Page 21 of Delivered to My Fury

“Oh”—I waved my hands in front of me—“it’s fine. I’ll find something to do. It sounds like all of you have a packed day. I brought my laptop. I can take care of some emails or something.”

They shared a look. I hoped that one day I knew them well enough to be able to read those wordless conversations. “One of us can stay with you,” Eero offered.

“No, no, no. Then that person is a day behind on work, and it just snowballs from there. Trust me. I’ll be fine. Unless…you’re worried I’ll uncover all your shifter and orc secrets.”

Zyon cracked up. “We have no secrets. But if you want to know more about orcs and shifters, all you have to do is ask, female. We’d tell you anything.”

“So, you three go to work, and I’ll see you tonight. You probably work late though, right? It’s the weekend. I’m sure the tavern is busy.”

Another look between them.

“She’s right,” Shay said, scrubbing his hand down his face. I had to admit, I wasn’t fine with not seeing them very much. I came here to get to know them.

They cleared away the breakfast makings, and Zyon filled the dishwasher and turned it on. It made him three times as sexy. I watched their bodies as they moved around each other like bumper cars that never did crash.

Their smiles had faded, though. Shay’s eyebrows were bunched. Eero’s mouth was downturned.

“I have an idea,” I blurted. Either I was about to make a fool of myself, or they would agree to my proposition.

“Do tell,” Eero said.

“How about I go with you? Someone can maybe give me a tour and I can watch you work? I’ll stay out of the way, I promise.” Time to admit the truth and take a chance on humiliation. “I really don’t want to wait until tonight to see you again.”

The last statement stopped everyone in their tracks.

“We don’t want to wait all day to see you either. Even if we did, we’d be distracted. A beautiful woman waiting for us at home? Trust me. Nothing would get done.” Shay knew how to flirt.

“I’ll grab my bag. I only got to see the tavern and a glance at the kitchen when we came in and went out last night. I want to see where the magic is made.”

Chapter Eighteen

Eero

The brewery never looked so good to me as it did when we gave our mate a tour. We were trying not to call her that until we knew for sure she was going to stay, but what else could we say? Or think? My wolf had her pegged as our mate from the first glimpse of her profile. And Shay’s bear? I could hear him grumbling from here, wanting to get her back to his den, no doubt, and get her mated and marked.

Where shifters were much faster than humans to recognize their mates, our animals did it at lightning speed. I wasn’t even sure how, but I’d never heard anyone say their animal had made a mistake in recognizing a mate. Oh, it didn’t mean said mate was a nice person or would give them a perfect life. People were people no matter what kind. But in our case, Fate had bestowed a golden gift. Even in the few hours we’d spent together, I recognized qualities I’d always dreamed of in a mate.

She was sweet, a little shy, very intelligent, and had a dry sense of humor that caught me off guard more than once. Beautiful? Yes…but that was a bonus. I was old enough to know what was inside mattered far more. Still, I couldn’t dismiss what my eyes showed me, nor would I want to.

We rarely allowed anyone into the production area because we didn’t want to contaminate anything, but when I sorted through the white coats on the rack, trying to find one for her, I remembered the few distributors and others who had been in. We kept a variety of sizes, just for those occasions, but I couldn’t find one small enough. “Sorry, Opal. We require a coat to go in, but you’re going to swim in any of these.”

She grinned, showing white teeth and a dimple in one cheek that melted my heart. “That’s all right. I’ve been in a lot of labs over the years and usually had to bring my own coat or have one altered. It’s amazing how often they only stock the larger sizes.” Then she flushed. “I mean…I don’t mean you did anything wrong. You are all big men.”

“Here.” I held up the smallest one we had—a men’s large. “Let me help you put it on. We’ll order one for you in your size.”

“Don’t go to any trouble.” She adjusted the shoulders and shrugged. “You’re doing so much for me already.”

I wanted to squeeze her so hard, to kiss all over her face, and tell her we would do so much more just for the pleasure of her smile, but I didn’t want to freak her out by being so effusive. As a trio, we were already a lot. “Well, then, if you’re ready, this is the production area where we brew our beers and over there in the corner is the lab area, or the closest we have to one.”

She followed as we showed her each tank and barrel and our various processes, but I could see her gaze go over and over toward the area I had identified as the lab. Zyon, who had grown up learning a very traditional method of ale brewing, was explaining the changes we had made to modernize the brewery. And make it so our product was legal to sell in a human-dominated world.

She drifted toward the corner and looked at the high stool and counter where Zyon primarily, but all of us at some time, worked on flavors and other components of our brews. “This”—she patted the stool—“is where the magic happens.”

We looked at one another, puzzled, and back at her. Sure, we worked things out there, but where the hops and malted barley, yeast and water, changed from their individual forms into beer and ale and stout and porter… Nobody came in and asked for a handful of hops. But as she stroked the counter, I caught the yearning in her eyes and wondered if…had Fate given us even more than we knew?

“I’m glad you like our little lab.” Shay moved closer to her. “It’s not like what you’re used to, but then we’re not chemists like you.”

“No, but from what I tasted last night, you make a damn fine beer. Oh!” She clapped a hand to her cheek. “I forgot. I brought you a present. It’s in the car.”

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