My name is Cindy, and I'm a female shape shifter. This is my story. Mating customs and the way the cosmic forces of the universe designed us non humans just flat out sucks for women. It doesn't matter what kind of shifter you are.
Female shifters can't sense others of our kind unless we're in our animal forms. And that means that we can be in a room full of people who appear to be human, but aren't.
Males, on the other hand...as fate would have it, can tell immediately if someone is a shifter. And when a female is in her animal form, they can tell if she's their fated mate.
Most male shifters are man whores who enjoy their ability to be able to have sex with as many women as possible.
The fact that they become impotent with any female that isn't their mate once they meet 'the one'...is the only bit of justice that I can see in the way our world works.
Females don't actually get the mating call. Only men. And once our true mate forms a bond with us by biting us and drinking our blood at the height of sex, we become slaves to that connection.
That's why female shifters like me rarely take our animal forms. We like our freedom, especially since the males outnumber us significantly. No one knows why so few females are born.
Contrary to what a lot of movies and books say, humans can't be the fated mates of shifters. Which means that they can't have children together.
In her infinite wisdom or stupidity, mother nature decided that shifters could only produce offspring with other shifters.
The elders of our species think that's why humans can't be transformed into shifters, which is another myth that has been romanticized by endless works of erotic fiction.
I could fall in love with a human man, but I could never have kids with him. And let's not forget that my true mate could come along some day and claim me, whether I like it or not.
It wouldn't matter if I was a happily married woman and was madly in love with my husband. My mate would most likely kill the man I was with, and I wouldn't even be able to hate him for it once the mating bond was formed between us.
I hate the fact that a perfect stranger could basically erase any feelings that I could have for another man with one, life changing bite. So...I don't date. I have sex. Often.
My human friend, Rachel, who is a bigger slut than I am...tells me that the key to happiness is to keep my heart closed and my legs open. Words to live by, huh?
I could never accuse Rachel of being a romantic. She was married. But her husband cheated on her with her sister on their first anniversary.
That killed any notions she had of happily ever after or of men being capable of being faithful. I couldn't blame her.
I couldn't even find it within my own heart of stone to feel sorry for the genuinely nice guys who were drawn to her like moths to flames. Rachel insisted that men always cheat...sooner or later.
And I didn't have enough experience with having any sincere affection for any of the men I had been with to care what or who they did when we weren't together.
All I could hope to do was avoid coming across my mate as long as possible, because life as I knew it would be over once he claimed me. No more one night stands.
No more independence. I would be compelled by the bond to obey my mate. And I'd rather be dead than get turned into a slave.
Rachel didn't know what I was. Telling humans what we are is frowned upon. We're told all of our lives to blend in and keep our secrets.
Hiding in plain sight is a way of life for shifters. It isn't as if we go around wreaking havoc on humans in our animal forms. Except for the rogues.
Rogues are shifters without families or packs who roam the world doing exactly as they please. They are always being hunted for being too violent. And for letting humans see them in the midst of a partial shift.
A partial shift is when one of us is half human and half animal. Needless to say, it upsets people. And it gives the more fanatic ones far too much proof of our existence. Yep. Rogues are a pain in the ass for all of us.
~∞~
I left my little apartment to go to the bar where I worked as a waitress. Logan would be there tonight. I had the biggest crush on him.
Tall, muscular, and blonde...he was the whole package. We had been flirting with each other ever since I started working there.
"Hi, baby." He said when I walked up to him at the door. Logan was one of the club's bouncers. Most of the time, his looks alone were enough to intimidate people.
But he was never anything but gentle and kind to me. I couldn't imagine being afraid of the big guy. I had only been working at the bar for a month.
The chemistry between the two of us had been instant. As usual, it took a few weeks for me to get past my initial apprehension at being attracted to a new man.
Male shifters almost always told me what they were pretty quickly when I met them, bragging about their prowess and trying to get me to sleep with them. But I knew the truth.
Shifters are much stronger than humans. And we tend to be...enthusiastic when it comes to sex. That means that when we're fucking a human, we have to be more careful. It's never a good thing to break one of them.
