by Sky Winters
“Could I move in with you?” she asked, turning momentarily timid.
“You do not even need to ask, girlfriend,” Trish replied. “We are gonna party tonight!”
Maggie truly did feel like partying. She also felt like sleeping for as long as she damn well pleased.
CHAPTER TWO
Hot Shifters
Safe and happy at Trish’s place, Maggie emailed her boss and quit her hated, draining job at the toy company. She enjoyed a day of relaxing and drinking margaritas with her friend. “The weirdest thing about all this is how it feels like I wanted it to happen. I wanted this excuse to kick Tony out for good.”
Trish sipped her drink, and then licked her lips. “Not weird, Mags. You wanted things to end but you’re so nice that you were desperate for an out.”
Maggie thought it was more than that… She was desperate for a complete change. She just did not know what that was yet. She wanted to do something crazy. Something that would make Tony annoyed and maybe even a little jealous. She wanted him to be miserable.
While Trish was gone at work the next day, Maggie hatched her plan. She would join the dating app for shifters. It was kind of an underground thing, but one of her good friends, Phoebe, had recently shared a picture online of her new shifter baby. He was adorable! Maggie was not looking for anything quite so serious, but she was looking for a change and this had to be it.
She created an account, and then made sure to take a handful of sexy pictures of herself. Werewolves were hot as hell, and the dangerous kind of fun. Tony had often warned her about them, which was part of why she felt the call to action now. Under the guise of trying to protect her, he had told Maggie to stay away from werewolves. But the closest he had ever come to meeting an actual werewolf face to face was in his stupid video games.
Maggie was going to one-up him.
Once her account was set up, she sifted through the shifters, looking for the sexiest badass she could find. Maggie had to admit right off the bat that these guys were sexy as all hell. Finally, her gaze fell on this werewolf shifter named Keith Suffield. He was twenty-eight years old with black hair and gold-brown eyes. He looked like a wolf in human form. Maggie wondered how anyone saw this guy and did not know about his capabilities.
She sent him a message to see if he wanted to meet up. A one-night stand would be fun. She was ready for a break from responsibilities…
Hey, handsome, we should meet up and see where the night takes us.
Maggie took a shower and put on the sluttiest outfit she could find. This Keith guy liked them slutty. She could tell by the things he put in his profile. She put on tight, black pants and a black crop top with some stilettos. Teasing her red hair with a comb and some hairspray, she added a lot of eyeshadow and eyeliner to her face, making herself look like the dark vixen she felt like being tonight.
When she went back out to the living room, her phone’s screen flashed with a notification light. She swiped the screen back to life and looked at all of the messages she had received, smirking and tickled that she had garnered so much attention in such a short amount of time.
The sexy young Keith had messaged her back.
Meet me at Transform on Summit Avenue. It’s a shifter club, so be prepared. I don’t doubt you will be.
It was a date!
Maggie decided that driving there was probably not the best idea. She did not want to drive if she had a lot to drink, and she did not want her car to end up in a strange area, unattended, so she decided to take an Uber instead.
Even the Uber driver could not stop staring at her. Maggie felt good, like she was on top of the world right now. She hoped that going out on a date with someone new would not diminish these feelings. The last thing she wanted was to go from one frustrating relationship to another frustrating relationship.
No, she planned to keep things light with Keith. No promises, no obligations. Just a bit of fun.
When her driver pulled up at the curb outside of Transform, Maggie thanked him and hopped out. She clutched her black purse to her side, not that a thief was really what she was afraid of. Stepping into the club full of shifters, she gulped and took a deep breath in order to stay calm. A lot of male eyes were on her. The shifters were all drinking and loud, which was something she was used to in normal bars.
Suddenly, Maggie locked eyes with the one and only Keith. He waved her over, and she sat down across from him at his table. He smirked and shook his head, moving to the chair directly next to her and then inching it ever closer.
“You’re even sexier in person,” he growled, into her ear. His breath smelled like three different kinds of beer.
“Thanks,” Maggie replied, feeling shy but not wanting to act like it. Keith liked the more brazen type, and she wanted to give him what he wanted. “You’re pretty smokin’ yourself.”
He laughed a dark, frightening laugh, like he had just murdered someone and was really glad about it. Keith did not strike Maggie as someone who was known for his sense of humor.
“What’ll you have?” he asked her then.
“Oh, uhh…” Maggie looked at the list of drinks displayed on a small, laminated menu. “Could I get a mojito, please?”
Keith nodded and stood up, going over to the bar to order their drinks. Maggie looked around, noticing how the place did not seem any different from what she was used to, and how it was actually calming her down to see that. The men all laughed and shouted at each other. Sports were even on the TV screens, though it was boxing, not baseball like she normally found in bars.
A few minutes later, Keith came back holding a glass in each hand. He handed the mojito to Maggie and sat back down in his chair, beer sloshing out of the top of his glass when he set it down on the table.
He downed it like a champ while Maggie carefully sipped at hers. It had been a while since she had indulged in a drink like this. She usually just mixed soda with things like rum or scotch. She hadn’t gone out for drinks for some time. That was what came with being engaged to a man who could not provide anything …
“So,” she said, trying to strike up a conversation now that they were settled. “What do you do for a living?”
