While Levi dealt with the kitchen emergency, Juliet went up to her room to get ready for the bachelorette party that night. When she got upstairs, she found a note on her door that said to come get ready with Quinn in her room. Juliet grabbed her things before trotting down the hall to her friend’s room. She knocked on the door, and Quinn flung it open two seconds later. Her friend’s dark brown eyes were wide with excitement.

“Come in,” Quinn said, waving Juliet inside.

Quinn’s room was identical to Juliet’s, except there were clothes flung all over the queen sized bed, easy chairs, and table. There was even a pink push-up bra hanging over the television.

“What happened in here?” Juliet asked.

“I can’t find anything to wear,” Quinn said.

Her natural hair was already twisted into ringlets, giving her a textured bob that shaped her pretty, oval face. Quinn fisted her hips, looking around the room, distraught.

“Why don’t you just wear what you have on?”

Quinn was wearing a sleeveless, formfitting teal blue dress. It accentuated her curvy shape and her smooth, chocolate skin. She looked perfect.

“I want to look good tonight,” Quinn said with a hint of something Juliet recognized.

“Do you have a date?” Juliet asked, spreading her own red dress across an empty spot on the bed. Juliet had gone for something a little more classically feminine with a fitted bodice and flared skirt that fell just above the knee. She’d paired it with shiny black pumps that would make the outfit sexy enough for a bachelorette party.

“It isn’t necessarily a date,” Quinn said, turning on her nude colored heel and stepping toward the closet with her back to Juliet.

“Isn’t necessarily a date? What the hell is that?”

Quinn spun around, her face saying she had the biggest, craziest secret of her life. “The guy I met on Mate.com is delivering his beer to the parties tonight.”

“What was his name?”

“Drew.”

“That’s super-hot,” Juliet teased.

Quinn stepped past her and flicked out her fingertips towards Juliet’s forearm. “Shut up. I’m nervous.”

“I can tell.”

Juliet was enjoying this. Quinn was usually so cool. It was like nothing fazed her. She never got nervous over guys. Quinn turned back around after grabbing the bra over the TV and throwing it into her suitcase. She looked at Juliet with desperation in her eyes.

“You know that shifters are different from human men,” Quinn said.

“I just got back from a date with one.”

Quinn stepped forward, putting her hands on Juliet’s shoulders. Quinn was taller than Juliet by a few inches and towered over Juliet in her high heels. “How did it go? What did he do?”

“It was nice. Really nice. Probably the best date I’ve ever been on. He was so sweet and romantic. And when we kissed… It was so hot. But it wasn’t just that. It was more like the stars had aligned or something. I can’t explain it. It just felt really warm and safe.”

“So does he want to mate with you?”

“I think that’s a pretty serious subject for him. You know shifters have fated mates. It’s a shifter’s perfect match. And shifters mate for life. That’s forever.”

“Did he ask you to marry him?”

“No! It was our first date. We ate lunch at this beautiful gazebo in the lake and made out on the couch in front of the fire. It was awesome. He’s awesome. We talked about this stuff a little bit, but he was really serious about it. I could tell he was holding himself back. Going at my pace was his priority.”

“Are you his fated mate? Did he tell you?”

“Well… Yes. I am.”

“What are you going to do? Do you feel anything?”

“I do. I think.”

“I wonder if I’ll feel anything when I meet Drew,” Quinn said thoughtfully, crossing her arms.

“Have you guys been texting?”

“A little bit.”

“So you think you’re going to meet him, and he’ll ask you to marry him immediately?”

“Something like that. I want to meet him, but that’s about as far as I’m willing to commit right now,” Quinn said.

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about,” Juliet said. “Now let’s get ready.”

Juliet changed her clothes, did her hair, and put on fresh makeup. They met Charlotte and the other bridesmaids out in the hallway. The wedding guests who would be attending the bachelor and bachelorette parties had already arrived and were clustered in the hallways.

Everyone was dressed in sparkling and glittery clothes, ready for a great party at the lakeside mountain lodge. As the maid of honor, Juliet had been responsible for organizing the bachelorette party. She couldn’t wait to see Charlotte’s face when her surprise arrived later.

There were two separate areas in the lodge where private parties could be held simultaneously. One was the main dining room where the women’s celebration would be held. The second was a conference hall that was often used for special events, according to the lodge brochure. That’s where the bachelor party would be held. That way, the guests could intermingle in the other rooms of the lodge yet still have private celebrations. It promised to be an interesting night.

Juliet rode down in the elevator with Charlotte and the bridesmaids. The music was already thumping through the hallway when the elevator doors opened. Balloons lined the open doors of the dining room across the lobby. The women laughed with each other as they strode into the party. Most of the other guests had already arrived and were enjoying the food and drinks from the bar.

