Rosalie Undone (Book Six) Read online

  ROSALIE UNDONE

  (THE SHIFTERS SERIES BOOK SIX)

  By Elizabeth Kelly

  Copyright © 2019 Elizabeth Kelly

  eISBN-13: 978-1-988826-69-1

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  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

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  ROSALIE UNDONE

  (The Shifters Series Book Six)

  Falling in love was never part of the plan.

  Sweet, shy and… human. Rosalie Parker wants one thing - her co-worker and lion shifter, Lincoln. There’s only one problem. Lion shifters have a reputation for enjoying the kink and Rosalie is far from kinky.

  Determined to win Lincoln over, Rosalie will do whatever it takes -including stepping out of her comfort zone and into the kinky zone. The last person she expects to volunteer for kink teaching is grumpy polar bear shifter, Hudson.

  Hudson shouldn’t get closer to Rosalie. Sure, her sweet nature and her soft curves have him and his bear all worked up, but being anything more than friends is dangerous. He has a price on his head and sooner or later, it’ll be collected.

  But he can’t stay away from her.

  Will their unconventional friendship turn into something more? Or will the bounty on his life destroy their chance at happiness?

  * * *

  To read more about the Shifter World, check out the Shifters Series

  To learn about Elizabeth’s new releases and read excerpts of upcoming books, sign up for her newsletter here.

  Chapter One

  “You know what isn’t fair?” Rosalie sat down at the lunch table next to Bria.

  “What’s that?” Bria ate a bite of her pasta.

  “Every day at lunch, you eat something delicious like pasta or bread. I eat salad. Yet, you look like you and I look like me.” Rosalie opened her lunch container and poked at her salad.

  “Honestly, I’d kill for my chest to look like yours.” Bria set her fork down and glanced critically at her own small chest.

  “Yeah, well I’d kill to be a size two.”

  “You’re gorgeous just the way you are,” Bria said. “Besides, it’s all metabolism. All the women on my side of the family got lucky with metabolism.”

  “Being a tiger shifter probably helps too, huh?” Rosalie said.

  Bria shrugged. “Yes, but there are curvy cat shifters.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yep. It doesn’t happen all that often, but you’ll sometimes see a shifter who, in their human form, doesn’t match their animal form. Like, my dad has a friend, Mr. Baker, who’s an elephant shifter. When he’s in his human form he’s only 5’2” and weighs like a hundred and ten pounds. But when he shifts, he’s as big as any normal elephant. And most male chipmunk shifters are huge in their human form. Of course, that’s because they use steroids and work out like maniacs. They have the worst case of little man syndrome, I swear.”

  “Can you talk when you’re in your animal form?” Rosalie asked.

  Bria grinned and Rosalie said, “Sorry, that was a stupid question.”

  “It isn’t. We can’t speak English or anything like that, but if Jace is in his tiger form and I’m in my human form, I can understand his growls or chuffs or whatever. Any big cat, I can understand. But I couldn’t understand any non-cat shifter, like a coyote or a bear. Make sense?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh, and,” Bria gave her an excited look, “apparently dragons could speak the human language when they were in their animal form, but they went extinct a long time ago.”

  “There were dragon shifters?” Rosalie said in disbelief.

  “Yep. My grandpa said that when his father was a boy, they were everywhere. But then the females started having a hard time getting pregnant and they began to die out. They were extinct even before we revealed ourselves to humans.”

  “Why couldn’t they get pregnant?”

  “No idea,” Bria replied. “Grandpa said some of the dragons started talking about mating with other shifters to try and keep the bloodlines going, but most dragons were kind of racist toward other shifters. They wanted to keep their bloodlines pure, but all it did was make them go extinct.”

  Bria popped another forkful of pasta in her mouth and ate it. “Oh, and snake shifters? They’re, like, super messed up. Some of them are normal size snakes when they shift and some of them are gigantic. Like those stupid fake CGI snakes that you see in the movies. There’s no rhyme or reason to it either. Some of them are just really big.”

  “Wow, I had no idea,” Rosalie said.

  “Hell, look at me. I’m way smaller than your average tiger shifter. Most female tiger shifters are over six feet tall and have curves for days. My hips are non-existent.”

  “I like your non-existent hips,” a deep voice said from behind them.

  Rosalie watched as a happy smile broke out on Bria’s face. Jace had joined them in the kitchen and he sat next to Bria. He leaned in to kiss her, frowning when Bria leaned back and shook her head slightly before glancing at Rosalie.

  Jace sat back in his chair. “How’s the morning been?”

  “Busy,” Bria said. “The phones have been ringing almost nonstop.”

  She didn’t object when Jace grabbed her water bottle and took a big swallow. “Rosalie, do you have time to meet with me after lunch to go over the Vanden’s paperwork for their condo?”

  Rosalie nodded. “Yes. If you can meet at one-thirty? I have to finish the budget report first.”

