Chasing Cindy Pt. 01

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 bouncer.

"This is Ricardo." The woman said, gesturing to the man behind her. He gave me a lecherous grin and nodded his head in my direction. Was that supposed to be a greeting? Yuck.

"Can I get you a drink?" I asked him, refusing to be anything but professional.

What I really wanted to do was tell them both to leave. But I couldn't do that if I wanted to keep my meager job. And the woman knew it.

Ricardo ordered a whiskey on the rocks, and the woman ordered a dry martini. I scurried away from their table as fast as I could without making it too obvious that I was desperate to put some distance between us.

When I came back with their drinks, Ricardo was sitting at the table with the woman. But he was quickly scanning their surroundings every few seconds. It wasn't something that humans would probably notice. But my sharp senses saw it.

"Veronica told me that you've been asking her how she knew you weren't human." Ricardo said without making the slightest effort to keep his voice down.

But the bar was loud enough that no one else paid any attention to what he was saying. I had asked Veronica several times how she knew that I was a shifter, since I knew damn well that she couldn't tell on her own.

"I was here the first night you started working." He continued, looking less like a simple bodyguard and more like a smug pimp by the second. I could feel panic starting to set in, but I stood my ground and didn't let my fear show.

"Do you know how rare female shifters are?" He asked me with a menacing smile.

I nodded my head, and I knew I was in trouble. Veronica wasn't a madam. She was just one of this guy's working girls.

And the reality of the amount of danger I was in almost had me screaming bloody murder for Logan. But I didn't know if Logan was human or not.

It wasn't the kind of thing I could just ask him. He'd think I was nuts if he wasn't a shifter. And I didn't want to involve him in this.

"I tried to let Veronica work her magic with you." Ricardo said. "To get you to come to me on your own." Veronica was practically cowering in her seat, not even daring to make eye contact with the man.

"When I saw you that night and sensed that you were a shifter, I just had to have you in my stable." He added. His stable? What did this fucker think I was? A horse?!

My anger rose up in me and I glared at him. If this scum bag thought for one second that I was going to just come along quietly and be his docile little slut, then he had another thing coming.

"You have spirit!" Ricardo bellowed, amused at my obvious defiance. Clearly, he was used to women bowing at his feet in fear. He didn't know who he was dealing with.

He suddenly stood up and came around the table until he was right in front of me. It took every ounce of courage I possessed to resist running away from him. I didn't even break eye contact with the prick.

He was the one glaring then. "I'm going to enjoy breaking you."

When he grabbed my arm, my fragile composure finally crumbled and I screamed at the top of my lungs. That got the attention of some of the people in the bar, despite the noise.

My boss came rushing over, and Ricardo let go of me. "What's the problem here Cindy?" My boss asked.

He was kind of an ass, but I understood why his mood was always so black. He was a mated shifter whose wife had died in a fire.

Shifters only ever got one fated mate. So, when Mr. Jameson's wife passed away...he fell apart. The only thing that kept him going was his kids and his bar.

He said I was the first female shifter that he had met in ten years, and he promised to try to look out for me.

But that didn't mean that he had a sunny disposition. It only meant that he wouldn't try to get in my pants.

"Did you get their drinks wrong or something?" Mr. Jameson asked me angrily. "Speak up, girl!"

Ricardo was grinning like the Cheshire cat and Veronica looked like she might crawl under the table at any moment. Tears were filling my eyes, and I knew then that my jerk of a boss wasn't going to be of any help.

"This man is propositioning me, Mr. Jameson." I said, hoping that honesty might get me some help. "I said no, and he grabbed me."

Ricardo didn't bother denying it. It was clear that he wasn't concerned about anything that my boss might do.

And that's where he made a mistake. Mr. Jameson was a bit of a jerk, but he was also a male shifter who had promised to look after me.

The look of dismissal that Ricardo was giving him was the match that lit a fuse in my boss. He was the alpha in his establishment.

And he wasn't about to let another man step on his toes. Even if that man was obviously younger and stronger than he was.

"Is that true?" Mr. Jameson asked in an icy tone of voice.

