by E A Price
She heard a muffled grunt and sighed. Thankfully, she had a spare key to Ling’s house, as she doubted her the panda shifter would have answered the door. Carly had never seen her friend so despondent, even when her marriage broke down. That asshole Myron really did a number on her.
She half-turned back to her mate and whispered to him as they climbed the stairs, “Just don’t spook her, okay? Don’t make any sudden movements; we don’t want her running off.”
Jackson snorted. “To be clear, your friend was dumped and fired, she didn’t turn into a deer. She’ll be fine.”
“Says the man who’s never been dumped.” Clearly, he’d never been used and then just tossed aside.
Jackson rolled his shoulders unconcernedly. “I was never in a relationship before I met you.”
“Aww,” Carly flushed happily as her fox mewled contentedly. It gave her a thrill to think that she had been the one to tame his bad body nature… sort of; he was still pretty rough around the edges.
“And there’s no way you’re ever dumping me. If you ever try to leave me, I will hunt you down and chain you up.” He let out a rough growl to press the point.
“Duly noted.” She was way past reacting to Jackson’s possessive nature. She and her fox loved it.
Carly knocked on Ling’s bedroom door before gently pushing it open. She was relieved to see Ling was fully dressed, and nodded for Jackson to follow her in. They’d learnt to do that the hard way. Right after Ling was fired, she couldn’t even be bothered to pull on her sweatpants. It had annoyed the hell out of Carly at the time.
She was a little surprised to find Ling sitting on the bed, munching on some toaster pastries. Ling smiled when she saw her friend and paused an episode of The Sands of Lunar Beach. She rolled her eyes when Jackson stomped in the room and, heavily, collapsed into her armchair, making it groan in protest.
Although she and Jackson were getting along better, she still found him to be uncouth and insensitive.
Carly perched on the bed next to her. “How you feeling, sweetie?”
Ling offered Carly a pastry, which was eagerly accepted. “Better, my mother came by…”
Carly looked at her in disbelief. “And that made you feel better?
Ling let out a genuine giggle. “Well, no, but she made me see that Myron isn’t worth getting upset over, any more than Robert was.”
“Damn straight,” growled Jackson. “If you want me to beat up the gorilla jackass, you just let me know.”
Ling smiled gratefully. She knew he would if she asked; it wasn’t an idle offer. “Thanks, I appreciate the offer, and I am tempted. He’s actually been trying to call me. He keeps leaving me messages telling me that he’s sorry.”
“Fucker!” exclaimed Jackson as Carly made grumbling noises.
“There’s no way you’ll actually go back to work there, is there?” asked Carly.
A guilty look flitted over Ling’s face. “Even if I wanted to, I don’t think I could, not the way I left…”
Carly had heard the edited version of what happened, including the part where Ling told him he was bad in bed in front of her office. Perhaps it was time she divulged what happened next…
After bursting into tears in the elevator, Ling had felt a rush of anger. On getting out at the lobby, she proceeded to push over three large decorative cheese plants. On running into a senior partner at the company, who always tried to look down her top, she flashed him her boobs – he was 76 and he almost had a heart attack. Finally, she told the security guards that it was Myron who lobbied for them to get a pay cut. And for good measure, in the parking lot, she keyed Myron’s car and kicked his side mirrors off. It felt great at the time.
Ling’s cheeks reddened after she told them. “It was not my finest hour.”
Jackson looked at the panda shifter with new respect. She was wilder than he thought. “I beg to differ.”
Carly clucked her tongue and ignored him. “Well then, I have good news. There’s a job available at the bail bond agency; you can come and work with us!”
Ling blinked at her for a few seconds. “Umm, that’s a really nice offer but…”
Carly let out an irritated grunt. “Nice nothing, we need someone, and you need a job – it’s perfect!”
Ling screwed up her face. Yes, she did need a job, and she doubted she actually would get a very good recommendation from Myron. Not now, anyway. But, and she didn’t really like to admit this to Carly, working in a bail bond agency just seemed so… low-brow. A few weeks ago, she was a secretary to a rising executive at a multi-million dollar company. The idea of going from that to being an office girl at a company where they dealt with people, who were arrested for public urination, was just depressing. Surely, she was better than that. Carly, however, for some unfathomable reason to Ling, adored working there.
