by E A Price
Logan sighed. “And we were about to grab him…”
Carly grimaced. “But we kind of lost him…”
Jackson growled. “How were we supposed to know the School was about to let out?”
Marcus' nostrils flared, and he soothed his hissing beast. “Cut to the chase.”
“We virtually got trampled to death,” stated Logan, flatly.
Marcus raised an eyebrow. “Are you trying to tell me, that you lost the skip, and look like you’ve been run over by a truck, because of a bunch of school kids?”
Jackson snorted. “They were more like a herd of fucking wild animals.”
“We lost the camel in the crowd,” Carly told him, dejectedly.
Marcus licked his lips. “Norman skipped his court date three days ago, and since then, the four of you have managed to lose him six times. He’s a pot-dealing camel shifter, who was arrested for trying to hold up a Lunar Burger with a banana. What exactly is going on here?”
Logan rubbed the back of his head. “He’s smarter than he looks.”
Marcus’ jaw ticked. “He’d have to be to get himself dressed in the morning.”
Noah shuffled his feet. “And he’s really wily.”
The four bounty hunters started talking at once about their failed attempts to find the camel. They reiterated how it wasn’t their faults, and went on to explain how sneaky he was.
Marcus shushed them with a stern look. “Have you at least found out where he’s living?”
The silent looks between the four of them spoke volumes.
“I’ll take that as a no. Alright, I’ll give the skip to someone else.”
They all started protesting at once, and Marcus waved them away. “No, you’re not making any progress; it’s time someone else took a crack at him.”
Carly and Noah looked disappointed, Logan accepted the decision with a sigh, and Jackson was downright furious. He took any failure to catch anyone as a personal affront.
Thankfully, before he could voice his fury, raised voices from the outer office broke through the quiet. And given that the door was designed to be soundproof, they knew something was happening.
Logan tore out of the office, swiftly followed by the other shifters.
“What’s happening? Are you okay?” demanded Logan of Mia Blau, Marcus’ niece and the new office manager.
Mia’s pretty nose twitched in annoyance. She was stood, hands on hips, scowling at their newest office assistant.
Mia was a rabbit shifter; her mother was a rabbit and her father, Marcus’ brother, was a boa constrictor. She came to work for her uncle a few months ago as an assistant for Alma, but had now taken on Alma’s job. Unfortunately, finding her own replacement had been less than straightforward. They were on their third applicant, and it appeared that she was on her way out too.
The first had been unceremoniously fired after Carly caught him taking ecstasy in the supply cupboard. Logan caught the second stealing over a hundred dollars of office supplies. And now the third one…
“You’re fired!” yelled the, usually, timid rabbit shifter.
Margie snorted and flipped her auburn hair over her shoulder. “Fine with me!”
She grabbed her purse and stalked out of the office; her curvy butt bobbed up and down, making the word ‘juicy’ ripple.
“And good riddance!” screeched Mia.
Margie had been a pain since the moment she flounced into the office, started hitting on Logan, and took two-hour lunch breaks.
“Everything alright?” asked Marcus.
Mia spluttered. “That… that… woman was using the office to run a sex hotline!”
Noah’s eyes almost bulged out his head. “She was?”
Mia fanned herself with her hand, trying to calm down.
Logan placed a meaty hand on her shoulder. “You okay?”
“Mmmm hmmm.” She looked at him adoringly.
Jackson clucked his tongue. The giant, handsome bear shifter had that effect on women. As long as Logan stayed the hell away from Carly, it didn’t bother him… or at least it only slightly irritated him.
Mia sighed and sat back down at her desk. “Well, that’s it. We had three applicants for the job and we’ve gone through all three.” Mia looked at Carly, pleadingly. “Please? I can’t cope on my own.”
Carly kicked her feet. “Okay, but only for a couple of days, those bounties won’t catch themselves.”
Jackson smiled. “Perhaps you’ll prefer staying in the office, perhaps you’ll…”
“No!” she interrupted and folded her arms.
