Desperately Seeking Shapeshifter (8 page)

“He said—”

“I know,” Ramsey growled, pulling out his own cell phone and storming out of the office.

“Hanging up now, sweet Bathsheba. Love you,” Beau said to my sister, then clicked over to take Ramsey’s call.

I stared at my coffee, glancing out the door.
Ramsey paced in the distance, just far enough away that shifter ears couldn’t pick up his conversation. My sister resumed typing, and Connor ate. My stomach rumbled, and Connor slid a sandwich to me. “Eat. You need fuel as a shifter. You’re not like a human girl anymore, and you don’t have the appetite of one.”

Ugh. Thanks for the reminder. I poked at the paper and then gave Connor a cross look. “I prefer Starbucks.”

“Eat,” Connor repeated. “Or I go and get the big guy.”

Oh, fine. I picked up the sandwich and took a big, demonstrative bite. If I didn’t eat, not only would I have both men hovering over me but my sister would join in next, and I had enough people fussing over me. As I ate, I typed one-handed on the keyboard, logging in and checking my work email. A message immediately popped up from my sister, dated one minute ago.

Can you ditch Connor? We need to talk and can’t while he’s here. Ryder’s with a client in the back setting up a profile. Think we can pawn him off to her?

Gimme five minutes,
I wrote back, then added,
You think it’s ok to have him here at the agency?

We don’t have a choice, but I don’t think he’s dangerous. Beau would have never agreed for
him to be your escort if he thought he was. They wanted to send Maynard, but Beau insisted on Connor. Says he’s run into the wolf pack before, and Connor’s the only decent one in the lot.

But what about . . . the thing with Savannah.

We asked Savannah if she wanted to press charges against him and she said no. She said he was a gentleman to her the entire time.

But they slept together, right?

Right. Nevertheless, she spoke really highly of him . . . and she also told Beau that she doesn’t want to see him again. So I don’t know what to think, but I don’t think he’s dangerous.

I had to agree. He seemed decent enough, as far as wolves went. Connor was polite, friendly, didn’t leer at me, didn’t call me baby doll, and didn’t try to make me bow to his will like Levi did. In my book, that counted for a lot, but I also had pretty low expectations where the wolves were concerned.

I glanced over at Connor. He was drinking his coffee quietly, staring off into the distance. Probably thinking about Savannah. I considered him a moment longer, then pulled up the Midnight Liaisons database to begin work.

The database was my baby. It existed on a private server, and our user interface was hosted on a
secure website that I’d scripted with the help of an Alliance programmer. In it, we kept careful tabs on all the supernaturals of all kinds that had signed up for our service, tagging profiles with jobs, statuses, activity, and carefully monitoring them. Supes were tricky creatures to matchmake—no one wanted to date a harpy, for example. Every male wanted to date were-foxes, as they were notoriously promiscuous. The profiles were monitored to ensure that the matches made were recorded, feedback given, and bad behavior noted. Since there were so many different hierarchies for every kind of supernatural, we had to be very careful not to tread on someone’s toes.

My database screen immediately filled with profiles that had seen activity in the past twenty-four hours, and to my surprise, my name was at the top of the screen. I clicked on it and saw a photo of me from my driver’s license, my hair brown and longer, my smile wary. When had I gotten a file? My shifting side had been a secret up until five days ago. Sure enough, my profile had been created by my sister over the weekend. A big red MATED was stamped in the Availability box, along with Ramsey’s name. I clicked on it, feeling nosy.

His profile had been set up several weeks ago. My guess was that he’d set it up about the same time as Beau. Interesting. I’d never thought to look.

Curious, I clicked on his history. He’d never logged in, which didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me was the lack of auto-dates.

Our system had a set of checks and balances as to what sorts of shifters would be compatible, and when they came up in the system, it automatically suggested matches. Someone in the office would approve the match, and then the invite would be sent to the female shifter first, as they were fewer in number and thus in more demand. If the female shifter accepted, the invite was then sent to the male profile.

Once Ramsey’s profile had been created, he’d been added to the auto-date pool. It should have matched him up repeatedly through the database. Instead, his profile was blank. Either it hadn’t been activated, or something odd was going on . . . or he was completely unattractive to other supernaturals. Strange. I looked at his picture. His hair was a little long and he wasn’t smiley, but Ramsey was handsome. Not very chatty, but that was all right. Just the strong, silent type.

