by R. E. Butler
AnnaRose
Tails Book Four
By R. E. Butler
Copyright 2020 R. E. Butler
AnnaRose (Tails Books Four)
By R. E. Butler
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
Cover by CT Cover Creations
This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.
Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those older than the age of 18 only.
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Edited by Holly Atkinson
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Thanks to Joyce & Shelley for beta reading.
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To the real Annie, I hope you enjoy Mayhem!
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Coming Next from RE Butler
Contact the Author
More Books by R. E.
Next in the Tails Series
AnnaRose (Tails Book Four)
By R. E. Butler
Everyone has bad dates. AnnaRose, however, has a bad date that leaves her with a stalker who doesn’t care that she’s gone to the police. When things escalate and Annie is running for her life in the woods, her only hope is to find someone else to help.
Lion shifter Mayhem doesn’t have mating on his mind when he walks out of Tails one night, but the sweet brunette climbing him like a tree and begging for protection smells like home, and he’s not about to let anyone harm his newly found heart-match. Only Annie is in trouble—a coyote shifter claiming to be her rightful mate is terrorizing her. Hemi won’t let some punk who can’t take a hint claim his female. He’ll do anything to protect her and keep her safe and convince her that not all love-at-first-sight claims are bogus.
Chapter One
Mayhem “Hemi” Bennett checked out his reflection in the mirror as Mercy finished trimming up his sideburns. Her mate, Barron, sat in the salon chair next to them.
Mercy turned off the clippers. “How’s that?”
“Great, thanks,” Hemi said.
“I told you she does excellent work,” Barron said. He looked adoringly at his mate, who gave him a beaming smile.
It was downright difficult to be around people who were in love.
Mercy shook out the smock. “You’re all set,” she said. “I hope your parents approve.”
“They will. No worries.” His hair had gotten a little on the long side because he’d been so damn busy at work. The last time he’d eaten dinner at his parents’ house, the topic of conversation had been about how his father thought long hair on males was disrespectful. Hemi didn’t want to deal with that again, so he’d asked Barron’s mate to give him a trim. Her little shop, which Hemi had helped Barron build and set up behind their home in pride territory, was always busy. She’d stayed open later to help him out because she was booked.
“I appreciate you fitting me in,” Hemi said as he walked to the small counter and paid the bill.
“Anytime.”
The sweet human was always smiling. Hemi was around humans a lot because he was a bartender at the pride-owned bar, Tails, but he’d never seen a female as happy as Mercy appeared to be. He wondered if she was just naturally happy, or if her smile came from having found her heart-match. Not that humans called them that. Heart-match was a shifter term, one of two ways they found their mate. Shifters either used a match-maker to arrange a mating with another shifter or waited until they found their heart-match, what Mercy had told him humans often called a “soulmate.”
It didn’t really matter what term was used, though. To Hemi, it appeared that a heart-match was worth waiting for.
His parents, however, didn’t agree. They’d been mate-matched, and wanted him and Demi, his twin, to go that route as well.
“You working tonight?” Barron asked as he joined Hemi and Mercy at the counter.
Hemi put the change Mercy had given him into the tip jar and she thanked him.
“Nah,” Hemi said. “Weekly parent dinner. I could’ve worked afterward, but Titus said he had it covered. He’s training someone new behind the bar.”
“A girl, right?” Mercy asked.
Hemi nodded. “She’s a wolf shifter. Name’s Blu.”
Mercy’s brows rose. “Wow, the first wolf shifter to work at Tails and it’s a girl. That’ll be interesting. All the human guys are going to hit on her.”
“She’ll be fine,” Hemi said. “Titus won’t stand for anyone being anything but respectful to her, but aside from that, she used to tend bar at a place Demi and China like to go to, and apparently she can hold her own just fine.”
“That’s good,” Mercy said. “Maybe we can go have a drink so I can meet her.”
“You can’t drink,” Barron said, his brow furrowing.
“Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I can’t hang out at the bar and get to know Blu,” Mercy said. “Plus, a glass of red wine here or there isn’t discouraged by most doctors.”
“Good point,” Barron said.
“I gotta run,” Hemi said. “Thanks again, Merc.”
“No problem,” she said.
Hemi left the shop and jogged to his truck, which was waiting at the dirt road. He glanced at his phone as he climbed inside, and saw a text from his mother asking where he was, and realized he was running a bit late for dinner. He texted that he was on the way and then put the truck into gear.
His parents lived on the other side of the pride’s territory in Kedrick.
When he pulled to a stop in front of his parents’ home, he saw Demi pacing on the front porch. She looked pissed. He got out and shut the door.