It was an ongoing fight between the two of them. Carly wanted to be a bounty hunter, and Jackson was completely against it. He said it was too dangerous for her, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She was having far too much fun.
“I don’t mind helping out,” offered Logan.
Mia flushed and beamed. As much as she would like Logan hanging around the office, past experience had told her that the bear shifter was not built for office work. Last time he managed to rip the lid off the copy machine; not in a fit of rage either, just completely by accident.
Mia looked to her uncle for help; she didn’t really want to hurt the bear shifter’s feelings.
He nodded in understanding. “No, Logan, I’m sure Carly can help today, and Mia will phone a temp agency to get someone in tomorrow.”
The little rabbit sighed in happy relief. “I’ll do it now.”
“And after that, I need you to find someone for the camel skip. Who do we have?”
Mia creased her forehead, thoughtfully. “I’m not sure, Thor’s visiting family in Norway, Zara’s at some kind of witchy conference in New Orleans, Stone’s at a bachelor party in Vegas and Adam’s… I have no clue where Adam is.”
Marcus mulled that over. Jackson and Logan were their main employees, but the other four were their best part-time hunters. Thor was a polar bear, Zara a witch, Stone a rhino and Adam was a white tiger. Adam was ex-special ops, and sometimes did off-the-books missions for old acquaintances; it was, usually, best not to probe him too much for details. He suspected, by now, that both Zara and Stone were too tanked to travel, and he doubted Thor could make it back in time.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Marcus flashed her a quick smile. “Thanks, sweetheart.”
Jackson tried to object, but Marcus quelled him with a look. He left the wolf shifter to sulk as he retreated to his office and firmly closed the door.
He settled at his desk and started going through the expenses. His muscles twitched, and his beast slithered restlessly. He was pissed about the camel.
Marcus shook his head and tried to soothe his snake. It wasn’t a big deal; the bond for the camel wasn’t actually that much. They could take the loss. But, it was the principal. Since the day they opened their doors, they’d never lost a bounty.
He breathed in and out, calming his raging animal. Perhaps he just needed a little release. He needed to work off some of his pent up anger. He briefly considered going to a bar, but his snake grumbled at that idea. The animal’s penchant for one-night stands had somewhat diminished over the past few months. He found himself yearning for something more, but Marcus didn’t want that. He’d tried marriage before, and it hadn’t ended well. He wasn’t about to repeat the experience.
Marcus carefully put his pen down, straightened his desk and slipped on his jacket. He would go to the gym. Working out always made him feel better. He would exercise until he was too exhausted to listen to the rumblings of his animal, and too tired to care about the beast’s desire to mate.
He doubted any woman could change his mind about taking a mate again; it would take a hell of a woman, and he doubted a woman like that even existed.
Chapter Three
Ling groaned as the doorbell rang again. Just go away, she thought, grouchily.
She was lying, face down in bed. She hadn’t bothered to wash or comb her hair that day, and she hadn’t left the house in over a week. Supplies wer
e running low.
The doorbell finally stopped, and Ling sighed in relief. She soon started panicking when a key started rattling in her front door. Who the hell could that be?
Moments later, the intruder called out her name, and Ling really started panicking. Why the hell had she given her mother a key?
Her bedroom door was soon opened, and her mother swept into the room, and started picking up discarded clothes and used tissues. Ling supposed she should at least be grateful her mother bothered to knock on the front door.
“Well?” demanded Fang of her daughter. “Aren’t you at least going to say hello to your mother?”
“Hello, Mother,” came a very muffled and unenthusiastic response.
Fang threw back the curtains and Ling moaned in protest. “I like the darkness.”
Her mother tut-tutted at her. “Come on, now, little panda, the time for feeling sorry for yourself is over.”
Ling sat up and pouted at her mother. “I’m depressed.”
