Dating the Panther: A Shifter Dating Agency Romance

by Ruby Forrest

  Raelyn laughed. They weren’t the same things and they both knew that, but that was Lucy. She wasn’t organized and wasn’t reliable, except for the few times she’d be there for her sister. Hearing Lucy remind Raelyn not to hold onto the pain was good. Raelyn knew she shouldn’t have expected things to end perfectly, especially since Blake was the first person she’d been with for more than two dates, since Christian. I shouldn’t have expected so much from him, or me. It was over now, and Raelyn was determined to pick up and move on—even if she kept thinking about Blake.

  Chapter Fourteen

  He was angry with himself for the first time in a long time. Blake couldn’t remember feeling so frustrated and stupid, before. He never made mistakes like this; he never believed his choices were wrong or that he’d missed out on something. There were no mistakes, just dodging bullets.

  Raelyn hadn’t felt like a bullet. She was different. Blake hated that he thought of her with that word on his tongue, but it was there like a lead weight. Raelyn took his secret in stride, kept it to herself, and hadn’t pushed for answers about it. She’d accepted him with interest—not just for the other side of him, the way Laura had, but for him. She asked me what my favorite color was. It was stupid and didn’t mean anything, but for some reason, he kept remembering it.

  “Ah, shit—no, no worries, I’ve got it.” The voice behind Blake sounded like Raelyn. He stopped himself from turning, reasoning that it couldn’t be her, but then he did anyway.

  She was standing at the bar in an expensive leather jacket, her jeans tight and her blouse so low it threatened to fall open with every movement. Raelyn looked different, with smoky eyes and silver rings on her fingers. She looked more like the women Blake used to date, and he wasn’t sure what to think. He walked over to her before he could think twice.

  “Raelyn. I—” Blake started, not sure what he was going to say but knowing he had to say something. You what? You’re sorry? How does sorry justify acting like you owned her, when you were the one that said it wouldn’t last and you didn’t care?

  She looked back at him blankly and then her violet eyes widened a fraction. “Oh. Damn—I guess you’re Blake. She wasn’t wrong.”

  “What?” The question left Blake’s mouth before he could stop it. He wondered if this was some sort of game, or if she was pretending not to know him.

  “You’re thinking of my twin,” she said, shrugging. “I’m Lucy. Guess you never had time to talk about me. Nice to finally see you, though.”

  Lucy. It hit Blake like a truck—the way his first date had been so awful. The way Raelyn had corrected him after that, but never gave an explanation. Why the matchmaker had been so confident. Lucy was Blake’s type, with her arched eyebrow and the way she leaned against the bar. She was the one he was supposed to meet.

  “You. You’re the one,” Blake said.

  Lucy snorted. “I’ve heard that one before. Yeah—sorry about that. I wasn’t in the country. Anyway, at least I got to see you.”

  Lucy started walking away. Blake caught her arm, but she shook out of his grip and turned to him, arms crossed. Her expression was eerily similar to Raelyn’s when she was angry; expectant and unimpressed. There were only minor differences—the way Lucy held her shoulders, a faint white scar on her jaw, the steel in her gaze. They made Blake think of Raelyn even more.

  “Hey. I wanted to—”

  “What? Talk to her? That’s your problem,” Lucy said, shrugging. She disappeared further back into the bar, the crowd swallowing her. Blake watched her go and tried not to feel like he’d failed.

  Blake left the bar and went to his house—the property at the edge of the city, with the woods skirting it. He needed to shift. To expend his energy. He wanted to think, and things always went better when he stopped trying to shove away half of his mind and personality. Aaron was somewhere around the house when Blake got home, but he didn’t interrupt. Blake shifted in one breath and left the house, running as soon as he stepped out the back door.

  He liked to let the world in—smells and sounds descending on him and blocking out everything else. Things were simpler, when he was shifted. Work wasn’t a concern; the office was a distant memory and there was nothing as important as where he was stepping and what he was sensing. Blake ran until he felt unwound.

  He heard something. There was a snap in the distance and he turned, bristling. He felt a flare of anger and instinct; someone was on his land. He could smell them when the breeze shifted. Blake started moving and then there was a loud crack and a burning in his arm. He roared, turning, and there was a flash of motion. Blake tackled the stranger, but he stopped when the man fell to the ground and didn’t move. The distant human in Blake’s mind was panicking.

  Blake barely registered what came next. He sprinted back to the house. Aaron was waiting, pacing by the back door. He knew what to do without being asked; Aaron left the house, going to the man in the woods. He would come up with something—brush the occurrence off as a mistake, question the man about trespassing, casually invite the police and end up turning the stranger away with a warning and no bad feelings. It would be taken care of.

  Except Blake shifted back and saw the bullet wound in his arm. He didn’t know what to do. It hurt, and he had never been to a hospital; he’d never needed to. Blake snatched his keys and a towel, wrapping his arm and slamming his car door shut behind him. He started driving, not thinking about the consequences of what he was doing and headed to Raelyn’s apartment.