Keith narrowed his light brown eyes a little. “I fix motorcycles,” he said. “It says that on my profile.”
Maggie nodded. “Right. I have to admit; I was more interested in the pictures than reading a bunch of words.”
Saying such a thing might have been an insult, but he took it as a compliment. She could tell because he placed his hand on her leg and looked into her eyes. “I can live with that,” he said, boozy breath now amplified thanks to his new round of beers.
Before she knew what hit her, Keith was kissing her. Maggie blinked in surprise and thought about fighting him off, but she did not want to cause a scene. And, besides, wasn’t this what she had come here for?
Keith forced his tongue into her mouth and, reaching up, groped her boobs. She felt pretty icky that this was just happening, right there in the crowded shifter club. Maggie didn’t know what she had been imagining, but it wasn’t this. He tasted like beer, just as his breath had forewarned. She assumed that she tasted like mint or something, because he would not extract his tongue from her mouth.
He finally released her and let her take more sips of her drink, but he stayed right there with his arm around her, casually squeezing her right breast like it was his property now. She had not signed away all rights to her body. Maggie was mildly annoyed, but she had been told that werewolves were dangerous. Really, it was a no shit kind of thing. Who did not think that linking up with a werewolf was dangerous? Linking up with any strange man in a bar was unsafe.
Maggie had wanted to throw caution to the wind, but she was starting to get a bad vibe from this guy. She wanted to have sex with a stranger and make her ex jealous. She did not want to be raped.
She thought of something that she probably should have done in the first place. She was going to call Trish and let her know where s
he was and who she was with, in case anything happened and she needed help.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” Maggie said, shrugging away from Keith. “I’ll be right back.”
She stood up, but he grabbed her arm.
“How about you come back to my place instead?” he said.
“It’ll just be a minute…”
Keith stood up. His grip on her arm tightened. She could feel his nails digging into her skin and she wondered, fleetingly, if he was going to shift into a wolf right then and there. “You should come home with me tonight. I thought that was what you wanted.”
“No,” Maggie said, trying to sound strong but her voice was quavering. “What I want is to use the restroom right now.”
“You can use the bathroom at my place.”
“I don’t want to!” she shouted, her voice more raised than she intended. She attempted to wrench her arm free, but he only held it tighter. His nails were starting to slightly break her skin, so she stopped resisting.
Keith’s eyes flashed from his light brown color to full-on gold. She could tell that he was angry. Maggie hadn’t wanted to make him angry, but she also did not want to be rushed into things, especially when she was already seeing about a dozen red flags about him. If she went to his place, she was not sure she would come out alive.
He let out a growl, and Maggie felt like he was about to carry her bodily from the establishment. That was when a big, older shifter stepped in.
“Hey,” this new stranger said. His voice was low, but firm. “I don’t think you understand. This lady here is saying that she does not want to go with you.”
“Why don’t you mind your own business, pal?” Keith snarled.
The tall, broad-shouldered man narrowed his eyes a little at Keith, but then he gave a wry smile. “I’m no pal of yours. Now let go of the girl.”
Maggie could see that Keith really wanted to fight this guy, but he was shorter and much less physically imposing. Also, he was considerably drunker. Suddenly, he released his hold on Maggie, practically throwing her arm away from him as if it repelled him now.
“Fine,” he growled. “Have it your way. But I’ll be back for you. I’ll deal with you later. This fucking bitch doesn’t need a daddy.”
With that, he quickly walked out of the club.
Maggie turned to look up at her rescuer. He was large in many ways, tall and wide of chest. He had graying brown hair and blue eyes that turned toward her as soon as the werewolf was out of sight.
He reminded Maggie of the Beast from the Beauty and the Beast. Minus the bad attitude. This guy seemed nice.
“Are you all right?” he asked her in that same low voice, as if he was constantly afraid of being overheard.
Maggie nodded to him. “I think so. Just a few minor claw marks. Thank you for stepping in.”
“No problem,” he replied, giving her an unexpectedly gorgeous smile. He really was handsome, but Keith was correct about one thing; this man was at least in his late forties. Maggie was not an ageist or anything, but she was not looking for anything with an older man. Although that might make Tony doubly offended.
She really needed to stop giving a shit what Tony thought.
“I’m Maggie,” she introduced herself, offering him her hand.
He took it and gave it a gentle shake. Her hand was tiny in his giant paws. Is there such a thing as a giant shifter? Maggie scolded herself for being so judgmental.
“Nice to meet you,” the giant silver fox said. “I’m Luke.”
Smiling then, she gestured for him to join her at her table. Why the hell not? The least she could do was buy him a drink. He graciously sat down with her, taking a seat across from her instead of uncomfortably close. Already, this guy was a few notches above her last date.
“What can I get you, Luke?” she asked him. “I insist.”
He smiled at her again. “Um, nothing fancy. How about a scotch on the rocks?”
