good.” Gwen was smiling so hard her cheeks were starting to hurt. “Tell me about him.”
“I’m going to send over his profile right now and if you’re interested, I’ll connect you two. Want to hear the strange part?”
“Go on.”
“You know the man! He’s a tiger from Sunset Falls too!”
“Fuck!” Gwen dropped her phone for the second time that night.
Five
Dom looked at the email and smiled. This was going to throw her for a loop. He’d known he and Gwen were mates, but he hadn’t thought they were this compatible. They were a 99.8% match. Liv had sent him an excited email less than fifteen minutes after he’d filled out the application and created a profile.
She’d remembered him from his speech at Frank and Amy’s wedding. She hadn’t known he was interested in the service but was excited to work with him. While she hadn’t told him who his match was, Dom had told her that he was raring to get going on the process. He didn’t think Gwen would agree to contact with him, but there was no way she’d take this lying down. He poured himself a glass of scotch and waited.
Headlights shone across his driveway at 3:07 a.m. He let her bang on the door a while before answering.
“Dammit, Dominic Cates!” She kicked the front door and roared. “I know you’re in there, you good-for-nothing shifter.”
He went to the door but didn’t open it. “I’m not going to let you in here when you’re acting like that. What’s your problem, Gwen?”
“You know damn well what my problem is!”
He feigned innocence. “You broke my heart yesterday and now you’re here yelling on my doorstep at an ungodly hour. I don’t have any idea what this is about.”
“This would be about you ruining my chance at finding a mate. I know about Lovely and Kind Brides, Dom. Olivia called me herself.”
“Huh?” Dom laughed as Gwen started kicking at the door again. “I’m in the dark here, Gwen. I did apply for an LK Bride. Rachel told me the service might help me find a mate. After the ugliness with you last night, I thought now was the perfect time to sign up.”
“You son of a bitch.” Gwen pounded on the door with her fists. “You knew I was trying to find a match and you cheated me out of him. I don’t know how you did it, Dom, but you better ’fess up.”
“Did what? You can’t cheat a computer system, Gwen.”
“I know you did. Don’t you try to play innocent with me. You heard I was trying to find a match and you went in and played the system so you’d get me. This is low, Dom. Even for you.”
“Are you saying you’re my match?” Dom tried to sound surprised. As he figured, Gwen didn’t like that.
“Stop messing around, Dom. You need to fix this. Call Liv and tell her you cheated.”
“Now, how do you think I did that? If they say you’re my match, you’re my match, Gwen.”
“I am not your match. We are not mates.” There was a long string of curses mixed with growls and roars. He could hear her scratching into his front door. That door was going to have to be replaced this weekend.
“Have they been wrong before?”
“They’re wrong this time,” Gwen snarled.
“They aren’t. I don’t know why you’re having such a hard time accepting this. We’re mates, Gwen. I’m telling you. LK Brides is telling you. And if you’d listen to her, your tiger is telling you too. You can’t run from fate.”
“If you were my fate, we would have gotten together years ago. But we didn’t. We broke up. We are never, ever getting back together, Dom.”
“I’m going to marry you, Gwen Johnson. Even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming down the aisle. I’m going to marry you and we’re going to have a whole mess of cubs.”
“In your dreams, Dom!”
“I’m just letting you know what’s going to happen. You may not like it right now, but I’m not going to stop fighting for us. I’m your future, Gwen. Get used to it.”
She screamed and kicked his door one
Mandy M. Roth, Michelle M. Pillow