Free Buying a Mate (BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance) (Quick & Furry Book 8) by Celia Kyle, Mina Carter Page B

pays?”
    Taron’s stomach grumbled and he looked at his hand. His empty hand. Damn, the chips were already gone and the burger he’d had for lunch seemed days ago. Pride stopped him asking for more. He needed to eat, or he’d end up leaner than he already was, which was plenty lean for a dragon. There was no way he was letting Maddox know that, though. A guy had his pride.
    Maddox dug into a nearby drawer and tossed the bag at Taron. “You might as well finish them. Mari got the wrong flavor again. I won’t eat them. Then she’ll nag me about keeping my calorific intake up or some shit.” He rolled his eyes. “Women, pain in the freaking ass.”
    “ I heard that!” a voice yelled from the other office.
    Taron didn’t care what Mari had heard. Shrugging nonchalantly, he opened the bag of chips and stuck his hand in, grabbing a handful. They were good and he wasn’t turning down free food. Couldn’t afford to.
    “It pays?” he pressed again. Whatever he agreed to had to pay. “No volunteer crap to build my resume?”
    That was the spiel the other agencies had spun him, citing the difficulties of hiring out shifters and all that crap.
    Maddox shook his head, his gaze still intent on Taron. He stopped mid-chew. Something was off here. Very off.
    “Spill, Mads, what’s the deal?”
    “Welllll, honeybun, it’s like this. We got a job that’s not like a job, really, and we need someone special to fill it,” Mari drawled from the doorway and Taron turned that way with a broad grin on his face. He liked Mari, always had, but was careful not to let that like trigger either Mari’s predatory instincts or Maddox’s protective instincts over his sister.
    “Someone special?” Taron easily deciphered the speech. “You need a patsy to follow orders, don’t you?”
    “Pretty much.” She flashed white teeth in a winning smile and his body thrummed with a hint of desire.
    Carefully Taron scented the air, a reflex action where women were concerned. But that special scent he’d looked for since he’d realized the difference between little boy dragons and little girls of any species wasn’t there. Damn. Mari would make some lucky guy an awesome mate someday.
    She sauntered across the room to rest her hips against her brother’s desk. “We have a lady on our books who needs to get married. The full human deal, legal and binding. But…” She held up a finger when he opened his mouth. “This is purely a business deal, not a mating. You’ll get bed and board, clothing and a car as well as a monthly allowance. After a year, you’ll receive a rather large sum and a quiet divorce.”
    He blinked, his dragon wanting to latch onto a few of the words in the sentence, like “lady,” “mating,” and “bed.” With control born of experience, he ignored them and focused on what she’d actually said, not what the dragon thought she’d said.
    “Business deal? So like a marriage of convenience?” Who would have thought it? That trashy regency romance he’d read while waiting at the last agency before they’d told him his kind weren’t welcome after making him wait all day had come in useful. Go figure.
    Mari nodded. “Exactly. She needs to get married, quickly, to fulfill some clause in her father’s will or lose her inheritance.” She paused and her lips curved into a little smile. “Let’s say she and the rest of her family don’t exactly get along, so she’s requested…”
    Maddox sighed when she paused. “She wants the least suitable shifter we can find to freak her goody two-shoes family out. So…” he motioned to Taron’s leather pants and thin white tank top, the shifter ink tattoos, and the symbol of his disgrace—the white stripe in his hair. “This is perfect. Throw in some guyliner and a bad attitude and we have a winner.”
     

Chapter Two
     
    He wore guyliner. And by he , River meant Taron Jones, disgraced weredragon. She wasn’t sure why or how he’d ended up disgraced. Only that