Chris was nearly at Mandy’s apartment building when he happened to pass by a restaurant window on the corner of 4th Avenue and N 25th street. The twinkling candles from inside lured his gaze over, and as Chris peered into the window, he saw none other than the unmistakable mug of Mandy’s date.
Tony hadn’t told Chris where Mandy and Tattoo Guy were having dinner, so Chris hadn’t been able to judge the guy based on his restaurant choice. Now, however, he could.
Tattoo Guy had chosen one of Billings’ nicest restaurants. A French gastropub with farm to table ethics and an insanely good wine list, Le Mallard was one of those places that took reservations six months in advance. Chris wondered how Tattoo Guy had managed to get a table.
The man himself was currently sitting near a small alcove next to a fireplace. His eyes were trained on his phone, his thumb continuing to scroll down whatever social media feed he had open. Across from him, the seat was empty, Mandy’s napkin draped over the bread plate.
She must be in the bathroom, Chris thought as he took a step closer to the window. Thankfully, the window faced onto the reception area, so while he got a few weird looks from the host and a few of the servers, Tattoo Guy himself couldn’t spot Chris.
As Chris looked at the guy who had sparked his rage fest the week before, he realized he looked familiar. It took Chris a few minutes to place him, scrolling in his head through coworkers, friends of friends, acquaintances, people he’d met in college. But once he’d placed him, he didn’t waste a moment.
Chris ran into the restaurant, nearly slamming into a server carrying a tray of dirty plates in the process.
“Hey! Watch it!” she cried, rebalancing her tray with the help of her other arm.
“Sorry!” Chris yelled as he sped toward the host, who was walking back to the reception desk.
“May I help you, sir?” he asked, looking at Chris like he was an insect that needed squashing.
“Yes. That man at the table over there,” he said, pointing toward Tattoo Guy, who had looked up from his phone and was now staring quizzically at Chris, “is a shifter hunter. And the woman he’s on a date with is a shifter. She’s in danger. We have to find her and get her out of here.”
“Now, sir, I think you’re overreacting. Aiden is one of our most regular diners. I know him personally; I can vouch for him. He’s no hunter! I know the tattoos make him look a little intimidating, but I can promise you that the man wouldn’t hurt a fly. He’s a vegetarian!” the host said, as though vegetarians couldn’t also be bloodthirsty killers.
“Look, I’m telling you,” Chris said, losing his patience, “that guy is a killer. I saw him beat up a friend back in college. He was part of a covert gang of shifter killers at Montana State. You know, the gang that turned into the ASA? The terrorist group? The one that kills loads of people?”
“I’m sorry, sir, but I believe you are mistaken. Aiden wouldn’t—”
“Aiden would! I’ve seen him! So, please help me get my friend out of here so she doesn’t get hurt!” Chris yelled, not caring that he was drawing the attention of the rest of the diners in the restaurant. All he cared about was finding Mandy and getting her out of here before that nasty killer got to her.
“Sir, please,” the hostess said, but Chris wasn’t listening. The time for talking had passed. He shoved past the host and stalked toward Aiden’s table.
“Where is she?” he demanded as he threw Aiden’s chair back, causing the guy to fall to his knees and drop his phone in the process.
“Where is who? Who the hell are you? And what’s wrong with you?” Aiden asked, grabbing his phone and brushing at the manufactured rips in his skinny black jeans.
“Where is Mandy?” Chris repeated, glowering down at Aiden, who, frustratingly, didn’t look the least bit afraid.
“Why does it matter to you, wolf boy?” he asked. “What’re you gonna do, howl at me? Bite me in front of all these people? That’d look real good for your kind, wouldn’t it? Show everyone what a bunch of bloodthirsty monsters you really are.”
“The only bloodthirsty monster here is you, Shifter Killer,” Chris said, as he grabbed Aiden by the collar and lifted him up off his feet.
