Juliet Hernandez sat at her desk at work and clicked away from her Photoshop project and onto the Internet. She’d been hearing all kinds of buzz about a new dating site that catered to curvy girls who liked shifter men. With all the press shifters were getting lately, Juliet had to admit she was curious. It was a whole new world, really. When Juliet was a child, it was common for entire neighborhoods to reject their shifter neighbors. Now, after the war, shifter men were celebrated heroes. It seemed as if dating a shifter was the new status symbol.

Juliet didn’t care about status, but she was lonely. She’d heard that shifter man, as hunky and handsome as they were, preferred a certain type of girl that human men tended to ignore. Shifter men liked curvy, voluptuous women like Juliet.

She hadn’t dated in a long time and she’d started to think all men were bad news. Her last boyfriend was the worst. He had never missed an opportunity to make Juliet feel bad about herself for any reason. It wasn’t like he was some kind of prize, but he reminded her every day that she was lucky to have him.

Juliet had stayed with him for two long years, despite his verbal and emotional attacks she suffered. Why? She was playing it safe. She’d tried to wait it out until things got better rather than risk breaking up and moving out.

In spite of her fear and misgivings, Juliet clicked the sign-up button on the homepage of Mate.com. The best thing about this website was that it had an app that went along with it, making it easier for her to stay updated with her possible matches during her busy day as a graphic designer.

She was about to start answering the questionnaire when her boss walked by her desk. Her heart sank and her stomach clenched up. She quickly clicked back to her work project.

“What are you doing?” her boss asked.

“Nothing,” she said, embarrassed.

If he were just her boss, she wouldn’t have been so nervous. But he wasn’t just her boss, he was the scumbag boyfriend who’d treated her like garbage for two years.

“I don’t want to see you slacking off at work,” he said, giving her an irritated look.

“I’m not,” she said.

Ernest Burns, her ex-boyfriend and present manager, never missed an opportunity to correct her at work. The abuse that had once only happened behind closed doors now happened on a regular basis at work. Because finding a stable graphic design job was so difficult, she played it safe and refused to quit. The one time she had made brief mention of her problem with Ernest to his boss, the man basically blew her off and told her to suck it up. There were hundreds of other designers in town who would gladly take her job in a heartbeat. She was lucky to be employed and should be grateful.

So Juliet sucked it up and carried on. The man who had been her jerk ass boyfriend became her boss, and she had to live with it. If she wanted to keep paying her rent, then the only thing she could do was go into work every day, plaster a fake smile to her face, and design stupid advertisements for the stupid paper. It wasn’t that Juliet hated her job. She used to like it, a lot. But that was before Ernest transferred to her department and became her direct supervisor. For the last year, she hadn’t had a date and at the same time had to take directions from the man who had once told her she was too big to wear sexy lingerie.

Juliet didn’t even think of herself as overweight. She was curvy, healthy, and she liked it that way. Men like Ernest had no idea what they were talking about. It had taken her a lot of therapeutic girl talk to come to that point with herself. She was beautiful whether Ernest liked her curves or not.

All of her friends were curvy, and they were all perfectly happy too. Ernest belonged to a group of men who only liked women who were fake. Fake boobs. Fake smiles. Fake bodies manipulated by aggressive diets and unnatural amounts of exercise. But Juliet was real and natural and honest. She liked a nice red lipstick as much as the next girl, but she wasn’t going to turn herself inside out for any man.

She finished up her ad designs for the day and clocked out at five. Her phone pinged with a text from her friend Quinn.

Meet us at the pub in fifteen minutes.

After a day like today, Juliet could use some girl time with her friends. When Quinn said “us,” Juliet knew she meant the whole gang. She pulled on her raincoat and headed out into the misty evening of downtown Portland, Oregon. She trotted down the sidewalk to the local pub where she and her friends had been hanging out since college. Juliet swung open the heavy door and was greeted with the scent of bacon and craft beer. She took a deep breath, inhaled the flavors, and smiled.

Quinn waved from the table in the corner. Her sassy black friend’s bright brown eyes glinted in the dim light of the pub as Juliet made her way toward the group. Everyone was smiling, and it seemed like there was something going on. Juliet pulled off her coat and sat down just as Quinn poured her a pint of beer.

“What’s going on?”

Her red-headed friend Charlotte began to squeal uncontrollably as if she was trying to hold back the news of her life. That’s when Juliet spotted the giant rock on Charlotte’s finger.

“You did not get engaged,” Juliet said, reaching across the table to grab Charlotte’s hand. She examined the massive square diamond. “Holy shit, look at this thing.” She sat back down in her chair with good-humored disbelief.

“I know,” squealed Charlotte. “Harry proposed last night. I’ve been trying to keep it in all day, but now that everyone’s off work, I wanted to announce it to the whole gang at once.”

“When’s the wedding?” Juliet asked.

Charlotte and her boyfriend—fiancé—Harry had been dating for the past two years. Everyone knew that Harry was going to propose at any minute. Juliet felt ecstatic for Charlotte, but at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. How could she be jealous? Charlotte had been her friend since college and she deserved to have her happily ever after as much as anybody. More than anybody. Charlotte was an awesome girl and Juliet wanted nothing but the best for her. In the time that Charlotte and Harry had been together, Juliet had been in a shitty relationship with Ernest. Then she became single with her shitty ex-boyfriend as her shitty boss. It made it hard to be one hundred percent supportive. Juliet hated feeling that way.

“It’s going to be soon. We just have to decide on the location. I want you all to be my bridesmaids. And Juliet, I want you to be my maid of honor,” Charlotte said, gushing.

As much as Juliet wanted to be excited at the prospect of being a maid of honor in Charlotte’s wedding, it made her stomach clench with anxiety. As much as she loved helping her friends and being there for them when they needed her, Juliet didn’t love being responsible for events or being the center of attention.

