Chocolate Furnanigans: A Pawsitively Purrfect Shenanigans Crossover Story: Matchmaking Cats of the Goddesses, #10

By Pepper McGraw

Kittens. Chocolate. Sexy Shenanigans.
Life doesn't get much better than this.

As far as Merry's concerned, life is all about the chocolate: where to find it and how to get more of it. Having only recently discovered this sinfully delightful substance, she's now determined to try every variation that exists… and maybe a few that don't.

Sam's stunned to discover the mate he's been waiting for is nothing like he imagined. The chemistry may be off the charts, but she's carting around a box of kittens and is obsessed with chocolate. He's a wolf, for howl's sake! Kittens and chocolate are like poison to his kind.

Only the matchmaking cats of the goddesses can save this match now.

Note: Chocolate Furnanigans was previously published in the multi-author anthology, Eat Your Heart Out, Holiday Edition, under the title, Her Dark Obsession.

• Language: English
• Publisher: PMG Publishing
• Release date: Feb 13, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224212330

Pepper McGraw

Pepper McGraw would love to be able to shift into an animal (any animal, really, though she’s rather partial to cats). Unfortunately, since she wasn't lucky enough to be born a shifter, she’s had to settle for writing about them instead. She's an advocate of animal rescue and supports local shelters and Trap-Neuter-Release programs for feral cats. She’s had the supreme honor of winning occasional head butts and meows from the local ferals in her neighborhood and even of convincing a few to come inside and adopt her as their own. You can follow Pepper on her website www.peppermcgraw.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/peppermcgraw.author    

Book preview

One

S HE’S NOT REALLY a member of the coven, Bygul protested, which means she’s not even on our list. I thought we were going to focus on the necromancer next.

Are you crazy? Tivali exclaimed. I’m hoping if we ignore her, she’ll just go away.

Or find her own matches without our help, Soraya said.

It’s an excellent plan, Muezza agreed.

It’s not excellent at all. Bygul couldn’t believe the cowardice of his co-workers. We’re the matchmaking cats of the goddesses! No match is too difficult for us.

It’s not about the difficulty level, Bygul, Tivali said severely. We matched that grizzly, didn’t we? If we could match him, we can match anyone, but that’s not the point.

Then what is the point?

Merry deserves a match too, Soraya said.

Bygul sighed. Then we’ll add her to the end of the list, but there are three other witches ahead of her.

If we wait until the end, she might go back to the Underworld, Tivali protested.

Bygul thought this would be an excellent development. Then, hopefully, they wouldn’t have to match her at all. Look, all I’m saying is, she’s wreaking havoc all over Zero and Tempest is about two seconds away from committing sororicide.

Sorori-what? Soraya asked.

She’s going to kill her sister, Tivali said impatiently.

Well, why didn’t he just say that? Soraya twitched her tail in annoyance. Because then I would have pointed out that Tempest can’t kill Merry if she isn’t even in Zero anymore.

Wait, what? Bygul glared at Soraya. Why was he always the last to hear these things? Where’d Merry go and why?

It was getting a little hostile in Zero for her, Soraya said, so I figured we could send her to the fairies.

The fairies? Bygul, Tivali and Muezza all chorused.

Yes, the fairies. After all, she is one-quarter fairy.

I don’t know why she couldn’t just stay in the Underworld in the first place, Bygul grumbled. She’s half-demon, for goddess’ sake!

Not demonic enough, I guess, Soraya said cheerfully. Anyway, I left a brochure in her room about the fairy mall in Jamesville.

"The fairy mall isn’t in Jamesville," Tivali said.

No, but the hotel that leads to the fairy realm is.

Hold on a minute. Bygul felt as if his head was going to explode from all the implications. "You sent a half-demon, quarter-witch, quarter-fairy to Hotel Shenanigans in Jamesville? The one that’s constantly overrun by goddesses, crazy-ass fairies and dragons?"

Well, Soraya hesitated. Maybe?

Before Merry left the Underworld, she researched the earth realm and its inhabitants, to try and give herself the best possible chance of experiencing all the wonders Earth had to offer while there.

So far, she had discovered the joys of bowling, roller coasters, movie magic and audio books.

Leave it to humans to come up with a way to enjoy books without ever having to actually read them.

Unfortunately, she had also discovered the dangers of rollerskating, the monstrous terror of wasps (demonic little creatures that never should have been allowed to migrate from Hell, not that anyone wanted them there either) and lima beans (nasty bits of cotton, those).

Thankfully, Merry’s adventures in the world of food didn’t end with the lima beans.

Humans were truly ingenious when it came to combining ingredients for consumption and she soon discovered the bliss of pizza, ice cream and Dr. Pepper, the latter of which had the unfortunate side effect of making her belch fire.

This didn’t stop her from drinking Dr. Pepper, of course. It was simply too delicious to give up, which would explain the slightly scorched status of both the steering wheel and the dash of her car.

Beyond the delights of pizza and ice cream and Dr. Pepper, though, she had discovered the most sublime, wondrous invention of the ages.

Chocolate.

Glorious, divine nectar of the demons.

She was pretty certain Satan had invented chocolate to control the masses. Too bad for him, she was his daughter, and therefore, his ability to control her was pretty much zero.

Which made her think of the town she’d just left.

She winced as she remembered the latest fire she’d set from all the belching.

Tempest had screeched the loudest, shouting that even Pippa, the firestarter of the coven, hadn’t caused as much damage in a year as Merry had in a month.

Whatever.

She’d fixed it with her magic, hadn’t she? She’d been so quick, in fact, that the human librarian never even discovered the damage, though she had smelled the smoke and cause a bit of a ruckus, trying to track down the source.

Even so, Merry had no idea why her sister had been so upset.

After all, the library was much better than better, if she did say so herself. Not only had she’d given it a new paint job when she’d fixed the damage, but she’s also created an entire hidden section, devoted to the underworld and demons.

She might also have created a tiny little doorway between the Underworld and that hidden room, just for her and any other demon clever enough to discover it.

She’d made it super tiny though, so really, the only ones that might find it were the pixies. Well, and maybe the hell-kittens.

She thought about that for a moment, then shrugged.

Oh, well.

From what she could see, Zero, Kansas could use a bit of excitement, especially now that she’d left the town in her rearview mirror.

Reaching over for some more of her delicious snacks, Merry was horrified to discover the chocolate covered peanut container was empty.

She tossed it onto the floorboard, where it joined a plethora of empty bags and containers that at one time had been filled with M&Ms, chocolate-covered raisins, candy bars, cookies, brownies, and pretty much every dessert with chocolate she could eat one-handed.

At the beginning of the road trip, she’d tried to eat a giant bowl of chocolate mousse while driving, but found it to be an extremely frustrating experience as the treat didn’t always make it into her mouth.

What a tragedy that was.

Now, with barely an hour to go, all the chocolate in the car seemed to be gone.

Except—she grabbed the chocolate shake sitting in her cup holder and tried to suck up the very last dregs of that chocolatey goodness. Sadly, all she got was a bunch of air.

Damn!

One quick detour later and Merry walked out of a gas station with her arms full. She dumped everything into the front passenger seat, scooped