Note from the Author- Please make sure you've read Book 1 I am Sired before reading I am Found, which is book 2. Thank you, and enjoy!

Ruby Hendrix sat at the kitchenette table in her two bedroom apartment in downtown Portland. She had a novelty yellow canary mug of coffee in her left hand, and the wrist of her right hand perched so her fingers were poised ready over a calculator. As she did every month, the blonde meticulously checked her finances. On the table she had bills and receipts. She always did this November, ahead of Christmas, so she knew what kind of a holiday she could afford.

Living so close to the freeway made rent more reasonable and she worked at Vince’s Bar down the street, which made her commute all of 15 minutes. Whatever Ruby could do to keep her bills down, she had. She’d worked at that bar since she was 19 and tips were easier when she was a pretty teen. Now she was 36 they didn’t come as a given with perky tits and a firm ass. Ruby still considered herself to be pretty. She took care of herself and still had plenty of curves in the right places, but she accepted a long time ago that the bigger tips were no longer large enough or regular enough to rely on like she used to. Not with colleagues who looked and acted like they worked in Hooters. Ruby was not prepared to wear skirts and shorts that short, or shirts that low cut.

Not with a teenage daughter of her own to set an example for.

Ruby sighed and finished the annual budget. She kept on top of things month by month, of course, but Christmas tended to be a bigger expense. It wasn’t that Ruby went all out, as she had a 2^nd floor apartment and it was just her and Nella, but this year she was hoping to give her daughter something she’d been saving up for over a decade for. Money for college.

I never went to college. I got pregnant when I was 18 and then my priorities changed. But Nella? My girl is smart and she’s going to college. Her daughter was in the 11^th grade so she was more concerned with passing her exams than applying just yet. That was a decision that could be made in the 12^th grade before she graduated. Even so? Ruby wanted to reassure her that at least the first year of college fees were in the bank and ready for her.

With a stretch Ruby got up from the table and placed her empty cup in the sink to wash it. Her hands went through the motions even as her mind wandered. I’m a server at Vince’s and the others are getting younger and younger or moving on. I’m a lifer and Vince has been good to me. He says I can get behind the bar once there’s an opening for me. She rolled her shoulders and grabbed the dishtowel to dry her novelty cup and put it back beside the kettle for later. Even so, depending where Nella goes to college, I might have to pick up and move anyway. She had money for the first year of college fees, but couldn’t afford to pay for her daughter to stay in the dorms. It would be cheaper to rest somewhere near her campus so she could commute in. I can get a job in a bar near the college to support her. She might have to get a part-time job like most students do, but I want her to be able to focus on her studies.

Ruby gathered up the paperwork, content she could afford a cosy Christmas and still put the usual amount aside each month for Nella’s secret college fund, and put the budget folder back in her wardrobe in the master bedroom. Thinking of her daughter going off the college year after next made her feel nostalgic. The blonde found her feet talking her into her small living room. She took a thick pink album from the thin bookshelf by the window looking out onto the fire escape. Ruby lowered to sit on one of two brown comfy chairs, unable to fit a sofa in this room, and opened up the precious album.

She cooed and awed immediately.

As always, the picture window on the front cover held a picture of herself, 18 and heavily pregnant and in this very apartment. It was bare as anything back then and she remembered barely having enough for the safety deposit. Her long blonde hair was in a messy bun on top of her head with wisps framing her face. Her face was rosy and her green eyes were full of equal parts joy as worry. I had no idea how I was going to make ends meet back then. How I was going to have a baby and raise her on my own. My parents washed their hands of me after I told them I was pregnant. Ruby turned the page and smiled at the picture of her in a hospital gown and holding her tiny bundle of joy in her arms. Her little Nella. Born 2 weeks premature and with jaundice, but still beautiful.

She turned the pages and allowed herself to walk down memory lane. Nella age 3 with cute little brown pigtails and big blue eyes. Aged 5 and holding an oversized ladybug backpack on her first day of kindergarten. A few pages on had a picture of Nella blowing out candles on her 10^th birthday cake. A messy-looking thing Ruby baked herself with lumpy blue icing, but her daughter had loved her attempt to make a bluebird cake.

None of the pictures had anyone else in. Ruby had tried dating, but none of them had stuck. She had Nella to consider and hadn’t found any boyfriends to meet a high enough standard to introduce to her daughter. In the early days Nella used to play with the other kids at school and in the park. She was invited to birthday parties and was like any other little girl…right up until the age of 13…After that point her daughter had withdrawn from her peers and only wanted to spend time with Ruby outside of school.

Ruby was frowning, worrying for her daughter and her struggles, when she turned the page and saw something that made her giggle. It was a picture of the pair of them on a rollercoaster, screaming their lungs off last summer at a theme park. Their carriage was plummeting down to the earth and the mounted camera caught them. Her blonde hair and Nella’s brown locks flailed upward as their bodies hurtled down in the cart. Mouths wide open, hands gripping the safety frame over their shoulders and looking down with exhilaration.

Another reason Ruby was determined for Nella to go to college was so she could make friends. People of all shapes and sizes went to college and she was sure Nella would find her niche there. Friends who would see she was beautiful and clever. Someone worth getting to know.

