Oh, Bite Me (Guardians of the Deep 1)

For the first time in a very long time, she felt fear kick in. Again, she had no idea what kind of shifter this guy was, and she’d never really experienced anything with a shifter before. Her best friend, Sylvia, used to date a wolf kinda guy and she swore he was the best she’d ever experienced in bed. Since then, Penny had been toying with the idea of trying to hook up with one. The problem was, most of these guys weren’t out on the street cruising around in their animal form. Humans knew they existed, but to keep a happy balance between worlds, shifters usually did their best to keep to themselves.

And now she had one gripping her arm and warning her about his wild side.

“Please,” she said. “This obviously isn’t going to work. Let go of my arm so I can go.”

“I came out here for a date and I’m not leaving until I get one,” Rico said.

Something flashed in his eyes. It was a green shimmer that cut through his pupils like a laser sight, but only for a second. It happened so quickly she wasn’t completely convinced it had happened at all. It was a final warning. He was close to losing it.

Will he actually shift right here in front of all these people? Would he be that stupid?

Penny wasn’t sure it was worth taking that chance. She could finish this date, but the new question was what Rico expected to happen at the end of it. Of course, she wasn’t planning on fucking him now. Not that she’d ever planned on it. Yes, she’d left the house hoping to be pinned down on her back by a strapping stud, but this guy wasn’t the stuff dreams were made of.

“I really want to go home,” she said.

“Look into my eyes,” he said.

She knew some shifters held strange powers that might seep into her subconscious, but still she did as she was told and looked into his gaze. The green shimmer flashed across his eyes again.

“You will take my hand and you will skate around this rink with me,” he said matter-of-factly. “Then you will take me back to your place, you will get naked, and you will bend over the arm of your sofa, so I can feed that needy pussy of yours.”

Bam!

Penny wasn’t sure whether he truly believed he was Dracula or if he was simply so daring he thought he could speak to her that way, but whatever spell he thought he’d cast on her clearly didn’t work. What did work was her fight technique, because she slapped the shit out of him, and boy did it leave a mark. Then her flight technique kicked in and she desperately tried to roll her way toward the door. Turned out, it was hard as hell to run on roller skates.

Rico was on her fast. He grabbed her shoulder and yanked her backward. She bounced across the wooden floor on her ass and was about to scream when a new face came into view. This guy was gorgeous. He had long, curly blond locks and piercing blue eyes. He was built like a fucking freight train. His hand was much larger than Rico’s and his grip seemed so much stronger as he grabbed the smaller man’s wrist and held it a foot from Penny’s face.

“Is there a reason your sorry ass is trying to intimidate this lovely lady?” the new guy asked, his voice strong and stern.

This was the man she’d wanted for her date. She wondered if the HEA Dating Agency had this guy in mind all along. Maybe this was all part of the experience.

“You don’t know what you’re getting involved in, friend,” Rico said.

The new guy sniffed the air next to Rico’s face and then laughed.

“I think I do,” he said. “And I’d love to see you show the world.”

Penny worried this stunning man coming to her rescue might not understand that Rico could quite possibly flip out at any moment, and if he did, they could all be in great danger. She looked up at her sleazebag date and saw a smirk that told her shit was about to go down. However, while Rico was busy showing signs that he was about to get aggressive, her white knight was having none of it. He opened his mouth and showed canine’s much larger and sharper than any common man would have. A growl rumbled in his throat and then a whimper escaped Rico’s. It was like seeing a pit bull intimidate a terrier.

One moment Rico was standing his ground, but then in an instant, he disappeared, and his clothes fell to the rink floor where they landed in a crumpled-up pile. Two squeaks emitted from somewhere in the pile and then a small, furry creature scurried out of one pant leg and darted across the rink and toward the exit.

“Was that a fucking ferret?” she asked.

The blond man laughed and shrugged his shoulders.

“Looked like a rodent to me,” he said.

Badass Rico, the guy who’d nearly scared the life out of her, had shifted into a fucking ferret.

Is that even possible? How could his bones shrink like that? How could he?

Then she remembered that men changed into wolves and bears and even giant cats. If they could super-size on demand, why couldn’t they downsize the same way?

The big hunk looming over her reached out his hand and then hoisted her back up to her feet as if she were weightless. Her chest hurt as her insides twisted into a brewing storm, one-part fear of the unknown and the other part hope that this guy might be the one to turn her night around. The truth was, Penny had spent a lot of time lately fearing that her condition would finally put her six feet under. She knew she would die soon enough, but she’d never felt an immediate fear of death, like it might happen right now.

The adrenaline that had kicked in and having this gorgeous specimen come to her rescue made her pussy cramp with desire. She squeezed her legs together the best she could on roller skates.

“Thank you,” she said. “I can’t believe I was so afraid.”