Animal Shifters & Werewolf Alphas Complete Bundle

Chapter Two

Chapter TwoBy the time she staggers home, it's late night and she's regretting offering the coat to Reggie. Not that it's the only article of clothing Andrea had left behind.

Marnie had cleaned up the apartment for her, but left most of her things where they are because she gets anxious if things change too much.

She puts Marnie's packed dinner into the microwave and checks off all the things she has managed to do successfully for the day. She didn't use to be this obsessive. Then again, she didn't use to have tattoos all over the upper half of her body either. There's a shirt on the back of the chair that looks like the owner had been in a rush to change and had accidentally thrown it there and not at all like she had deliberately placed it there because she still isn't over her ex. Marnie is very kind to indulge her and not throw everything into the wash the first chance she gets.

She rubs a hand across her face and tells herself to get a hold of herself, but her resolve only lasts a second. She grabs it and presses the soft material to her face, breathing in the scent that's barely clinging to the shirt after so long without it's rightful owner. She gets a surprising whiff of alpha from the material. Wolf, the marks on her skin tells her, and there's something uniquely comforting about it.

The scent puts her at ease almost immediately.

Her nose is practically buried in the fabric. She pulls back quickly, embarrassed even though there's no one around to see and judge her. Marnie had caught her doing this once and it was humiliating.

She can't stop, though. It smells pleasant. He has always smelled pleasant to her even though she's not a wolf.

He liked to joke that she had adopted parts of his Wolf mannerism through sheer osmosis, but he's a lot more obsessed with her scent than she is with his. Was. Past tense.

Later on, once she's showered, she clutches the coat she had promised to Reggie, holding onto it so tightly that her knuckles have gone white.

Baby steps, she thinks to herself. She'll get rid of one, and then slowly get rid of the rest.

She says goodbye to the coat by running it through the wash a few times. It's only polite to clean it before giving it to Reggie. She thinks there might still be a hint of him clinging to the coat, but the only thing that can get rid of scents completely is the Neutralizing Detergent she has to get at the specialized store and she can't bring herself to do it.

She sighs and climbs into bed without the coat.

It's cold.

She brings the coat to Reggie the next morning.

"Doctor, this-" he is holding onto the jacket like it would burn him, hands outstretched and sweat forming on his forehead even though it's freezing.

"It's a good brand," she finds herself defending it. She knows because Andrea has a thing about branded stuff and likes his things tailor-made to fit his size.

"This is almost three thousand dollars brand new. I know because a celebrity I am obsessed has this exact coat. Are you sure you want to give it to me?" he asks. "You can sell this for good money, even second hand."

She grimaces. She knows Andrea has really expensive taste but being reminded of that just makes her question her past more. She doesn't know why he bothered with her. "Yeah, just take it away from me please," she waves her hands like it isn't tearing her heart apart. "It's a good first step, yeah?" she manages a grin that she doesn't think reaches her face. "And it should be warm enough to keep the temperature down a bit. There are um... there are a lot of Werewolves in this hospital. Having the temperature down keeps it more comfortable for them," she shares and the man wraps the coat around himself reverently, sighing as he is finally able to get warm.

"Thank you, doctor," he says, eyes glimmering like he's about to cry or profess his newfound admiration for her.

She escapes before he can spill his feelings on her again. She's not good with that.

She's kind of proud of how she gets through work that day, focusing completely on the patients and not breaking down at all until after her work shift ends.

When there's no more work to keep her distracted, she goes home, realizes that she's missing a coat from her bed, and then promptly breaks apart.

She leaves a note for Marnie to let her know that she's fine and is just out for the evening. The older woman worries for her a little too much.

She has multiple coping mechanisms that she had worked out with her therapist. Well, during the court-mandated ones that she had to go to prior to getting her license back anyways.

Drinking in a bar is definitely not one of those methods, but it works for her.

When she first developed the drinking habit, she tried to cover her tattoos and markings up with too much makeup, and then she turned to Glamour, but both methods proof ineffective.

Mages, Vampires, and Werewolves know she has Glamour on, and that only makes them more curious about her, and makeup... makeup can only do so much.

"Can I buy you a drink?" an attractive man asks, leaning a little too close to her.

She narrows her eyes at him and considers denying him immediately, but she's here to drink, forget, and have a good time. Maybe he can give her all three. "I don't know, can you?" she teases, leaning into him a little. Some sort of bird shifter, she thinks to herself quietly, smile still on her face. She's never slept with a Bird Shifter before. Then again, she's really only ever slept with one man.

