The Happily Ever After Mating Agency Presents: Snövarg Island
Being sent to a mating agency by his parents is humiliating enough for bunny shifter Tyler Thompson. The fact that he has the rare ability to carry offspring just makes him all the more apprehensive. Growing up in a warren where everyone was told how to live and how to behave, Tyler dreamt of escaping. Realizing just how in demand someone like him is, and that the choice of mate is solely his, Tyler decides to go as far away as he can. A remote island in the Baltic Ocean sounds like a good choice, and the love story between the two wolves there touches Tyler's heart.
Together since they were sixteen, alpha Eric Snövarg and lover Finn Michaels know that the only way they can be mated, and stay with their pack, is by bringing in a third capable of giving Eric heirs. Though uncertain of their decision, bringing the bunny into their family seems like the only way.
Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 46,907 words
THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER MATING AGENCY PRESENTS: SNÖVARG ISLAND
Jane Wallace-Knight
MENAGE AMOUR
MANLOVE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour ManLove
THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER MATING AGENCY PRESENTS: SNÖVARG ISLAND
Copyright © 2014 by Jane Wallace-Knight
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-851-5
First E-book Publication: June 2014
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
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
Epilogue
About the Author
THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER MATING AGENCY PRESENTS:
SNÖVARG ISLAND
JANE WALLACE-KNIGHT
Copyright © 2014
Chapter One
“This is total bullshit,” Tyler Thompson said as he slumped down on the cold, hard plastic waiting room chair that had seen better days. “You’re acting like I killed someone. It was just a stupid prank.”
Beside him, Tyler’s mom looked at him with some sympathy while his dad simply glared at him from across the room. The large man had squeezed himself into one of the chairs lining the other side of the narrow waiting room. The walls were painted a harsh canary yellow, no doubt in an attempt to promote a happy atmosphere, and there were framed posters with inspirational slogans all along them. There was a large window behind the reception desk that flooded the small room with early morning light. It was a relatively small office, one of many inside the large building. As far as Tyler could see it only had the waiting room and two offices. Tyler wondered if the humans in the other offices had any idea what went on in here on floor seventeen.
“It was more than just a prank,” Tyler’s dad finally said after seething in silence for several minutes. His large, graying moustache twitched as he looked at his youngest son. “And it wasn’t the first time you’ve gotten into trouble. How do you think it looks, Tyler, when the nephew of the chief keeps bringing shame on the warren?”
Tyler looked down at the depressing gray-carpeted floor, suddenly unable to meet his father’s eyes. He had long known he was a disappointment to the man. Hearing it once again shouldn’t have such an effect on him, but it always managed to hurt him nonetheless. As the youngest in the family, Tyler had often been overlooked. Bunny shifters had big families, something that most of them loved, but Tyler had felt the need to escape ever since he was a small kid. He had actually tried running away once when he was ten. He wandered around for several hours but then got scared when some older human boys tried to talk to him. When he went back home no one had even noticed he was missing.
“I think that’s a little harsh, dear,” Tyler’s mother said, her voice timid as ever. Both of Tyler’s parents were on the larger side, but his mom was plump and cuddly with it, while his father was simply fat. Tyler, being the runt of the family, was a little on the scrawny side, though he had built up some muscle over the last year. He had taken up running as a way to be alone for a while, to escape his dad mostly. He had seven siblings and all of them, as was typical with bunny shifters, were multiple births, all except Tyler. They all grew up in pairs or trios, being friends as well as siblings. Tyler had been born five years after the last litter and he had been all alone.
Their warren was quite a large one. Unlike their animal counterparts,
they obviously didn’t live underground. The seven hundred or so of them occupied a small town in Oregon where nothing interesting ever happened and no one new ever came into the fold.
That was partly why Tyler was at the Happily Ever After Mating Agency. According to the chief, who was also unfortunately his uncle, he had already scared off any potential match that his family had tried to make for him. It wasn’t Tyler’s fault that none of them had a sense of humor.
