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to find you. It was only because of the pendant that I managed to track you down.”
    “Cinderella’s slipper,” she whispered. Then she asked louder, “How did you find me?”
    “Kira. She recognised it. Gave me your address.”
    “Kira? She doesn’t know my address.”
    “She looked it up on the police database. She shouldn’t have, but, well … it was important.”
    “So you know who I am?” she asked, sounding saddened.
    “Thankfully, yes.” He could not tell her how happy he was to have found her, and how much he wanted to take her home to his ramshackle house and make love to her on his broken bed. On second thought, perhaps her place would be better.
    “Four.” He backed away as Trudy came to the door.
    “Croissants are done.”
    “Thanks, Trudy.” Natalie turned back to him. “Four.” Then with a great effort, his mate turned and walked away.
    Riley felt the thread between them stretch, thinning but not breaking. Looking around, he saw a coffee shop across the street. That was where he would wait for her; he doubted he could get much further. The need to be close to her was almost too much.
    But he could wait.
     

Chapter Eight - Natalie
    Natalie avoided Trudy’s knowing gaze as she went back inside, but her employer was not going to let this slide by. Natalie having a man in her life was that much of an anomaly.
    “He is hot ,” Trudy said, breathing out the last word in her seductive tone.
    “Is he?” Natalie asked, heading for the kitchen, her sanctuary. But Trudy was hot on her heels.
    “I always thought you lived like a nun. Now I see you have a secret side.”
    “Secret?” Natalie asked, her face flaming red, and not from the heat of the oven. “What do you mean?” There was no way Trudy could know her real secret. Was there?
    “Yes. You must tell me everything.”
    “Must I?” Natalie asked, banging the croissants down so hard one of them flipped off the baking tray. Her normally cool, calm exterior had imploded, leaving her red-hot core exposed.
    “Yes. I want one. So you have to tell me exactly where you found him, because guys like that do not just enter a girl’s life.”
    “Well, he did.”
    “When?”
    “Last night.”
    “And…”
    “I dropped my pendant and he returned it to me.”
    Trudy laughed. “You drop that old fossil and he tracks you down to return it? Wow. He must want you bad.”
    If only you knew . “I think he was just being nice.”
    Trudy turned to go out front and serve. “Oh, honey, if he were mine I would want him to be a whole lot more than nice to me.”
    Natalie turned her attention to her baking. Smiling to herself, she imagined what would happen if Trudy knew about her other side, her wolf. One thing she knew, if Trudy had been an animal, she would have most definitely have been some kind of feline. Long, lithe, and stealthy. Ready to pounce on a man.
    But not her man. Oh no, Riley belonged to Natalie, and her wolf woke up and stretched in agreement. Yes. If they had to, they would fight for their mate. In that one moment, Natalie realised she had accepted her fate, and might even be looking forward to it.
    A weight shifted on her shoulders. It didn’t lift, because she had so much other baggage to go along with it. Baggage she would not readily be able to give up. It revolved around her father and the beta who had let him down. She was mostly convinced that the rift in the pack had helped lead to his death; he had never been the same afterwards. Her mother had then died of a broken heart, fading away to nothing, just as the cohesion of the town disintegrated. Only the old sheriff, Kira’s dad, had held it together, while Natalie had stood by helplessly.
    This was her chance to ease her loneliness, and although she wasn’t sure about going back to Wolf Valley, she was sure she wanted to get to know her mate. Trudy was smiling when she came into the kitchen at half-past-three to find Natalie humming to herself.
    “Now, that is