He blinks, like he didn't expect her to say yes and turns to his friends in panic. They mouth instructions to him all at once and he looks even more lost now. She giggles and flags down the bartender. "More of this, please," she says.

Bobby frowns at her. "I'm not even supposed to be serving this to you," he says.

"You're not supposed to let me buy drinks," she corrects. "This handsome young man over here is paying," she gestures to the man who had planted himself in the seat next to hers. He nods quickly and Bobby rolls his eyes, but hands her another glass of whiskey on ice.

"Do you uh... do you work here or something?" the guys asks.

"Or something," she echoes.

"I'm uh.... James," he introduces himself, blushing when she turns her full attention on him.

It's nice to know that people still find her attractive despite the tattoo and the mark of magic on her skin. "Hello, James," she smiles. "I'm Kristine."

"Are you a student too?" he asks. "I'm a third year engineering student."

"Not a student, no," she says, and gestures to the apartment complex that can be spied from the glass panels near the ceiling. "I live up there," she says.

"Oh," he blinks. His arsenal of conversation was probably dependent on her being a student like himself. At twenty-five, she's one of the youngest doctor's in the hospital, but her education had been unconventional. She had gotten into medical school young because she lied about her age, wanting to attend the same school as her best friends who are five years older than her.

There aren't many humans who attend shifter university and most people aren't very good with gauging her age. Humans do tend to be smaller in size and they didn't want to seem speciest, so they didn't question her. At least, not until it's too late.

"You're really beautiful," he murmurs and blushes bright red. "I um- I love your tattoos," he continues.

She smiles. "I like your face," she says honestly. He has a very nice, youthful face. He looks like he's in his early twenties, but it's hard to tell with shifters. Some of them age slower than others.

When he leans towards her, she doesn't pull away, letting him press his lips on her. His lips are rough and he tastes like the cheap beer he had been drinking. She feels his hands on her waist, pulling her closer and she makes a startled noise when he shows her that he's much stronger than he looks by yanking her up from her seat and straight into his lap.

She giggles, surprised and pleased by how assertive he's being, and wraps her arms around his neck. "Well, hello there, James," she teases. "Tell me again how pretty you think I am," she says.

"You're really, really pretty," he says earnestly and she rewards him with another kiss, tilting her head and letting him slide his tongue into her mouth.

His hands are warm on her hips and he shifts his hands until his long fingers are wrapped around her entire waist with ease. It has been so long since she let someone get close.

This feels easy. It doesn't have to mean anything and she wouldn't even have to remember his name come morning. She wonders if he's any good in bed. Maybe she can teach him how to make her feel good. His tongue slides deeper into her mouth.

She pulls away and grins when he tries to chase after her lips again, but she only twists to take a mouthful of her whiskey before slotting their mouths back together, feeding him the drink.

He coughs, unused to the burn of whiskey, when they pull away and she laughs at that too before pushing forward, licking the taste from his tongue. Much better than his beer.

Somewhere behind them, his friends are cheering him along, but James is lost to the kiss completely. She can feel his erection pressing up against her thigh and she rocks her hips a little, giving him the friction that he wants. He groans into the kiss and pulls away to press more kisses on her face, panting like it's his first time.

"Like that, darling?" she murmurs. "Hands here," she guides his hand from her waist to her ass and he groans as he tries to move her the way he wants, rutting up like an animal in heat. She can feel him vibrating underneath her, his whole body humming with arousal.

Was she like that for her first time, she wonders?

"Kristine!" a familiar voice cries from afar and she sighs.

"Game's over, James," she says, sliding from his lap reluctantly. He has his hands on her waist and doesn't seem keen on letting her go any time soon.

"If you don't take your hands off her now, you're going to lose those hands," a stern female voice growls and even without turning around, she can sense the power and the promise in the threat.

James disappears so fast that she's convinced he had teleported. She tries to locate the young man she had just been making out with, but he's really nowhere is sight. The rest of his gang are gone as well. Cowards.

She sighs. "How do you even know I'm here, Nina?" she asks.

Nina steps around from the bodyguards that she travels everywhere with. "Bobby isn't supposed to serve you anything to drink. Didn't you get the memo?" she rounds on the bartender instead of answering her.

She's convinced that Nina put a tracker on her at some point during their many, many years of friendship.

"You mean the one with the picture of my face and a 'don't serve drinks to this woman'?" she laughs. "You're ridiculous, Nina. And this is just my second drink," she lies.

