Under the Cove

  Under the Cove

  Kinship Cove: Books & Baes

  Ellis Leigh

  Under The Cove

  Kinship Cove: Books & Baes

  Kinship Cove welcomes shifters of all sorts, including ones who live beneath the waves. Welcome to the Kinship Cove library—home of real-life fairy tales—where the head of IT is about to meet his match on the shore…but show his true self off it.

  Being a bobcat shifter means plenty of people thinking calling me Bob is funny, though that’s far from the worst thing a girl living alone in a small town deals with. I’d seen the true crime shows. I knew the dangers of serial killers and sociopaths. But Kinship Cove really was a safe place to be yourself, no matter the shifter type.

  * * *

  At least, I thought so until I met the man of my dreams and the one the fates picked to be my perfect match. He’s tall, lean, quiet, and absolutely not telling me the truth about himself.

  * * *

  What’s a girl to do when the man she’s falling for turns out not to be a wolf in human clothing but something much rarer and more dangerous. And how is a cat shifter of any type supposed to accept a life partially lived under the sea?

  * * *

  They claim life is better down where it’s wetter…and I’m about to find out if that’s true.

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  1

  Margaret

  How’s your day going, Bob?”

  I swear on all that is holy, I will bite that woman.

  “My name’s not Bob, but you know that.”

  The woman in question—the clerk who worked at the front desk of the library—gave me a wink with her wide blue eyes, those thick, red lips turning up in a haughty sort of smile. “We do know that, don’t we?”

  With that, she went back to smiling and laughing at a customer as I fumed. Damned Siamese cat shifters with their pretty eyes and all their talking—I should have shifted and shown her what I thought about her little giggle and all that flowing, black hair. I should have let my beast come out to play with the little house cat who continually called me by the wrong darn name.

  Just because I was a bobcat shifter did not mean you could call me Bob. Ever. That joke wasn’t even original—I’d dealt with it since I’d been a little girl in knee-high socks. The least she could do was attempt to be unique. Of course, then I might truly attack her right there in the library, and that would get me thrown in jail with all the other criminals. Orange was definitely not my color.

  I took a few deep breaths and kept moving, pushing down the urge to bite the Kinship Cove’s Snow White look-alike. In a shifter town, a strong-willed predator could get away with a lot. Biting was a no-no, though. As was humping anyone else’s leg without their permission, which was a law passed after a particularly squirrelly Chihuahua shifter moved to town. Which had nothing to do with why I was at the library or the Siamese shifter who continually called me Bob.

  “Focus, Margaret.”

  I smiled at the patron who had obviously heard me talking to myself, passing by quickly as the embarrassment flashed under my skin. I mean, everyone talked to themselves, right? Of course they did. They had to. Maybe not out loud but…

  “Focus.”

  I finally reached the door I had been heading for, frowning at the fact that it was closed. That fact was beyond odd. Brittani—my best friend and the intended target of my trek through all the books—never shut her office door. She loved being in the old library as much as I did, loved looking out across the shelves lined with adventures and instructions. Loved watching patrons discover a new favorite or dive back into a classic. The only reason I could think of that her door would be closed was—

  “Oh, for crying out loud, you two.” I knocked, making sure the sound was loud enough to be heard over whatever shenanigans my friend and her new mate were likely up to, and waited. And waited some more. Just as I raised my hand to knock a second time, the door swung open.

  “Finally,” I said, pushing right past Griff, Brittani’s lion-shifter mate, and beelining for one of the chairs near her desk. “It’s almost the end of your shift. You two couldn’t wait until you got home?”

  Brittani—all ninety pounds of her pixie-looking self—shook her head, her long, pin-straight hair practically dancing with the motion. “We weren’t doing that.”

  “Sure you weren’t.”

  Griff strode across the room and settled into the chair beside me, leaving the office door open this time, I noticed. We weren’t doing that, my bobbed tail.

  “She’s having computer issues,” Griff said. “I shut the door because of the colorful language she was using to rage against the machine.”

  “Did you try turning it off and rebooting it?”

  If a look could kill, the one Brittani shot me would have definitely been deadly. “Of course I did.”

  My mother may have told me I was too forward a time or two growing up, but even I knew when not to push someone a single step further. Brittani was toes over the ledge—it was time to distract her.

  “Oh, well, that’s the extent of my computer knowledge. But hey, I brought you two something.” I reached into my purse and pulled out a little brown bag decorated with the logo of the dispensary where I worked. “Happy Friday. This new strain just came in, and I totally thought of you both. It’s supposed to be more calming than normal catnip but also slightly aphrodisiac.”

  Griff leaned forward and reached for the bag. “Sounds intriguing.”

  Brittani gave me a tired smile. “Thanks, Margaret. I’m going to need that after the day I’ve had.”

  “You’re welcome. Just let me know how you like it. I’m not about to try anything billed as aphrodisiac, considering I’ve been single for—” I looked at my wrist as if I had a watch there “—six hundred and fifty-seven days.”

  Brittani chuckled, staring at her mate with more love in her eyes than I’d ever experienced. “Your time will come.”

