Chapter 1
“THEY’RE BACK,” MAX announced.
Cole groaned and signaled Phoenix for another beer. He knew exactly what was coming and was pathetically grateful they were having their meeting at the local shifter bar, Shenanigans.
“Someone’s gotta do something,” Karl said. “We can’t have humans just wandering through the woods. They could see anything!”
Max nodded. “Time to step up to the plate, Cole.”
“Why me?” Cole demanded, even though he knew exactly what they were going to say.
“Because they’re trespassing on cougar, not wolf, territory,” Max said, “which means you’ve been nominated.”
“Why not Dan? He’s a cougar too!”
“You’re crazy if you think I’m going to go talk to some human females about anything,” Dan retorted.
“And what’s wrong with human females?”
Everyone looked up at the question.
Phoenix stood there, a tray of beers in her hands and an annoyed look on her face.
Cole was relieved he wasn’t the one she was glaring at. Phoenix had been raised among humans, so who knew what she’d do with Dan’s beer now that he’d gotten her riled up?
Dan shrugged. “I suppose normal human females are okay, but these women – they’re not normal.”
“And how do you know that?”
Max cleared his throat. “Well, they keep trespassing on our lands while naked.”
Phoenix stared at them for a long minute before finally asking, “Are you sure they’re not shifters? Because my experience with humans is they’re kind of prudish when it comes to nudity. Whereas y’all, meaning you shifters—”
“Uh, you’re a shifter too,” Dan interjected.
Cole winced. While that might be true, Phoenix had only recently discovered her shifter form and still considered herself to be more human than not, so he wasn’t sure Dan’s statement was going to help matters at all.
“You shifters,” Phoenix repeated, raising her voice and ignoring Dan’s statement, “tend to get naked at the drop of a hat. And not for any sexy shenanigans either, just for—”
“Oh, we get naked for sexy shenanigans too,” Cole assured her.
She rolled her eyes. “Anyway, as I was saying, being naked in the woods tends to be a pretty big indicator of shifterhood.”
Max sighed. “But they’re not shifting, Phoenix. They smell human and all they do is walk into the woods buck naked, dance around in a circle, pick a few weeds and walk out again. Still naked.”
“Interesting,” Phoenix said. “Though I’m still not sure why it’s a problem, even if it is unusual.”
“They could see anything out there, Phoenix,” Pete exclaimed. “That’s where we shift. That’s where the cubs run and play. And now we’ve got naked humans wandering around who might see something they shouldn’t.”
Cole sighed. “I’ll go and talk to them.”
“Excellent!” Max grinned. “Glad that’s taken care of.”
Cole grunted. Of course the damn wolf was happy. He wasn’t the one who’d be dealing with crazy females, and human ones at that.