Southern Shifters: Fast & Furless (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Yvette Hines

smacked him on the back.
    Alek barely caught himself from tumbling off the stool into a puddle of his own sadness sprawled on the floor.
    “Shit. Watch that paw, bear.” Alek eyed the large man, or he hoped he was staring at the right one since Calder had three faces swirling around before him. “I’m an alpha with no mate. What kind of fuck sense does that make?”
    The mammoth sized man chuckled. “She’ll be back, Alek. Don’t worry.”
    “How do you know?” Alek looked right.
    “Another one!” Bhric called out to the bartender.
    “Another what? I don’t want another female, I want mine. Brita.” Alek felt a tap to his shoulder and glanced left.
    The three Cals were now smiling at him. “She’ll return because just as much as your drunk ass needs her, she needs you. It is how it works with mates.”
    “How…you get so knowle—…knowl—” His tongue didn’t seem to want to work right. “Smart?”
    “When you’re always the outsider looking in…you see a lot.” That was the bear’s comment.
    Alek’s pickled brain hoped the big male was right on this one.
    ~YH~
    “I was wondering when you were going to make it here,” Niki commented after opening the door.
    “Is this a bad time?” She shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her jeans feeling more than a bit uncomfortable.
    “Works for me if it works for you.”
    “I had some things to work out on my own.” She met Niki’s gaze as her twin stood at the house door. “When I found myself in more mental circles I figured it was time to go back to the beginning.”
    “Me?” Niki took a step back. “Come in.”
    “Thanks.” She entered and was immediately enveloped by the scents of Dean and Niki’s unique mate scent, the aroma of food that had been prepared most likely for dinner and something else—the innocent, sweet scent of a pup.
    “We can talk in the kitchen. Dean is upstairs working on some things.” Niki led the way into the kitchen. “Coffee? Black?”
    “Thanks.” Brita should have anticipated her twin would know how she took her coffee.
    “It is how I like mine. Like my life, straight up and to the point.” Niki turned the coffeemaker on then pulled down two mugs.
    “Same here.” Brita sat.
    Niki leaned against the counter by the pot. “What’s on your mind?”
    Brita looked across the room at her. “You could read it?”
    “That’s still strange for me. Having to handle a connection with a mate is one thing, then add in it a connection with a sibling…” Niki didn’t finish her sentence.
    “I only have a link to you as far as I know. I think the bond between Alek and me is too new.” Brita lifted her shoulders and let them fall hard. “Or maybe that’s something else they took from me.”
    “But they didn’t win, Brita.” Niki moved toward her then took the seat next to her. Not touching but close.
    “Sitting in that clinic and hearing the things Simon said, it sure does feel like they won.” Brita exhaled. All the driving she did and everything over the last day still sat in the center of her chest a crushing weight.
    “No. Hell no. We are not going to even imagine they got the upper hand.” Niki slapped a hand against the table, grabbing Brita’s full attention.
    Brita met icy blue eyes with her aquamarine ones. “Explain it to me. Make me see this different.”
    “First off, you’re back. They trained you, probably wanted you a quarter of the way to Seattle, Washington by now. Far away from all of this. But, you fought against all the mental programming garbage and came back.” Niki rose when the coffee beeped. “Trust me, I know how hard it is dealing with that shit. It’s like your head and your heart are at fucking war and you’re being ripped in two. And it hurts like hell and you want to scream.”
    “Tell me about it.” Her twin had hit the nail blunt and direct on the head.
    “Of course I did.” Niki returned with two steaming mugs.
    Brita laughed. “I can easily disguise