“I would be honored to be your maid of honor,” Juliet said, putting her hand on her heart as she lifted the pint of craft beer to her lips. She took a deep swig and set the glass on the table. Juliet knew she would need a few more of these before the night was out.

The girls laughed and talked about the plans for the wedding into the night. Charlotte had narrowed down the venues to a church in Portland, a local garden, and a venue up in the mountains. Everyone cast their vote for what they thought would be the best place for a wedding and, of course, a bachelorette party. As much as Juliet wanted to participate in the festivities, she couldn’t help but feel a little depressed. She tried her best to hide how she felt because she didn’t want to bring Charlotte down on such an important occasion.

As everyone was leaving the pub, Quinn pulled Juliet aside.

“Are you okay?” Quinn asked her once everyone else had walked off down the sidewalk under the orange glow of the streetlamps.

Juliet stood on the damp sidewalk and faced her friend. She couldn’t lie to Quinn. They’d been friends longer than even she and Charlotte. As the two minority girls of the group, they’d always confided in each other about things the others wouldn’t understand.

“I’ve just been feeling lonely lately. And it gets harder every day to work with Ernest. You know? It’s just kind of depressing,” Juliet admitted.

“Girl, you need to quit that job,” Quinn said.

Quinn was tougher than Juliet, but she also had less to worry about financially.

“I can’t. You know how hard it is to get a job as a graphic designer in this town? For every one job, there’s a hundred applicants. I can’t. I just can’t.”

“Then file a harassment charge against the asshole,” Quinn said.

“I’m not going rock the boat,” Juliet said. “But…”

“What??”

“Have you heard about this new dating site called Mate.com? It’s for curvy human women who want to meet shifter men.”

“Are you seriously considering dating a shifter?”

Quinn was more outgoing than Juliet. As curvy as Quinn might be, it was much easier for her to find dates.

“Maybe. Dating a shifter is the new in thing to do,” Juliet said.

“Who told you that?” Quinn asked.

“That’s what everyone is saying. It’s all over the fashion and celebrity news right now. All the women’s magazines talk about it nonstop.”

“You know it’s all hype, right?”

“Of course but…”

“I’ve heard those shifter men are like wild animals.”

“You aren’t prejudiced against shifters are you?” Juliet asked.

“No. Although I was raised to be. I just think you have to be careful with any dating site, let alone one that caters to shifters.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Juliet said, before saying goodbye to her friend and hailing a cab to go home.

On the way home, Juliet opened the Mate.com app and started answering the many questions that were required for her to create a profile. Apparently, shifters weren’t just about having compatible personalities. Shifters were looking for something more. Something bigger. Something more permanent. Shifters were looking for fate.

Juliet made it home to her cold, little apartment. Her cat Snuggles rubbed around her ankles and meowed furiously until she picked him up and gave him a squeeze.

“Did you miss me, Snuggles?” she asked, cooing at her pet.

At least her cat loved her. That had to count for something, right? The fluffy white cat responded with a deep purr and rubbed his fluffy head under her chin and across her cheek, leaving a trail of cat slime on her skin. Juliet wiped her face and set her cat back on the ground. She had another kind of animal on her mind, a big, brawny kind of animal that made her friends question her sanity.

Juliet made a cup of tea and sat down at her computer, jiggling the mouse until the screen came awake. A moment later, she was back on Mate.com, answering more of the silly questions required for registration of a profile.

“If you were a vegetable, what kind would you be?” she muttered to herself.

This was ridiculous. But the preview pictures of the men on the site encouraged her to keep going. If she were a vegetable, what kind would she be? The choices were: squash, celery, cucumber, corn, sugar pea, or green bean. Juliet tapped her finger to her chin, pondering the question. What did this have to do with finding a date? It couldn’t possibly indicate anything of real value. Still, this was the way the site worked. She took a deep breath and chose squash. Squash included everything from zucchinis to pumpkins, right? At least, that’s what she thought. And Juliet liked zucchini.

Once she got through the rest of the questions, some that made sense and some, like the vegetable question, that did not, she was matched with the male shifters in the system. As the progress bar loaded, Juliet felt a sharp sense of anxiety tighten in her stomach. It was as if her entire life was going to change in the blink of an eye, or the blink of a mouse cursor to be more precise.

When the bar finished loading, she was given a list of male shifters who were good matches. She scrolled through them, not feeling any particular attraction or connection to any of them. This one was a ninety-eight percent match, that one was a ninety-seven percent match. Until she scrolled to the bottom where she found a photograph of a man who was a one hundred percent match.

Juliet gasped when she looked at his picture. He was so…handsome. So perfect. His green eyes sparkled in the sunlight as a breeze ruffled his dark blonde hair. She liked it. She liked it a lot. This guy, whose name was Levi, stood in a snowy mountain paradise with the backdrop of a mountain behind him. His smile was infectious, even in the photograph. She couldn’t help but smile back.

“Hello, Levi,” she breathed.

Snuggles jumped in her lap as if to claim his territory, and Juliet hugged him to her chest as she read the rest of Levi’s profile. He was the owner of a lodge up on Fate Mountain. That wasn’t far from Portland. Only an hour’s drive out into the country. Her heart beat faster and Snuggles meowed as he rubbed his head under her chin. She could really meet this guy if she wanted. Just as fear began to gather at the back of her mind, making her move the cursor toward the exit button, she suddenly had a ping on her phone and a message in her Mate.com inbox.

She picked up the phone and carried Snuggles over to the couch. Her heart beating like a mad thing inside her, she flicked her thumb over the screen and brought up the message.

Hello, Juliet.

It was him!