by Kate Wendley
For a split second she thought she saw something soften in his gaze, but it was quickly gone.
His expression definitely guarded, he bobbed his head towards her. “See you around, Penny.”
Oh God. Her knees went weak. He remembered her name…
**
Vince scoffed as Penny walked away. He was too mad to think of anything nice to say to her, but it didn’t matter anyway. She was shifter and he was… deformed. A shifter who couldn’t shift, or even get through a day without nearly collapsing from exhaustion. He was definitely handicapped.
The word felt bitter even thinking it, and he hated the world and every perfectly formed shapeshifter standing out here with him right now. He didn’t want to come to grips with the fact that something was seriously wrong with him. It made him feel twisted up inside, and unclean. His human form was all he had but he should have more. He should have a jaguar, dammit. And from the sounds of it, he was the first handicapped shifter they’d ever had. Great. What an effing distinction.
And his mom… he couldn’t even look at her anymore.
**
They drove home in strained silence, and as soon as Ed pulled up to the curb, Vince popped out, stormed inside the house, grabbed the car keys and turned right around to leave again.
He nearly ran into his mom as she came in the front door with Ed right behind her. “Vince, please. Talk to me honey.”
He practically screamed in her face, “What, you want to do this now?”
She quietly said, “Yes.”
“Fine. Then why the hell don’t you tell me why I’m the only goddamn person who doesn’t know who my father is? Every fucking stranger in Atlanta knows, but you never bothered to tell me?”
She withered at his anger and Ed’s expression turned hard. Vince knew he needed to get the hell out of here before he lost it, so he stepped away from her and barked out, “I’m leaving. It’d be good if you could take the MARTA to work today.”
Ed quietly said, “I’ll get your mother to work and back.”
Vince’s temper was right on the edge as he glared at Ed and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
**
Vince stared at the jaguars behind the fenced in enclosure at the Atlanta Zoo. He was jealous of the big cats’ sleek animal bodies and the way they moved so gracefully on all fours. As a kid he used to fantasize about what it would be like to be one of them, always a little jealous of his mom that she was one. It made him feel left out growing up because even his father was a jaguar. According to his mom, anyway. It hadn’t hit home that something might be wrong with him until he was around ten and went on a school field trip to the zoo. It was the first time he’d ever seen a real jaguar and he thought they were amazing. His mom had never let him see her as her cat, but at the zoo, he could watch them as long as he wanted.
That was around the time he started getting really shaky whenever he was tired. At first his mom played it off as growing pains. She thought he just needed more rest. But years went by and the shakes and fatigue never went away. They only got worse and worse, and then his first shift never happened. He’d adapted, though. He even figured out ways to hide his otherworldliness and various health issues from others. Most of the time it worked…
His stomach growled and what he thought might be the oldest jaguar in the enclosure looked sharply his way. He sourly said under his breath, “I’m no threat to you, Samira. I don’t even have an animal. In fact, you could kick my ass.”
She sniffed the air and gave him a bored look before rolling onto her side and closing her eyes.
He reluctantly left Samira and the other cats, though he felt less happy to see them than normal. They were one more reminder that he didn’t fully belong to the human world or the supernatural world.
He made his usual pit stop at the ponds on his way out of the zoo. The koi fish were so mesmerizing with their colorful, meaty bodies gliding effortlessly through the water… He reluctantly pulled his gaze away after only a few minutes and forced himself to head to his car before he was late for work.
Chapter 8
Penny grumbled under her breath at the insistent knocking on her door.
It was Zach. Of course. “Don’t tell me you already got another virus on your computer. I just fixed the stupid thing.”
“Come with me to pick out some desktop speakers for Anthony’s dad.”
“Huh? Why aren’t you going through the office for that? And can’t Anthony or his dad pick them out themselves?” She scoffed and walked away from her doorway knowing Zach would follow her inside.
“Oh come on. What do you have going on tonight anyway?”
“I’m watching a documentary on working with clay.”
He lazily smirked. “Another hobby? Haven’t you accumulated enough?”
She said just a little too tightly, “I don’t accumulate hobbies.”
His eyebrows climbed his forehead and he looked away. She followed his gaze and groaned out loud when he stepped towards her kitchen counter. He picked up a statuette of a metal butterfly sitting on a rose. “Just like metal working wasn’t supposed to be a hobby? This was going to be your new career, right? And how’s the survivalist training going? You ready to live by yourself out in the woods yet? Should I tell the office they can put your apartment up for grabs?”
She snatched the crudely shaped metal sculpture from his hands and situated it back on the counter while he had a good chuckle at her expense.
“Cram it, jerk. What do you want?”
He laughed again and stepped towards the door while giving her fake sad eyes. “Come with me. Please?”
She growled under her breath, but slipped into her shoes and grabbed a jacket. It wasn’t like she couldn’t catch up on her show later. And… she happily noticed that all her clothes clashed tonight.
“Do you want to change or something?”
She smirked. “Why? We’re just going shopping, right?” If he was going to joke about all her indecisions in life, she was going to make his night as miserable as possible.
He looked like he wanted to argue with her as he gave her a once over, but he finally just shrugged. “All right. Yeah, come on. Let’s go.”