Chris was satisfied to see that his opponent was finally starting to look a little worried. Aiden held up his hands, his phone still clutched in one of them, saying, “Look, man, I don’t know you, and I don’t know what you’re talking about, but please, put me down. You’re choking me. I’m having trouble breathing,” he said, coughing to emphasize his claims.
A light flashed, and Chris realized that Aiden was filming them, no doubt planning to post the video and show the Internet how truly terrifying shifters could be.
“Are you seriously filming this right now?” he yelled, shaking Aiden by the collar.
“Yeah, man. People deserve to know the truth about you monsters. The government is just feeding us all lies, saying you won’t hurt us. This is proof! Proof of what we at the ASA is talking about!”
The ASA. The Anti-Shifter Alliance. A terrorist group with members all over the world, they’d started right here in Billings ten years ago, when Chris was in college. The university had tried to disband them and had mostly succeeded, putting all the members they could find in jail, but Chris knew that hatred like that didn’t just go away. If anything, it festered and got worse. And this was proof of it. Aiden was proof of it.
“Thanks for admitting that,” Chris said, lowering Aiden to the ground. “It makes me feel way less guilty about this,” he said, and then he punched Aiden.
To the guy’s credit, he fought back hard. Chris was only just holding an advantage when he could feel the heat erupting in his body, spreading out from his chest up to his head, around to his arms and down his legs. This time, he didn’t fight the shift. He let it happen, let his body react to the situation the best way it knew how.
Besides, as a wolf, he was twice as strong, three times as big, and didn’t get fazed when he was punched and kicked, which Aiden was doing a lot of. He took the blows like they were nothing more than pokes and prods, doubling down on Aiden until he had him on the floor.
When Chris looked up, the first thing he saw was Mandy. With tears in her eyes and her phone at her ear.
Chapter 5
Mandy had known from the moment she sat down across from Aiden at the restaurant that the date had been a terrible idea. Aiden had seemed nice, friendly, intelligent, and attractive—basically everything she was looking for in a guy. And, as a bonus, his name wasn’t Chris Perez.
But Mandy realized as she looked at Chris, whose furry paws were holding Aiden down to the floor, that she’d been foolish to think she could take her mind off the man of her dreams so quickly. She’d had a crush on him for most of her life, after all. A date with a stranger, albeit a hot one, wouldn’t change that. No matter how much she might have wanted them to.
Because though Mandy had been in love with Chris for most of her life, that afternoon after their reunion at the farmer’s market, her delight at a newly single Chris had morphed into terror when she’d begun to feeling…things. Things that told her that she wasn’t just feeling the renewed vigor of a lifelong crush. No, what she was feeling went far deeper. It was the instinctual reaction a female werewolf had to meeting her mate. Mandy’s mother had told her about it as part of that horrifically awkward sex talk they had when Mandy was 13. It was a mortifying memory, but she remembered what her mother had told her.
“When you meet your mate, you’ll feel it everywhere, right down to your soul.”
Mandy had definitely felt it, but she was in no way ready for those feelings.
Her life had included so much upheaval lately. Between her mom’s cancer and her moving across the country, back to a city she’d hadn’t lived in for ten years, far away from her friends and the business she’d had a major hand in building, Mandy had felt like she barely had a chance to catch her breath and find her niche. When she’d moved into her apartment and applied for her stall at the marke
t, she’d decided that this year would be for her. A chance to find her groove again. She’d get her business up and running, go on a few friendly dates, but mostly, she’d focus on finding the happiness she’d left in Vermont.
But she couldn’t do that if she was mated. Being mated came with decisions and feelings and complications that would strip her of the time she so desperately needed to regroup. After all, she’d seen what Tony and Emma had been like when they’d gotten together. They’d moved in three weeks after knowing each other, gotten married six months later, and now they had triplets. Mandy wasn’t ready for any of that yet. She and Chris had only just become friends. She wasn’t ready to be a wife and mother to his babies!
So, she’d shoved her feelings to the side and decided she and Chris would be friends, but that was all. Even though seeing him every Saturday morning made her heart do somersaults. Even though just touching his arm sent tingles all through her body. She could totally ignore her body’s natural instincts, right?
