As she sanded down the wood, wiped it off and applied a dark stain, she thought about what she would do if she could be an ordinary girl like the women who had been matched with her brother’s crewmates. Maybe she could find a mate and settle down. Zoe was twenty-five now and she felt ready for something more solid and real than she had ever wanted before.
Something like the table leg. Solid, beautiful, and sturdy. It would hold up the tabletop and provide support for everything that was placed on top of it. Family dinners. Holiday feasts. She knew she could be that solid, sturdy support for a real family if she could just get free of her past.
She placed the stained leg next to the other three and pulled off her safety goggles. The tear that had formed in the corner of her eye slid down her face and mingled with the sawdust on her cheek. She wiped it away with the sleeve of her girly coveralls and sniffled. She pulled off her coveralls, and hung them on the hook on the wall near the door.
She walked out of the woodshop, wearing a pair of multicolored, ethnic patterned short shorts. She’d paired it with a lacey, white tank top that accented her tanned skin and the detailed, pretty tattoos on her arms. Her brown leather ankle books worked with her cute summer outfit and her coveralls. The boys in the hall glanced and her generous curves and her shapely legs as they passed. Zoe chuckled inwardly, knowing that even men who weren’t her fated mate thought her hourglass body was hot as hell.
As she turned down the hallway of the Bright Institute on her way back to her dormitory, she bumped into her classmate Heath Reynolds.
“Hi, Heath,” she said.
Heath was a grizzly bear shifter, like her brother, and they had become fast friends since the first day of class. He was as big and as imposing as most male shifters, with broad shoulders, muscular arms, a slim waste, and a face that made human women melt. He was wearing his best outfit, a pair of dark denim jeans and a light blue button up shirt with a red tie.
“Zoe!” he said with a beaming smile on his face.
“What are you so excited about?”
“I was just down at the police department. Chief of police, Commander Rollo Morris accepted me as a new cadet. Can you believe it?”
“Of course I can. You’ve worked really hard for this. You got your diploma and you completed your initial law enforcement training. You’ve done everything right, and now you’re accomplishing your goal. Congratulations.”
“What are you going to do now that you’re done with your six months training as a woodworker?”
“I’m not sure yet. I was hoping to get an apprenticeship at Angus Grant’s woodshop in town. But I still haven’t asked Angus if he will accept me as his apprentice.”
“What’s stopping you?”
“Angus Grant is my brother’s best friend.”
“So?” Heath asked.
No one could understand why Zoe was so reluctant to be incorporated into Corey’s life. But the closer she got to Corey and his friends, the more likely it was for her secret to come out. Zoe wanted to start her life over, but she still wasn’t free of Dima’s grasp. Maybe when she finally paid him off, she would be able to live the life she now knew she wanted.
“My two favorite students,” a female voice said from behind them.
Zoe turned around to see her sister-in-law Willow Bright walking down the hallway toward them. Willow was wearing a flowing maxi dress with a blue flower print that accented her dark skin. She had on a cute pair jeweled flip-flops, and her designer sunglasses where nestled on top of her head. Willow’s naturally curly black hair, bobbed in ringlets around her pretty, round face.
Zoe adored Willow, and she wished that the two of them could be even closer. They had developed a fast friendship after Zoe had arrived on Fate Mountain. But no matter how much Zoe wanted to get closer to her sister-in-law, she couldn’t allow herself to open up to the woman with the threat of her Mafia boss ex-boyfriend still hanging over her head.
“Hi, Willow,” Heath said. “What brings you down to the Institute?”
“I was coming down here to congratulate you, as a matter of fact,” Willow said to Heath. “I heard you were accepted as a cadet on the Fate Mountain Police Department.”
“Commander Morris accepted me today,” he said with pride in his voice.
“This calls for a celebration,” Willow said, her brown eyes twinkling with mischief.
“What do you have in mind?” Heath asked.
“I want to take both of you down to Fate Mountain Brewery for a pint of Fate Mountain lager, on me,” Willow said, putting her arms around Heath and Zoe’s shoulders.
Zoe wanted to resist, but she knew that it was futile. Willow rarely pulled her attention away from her writing long enough to go out for beers or bother anyone about anything. She had made a special trip down to the Institute just to congratulate Heath, and Zoe didn’t intend to disappoint either of them. Since her arrival on Fate Mountain, Heath and Willow had become two of her favorite people.
“That sounds like fun,” Heath said, grinning wide and showing his straight white teeth.
“Have you heard the one about the human, the grizzly, and the jaguar who walked into a bar?” Willow asked.