Three days later, Dina and Lauren were sitting in a café downtown, waiting for Kristin. She’d told them she only had an hour before she had to go report on the Hope Valley town hall meeting. She was the busiest person they knew, always rushing from one place to another, on the scent of the latest story. As with Melissa, they’d had her pre-approved by Tamika, the owner of the dating app. Tamika had been nervous when they’d mentioned that Kristin was a journalist, but they assured her that Kristin would never do anything to betray her friends’ trust.
They spotted Kristin’s statuesque figure when she was still on the other side of the square. As usual, she was wearing heels, which elevated her to around 5’11’’, and her long red hair was flying around her shoulders. She hurtled up to their table, apologizing for being late, and they started to get to their feet to hug her.
“No, don’t get up!” she exclaimed, bending down to kiss them instead. “You ladies have got to take care of yourselves in your condition!” She sat down in the vacant chair, and, as if by magic, a waiter appeared to take her order. Kristin had that effect on people. She had a feisty nature, and most people seemed to sense it and fall under her spell, eager to do her bidding. “You two look amazing!” she said. “Look at you – pregnant ladies in bloom!”
“Thanks,” Dina said, a little embarrassed, knowing how worried Kristin was that she wouldn’t be able to have kids due to her PCOS.
“Great hair, girl!” Kristin said, stroking Lauren’s new elfin crop.
“Thanks,” Lauren said, eyelashes fluttering over her huge brown eyes.
“And, Dina, I can’t wait to see your honeymoon photos when we have more time! But right now, I think you have something important that you want to tell me?” She looked from one to the other, her eyes narrowing with professional appraisal. Lauren sucked her lips in.
“Yes we do. But there’s just one problem.”
“Which is?” Kristin said, immediately looking interested.
“Well, the thing we have to tell you is actually strictly confidential. I discovered it first, and I was allowed to tell one person only, so I told Dina. And now we’re telling you.”
“I’m dying to tell you, Kristin,” Dina butted in. “But it’s quite a big deal, and I’m just a little worried that it’ll find its way into the papers.” By now, Kristin wasn’t just interested, she looked positively fascinated.
“Ok, I promise,” she said. “I will not tell another living soul about this. Except for the one person that I’m allowed to tell. Whoever that might be.” She raised an eyebrow, clearly amused by the situation.
“Kristin, this is serious,” Dina said. “This cannot end up in the papers. If it does, the lives of many people will be ruined.” Kristin’s elegant features slackened in disappointment.
“Ok, if my word isn’t good enough for you, I’ll just have to make you an NDA.” She fished in her bag for a pen and took a fresh napkin from the dispenser.
“I, Kristin Pasternak, promise not to disclose to anyone the information that Dina Taylor and Lauren Garcia are about to convey to me verbally at 14:43 pm on September 23rd, 2014, until such time as they advise me that I may do so. Signed, K Pasternak,” she recited, as she wrote on the napkin. “Ok, you both sign here.” Lauren and Dina signed, looking at her dubiously.
“This isn’t legally binding is it?” Dina said.
“Of course it is. Anything that is stated and signed is legally binding, regardless of how it’s written. All journalists know this. Non-disclosure agreements and embargoes are really common, so it’s essential that we understand the law. And, ladies, of course I’ll keep your secret to myself. What kind of worthless friend do you think I am?”
“I am sorry,” Lauren said. “We didn’t mean to be anal. It’s just such an important thing to protect.”
“Ok, so what is it?” Kristin said, impatiently, and not at all offended.
“It’s a dating app,” Dina said. “Give me your phone.”
“Uh, ok,” Kristin said, handing it over. Lauren installed the Shiftr app and logged Kristin in. They’d already created a profile for her, knowing that she’d want to see all the information immediately. Lauren passed it back to her.
“Ok, you’ve also got to add an electronic signature right here to say that you won’t disclose anything about the site to anyone,” she said. Kristin smirked and tapped out her name in a little box. “So, we’ve added all your details already, along with these super-hot photos of you – ” Lauren said.
