He sucked an unsteady breath. Like the cable that had tethered him to the zipline, his connection to Faith seemed a tangible thing that shouldn’t exist, but did.
Faith’s words came rushing back. “The bloom lies in the hands of the propagator…we have the power to change the outcome. Believing in ourselves, that’s where faith comes in.”
Hope welled in Jake’s chest. “I’m Faith’s propagator. I see her beauty, her worth, even though she can’t.”
The chief tucked his chin, his voice low and deep. “Then you know what must be done…”
Jake dropped his hands to his sides and the bowtie he’d been tying hung in two strands. Through sickness, poverty, or worse, he would profess to never give up on Faith, or their love, and he’d already promised all of those things in his heart since he’d proposed.
His compass to her spinning in all directions, suddenly he locked onto her location. He pledged to destroy anything that tried to come between them. Out the back door, he dashed toward Faith, to her aid, directly into the cold and chilling fog….
The End
The series continues in SPIRIT RELEASED, book one of the Whisper Cove series.
http://cyndifaria.com/
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Award-winning author Cyndi Faria was named a Rising Star in Romance for her Whisper Cove series. She writes paranormal romance, contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and is a best-selling erotic romance author writing as Syndi Burns. The Civil Engineering grad turned romance writer specializes in page-turning plots laced with mystery and seduction. Hot, Heart-Warming, Happily-Ever-Afters is her promise to her readers.
“Cyndi Faria writes with passion and her stories touch the heart.” –New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Virna DePaul.
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SHIFTER SHENANIGANS
PEPPER MCGRAW
Shifter Shenanigans © copyright 2018 Pepper McGraw
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Edited by J.L. Troughton
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All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
SHIFTER SHENANIGANS
She has no idea shifters exist. He has no idea she’s human.
When Phoenix applies for a job at Shenanigans, she expects it to be just like every other bar she’s ever worked at. There’ll be drunks, some of them obnoxious and some of them hilarious. There’ll be regulars she sees every night, some of them charming and some of them real jerks. What she never expects though, is that all of them will be shapeshifters.
Travis knows there’s something off about his new waitress. He has his doubts about her ability to handle drunken shifters, even though she insists she’s tough enough to handle anything his bar patrons throw at her. What he doesn’t expect though is her reaction to the sight of his animal. What did she expect? Some pansy-ass wolf? If so, she’s in for a mighty shock considering he’s all bear.
ONE
AS PHOENIX SMITH HID BEHIND SHENANIGANS’ bar, the latest in her long string of waitress gigs, she remembered the claim she’d made to her new boss when he’d hired her two days before.
He’d warned her in his gravely voice that Shenanigans “doesn’t have crowds like you’re used to serving.”
She’d assured him that she had plenty of experience working with the roughest of customers and that she could handle whatever his bar patrons threw at her.
Famous last words.
Phoenix peeked over the top of the bar and ducked back down, horrified. The brawl was still happening. Which wasn’t a big deal. She’d been in barroom brawls before. Even knocked a few heads together herself when the occasion called for it.
The problem wasn’t the fight.
It wasn’t the beer bottles being thrown or the bodies flung through the air. It also wasn’t the sounds of tables being destroyed or chairs knocked over.
The problem was that her boss, the unbelievably sexy bartender with the gravely voice, had lunged over the top of the bar and landed in a whole different body.
And then, in that whole new body, had let out a roar that shook the rafters and started tossing his customers everywhere.
And as for them.
Well, they were the problem too.
Snarling and growling, snapping at each other with viciously long fangs.
Fangs.
No, not like vampires.
More like werewolves. And werecougars. Which shouldn’t even be a thing.
But since it was a thing, it also meant her boss was a werebear. Or wereblackbear.
This was crazy.
But now the location of this bar, which was right in the middle of the woods, with no roads leading up to it, made perfect sense to Phoenix.
At first, it had seemed really weird that people would hike to their neighborhood bar, but then the more she’d thought about it, the more she’d realized how ingenious it was. They’d never have to worry about drunk drivers because their customers could just walk their drunk asses home.
Only now she was realizing they’d probably be walking their drunk, furry asses home. Because who was more comfortable in the middle of the woods than a bunch of wolves and cougars?
Certainly not her. And now she was stuck here, with an unknown number of cougars and wolves between her and the door. Not to mention her boss, the scary-ass bear. What were the chances of her getting out of here without any of them noticing her?
Surely there was a back door. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t explored all the exits by now. She knew better than this.
“Shit, shit, shit. Phoenix, what are you going to do? Shit, this is madness!” She clutched her hair and dragged in a deep breath.
That’s when she realized the sounds of fighting had stopped.
