It only took about two seconds for a reply to come back.
“Fantastic. All the arrangements have been made at the lodge. All you have to do is show up. See you soon.”
Well. That was easy.
He seemed to be all business about meeting her. She definitely didn’t feel that way. There was too much going on in her life to not be nervous about this. Corey just showed up out of the blue during one of the biggest challenges she’d faced in her six-year long career with her publisher. She looked at her manuscript on the screen of her computer and groaned, rubbing her temples.
Willow closed her laptop and went to her bedroom. She pulled her suitcase out of her closet and started to pack. It was the middle of summer and a perfect time for a vacation to the mountains. She packed her cutest, sexiest summer things, including a swimsuit that was perfect for her curves, and a pair of flip-flops.
She finished packing and put her suitcase near the door. This was all so crazy. But no crazier than sticking around Seattle, waiting for her psycho stalker to escalate the crazy. She needed to get out of town. She needed to clear her head and get things straight. Maybe this shifter could help her put her mind in order.
Maybe not.
At least it would be a change. As long as Willow had been writing professionally, she knew that a change of scenery was often the best way to spark creativity.
With that decided, she climbed into bed and pulled the covers up over her shoulders. Her imagination ran wild with all the horrible fantasies she had about what her stalker would do to her if he finally got her alone.
Falling asleep was nearly impossible. Between her fantasies about the stalker, she fantasized about Corey. What would he do when they met? Would she feel something like in all the stories about fated mates? The idea of it sent a thrill through her. Could she handle that kind of distraction?
Willow decided she would be open to the possibility that she and Corey could be something. It had been far too long since she’d been in a relationship.
It took at least another hour of rumination to fall asleep. When she woke up the next morning, she felt like she hadn’t slept at all.
Moaning and rubbing her eyes, she pulled herself out of bed and hurried to get ready. With a travel cup full of hot coffee in one hand and her suitcase in the other, Willow left her apartment.
She passed her mailbox, dreading what she would find in there when she returned home. When she made it to her car, she put her suitcase in the trunk and got behind the wheel.
The drive would take all day. Willow hadn’t taken a drive that long in a while. She’d been spending most of her time obsessing over her latest manuscript. Now she was on an adventure. She felt a little like a troll who was being exposed to the light for the first time in a century.
As she passed Tacoma, she thought about her life. At least she had work. A lot of the other writers that had been in her Master’s program weren’t working as writers at all. She should count herself lucky. Even if her publishing company was using her work to make themselves millions off her work.
She’d dreamed about going out on her own, but getting published as herself was not that easy. Even though her books had been bestsellers, she was still an unknown author with no name for herself.
The prospect of suing her company to get out of her contract stewed in her mind as she crossed the border into Oregon. As she turned east toward Fate Mountain, she gave up on that idea. Dealing with the cops and her stalker had put her off dealing with legal stuff.
She’d just have to suck it up and figure out how to finish this book. Even if it killed her. The landscape was truly inspiring as she drove up the mountain. She let out a long sigh, taking in the beauty of the place.
Willow liked to get out of town and take hikes in the woods, but she hadn’t been out of Seattle in over a year. Where was her life going? What was she doing with herself?
Willow had always wanted to be a writer. That’s why she’d entered the writing program at the University of Washington and gone on to get her MFA. But all that education hadn’t meant a damn thing at the end of the day.
Most of the writers she knew were either unemployed or were working in corporate America doing something totally unrelated to writing fiction.
The last time she’d heard from her graduating class, only one other student was actually writing fiction. That one other student had gotten a contract with the university press for a small work of literary fiction.
That book was far from paying the bills for her classmate. Willow gritted her teeth. She kept telling herself she should be happy, but she wasn’t. It wasn’t fair. Millions of copies of her books had been sold. Millions of people loved her work. But she couldn’t remember the last time she’d bought herself a sexy pair of shoes.
When she pulled into Fate Mountain Village in the late afternoon, she stopped in the parking lot of the Fate Mountain Diner.
She was getting more nervous by the moment about meeting Corey and needed a bite to eat. Willow grabbed her purse and walked into the diner. The pretty blonde waitress came to greet her and showed her to a booth by the window.
“I’m Lily and I’ll be your server,” the waitress said as Willow slid into her seat.
Lily put the menu in front of Willow and she filled her glass with water. “Our special today is the Fate Mountain Burger with Shane Keenan’s secret sauce.”
“That sounds great. I’ll have that with fries and a wild blueberry shake.”
“Good choice,” Lily said, smiling. “What brings you to Fate Mountain?”
“I’m here on a working vacation. And to meet someone I met on Mate.com.”
Lily’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped for a split second before her face went back to normal.
“I’ll be right back with your shake,” she said, taking the menu.
Willow twisted around in her seat to see Lily behind the diner bar, whispering to someone in the kitchen. Willow could see the cook’s tattoos and beard through the order window. He looked at Willow inquisitively and she turned away.