Everyone looked great and several women were dancing. The bridesmaids joined the party, and Juliet laughed as Quinn swept her onto the dance floor.

“This party needs men!” Quinn shouted over the music.

Out of the corner of her eye, Juliet noticed a burly, bearded man holding a silver keg on his shoulder in the doorway. Juliet turned to look at him, and Quinn stopped still as a statue beside her. Juliet turned to smirk at her friend, who grabbed her arm and squeezed.

“That’s him,” Quinn whispered.

Juliet could see Quinn and Drew’s eyes lock before he turned toward the bar and set his keg beside it. He glanced back at her as he set it up.

“Are you going to say hello?” Juliet asked. Quinn still hadn’t moved.

“He’s busy.”

“Go talk to him,” Juliet said, pushing her friend toward the bear shifter across the room.

Quinn took several baby steps forward then stopped, took a deep breath, and strode toward him like the confident girl Juliet knew. Quinn tossed her head and greeted him with a hand on her hip.

“Go get him,” Juliet said under her breath.

Charlotte came up behind her and wrapped her arms around Juliet’s waist.

“What’s Quinn doing?” she said in her ear.

“That’s Drew. The brew bear,” Juliet said, laughing.

“Ooh, hot. Wait. Is he leaving?”

Quinn waved goodbye to Drew as he walked out the door of the dining room before she rejoined her friends.

“He just left?” Charlotte asked.

“He has to deliver the bachelor party keg and then he’s coming back to talk.”

“Talk?” Charlotte said, snorting.

She pulled Quinn and Juliet onto the dance floor. But Drew wouldn’t be the only bear they saw at the bachelorette party tonight. The man Juliet was waiting for walked into the room and the DJ stopped the music.

“Did someone call for a rescue?” a golden haired, blue eyed man said from the doorway.

He was dressed in outdoor gear with his khaki shirt halfway open. It was easy to see the rippled muscles of his chest. Juliet knew the stripper who went by the name Rock Hard was a bear shifter. That’s what the talent agency had said anyway.

The women started to scream as the golden haired man bounded on top of the bar while the bartender poured everyone a pint of Drew’s craft beer. Rock Hard started to dance to the music, unbuttoning his shirt.

The guests pulled chairs up in front of the bar and watch the stripper slip out of his button-up shirt. He threw it down to the floor to pool at Charlotte’s feet. As Rock Hard started to grind his hips, the women clapped and cheered, taking long swigs of Drew’s special Fate Mountain brew.

The energetic dance music came to the bridge and the dancer yanked off his pants, leaving him in a pair of work boots and a speedo with the words “Rescue Bear” across the crotch. The women screamed and Rock Hard jumped off the bar, landing in front of Charlotte.

“Don’t worry, ma’am, I’m here to rescue you,” he said with a twirl.

He used the cables he’d brought with him to tie around her before he started a special dance, just for the bride. Charlotte laughed and cheered as Rock Hard circled his hips around in front of her face. The dancer was so physically fit, his oiled muscles glistened in the lights of the dining room. As the song came to the last verse, the dancer reached down and lifted Charlotte over his broad shoulder as if she were weightless.

“I’ll get you off this mountain!” the stripper said, carrying Charlotte across the room.

He reached up and smacked her ass, making her scream with excitement and good humor. Just as Rock Hard was about to set Charlotte down, Levi walked into the room.

“What the hell are you doing with the bride, Zach?” Levi bellowed as the stripper set Charlotte down in her chair.

Charlotte laughed breathlessly as Quinn helped untie the prop from around Charlotte’s body. The dancer looked up at Levi and gave him a good-natured grin.

“The name’s Rock Hard,” the dancer said.

Juliet walked across the room to take Levi’s arm in her hand. She leaned into him and spoke into his ear.

“Is this stripper one of your crew?” Juliet asked.

“Yes. I can see you ladies are having a good time so I’m not going to lecture him about having ‘Rescue Bears’ written across his crotch.”

Zach continued dancing for the other ladies, getting one dollar bills shoved in his speedo.

“The men have a dancer over on their side too. I just didn’t expect to see my ski instructor down here half naked,” Levi said.

“I can understand how that would be a shock,” Juliet said to him. “Especially if you didn’t know he was a stripper on the side.”

Juliet couldn’t help giggling as the dancer continued to grind his hips in front of her friends. Zach was really good looking with his rippling muscles, blue eyes, and bleach blonde hair. He was hot, but way too energetic for her taste.

It made her happy she’d been matched with Levi. Levi was exactly Juliet’s type. Green eyes, dark blonde hair, a quiet sense of responsibility that kept him grounded. She liked everything about him. She loved his unassuming charm and his loyal leadership of his crew. Contrasting him to a man like Zach just made Juliet want him that much more.

