Bear Cuffs (Broken Hill Bears #3)(26)

    "So, you guys decided that I needed to start dating. Ok, that's reasonable," Kristin said. "And I'm also going to hazard a guess that this is how you met Connor and Logan?" The two women nodded. "But why the big secret?" As Kristin was speaking, she scrolled up and down, swiping from one thing to another. She's like a magpie, Dina thought. Not happy until she's investigated every possible angle and aspect of something. It was a quality that was as impressive as it could be infuriating. "So this seems to be a dating app for seriously hot dudes," she said. "Actually  –  wait  –  I recognize this guy. He was at your wedding." She'd paused at a photo of a hunky blond guy with intense green eyes. "I'm not likely to forget a face like that." Absently she swiped left, and a snow leopard appeared instead, lounging on a tree branch. "Hmm he's got a weird obsession with animals. But that's not the first guy with an animal on his profile." She scrolled up and located the guy she'd seen before, who happened to be a lion shifter. "That's bizarre."

    It only took her a moment longer to discover that all the guys had animals on their profiles.

    "Hey, that's funny  –  they also look quite a lot like the animals they've chosen. For example, I'll bet this guy is a wolf  –  he looks kind of lean and rangy, but powerful." She swiped left, and a gray wolf appeared. "Awesome!"

    Lauren and Dina smiled to each other as they listened to Kristin's internal monologue. It was fascinating to hear the workings of her mind. "So, what's the deal? A site full of dudes who have pictures of animals that resemble them, and the app is called Shiftr." Returning to the snow leopard shifter, she swiped repeatedly between the man and the animal. Dina and Lauren could practically see her brain cogs turning around. They looked at each other nervously. Kristin put the phone down on the table. "Ok, I have an idea in my head but it sounds really crazy, so I'm not even going to tell you what it is. You're going to have to explain," she demanded, looking from one woman to the other. 

    "I'm pretty sure that your idea is spot-on," Lauren said. "This is a dating app for curvy girls and shifters  –  men who can turn into animals. Connor is a bear shifter, and so is Logan." Kristin's dark eyes became huge, and her mouth made a small O.

    "No shit?" she said, after a long pause. "Knowing you ladies as well as I do, I'm going to assume that you've verified this isn't bullshit?" They nodded encouragingly. "Wow. To say that I'm stunned, amazed, and flabbergasted would be the understatement of the year. I thought that shape shifters died out along with the Latin language."

    "Nope. They're alive and kicking, and they've existed throughout the history of mankind. According to Connor anyway," Lauren said.

    "So, were all those hot guys at the wedding that I've never seen before shape shifters?" Kristin asked. Dina nodded. "That's  –  that's really cool," she said slowly. "It's going to take me some time to process this though." She looked at her watch. "And time is something I don't have right now. I have to go. I'll call you guys later tonight." She stood up and blew them each a kiss, put $5 on the table, dropped her phone in her purse and hurtled off.

    "That went well," Lauren said.

    "Yeah, she seemed a lot easier to persuade than I'd expected," Dina agreed.

    "So what now?"

    "I'd say let's give her a little time to stare at some scorching-hot shifters, and then encourage her to message a couple of them."

    "Makes sense." The two women exchanged conspiratorial grins.

   

   

    Chapter 2

   

   

    Kristin clapped her hand over her mouth to suppress a yawn. The Hope Valley town hall meeting was long, and so far there hadn't been much to report on. Only stuff like planning permission disputes and various petitions, which Kristin only put in the paper when she was really desperate for news. The room was hot and airless, and she fidgeted uncomfortably, wafting her face with a folded-up pamphlet. She hated being cooped up anywhere for long periods of time.

