Shifting Crossroads Series

Ezmerelda has just suffered through two indignities. The first was her thirtieth birthday and the second was the lineup of suitors that her father brought along as guests to the party. Her friend Krisia offers her a chance to stop her family from fixing Ezzy up at every opportunity. With depressing honesty her friend tells her that she needs to go to the Shifter’s Crossroads and find herself a mate. The transporter sends her through the magical portal to the place where shifters go as a last resort when they can’t find a mate of their own. The Crossroads.

Ivy has dodged matchmaking for five years, but when her family bundles her off to the Crossroads, she hastily concocts a plan to stay away from males for the entire month. She is partially successful, but when the bartender creates something just for her and takes an interest in her work, she is falling fast. Chuck has worked at the Crossroads for most of his adult life, so it is quite a surprise to meet a woman who isn’t stalking a mate. When he sees a fascination for the written word in her, there is nothing for it. He has to get closer to see what she will do when he opens the pages of his hear to her. When the swan meets the serpent, it is a surprisingly fair fight.

Tyla is a golden goose, creature of myth and legend. She gets a card in the mail and calls a transporter to get her out of her gilded cage and to the Crossroads. Tyla has no experience with men, strangers, bright lights or loud noises. She is completely overwhelmed, and once she meets a man who is willing to make her dream of a mate come true, she comes down with a case of cold feet. Arkenon enjoys travelling the world as one of the premier shifter tattoo artists. When he meets Tyla over a casual dinner, he is smitten with her shy looks but straightforward attitude. He enrolls at the Crossroads and pursues the woman he wants as a mate. He just has to work on defining his motives for both their sakes.

Venny can’t believe she missed mating season! With her body in an uproar and no males free, this reindeer high tails it to the Crossroads in search of a male to quench her fire. With her own species out of the running she is willing to experiment, and while the wolf she meets knows she’s a dear, he has no idea she’s a deer. One lone wolf against a horny reindeer...what chance does he have?

Lee was raised to be subservient, but her soul was screaming in agony with every moment in her household. Her mother helps her escape to the Crossroads the very night her father begins proceedings to sell Lee to one of his companions as third wife in a pride. She was unprepared for the dating scene and shocked by the mating scene at the Crossroads, but the moment she sees something wrong, her shock turns into action and she does what she has to do. James watched the lioness in his bar, but despite her body being exactly his type her shy demeanour is a turnoff. He wants a woman who can hold her own with him, a woman who can stand at his side, not behind him. He is convinced that she is too timid for him until she follows two thugs out into the night and claws them bloody before they can attack their vulnerable target. Watching her go from timid to ferocious, he has to reassess his first impression, and he has to admit, the claws are a bit of a turn on.

After her cousin’s success, Fred wants to meet her own match and live happily ever after. A trip to the Crossroads shows her some options, but she is drawn to the man with the golden gaze. Hektor is an eagle whose solo days are wearing on him. He wants a mate, and if it is of another species, so be it. He will earn his match, even if she breaks bones in the process. Join a bear and an eagle as they struggle with the practicalities of being incompatible as animals but inseparable everywhere else.

Rayna is a cheetah raised by otters. She got a free pass to the Crossroads, courtesy of her deceased parents. Tired of trying to find a cheetah or any other shifter that could wake her senses, she begins to work through the mate-seeking candidates at the Crossroads. If she couldn’t have her schoolgirl crush, she would have to make do. Born to a steadfast horse-shifter family, Gregory was in love with Rayna, but an interception of an assignation note and their lives veered in two different directions. Now, he is at the Crossroads and more than his spirits rise when he sees the love of his life and knows that the timing is finally perfect.

Augusta wants to go to the Crossroads. At a bachelorette party for a cousin, she saw the man of her dreams, but he was on his way to wrap himself around a pole. She gets herself off to the one place she can meet a man and find out if there is another man who sends her heart pounding. Randal was filling in for one of the entertainers, and the moment he finished his set, he went in search of the woman with the sad eyes and the lush smile. He had no idea it would take him weeks, cost him every favour he was owed and take him into the lair of a very cranky cheetah, only to find out that his target had already flown the coop. One way or another, he is getting his otter and taking her home.

Eileen has always known she couldn’t control her shifts. She also knows that it is not normal to shift into hundreds of different animals. When she is declared close to her heat, she is ordered to the Crossroads and her payment for the transport causes a stir. Her claw is that of a chimera and the enchantment that she thought was binding her, in fact, wasn’t doing anything at all. Harris has been at the Crossroads for a few days, and when he sees a woman dressed to the nines in a classic manner, he is enthralled. When she is spunky and direct, he is charmed, and when she touches his hand, he is smitten.

Yvena was one of the stolen shifters, and her recovery has not been easy. Six months of healing after two months of torture is not enough to make her whole, but she knows that not everyone is out to get her. She is released from the recovery centre and sets out to the Crossroads. After one day there, she knows that she is trying to hide and rushing toward a mate was a mistake. She asks to leave and it is agreed that she can go home the next day, but that night everything changes. Liander is a mongoose with his eyes on the king cobra who stole his heart. As her caregiver, he couldn’t pursue a relationship, but now she was out, he had quit and there was nothing between them but mutual attraction and being natural enemies. How hard could a relationship be?

