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Unnerved by the question—shouldn’t that be obvious?—Sascha hops back to the guy’s profile.

New 2 Town hasn’t filled out the Species category. Usually, that’s where a shifter would put their animal affinity, but there are human chasers who use PROWLR, too, and normally leave that spot blank.

Unless…

It’s accurate to say PROWLR was designed for shifters, but recently, there’s been another group making their own space on the app. Most of the time, though, they have the good sense not to approach shifters.

Sascha’s fingers shake as he types.

Sascha

What are you?

Waiting the handful of minutes it takes New 2 Town to respond is agonizing, and when the message finally arrives, Sascha’s heart drops into his stomach.

New 2 Town

I’m a werecreature. Ursine.

Numb, Sascha pops ‘ursine’ into a search engine and pales at the definition. Switching to images, Sascha stares at the page of very big and very,verybig bears.

New 2 Town

I should’ve led with that. Sorry. I’ll understand if you don’t want to meet up anymore.

Sascha bites his lip, deliberating. Hewantsto meet up, but…

If Sascha gets caught hanging out with a werecreature, his dad, lead alpha of the Madison cougar shifter pack, is guaranteed to take a massive chunk out of his hide. That’s just association. If Sascha were to get caught havingsexwitha werecreature, Samuel Madison might actually kill his only child.

To say shifters and werecreatures don’t get along would be an understatement. Shifters are born sophisticated, magic-infused beings, always in control of their shifts, and when shifted they retain intelligence and self-control despite their fully animal appearances.

Werecreatures… aren’t. Don’t. Victims of the werevirus become tied to the fickle moon, forced to shift into violent beasts that barely resemble their animal affinities.

It’s theorized that the werevirus has existed for a long time, but about forty years ago, the number of infections exploded globally. No one knows why, only that it threw the balance between humans and shifters into full chaos. The effects of the werevirus degraded the lines separating shifters from the much greater human population, turning infected humans into warped mimics. Methods of managing the spread have been developed since, but by the time education became widely available, the damage had already been done.

His whole life, Sascha has been taught that werecreatures make a mockery of the shifter lifestyle and sully their reputation. They’re dangerous plague-bringers, like rats ferrying parasites onto foreign lands. A were-bear—ursine—could easily kill Sascha, even as an alpha cougar.

And yet…

Sascha

No, it’s fine. I’ll get a hotel room so we can shower after.

New 2 Town

Okay. Cool. My name’s Avery, btw.

It’s not until Sascha is finished dressing that he realizes the implication of his words and how they could come across. Is this meet-up just going to be hanging out in the hotel room, or did he just signal intention to have sex? All he’d meant was that showering after they were in proximity reduced theirchances of getting caught, but it’d be awkward if Avery took his words as innuendo and Sascha showed up unprepared.

Should he bring condoms, just in case? Alcohol, maybe? Reason tells him he could simply ask, but Sascha would wither away from the humiliation.

So, he makes an online reservation at the nearest hotel that is the least likely to have bedbugs and sends Avery the address and information on check-in.

Then he sits on his bed and has a panic attack, because what thefuckis he doing?

Every time Sascha thinks of turning his car around, he looks at the phone mount on his dashboard. It’s a critical strategy because without Avery’s picture up on his unlocked screen, he might never make it to the hotel. When his resolve starts to wobble, Sascha’s gaze shifts to Avery’s flat, seaglass stare, smudged eye makeup and model-worthy pout so void of feeling Sascha wants—needs—to know what Avery looks like in motion.

Behind those closed lips, are his teeth crooked or straight? Does that freckled nose wrinkle when he smiles? Does he laugh easily, or is prying free the slightest chuckle a hard-won victory?