Claws and Effect (Small Town Shifters Book 1) Read online

  Claws and Effect

  Small Town Shifters

  Lola Kidd

  Copyright 2018 by Lola Kidd

  Cover Design: Melody Simmons

  All rights reserved.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. No part of this work may be copied or reproduced without the express consent of the author.

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  About This Book

  Rhett Lundthal’s job to make sure shifter-human relations are running smoothly in his small town. But he’s having trouble keeping the peace now that a prank has turned his life upside down.

  Someone has put his picture up on an online dating app without his permission. Now, even though he isn’t looking for a mate, human women are turning up left and right for dates. Things get even more complicated when one of the women is attacked by an out of control shifter coming to meet him.

  Joseline Herza is over the moon when she matches with a tall, dark, and handsome as hell shifter on a dating app. She’d always wanted to go on a date with a shifter and now her dream is coming true. But instead of a night of fun, she’s almost killed by a shifter on her way to her date.

  Some of the town shifters are nervous after the attack. If word gets out that a human was almost killed by one of them, it would be disastrous for the town. When her life is threatened, Rhett steps in to protect Joseline.

  As he tries to keep Joseline from danger, the town’s shifter-human relations aren’t the only one Rhett has to worry about. Now that it’s met her, his animal won’t be letting go of the beautiful human without a fight. Rhett is going to have to make an impossible choice. Which is more important, the safety of his entire town or the beautiful human he’s become attached to?

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Epilogue

  A Note from Lola

  Other Series by Lola Kidd

  Chapter One

  Rhett Lundthal kept his eyes trained on the page in front of him. The novel was getting to the good part and he hoped to get in two more chapters before he went to bed.

  "I was here first!"

  Nope. He wasn't going to open the door.

  "When did you DM him? I was his first date for the evening. He told me so."

  He wasn't even going to go to the window and look out. If there was any sign of life inside, the women would never leave his doorstep. He was going to stay seated and keep all the blinds drawn. They would leave once they thought no one was home.

  "Don't you put your hands on me!"

  Shit. So much for his relaxing evening.

  He was going to have to get involved now. It wouldn't look good to have a fistfight on the town Keeper's doorstep while he quivered in the dark. With a loud sigh, he put down his book and stomped to the front door.

  Rhett's vision started to blur as he fought to keep control of his animal. He'd already had a hard day at work, so the last thing he wanted to do was put out more fires at home.

  He could hear the scuffle before he got the door open. The two women were hunched over, hands in each other's hair. If they were shifters, they would have been hissing and scratching at each other. Though, if they were shifters, he suspected they wouldn't be here at all. To his own kind, he wasn't anything special.

  "I'm sorry, but you ladies need to get off my doorstep." He stood at his full height, shoulders pulled back and face emotionless.

  The women stopped fighting and let go of each other. The one on the right smiled up at him. "You must be Rhett. I messaged you this afternoon."

  The woman on the left stepped in front of the other woman. "I messaged you this morning. I'm Jasmine. You must remember me."

  She was wearing a trench coat, and she opened the front a bit to let him get a glimpse of what she was wearing underneath. Next to nothing. It was some kind of BDSM getup, all black, metallic buckles, and not much fabric. Almost even better than naked, according to his animal. He could take his sweet time getting her out of that thing, teasing her along the way.

  He took a slow, deep breath through his nose and shoved his animal down further. This was not the time for those kinds of thoughts.

  "I may not be wearing some slutty underwear, but I'm here to have fun too." The other woman licked her lips and winked at him.

  "I don't care what you're here for. You've both been catfished. I didn't make that profile."

  "I don't mind sharing," the woman in the trench coat said.

  "Me neither."

  As usual, when it came to the humans lured by the dating apps, this was getting ridiculous. "I'm not interested."

  "Are you gay?" the lip licker asked incredulously.

  "I'm not a homosexual. Not that it matters. As I stated, I am not the person from that profile. I'm not looking for a hookup or anything of that kind."

  "If you want a relationship, I'm cool with that too," Jasmine assured him.

  Lip Licker shook her head. "What kind of straight man turns down two beautiful women? You could have us both, and you're saying no?"

  Of course he wanted to say yes. No redblooded shifter male without a mate would turn that down. Two beautiful women who were exactly his type. Soft, curvy, and ready to have a good time.

  But that didn't matter. He wasn't looking to have a good time with just anyone. He wasn't going to get himself involved with human women who were just looking for a quick shifter hookup.

  Jasmine let her trench coat fall all the way open. "Want to grab something to eat? I heard the place on Elm Street has the best food in town."

  He reached for his keys next to the door and stepped outside.

  "I'd like to get something to eat too," Lip Licker said. "I'm thirsty. I could suck a glass of water dry right now."