Her head shot up. “Finally! I couldn’t stand being in there with them alone.”
He joined her on the porch. When he put his hand on his twin’s shoulder, he was surprised at the tension vibrating through her. “What’s the matter?”
“It’s that damn alpha!”
Hemi let out a low growl. A month ago, Diesel, a pride member, had found his heart-match in a human female named Emberly. Before he’d met Emberly, though, he’d asked the match-maker to arrange a mating for him. However, the matched female—from a different pride—had rejected Diesel due to his bum leg. Then she’d shown up at the bar one night with her parents and alpha and demanded that Duke, the Kedrick alpha, enforce the mating—which he hadn’t done. Then Benecio, the spurned female’s alpha, had taken one look at Demi and said he’d be back for her.
Hemi had wanted to take his head off right then, but of course he’d been told it was a bad idea.
“I thought he got the hint when you sent back the flowers,” Hemi said.
“Apparently he thought it would be a good idea to ask Mom and Dad for their blessing.”
Her dark e
yes went luminous and Hemi’s heart cracked. “Tell me they didn’t say yes.”
“Of course they did! I talked to Duke and he said that they can’t really make me go through with the mating, but they’re pushing me so hard.” She ran her hands through her hair in frustration. “I have to move. Or change my name. Or both.”
He snorted. “No, you don’t. You’re an adult, you’re not living under their roof anymore, and you make your own decisions.” He gave her a long, quiet look. “You’re certain he’s not your heart-match? I mean, I know you think he’s a jackass, but you’re positive you’re not just being stubborn?”
“Rude!”
“I’m just asking.”
She let out a deep sigh. “No, he’s not my heart-match. My lion and I don’t feel anything but agitation toward him. I don’t like males who won’t take a hint.”
Hemi hummed in agreement. “I could beat him up.” He recalled the male—early thirties and well built, but not nearly as strong as Hemi.
“There’s too much of a chance of war between our prides, and I won’t do that to Duke. I just need to find my heart-match.”
“You will. Just don’t let Mom and Dad pressure you. If he’s not the right male for you, then you don’t have to mate him. Period.”
“I just don’t get why they’re so insistent about it.”
He shrugged. “Maybe because he’s alpha. But it doesn’t really matter what their intentions are, because you’re allowed to choose who you want to spend the rest of your life with.”
“If they disown me…”
“They won’t.”
“They might.”
“I won’t be disowning you, so don’t worry about it. I’ve got your back. If they think the way to get you to toe the line is to try to force you to mate a male you don’t like, then they’ve got another thing coming.”
She drew her brows down, but didn’t say anything. He gave her a hug.
“Thanks,” she said, finally.
“That’s what brothers are for.”
He opened the door and let her in ahead of him, following her into the kitchen where their parents were seated at the table spread for dinner. He kissed his mom on the cheek and greeted his father.
“You’ll tell your sister to make a wise choice, yes?” their father, Quentin, asked, picking up the platter of roast chicken.
“Seriously!” Demi said.
Hemi made the motion for her to settle down. “Listen, you have to stop pushing Demi. She can make her own choices. She doesn’t want to mate Benecio and you should respect that.”
“But he’s an alpha,” Tabitha, their mother, said.
“So? That doesn’t make him an honorable male,” Hemi said. “And if she’s not willing, then that should be enough for you two. You shouldn’t want her to be miserable.”
“You’ll come to love him,” Quentin said.
Demi looked at their parents in silence, and then at Hemi. He knew what she was going to say before she said it.
She pushed her chair back and rose to her feet. “I will not mate him, so loving him is a moot point. If you’re intent on forcing this issue, then you can do so without me. I won’t be back until you come to your senses and realize I can make my own choices on who I will or will not mate.”
She dropped her napkin on her plate and strode away, ignoring their mother, who urged her to return to the table.
The front door slammed hard enough to make the pictures on the wall shake.
Hemi looked at the hall and then back at his parents. They were staring at each other intently, both frowning.
“You’ll speak to her?” Quentin asked, looking at Hemi.
“Not even a little bit,” Hemi said, putting a large piece of chicken on his plate and handing the platter to his mother. “You need to listen to her or you’re going to drive her away. And don’t get any ideas about me, either. I plan to wait for my heart-match and not get mate-matched. I don’t care if I don’t meet her until I’m fifty.”
“That’s the problem with your generation,” Quentin said with a harrumph. “You’d rather wait than follow tradition. What if you don’t ever meet her? What if you waste your whole life waiting for a person who maybe doesn’t even exist? Just because three males in the pride have found their heart-matches recently doesn’t mean there’s one for everyone. And let’s not forget that the three heart-matches are human.”
