Page 5 of As The Shifter World Turns

“New guy is accounted for.” Archer stepped out onto the roof. Wolves apparently smelled delicious and had super fantastic hearing. His eyes went to my shirt and widened as he read the words. But he said nothing.

At least,thisone smelled delicious, scenting of amber and lavender.

I brought my beer bottle up to my lips, inhaling deeply to avoid his scent and the way it had my cock starting to stir. Nothing good could come of that. Nothing. Not with my unicorn. We weren’t like other shifters, and I knew my limits.

“Sorry I’m late. My boss needed something.” He gave his phone a glance and slid it into his back pocket. “And I wanted to grab a sandwich.”

That was odd.

“Vegetarian,” the wolf said. Wolf. Vegetarian and wolf. What?

“Aren’t you a… you know… predator?” Ivor asked at the same time as Daire said, “You should’ve told me.” Both sentences were a jumbled mess that took me a second to pull apart.

“I didn’t want to be rude.” Archer directed his sexy gaze to Daire. No. Not sexy. Just a gaze. This was not a nightclub; this was my home. I did not need to be sporting a woody.

Archer shrugged. “My wolf and I have an understanding. I’m not a fan of the meat industry, so he can eat all he wants when we’re in our fur. Works for us.”

“But you're a wolf.” Ryder came over. “Arrr Meat. Wolf.”

“And you need a burger for some of that alcohol.” Daire waved to Ivor, who replied back that he was on it. “I’m getting Neil. That guy needs some fun.”

“He needs to get laid.” Ryder plopped himself on the chaise next to us. “I need to get laid. That’s what I should've done. I should’ve?—”

Archer’s phone went off and he pulled it out, glanced at it, then held a finger in the air as he typed away furiously. I hated those things on a good day, but actively tried to avoid his scent while his phone drew my attention and had me wanting to snap at him.

There was no reason we needed to be connected to people at all times. None. That’s what our beasts were for… their beasts, anyway.

“The wolf doesn’t know.” Ryder chuckled.

“What? Me? What don’t I know?” Archer still had his phone in his hand.

Neil and Daire reached the roof, Neil looking exhausted.

“What doesn’t Archer know?” Daire’s question was a cross between amused andthey better not be being assholes.

I pointed to the sign I put up after one of our first barbecues; a phone with a slash through it. “This is as close as we get to nature.” I didn’t need to explain more than that. But of course I rambled on about how shifters needed time in the air and under the moon and not connected to the stupid human world. I wasn’t even anti-human world. There was something about the constant distractions of those stupid smartphones that put my unicorn on edge and in turn did the same to me.

“You’ll get used to him. He’s not that bad.” Neil put his arm around my shoulder. “He makes his living setting up perfect houses and wants ours to be one too.”

“Perfect houses?” Archer asked, giving me the opportunity to change the subject already.

“I have a business staging houses.” I went on to explain what I did and which realtors I worked with and how I was on a few television shows for my work. I usually didn’t share that last part when I wasn’t pitching for a job, but my unicorn was preening, and he was rubbing off on me.

Archer’s phone went off again, and without thinking, I gave him side eye strong enough to knock him over.

“Buzz off. He’s new.” Neil elbowed my side. “Come on, Archer. Let me show you the garden that Daire’s so proud of.”

I watched as they walked away from me to the other end of the patio that was cluttered with potted plants, flowers, shrubs, and raised beds full of herbs, Neil talking around the answer to Archer’s seemingly benign question about what he did for work. My eyes were ogling the wolf’s ass.

“He’s not worth it,” Ryder interrupted me. As drunk as he was, he saw my interest in Archer. The interest that had no place here.

Never shit where you eat.My grandpa said that when warning me against mixing work with pleasure. He’d been right, of course, and that advice seemed to fit here. This might not be work, but it was my home, and in a warped way, these people were my herd.

Ryder tilted his head back, downing the rest of his beer, and then fell back on the chaise. “No one is.”

And really, drunk Ryder had a point.

He rolled over onto his side, his bottle clinking to the floor. “I think I drank too much.”

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