Chapter 2
Being a Sunday afternoon, the lot was crowded with vehicles.
To his surprise, the place appeared to be a full-service grocery store, and not the tiny mom and pop place he’d pictured in his mind.
Inside, he picked up a number of shifter scents and automatically tensed.
It wasn’t likely that anyone would be so bold as to accost him or make rude remarks here, but it had happened before, and he wanted to avoid any type of conflict.
He knew he’d have to adjust his thinking if he wanted to make this place his home, but it wouldn’t happen overnight.
Zak grabbed a large cart and started with dry goods and cleaning products before picking up any perishable foods.
It didn’t take long to fill it up, and he decided to pay for these purchases and then start on round two.
When he came back inside, Zak noticed a shifter family with three cute cubs making their way down the cereal aisle.
Both of the adults were pushing large carts, and he wondered how much it cost to feed a family of five hungry shifters.
Zak didn’t stop to dawdle, but it was hard not to notice that the young-looking father was very attractive, fit, and adorned with an untamed mane of hair.
As he passed them by, the man’s delectable scent pinged his radar and caused a certain body part to rouse itself.
Zak kept moving, putting distance between him and the family before their superior senses detected his attraction. What in the world?
Normally, that sort of thing never happened, and he struggled to rein in the unwelcome response.
Had the guy been human and unmated, he might have stopped to introduce himself, but he wasn’t the type to hit on married or mated men, and he never pursued shifters.
Come to think of it, he’d endured an awfully long dry spell in the last eighteen months while finishing up his schooling, and Zak figured that must be why he’d reacted so viscerally.
Deep down, he knew the excuse didn’t hold water, but he wasn’t about to admit, even to himself, that there could ever be anything between him and a shifter, no matter how good he smelled.
############
Meanwhile, several aisles over
Tasha loaded all the boys’ favorite cereals in the cart while Orrin checked the list to see what was next.
She still hadn’t figured out how the man ever managed to grocery shop with a bunch of little ones in tow.
Before the Bureau of Shifter Affairs hired her to assist him, he’d been responsible for up to eight cubs at a time—sometimes for months on end.
Granted, the number was usually around five or six, but even that was too many for one person to handle by themselves.
From what townspeople had told her, Orrin was smart, efficient, and lovingly attentive with the children in his care.
In her opinion, he must also be some kind of magician.
“Where next, Orrin?”
Tasha found him standing frozen like a statue, staring off down the aisle with an unfocused gaze. She touched his elbow, and he startled as though he’d just awakened from a trance.
“What? Where is that scent coming from? Did you see anyone pass by here?”
Tasha frowned. The aisle they were in was empty, and had been since they started loading up.
“There are dozens of people in the store, but no one’s been in this aisle. What scent are you talking about? What did you smell?”
Orrin closed his eyes briefly and reexamined the memory.
“Male, with a muddled scent that I should know, but can't quite place. He smelled… perfect .”
While Tasha gave him some side-eye, the boys gathered around to stare up at his wistful face with confusion. Kip patted his thigh for attention.
“Is you kay?”
Orrin tucked away the compelling memory and reached down to ruffle three heads of hair before lifting Kip in his strong arms.
“Yes, Kip, I’m okay. Thank you for asking. Now, why don’t we go find that cinnamon raisin bread you like so much?”
They took off down the aisle to continue shopping with Tasha shaking her head and Orrin wishing he could track down the man he’d scented.
His bear wanted him to do just that, and while he tended to agree, they had a task to complete.
If, however, he happened to run into the owner of that incredible scent before they left the store, all bets were off.
############
Zak’s home, early evening
What a day!
Moving in was such a chore, and a three-bedroom home was a lot bigger than the dorms or one-bedroom apartments he’d been living in for the last decade.
This time, he didn’t mind all that much, since settling here was a far cry from a temporary crash pad while he worked himself to the bone.
No, this place began a new era, both intimidating and a little scary.
For the first time, he was truly on his own and ready to begin his career in earnest. That, at least, could wait a while longer until he’d hired his staff and officially opened the clinic.