  Rhett almost lost it at that one. He snorted but disguised it as a cough. He locked his front door and walked to his car. "I have to get to work. I'm sorry, ladies. I'm sorry you came all this way and wasted your time. I wish I could help, but I'm not interested. I don't want to find you here when I get home. If I do, I'll be forced to call the police and have you removed."

  With that, he left the women gaping as he pulled away. His animal didn't like it one bit, but he needed to get out of there. It had been a very long time since he had been with a woman, and these two were even more tempting than the last.

  It had been three weeks since the "Prank War" had begun. He had a good idea who was behind the catfishing, but he still couldn't prove it. He had busted a group of teens for underage drinking, and a week later, all his troubles had started. First, they had sent large fast-food orders to his door every evening. Dozens of pizzas, a half dozen catered sub sandwiches, and, most impressive, a wedding cake.r />
  Then the food had stopped and he'd begun getting boxes of sex toys. All kinds. Not the cheap stuff, either. That was why he suspected the group of teens. They came from rich families and had more money than the time to use it. Dragon shifters were notoriously wealthy and didn't keep a close eye on their offspring, from what he could tell. As long as the younglings weren't shifting and causing a commotion with the humans, the elders didn't care what they did.

  He was going to ride out the pranks and pretend it wasn't annoying, but this latest prank was testing every ounce of patience he had. They had signed him up for one of those dating apps the humans were so fond of. Only they weren't using it to find him dates, they were Speed Mating.

  Instead of using the app to find dates, you found a "date" for one night only. People put their animal in their name or bio to signify they were down for a quick meetup and nothing more. Shifter men were getting the best deal out of the whole thing. There was no shortage of human women who were looking to find out for themselves if the rumors about his kind were true.

  He didn't use the app himself. He only knew about the dating app hack because it had caused some trouble for Keepers in neighboring shifter towns. Once Speed Mating caught on, the normally quiet towns started seeing a huge influx of human visitors. Not a huge problem, but it was a hassle keeping track of the humans coming into town.

  Until now, it hadn't caused any issue for him at work. It had all been fine, but now that women were showing up on his doorstep, it was starting to get out of hand. He was going to have a word with these kids in the morning.

  "Whoa, whose head are you going to bite off?" Beau, his second-in-command, asked when he got to the office.

  "No one's," he growled. He was head of the local shifter Keepers and he loved his job. But he didn't want to spend his whole life at work. He wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. A moment too late, he realized he should have brought his book with him. He could have read it here.

  "Aren't you supposed to be off for the night?" Beau asked.

  "I am. Why is Tucker here?"

  The young dragon shifter took his feet off Beau's desk. "Maybe you should sit down. Relax a little before I tell you."

  Rhett's shoulders sagged. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Cut to the chase, Tuck. We don't have all night."

  "Don't you, though?" Tuck asked. "You aren't going anywhere."

  Beau chuckled. "We all know you're hiding from those pretty ladies. Your neighbor just called the cops to report a disturbance."

  "Shit. Do I need to go back and take care of it?" Rhett frowned just thinking about it. He didn't want anything to do with those ladies. Not a single one of them.

  Beau shook his head. "Best to let the humans take care of their own."

  "You'll probably get them all riled up again if you go over there anyway," Tuck laughed. "I don't know why you're mad about this, though. Those pranksters are doing you a favor."

  "A favor?" Rhett snarled. "They're lying to those human women. I have to turn them all down. You think that's fun for me? Hurting these poor women's feelings and then sending them home? You think I like having to do that?"

  "You could just let them stay," Tuck suggested. "We all know you haven't had a woman at your house in ages. It wouldn't kill you to have a little fun, man. Hell, it would probably help you relax."

  Rhett wasn't a violent man, but he wanted to punch the smirk off the younger shifter's face. Tuck never hurt for companionship. The tall brown-haired dragon shifter took full advantage of the Speed Mating trend, and he never passed up an opportunity to brag about it. Tucker worked for a Keeper office in Abbott, the shifter town a few miles away, and as the newest recruit, he did all the errands. Which meant he was in Rhett's office weekly. He'd never had an issue with Tucker, but now he was starting to hate when he showed up. He'd heard more than enough details about Tucker's love life.

  "Thank you for your opinion," Rhett deadpanned. "Now, I'll ask you again. Why are you here?"

  "Well, first, did you see the dog I just got?" Tuck tossed a picture at him. "Just picked him up from the shelter this afternoon."

  It was a picture of an old dachshund. Its muzzle was gray, and it looked like it would fall over any minute. Not the kind of dog he would expect Tuck to want. "Nice looking dog."

  "Thanks, man."

  "Stop stalling." Rhett looked at Tuck pointedly. It wasn't going to be good if Tuck was buttering him up with dog pictures.

