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room, kitchen, and living room all seemed to be one
massive room, the only difference being the tile in the kitchen and the
hardwood that was in the living and dining room. She looked around and saw
stairs that led up and ones that led down. “Show me around, please?” She wanted
to know every inch of this house because all she had seen was the outside.
    Nodding,
he took her hand in his and gave her a guided tour. The main floor was all
open, the kitchen, dining, and the living room. A movie/game room was the only
enclosed space besides the bathroom on that floor. Upstairs were four bedrooms
and an office. The master bedroom looked out over the lake. The en suite
bathroom had the same view from the tub. When they returned downstairs, he left
her for two minutes, returning with their food his friend had cooked, and the
rest of the bakery items. Jagger made quick work of setting up at the breakfast
bar connected to the kitchen island.
    “This
is a beautiful home, Jagger,” she said and turned into his arms instead of
sitting. “I can see you in this home and I love it.” She did, however, pull the
bakery bag closer to her. “I want sweets. Later I will eat food but for right
now I want sweets. Later will you show me that hot tub I thought I glimpsed?”
    “We
can do the hot tub after I get back from my meeting,” he said. Brushing her
hair back, he tucked it behind her ear. “I need to eat, sweetheart. We shifters
burn a lot of calories in a day, especially with shifting.”
    “Okay.”
She had forgotten about his meeting. “Can I stay here while you go to your
meeting?” she asked while she watched him eat.
    “Absolutely.
You can even poke around if you want to and snoop. The meeting is the town
council wanting to talk to us about a new shifter clan who wants to move into
Shifter Falls. They have to get permission from the alphas because we’re all
territorial. Our six groups have managed to get through our various differences
to work and live together in some form of peace, but adding another to the mix
could fuck up the balance. The council already knows our answer, but everything
has to be done by the book.”
    “Wait,
you’re an alpha?” She knew that meant something big. “And what is the group
that wants to move in and why would you have issues with them coming in?” she
wanted to know. “Who owns the resort and runs it? Are they shifters, too?”
Rapid-fire questions, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.
    “So
many questions,” he teased. “I am an alpha. As to the group, we don’t know who
they are. We won’t know until this meeting. But the main issue is having too
many different shifters in one place ups the chances of us being outed and
could lead to pack wars. Something that happened a lot in the early years of us
colonizing here with the humans. The resort is owned and run by the lynx
shifters. They are some of the calmest of the shifters beyond the grizzly. Not
that both groups can’t get damn riled up, they can, and both are handy in a
fight, but they tend to do better with the gigs where a lot of human tourists
are around. Some of us don’t have the same patience.”
    “That’s
interesting. I still can’t get over it. I never would have dreamed there were
such things as shifters. I thought I was the oddity in life. I always believed
that I was the only one who was different in this world.” She leaned back in
the chair she had settled into and watched him as he ate. “And you are the
mechanic. Do you have a pack? Is that what it’s called for bears? I can never
remember the groupings.”
    “We
just call them packs, but a grouping of bears is known as a sleuth. I do have a
pack. Some of them work for the shop with me. The old alpha actually owned the
place, and when he passed his mate asked me to step up to run it. She’s still
the owner but never comes in, leaves everything to me, and I send her the check
each quarter for her part of the business.” He threw a look at his