Chapter 1

1

Kol Jaecar slumped on the chair in his office, cradling his head in his hands. Case closed, bad guy dead, women freed, press dealt with. He sighed.

He lived for his job, being the top dog—or in his case, cat—of Rockshade’s Paranormal Investigations Department. It wouldn’t have worked if someone else was the leader. He didn’t take orders well, but he loved solving riddles and catching the guilty. He took pride in being the one who crushed their skulls.

But wasn’t life meant to be more?

Thaddeus Ezax had found his mate. He hadn’t been looking, he was a wizard, and wizards didn’t have mates like shifters did, but he’d accidentally called a ghost who had been his werewolf mate. It was shocking and scary as hell, but it also made him view Thaddeus differently. He’d never thought him capable of much, but keeping a ghost alive…

Kol was still in awe. He’d never heard of anything like it.

And he might be in awe of Thaddeus, but more so of Thaddeus’s mate. He didn’t know Sandulf Hunter, had heard rumors, but those weren’t what flipped his world upside down.

Sandulf Hunter was male.

Before finding his place here in Rockshade, Kol had been on the run. For most of his life, he’d been moving around, never staying long. Panthers, and every other cat shifter he’d ever run into, didn’t do well with same-sex relationships. It was not accepted.

Kol had learned to be careful, had accepted he never would find a mate. He’d come to terms with it—or he believed he had.

Seeing Sandulf—Sandy—find his mate, his malemate, after he’d been dead for several years, messed things up in Kol’s head.

What if there was a man out there meant for him? What if…It was stupid thinking. But in his youth, he’d traveled to every city he knew of with a population of cat shifters, hoping against hope. But what if his mate was a wizard…a male wizard?

He’d been looking for cats, had assumed his mate, if there was one meant for him, would be a panther or at least a leopard. Finding someone outside his species had never entered his mind.

It should have. Humans were gay, shifters were not. He frowned. Shifters were. He was here, and Sandy was a werewolf, a wolf shifter, and according to Wulfric—Ric—Hunter, Sandy’s brother, he’d always liked guys. They were okay with it. The Hunter family had never threatened to kill their son for liking men.

Unlike most cat shifters he’d met.

It flipped Kol’s world around.

Since Thaddeus had come back with Sandy, and no one had been upset about them being mates, he’d flirted with Thaddeus. Not because he wanted Thaddeus, though the last case had changed things, and if he hadn’t been with Sandy, then…It didn’t matter. He’d flirted to see everyone’s reactions.

They didn’t care.

His mind was spinning. All his life he’d hidden what he was, but here no one cared if he flirted with Thaddeus—other than Sandy. Now, he only did it to mess with Sandy.

Panic was creeping in.

There were five of them working in the department, and while they were a joke in most human eyes, they still caught way more criminals than the human department did. The problem was, they only got a case once the humans decided it had a magic aspect.

When they ran into something they deemed was related to either wizards or shifters in the investigation, they handed the case over. On rare occasions, they got something psychic-related, but most often cases involving psychics fell under the human department.

But now they didn’t have a case.

And three of the five working in the department would be gone for a few days. Thaddeus Ezax was on sick leave and would be for weeks to come. Kol had revoked the vacation Wulfric Hunter and Leo Norden had scheduled to have as many men as possible on the soul eater case, so they would have those vacation days now, which left him and—

A soft knock on his already open office door was followed by Elora clearing her throat. Elora Long.

Elora was the only psychic, and the only woman, in the department. He’d hired her to appease everyone screaming for equality. Shifters didn’t discriminate because of gender, it wasn’t a perfect world by far, but shifters, no matter what animal they turned into, liked power and skill. Dominants ruled, but they also made sure the submissive had everything they needed—it was especially true in packs and prides.

Kol was a solitary animal, mostly, so he only cared for himself, but he’d turned this department into his pack. He’d taken Elora in, knowing she’d be at the bottom of the rank. Hiring her was something he’d done for the humans, but every functioning pack or pride needed the submissive members as much as they needed the dominant.