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Mandy could see the error of her ways now as she clicked out of the call to 911, having been told by the dispatcher that an FBI operative and a full team of police would be there in minutes to arrest one of the ASA’s most prominent members. Apparently, Mallory was right. He had been trying to kill her. In fact, he’d been luring female shifters on dates for months so he could then gruesomely murder them, taking a video of them shifting in defense in the process. Aiden was not only an asshole but a sick, twisted one at that.
After Aiden had been cuffed and carried away screaming and shouting invectives at her and Chris, Mandy finally relaxed. The restaurant had closed once the host realized just how serious the incident was, but because they felt so bad for not believing Chris in the first place, they’d offered them a free meal. She and Chris were now seated across from each other, candlelight between them, offering a soft, romantic glow.
“So. This is, uh, weird…” Chris said, taking a sip of his wine.
“Yeah. You could say that,” Mandy said, smiling as she took a bite of her steak frites. All the terror and commotion had made her starving, and she was already nearly finished her plate, even though they’d only been eating for maybe five minutes.
They chewed a few more minutes in silence, but eventually, Mandy had to ask the question she’d been wondering for the last half an hour.
“Chris?”
He looked up from his plate of scallops. “Yeah?”
“Why were you at this restaurant in the first place?”
Chris’ cheeks colored, which Mandy appreciated. She was glad to know she wasn’t the only one who blushed profusely when nervous. It did make her wonder, though, just what she had to be nervous about.
“Well, that’s a funny story, actually,” Chris said, rubbing the top of his head.“So funny you want to share it with me?” Mandy said, hopefully.
“Yes,” Chris said, smiling nervously as he put down his fork. “I was passing by this restaurant on my way to your apartment.”
“But…but you knew I was going on a date tonight. Why were you going to my apartment?”
“Because I was going to wait until the date finished, or until such a time as I assumed the date would have finished, and then I was going to go up to your apartment to tell you that you’re my mate, and I want to spend the rest of my life loving you.”
Mandy couldn’t breathe. Even though she’d known they were mated, known that Chris must be feeling at least some of what she was, she hadn’t expected that the actual admission of those feelings would make her feel so…fizzy. Like her blood was made of seltzer water. It was a weird but not altogether bad feeling.
“You okay? You look like you might throw up. Or punch me in the face,” Chris said, leaning in and peering at her.
“I…I feel…confused.”
“Okay. What are you confused about?”
“I’m confused about what this means. Because I don’t know if you know this, but I’ve had a crush on you my entire life. Or at least, most of it. Since I was 12 and you started getting facial hair and muscles, and I realized you were actually attractive and not just a doofus my brother was friends with.”
“Why thank you,” Chris said, wiggling his eyebrows in fake seduction.
Mandy laughed nervously. “You’re welcome. But just because I’ve been in love with you my whole life doesn’t mean I’m ready for this,” she said, pointing between them.
“What do you mean? What aren’t you ready for?” Chris asked, and Mandy could see he was trying desperately to keep his cool, though she could see insecurity in his eyes.
“I’m not sure I’m ready for the whole marriage and kids thing just yet. My mom’s only just gotten better, my business is still so new and…”
Mandy trailed off as Chris reached across the table to take her hand in his.
“Mandy,” he said, and the insecurity in his eyes was gone, replaced with an understanding that made her want to weep. “We don’t have to do any of that right now. I want those things, but I’m happy to wait for them if you’re not ready. Hell, I’ve only just gotten the farmer’s market gig going, and I have plans for a few other side projects a few months down the line. We can take things slow. There’s no rush.”
“But Tony and Emma…” she started.
“Tony and Emma did things in the way that best suited them. And we’ll do the same. If our lives end up looking a little bit different than theirs, that’s okay. Every werewolf relationship looks different, Mandy. I’m happy figuring out what ours looks like if you are.”