She wrapped both her arms around his elbow and snuggled closer to him as she giggled at Zach’s antics with the other women in the room. Zach jumped up on the bar and did a handstand to the vocal approval of his audience. Juliet and Levi stood in the open doorway and couldn’t help but notice when Drew entered the room again.

“Drew?” Levi said. “Didn’t you already deliver your keg to this party?”

“Yes,” said the man with a sparkle in his eye. He had a hand-crocheted beanie hat pushed back over his brown hair. The sleeves of his flannel shirt were rolled back to reveal his tattoos. “But that’s not why I’m here.”

Juliet watched Quinn look up from the entertainment. Her eyes met Drew’s and she stood from her chair, walking directly to him where he stood in the doorway.

“Do you want to get out of here?” Drew said to Quinn.

“Yes,” Quinn said, wrapping her arm through his.

“Where are you going?” Juliet asked.

“I’m going to show Quinn the brewery,” Drew said with a wink to Juliet and Levi.

Juliet and Levi looked at each other as if they were a couple of parents watching their children misbehave.

“What’s that all about?” Levi asked.

“They met on Mate.com,” Juliet informed him.

“I had no idea they’d been matched.”

“Quinn was messing around with it on the way up in the car. I don’t think she’s taking it very seriously, to tell you the truth.”

“Drew can take care of himself. Believe me. That guy has no trouble with the ladies, if you know what I mean.”

“Why did he sign up for the dating site? Does he want to find his fated mate?”

“I don’t know. I can’t tell you why Drew does half of what he does. He was probably just supporting our friend Corey who developed the thing.”

“Well, it sounds like Drew and Quinn have a lot in common. That means we don’t have to worry about either of them,” Juliet said with a sigh.

“Good. Let’s forget about them for a while and focus on each other. Have you tasted the beer?”

Juliet giggled, looking up at Levi with a lightness in her heart. They walked together into the party and got two more pints of beer from the bar. After drinking a pint or two and watching Zach entertain the ladies, Juliet reached over to Levi and snuggled up under his arm. She wanted to be closer to him, away from the loud music and all the activity of the party.

“You want to get out of here?” she asked, smelling the masculine scent of his skin as she spoke into his ear.

“Definitely,” he said in a husky voice.

He took her hand and led her through the party. No one noticed or said a word as they shuffled out the door, down the side hallway, and into the elevator.

“Where are we going?” she asked him as he held her close to his side.

“My apartment.”

Juliet’s heart leapt into her throat at his words. He said it in a tone that oozed sex. Was she ready for this? It had been so long. The last man she’d been with was Earnest, and that had mostly been terrible. Short. Passionless and humiliating. Now Levi, whose kiss left her breathless and aching for more, was taking her to his apartment.

The elevator door dinged as it slid open. They walked down a short hall to the entrance of his apartment. He opened the door for her and she walked inside, taking in the luxurious accommodations. This place was like an upscale penthouse in the city, except the views out the massive picture windows looked out on the dark lake and the mountain that glowed under the moonlight.

“Wow, this place is gorgeous.”

“It’s home,” he said, coming up behind her.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned in to kiss the crook of her neck. Electric need radiated through her entire body. She felt him harden against the small of her back, leaving her core damp and throbbing. He turned her around abruptly, and she reached up to enfold his neck with her arms.

“I need you Juliet. So fucking bad.”

Juliet sucked a sharp breath. His words worked their way through her body and brain, making her feel beautiful, wanted, and desired by this sexy, strong man in front of her. She pricked with heat and felt deliciously compelled to surrender to his will.

He lifted her up off the floor and wrapped her legs around his waist, gripping her ass in his massive hands. She gasped, not sure what to do. She wasn’t operating consciously anymore. Everything was pure instinct. She could see the animal in Levi’s eyes. He was wild, lawless. He walked across the apartment, not giving her a tour, not talking about the granite counters or the hardwood floors.

He kicked open the bedroom door and laid her on the bed as he crawled over her. The hardness of his erection and the weight of his body made Juliet raise her hands up over her head. She arched her back, and her breasts jutted up to him. His green eyes focused on her face, so reverent, so full of lust.

Levi kissed her, cupping her face to direct her mouth against his. Juliet melted into the bed, into him. His hand moved down, squeezing her breast through the fabric of her dress. His tongue darted in and out of her mouth with hot abandon.

“We need to be naked,” he growled.

He pulled away, ripping himself out of his suit until he stood in front of her in his boxer briefs. Juliet shook as she unzipped her dress, looking up at him. The planes of his muscles were like chiseled marble. She wanted to lick every inch of his taut skin. He knelt in front of her and pulled her dress down over her hips and off her feet.

