Page 2 of Promise & Artem

She reached her little trailer ten minutes later. Most of the unmated males and females in her age group lived in the trailer park. There was a central firepit encircled with chairs where they hung out on the weekends. She’d been living there for two years, and loved having a place of her own.

After putting her bag on the chair by the door, she yawned and trudged to the refrigerator to get a bottle of water.

The day hadn’t been particularly bad. It had, in fact, been absurdly normal. She’d woken up, did laundry and cleaned the trailer, and then went to work from noon to eight. Her feet hurt, but standing for so long always made that happen and with her natural healing abilities she’d feel fine soon enough.

She was feeling antsy, though, and she knew it was time for her to go.

Allen was great, and she’d always be happy to be in the woods and hanging with her friends, but somewhere out therewas her truemate and a group of shifters who needed her healing abilities.

She just didn’t know where to start.

The next day, Promise had off from Lonestar, so she decided to hang out with her mom. Her dad, Bo, was a mechanic and worked at Pete’s Garage, where several pack members Promise’s age also worked. Her dad had been injured when he was too young to shift and had walked with a limp for years, until he met Reika and she healed him.

That apex healing didn’t come easily, though. The she-wolf had to shift and use venom secreted from the gums to coat her tongue and teeth. Sometimes she used her claws as well if someone was severely injured, and then she would bite the injured person to send the venom into their body to heal. The injured person couldn’t shift for hours and had to endure what Promise likened to being eaten alive by fire ants while rolling around in a firepit.

She’d been healed once by her mom, and it had sucked hard.

On the way to the home she’d grown up in, she stopped at Pete’s to get gas and say hi to her dad.

Pulling up to the second gas pump, she turned off her engine and climbed from behind the wheel with her credit card.

“Oh, hi Jessi,” Promise said as the door to the shop opened and her friend walked out with three large males behind her.

Jessi was the daughter of the pack’s second-in-command, Michael, who worked at Pete’s. Her mates were hyena shifters, and after they were mated, Jessi had moved to Dalton to live with the clan.

“Hey, girl! Long time, no see.” Jessi jogged over and gave Promise a big hug.

“Give me your card, I’ll put gas in for you,” Jett said, holding out his hand.

“Thanks,” Promise said, giving him her card.

She stepped aside with Jessi to talk. “How’s it going? What are you doing in town?”

“All’s great,” Jessi said. “We just came in for the day to hang out. Mom’s in the mood for a cookout and I try not to pass up a chance to have her smokey barbecue ribs. What’s up with you?”

“Nada. Trying to get my crap together and figure out where to go.”

“Go?” Jessi tilted her head. “What are you talking about?”

“Well, I’ve been feeling like I should take off and find my truemate, and also a shifter group that needs a full-time healer. I figure when I find my mate, I’ll find a place to settle too. Rio is dragging her feet, so I feel like I should just go on my own, but I don’t know where to go, so now it’s like I’m draggingmyfeet.”

“Oof, sorry. Do you want to come to Dalton and hang out? Maybe a hyena clan would be your truemates.”

Promise tried to hold back her reaction to having three mates, but Jessi grinned and Promise knew she hadn’t kept the look off her face. She couldn’t imagine having three mates, but Jessi seemed to love it. And Lyric loved having two mates.

“It’s awesome, trust me,” Jessi said, winking.

“I’m sure it is. That’s an interesting idea.”

Jessi looked thoughtful and then said, “Oh wait, I’ve got it! You should go to the hyena campground in Pennsylvania where I met my guys!”

“Isn’t the gathering in the fall, though?” The hyena clan who ran the Freshwater Campground hosted a get-together for shifters of all kinds in the fall, and Jessi had met her three mates there.

“But they live there full time. There are a few hyena clans that live and work there, plus some other shifters, and the main town has a wolf pack, too. Plus, it’s frigging beautiful up there.”

Something within Promise stirred at the thought.

“Huh.”

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