Fang pursed her lips and gingerly picked up an old pizza takeaway box. “No, you’re not, little panda, you’re just sad. To say you’re depressed is an insult to people who suffer from depression. You’ll be fine; you’ve had plenty of time to be upset, and now you need to buck up.”
Ling’s panda whined; her mother’s maternal instinct astounded her sometimes. “Thanks, Mother, helpful as always,” she muttered.
“What was that?” asked Fang, sharply.
“Nothing,” squeaked Ling.
“Good. You know, perhaps this is a blessing in disguise.”
Ling arched an eyebrow as she watched her mother tidy her bedroom. She had a horrible flashback to her teenage years and shook her head, trying to forget. Her high school years were best forgotten.
“I lost my boyfriend and my job, how can that be a blessing?”
Fang placed her hands on her slim hips. “It gives you a chance for a fresh start. It gives you a chance to make a few lifestyle changes.”
Fang gave a significant look to the numerous takeaway boxes scattered around the room, before continuing. “And now you have the opportunity to form a lasting relationship, with someone much more suitable than a gorilla shifter.” She said the last two words with some distaste.
Both of Ling’s parents were red panda shifters; they came over to the country when they were both children, and were heavily involved in the Playa Lunar Chinese community. While Fang didn’t mind her daughter being a relationship with a man who wasn’t Chinese or a panda shifter, she did draw the line at gorillas. As far as she was concerned, any shifters larger than foxes were too big.
Fang started hanging up the clothes while Ling picked at a tissue. She’d gone through a lot in the past few weeks, and now she was all cried out.
Her mother surveyed the dress Ling had worn the day she got fired. “You know, Robert was asking after you the other day…”
Ling scowled. “Why were you talking to Robert?”
“He came over for a meal.”
“Mother!” she exclaimed in outrage. “I can’t believe you invited my ex-husband over to dinner!”
Fang smiled serenely. “I didn’t invite him, little panda, your brother did. They do work together, you know, and Robert does still golf with your father. He’s a good man; surely you wouldn’t begrudge your father and brother their friendships with him.”
Ling’s panda snapped her tiny jaws, furiously. She most definitely would begrudge those so-called friendships!
She met Robert through her brother; Robert co-owned a string of auto dealerships, and her little brother, Jun was the CFO of the company. Her brother was young, but he was one smart cookie. Robert, at first, had seemed charming, and he was absolutely enamored with Ling. After two months of dating he proposed, they married within a month, and a year later she caught him having sex with an octopus shifter in his office. Apparently, the octopus was all hands…
Robert begged her not to end the relationship, but Ling wouldn’t hear of it. She couldn’t forgive him for that. It still rankled, and it was salt in the wound to know that he was close to her family. They thought the sun shone out of a part of his anatomy best left to the imagination.
Fang gave her an ingratiating smile. “You know, Robert is still single, I don’t think he’s ever gotten over you.”
Good. “I’m never getting back together with Robert…”
Her mother shook her head. “Never say never.”
Her panda yowled in displeasure. “He cheated on me!”
“Everybody makes mistakes, little panda. People have overcome worse things. You shouldn’t be so judgmental, particularly after your own recent experiences.”
Yeesh, what the hell had possessed her to tell her mother the details? Mental note, the next time she decided to down a whole bottle of rum, she needed to hide all the phones.
“Not happening,” growled Ling, firmly. “What I really need to do right now, is find a new job. I can’t keep living on my meager savings.” Plus, there were those credit card bills to worry about, her severance pay hadn’t barely dented them.
Thankfully, she had managed to wangle both her gorgeous, big house, with a pool, and her Mercedes from the divorce. So she only had to worry about day-to-day expenses.
“Perhaps Jun could get you a job…”
Ling snorted. No one could say her mother wasn’t persistent. “No, Mother, because that would mean I’d have to work with Robert.”
Fang began making the bed around Ling. “I don’t think you really need a job anyway, if you find a husband, you’d give up work anyway.”
She rolled her eyes; apparently her mother was stuck in the ‘50’s. “What would I do all day, if I didn’t have a job?”