  “Sounds good.” Jace stood, and Rosalie couldn’t help but grin when he bent quickly and pressed a kiss against Bria’s mouth before she could stop him. “Bye, ladies.”

  He walked out of the kitchen, and Rosalie’s grin widened when Bria stared at his ass. A month ago, Bria and Jace had started dating. There was some gossip about it in their small office, but Rosalie refused to participate. She really liked Bria and she was deeply loyal to Jace, and she was glad they were dating. She had never seen Jace so happy.

  She nudged Bria. “So, when are you and Jace going to get married and have little tiger babies?”

  Bria blushed. “We’ve been dating a month, Rosalie. There hasn’t been any talk of marriage or babies.”

  “You spend every night at his place, don’t you? You’re practically living together.”

  Bria didn’t answer, and Rosalie ate a bite of salad. “You know you don’t have to hide your relationship with Jace, right? We all know you’re dating.”

  “I know. I also know Rhonda and Sam have been talking about me behind my back.”

  “Rhonda and Sam talk about everyone behind their backs. Did you know I’m going to die a withered old maid with eighty-seven cats? At least, according to Rhonda and S
am, I am.”

  “One, you’re not even close to being withered or old and two, dating the boss is still a stigma. Don’t tell anyone this, but I’ve been looking for a new job.”

  “What? No!” Rosalie’s fork clattered to the table. “You can’t quit.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I’m still planning on going through the real estate program to become an agent. And I know Jace will only consider hiring me as an agent if I find someone to replace me as his assistant.”

  “I still don’t know what that has to do with me,” Bria replied.

  “I’m going to train you for my job.”

  “What? I can’t do your job. I’m just the receptionist.”

  “Not yet, you can’t. But a few months of training and you will. You’re super smart and reliable. You’ve only worked here for a couple of months and you already know more about the business than Sam. She’s been here for over a year.”

  “I don’t know,” Bria said. “Couples who work together and live together can be tricky.”

  “So, you are living together.” Rosalie gave her a triumphant grin.

  Bria blushed. “Not technically, but I can’t even remember the last time I went to my apartment.”

  “Okay, well, just think about it all right?”

  “I will. But, Rosalie, Jace will still let you take the schooling and become an agent, even if he doesn’t have someone to replace you as his assistant. You know that, right? He knows you’ll be an awesome real estate agent.”

  “Maybe,” Rosalie said. “Anyway, what are your plans for this weekend?”

  “Ava and Bishop are moving into their new house on Saturday. I’m going over to help move and unpack.”

  Rosalie gave Bria a curious look. She’d met Ava and Bishop when they used Jace as their real estate agent. Ava was a curvy redheaded human and Bishop was a massive grizzly shifter. “I didn’t know you were friends with Ava and Bishop.”

  “Well, I’ve known Bishop since Kat started working at the security company with him. He and Kat are pretty close and since Kat and I are best friends, we end up in the same social circles, you know? And since he started dating Ava, she’s gotten close to Kat, so we’ve had our fair share of girls’ nights together.”

  Bria ate some more pasta. “Anyway, Kat and her boyfriend Ronin are helping them move on Saturday and I volunteered to help.”

  “Is Jace helping too?”

  “He is,” Bria said. “I told him he didn’t have to, but he said he didn’t mind. How about you? What are your plans?”

  “Not much.” Rosalie poked at her salad again. “I’m going to the movies on Sunday with Hudson.”

  Bria leaned forward. “You’ve been going to the movies with Hudson every weekend for the last month.”

  “We both like movies.”

  “Is that all you like?”

  Rosalie sighed and pushed her salad away. “Hudson and I are just friends. You know just as well as I do that polar bear shifters prefer to be alone most of the time. He made it clear that he has no interest in dating me and, besides, I love Lincoln. Remember?”

  Just saying the lion shifter’s name made her feel too warm. Lincoln worked for Jace as an agent and was also his best friend. She’d been madly in love with the handsome lion shifter since the day she started working for Jace.

  “I know, but…”

  “But what?” She hated how defensive she sounded.

  “I hate to sound like a broken record, but lion shifters are -”

  “Kinky sex addicts who like to bed multiple women, and want a woman who has lots of experience in the bedroom?” Rosalie’s cheeks felt like they were on fire.

  “Yes.” Bria’s voice was blunt. “And unless you’ve been up to some serious kinky stuff with a mystery man, that’s not you, Rosalie. You told me that yourself.”

  “Not yet, but I’m going to change that,” Rosalie said.

  “You shouldn’t change for Lincoln. Not when he -”

  “Not when he what?”

  “Nothing.” Bria put the lid back on her pasta. “Never mind.”

  “Say it, Bria.”

  “Lincoln is never going to settle down. Even if you’re everything he wants in the bedroom, he’ll never be happy with just one woman.”

