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Chapter 1
Lillian
“Sowhatareyouanyway, sweetheart? Like a panda shifter or sumthin’?”
I ignored the drunk frat boy who’d plopped onto the barstool next to me. He probably thought he was being so witty and original, but if I had a nickel for every time some drunk-ass, skirt-chasing idiot asked me if I was a panda shifter or a dragon lady on account of me being Asian and living in Darlington, I’d be fucking rich.
And no, I was neither of those things. I wasn’t even sure if panda shifters were a real thing. If they had ever existed, and were anything like real pandas, they’d probably all died out. Real pandas never wanted to procreate, why should the shifter kind be any different? And many were horrible mothers to boot. As for being a dragon shifter, if I was, I sure as hell wouldn’t be getting rip-roaring drunk in a dump like this.
Unfortunately, ignoring the ass didn’t make him leave. He leaned closer in and tried to put an arm around me. I batted his arm away.
“Touch me, and I’ll burn you to a crisp.” I tried to channel my best Angry Dragon Bitch vibe.
“Aw, come on, babe. I’m just trying to be nice. Let me buy you another drink.”
Ugh. He smelled like too much Axe body spray and cheap beer. And if that wasn’t bad enough, his friends were watching us, cackling and jeering on the other side of the bar.
Yeah. So attractive. Not!
“I’m not yourbabe.Now, beat it! I’m not interested.”
“But you’re drinking all by yourself. I can’t let you go home alone; it wouldn’t be gentlemanly.” He grinned, like he was super proud of himself for coming up with that line. “Girls like you need someone to take care of them.”
“Girls like me?” I hissed, letting my usually brown eyes flash a frosty blue-green that faded at the edges to yellow just long enough for him to see that he was not, in fact, dealing with some fluffy panda shifter. I let my claws grow long and tapped them loudly against the counter for emphasis.
I hoped he bought the bluff. He didn’t need to know that I only had the tiniest amount of shifter in me and might as well be human, really. Those claws were nothing more than a parlor trick.
He bought it.
“Oh shit.” His eyes went wide, realizing I was a predator of some sort.
“This idiot bothering you, Lillian?”
The bartender, Levi, was a jackal shifter from the African savannas. I’d known him ever since I moved to Darlington seven years ago as a fresh-faced college student. He drifted a little closer and glared at the Casanova wannabe.
“Whatever. No one wants such a frigid bitch anyway.” The asshole slid off the barstool and stomped back to his friends.
“Thanks, Levi.” I turned to my friend and trusty provider of alcoholic beverages.
“No problem. We used to never get these types here.” He picked up my empty glass.
By “these types”, he meant human guys bouncing in from out of town in hopes of picking up a shifter or some other supernatural. Now that I thought about it, the comments about me being a panda or dragon shifter hadn’t started until after The Wall fell. Back then, Darlington was magical folks’ best-kept secret.
It was one of the reasons I’d given up the chance to study at Stanford and decided to take classes here instead. Well, that, and Darlington University had a special program for physical therapy geared toward shifters. It had meant an extra year of school, but it was totally worth it.
Most shifters let their extra strength and agility get the better of them and wound up injured. And while their bodies did heal faster, it didn’t mean they were immune to chronic pain. As a result, many clinics now had at least one therapist who specialized in shifters and other magical folk, especially since the fall of The Wall.
The Wall had been a spell that had hidden monsters and magic in plain sight for millennia. One day, it had just…Poof!...disappeared. I still remember sitting in the college cafeteria when the news alert about it played on the big screen TV. Darlington had been a lot smaller then, and most everyone at the University knew about magic. I’d known monsters existed; I mean, I was technically one too, since it was a catch-all term used for anyone who had a non-human form, but knowing and seeing were two different things.
“Another gin and tonic?” Levi asked.
I probably should stop, but just thinking of the mess I had to return to tomorrow morning had my mouth saying, “Yeah, sure. Thanks” without asking my brain how it felt.
Ninety-nine problems, and this bitch had all of them.
In four days’ time, a complete stranger was going to arrive at my door and whisk me away to a country I’d never been to so I could marry a guy I’d never met. I didn’t even speak the language! And all because I had a tiny smidgen of snow leopard shifter DNA.
I’d gotten the call yesterday, on Wednesday. They’d given me until Monday morning to “get my affairs in order” before they came to pick me up.
