Everleigh
Everleigh was fascinated by the wolf shifter who’d come into her office.
She didn't know many of them. Her brothers had gone off to an Academy that was made for any type of male shifter; her family had always been so protective of her, the only girl and the baby, that they sent her to a day camp for female bears. She wasn’t even allowed to go off and spend the night at a female academy.
Now she had a sexy wolf shifter in her office, and she was pretty sure he was flirting with her. It was subtle but the intent seemed there.
Roman was tall and broad, as most shifters were. But his muscles were lean and not overdeveloped. His hair was dark, almost black, and his eyes matched. His olive skin was smooth, and she wanted to run her fingers over his cheeks.
Damn.
She’d never gotten to practice flirting; her older brothers were always in the way.
She wasn't sure how she was ever supposed to find a mate the way they behaved. Two years before, she had actually stamped her foot when they had interfered with one of her potential dates. “Do you not want me to have a mate?" she’d screamed.
"Of course, we want you to have a mate,'' Sutton said.
"How am I ever supposed to find one if you keep on sabotaging them?"
Sutton had only grinned, showing off his insufferably smug smile with his perfectly straight teeth.
"If he's the right guy, then he won’t give up."
She groaned. "No one should have to put up with you just to date me."
"See, that is where I disagree," he said. "You're worth it. If a guy can't see that, then he doesn't need to be your mate."
"It's not that simple."
"Yes, it is. How would you even know? You don't have a mate." She wished that would fluster him but he only grinned wider.
"I don’t, which makes me more objective. I'm not blinded by the whole, ‘oh my God, it could be my mate,’ syndrome like everyone else.”
That was true in their clan. If somebody met their mate, they seemed to lose all rational sense. They were so enamored, of not just their mate, but the whole idea of mating, that they couldn't think straight about anything else. It was impossible to have a conversation with them the entire first year that someone was mated because all they could do was wax poetic about their partner. It was really annoying.
The truth was that mating was a mysterious biological process that relied on instincts, pheromones, and the environment. No one, not even their healers and their scholars completely understood it. For some mates there was a stereotypical love at first sight feeling, for other mates they had to work harder to form a bond. But no one could deny there was usually an instant spark. An intense feeling that went far beyond attraction.
As soon as it happened to a shifter, that shifter became an expert, at least in his or her own mind. In Everleigh’s mind, it made you a prisoner. She wasn't sure she wanted anything like that for herself after growing up so smothered by her family.
She thought it might be nice to have a break from the constant, overbearing atmosphere of her family. Now that she was in Anchorage, she was finally happy.
Yes, she did miss her family. She loved them and she actually liked being around them, when they weren't trying to tell her what to do. But all of that would come to a screeching halt if she had a mate. She would never be alone again, not as long as she lived.
But dating? She might be persuaded to date. Especially if the shifter was as hot as Roman was.
"So, Roman, you tell me you're looking for some land." She sat down behind her desk and flipped her laptop lid open. "Can you give me some parameters? Residential, commercial?"
"Residential,"' he said quickly.
"And how much land?" She had to concentrate to keep her eyes focused on her computer screen, instead of staring at his strong jawline or his broad shoulders.
He looked around. "Are there any other people in here that might overhear me?"
"No. You can speak freely, within reason," she added.
He sighed. "I'm moving my pack."
"All of them?" she asked.