    As the lead councilor droned on and on about some tedious, who-gives-a-shit issue, her brain bounced a single thought around: there's a dating app full of men who sometimes shift into animals! The thought was accompanied by a whole range of emotions  –  skepticism, shock, curiosity and excitement. She reached for her purse, snuck her phone out of it and tapped the little orange paw print of the Shiftr app. It opened on the profile photo of the last guy she'd seen. He was powerfully built, with bulky muscles and washboard abs. He had messy hair, narrow eyes, and a lazy grin. He had to be a lion. A swipe to the left confirmed it, and she smiled to herself. In the photo, he was lying in the middle of a forest trail, like the king of the jungle. Would it be a good thing to date a lion? Weren't they supposed to be lazy? Whenever she'd played that game of what animal would you be? she'd always picked a lion, because she knew she projected a tough, intrepid character. But did that mean that she should have a lazy partner, who expected her to make all the effort? Or should she be looking for someone who shared her qualities instead? She scrolled up and down. The wolves looked interesting. Some of them seemed tough and dominant, while others looked softer. Didn't they have that alpha/beta thing going on? Maybe she'd like an alpha male, as long as he didn't try to dominate her. But perhaps that's the whole point of being an alpha wolf  –  you're always superior to your partner? She paused on one guy. He had golden-brown hair in a stylish cut, and a broad, angular face, with defined cheekbones and a very square jaw. She adored men with chiseled features. She zoomed in on his face. His eyes were a very unusual shade of green, almost like grass  –  and they sparkled beguilingly.


     
       
         
       
        

    "Wow," she said aloud.

    "I know, it's awful, isn't it?" the guy next to her muttered. "Can't believe they're cutting the budget again!"

    "Yeah; it's terrible," she replied, sucking in her lips to stop herself from giggling. She tuned the guy out and returned to the phone screen. So what kind of shape shifter is he? Lion? Tiger? She swiped to the left, and a huge, beautiful, orange and black tiger was revealed, surrounded by dense green foliage. The animal's cool green eyes were the exact same shade as the man's, with the same glowing intensity. At this discovery, a shiver ran through her body. She shook herself. What? Why am I suddenly finding it so hot that he's half tiger? She swiped right and stared at the guy's torso. He had the body of a sprinter, with huge, sinewy muscles: her absolute favourite kind of athlete. His skin was olive-toned, with those small, flat brown nipples that she loved on men. She swiped from tiger-to-man, man-to-tiger a couple more times. Her clit was actually tingling. There was just something about the thought of him being so powerful and wild that did something crazy to her.

    She scrolled through his profile. He was 6'2", which meant that he'd still be taller than her when she was in heels. He enjoyed traveling, rock music gigs, dirt-bike racing, reading, painting and visiting art galleries. He loved hanging out with his friends, but valued his independence too. He was looking to meet a curvy, feisty woman who was his equal in all respects. He's not only smoking hot, but his personality sounds perfect too. She tried not to let her mouth hang open. Ok, how do you let someone know that you like them? She scrolled down to the 'send this member a message' icon. Her thumb hovered over it.

    And she let her phone drop into her lap. Who the hell was she kidding? This guy was absolutely stunning. Ridiculously good-looking. She needed to be more realistic. She picked the phone up again and swiped to her profile. Dina and Lauren were utter sweethearts. They'd listed her hobbies as writing, basketball, traveling, hiking, and hanging out with her best friends. In the 'seeking' section, they'd said she was looking for a man who was as fearless as she was, who loved travel, adventures and cozy Sunday lie-ins. They knew her so well. The face shots they'd picked out were nice too. Kristin was pretty much ok with her face. She'd always been told she was pretty as a kid, and she'd dated a lot in high school. It was her body that she could never come to terms with.

    When she was 22 and just finishing college, she'd broken out in acne for the first time in her life, her periods became really irregular, and she put on 35 pounds for no reason at all. She'd completely freaked, and been to see several specialists. And they'd all told her the same thing: her ovaries were growing cysts, which were making her hormones unbalanced. There was nothing they could do about it; all they could do was treat the symptoms. She'd recovered from the acne by going through a controversial treatment program, and it was pretty nice only having four or five periods every year. But the weight wouldn't shift. She was an athlete, and she knew how to push her body to its limit, but six punishing sessions a week weren't enough for her to regain her previous figure. She was stuck being 40 pounds overweight. And if she missed a couple of sessions, another five pounds crept on, as if by magic.