  As if. “Sure it will. Now, what are we going to do about that computer so your day can start improving?”

  Brittani sighed, scrunching her adorable little nose as she turned back toward her screen. “I already called Matthew.”

  “Who’s Matthew?”

  Griff growled low under his breath, a sound that made the hairs on my neck stand on end. No predator liked a bigger, badder predator showing such aggression. It didn’t sit well with us. Brittani, a house cat shifter who obviously had no sense of self-preservation, just rolled her eyes.

  “Oh hush, you,” she said as I watched them with wide eyes. Brave little kitty. “Matthew is the children’s librarian as well as our IT guy.”

  I settled deeper into my chair, stiffening when Griff turned his head away. Big cats always made me nervous, though that wouldn’t stop me from poking him a little bit. “And your man is jealous of the IT guy.”

  Griff scrunched his nose and turned away. “I am not jealous.”

  Totally believable. Not.

  “Sure thing, big guy.” I nodded, nearly purring to myself when Griff growled again. “So, what’s this guy look like? Is he a walking, breathing stereotype of glasses and a pocket protector?”

  Brittani rolled her eyes hard. “This isn’t some ’90s high school drama movie. He’s…” She glanced at her mate, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “He’s definitely not a nerd.”

  That look on her face and the rumble coming from her mate definitely meant something.

  “Well, what is he?”

  It was Griff who answered this time. “A wolf shifter.”

  Brittani nodded. “A big one.”

  It was my turn to roll my eyes, totally ignoring Griff’s almost
constant growling at this point. “Ugh, like a gym head? All big muscles and sweat pants? No thanks. I get so many of those guys in at the dispensary.”

  Brittani shook her head, looking like a woman trying to bite back a smile. “No, not like that. He’s got that lean muscle mass thing going on. Like a swimmer, you know?” She waved me off. “Never mind. Wait until you see him, then you’ll understand. He looks so darn strong.”

  Griff flat-out roared that time, his lion side blasting through as Brittani and I both started laughing. There was just something so ridiculous about a lion shifter being threatened in any way by a wolf shifter, no matter how big and bad that wolf might have been. I may have been biased, seeing as I, like Griff, was a predatory shifter of the feline variety, but come on. Lion versus wolf? No contest.

  As we laughed and Griff pouted, a man walked through the door into the office. Something about him—maybe his energy or his scent—had me spinning in his direction. His very presence stealing all of my attention.

  “What’s so funny in here?” the new guy asked.

  I was about to say…well, something likely a little clever or sarcastic…but I glanced up and met the eyes of the person I assumed to be Matthew. In that moment, all words failed me. The entire world stopped spinning for a long, protracted second as I looked into the deepest, darkest eyes I had ever seen. I definitely understood what Brittani had been saying—the man was tall but not skinny, muscled but not thick. He was handsome, too, with floppy dark hair streaked with gray and a face that allowed me to forget he was wearing a collared shirt and khaki pants. My inner bobcat sat right up and mewled like the hussy I knew her to be, ready to climb that man like a tree. Not because he was hot—which he was—or because we’d been out of the dating game for too long—which we had. No, she wanted him because the pull of the fates told her he was ours. We’d just found our fated mate.

  Brittani had said our time would come. It had…right in her office with her and Griff watching.

  “You okay, Margaret?” Griff asked, sounding concerned. I tried to look his way; I really did. But my bobcat would not let me turn my head from the sight of our mate. Thankfully, he seemed just as obsessed with us, staring at me with an intense expression that had to match our own. Which was good—this would have been hella awkward had it been one-sided.

  “Margaret?” Brittani said, her voice quiet but firm. Something in her tone must have worked its way through the haze for Matthew because he gave a quick headshake then looked Brittani’s way.

  “Sorry. I think your friend and I need a few minutes alone.”

  I still couldn’t stop staring at Matthew, but I could hear the frown that had to be on Brittani’s face as she asked, “Are you sure about that?”

  I nodded, knowing the question was directed at me. I choked out a few words to ease her mind. “Yup. Just a minute or two.”

  With that, I rose to my feet and grabbed Matthew’s hand, pulling him out the door. Laughing sarcastically as I heard him call back, “Try powering down your computer then turning it back on.”

  “She’s not going to like that,” I said.

  Matthew did not seem perturbed. “She’ll have to have patience with me right now.”

  Right. Because Brittani’s computer still needed fixing, but we had better things to do than worry about chips and processors. We had just found each other. Fated mate intros awaited.

  2

  Margaret

  Me dragging Matthew across his own workplace didn’t last for long. It only took me pausing one time to get my bearings before my big, strong mate took control, directing me to a small study room at the back of the library. He shut the door behind us, not turning on the lights, both of us breathing a little harder than normal in the close, dark quarters.

  And then he growled.

  I backed away on instinct, my bobcat ready to hiss if necessary. Sort of hoping I wouldn’t need to. Sort of hoping this was some sort of foreplay instead of a warning of an attack. You never could tell in the shifter world.

  “Hi,” I finally said, the single word totally inadequate but my mind not working fast enough to come up with anything else.

