Page 3 of Colton’s Mate

“The thing is,” she said, “it’s not my way. Like Caleb and his cronies were so fond of telling me, I’m not a crow. I’m a lynx, and we’re made different.” Solitary. Shy. Well, she wasn’t planning on being shy anymore. She was going to be obnoxious as fuck and piss everybody off.

But the solitary part was sounding pretty damn good right about now.

“You’re a good guy, Jason. But it’s not going to happen.”

“Yeah. Okay.” The look on his face told her he already knew, but he’d figured he’d take one more shot. “Take care, Callie.”

“You too.” She felt sad, hurting him, but she knew it was better to be honest. “You’ve been a good friend to me, and to Tex.”

He tipped back the bottle and chugged the rest of his beer before he got up and walked back to his truck. He drove away without waving.

Chapter 2

Colton McCall was forty-five minutes into his Friday night date, and it was already a disaster.

Sadly, he had nobody to blame but himself.

Colt liked party girls, good music, dancing, drinks with a kick, and great sex where both people were just looking for a fun time—no strings.

He had two rules: 1) no one gets hurt or lied to, and 2) he treated his dates right, and put a lot of effort into giving them a good time—in bed and out of it.

Well, three rules. #3 was ‘don’t go out with a woman who’s still hung up on her ex and trying to make him jealous.’

Tonight, he’d hit the trifecta of rule-breaking.

He was sitting in the Silver Armadillo Bar & Grill with a perfectly good band and a perfectly good drink going to waste, while his date took selfies looking like she was having an awesome time and texted them to her ex.

In between, she and his brother Remy’s date talked about what a dick the ex was.

So that was rule #3 down the tubes. And also #1, because revenge dates and revenge sex counted as people potentially getting hurt, and Colt just wasn’t into it. When he was with a girl, he wanted it to be about fun and affection and the person he was with. Not making somebody who wasn’t there feel like shit.

The breakage of rule #2 was totally on him, though. His head wasn’t in the game, which meant he wasn’t putting enough effort into charming his date so she could forget about her ex and just have a good time being herself.

Although, if she didn’t stop making bitchy comments about how self-absorbed Colt was because of not being into helping her get back at her ex, he was going to start thinking the dude was better off without her.

Or maybe they both were better off without her.

Now Miranda jabbed him in the ribs with her pointy elbow. “Colt? Colt!” She thrust her phone into his hand. “Take another picture of me and Tiffany.”

“What?” He dragged his focus back to her.

Miranda rolled her eyes. “Camera. Photo. Sheeyit, Colt. I got all dolled up for you. A new outfit and everything.” She adjusted her cleavage so more boob was showing. “You could at least pay attention.”

He tried, but even the cleavage wasn’t helping his focus. Maybe because she’d really gotten all dolled up for her ex and the revenge photo shoot, not for him.

But she was right about him not paying attention.

He kept getting distracted by Callie Haugan, who he didn’t know until tonight had gotten a job waiting tables at the Armadillo. His leopard had a protective streak as wide as the Rio Grande, and ever since Callie almost got killed helping them bring down Austin Raines and his murdering panthers, it seemed to think she was his special responsibility.

His cat didn’t like it when people bumped up against her in the crowd. It didn’t like it when sketchy-looking guys flirted with her—and this place seemed to be filled with sketchy-looking guys. And it really, really didn’t like it when some guy slapped her ass on her way past.

Colton growled.

Miranda looked at him wide-eyed. “Did you just growl at me?” She flounced over to the other side of her seat, away from him. “Sheeyit. You are fucked up.”

Hell. She wasn’t a shifter—neither of the girls were. He had to watch himself around them. Growling: not okay.

And he didn’t even know what she’d been talking about. Because not paying attention again. If it wasn’t that he’d promised to be Remy’s wingman on his date with Tiffany, he’d apologize and take Miranda home. If she was going to be out with him, she deserved to have his full attention.