As she dressed in her street clothes, Miracle said, “What are you waiting for?”
“I don’t know. The timing to be right, I guess. Or for a sexy billionaire to fall out of the sky, naked, right in front of me.”
“I’m sure that’ll happen,” she said as she exited the dressing room and followed Tonya to the cashier. She paid for three bikinis, unsure if she’d actually wear them. “I used to be more confident. I wish I could be now.”
“Wishing isn’t where confidence comes from. It’s just knowing that you’re the best you that you can be. You’ll find a male who appreciates all your strengths, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he’ll also be great in bed and have mad cooking skills.”
“I’d just like him to be nice.”
“Aw, babe. Don’t say shit like that, you’ll make me cry and I just got my make-up done.”
“Sorry,” she said, linking her arm through Tonya’s and heading out of the store.
“Your prince charming is out there, and this time you’ll find him on your own without any old dragon king trying to force your hand.”
“That would be awesome.”
*
Miracle waited for her things at baggage claim, tapping her foot impatiently and chewing on her thumbnail. She was still feeling twitchy after her plane ride. She liked flying just fine, when it was her dragon’s wings lifting her up into the clouds. But she didn’t much care for flying commercial, no matter how many times she watched the safety videos. She knew she could shift at a moment’s notice if something went wrong, but then she’d be a big freaking dragon trapped in an airplane and that would be far worse.
“Are you here for the resort?” a female voice asked.
Miracle turned and faced a woman maybe ten years her senior, wearing a golf shirt with the resort’s logo on the pocket. Her blonde hair was pulled high on her head in a swinging ponytail, and she held a clipboard.
“I’m Miracle Caprice,” she said.
“Great! I’m Wendy, and you’re last on my list of pick-ups. We’ve got a shuttle to take you to the island. It’s about a forty-five-minute drive.”
Her bags showed up right at that moment. Wendy grabbed one and put it on top of a trolley, and Miracle placed the other next to it. Miracle was introduced to three other females – two wolves and a puma – who looked to be in their mid-to-late forties. She felt immediately at ease when the puma female, Jesmin, said, “I hope to crap we’re the only females on the island and it’s a total sausage fest.”
“How much would it suck if it were just females?” Leah, one of the wolves, asked. “I’d demand a refund.”
“I promise there are males, ladies,” Wendy, said.
“What’s the ratio of hotdogs to donuts?” Aria asked.
No one said anything for a long moment, and then Wendy, cheeks pink, said, “Four to one.”
“Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Aria whooped.
Miracle couldn’t help but laugh at her enthusiasm.
On the drive to the island, the females all shared their histories. Each of them had come from similar unhappy, arranged-mating circumstances, except for Leah, whose alpha mate had been killed in a coup. She’d been forced out of her pack, exiled and alone.
The island was beautiful, and the air was hot and salty, with a delicious breeze. Miracle wanted to just lay out on a beach and do nothing for about a week.
“Your rooms are all on the same floor,” Wendy said as she walked them to the registration desk. The lobby had white marble floors, rattan furniture, and several different varieties of palm trees in planters against the walls. “The females are on the third floor, and the males are on floors one, two, and four. All your meals are included, and if you need anything, just call me. I live on-site.”
“She was way too perky,” Jesmin said as she waited to be checked in.
“She reminds me of my friend back home,” Miracle said.
The women filed into an elevator, a bellhop pulling the trolley with their suitcases behind him, and then one by one they found their rooms. Miracle’s was in between Jesmin’s and Aria’s, with Leah’s across the hall.
“According to the itinerary, there’s a cocktail party tonight at seven,” Leah said. “I’m going to grab my bathing suit and head down to the beach. You in?”
“Definitely,” Miracle said. “Meet in thirty?”
“Hell yes,” Jesmin said.