Page 3 of Stella

My beta cousin took care of most of the maintenance of the resort while Zephyr helped manage clients and also went out into the community to try and build our client base.

You would never know from looking at them, but Terran was the best at balancing energy through Reiki and cranial sacral therapy and Zephyr was the best at reading astrological birth charts out of the whole family.

Sunshine waved at our cousins. “You guys want to sit in on the meeting?”

“Hell no.” Zephyr took a step back. “We know what you’re really doing during your “work” meetings.”

“Manchest Monday is no place for us.” Terran grimaced.

“We don’t only ogle men.” I gestured at my planner. “We’re discussing The Pack Institute.”

Zephyr wrinkled his nose. “No thanks.”

Several of the women in the coffee shop tracked Zephyr as he picked up his vanilla cream cold brew and handed Terran his Mocha Cookie Frappuccino.

So far, the only person in the family who had a pack was Holly, Sunshine’s best friend, a beta girl we grew up with in high school and unofficially adopted. Holly spent more time at our house than her own mansion. Her parents were rich and considered her an accessory to their lifestyle at best and forgotten nuisance at worst.

Holly found her pack last Christmas through an accident in Cosmic Bond’s matching system. We all made profiles when Ember and Terran were tinkering with the new matching system but didn’t make them active.

Until the system glitched and made Holly’s profile live in the system.

She matched at such a high rate to two male omegas, that I told her she had to at least try.

A few weeks later, and they were a pack just in time to be a sappy Christmas miracle.

It reminded me that love was a possibility. I just hadn’t found it yet.

But Noah and Aiden, Holly’s omegas, didn’t try to mold her into something she wasn’t, unlike my last pack.

I was tired of being on a pedestal, tired of packs assuming I was someone I never gave any hint of being.

“Back to business.” Raina tapped her planner with her fountain pen. “If these cancelations continue...”

We talked about Cosmic Bonds for an hour. Sunshine had two weddings and one bonding ceremony to plan, I had three clients to onboard, and Raina fiddled with our matching process. She was forever studying the results our matching software gave us. Our resort slash matchmaking company had a solid reputation for making the best matches.

Part of that was using common sense and psychology, along with a healthy screening process to pair compatible people together.

The other part was trusting in the universe using crystals, tarot, and other metaphysical means. No, seriously. People ignored the power of the creative universe around us.

We also took the stance of matching people together regardless of designation. If two alphas wanted to date another alpha, we weren’t going to tell them it was time to find an omega. We let the system match them, and then the people do all the rest.

The Pack Institute still used the outdated methods of pairing people by the socially acceptable standards. My cousin Ember, who was currently living with a male omega named West, would never been encouraged to date him. He was an omega, and of course, would never understand her.

And yet, after Ember spent weeks in the hospital recovering from the plane crash that took our parents from us, she met West and he pulled her out of a depression so deep I worried we would lose her too.

The Pack Institute was wrong, they just couldn’t see it. Sure, I wanted the business of the clients cancelling to go to the Institute, but I also knew there was a better way to find love.

The doorbell jingled, and a trio of hot men walked in. They looked ready for a day at the beach, with tanned skin, wind tousled hair, and shorts.

We paused to take in the sights of this beautiful Monday morning. Hot Perks was a popular tourist destination. Tourists and locals alike came through on their way up the California coast.

No one could blame us for sitting and watching the men come and go all morning under the guise of having a weekly work meeting.

I couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed the sexy guy I’d been ogling for months hadn’t stopped by in a while. I’d mentally dubbed him Tall, Blond, and Viking, because he was tall, blond, and built like a Viking raider. My hormones were primed, and I would take any scrap I could get.

Sunshine shrugged. “Eh. Not my type.”

“Your type has shoulder length brown hair and likes to cook.” I smirked at my older sister. I was the middle child, and it was my right to act like a brat sometimes.

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