Mated To Magic (Stark Creek Shifters Book 1) by Barb Shuler (free ereaders .TXT) 📕

me but couldn’t quite put his finger on it. It wasn’t until we really got to know each other and built the trust between us that I told him my little secret. I was a witch and knew what he was straightaway. He wasn’t the first of his kind that I had met and he sure as hell wouldn’t be the last.

He spoke of his pack while we sat on my couch after closing one night. He had dropped me home because my car had picked that night to not want to start. I thanked every Goddess out there that he had been nearby. I had given Jayden an early night that night. Her anxiety had been through the roof so she needed to get out and get some fresh air. It had been a quiet night, so there was no sense in her sticking around and having something happen. I thought, even years later, that Dalton had done something to my car so that he could take me home or spend more time with me, but it was something I never voiced out loud.

When he had a fire in his place, I offered Dalton my spare room. I wasn’t using it and secretly, I wanted to see him more. With the hours I worked, though, unless he came into the bar, it made it difficult. At least with us living together, I could see him for breakfast or when I got home from work. That was, if he wasn’t waiting outside the bar when I got off. It was in these times that our friendship changed into something more, but for fear of getting hurt, I ignored it. Well, I tried to anyway. Watching the bar skanks throw themselves at him made me see red, but he never acted on it or led them on. They would then get bored and move on. By the looks he gave me, I knew he knew what it was doing to me. It was why I locked myself in my office more often than not and why he didn’t come in all the time. Well, that and he had a life, not to mention a job of his own and patrols in the woods to do.

I rubbed my hands over my face, the resumes in front of me making me go cross-eyed. I closed the folder. I would start making calls tomorrow afternoon and get the ones I liked in here for a trial with Jayden. If they lasted the night under her, then they could stick around. I highly doubted it - only the tough survived. I got up from my desk, pushed my chair back, and switched off my computer screen.

No one knew I could pull up the security footage on here, and I wasn’t about to tell them that I could see them at all times. If they were going to fuck up, then I wanted it to be recorded so I could fire them and have the proof. Thankfully, I had only needed to do that once, but it was a situation where I was so glad that my security was on the ball. One of the bartenders had been trying to steal alcohol after closing and I just happened to still be in the office. Normally I would do last call and help the girls out behind the bar, but I had been pulled away for something.

After we cleared all the customers out, I told him not to bother coming in the next day or I would show the police the security footage from the night. He decided not to go quietly, so I pressed charges. The little shit had apparently been doing it for months, but no one had caught on to it.

After that, I was a lot stricter on who was hired. I got our friend Sylvester to do background checks on all of my staff and any new ones that came in. Having a cop in our band of misfits helped a lot! He hadn’t got his transfer to Stark Creek yet, so I was a little lost without him here. He had checked everyone for me, mainly my security. I really needed to be sure about them. The jury was still out, even if they did come back clean.

Walking into the bar after locking my office, I went behind the bar to the girls.

“Let’s call it a night!” They gave me a nod and started telling everyone to put in their last orders. Some of the customers decided to finish off what they had and just leave, for which I was thankful, but a couple hung on as long as they could.

“Come on, guys, you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”

“Keep your shirt on, lady! We’re finishing our drinks!”

I took a deep breath. Mia, you can’t hit the drunks. “I’m going to ignore that, buddy. You have five seconds to finish that and go before my friends by the door come and help you outside!” He turned to look at the door before downing his drink and pushing the stool back. “Smartest thing you have done all night,” I muttered under my breath.

It took us about an hour to clear everyone out, but finally, at about one in the morning, we locked the doors. I put the money from the tills into my office safe and made sure it was secure as the guys swept for stragglers and the girls checked the bathrooms.

When we were all satisfied, we turned off the lights and I set the security code. Dalton helped me make the changes I needed to when I took over. We made sure that no trace of the last owners was anywhere on this place. We changed the locks, put in a new safe, and changed the monitors over to the same ones that he put in the last place. He didn’t want to take over too much, but I wanted the best to make sure I wasn’t