Designer Wolf: Bite-Sized Shifters, #4

By Rose Bak

Every shifter has a fated mate, the one being who's a perfect match.  Unless fate makes a mistake?

All her life Gina Grey has dreamed of meeting her mate, but she never expected that fate would bring her someone so horrible that she can't stand to be in the same room as him. The clothing designer and entrepreneur also didn't expect that her mate would be the person who stole her new retail location right out from under her!

Drew Galina is back in Greysden and ready to open his new law practice in the small town where he grew up.  His new neighbor Gina hates him, but that's nothing new.  They have butted heads ever since she punched him in the stomach on the first day of kindergarten.

They haven't seen each other since Drew left town twenty years ago, but suddenly both of their wolves are insisting that they're mates. These wolves must be crazy, right?  There's no way these lifelong enemies can become friends, let alone find love. 

"Designer Wolf" is book three in the "Bite-Sized Shifters", a series of paranormal romantic comedies you can read in just a few hours. Each book in the series is a steamy standalone featuring a mature couple, steamy scenes, a lot of fur and claws, and a guaranteed HEA.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rose Bak
• Release date: Aug 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201471224

Rose Bak

Rose Bak has been obsessed with books since she got her first library card at age five. She is a passionate reader with an e-reader bursting with thousands of beloved books.  Rose's contemporary romance books focus on strong female characters over age 35 and the alpha males who love them. Expect a lot of steam, a little bit of snark, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

Book preview

About This Book

All her life Gina Grey has dreamed of meeting her mate, but she never expected that fate would bring her someone so horrible that she can’t stand to be in the same room as him. The clothing designer and entrepreneur also didn’t expect that her mate would be the person who stole her new retail location right out from under her!

Drew Galina is back in Greysden and ready to open his new law practice in the small town where he grew up.  His new neighbor Gina hates him, but that’s nothing new.  They have butted heads ever since she punched him in the stomach on the first day of kindergarten.

They haven’t seen each other since Drew left town twenty years ago, but suddenly both of their wolves are insisting that they’re mates. These wolves must be crazy, right?  There's no way these lifelong enemies can become friends, let alone find love.

Designer Wolf is book three in the Bite-Sized Shifters, a series of paranormal romantic comedies you can read in just a few hours. Each book in the series is standalone featuring a mature couple, steamy scenes, a lot of fur and claws, and a guaranteed HEA.

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This book includes a special preview of  Until You Came Along, book one of the Oliver Boys Band series.

Dedication

For all the times we took a second look and saw something new.

Prologue—Gina

What are you staring at?

It was their first day of kindergarten, and her cousin Susan stood at the edge of the school playground in the late summer sun, staring intently at a group of boys swinging off the metal jungle gym. 

I’m wondering if one these boys will be my mate when I grow up, Susan replied. 

Gina rolled her eyes.  The two girls couldn’t be more different. Her cousin loved fairy tales and always wanted to play wedding.  Gina was more of a tomboy, so even though the two cousins were the same age, she tended to play with Susan’s older brother Stuart instead. 

Susan was wearing a cute little yellow dress with a ruffle just above her knees, her hair neatly curled.  Meanwhile, Gina was wearing jean shorts and a black Wonder Woman t-shirt.  Her mom had smoothed her unruly curls into two long braids on either side of her head, but several dark strands had already escaped.

They both gasped as one of the bigger boys launched himself from the top of the play structure and flew through the air, somehow landing on his feet several yards away.

He must be a cat,  Susan noted.  My mom told me that cats always land on their feet.  Pretty much everyone in their hometown of Greysden was a shifter of some kind. Wolve made up the largest group, but cats, bears, and other shifters also called Greysden home.

Gina started to reply but stopped when she saw a boy stalking towards her, his dark gaze focused intently on her face.  She recognized the boy from her class but didn’t know his name yet.  The boy walked up to them, still looking at Gina with the strangest expression.  He was shorter than her, kind of skinny, and his hair was sticking up all over, but he was still kind of cute.  For a boy.

