Comet's Fated Mate (Arctic Shifters Book Eight)

By R.E. Butler

Quad shifter Vaughn didn’t know what it would be like to meet his fated mate, but he never expected a workaholic bar owner to be so immune to his charms. His beasts are going crazy now that he’s finally found Holly, but she’s not interested in anything he has to offer. He’ll have to figure out a way to get her to see him as more than a bartender and employee.

Holly isn’t interested in anything but keeping her bar from financial ruin. She knows her sister, Ivy, isn’t happy, but she can’t seem to dig herself out of the mess left behind when a contractor skipped town with all her savings. When Vaughn, the sexiest guy she’s ever met, wiggles his way into her life, she finds it hard to keep her distance. She doesn’t have time for romance, but his kissable lips are making it difficult to think of anything else.

Vaughn wants to share his shifting nature with her and make her his mate, but he has no idea how to scale the walls she’s erected around her heart. Vaughn needs a Christmas miracle to make Holly see the light. Too bad all the magic is up in North Pole City.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.E. Butler
• Release date: Dec 3, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463635261

R.E. Butler

A Midwesterner by birth, R.E. spent much of her childhood rewriting her favorite books to include herself as the main character. Later, she graduated on to writing her own books after "retiring" from her day job as a secretary to become a stay-at-home mom.When not playing with her kids, wrestling her dogs out the door, or cooking dinner for her family, you'll find her typing furiously and growling obscenities to the characters on the screen.Her best-selling series Wiccan-Were-Bear, The Necklace Chronicles, Hyena Heat, Wilde Creek, Were-Zoo, Arctic Shifters, Norlanian Brides, Saber Chronicles, and Ashland Pride are available now.

Book preview

Comet’s Fated Mate

Arctic Shifters Book Eight

By R. E. Butler

Copyright 2018 R. E. Butler

Comet’s Fated Mate (Arctic Shifters Book Eight)

By R. E. Butler

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

Cover by CT Cover Creations

This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.

Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those older than the age of 18 only.

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Editing by Hot Tree Editing

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Thanks to Shelley & Joyce for beta reading.

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To anyone who ever wondered if Santa is real… I give you SC, NPC, and the Quads with lots of love, a dash of magic, and one of Mrs. C’s special hugs.

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Comet’s Fated Mate (Arctic Shifters Book Eight)

By R. E. Butler

Quad shifter Vaughn didn’t know what it would be like to meet his fated mate, but he never expected a workaholic bar owner to be so immune to his charms. His beasts are going crazy now that he’s finally found Holly, but she’s not interested in anything he has to offer. He’ll have to figure out a way to get her to see him as more than a bartender and employee.

Holly isn’t interested in anything but keeping her bar from financial ruin. She knows her sister, Ivy, isn’t happy, but she can’t seem to dig herself out of the mess left behind when a contractor skipped town with all her savings. When Vaughn, the sexiest guy she’s ever met, wiggles his way into her life, she finds it hard to keep her distance. She doesn’t have time for romance, but his kissable lips are making it difficult to think of anything else.

Vaughn wants to share his shifting nature with her and make her his mate, but he has no idea how to scale the walls she’s erected around her heart. Vaughn needs a Christmas miracle to make Holly see the light. Too bad all the magic is up in North Pole City.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

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Chapter 1

Holly sat at her desk in the bar’s only office and stared at the monitor. Her sister, Ivy, had told her to set up a business plan for the first quarter of the new year. Holly was a little embarrassed that her younger sister had to tell her to do something as basic as making a business plan, but that’s what it had come to.

The bar had originally been their uncle’s. He’d offered it to Holly for pennies on the dollar so he could retire, and she’d jumped at the chance, renaming it Holly’s. She’d gone to business school and had always wanted to open a place of her own. The bar with the attached two-bedroom apartment upstairs had seemed like a dream come true, but now it was more a nightmare than anything.

In an attempt to bring in more customers, she’d hired a contractor to remodel an empty back space into an inviting patio. She’d envisioned an upscale summer menu and specialty cocktails. When the contractor absconded with her savings, she was left with an empty space, an empty bank account, and a headache the size of Oklahoma that refused to leave. She didn’t like to admit how over-the-top devastated she’d been with the contractor’s behavior, but it had hobbled her and she hadn’t known how to deal with it. Paychecks had been late, and some employees quit, which left her scrambling to handle everything as best as she could.

Everything had suffered in the following months. Customers stopped coming in, which meant money wasn’t flowing like it should. And she’d been forced to rely heavily on Ivy, who was gracious enough to not point out how terribly Holly had failed in her quest to make the bar into something better.

On Christmas Eve, something amazing had happened. A woman who Holly was certain she’d never seen before yet looked so familiar came into the bar and stopped a fight before it even started. Then she ordered a ginger ale and tipped Holly several hundred dollars before offering to send two men who were looking for jobs in Holly’s direction. The day after Christmas, the two men came by: Jack, who agreed to be the bouncer, and Vaughn, who wanted to tend bar.

She liked Jack.

She was secretly crazy about Vaughn.

There was something about him that was dangerous to her sanity and her future plans. She wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anyone, but she was doing her best to keep him at arm’s length. The last thing she needed was to get romantically involved with the sexy guy who had a thousand-watt smile and muscles for days.

She knew if she just kissed him once that she’d be toast, so she was adopting a strict no-touch approach to the man.

Sighing, she sat back and rubbed the space between her eyes just as there was a knock at the door. It’s open.

The door swung open, and Vaughn stepped into the office and shut the door. He sat across from her and said, The bar’s closed up.

She glanced at the clock on the monitor and realized it was later than she thought. I’ll handle the cleaning. You can take off.

The cleaning’s done.

Her brows rose. You did it?

He nodded. Me, Jack, and Ivy.

Wow, thank you.

You don’t need to thank me. It needed to be done, so I did it.

Well, I’m going to say thanks anyway. I’ll see you tomorrow.

I wanted to talk to you. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

She was aware she was staring at him, but he was too damn sexy for his own good. His hazel eyes appraised her, and it took all of her willpower not to focus on his lips.

About what?

I heard you’re working on a plan for the next few months. I wanted to help.

She arched a brow. Brought many bars back from the brink of bankruptcy?

He shook his head. No, but I do know business, and you clearly need some help.

She bristled at his words but couldn’t argue at how right he was.

The patio’s killing me. It’s unusable right now, and I don’t have the funds to fix it. I need to bring in customers to bring in money so I can fix the patio, but the patio was supposed to bring in customers.

I’m pretty handy with a hammer.

Her brow arched. You want to remodel the patio?

I can at least make it usable. You might want to move on, though.

She blinked. Excuse me?

I’ll work on the patio, if that’s what you think will really help you, but you’re living in the past. You got scammed and it sucks, but wallowing in how much you lost isn’t going to make things better here.

She opened her mouth to tell him to get out of her office, but she didn’t. He was right, even if he was being blunt.