Surrendering to Her Mate
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
Omg what a great story I just Loved Jonathan, Lucas, and Natalie. I can't wait to read more in the Shifting Hearts Dating Agency series
~ Belinda, Amazon Customer
This short story had humor, family drama, sexcapades, and a steamy HEA. What’s not to love!
~ TJ, Amazon Customer
Loved the characters and the storyline. Hoping to read more of the Shifting Hearts Dating Agency!
~ Anne Dodds, Amazon Customer
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
Bayou Shadows By Erzabet Bishop was so so good! I actually wanted more! The heat factor was HOT! Great storyline and great characters!
~ The Literary Vixen
This is an amazing suspenseful, sweet, touching, and scorching hot romance. You will love it!
~ Roxie's Romance Reviews
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
Erzabet Bishop brings us a wonderful, heartfelt drama in Orchard Rain. Kim has had a row with her lady Maggie over finances. They meet at a wedding that Maggie has planned as part of her job. Their reconciliation is sexy and sweet. I was intensely enchanted with this story.
~ Ameliah Faith, Amazon Customer
Bayou Shadows by Erzabet Bishop
Voodoo dreams and buried lies bring Delia to New Orleans. A sexy shifter with secrets of his own might just get her to stay...
~ DarkJade, Amazon Customer
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
I started reading and couldn't stop until I turned the last page. I really enjoyed the characters and thought there was the possibility for more stories with these characters. I thought this was a very entertaining story. This is the first book by this author that I have read, and it won't be my last.
~ Loves to Read (A Cozy Booknook)
Surrendering to Her Mate
My Wicked Mates Series, Book Two
Copyright ©2019 Erzabet Bishop
ISBN: 978-1-77357-105-8,
978-1-77357-102-7
Published by Naughty Nights Press LLC
http://naughtynightspress.com/
Cover Art By Willsin Rowe
Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Dedication
About
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Epilogue
A Taste of Tormenting Her Mate
Before
Chapter One
About The Author
Where to Find More of Erzabet Bishop
Also By Erzabet Bishop
Dedication
To my husband who makes every day count and for my furry babies. Who rescued who?
For all victims of domestic abuse. There is a way out. You just have to take the first steps.
About
A new beginning...
Fleeing from a relationship gone horribly wrong, bunny shifter Clover Frazier makes the choice to start a new life. If only her car had gotten the memo. Stranded in the parking lot of what seemed to be a nightclub, she walks into a world she never knew existed. A new job with room and board are the answer to her prayers, but can she really outrun the ghosts of her past or will they come back to claim her?
A cat with a broken heart might just learn to love again.
Master Richard has just come out of a five-year Master/sub arrangement after a bitter breakup. He spies the new barmaid instantly, dismissing her as just another pretty face. When circumstances put them in close proximity, his resolve to stay at a distance is put to the test when his prickly panther responds to the luscious bunny shifter. Finding himself enamored by the curvaceous blonde, the teacher becomes the student and this alpha male learns that the gift of trust might just be the greatest surrender of all.
Chapter One
Clover Frazier narrowed her eyes at the engine light glowing up at her from the dashboard and wanted to scream until her throat turned raw or her head exploded. Only twenty-five more miles and she would have been in the clear, but as the old Honda began to sputter and choke, she veered off the highway. If her piece of crap car was going to die, she didn’t want it to be in the middle of fast-moving traffic.
Her rabbit heart in her throat, she didn’t like surprises and there had been enough of those today to last her a lifetime.
Plus, it was dark. In an unfamiliar town, her anxiety was rising by the second. She had to keep it together. It wouldn’t do any good to fall apart, despite the fact events in the last six hours made her want to do just that.
Her cheek hurt. The shiner hidden under the makeup was hard to spot unless you were looking for it or if she turned her face at a certain angle. Lord knew she’d had enough practice covering up Ellis’s conversational ice breakers over the last year and a half. Her relationship with her abusive, now ex-boyfriend, was dust in her rearview mirror. It had to be after this afternoon. There was no more denying what her life had become. It was all a carefully crafted lie and she’d stepped right into the middle of it like a fly to honey.
Her mother had warned her away from Ellis, stating coyote shifters weren’t to be trusted. She hadn’t listened, so now she had to feel. At least, that’s how it felt right about now.
Hindsight was always a lot clearer.