“Wait – let me see!” Kristin snatched the phone out of her grasp and examined the photos they’d selected. In one, she was looking at the camera over her shoulder, and the sun caught her hair as it fell down her back, making it look fire-red. A second one had been taken at Lauren’s birthday a year ago. She was watching Lauren blowing out her candles, and she looked happy and relaxed. “Ok, they’re not so bad,” she conceded. Then she swiped onto a full-body shot. The photo had been taken at a Christmas party, and she hated it.
“Don’t even think about complaining; you look amazing in that photo,” Lauren said. Kristin shrugged, thinking she’d scrutinize it later, and handed the phone back to Lauren, who showed her the basic functionality of the app.
“So, you guys decided that I needed to start dating. Ok, that’s reasonable,” Kristin said. “And I’m also going to hazard a guess that this is how you met Connor and Logan?” The two women nodded. “But why the big secret?” As Kristin was speaking, she scrolled up and down, swiping from one thing to another. She’s like a magpie, Dina thought. Not happy until she’s investigated every possible angle and aspect of something. It was a quality that was as impressive as it could be infuriating. “So this seems to be a dating app for seriously hot dudes,” she said. “Actually – wait – I recognize this guy. He was at your wedding.” She’d paused at a photo of a hunky blond guy with intense green eyes. “I’m not likely to forget a face like that.” Absently she swiped left, and a snow leopard appeared instead, lounging on a tree branch. “Hmm he’s got a weird obsession with animals. But that’s not the first guy with an animal on his profile.” She scrolled up and located the guy she’d seen before, who happened to be a lion shifter. “That’s bizarre.”
It only took her a moment longer to discover that all the guys had animals on their profiles.
“Hey, that’s funny – they also look quite a lot like the animals they’ve chosen. For example, I’ll bet this guy is a wolf – he looks kind of lean and rangy, but powerful.” She swiped left, and a gray wolf appeared. “Awesome!”
Lauren and Dina smiled to each other as they listened to Kristin’s internal monologue. It was fascinating to hear the workings of her mind. “So, what’s the deal? A site full of dudes who have pictures of animals that resemble them, and the app is called Shiftr.” Returning to the snow leopard shifter, she swiped repeatedly between the man and the animal. Dina and Lauren could practically see her brain cogs turning around. They looked at each other nervously. Kristin put the phone down on the table. “Ok, I have an idea in my head but it sounds really crazy, so I’m not even going to tell you what it is. You’re going to have to explain,” she demanded, looking from one woman to the other.
“I’m pretty sure that your idea is spot-on,” Lauren said. “This is a dating app for curvy girls and shifters – men who can turn into animals. Connor is a bear shifter, and so is Logan.” Kristin’s dark eyes became huge, and her mouth made a small O.
“No shit?” she said, after a long pause. “Knowing you ladies as well as I do, I’m going to assume that you’ve verified this isn’t bullshit?” They nodded encouragingly. “Wow. To say that I’m stunned, amazed, and flabbergasted would be the understatement of the year. I thought that shape shifters died out along with the Latin language.”
“Nope. They’re alive and kicking, and they’ve existed throughout the history of mankind. According to Connor anyway,” Lauren said.
“So, were all those hot guys at the wedding that I’ve never s
een before shape shifters?” Kristin asked. Dina nodded. “That’s – that’s really cool,” she said slowly. “It’s going to take me some time to process this though.” She looked at her watch. “And time is something I don’t have right now. I have to go. I’ll call you guys later tonight.” She stood up and blew them each a kiss, put $5 on the table, dropped her phone in her purse and hurtled off.
“That went well,” Lauren said.
“Yeah, she seemed a lot easier to persuade than I’d expected,” Dina agreed.
“So what now?”
“I’d say let’s give her a little time to stare at some scorching-hot shifters, and then encourage her to message a couple of them.”
“Makes sense.” The two women exchanged conspiratorial grins.
2
Kristin clapped her hand over her mouth to suppress a yawn. The Hope Valley town hall meeting was long, and so far there hadn’t been much to report on. Only stuff like planning permission disputes and various petitions, which Kristin only put in the paper when she was really desperate for news. The room was hot and airless, and she fidgeted uncomfortably, wafting her face with a folded-up pamphlet. She hated being cooped up anywhere for long periods of time.
