Matched To His Panther
Page 1
Matched To His Panther
The Dates of Our Lives #3
Lorelei M. Hart
Colbie Dunbar
Surrendered Press
Contents
Prologue
1. Corey
2. Bryce
3. Corey
4. Bryce
5. Corey
6. Bryce
7. Corey
8. Bryce
9. Corey
10. Bryce
11. Corey
12. Bryce
13. Corey
14. Bryce
15. Corey
16. Bryce
17. Corey
18. Bryce
19. Corey
20. Bryce
21. Corey
22. Bryce
23. Corey
24. Bryce
25. Corey
26. Bryce
27. Corey
28. Bryce
29. Corey
30. Bryce
Also by Lorelei M. Hart and Colbie Dunbar
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Matched To His Panther
Copyright © 2020 by Lorelei M. Hart & Colbie Dunbar
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Prologue
Corey
“Corey! Corey!” Someone was calling my name but they were far away. My best friend, Gabe! There was a breeze on my face as though someone was cooling me with a hand-painted, antique fan.
But it was dark where I was as I stumbled over rocky ground, clawing my way toward the voice I recognized, but fearful of what it was going to say. Though I recognized that I was inside my own head, the pretend world I inhabited was preferable to the big scary truth.
“Corey, wake up.” There was a second person somewhere, one who was married to Gabe and the source of my fear. And that had me turning and running in the other direction toward the darkness. The inky blackness was preferable to being near him. Brad!
“I’m scared,” I mumbled. If I opened my eyes, I might see what was unfathomable. And I’d have to protect my friend.
“It’s okay, Corey. I’ve been where you are.”
“No, you haven’t. Leave me alone and let me pretend.”
“Shove over.” The mattress dipped as a warm body lay on the bed and snuggled into me. “What do you want to know?”
My eyes snapped open as a thousand questions popped into my head. But by asking one, just one, I’d be acknowledging that what I’d seen was real. “Why?”
“Why what? Gabe asked.
I got up on one elbow and studied the face of my friend but remembered when I’d been partly conscious and I’d heard Brad’s voice. After glancing around the room, I peeked under the covers. “He’s not here, is he?”
Gabe pummeled his heels against the mattress and punched a lump under the thick quilt. “I think we’re alone,” he whispered.
Judging by Gabe’s lousy housekeeping skills in the main house, there could be anything under there. I made a face, imagining crumbs under my butt. “You’re smirking,” I accused him.
“I’m truly not.”
I grabbed a pillow and beat him over the head. “Feel better?” he asked.
“Nope,” and I pounded him again.
“Are we done?” Gabe checked the baby monitoring app on his phone. His daughter—and my goddaughter, Ursula—might be having a nap.
We were in Gabe’s guest house, located in a grassy meadow. The main house and this one for visitors sat on a slope overlooking a low sprawling building where Brad worked. Willow Den. I’d always assumed it combined his office and a sort of clubhouse, and an additional building next to it was the site of the college Gabe had created. But now after what I’d witnessed, it represented something more sinister.
Why did I decide to visit them today of all days? I’d driven out on a whim that my bestie might be free for lunch. A new restaurant had opened halfway between town and where Gabe lived. But as I’d approached his house, I slowed the car. Brad and Gabe were in the meadow, my friend holding their daughter and standing some distance away from his husband.
Brad was being all macho man waving his arms around and growling, and Ursula was giggling. Personally, that red-blooded aggressive shit did nothing for me, but Gabe was grinning and leaning over the toddler, who was jumping up and down.
And suddenly Brad’s clothes shredded and he just expanded, all muscles and fur, and I swear I was witnessing a scene from some D-list alien movie.
This… this thing came out of him, and instead of Brad the man, there was a fucking animal in his place. A goddamned bear. As I peered open-mouthed at the scene, my heart was racing—no, it was freaking sprinting—and I leaned on the steering wheel and the horn beeped.
Gabe, holding the toddler by the hand, shaded his face from the sun and gazed in my direction. But it wasn’t my friend and my goddaughter I was concentrating on.
My heart stilled as a pair of glowing eyes were fixed on me, and my foot slipped off the brake. The weight of my body on the steering wheel had the car swerving toward my bestie and his daughter. Before I knew what was happening, the thing reached in and I opened my mouth in a silent scream as it grabbed the wheel.
And everything went black.
Now we were in the guest house for which I’d done the decor—I did the main house as well because Gabe couldn’t so much as bang a nail into a wall. While it was comforting being in a space I’d designed, I couldn’t imagine walking outside and being confronted by the thing!
“Okay, not why, but how, what, why, which, and when?”
“Bringing out the big guns,” Gabe murmured as he stroked his chin. He draped an arm around my shoulder and said, “Once upon a time…”
“Stop it. You’re making fun of me.”
“Do you want to hear this or not?”