Clover’s stomach twisted. The car wouldn’t reach Houston. Not a chance in hell. She crept along the side streets until she spotted a large building that appeared to be a nightclub with a massive parking lot. That would have to do. She found a spot on the edge of the lot and turned off the engine, resting her head against the wheel.
What was she going to do now?
Her dog, Sylvester, whined from his towel in the front seat and she placed a reassuring hand on his back. He turned his face in her direction, his sightless eyes and salt and pepper fur giving her fur baby an appearance much older than his actual years.
“It’s okay, sweet boy.”
The blind Chihuahua shifted nervously against the back of the seat. Clover reached into a baggie in a compartment on the driver’s side door and pulled out a piece of kibble, passing it in front of his mouth. With all the commotion, he hadn’t had his pill today. She needed to get him settled and fed before he had any further complications from today’s stress.
Being in a car used to be one of Sylvester’s favorite things, but now it only served to terrify him.
So did Ellis.
But no more.
With trembling hands, she picked up her phone and tried to think of someone to call but, along with everything else, Ellis had managed to isolate her so most of the friends she’d had were long gone. All except Megan. She’d been a rock, but even still Clover hadn’t been able to tell her everything.
Her heart in her throat, Clover called her friend from the car. “Hey.”
“Hey yourself.”
“I’ve left him, Megan.”
The silent pause before her friend spoke said volumes.
“It’s about time. Fucking coyote. I had a feeling something wasn’t right.”
Megan didn’t know the half of it, though. Admitting that Ellis had hit her was something Clover could never do. It filled her with too much shame. Let Megan think he was just an asshole who took everything she had. That was enough.
Her boss had known. You couldn’t fool Gracie. The old woman had eyes like a hawk. In fact, she was indeed a hawk shifter and had scared the wits out of her when she first came on. But that was until she got to know the warm heart encased in a steel trap.
With a beehive hairdo and the energy of a woman half her age, the sixty-something dynamo had seen her share of comings and goings.
The first time Ellis ever hit her, Clover showed up for work at the diner the next day with a blackened eye and the self-esteem of a slug. She’d wanted to shift into her rabbit form, run and never look back, but she couldn’t leave her little, blind, sweetheart of a dog.
Gracie had taken one look at her and sent someone else to her section. “Come with me,” she'd ordered, expecting to be obeyed.
Clover followed, wiping her dampened hands on her pink uniform and apron as her boss led her into the office and shut the door.
“How long?”
She’d played with the edge of her apron, nervously wrapping it around her fingers. “What do you mean?”
“How long has Santa lived at the North Pole? Damn it, girl. What do you think I mean?” Gracie crossed her arms in front of her chest and waited.
“This was the first time.” Her voice had shaken and a tear slid down her cheek. She’d wiped away at it angrily and turned her face up, willing the urge to cry away.
“It won’t be the last.” Gracie went to her desk and pulled out some makeup. “Come here. I want to show you something.”
“I put on concealer...”
“Not like this, you didn’t.”
She hadn’t asked how Gracie knew, but as she sat down on the surface of the desk and let the older woman doctor her eye, she paid attention. When Gracie was done, she snapped the caps back on the different products and tucked them away in the desk once more.
“Leave him.”
“He said it would never happen again.” Clover had looked away at the pity in the older woman’s eyes. Her inner bunny hid and showed Clover her tail.
“Don’t count on it.”
Clover had left him, and now, a year and a half later, she wanted to crawl in a bed and sleep for a week after she downed a bottle of Ibuprofen. But, she’d done it.
Holy crap. She’d done it.
Her thoughts snapped back to her conversation with Megan as her friend called into the phone, asking if she was still there.
“Can I crash at your place? At least until the audition?”
Clover heard voices on the other end of the phone. “Oh man. I wasn’t expecting you to call till next week, hon. I’m out of town on a shoot.”
Shit.
“Oh...sure.”
A lump formed in her throat and she struggled not to cry.
“Hang on a minute.” The phone went quiet and she could hear the sound of heels clacking across a hard floor. An unlikely friendship had come about with the arctic fox but, heck, she wasn’t going to question it.
“Megan, are you still there?”
“I’m here. Look, if you want to head over to the apartment, I have a key under the potted plant in the green window box.”
“My car just went on the fritz. I don’t even know where I am.” Clover tried to keep the note of worry from her voice but her friend caught it, as usual.
“Pull over and get some help, girl. Then come on down. I have food in the fridge. Bring that dog of yours. Just don’t let him eat me out of house and home, okay?”