What was that all about? They must know about Mate.com. Fate Mountain was supposed to be full of shifters. It said so on the Fate Mountain Lodge website. Shifters were some kind of attraction in this town.
Did the cook and waitress know Corey? Was he showing people her picture?
The stalker had gotten her paranoid. She shook her head. The waitress was probably talking to the cook about something totally unrelated. She had to get her head on straight if she wanted to finish her novel.
Lily came back with her shake a few minutes later and set it in front of Willow. Willow wanted to ask what Lily had been talking with the cook about, but she didn’t want to sound like a crazy person. Best to just forget about it and eat her lunch.
When Lily delivered Willow’s meal, she hesitated for a moment, standing over the table.
“So, you met someone on Mate.com? What was his name? I know almost everyone on Fate Mountain.”
“Oh?”
“You don’t have to tell me. I’m sorry. I’m being a busybody.”
“No. It’s fine. This is a small community. I understand why you’d be curious.”
“Thanks for understanding.” Lily smiled amiably.
“His name is Corey Bright.”
“I knew it.” Lily smacked her hand on her thigh, turned to the cook, and nodded.
“What’s that all about?” Willow asked, pointing back and forth between the waitress and the cook.
“My mate Shane and I were having a disagreement. I was right.”
“Your mate?”
“Yes. I mated with a shifter. We found each other on Mate.com. Now I’m a shifter too.”
“He turned you?”
“Yes. But mating with a shifter doesn’t mean you have to be a shifter too. It’s your choice.”
“What’s it like, being mated with a shifter?”
“Hot. Exciting. Shane is the light of my life. We adore each other.”
/> “You’re lucky,” Willow said wistfully.
“I am. It could be that way for you and Corey too. Enjoy your meal.”
Lily walked away, and Willow started to eat her burger. It was literally the best burger she’d ever eaten in her life. That was no exaggeration. The secret sauce was definitely special. She licked her fingertips to get the last bits of flavor.
When Willow went to pay at the front counter, Lily met her there.
“How was your lunch?” Lily asked.
“So good. I didn’t expect to have such a good burger in the middle of nowhere.”
“The cook is a world famous chef. My mate, Shane Keenan. He’s cooking today.”
“Was he that cook with the show on the Food Channel?”
“Yeah. Before the war. Before he got outed as a shifter.”
“I remember now. It was a big scandal.”
“But Shane is still as good as ever in the kitchen. Maybe better.”
“I can tell,” Willow said. “My compliments.”
“He oversees the kitchen at the lodge too. You can sample his upscale cuisine during your stay.”
“How did you know I was staying at the lodge?”
Lily stopped for a moment, holding Willow’s credit card over the card reader. Then she slid the card and finished the transaction, closing the cash register door.
“Lucky guess,” Lily said.
“Well, see you around.”
Willow walked out into the parking lot as the sun started to tip toward the edge of the mountains. What the hell was that all about? Willow was beginning to feel like there was something going on here, and she didn’t like it. She opened her car door and gripped the steering wheel.
“I’m just being paranoid. I need to relax. That stalker is getting to my head.”
She turned on her car and followed the GPS directions to the lodge. It was early evening by the time she made it there. The golden sunlight glinted on the silver waters of Lake Fate.
She lifted her suitcase out of the trunk and rolled it down the long walkway into the front lobby of Fate Mountain Lodge. She walked up to the front desk and met a pretty middle-aged woman with a smart haircut and a name tag that said “Kelly” on it.
“Hi. I’m Willow Rhine. I’m supposed to have a reservation.”
“Oh, of course,” Kelly said.
“You have a bridal suite. Here are your keys. You have an all-inclusive package during your stay.”
She handed Willow the keys and gave her a brief rundown of what was available to do at the lodge. During the summer season, visitors spent a lot of time on the lake swimming and fishing. There were even evening bonfires where guests got together to roast marshmallows and tell ghost stories.
As Willow took the elevator up to her room, she started to feel excited about her stay. She hadn’t had a vacation in a long time, and getting out onto the lake would be just the diversion she needed to clear her head.
When she opened the door to her suite, she was blown away by the luxury accommodations. The front room had a full living area with a couch and big screen TV. There was a dining table and a kitchenette off to the side. Beyond the living room area was the door to the bedroom.
She walked through the door into the bedroom and left her suitcase by the dresser. There was a king-size bed in the middle of the room, covered in a luxurious, fluffy comforter. She couldn’t wait to sleep in that bed.
Outside the sliding glass door was a private deck that looked out over the lake. The sun started to slip behind the mountains beyond the lake, casting pink and orange light across the shimmering water.
Willow felt a wash of relaxation flow over her body and mind. She took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air and let out a sigh of pleasure.
This was exactly what she needed.
Her phone pinged in her purse and she pulled it out.
“Did you arrive safely?” Corey’s message asked.
“I just got here,” she replied.
“Would you be interested in a late evening meal?”