As the lead councilor droned on and on about some tedious, who-gives-a-shit issue, her brain bounced a single thought around: there’s a dating app full of men who sometimes shift into animals! The thought was accompanied by a whole range of emotions – skepticism, shock, curiosity and excitement. She reached for her purse, snuck her phone out of it and tapped the little orange paw print of the Shiftr app. It opened on the profile photo of the last guy she’d seen. He was powerfully built, with bulky muscles and washboard abs. He had messy hair, narrow eyes, and a lazy grin. He had to be a lion. A swipe to the left confirmed it, and she smiled to herself. In the photo, he was lying in the middle of a forest trail, like the king of the jungle. Would it be a good thing to date a lion? Weren’t they supposed to be lazy? Whenever she’d played that game of what animal would you be? she’d always picked a lion, because she knew she projected a tough, intrepid character. But did that mean that she should have a lazy partner, who expected her to make all the effort? Or should she be looking for someone who shared her qualities instead? She scrolled up and down. The wolves looked interesting. Some of them seemed tough and dominant, while others looked softer. Didn’t they have that alpha/beta thing going on? Maybe she’d like an alpha male, as long as he didn’t try to dominate her. But perhaps that’s the whole point of being an alpha wolf – you’re always superior to your partner? She paused on one guy. He had golden-brown hair in a stylish cut, and a broad, angular face, with defined cheekbones and a very square jaw. She adored men with chiseled features. She zoomed in on his face. His eyes were a very unusual shade of green, almost like grass – and they sparkled beguilingly.
“Wow,” she said aloud.
“I know, it’s awful, isn’t it?” the guy next to her muttered. “Can’t believe they’re cutting the budget again!”
“Yeah; it’s terrible,” she replied, sucking in her lips to stop herself from giggling. She tuned the guy out and returned to the phone screen. So what kind of shape shifter is he? Lion? Tiger? She swiped to the left, and a huge, beautiful, orange and black tiger was revealed, surrounded by dense green foliage. The animal’s cool green eyes were the exact same shade as the man’s, with the same glowing intensity. At this discovery, a shiver ran through her body. She shook herself. What? Why am I suddenly finding it so hot that he’s half tiger? She swiped right and stared at the guy’s torso. He had the body of a sprinter, with huge, sinewy muscles: her absolute favourite kind of athlete. His skin was olive-toned, with those small, flat brown nipples that she loved on men. She swiped from tiger-to-man, man-to-tiger a couple more times. Her clit was actually tingling. There was just something about the thought of him being so powerful and wild that did something crazy to her.
She scrolled through his profile. He was 6’2”, which meant that he’d still be taller than her when she was in heels. He enjoyed traveling, rock music gigs, dirt-bike racing, reading, painting and visiting art galleries. He loved hanging out with his friends, but valued his independence too. He was looking to meet a curvy, feisty woman who was his equal in all respects. He’s not only smoking hot, but his personality sounds perfect too. She tried not to let her mouth hang open. Ok, how do you let someone know that you like them? She scrolled down to the ‘send this member a message’ icon. Her thumb hovered over it.
And she let her phone drop into her lap. Who the hell was she kidding? This guy was absolutely stunning. Ridiculously good-looking. She needed to be more realistic. She picked the phone up again and swiped to her profile. Dina and Lauren were utter sweethearts. They’d listed her hobbies as writing, basketball, traveling, hiking, and hanging out with her best friends. In the ‘seeking’ section, they’d said she was looking for a man who was as fearless as she was, who loved travel, adventures and cozy Sunday lie-ins. They knew her so well. The face shots they’d picked out were nice too. Kristin was pretty much ok with her face. She’d always been told she was pretty as a kid, and she’d dated a lot in high school. It was her body that she could never come to terms with.
