Don't Moose With Her (Bearbank Book 1)
Read Don't Moose With Her (Bearbank Book 1) Online
Authors: Ariana McGregor
Ethan is a police detective on the trail of the Shifter Stalker, a serial killer who preys exclusively on shifter women, stalking them for a while before turning on them. A lone wolf, Ethan doesn't need anyone. Certainly not a mate.
Moose shifter Dana likes her quiet little life in Bearbank. Until a certain wolf breezes into the cafe/bakery where she works and her life gets turned upside down.
Ethan has followed the Shifter Stalker to a sleepy little town called Bearbank. This time he's determined to catch the killer before he completes his kills and moves on. Meanwhile, Dana has a secret admirer.
Don't Moose With Her
By Ariana McGregor
Copyright © 2015 Adara Anderson
All rights reserved.
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All characters and events in this publication are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Contents
To Laura,
Thanks for all the help.
“Oooh chocolate covered doughnuts!”
Dana looked over the counter at the trio of women oohing and aahing over the cakes. All perfectly made up, not a hair out of place. Their perfume so strong that it made her head ache. Every day, these women came into the small bakery/café where she worked and exclaimed over all the cakes. Discussing the merits of chocolate cake, eclairs, scones, and muffins. Declaring how good they all looked. How delicious. How sinful. Before moving on to bemoan how they can’t even look at such cakes without gaining a few pounds. Invariably, they would finally order their skinny lattes and no cakes.
Fiona looked up from where she was clearing tables and rolled her eyes.
Dana loved her job at the bakery. Who wouldn’t love being surrounded by the smell of cakes all day? Besides, being a shifter, she had a metabolism which allowed her to eat whatever she liked without getting really fat. Okay, so maybe she was carrying a few extra pounds. Her figure was curvy but not out of control. She liked the customers. Well, most of them. She even liked the women she worked with. Fiona was human and a goth, dressed all in black with her dyed black hair cut in a bob. She had heavy make up and wore little silver skull earrings. The other woman, Tara, was a little mouse of a woman. Literally. Tara was a mouse shifter. Always quiet, always hiding in the background. She did most of the baking. Partly because she was an excellent baker and partly because it allowed her to hide from the customers. If she ate as much cheesecake as she sold, well, nobody was holding it against her. Unless it was the last slice. Grrr.
Today, the café was full of the regular customers. The elderly human couple who always ordered scones and tea. Tom, the retired school teacher with his black coffee and Danish. The harassed looking rabbit shifter with her two small children, Ben and Julie, who were hyperactive as usual. The businessman who often came in for a coffee and to use the free Wi-Fi. Drew, the cute lion shifter fireman with a fondness for carrot cake.
Dana handed over the lattes to the three women. The door jingled as a new customer walked in. Dana felt her mouth drop open and had to make an effort to close it again. Wow. Now, this man was not one of her regulars. Him, she'd remember. Tall, well built, with tanned skin and dark hair, not long exactly but slightly scruffy and with a slight curl. All he needed now was… yes, big brown eyes. Hubba hubba. Dana was such a sucker for big brown eyes, be they on man or beast. He wasn’t classically handsome but, somehow, he was still very attractive. He had strong masculine features and a presence that could not be ignored. He had the look of a predator shifter, strong and graceful. Yummy too.
The trio of women had actually stopped their daily discussion of cake to stare at him. The blonde, sighed and stared at the newcomer. One of the others simply gave him a sultry smile and actually batted her eyelashes. Dana felt another eye roll coming on. Seriously? Batting eyelashes? Is that supposed to be seductive? It looked more like the woman had something in her eye. The third woman slinked over to the newcomer and stood with her hand on her hip.
“Hi handsome,” she purred at him, eyeing him up like a slice of gooey chocolate cake with zero calories.
To his credit, the stranger merely said, “Excuse me” and slipped past her, walking up to the counter. The woman's mouth hung open, clearly unused to being rejected. Dana liked this man already. Anyone could be obviously sexy, it took real skill to be understated. A skill she had mastered long ago. Generally by not really giving a toss.
As the man got closer, Dana almost purred herself when she caught his scent. She had been right. The man was a shifter. Canine, probably wolf, and totally scrumptious. He smelled wild and free, like the earth after the summer rain. Dressed in a smart dark grey suit, he was tall, somewhere over six foot. He looked as if his muscles had muscles of their own. Not overly built up like a body builder, but there was an unmistakable impression of strength. He didn’t look like he belonged in a suit. Dana could picture him in black jeans and a leather jacket. He looked too much like a bad boy to be wearing such sensible clothes. His face bore a slight smirk as he stood at the counter and his eyebrow lifted slightly as he looked at her. Which was around the time that Dana realized that she was staring at him, mouth hanging open again, and not actually saying anything. Great, next thing she’d be buying skinny lattes and refusing to eat cake. Shudder. Well, at least she hadn’t drooled. Okay, so there was a little drool but it stayed in her mouth where it didn’t count. As long as she didn’t look like a slobbery St. Bernard, she counted it as a win. Go Dana!