Irritating Zach felt like a win to her, so she happily trudged after him. Sometimes she hated it, but she also liked it that she was always seen as one of the guys to men. It meant she sometimes got drug into fun and interesting things, but it also meant no one took her seriously as a living, breathing woman who really did want to have a serious relationship with a man sometime in this century.
He seemed quiet as they walked over to the parking garage and right up to his Xterra.
“Oh, hell no! If I have to go shopping for computer speakers when I’m not even at work, the least you could do is let me ride in something with style.”
Zach cocked his head and stared at her. “And what, oh Princess Penny, would you like to be chauffeured around in tonight?”
She slowly smiled and said, “I want a ride in the VW Fastback.”
He grunted at her. “Please pick something else.”
“No. The fastback. Come on come on come on! Let’s do it!”
He didn’t look all that excited to get the keys from the attendant for the nineteen sixties era classic car, but he let her pull him along anyway. There was a stable full of vehicles here that supposedly anyone in the family was allowed to drive, but in reality only certain people could drive certain cars. And any classics being restored were reserved for the people working on them, and the alphas. End of story.
Soon they were on the road in the primer gray, overly loud, bumpy beast, and she couldn’t stop smiling. If only the thing had a stereo so she could crank some noisy, punk rock.
“So what’s up with the new guy?” She had to talk a little loud to be heard over the roar of the engine and other car and road noises that weren’t muffled all that well.
Zach spared only a quick glance at her since the steering wheel had a lot
of play in it. It looked like it took some effort to keep the car going straight. “You mean Vince?”
“Yeah.”
“I thought you could tell me. Seemed like you two already knew each other.”
“Me? I only met him right before you did the other night.”
Zach nodded, then jerked the wheel to the right to dodge someone drifting into their lane. She joined him in cursing the driver out, who was on his cell phone, of course, and didn’t even know what he’d done. And before she knew it, Zach was pulling into a shopping center. Not fair. The ride wasn’t long enough.
“Where are we going?”
He pointed to her right. “The bookstore over there.”
“Why? I thought you wanted to pick out speakers.”
“I need to stop there first. Come in with me. You need Christmas gifts anyway, right? You can buy something there.”
She muttered, “I was going to get gift cards for everyone.”
“An actual gift would be more thoughtful. You only have your sister and parents to buy for anyway, right?”
She scowled and got out after he parked, jumping at how loud the door was when she slammed it shut. Zach waited impatiently for her, though he didn’t really look all that upset as she trudged alongside him into Peach’s Books.
Sheesh. Everything in Atlanta was named after a peach or a peach tree. Once inside the unoriginally named store, though, her inner cynic quieted down. It was a surprisingly funky place with bric-a-brac here and there and a cute little café further inside. Bookshelves were dotted with handmade signs with quirky quotes and employee reviews and recommendations written on them. The whole place had an eclectic, yet soulful vibe to it.
“Oof.”
She ran into Zach’s back when he suddenly stopped in front of her and very dramatically said to whoever was there, “You’re welcome.”
She peeked nosily around him to see who he was talking to, and her heart did a flip flop as she stared up into sexy Vince’s scowling, confused face. When his eyes moved from Zach to her, she immediately imagined him as his jaguar, sleek and powerful, stalking through the forest. She hoped she’d get to see that soon.
His frown relaxed and he gave her a tired smile. “Hey Penny.”
“Hi Vince.” She hated how girly her voice came out, especially knowing he wasn’t all that interested in her. Gesturing to the name badge hanging on the lanyard around his neck, she mockingly said, “So you work here or something?” Ugh. Could she sound any more stupid?
His eyes stayed locked on hers as he gestured around himself. “It’s a bookworm paradise.”
Zach flatly said, “Well that’s just great. Penny needs to find Christmas gifts for her sister and parents. You should help her out.”
She cringed inside, hoping Vince didn’t tell them to go shove it. Luckily all he said was, “Sure.”
She traded a loaded look with Zach, who was smiling innocently at her. Or pretending to be innocent, anyway.
“Be nice to him, Penny. Don’t play any of your tricks on him.”
“I don’t…” She scoffed and said under her breath, “I only do that to people who piss me off.”
“Like putting a bunch of kitten screen savers on my computer? And changing all my desktop icons to different sea animals? What did I do to deserve that?”
“Quit getting viruses by going to those nasty sites and you wouldn’t have to have me fix your computer all the time.”
Zach rolled his eyes and shook his head, then smirked and wandered away. She wanted to strangle him. Like she needed help making friends. At least Vince didn’t seem to mind her being here. Maybe she hadn’t totally blown it with him after all.
He stifled a confused grin and said, “I like your shirt.”
“Hmm?” She looked down and wished she’d taken Zach up on his suggestion to change clothes. This was the rattiest t-shirt she owned. “I do actually own other clothes besides just band t-shirts.”
Vince’s lip quirked and the twinkle in his dark eyes made her stomach flutter. “So what kind of gifts are you looking for?”
“I don’t know. Janessa likes touchy feely, cute crap, and my dad’s totally into Sudoku. Not sure what my mom would like. Maybe a cookbook.”
