by Erin Havoc
Robin whirls around to face me, rolling her eyes. “Because they’re stupid and prejudiced. God, I wish I could find myself a shifter. Have you noticed they all look like this?” She motions at the men, all strong and fit. “And I’ve heard they all prefer...”
“Curvy women,” I cut her in, grinning. “Yeah, I know.”
She makes a face, propping her hands on her waist. “You’re such a lucky bastard. Here I am, wanting one, just one shifter, and you’ve already dated a hundred of them.”
I snort. “Please. Four. Just four. And the last one was a total sucker.”
Robin presses a hand to her chest and sighs, dreamily. “An alpha wolf. I can’t believe he’s such a bastard. I expected alphas to be protective and kind of obsessed, in a hot way. Not abusive.”
“Well, I guess that’s a fine line to walk.”
“True.” Robin eyes the TV again. “What do you think the Senator is? I mean, his animal form?”
I turn to watch him. His wide shoulders and the way he moves his hands elegantly, and the bright spark of wit on his eyes... “A horse. I’d guess a horse.”
Robin’s jaw drops. “Ohmygod, do you think his junk is...?”
I throw my hands up. “Christ, I don’t want to talk about his junk!”
Robin grins and drops an arm around my shoulders. “How’s your adventure going on the promised land? Any new shifters?”
I tap my chin with a finger. I’ve been chatting with a couple, there’s nothing new about that but... “Oh! I’ve been matched!”
“Matched?” She cocks a brow, doubt crawling over her face.
“Yeah. We take the DNA test, right? So they use our DNA to find the best matches for us.” I pick up my phone and unlock it, reaching for the app. There is a pile of new messages for me to read, but I won’t do this right now. It’s impressive how shifters do find curvy girls more attractive. I’ve never this much success in other dating apps. “Look. This guy I’m chatting with is an eighty-five percent of compatibility.”
“Oh, I see, I see,” Robin mutters, reaching out and flicking the pictures by herself. “Goddamn it, I can’t wait to have that DNA thing. The guys I talk to are all waiting for matches.”
The shifters received the DNA add-on before we humans It’s understandable they’re waiting for matches since they’re so keen on finding their mates. So many hunky, good-looking men. And I don’t even have to search for them. They just come to me, asking for a date if I’m over eighty percent compatibility. They’re also after their perfect matches, but while it doesn’t happen, they’re up to date the ones close to one-hundred percent. Last night I received an email update from the guys behind it, and they notified us of the first two weddings because of the app. One was a perfect match.
“There are all kinds of matches, you know? You can do like I’m doing and go out with guys that are around an eighty percent match. I may find Mr Right among them.”
She snaps her eyes to me. “You just said you found your match. Isn’t that like, a hundred percent, pretty-perfect compatibility? Why would you want the eighty-five percent? What if the other fifteen percent are nasty things you come to hate?”
I cackle, nudging her with my elbow. “Don’t trip. It would still be an amazing wedding. I’d rather try an eighty-five like this than a hundred percent I already know it won’t work.”
“That makes no sense… Wait, you sound like you’ve already seen this hundred percent guy, and you gave up on him... Oh, don’t tell me it was that Carl douche? He can’t be anyone’s a hundred percent match.”
I shake my head, opening an evil smile. “No girl deserves that piece of shit. He was still messaging me when I figured how I could block him. And about the match guy...” I shrug, putting the phone back into my pocket. “He’s another alpha wolf. I’m so not up for that right now.”
“But Meg!” She cries out. “What if he’s the true, hot alpha wolf of our dreams? Possessive and protective in the right balance?” She grips my arms and shakes me until my teeth rattle. “I can’t believe you blocked him!”
“The message he sent me wasn’t very nice either. People start with ‘hi, you’re so pretty’ and he said nothing like this. He just wanted to meet ASAP. Typical alpha, thinks he’s too good for the rest of the world.”
Robin lets me go, turning back to the TV. “I think you’re being prejudiced, and you’re going to regret it. I bet a caramel frappuccino from the coffee house up the street.”
