Table of Contents
Copyright
Foreword
Chapter One – Cassie
Chapter Two – Logan
Chapter Three – Cassie
Chapter Four – Logan
Chapter Five – Cassie
Chapter Six – Logan
Chapter Seven – Cassie
Chapter Eight – Logan
Chapter Nine – Cassie
Chapter Ten – Logan
Chapter Eleven – Cassie
Chapter Twelve – Logan
Chapter Thirteen – Cassie
Chapter Fourteen – Logan
Chapter Fifteen – Cassie
Chapter Sixteen – Logan
Get In Touch
Also By Harmony Raines
Love at First Site
Fated and Mated
The Beginning
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Note from the author: My books are written, produced and edited in the UK where spellings and word usage can vary from U.S. English. The use of quotes in dialogue and other punctuation can also differ.
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All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written consent of the author or publisher.
This is a work of fiction and is intended for mature audiences only. All characters within are eighteen years of age or older. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, actual events or places is purely coincidental.
© 2016 Harmony Raines
Kindle Edition
Foreword
Welcome to Fated and Mated, a free, subscriber only book, just to say thank you for your support.
Cassie is helping Marjorie set up the new website for her online dating agency, Fated and Mated. But what she never expected, was to be the first success story, but will things run smoothly?
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Chapter One – Cassie
“The website looks amazing, Cassie,” Marjorie said, scrolling down the front page of the website Cassie had painstakingly set up for the new shifter dating service, Fated and Mated.
“Thanks, Marjorie, I’m so pleased you like it.” Cassie tilted her head and looked at it critically. “Although I’m still not convinced that shifters will know their mates when they see them on a screen. It can’t be the same as coming face to face with them in real life.”
Marjorie sighed. “I know dear—but well, if not, at least it will open up the world to the confirmed bachelors, and bachelorettes in the shifter world. I have everyone spreading the word, and I think when we launch next week, it will be well received.”
Cassie picked up the nervousness in Marjorie’s voice, and placed her hand on the older woman’s shoulder. Marjorie had been talking about this for months, and had finally plucked up the courage to give it a go. As a web designer between jobs, Cassie had been more than willing to help out, although the fee she charged didn’t even cover half the time she had spent on it.
“Right, I suppose we had better start loading up all these good-looking guys and girls,” Cassie said, swapping places with Marjorie, and clicking to navigate to the folder containing all the shifters Marjorie had persuaded to join. They totaled thirty or more, not many, but Marjorie was convinced that, once they had a success story, word would spread and more shifters would be willing to take a chance to find a date with online dating. Marjorie had also invested heavily on online advertising. This meant those that weren’t shifters would also join.
Not all shifters were lucky enough to find a mate who was also a shifter, so an exclusive site was not ideal either. However, Cassie had designed an “upgrade”; it was a secret message that only shifters would know about.
It would make it easier for those who were of the dual personality to know they could be open about themselves. None of the odd questions needed to establish what they were; Cassie knew only too well how it went.
“So, do you enjoy a good run in the woods?”
“Yes.”
“And a roll in the mud?”
“What kind of nut job are you?
“It’s good for my skin.” And the shifter slinks off, tail between legs, feeling like a freak.
Cassie had heard them, all, and experienced a few firsthand. Thinking about it, Marjorie was doing the whole shifter community a real favor.
“So, are you going to add yourself to the site?” Marjorie asked, coming in with a cup of coffee for Cassie.
“I don’t know. I like the idea—but, well, I’m not too photogenic, you know.” Cassie sipped her coffee, clicked a new folder, and uploaded the information.
“Nonsense.” Marjorie grabbed her phone. “Stand here. Come on,” she said encouragingly when Cassie didn’t move.
“I’m not really looking for my mate.” She knew that wasn’t true, but hated being photographed with a passion. With her curvy body and voluptuous breasts, the camera didn’t have to add the mythological extra 5lbs for her to look too round. It didn’t bother her, but she hated looking at those photos. She guessed it all stemmed from high school. Her best friend was stick-thin and the prettiest thing, as delicate as a flower, next to Cassie.
More than few cruel jokes had come her way because she was so opposite to her BFF, but their friendship had lasted longer than the jibes. And now Cassie and Rhianna shared a small apartment over a warehouse on the outskirts of Bear Bluff.
“That’s it, tilt your head to your left.” Marjorie took several photos, the bright flash making her blink and she knew most of them were probably going to be of her with her eyes closed. Maybe none of them would be of any use, but looking at Marjorie’s face, she was determined to get Cassie onto the website.
“Listen, while you play with your phone, I’m going to get back to work.” Cassie sat down, trying not to let her mood cloud over. Would it be so bad having her face exposed to all the men in town, and more? After all, her mate would love her for who she was. It wouldn’t matter if she was three feet tall with hairy feet, a mate was a mate. But it would be nice to experience someone falling for her properly, not a man forced to his knees by the mating bond.
