Page 10 of Mated to the Human: Volume One

“Good luck,” Derek said with a wink. “You’ll text me when you find out what time you get off?”

They’d tussled about that a bit. Hollis insisted he could take public transit back to the apartment, and Derek insisted that he had a whole fleet of vehicles and people at his disposal. The truth was that for now, he’d rather Hollis not be alone out in the open. There were plenty of hate groups who’d protested this move by the council, not wanting to see the city endorse relationships between humans and paranormals. Not to mention, Hollis’s uncle. Hollis was right about the man being a bully.

“I’ll text.” Hollis leaned in one more time to press a quick peck to his lips. “Have a good day.”

“You too, sweetheart.”

Hollis’s blush deepened. He gave a little wave and turned to hurry up the steps.

Derek watched him until he disappeared inside the building. He sat for a moment, thinking over the whirlwind of the last three days.

I have a mate.

A mate he was in serious danger of falling completely in love with. The thought should have scared him, but it didn’t. He hadn’t been lying when he told Hollis he was old. Centuries-old. And so many of those were spent in a realm where love wasn’t a common occurrence. Not like here, where love happened every day.

He smiled to himself and pulled the motorcycle out into the flow of traffic, revving the engine and weaving his way between two slow-moving cars. Wind rushed over him. It was cold, but he didn’t care. Temperature had little effect. Perk of being a demon.

A laugh burst out of him at how light his heart felt. Never in all his years did he imagine having a human mate, but Hollis couldn’t be more perfect. Sweet and funny and so smart.

He pulled up to the gate of the clubhouse and waited for it to buzz open after he put his ID up to the box. Once he’d parked, he headed inside, and instead of going to the elevators, he turned into HQ instead.

“Well, if it ain’t our newly mated alpha,” Bacchus yelled as soon as he walked through the door. Bacchus was newer to this realm, but fitting right in. He was working dispatch until he passed all his fieldwork exams.

Derek shot him a scowl, but it was half-hearted. Whoops and howls went up around the room, along with some shouts of congratulations and other sentiments that were more on the publicly indecent side.

“All right, you animals,” Derek shouted back. “Get back to work.”

Chuckles and murmurs of “yes, alpha, of course, alpha” filled the room, but they went back to work just like he knew they would. Being an enforcer wasn’t an easy job, especially in a city with as many paranormal residents as they had. The paranormals themselves tended not to start trouble—for the most part—but there had definitely been a rise in human violence toward paranormals in the last couple of years.

Protecting their own was always at the top of Derek’s list, and it was getting harder. The Paranormal Council didn’t work exactly like a human government. There was a representative from every paranormal faction of the city on the council. They all agreed on laws together, and those faction leaders were responsible for enforcing those laws on their own groups. The hellhounds were independent contractors, hired by the council to be a force all the groups could use to enforce those laws. So they’d become known as enforcers. Every group paid into the budget that kept the enforcers running.

The system worked for everyone.

“Hey, boss,” Knox said when Derek walked into his office.

“Hey,” Derek said, closing the door behind him and settling himself into one of the chairs across from Knox’s desk. “Quiet morning?”

Knox snorted. “Yep, after a not-so-quiet weekend.”

“What happened?”

“We got called out Saturday night to help break up an illegal human cage fighting match.”

Derek frowned. “How was that our business? Was a paranormal running it?”

“Nope,” Knox said, popping the P. “But the mayor’s son was in one of the fights, and his new mate did not like that at all.”

“Shit.” Derek scrubbed a hand over his face. “Jacob or Leander?”

“Jacob.”

Derek’s eyes widened. Jacob was the co-leader of the Saint Coven, the largest coven in Solston. His twin sister sat on the council as the representative for all the witches and warlocks of the city. Jacob was one of the most level-headed people Derek knew. “Did he hurt anyone?”

“No,” Knox said with a shake of his head as he dug through a stack of files on his desk. He handed one to Derek. “Just property damage. By the time we got there, he’d broken up the fights, and the humans had all skedaddled. We cleaned up and got the two of them home safe.”

Derek looked the file over. The photos inside showed what looked like the lower level of a parking garage. There were a couple craters in the concrete floor, a chunk taken out of one of the walls, and graffiti everywhere. “Too bad everyone’s honeymoon weekend wasn’t as pleasant as mine.”

Knox waggled his eyebrows. “Oh yeah?”

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