Why didn’t anyone want to date him? I shrugged and clicked his profile away, and the computer returned to mine.

Connor touched the corner of my flatscreen monitor, turning it so he could see, too. “You get your hair done recently?”

“Just time for a change,” I said lightly, then lied, “bears have a thing for blue.”

He snorted. “You and Ramsey . . . it’s just odd.”

I scowled at Connor, insulted. “What’s so odd about it?”

“Your sizes. He’s a bear. He could eat you for
breakfast. You’re better off with a wolf,” he declared. “Most of my cousins are good guys. You’d like ’em once you got to know ’em better.”

I couldn’t help but notice that
“most of.”
If he was here to sell me on his cousins, he was doing a pretty awful job of it. “I happen to love Ramsey,” I said with a little choke on the word
love
. “And unless you want to wear your coffee, you’re going to shut up about matching me up with one of your cousins.”

His handsome face was somber. “Sara, I’m trying to help you. I’m here to be your friend, and as a friend, I’m trying to give you good, practical advice. Wolves don’t take no for an answer. My cousins are lonely. Levi knows that they’re lonely, and you’re in their grasp, so he’s going to be very determined to bring you to the pack, because to him, it’s in the best interest of the others. And because my brothers need a mate, they’re not going to give up on you so easily, either. You need to remember that, Sara.” He dug into the bag and pulled out another sandwich, then offered it to me. When I declined, he began to peel off the paper. “I realize this comes across as harsh, but I’m trying to warn you. They’ll play nice at first, but don’t expect them to play nice forever.”

A shiver ran up my spine. “It’s a good thing I’ve got Ramsey, then.” As Connor continued to study my screen, I sipped my coffee. “You interested in setting up a profile?”

“Don’t know.” He hesitated for a moment, as if wanting to say more, but he didn’t.

That wasn’t a no,
I thought triumphantly and noticed my sister watching out of the corner of her eye. “There’s not a lot of wolf-shifters in our database,” I said. “But I know a pretty were-mink or two that you might be interested in meeting.”

He seemed uninterested. “Maybe. Is Savannah in the database?”

Aha. “She wasn’t as of last week, but that could have changed. Beau is making sure his family members are added to the pool. They like our service and feel it helps promote cross-species relations.”

“I’ll bet,” he said. “Sure. Sign me up, I guess.”

“I’ll get Ryder,” my sister said, jumping up from her desk and heading to the back part of the office. “Be right back.”

Connor scowled, looking more like a thwarted young man than the vicious wolf I’d pegged him to be. I leaned over my desk. “If you want to see Savannah again, you need to make my sister happy.”

His scowl darkened. “Humans? Please—”

“She’s Beau’s mate,” I warned in a low voice, ignoring the insult to my sister. “And she carries a lot of influence with him. Just so you know.”

Connor continued to scowl, even when Ryder appeared, all perky smiles, her camera in hand. She flirted outrageously with Connor, who didn’t flirt back. I wasn’t sure if it was because she smelled human or if it was because he was thinking of Savannah. Ryder’s playful attempts to get him to open up failed miserably, however, and eventually she got the hint. Linking her arm in his, she more or less
pulled him to the back conference room, where they could set up his profile and film a short video to introduce him to others. He glanced back at me once but allowed Ryder to take him away.

As soon as they were gone, Bath rushed over to my side. She touched my hair, frowning at the sight of me. “You look like Sonic the Hedgehog on a three-day bender.”

“Very funny.”

“How are you hanging in there?” Her eyes were concerned.

“I’m fine,” I said, watching the door. “Where’d Ramsey go?”

“Beau’s keeping him on the phone for a few minutes for me. He knew I wanted to talk to you privately before we launch this particular idea at you.”

Uh-oh. Beau and my sister had been planning? Two busybodies were never so fearsome as when they were working together. “What’s going on?”

“Clearly there’s been a change in plans,” she said. “The wolves didn’t call off like we expected. You and Ramsey are going to have to keep pretending until Connor gets bored and goes home to the wolves. I’m so sorry, Sara. We had no idea they’d insist on an envoy to shadow you. Beau is very concerned about your ability to shift, too. He wants either Ramsey or Connor with you at all times.”

