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“I’m sure you are.” I ruffled his hair as I stood. With a nod to the parents, I rushed out of the main house, even as I dreaded each step. Freddy and Teddy wouldn’t be happy about this turn of events.
As my wolf paws hit the base of the wooden steps that led up into our newly built cabin, I changed from my wolf to walk on two legs. While I could have told them the change of plans over our group link, I didn’t. It felt like a cowardly way to do it. Plus, I didn’t want to arrive home to discover that they’d left without me, choosing to head into town for a sure thing instead of showing a new plumber around. I mean, we’d probably still be looking a butt cracks, but the ones on the women we would have seen at the club excited me a whole lot more than the ones that belonged to a fifty-year-old, overweight, guy. Why are all the approved plumbers old and fat?
“’Bout time you got here. Teddy and I were about to leave without your sorry ass.” Freddy bounced on his toes, wearing what I thought of as his spruced up everyday wear: a clean pair of jeans, a clean, tighter fitting flannel shirt, and new t-shirt underneath. All he needed was the wild, bushy beard and he’d be the stereotypical caricature of a lumberjack, but it seemed to work for him as women flocked to him. To each their own, I guessed. Me, I wore enough flannel during working hours when the temperature cooled. I didn’t need to wear it out at night.
His smirk faded into a resigned look. “Don’t say it. Don’t fucking say we’re not going to town. I need to get laid. Even Amber”—he shuddered—“is starting to look good.”
“Sorry.” I collapsed into the overly stuffed, overly large armchair. With our large frames as big animal shifters, we needed large furniture to comfortably fit our bodies. “Welly’s overwhelmed and Barley and Kobe are stretched too thin to deal with the problems at the new cabins. Plus, it doesn’t help that everyday, more shifters, witches and others are contacting him, wanting to join our community. He needs us to meet with the new plumber and kept the repairs speeded up so he can move the families out of the main house.”
“Well, fuck.” Freddy dropped into the chair facing mine. “We can’t turn him down.”
Teddy sauntered into the great room which was really a fancy way of saying our open concept living, dining, and kitchen rooms, but with the two-storey vaulted ceiling over the living room part of it, it did look grand despite the smaller size. “We have to help. Barley told me that they might need to start housing some families with us if they keep arriving faster than we can build new housing. And with the snow and cold, we can’t put in any more footings.”
My gaze bounced from one identical brother to the other. Their short black hair—courtesy of their panther half—was styled in the same way, buzzed on the side with longer strands on top that flopped into their bright, honey-gold eyes. What I’d heard women call sooty when describing their eyelashes, made their unusual colour stand out. Well, that and the fact that sexy—even I could objectively call them sexy—identical twins were always a draw to women when we went out. But outside of their faces and musculature, they tended to dress differently. While Freddy went for the stylized, lumber jack look, Teddy opted for a preppy-nerd one. At least when they weren’t all wearing heavy jeans, work shirts, and steel-toed work boots that were covered with sawdust, plaster, and paint.
Freddy pushed himself back up and off the chair. “Guess I better go get dressed because I’m not ruining all this to go traipsing through those cabins.” His gaze roamed over me before a smile cracked his lips. “Good thing you hadn’t bothered to get all spiffed up for tonight.”
I chucked one of the cushions at him, hitting in square in the centre of his chest as he laughed. “To borrow what Welly told me earlier, ‘sod off’. This”—I drew my hands down my body before cupping my cock which felt like it had been semi-hard for weeks—“is all I need to score.”
But Freddy did have a point. I needed to change out of these jeans and Henley, they were some of my only clothes that weren’t peppered with signs of work. With a groan, I hefted my bulk out of the chair and followed Freddy to our room. I may not have wanted to give up our plans, but Teddy’s comment about possibly sharing our home gave me a new appreciation for meeting with the plumber. I could only hope that he’d be better to work with than the last one.
I had just finished zipping my work jeans when there was a knock on the door. Before we could answer, the handle turned as the door opened. “Noel, Freddy, Teddy, I need your help.”
I groaned at the over-the-top feminine sounding voice. Speak of the she-fox and she will come. After double checking I had everything zipped up, I stepped out of my bedroom and glared at the brothers who were trying to hide from Amber.
