“What the heck!” I grabbed the card from her hand. “Let me see that!” I glanced at the back again. “I can’t believe this. There are no cash prizes…no trips…no cars…you just win…you just win shifters?”

Gwen let out a cackle. “It appears you just bought a ticket to win yourself a shifter man, honey. Whooohaaaa!”

“Ha. I don’t think so. I’m taking this back and returning it.” But even as I said the words I could just imagine fish face Verna sneering at me as I tried to return it.

“You can’t return a scratch-off after you paid for it, even if it’s not used…at least, I don’t think so. Besides, this is a cool opportunity. I mean, how often do you get a chance to win a shifter?”

“Me, win…you mean, we win…you, me, Kim, and Heather.”

“Uh uh,” Gwen shook her head, peering over my shoulder.  She pointed to some text on the back of the card. “It says right there, ‘Prizes are not transferable and may not be shared’. You bought it so you get to keep the prize. Kim and Heather will love this!”

“Argh! I feel like an idiot.” I could feel my face flushing. What a waste of ten dollars. Who wanted to win a shifter—geez!

“Lighten up, Libby,” Gwen laughed, “just have fun with it.”

“Well, I guess it’s a moot point anyway. Not very likely we’ll—I mean I’ll—win. But you’re right; Kim and Heather will get a kick out of this.”

“That’s the spirit. Now, let’s get out of here. Keep that ticket safe in your pocketbook. I can’t wait to show it to them!”

As we made our way to the check out, I tucked the ticket in my bag. What was the lottery thinking, giving away shifters? This was friggin’ crazy. 

~ * ~

“So, what’s for supper?” Heather asked as she pulled the box of chocolate coated doughnuts out of the grocery bag and placed them on the table.

“We got a lot of good stuff,” Gwen said.

I pulled the eggs out of the bag and set them on the counter. “We got pork chops, hamburger patties, mac and cheese, fish, fries…for tonight we thought we’d go Italian. We bought a loaf of Italian bread and some nice pasta and sauce and a bag of mixed greens.”

“Sounds delish,” Heather rubbed her stomach.

“And that’s not all we got,” Gwen grinned.

“What…what…else did you get?” Kim asked as she walked into the kitchen. She glanced down at the table. “Did you buy extra chocolate donuts? That works for me. You can never have enough chocolate donuts.”

I rolled my eyes. “Stupid ole’ me went to buy our lottery ticket and I blew it. I’m sorry guys.” I pulled the ‘Scratch and Win Shifters: Lovebites Lottery’ ticket from my purse and slapped it on the counter top.

Kim picked up the ticket and let out a low whistle. “Mama mia… The dude on the front is ripped. And the pink lips covering the prizes are cute. So how did you blow it?”

Heather glanced over her shoulder. “Hot, hot, hot, for sure! But…um,” she narrowed her eyes. “I don’t see a cash prize listed here. So how much can we win…a million, or what?”

“What does it say on the ticket?” Gwen teased.

“It says ‘Scratch and Win Shifters,’” Kim replied. “so what does that mean?”

“Turn it over,” Gwen replied laughing.

Kim flipped the card over and began reading. “‘Game Play ‘Scratch and Win Shifters: Lovebites Lottery’–get three of the same shifter symbols in a horizontal or vertical row; win that shifter. Get three heart symbols win your choice of lion, wolf, tiger, or bear shifter.” She looked up, her eyes wide with surprise. “What the…?”

“You win shifters?” Heather asked incredulously.

“Yep, you do,” Gwen chuckled.

“Really—wow!”

“And the rules say prizes can’t be transferred or shared. I’m thinking since Libby picked it—Libby gets it if she wins.”

“Agreed,” Heather nodded. “I can’t wait to see if you win, Libby!”

“This is way cool,” Kim smiled. “I never knew the lottery had games like this.”

“Me neither,” I grumbled.

“Well?” Kim asked expectantly.

“Well—what?”

“Aren’t you going to see if you won a shifter?” she pressed. “That would be so neat.”

“I guess.”

“Let me get the lucky quarter.” Heather reached into the junk drawer in our kitchen and grabbed the quarter we always used to scratch off the ink covering the prizes on our scratch-offs. The four of us had spotted it in the parking lot when we’d gone out to eat one night and declared it our lucky quarter ever since. “Here you go,” she said handing it to me.

“Let’s see,” I rubbed the quarter across the pink ink lips on the bottom right spot revealing a tiger face. A little shiver ran through my body. What would it feel like to win a tiger shifter? Then I scratched the spot next to it, revealing a wolf. I jumped to the spot above the wolf and scratched it off, revealing a bear.

“It’s not looking good so far,” Gwen said.

“You have to be positive!” Kim admonished her.

I scratched off the ink on two of the ones on the top row—a wolf and a lion. Then I scratched the spot in the middle of the middle row—another bear.

“Oh wow! Two bears—one more in that row and you win!” Heather blurted.

I took a deep breath and rubbed the quarter across the ink on the spot next to the other two bears in the row.

“Oh my God! It’s another bear!” Kim cried out.

“You won!” Heather shouted.

Shocked, I stared at the card again. There were three bear faces in a row. This was unreal. I looked away, and then back at the card. There was no mistaking it—three bear snouts in a row. My brain went numb. “What…what does this mean?”

Gwen grinned. “It means you, Libby Polan, have just won a bear shifter!”