When she was 22 and just finishing college, she’d broken out in acne for the first time in her life, her periods became really irregular, and she put on 35 pounds for no reason at all. She’d completely freaked, and been to see several specialists. And they’d all told her the same thing: her ovaries were growing cysts, which were making her hormones unbalanced. There was nothing they could do about it; all they could do was treat the symptoms. She’d recovered from the acne by going through a controversial treatment program, and it was pretty nice only having four or five periods every year. But the weight wouldn’t shift. She was an athlete, and she knew how to push her body to its limit, but six punishing sessions a week weren’t enough for her to regain her previous figure. She was stuck being 40 pounds overweight. And if she missed a couple of sessions, another five pounds crept on, as if by magic.
She’d wasted most of her twenties not dating, hiding from people she’d known at school. When she ran into guys she’d dated when she was the school basketball star, she felt ashamed, convincing herself that she saw surprise and disappointment in their eyes. By the time she was 29, she was borderline anorexic, living on 800 calories per day, which was what it took to keep her weight at a level she was happy with. One day, she was so weak from hunger and over-exercise that she collapsed in the shopping mall. When she regained consciousness, lying on a hard marble floor with a splitting headache and a crowd of people standing around her, she’d promised herself that it stopped right there. She’d started eating sensibly, with normal portions, and continued working out hard. Her weight had stabilized, and her figure was shapely and well defined. She still didn’t feel like herself, but people said she was sexy. She had boyfriends on and off into her thirties, but she could never let her guard down. Regardless of what they said to her, she thought they’d leave her for the skinnier girl. She was always defensive, always trying to stay one step ahead of them. She mostly dated bad boys, so it wasn’t a surprise when they dumped her, while the nice guys would eventually tire of the endless conflict, and move onto someone else.
Kristin stared at the full-body shot gloomily. If it was someone else’s photo, she might have said that she was looking at a statuesque, voluptuous woman, but she couldn’t help zeroing in on the things she hated about her body – like her wide hips and oversized boobs. Still, Dina and Lauren had said it was a dating site for curvy girls. She looked at the tiger’s profile again. Under the family section, he’d selected the option “no kids yet, but planning on having a big family some day.” And that was the other issue right there: she had no idea whether she’d be able to provide a partner with children. And that made her feel like she was on the dating scrapheap.
Kristin jumped at the sound of chairs scraping across the floor. Damnit! She’d missed the last 2
0 minutes of the meeting at least, and now she had nothing to write about. Tomorrow afternoon’s paper was going to involve some heavy creative license. Oh well, that was nothing new. The truth was that there wasn’t too much to write about in their local town. There had never been a murder or a kidnapping. Violent crime was almost unheard of. Regardless, she loved working for the Hope Valley Echo. It was all about community. When she’d graduated from college, she’d gotten offers from several high profile papers, but she’d never wanted to live anywhere but her hometown, and write about the daily happenings of the people she cared about.
She dropped her phone, her notepad and her pen in her bag, and got to her feet. She needed to head back to the newspaper office and complete half a dozen articles for tomorrow’s paper, as well as covering for the subeditor who was off sick. It was going to be a long evening. And the last thing she needed was to be distracted by sexy tiger-men that she couldn’t have. She took her phone out of her bag and moved the app to trash. She didn’t even have the log-in details, so there was no way she could access it, even if her resolve weakened.
Late into the evening, when the sky had already been pitch black for several hours, Kristin’s eyes slid to the bottom right of her computer screen. 10:15pm. Her eyes were stinging, and the fluorescent light overhead buzzed dismally. There was an empty container of chicken salad, a half-eaten packet of dry-roasted peanuts and two diet coke cans on the desk next to her. Rubbing her eyes, she looked around the office. She was the only person there. All her news stories were written and everyone else’s were subbed. She sent all the final versions to the editor in chief, and she leaned back in her chair and stretched. Work is over for the day! she told herself, and she was immediately filled with elation, and thoughts about what she was going to do with the rest of the evening. She’d been thinking about Shiftr on and off while she’d been working. The tiger wasn’t the one for her, clearly. But Lauren and Dina had both found gorgeous men for themselves, so she wasn’t ready to ditch the app altogether. Maybe there were shifters on there who weren’t so keen to have kids. She was itching to go and see the girls and find out more about these shape-shifting men. But was it too late? She tapped out a message to Dina, since she tended to be a night owl when she didn’t have to get up for school the next day.
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