Chapter Twenty

Heidi had had all sorts of intentions on ravaging her mates when they got back to their room that evening, but much to her embarrassment, when they gently removed her clothes and tucked her into bed with their warm bodies on both sides, she’d passed right out and not woken until morning. Though it was certainly not the wake-up call she’d imagined.

“Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey, Sunshine!” was all the warning she got before Julie’s body was soaring through the air to do a belly flop on top of her.

“Oof, what are you doing here this early?” She tried to pull the duvet high over her head, but dang if that wolf didn’t excel at a game of tug.

“Today is our shopping day, remember?” Julie pulled the blanket fully off the bed, luckily leaving Heidi with the sheet, since she was naked underneath. “And look what your Prince Charmings left us?”

Heidi saw Julie holding up a credit card, her eyebrows waggling.

“We are not going on a shopping spree with their cards.” She put her foot down. “What do we really need anyway? We bought a whole crap ton of stuff before we left.”

“That’s not the point and you know it, Heidi.” Julie crossed her arms over her chest and glared. “Besides, we won’t know what we need until we find it in the stores! Now, move your huge ass and get in that shower.”

She giggled as she threw off the sheet and bounded out of bed, causing Julie to shriek and cover her eyes in feigned shock. “My mates love my huge ass.”

“I’ll just bet they do. You have twenty minutes to get ready!”

****

Five hours of shopping later, Heidi was taking a time-out on a comfy sofa while Julie tried on a giant-sized pile of sundresses. They’d been in this last boutique for what had to be two hours, and Heidi was pretty much done for the day.

“I think I need an iced coffee or something, lady. Are you done yet?” she yelled into the change room.

“Oh, coffee, yes!” Julie yelled back. “Just let me finish this last one, I think it’s a winner.”

Heidi rolled her eyes as she grabbed the two dresses she was going to purchase and made her way up to the cashier. She was surprised when she saw the blonde woman from the club last night already there, furiously whispering with the cashier.

“Oh, wow,” she overheard the tacky blonde gush as she approached the counter, “I just had the hottest three-way with two tigers at The Black Cat. Damn, did those two work me over. I came so hard I almost blacked out.”

Heidi’s gut churned at her words—surely, she was talking about two other tiger shifters, not her tigers. But then her entire world imploded as the blonde turned her way and gave her a wink.

“You know what I’m talking about, don’t you, girl?” the heinous woman continued on like Heidi’s heart wasn’t shattering at this very moment. “I saw you with those two at the club last night. As a matter of fact, that show they put on with you was what convinced me to accept Mason and Wade’s offer this afternoon … and they certainly didn’t disappoint, so thank you.”

This couldn’t possibly be true. The things that she felt—the things they’d told her they’d felt. They’d said they were her mates, that it was fate that brought them together.

“No…” her voice was small and quiet as she tried to deny what this woman was saying, but the horrible creature just continued on, discrediting the very argument her heart tried to make.

“And then, of course,” the blonde rolled her eyes, “when it was all over, they tried to tell me that I was their ‘mate’.” The air quotations Serena used made the lioness inside Heidi snarl in fury. “Like I was some naïve girl on her first vacation who would fall for that one—plus, Diane behind the bar warned me that these two have a thing for playing the whole mate shtick. Getting sweet little things to fall in love with them before they move onto the next conquest.”

“That’s hilarious that they thought you would fall for that, Serena,” the woman behind the counter laughed, “as if you were ever that innocent.”

“Well, there is that.” Serena smiled before she turned fully back to Heidi, and the heartbreak she saw on her face must have been obvious to see. “Hey sweetie, what’s wrong? Oh, no. Don’t tell me you actually believed they were your mates?”

“What the fuck is going on here?” Julie came storming up to the counter and, seeing the look on Heidi’s face, turned back to Serena and snarled, “What the hell did you do?”

“I just clarified something for your sweet little friend there, before she really got hurt.” The concerned expression on the blonde’s face only seemed to enrage Julie more. “You can’t blame me if she was naïve enough to fall for their games.”

Heidi felt numb all over. The place in her chest where her heart was supposed to be now felt like an empty cavern that had just been exhumed. But even through the haze, she could see Julie losing control of her wolf, the loud growl told her that her friend was getting ready to beat on someone.

“I think there’s something wrong with your dog…” the blonde sneered at them and the growl coming from next to her only got louder.

“Yeah, she’s about to get a new squeaky toy.” Julie bared her teeth at the cheetah.

Heidi reached out and grabbed Julie’s arm, “Julie, let’s just go—I need to go home. Now.”

Julie looked back at her and whatever she saw in her face must have been enough, because Julie took her arm and led her out of the store and back to their room.

Immediately, Heidi went to work, frantically packing up all of her things.

“What’s going on, Heidi?” Julie tried to make her sit down. “What happened in there?”

That’s when the tears started, and she fell to her knees sobbing as Julie’s arms came around her.

Several minutes later, she could finally get the words out.

“It wasn’t true,” she quietly confessed. “They weren’t my mates. Apparently, it's just a game they like to play with women who are stupid enough to believe them.”

“Hey,” Julie sounded angry, “you’re not stupid. And it certainly seemed to me that it wasn’t a game to them. Are you sure that bitch wasn’t lying?”

“I saw Mason talking to her last night at the club,” she answered, thinking back to what Wade had said as well. “And Wade knew her, too. Goddess, Julie, am I really so pathetic that I believed the first men who showed up talking about fate and mating? I can’t believe what an idiot I am. I should have known they were too good to be true.”

Julie just held her for a moment, “Yeah, well, mating isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be anyway. You can trust me on that.”

Heidi looked up at her friend and wondered what she wasn’t telling her, but before she could ask Julie just shook her head in denial.

“Some other time, I’ll tell you all about it.” Julie helped her to stand up. “But if you’ve really had enough of this vacay, then we’d better shake a leg, because the boat hits port in Mexico in an hour. We can be home by tomorrow, safe and sound, back in boring old Blue Valley.”

“You wouldn’t be mad at me for bailing early?”

“Nah, we can just spend the rest of the week drinking in your back yard. Making your brothers bring us drinks.” Julie hugged her one more time. “I’m sorry this turned out so crappy, sweetie.”

“Me, too.” She answered quietly. Her heart was officially, completely shattered. Served her right for dreaming too big, thinking that she could have some fairy tale ending with men like Mason and Wade. Now all she wanted was to go back home and never leave town again. There was no need to look for another man—she’d never trust one again anyway.