The Lost Slipper (Fairytale Shifter #3)(27)

He stands up, cutting me off. “Well, good luck to you, honey. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah,” I say dryly. “Sure thing.” I watch as he leaves, and I’m all alone at the small bar. Pine Falls is currently not in tourist season so things are quiet, or so I’m told. Right now the bar itself is pretty damn deserted, which is fine. No more creeps hitting on me.

I’m not surprised he threw down the ‘mate’ card so early, though. Pine Falls is shifter central in the North—which is why I found out about the cabin and the job here. Me? I’d just really wanted to get out of California and away from my old pack. Things got real awkward in Thorne territory when my ex became the new alpha and indicated there’d be room in his bed for me and his current alpha female.

So generous of him. Yuck.

So I got the hell out of Dodge. I’d been bored in California and was looking to start somewhere new, anyhow. Pine Falls, Minnesota, is definitely new to me. So far it seems nice enough, and the local wolf pack is run by family, which means they’re content to let me fringe as an omega: not quite part of the pack itself but still included enough to appease my shifter side.

The door opens, and I turn to look. Two women enter, waving at me excitedly. “There you are!”

“Hey,” I say, getting to my feet. I put a few dollars down for the bartender and gesture at a booth in the back. “Want to sit over here?”

Ryann Brown is considered the unofficial welcoming crew here in Pine Falls. She’s not a shifter, but she’s mated to a big burly were-bear named Mal, so that pretty much makes her one of the team. She beams at me and slides into the booth, all sunny smiles and swingy floral dress.

With her is Adelaide Laurent, my boss and a human woman who runs the town spa. She recently expanded to add hair and nails (aka me) in her quest to beautify Pine Falls and to add an option for bored wives when their husbands want to play mountain man. Both of them have welcomed me to Pine Falls and are now my closest friends here.

It’s weird to have two human friends who are involved in shifter relationships, but I’m happy with it. They’re nice and fun to be around, and after the pack fiasco back in California? I’m happy to go lone wolf for a while.

“You want me to buy the first round?” I ask them, sliding in next to Ryann and bringing my screwdriver with me.

Ryann wrinkles her cute little button nose. “Nah, I’m not drinking. Unless there’s coffee. That, I’m all over.”

“I’m sure they can make you coffee,” I say with a smile. “Would you two rather go to the restaurant instead?”Pine Falls has an infamous waffle restaurant—home to the most maple confections one can possibly toss onto a breakfast plate.

“Not me,” Adelaide says. “Amaretto sour here.” I wave over a server as she rubs her forehead. “Been a long day today. I had a customer who kept calling and swearing I had somehow stolen his credit card information. I tried explaining that his wife came every week and that’s why he had all those charges, but he didn’t believe me, and she won’t ’fess up.”

“That sucks,” Ryann says sympathetically. “That why you’re drinking, Madison?”

“Call me Maddie, and nah. I just met the local ‘alpha.’” I use my fingers for quotes. “He hit on me and then suggested I’d moved here because I needed a man.”

Ryann’s eyes widen. “He did not.”

“He did.”

Adelaide gives me a sympathetic look. “You’re gonna get that a lot here, you know. Most of the time when someone moves to Pine Falls from another state, it’s because they’re looking to hook up with another shifter. At least, that’s what Cole tells me. Lots of hooking up when a new shifter moves here.”

So I can expect a lot more of the last run-in? Goody. “Can’t a girl just want a job and a change of pace without some dick?”

“No,” both of them say, then burst out laughing.

“Ugh. I swear I’m not here to pick up a man!” Even as I exclaim it, the server saunters over. His scent fills my nostrils—not wolf. Bear, maybe. And my eyes widen when he gives me a flirty wink and puts a new screwdriver down for me.

“On the house, sugar.” He gets the girls’ orders, and I try to ignore the phone number written on the napkin under my drink. Hell.

This is going to be real weird for a while. I’m nothing special to look at—brown hair, big hips, maybe a few more freckles than I probably should have. But because I’m a shifter, and because I’m here, everyone thinks I’m desperate for a man.

And the thought makes me defensive. When the server leaves, I lean in. “I swear I’m not here for a guy.”

“You can tell us that, but no one’s going to believe you.” Ryann looks like she’s buying in to the hype at this point. “It’s okay to admit it, you know. People hit a certain age and they start to get the baby bug. Look at Adelaide here. She’s here for three years and then overnight, she and Cole can’t keep their hands off each other—”

Adelaide bats a hand on Ryann’s arm to shut her up, but she’s grinning. “She’s got a point.”

I scowl. “I just want to start my life over, maybe make a few women feel good about themselves. Or men, if that’s what they want. Is that so terrible?” The last thing I want at the moment is a romantic entanglement. Most wolf guys are super possessive…at least until the alpha shows up. Then they’re all, “Hey, I suppose I can share with the big dog.”