  "Oh, yeah." The dragon shifter put his baseball cap back on and started for the door. "Just wanted to let you know, we have it under control. I want you to know that. We totally have this under control. But there's a scorpion terrorizing the countryside."

  Chapter Two

  Joseline Herza put her phone on her coffee table. Then, she went to the kitchen and made herself a bag of popcorn. She had to catch up on this week's Red River. She'd been so busy the last few weeks that she hadn't had time to catch any of her favorite TV shows.

  That was the hard part of owning her own home organization business. She spent so much time organizing other people’s lives; she barely had time to do things she loved.

  She set up the show on her TV, but she couldn't keep her mind on it. Not when something much more entertaining was right there on her phone, begging to her to take a peek.

  Speed Mating. There has been a story about it on the evening news and she was curious. Shifters for one night only. One night of crazy, wild, passionate sex. She had accounts on all the dating apps but didn't use them anymore. She'd never had any luck. She was more a Mr. Right girl than Mr. Right Now.

  Hooking up didn't make much sense to her. She'd briefly tried it when the apps had first come out, but she'd hated it. The sex was never great, and the guys were mostly slimeballs. If there was any good men near her, she wasn't matching with them.

  But this Speed Mating thing had gotten her attention. She'd always loved shifters but was too shy to ever approach one in real life. Not in a romantic capacity, anyway. She had more shifter girlfriends than human ones, but she had only gone on a date with two shifters, and while the dates were fun, the guys hadn't asked her out for a second date. She wasn't their mate, and neither of them had wanted to date her casually while they looked for their mate. It was noble, and it made her want a shifter of her own even more.

  You could spot them a mile away at a bar or anywhere else in public. Tall, impossibly handsome, and very confident. They always had an air of unpredictability about them that made her shiver with nerves or fear or lust. She never could put a finger on it. Maybe it was all three. Either way, they were untouchable. As far as she could tell, if you weren't their mate, most of them wouldn't give you the time of day romantically.

  With Speed Mating, she didn't have to worry about approaching one. She could do it all from the safety of her own home. She'd gone on to her long-dormant account on the dating app Heat, and sure enough, the shifter profiles were easy to spot. There was always an animal in the name. Like "Brian [Tiger] Smith." And if the news report was right, all she had to do was swipe right and wait to see if he wanted to meet up. If the animal was in the name instead of the bio, it meant the shifter was only looking for a night of fun. So simple.

  Joseline could see why it was so popular, but she couldn't do it herself. She had precious few days of vacation, and she couldn't spend that little time on a wild shifter chase. She had shows to catch up on and new recipes to try. There was no way she would even be able to match with one, anyway. She wasn't their type.

  She wasn't anyone's type.

  She put her phone down and pushed play on her DVRed show. Twenty minutes into the show, she was still thinking about the app. It couldn't hurt to look. Right?

  After her last breakup, she'd vowed she wouldn't ever pursue a guy again. She would let them come to her. This was clearly breaking her promise to herself.

  But a little voice in the back of her mind told her it wasn't really cheating on her vow. She wasn't chasing a guy trying to get him to l
ove her. This was about lust, and she really was starting to get thirsty for male attention. Not that she would ever admit that to anyone.

  It had been months and months since her last "encounter." Plus, if she found a guy on the app, he had to agree to meet with her. They would have to message her first. So, in a way, they would have to make the first move. Swiping right was more like walking into a club than walking up to the guy. She was letting them know she liked how they looked. It was like giving them a long lingering stare across the dance floor. They still had to decide to walk over and talk to her.

  There was no way any shifter was going to be lacking for partners, either. If they picked her, it would be based on mutual attraction and with an understanding. One night only. Nothing more.

  She picked her phone back up. She could watch her show and look for a partner for the night. The episode she was watching wasn't that interesting, anyway. This was a filler episode on the fantasy-romance drama. She was waiting for the lead characters to get back together, but she didn't want to skip ahead and miss anything. This B-story episode bored her. On the other hand, looking through pictures of hot, available men was a hoot.

  It didn't take long for her to start getting messages. She swiped right on every interesting-looking shifter she found. She wasn't picky. But some of the men seemed interested. Really interested.

  When she didn't message back right away, a few messaged her again. They were down for whatever she wanted to do. One was willing to rent a hotel room if she didn't want to meet at one of their places, which was really nice. She hadn't thought about the logistics of it all. It made more sense to go to the guy's place, but to meet in public first. Make sure he wasn't a psycho, and if he was, that someone saw them together.

  There was one shifter in particular who stood out to her. He didn't list his animal in his name. It just said [Wildcard]. She had swiped right, and when he messaged, she asked him what that meant. He was coy. He told her she would have to meet him and find out. But he was a rare shifter type.