3

The whole concept disgusted me, and I shivered at the idea of even being in the same city as one of those ceremonies. I had many goals in life, but finding a mate wasn’t one of them. The thought that I would find the one person I was destined to be with at this ceremony was absolute idiocy. Prior to this moment, whenever someone suggested that they’d found true love at one of these things, I rolled my eyes and laughed out loud. Much the same as this moment.

I surveyed the kitchen, grateful my catering staff had already left for the day.

It took about an hour to finish prepping meals for Cassidy’s family, but she had enough meals to last the week by the time I was done and could hang up my apron, so to speak.

I was exhausted, but as I headed out of the kitchen, my mind was still buzzing with ideas for the lunar mate ceremony. I had a real chance to get my name out there with this thing and I wasn’t going to blow it.

This is it. A now or never moment. I’d spent years working my fingers to the bones, learning, trying new things, taking chances—some panned out, some didn’t—and it was finally paying off. The future was mine for the taking. I had a quality product and extraordinary, professional staff. Most of all, I had talent. Those were all things I could control. I could cook in my sleep. I would just be doing it on a much larger scale.

I hopped in my car and headed back to the office to start drafting a contract for Persephone. This was the kind of thing that couldn’t wait. I wanted to have the details locked in, the budget—or lack of one, in this case—in writing and approved so I could start working. Plus, punctuality and timeliness were signs of professionalism, and I certainly didn’t want Persephone to doubt that I was at the top of my game—the kind of professional who could be counted on to deliver with efficiency.

As I drove, the idea of a fated mate continued to float around my mind. I just didn’t buy that there was a person in the world who would stir something so potent inside me I’d never been aware existed, that it would lead to the great love of my life. At least those were the words Cassidy had used to describe her mate.

I’d heard others describe fated mates as soulmates connected by some unbreakable bond. Someone who could supposedly bring the best out in their mate and unlock passionate emotions that transcended time and space.

I hadn’t bought it then, and my mind wasn’t easily changed.

Chapter 2

Ty

One Month Later

“I’ve been in touch with our logistics department, and they’ve found the source of the shipment issues.” Bill looked at me with unblinking eyes as if he could scare me out of my anger, but I was certain he had no idea of the kind of anger I could summon if I needed to.

Now, though, I reined it in, ran my hand through my hair, and glared at the manager at Keller Motors. “Well, spit it out. What’s the problem?” Answers. I needed fucking answers.

Bill took a step closer and thrust a handful of papers in my direction. “Instead of printing by date, they’ve been printing in alphabetical order. Things ordered on the first of the month by Zimmer have been printed out at the end. So, we aren’t dealing with first in, first out, and everything is printing out of sync.”

“Son of a bitch.” I pulled in a loud breath through my nose. It was probably one of those kinds that should’ve been called a cleansing breath, one meant to calm the fire, but my fire raged. I snatched the paperwork from him and compared our client information to the dates of the part orders. The whole fucking system had broken down, botched by some incompetent asshole. “So that’s why we’re receiving all of these returned products.” No one wants to wait a month for product that was supposed to be delivered overnight. Of course, there were fucking returns. “What are we doing about this?”

Bill looked down at the sheets in my hands, then met my eyes. He was a man who owned his mistakes, and this was his. Even though he wasn’t the order entry guy, he was the manager. The overseer. His mistake. After a moment, he crossed his arms defensively. “First, let me just say how sorry I am, sir. I should’ve been on top of this. It shouldn’t have happened, and it certainly should’ve been caught before these shipping errors were made.”

Apologies meant nothing without a plan to correct the situation. I nodded. “Yeah, and?”

“I’ve got my IT guy working to correct the program as we speak. Everything should be running smoothly from this point forward.” I’d spent my entire life without qualifiers like should be. I needed a man in charge who could guarantee results. As I was about to inform him that his days at Keller Motors had come to an end, he held up one finger as he read his phone screen then looked at me. “According to the email that just came through, it’s fixed.”