Amira was raised by humans and has lived her life knowing she is different. When she is found on her birthday, she is offered a chance to join with one of the shifter families that run in her bloodline. She learns her history and plans her future. Lorr wants an independent woman, so when he sees the wolf on the dance floor, he makes his move and she makes hers.

Spike has grown up as a hedgehog among rabbits. She works for the Shifter Council as professional bait to obtain information and lure wrongdoers into situations that are not in their best interests. She has finished work for the day and is eager to spend time with her family and friends. The intrusion of a swan into their bunny-day celebrations is not welcome, but the Shifter Council has ordered it. Hedgehog shifters have nearly been completely destroyed, and now, Spike is the last of her kind. She has never been part of an extinct species before. Albert is her bodyguard, and he takes her to the safest place the Shifter Council could think of. The Crossroads.

Mina is a walking disaster. Any man who dates her ends up with some minor or major trouble in his life, body or vehicle. Her community bands together to send her to the Crossroads in an effort to find her a mate far away from the human world. Robar is sent to the Crossroads by his matriarchal grandmother who demands a proper match for her grandson. He has a plan to cheat the system, but fate shorts out the most carefully laid plans when he is transported. Together, they run, frolic and he ends up wearing her drinks. What more could you want of a first date?

Mak is a unicorn on a mission to find a woman who doesn’t fall all over herself to get his attention. The moment he meets the owner of the Open Heart B and B, he realises that this woman has no need to lean on him for self-importance. She is a force to be reckoned with all on her own. But what the hell is she? Dira has been at the Crossroads since its inception. She gave her heart and soul to the place and has watched hundreds of couples meet their match. Being pursued is a novel experience, but of course, it takes a guy with a horn to make an impression on her. Mythical shifters are not thick on the ground and a unicorn is the most tempting offering she has seen in centuries.

Raised by a mother who loved everything pink, Cori has decided to give up her colouration and go pale. Rejecting pink, she makes costumes in any other colour for a living. A ball, a prize and a trip to the Crossroads change everything. Artur has decided that he wants a woman who doesn’t want him for what he can do or how much money he has. He wants to fall in love and sweep a woman off her feet. When they meet, they get along just fine, but it is an evening of dance that locks them together. The first flamenco in the Crossroads draws a crowd but wakes the knowledge that dance isn’t the only thing they have in common.

Tiffany has lived with a traumatic past and a family that puts her squarely in charge. She is ordered to the Crossroads and decides that if she has to leave home, she will have a holiday. Alone in the forest, she spends her time running in her fox form and enjoying the wilderness. She sees a peacock in horrible shape. His feathers are dull and his shoulders are stooped. Tiff sees the trauma in him that matches her own and she offers to help him get part of himself back. Davus was one of the harvested shifters being held by the lions. He was healed in body but the pain of a year in a cage went far beyond skin deep. Tiffany sees his pain and doesn’t dismiss it or pity him. She offers to help him regain the mind-body connection, and he takes her up on it.

Pansy is desperate. She is the only porcupine in a family of wolves, and her body is bound tightly to the local area with wild magic. All in all, she isn’t prime dating material. When her fae godmother sends her to the Crossroads and makes special arrangements for her, she wasn’t sure what to expect, but a full-on Cinderella-style makeover wasn’t it. Arriving at the Crossroads is a problem, the wild magic in her system literally blew the roof off the Meditation Centre and that is only the beginning of Pansy’s problems. Axander headed to the Crossroads when he couldn’t find the woman for him back at home, but travelling to the shifters’ dating dimension, he finds that the woman he wanted was in front of him the whole time. She was just protected by scent-masking engine oil and an entire pack of wolves.

Ty was raised by a mage who took her on as a favour to her mother. She can read magic, feel magic but not use it. Her skills come in handy while working for the Shifter Council as a hunter or bounty hunter for misbehaving shifters. On assignment to find a man guilty of the ultimate betrayal to their kind, she is doped and caged by some mages, and what a shock, so is her opposite number, Alatas. Al has been trying to get himself assigned to every job that Tyanna does. He has been enthralled with her, but he has known from the outset that he was punching above his weight class. What use could a panda have for a binturong after all?

Misty is a hunter for the shifter Council who uses her small body to get into the cracks and crevices of prisons and habitats. She can go where others can’t and save those who had no other chance at freedom. After her time with the Council, she is free to pursue a life of her own, and she heads to the Crossroads without hesitation. It takes three weeks before her mate arrives, and just as she is losing hope, she is asked to take him on a tour. It isn’t love at first sight because he has seen her before. Samuel was captured and held in a collector’s habitat when a tiny creature landed on him and rode him to freedom. When that sugar glider turned into a stunning woman, he knew he was looking at his mate, but he was trapped in his feline form. Seeking her out became his goal and finding her was his great reward.

