Chapter 1

1

“The jellyfish are out performing me,” I whined as Theo and I ate our tacos.

Theo, my best friend and a powerful mage, set her margarita down. “What? I thought the kids loved you?”

“The kids do love me, but the parents love the jellyfish more and started coming on dates there! How am I supposed to compete with that?” As a shark shifter who couldn’t shift her teeth well, jobs were limited. So, I’d taken a job at an aquarium as their tiger shark. Most sharks didn’t do well in captivity, so this was the only aquarium to have a tiger shark on exhibit. I spent my days in shark form, swimming around the aquarium, then my nights with my boyfriends at our house.

It was still surreal to be able to say that. A year ago, I was sleeping in the aquarium in shark form at night because I didn’t have a place to live, and I was wondering if I was going to be single the rest of my life.

“Is there something you are famous for … tiger sharks, not you specifically?” she asked.

I closed my mouth since I’d been about to say something dirty regarding myself, which made her laugh.

“There you two are,” Grant said as he walked inside the Mexican restaurant we frequented on Tuesdays, and sat beside me. Grant was a dragon shifter, a mostly average looking man with talented fingers, and one of my boyfriends.

I leaned over and he met me halfway to kiss my lips. “Where’ve you been?”

“The octopus sprayed ink out of the tank again,” he grumbled and crunched on a chip.

“Where’s Reed?” I asked and looked at the door, but he hadn’t walked in. Reed was a werewolf, insanely hot with a sixpack of abs I enjoyed stroking, striking eyes, and was another of my boyfriends.

Grant and Reed had taken jobs as janitors at the aquarium I worked at to not only make some money, but also to stay close to me.

My other two boyfriends, twin brothers Jong-min and Jong-hyun, took a job at my adoptive parents’ restaurant, helping them cook Asian cuisine and serving customers. They’d looked for jobs for a bit and then Mother had ordered them to help since she and Father were older. That was all it had taken to crush the twins’ desire to say no. Family was extremely important to them and taking care of their elders was ingrained in their brains.

“He’s—” Grant didn’t get to finish as Reed walked in, sauntering across the restaurant and gaining every female eye as he did.

“Can you make them stop strutting so much? It’s so distracting,” Theo hissed and chugged her margarita.

I snickered and made a kissy face so Reed would kiss me before he sat down.

“I heard Trinity is giving you trouble again,” I said.

Reed growled and nodded. “She’s a jealous bitch!”

Trinity was the oldest octopus in our aquarium, and when the guys didn’t give her treats, or saw them give treats to other creatures, she made messes for them to clean up.

If I didn’t know better, I’d have assumed she was a shifter, but Trinity was a normal octopus, they were just really intelligent creatures.

“Stop feeding other creatures in front of her,” I said with a scoff. “She’s not the only one who gets jealous when she sees you feeding the asshole jellyfish.”

Theo spit out her drink and coughed violently as the alcohol burned her throat.

Reed patted her back while Grant and I cleaned up the sprayed liquid.

“Oh, my god! Could you not say such ridiculous things while I’m in the middle of drinking?” Theo gasped, and tapped her wig to make sure it was still in its correct place.

“It’s not ridiculous!” I snapped. “Have you ever watched your boyfriends fawn over your enemies? It’s cruel and unusual punishment!”

“Enemies?” Grant asked. “What are you talking about?”

“Hey, guys,” Charles greeted Grant and Reed. Charles was our usual server when we came here and knew better than to bother bringing menus, since we got the same things every single time. “The girls already put in your food order, but you want your usual drinks, too?”

Grant and Reed nodded.

“More salsa, please,” Theo ordered.

“And guac and chips!” I added quickly. With a dragon and werewolf here, we were going to run out of guacamole and chips soon.

Charles smiled, nodded, and went off to put in our orders.

“So, are you trying to say that if you were an octopus, you would spray ink out of your area to force us to clean it up, too, because you’re jealous of the jellyfish?” Grant asked, drawing my attention back to him.

I shrugged a shoulder innocently. “Maybe.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “My beautiful disaster, we only feed them treats because it makes them go into a frenzy, which makes the visitors happy.”

My eyes narrowed and I bared my serrated teeth at him. “Exactly! You’re helping those tentacled freaks get more attention than they deserve!”

Reed burst into laughter, clutching his stomach as he laughed loudly, and almost fell out of his chair.

My lips pursed in a pout. “Sure, laugh it up. My pain is super funny.”

“Jong-min and Jong-hyun are going to meet us at Silver’s after dinner. They had some important discussion with your parents that couldn’t be delayed, apparently,” Grant said, ignoring my craziness.

My eyes widened. “What?” That was news to me. Mother and Father hadn’t said anything to me.

Reed’s phone rang and he dismissed himself, promising to meet back up with us.

The serious expression on his face worried me, but I left it alone.

Once we finished eating, we headed to Silver’s bar. Silver, an old ogre who was a pseudo father to me, ran a bar where I often hustled unsuspecting tourists out of money. Reed had still been on the phone, and said he’d meet us there.

Tonka, the half-troll bouncer, nodded at us as we approached. “The twins are inside already.”

The line of people waiting to get in grumbled as we bypassed the line, but Theo, Grant, and I ignored them.

“Thanks, Tonka.” I patted his massive arm as I walked by.

“Good crowd for being a shark tonight,” he whispered.

“Thanks for the tip,” I replied.

Theo patted his upper chest. “Just the tip.”

Tonka groaned and shook his head. “Get away from me, dirty minded witch.”

She and I threw our heads back and laughed while Grant chuckled.

The bar was full of all kinds of beings: orcs, goblins, mages, and multiple types of aquatic and land shifters. I even spotted what looked like a few humans. About half of the clientele were regulars, like us, but the other half were college-aged tourists, many of which were already several drinks in judging by their stumbling.