His gaze lingered on her and it made her feel warm all over until he finally turned away and said, “We have Sudoku books over here.”
Her face felt hot as she followed him to the middle of the store where lots of customers were browsing through the stacks like a pack of wild animals. Vince dove right in to select some books while her eyes were glued to his sexiness. He seemed in his element here, expertly weaving in and out of customers as if he was used to working with crowds of people. She definitely wasn’t. She wasn’t even that great at talking to just one person.
While he was busy finding her some books, she studied his sexy body. He was taller than her by a good six inches, his upper body wide and tapering down to a V, and if he were a little heavier he might be considered buff with those muscles peeking out under his short sleeves. His strong arms were long, and his hands looked like they weren’t afraid of a little work. She liked that.
He started handing her stuff, and she realized she was smiling a little too widely. She stared hard at the books in her hands as if she’d memorize them while she forced herself to calm her emotions. The last thing she needed was Zach getting on her about her eyes glowing in public.
“This series seems to be really popular, and they have all different levels of difficulty.”
She nodded, afraid to look at him just yet. “Are there any where the puzzles are already solved? That would be awesome.”
He chuckled. “The answers are in the back of the book, actually.”
“Oh. Thanks. I’ll get him the advanced one then.”
He took back the rest of the stack, a crazy lady practically grabbing them from his hands as he set them down. Penny exchanged a look and a smirk with Vince before he gestured her away.
“How old’s your sister?”
“What?” Oh hell no. He better not be trying to find out if her sister would go out with him.
“Is she younger or older? For a gift.”
She could feel her face instantly heat up. Right. She was buying a gift, not here to hook up with Vince.
“She turned thirty this year.”
He nodded. “Ok.” He looked around, then gestured towards another aisle. “Our cute crap section is this way.”
Nice. She definitely liked this guy.
“Is she into adult coloring books? They’ve been really popular lately.”
“Adult coloring books? For real?”
“Yep.”
“Pass.”
He smirked and they shared a sexy look between them. Huh. Maybe they weren’t ‘just friends’. That thought made her nervous as she flicked a look down his body again.
He cleared his throat. “How about a sisterly type book? Friends and sisters type stuff. Are you guys friends?”
She shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. She’d like that kind of thing.”
He stopped in front of a section of gift books and grabbed a couple different ones. She focused on his hands, wondering what they’d feel like grabbing her instead.
“How touchy feely is your sister? Do you want a ‘we’re gal pals’ type book? Or a fun gift book? Or maybe she’s religious. There are some holiday books in the religious section, too.”
She curled her lip at that last one. “She can worry about her soul on her own time. I vote for a fun book.”
He smiled and kept his gaze on her a little longer than would be normal if he wasn’t actually interested in her, then abruptly looked away. “This one’s been popular lately. An ‘I can do anything’ motivational type book.” He started handing her different ones to choose from, all of them a blur as her body decided it’d rather focus on the feel of being so close to him. He smelled good, she was close enough to feel his natural masculine animal energy vibrating all around him, teasing her senses
like crazy, and dang if he wasn’t sexy all over anyway.
Her gaze traveled back up to his eyes when it seemed like he hadn’t said anything in a while. “Did you say something?”
He fought a smirk as he said, “Does anything interest you here?”
She cleared her throat and looked away. Her cheeks felt way too hot right now. “What do you think? Which one should I get?”
When she glanced back at him, he had a teasing look in his eyes for a split second before another employee walked by and the expression on his face went blank again. He reached for a book on the shelf in front of them. “Personally, this one’s my favorite. It’s the quirkiest one of the bunch.”
She didn’t even bother looking at it. She was too nervous standing here with such a nice, sexy guy flirting with her.
He glanced around, then stepped a little closer and said, “Hey, if you like old punk music, you might like these books we just got in with photos of album artwork and backstories on how the covers were made.”
Her nerves calmed. This was a topic she could relax about. “Ok.”
He turned and led her around the store, and she couldn’t take her eyes off his backside. She desperately wanted to run her hands underneath his shirt and nuzzle against his warm skin. She could even feel the wake of his body heat as he walked in front of her even though he only wore a t-shirt and jeans while all the customers were in long sleeves, jackets and scarves.
They stopped in an aisle where they were amazingly alone together, Vince standing even closer to her than before. He picked up an overly large, thick book and fumbled with it.
She playfully teased, “Hey butterfingers. Be careful.”
He tensed and went still, held tightly to the book, then slowly put it back on the shelf. She frowned in confusion when he mumbled under his breath, “Whatever,” then turned and walked away without another word.
She had no idea what just happened. He acted like she’d hurt his feelings, but why would calling him butterfingers be so bad? Unsure what to do, she just stood there and watched him go back to work stocking an end cap with books. He awkwardly dropped a stack of them, then looked like he was fumbling with the short shelves. Huh. Had she rattled him that badly with her comment? He knelt down and picked the books up off the floor, then dropped some more, even though he was now sitting on his knees. He finally stopped what he was doing, stared straight at the shelves, then looked down and took some deep breaths.
