Valentine's Mates Read online

  He raised an eyebrow. She shrugged self-consciously.

  “Lousy taste in boyfriends.”

  “Just lousy boyfriends, I think,” he said darkly.

  “No arguments here.”

  “Perhaps your luck will change,” he said with a significant look.

  “Perhaps,” she murmured cautiously. What was he saying?

  His phone started ringing, and his eye twitched.

  “I suppose I should get back to work. It was nice to see you again.”

  “I’m nice to see. I mean, you too.” She felt heat spread over her cheeks. “Umm, and by the way, Lucie Cutter brought in cookies.”

  “Oh?”

  He looked mildly confused.

  “Right, you’re new. Lucie, our nurse, always brings in something every holiday. Plus, she brought in her baby, though that probably doesn’t interest you as you don’t know her…”

  “Cutter? As in the wolf shifter?”

  “Yes, she’s mated to him.”

  His eyes took on a mildly annoyed look. Annoyed or haunted were the general looks the wolf shifter inspired.

  “I’m not sure I want to risk eating anything she made.”

  “You should – she’s a hedgehog shifter and so nice. You wouldn’t picture them together at all. I mean a big predator like him and a cute little thing like her, but they just go together so perfectly, and uh… ummm…”

  Lord, she’d started babbling, though Arik was merely giving her a thoughtful look.

  “Yes, I bet they do,” he said slowly.

  “I’m going to go.”

  Before she could say something else idiotic.

  “I’ll see you later, Crystal. And enjoy your Valentine’s.”

  “Yes, I’m sure I will. I’ll probably just go out for a drink with the rest of the single losers from records,” she joked.

  Right before she stalked him outside his sister’s house. Her penguin chirped. Sure, he wasn’t married anymore, but that didn’t mean a little penguin like her stood a chance with him.

  Maybe she should go and bang her head against a wall.

  *

  “Aww man, can’t believe I bothered with muffins – I figured Lucie wouldn’t be baking because of bubs here.”

  Wayne beamed at Lucie and Rosie as he deposited the boxes of muffins on the break room table.

  Cutter grunted at Lucie. “See, you spoil them.”

  “Sure does,” agreed Moose stuffing his face with her cookies. “She made lots of extras too.”

  Lucie beamed at him. It seemed likely that the extras weren’t going to last long.

  “Hey cutie,” cooed Wayne as he leaned down and made a funny face at Rosie.

  Cutter growled in warning, but Rosie merely yawned and seemed to scowl at the gator shifter.

  “Certainly takes after you, Cutter,” chuckled Wayne.

  “She is cute, isn’t she?” agreed Lucie, completely oblivious or uncaring to her mate’s grumpiness as always.

  Cutter glared at the other males – lest they disagree with her.

  Lucie placed a hand on Cutter’s shoulder. “I’m going to say hi to Rick and Helga. I’ll come see you before I go.”

  “Alright, sweetheart. Want me to come with you?”

  She shook her head. He’d probably just insult Rick – the medical examiner, and start a fight with Helga – the SEA’s other resident nurse and owner of the most lethal hands in the SEA. He nodded and stroked Rosie’s head before a beaming Lucie wheeled the stroller out of there.

  Cutter inhaled, his nostrils flaring. “Those blueberry muffins?”

  “Yeah, help yourself.”

  Cutter grunted and grabbed one, easily demolishing it and then grabbing another.

  Moose and Wayne exchanged looks.

  “Hungry?”

  He huffed at them. “Obviously.”

  He wasn’t sleeping as much as usual, so needed all the energy he could get. Rosie was a good girl and was already keeping a good sleep schedule, but Cutter found himself more alert and sleeping less, lest one of his girls needed him during the night. Plus, he really loved blueberries – his mate smelled like blueberries, and she had the most divine, dick-hardening scent in the world.

  Cutter growled as Kurt made his way into the break room and started eyeing the muffins. He said hello and asked, “Are those for everyone?”

  “Sure help yourself,” said Wayne. “Lucie made cookies…”

  Moose let out a snort and tried to move the cookie box out of reach.