  Raelyn stretched, adjusting her sweatpants when they slipped. Her evening exercise had gone well, and she felt relaxed. Raelyn could forget about her worries, just for a few hours. Just while she made something to eat and figured out what to do with her day off.

  Someone knocked at her door before she could start. Raelyn frowned and glanced at the clock—Lucy would still be out, and she was the only one that would show up. When she went to the door, she didn’t recognize the blur in the peephole. Raelyn opened the door, prepared to shut it again, and then she froze.

  “I need to come in,” Blake said. He looked wrong—sweaty, for some reason, and he was half-turned away from her. “Please.”

  He said please and Raelyn, startled, moved back. She opened the door wider and Blake came in. Raelyn caught a heavy metallic smell in the air and shrank back, throwing the lock and following Blake into the kitchen.

  “What the hell—”

  “Do you know a doctor? A nurse? Anyone,” Blake said, the words grinding between his teeth.

  Raelyn finally saw the injury. “Shit. No—look, you need a hospital—”

  “You know—” Blake started, arguing, but Raelyn cut him off.

  “I do. I can also see that it went right through. You have money and you have charm. It won’t take much for them to just brush it off. I assume you took care of the person?”

  Blake didn’t say much. Raelyn gave up and drove them to the hospital, even while Blake kept looking around like he expected someone to jump out and attack him. The visit went the way Raelyn had expected; Aaron came within seconds of Blake signing in, laughing about an accident on their property and how Blake shouldn’t go running when stray hunters lurked in the woods. Everything was neatly tied up and then Raelyn was sitting next to Blake in a private room.

  “I’m sorry,” Blake said. He spoke slowly, like he was trying to remember how to say the words.

  “For what? You panicked. At least you got help. It would have been pretty sad for you to die in the forest from a gunshot wound to the arm,” Raelyn replied. She wanted to laugh, but she was tired and didn’t know how to handle this.

  Seeing him again reminded her what was worth saving in him. His cocky attitude hadn’t been anywhere when he’d come to her for help. In a moment of fear and pressure, Blake had showed up at her door and trusted her to know what to do.

  “That’s not what I meant,” Blake said, staring her down. “I have—there are sometimes when I can’t sepa
rate what’s right and what my instinct tells me. I’m out of practice. I won’t ask you to be patient with me, but—”

  “But, I’ll be patient anyway,” Raelyn said. She couldn’t believe the words leaving her mouth. You’re going to go through this, again? It wasn’t a question, though. It wasn’t even a problem. “Except this time, you’re going to have to give some ground, too. If we can’t meet halfway, there’s not point.”

  Blake smirked a little, looking down at his arm. “I forgot why I liked you.”

  “Why is that?”

  “You don’t back down.”

  ***

  A month had passed. A month, and Blake felt like it was half that time. He returned from the office, glad to have the work day behind him, and found Raelyn in the kitchen wearing nothing but one of his shirts. It was completely unbuttoned.

  “Oh. You’re back,” she said, as if she’d been there all day. Raelyn still had her apartment; she spent more of her time there. They had been slower their second time around, even if they still ended up in her bed the night after Blake’s accident.

  Blake dropped his jacket onto a hook by the door. “I hate surprises—but I’ll make an exception.”

  Raelyn grinned. Blake gave up. Just seeing her had sent a rush through him and Raelyn was walking toward the bedroom, letting the shirt flutter and rise over her thighs as she walked. Blake caught up to her in the doorway and leaned down to kiss her. Raelyn undressed him as she walked backward, sighing happily as Blake moved down her neck.

  “Do you mind?” Raelyn asked, when Blake had backed up to the bed. He understood what she was asking and there was no question in his mind. Not anymore.

  “Not at all,” Blake said, grinning. He fell back on the bed and waited for Raelyn to straddle him, pushing his shirt off her shoulders.

  Looking back, Blake couldn’t remember why he hadn’t wanted this. Raelyn rode him like her life depended on it and he loved the way her hair shone in the light coming through the window. Blake pressed a hand to Raelyn’s stomach and let her bounce until they were both so loud he was glad they didn’t have neighbors. Raelyn finished first, her hands pushing on his body as her legs shook around him. Blake let the feeling of her tightening around him push him over the edge; he didn’t even have to move, content to let her do the work.

  When Raelyn finally rolled off, she curled into his side, breathing hard. When she spoke, it was through a cloud of laughter and pleasure. “That wasn’t so bad, was it?”

  Blake shook his head, combing hair away from his face. He could see the sun outlining Raelyn’s legs in his periphery, perfect gold curves he wanted to reach out and hold. So, he did, his hand tracing Raelyn’s thigh, reveling in the softness of her skin.

  “No, it wasn’t. It was perfect.”

  THE END