Furnace: A Fated Mate Romance Read online

  On the other hand, Petal. He had a sneaking suspicion that if he didn’t do this, it would be something he would regret for the rest of his life. That he’d always be thinking back to this moment here in the bar, when he decided not to chase her down. There was no guarantee that when he found her she would be interested. But he had to try. It was as simple as that. She was worth the effort to him.

  Fuck. Little wolf in the big city, I guess.

  He just prayed that he wasn’t making a big mistake by leaving.

  18. Reflections

  Petal

  The doors of the elevator closed around her, and it began to descend. She was alone in it, since it was going to the corporate parking level below. That meant Petal was trapped in the little box with her thoughts. Attempting to ignore them, she closed her eyes. The walls were all reflective glass, and so the only way to ignore herself was to look at the backs of her eyelids.

  And let me tell you, those were damn interesting!

  The soft ding announced they were there. She strode off and toward the taxi zone. Her car was in the shop, so she’d been forced to use a service to get her to and from work. In the morning she’d used a basic yellow-cab service. It had been horrendous. So she’d decided to splurge after work.

  A sleek matte-black luxury sedan was just pulling up to the gate, the driver barely visible behind the tinted windows. It was devoid of any lettering or logos, which she liked. The passenger-side window rolled down. “Miss Olson?”

  She nodded. Almost immediately the door opened and the driver exited, smoothly coming around the front. She indicated she was going to ride in the back, and he pulled the door open for her. She slid inside and he pushed it closed gently.

  “My apologies for not being here earlier,” he said upon re-entering. “There was an accident that happened literally right in front of me. Unavoidable unfortunately.” He sighed, an over-the-top sound. “Some people.”

  The car pulled smoothly out into traffic and she leaned back into the seat. The driver wisely stayed silent after that, simply guiding the car to her condo on the other side of the city.

  The skyscrapers passed by slowly on either side as they contended with afternoon traffic. The huge metal, concrete, and glass buildings that had once seemed so beautiful and modern to her now felt like they were pressing in on either side of her, making her feel claustrophobic in her own hometown. Any time she closed her eyes, Petal was transported back to the calmness of the hills of Surrey. Where the hills were covered in trees and the people moved at a pace that wasn’t frantic.

  A horn blared from the car next to them and she heard the driver hiss in anger. Clearly he was holding back some road rage at the other vehicle. From what she could see, they’d been cut off by some little import vehicle with an overly loud exhaust and a rear windshield absolutely plastered with ridiculous decals for various car parts companies and stores. Lovely. Just another thing that the country didn’t have.

  There are yahoos everywhere, girl. In the country they probably just drive huge pickups.

  Maybe. But she would have a much easier time avoiding them there when there was no traffic to speak of.

  “Does it ever feel oppressive to you?” she asked suddenly, leaning forward.

  Her driver—Michael, according to the laminated white card fixed to the dash—jerked in surprise as she spoke. He’d likely tuned out the fact that she was even in there, based on how quiet she’d been for the past twenty minutes or so.

  “Um, pardon, ma’am?”

  Petal smiled. The boy had manners, she liked that.

  “Just Petal is fine.”

  “Okay. Pardon, Petal?”

  Oh, she liked him.

  “This.” She waved her hand out into the front seat and around, to indicate she was talking about the city. “All of it. Does it ever feel like it’s just closing in on you, pressing in from all sides?”

  He shrugged. “No, not really. I love the hustle and bustle, the constant go-go-go of it all. There’s always something going on, something new or different to experience or see. Always changing, never quite the same. You wouldn’t get that out in some country bumpkin town.” His voice was a little too snooty for her, and she revised her opinion of him down a bit.

  “I suppose. But there’s no trees. No nature or grass. No forests or open hills.” She knew her voice sounded wistful.

  “Maybe. I can see how if you enjoy that, it would feel different. But since you asked me my opinion, I say that sounds somewhat boring.” He paused for a second before continuing. “Besides, the cellphone service is probably atrocious.”

  Petal laughed and sat back into her seat. She’d forgotten the age gap between them. Her driver couldn’t be more than twenty-five at most. Probably in his early twenties, and addicted to his phone, like everyone else. She was always on hers while at work, but once the day was done, she put it away. It was one rule she’d never broken, and never intended to. Her life after hours was hers. Not the company’s. If they didn’t like it, she was prepared to walk away, a threat she’d almost had to make good on, before someone had come to their senses and decided they’d rather have her in place during the day only, rather than not at all.

  “You sound like you’re missing somewhere.”

  Maybe there was hope for him after all.

  “Maybe I am. I’m not sure. It’s a confusing situation. I thought I liked the city too. Thought I was at home with the noise and the press of it all. But now…” She shrugged. “Now I don’t know.”

  “There’s a guy, isn’t there?”

  She jerked. How had he known that?

  “Us guys aren’t the only ones who get wistful over someone you know,” he said with a smile.

  “I see. You’re very perceptive for someone your age, Michael.”

  “Thank you, I try.”

  “You did a good job. You’re correct. There is a guy. A wonderful guy.”

  That I screwed things up with horribly, possibly beyond repair.

