No Fox Given: Team Shifter, #2

By Sophie Stern

Are you a shifter looking for love? It's time to take your dating to the next step with TEAM SHIFTER: the best dating app for bears, wolves, and yes, even dragons. Start swiping to find someone and get your happily ever after.

 

Foxy has been on her own for years. That's the way she likes it. She works as much as she wants, she plays whenever she likes, and no one is around to tell her otherwise.

 

Until she meets someone on the Team Shifter dating app, and everything goes wrong.

 

Suddenly, she has a stalker, and nobody seems to know who it is. Nobody can help her. Nobody can save her.

 

Except for the one person she promised herself she'd never run to for help.

 

Is Foxy brave enough to ask Brendan for a second chance?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sophie Stern
• Release date: Jun 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393326687

Book preview

No Fox Given

Sophie Stern

Copyright © 2020 by Sophie Stern

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Are you a shifter looking for love? It's time to take your dating to the next step with TEAM SHIFTER: the best dating app for bears, wolves, and yes, even dragons. Start swiping to find someone and get your happily ever after.

Foxy has been on her own for years. That's the way she likes it. She works as much as she wants, she plays whenever she likes, and no one is around to tell her otherwise.

Until she meets someone on the Team Shifter dating app, and everything goes wrong.

Suddenly, she has a stalker, and nobody seems to know who it is. Nobody can help her. Nobody can save her.

Except for the one person she promised herself she'd never run to for help.

Is Foxy brave enough to ask Brendan for a second chance?

I feel light, even in my darkest hour.-Tori Amos, Darkest Hour

Prologue

Foxy

Five years ago

We’re kissing in the darkness of the forest, tucked away from everything that can hurt us. Nobody knows this is our secret place: the special spot where we come to be alone. When we’re here, nothing else matters.

Not work.

Not friends.

Not relatives.

No small-town drama.

Nothing.

Here, it’s just me and Brendan. The two of us can do anything when we’re locked in each other’s arms. We can conquer the world when we’re here alone, if only in our hearts. In this place, Brendan makes me feel safe and perfect, and I know that I do just the same for him. Our special place is like a haven from the rest of the world.

This is the place where our dreams come alive.

And tonight, this is the place where our dreams come to die.

This is the night that I’m saying goodbye to him.

This is the very last night for the two of us, and he has no idea. He doesn’t know that I’m about to give him his freedom, that I’m about to let him soar. He doesn’t have any clue that I’m about to let him go because that’s what’s best for him. I love him so much, but being with me? Well, I’m holding him back. What’s worse? I know it.

Part of me wishes things could be different, but I know the truth about Brendan. I know that he wants to go off and have some magical career. I know that he wants to leave Claw Valley. I know that he has big dreams, and I know that I’m holding him back from being able to live his very best life, from being able to do all of those things that he needs to do.

So I’m going to say goodbye to him for his own good.

Even if I thought we could do the long-distance thing while he goes off to graduate school, there’s no way his family would approve of us staying together. We all know that I’d be a burden to him, and I hate that. It’s horrible to know that the reason he can’t succeed is me.

I don’t want that.

This guy deserves to succeed. He deserves to be with someone who supports him and loves him and encourages him, and he deserves to be with someone who takes care of him. He deserves to be with someone perfect: someone who makes him feel complete.

So I kiss him a little more deeply knowing that in just a few minutes, it’s all going to be over.

His mother made it clear I’m not to tell him about her involvement. After all, if Brendan thinks she interfered in our relationship, it’ll hold him back. He won’t want to go to grad school, and that’s where everyone wants him to be. He’s supposed to go off and study business and learn how to make money because at the end of the day, that’s what makes the world go ‘round.

I love you, he whispers, and the words almost make me cry.

I’m going to miss hearing him say this to me.

I’m going to miss it more than anything else.

I love you, too, I manage to choke out the words, and he’s so turned on right now that he doesn’t even notice how much it’s completely killing me.