“Yes. I am,” Mandy said, a smile of relief taking over her face as she flipped her hand over, squeezing Chris’ palm.
“Good. Then let’s eat our dinners and then go to our respect beds,” Chris said, hurrying to add, “Not that I don’t want to share a bed with you. But I’d rather do it when my muscles aren’t cramping. I don’t know about you, but fighting shifter kills from the ASA really takes it out of me, and we have the market in the morning.”
“That sounds great,” Mandy said, taking another bite of her meal and smiling.
Chapter 6
Chapter Six, One and a half years later
“I’m just gonna make one more batch of the peppermint soap, and then I’m done, I promise!” Mandy called from her workroom.
“Fine, but then it’s movie time!” Chris called back.
Mandy giggled to herself as she closed the door to her workshop. The tables were cleared, all her soap, candle, and incense-making supplies were lined up on the shelves, and all that was left to do was wrap the present lying on her desk.
She’d spent weeks clandestinely watching YouTube tutorials and reading eBooks about how to correctly shape and color the soaps for Chris. It was hard work, and she’d made the soaps five different times before she finally felt like the shape and scent was right, but it would be well worth it when she saw the look on his face.
For the last year and a half, they’d both been so focused on building their careers, opening her storefront downtown, and Chris investing in the organic farming industry, as well as attending conferences around the country on the best ways to keep farmer’s markets successful. They had gone for what felt like weeks without seeing each other, but finally, this past summer, things had started to calm down.
Mandy’s shop was open and doing well, Chris was taking a break, and it finally felt like the right time. Which was great, because she couldn’t exactly stop the baby growing in her belly.
The soaps lying on her desk were in the shape of a rattle and a baby bottle. They were a pleasing mix of light greens, blues and purples, gender-neutral colors since it was too early to tell the sex of the baby. Mandy lifted up the rattle to smell and nearly moaned at the scent, a mix of linen, lavender, and a hint of mint that was instantly calming. She imagined using it to give their baby his or her first bath and couldn’t help the smile that blossomed on her cheeks.
She was so lost in thought that she didn’
t hear Chris creep in behind her until it was nearly too late. Thankfully, the floorboards of her studio were old and worn, and the creak that Chris’ footstep created gave Mandy the heads-up she needed to quickly box up the soaps and shove them behind the laptop sitting open on her desk.
“I told you I’d be right out!” Mandy said, turning around and frowning at Chris.
“I know, but I couldn’t stand being alone.”
“You wanted to watch the movie that badly?”
“No. I wanted to do this,” he said and took her face in his hands. A moment later, a searing kiss landed on her lips, followed by another, and another. Mandy’s arms wound around Chris’ neck, and she instinctively pulled him closer.
Chris’ lips moved from her mouth down to her neck, right at the divot in the middle of her throat near her collarbone. It was Mandy’s sensitive spot, and whenever he touched it, licked it, kissed it, it set her on fire. It didn’t fail to do so now, and Mandy felt the heat go right to her center, then travel lower.
“Chris,” she whispered, nearly moaning in desperation. It never took long for her to be ready for him. He made her so wet with need, and sometimes she just couldn’t stand a minute longer of not having him inside her. This was one of those times.
“What do you want, Mand?” Chris rasped in her ear.
“You,” she whispered back and smiled excitedly as she watched Chris step back from her and hastily unbuttoned his jeans.
Mandy could see the tip of his cock peeking out from the waistband of his boxer shorts, and she reached out and slipped her index and middle finger underneath the waistband and tore it roughly down, exposing him to her.
“Mmm,” she happily hummed as she took him in hand and drew him toward her, spreading her legs. She was wearing a dress with no leggings and no panties, making this an exceptionally easy job.
Chris slipped in easily, sliding in her wetness until he was fully engulfed in her.
“God, you feel good, Mand,” he whispered as he kissed her again, one hand playing with her nipple under the thin cotton fabric of her dress while the other reached down and attended to her sensitive clitoris.
The Baby Shift- Montana Page 3