  Kurt shook his head. “I need something substantial and fast. I have an appointment with my crazy wedding planner and the caterer in half an hour and given that the wedding planner is trying to insist on twelve courses, I need to have a full stomach when I tell her no.”

  “Can’t you just fire your wedding planner?” suggested Wayne.

  Kurt grimaced as he finished a muffin and moved onto the second. “It’s my mom.”

  The males snickered and even Cutter stopped growling long enough to join in.

  “Yeah, it’s hilarious,” groused Kurt. “My low-key wedding is turning into a damn circus. Last I heard she was actually talking about hiring some lions – she wanted them to do tricks or something, I don’t know, I stopped listening.” His phone started ringing, and he rolled his eyes. “That’s her. Any advice?”

  “Sure,” rumbled Cutter surprising them. He didn’t tend to give advice where love and marriage were concerned. As far as they knew, Lucie did the heavy lifting in their relationship, but apparently, he did have some words of wisdom and here they were, “Vegas is nice any time of year.”

  “Great, thanks,” muttered Kurt. He grabbed another muffin and left.

  “Good morning,” rumbled Arik, as he strode into the break room

  His face was dark, and while Moose and Wayne exchanged a look, Cutter didn’t seem to think there was anything wrong with that. Matched his usual expression.

  Arik eyed Cutter with interest. “I understand your mate has brought in cookies.”

  “They’re all gone,” mumbled Moose, spitting crumbs through a full mouth.

  Arik let out a small growl, and Wayne chuckled. “I brought muffins though. Not as good as what Lucie makes, but still tasty. Good job I did,” he said, snickering at Moose who was now trying to lick crumbs off his shirt.

  Arik humphed and grabbed three blueberry muffins. This didn’t surprise them – him being a polar bear shifter and all. Their other polar bear boss, Gunner, considered a family pack of chips as a light snack.

  Cutter curled a lip as he stared at the muffin he was eating. “Tastes a bit… funny.”

  To be fair that was his third muffin, so if there was a problem, he should have really brought it up earlier.

  Arik bit into one and frowned. “Yeah, tastes a bit floral or something.”

  “Mmm.”

  The two grunted in agreement, but they didn’t stop eating.

  Arik wiped his hands after his second muffin. “What do you guys know about the people who work down in records?”

  Wayne snorted. “Mostly zombies. They’re good workers, but slow and not many people want to work with them.”

  “But uh, there are some shifters down there.”

  “A few, and some vampires. They’re making all our old case files digital – it’s taking ages. There’s a lot to get through.”

  Arik humphed as he munched on a muffin.

  “If you want anything, you should talk to Crystal,” said Wayne. Arik perked up. “She knows where everything is downstairs. The rest of those guys make you fill out about twenty forms, get them authorized by six other people in the SEA, and then tell you they were the wrong forms in the first place.”

  “Fudging dillweeds,” muttered Cutter, still making his way through the muffins.

  “I think they’re just bored and they like getting the rest of us to run around. But Crystal’s cool. Didn’t she used to date the llama in tactical?”

  Arik let out a strange noi
se and shoved a whole muffin into his mouth.

  Moose snorted. “Nah, he asked her out a few times, but she always said no. Guy’s trying to make his way through all the females in the building.”

  Cutter curled his lip. “He won’t get Lucie.”

  “All the single females,” amended Moose. “He’s not suicidal enough to touch the mated ones - especially Lucie.”

  Cutter settled down and snagged the last blueberry muffin. Arik gave him a look and reached for a peach muffin instead.

  Blueberry was a hit. There were still plenty of other muffins left, but, Arik, Cutter, and Kurt had managed to demolish all the blueberries on their own.

  “So Wayne, what you up to on Valentine’s?” asked Moose.

  Wayne cocked him a smile. “Aww, man, thanks but you’re not my type.”

  Moose snickered. “Funny. You still living with Avery and her cute sister?”

  Wayne’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Yeah.”