Maggie nodded. “You got it.” She went up to the bar and asked for his requested drink. When she brought it back to him, she was careful to place the little napkin under it. She was pretty sure that he could knock this tiny drink back faster than Keith had with his beer.
She wasn’t wrong.
Smirking at him, she decided that it would not be so bad to get to know this guy. “What brings you here? Please tell me your life story and save me the humiliation of being here alone now.”
Luke gave her a sympathetic look. “I don’t usually come here. Drinking in bars is not really my thing… I run a construction company.”
Aww, he’s shy. Maggie found that all kinds of adorable, especially because he was like a mammoth but with the personality of a kitten.
“What do you do?” he asked her, turning the conversation back on her.
She was amused. Small talk was hard for him, but of course it was. “I used to work for a corporation that sold toys. It was soul-sucking, so I quit. Now, I don’t know what I will do… Something fun, dammit.” Maggie smiled up at him.
“It’s kind of sad that working for a toy company was not fun,” Luke remarked, smiling slightly.
Maggie sucked up the last of her mojito. The evening was winding down, and she found herself disappointed. She hadn’t expected it to be some amazing, life-altering thing, but she had hoped to go home and fuck someone. That had been the whole point.
“I’m going to use the restroom,” he said. “But I’ll be right back.” He looked at her as though he was deeply worried for her, like he wanted to make sure that she knew he was there for her.
She appreciated it more than he knew. “Actually, I need to use the restroom, too. So perfect timing.”
They walked together to the restrooms and went their separate ways for the time being. Maggie did in fact have to use the facilities now, so she did so before washing her hands and taking her cell phone out of her bag.
She called Trish. It had to be about ten by now, so her friend would be available.
“Hello?” Trish said. “Oh my god, Mags, where are you? I came home and couldn’t find you, and I was like, ‘that’s cool, she’s an adult.’ But it’s been hours.”
“I know,” Maggie said, noticing how her voice bounced around the bathroom and made her sound louder and more important. “I’m sorry. It’s pretty stupid. I joined this dating app and went off to meet the first guy I met. He turned out to be dick, but then I was rescued by this guy who I’m pretty sure is a former bodybuilder or something.”
Trish chuckled. “Rebound?”
“Yup,” Maggie replied. “Total rebound… There’s something else, too. These guys are shifters. I’m in a shifter club at this very moment.”
“Dude, what? You can’t just casually toss that in there. Don’t get murdered or anything, all right? God, maybe I am your mom now.”
Maggie laughed. “I won’t, Mom. Thanks. I’ll call you later again, all right? I just wanted to make sure you did not think I had been abducted. I’m pretty sure this guy is a legit nice guy.”
“Yeah, get that nice hot shifter!”
Cackling, Maggie ended the call and tossed her phone back into her purse.
When she exited the ladies’ room, she saw that Luke was standing right there, leaning against the wall opposite the doorway. He looked handsome in his jeans and his button-up that was open to reveal the white T-shirt underneath. He dressed casually, clearly not trying to show off like any of the shifters who were there to meet dates.
Maggie felt a tad overdressed now. Her black crop top sent all kinds of messages about her. She had been trying to show off, and now she felt pretty dumb.
“Hey,” she said, wondering if Luke had overheard her phone call. The bathroom certainly made it feel as though everyone would be able to hear her.
Just then, she noticed that her phone’s notification light was flashing. She wondered if Trish was having second thoughts about where she was. But when she pulled her phone back out and turned her screen on, she realized it was a
message from Keith on the app.
You can run but you can’t hide, bitch. The big, bad wolf will find you. I know where you live now.
Maggie’s eyes widened. She could not go back home. She couldn’t do that to Trish; she would be endangering both of them now.
“What is it?” Luke asked her, giving her that look of sincere concern again.
She did not know what to do, so she showed her phone’s screen to him. His mouth fell open a bit. Then he looked at her, and he clenched his jaw for a moment.
“Come home with me,” he said, pleadingly. “That’s not a come-on, I promise. I just can’t let you go home alone now... Please?”
Maggie bit her bottom lip for a moment, thinking it over. It did not take her long to make up her mind. She nodded. “Okay.”
CHAPTER THREE
Bearing It All
Luke took Maggie to his home in his red pickup truck. The thrill of hooking up with a shifter had dwindled. Now she had a werewolf after her, and it was everything that Tony had warned her about. How could I have been so stupid?
But it wasn’t her fault. She hadn’t had any warning signs about Keith before she met him. His profile had just seemed hot… She didn’t want to think about him anymore. She turned and looked over at the strong and silent man who was driving her back to his place, so calm. So caring even though she was a stranger.
Finally, they arrived at a house that Maggie assumed was his. Luke got out of the truck without a word and closed his door, coming around to help her out, too. She unbuckled her seatbelt and gratefully took his offered hand so she would not trip getting out of the tall truck.
Luke’s house was a standard two-level, square home, brick with blue-painted shutters. It suggested ‘family,’ though he very clearly lived there alone. The mantle over the fireplace in the living room – he even had a goddamn fireplace – seemed like it was meant for pictures. He kept it bare.
“Can I get you anything?” he asked her, closing the front door. “A drink or a snack, or both?”