I chuckle but when I turn to the TV, the mood has wildly changed.
The senator’s pulled back behind a wall of bodyguards. Something has triggered someone in the crowd, and people are running and fighting, yelling, and crying all around. Some push and shove others, trying to reach the front row. I notice the signs for the first time.
They say things like “Animals belong in the zoo” and “Animals should be leashed” and “Don’t take our women!”. My stomach convulses and I press a hand to my mouth. Robin gasps as she gawks at the chaos that ensues. The senator’s already out of harm’s way, safe, but some protesters keep pushing, keep fighting. Some start throwing rocks. Not pebbles, but fist-sized rocks that could kill someone.
“God,” Robin gasps and we step closer to the TV, her hand seeking mine.
One bodyguard stands out, parting the crowd to reach the protesters. He holds a baton in a hand and what appears to be a taser in the other. He’s not as big as some of his colleagues, but he moves with precision, sharp, and fast steps right to the middle of the rioters.
He fights, putting them down one by one with swift moves, electrocuting the attackers until they drop like flies. Three gang up on him once, and one lands a punch that makes his sunglasses fly off. With a guttural, grave voice he orders the crowd to calm down. And they actually do.
A shiver runs down my spine as I stare at that man on TV. Something deep down inside me resonates. My body recognizes him before I do. My fingers tingle, wanting to brush his caramel hair back behind his ears and run my thumb down his sharp jaw.
I can’t see it but I know he has the blue eyes I’ve always dreamed about. Low in my gut, I know it.
Me and him? We’re fairytale stuff. Supposed to be. Fated.
A moment later, I recognize his face from somewhere else. From a picture I barely saw. From a profile I blocked because it held the words “alpha wolf”.
He is my match. My true match, and I’m his mate.
And I blocked him forever.
4
JASON
Three days.
Three days I have been searching for her, and nothing.
How big this city can be?
My pack burst with joy when I told them I had found her. They all made fun of me for being blocked and went after the app to download it. The fuckers. They were so sure I’d find her soon they didn’t think twice about the matter. Not when all of them have a solid chance now.
That first night, I drove to the woods as soon as I got back from work, and shifted into my wolf. I stretched my limbs and felt the wind on my fur for a moment. Then I looked up at the almost full moon and howled at it, hoping I’d find Meghan today. My pack met me moments later, and we hunted and drank the icy cold water of the creek. Then I turned from them and ran up and down the edge of the forest and the houses nearby.
Searching for her scent. For naught.
She doesn’t live near the woods, that’s clear. So the second day, I tried downtown. That’s reasonable, right? But I can’t take my wolf for a walk in the middle of Main Ave. Taking my car, I put my head out of the window and drove slowly, breathing the night air in, trying to pick a scent.
Nothing too. And a cop stopped me, saying an old lady saw me through a window and thought I was a robber. I was lucky the man was also a shifter.
Today’s the third night. And I’ll go mad if I don’t find her. I have already contacted support, but they can’t do a thing, not when someone has blocked me. They won’t give me her contact for safety reasons, so I have
no other way than picking a neighborhood each day and walk around with the stars glinting down on me.
Meghan’s image is still burnt against the inside of my brain. She’s all I see when I shut my eyes. She’s in my dreams. I can’t do anything other than picture her and try to guess how she will smell like. Fuck, I can’t wait to have her.
And I can’t believe I lost her as fast as she came.
On one of the fancier streets, I pick something up. My heartbeat quickens as I stop and twirl around myself, breathing in deeper, searching for it. It’s sweet and addictive. Mouth-watering. Cock-hardening.
It’s her.
I had no idea a smell could make me horny but live and learn. Sniffing into the air, I pick up the trail to the front door of a clothing store, now closed. Pressing the tip of my nose to the crack of the door, I smell it in. Her scent. She’s been here. Not long ago.
As I turn around, picking the trail to follow her, I also smell... something else. I can’t quite tell what at first. It takes me several deep breaths to put my finger on it.