  “You don’t know that for sure.”

  “I do, honey. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to hurt you, but I know lion shifters and -”

  “You don’t know Lincoln, not the way that I do. We’re friends and I know he’s attracted to me. The only thing holding us back from having an actual relationship is my lack of skills in the bedroom, and I’m going to change that.”

  “How?”

  “I have a plan. Can we change the subject? I don’t want to talk about Lincoln anymore, okay?”

  “Yes, I’m sorry,” Bria said. “Hey, why don’t you come on Saturday to Bishop and Ava’s moving party?”

  “Now it’s a party?”

  Bria laughed. “Well Bishop has promised beer and pizza afterwards so that’s pretty much a party, right? There are going to be lots of people so you’ll probably only have to move a couple boxes, then you can eat pizza and hang out with us.”

  “I don’t know Ava and Bishop that well. Why would they want me there?”

  “Uh, free labour?” Bria laughed again. “C’mon, Rosie-girl. Hang out with us on Saturday.”

  “I usually visit my mom.”

  “She won’t mind if you skip one Saturday.”

  Bria was wrong about that but spilling her guts about her complicated relationship with her mother to her boss’ girlfriend was a bad idea. She hesitated a few seconds longer. Surprisingly, she wanted to go. She loved her mother but spending every single Saturday with her was getting a bit old. It would be nice to hang out with people her own age. She didn’t have many friends – hell, she didn’t really have any friends if she was being completely truthful – and she really liked Bria. Even if the others weren’t friendly with her, she could have fun with Bria and Jace.

  “There will be other humans there,” Bria said. “You know that Ava is human and so is Mal’s mate Willow. Plus, the owner of Bud’s bar – Porter is his name, did you meet him when you were there? Anyway, his mate is a human too. So, you won’t be the only human if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  “Sure, okay.”

  “Yeah?” Bria gave her a delighted look.

  “Yeah. What time and where?”

  “I’ll email you the details. I’m so glad you’re joining us, Rosalie. It’ll be fun. I promise,” Bria said.

  “I’m sure it will be.” Rosalie stared at her salad and ignored her trepidation at attempting to make new friends. She was twenty-six years old for God’s sake. This wasn’t high school.

  * * *

  “Who are you texting with?”

  Rosalie tucked her phone back into her pocket. “My friend Hudson.”

  “Hudson? You never told me about him. Is he your boyfriend?” The fear in her mother’s voice was palpable.

  Rosalie sighed. “No, he’s not my boyfriend. I did tell you about him last week. Remember? He’s a bartender.”

  “I don’t like the idea of you being friends with someone like that. Who knows what trouble you can get into.”

  “It’s fine. Hudson isn’t like that.”

  “What do you and a bartender have in common? If he doesn’t want to sleep with you, what else does he want from you?”

  Rosalie tried not to grimace. Her mother meant well, but everything she said had a note of passive aggressiveness to it that drove Rosalie crazy.

  “We both like going to the movies. That’s why I was texting him. We were just arranging to meet at the theatre on Sunday.”

  “Well, you shouldn’t be talking to your friends when you’re with me. This is my time with you, I barely see you as it is. You know how lonely I get.”

  “I have dinner with you three times a week, and I spend Saturdays with you.”

  “Not thi
s Saturday.” Her mother pounced like an angry kitten on a toy mouse. “You have plans this Saturday.”

  “I’m helping friends move. It’s not like I’m abandoning you for a weekend in Vegas or something.”

  “What am I supposed to do on Saturday?”

  She had an urge to ask her mother why she was responsible for her social life. Guilt immediately flooded through her. “Why don’t you ask Mrs. Nester across the street to take you with her when she goes to Bingo? She’s always offering to drive you there. She’s lonely, I think, and could use a friend.”

  Her mother hesitated, and Rosalie could almost see the excuses flickering across her face as she tried to think of a valid reason to say no.

  “Mrs. Nester has cats. I’m allergic to cats.”

  “You’re not allergic to cats. You just hate them.”

  She had never told her mother about Mr. Pibbles and she never planned to tell her. Her mother rarely came to her house. On the two occasions that she had since she adopted Mr. Pibbles four years ago, Rosalie had simply locked Mr. Pibbles in the spare bedroom with his food and water and a generous sprinkle of cat nip on his favourite toys. He’d been too stoned to even care that his usual run of the entire house was thwarted.

  “Is this what’s happening now, Rosalie? You’re leaving your mother all alone because of your friends? You’re my whole world, sweetheart. Don’t you understand that?”

  More guilt.

  Guilt so heavy she could feel it weighing her down like a stone.

  Her mother needed her. She needed to be a good daughter and be there for her mother. Bria would understand if she cancelled, and it’s not like Ava and Bishop would even care. They didn’t even know her.

  Rosie, don’t. It’s one Saturday. You need this.