"Sixth," Bobby the traitor says.

She glares at him, who shrugs.

"Kristi, come on, let's get you home. I thought you've stopped drinking," Nina sounds like such a disapproving mother when she takes that tone with her.

"I'm not an alcoholic, Nina," she says, which is exactly what an alcoholic would say. "I just wanted something to drink, relax a little. I didn't want to bother you since you're," she gestures to Nina's obviously pregnant belly. "You shouldn't even be here. The air here is not good for you," she says.

Nina puts a hand on her belly and smiles helplessly. "Twins," she says, as if she hasn't gushed about that half a million times through text message already. She is loving the fact that she can now buy multiples of everything and redecorate the nursery.

Kristine can hardly fault her. She stops by the baby aisle every time she does grocery shopping to buy things for her little godchildren too. "Twins," she grins. "I'm so happy for you, but did Rain hire you five more bodyguards?" she asks.

Nina rolls her eyes. "Pedro is new, but don't pretend you don't know the rest of the guys."

She waves at them and they nod back like they're on some sort of top secret mission. "Wolf?" she asks even though she already knows the answer to that.

"Yeah. Rain keeps hiring with Andrea," she says and Kristine feels a little proud of herself for not grimacing at the mention of his name.

"I started getting rid of his stuff today," she chokes up a little at the admission.

Nina sighs and settles into the seat next to hers. The bodyguards situate themselves around them, forming a sort of wall.

"I'm never going to get used to that," Kristine laughs.

Nina shrugs. "It took me a while too, but Rain's really paranoid and it makes him feel better, so I let him have his way," she says. "As if I can't take care of myself." Nina is a Lion Shifter. Nobody messes with her. At least, not anymore.

Bobby is already pouring them two glasses of orange juice. She thanks the man with a grateful smile.

"Is everything alright?" she asks. "You've been doing so well with the whole drinking and-"

"Everything's fine," she says. "I've only had a few drinks. I just thought it'd be nice to get out there again, try one of those one-night-stands that I missed during college."

Nina is staring at her really hard, trying to see if she's lying. "One night stands suck," she announces. "It's just meaningless s*x and the next day you feel like you'll feel obligated to keep in touch because you've had s*x with the person and a part of your brain thinks it should mean something, but you've already decided it doesn't. It just messes you up and you don't need that. You're much better off with someone who cares about you," she says as if she has had any real experience whatsoever. "Tiberius has been trying to date you for years. Why don't you give him a chance? He's a good guy. This is probably going to sound creepy and not as romantic as I've made it up to be, but I think he's been working up the courage to ask you to pose for some of his art pieces," she continues in one breath.

She would question the man's motives, except she's knows Tiberius and she is too embarrassed to admit that he has already done several art pieces of her. He is really kind but also... "He's so weird," she smiles helplessly. "And that sounds so practiced," she continues.

Nina laughs. "I may have rehearsed it in front of the mirror a few times. Also, Tiberius is my Alpha now. You aren't allowed to call him weird."

"I find that really weird too. Do Tigers even have packs?" she asks.

Nina shrugs. "Tigers are more solitary creatures, but I'm not a tiger," she says. "And neither are you. He doesn't care." She sounds fiercely proud of that. "He's a good Alpha."

"The good Alpha should ask me out himself. We go out for lunch a few times a week," she admits.

"He is afraid of coming on too strong," she says, and then she probably hears the words coming from her mouth and they both burst out laughing. "He's really weird," she concedes, "but it's a good weird, you know? Why don't you try? I know you're comfortable with him."

The orange soda slushes in her stomach and she's glad she had the foresight to eat a light meal prior to coming here. "I've gotten really comfortable with what we have, I guess," she admits. "It's comforting. He's... he's comforting," she says.

Bobby, who is an amazing bartender who can read minds, pushes a bowl of chips in front of her.

"Tiberius is very kind," she murmurs softly. She feels warm just thinking of his protective presence in her life. If it weren't for him, she would have died the night she was kidn*pped. The memories from that period of her life had been a blur of pain, painkillers, therapy, court dates, and heartbreak, not necessarily in that order. "I worry that he's only kind to me out of guilt," she confesses and yelps when Nina punches her lightly on her arm.

"Don't be an i***t. I'll arrange a double date for us. Don't mess this up," she says and clicks their glasses together, downing the soda like it's a shot.

She smiles and does the same.