by E A Price
Speaking of spoiling him... His eyes hooded as they took in the slinky red nightie she was wearing. It was a far cry from the usual flannel pajamas. Not that he was complaining about them. Lucie could make anything sexy, and he did get a thrill out of peeling them off her. There was just something so wholesome about a female who wore bunny print pajamas. And he did so love to be the big bad wolf who corrupted the sweet, little hedgehog.
He pushed himself up the bed as Lucie plopped the tray onto his lap. She smiled shyly. A look entirely at odds with the sexy nightwear. A little drool almost escaped his mouth as he feasted on the swell of her plump breasts and the way the material barely even grazed the tops of her thighs.
Heat blossomed on her cheeks. “You like?” she asked, clearly happy with his reaction. She twirled, and he caught sight of her ass cheeks peeking out.
He let out a groan, which is all he could manage at that moment. Although he wasn’t exactly in charge of all his faculties at that moment, distant alarm bells did start ringing in his head, and his wolf let out a curious snarl. The nightie, the hopeful smile, the mountainous breakfast… oh crap! Was it her birthday? No, no, she just celebrated her birthday two months ago.
His eyes drifted down to the pancakes shaped like hearts. And over the toast shaped like hearts. And to the fried eggs which were also somehow shaped like hearts. Okay, definite theme going on here.
“Happy Valentine’s Day!” she squealed, jumping up and down.
He took a moment to enjoy that. Her body was poetry in motion. It was one of the reasons why he insisted she come jogging with him. Although, they never got very far. He always got too excited and threw her over his shoulder so he could run home and corrupt her a little more.
However, the next moment was another ‘oh, crap’ moment. He’d forgotten Valentine’s Day. Their first Valentine’s Day as a couple. Honestly, in his heart of hearts, he didn’t think it was a big deal. He’d never celebrated Valentine’s Day before. None of the women he’d ever been with had ever expected him to be romantic or loving, and until Lucie, he’d never managed love. Yeah, it wasn’t a big deal. It was all just a marketing ploy anyway. People who celebrated that kind of thing were idiots. He didn’t need a special day to show his mate how he felt. His feelings were implied – twenty four seven.
He was about to tell her that when the happy smile plastered on her face wilted ever so slightly. His wolf whined.
“You forgot,” she said, with just a hint of disappointment.
“No, I didn’t forget,” he lied, shamelessly.
Lucie scrunched her nose, and he bit his cheek to stop himself from chuckling. She did that when she shifted to her hedgehog, too.
“You’re a terrible liar, James,” she said, with a small smile.
Crud, she rarely used his first name and it generally wasn’t a good sign.
“I didn’t forget… but if I did, which I didn’t,” he added quickly, “how mad would you be?”
Lucie cocked her head on one side and chewed her lip. “I’m not mad at all. It’s fine. Valentine’s is no big deal.”
Cutter uneasily chewed on a pancake. Those were definitely the words he wanted to hear but… they didn’t sound quite right coming out of Lucie’s mouth. This was a woman who dyed her underwear green and baked a hundred cookies in the shape of four-leaf clovers for St. Patrick’s Day. She loved holidays.
“If you’re sure…”
“Quite sure. It’s all so commercial anyway.”
She gave him a thorough kiss, and she certainly didn’t seem to be holding back, before bouncing towards the shower.
“Hey! Where are you going?” he called through a mouthful of toast. “What about the…ah…” He looked her up and down, shuddering at the mere sight of the filmy garment. Surely, she was wearing that for his benefit.
Lucie smirked over her shoulder. “Oh, this is just a preview for tonight.” With that, she gave him a slow blink – because she had trouble winking – and wiggled her ass as she sashayed out of the room.
His wolf practically rubbed his paws together. He couldn’t wait. If she was excitable last night, just wait until… Then he realized. The reason she was excited was for Valentine’s. She was probably wondering what exciting surprise he had for her and… he had nothing.
Well, hell.
*
Cutter squeezed his mate’s hand as they stepped off the elevator. “Are you sure?” He’d asked her five times on the drive over and twice more in the parking garage.