Carly jumped up and down on the bed a few times. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”
Not for the first time, Ling realized they had different ideas about fun. Up until Carly met Jackson, she had been kind of shy, and Ling was the adventurous one. But now, Carly was turning pretty wild. Ling would consider a meal in a fancy restaurant a fun date. Carly would consider an evening chasing down a runaway bounty a fun date. Ling wondered if she would also have a personality transplant if she ever met her true mate.
Ling chewed her lip. “I just can’t see me dealing with people who have been arrested.”
“Well, you won’t have to… well, not much anyway. It’s not like you’ll be out catching them; you’ll be in the office, filing things and answering the phone and, hey, wait a minute! I’ve been arrested before, and so have you!”
Ling let out a sigh. “Yes, but we were innocent.”
Carly frowned. “You weren’t innocent when you ripped up those twenty-six parking tickets, and are you saying you didn’t know that was marijuana in your purse?”
Jackson snickered, and Ling scowled at him. "First of all, I ripped up those tickets in protest, that parking lot was supposed to be free for anyone to use. And secondly, I didn’t know my asshat boyfriend had put that marijuana in my purse. He just put it in there because his pants didn't have pockets.” Needless to say, they broke up after that. “Look, I just think I should look for another job like my old one.” She was trying to be diplomatic; it was better than saying she didn’t want to work in a flea-bitten bail bond agency.
Carly, in turn, tried her hand at being diplomatic. “Do you think it’s likely you’ll get another job like that without a letter of recommendation from My… from your previous employer?”
Her panda whined uneasily. There was that.
“You don’t need that at the bail bond agency,” continued Carly, snagging another toaster pastry. “We’ll take anyone - we’re desperate.”
Ling clutched a pillow to her. “Gee, thanks, that really makes me feel wanted.”
Carly waved a hand dismissively. “You know what I mean. I know it’ll be a wage cut, but at least it’s a job. Plus, we can gossip, and go out to lunch together. It’ll be fun.”
Ling’s animal perked up a little; that last part did sound nice. Since Carly bonded with the wolf, she had barely seen her best friend.
Carly was gratified that Ling was warming to the idea. “Besides, who knows? You might just meet a handsome bounty hunter; I was very pleased with mine.”
Carly winked at Jackson who returned it with a very lascivious growl.
“How handsome?” enquired Ling demurely.
Carly giggled. “Well, there’s a really enormous bear shifter and a super sexy tiger shifter…”
Jackson snarled furiously, and Carly ran over and jumped into his lap. “Not as sexy as the wolf shifter, of course, but he’s already spoken for.”
He preened as Carly nipped his chin and Ling scoffed.
She wasn't entirely convinced. “Isn’t the place run by a snake though? You know I don’t like snakes; they tend to be a little… terrifying.”
Snake shifters tended to be c
ruel at the best of times; they had a way of looking right through you that Ling hated. Not to mention how quick to violence they were.
“Marcus is a good guy,” Jackson told her.
Ling looked at him in surprise; the surly wolf shifter rarely had anything good to say about anyone, other than Carly, of course.
Carly nodded in agreement. “He is; besides, he mostly just stays in his office. When he does come out, he only talks about work, and even then he doesn’t say much. You’ll barely even notice he’s there.”
The fox shifter could see the internal struggle on her friend’s face, and decided she needed a little push. “Come on, you can’t stay around the house and mope all day, you need a job. Unless you’re planning on giving in to your mom and joining the Country Club.”
Ling flashed her a look of horror, and Carly almost giggled. For the icing on the cake, she just needed to say one last thing, “Just think, if you did join the Country Club, you and your mom could play tennis with each other every day…”
The red panda cried out in alarm. No, she refused to turn into her mother! She leapt off the bed. “You’re right, let me get my purse and we can…”
Carly sucked in a breath. “Don’t you think you should…ummm…well…”
“Shower first,” supplied Jackson.
