I took a deep breath and took in his scent. He wasn’t a werewolf or a witch but he didn’t smell human. Kai chuckled beside me.

“Trying to figure out what he is?”

I nodded.

“Shamans are their own species. They are closest to spirit and some of them are shape shifters, so they know of our kind. They have been performing our mating ceremonies since I can remember.”

I looked closer at the man. He could have been forty or seventy it was hard to tell. He had a tattoo of a jaguar on his arm, and a sharpened bone hung from a thread on his neck. His wrists were wrapped in leather cuffs and adorned with turquoise.

Kai leaned in and whispered. “Legend says that the Shamans hold the power of our fertility. Long ago, any female werewolf could give birth to pups. It didn’t matter if she was mated or not. But then the werewolves did something to anger the Natives and the Natives made all of the female werewolves infertile. Unless they were mated and blessed by the Great Spirit in a ceremony, they couldn’t reproduce.”

Chills ran up and down my arms. Just then, the Shaman looked at me. I locked eyes with him and everything around me froze. Kai was stuck leaning into my ear and all of the seated wolves were frozen. It was like time had stopped. What the hell was going on? I felt my heart rate pick up. The Shaman came walking towards me. I put myself in a fighting stance, unsure of what was happening. I didn’t like that my pack was helpless if someone were to attack. I was about to change into my wolf when the Shaman spoke.

“I come in peace, little sister,” the Shaman said to me with his hand raised.

“Did you do this?” I gestured around.

He nodded. “I have a message for you, sister. My name is Nahuel. Spirit has blessed you with a great purpose. My ancestors have cursed the werewolves for a long time. Werewolves were greedy hunters and didn’t share their meat. They became territorial and didn’t share their land. They reproduced quickly and were wasteful like the humans. We did not foresee that our curse would reduce the population of the werewolves so quickly. We only wanted to teach them a lesson, to respect Mother Earth and all of her inhabitants. Now, the werewolves are on the brink of extinction and the balance is being threatened.”

My mouth hung open at his admission to cursing our kind and reducing our population. He went on.

“Vampires are a threat to humans and werewolves protect humans. Witches are neutral to all species. If everyone serves their purpose, then there is balance. But there is an alarming amount of vampires in relation to the amount of werewolves. If the vampires chose to attack, they could wipe out the werewolves and eventually the human race. This cannot happen. I perform mating ceremonies to pay a debt to the werewolves because the curse my people laid on them cannot be undone. But I perform them all too little, your presence here will change that. As the Matefinder you will bring together many mated pairings, with Spirits help.”

He knows what I am? I was breathing deeply now. I think I’m having a panic attack, I thought. I don’t know what made me think of Isabelle and Tristan but I blurted out, “Our pack member Isabelle is married to a human and they are in love. They have human children and are happy. How can she have a mate waiting out there for her? It doesn’t seem right. I don’t understand how mated pairs are brought together, so how can I be a Matefinder?”

The man nodded kindly, seeming unperturbed by my random thoughts. “Nothing seems right on this side of the veil. In the spirit world, it makes more sense. You have many loves in your lifetime whether you are human, vampire, witch or werewolf. People you have chosen to share your energy with, people who lift your spirit. But then, there are soul mates. Soul mates choose to spend the most time together in a lifetime. They challenge each other, support one another, and grow together. It’s the hardest and most rewarding pairing.” He glanced at Kai and smiled. “Your pack mate Isabelle will share a good life with Tristan but if Spirit allows, she will also share her life with her mate. As a werewolf, you are divided, your human half and your wolf half. Isabelle’s human half loves Tristan and her wolf half respects him. But when you meet your mate, both halves love that person. You become one.”

That made sense to me. I felt settled thinking of it that way. I nodded.

“So that’s the message you have for me? My race is dying and vampires could take over, so I was sent here to find mates? Well, I have only found three mates in about two weeks, so it might take a couple of decades to find enough to grow my race.” It felt a little ridiculous saying it like that. I hadn’t meant for it to sound so sarcastic but it did.

“No, little sister. My message for you is that, in the near future, Spirit is going to download you with hundreds of mate couplings at once. It will be scary and somewhat debilitating. After this information gets out, everyone will know who you are and all of the packs will have benefitted from your gift, so they will vow to protect you. You are to come out to your kind. It’s the only way to ensure you are safe. Your mother hid from her people and died a young woman. If you expose yourself at the right time, to as many of your kind as you can, then you will ensure your safety. You will unite your people with one common goal. As pups start being born and children’s laughter is heard among the packs, they will know it is so because of you. So when the vampires come for you, let every wolf fight in your honor.” His face took on a menacing look. The hairs on my arms were standing.

I swallowed hard. “Why would the vampires come for me?” Hundreds of mate pairings at once? Download? Like I was a computer? My head was spinning.