They both worked at the Los Lobos branch of the Supernatural Enforcers Agency. Cutter was an investigator and Lucie was a nurse.
Lucie shifted the box of cookies in her other arm and gave him a patient smile. “Yes, of course. I told you. Valentine’s is no big deal.”
The fact that she had baked enough heart shaped cookies for everyone in the building, and was wearing a tight, white, drool-worthy dress decorated with pink hearts begged to differ.
Cutter wasn’t good at outwardly showing his affection in public. He preferred to keep that kind of thing private. Unless threatening any males who dared to look at his mate counted, which Lucie assured him didn’t. But in deference to how shitty he was feeling, and his obnoxious wolf who was really rubbing it in, he sucked it up and pulled her hand to his lips to press kisses into her palm.
“You know how much you mean to me,” he murmured.
Her eyes dilated, and the black of her animal shimmered in her huge orbs. “Of course, I do. That’s why it’s not important that you forgot.” He opened his mouth to object but she raised an eyebrow, and he hushed. “I love you, and you love me – end of. Now scoot, get your cute butt to work.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He almost believed her that time. Were it not for the lingering disappointment he could sense in their bond, he would have let the matter drop half an hour ago. But Lucie was trying not to be disappointed, and he guessed that was all that mattered.
Lucie beamed and trotted down the corridor, handing out cookies to random people. Yep, he’d won the lotto in the mate department. He was constantly bad tempered, took her for granted more often than he cared to admit, got jealous and angry over absolutely nothing and was generally a pain in her perfectly peachy shaped derriere and yet she adored him.
His reflective simpering was cut short as Mason, a burly gorilla shifter agent, hauled a guy in a diaper to the elevator.
“Get moving,” rumbled Mason, his face stony.
“But I am Cupid, the god of love!” proclaimed diaper guy.
Cutter couldn’t hold back the snort. The guy was middle-aged, balding and packing a serious beer gut. He was also wearing a set of fake wings, holding a golden bow and had a quiver of golden arrows on his back. The look was slightly ruined by the worn-out Nikes he wore. He didn’t smell like a shifter, but perhaps he was some kind of witch or warlock. Their scents weren’t always easy to distinguish.
Mason rolled his eyes. Ah yes, Valentine’s. Some people thought Halloween brought out the crazies. Nope, Valentine’s was a lot worse. All people did on Halloween was try to raise the dead. It was the love spells on Valentine’s that really caused chaos. Was it any wonder he didn’t bother to remember the holiday?
“Who’s this?” asked Cutter in amusement. He kept one eye on Lucie as she smiled and giggled while passing out cookies.
“Howard Boggs,” said Mason, flatly. “Low level warlock.”
“I am Cupid!” repeated Howard.
“You’re no more Cupid than I am Cleopatra,” snapped the patience wearing thin gorilla shifter.
“I only wish to bring love and happiness to those who are lonely.”
Mason ignored him and gave Cutter a look of sufferance. “Picked him up in Westcott’s Department Store. He was slinking around asking women if they were lonely then started threatening to shoot them with arrows.”
“Love arrows,” corrected Howard, or Cupid, or whatever. “They cause absolutely no physical harm. But they do force people to meet their des
tiny.”
“The arrows are harmless – they’re full of dust.”
“Dust?!” squawked Howard, indignantly.
Mason barely paused. “Plus the store doesn’t want to press charges. They don’t want it reported that they had Cupid arrested on Valentine’s Day.” He snorted before glancing down the corridor. “Lucie bring in cookies again?”
“Yeah.”
The gorilla virtually licked his lips. “Good, been thinking about them since she brought in the lemon slices for New Year, and the snickerdoodles for Christmas, and the pumpkin spice bars for Thanksgiving.”
Cutter shook his head. Was it any wonder their grocery bill was astronomical?
“I’ll show you what’s dust!” snapped Howard.
With more speed than anyone would credit him, Howard elbowed Mason, whipped out an arrow and fired it down the corridor.
