Shifters and Spice: A Shifter Romance Box Set

by Desiree Holt

  “That’s a no.” She thrust the condoms into my hand. “Here. Take these.”

  “I don’t … fine, but they are all coming home,” I conceded and inwardly cringed as I once again held something back from my friend.

  “It’s not like I’m going to count them, so feel free to use them all.” She was so lying—she would totally count them—but that was fine. I’d lived vicariously through her for years and turn around was fair play. I made a note to myself to throw one away if I did get lucky tonight so as not to feel the wrath of her “wrap it or slap it” talk. She gave me that stupid talk every day the first week I worked at the bar. You know, just in case.

  “Not gonna happen.” I slipped them into the back pocket of my purse, where they were going to stay.

  “You never know. Ms. Maggie is supposed to be made of magic.” She was closer to right than she knew.

  “Then you sign up.” I slipped into my heels, and by heels, I meant barely elevated flats. The last thing I needed was to fall flat on my face when I first met my potential mate.

  Mate. I let the word roll around in my head. It felt good to even pretend it could happen. I had assumed I would always be mateless due to my latency, but I never once looked outside of pack. If Maggie was half as good as her reputation, then maybe she was right. Maybe I could find my perfect mate in another type of shifter.

  I had let that tiny seed of hope grow since her first comment about my latency. I tried to bring it up a few times, but she had always switched the subject quickly, but never with the I-feel-so-sorry-your-life-sucks face I imagined she would sport if it were bad news. She believed I had a mate, and I so badly wanted to believe it also.

  “If the dentist doesn’t work out, I promise I will sign up the very next day.”

  “I’m holding you to it, although I’m secretly cheering on the dentist.” I wanted her to meet a nice guy, fall madly in love, and have lots and lots of babies. Yes, I was projecting my hopes and dreams onto her. She never admitted to wanting a family. Probably because she had such a craptastic one. The falling madly in love though, that I knew she wanted. And who knew? Maybe the dentist would be just the guy to sweep her off her feet.

  “Because nerd?”

  I belted out a laugh. She always called me her little nerd, and all right, maybe I was a little bit.

  “No. Because nice. You deserve nice.”

  “As do you. Now hurry up.”

  I must have given her a quizzical look, thinking I was pretty well ready, when she tossed me a lip gloss.

  “You need to be there in a half an hour and traffic is evil. Want me to drive you so you can have some wine?”

  “Then if I want to get out of there, I have to wait for you to come.” My voice was mumbled as I applied my lip gloss. My red lips were shiny and smelled like raspberries. I wasn’t sure if that was a plus or not. I hadn’t worn scented lip balm since high school. That was when it hit me. This was my first real, honest to goodness, adult date. I had no idea what to do or what was expected. Maybe bringing a friend was a good idea.

  “Or if you drive yourself and you decide to leave together, you need to worry about your car.”

  I smacked her shoulder playfully and pulled a shrug from my drawer in case the restaurant was chilly.“You have a one track mind.”

  “I really do.” She nodded. “So which door do you choose?”

  “I will go with door A: Camille.” I gestured to an imaginary door. “Seriously though, I say you drive me and stick around at the restaurant in case he is a creeper. I can give you a signal and you can text the daylights out of me with an excuse as to why I have to leave.”

  “Good thing I’m wearing my purple dress.”

  “You totally just played me.”

  “Played you? No. Looked out for you because I love you? Guilty as charged.”

  I reached out and pulled her into a hug. Even when I was pack, no one had looked after me the way she did. They looked after me out of responsibility because I was the alpha’s daughter. But never because they loved me and wanted to take care of me.

  “I love you too. Now let’s go before you make me cry.” It was too late, the tears had already started to flow. At least they were the good kind of tears: happy ones.

  When Your Date Already has a Mate

  The restaurant was a lot smaller than I had expected. It was a new steak house, and from the smell of it, an amazingly awesome one. Camille went in first to stake out a table. After waiting the agreed four minutes, I stepped inside and was greeted by a very prompt and overly cheery host.

