Filed To Story: Secret Shifters Next Door Series PDF Free
I clicked the door closed and pressed my eye to my peephole. After a few more seconds, Miles opened the door and looked left and right before tilting his eyes down and seeing the tub. I held
my breath as he read the note. All it said was
Enjoy, but I still thought it said too much. He looked up from the note, and even though there was no way he could see me through my peephole, he looked right at the lens. I stifled a squeal as he locked his eyes on my door. It was like we were staring at each other. I froze in fear. If he called out, I would die. Not a metaphor, no. I would fall over dead. My heart exploded in terror and embarrassment.
Thankfully, he just grinned and stepped back into his apartment. My heart was jackhammering. I’d never done anything like that in my life. It may have been the single most ballsy thing I’d ever done. It was terrifying. Terrifying and exciting. God, I needed to go to bed to calm the blood racing through my veins. The clock said it was past ten—way past my usual bedtime.
The next morning, I rolled over and had a moment of panic as the memory of what I’d done the night before came flooding back. I pressed a hand to my mouth and glanced at my bedroom door. Beyond that threshold was the front door. Through that portal was the hallway where I’d left cookies for the neighbor. It really had happened.
Desperate to know if he’d done anything in return, I got out of bed and grabbed my robe. I threw it around myself as I went to my door. Outside, the hallway looked the same. Once I opened the door, I saw what was on my welcome mat. It was my empty cookie tub, with a new note placed on top. I picked it up and read what it said:
Cookies were great. Thanks. It was nice meeting you – Miles
FOUR
MILES
She was beautiful. The most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen in my life. I was fucked. From the moment I saw those big blue eyes, I’d known I was screwed. My wolf’s growl had almost escaped my throat when our fingers touched as I handed her the bag. It was less than a second of contact, but it had been enough to send the wolf into a frenzy.
After she’d slammed her door in my face, I’d gone into my apartment and did my best to relax. That hadn’t gone well since all I could do was think about her. I’d spent thirty minutes sitting at my kitchen table staring into space, her face flashing across my mind. She was young. At least ten years younger than I was. Probably too young for me in a normal situation—this situation was preordained by a magical curse, though.
But it was only two weeks. That was what I kept telling myself. She was only here for a couple weeks. Not enough time to get attached, and plenty of time for her to reject mewhich she, of course, would. It wouldn’t be hard since she seemed a little awkward and shy. There was very little chance that she’d try to pursue me. I had to admit that her shyness had been pretty cute, and I immediately cursed myself for that. My brain was already trying to follow the curse.
The guys were going to get a kick out of this. Back in town less than an hour and I’d found my mate. I’d seen what had happened with Steff when he’d tried to force April to reject him. Purposely being a dick didn’t sound appealing to me. The girl seemed sweet, and even though I could be an asshole in the best of situations, I didn’t want to be one to her. Besides, it hadn’t worked out for Steff. Pushing and shoving April away hadn’t stopped the curse in the long run.
Calling my neighbor—my mate—
the girl wasn’t ideal. I needed to find out her name, so I grabbed my phone.
“What’s up?” Blayne asked when he answered.
“I need a favor.”
“Already? You got back like five seconds ago.”
“Yes, I know. Can you do it?”
Blayne laughed. “Depends on what it is.”
“I need you to hack into the registry of the apartment complex I live in. I want to know who’s moved in across from me.”
At the long pause, my face went red in embarrassment. I could almost hear the slots in Blayne’s mind falling into place.
“So, you want to know who moved in? This person wouldn’t happen to be?—“
“Bro, can you do it or not? Jesus!”
Blayne chuckled. “Okay, okay. Give me some time. I’ll call you back. If the network security is high, it could take me a day or two to get in. If it’s shit, I might break it in less than an hour.”
“Okay, cool. If it looks like it’ll take a while, text me.”
We hung up, and I walked around the apartment, fidgeting and doing pointless tasks to occupy my mind. Surprisingly, Blayne called me back fifteen minutes later.
I almost dropped my phone from snatching it up so quickly. “What did you find?”
“You need better security at that apartment complex. The network administration password was, I shit you not, one-two-three-four-five-six. I didn’t even need to use my high-end encryption software. All I used was a web-based password guesser. Took, like, three minutes.”
“Okay, good,” I mumbled, not even trying to understand what he was saying. “Did you find her?” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I clenched my eyes shut and winced. I hadn’t said anything about it being a woman earlier. Fuck.
Blayne laughed. “I knew it. Oh man, here we go.”
“Stop, okay. Can you check on her background and stuff?”
“Dude, why do you think it took me so long to call back? Already done. Her name is Celina Santos. Twenty-eight. Author.”
“Author? She writes books?”
“No, Miles, she writes billboards.” Sarcasm dripped through the phone. “Yes, she writes books. Award-winning books, it looks like. She’s not Stephen King or anything, but she’s had some damned good sales. I found a screenshot of a cover, and I’m positive I’ve heard of her before. It looked super familiar.”