*
Norma peered down her nose at Lucie’s offering. Norma was a middle-aged warthog shifter and the secretary to Gerry, one of the directors. She was known for being joyless, sour and harder to charm than a block of wood. She’d supposedly been mated once, but it was hard to imagine. Although there was a rumor that one of the agents in the Tau team – a moose shifter nearing retirement – had a crush on her. Isis, an agent, and tiger shifter totally dismissed this ludicrous rumor that anyone could find Norma attractive, but then she didn’t get on with Norma. Isis called Norma the ‘door bitch’, because she guarded Gerry’s door to within an inch of her life. The only people who ever managed to get past her without an appointment were Gerry’s mate, boss and ex-wife. Of course, Norma in turn called Isis ‘that stripy slut’ – so it evened out.
Lucie, on the other hand, was convinced there was a happy person just waiting to explode out of Norma. Unfortunately, it seemed unlikely that her red velvet cookies were going to make that happen.
“I don’t like sweet things,” said Norma, waspishly. “I can’t manage sweet.”
Wayne, an agent and gator shifter, who was impatiently waiting to get his cookie stifled a laugh.
Lucie gave the older woman her sweetest smile, the smile that got a certain uncouth wolf shifter to wash dishes and do laundry. “Just try one.”
She was about to give in when Gerry swept along the corridor, tugging his mate behind him. “Norma, I have a meeting in five minutes, I need those files.”
Gerry was in a sleek suit and shiny shoes and his mate, Jessie was, oh! Wearing the same dress as Lucie. The two women looked at each other horrified for a moment before bursting into laughter and assuring the other it looked better on them. They gushed and tried to argue with one another over that. Norma huffed at them while Wayne tried to sneak a cookie.
They all froze as they heard Cutter growl. Her inner hedgehog mewled as something whipped past Norma and Lucie’s heads, exploding dust over both of them. The two of them sneezed as they inhaled the sickly, sweet substance. Lucie wobbled and Wayne righted her. She looked up into his worried face and then sneezed again. She looked round to see that Norma was also shaky, and Gerry was holding her up.
Cutter knocked Wayne out of the way. “You okay, sweetheart?”
“Hmmm? Yes, I think so.” Her head felt fuzzy, and the link to her beast felt tenuous. She could sense the alarm of her hedgehog, but it almost felt like she was disconnected from it. “What the fudge was that?”
Cutter grinned. He always enjoyed it when she ‘swore’. “That was a fudging lunatic who thinks he’s fudging Cupid. Don’t you fudging worry, I’m going to knock his fudging teeth out.”
He tried to hug her, but Lucie felt almost stifled by the embrace. Carefully, she pushed him away. He frowned at her but didn’t say anything.
She looked down to see Wayne retrieving the cookies she’d dropped. “Are you okay, Wayne? You didn’t get hurt, did you?” The thought that he might have been injured made her heart clench.
Wayne’s brow knitted. “Nah, I’m fine.”
“Good,” she murmured, rubbing her forehead.
Gerry steered Norma to the elevator. “We should get the doctor to take a look at them, just in case.”
Cutter sneered – he wasn’t a fan of the handsome lion shifter doctor, but he didn’t object. “Come on,” he said, putting an arm around Lucie.
As they walked past a man in a diaper, currently caught in a headlock by Mason, Lucie turned back and waved at Wayne. “Bye, Wayne, see you later.”
Wayne gave her an uncertain wave in return, and Lucie allowed herself to be escorted into the elevator.
*
Cutter paced the director’s office. “We should arrest that Cupid lunatic for attacking SEA employees.”
“Agreed,” said Gerry, mildly.
He watched as Jessie, his little squirrel shifter mate tapped at his keyboard. It was strange, but there was something sexy about seeing her sitting at his desk. His inner python concurred. Course, seeing her over it might be just as fun.
“He ought to be banned from doing magic again,” continued the wolf shifter.
“Agreed.”
Cutter stopped abruptly and looked at the python shifter. “You agree with me?” His eyes almost bugged out of his head in surprise.
Gerry shrugged. “Of course, we can’t have people waltzing into the building and throwing magical substances all over our employees. We should charge him.” He turned to his mate. “Do we know what the substance was?”