Ling frowned. Yeah, okay, maybe it had been a couple of days. “Fine, I’ll take a shower.”
Carly smiled in agreement. “And also you should probably… erm…”
“Brush your teeth,” suggested Jackson.
Ling held up a hand to her mouth and breathed. She coughed. “Yep, good call on that.”
Carly looked at her awkwardly. “Plus, I think it would be best if…”
“You wore some clothes that didn’t have pizza stains all over them,” interrupted Jackson.
Carly groaned and pushed off him, giving him the stink eye. “Alright, I think we’ve helped her enough for today. Ling, sweetie, we’re gonna go, and I’ll see you at the agency in what, a couple of hours?”
Ling nodded. Carly grabbed a couple of pastries for the road, and Ling watched her curvy figure sway out of the room with Jackson’s muscled frame lumbering after her. It pained her to admit it, but she was really jealous of her best friend. Not in that she actually wanted Jackson. Yeuch! That thought made her want to retch, but she would give anything to meet her true mate... or even just a decent guy.
She shook her head, getting back to the matter at hand. Surely she didn’t look that bad… She faced the mirror and almost shrieked in shock at the bedraggled woman staring back. Yeesh, how the heck had she let things get this bad? Over an ungrateful bastard like Myron, no less!
She ran to the bathroom and quickly flipped on the shower. Alright, so she didn’t want to work at the bail bond agency, but so what? She’d worked jobs she didn’t like before, and she could do it again.
Her panda yipped in encouragement. She was determined to make the most of it. Perhaps this time she just needed to avoid falling in love with her boss.
Chapter Six
Ling smoothed down her dress and surveyed the outside of the Blau Bail Bond Agency. It was pretty shabby looking, and it wasn’t exactly in a great part of town.
She chewed her cheek and considered just turning around and hightailing it to the nearest Lunar Burger, but her panda started wailing, and she didn’t think it was worth the headache. Taking a deep breath, she pushed her way into the office.
Okay, so far, so good. She was expecting something seedy and smoky. Yeah, she’d watched too many movies. In reality, it was just a pleasant little office.
“One second and I’ll be with you,” called a harried voice.
“No problem,” she replied.
She sniffed the air; hmmmm, rabbit. A few seconds later, a small rabbit shifter bustled into the room; her face was obscured by the boxes she was carrying. It was brave for a rabbit to work for a snake shifter.
Ling moved forward and took the top box. “Here, let me help you with that.”
“Thanks,” she said gratefully. Mia could have waited until Logan arrived; he’d have been more than happy to help, but she had been meaning to get rid of these boxes of junk for ages. They were filled with items previous customers had put up for their bail bonds. Not everyone had money to pay; some scraped together items from their homes, including TVs, blenders, a personal neck massager… Mia shuddered when she saw that.
“Here, let’s put them over in the waiting area.”
They dumped both boxes on the shabby couch, and Mia wiped her hands. She blinked as she studied the woman stood in front of her. She had to be Carly's friend. In truth, she had been expecting a Carly clone, all wild hair, cheeky smile and impatient attitude. While the Chinese woman stood in front of her was Carly’s age, and possessed the same curves as Carly, she was an entirely different creature.
“Hello, I’m Ling.” She thrust out her hand, and Mia shook it.
Ling was sleek and businesslike, without a hair or eyelash out of place. Mia faltered a little; she felt so frumpy in comparison, with her baggy shirt and crumpled skirt. If only Mia had seen her a couple of hours ago.
“So, you’re here about the job?”
Ling hesitated, but forced herself to speak. “Yes, I’m here to interview for it.”
“Marcus, my uncle, should be back soon, why don’t you sit at your desk – or, what would be your desk.” Mia led her over while Ling looked at her questioningly.
“Your uncle is a snake?” she asked in disbelief.
“My father is too.” Mia shrugged. It was a reaction that she was used to. People still had trouble believing a rabbit had mated a snake, but they were true mates. If fate thought her parents should be together, who was anyone else to question it?
