Magnus

"Maggie!"

I jolted so hard my head banged into the side of the cabinet. "Eff!"

Meleri gave a decidedly unladylike snort as she came to stand near my legs. "You know, you're twenty-five now and a big, bad alpha. It's okay to actually swear."

"Funny," I said. "If I'm so grown up, you'd think I would have some control over what people call me." It didn't matter how many times I insisted she never call me Maggie again, she refused to have mercy on me. Big sister's prerogative and all that. I made a mistake when I showed her it bothered me the first time a kid from the pack called me Maggie and now, I was doomed. This was my albatross, the weight I would bear for the rest of my life... or until Meleri got bored and found a new way to taunt me. It was honestly a toss-up.

Meleri kicked at my foot and said, "Shouldn't you be done by now? It's just a little leak."

"What, do you think you could do it faster?" I asked, already pushing myself out from underneath the sink I'd been trying to repair for the past hour.

Meleri's dark eyes met mine. They were glimmering with amusement. "I couldn't fix it faster, but you're the alpha. Ask someone from the pack to do it. Fritz is handy."

"Fritz is busy with his actual job and his family. I don't want to abuse my position." Even after almost two years of living with the Tourmaline pack and being their alpha, I was still finding the line between exercising my power and abusing it.

"Please, he would be happy to help. Would it make you feel better if I called him instead? You can go to your cushy alpha office and hide away until the repair is done."

Mel had a knack for wrapping her kindness up in thorns, but I knew better than to let it bother me. "Would you? I'd really appreciate it."

Mel rolled her eyes but pulled out her phone without complaint. I rubbed my grimy, damp hands on my jeans – they were gross from my time spent laying on the bathroom floor anyway – and headed to my room to take a quick shower.

The Tourmaline pack was set up with a pack house for most of its members, but I had inherited the alpha's house. It was directly across from the pack house, separated by a large field where we held gatherings, barbeques, and field days. The house was beautiful, much nicer than I ever would have expected to get to live in, but I hated coming home at night.

It was a house for a family. There were five bedrooms and Mel and I only took up two of them. There was a living room, a rec room, and a basement set up as a game room. We really only needed one of those. And my bedroom was the worst of all. The bed was way too big, so it never felt truly cozy. All I could think of was all the space I wasn't taking up. There were two built-in dressers and two sinks in the en suite bathroom. All of it only emphasized that I was still alone.

I shouldn't complain. Mel was twenty-seven and still hadn't found her mate, either. She didn't seem particularly anxious about it, though. She didn't feel the lonely ache in her gut at night, didn't count every day that passed as another lost opportunity. Or if she did, she wasn't telling me about it.

And I... I was ready for a life partner. I wanted someone to share the burden of running a pack, to keep me company at night, to help fill the gulf of extra space in my bed. I wanted companionship and support, and I wanted to be able to give my own support and affection to someone else. Last summer, Mel and I took a week away from the pack to go on a road trip. We visited all the packs we could in that time, but nothing came of it. I was counting down the months until I could try again.

I was in and out of the shower in three minutes – the shower with two showerheads on opposite walls, both pointing in. The perfect shower to share and it, like everything else in this house, taunted me.

As I got dressed, I looked through the window and caught sight of Fritz making his way toward my house. I scrambled into the rest of my clothes, almost tripping on my jeans in the process. I dashed downstairs, jammed my feet into my shoes, and hurried out the back door before he could see me.

I really appreciated his help, but didn't want him to realize the request might have come from me, even if Mel was the one who made the call.

I walked in a big arc through the woods that would lead me from my back door to the back of the pack house. There was a narrow path worn into the forest floor from how many times I had walked this way before. Some days I spent so long in my office that the walk to and from the pack house was my only chance to be outside, so I took the long way a lot. It gave me a chance to clear my mind, or at least to think about something other than keeping this pack running for a while.

As I walked, I debated what to get my nephew, Griffin, for his fifth birthday. It was in a little over a month and I was completely unprepared, though Mel had been bragging about how great her gift was for a week already. He really liked trucks, but that felt too obvious since that's what most people got him, and he already had so many. Would a tablet be too much? My brother, Felix, wouldn't care... but Everett, his mate, might.

A scent on the breeze caught my attention and instantly cleared all thoughts of birthday presents from my mind. I jerked to a stop so fast that the momentum had me tripping over my feet and by the time I caught my balance, the scent was gone.

Nose raised, I drew in deep breaths as I crept forward, afraid to miss another hit of the scent. I walked and inhaled until I was lightheaded, but the air stayed clean.

Even so, I knew what I had scented, even though it was just for a moment. Somewhere near this forest was my mate. It was faint, and even in this form I had the enhanced scenting abilities of my wolf side. I could pick up on scents almost two miles away, which was a huge area to search. The scent of my mate had come on a breeze from the north, so that was where I would start.

I tore off my clothes and dropped them to the forest floor before dropping to my knees and pushing myself through the shift faster than ever before. It still took a couple of seconds before I was in my wolf form. The air was crisp and clean. I couldn't find any trace of my mate in it, but I sprinted through the forest, anyway.