What do you want? she asked him challengingly.  She was never one to back down from a challenge.  Something about this boy was making her feel unsettled.

Instead of answering, he reached forward and pulled one of her pigtails—hard.  Purely on instinct, Gina punched him in the stomach as hard as she could.  The boy grunted and doubled over, then started throwing up on the ground between them.

Eww!  Susan squealed.  He’s puking. Gross!

The weird boy must have had Fruit Loops for breakfast, judging from the rainbow-colored circles he’d deposited on the ground.  Suddenly the bell rang, signaling the end of recess, and all the kids started running back towards the school building.

Two older boys walked by laughing as the boy Gina had punched continued to gag and gasp for breath.  

Aw look, it’s a Pukey Baby, one boy shouted, pointing at them.

The boy she’d punched looked up at Gina angrily, his face red, then ran away without another word.

Who was that boy? Susan asked her.

I don’t know.  Some jerk.  I hate him.

Gina

I’m sorry but that space isn’t available anymore.  I just rented it out yesterday.

Gina Grey looked at her landlord Delilah in shock.  What?  That can’t be true. I’ve had my eye on that spot for months!

Well, you never mentioned wanting it Gina, Delilah responded calmly. I’m a businesswoman not a mind reader.

Gina sagged against the counter of her store, Gina’s Closet.  She had been meaning to talk to the landlord about renting the retail space next door so she could expand her shop to keep up with demand.  Unfortunately, she had been nervous about committing, not fully trusting that her success was going to last despite five years of brisk sales.  The store was practically bursting at the seams.  She really needed that space.

That’s what you get for dragging your feet, she chastised herself.

The store had been successful beyond her wildest dreams.  Gina’s Closet specialized in reclaimed fashion.  She and her stable of designers scoured estate sales and thrift stores looking for outdated clothing that they could reimagine into something new and stylish.  They then sold the pieces at her physical store as well as her online shop.  All of their pieces were unique and one-of-a-kind.

As word spread and more and more customers visited the store, she needed more space to expand the fitting rooms, add more racks for clothing, and create additional workspaces for the designers who worked with her.

Truthfully she should have talked to Delilah as soon as the candy store next door went out of business last year, but instead she had succumbed to imposter syndrome and hesitated. Now someone else had swooped in from nowhere and stolen the space out from underneath her.

Damn it!

What’s moving in there? she asked her landlord.

An attorney, Delilah answered.

Ugh, boring!

Delilah smiled.  I don’t care how boring the business is, as long as they pay the rent. 

She gave Gina a little wave as she moved toward the exit of the store.  Now that I know you’re looking to expand, I’ll let you know if I have any other spaces open up on Main Street.

Delilah was nothing if not a shrewd businesswoman.  She owned at least half of the retail spaces on the main strip of their little town.  Although Greysden wasn’t that little anymore.  It had been growing rapidly the last few years, with more and more shifters hearing that Greysden was a shifter friendly town. 

It was more than shifter friendly, in fact. Greysden had been founded by grey wolves – several of whom were her ancestors – as a safe place for shifters to live openly and avoid the censure and fear that they often encountered in the human towns. 

Over the years, the town had welcomed all manner of shifters – wolves, tigers, bears, hawks, and more. And thanks to social media, more and more shifters were hearing about Greysden and attracted to its all shifters welcome attitude.  There were no alphas ruling like a king or demanding loyalty pledges here, unlike a lot of the more insular shifter towns.  Greysden was like any other small town really, except that most of the residents could turn into animals at will.

As more out of town shifters relocated to Greysden, business leaders like Delilah and their mayor,  Marjorie Lewis, had spearheaded the largest growth and revitalization in the town’s history.  The town was becoming quite prosperous, which benefited everyone living there.

With demand for both housing and retail space increasing, Gina couldn’t blame Delilah for renting the space out to the first person who put cash on the table.  Nevertheless, she would be kicking