“Here.” Marjorie thrust her phone under Cassie’s nose, and showed her the picture she had selected.
“Wow. Next thing you’ll be offering your services as a wedding photographer.” The photo was good: the angle of the shot and the way the light from the window captured her blue eyes and softened her face was amazing. “That is the first picture of me I’ve ever liked.”
“Put it on, then,” Marjorie said. “Please. I know you have worked hard on this for me and I haven’t paid you anywhere near what you deserve, so if I can get you fixed up with a mate, well, that would be perfect.”
Cassie sighed and looked at the picture, and then at the screen in front of her. What would it be like seeing herself on the website she had created? Oh, why not, she thought.
“OK.” She took the phone and swapped the photo over to the computer, trying not to cringe when the she appeared ten times bigger on the website. Maybe she ought to do what they did in magazines with those supermodels and airbrush a few pounds off her face, and that blemish on her left cheek.
“Perfect,” Marjorie said happily. “Now, fill in your details.”
“I’m not sure what to put.” Cassie was never good at selling herself. “Curvy, broke, unemployed graphics designer doesn’t exactly sound sexy, does it?”
Marjorie laughed. “Come on, Cassie, you are one
of the most kind and genuine people I know. Fun-loving, confident, you can do a lot better than that with your profile.”
“Well, I’ll give it some thought while I load the rest of these.” She clicked off her profile, wondering if she would actually have the nerve to fill in the details, or if as soon as Marjorie had gone, she would press delete.
“I know what you’re thinking, and I will check it’s still there,” Marjorie said, taking the empty cups and going to the kitchen to wash them up.
“I thought you might say that,” Cassie said with a faint smile. Really, it was nice to have someone like Marjorie to care for her. When she moved to Bear Bluff with Rhianna, it was Marjorie who had helped them settle in, generously cooking them hot meals that she often shared with them in their small apartment. With their families miles away, up on the higher mountain ranges, it was comforting to know there was a motherly figure around if they needed anything.
“You should ask Rhianna to put hers on there too. Never know, you might find your mates. And then I won’t have to keep coming over and checking on you. You both need a man to look after you.”
Cassie turned around, appalled, to see Marjorie grinning at her. “I was beginning to wonder if that was why you set up this site, because you think everyone needs to be married off!”
“No, that’s not why I started it.” Suddenly, Marjorie’s face crumpled and she turned away from Cassie, fishing a tissue out of her pocket and wiping her eyes.
Cassie got up from her seat and went over to the older woman and put her arms around her, pulling her into a warm hug. “I know why you did it, and I think it’s wonderful that you want everyone to be as happy as you were with your husband.”
“I do, Cassie, I really do. There’s not a day, not an hour, goes by when I don’t think of him, or talk to him in my head. I think of him wherever he is, and wonder if he is proud of me, or thinks I’m a silly old woman.”
Marjorie’s first husband had passed away years ago, and even though she had a good friend in Vic Stanton, and the gossips liked to make them a couple, the sad truth was, it was not the same as having a bonded mate in your life.
“I’ll get the rest of the photos on the site, and then I’ll fill out my profile.”
Marjorie smiled, “That makes me happy, Cassie. You might not think you need a man in your life, but you sure do need your mate.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” she said, sitting down.
Secretly she felt excited about seeing what men were out there. She only hoped that her mate would be a shifter, not a human. Her fantasy had always been to run through the forest with her mate by her side, and then make love in the open air.
Now, that was one thing she was not going to put on her profile!
Chapter Two – Logan
“So she’s actually doing it?” Logan asked. They were seated around the table at his mom’s house. It was still a tradition, even though his younger brother had found himself a mate, something that seemed to elude Logan.
“Yes,” Melanie answered. “Cassie is setting the website up now. It looks brilliant.” His sister-in-law was heavily pregnant, and the family was nervously awaiting the birth of her child.
Even Logan was looking forward to having a young cub around the place, but it was making his biological clock make itself heard. Tick, tock, tick, tock: it was especially loud when he was near his mom, and he was sure he could see a pendulum in her eyes as she tried not to voice her concerns over his lack of a mate.
“You should sign up, Logan,” his mom said, much to the amusement of his other brothers.
“Maybe they do a family discount,” he said, glaring around the room.
His brothers didn’t look so happy about that. Melanie, however, thought it was a brilliant idea.
“Yes, come on, Marjorie would love to have lots of eligible young men on her site. It will draw in more women.”
“Not when they see their pictures,” Taylor joked, earning him a thump from Melanie.
“Behave.” She smiled at the others. “It would be great, and we could do with some more women in the family.”
His mom agreed, of course. “And more babies. It would be nice for us to have a houseful of bears. It would remind me of when you were all cubs.”