When I passed Mikhail and Peter, who were on patrol, they were visibly alarmed at my appearance and started to run with me. I ground to a stop and indicated with insistent jerks of my head that they should continue on with their patrol. They exchanged looks but did as I asked. The whole interaction cost me time I didn't have.

I took off running again, but this time without much hope. I caught a whiff of scent almost ten minutes ago now and not a hint of it since. My mate would be long gone, and unless I got lucky and stumbled on his or her trail...

I pushed myself harder, running so quickly now that my lungs burned and muscles in my stomach started cramping.

Keep going, I ordered myself. You're alpha. You're stronger than this.

I ran in a big arc around the northern border of my pack lands, but picked up on nothing. I had no idea what direction to go, and I needed to regroup... to plan. Meleri would have an idea of what to do. She always did, and she knew how much this meant to me. She would help. I'd ask Felix, too, but he was working.

Time pressed down on me and even though I was exhausted, running on trembling legs and an aching stomach as my lungs cried for me to stop, I gritted my teeth and ran back to my clothes. As soon as I stopped, however, I was gagging and heaving and spewing the contents of my stomach out. I had pushed my body too hard. I crouched down in a shaking mess next to my clothes while I tried to convince my body it was strong enough to make the shift back to human.

I was still laying there quavering with my eyes squeezed shut when Mel found me.

"Magnus!" she cried, her distress evident.

I peered up at her. My whole body ached, but not nearly as much as my heart.

I had been close to my mate today, within two miles. Two miles was nothing compared to the distance I was sure had separated us for years. What was my mate doing in the area? Was this just for a trip? Was he or she just passing through? There was a highway along that part of our border. The idea that might have been the only time I smelled that scent in my life had my stomach lurching again. I was glad I had gotten the vomiting out of the way already – now way did I need Mel here bearing witness.

Mel put her hands on the sides of my face and gently pulled so I was looking at her. Her eyes were full of worry, enough that I was able to draw on my last reserves of strength and shift back. Mel helped me into my pants before she hugged me tightly.

"Magnus, what happened to you?"

These days, you knew she was serious when she used my full name instead of that blasted nickname. "I smelled my mate, but I lost the scent."

Her arms tightened around me. "Don't worry, we'll fix this." I snorted. No one could be headstrong quite like my sister. She shook me gently and said, "I'm not joking, Magnus. Did you pick up on anything about your mate?"

I shook my head. "It was too faint."

I pulled away and watched as she gnawed at her lip, thinking hard. "Let's go drive with the windows down. Maybe you'll pick up the scent again."

I didn't have a better idea and it would feel good to be doing something to keep searching for my mate, so I nodded and tried to get to my feet. My legs were wobbly and ached from my run, so I stumbled. Mel caught me before I could fall and wrapped an arm around my waist so she could support me on the walk back home. It was a mark of how concerned Mel was for me that she didn't tease me once for my weakness. She even tucked us out of sight when a couple of pack members walked into view. We waited until they had passed, then breathed sighs of relief in unison.

They might have smelled that we were nearby, but unless someone needed something from either of us, they wouldn't come looking. Mel never used to have a moment's peace here in Tourmaline since I made her captain of the guard when I took over, but she stepped down when Felix and his family moved here last year and went back to her usual work as a paralegal. Mel had been a great captain, but Felix was an incredible one and I was grateful Mel had stepped aside so gracefully.

That was the thing about my sister: she was prickly and stubborn, bullish, and occasionally mean... but she never once let me down. She always thought about what was best for the people she cared about and acted accordingly, and she never let power go to her head. It was why I loved her so much even when she insisted on calling me Maggie.

Mel helped me into the passenger seat of her SUV. "Be right back," she said right before she shut the door and ran back toward the house.

I was too stressed to worry about what she was doing, so I shut my eyes and leaned my head back against the seat until I heard Mel's driver-side door open and she climbed in. When I did open my eyes, there was a muffin under my nose, so close it almost made me sneeze. She shoved the muffin into my right hand and pressed a bottle of orange juice into the other. "You look peaked. Eat."

I eyed the muffin dubiously. I wasn't sure I could get food down yet, not while my stomach was still settling.

"Just take a couple of bites and see how they settle," Mel said.

Since there wasn't any point in fighting her, I nibbled on the edge and washed it down with a tiny sip of juice. Mel nodded her approval and finally started the car.

"You don't have any meetings or anything this afternoon, do you?" Mel asked.

I shut my eyes and tried to mentally think through my calendar. "No idea," I admitted, and pulled out my phone to text my assistant, Roy. He was the closest thing I had to a beta. Without Roy and Felix, there was no way I could run the pack.

Mel rolled down all the windows as she drove us through pack lands and toward the highway. "I'm thinking we should drive through town first," she said.

"Sounds good."

We didn't talk more on the way there. I was too nervous and I thought that if I opened my mouth, I might lose what was left in my stomach. Not to mention, I was focused on inhaling as much as I could without getting lightheaded. The air remained clean for the whole drive into town. Mel had the radio playing and was singing along quietly while she drove through the streets seemingly at random.

Then I jerked upright.

That scent, it was here.

My mate.