  “It’s never too late,” Michael said, as if reading her mind.

  “But what if I’m making it out to be better than it is? What if I’ve created this memory in my mind, which isn’t reality?”

  The driver thought about it for a bit. “So go back for a visit? Nobody is going to force you to do anything permanently. Go back with a critical eye. See if you were recalling it correctly. Maybe you were. Or maybe it’s worse. But it could also be that it’s better than you remember as well. Don’t forget that.”

  It’d be better if Lex didn’t hate me, which I’m sure he does. But the kid has a good point. When did the young ones start getting so smart?

  “Maybe,” she said out loud. “Maybe that’s what I’ll do.”

  Pulling out her phone, she broke the rule for the first time right then and there, texting Mackenna and telling her to get her tickets back to Surrey as soon as possible. Then she settled back into the leather seats and relaxed for the rest of the drive home. By the time Michael pulled up in front of her condo, her phone was blinking with an email.

  You leave tomorrow at eight in the morning. Tickets attached.

  Petal smiled. She was going back to Surrey!

  19. Fate’s Path

  Lex

  The journey so far had been uneventful. That was probably good, but it had left him feeling a little bored. The excitement for what lay at the end of his journey hadn’t ebbed one bit. If anything it had grown, fueled by the nervous anticipation of her reaction.

  In his mind, Lex had played out scene after scene, trying to figure out where to find her, what he should say when he first saw her, and most importantly, what Petal’s reaction might be. There were so many ways it could all play out, that they had long ago started to blur together in his head, preventing him from choosing any one option. The message was clear: he was going to have to play it by ear and adapt on the fly, because nobody could predict how something like this was going to happen. Fate would take its course, and he would simply have
to work with the flow, not against it.

  But considering he still had another four hours of travel time ahead of him, Lex knew he would have plenty of time to involuntarily think of more scenarios.

  A long-distance relationship with her would suck. Weekend visits are not feasible.

  Surrey was small. Really small. Perhaps twenty-five hundred people at best, but probably closer to the two-thousand mark. That meant the nearest airfield was over forty-five minutes away. Then from there, he had to take a connecting flight southwest to Petal’s hometown. An hour and a half, plus four hours for the second flight, add in nearly an hour of driving first, plus layover, and then finding his way around in the city. It was going to take him nearly half a day to get there.

  Weekends are definitely out. Christmas and one holiday a year it is. Unless she wants to move to Surrey.

  He smiled to himself at that thought. Petal, living in Surrey. He wasn’t sure she could stomach the country like that. It was all fun for her, a trip to the middle of nowhere for a bit. But to actually move there? No, he had a feeling they were going to be doing long-distance. He frowned, wondering just how he would tell her that he couldn’t leave Surrey.

  You’re going to have to tell her the truth sometime. Preferably before too much time passes. You can’t hide yourself from your mate. You know that much.

  It was true. At some point, he was going to have to reveal to her what he was, and why he couldn’t leave the valley behind permanently. But, perhaps not before he’d had some more time to warm her up to the idea that his world existed.

  He paused at a kiosk to grab a sandwich and a bottle of water. His next flight wasn’t for an hour, so he had time to kill. An empty table nearby called to him and he sat, munching down on the turkey and ham sandwich. It was on rye bred, and tasted fresh. His mood immediately perked up, though he decided they could have gone a little heavier with the mayo. Penny-pinchers. I would have paid an extra twenty-five cents for that!

  The original plan had been to sit and enjoy the meal, taking up some of the time before he had to report to the gate. But it was much better than anticipated, and it disappeared within five minutes, leaving Lex with little more to do than sit back and daydream. Oddly enough, those dreams consisted of Petal. He was seeing her everywhere. Any moment now he’d open his eyes, and he’d hallucinate that she was there. Or worse, picture someone else was her, and run up to her to give her a hug.

  He opened his eyes then, completely unsurprised to see that the woman standing in the middle of the walkway staring at him looked exactly like her. Damn, can I read my own mind, or can I read my own mind? Stop it, brain. I’m not going to go over there and talk to her, just to be embarrassed, or worse, have security called on me.

  The woman continued to stare, her mouth open wide, bright blue eyes sparkling with a layer of wetness. The likeness to the real thing was incredible. Right down to the suit, cut in a masculine manner, but yet still definitely feminine at the same time. This one was black with a purple buttoned shirt, looking crisply ironed and fresh from the drycleaner.

  He smiled at whoever she really was and turned around, wanting to get rid of the image in his mind. The real Petal would be waiting for him at the end of his journey. Not here at some random airport.

  “Lex?”

  Hairs rose on his neck. His spine straightened and froze in place. Okay, that was unusual. Never before had his brain been able to mock someone’s voice to him. With a predatory slowness that he knew would be visible to anyone watching as unnerving and possibly unnatural, he turned in his seat.

  “Who are you?” he asked to the person that looked like Petal. “Are you real?”

  The gorgeous face clouded over with confusion. “Are you reading my mind?”

  “I don’t think so. Unless you’re a figment of my mind. In that case, I guess I kind of am, yes?” He looked around. “Am I dreaming?”