  “Welcome to Leon’s. Party of one?”

  “No, actually I am meeting someone. Reservations under the name Sampson.”

  “The rest of your party is already seated. Right this way, ma’am.”

  As we turned the corner into the small dining room, my eyes found Camille. She was smiling bright, seated across from a handsome man with an equally bright smile. From the looks of him, he wasn’t a bad boy from the past.

  As we walked closer, the overly cheery host became less cheery. “I apologize, ma’am. It looks like we had the wrong number on the reservation.”

  He stopped short in front of the table where Camille was, not that she noticed. She was so into the man in front of her and that was when I sensed him. She was sitting with a lion, and from the confusion on the host’s face, that lion was Chris … my date.

  “Hey, Camille.”

  “Hey, Ruby. You will never believe who I ran into.” Her excitement was overflowing, and I could see quickly that she had yet to put the pieces together.

  “You must be Chris, the dentist.” I held out my hand in greeting, and he stood and shook it like a true gentleman. If I wasn’t so mad that he had a date with both of us on separate days, he probably would have made an amazing first impression. I shooed away the host, who appeared more than happy to get out of the awkward situation and attend to the line of people that had just walked in.

  “How did you know?”

  “Your smile.” Camille blushed. In all the years I had known her, it was a first. I leaned in close to Camille and whispered, knowing very well Chris could hear me, “Can you do me a favor and ask the host if the Johnston party has called in yet? I feel kind of like a loser asking again.” She nodded and quickly excused herself as I sat in one of the two empty chairs at the table.

  “Please tell me you aren’t playing my friend.” I met his eyes and held his look. He needed to know I would not submit. Being the daughter of an alpha, I hedged my bet that I would be able to hold my own and crossed my fingers he was lower on the totem pole in his clan.

  “I would never. I think, well I’m pretty sure she is my true mate.” The honesty in his voice was matched with that in his eyes. It didn’t make all things better, but it sure came close. True mates were rare, and if she was his, they were meant to be.

  “Then why did you agree to meet me tonight?” He fidgeted with his fork as I spoke, but held my eyes. He was not an alpha, but he was no submissive either.

  “Weeks ago I agreed to come here tonight to meet my true mate. Ms. Maggie was adamant it needed to be in three weeks, so I agreed. She is known for weird tactics when it came to people like us.”

  Three weeks. That just didn’t make sense. I hadn’t even applied yet. My stomach fell. Maybe I was just a last minute replacement for a set up gone bad. So much for meeting my perfect match. At least my friend met hers.

  “But you met Camille since then.” This was honestly the crux of my problem with this situation. Being stood up for a true mate was by far the best reason to be stood up, even if unintentionally. Knowing you had a true mate and dating someone else was … sketchy at best.

  “I did, and I knew right away she was meant to be mine, even with her horrible little dog.” A small part of me wondered how long it would be before the two of them fought over the antics of Snookie Pie. Goodness, that dog was probably the reason we hadn’t become roommates over the years. The thing was a me
nace.

  “He’s wretched,” I conceded. “But that still doesn’t answer my question.”

  He took a long drink of water before answering. I glanced back and was thankful that Camille was nowhere in sight. “I still came because I promised Maggie, and I knew it would still lead me to Camille.”

  “So she used me.” If he was right and Maggie promised him his true mate, that meant the nice woman I talked to that afternoon wasn’t actually that nice. My heart hurt. I really liked her and her niece. I was usually closer to right about people. At least when it came to non-dating type people, anyway.

  “Ms. Maggie never uses anyone.” He once again held my eyes, probably so I could see the sincerity in his. “She had a reason for you to be here tonight. Would you like to join us for dinner?”

