Fire & Frost (2 page)

“Quit thanking me. We’re clan. That’s what we do.” He picked up his phone, and then paused. “You don’t have anyone in mind? You sure? You can tell me.”

She spread her hands in a helpless gesture. “I’m clueless.”

He grunted. “Fine. You’ll tell me who you choose?”

She nodded.

“Keep me posted, then.”

SO SHE WAS GOING to do this after all.

Estrella exhaled as she left Vic’s office, her hand straying to her stomach. She’d gone in there to argue with him about how it was her body and her right, and she’d ended up going on and on about the father of her child as if things were a given. Maybe they were.

In a week or so, her entire life was going to change. Damn. She’d best get started.

“MAN, YOU’RE SO freaking lucky.”

Estrella picked up a fry and gave her friend an inquisitive look. “What makes you say that?”

“Look at you. You’re all boobs and legs and you’re eating a burger and fries.” Jayde Sommers stabbed at her salad with a vicious move. “If I smell one of those fries, I’m going to gain a pound. But not you. And now on top of this, you’re going into heat.” She shook her head. “Some people have all the luck.”

“I don’t feel very lucky right about now,” Estrella confessed, grabbing a salt-shaker and dousing her food with it. “I don’t have a guy, remember?”

Jayde waved her fork dismissively. “You’re gorgeous. Someone’ll turn up.”

“I’m six foot two. Do you know how hard it is to find someone that’s going to date a woman that’s taller — and occasionally broader — than he is? Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve had a date? Four years.”

“Maybe that’s why you’re going into heat,” Jayde said, waggling her eyebrows suggestively at her friend. “It’s a desperate cry for attention from your girl parts. They figure if they don’t speak up soon, they’ll be forever covered in cobwebs.”

“Oh please,” Estrella said with disgust. “Lots of people go a long time between dates.”

“Four years?”

She bit down on a fry and ignored Jayde. Okay, so her track record wasn’t great and four years was a long time. A really long time. But what was she supposed to do? Fling herself at any man over six foot three that passed her way? Jayde probably thought that was a good idea.

But then again, her friend had never had trouble getting dates. Her problem was keeping them once they got an earful of her acid tongue.

Estrella sighed. “I just don’t have any likely prospects to be a father.”

Jayde’s hand crept over the table and stole a french fry from the corner of Estrella’s plate. “What about that sexyhot alpha of yours?”

“Vic?”

“Tattoos, right? Dangerous looking? Mmmm.” Jayde’s approval was practically a purr. “I wouldn’t mind going into heat with him around. He could put a mate mark on me any time.”

For some reason, Estrella squirmed in her seat. Hearing Jayde consider Vic in a sexual way made her feel…weird. Possessive. Which was stupid. And the mate mark thing? She hadn’t even considered that. Shifters marked their mates on the neck with a love bite that only other shifters could see. It would brand her as someone’s property, someone’s cherished mate, and chase off all others.

Holy shit, she wasn’t in this for just a baby. She had to consider a
mate
, too. Estrella swallowed hard, then shook her head. “Not Vic. He’s not interested in me like that. I don’t think he finds the liger thing appealing.”

“Who does?” At Estrella’s glare, Jayde chuckled and stole another fry. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. In all seriousness, would it be so bad to ask your alpha to sire a kid? You know he’s responsible, right? He’s got a business. You’d never have to hunt the guy down for child support or worry if your kid has a place in the clan.”

It all sounded nice, but Vic hadn’t shown a bit of interest in her. If anything, he’d looked alarmed when she’d given him her pronouncement. And while Vic was attractive in a scowly, aggressive sort of way, she didn’t plan on dragging someone into this ‘heat’ thing with her. She felt trapped enough as it was.

“Not Vic,” she said one more time, and firmly. “I’ll have to find someone else. I don’t suppose you know of anyone?”

Jayde shook her head, reaching into her purse. “Nope, but I know someone you can call.” She pulled out her wallet and produced a small business card, holding it out to Estrella.

She took it from Jayde, examining the small half-moon logo. “Midnight Liaisons. A dating agency? Seriously?”

“A dating agency for, you know.” She sniffed meaningfully as if pointing out her unique shifter scent, and gave Estrella a firm look. “You should call them.”

“I don’t know. Like they’re going to have more luck finding me a guy who wants to be a dad as of next week?

“Just do it,” Jayde told her. “I’ve gone out on lots of dates through them. There’s a lot out there if you don’t mind a little….variety in the gene pool.”

“Mind? Remember that you’re talking to a liger?”

Jayde pretended to crane her neck to stare up at Estrella. “Oh, I didn’t forget.”

“ALL RIGHT, LADIES! Gather around and we’ll begin.” The too-chipper blonde at the back of the room waved a hand tipped with hot-pink nails, indicating that they should all move closer to her.