All the growls, snarls and roars had faded.
She’d never really understood how the hair on someone’s neck could stand on end, but that’s exactly what it did. Followed by a wave of ice-cold fear and a preternatural instinct that told her to run.
Only there was nowhere to go.
She’d trapped herself behind the bar.
“What’s she doin’ down there, Travis?” someone asked.
“Hell if I know.”
Phoenix shivered at the sound of her boss’s gravelly voice. If he was speaking, he had to be back in human form. Right?
She slowly raised her head and looked up.
The other two waitresses, along with the men and women they’d served that night, were all crowded around the bar, staring down at her.
While naked.
Okay, so she wasn’t positive they were naked since the bar hid their lower halves, but everything up top was on display, so she had to assume—
“I thought you said you could handle this job,” Travis growled at her as he shoved his way behind the bar. He faced her, hands on hips, a furious scowl on his face. “You told me you had experience with rough crowds. I knew I’d never heard of those bars before. They were all human bars, weren’t they? You should have told me you’d never had any experience working at a shifter bar!”
Phoenix was speechless. It
wasn’t really what he was saying. Because she’d already pretty much processed that shifters were real and that this was a shifter bar. That had become shockingly clear when everyone in the bar went furry.
“Are you even listening to me?”
With great effort, Phoenix dragged her eyes away from the gorgeous cock bobbing in front of her and pushed to her feet. Swallowing, she looked her boss in the eye and said, “I’m sorry, what?”
“Why would you lie about your experiences? You could have been seriously hurt! At the very least, you should have shifted to give you a better chance in that brawl.”
“Um, why exactly would I shift again?”
He stared at her, a perplexed look on his face, then glanced over at the customers, as if asking them for help.
“Well, usually, it’s what shifters do, lass,” one of the men offered.
She glanced at him. Then back at Travis.
She had no idea why they thought she was a shifter, but she wasn’t about to admit the truth. They’d probably eat her or do something worse, like throw her in prison for the rest of her life, just to keep humans from discovering their secret.
“So why didn’t you shift, honey?” Cassie, one of the other waitresses, asked.
“Yeah, why?”
Several voices chimed in, wondering what kind of shifter wouldn’t even bother to shift for protection in the middle of a shifter brawl.
Phoenix didn’t know what to say, so she just shrugged and refused to reply.
“What kind of shifter are you, anyway?”
“Karl!” Glory, another waitress, slapped him on the back of the head. “Never ask a woman about her animal!”
“Well, I never smelled her kind before.”
“Me neither.”
The murmurs of agreement spread.
Had they never been around humans before? Surely that wasn’t possible.
“Doesn’t matter,” Glory insisted. “A woman’s animal is very personal.” She turned to Phoenix. “Don’t worry about it, honey. You’ll shift with us when you feel safe. Until then, you just keep your animal a well-guarded secret. No one will fault you for it.” She glared around at the rest of the room. “Right?”
Travis rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, the movement causing his cock to bounce a little. “Look. You can’t work in a shifter bar if you’re not willing to shift. That’s just the way it is.”
“That’s rather prejudicial,” Phoenix said, glaring at him, trying desperately to ignore his bobbing cock. It couldn’t be sanitary to have all that nakedness around – well, everything. And what was she saying? She should be taking this opportunity to quit, not arguing her right to stay.
“Oh, don’t listen to him,” Glory said. “I’m half-owner of this bar, Travis, and I say she stays.”
This was news to Phoenix, who’d hadn’t realized the waitress who’d been pitching in occasionally was one of the owners. She should have guessed when Travis introduced her as his sister though. It made sense that they would own the bar together.
“She did a magnificent job tonight,” Glory continued. “And when the fight broke out, she quite sensibly retreated behind the bar, leaving you to knock sense into the lot of them.”
“She’s the best waitress we’ve had in a while, Travis,” Cassie agreed. “We need her.”
Travis groaned. “Whatever.”
“You know, it’d be so much easier to take you seriously if your junk wasn’t all out and proud right now.” Phoenix waved a hand in the general vicinity of his cock. “Can you please put some clothes on? Or go to the other side of the bar? Or something? Nobody wants your pubes in their beer.”
Groans and gagging sounds filled the air.
“Oh, my god, Travis, get away from there right now!” Glory exclaimed. “That is disgusting! I never even thought about that and now I’m going to have that vision in my head every damn time I order a beer from my own bar!”
Travis rolled his eyes. “It’s not like I expected to explode out of my clothes tonight, Glory.”
“Well, you should expect it,” she said sharply. “It happens practically every weekend.” She turned to face the customers still crowded around the bar. “All right. I think that’s enough for one night. Clean up your areas, settle up your tabs and get out, the lot of you. And don’t forget to tip your waitresses. Generously.” She glared at them.
