I blinked back tears as I walked slowly towards the lottery office. I was supposed to go there to meet with Karina Ocean, the ‘Lovebites Lottery’ director and the wolf shifter she’d matched me with. But now I had to tell her that I would have to turn down my prize.

When I’d reported for work at Bon Smart earlier in the day, I was greeted by my boss, Becky Riffen. She’d fired me for not being what she called ‘customer focused’ enough. I no longer had time to date a shifter. I had to spend my time finding a job!

“Santa, Santa, did you get my list?” I heard a young voice call out.

A little boy raced past me to a man dressed in a Santa Claus outfit.

“Did you get it?” he asked again.

“Ho, ho, ho,” the man chuckled. “I got your list, and I’m checking it twice. I want to make your wishes come true.”

God, how hokey he sounded. If only Santa could really make dreams come true.

“I’ve been really good this year, Santa! I really have,” the child exclaimed earnestly.

I shook my head and rolled my eyes as I tried to skirt around the pair of them. Why did we bring up kids to believe in Santa Claus? To my surprise, the man in the fuzzy red coat reached out and touched my arm as I walked by.

“And how about you pretty little lady, do you have a special wish?”

Pretty little lady—ha! I guess I could look pretty on a good day, but little—I was plenty big and curvy. And what kind of Santa was this anyway? He didn’t look old and weathered. He looked to be about my age. Despite the white hair and beard it was obvious that he was very attractive. I could see some thick dark curls peeking out from his Santa cap and dark whiskers escaping from the white beard that was fitted loosely around his chin. Instead of being big and round like Santa was supposed to be, this guy was tall and muscular. The suit was way too snug and small for him. It was so tight you could see the bulge of his powerful biceps, and so small the legs ended just below the knee instead of at the ankle. The arms on the jacket were short by a number of inches.

“Do you have a special wish?” he repeated. His warm, brown eyes studied me curiously.

“Yeah, sure. I’d like a job. I just got fired! Now if you’ll excuse me,” I started to brush past him.

“Why would someone fire you?”

I shot him a steely, cold look. “Not that it’s any of your business, but it seems I stink at customer relations. Apparently, my management didn’t think I hung the clothes people tried on and left in messy heaps in the dressing room quickly enough.” I sighed aloud. I had really enjoyed my job. Sure, it could be a pain in the ass sometimes, but I had really enjoyed helping people select clothes that looked the best on them. I even had regular customers that requested my help. They knew I could be counted on to be honest.

“I’m sorry you lost your job. That sucks. But you’re young and beautiful. You have the world at your fingertips.”

“Right,” I muttered. “Now if you’ll excuse me.” The last thing I needed right now was for some random man dressed as Santa—a poor imitation of Santa, at that, to give me a lecture.

“Look, mom, it’s Santa Claus!”

As more children swarmed around him, I made a hasty exit. I needed to talk to Karina to explain the situation. I felt bad. I knew that making the match had taken a lot of her time. I’d filled out all sorts of paperwork and taken several personality quizzes. But life changes in the blink of an eye, and this was not the right time to start dating someone. I had to focus all of my energies on finding a new job—hopefully one that was better paying and more interesting than working the sales floor at Bon Smart!

~ * ~

“Hi, I’m Sandy Shifflet, Ms. Ocean’s assistant. Congratulations on winning! Ms. Ocean is ready for you now.”

“Thank you,” I said as she ushered me up the hall to Karina’s office.

A beautiful woman with long dark hair greeted me. Though we’d spent some time on the phone and over the net, I had never met Karina in person before.

“It’s so good to finally meet you, Amy. And a huge congratulations! You’re the second winner in the Sunshine State’s ‘Scratch and Win: Lovebites Lottery.’ I bet you’re so excited!” She pointed to a photo on the wall. “That’s our first winner, Libby Polan, and her mate, Justin King. They’re married, and—” Karina gushed, “they’re going to have a baby! I’m so excited—our first ‘Lovebites Lottery’ baby!”

I glanced at the pretty woman in front of me. I hated to disappoint her, but I had no choice. “Well, um, Ms. Ocean…”

“Call me Karina,” she beamed. “Were you surprised and delighted when you won?”

I grimaced. She was so excited for me. I knew how much work she had put into making a match for me. This was going to be tough. “Well, yes Karina…I was surprised—really surprised.” Surprised was an understatement—totally shocked was more like it. I could hardly believe it when I’d scratched off the ticket and discovered three wolf symbols in a row. I’d won a wolf shifter! Cat, Kristi, and Meg had been so excited for me. I didn’t know what to think. I mean, who doesn’t want to win a prize, but winning a wolf shifter? The whole thing was so bizarre.

“I think you will be so happy. As I told you during our initial discussion, we have a very large pool of wolf shifters in the ‘Lovebites Lottery’—they are represented more than any other shifter type. So I had a lot of choices to match you with. Based on your personality test and your other assessments, I believe we have found the perfect match for you—Josh Sterling. 

I swallowed. I liked his name. It had a sexy ring to it.

“Josh is six foot two, with dark hair and warm brown eyes. He enjoys sports, traveling, and loves kids. He works…”

I cut her off. “I hate to tell you this, but…” I didn’t have a chance to finish my sentence when a tall, handsome man entered the room—dressed like Santa Claus!