“Hi!” she forced out, trying to sound cheerful but probably edging a little too close to manic. “What can I get you?”
“Two coffees, one black. A box of doughnuts, and your name, sweetheart,” he said smiling at her, leaning casually on the counter. Was he flirting with her?
“My name?” Damn. If only she could remember it. How could she be expected to remember anything with him standing there?
“She’s Dana,” Fiona piped up as she grinned at him. Thank goodness someone’s brain still worked. “Dana Roberts. We haven’t seen you in here before. New to the area?”
“Yeah,” he answered, still looking at Dana. “I just got here a few months ago. I’m Ethan Morrison. Nice to meet you, Dana.”
“Ummmm…” was the best she could manage. Damn it, was he laughing at her? Clearly, she’d been too long without male companionship. One cute… no, wait… cute was most definitely not the correct word. One devastatingly attractive man asks her name and she was about ready to bend over the counter and lift her skirt. Her clothes suddenly felt about three sizes too small and she was generating enough heat to make cookies without using an oven. She could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks and hoped against all hope that she wasn’t doing an impression of a tomato. Probably too late to play it cool, huh? Although, considering she was in her work uniform, her pale pink work uniform, it had always been too late to play it cool. All she needed was frilly sleeves and her hair in pigtails with little pink ribbons. Ugh. She’d argued against the uniforms, suggested every other colour in the spectrum, but the elderly couple who owned the shop had insisted.
Torn between the urge to throw herself at him and the urge to run and lock herself in the bathroom, Dana took a deep breath and tried to remember how to do her job. Or, you know, actually speak. Proper words. In a more or less comprehensible order. She could do this. Really. Probably. Maybe? Sigh. She was so screwed.
***
Ethan tried not to laugh. Really, he did. Unfortunately, the woman was just damn adorable. Her medium brown hair was tied back in a messy pony tail. Her green eyes alternated between staring at him and looking down at the counter. Her shirt had powdered sugar on it and she was so flustered it was cute. Her scent pegged her as some kind of deer shifter.
“Ummmm. What kind of doughnuts would you like?” she asked, flicking a brief glance at him before fumbling with a box. She dropped it. Picked it up, let it slip, did a somewhat impressive accidental juggling act before finally catching it.
Oh, right, the doughnuts. The reason he was here. “Any kind at all. About two dozen. Make it a variety,” he answered while still attempting to control his urge to laugh. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had quite this level of interest in a woman. His job was taking up far too much of his life lately. It was important work but still, it would be nice to have time for himself.
“Skip breakfast, huh?” she asked as she smiled at him. And wow. Her smile animated her face, making her look even more attractive. Her teeth were white and straight, apart from one canine tooth which was slightly turned to its side, giving it the appearance of a slight fang. For some reason, this made him even more interested and his trousers became uncomfortably tight. Apparently, he liked fanged deer. Who knew?
“They’re not all for me,” he said, grinning back. Although he would stake a claim to a fair few of them. A man had to eat. “I’m on this morning’s doughnut run.”
He leaned across the counter to give her his charming smile. The smile that his cousin, Kane, used to insist had women running from all corners of the earth to get to him. The smile that his mama had said got him into just as much trouble as it got him out of. As he leaned on the counter, he caught the faint scent of arousal from his little deer. His deer? Oh hell. It couldn’t be. Right? Surely she wasn’t his mate. His true mate. You know, the whole… you only get one… yadda yadda. He so wasn’t ready for matehood. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe she was just a pretty shifter girl and he was lonely. Yeah, that was it. Obviously.
Except his inner wolf was scoffing at him. He could almost see it rolling its eyes. Sitting there with its dopey grin, its tongue rolling out. The wolf wanted the deer and not for dinner. He could feel the wolf urging him on, to claim his mate right there and then. No matter that he was in the middle of a café surrounded by people, some of whom were human. His wolf wanted their mate and he wanted her now. It didn’t help that his human half was mostly totally on board with that. One particular part of his anatomy was especially keen to go with that instinct. Probably not a good idea though. Apart from the bit where he’d get arrested, he just didn’t have time for a mate. No matter how much he might want her. And, yeah, he wanted her. He felt his wolf brushing against his mind, his canines sharpening in preparation for the claiming bite. This little deer was almost certainly his mate. Hell.
He watched as she selected various doughnuts and packed them into a box, tied it with string and laid it on the counter, along with his two coffees. He handed over the money, trying not to brush against her skin and took his order.
“Nice to meet you, Dana,” he said quietly before turning and walking out the café. His wolf howled mournfully at him but he refused to give in. He wasn't mate material. Best to just walk away now.
“What’s up with you?”
Ethan looked up to find his partner standing by his desk, coffee in one hand, doughnut in the other. Since they were police detectives, this was somewhat clichéd but who didn’t like coffee and doughnuts? Leo McKenzie was a lion shifter. Yeah, his parents clearly had a strange sense of humour. Could they have been any more obvious? Leo the lion. It was a constant source of amusement for those who knew what they were. Ethan had been paired with him since he moved here and had quickly been impressed with his new partner. He was intelligent, fair, and an all round decent guy.