Estrella took a deep sigh to settle her nerves. She got up from the empty table she was occupying and moved to the center of the room, in front of the blonde. She counted five other women clustered nearby, and sized up the competition. Badger, rat, lynx, fox, and harpy, if her nose told her anything. Okay, well, she was the largest predator of the group. She supposed that was good.

She was a foot taller than anyone except the harpy, whom she only towered over by six inches. Damn. She was going to stick out like a sore thumb.

“Hi everyone! My name is Ryder, and I’ll be the coordinator for our event tonight.” The event hostess flashed them all a dimpled, candy-pink smile, her big blue eyes bright with excitement. “For those of you that have never participated in the ‘Speed Mating’ event, I’ll go over the rules of our game very quickly. Does everyone have their name badge?”

Estrella touched the “Hello, My Name Is #6” badge stuck to her sweater, trying not to feel like an idiot. An optimistic idiot, which made things worse, because this was a set-up that seemed bound for failure, and yet the dating coordinators had assured her that they had great success with these kinds of events.

So she was hopeful. The more she thought about it, the more she wanted this possible baby, which meant finding someone who could be the father she needed for her child…within the space of about a week. Someone whom she could see sharing such a big part of her life with. Someone who wouldn’t gross her out when she thought about sharing her heat with them. God.

“Each one of you has been assigned a number,” Ryder said in a chirpy voice that was almost shrill as she strove to speak over the group. “You’re going to sit at your numbered tables and one man will join each of you. You will have the chance to talk for five minutes, and then I’m going to ring the bell. When I ring the bell, each man is going to get up and move to the next table, and we’ll cycle through all of our bachelors in that manner.” She held up a small scorecard. “You’ll have a card at each of your tables. If you like the man, make a mark under his number. You’ll be turning in your card to me. If you and your date both mark your card as interested in the other, we have a match and I’ll be contacting you both to coordinate a date. If there’s no match, you can always come back next week. Any questions, ladies?”

The group was silent. Estrella wondered if they were half as impatient as she was. She just wanted to get things moving.

“All right, then! Please take a seat at your table and once everyone is ready, we’ll bring in the men.”

Estrella found table number six in the corner. A bottle of wine had been left, uncorked, on the table. That was nice — get them all boozed up before the men came in so the odds of making a match were better. She poured herself a glass and tipped it back, drinking quickly. Thanks to her liger metabolism, she’d need a couple more glasses downed at the same speed to even give her a bit of a buzz. It seemed to help her frame of mind, though.

She poured another glass and sipped as she picked up the card, examining it. There were no names — not surprising, since she was wearing a sticker that said her name was ‘Six,’ but it seemed a bit silly and juvenile to her. What was the harm in sharing names? She’d be able to tell what kind of shifter each man was as soon as he sat down, thanks to her enhanced senses. It’d be a parade of men — and a variety of shifters if the female pool was any indication.

For some reason, that thought made her uneasy, and she reached for the wine again, pouring herself another glass. Maybe she needed to get good and sauced before this started. It’d probably be her last opportunity to get drunk before the baby thing, or at least it would be if she got a decent date out of this.

The bell rang. “Date number one is about to arrive, ladies,” Ryder announced. “As soon as everyone is seated, the timer will begin. Remember, you’ll have five minutes for each date.”

Estrella finished draining her wine and began to pour another glass as men filed into the back room of the restaurant. Each table was sequestered away from the others, and no one wandered too close. She could have craned her neck and peered at everyone, but that would have seemed overly obvious — and eager — so she forced herself not to. She flared her nostrils instead, trying to pick out individual scents. She smelled cougar, and the harpy, and…garlic bread. Lots and lots of garlic bread. Damn it. Now she was hungry.

A familiar scent enveloped her nostrils a split second before a massive, hulking form pulled the chair out and sat down across from her. Estrella looked up in surprise to see Vic, his hair still wet from a shower, black t-shirt stretched tight over his chest.

She sputtered at the sight of him, nearly spraying wine across the white linen tablecloth. When she was able to choke down a gasp of breath, she wheezed, “What are you doing here?”

He scowled blackly. “I came to supervise and that horrible little blonde insisted that I sit down on these stupid dates because she had someone cancel.”

“Supervise? Excuse me?”

“Supervise,” he agreed. “You’re in a special situation, so the agency reached out to your alpha just to be on the safe side.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that.”

“You should have. It was in the paperwork.”

That would assume that she had actually paid attention to the paperwork. She’d been a little too fidgety to sit and read the ten-page disclosure. Estrella fiddled with her wine glass. “Well, it’s nice of you to take an interest, I suppose.”

“I have to take an interest. Your child is going to be part of my clan. I’ll be his — or her — alpha.” His dark gaze settled on her face. “Even if you can’t find a decent father for your child, your alpha will be at your side.”

Tears welled up in her eyes. That was so sweet. Hell, now she was getting emotional. Her own father hadn’t stuck around to take care of her mother, and her mother had never forgotten it. Estrella couldn’t forget it either. “What if I find a different kind of shifter? A fox or a wolf or something? Then my child will only be one eighth tiger—”