A wolf. Another wolf shifter like myself. But I don’t recognize his scent, so definitely an outsider.
How odd. But not something that has never happened before. People travel, even if wolves hang around the same places. Ignoring it, I take slow steps, following Meghan’s trail.
It would be a thousand times easier in my wolf form. Being a half-wolf, my sense of smell is heightened but not as good as in my animal form. I would have found her much easier and much faster if I could run around in my wolf, but that can’t be done. And with all the tension rising, I sure won’t try it.
Her delicious scent takes me to a bar. A simple, tiny area I waste no time to enter.
Meghan’s smell leaves a stark trail. I fill my lungs with it, ignoring the scent of beer and oil, and release my breath with a grunt. Fuck, I can’t wait to put my face between her legs and smell her arousal. Maybe it’s so good I’ll have a seizure or something, but I don’t care.
The place is half-full, couples sitting at the small tables and groups of friends chatting and making too much of a fuss. The dim light doesn’t keep me from seeing her sitting at the bar. My heart skips a beat and I know I’d be able to find her anywhere now that I know she exists.
Meghan.
As if I had called her name out loud, she turns. Time seems to slow down as she shifts on the stool and faces me. Her hair cascades down her back and my fingers itch to have those strands between them. My dick pulses between my legs, ready to take her. My wolf paces inside me, out of breath and half-desperate. As if he tells me “we can’t lose her now”.
And we won’t.
I stride to her until there’s only two feet between our bodies. Her eyes widen as our gazes meet and lock. We stay like that for a long time, and the world stops. Her beauty is unique. Different from everything I’ve ever seen. She glows, a light from within.
And she’s mine. I’m so damn lucky.
Her throat bobbles as she swallows. The person next to her shifts too, and I watch them turn in my direction.
“Meg? Who’s this?” A moment of silence as I’m still unable to take my eyes off the woman of my life. “Oh. Ooh! Oh, hot damn, you know what! I need to get home. Feed my cat and the whole thing.”
Meghan snaps her head to the side. The spell is broken and I take deep breaths, willing myself to calm down. The person next to her is another girl, much duller and nothing like Meghan as she stands up.
“Robin,” Megan says and her voice is the only thing I want to hear for the rest of my life. “What are you talking about? You don’t have a—”
“See you tomorrow, text me later!” The Robin girl says, leaving a bill by the counter and darting out of the bar.
Meghan faces me again, her cheeks gaining a slight pink color. She tugs a strand of hair behind an ear and my heart pretty much explodes. “I guess... you’re that Jason from the app, right?”
I motion for the stool next to her. “May I?”
She nods. “Sure.” She crosses her hands over her lap as I sit next to her, readjusting so I won’t fall into the trap of touching her. If our legs brush together, I might not be able to hold back. My wolf is dying to have her, mark her as mine. I can’t endure the idea she’s been here, having a drink with her friend, with all these men looking at her. “I’m sorry I blocked you.”
Her words are not what I expected. They’re much better. “You’re... sorry? I am sorry. I must have offended you.” I shake my head, then brush my hair out of the way. “I’m not used to dating. That must have been the worst first message you’ve ever got.”
She chuckles, the most delightful sound ever. “Maybe. I thought it was kind of weird.”
“I noticed after I had already written it, but you were faster,” I say with a smile, trying to make her feel comfortable.
Her shoulders relax as she looks up at me. “Would you... like to try again?”
She’s giving me another shot. Thanks the stars. “I’d be honored.” I let air rush out of me, then pull it back in. “You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. It’s shocking and astonishing, and I thought I’d never live to see that. To feel what I felt when I saw you for the first time. As a shifter, I knew I had a mate. But I kind of gave up, you know?” I shrug, closing my hands in fists not to touch her face. “But then I saw you, and my heart went crazy. I knew, from the bottom of my soul, you were the one I have been waiting for.” The words flow from me, and I know I can share anything with this woman. “You are the one I want. And I’m honored to be given a chance to win your affection.”
