“Starry!” Someone squeaked, their voice breaking around the name.
“Cord?” A dragon who I never met, but recognized from all the photos Wrynn made us all look at whenever we visited Uncle Darian’s house, spun in a circle looking for the speaker.
I ignored their drama and patted Duke’s stomach with the back of my hand.
“Dude, what is it?” he asked. “I’m ready to dig in.”
“I---” I wasn’t sure what I wanted to tell him.
“Blithe?” Bobby said, his hand finding my shoulder as I leaned forward sniffing the air.
“Cord?!” Starry called out again.
“Blithe? Is everything okay?” Duke asked, now holding my hand against his stomach.
“Frost’s balls,” I cursed under my breath, pulling away from my cousins to make my way into the crowd.
Almost everyone smelled like wolves, foxes, or dragons. There was a bear here, but that was just Nem, Adrian’s friend and old wrestling enemy. Who was the feline pulling me toward him? Where was he?”
I stopped short of the dessert table. It was covered in cookies iced fancy with some tip that Duke probably knew the name of. Cakes and pies lined the far side of it. Under the dishes lay a bright green floral tablecloth.
“Are you under there?” I asked.
“Dude? Who are you talking to?” Duke moved to grab my shoulder, but I squatted down as he said. “Stop it! You’re starting to freak me out.”
“MINE!”My wolf howled inside my thoughts, and I barely swallowed down the noise before it shimmied up my throat.
I scooted under the table to a hissing cat. I blinked taking in the sight of the tortie cat hunched down with his ears back and his mouth open wide.
“It’s okay,” I said, still not quite sure what the cat had to do with everything boiling inside of me.
“MINE!”My wolf howled again, putting it all together before my brain caught up.
“It’s okay,” I said again, realizing the hissing cat wasn’t merely a cat.
He was a shifter like me. He was my true-mate.
That was the magic sifting off the air and landing on my tongue. TRUE-MATE magic.
I reached out a hand, slowly, tentatively – trying to move like a friend, not a foe. He hissed again and whacked at me as he rose up. His paw hit once, twice, three times and I jerked away as his claws caught my face. The moment was broken and was gone like a literal cat out of Frost’s Pit. I rolled out from under the table, smacking into Duke’s shins. He made for me, but I dodged and started running before I was fully upright. I narrowly avoided crashing into a smiling dragon shifter before Duke grabbed the back of my shirt. Twisting with my arms above my head, I pulled out of it leaving him holding my fake hide as I pushed through the door.
“Slow down!” Someone called from behind me. “Stop running!”
“Don’t worry! I’ll catch him!” I called to the shouter without looking over my shoulder.
“I’M TALKING TO YOU! Blithe Hemlock-Knight, you stop running right now!” The dragon shouted, but I wasn’t about to slow down. I was hot on my mate’s trail and couldn’t risk losing it for some idle chit-chat.
The air whooshed out of me as a giant winged bowling ball hit me from behind, knocking me to the ground.
“Stop running!” Someone growled.
I twisted under them, flipping belly up, before they had a chance to grab my wrists. I was about to bring my knee into their stomach, but they were snatched away before my knee made contact.
“Stop it! All of you!” Bobby growled, putting the crimson-winged harpy on his own two feet. “Starry, get your man!”
“I need to check on Cord,” Starry said, grabbing the harpy’s hand. “This is not how to handle anything with him!”
“Cord?” I asked, blinking up from the ground as Duke offered me a hand to pull me to my feet. “Is that the cat’s name?”