“Fine.” We huddled together as Gabe’s voice droned on and he related the history of shifters as best he understood it. None of it made sense, and the only information I needed was that my friend was married to a man who could shift between human and bear. And there were others like him.
“How long have you known?” I leaned forward and studied his face. “The first time you slept with him?”
He shook his head.
“Before you discovered you were pregnant?”
“Nope.”
I fell back against the bunch of pillows. Wow!
“It was a lot to take in.”
“That’s the understatement of the year,” I said.
“Are you ready to see Brad?”
“No freaking way.” I jerked my head at the window. “That’s my exit.” But as the memory of my car heading for Gabe and Ursula and the huge hairy arm… leg… limb… whatever… took control of the car, I asked, “How did I get to the guest house?”
“Brad carried you.”
Ewww! I sniffed my skin and clothes expecting to smell of berries—or worse, fish!
“Stop that, Corey. I will throw you out if you disrespect my husband.”
“Sorry.” I cowered under the covers.
“If you can’t accept him as he is, I can’t have you in my life. You’re Number 3 on my list, and I don’t want to lose you.”
I poked my head out and asked, “What’s with the three thing?”
“My husband and daughter come first and always will, but you’re next, and it would break my heart to say goodbye. Besides, Ursula needs you. Who’ll teach her the fi
ner points of napkin folding and organizing a bookshelf if you’re not around?”
“True,” I replied. “I’m indispensable.”
He chortled, and we bumped shoulders. “Come on. Brad’s cooking lunch.”
“As long as I’m not on the menu,” I told him as I made the bed and fluffed up the pillows.
“Nah, skinny guys aren’t really his thing.” He took my hand and dragged me outside toward the main house.
“Ha, fucking ha!”
“One thing I forgot,” Gabe faced me, his brow furrowing.
Shit! “Now what?”
“Whatever you do, don’t mention Goldilocks!”
It hadn't occurred to me. “What about porridge?”
“Same!”
My courage deserted me as we went inside. Brad was in the kitchen stirring a pot on the stove, while Ursula sat in her high chair banging a toy against the tray. The remains of her lunch were smeared over her face. And suddenly I knew what I had to do. “What a mess! Let’s get you cleaned up, sweetie.”
1
Corey
“I don’t understand this. Have Greg and Finn done the deed yet?” I asked as I tried to work out what was happening on the TV. “This is insane. They must be jerking off every five minutes in frustration.”
Brad was sitting beside me on the couch and shoved a cushion over his face while Gabe was in the kitchen making tea. “You’re ruining it. Stop it, Corey. Watching this program is my happy place,” Brad complained.
I side-eyed him and replied, “You have a happy place? Good to know.”
He growled, and while that would have made me almost pee my pants a few months ago, now I didn’t bat an eyelid. I tapped the corner of my mouth. “You have some drool just there.”
“Let him be, Corey. Work is stressful and he needs an escape,” Gabe said.
I leaned against the back of the sofa and glanced toward my friend as I asked, “Didn’t you say you were in contact with someone who knew one of Shifter World writers?”
“Yes,” Gabe told me as he placed a tray on the coffee table. “The Love and Hate developer.” The dating app.
“Look at you being all domesticated. I’m impressed.” I moved a pile of magazines to the side to make room for the tray.
“It’s hardly a domestic feat to put tea bags in a pot and boil water,” Brad grumbled as he used the remote to turn up the sound. “Especially when it interrupts my favorite program.”
‘Hey! Baby steps,” Gabe whined.
“Getting back to Greg and Finn, tell your friend’s friend to get those two into bed. How long has it been?” I had only recently begun watching the program though both Gabe and Brad told me it wasn’t true to shifter lore.
“Years,” Brad responded, “which is how long this conversation has been going on—or that’s how it feels,” he huffed. He picked up his tea mug and I slid a coaster over the table.
“I’d jump either one of them,” I said as my eyes raked over the two hot guys on the screen.
“You need someone in real life not a fictional character,” Gabe replied between sips of tea.
“No, no.” I’d manhandled Gabe into going on a date which was how he met Brad. “I can find my own dates, thank you very much.”
“Oh yeah, how’s that working out?” Gabe asked.
Change the subject, Corey. “Who’s that?” I pointed to a guy knocking on Greg’s door.
“No, you brought it up,” Gabe said. “What’s that called when you’re questioning a witness, Brad? Opening the door or something?”
“I give up. I’m going to watch in the study.” Brad took his tea and stormed out of the room.
“Shifter World fans are serious,” I commented as he slammed the study door.
“Don’t get me started on their online discussion groups and fan fiction sites,” Gabe muttered as he plonked himself beside me. “But I’m much more interested in your dating life.” He turned off the TV.
“Hey. I was watching that.” I tried to wrestle the remote from him, but he shoved it down his pants. Ewww! I’d have to sanitize it. “If Greg and Finn sleep together in this episode and I miss it, I’ll never forgive you.”