After putting away the truck-bed full of groceries, he’d unpacked the boxes and set up the bedroom and bathroom with what he’d brought along.
At this point, he only had a few basics, but tomorrow he intended to shop for more bedding and bath items, along with cookware and other kitchen paraphernalia.
His office in the clinic building contained a desk and chair, but little else, so he’d need to buy some office products as well.
The goal was to get himself situated before the staff interviews on Wednesday.
Once the hiring was done, he’d figure out what else the clinic needed before opening day.
At present, Zak was setting up his previously delivered exercise equipment in a corner of the finished basement.
While naturally tall and broad shouldered, the muscle he’d packed on was the result of hard work.
He’d found that fewer people messed with him, even shifters, if he looked more intimidating.
It also helped him attract company of the intimate sort when the itch needed scratching.
Now that he had his own home, he wasn’t too keen on bringing strangers here for sex.
Fortunately, there were ways around that, which would also keep nosy townsfolk from noticing things they shouldn’t.
After the weight bench, he assembled the weight rack, set up his barbells, unpacked the treadmill, and arranged the kettlebells and dumbbells he used most often.
While he could have filled the entire basement with equipment, he found that less was better.
Zak disliked going to public gyms and sharing germs with strangers, and working out at home gave him fewer excuses for not maintaining his regimen.
It was late by the time Zak finished setting everything up, and he decided to take a quick shower and call it a night.
He’d requested several changes in the primary bathroom, including an extra-large shower, a garden tub, an on-demand water heater, and a roomy linen closet.
He stripped down and turned on all the heads for a warm and relaxing shower.
As luck would have it, his brain conjured up a naked version of the long-haired guy at the grocery store—this time wet, glistening, and bent over for the taking.
Too good to ignore, Zak soaped up his cock and busted a nut in record time.
In all likelihood, the sexy stranger would be a recurring visitor in his fantasies, but he knew it would never happen in real life.
Hot or not, shifters were off limits in the romance department—and while he wasn’t opposed to finding a human partner and raising some kids, this wasn’t the right time to pursue that dream either.
############
Meanwhile, in Orrin’s bedroom
He lay naked and spread-eagled on the mattress, with a hand towel and a bottle of lube at the ready.
First, Orrin wanted to replay the memory of that fantastic and arousing scent he’d picked up at the market.
More had been detected in other parts of the store, but he was never able to pinpoint the source.
As they checked out, he spotted someone leaving the building—a gorgeous blond, bulging with muscle.
It could have been him, though he’d never know unless he met the stranger again sometime.
Even if it wasn’t the right guy, Orrin decided that there was no harm in using the handsome hunk as spank bank material.
The man’s amazing scent remained a puzzle, and though he mostly smelled like a human, there were elements of shifter within it; weak and incomplete, but present.
Could he be what was called a quasi-shifter?
Orrin had studied the phenomenon in school, and had encountered only one such person when he was very young.
Nevertheless, the stranger smelled intoxicating, essential, and irresistible.
His bear wanted to wallow in the scent and rub it into his fur.
Orrin had never reacted to anyone’s scent that way before, even during mating season, and while his bear hadn’t identified him as their mate, it seemed like the most plausible explanation.
Orrin flicked open the lube, squeezed a dollop into his hand, and started stroking.
He would begin by sticking his sensitive nose into every nook and cranny of the man’s body, saving his pubes for last. Then it would be his tongue’s turn to lick every inch of skin, cataloging flavors from head to foot.
With a hand around the base, he’d wrap his long, prehensile tongue around the man’s shaft and go to work.
The mental image was incredibly strong and realistic, exciting his libido and causing him to pant through the strokes of his own shaft.
Pressure and anticipation climbed steadily until Orrin shouted out a powerful release, leaving splatters of jizz on his face, chest, and abdomen.
Heart pounding and body trembling with aftershocks, Orrin continued stroking until he was too sensitive.
Whoa! He’d never produced an orgasm like that before —though it only involved his right hand and a vivid imagination.
Even if it wasn’t the attractive blond, whoever owned that amazing scent was someone he and his bear wanted to meet at the earliest opportunity.