There was a certain pecking order amongst bunny shifters. Tyler’s four older brothers, and three older sisters were all happily mated to people they had grown up with, wanting nothing more than the lives they were told to want. As part of the chief’s family, they were considered somewhat desirable matches. The eldest, and closest to ever seeing the title of chief, was the most desirable, while the likes of Tyler were somewhat further down the scale. Still, as the desired mating age of eighteen had already come and gone, and Tyler was now twenty-two and still unmated, his parents had gotten a little desperate.
They had practically ambushed him with possible suitors until he felt he had no choice but to start messing with them, simply to stop himself from going out of his mind with boredom. It had started simply enough. His pranks had been perfectly innocent and childlike really. Switching the sugar out with salt, putting talcum powder in the A.C unit and making sure one of the guys was standing under it when the fan came on, and putting cling film over the door so that when the suitor of the month tried to come inside he ended up getting wrapped up in it. Thinking of that last one still made Tyler smile. It wasn’t his fault that all the people his parents wanted to bind him to couldn’t see the funny side.
“You went too far this time, Tyler,” his father told him sternly. “The chief was livid.”
“You’re the one who tried to pawn me off on Charles Bayswater of all people,” Tyler argued. “And it really was an accident.”
The last resort for his family had been at the chief’s youngest daughter’s mating celebration a few weeks ago when his parents had set him up with the boy who had picked on him all throughout high school. Charles had stuck with Tyler all night, as he was supposed to, making sure Tyler knew how much land his family were willing to give Charles’s family just to take Tyler off their hands. He insisted that it was the only reason they were even considering the match. He had made no qualms about the fact that he was straight and that he would only fuck Tyler in order to breed him every few years.
In his defense, when Tyler had tripped Charles up while they were dancing, intending to knock him off his high horse a bit, he hadn’t realized that the trajectory of his fall would land him headfirst into the bride’s wedding cake.
“Your poor cousin was crying for hours over that cake,” his father said. Tyler wasn’t sure who had looked more like they wanted to murder him, the chief or Charles.
Still, though, being sent to a matchmaker at a mating agency was way too big a punishment as far as he was concerned. The chief had made the appointment and helped his parents fill out the endless mountain of paperwork, letting them all know that there was no getting out of it. Tyler knew that they couldn’t actually force him to get mated. It wasn’t allowed, not anymore. Still, Tyler thought that if he didn’t go along with it that his parents would probably threaten to kick him out. There was no one in the warren that would take him in either. He was completely alone. He knew that his mom would argue for him a bit and beg his father to give him another chance, but Tyler had already had plenty of chances. Each time they set him up with someone new, Tyler genuinely told himself that he was going to make an effort this time to at least get along with them, if only for his mother’s sake. He really did try, but each one seemed more boring than before, and more self-righteous. As bunny shifters, they worked hard, they longed to be mated and raise a houseful of bunnies, and they liked sticking with their own kind.
Tyler didn’t mind the idea of having children, but for him it would be a little different than with most men as he would be the one carrying and delivering the kids. He was one of the rare male bunny shifters capable of getting pregnant. An infertile bunny was a useless bunny and so upon learning of his preference for men, Tyler’s parents had gotten him tested for the gene. He guessed he was glad that he was a carrier, otherwise his parents would probably have tried to force him to mate with a female.
Hell, he thought as his eyes glanced over the row of posters on the wall. Maybe being mated would mean I’d at least get to see more of the world. Maybe I could mate with a bunny from Peru.
The poster his eyes landed on said, “You only live once, and if you do it right then once is all you need.”
Tyler frowned at it.
“Tyler Thompson,” the pretty lady behind the reception desk called out to him. “You can go in now. Mister Ashby is ready for you.”
As he got up out of his chair and followed his parents into the back room, he wanted desperately to start humming the death march.
The office of David Ashby, matchmaker and fox shifter, wasn’t a particularly big or well-decorated one. Tyler wondered how long the man had been a licensed matchmaker and why he had decided to start up his own business rather than join one of the larger ones already established in the Portland area. Tyler knew that his uncle had most likely chosen The Happily Ever After Mating Agency because their service was cheaper than others. He guessed it didn’t really matter as all those who registered with a mating agency were uploaded to an online database which they all had access to. It was intended to give shifters their best chance at finding the right match. He hoped that the picture they took of him last week at least looked good. At five-seven, he could never be mistaken for an underwear model, but he had a nice face. He had brown hair that stuck up without him ever meaning for it to and large amber eyes that were framed with thick lashes. His mouth was fairly full and he had high cheekbones. Unfortunately, he couldn’t tan no matter how hard he tried. Instead his perpetually pale skin just got covered in tiny freckles.
