Holy fucking shit. There’s no fucking way.
This man is my true mate.
How is that possible? How did he find me here of all places? And what the hell was that with Ray?
“I’m really sorry,” the guy says, holding up his hands in surrender. “This is incredibly awkward. I thought this was going to go differently. Fuck.”
I take a step towards him. “What’s going on here?”
“Hi,” someone says, pushing their way between both of our groups. My eyes snap over to him, realizing I was staring at my mate. “I’m Harbor! It’s really lovely to meet you all. Would you like a fry?”
“We don’t want any fries!” Ray says, her voice morphing from sounding upset to sounding confused.
“Suit yourself. These are my cousins, Bently and Casper.”
Casper. My mate’s name is Casper. I can’t stop looking at him, taking him in. I want to memorize every detail of this man. I want to smell him until I can pick out every tiny note of his scent. I want to touch him and explore him and use my phantom form to crawl under his skin until I can’t tell where he ends and I begin.
I take another step forward, like my feet are moving without my permission and I’m powerless to stop them. Casper’s face is filled with wonder as he stares over at Ray. As I move forward, he finally looks over at me.
I watch as a variety of emotions play across his face. He sucks in a sharp breath and I watch as it clicks into place. He can scent me just the same way I’m scenting him. We’re true mates.
Harbor hums, looking between Casper and I. “Something just happened,” he says, pointing a finger between the two of us. “Something’s going on here. I can tell.”
Casper covers his face with his hands, letting out a long groan. “Harbor,” he says with a long sigh. “Please stop talking. I’m not sure it’s helping.”
Page grabs my shoulder, pulling me back towards her as my feet seem to continue slowly but surely move me towards Casper. “Zeke? What the hell is going on?”
I look at her then down at Ray then over at Casper. I open my mouth a few times, trying to find the right words before finally settling on a sigh. “Ray,” I say slowly, “there’s some shit that Page and I have to explain to you.”
Page looks panicked. “What? No. There’s nothing weird going on here. Nothing we need to explain. Absolutely normal day with nothing unusual happening. Nope.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Do you know these guys?”
“No,” Page says right away, “we’ve never met them before.”
“Then why is everyone acting so weird?”
“Page, we’ve gotta tell her. She deserves to know,” I say, looking at her for a long moment, trying to convey how much this needs to happen. We can’t just keep her in the dark forever, especially now that I’ve met my true mate who’s still giving Ray puppy eyes.
“Deserves to know what? You’re freaking me out.” Ray takes a step away from Page in order to look between the two of us. “Are you guys fucking or something?”
There’s a growl that I’m pretty certain comes from my mate. The sound makes a shiver go down my spine.
“Absolutely not,” Page says. “It’s nothing like that, baby. I love you, you know that.”
“Then just tell me whatever’s going on!”
“You know how we ghost hunt and you always sit in the car because you think it’s horseshit?” Ray raises her brow, nodding. “And how you think the supernatural as a whole is fake?”
“Yeah,” she says slowly. “Because it is. There’s no such thing as ghosts and demons and magic. It’s all fake.”
“Oh my gods,” Casper murmurs. “You don’t know? Really?”
She looks over at him with a glare. “Don’t know what? Somebody better start fucking talking.”
“All of it is real,” he says softly. “The supernatural. It’s real, Ray. And you’re part of it.”
Chapter Three
Casper
Iprobably shouldn’t have just blurted that out like that. In my defense, how can she not be feeling it? How does someone grow into adulthood without even knowing they’re a spark? Sure, Jude’s spark didn’t realize he was a spark until they met, but I thought that was an outlying case not the usual!
Plus, I can smell that my spark’s girlfriend is a vampire and my mate is some sort of supernatural creature.
Oh my gods. I have a mate. I have a true mate. And he’s right in front of me! There’s so many emotions playing around inside of me I can’t even pinpoint one of them. They’re all jumbled up inside of me.
I’m happy. I’m excited. I’m filled with wonder. I’m anxious as fuck. I’m confused. I’m shocked.
“I’m sorry, what?”
The vampire winces. I think I heard someone call her Page? “It’s true, babe.”
“No. No, this is some sort of weird joke.”
“It’s not. The supernatural is real, Ray,” my mate says gently. “Page and I really do hunt ghosts and put them to rest.”
“Then why the fuck have I never seen anything? Any time you have me come inside with you, everything is still and quiet.”