“Amber, I’m glad to see you remembered to knock, but I believe that you’re supposed to wait for us to tell you to come in.” I crossed my arms over my chest as I leaned back against the kitchen island, keeping myself from touching distance.
“Oh silly, those rules are for strangers, not close friends like we are.” She batted her eyelashes as she cocked her hip, trying to show off her body to its best advantage. I wanted to roll my eyes but didn’t. Welly and the others already had enough on their plate, they didn’t need to deal with Amber going to them with some sob story about how we were mean and disrespectful to her.
I ground my teeth as I worked to keep my cool. A couple of deep breaths later, I felt like I was ready to deal with her. “What do you need, Amber?”
She stalked across the room as if I was prey. “Well—”
The twins jumped on the opportunity to escape. They skirted behind Amber, waving to me as they called out, “We’ll go do what Welly asked. Join us when you’re done.”
And before I could say anything, they shifted, racing out the door that Amber left open despite the frigid air outside.
Her smile fell a little when she realized that two of her quarry escaped, but if I thought it would slow her down, I was mistaken. When she reached me, she wrapped her talon-like, long fingernail tipped fingers around my forearms. “I guess it will have to be you helping me.” She pouted. “I was cleaning up my bathroom and knocked some of my jewelry down the drain. I need your help to get it back.”
I grinned and for the first time since Welly called me into his office, I was happy he did. I uncrossed my arms and gripped Amber by the elbow, dragging her across the floor to the front door. “You’re in luck. The new plumber is here so I’ll have him stop by once he’s done looking over the damage at the cabins.”
And the moment I shut the door behind us, I shifted, racing away as Amber threw a temper tantrum over being thwarted.
Chapter Two
Mel (Melinda)
My jeep drove through the thick snow that covered the newly made road to the paranormal community that was being developed in rural central Manitoba. I’d heard some interesting things about the founders that made me eager to take the job of fixing up what Old Man Jeffers screwed up. Actually, that was what most of my work consisted of, so to some extent, I had him to thank even if I cursed him out every time I touched one of the pipes he worked on.
I shivered as I huddled deeper into my puffy parka. My glove covered thumb hit the button on the steering wheel, increasing the temperature by another couple of degrees. I hated the cold. I wasn’t built for it. Which made it the last place I should have run to when I needed a new place to start over, but it did have some benefits like the fact that the paranormal community in this region tended to isolate themselves along species lines, keeping me from being pulled into their social circles. A perfect fit for my solitary lifestyle.
Yet, the things that I’d heard about Rainbow Cove intrigued me. The community was started by European shifter royalty according to the gossip. They gave up their thrones and lives of luxury to start a community that accepted everyone. Your shifter species didn’t matter. Who you loved didn’t matter. They even accepted witches and others. It sounded like the ideal place to grow up and I wished there’d been something like that when I was younger.
A deep cough rattled my chest as I sniffled. Something was seriously wrong with me since shifters didn’t get sick like normal humans, but two days ago I’d woken up with a sore throat and some stuffiness. I’d followed all the human tricks of increasing my vitamin C intake and spending more time in my sauna, relaxing in, and soaking up the heat, but the symptoms kept getting worse. I could only surmise that my sand cat didn’t like the cold, but since, according to my dad, my deadbeat mom who’d split when I was one, was a witch—not that I could prove since I had no witch characteristics at all—I was still hesitant to go see a shifter doctor. And a human doctor was out for obvious reason. Humans weren’t aware of our existence.
It's why, I’d jumped at the chance to drive all the way to this community when one of the founders called. Not only would the work be welcome since it could possibly lead to years of consistent work, but maybe they’d have a healer that I could privately speak to.
A large gate stood closed across the road. A huge sigh escaped my chest as I stared it, pleased I’d actually found my way. That wasn’t a given between my sense of direction and the remoteness of this place. It didn’t help that a couple of times my GPS lost its connection, meaning I drove blind. I spotted the speaker and keypad off to the side, set far enough in front of the gate to allow the person to stay in their car. I drove up beside it, rolled down the window and cursed as a blast of cold air hit my face.
