Page 138 of Not Your Ordinary Shifter

Even more so as everyone realized there was a woman on the back of every single one of those bikes and not a man in sight.

“Honey badgers,” Thor murmured. He’d heard about the all-female cete traveling the states but had never actually seen them before. Next to him, Ajax groaned.

“Focus, boss.”

“I am focused,” Thor lied. He knew Ajax meant for him to be totally focused on his upcoming ride, but he could focus on two things at once, and he’d always wanted to meet a honey badger shifter.

His stag was unimpressed. Like Ajax, it was more concerned with the upcoming bull ride and the need to win.

Ignoring them both, Thor trotted closer to where the honey badgers had come to a halt, watching with interest as they pulled off their helmets. They were all beautiful women, in different ways, although some of them looked enough alike, they had to be related. Two of them were clearly twins.

His eyes caught on one in particular—possibly because she was the only one with a pink helmet. The helmet wasn’t why hestayedinterested, and it definitely wasn’t what finally got his buck’s attention.

Pretty female. His stag was finally on board with Thor’s split focus, but only when it came to the one woman. It barely noticed the others.

That one, though… she stood out. Hair pulled back in a ponytail, he could still see it went down to her shoulders. Even though she’d just had her head in a helmet, her makeup was done to perfection, highlighting big brown eyes, long lashes, and turning her lips pink. Her mahogany skin practically glowed under the sunlight, especially when she unzipped her jacket to show off the low-cut, skin-tight, pink tank top she was wearing.

Go! Talk—claim!His stag urged him, which surprised Thor. While his animal certainly appreciated Thor’s way with women, it rarely cared what woman he spent a night with. The buck’s urgency actually made him hesitate for a moment, but he rallied.

Fated mates rarely happened, and there was no way to know if she was his without her scent, so his buck’s fascination with her couldn’t be that. Still…

We could find someone else. It doesn’t have to be her.

The immediate and overwhelming feeling of rejection flooded through him. His stag was not at all happy with the idea.

Wanther. Don’t want others.

Apparently his stag was adamant: there could be no substitutions.

Bemused but willing, if only to find out exactly what had his buck so riled up, Thor sauntered forward. Behind him, Ajax groaned, but he could hear his beta moving to catch up. There was no way Ajax would allow him to go into a crowd of strange shifters on his own, even if they were all women.

Hell, that fact probably made themmoredangerous.

Chapter

Two

DEBBIE

There was a man—a cowboy—walking toward them.

One who made the cowboy on the billboard they’d passed pale in comparison. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and with an extra swagger in his step. The brown, wide-brimmed hat on his head couldn’t hide his strong jawline even though it shaded his eyes. Long blond hair brushed the tops of his shoulders. Debbie was a huge sucker for a man with nice hair, she could run her fingers through.

Another man hurried up behind him, maybe an inch shorter than the first cowboy but even broader. He was dressed entirely in black, like he thought he was Zorro or something. Normally, Debbie liked that kind of color coordination, but there was something about the other cowboy that caught her attention even more.

Still, they were unknowns, and her brain immediately catalogued all the weapons she had within easy reach. Her cousins liked to joke she should be nicknamed ‘Arsenal’ because of the number of weapons she carried. Right now, she had the stilettos strapped to her thighs, which were reachable using the special pockets in her pants, a small knife strapped to her ankle,the garrote in her hair, and the grenades chilling at the top of the saddlebag closest to her. The rest of her blades were under the grenades.

Of course, the grenades were overkill for this situation. It was just two cowboys, after all.

Have me. Don’t need boom balls,her honey badger huffed.Or pointy things.

Her animal tended to take it as a personal insult that Debbie liked collecting weapons. What could she say? Sure, she liked fighting in her shifter form, but sometimes, she liked kicking a little ass as a human. She had better control over the amount of damage she doled out as a human, and sometimes, tearing off a man’s arm wasn’t actually necessary.

Plus, things that wentboomwere fun.

Hmph,her grumpy badger responded, clearly not wanting to admit that she was right. Debbie grinned before turning her attention back to the approaching men. She assumed they were shifters, which made her warier than if they were human.

The wind swirled, and Debbie wasn’t the only one of her cousins to take a surreptitious sniff, wanting a better idea of who was heading toward them. All of them were on alert, even if some of them were currently pretending they didn’t notice the incoming cowboys.

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