At the main bar stood two of the most perfect specimens, feline shifters with rare magic, dark hair, hooded eyes, and both in tank tops and shorts.

“You’re drooling,” Theo teased.

“Do you blame me?” I asked.

Jong-hyun and Jong-min spotted us. Jong-hyun smiled while Jong-min scowled.

I skipped over and kissed them each. “Hello.”

“You’re late,” Jong-min chastised.

“We didn’t set a specific time,” I countered.

“Kass,” Silver greeted. “You want the usual or my new drink?”

“New!” Theo shouted before I could answer.

Silver laughed, grabbed some bottles from the bar behind him, and started mixing something while hiding the bottles so we couldn’t see what he put in it.

“Was your food good?” Jong-hyun asked. His arm slid around my lower back and I stepped into him.

“Yes,” I answered, nodding. “It was definitely needed after the day I had.”

“The parents keep diverting the kids away from you to see the jellyfish still?” he guessed.

I fake sniffled. “Yeah, and Grant was giving them snacks!”

He fake gasped. “No!”

Grant rolled his eyes as he squeezed between us at the bar. “I’m sorry, but it is part of my job.”

“What if they end up not needing me anymore and then I’ll be out of a job?” I was mostly kidding, but there was a small part of me worried about that possibility.

“Well, you better make some money as your other shark form then,” Jong-min said from behind me.

I spun, a small smile on my face to keep my sharp, serrated, shark teeth mostly hidden. No matter how hard I tried to shift them, they never became dull, like a human’s, while I could get the rest of my body to do so. Often, if my teeth were exposed, people avoided me. Somehow, my four amazing boyfriends were able to overlook it. “Being a pool shark is my favorite form.”

“Because it earns you the most money,” Reed, my drop-dead gorgeous werewolf shifter boyfriend said as he joined us. He threw his arms around me and pulled me into a bone-crunching hug.

“You guys are going to make me sick,” Theo muttered.

“Did you miss me?” Reed asked.

I nodded. “Grant was super mean to me today.”

“Here we go,” Grant sighed.

Reed kissed my cheek and asked, “Want me to kick his ass?”

Watching them fight was incredibly fun.

“Help me hustle some guys?” I countered.

“You got it.”

“Girls, your drinks,” Silver said, and set two swirling green drinks on the bar top.

Quickly, I extricated myself from Reed and gently pushed Jong-min to the side so Theo could stand at the bar with me.

We both stared into the drinks, eyes wide.

“Looks like poison,” I whispered out of the side of my mouth.

Theo nodded. “It swirls and sparkles. I didn’t know a non-magical liquid could do both.”

“Flip a coin to see who tries it first?”

She scoffed. “I know you’ve got a weighted coin.”

We both heard Silver sigh, but we ignored him, focused on our silliness and fun.

“Drink it together and if it is poison, we’ll die together?” I suggested.

She nodded and we simultaneously picked up the drinks, clinked the rims against each other, and then downed them in one gulp.

Fruity ecstasy exploded on my tongue, down my throat, and into my stomach. A vision of a perfectly warm, sunny beach with just a slight breeze flashed before my eyes before it was replaced with a sense of euphoria.

Theo and I exhaled softly in chorus, leaned our shoulders against each other, and our smiles grew.

“What the fuck did you put in that?” Jong-min demanded.

“Pixie dust,” Theo replied and leaned on the bar with a lazy smile. “Silver, old boy, you’ve been holding out on us.”

“It’s Pixie Lite,” Silver said. “A version that isn’t addictive and doesn’t have the negative side effects, aside from adding 100 calories to each drink.”

“Theo,” a rumbling voice greeted.

We all turned to face the newcomer and my smile wilted, though the Pixie Lite was doing its job of keeping me relaxed and not able to snarl like I wanted.

Tristan, a dolphin shifter with tan skin, light wavy hair, and teal eyes, smiled at Theo.

“Tristan,” she straightened, “what are you doing here?”

“Why are you talking to him like you are friends?” I asked.

Theo flinched. “I was going to tell you?—”

Leaning closer to her, I asked, “Are you dating a fish corpse fucker?”

“He doesn’t do that,” she snapped. Her mouth dropped and she cringed. “Kass, I?—”

“Kass, I found an open table to teach you how to play pool,” Reed said loud enough half of the bar heard him. “Now that you’re good and drunk, it’s the perfect time for you to learn.”

A table of guys just at the edge of my vision watched and whispered to each other as Reed put an arm around my waist and lead me into the room with the pool tables, forcing me away from Theo and the corpse fucker.

Theo, my best friend, was dating a dolphin shifter. My best friend was dating one of my enemies.

“He isn’t an enemy. You don’t even know him,” Reed whispered in my ear as he walked around me to grab a cue.

Had I said that out loud?

“He’s a dolphin,” I said, and folded my arms across my chest.

“You’re being racist,” he chided as he racked the balls. “It’s not a good look.”

Bending over, I lined up my shot and asked, “How do I look now?”

Heat filled his gaze as he looked at me. “You’d look even better tied up on my bed.”

My shot went wild at his statement and I barely broke the rack.

Reed chuckled smugly, walked around me, and bent over to take his shot. “Does that suggestion entice you, Kass?”

He hit four balls in a row into the pockets before finally missing.

I saw the guys who’d been watching us walk in and bent over the table with my arm up at a weird angle. “I shoot like this?”

Reed’s smile widened, but when he looked up at the guys behind me, the smile completely disappeared. “Preston? What are you doing here? How did you find me?”

The guy in the doorway crossed his arms, a deep frown on his face.

“It’s time to come home, Reed. Time to claim your mate.”