  “What’s Aimee doing for Valentine’s?”

  “She’s busy,” Wayne grumbled and stomped out of the break room.

  Moose shrugged and followed him.

  Cutter looked at the last bite of blueberry muffin. Definitely something a little off, but he ate it anyway.

  *

  Meli sighed as she took the last batch of scones out of the oven. She had finished baking for the day. Guess there was nothing else to do but eat the blueberry muffins.

  She chewed on her bottom lip. Was she doing the right thing? Did she really want to forget him completely? She had been thinking about it all day, putting it off until she couldn’t put it off any longer.

  Should she… ah… She spun around, looking for the muffins. She put them in Tupperware with a pink lid so she could tell them apart from her other muffins, except it didn’t seem to be there. She made all the muffins at home the night before because they needed them early for a pre-order. She knew that Ginger had served the customer while Meli was crying in the toilet…

  Oh no! Meli must have given them to the customer! Oh no, no, no, no!

  Ginger barreled through the door. “Martin’s here to see you.”

  “He is?” breathed Meli.

  Her elation almost made her forget that she was about to be in an awful lot of trouble.

  *

  Lucie tucked Rosie back into her stroller. “Okay, little Miss, you are changed and fed, and we are ready to go. Let’s just go say goodbye to Daddy.”

  She pushed her over to Cutter’s desk, waving at people she knew.

  Her sexy mate was concentrating on his work, and she bit her lip to stop herself from moaning. Everything he did was darn sexy.

  Lucie cleared her throat and Cutter looked up, surveying her blankly.

  “Yes?”

  Okay, not the steamy look she normally got and immediately her hedgehog was a little wary. But it was okay; he was probably just busy.

  “Right, we’re going now.”

  Rosie made a noise, and he dipped his eyes to look at her. But rather than the immediate adoration she usually saw on his face, he merely shrugged on seeing their perfect angel.

  “You need someone to escort you from the building?”

  Lucie tinkled with laughter. “Of course not.”

  He stared at her.

  “Cutter…”

  His eyes narrowed, and he looked almost… threatening.

  “How do you know my name?”

  Okay, her inner beast really was panicking now. He wasn’t the type to play practical jokes. He was the type who beat other people up for doing it.

  “James, this isn’t funny.”

  He stood up to his glorious six-foot-plus height and towered over her. Usually she went all mushy when he did that because it meant he was about to take her in his arms and kiss her senseless. But she definitely wasn’t getting that kind of vibe from him today. She probed their bond and shivered as she came up against a wall. He wasn’t letting her in. Her inner beast mewled.

  “Seriously, James, if this is a joke…”

  Rosie started bawling her eyes out, and Lucie frantically tried to calm her. Cutter gave her an irritated look. It was a look she knew well, but not one that he had ever directed at her. Sure, she irritated him – all the time with her sunniness – but he had never been angry with her, and she definitely couldn’t find anything to be sunny about at that moment.

  “Try to control your kid,” he hissed.

  “What?!” exclaimed Lucie.

  Your kid? Not our kid? And he would never tell her to ‘control’ Rosie!

  Wayne sauntered over to them, a puzzled look on his face. “Everything okay, guys?”

  “No,” whimpered Lucie and her snuffling hedgehog seconded that. “He doesn’t know who I am!”

  Wayne guffawed until he realized she wasn’t joking.

  “I’m not sure how this woman got past security…” started Cutter and Wayne growled at him, cutting him off.

  “Seriously, Cutter, you’re acting like an ass, even for you.”

  Cutter gave him a hard but confused look. Lucie, in turn, gave him a hurt look.

  Wayne let out a low rumble. “Let’s get you guys over to Bettina to take a look at you. Because there is definitely something not right here.”

  *

  Kurt frowned at his phone. His mother was sending him reams of texts asking where the hell he was and asking did he think the caterer would wait forever.

  Caterer? Was she throwing a party or something, and why would that involve him anyway? He could care less what food his mom served at one of her parties. The only people she ever invited were witches, and he’d had enough of dating witches since his last break up.

