The Unwanted Mate

Epilogue

The door to the break room slid slowly to a soft click into the door frame behind Zoey after she stepped out rather lazily. It was late in the evening on a Saturday night so she was in no real hurry to the front desk and start on the stack of papers and other tasks waiting for her. The gym was in the middle of several big night clubs. So, like every other weekend, Zoey was expecting a dead night with only the occasional drunk wobbling into the gym in search for the closest bathroom or phone. What kind of person would want to come work out when it was time for fun and letting go?

That person would be Zoey. Her boss had been desperate to find someone who would be fine with working graveyard shift and weekends on top of it. He was shocked when Zoey applied for the job a year and a half ago. At twenty-three most girls would have hated the idea of working so late during the end of the week when they could be out with friends dancing and getting free drinks from guys looking for a sleazy end to the night.

However, the shock didn’t last long. Zoey seemed like a natural for working the graveyard shift. Always full of energy and never complained about working alone so late a night. In fact within the first month she had the gym running better than ever. Even the occasional incident with the rowdy, destructive drunk wandering in stopped after she got hired on for the most unwanted shift.

Wanting to keep Zoey on as long as possible meant her boss allowed her to workout during her shift once all of her work was finished for the night and the gym was ready for the next shift coming in for the early morning. She didn’t even complain when some of his paperwork ended up bleeding onto her own to-do list.So as soon as she was on the clock Zoey was left alone to run things the best way she saw fit to do so. Her boss was perfectly happy to allow the only two thing she had ever asked for which were to be allowed permission to work out once her to-do list was finished if it was slow enough, and to have the night off once a month. Those nights just happened to fall on the same night of the full moon each month.

“Mmmm, nice and hot,” The palms of her hands twisted slowly around the purple and green, floral patterned mug in her hands to absorb the heat. She took in a deep, slow breath as steam danced out of the small hole in the lid of her cup to tickle at her nose tempting her to take a sip of the coffee that was still much too hot. With a happy wiggle of a dance she finally made her way up to the front, looking forward to a nice slow night.

Eventually she slipped through the little slot cut through the half circle counter of the front desk to officially start her shift and get to work. Zoey hummed to herself as she set down her coffee and started shuffling through the paperwork that had been left by her boss for her to do as some point for the night.

“Good evening, closest bathrooms are down the hall on your left. Please make it to the toilet if you feel like you are going to throw up,” She called since her sensitive ears picked up on the squeak from the front door opening. She made a mental note to get that fixed at some point since it would get annoying during the busier nights of the week.

Her back was turned to the front of the desk while she continued to organize things for the night. So she didn’t notice the large wall of a man stepping up and leaning over so one of his arms was resting on the counter until his shadow was cast along the wall.

“Hey, Zoey. It’s been a while,” A familiar voice from the past hit the base of her skull with a shiver that tapped down her spine like ice shoved down the back of her shirt.

Her motions were slow since she knew he would be trying to calculate her next move. Zoey grabbed her coffee and turned to face a set of bright blue eyes and a big, toothy grin.

Tanner straightened up so both hands laid flat against the counter before he moved to stand between the small space cut in the counter for employees to come and go with ease. Standing at five foot eleven it didn’t take much for Zoey to lock eyes with him. Even though he was standing right in front of her she couldn’t believe that she had been found. Zoey had made sure to stay several steps ahead every time she moved. Had she gotten too comfortable from things being quiet for almost two years? Why had she not been able to feel them coming for her like any other time?

Tanner and Zoey just started at each other. Neither of them wanted to make the first move of a dance that had played out several times before with Zoey and who ever drew the short straw in being the one in charge of finding and bringing her back home to the family she had done everything to avoid. Her body felt heavy and made of stone from the ball of fear sitting at the pit of her stomach. Muscle memory was the only reason Zoey was able to make her hands go through the motions of popping the lid off of the mug in her hands.

Each move was watched carefully but Tanner was still surprised by the sudden burning pain and invading smell of scalding coffee thrown in his face. He stumbled back to clutch his face but it was still not enough room for Zoey to slip through the opening. So she took the chance to jump over the counter while Tanner rubbed at his stinging eyes. Deep down she knew better but went right for the front door since it was the closest way for her to get out into the busy night street where she could vanish into the crowd to double around and get to her car so she could get to her car and begin checking things off of the list for starting over by speeding out of town and through the back roads as fast as her car would allow.

Two massive men were standing at the entrance with their heavy arms crossed. Just like Tanner they were grinning when they saw the woman they had been tasked with bringing home for the last five years.

“s**t!” Zoey back peddled quickly to keep from their meaty grasp, her eyes darting around to look for her new way out that would give her a little more time to form a solid plan.

Her back hit something hard. It didn’t make any sense to Zoey. She knew the place like the back of her hand. So she should have been nowhere near any of the walls in the building. If anything she should have been closer to the railing that separated the main part of the gym floor from the tiles where the lobby started. In the moment of confusion she felt a sharp pain start up in the side of her neck.

Panicking she reached up and cupped the throbbing that was being made worse by the pounding heart in her chest. Now was not the time she needed to be stung by a bee. Yet that didn’t make sense either. Her throat should be swelling up and the paint should have been a lot worse. Of course her neck still hurt, but it was nowhere near as bad as it should have been. For the first time since Zoey found out she was allergic to bees the deep breath she was able to take and the lack of swelling in her throat scared her.

The fact that she felt dizzy was the only symptom that added up. Stepping back she hit the wall again. Two hands reached out as she began to sway. Confused, Zoey carefully turned and looked up to see two blue eyes surrounded by red, irritated skin. Her racing heart began to thump slowly as the dizziness became heavier. She looked down at his hands. They felt so warm. Seeing the needle in his hand made her growl. Well, it left her throat as more of a groan as the tranquilizer finished taking over so it could do the job it was made for. Things soon went dark for Zoey and she fell against the massive man.

He was a lot bigger than she remembered.