She was determined to make her painting a success. For now she shared a large warehouse space in Queen Anne with two other people and she had lots of free time to paint and enough money from her waitressing job to buy canvas and paint and to pay the bills.

Shaking herself out of her reverie with a sigh, she grabbed Shane’s order and his latte to take to his table. The lively chimes over the door sounded right as she turned. Smiling, she looked to see who’d come in.

Instead of one of her usual customers, she found herself looking at two of the largest men she’d ever seen and my goodness weren’t they just the alpha male specimens? Her mouth dried up and her heart leapt into her throat.

Her eyes slowly made the circuit up one and down the other. They were a visual feast. One of them had shoulder-length hair the color of wheat, sleepy, sexy amber eyes and was, for want of a more eloquent term, a muscle-bound hunk.

The other though was the kind of man to make any woman melt into a puddle. Dark and mysterious. Brooding even. His nearly waist-length black hair was tied with a leather thong at the nape of his neck. And her fingers itched to touch it. Eyes so brown they looked obsidian took in the room warily. His skin was hard and smooth with an olive tone much like Rain’s own. His nose was just a bit crooked, as if it had been broken more than once, and a small scar bisected his left eyebrow. But those small imperfections only seemed to heighten his wild, dangerous beauty. He was tall, although not quite as tall as the blond, but he was muscular and his blue jeans hugged those long legs and tight butt like they were painted on. She wanted to lean against one of the tables and fan herself as she had a nice, long, naughty and possibly illegal in a few states fantasy about him. Whoo boy.

Instead she took a deep breath and approached them before the other servers saw and jumped in. “Good morning. How are you two today? Would you like to sit in here or on the deck?” Her heart skipped a beat when they both gave her their complete attention. But when the dark one smiled slowly at her the hair on the back of her neck stood on end and goose bumps rose along her arms. Holy cow she wanted to lick him.

“The deck please,” the blond one said, his voice low and rumbling.

Trying not to gulp like a cartoon character, she grabbed two menus and led them outside to the deck. She motioned to a table in her section. “Why don’t you two take a look at the menu?” Electric heat sparked up her arm as the dark one brushed his fingers against her arm when he took the piece of paper from her. “Uh?” She blinked until she remembered what the hell she’d been doing. “Can I start you off with juice or coffee or espresso?”

“Two large orange juices, an Americano with room and a mocha please,” the dark one said, never taking his eyes from hers. She felt caught, like she was standing surrounded in warm honey and he was a very big spider. His voice was low and melodic.

“Great,” she squeaked out and cleared her throat. “Be right back with those.” Before she gave in to the absurd urge to lick him she tore herself away to go grab the drinks.

Laurent Cole stared at the retreating woman and a smile slowly erupted across his face. He watched her long legs, the sway of her ass, the glimpses of the band of flesh between her shirt and jeans. Her long hair reached her waist and was inky black. He wondered what it would feel like wrapped around his fist as he fucked her mouth. His cock hardened to the point of pain at the thought of her mouth, hot and wet, surrounding him, licking and sucking. He moaned softly.

“Laurent?” Andreas asked, amusement clear in his voice.

Laurent turned slowly and faced Andreas, his Alpha and best friend. “It’s her, Andreas. She’s the one.”

“Her? The one?” Andreas repeated, confused for a moment until realization dawned across his face. “You don’t mean… She’s your Mate?”

“I can feel it. When I first saw her it was as if every cell in my body sang out. Her scent…she just smells perfect. It’s like every other female in the world suddenly doesn’t count, hell, doesn’t even exist. The world just narrowed down to her.”

Andreas smiled slowly. “Ah. That’s how I felt the first time I saw Kari. It’s about time you found her. But you know human women are different.” He sighed and Laurent knew he was thinking of his own petite and very pesky wife.

Laurent laughed then and he and Andreas watched as the waitress froze in place and looked their way. “You deserve this. You’ve served me and the Pack for sixteen years. Kari is going to be as thrilled as I am. Hellie may not be that eager to share but I’m sure you can talk her around.”

“I cringe to think about what it will be like—conquering this woman if she’s anything like Kari. I’d better take my vitamins,” Laurent said, never taking his eyes from the woman in question.

She smiled their way and brought the tray of juice and coffee drinks to them with effortless grace. “Here you go. Juices, fresh squeezed. An Americano with room—here’s cream for it, we also have soy milk, rice milk or nonfat milk if you’d prefer—and the mocha. Honey and sugar are right there.” She straightened and looked back to their faces. “Do you know what you want?”

“Yes,” Laurent said simply.