The fact that my boss was even giving Ricardo a chance to deny my accusation had me just about ready to quit my job on the spot.

Why the fuck would I lie? I was instantly reminded by their little pissing contest of why I kept to myself so much.

"It's true." Ricardo said with pride. "I offered her another job. And she's going to take it. She won't be working for you anymore."

That had Mr. Jameson seeing red. I could almost see steam coming out of his ears. He turned his furious gaze on me, which only served to piss me off even more. I don't know why I was surprised that he was so quick to take a stranger's side over mine.

"You're quitting?!" He yelled in my face.

Ricardo burst into laughter, thrilled with his ability to fuck up my life without even trying. And without me giving in to his demands. If I thought I could have kicked him in the balls without getting beaten up, I would have done it.

"No!" I yelled right back at him. He was surprised at my outburst. "This piece of shit is a shifter pimp. And he's trying to get me to be one of his hookers. I said no." I said as calmly as I could before I turned my hostility on Ricardo.

I could see by the look on his face that Ricardo was restraining his rage by the skin of his teeth. I wasn't giving him the respect and fear that he obviously thought he deserved. And that wasn't going to change any time soon.

Finally, Mr. Jameson came to his senses and called Logan over. I wasn't so sure that was such a good idea. Could Logan take on Ricardo? They were similar in size. But Ricardo was a pimp.

And that meant that he had other men working for him, as well as money and connections if he was turning out shifter women. Fuck. I didn't want to cause problems for my boss or for Logan.

Logan was by my side in an instant. His protective instincts and his more than professional interest in me were obvious when he placed a hand on my lower back. Both Ricardo and Mr. Jameson noticed his possessive display.

"Is there a problem, sir?" He asked my boss.

"This man is leaving." Mr. Jameson said, pointing at Ricardo. "He's not to return. Ever." The older man practically growled.

Victoria jumped out of her chair like it was on fire when Ricardo snapped his fingers at her as if she was a dog.

She rushed to his side, lowering her eyes to the ground in a clear sign of submission. It disgusted me to see another woman so broken.

"I'll see you around Cindy." Ricardo said. "Soon."

His words sent his ice through my veins. I saw his statement for the warning that it was. His point was clear. I could be a willing participant, or I would be a prisoner. Shit.

At least he couldn't tell what kind of shifter I was in my human form. It was one of the few advantages that females had. Other shifters couldn't tell what our animal halves were until we actually took that form.

And I was one of the rarest breeds...a panther. I had never met anyone like me outside of my own family.

I longed for the protection and comfort of my parents and my brother. But a cage forged by love was still a cage. So, I had left my home to make a life for myself.

Logan left me with Mr. Jameson to escort Ricardo and Veronica out of the bar. He didn't seem thrilled with leaving me.

But at least he'd be removing the immediate threat to me. And, I guess...that was enough for the moment.

~∞~

"I wasn't about to give that cocky son of a bitch the satisfaction of seeing me quit in front of him." I said sadly. I hung my head in defeat, knowing that I would still have to leave.

Mr. Jameson knew it too. The bar was a public, busy place. And even if he could keep Ricardo out, that didn't meant that he wouldn't catch me sooner or later. I was no longer safe.

Logan found me in Mr. Jameson's office. I was in the middle of having an emotional breakdown once my boss and I were behind closed doors. I was taken aback when Logan pulled me into his arms and held me while I cried a river.

I don't think I had ever seen Mr. Jameson look so uncomfortable. He had never been very nice to me. But he hadn't been a total jerk either. Clearly he didn't know what to do with a blubbering woman.

"I'm sorry." I said as my sobs finally subsided.

Mr. Jameson went to his desk and used a key to unlock one of the drawers. He took a thick stack of money out and handed it to me. I just stood there trying to compose myself while I stared at the money with my mouth open.

"Mr. Jameson?" I asked while I dried my tears. I'm sure my expression showed the total confusion I was feeling.

"I'm so sorry Cindy." He replied with a grimace. "I didn't know there was another male shifter in the area staking his territory." He physically put the money he was holding in my hand.