For all of our shameless flirting, Logan had yet to ask me out on a date. I had made sure that he didn't have a girlfriend or a wife. I might be easy, but I'm no home wrecker.
As scary as Logan looked, there was a shyness about him that lured me in. I figured that I was going to have to be the one to make the first move. And I wasn't used to that. I had been blessed with great genetics.
My soft curves were an asset that I fully embraced. I had no desire to be rail thin. And thanks to my full breasts, I had no need for the surgical enhancements that so many human women indulged in.
Logan was always complimenting me. He liked my blonde hair and hazel eyes. And the fact that my uniform consisted of barely there clothes wasn't lost on him. He made me feel sexy without making me feel dirty.
"Hi, handsome." I answered, smiling up at him. "How's the crowd so far tonight?" I asked.
Logan shrugged his shoulders. "Not too busy yet. But it's still early."
I decided then and there to make my interest in taking our relationship past harmless flirting known. I just hoped he wouldn't turn me down. Surely, a man that good looking had a different woman in his bed every night.
"Hey, Logan..." I began nervously. He noticed the anxious look in my eyes, and I suddenly had his undivided attention. "Would you go out on a date with me?" There. I did it!
He was clearly surprised at first, but he quickly smiled at me and put his hands on my shoulders. I couldn't tell what he was thinking as he looked at me.
"I don't think a woman has ever asked me out before." He answered.
Was that a good thing? I didn't know how to reply to his statement, so I just stood there awkwardly waiting for him to say yes or no.
When he leaned down and kissed me on the cheek, I was sure he was about to turn me down. "I'd love to go on a date with you." He finally said.
I was so relieved that I let out a long breath I hadn't realized I was holding. He laughed, and I couldn't help but join him.
He took a business card for the bar out of his pocket and wrote his phone number on the back of it. "You can reach me after about 2 pm most days." He said as he gave it to me. "I'm a late sleeper." He added when I tucked the card into my purse.
"I guess I better get inside before the boss thinks I came late." I said. Feeling bold, I reached up and kissed him lightly on the lips.
His eyes lit up with delight and mischief for a moment before his attention was taken away from me by the line that was starting to form behind me.
My boss was scowling at me as I hurried to put my purse in my locker. I was too new to risk pissing him off, but I wasn't technically late. I gave him a weak smile as I passed him on my way back out to the bar.
I knew my night wasn't going to go well when I saw that my first customer was a woman who had been making a pest of herself almost since I started my job.
I sighed as I approached her table, having no choice but to talk to her because she made damn sure she was sitting in my section. I plastered on a fake smile and asked to take her order.
"Hello Cindy. It's so nice to see you again." The woman said. What a crock. There was nothing nice about having to deal with this woman. She was the only shifter I ever met who was a hooker.
Of course, the woman preferred to be called an escort. Whatever. If it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck...then it's probably a duck. Or a tramp, in this case. I had no right to judge her. I didn't exactly have a moral leg to stand on.
But this chick had somehow found out that I was also a shifter, and she had been pestering me relentlessly to come work for her.
She was showing up more and more often, despite my refusal to consider what she called a generous financial offer.
She had told me that most of her clientele were male shifters, because females of our kind were so hard to come by. The woman insisted that her customers understood that biting the escorts was strictly forbidden.
She didn't want to fall into the lap of her mate any more than the men who paid her for sex wanted to get tied down to one woman.
She assured me that it was an easily arrived at understanding, and that the money was vastly better than what I was making working at the bar.
It isn't as if I've never entertained the thought of being a call girl. I love sex. And under the right circumstances, the money was probably great.
But I had promised myself that even if I got that desperate...that I would never have a pimp. Or in this case, a madam.
This time, the woman had brought a man with her. He was standing behind her chair, looking like the incredible hulk without the green skin and constant scowl. He was staring at me with barely contained lust.
When the woman saw the two of us make eye contact, she smiled wickedly and clearly thought I might be interested in him. I could almost see the dollar signs flashing in her eyes. Stupid bitch. I only had eyes for
one