Hemi had never heard his parents outright voice their disdain for humans. “What’s wrong with humans?”
His father’s brows winged up. “A mating between a lion and a human may not produce offspring who can shift.”
“And?” Hemi was fully irritated at this point.
“So, what happens when you have a shifter group with mostly non-shifting children? The next generation in the pride won’t be able to defend their territory, and they’ll lose it to a pride who values keeping with their own kind.”
“That’s the most bigoted thing I’ve ever heard in my life.” Hemi let out a deep sigh and rolled his neck. “Look, I feel differently than you. I don’t care if my heart-match is human or another shifter, I only care that she’s the right female for me. And Demi feels the same way. Your generation might have been content with mate-matches and not waiting for your true mate, but have you ever considered what not waiting might do?”
“What are you talking about?” his mother asked.
“Let me play devil’s advocate here. What if my heart-match is actually a shifter and I just haven’t met her yet? I bow to your pressure and get mate-matched. What happens to my heart-match? Does she have to be single for the rest of her life? Will I always feel like something’s not quite right? Mom, what if your heart-match just hadn’t crossed your path yet? Or what if you’re mate-matched and you do meet your heart-match?”
His father slammed his hand on the table. “This is nonsense. The right choice for any unmated male or female lion is to be mate-matched at the earliest possible opportunity so they can have children and start a family. Period.”
Hemi let out a frustrated growl. “You can feel how you like, but I have no plans to go into a mate-match. Period. You can consider the subject closed. For me and for Demi.”
Tabitha shook her head, but said nothing else.
In fact, it was the quietest, weirdest dinner Hemi had ever had with his parents. He planned to tell Demi that she was a jerk for leaving him to deal with them alone, even though he understood why she’d wanted to get the hell out. He was just thankful his parents were focused on his sister at the moment. Like Demi, he wanted to wait. Maybe he’d be single for another decade, but who cared? He’d rather be single than miserable or mated to a stranger.
He just hoped to hell it wouldn’t take a decade for his heart-match to show up.
Chapter Two
AnnaRose Carmichael pressed the last piece of border to the wall and moved off the stepladder to view her handiwork. The section of wall at the front of the classroom now read in big, colorful letters “Welcome to Kindergarten.” Cutouts of several of her favorite things decorated the space around the letters—a unicorn, a puffy red heart, and a kitten.
“It looks great in here,” Tilly, the Happy Time Preschool and Kindergarten director said as she stuck her head inside the door. “You ready for kindergarten?”
“Definitely,” Annie said. The last two years, she’d worked in the Pre-K class, waiting for an opening in the two kindergarten classes at the private school. While she loved kids of all ages, she was looking forward to the more challenging workload.
That night was the school’s open house, a week before the official start of the school year, which ran from September first through June fifteenth. She not only got to move into the higher age group, she also got an assistant—her best friend, Miranda. The two had met in the child development class in high school and gone to college together, pursuing early childhood education degrees.
Miranda, arms laden with supplies, wiggled past Tilly. “The line at the dolla
r store was crazy! But I did manage to grab the last plastic shoe boxes with lids, so we have enough for every kid to have one.”
“Yay! I knew you could do it,” Annie said.
“Well, making you happy is what I live for,” Miranda said with an exaggerated eye roll.
Tilly chuckled. “You two are ridiculous. Don’t forget there’s food in the break room. It’ll be seven before you know it.”
When Tilly was gone, Annie said, “Whatcha think?”
“Looks great,” Miranda said. She set the bags on one of the small tables surrounded by red plastic chairs and surveyed Annie’s work. “The kids are going to love it.”
“I hope so.”
“Did you see the roster for the class?” Miranda asked.
“Of course, why?”
“We’ve got a shifter kid this year. I think he’s the first one to enroll here. Pretty cool.”
Annie nodded with a smile. Clayton Farris was a coyote shifter. His parents were new to the town of Greenville, which was mostly human. A wolf pack lived in the next town over, but had a school of its own. Annie had actually applied to be a teacher at that school, but the only openings were for grades far older than Annie wanted to teach. She liked little ones, when they were so excited about school and learning. She definitely wasn’t ready to teach teenagers, especially since she was only twenty-three, herself.
There were some people who were afraid to be around shifters, but Annie always thought that was crazy. Shifters were people too, even if they could grow fur and claws. If she could be any animal, she’d be a dragon, but she’d want to be a pretty one. Maybe pink or purple, with the ability to blow ice instead of fire so she could cool down in the summer.
“I’m looking forward to meeting his parents,” Annie said.
“Speaking of,” Miranda said, putting her hands on her hips, “I broke up with Steve.”