Free Batty for You by Zenina Masters Page B

shapes of the younger males as they emerged from the woods at their alpha’s command. She exhaled and sat at one of the counter stools.
    “I believe you have an admirer, Bets.” Dromer winked and wiped up his blood with a paper towel followed by a cleanser.
    “I am sure he flirts with all women who stare down his new brother-in-law.” She blushed. “Why did you have to tell him about the Crossroads? Now he will think I am desperate.”
    “Isn’t that why you shifters go there?”
    “It is, and he knows that, but it…oh hell, I don’t know. It just seemed like he was laughing at the idea.”
    “His brother met his mate the same way. Why do you think he was laughing?”
    She turned and buried her head in her arms. “I don’t know. It just seems like such a huge step to find someone. I wish that love was easier.”
    Dromer put the paper towels and cleanser wipes in a silver can and set it alight. Over the flickering flames, he said, “Love is never easy. If there is one thing that my centuries have told me, it is that finding true love is worth the effort. I have yet to bond to mine and it creates an ache in my soul that grows daily.”
    Dromer’s plight pulled Bets back. Ida was a black swan, and she had a family tradition to uphold, but there were none of her kind in the area and she had gone to the Crossroads. After two months, she had returned home without a mate and her family had dropped the subject of the next generation. They would die out and they could not change it.
    The Black Swan Dairy supplied the diner, and Dromer and Ida had sparked immediately, but he was fey and she was a shifter, and the two magics could never combine. Ida would live and die and Dromer would live on.
    Bets held Dromer’s hand and he squeezed hers. “Love lives suck.”
    He grinned and sighed. “Can I replace that coffee?”
    “Please. More pie, too. Peach this time. I think your grocer is trying to sell you bruised fruit, again.”
    “I need you here every day, Bets. No one knows fruit like you do.” He winked again and headed to the cake stand where the pie sat proudly.
    She whispered into her reflection in the gleaming chrome backsplash. “Nope, no one knows fruit like I do.”
    Even among bats, she was out of place. She was huge, she carried the characteristics of dozens of her ancestors and she couldn’t keep quiet when faced with authority. None of those traits were endearing in her community, where conformity was key and anything out of the norm was something to be avoided.
    Dromer put the coffee and pie in front of her, and they sat in silence until dawn came over the hill and the day shift arrived. It was time to make some decisions about life and love and those decisions were best done at home.
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    Her family took her decision with a heavy dose of relief. Bethany mulled it over as she waited for the transport window.
    Their giddy laughter and agreement to pay the price to send her to the Crossroads as quickly as possible was humiliating. She had contacted the transporter and made her first appointment with the second on the following day.
    “Step into the circle. The window is coming into alignment.”
    Bets clutched her bag and stood on the glyph in the centre of the room. A flash of light and she was standing on a wooden platform with two friendly faces smiling at her.
    “Welcome to the Crossroads, Bethany. May you find what you seek.” The woman with white hair smiled.
    “Thank you.”
    “I am Teal, this is Tony. Please come this way.”
    Tony approached. “I can take your bag to your domicile. Where are you staying?”
    Bets started to answer when Teal spoke. “Put her in the Open Heart.”
    Bets had been booked into one of the hostels, but the Open Heart seemed a much nicer place if the name was any indication. It was everything she was striving to achieve.
    Tony blinked and smiled. “Yes, love. I will tell Teebie that there is an incoming guest.”
    Teal linked arms with Bets