“You know I don’t eat much in the meat department.” Clover winced, thinking of the pot roast and other meaty bits her bestie was hording. She ate an occasional burger as a human, but her real love was salad, carrots, and her herb garden. It killed her to leave it behind.
She would have to stop at a grocery store or a garden center when she got where she was going to make sure she had enough staples to keep her in what she needed.
“Okay.” She nodded, feeling foolish at the prickle of tears that threatened.
“Talk to you later. The tripod set are getting their panties in a knot.”
“Bye.” She sighed. Maybe it was good that Megan wasn’t going to be home for a few days, but how the hell was she even supposed to get there? Hop? She snorted and rolled her eyes.
She could turn around and see if Gracie could help for a day or so. Maybe she could text her.
The phone flashed. The battery was almost empty now and, like an idiot, she’d left her charger sitting on the kitchen counter in her haste to leave.
“Oh no...”
She thought about trying a nearby store, but remembered when she stopped at a fast food place on the way and her debit transaction failed. Then she’d gone to an ATM to try and withdraw some money. Also declined. Ellis controlled their shared bank account and, she had all her money going into it, even what she’d put away from working overtime at the restaurant.
God.
She only had a little bit of cash secreted in the side panel of her purse and that wasn’t going to get her far.
Her only saving grace was a recent modeling gig hadn’t paid her yet and it was coming via PayPal, which Ellis couldn’t access.
A chill seeped through her bones. Shit. What was she going to do now?
She had to get a new account. Could she even do that on the phone?
But her phone was almost dead.
Oh God.
It was just too much all at once.
Her head throbbed and her stomach growled. She would get through this. There had to be a way to create a new account. Maybe with one of those online banks or something. Then she could transfer the PayPal money into there.
But how would they send her a debit card? She didn’t have an address.
Clover nibbled on her lip and tried to consider her options. She dug out another kibble and held it in front of her dog’s muzzle.
Sylvester whined again, his nose twitching in search of the morsel she held out to him.
“Shhh.” She gave him a halfhearted smile as he gobbled down the tidbit of food, hopeful that when they got inside, there would be a phone.
She had a week until her next modeling audition despite the friction that had arisen with Ellis. Tonight was something that had been coming for a long time. That didn’t leave her much time to deal with her car, lack of money, and the ache that seemed to come from deep in her bones.
Or her face.
And damned if he didn’t know exactly where to hit so it hurt the most and didn’t show. Usually. The modeling agency would notice. And so would her friend. When she got to Megan’s place, she was going to crawl under a layer of cucumbers and see what other tricks her beauty school buddy had up her sleeve.
Then she wanted to find the nearest herb garden and graze for a freaking week.
It would work out somehow.
Maybe the car would be a quick fix. If she could talk to a local and get a hold of a mechanic.
Well...after she got paid. Which would be any day now. And that meant she needed to get to a charger so she could access her PayPal before Ellis figured out her login. Otherwise he would get that, too.
And that wasn’t going to happen. Ever.
This afternoon had been the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back.
Ellis hadn’t liked that she’d gone to another modeling gig, this time at a local department store. Never mind that it would help to pay the rent and give them an upper hand on saving for next month.
His job at Afix Software had evaporated a few months before and since then his temper had been growing worse. She’d been picking up extra shifts at the restaurant, the overtime bringing in extra money, but at the same time it just made him angrier when he had nothing to show for his job search.
He’d taken a position at a local hardware store and resented every second of it. Especially now that she made more waitressing on a weekend than he did in an entire week.
“I told you not to go.” he'd growled at her.
The storm brewing in his steel blue eyes should have warned her but she was done trying to make excuses about what she knew was the right path for her career. It was stupid, really, but the small moments of rebellion served to remind her who she was—and who she was becoming with Ellis—and it wasn’t someone she was proud of.
She was good at modeling and it was the only time she really felt alive, other than when she was with Sylvester. When she was in front of the camera it was exhilarating.
“But we need the money. And besides, I have to get some experience under my belt.” She tried to explain but her words morphed into a shocked squeal as he swung his fist and caught her in the upper right cheek.
His lips drew back in a snarl and he hit her again, connecting with the same spot he’d nailed only moments before. His blue eyes had morphed into the beady, cold eyes of a coyote.
Clover had staggered against the wall with a cry, her hand going up to protect herself. He swung again and she shrank down, but his fist went through the wall instead.