“Can’t say I blame her.” Heidi was working the bar and slid a mixed drink in front of me. “They’re protective as all get out, if you can get past the sometimes irrational jealousy. Plus, the sex is off the charts.”
Laila waggled her brows. “You got that right. Gray does this thing in bed, I know it doesn’t sound anatomically possible, but just hear me out—”
“Eww… TMI again, Laila. That’s my brother you’re talking about!” Grace clamped her hands over her ears. “Lalalala, I can’t hear you.”
Laila flashed a devilish grin. “I love doing that to her.”
Arden and I exchanged glances—mine frustrated, hers sympathetic. “Come on.” She nodded to the center of the room. “Let’s dance.”
In what seemed like no time, I was three drinks in and three sheets to the wind. On the dance floor, or the space we’d single-handedly turned into a dance floor, I was sandwiched between Fern and Megan, working my hips to the beat and sipping my drink—a fruity concoction called tight snatch.
I tried and failed to ignore the fact that I was the only single woman at our ladies night gathering. And that all the other women were mated to shifters.
“Someone’s phone is ringing!” Laila waved my pink jewel-encrusted phone case in the air. “It’s…” Laila looked at the name on the screen. “Mom.”
I grimaced and stumbled slightly as I grabbed for my phone. Pushing decline, I grinned at Laila. “Let’s ignore that, shall we?”
“That might be wise in your condition, considering you just tripped over thin air.”
The phone started up again, almost immediately, and I frowned down at it realizing it wasn’t going to stop. Swearing under my breath, I forced a smile. “I guess I’m answering. It’s either that or she’ll notify the island authorities she suspects foul play and have them search my home for clues to my abduction.”
By the time I edged past the crowd, stepped outside, and took a few wobbly strides toward the ocean, my mother had already hung up and called back again.
“Mom?”
Instantly, her shrill voice greeted me. “Why haven’t you been answering your phone? Where are you? I’ve called no less than eight times.”
“I’m out with friends. I didn’t hear my phone.”
“You’re at a bar?”
I groaned, holding the phone away from my face so she wouldn’t hear.
“So, you’re drunk?” When I hesitated, she jumped on it. “Oh, goodness, Elinor. Really? Acting the fool in public? Highly unattractive.”
“Mom, is there a reason you called eight times?”
I tried to focus, but in my drunken state, the phone slipped from my fingers and landed in front of my shoes. When I bent at the waist to retrieve it, I couldn’t seem to get a good grip on it. It ended up slipping from my fingers and burying itself in the sand.
I could hear my mother’s voice as I worked to dig the phone out. “Elinor?! Elinor?!” Wobbling, I lost my balance entirely and toppled head over heels, splitting the seam of my dress and sending a red pump flying through the air. Lovely.
I finally managed to reclaim the phone just in time to watch the screen go dark as the battery died.
Releasing a half groan half sigh, I rolled over, let my head fall back on the sand, and stared up at the crescent moon. Since I was too drunk to drive, and I couldn’t call a taxi with a dead phone, I figured I’d just lay there. I didn’t want to go back inside with all the mated women.
The evening temperature had cooled slightly and a gentle breeze rolled in off the ocean. It was a perfect night for lovers.
I sighed loudly up at the stars. “I’m ready universe. I’m ready for mine.”
My dream, for as long as I could remember, was to have a family—diapers, and car seats, and date nights, and meatloaf Mondays.
I’d been searching for Mr. Right for much of my 27 year existence, but all I’d managed to find were dick pic texters, the chronically unemployed, and man-child porn addicts living in their parents’ basement and playing video games in their underwear. If it were a field of study, I’d hold an advanced degree in heartache, abandonment, and bad choices.
When Arden told me about shifters—fiercely loyal, protective, steadfast, and attentive, I moved to Sunkissed Key in a heartbeat.
Shifters never abandoned a mate. Ever.
I wanted a shifter. I didn’t care if he dropped his dirty clothes a foot from the hamper, or if he forgot our anniversary, or if he had to be reminded three times to take out the trash—as long as he was a shifter.
So Michael who volunteers at the animal shelter and probably feeds homeless orphans and escorts little old ladies across the street in his spare time—however handsome and saintly he may be—was not my type.
I sat up slowly and shook the sand out of my hair. Since every Cybermates applicant was carefully screened, I couldn’t get access without going through Parker. That meant I was stuck searching the half-rate shifter dating sites for my mate until I could convince her to let me be the first nonshifter to join.
I wasn’t giving up my dream. I’d wear her down eventually.
4
Dylan
The noonday Florida sun was high in the sky as I drove from Miami down to Sunkissed Key.
I still had some time before a face-to-face with a client, so I pulled into the marina to see if Patton had actually gone to work or if he was spending the day lounging on his boat. Over the past few years, I’d spent way too much time with Patton just to put space between me and horny lionesses.
Castaway was in its slip. Patton was stretched out on a deck chair with the brim of his hat pulled down over his face, sawing logs. I envied the fucker. He was recently mated and blissfully happy.
Climbing aboard quietly, I grabbed a beer from the cooler beside him, shook it and held it over his torso