  Matthew didn’t respond right away, choosing instead to herd me across the room to the corner farthest from the door. A low rumble accompanied him the entire way, and those intense eyes never left mine for a second. Never gave me a break from a stare I could practically feel on my skin. Did the man even blink?

  When he had me pressed against the wall, lording over me with all that muscle and attitude, he placed a hand beside my shoulder and leaned in even closer. Making me feel small and weak. Making me feel like I needed him to protect me, which was not at all true.

  I swallowed hard and tried again, eking out a tiny, “Hi, Matthew.”

  “Hi, Margaret.”

  I blinked, my heart racing as all the years of watching true crime came crowding into my brain. Suddenly unnerved by that short greeting. “You know my name?”

  “I do.”

  “How?”

  “You’ve been in here before.” He leaned closer, sniffing my neck. Scenting me. “Your scent lingering in this place has been driving me mad for months.”

  I shivered from head to toe, unable to resist the instinct to run my hands up and over his shoulders. Needing to bring the two of us together physically. We both jolted when my hands landed on him, reacting to the spark between us. To the pull for more. His skin was so cold under my fingertips, so smooth but slightly chilled. As if he’d been sitting under a vent blowing cold air or something. I shivered again.

  “You’ve noticed me before?” I asked, running my hands over his cool flesh. Wanting so much to use my body to warm his. Needing it for some reason my instincts could not explain.

  Matthew slipped a hand down to my hip, squeezing me. Tugging me against him. “My inner beast did for sure. I’ve been waiting for you to come back.”

  I let my head fall back as his lips touched my skin for the first time, practically purring as I gave myself to him. As I consented with action instead of words. “Your wolf must be highly attuned to me, then.”

  Matthew paused and pulled back, staring down at me with an expression I couldn’t read but that sent up a red flag in my mind.

  “Wolf. Right,” he finally said, tucking his head into my neck once more. Sniffing again. “You’re a feline, though. A predator.”

  His touch sent my brain spinning, all instincts except ones revolving around things like mating disappearing into the swirl. I chuckled at the image of a tornado taking all my troubles away, the sound transitioning to a moan as he grabbed me by the waist and pushed me back, tugging the two of us together as he pressed me into the wall. His entire body resting against mine. My mate was definitely a strong one. Physically demanding as well. Why I liked that so much, I had no idea, but I did. Too much.

  Words, Margaret. Focus on the words.

  “I’m a bobcat,” I said just before I gave in to the desires pumping through me and taking a little bite of his neck. Not a hard bite, just a little nip. Letting him feel my canines against his skin. Sneaking in a taste of my mate.

  Matthew groaned and mimicked my actions, running his hands over my ass in a possessive sort of motion as he bit down on my neck. A move that broke through my restraint and brought out a long, loud purr from me. One that quickly transitioned to a distinctive yowl. A sound he definitely seemed to like.

  “Bobcat, huh?” he asked, running his tongue up the length of my neck before whispering against my ear, “I can’t wait to see your tufts.”

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Matthew chuckled as well, both of us clinging to the other as if we’d been together for years. Hands and body parts interconnected in ways that would have been deemed inappropriate in human society, considering we’d only met a handful of minutes before. That was okay—humans didn’t need to understand our connection, but we did. Both of us knew this was it—we’d found our mate. There was no use denying or avoiding it.


  That didn’t mean I couldn’t play a little hard to get. “You’re getting ahead of yourself, talking about my tufts. I don’t just show them off to every Tom, Dick, and wolf shifter in town.”

  With a deep and slightly scary growl that rolled out of him in a way I’d never heard before, he grabbed me by my ass and lifted, forcing me up into his arms. I gasped but went with him, wrapping my legs around his waist. Nearly squealing when he turned us, took two steps, and laid me back on the desk as he followed me down. Suddenly, my mate had me underneath him, staring at me with so much want and warmth, it made me forget any sort of social norm or rule. Made me forget where we were and why. All I could see, all I could think about, was the beautiful man practically lying on top of me.

  And what we could have been doing in such a position.

  “Tell me no, and I’ll stop,” he murmured before leaning in to run a line of kisses across my collarbone. My entire body warmed and relaxed, knowing we were on the same page with what was coming for us, but stopping wasn’t on my agenda. Not in that moment with so much magic and connection floating around us. Shifters waited lifetimes to find their fated mates, and I was not wasting a single day more worried about what he or others would think.

  “What if I said yes instead?”

  3

  Matthew

  By Poseidon’s belt, the woman was going to make me come right here at my job. What if she said yes? I hadn’t even given the option enough thought to have an answer. Sure, I’d fantasized—especially since the first moment I’d walked into that very building and had scented her. I’d known then, simply from the lightest of remnants of her scent lingering on the air, that my mate was in Kinship Cove. It was why I’d settled down, planted roots, worked the library job. I’d been waiting for her. And thankfully, I’d finally found her. Or really, she had found me. Either way, we were together, and there was an opportunity to fuck her on a study room table. Talk about going from zero to a hundred in a matter of seconds.