  I hoped he was right that she had a purpose for me being here. Once I checked my ego at the door, I was pretty sure if the only reason was to help Camille, it would’ve been good enough. At that moment, however, it wasn’t good enough. I wanted more. I had let my hope grow too much over the afternoon, and now I wanted a mate. It was foolish of me to think that my first time out would equal always and forever. I knew it in my brain, my heart had other ideas.

  “No thanks on dinner. I’ll go out there and make my excuses.” I stood and pushed in my chair. I lowered my voice so only he could hear, one of the many benefits of being a shifter was excellent hearing. “To be honest, I truly hope you are her mate, then you can tell her all our secrets and I can quit hiding from her.”

  “Wolves,” was his only reply.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means that you are so hung up on your old ways that you forget that times have changed. If you were part of my clan, she would have already known. I know very little about Camille, something I hope to remedy quickly, but what I do know is that her bond with you is as close as sisters.”

  It was official. I liked Chris, a lot. He was going to be a good mate to Camille, if she allowed herself to let him in.

  “She’s my pack.”

  “Because of the wolf hidden in you?” My jaw dropped. Could everyone non-wolf tell I was broken? Heck, by my age wolves could probably tell too. “Is that … never mind. It’s not my business.”

  I immediately felt bad. By this point in our conversation, I believed firmly that he was a nice guy. Fate never made mistakes, and if he was fated for Camille, he had to be a nice guy. She deserved nothing but.

  “I’ll go back and make an excuse for my date. Can you drive her home if I take her car?” He nodded. “It sounds like you were never meant to be mine, anyways.” I winked and used my best singsong voice so he would know there were no hard feelings and I was genuinely happy for them.

  “No, I don’t think Maggie ever thought I was.”

  I focused on his words. Did Maggie know we weren’t? She had to if she was any good. Maybe she was lucky more than skilled. It didn’t matter because I was leaving this date knowing that in the very near future I could be one hundred percent myself with Camille, and that made all of this worth it, even the weird lip gloss.

  “Be good to her and woo the crap out of her. She deserves it.”

  “I plan to.”

  I turned to leave and was called back.

  “And Ruby, if she weren’t my mate, I would have been more than overjoyed that you were my date for the evening.”

  Oh yes, he was a keeper.

  Onion Rings Cancel Out Onion Rings

  It was remarkably easy to convince Camille to stay and dine with my date, not that she knew he was my date. I simply told her I got the name of the restaurant wrong, and since she had just gotten to the host station when I arrived, it was easy to verify my made up date had no reservation at Leon’s. I borrowed her car knowing she was safe with Chris and promised to call if my guy was a creeper, an easy promise since there was no guy. We would have to confess all things once she learned about true mates, shifters, and her beau being a lion some of the time. Until then, the lies of the evening seemed less horrible than the ones I gave by omission on a daily basis.

  Traffic had died down by the time I got to her car—a car I detested. It was huge and loud. My little guy was easy to steer through the city streets and pretty darn friendly when it came to parallel parking. Hers was a monster, and if I couldn’t immediately get an end parking spot, I planned to keep looking until I found one.

  My stomach growled before I was even halfway down the road. I ran mentally through my refrigerator and pantry stock. I had planned to go shopping in the morning, so the choices were slim. A few frozen dinners, some insta-noodles, and instant mashed potatoes. If I got really creative I could doctor any of that up with some cheese I had sitting in the fridge for far too long—if it wasn’t completely hairy, that was. None of it sounded good . Take-out it was.

  The steak had smelled so amazing that my typical haunts just didn’t cut it. Pizza, Thai, Chinese, none of them would hit the craving I now had for red meat. I pondered trying the new cheesesteak place in my neighborhood. It wasn’t what I was craving, but it was probably close enough to make do.

  I turned left, seeing the pothole moments too late. One crashing sound of the car bottoming out and one short wobbly ride later found me pulling into one of those quick serve oil change places. At least I was lucky enough to be less than half a block from them when the tire blew.

