Madison Templeton stopped in Robbinsville to fill up her little VW Bug before driving the last thirty miles that would take her to her cousin’s place in Deals Gap. It was a stroke of luck that Sienna needed help at her bakery, Sweet Retreat, and Maddie was free to lend that much-needed hand. Mothers contacting mothers wasn’t always a bad thing after all.

And, granted, the reason she was free to help out was because her boyfriend—no ex-boyfriend—decided they should see other people. It had come as a shock to her, sort of; seeing that she thought they might have been meant for each other. The mating pull was there, at least marginally. But, apparently, they weren’t; and he’d wasted no time finding someone else to warm his bed after dropping that bit of news on her.

And you aren’t as upset as you should be either.

Once she saw his abrupt change in partners, she’d wasted no time hightailing it out of Sugar Mountain. The town was just too small not to run into Mack and Sheila at every turn. And she wasn’t ready for that. She needed a little time to grieve the ending of their relationship. At least for a little bit. The jerk could catch crabs, and his dick could fall off for all she cared at the moment. It was a pretty good possibility, since he was already sleeping with that skank.

Things hadn’t been going well with them for at least the last six months; and, though he hadn’t exactly broken her heart, he’d definitely bruised her ego. Being dumped always sucked, no matter the reason; and his hey babe, it’s just not working, hadn’t made it easier. Not only did she lose the guy she thought might be her mate, but she’d lost another man that meant the world to her in the process.

Mack’s twin brother, Van, was her close friend and confidant. Or had been. The three of them spent a lot of time together hanging out, even after she hooked up with Mack when they graduated school. Now that she wasn’t with him anymore, she didn’t get to see Van. He’d had to pick his brother’s side in the no longer dating divorce.

The guy in the car behind her honked his horn, tearing her away from her depressing thoughts. She pushed her unruly curly brown hair from her face and grabbed her credit card before getting out to fill up.

Thankfully, it didn’t take much to top off the tank. Her bank account dwindled by the second, and she needed every penny available to get her through until she started earning paychecks from her cousin. She didn’t exactly have plans for the money. She just needed to work and forget about everything she’d lost. Maybe her time in Deals Gap would bring about a new life for her.

Wherever that new life was, it would need to be a hybrid shifter-friendly area. And even though the place Sienna lived in allowed for shifters like Maddie, she wasn’t sure how much her cousin really knew. It would be tough keeping what she was from Sienna in a place rampant with shifters, but she would do so if she had to.

Madison’s mom had told her that Sienna’s family was in the dark about the whole thing. And the politics where Sienna lived kept it that way. Humans were not to find out about shifters. If they did…well, it wasn’t good for the shifter or the human.

Things up in Sugar Mountain weren’t as strict as they were down around Deals Gap. Her mother chalked it up to the difference in councils. Theirs understood the need to increase shifter numbers and allowed for a mixing of species or races…to include humans, though not many populated her hometown. Tucked up in the mountains, the few human stragglers, who wandered through town and managed to plant roots, were somehow drawn to the place. Another mystical phenomenon yet unexplained.

Maddie, herself, was a liger: the result of a pairing between her lion father and tiger mother. She was bigger and badder than most shifters in their town, including her parents, thanks to getting the best of both worlds. All of that lesser genetic crap humans, and a good chunk of clan councils, thought they knew was completely wrong. But she wasn’t the one to educate them on their ridiculous notions.

No, she would be keeping her mouth shut tight and act like the good little pretend human…when and if the situation called for it.

Like now.

The man behind her honked again, and it took everything she had in her not to stomp over and break every last bone in his hand. Her mother said it was an anger management issue, but Maddie liked to think of it as idiot management. If she could save one fool from irritating someone else, then she considered it mission accomplished.

Hopping back in her car, she took off before the jerk behind her got any jerkier and she lost control of the beast within. She headed west on 129, ready to get the trip over with. A run and catnap were needed in the worst possible way after being cooped up in her car for over three hours. If she could have done the trip in liger form, she would have.

Her mother’s words echoed in her head, as she got closer to her destination. Take your time on those winding roads; but whatever you do, don’t stop until you get to Deals Gap. It’ll be too dangerous for you.

Maddie knew she would be passing through Gunn Clan territory. And while she was a feline driving through cougar territory, she was a hybrid feline, and that could be a recipe for disaster. She didn’t know how much they adhered to the pure race theory, and didn’t want to find out the hard way. No, it was best she get to the Neutral Zone as quickly as possible and without drawing attention.

Neutral Zone, damn that was weird even thinking. She would be restricted to an invisible area for however long she stayed to help out. She wasn’t naive enough to think Sienna would need her for the rest of her life. It was more of a temporary thing, until either Sienna got tired of her or Maddie got tired of living in a bubble.

Madison’s liger loved to roam free, laze about, and take swims. She wasn’t sure how much of that she would be allowed to do in front of her cousin. Which is something else that confused her.

Sienna was human, last Maddie had heard, but she lived in the Neutral Zone with hybrids and outcasts. There was no possible way they would keep what they were to themselves, was there? She guessed she’d find out what her cousin’s situation was sooner rather than later.

Maddie pulled to a stop in front of Sweet Retreat, her mouth falling open at the line coming out the door. That was why Maddie was there. Sienna couldn’t keep up with the demand.

“Damn, she really does need help,” she whispered. Maddie got out of her car and locked it before ambling to the entrance.

“Hey, no cutting in line,” a man yelled, his irritation easy to hear.

She took a few steps back to see who’d caused a fuss. A couple people down the line was an uptight-looking man with a scowl on his face. “I’m the new hire, here to help. But, if you prefer standing in line even longer, I’ll be happy to move to the back. I don’t mind waiting to help out if it’ll put your sense of fairness at ease.”

“Carl, shut your damn mouth and let the woman in. It’s ’bout time someone helped out, and she damn well looks like she knows her way around a donut.” A grizzled older man cast a look in her direction. “Them boys from Dark Moon tried helping, but they kept sticking their thumbs in all of them donuts when they boxed ‘em up,” he grumbled. “No one wants someone else’s fingers in their donuts.”

Maddie chose to ignore the dig about her weight. The guy was probably low on blood sugar and jonesing for a fix. She was a bit curvier than most, but didn’t give a damn. She knew there were men out there that liked a little meat on their women’s bones. Besides, it ran in the family. Sienna wasn’t stick figure slim either.

The guy, who’d originally bitched about her cutting in line, huffed. “Fine. But you better be telling the truth.”

“Afraid I’m going to eat them all before you get a chance?” she mumbled, squeezing through the doorway where another, rather hulking, man stood. He didn’t give her much space to squeeze by. She had to press up against him, her chest skimming across his. He took an obvious sniff of her hair and dropped his hand on her waist. His fingers flexed and dug into her flesh.

Her liger reared its head, affronted by his pawing, and chuffed in irritation. She frowned at the man and grabbed his thumb, wrenching it back towards his wrist. “You don’t get to touch.”

The man yowled in pain, lifting up on tiptoes to try to escape her grip. All movement in the shop stopped and heads turned their direction.

Abruptly, she let go and stepped past him. His mumbled catty bitch didn’t go unheard.

“Damn right, I am.” She made her way to the front counter and Sienna’s flour-covered body slammed into her. Soft arms went around her torso and squeezed the hell out of her.

“Holy crap. Thank God you’re here, Maddie.” Sienna breathed a sigh of relief. Before Maddie could say anything in return, her cousin tugged on her arm and shoved her behind the counter. “It’s sink or swim, baby.”

Maddie chuckled. “I’ll take the next in line over here,” she called out, and dove into the madness.