Logan laughed, “Come on, Mom, we used to run you ragged.”
“It was the happiest time of my life,” she said wistfully.
“OK, so that’s settled,” said Melanie. “I’ll give you the web address, and you can all log on and upload your profiles.”
One look at his mom’s blissfully happy face told him he had better do as he was told. But deep down, he knew it was useless; whoever heard of a website for people like him, and what happened if the woman he fell for, the woman who was his mate, wasn’t a shifter? What happened then? All those awkward questions.
Still, as he made his way back to his bachelor pad in the city, he realized it was a good idea. Because if he was truthful, he knew there was little chance of running across his mate in the faceless void of high-rise neighborhoods and offices.
So when he let himself into his small apartment, and switched on his laptop to check his email and work on a project he had to finish by Monday, he couldn’t help taking a look at the site.
Only ten profiles, no, eleven, so someone was working on it right now. Knowing if he didn’t act today, he would file it away on his to-do list and forget about it, he took out his phone and took a selfie. Transferring it to his computer, he then uploaded it and began to fill in the rest of his details.
Awkward. What exactly were you supposed to say on these things? He skipped around, looking at a few others, and then came back to stare at the blank screen.
“Logan,” He started with his name, of course, and then his occupation. “Pen pusher extraordinaire.”
He smiled as he typed in city broker; it sounded much more important than it actually was. Spending hours dealing with other people’s money on high-risk investments was not always fun: the stress levels were high and the overtime mentally exhausting. And that was maybe why he wanted a mate, someone to come home to, someone to take his mind off work and make him feel special.
Wow, should he put selfish and self-centered on his profile too?
After about half an hour, he had it ready. And clicked enter, waiting nervously for it to appear on the site. He refreshed the page, and everything was automatically added. Neat. Easy. Now, would he get any replies?
He didn’t know what to expect, but just sat staring at the screen before cursing and telling himself not to be so stupid—the site hadn’t even officially launched yet, and there were only a handful of people on it, probably friends and family of Marjorie and Melanie, and all the others involved in Bear Brides, the bridal boutique in Bear Creek. The chances of him hooking up with his mate from such a small pool of people was infinitely small.
And so, resisting the urge to look though the female profiles, he opened his presentation software and got to work. This was real, tangible, something he could control, which was exactly how he liked things. But all the same, his eye kept flicking to his task bar to see if he had any new emails.
Numbers, formulas, answers, so simple, so therapeutic to his mind. There was a right answer and a wrong answer, and Logan planned to make sure it was always the right answer he gave his clients: it was why he was so sought after, why he knew he was going to be offered partnership in another three years.
His mind drifted off work, unusual for this bear shifter, but he began to think about his future, and how it would never be possible to bring up a young cub here in this small apartment. He chuckled to himself; he had to find a mate first. All this talk of dating websites had become a distraction.
But then he heard a ping; he had a new message, and when he looked, he saw it was from Fated and Mated. He had a match.
Chapter Three – Cassie
She had been sitting there working for an hour. Marjorie had popped out and got them a bottle of wine, a
nd now she was busy cooking dinner. Rhianna would be over any minute, and they would sit around Marjorie’s table eating and drinking wine, as if they were a family. At some point Vic would make an appearance, checking in on Marjorie as he did every night.
“OK, this is the last one, then I’ll run through them all and just make sure all the profiles are matched to the right photos,” she said, and bent her head from side to side, trying to ease the ache in her neck. Right now, she wished she did have a man with a magic touch, but only for a massage.
That would be so nice, having his fingers put just the right amount of pressure on her sore nerve. Clicking out of the folder that held the files, she began to navigate her way through the website.
“How’s it looking?” asked Marjorie, coming out of the kitchen with a nice glass of red wine and putting it down next to Cassie.
“Come look,” she said, and started clicking through the thirty or so pages of men and women who had signed up.
“It looks great.” Marjorie sipped her own glass of wine.
“Oh, look, we have a new member! He’s not one that I put on here,” she said, and clicked through to see the first man brave enough to join who hadn’t been coerced by Marjorie.
“He’s one of Taylor’s brothers,” Marjorie said. “Here, dear, let’s celebrate our first proper client.”
But Cassie didn’t hear her. She was too busy staring at the screen in total shock.
“Hi, how’s it going?” Rhianna came in through the front door, which never seemed to be locked; Marjorie seemed to operate on an open all hours’ policy. “Oh, wow, he’s cute.”
“Isn’t he?” Marjorie said, and then Cassie caught Marjorie’s gesture out of the corner of her eye; she was tilting her head toward Cassie and mouthing something.
Vaguely aware of movement, Cassie felt Rhianna’s hand on her shoulder. “You OK, Cass?”
“I’m not sure,” she said truthfully. “What do you think of this guy?”
Fated and Mated - Love at First Site Page 1