Jessie skimmed the report. “According to the techs, just sand and glitter. They detect magic, but they can’t identify the spell used using machines. I’ve asked Naomi to take a look. She and a couple of other witches have already cast a spell to bind Cupid’s… Howard’s magic. So any spell he put on the sand won’t work now. She said she would be really surprised if the sand had any effect anyway. Apparently, Howard’s magic was really weak.”
There was a knock on the door and Norma entered. She looked… odd. At first Gerry couldn’t work out what it was. Certainly she was dressed the same as usual in a brown suit, green shirt buttoned right up to the collar and with rigid hair that wouldn’t even be affected by a hurricane. But, there was something off. His python slithered uneasily, sensing something was wrong.
She was smiling.
He almost slapped his head. He’d never seen her smile in that way. Of course, she had smiled before, but she’d never looked quite so… dazed.
“Norma, are you okay?” asked Jessie.
“I'm okay,” she said softly, looking directly at Gerry.
“Are you sure you don’t want to take the rest of the day off?” said Gerry.
“Oh no, Gerry, I couldn’t let you down. I’ll be at my desk.”
She left, and if Gerry didn’t know better, he’d swear she was acting coquettishly. But no, that wasn’t possible. Coquettish wasn’t a word in her vocabulary. Antagonistic – now there was a word she knew. But there was something not quite right about her, and it certainly worried his snake.
“I’m going to check on Lucie,” muttered the wolf shifter as he stomped out of the room.
Gerry nodded and then shook himself. He was probably concerned over nothing.
*
Wayne pushed his way into the medical bay. “Lucie, you in here?”
He frowned and his inner gator grumbled. On the phone she’d made it sound like it was life or death that he come see her immediately. He assumed it was something to do with the substance she inhaled. Perhaps she was still worried that he had inhaled some, too. She was sweet to care, but he was fine. He liked Lucie a lot, but he wasn’t envious of Cutter. Taking on a mate who was as bubbly and enthusiastic as her was hard work. Not that he envied Lucie either. He imagined putting up with Cutter’s dark moods was hard work. When he – Wayne - mated, it would be to someone more like himself – laidback and easygoing.
“In here,” she called.
He shrugged and made his way into the massage room. It was where Helga, the other agency nurse, massaged – or rather, pummelled – stressed out shifter
s. Well, if they weren’t stressed out before she got her hands on them, they certainly were after.
His alligator snapped his jaws in alarm. “Holy shit!” he exclaimed as he found Lucie sprawled over one of the massage tables in nothing but a set of white underwear.
“Wayne! What took you so long, lover?” Her eyes sparkled.
“Ah… what?” He was frozen between running away which seemed like the cowardly option, and just laughing this off as a joke. Although, it wasn’t very funny. Pretending to seduce her mate’s friend hardly seemed like the kind of stunt Lucie would usually pull.
Lucie scooted up the table, so she was kneeling on in. “I’ve been thinking about you all day.” Her hands ghosted over her curves.
Wayne cleared his throat and tried to focus on everything north of her neck. Even if she wasn’t mated, he wouldn’t be interested in Lucie, but that didn’t mean the sight of her enormous, creamy breasts spilling out of a barely there bra wasn’t doing things to him. Bad, sinful things.
“Lucie, I don’t know what you’re doing, but…”
“I want you!” she declared and then launched herself at him.
Wayne let out a yelp of alarm and staggered back with Lucie attached to his chest. He held his hands up high in the air, fearful of touching her… well, touching her anywhere. He could grab her shoulders - that would be pretty innocuous. But somehow, given that she wasn’t wearing any clothes, it still seemed wrong. Unfortunately, Lucie clutched at him harder than a limpet and despite his struggles, she managed to plant a flurry of kisses on his cheek.
His boot caught on something, and he crashed to the ground with the hedgehog shifter on top of him. Naturally, that was the moment when it had to get much, much worse.
“What the fuck are you doing?” roared Cutter. Without waiting for an answer, he stormed towards them. “I’m going to fucking murder you, gator!”
*
“I made you some tea, Gerry,” murmured Norma as she placed a cup at his elbow.
He nodded his thanks. But when Norma made no move to leave he glanced up at her and saw the drunken smile still on her face.