She sat on the bed in only her panties. Her round breasts exposed, her pink nipples tight. She felt self-conscious, but the look in Levi’s eyes told her she had no reason to be. He wasn’t looking at her soft, round belly, full breasts, and wide hips in disgust. He was looking at her like he’d found the holy grail. It made Juliet quiver. Levi’s eyes left a hot trail over her body until they met her gaze.

“You are so fucking gorgeous, Juliet.”

“No one has ever told me that before,” she whispered.

“You’ve never been with a man before?”

“I have.”

“And those men didn’t worship you?”

Juliet snorted, knowing it was extremely unsexy. She just couldn’t help it.

“No. They didn’t worship me.”

“They were morons then. This body, this soul,” he said, running his hand over the spot between her breasts, “needs to be worshiped like the goddess you are.”

“Levi. You don’t have to say that. I’m already here.”

He looked up at her, shocked.

“You think I’m playing you?”

“No. I just…”

He hooked his fingers in her panties and began to tug them down over her hips and away from her damp pussy.

“Let’s get this straight. You are a goddess. You are my goddess. I want to worship every inch of your honey skin. Taste every ounce of your sweet cream. And I want to see the pleasure in your eyes when I make you come, over and over again.”

Juliet shuddered, letting out a shaky moan. He threw her panties away and gazed down at the space between her legs, pushing her knees apart with his hands.

Juliet was panting, confused, turned on like never before. The things he said to her made her mind reel. No one had ever said anything even remotely close to what Levi said to her now. Sure, she’d had boyfriends before, but none of them had told her she was a goddess to be worshiped. The last man she’d been with had told her the exact opposite.

Levi gripped her legs and leaned into her pussy, licking up her slit with a growl.

“You taste like heaven,” he groaned.

Juliet’s legs shook as he continued to feast on her pussy. Her breasts were so swollen and her nipples so taut she wanted to grab them and squeeze them herself. She reached up and grasped her breasts. Levi’s tongue dove against her clit.

Juliet rolled her nipples through her fingers, not even fully aware of what she was doing. She arched her back further, the flood of pleasure rising around her so high she thought she might drown. Levi pushed her legs wider and dipped his tongue into her entrance before licking back up to her clit. She was so wet, so open when he pushed two fingers inside her.

His mouth sucked up her swollen bud as he dove in and out of her, driving her to the brink. She groaned out loud as she came, her mind shattering with pleasure. But she had no time to recover before he crawled over her, taking her mouth in his.

The taste of her sex on his lips made her pussy throb harder. Levi reached behind her and pulled a condom out of the nightstand before sliding it over his massive, swollen cock. He looked into her eyes as he held himself over her and guided his cock to her slick opening. He didn’t wait, didn’t ask. He slipped inside, looking deep into her eyes.

Juliet reached up to him as he filled her, stretching her body wide with his girth. She squeezed her eyes closed and moaned, panting, opening to him. Pleasure shot through her as he sank to the base of his shaft inside her. Levi ran his hands over her body, leaning down to suck her nipples into his mouth.

He growled into her neck and kissed the pulse point, drawing back his hips to thrust again. Juliet let go. She let go of everything that had ever worried her or held her down. All that was left was her and Levi. Making love. Making the world over in their image. It was a perfect moment of surrender. He met her sensitivity head on and he adored it. He loved her curves. He loved who she was inside. His body worked hers toward unexplored heights of pleasure.

He grasped her breast and dove his tongue into her mouth, shutting out any thought or perception of the outside world. She felt herself merging with him, ready to spill over for him. That’s when her climax slapped her like a lightening clap.

She took a startled breath and let out a long moan as it pulsed through her whole body.

“That’s my little goddess,” he growled into her neck, licking her ear.

He moved into her in waves, flicking his tongue into her mouth as she came over and over again. Time and space stood still in that eternal moment. Levi stiffened and groaned, thrusting hard several more times. Juliet held him close.

His seed shot hard into the condom and Juliet could feel the heat of it, even through the latex. They held each other tight, their bodies throbbing, as one. He held himself over her, not wanting to crush her. But he was panting, sweaty, and spent. Slowly, he rolled away, taking her with him to lie on his chest. Levi pulled a blanket over them and kissed the top of her head.

“Fuck, baby. I’m not going to be able to let you go now.”

In the mushy haze of her mind, Juliet didn’t quite know what to do with those words. Had she committed to him somehow? Was this what she really wanted? Her body still sang from his mind-shattering love making. It had been the best of her life, without question.

She closed her eyes and started to drift off to sleep, but Quinn’s apprehension about mating with a shifter wouldn’t leave her alone.