Willow’s heart seemed to seize in her chest. He wanted to meet her already. It was all moving so fast. Her mind raced, thinking of what to wear.
“Maybe some dessert,” she hesitantly typed.
“Great! Meet me in the dining room in an hour.”
5
Corey picked up his phone to read a text message from Angus.
“Important crew meeting in an hour at the lodge dining room. Be there.”
“What’s going on?” Corey typed.
The crew saw each other often enough that any issues were normally ironed out right away. Most of their meetings took place after rescue missions, and that usually involved a lot of beer.
“We’ll talk about it at the meeting. Wear something nice.”
What? Since when was there a dress code for a crew get-together? Corey was so wrapped up in his latest algorithm that he didn’t stop to question Angus’s request for very long. He went right back to work and continued typing code until he only had fifteen minutes before he was supposed to meet the crew at the lodge.
Crap.
He hurried to his bathroom and pulled off his dirty clothes. He took the world’s fastest shower and jumped out to get dressed. After throwing on some random nice clothes, he slipped into his shoes, put on his glasses, and headed out the door.
Angus better have a good explanation for this.
There were only two bears who could call him away from his work. One was his alpha Levi. The other was Angus, Levi’s second in command. It had been that way for years.
He trusted Levi and Angus completely. The other bears on the crew, maybe not so much. Zach was impulsive. Drew was too sensitive. And Shane. Shane had been unhinged most of the time Corey had known him. Even still, he trusted every bear on the crew with his life. But that didn’t mean he’d leave work to run off to some meeting if someone other than Angus or Levi had called.
He went through the back door into the lodge and circled around the halls to the lobby. The double doors to the dining room were open, so he walked up to the hostess, looking around for the rest of the gang.
“I’m here to meet the Rescue Bears,” he told the hostess.
“Right this way,” she said, grabbing two menus.
Why was she grabbing two menus? There were six men on the Rescue Bears, and he didn’t see a single one yet. The hostess put his menu down on a table for two near a window looking out over the lake. The late summer sun had set, and the big full moon had come out over the water.
“The guys won’t fit at this table,” he told the hostess.
He’d never seen this girl before. She smelled human and probably didn’t know who the Rescue Bears were. Strange, considering she worked for Levi, the alpha of their crew.
“I’ll look into it,” she said, filling his glass with ice water.
He frowned. Where were the rest of the guys? He didn’t have time for any of this, yet he was the first one here. Angus had called this meeting. The least Angus could do was show up on time.
He was grumbling to himself when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He looked toward the entrance to the dining room. A woman stopped in front of the hostess station, wearing a printed summer dress that showed off her shapely legs and ample bosoms.
Corey’s heart jackhammered in his chest. His stomach did flip-flops and his face burned. The second he saw her, he knew what was happening. He couldn’t move from the shock and sat stone still as the pretty dark-skinned woman approached his table.
The hostess seated the woman across from him, and Corey was dumbstruck. His mouth felt too dry to swallow. Her scent wafted across the table, making his inner grizzly roar to life.
This is not happening.
His mate smiled up at him with her full pink lips. She batted long eyelashes and started to speak. He could barely hear what she was saying through the sound of his own heart beating in his ears.
“What?” he finally asked.
/>
“I was just thanking you for the accommodations. The suite is gorgeous.”
“Accommodations?”
The woman’s eyebrows knit together in confusion.
“You are Corey Bright, right?”
“Yes.”
“I’m Willow Rhine. We met on Mate.com? Any of this ring a bell?” she said, obviously becoming increasingly irritated and confused.
“Oh. Now I know what this is,” Corey said, cupping his forehead with his hand.
His crew had obviously set him up. They’d tricked him into answering the Mate.com questionnaire after their last rescue mission. They’d used the answers to create a profile. He should have known. He should have checked. Now it had gone way too far.
His mate was sitting across from him, looking delicious with her caramel skin and chocolate colored eyes. His gaze lingered on the round globes of her cleavage before he tore them away and looked at her face.
“What is it?” Willow asked.
The waitress walked up to the table and asked if they were ready to order.
“I’ll have a raspberry tart and a glass of sweet red wine,” Willow said, handing her menu back to the hostess.
“And for the gentleman?” the waitress asked.
“Who set this up?” he asked the girl.
“The chef told me to seat you here. I don’t know anything else.”
“Shane is in on this too?” Corey growled.
“Can I get you something to eat or drink, sir?” the girl asked nervously.
He sighed. “I’ll take a pint of Fate Mountain Lager and a piece of apple pie.”
“Very good,” the girl said, taking his menu before she walked away.
“What’s going on?” Willow asked, picking up her glass of water.
“I’m sorry you ended up in the middle of this mess.”
“Please explain. I don’t think I can handle the suspense.”
“It wasn’t me that messaged you or set up this date.”
Willow’s expression turned dark and she slumped in her seat, crossing her arms defensively.
“If it wasn’t you, then why am I here?”
“My crew set me up. They want to force me to claim my fated mate.”
“Am I really it?”