“Sure,” he said. “If he’d be willing to fill out the questionnaire. And I won’t force him to do that.”
“Then I choose not to,” Miles interjected. “I’d rather do it the old-fashioned way by letting it happen all on its own.”
Jaden shook her head. “So you’d be willing to wait years, maybe hundreds of them, to find her? Well, I think that’s stupid when Dirk’s service could help even the odds in your favor.”
“Still not interested.”
“But what if it works?”
“Then you’d have to prove it to me.” Miles looked at Dirk. “If he finds his mate through his online dating service, I’ll sign up the very next day.”
“You’re on, Dad,” Jaden quickly said.
Dirk knew he couldn’t not say something. “Ah, Jaden, I’d hold off on that, if I were you.”
“Why? Please don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind about finding your mate that way.”
“It’s not like that.” He paused. Just thinking about Ryann was ramping him up again, making his mating urge dig its claws harder into him. “Well, you see, I’ve already found her.”
“What? You did? When? Who is she? Is she from your site?” Jaden barraged him with questions as she got off the couch to stand in front of him, wearing a wide smile.
He chuckled. “Slow down. One question at a time. First of all, she isn’t one of the women who signed up for the service, though she’s connected with it. It’s Ryann, the woman I hired to assist me with running it.”
Jaden scowled. “Wait a minute. Are you saying you’ve walked around this entire time in the throes of the mating urge and no one noticed? You hired Ryann a couple of weeks ago, at least, that’s what you said.”
“No, it hasn’t been like that. And yes, it was that long ago that I first “met” Ryann.” Dirk made air quotes. “But remember, I didn’t meet her face-to-face until this afternoon when we had lunch together.”
“I guess I’m off the hook then,” Miles said with a smile.
Jaden sighed. “Darn. It’s too bad Ryann never filled out a questionnaire. Then, we could’ve at least compared it to the one you did, Dirk, to see if the outcome would’ve been the two of you being a good match.”
“Actually, she did,” Dirk said.
“She did?”
“I wanted someone to test the site as if they were someone signing up. Since I hadn’t told any of you about the service, I asked Ryann to do it. Once she did, I only looked it over to make sure everything had worked.”
“Let’s go look at it then,” Jaden said excitedly.
“We’d have to go upstairs to my room to use my computer.”
Jaden hooked her arm through his. “That’s fine.” She looked back over her shoulder. “Come on, Dad and Leif. And no backing out now, Dad.”
Leif stood, then came over and tugged Jaden away from Dirk, tucking her under his arm. Miles also gained his feet before he followed them out of the room. Dirk heard him mutter under his breath, asking what he’d gotten himself into.
Upstairs in his room, Dirk walked over to the desk he’d set up in the corner and sat behind it. He moved the mouse to turn off the screensaver, then launched his browser. It only took him a few clicks to get into Mate Connection and his profile. He clicked on the link that would take him to his possible matches. Since he really hadn’t gotten the service out to the public yet, seeing Ryann listed hadn’t made him think anything of it. He thought it was a glitch he’d have to work out, that the program had put her there because she was the only female who’d signed up.
Dirk clicked on Ryann’s name and was instantly brought to her profile. There wasn’t a picture of her, since he’d told her not to worry about it. He’d been more concerned about whether the info she filled out in the questionnaire had worked. He’d also ignored the bottom of the page on both of their profiles, where it gave a percentage of how compatible she’d be with him. He went back to his to look. It read ninety-nine point nine.
He pointed to the number on the screen. “Holy shit, it worked.” Dirk had it programmed so it would, but there’d been a small part of him that’d thought it wouldn’t be that accurate.
“There you go,” Jaden said behind him as she leaned over his shoulder for a closer look at the screen. Once she straightened, she turned to face her father. “No point in waiting, Dad. Dirk already has the website open, so you might as well take his seat and fill out the form.”
Dirk spun his steno chair around and stood. He gestured for Miles to take his spot. Miles did not look at all happy about being forced into signing up. Even though this man had been an asshole for hundreds of years, Dirk couldn’t help feeling a smidge sorry for him.
“Look, Miles, if you really don’t want to do this, then don’t. There’s no point, if you aren’t willing to go through the whole process,” he said.
Miles shook his head. “No, it’s fine. If this is what Jaden wants, I’ll do it.” He smiled. “She may be my daughter, but she’s still the foretold one, after all. I have to do what she wants, since she rules and all that.”
Dirk, Leif and Jaden laughed quietly. Dirk knew what was going through the others’ minds, the same as it was through his—that Jaden didn’t rule.
Miles slowly sat on the chair and sighed as he turned to face the computer.
Leif laughed, and said, “It’s not as if you’re a dead man walking, Miles. Who knows, maybe you won’t find anyone this way either.”
Jaden scowled at her mate. “Don’t say that or you’ll jinx him for sure.”
“Whatever.” Leif looked at Dirk. “I’m going to leave you three to it. Once you’re done, we can go out back and get some sword practice in. I know you must be feeling pretty keyed up with the mating urge riding your ass. I remember what it was like.”
Dirk nodded. “All right. I’ll meet you in the backyard in a bit.”
After Leif left, Dirk got Miles set up on the computer before he backed up a bit to watch father and daughter, while Miles filled out the questionnaire. He could see the love the ex-Protector had for Jaden was real. It was in his eyes for anyone to see, every time Miles looked at her. And becoming a grandfather seemed to bring more and more of the old Miles back. The man he’d been when they’d first formed the Protectors. Dirk had liked him then, they all had. He just hoped for Saskia’s sake, and especially Jaden’s, that Miles didn’t revert back to what he’d been. It would more than likely break the hearts of the two women.
Chapter Three
The next day, Ryann finished packing the last of Tyler’s things he’d need over the weekend at his dad’s into his backpack. Mack was supposed to pick him up after he finished work. So far, she hadn’t gotten any phone calls from him to say otherwise, so she figured he’d still be taking Tyler.
Leaving the backpack in Tyler’s bedroom, she went to the living room. Her son sat on the floor in the middle of the room with a pile of building blocks surrounding him. He was snapping the plastic pieces together to form a tall tower. She knew once he got it as tall as he wanted, he’d knock it down, just to build it again. One of his favorite pastimes.
Tyler looked up when he noticed her watching him. “Mommy, when’s Dirk coming?”
She smiled and shook her head as she sank onto the floor to join him. He’d done nothing but talk about Dirk since they’d had lunch with him the day before. And Tyler wasn’t the only one who seemed obsessed with him, either. Ryann hadn’t been able to get Dirk out of her head. The thought of him coming to her apartment excited her—a lot. More than it should. She had to keep reminding herself he was her boss. He’d given her a great job, and she didn’t want to do anything to screw it up. It was ideal for both her and Tyler.