Ling demurely sat on the chair. Her panda yapped at her. Okay, so this wasn’t so bad, and Mia seemed sweet. If she could grow up around a snake, then Ling should have no problem working with one.
Mia offered to make her a drink, and she accepted a cup of tea.
Ling sat, twisting her hands, impatiently waiting for the snake to arrive. It was just like a snake to think other people didn’t matter! She was thinking of the many things she didn’t like about snake shifters when Carly, Jackson and a huge bear shifter erupted through the door. Her heart almost leapt out of her chest in surprise.
“You’re here!” squealed Carly.
“Well, obviously,” laughed Ling.
Carly’s eyes twinkled. “Ling, this is Logan, Logan this is Ling.”
The bear gave her a crooked smile and bound over. He engulfed her small hand in a warm handshake.
Carly made little cooing noises while Jackson groaned. Mmmm, the bear was nice looking, if a little large. He seemed pretty easy going, but he didn’t exactly exude confidence or power. That was what she liked; sadly both her ex-boyfriend and ex-husband had that in buckets. Ling smiled indulgently, but her panda let out a little growl of protest. This shifter wasn’t for them.
Ling told him it was nice to meet him and settled back into her seat. Carly frowned but Ling ignored her.
Mia came out and handed Ling her drink while giving Logan an adoring glance. Carly and Jackson seemed completely oblivious, but Ling could see the heated look Logan gave her in return. Hmmm, if she had wanted him, it looked like he was already taken anyway.
Carly was soon distracted by something shiny. “Ooh, where did this come from?” She pulled the blender out of one of the junk boxes and started inspecting it.
Mia pursed her lips. “It was from one of the previous skips; he was a personal trainer who attacked one of his clients. He didn’t have quite enough money, so we got his blender and his coffee maker. He was a nasty piece of work.”
Carly twisted the blender in her hands. “Hmmm, he had good taste in home appliances though. Can I keep it?”
Mia rolled her shoulders and concentrated on her computer screen. “Sure, if you want it.”
Jackson grunted. “You’re not b
ringing that piece of crap home with you, we barely have enough room as it is.”
Carly stuck out her tongue. The mates lived in Jackson’s trailer, and given Carly’s collection of shoes – which, as Jackson pointed out, she never wore – space was at a premium.
“I’m not taking it home,” she told him, haughtily. “It’s staying here.”
He folded his arms. “What do you want with a blender?”
She sniffed. “I’m going to make smoothies. I’m on a diet.”
“Since when?” asked Ling in bewilderment. Hadn’t they just shared a box of toaster pastries less than three hours ago?
“Since now, the blender gave me the idea.”
“Stupid, fucking blender,” muttered Jackson, eyeing it with loathing.
Carly set up the blender on Ling’s desk, or her almost-desk, she still had to get the job. Which, Carly had no doubt she would.
“Hey, that tickles!” yelped Ling as Carly climbed under the desk to plug it in.
Jackson smiled wolfishly as her ass wriggled under the desk.
She climbed back out and disappeared into the kitchen, bringing back a pile of fruit and vegetables and some yogurt. Thankfully, her mate ate healthily. She crammed everything into the blender.
Ling watched her with interest. “Alright, I’ll ask. Why are you suddenly on a diet?”
“Yeah,” snarled Jackson. “I don’t know who the hell you’re trying to lose weight for, but I will rip his fucking throat out.”
Ling’s eyes widened, but no one else seemed overly concerned by his proclamation.
“I’m not trying to lose weight; I’ve decided I need to get in shape to catch those bounties. We’ll also have to start doing some exercise.”
Jackson’s eyes turned amber, and he growled lustily; he opened his mouth to speak, and Carly interrupted him. “Real exercise, not the type you’re thinking of.”
Ling looked at the mushy mess in the blender as Carly added wheatgrass. She ran her hands down her, somewhat, thick thighs. “Rather you than me.”
Mia asked the two male shifters to get rid of the two boxes of junk. It wasn’t said, but it was implied that Mia wanted them gone before Carly found something else she wanted to keep. Logan and a slightly mollified Jackson did as she asked, disappearing out the office.
