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“If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you two were hiding a bit of hell-kitten in your genes, which would be wonderful since it’s time for an adventure!” She scooped the box into her arms, bumped the car door closed with her hip and started down the path through the woods. “Good thing we got here when we did, kittens. I might not have noticed this path if it were any darker out. Then again, I do have better-than-average eyesight. It’s probably the demon in me.”
“Mrawr.” One of the kittens leapt for freedom and managed to catch Merry’s fingers with her claws before sliding back down the side of the box.
Merry let out a hiss and chuckled. “I think I’m going to call you two Spike and Drusilla, in honor of my favorite fictional vampires. You know, just between you and me, I’ve met a few vampires in my time here on earth—there’s an entire coven in Zero, Kansas—but let me tell you, what a letdown! Oh, look, a building.” She started walking around it, chatting the entire way.
“The thing is, I guess my expectations were a little different, on account of the books and the movies and all. I expected the vampires to either be, you know, blood-sucking evil demons, or heroic superheroes fighting the evil in our midst. I don’t know what that evil would be, mind you—oil companies, people who don’t recycle, dentists maybe—but I definitely expected something more from the vampires. But you know what, kittens? They were just kind of boring.”
She finally reached the front of the building and raised an eyebrow at the neon sign above the door.
Shenanigans.
“Well, this is an excellent development. I didn’t expect to find a Shenanigans out in the middle of nowhere. Things are looking up, kittens. Zero didn’t have any Shenanigans, though they had plenty of paranormals, so that’s a little strange. But here in Jamesville, we’ve already found two! Well, I guess we haven’t technically found the hotel yet, but we know it exists!” She pulled open the door and walked inside, “Maybe we’ll meet our first serial killer here! That’d be kind of cool, don’t you think?”
“Mrawr.”
“Oh, but don’t worry, kittens. I’ll protect you from the big bad wolves. Promise.”
Chapter Two
SO MANY CHANGES in little more than a year, Sam thought as he looked around the bar.
Shenanigans itself hadn’t changed much, but the lives of its employees and many of its customers had.
Travis and Glory still ran the bar like the black bears they were, letting the local paranormals blow off steam, while also keeping them in line—a task, if Sam was being completely honest, made infinitely more difficult by his own wolf pack.
Wolves.
He grinned. No other shifter he’d rather be.
A burst of laughter caught his attention and his heart tugged at the sight of his alpha, Adam, arm slung around his mate, Gigi, pulling her in for a heated kiss.
A year ago, he would have laughed if anyone had told him his alpha could be so relaxed and happy with a snow leopard mate. With any mate, actually.
If he’d ever thought about it, he’d have bet money that of all the wolves he knew, Adam was the most likely to remain single his entire life.
Instead, among their group of childhood friends, Sam was the only one who remained unmated.
Somehow, despite the events of a year ago, when matings had been thick in the air, Sam had remained unattached.
Like bowling pins, bears, wolves, cougars, even humans had been knocked down one-by-one in a sweep that spanned almost a year.
The black bears had been the first to fall, along with Sam’s beta, Max, who had finally claimed Glory for his mate. Then, their childhood friend, Karl, and a couple cougars had hooked up with some witches.
Now that was crazy.
It wasn’t just the shifters and witches, though.
A human in town mated a fairy of all things. Then, one of the Shenanigans waitresses mated a dragon and that set off a whole slew of inter–realm matings.
Thankfully, Sam was too busy working to get caught up in that craziness.
He shuddered at the thought of being tied to a dragon, or worse, a fairy. Bad enough to have to travel to another realm to visit the in-laws on a regular basis, but scary fairy ones? While also mated to one? No, thank you.
All things considered, their pack had gotten off easy, considering not one of them was mated to a fairy. In fact, all the pack’s mates were, so far, entirely from this realm, and even better, none wanted to live anywhere other than Jamesville.
Even Gigi, who’d shown up a year ago, pregnant with Adam’s cubs, had settled into pack life like she’d been born to it. And now their triplets were crawling all over the pack house, wreaking havoc everywhere.
A lot of changes, Sam thought again.
