Page 7 of The Wolf's Bullied Mate
Ryder cleared his throat. “I don’t think it’s funny, Caden. Oliver knows everybody in the pack already, and yet he still hasn’t found his fated mate. Maybe she really could be from another pack. It says the company is looking for partners across all of Missouri,” he tapped his finger on the flyer.
Caden stopped laughing, looking at both me and Ryder with wide eyes. “Wait, this isn’t a joke? You’re seriously considering it?”
I nodded. “I am… I figured it might not be a bad idea to broaden my search by contacting this company. If they don’t find me a good match, no problem. But what if they could find me a mate, and I’m missing out by not letting them try?”
Ryder gave me a nod. “It’s reasonable to give it a chance. You have my full support.”
“Hmm,” Caden looked closely at the flyer again. “It does say here they’ve been around for over ten years. Maybe they are reliable after all.” He looked at me again. “Just don’t mate with the woman they suggest to you unless you’re one hundred percent sure you want to be with her.”
“I know. Mating’s for life, after all. I want to choose well,” I said.
“You’re serious about finding a mate, aren’t you?” Caden’s eyes widened. “You want to settle down.”
“Now that I’ve seen how happy Ryder is, I want a family of my own,” I smiled. “And the pack is safe. There can’t be a better time to mate and have children.”
Caden scratched the back of his head. “Maybe I should try this service myself sometime.”
I chuckled. “That would require you to stop chasing after every attractive woman you come across.”
“Hey!” Caden gave me the ‘killer look.’ “I’m not sleeping with every woman I come across.”
“Just every third,” I chuckled.
Caden sighed. “I’ve been getting laid much, much less lately,” he mumbled.
“Right,” I winked at him.
“I’m serious,” he pouted.
“I hope you find your mate soon, Oliver, be it through the agency or not,” Ryder said.
I nodded. “I hope so, too.”
We concluded the meeting, and I put my flyer back in my pocket. Once outside Ryder’s office, I said goodbye to Caden and walked to my office.
My office had new furniture, unlike Ryder’s. I was the one who had picked the décor, so beiges and light browns ruled the space. I walked behind my desk and took my seat, turning on the computer. Next to the entrance door, right in front of where I sat, was a giant landscape painting depicting Fairlake from an aerial view. I’d had a local painter make it for me three years ago. It reminded me of what I worked so hard every day to protect—the Moondust Hollow pack who called this town their own.
When my computer came on, I typed the address of the Twin Tails Agency into the search bar. The FAQ on the company’s page said much of the same things as my mom had already told me. I hovered over the ‘Sign Up Today’ button.
The page informed me there would be a fee for registering—quite a sizable one but still affordable for me considering the salary I got as beta of the pack. I guessed the hefty price tag was supposed to scare away people who weren’t really serious about finding a mate. There was also a note that only men had to pay the fee, whereas women registered for free. They must have been having an imbalance in candidates and needed more women to sign up.
I pondered, clicking the button for a moment. Giving up some control over whom I would be paired with really didn’t seem like a bad thing. At first, I had felt opposed to the idea, but not anymore. I could always refuse the match. I wasn’t completely losing the freedom to choose my mate.
The proud part of myself wanted to find my mate completely on my own, but my wolf urged me to register on the page. As far as he understood, we were actively looking for a mate, and it didn’t matter to the animal how we were doing so. He only felt that I was searching and was very eager to push me towards finding our partner, no matter how we succeeded in discovering her.
I chuckled. I wasn’t going to explain to my wolf self what an arranged marriage agency was.
My wolf was very smart, but this kind of service was such a human thing. Funny that it could be used to find the mate we longed for—both animal and man.
I clicked the ‘Sign Up Today’ button. After paying the fee, the page took me to a survey that asked me to describe my ideal woman.
I thought deeply for a moment, considering all the women I had met and felt attracted to in my life, to determine what I should fill in on the survey. Memories of my exes came to me, but every one of them had ultimately pushed me away from them for one reason or another. My mother came to mind, too—she was the first woman who had served as a role model for my future perception of women, after all. Yet, as much as I liked my mother, my ideal woman wasn’t an exact replica of her—that idea felt creepy and unnatural.
One person came to mind, though, who felt perfect. She had long, straight red hair and green eyes. She had been blushing and shy as I introduced her to more and more people in the pack in hopes of her becoming more comfortable with social interaction and opening up to everyone, including myself.
Pauline Anderson. My high school crush.
Memories of the cute redhead filled my mind. As a teenager, I made fun of her looks and her special power of seeing the future, but that teasing had all been done with good fun. As a young man, I had no idea how to properly interact with the woman I liked. Shortly after discovering she was a psychic, we had graduated from high school.