“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, Tyler,” the thirty-something fox shifter greeted them as they entered his office. He stood from his desk and held out his hand to each of them before offering them all a seat. Tyler sat uncomfortably in a chair between his parents. It was like being sent to the principal’s office again, something that had been a regular occurrence for Tyler in his school days.
Tyler knew that whoever took him would only want him for his rare ability. He certainly had mixed feelings about the idea of carrying children, but in his parents’ eyes it at least made him somewhat of a good commodity. More than anything, Tyler just wanted to get out of the warren. He just wanted adventure and fun. He wanted to feel free. The drive into Portland that morning hadn’t been nearly long enough. He wasn’t ready for this, for what was about to come.
“Now then, you’ve selected rabbit shifters only I see,” the man said with a frown. “You know, I understand that it’s your personal choice, but things have come a long way over the last forty years in interspecies matings. We here at The Happily Ever After Mating Agency find that you get a much better match if you open up the parameters. There are also plenty of candidates looking for a male partner capable of giving them children. We match people based on their likes, dislikes, their dreams for the future, their family values, and a lot more. It’s a very sophisticated program, and a touch of intuition on our part.”
“Whoa, wait, backup,” Tyler said as he leaned forward, resting his arms on the desk and craning his neck around so that he could see the man’s computer screen. “You’re saying that I could mate with any type of shifter I wanted?”
“Tyler,” his father hissed at him through his teeth. “No son of mine will mate outside his species.”
“What? Why not? What do you even care as long as I’m no longer your problem? Is it so important to you that I be miserable? Will me giving in and doing what you want actually change the way you feel about me? I don’t think so. I don’t think anything ever could. You wish you’d neve
r had me.”
“Yes,” his dad admitted harshly. Again, no matter the fact that he had been expecting it, it was still like being punched in the chest. “You go around playing the fool, acting as though it’s all one big joke. You take nothing seriously and you do nothing but embarrass me and your poor mother.”
Tyler looked over at his mom, hoping to hear her disagree with his dad, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at him.
With tears of anger and hurt stinging in his eyes, Tyler nodded his head sadly. “Right. So go back to the warren and tell them all I’m mating with a rabbit in Outer Mongolia, or somewhere, and you’ll never have to see or hear from me again.”
“Tyler,” his mother said to him, her voice sad and pleading. She looked at him imploringly but he had closed his heart down to protect himself. He wouldn’t let himself feel anything.
“Open up the search,” he told the matchmaker. “Wide open. I don’t care where I go, or who I’m going to as long as someone will take me today.”
“Tyler,” his mom said again, standing from her chair and putting her hand on his shoulder. “We can discuss this more when we get home.”
“I’m not going home,” Tyler said sadly, his eyes firmly locked on the floor. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not your problem anymore. Soon I’ll be someone else’s.”
Chapter Two
The crunch of ice underfoot as Eric Snövarg made his way to the dock was a familiar one. It was winter on Snövarg island, a small chunk of land in the Baltic Ocean off the coast of Sweden. The nights had been long and cold this winter, and were starting to bleed into the spring, which was why on some nights his people chose to sleep in their wolf forms, curled up with loved ones. A puppy pile was what his boyfriend, Finn Michaels, called them. It was a puppy pile that Eric had gotten up from in the middle of the night, unable to sleep with so much on his mind. He didn’t know why his feet had taken him to the dock. Perhaps it was because this was where his new mate would arrive in the morning. He still wasn’t sure he had done the right thing in agreeing to it. It had been Finn’s idea in the first place, and they were told that it could take up to a year to find them the right mate. No more than a month had passed since their trip to the mainland where they had gone to a mating agency. They had gotten the call just two days ago that a viable mate had been found for them, one who met their criteria of being both male and capable of bearing him heirs. The only catch was that it had to happen quick. The bunny, it seemed, was eager to get mated. Eric only had two days to get his head around the fact that everything was about to change.
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