Meghan chews on the corner of her mouth, and she doesn’t know it, but it doesn’t help with the ridiculous erection I’m sporting. “Honestly, I was prejudiced. I went out with another alpha once, and he was a jerk.”
Another alpha. Rage and jealousy spark through me and I grind my teeth not to show. As alphas, we are possessive and jealous. Does she hate it? Because we haven’t even touched and I’m already head over heels for her.
The bartender approaches and I’m glad it’s a woman who’s been serving her. “Are you having something to drink, friend?”
“A pint of lager.” I slip a bill in her direction, not taking my eyes from Meghan. She’s hypnotizing. Every little gesture she makes is beautiful.
“I saw you on TV today,” she starts, shyly.
“You did? Oh. The riot.”
“Yeah. You were very... brave. And skilled.”
I lift a shoulder in a shrug. “It’s my job. I take my jobs seriously.”
“Do you have another job?”
I scratch my chin. I have never talked about personal stuff with non-shifters, so I must find the right words. “Being an alpha is kind of a job. Leadership can be questioned. I have to be a fierce leader so they keep on accepting me.”
“Oh, isn’t it something you were born to be?”
“No. Anyone can be an alpha if they have the skill set. The only things written in me are the wolf genes, and...” And being your mate. I manage to bite back the words, but she opens a knowing smile that tells me she gets it. That tells me she’s not afraid of it. “Well. What about you? What do you do for a living?”
She opens a smile and tells me about her job at the boutique, how she loves to dress curvy girls like herself, and how she has made many friends in the place. Every memory she shares with me is a crystal of the purest light, and I’m infinitely glad I have found her. Have received a chance to listen to her words.
God. She’s gorgeous.
And I’ll have to be a well-behaved wolf to the end of the night. Because this girl is for real. She’s the single most important thing ever and I can’t ruin it.
5
MEGHAN
Robin is getting her caramel frappuccino tomorrow morning. She was right and I’m not going to lie to my friend. I regret it. I freaking regret having blocked Jason before giving him a chance.
Luckily, he has found me. A small part of me thinks
he used his wolf-senses to track me down, which is... Very alpha. But unlike Carl, the douche I dated before, Jason’s alphaliness is exciting. Complimenting. To know he was so intent on meeting me he tracked me down is so hot.
I have to be careful. Tilting my chin up and opening sober smiles, I pretend I’m not melting for him. That certainty inside me — the surety about him — has only grown. When I stand next to him, he makes me feel safe. Admired.
Sexy.
It’s nothing like Carl.
“That riot was crazy,” I say as he walks me back to my apartment. Though my body’s been electrified every time I stand too close to him, he’s been a perfect gentleman. The only time we touched, he helped me down the stool, and it felt like I stuck a finger in a power socket. Every hair on my body stood on end and... And my nipples pebbled. Crazy shit. “I can’t believe people are asking you guys to leave town or whatever.”
He shakes his head, tugging his hair behind an ear. I itch to do that for him. To touch his strands and run a finger down his sharp jaw. “At first I thought it would have been better if we had stuck to the shadows, you know? Some people caught sight of us, but they were just brushed off as legends. We had to be secret, but we were just fine.”
“Why did it change? Isn’t it safer for you to be secret?”
“We’re going extinct. As shifters, we usually wait to have cubs with our mates. Or at least someone with very high compatibility. It’s rare, and it’s normal for the person to run the other way when you tell them you turn into a feral animal. The choice of coming out was made so we could more freely be accepted and search for mates. Doing so in secret is harder.”
“And do you still think it would have been better for you not to come out?”
He looks at me with a deep, intense gaze that makes me stop in my tracks. He stops too, taking a step closer until I can feel the heat of his body. “No. I think it’s been worth it.”
“Why?”
Our gazes locked, I tremble with how hard I want him to kiss me. In the middle of the street, under the stars and the moonlight. Stuff of dreams.