  He jumped as two hands slithered around his waist.

  “Hey, sexy! Happy Valentine’s Day!”

  He turned in the mystery arms to find a very pretty woman beaming at him. She had huge, curly hair, big glasses protecting a set of large, dark eyes, and an enormous smile plastered across her face. Not only was she lovely, but she was also endowed with the most amazing rainbow aura – he had never seen anything like it. Incredible. He admired her and her aura for a few moments before he realized she was looking at him expectantly.

  “Ah, hey?” he murmured.

  Was it April Fools? Valentine’s Fools? Or perhaps just ‘hug a random stranger at work’ day. He couldn’t recall meeting her before, but she was wearing the overalls the technicians usually did. Perhaps she was new and just incredibly friendly. Certainly was a sexy, little thing. Perhaps he should ask her out…

  “Your mom’s been calling – she’s about to send out a search party.”

  Okay, this was verging on weird. Kurt carefully grasped her wrists and extricated himself from her.

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  He was sorry to say the smile vanished from her face – she was very lovely, and he didn’t mind having that smile directed at him. Instead, she frowned at him.

  “Your mom? Christine? Scary as hell witch who is currently turning our wedding into a show that would be perfectly at home on a Vegas stage?”

  Kurt’s eyes bulged. “Our what?” he spluttered. Jeez, and he’d thought Trina – his ex – was twisted and stalkerish. But having a stranger run up, grab him and tell him they were getting married – this woman was in a league of her own.

  “I’m sorry, but you’ve got the wrong guy.”

  Her frown deepened for a moment before she gave him a curious look. “Is this some kind of ploy to get rid of your mom? Because, she strikes me as the type who would hunt you to the ends of the earth.”

  “I can handle my mother,” he said slightly testily. People always thought he was some kind of momma’s boy – he was not! His mom just wanted him to be one.

  “Yeah, I don’t think anyone other than my dad can do that,” she snickered.

  Kurt took a step away from her. This was just a bit too surreal for his liking. As cute as she was, as amazing as he found her aura, he really didn’t want t
o get dragged into whatever weird fantasy she had going on. He was about to lie and say it was nice to meet her when he saw something sparkling on her finger.

  “Is that my grandmother’s ring?”

  The woman held up her hand. “Yeah, well, that’s what you told me anyway.”

  Kurt gaped at her. “Are you saying I gave you that ring?”

  Her brow furrowed. “Yeah, when you proposed… Kurt, you’re starting to freak me out.”

  “I’m starting to freak myself out. Just who exactly are you?”

  *

  Crystal looked up as her penguin chirped excitedly. She held her breath as the sexiest man in the SEA – or possibly the world – sauntered through the door. Three times in one day? She wasn’t sure her fluttering libido could take it.

  She dropped her sandwich into her desk drawer, only wincing slightly as it went everywhere. She tried to affect a look of professional sophistication, but it didn’t really help that there was a large mustard stain on her left boob.

  Arik paused in the doorway and inhaled before shuddering. His eyes zeroed in on her, and he gave her a predatory smirk that actually made both her and her penguin nervous.

  “Hello,” she breathed.

  He strolled towards her and put the file on her desk. “I had a note to bring this back to Crystal. Is she here?” he purred.

  His eyes raked her up and down, and she gulped. Then she frowned. Had he really forgotten her name? They’d known each other for a month. Okay, so most of that month had been her stalking him, but did he not remember the conversation they had an hour ago? Not to mention the fact that he drove her to freaking work! His car still had the hot chocolate stain from where she spilled.

  “I’m Crystal,” she said.

  “Indeed?” His eyes seemed to zero in on her lips. “You have a little...”

  Crystal froze as he reached over her desk and swiped his thumb over her upper lip. He showed her his thumb, covered in mustard - damn stuff got everywhere. Then he brought his thumb to his own lips and made a show of licking the mustard.

  Oh boy...

  He licked his lip, his eyes flashed dark brown, and he growled in delight. Her penguin had an urge to run.

  *