One True Mate 1: Shifter's Sacrifice by Lisa Ladew

from her muscles and she smiled, another first.
    The basement was one large room, mostly unfinished, except for a custom shelf and entertainment center built against the far wall, a semi-circle of carpet jutting out in front of it. Ella had always found the combination incredibly strange. Who leaves the basement unfinished, but only puts in some shelves and a sliver of carpet?
    She walked to the carpet and lowered herself onto it, cross-legged, happy that it was there. She would go upstairs later, but for now, she just wanted to relax for a bit, shake off some of the day.
    She listened to the tiny noises of the old house and thought about the money she had put in the fake soup can upstairs. She only needed eleven thousand more and she could pay off the back taxes on the house and keep the city from taking it from her. If she wanted to do that. Maybe she should let them have the house, take that money, and move somewhere else.
    As Ella thought of moving, a deep resistance filled her that she didn’t understand. She had nothing in Serenity. No friends. No real family. If Shay came back to town that would be a reason to leave, not a reason not to leave. She could get a bus or plane ticket and go anywhere with that much money. France, even, or Australia.
    Ella tried to think of somewhere she would want to go and couldn’t do it. Every part of her had begun to think of Serenity as her home.
    Another thought struck her, rocking her. What if the cops were looking for her because of what had happened that day? Maybe there was even some sort of a warrant out for her? She had to go see if she had really done what she remembered doing. Tomorrow, she decided. Tomorrow she would go back and see what the place looked like. Maybe peek in on Mrs. White. Prove to herself that Mrs. White was fine and her shop was still intact. That everything Ella thought had happened had really been a… a hallucination.
    Great. Just what she needed. To add having vivid, violent hallucinations to the list of things that were wrong with her.
    Ella laid there, stroking the soft carpet with one hand, forming a pillow for her head with the other. She tried to make herself get up and get paint out of the shed to paint over the would-be moon on the front of the house, but as she argued with herself about doing it, she closed her eyes, just for a moment.
    She fell asleep.
     
    ***
     
    Trevor sat in the overstuffed chair and stared absently at the wall, his eyes running over the recorded prophecies, but not seeing them. Wade had left hours ago. His brothers had checked in and said they were heading home through the tunnels.
    Let loose, Trevor’s mind wandered, occasionally touching on everything that had happened that day, but mostly, it circled around and around the One True Mates. There were many who believed they didn’t exist, but Trevor knew they did. They had to. His soul longed for a mate, not just any mate, but one born for him. One who would understand him, who would support him, be there for him no matter what, help him raise his young. He appreciated humans, had been born with a fierce drive to protect them, but he’d never met a human woman who had created a desire in him to mate with her. Maybe it was because he wanted full shiften pups. Maybe it was a biological or chemical thing. But at thirty years old, he felt the pull to be mated stronger than he ever had in his life. It was a physical pain that mixed with his hatred for Khain and weighed him down in everything he did.
    He thought about the upcoming rut he had agreed to. A band-aid. A chance for his pack mates to scratch a sexual itch like they’d done in the old days. Not that Trevor considered anyone but Trent and Troy and maybe Blake and Wade his true pack mates. He and his brothers were transplants from New York, transferred to Serenity two years ago, when Wade had decided both the Death of Matchitehew and the Savior prophecy referred to Trevor. There were many Citlali that disagreed, but