Cyrus Abrams pulled into the driveway of the home he shared with his cousin Gavin and turned off his truck. His tiger was grumbling, irritated about the events of the evening. It was at times like these he wished he could speak directly to his cat and find out what the hell was bugging him, but all he ever got were snarls and growls.
He opened the front door of the quaint two-bedroom home, and caught the scent of chocolate and followed it to the kitchen, where Gavin and his sister Aeryn were sitting at the table, a tall chocolate cake between them.
“Hey, I didn’t know you were in town,” he said, kissing Aeryn on the cheek.
“Winter break,” she said. “It’s almost Christmas, you know.”
“I’m aware,” he said dryly. “I had to dig my truck out of a ton of snow before I could leave tonight.”
“Ah, hot date, right?” She smiled, her green eyes glittering with humor.
“Meh.” He pointed to the cake. “Are you sharing with your favorite cousin or being selfish?”
“Grab a plate,” she said.
He pulled a dessert-sized plate from the cabinet and set it on the table, watching as she cut a thick slice of the three-layer cake. He sat next to Gavin and dug in, his cat – who was a sucker for sweets – purring in response to the decadent taste.
“I’d ask if you liked it, but you sound like you’re in a porno,” she teased.
His cheeks heated and he chuckled. “It’s great, Aer.”
“Thanks. It was part of my finals for the semester. I got an A of course.”
“Of course,” Gavin said, rolling his eyes. “Little Miss Perfect over here.”
“You know it.”
Cyrus finished the cake quickly and eagerly accepted a second piece.
“Gav said you had a blind date tonight,” Aeryn said.
“Yeah,” he said in between mouthfuls. “Mari set it up.”
“Was she a shifter?”
“No, human. Someone Mari used to work with.”
His mind flitted over the date that had started with her asking why he hadn’t bothered shaving and ended with her yelling at the waitstaff for running out of crème brûlée. He’d never been so glad to be done with a date and had left a very large tip in thanks to the staff, who had put up with her snobby and demeaning tone.
“I gather it didn’t go well?” Aeryn asked, pushing back her chair and standing.
“Nope.”
“I don’t know why you even asked Mari to set you up with someone in the first place,” Gavin said, leaning back and pushing his empty plate away.
Cyrus finished the cake, stood up from the table and carried the plate to the sink where Aeryn took it from him. He grabbed a bottle of lemon-flavored water from the fridge and cracked the lid, draining half before he answered. “My cat’s restless.”
“So a blind date was the answer?” Gavin arched a brow.
“Well, not this one. He’s been antsy for a while. I thought maybe he was needing to shift. We’ve been so busy at work that I haven’t gone out hunting for a while, but after shifting last weekend, it didn’t change anything.” If anything, his cat was even more unsettled than he had been before. And he was feeling decidedly worse after the date.
“I’m sorry your date sucked,” Aeryn said. “There are some cute girls at college. Want me to fix you up?”
“Hell no,” he said. “No more blind dates. I’ll find my truemate when the time is right. Trying to force it isn’t going to do anything but continue to piss off my cat.”
Gavin stood and clapped him on the shoulder. “Wanna go grab a drink?”
“Nah. I’m going to walk over to Midas’s and talk to him.”
Midas was the king of the ambush. A single male like himself, he was a great leader and a good friend, and Cyrus knew he could discuss his personal life with him.
“I’m staying at Mom and Dad’s,” Aeryn said, turning off the water in the sink and drying her hands on a towel. “I’ll see you two tomorrow.”
“You’re leaving the cake, right?” Cyrus asked, eyeing the plastic lid she set over the half-eaten cake.
“Of course. Dad’s on a cheesecake kick right now, so I made him a raspberry swirl one. I even got extra credit points for it.”
He kissed her cheek. “You should open your own bakery.”
“Maybe someday,” she said, “but I’d settle for a position at a nice restaurant when I graduate next year.”