Her mother herded her off the bed, and reluctantly Ling clambered off and slumped into an armchair. “You would do what I do.”
“Okay, what is it you do all day?”
“Don’t use that tone with me, little panda.” Fang was gratified to note that Ling looked suitably chastised. No matter how old her children were, Fang could still get them in line.
Fang perched her petite frame on the edge of the now tidy bed. “Well, I run errands for your father, I play bridge with my friends, I go to the gym, I play tennis and lunch at the country club, I go to my bookclub, and I volunteer with the Playa Lunar Ladies Society, where we do lots of charity work. I have a very full social life; wouldn’t you like to do those things?”
“No, no to all of that.” Ugh, that all sounded horrific. Her biggest objection was probably the tennis, shortly followed by the gym visits.
“And, of course, before that, I was raising my children,” she said, pointedly.
Ling stared out the window and tried not to sigh too loudly. It was a source of much contention that Ling still hadn’t provided her mother with any grandchildren. Her younger brother already had two children. Her brother allowed their mother to set him up on a blind date, he hit it off with his shy date, Mei, and now she was pregnant with their third baby.
Fang was quick to point out the fact that Ling’s biological clock was ticking. Ling was adamant she had plenty of time yet; she was only 28. Although, every time her mother brought it up, she found that clock ticking just a little louder.
Ling folded her arms. “I have plenty of time.”
“Not that much time,” muttered Fang. “Well, you can't sit around and mope all day. Now, I have some friends…”
“No! Definitely, no.”
Her mother’s eyes flashed to the dark orange of her animal. “Do not interrupt me, little one!”
“Sorry, Mother.” Ling hung her head and whimpered.
Fang sniffed. “As I was saying, I have some friends with sons who are all available and would love to meet you. In spite of your bad luck with men, you really are a lovely creature, and you deserve to be happy.”
Ling’s panda whined uneasily. “I don’t know…” Why couldn’t her mother focus her attention on Ling’s little sister, Shuang? Okay, ma
ybe she was only 19, but she was still single too!
“I have three friends, who are all keen for you to meet their sons. One is the manager of a bank, the second is an executive at a fast food conglomerate, and the third works at a zoo, which would you prefer?”
Lord, it was like The Dating Game. Yep, it was just as bad as watching an episode of The Dating Game. Over the years, Fang had attempted to set Ling up on dates with the children of her numerous friends, all to no avail. Ling wasn’t enthusiastic to let her start now.
“Do you really think it’s a good idea to set me up with a blind date when the Blind Date Killer is roaming free?”
The Blind Date Killer was the nickname The Daily Lunar had given a serial killer who lured women onto blind dates, then killed them and laid them out on their beds surrounded by rose petals. It was a scary time to be single...
Fang pursed her lips. “You shouldn’t joke about that kind of thing. Besides, he only goes for beautiful women under the age of 25; you’re certainly not his type.”
Should she be relieved or pissed at what her mother just said? “Yeah, thanks, Mother.”
Her mother patted the space on the bed next to her, and Ling felt compelled to go and sit next to her. Fang pulled out a giant hairbrush from her massive purse and began dragging it through Ling’s knotted hair, eliciting numerous yelps from her daughter.
“All of my friends are eager to get their sons married off, and they are always asking after my beautiful, accomplished daughter. They want to know why I am hiding you from them. I just thought that if you loved me, you would actually do this for me.”
Ling winced as she felt her scalp almost being pulled away. “Do you promise to stop nagging me and immediately stop this hair torture?”
“Yes,” she replied, simply.
“Then fine! I’ll take the bank manager; he sounds the least objectionable.”
Fang dropped the brush back into her bag. “Good, he’ll pick you up at seven on Wednesday.”
Ling whipped her head round to see her mother making her way to the door. “Wait… what… Wednesday?”
Her mother gave her a wave. “I’ll call you soon, little panda.” With that, she was gone.
