Besides, if Arliss is there, it is exactly where I want to be.
Chapter Eighteen-Arliss
“Do Bulls moo?”
Avery asks this with the kind of innocence only a woman with a toddler and a baby on board can get away with, as we load the dishwasher in Penny’s aggressively adorable farmhouse kitchen.
I blink. “What?”
She doesn’t flinch. “You know, do Bulls moo? Like, when they’re feeling any particular kind of way?”
Her cheeks go bright red.
I stare.
“Okay, first of all, how the heck would I even know that? I haven’t seen him as a boy Cow, er, Bull. And second, what are you talking about?!”
Because honestly, I’m still recovering from finding out that Shifters are real, that they have mates, and that I apparently got claimed by one after a night of wild, sleep-depriving, sheet-tangling boinking.
Okay. Focus.
Penny, all glowing and violently pregnant, lets out a dramatic gasp. “Oh my gawd, Avery. You’ve turned into such a horn dog with this baby!”
I whirl around to Jezebel, who seems the most normal out of the trio, and she lets out a ladylike snort before dissolving into giggles so delicate they should be illegal, considering the madness happening around us.
I am definitely missing something.
I feel like I just boarded the crazy train and someone greased the damn tracks.
But the thing is, I like it. Them.
I’m having a good time with them.
These three women—Penny, Jez, and Avery—they’re not what I expected.
They’re like me.
Or at least, they were.
Before the fated mates stuff.
Before the fur and fangs and hormonal maelstrom.
Penny? She runs her own bakery, and from what I’ve heard, the woman could sweet talk sugar into jumping into her baked goods.
Devil’s Food Bakery is one of my favorite places in town. And the little goodies she sells during the rodeo?
To die for.
Penny is just so bold and beautiful. A total badass who, fun fact, sneezed and turned bright red like a human-sized cardinal right in front of me.
Not joking.
Apparently, she’s no longer entirely human thanks to Max’s little “love nibble.”
Now she shifts into a red furred, winged female version of the Jersey Devil, but she can still make muffins that could bring a grown man to tears.
So, has mating the Alpha of a Motley Crew of Shifters changed her? Yes.