He kisses me over and over again, and in the darkness of the caves, we make love to each other like it’s not the last time. We kiss each other, teasing one another like this is what we were made for, and part of me believes that it is.

When it’s over, we hold each other for a long time. I put off the inevitable as long as I can, but finally, I realize that I’m just stalling. Waiting isn’t going to make this any easier.

I need to go, I tell him. I stand up, totally naked. We shifted before we came here. There are no clothes in this place. We came in our animal forms, the way that we always do. That’s how we’re able to get here unnoticed. Nobody looks twice at a couple of creatures jaunting around the forest. They definitely don’t look twice at a little fox like me.

What’s the rush? He asks, stretching out lazily. I look at him closely, taking him in. I don’t want to forget a single thing about what I’m seeing. His hair is messy, and his face looks calm and relaxed. He looks like he doesn’t have a care in the world. Brendan smiles, staring at me like he can’t believe how lucky we are to have found each other at such a young age.

Then I take a deep breath, and I say the words his mother made me promise to say.

Brendan, we need to take a break.

Suddenly, there’s silence in the cave. While it was quiet before, this is something else. I can’t even hear Brendan breathing anymore. He’s holding his breath. He’s going to faint if he’s not careful. I say the rest of the words in a rush. Somehow, I manage to spit out the excuses.

We’re all wrong for each other, I say.

It’s a lie.

We’re too young to feel this way.

Another lie.

I’m not ready, and neither are you.

One more lie to seal the deal.

Then I turn, just the way she told me to, and before he can say anything, I shift into my fox form and start running. I leave the cave, wiggling out of the narrow opening, and I run off into the forest. Before I’ve gone very long, I hear him. There’s a roar that fills the entire forest, and I know that he finally realized exactly what my words mean.

He knows that we’re over.

Forever.

Chapter 1

Foxy

Present Day

The forest isn't supposed to be scary in the middle of the day, so why do I feel so afraid? I actually skipped work for this. I canceled my tutoring sessions today, moved all of my classes to tomorrow, and skipped out on my actual, literal job. Now I'm standing in the center of the woods like a huge dork. Well, more correctly, I'm shaking in the center of the woods because I'm scared out of my mind.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

Team Shifter is supposed to be a fun, interesting app where you can meet people you care about, and hopefully, you can form some sort of connection or relationship. You're supposed to be able to connect with people who are interesting and special and wonderful and...

Well, people who make you feel alive.

I’m supposed to feel good, sexy, and wild when I meet someone from this dating app. That’s the entire point of dating, right? You’re supposed to feel incredible and wild: wonderful and sassy. When someone sees you from across a crowded room – or in my case, a small woodland field – they’re supposed to lock eyes with you. That’s when it hits you: you’re attractive as hell, and they’d be lucky to get with you. That’s what I thought I’d be feeling right now, but I don’t. Something is wrong here. I'm not supposed to feel scared or alone or upset.

I'm definitely not supposed to be wondering what's lurking in the forest.

But then again, I'm desperate.

Or lonely.

Or perhaps...perhaps I'm just bored.

Either way, I know that what I'm doing isn't the smart decision, but I couldn't help myself. It’s been a long time since I was in a relationship with anyone. Years. It’s been years. The tiger shifter I've been chatting with on Team Shifter makes me feel special and sexy and naughty, at least when we’re actually chatting with each other. I like that. I like feeling like I'm a little bit of a bad girl, even if I'm not.

Even if I have nothing else to offer right now, I like feeling like I'm not just the goody two-shoes teacher.

I like feeling like I'm still sexy.

Right now, though, I’m beginning to see why some people don’t like this app so very much. The thing about Team Shifter is that you’re supposed to meet in your animal forms before you decide if you actually want to date each other. Maybe that weeds out the posers who aren’t actually shifters, or maybe it just cuts down on mistaken first impressions. I don’t think meeting in the middle of a forest was the best choice, though. What exactly was I thinking?

Suddenly,