“So he thinks I’m going to die if I keep shifting, too?”

To my horror, my sister’s eyes filled. “Sara, we’re all so worried about you. I don’t think you understand—”

“I understand,” I said softly. Just because I wasn’t weeping about it didn’t mean it didn’t scare the shit out of me. Time to cheer my sister up. “Well, look on the bright side. Your wedding can still go on.”

“No, it can’t,” she insisted. “I’m not getting married while your life’s a mess. Once this stuff with the wolves is figured out, I’ll be able to relax. Not until then.” She thought for a moment and then added, “And after the dance.”

I gave her a puzzled look. “Dance?”

Her eyes lit up. “Yes! Beau and I were brainstorming about how we could make a transition in the agency. We’ve had a few concerned inquiries, since we’re in control of so much private information and Giselle is no longer heading the agency. Since I’m in charge now and I’m a natural, not a supernatural, people are going to worry. Marie and Ryder aren’t supernatural either, and as their boss, I don’t think I could ask them to have a vampire or wolf bite them and turn them.” She gave a nervous laugh. “Though I guess I could ask if they’re interested in dating through the agency. Maybe that would help.”

“What about me?” I said, strangely hurt that I was being discounted. “This werewolf crap should be good for something.”

“Well,” she said as she twisted her hands. “It is and it isn’t. People don’t really trust werewolves since they’re not normally part of the Alliance, and you’re not a natural werewolf. Which kind of makes you neither here nor there. But,” she said, jumping
back onto her topic with enthusiasm, “we’re going to start doing Alliance mixers to promote the agency and to increase everyone’s comfort level with humans in charge.”

“Mixers?” I echoed.

“Yes, and we’re starting with a barn dance! It’ll be great. People who don’t normally get their profiles picked up can mingle with others, and we’ll get all the supes chatting. Even our were-mongooses might find that the were-snakes aren’t so bad after all if they give them half a chance.”

I raised an eyebrow as she went into detail about her plans for the party. It’d be in a real live barn, provided she could find one to rent out. There’d be country music and hay bales (because what barn dance is complete without hay?), and alcohol, of course, because she wanted people to be relaxed for mingling. After a few minutes, she noticed my silence. “You’re not saying much. What do you think?”

It was hard for me to muster enthusiasm for mass groups of supernaturals at the moment, but I put on a brave face for my sister. It
was
a good idea. “I like it. It’ll show we’re committed to the agency and that we treat things seriously. Plus it’ll give us a chance to meet some of our clients out of the office environment. I think it’s brilliant. And hopefully we can get the wolves out of our hair soon and I can help with planning the next few events.”

My sister’s smiling expression immediately changed to one of concern. “How’s that going?”

“Oh, swell,” I said cheerily. “Connor’s going to help me figure out how to shift without the nighttime nosebleeds, and everything’ll be taken care of.”

“You have
nosebleeds
?”

Oops. “Only every once in a while,” I soothed. “Between Beau, Ramsey, and Connor, we’re covered for teachers. The nosebleeds will go away when I get a handle on my shifting. There’s no need to worry.”

“Beau also suggested something else, and I agreed with him.”

Uh-oh. I looked at her, waiting.

Her smile was a little too bright. “You need to date Ramsey.”

“Haven’t we passed that point? I’m mated to him, remember?”

“But Ramsey’s a big, scary guy. He’s Beau’s muscle when stuff needs to be done. Everyone in the Alliance is afraid of him, and everyone sees you as—”

She stopped. I knew what she was going to say.
A victim.
That hurt.

“So I’m already getting a lot of calls from people asking about Ramsey and you,” she continued on in a rush. “You two need to be seen in public, laughing together, smiling together, holding hands. Make people realize that you are a couple.”

His face would probably break if he had to crack a full-on smile. “So you think I have to
date him
date him? Living with him isn’t enough?”

Bath shook her head. “I don’t think so. Beau doesn’t either. He got some calls from other leaders
unhappy about the arrangement. Another wolf leader, and the badger clan. Tigers, too. They’re worried you’re being coerced against your will.”