Nicia was at the fundamental lion compound and rescued from a life as guard beast for her family. Her mother’s family takes her in and helps her recover from the years of abuse. Once she is recovered, she decides that it is time to seek out a mate, provided she could change her mind and come home if needed. With that agreement in place, she heads to the Crossroads. Braxton has been watching for a mate, and while several women came close, it was the sombre lioness asking for directions that caught his attention. He wanted to make her smile, and when that became his primary pleasure, he knew he was in deep.

Molly has lived as a king vulture amongst condors. Her family considers her animal a profound disappointment and has ignored her until she finally decides that she has a right to a life and she wants it. When she is at the Crossroads, she notices the man sent to reclaim her, and while she knows he is in charge of her clan, she isn’t quite sure what he is. After they acknowledge mutual attraction, they spend a night together and have to work on the consequences when they shift for their first big flight together.

Sera has been trying to make ends meet since her family kicked her out. After years away from home in a fey menagerie, she had dreamed of being normal again. It wasn’t possible, and she lived a subsistence life until a strange woman named Pansy arrived in her field.

Yval has been living to save other shifters from the clutches of the fey. She has had her body modified to make her job easier, but the magic used cut her off from her beast. Fatigued and frustrated, she is ordered to take two months off, and it is suggested that she take the time at the Crossroads. Drorik is a fey with a mission to save the future of his people and family by taking a shifter bride. The woman he meets is full of attitude and is bristling with defensiveness, but there is something inside her that calls to him, and her curves are sending their own message.

Anessa is self-sufficient, bright, reasonably attractive and works at a spell-supply shop. She negotiates with shifters for their saleable goods and sells those same parts to mages on a daily basis. When a fey walks in to purchase some fur, she finds out that touching him will send a shock through her hand. One year later, he returns with startling information for her. She is a shifter, and he has found a tutor for her to help her find out what she is. It turns out that she is a lioness, and once she is comfortable with her beast, it makes its own demands. In heat, she has the choice of the pride or the Crossroads, and she decides to take her chances with her own luck amongst strangers. A familiar fey face is more than welcome.

Born to a shifter in horse form, Nika has always had trouble dealing with family. Her mother’s herd cast them out because of the pedigree of Nika’s father. Fey shapeshifters are not acceptable genes. Keeping her heat at bay has taken up a lot of Nika’s energy, but she has no option. No other shifter will come near her because of what her father is. After a night of drinking with her paternal parent, she wakes in the Crossroads with a note pinned to her. She is going to stay there until she finds a mate. Markkios is familiar with Nika’s father, but when he is told that the trickster’s daughter is his ideal mate, he has to see it to believe it. The moment he meets her, he knows that her charm is genuine and her father only passed on his hair colour. It is a very good start.

Maddy is a random. She is a tiger born to a community of prairie dogs who can only encourage her, love her and ask her to stand guard when they hit the burrow. She works with family, lives with family, and when she is asked if she would consider joining the Crossroads to mate with a fey, she asks family for advice. Suran has been in exile, content to live out his days at the side of the fey king. When he is ordered to consider a shifter as a mate, he hesitates, but an order from the king and the promise of a mate by the seers convinces him that he should stiffen his resolve. Maddy decides that she is willing to take a chance and that decision almost costs her her life, sanity and body, all before she arrives.

Rushed to a Crossroads transport far before her scheduled time, Sable finds herself in the portal as it collapses from an unseen force. Her soul is bleeding out, her body is weak and the Crossroads is untethered from earth so no help is coming. When she shifts to her feline form and back, something goes wrong and part of her gets stuck. A handsome man helps her back to the Open Heart, and he offers her patient companionship as she gets the first treatment for recovery. Warren has been waiting for days, but when he sees the cheetah streaking through the meadow, he kicks himself. He had shut his senses down to the point he couldn’t recognize his mate when she passed out in his arms. It was not a mistake he would make twice.

Bets has been debating making the move to the Crossroads, but the night she met a fox who was out of her league, she made up her mind. Time to stop pining and go on the hunt. Too bad the only thing she ever hunted was an apple. Weller met the shifter the night of his brother’s wedding, but when he returned to the spot where they had met, he was told that she had proceeded to the Crossroads and he was out of luck. Moving with all speed, he got his ass to the Crossroads and hoped that the woman with the deep golden-brown eyes hadn’t found a man to sweep her off her feet. That was his job.

Leda was at the Crossroads to do a job. She was hooking up the WiFi and thinking about getting home. A special request from the Guardians diverted her plans and had her working at the side of a lovely merman, but she still wanted to head home. She wasn’t seeking a mate and didn’t care that he was. Altion was surprised by the strong and competent young woman that Teal directed him to, but Leda did what she had promised and helped him craft what he needed to make the site-to-site portal for the Isthmus. A magical snafu links them together and finding a way through the changes is not as hard as finding neutral ground between the lake and the sea.

Lima enjoys her life as a hunter for the shifter guild and council, but she has no idea that this routine retrieval and rescue will flip her fate into high gear. Lyros knew that the dog-headed creature that came in to rescue him was a shifter and a woman. He admired her fighting skills but was unable to shake the feeling that she was important to his life. The seers confirm that he is fated to be matched to a hyena, but there is just one problem... she has already gone to the Crossroads and she has no idea about Lyros looking for her. She might find a match before he arrives and then what will he do?