“Oh stop. All you do is complain about the show when you’re here. And trust me, I’ve seen enough of their will they or won’t they routine. It’s not happening any time soon.” He tucked his legs under him. “Now how are we going to get you a date?”
“I’ve had dates.” I counted them off on my fingers. “One with a guy that resembled a potato.” Gabe snorted and I continued. “Another alpha was covered in cat hair. I mean, he looked like the feline version of a wooly mammoth. A third lived in his mother’s basement and I suspected our date was the first time he’d been out in years. And don’t get me started on the fourth.”
Gabe gave me a hug and his voice softened. “Not one that leaves you angry, frustrated or in tears.”
“I’m a good guy, aren’t I, Gabe? Talented, funny, hard worker, an amateur designer and decorator and defacto babysitter. I’ve got a lot to offer a partner.” That’s what I wanted. Not a fuck-buddy or another best friend. I wanted someone to share the ups and downs of life with. Our life.
“The best.” He squeezed my hand. “Corey, do you think you’re choosing guys who you assume aren’t... shifters?”
“What? No.” But he was right. I knew it and so did he. Since being introduced to Brad the bear, I’d chosen the weirdest, scrawniness alphas to date: the least likely shifters I could find. Which didn’t make any sense. Shifters, I’d learned, came in all shapes, sizes, and varieties, just as non-shifters did.
But the only ones I’d met were Brad and his band of merry bears at Willow Den, their headquarters, just down the hill. I’d cowered behind Gabe the first time we’d gone there to eat, and I checked out the menu expecting it to consist of fish, berries, and honey.
My nerves had gotten the better of me—Gabe and I were alike in that aspect—and after hiding our faces behind both menus, I’d whispered to my friend, “What, no porridge?”
His peal of laughter cut the tension and he’d mouthed, “Stop!” Brad had yanked away our menus and glared at us, which prompted me to say, “Your honey or your life?” I’d been allowed to stay on the condition that I made no more so-called jokes. Otherwise, I would have been perp-walked out of the bear den!
“Stay with me, Corey,” Gabe snapped his fingers.
“I’m here,” I said, hugging a cushion and taking another gulp of tea.
Gabe fiddled with the gray throw resting on the arm of the couch. “I’m going to fling something back at you.”
“Not dirty laundry, I hope. I showed you how to use a washing machine.”
“Be serious, Corey. I’m trying to help.”
“Okay,” I relented.
“Love and Hate. Those were the exact words you said when I moved to town and was staying in your guest bedroom.”
“No, Gabe. I’ve had a string of bad luck and I’d rather lust over Greg. He has a nice butt. Or maybe Finn. His smile gets me hot and bothered.”
“Do you hear yourself?” He slammed the mug on the coffee table and tea spilled on the glass. I made to get up but Gabe pulled me down. He was aware I’d agree to anything until he let me clean up the mess.
“Use the damned app. Colin has assured me he’s rid it of bugs.”
“Bugs but not bears?”
“Ha ha,” he responded.
“Are you besties with the app developer now?” My gaze was fixed on the puddle of tea lying on the glass tabletop. “Please don’t tell me you get a commission for everyone you recommend.”
“That’s unfair and not like you, Corey.”
He was right. “Sorry, sorry. I was mean.” I waved my hand at the spilled tea. “It’s getting to me.”
“Create your profile, choose a date on Love and Hate, and I’ll clean up.”
“You do it.” I threw my phone into his lap and raced to get a spray cleaner and rag.
2
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Bryce
“Fuck!” I screamed. I had managed to hold it together with the lawyers and then the claw during the meeting, but I couldn’t anymore. I needed to shift and hunt.
How could they just decide that our property was needed like that. It had been with our claw for generations. More than generations, literal centuries, and what? Why put a new highway through our land. Other options were cheaper but the government refused to consider them. And not only did they want to steal it from us—their pennies-on-the-dollar mandatory-to-accept offer nothing more than a way to dress it up a bit—but to take it away with no assistance in finding a new property.
Sure, they were human and thought our land was just a financial asset, not a place we needed so our animals could roam free. We weren’t like the wolf and bear shifters who were native animals in the region; we stood out. Humans would see us and know we didn’t belong, and with our luck, call animal control and have some stupid post on social media going viral because there was an escaped animal from the zoo or something stupid like that. We needed that land—land that would be impossible to buy with the peanuts the government had offered us.
Relocating wasn’t an easy option on so many fronts. We had jobs, friends, lives here. And somehow, under my watch as Alpha, I let that all fall away. I toed off my shoes and opened the back door to my office, the door that led to a narrow lane, abutting our woods, and stripped. This was my private office, away from Nightsong Estate, the claw headquarters, while my home, my apartment, was on the floor above.