While I was outside on the cool damp sand, staring at the beautiful landscape full of shimmery waves in the moonlight, I was a little too distracted to notice the pile of men coming my way.

Human men.

Ugh.

Even from a distance, I could tell the bottles that a couple of them held, were alcoholic. Very alcoholic. They were drunk.

Gross.

The only thing worse than human men, was drunk human men with a herd mentality. Didn’t they know it made people uncomfortable? The times I’d been in the presence of human populations, any time a girl got confronted by a pile of men, she wasn’t comfortable at all, even if she was polite.

And I knew I wasn’t an ordinary girl, but they didn’t know that – they couldn’t know that. I couldn’t do anything to suggest I was anything other than a normal human girl… which meant talking my way out of this, unfortunately.

As they got within reach, starting to look me up and down with favorable expressions, like sizing up their next fight and knowing they’d win, I started to get a little anxious.

If I could just shift into a wolf and beat them up, this wouldn’t be so difficult.

They started speaking and I made my best annoyed face, hoping they’d take the hint and go away. The face wasn’t hard. Whatever pick-up line crap they were spewing wasn’t appealing at all. However, getting them to get the hint and go, was somehow impossibly and infuriatingly hard.

When one, in an attempt to console my ‘bad mood’ reached to put a hand on my arm, someone interfered, swatting their hand away and staring them down with gritted teeth.

Staring down…

He was taller than them, by a little bit.

And as I looked at this newcomer, I was conflicted for an altogether new reason. With his wavy hair that brushed against his temples, and the steely gaze he gave the men, it only took him one glance my way, meeting my eyes, to send me spiraling briefly for a whole other reason. I felt heat rise to my cheeks, even as he looked back at the men.

My heart took several beats before my breath could catch up.

Good god…

I’d heard stories. And Jane had told me what it would feel like, but… holy crap.

It felt warm. It felt good. It felt…

Overwhelming.

This guy… he was my True Mate. I could feel it in my bones, in my lungs as I tried to inhale anything to keep myself standing upright, and in my heart…

My heart… which was beating really fast.

I finally found some air to fit in my lungs, which was good. Healthy. Necessary.

In the short time of my realization, a plan formed in my mind. We could get rid of these guys together.

And then…

Nope. Focus on the present moment, I told myself. Think about after, when it is after. Do not get your hopes up that you’ll get to talk to your really handsome True Mate that appeared out of nowhere to help you.

“Honey, you’re back!” I called impulsively as I snatched his hand gently in my own.

And…

And he didn’t deny it.

And he didn’t shake off my hand.

That non-response itself made my heart soar in my chest.

It might’ve been a mistake. Our skin touched and it only confirmed what our eye contact had. True Mate. Like a personal heater. Very warm upon contact. I refrained from snuggling closer in case it freaked him out. Was he freaking out? I was.

And that was when I knew I was losing it. My grip on reality. My mind. My sanity. Maybe my dignity too. All of it. Gone. Out the window, down the street, and into the ocean to swim to another continent.

Yikes.

“Back off, dude, we got here first.”

Without a word, and before I could snap back at the men, he let go of my hand, only to wrap his whole arm around my back, his fingers curling very lightly around my hip. It was gentle and comforting. I could almost feel protectiveness coming off of him in waves, calming me more. His face didn’t change as he stared at them. He wasn’t intimidated; he wasn’t going to back down from standing next to me.

Oddly enough, it made me proud. No clue why, it just did.

The leader of their group scoffed at his action before looking at me with a mix of offense and scathing amusement.

“What’s with your boy? Doesn’t he speak? Cat got his tongue?”

They all laughed.

Out of the corner of my eye, just in my peripheral vision alone, something in his expression changed. It grew sharper. It grew colder.

As the realization came, I found myself stepping forward, out of his grasp and a step closer to the awful rude idiots. I was angry, incredibly angry.

Whether it was simply nerves, which I doubted since he wasn’t shaking at all and seemed very sure of himself, or if he couldn’t speak at all, I wasn’t going to let them make him feel less than. Would you tell someone without an arm, to use both hands? Would you tell someone who can’t hear, to listen up? Would you tell someone who is allergic to nuts, to eat them?

No.

Because that went far beyond rude.

This was a simple lack of humanity in its entirety.

Even if we were wolves, we were still half human. We still had feelings. We weren’t just an animal. The same went to those who couldn’t speak or hear or walk. They had feelings too. They deserved to live their lives without judgmental ingrates making them feel like crap.

Who the hell would care if he couldn’t use his voice?!

There were plenty of other ways to speak with someone. To understand them. To listen to them.

“He doesn’t have to speak for me to be with him,” I spit out, sharp and angry, sending their laughter into silence as they focused on my words. “You, on the other hand, need to stop speaking altogether.”

He laughed again, shaking his head, reaching for my shoulder. Did he think I was kidding? Did he think I was some weak little girl?

“Sweetheart, you aren’t capable of getting anything from that mute kid.”

I growled low, out loud because I was unable to contain it, and punched him in the face. He hadn’t been prepared, his weight shifted wrong, and as he stumbled back to catch himself, he fell over. As the other guys went to move back or forward – to avenge or flee, and even a simple turning around in place had them falling down onto the sand as well.

I stared and watched silently as they scrambled to… get vines off of their shoes?

Vines?

Vines?

In the sand?

On a beach?

Despite my confusion, when one of them dared look into my eyes, I glared back. Seeming to get the hint this time, they managed to shove their pride to the side as they moved away, sneering.

I was confused again, though, as I refocused in on the new addition to the beach. That wasn’t there before. There were no vines growing in the sand there. And to be around all of their shoes? Frankly, it was impossible.

But before I could think too hard on it, I turned back to the helping hand I’d received. He watched them as they continued on into the distance, expressionless save for a slight narrowing of his gaze and lingering bit of anger flickering in his eyes.

“Thank you.”

All of a sudden, his face changed as he turned to me, surprised.

It was now that I was able to see his full face. It looked strangely familiar, but I chalked it up to the mate bond making him familiar to me.

And if I’d thought he was handsome before, only seeing part of his face, I was stunned into near silence now that I could see all of it. Clearly.

He was beautiful.

He hadn’t smiled once, but now I had the extreme urge to make him do just that. I wanted to see a real smile on that face. I wanted to coax it out and let it shine.

I wanted that almost as much as I wanted to grab his face and smooch the living daylights out of him, but I refrained from doing that. We didn’t even know anything about each other…

But--

He nodded to me, acknowledging my words.

But, I smiled lightly, somewhat to myself, if he didn’t have anywhere to be for a few hours, or even ten minutes, I could learn something about him.

Even if there were barriers that weren’t easy to cross, I wanted to know something concrete, something about him.

Just a little.

Maybe a lot.