Cyrus said goodbye to his cousins and headed outside. The ambush all lived near each other – with Midas’s home in the center of their territory – surrounded by vast woods for hunting small game from rabbits to deer. There was a point in time when he’d lived away from the ambush, sharing an apartment with a wiccan named Cinder. They’d fucked around for a while but it hadn’t been serious. His cat liked her, but she wasn’t his truemate so he hadn’t pushed back when she found hers – a wolf male named Adam who had insisted Cyrus take a hike. He had no say in the matter anyway once Midas got involved and made it a direct order. His friendship with Cinder had never recovered, and they’d both gone their own way. He’d moved back to the ambush’s territory and Gavin had happily welcomed him back to the house they’d shared before Cyrus left.
Knocking on Midas’s door, Cyrus opened it when he heard him call from inside that the door was open.
“Hey, it’s Cyrus,” he said, shutting the door and stomping the snow from his boots.
“I’m in the family room.”
He hung up his coat and walked through the house until he reached the room, where Midas was seated on the plush couch, with a laptop resting on his legs.
“Hey, man,” Midas said, closing the laptop and setting it on the coffee table. “What’s up?”
“Do you have a minute? I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Of course, have a seat.”
Cyrus sat heavily on the loveseat and rubbed his palms on his jeans. “I’m feeling restless.”
“In what way?”
“I’m just ready to settle down. I know I can’t push fate, but I was thinking a change of scenery might be helpful.”
Midas frowned. “You want to leave the ambush?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I want to join another crew and get out of Whisper Creek for a while.”
“Ah.” Midas opened the laptop. “Let’s see what we have open.”
Midas was the owner of an ambush-run construction crew. Cyrus’s current job was working on the interior of a home in the ambush’s territory.
“I’ve got two openings,” Midas said, glancing at Cyrus. “There’s the remodel in Davenport and the restaurant downtown. The restaurant would be a good fit for you. Right now, we’re doing installations and laying the flooring, and we could use the extra help to stay on time.”
Cyrus hadn’t been downtown in years, aside from a visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for a new exhibit and when he and Gavin had taken their mothers to see a Broadway show. The restaurant in question was commissioned by the vampire coven and would cater to vampires and humans. It was next door to Fang, the coven-owned club. He’d never been in the club. Shifter blood was more potent than human blood to vampires, and most shifters simply steered clear. It wasn’t that he was worried he’d be fed from against his will, he’d simply never had a desire to check it out. He wasn’t a club sort of fellow anyway. He liked going to the ambush-owned bar in town, playing darts or pool, and hanging out with his friends.
“We’ve got temporary housing, or you can commute. It’s less than an hour’s drive from here. It’s second shift – three to eleven p.m. Our people are on first and second shift, and there’s a group of vamps that comes to work after the sun sets and leaves before dawn.”
“Would I be in charge of the vampires during my shift?”
“As the job foreman, yes. They’ll check in with you, like our people will. Connect with Parker, he’s the first shift supervisor. You can shadow him for a bit and get the lay of the land, and then take over second shift.”
“Sounds good.”
“Maybe a change of scenery will be just what your cat needs.”
“It’s possible.”
“It wears on males after a while.” Midas looked thoughtful.
Cyrus stood and looked at him. “What does?”
“Being alone. We either wait for our truemates or we move forward with someone we know isn’t the ‘one’ right person for us. It’s a crap shoot.”
He hummed in agreement. “It sure is.”
Cyrus said goodbye and walked home. The house was dark and quiet, which told him Gavin had gone to bed. He sent a text to Parker to let him know that Midas had assigned him as second shift supervisor, and he’d be at the club in the morning to get up to speed, then he climbed into bed.
He stared at the ceiling, his mind wandering. Midas wasn’t wrong. Cyrus had a choice – settle down with a female who wasn’t his truemate or wait for her. She was out there somewhere, he was certain. He just wished she was with him already. Perhaps a change of scenery was just what he needed and maybe in the process, he’d stumble across his truemate.
He certainly hoped he would.