  A quick chat with the guys running the place told me what I had feared to be true. The car needed a rim, a new tire, and an alignment. If I were lucky that would be it. The kicker—it would take them an hour because they needed to get the tire from one of their other locations in town, but I wasn’t going to complain. At least they were willing to go get said tire. They could have easily told me it would be until the morning before they could get to it.

  After letting them run my credit card for far more money than I had hoped I would need to spend and directing me to a small restaurant only a block away, I walked into the little diner. It was adorable and looked as if someone forgot to tell it that it wasn’t the nineteen-fifties anymore. The smell of burgers made my stomach dance happily. It might not have been the steak I had planned on when I set out for my date, but it was going to hit the spot to be sure. My wolf pushed at me hard, a feeling I was far from used to. The burgers seemed to call to her as strongly as they called to my empty belly.

  I looked around for a table and was disappointed to see that it was more crowded than I originally noticed. The only spot left was at the counter, a very uncomfortable place for someone of my height and stature to dine at. But beggars can’t be choosers. I had an hour to kill and a belly to feed, so I put on my big girl panties and fake smile and headed toward the vacant place.

  Just as I reached the spot, a hand slapped down on the placemat and I was met with a gruff voice, “Spot’s taken.” They didn’t even have the decency to look up and tell me.

  “Rude much?” I mumbled under my breath as I made my way to the register. It wasn’t ideal, but I could get a take-away burger and eat it in the garage. Usually those places had at least a seat or two for customers to use. Greasy, smelly seats with a very bad television channel blaring in the background, but seats nonetheless.

  My wolf was on edge. It was odd how she had let herself be known today. Twice. It wasn’t generally like her. She liked to stay good and hidden, but ever since we walked in the diner, she was pushing at me. It was a cross between nervous and something I couldn’t quite place. Excitement came close, but that too was off. I would call my mom in the morning and ask her about it. It had been far too long since we talked and this was as good of an excuse as any.

  “Excuse me.”

  I turned and met eyes the color of an emerald and with just as much sparkle, and I was immediately hit with lust. Hard core, take-me-now lust. My wolf perked up and readily agreed. Two words and a set of eyes had hit me harder than any man I had ever dated in the past. Not that I was dating him, but if I was …

  Connected to
said eyes was a face that probably had photographers begging him to model. His dimples deepened as his smile grew. His day old scruff begged to be petted. I also sensed an animal, but couldn’t quite place which. This glorious man before me was a shifter.

  “I was noticing,” he continued, his tone giving me no doubt that he knew the impact he had on me, “that you were looking for a seat, and I just sat down over there.” He gestured to a booth with a lone glass of water sitting on it. “I would be honored if you would join me.”

  “I … I …”

  He grabbed my hand as I stuttered and led me to the table. “I will take that as a yes,” he teased along the way. My hand felt perfect in his, and I just stared at our joined hands as I walked, grateful I hadn’t bumped into anything or anyone.

  “Here.” He stopped beside the booth and dropped my hand. I instantly felt the loss. Crap on a cracker. This man was … I skootched into my seat, unwilling to admit the obvious even with my wolf now practically jumping, something that had never before happened.

  He sat in front of me as the waitress plopped a second glass of water and a menu in front of me without saying a word and walked away.

  “I’m James.” He took my hand from the table, my wolf finally settling, but not. She was still there at the forefront, but no longer wreaking havoc on my insides.

  “I’m Ruby.”

  “Ruby. A beautiful name for a beautiful woman. Tell me, fair Ruby, were you born in July?”

  July’s birthstone was the ruby. “No, November, but my mother always loved them and they were considered a sign of royalty where I come from.”

  He listened intently, as if what I was saying was of the utmost importance, which was odd considering the over the top, poet-esque, dressed up words he had just thrown at me.

  “So you are of the alpha family?” He let his voice drop so only we could hear.

  My mouth opened and words fell out. “Yes, but you should know from the start, that mating me is a bad idea.” I had met him, well kind of met him, less than a minute earlier, and there I was talking about mating.