where I lived.
As their kind had assimilated into the public’s eye, not without its complications of course, one of the major traits known was their penchant for filthy, amazing sex. It was a bit taboo to speak about freely, but everyone knew that shifters were a mating bunch, and that they lived and died by pack mentality. The alpha male led his small flock of werebears, werewolves, whatever you had, and usually he was the biggest, meanest, sexiest of the bunch.
I knew why I was driving to Checker’s Grove. I knew why I was pulling up to Ursula’s, the rebranded shifter bar smack on the edge of town, near the woods. As I walked through the door, wiping my last few tears and scanning the room, I knew exactly what I was doing. As the gruff shifter male made eye contact with me, leant over the pool table and preparing to win the game with a precision shot, he knew too.
Because I was there to forget.
And the quickest way was to gang-bang a pack of hot werebears.
* * * *
The shifter introduced himself to me after securing the victory. Punching fists with his competitor, a slightly shorter but still handsome specimen that soon joined the other two seated members of their pack, he turned to me with his piercing green eyes. Anyone can wear colored contacts, but the way that they glowed, and the intensity at which they scrutinized, matched the visual calling card of the human-formed shifter. His strong, broad shoulders, thick beard, and rippled biceps equally matched the descriptions I’d heard.
“Joshua,” he spoke, taking my hand and kissing it lightly. “And who might you be?”
“My name’s Mandy,” I told him.
“And what brings you to Ursula’s?” He asked politely, his gaze dragging over to the bartender. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed her nodding, then pulling away with a laugh from a customer to pour some drinks.
“It’s been a bad day, and I’m just looking for a good time.”
“A bad day…” he wistfully repeated, rubbing the cue cube along the tip of his billiards stick. “There are plenty of bad days. Surely you can find a…less dangerous way of remedying your circumstances. After all, a shifter bar might not be the place for you, not with your…generous features…” His gaze flowed over my curves. That was the other thing I knew about shifters — they loved curves on their women.
“Well, I came home to surprise my fiancé for his birthday, but it turned out that my best friend did the work for me. I caught them fucking in my bed.”
The alpha male froze, and his pack turned to face me with a mixture of collective pain and interest. “That is…inexcusable,” he gruffly responded, handing his instruments to the closest shifter. “When a man promises a woman, he must always stick to his word. Such things are sacred, to be mated for life.”
“I agree. And he’s broken my heart.”
Joshua took the two tumblers from the waitress who peeked up beside us, a tray of liquor glasses held on her palm. As he handed me one, the alpha shifter nodded politely to her, and she gave me a large, sincere smile as she scampered off to booze up another pool table of patrons.
“I see,” he replied. “And in your broken heart, you have come to this place to seek…retribution? Vengeance, perhaps? He broke the customs, and so you are to break them as well?” His green retinas eyed me suspiciously as he chucked back half of his glass.
“It’s more than that…I’m untouched. I’ve waited my entire life to be properly seduced, and now, just weeks before our wedding…he’s ruined everything. If he can’t be a real man , then I don’t think he deserves to be the one to take me first. I think I should make sure a real man does it first.” Summoning up every ounce of seduction I had, I gave him a sly, wicked smile. “Do you know where I