’s happened to any shifter before, but it’s happened to me, and I intend to claim her. Soon.

Delilah finishes work an hour from now, and when she steps through that door, she’s mine. She’s mine forever.

“No pack has ever had a human Luna,” Benji warns.

I know.

I train my gaze on the Hellwood Brewery’s front door, reclining in my seat. Going in to get her would cause a scene I don’t need. There’s no telling how she’ll respond to talk of wolves, fated mates, and her new future with me. But it’s happening, and it’s happening tonight.

“Until now,” I tell Benji and hang up. As I tuck my phone into the center console, I think about Delilah Stacey. Of having her in my home, in my bed, and under me. Of her wearing my claiming bite.

My mate is human, but she’s smart enough to evade the things she doesn’t like in her own way. It’ll be interesting to see how she uses that brain when she’s leading Pack Arleigh at my side.

3

DELILAH

With Malakhi’s threat still fresh in everyone’s head—mine included—I have no more accidental stumbles. Everyone keeps their hands to themselves. Which is good for me.

What’s not good for me is when I overhear someone saying Malakhi’s truck is in the parking lot.

At the end of my shift, when I spot Clint heading out the back with a bag of the day's trash, I volunteer to take it on my way out.

It gives me a good reason to leave out the back door instead of risking running into Malakhi. Clint has been paying me nightly, so that means I can slip out of town early tomorrow morning as quietly as I slipped in.

“Thanks for tonight, Della. See you tomorrow night!” Clint calls out, smiling widely.

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