With shuffled feet and a number of muttered, “yes, ma’ams”, the customers began to assist in the clean-up and one by one, wandered over to the bar to settle their tabs with Phoenix and Cassie.
An hour later, the doors were shut behind the final customer and thirty minutes after that, Phoenix was headed out the door, officially ending the weirdest shift she’d ever worked, and that was saying a lot.
TWO
AS SOON AS the door closed behind Phoenix, Travis turned on his sister. “I can’t believe you!”
Glory shrugged. “What?”
“A woman’s animal is very personal.” He mimicked her voice. “Since when?”
“Since you hired a waitress who freaked out when you shifted into a black bear.”
“She’s a shifter too!”
“Who still freaked out when you turned into a bear.”
Travis groaned, remembering the sudden spike in Phoenix’s scent. One minute, it had been a subtle blend of minty sweetness and the next it had become a wave of bitter fear. “I can’t place her scent at all. It’s driving my bear crazy.”
“I know. She doesn’t smell like prey though.”
Travis wasn’t exactly sure about that. She smelled unbelievably sweet to him. The scent had been driving him mad all night long. Every time she’d come up to the bar for a round of drinks, or even worse, had come around the bar to grab another bowl of peanuts, he’d had to restrain his bear, who’d desperately wanted to play with the pretty waitress.
When the bar fight had broken out, his bear had gone insane.
Phoenix had been standing at the bar when that damn cougar, Jerry, had transformed and lunged at one of the wolves. Phoenix hadn’t even seemed to realize what was happening behind her, but Travis’ bear had wasted no time in hurtling over the bar and getting between her and the insanity that ensued. Of course, that had been about the time when her scent had changed. Sometimes Travis hated being a bear, especially one living in the middle of wolf and cougar territories. The other shifters were always wary, as if they expected the bears to go on a rampage at any moment.
“I’m going for a run,” Glory said, walking toward the door. “You coming?”
Travis shook his head. “Nah. I’m just gonna head on up.”
“All right. See you tomorrow.”
“See ya, sis.”
Glory opened the door, then snapped, “What are you doing here?”
Travis tossed down the rag he’d been using to wipe down the bar and started to head around it when he heard Max’s voice.
Rolling his eyes, he went back to what he’d been doing.
Max.
Beta for the local wolf pack.
Major pain in the ass.
And a constant source of amusement. His public pursuit of Glory provided endless entertainment for both the cougars and the wolves. Because Glory was having none of it.
“You figure out yet what animal your new waitress is hiding?”
Travis looked up, shocked to see that Glory was gone and Max was headed toward him. He couldn’t believe she’d let that damn wolf inside! “We’re closed,” he growled.
“What about where she came from? And what pack, clan or den she belongs to?”
“She’s not a wolf and that’s all you need to know.” Travis could feel his bear rising, unhappy with the questions being asked about his waitress. Ours, his bear rumbled.
“She chose not to shift in the middle of a shifter brawl. That tells me she’s got something to hide, that she’s running from something. Which means whatever she’s running from might end up here one day. We need to know. If you don’t
want to ask her, that’s fine. Between the cougars and my wolves, we’ll figure it out.”
A deep rumble poured from Travis’ throat. “She’s my waitress. I’ll take responsibility for her. You wolves leave her alone.”
Max raised an eyebrow. “You know none of the wolves or cougars are gonna let this go, right? It doesn’t matter what either of us say, they’re going to try to figure it out.”
Travis groaned, his bear subsiding a little at that truth. There really was no getting around the rampant curiosity of shifters. And she’d smelled so intriguing, he really couldn’t blame them for wondering. “As long as they treat her with respect, I’m good with them trying to figure it out.”
Max grinned and rubbed his hands together. “This is gonna be fun.”
Travis rolled his eyes. “Just remember. She’s under my protection and if she gets hurt, my bear will destroy pretty much everything and everyone.”
“Understood.”
THREE
PHOENIX GOT BACK to the motel around two. Out of habit, she glanced at the clock and immediately calculated the nap she could take before having to get up for her shift at the diner, which began at six. Three glorious hours. She could sleep from now until five, at which point, she’d get up, take a shower, get ready and walk to work. Or she could sleep an extra thirty minutes and skip the shower.
Phoenix absolutely adored sleeping, especially when she could do it in small, multiple chunks of time. She loved sleeping so much that she arranged her life to accommodate her love of naps. An early morning shift at a restaurant, from six to eleven, and a night shift at a bar, from seven to one, were almost perfect hours, allowing her to sleep in two beautiful chunks of time between shifts.
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