The door bell chimed and Ruby emerged from memory lane to look at the wall clock. It was 3pm. Odd? Nella isn’t usually home until 4? Her final period doesn’t end for another 30 minutes. Ruby closed the Album and stood as the bell rang again. I’m not expecting a parcel. Did Nella order something? She moved her right hand to put the Album back, but the door bell rang again.

“Alright I’m coming.” She lowered the album to her side and hurried to the front door. Their local delivery guy could get fresh if he was in a hurry, and if Nella had ordered another book the last thing she wanted was to find it hurled somewhere. Or not delivered at all. “Coming!” Ruby absently held the Album against her front with her right arm and the left hand released the locks and bolts, but she left the chain on. She opened the door as wide as the chain would allow and looked out to see it wasn’t the delivery guy.

A hot guy. The first thing she noticed was his steely blue eyes that seemed to penetrate her common sense. His hair was brown, shorter at the sides and combed neatly on top with mild silver peppering. He was clean shaven and had a million-watt smile that likely got him his own way on most occasions. Good lord he’s handsome. Oh, and a cop? His navy uniform made her think he was an officer, with the silver badge, pristine shirt and pressed trousers, and perfectly polished boots. “Erm…hello officer. How can I help?”

“Oh I’m not an officer.” He chuckled, and even his voice was smooth. “I’m a firefighter. A Fire chief, actually.” He looked at her with an intensity Ruby wasn’t used to in the slightest. “See?” He turned to offer his left arm and tapped a red fabric badge below his shoulder. It was red, round, and had the traditional firefighter helmet in the middle. The words Glenn Valley were above the helmet and Fire Department were below it. Is there a fire or something I don’t know about? Ruby trusted members of the emergency services, and the metal badge on his chest was legit too. So she lowered the chain and opened the door wider to stand before him.

“Okay Fire chief. What can I do for you today?” He hesitated and seemed to need to brace himself before answering her. He chuckled and shook his head at how awkward this was, but nodded to her when he was ready.

“My name is Frankie Monroe. Are you Ruby?”

Her heart stopped beating and her green eyes widened. “B-because?” He cleared his throat and moved his hands to his hips, and then to his trouser pockets. “Well, you might not remember me, you and I met in a bar not far from here around 18 years ago, ish. At Vince’s?” Frankie kept talking, and Ruby was listening, but she was also mentally screaming. “So?” He chuckled nervously, again, blushed, and tugged at his stiff collar. “I never got your last name back then. You were gone when I woke up and…okay this sounds nuts I know.” He held the back of his neck and smiled anxiously at her. “But I’ve always regretted that. Without getting too heavy right now something made me look back on my life recently. I always regretted not hunting you down. So I took a shot and really didn’t expect to find you so quickly. I just asked around at Vince’s and they said you work there? Gave me your address and…I was hoping you and I could talk?”

Frankie cleared his throat. Ruby was even more beautiful than he remembered her to be. Good God, she’s stunning. Soft blonde hair and an hourglass figure. Even under her jeans and blue sweater, there was no hiding her rocking body. She’d aged so well. The firefighter was still fit, 39 and in his werewolf prime, but he was covered in scars. From various fires and the recent mauling from a Dire wolf. She was out of his league! She had been back then, and more so now.

Still, he was determined to at least try. “We could go for coffee at a café? Somewhere public? I’d like to talk and maybe catch up? Please tell me you’re not married? This is really awkward if you’re already seeing someone.”

When she still didn’t speak Frankie felt his wolf’s tail hang under and whine. “A-are you seeing some…” His steel-blue eyes caught her trying to move a pink album behind her back, but stopped when she realised he’d already seen it. “…hey that’s…is that…?” Frankie recognised the picture as Ruby immediately. Just how he remembered her…though…she wasn’t pregnant when they hooked up. Ruby hadn’t said she was married or had a boyfriend when he asked, which was an easy way out. She also tried to hide the picture of her younger self pregnant from him. His mind drew the dots together and his wolf’s tail and ears shot straight up. Frankie pointed at the album and looked at her right in the eye. “When was that picture taken? Is that-”

“Shit.” Ruby panicked and slammed the door shut. She threw the bolts and chains back in place and backed up with alarm. No. No no no no! This can’t be happening. She stormed into her living room and hid the Album back on the shelf. Her doorbell rang again and she felt her green eyes watering. He does not get to turn up 18 years later and ask to ‘catch up’ after we had a one-night stand that left me knocked up! No way. This can’t be happening. Crap like this doesn’t just happen. Ruby yoyoed from seething with anger at Frankie and whoever at Vince’s thought it was okay to give him her address, to panic over what to do next. He kept ringing the damn bell and it pressed her last nerve. She glared at the front door and took her cell out to call the cops. She marched over to the front door to give him a chance to clear off before she made the call.

“Erm, who are you?” Ruby silently screamed at hearing Nella’s voice. Shit she’s out there with him?!!? She hurried to unlock all the bolts and chains as quickly as she could to get to her daughter.