Hunter's Mate - Becca Jameson Page 0,1

be reunited with Elena. And once again, it would be for a funeral. This time, however, they wouldn’t be in serious mourning because this funeral was for their Great Aunt Marge whom neither of them had ever met.

The more Layla thought about the circumstances, the more ridiculous it seemed that neither she nor her sister had ever gone to visit Aunt Marge. Granted, there was a reason. Mabel held a grudge against her sister for over fifty years, never forgiving her, and making sure everyone around knew it.

Marge’s crime: meeting a man in a town four hours away in Canyon Springs, Colorado, and staying in that town to marry him. Through Mabel’s eyes, the offense was so much more than that. After all, Canyon Springs was well known as a place with a large population of shifters.

In Mabel’s mind, her sister never should have stopped in that town to get gas in the mid nineteen sixties in the first place. Ironically, although Grandma Mabel never seemed particularly racist or sexist or homophobic, she truly believed so-called “regular humans” should not mix with shifters.

The lore, according to Mabel, was that shifters had some crazy ability to lure humans into their world and somehow use mind control to convince them to stay. Unfortunately, Mabel wasn’t the only person who believed that shit. Even though this was the twenty-first century and nobody cared much who married whom with regard to race or gender, society still had a stigma against shifters.

For that reason, many shifters lived in smaller communities, preferring to stay off the radar as much as possible and not draw attention to themselves. Layla figured half the reason anyone believed all that gibberish about shifters having weird super powers was because they kept to themselves, adding to the mystery.

Needless to say, Grandma Mabel had never forgiven her sister for meeting a man in Canyon Springs, marrying him, and staying there for the rest of her life. As far as Layla knew, the two sisters had never spoken again.

The thought of never speaking to Elena again made Layla’s chest tighten. It was bad enough that they’d started separate lives in different states and had seen each other only once since graduation.

Layla had been feeling nostalgic lately, missing Elena terribly. They were identical twins, just like their grandmother and great aunt. They shouldn’t be separated like this. It was time to make a change. Lord knew Layla was not making any headway in Los Angeles.

In the last few days, Layla had made the rash decision to get out of her lease, put what few things she cared about in storage, and not return to Los Angeles. She hoped Elena wouldn’t mind if Layla headed with her to Chicago. At least then Layla could be broke without being alone.

It wasn’t as if she couldn’t continue trying her luck at acting in Chicago. Maybe she could try out for some off-Broadway performances. Though lately, she’d begun to lose her passion for acting. Rejection would do that to a person.

Layla’s latest real job that paid her rent had been as a waitress at a local pub. The owner barely flinched when Layla gave him three days’ notice. Starving artists were everywhere in Los Angeles. The man probably had a line of other wannabe actors and actresses needing rent money.

Layla felt a bit lighter as she left her apartment and made her way downstairs. This chapter of her life was over. She was about to go on an adventure in Canyon Springs. Afterward she would try her hand at something new.

She hadn’t told Elena she didn’t intend to return to Los Angeles. Pride still kept her from admitting defeat out loud, but by the end of the week, surely, the two of them would have spent enough evenings drinking several bottles of wine, catching up, and spilling secrets.

In addition, Layla had to admit she wouldn’t be disappointed if there was some truth to the whispered rumors that shifters were freakishly fit, large, and sexy. She didn’t believe for a moment that they could actually use some sort of brainwashing to convince people to have sex with them. That was ridiculous. But hell, it had been a damn long time since Layla had gotten laid, and she wasn’t opposed to a one-night stand with some hunky shifter. Maybe a bear or a wolf.

She laughed as she stepped out of the building for the last time and met her Uber. The woman glanced at Layla with an odd look while