  The Petal-wannabe leaned over and pinched his skin.

  “Ow!” he said, rubbing it. She hadn’t held back.

  “No, I think you’re awake.” She frowned. “Am I dreaming?”

  He reached forward but she slapped his hand away before he could return the favor. “Nice try.”

  “So if I’m not dreaming. And you’re not dreaming. Then are we both really here?”

  He rose from his seat, still trying to come to terms with what he was seeing in front of him.

  “I know I am,” she said. “But you? You’re really here? What are you doing here?”

  This was it. The critical moment where he was to tell her everything. To confess his feelings for her, and to find out if she felt the same. Anxiety swelled his throat shut. All Lex could do was stare, dumbfounded. This was not how he’d planned out anything in his head! All of his scenarios had involved him finding her at her office, or at home. He was woefully unprepared for this.

  “Lex?”

  “I was coming to find you.” The words weren’t ones he’d rehearsed. They just tumbled out of his mouth without prompting, the first things that had come into his head. They were also the pure, unaltered truth, with a minimum of exaggeration to them.

  “To find me?”

  He nodded. “What are you doing here?”

  The answer he figured was likely heading back to Surrey now that she had recovered from her ordeal, to ensure that everything was on track. There were rumors that the company had big plans to start building in some backup trunk-lines from the dam to Everett and then to Surrey and vice versa, so that an outage like this could be prevented in the future. Lex wasn’t sure it made monetary sense, but that’s why he was just a line worker, not a suit-wearer.

  “I was coming back to see you.”

  “Fuck off.”

  Her eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?”

  “Umm, I meant that like, holy shit. Like, you’ve got to be kidding me.” He smiled awkwardly, afraid that he’d just ruined the whole thing by shooting his mouth off.

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah.” He scratched the back of his neck. “I have to admit, this isn’t how I saw this whole thing going down in my head.”

  “That makes two of us,” she agreed with a laugh. “But I guess you could say that everything about us hasn’t exactly gone to plan.”

  “Right. Still...” he looked around. “Okay, move back twenty feet.”

  “Pardon?”

  “Just do it.” He waved his hands at her.

  Disbelief written all over her face, Petal walked back roughly twenty feet.

  “Okay, now I’m going to sit down and turn around. Then say my name again.”

  “Are you kidding me? This is real life, Lex. Not a movie. We can’t just pause and rewind.”

  “Just do it,” he said, turning around.

  “I really hope you have something good that you want to do here, Lex,” she said, calling out his name even louder.

  He turned and rose all at once from the chair.

  “You know what,” he said, walking across to her, dropping the handle to his carry-on and sliding his backpack off as he went. “I do.”

  Petal yelped as he swept her off the ground, holding her tight to his body while he kissed her, covering her lips completely, uncaring of who might see him.

  “That was so cheesy,” she said softly after returning the kiss for several seconds.

  “But you loved it.”

  “I really did. Did you seriously just drop your backpack in the middle of the airport while walking to kiss me?”

  “Mm-hmm,” he said while kissing her some more. They were beginning to draw a crowd. He still didn’t care. If anything, he kissed her harder.

  Whispers from nearby reached his ears. “Did they just get engaged?” “I think he just proposed?” “I don’t know, but isn’t it sweet. I want to be swept off my feet like that.”

  He grinned.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “Absolutely nothing.” He covered her protests with more kisses, until she finally pushed him away wi
th a smile, slipping through his arms until she was back on the ground.

  “This is fate,” he said. “You realize that, right? We both came looking for each other, and happened to cross paths at the airport?”

  “It really does feel like it, doesn’t it?” She came up next to him, her hand sliding into his, holding it tight.

  “It does. It also feels really, really good.” He held up her hand and kissed the back of it gently.

  “Okay there, Mr. Suave. Let’s get your luggage and go sit down somewhere.”

  “Whatever you say. Are you hungry?”

  “Starved.”

  They agreed to go get her food—he was a shifter, he could always eat more—and then figure out which direction they were going to continue their travels. Lex didn’t care; he just wanted to make Petal as happy as he was to have found her coming to see him. His entire world had been rocked by that revelation. Never had he considered that her time with him might change her and affect her as much as it had him.

  But before they could do all that, his cell phone started to go off like crazy, with text after text notification. He pulled it out and started reading the messages, his stomach sinking like a stone the more he read.

  “What’s wrong, Lex? What is it?”

  He looked up. “Fate.”

  Surrey had been hit by another storm. This one was even worse.

  20. A Helping Hand

  Petal

  Their unexpected reunion on hold, Petal rushed them back to Surrey by using her company credit card to buy out a second first-class seat on the plane. The passenger hadn’t objected one bit, not being in a rush himself, and was more than happy to accept the two-thousand-dollar bribe to wait six hours for the next flight. Lex told her she could have gotten him to do it for less, but she didn’t care.

  Something about his tone and the way he told her he needed to get back to Surrey told her it was more important than just the fact that his crew needed him. Something else was at work here, but he wasn’t willing to share. His dedication to the town was admirable, and since she’d been planning on going there anyway, she wasn’t bothered by the renewed urgency.