Furever Mated (BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance) by Meredith Clarke Page A

weakening I didn’t want to risk it.
    Even though I was actively looking for a mate, I still liked to dip into the local shifters and play around. I wasn't the settling-down type, and the idea of having one mate wasn't very appealing to me. She would have to be someone special indeed to make me want to take her as my mate for life. I had yet to find her, and although I wasn't in a hurry, time to do that was also running out. The elders were on my back daily about whether or not I had found one.
    With all of the pressure from the elders I needed to release some pent-up stress and I knew just the place to do that. There was a private club that went by Nocturn that was a shifter bar. It was the perfect place to find some action and get my mind off of finding a mate.

3
    Avery
    W alking up to the club doors the place was intimidating; I almost stopped and stared at the entrance. I had never heard or seen a place like that before. It was evident that it was a member’s only club and I wondered about its secrecy. Who were the people behind a club that went by Hibernation? Zoey avoided the line and went right up to the front where the bouncer was manning the door. I followed right behind, keeping my eyes on my shoes. I had never been to a place like this before.
    He took one look at me and shook his head. “She's not getting in.” He crossed his arms over his broad chest and eyeballed me. Well, he knew how to make a girl feel good.
    Surprised, I looked down at myself wondering what it was about me that turned him off. I had changed out of my work clothes and squeezed myself into a black club dress that Zoey had been nice enough to loan me. I thought I looked decent, surely good enough to get into the club, and yet the bouncer snubbed me on sight. He didn't even suggest that I get in line, he just denied me altogether. Did he really find me that hideous?
    Zoey got right up in the bouncer’s face, which shocked me in place. What is she doing? She pushed herself between the bouncer and I, and stared him down. I let out a nervous laugh.
    “Zoey, come on. It’s not that big of a deal. You go in and I can just head home.”
    “No, he will let you in,” she said without breaking her intense gaze.
    I shrugged my shoulders and continued to watch the strange staring contest her and the bouncer were having. She wasn't a big girl at all, in fact she was kind of petite, she didn't stand a chance against him if he got rough. I ran my eyes over his tall muscular frame. He would crush her in a second if he wanted to. But his size didn't seem to faze her at all as confidence radiated off her body. I admired her courage because I would have skittered off into the night. What would it take for me to have the kind of confidence she had? To walk right up to a bouncer and demand to be let in. I couldn't even imagine what it would take. It just wouldn't happen. That level of confidence just didn't exist for me. I knew that I was a pretty girl, but I couldn't walk into a room and command it in the manner that Zoey seemed to do just naturally.
    As I watched them I realized it was the most awkward stare down I had seen in my life. Not that I was privy to many...or any at all, but it was so intense that it started to make me uncomfortable. Zoey was acting so weird, like who did stuff like that? If my friends and I couldn't get into a club we just walked away and maybe flipped the bouncer off as we retreated, but we would never go toe to toe with anyone. There were plenty of clubs to go to, but I guess Zoey was determined to go to that one. I had never seen anything like what was happening before me. Zoey was not behaving as I would have expected, and the bouncer was acting even weirder. I had fully expected him to tell her to beat it or to even push her away from him, but that was not the response he gave at all. In fact, it was almost as if she were mentally breaking him. No...that couldn't be right, but watching the situation, that was what I saw