Page 261 of Secret Shifters Next Door

Miles frowned and shook his head. “Why are you here, man? You always take this day off.” He shrugged awkwardly. “It’s an important day. We get that. You didn’t have to come in.”

I sighed. “I need to talk to you guys. Come on. I don’t want to go through it more than once.”

Without waiting, I yanked the front door open and stepped inside. Our receptionist Kennedy sat up and smiled at me. “Hey, Blayne. How are you?”

“Been better. Hope you’re having a good day,” I mumbled as I walked past.

She shrugged. “Eh, I’m fine I suppose. Got ghosted by a guy I was talking to. Otherwise I’m good.”

Doing my best to maintain my composure, I gave her a smile and walked further down the hall. Usually, I liked Kennedy, but I had zero interest in discussing whatever bullshit was going on in her dating life. Not with what had happened this morning. Miles trailed behind me as I went down the hall to the conference room where I found Tate and Steff with two of our security techs, discussing a job.

Barging in, I looked at the two guys. One was a younger man we’d hired eight or so months before to do analysis. In my current state, I couldn’t even remember his name. The other guy was older. A field guy who took bodyguard cases Tate wasn’t able to. His name was Doug. At least I could remember something.

“Out,” I snapped.

The young guy and Doug glanced at each other in perplexed confusion. Tate and Steff looked even more surprised by my arrival than Miles had.

Tate sat forward, putting down a file. “Doug, Jamie, give us a minute, okay?”

The two men stood and walked out, shooting wary glances my way. That made me chastise myself. There was no need to take my frustrations out on everyone in my vicinity. One thing I didn’t need was to alienate the people close to me. My frustrations were justified, but that didn’t give me free rein to be a dick.

Miles closed the door behind us and looked at me. “All right, I think I speak for all of us when I say this. What the fuck is going on with you?”

“Right?” Steff added. “You look like someone just pissed in your Cheerios, and then took a shit in the bowl for good measure.”

I clamped my lips shut, trying to get my thoughts in order. These guys knew the story of how my brother had died, knew how much it had hurt me. Hell, it had taken Miles a full week to talk me into agreeing to start our business in Lilly Valley. The mere idea of coming back here had almost made me decline going into partnership with them. Even knowing that, the story would probably hit them as hard as it had me.

“Well,” I finally said, swallowing hard. “I’ve found my mate.”

They looked at me, waiting for the rest of the story. Tate raised an eyebrow. “I’m guessing this is not a good thing?”

After a deep sigh, I said, “You guys remember when I told you about my twin dying? My brother Liam?”

They nodded collectively, but no one said a word. I went on. “He was constantly doing stuff for the Francis family. Stuff that wasn’t completely legal, and the whole reason he was doing it was to impress and try to win over Gio Francis’s daughter, Ava. She was the reason he was involved in that shit. Ava led him along by the nose, shaking her ass and tits in his face. By the end, Liam was only thinking with his dick instead of his head. She’d gotten his mind all screwed up to the point that he was going to do a big job that would pay him enough to buy her some ring and a McMansion out on the lake.” I stopped, blinking away the tears threatening to form.

“Holy crap. You have got to be kidding?” Steff said, putting his hands to his head. He’d worked it out. Tate and Miles nodded, having connected the dots as well.

“Yeah. So, today…well, just a while ago, I was out at Liam’s grave, and when I left, I ran into her. She was there to put flowers on his grave. The instant I saw Ava, I wanted to claw her eyes out, but my panther”—I pointed to my head—“fell all over itself, cooing and purring and getting all hot and bothered. I’m one-hundred percent certain. That bitch Ava is my fated mate.”

I flopped into a chair by the door, exhausted. My body felt consumed and depleted. It had suffered through too much emotion for one day. There was nothing to do but sit there and see if they had any ideas.

“Maybe this will work out,” Steff said. “Take me and April. I never would have thought we would get back together. Now look.”

That wasn’t the same and he knew it, though I appreciated his attempt to ease my mind. I shook my head. “This isn’t the same as an old high-school romance, Steff. This is the girl who got my brother killed—the last member of my family, of my pack. The person I was closest to in my whole life. Besides…” I added, “Even if I wanted to be with her, she’d reject me as soon as I told her.”

“Why do you say that?” Tate asked.

“Because of who she is. She knows how much I hate her. Despise her. Why would she agree to that? To mate with the guy who wants to vomit at the sight of her face?” I let out a bitter laugh. “This is stupid. It would have been the simplest explanation yet. She alreadyknowsabout shifters. If she’d been anyone else, I would have had the easiest time out of all of us.”

Miles blew out a long, slow breath, shaking his head. “I’m sorry, man. Out of all of us, you were probably the only one looking forward to finding your mate.”

My chest ached as the truth of his words hit me. I’d barely mentioned it, but they all knew. Of every shifter, panthers were the rarest, even more so than dragons—and Tate was one of thelast remaining dragon alphas. It was difficult for panther shifters to find a mate. The other family Mom and Dad had formed a pack with had only come together with the hope that they’d pair their kids up. Unfortunately, both my parents and the other couple had only had sons. With no chance of furthering the line, they’d moved on after my parents were killed.

So, yeah, I had been looking forward to finding a mate. It would have been nice to have a family.

“The good news…” I said, “is this curse shit can finally be finished. I’ll put an end to it, and then we can go on planning what to do about Antonio and the hunters.”

“How do you plan on that?” Miles asked.

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