Rhett Lundthal kept his eyes trained on the page in front of him. The novel was getting to the good part and he hoped to get in two more chapters before he went to bed.

"I was here first!"

Nope. He wasn't going to open the door.

"When did you DM him? I was his first date for the evening. He told me so."

He wasn't even going to go to the window and look out. If there was any sign of life inside, the women would never leave his doorstep. He was going to stay seated and keep all the blinds drawn. They would leave once they thought no one was home.

"Don't you put your hands on me!"

Shit. So much for his relaxing evening.

He was going to have to get involved now. It wouldn't look good to have a fistfight on the town Keeper's doorstep while he quivered in the dark. With a loud sigh, he put down his book and stomped to the front door.

Rhett's vision started to blur as he fought to keep control of his animal. He'd already had a hard day at work, so the last thing he wanted to do was put out more fires at home.

He could hear the scuffle before he got the door open. The two women were hunched over, hands in each other's hair. If they were shifters, they would have been hissing and scratching at each other. Though, if they were shifters, he suspected they wouldn't be here at all. To his own kind, he wasn't anything special.

"I'm sorry, but you ladies need to get off my doorstep." He stood at his full height, shoulders pulled back and face emotionless.

The women stopped fighting and let go of each other. The one on the right smiled up at him. "You must be Rhett. I messaged you this afternoon."

The woman on the left stepped in front of the other woman. "I messaged you this morning. I'm Jasmine. You must remember me."

She was wearing a trench coat, and she opened the front a bit to let him get a glimpse of what she was wearing underneath. Next to nothing. It was some kind of BDSM getup, all black, metallic buckles, and not much fabric. Almost even better than naked, according to his animal. He could take his sweet time getting her out of that thing, teasing her along the way.

He took a slow, deep breath through his nose and shoved his animal down further. This was not the time for those kinds of thoughts.

"I may not be wearing some slutty underwear, but I'm here to have fun too." The other woman licked her lips and winked at him.

"I don't care what you're here for. You've both been catfished. I didn't make that profile."

"I don't mind sharing," the woman in the trench coat said.

"Me neither."

As usual, when it came to the humans lured by the dating apps, this was getting ridiculous. "I'm not interested."

"Are you gay?" the lip licker asked incredulously.

"I'm not a homosexual. Not that it matters. As I stated, I am not the person from that profile. I'm not looking for a hookup or anything of that kind."

"If you want a relationship, I'm cool with that too," Jasmine assured him.

Lip Licker shook her head. "What kind of straight man turns down two beautiful women? You could have us both, and you're saying no?"

Of course he wanted to say yes. No redblooded shifter male without a mate would turn that down. Two beautiful women who were exactly his type. Soft, curvy, and ready to have a good time.

But that didn't matter. He wasn't looking to have a good time with just anyone. He wasn't going to get himself involved with human women who were just looking for a quick shifter hookup.

Jasmine let her trench coat fall all the way open. "Want to grab something to eat? I heard the place on Elm Street has the best food in town."

He reached for his keys next to the door and stepped outside.

"I'd like to get something to eat too," Lip Licker said. "I'm thirsty. I could suck a glass of water dry right now."

Rhett almost lost it at that one. He snorted but disguised it as a cough. He locked his front door and walked to his car. "I have to get to work. I'm sorry, ladies. I'm sorry you came all this way and wasted your time. I wish I could help, but I'm not interested. I don't want to find you here when I get home. If I do, I'll be forced to call the police and have you removed."

With that, he left the women gaping as he pulled away. His animal didn't like it one bit, but he needed to get out of there. It had been a very long time since he had been with a woman, and these two were even more tempting than the last.

It had been three weeks since the "Prank War" had begun. He had a good idea who was behind the catfishing, but he still couldn't prove it. He had busted a group of teens for underage drinking, and a week later, all his troubles had started. First, they had sent large fast-food orders to his door every evening. Dozens of pizzas, a half dozen catered sub sandwiches, and, most impressive, a wedding cake.

Then the food had stopped and he'd begun getting boxes of sex toys. All kinds. Not the cheap stuff, either. That was why he suspected the group of teens. They came from rich families and had more money than the time to use it. Dragon shifters were notoriously wealthy and didn't keep a close eye on their offspring, from what he could tell. As long as the younglings weren't shifting and causing a commotion with the humans, the elders didn't care what they did.

He was going to ride out the pranks and pretend it wasn't annoying, but this latest prank was testing every ounce of patience he had. They had signed him up for one of those dating apps the humans were so fond of. Only they weren't using it to find him dates, they were Speed Mating. 

Instead of using the app to find dates, you found a "date" for one night only. People put their animal in their name or bio to signify they were down for a quick meetup and nothing more. Shifter men were getting the best deal out of the whole thing. There was no shortage of human women who were looking to find out for themselves if the rumors about his kind were true.

He didn't use the app himself. He only knew about the dating app hack because it had caused some trouble for Keepers in neighboring shifter towns. Once Speed Mating caught on, the normally quiet towns started seeing a huge influx of human visitors. Not a huge problem, but it was a hassle keeping track of the humans coming into town.

Until now, it hadn't caused any issue for him at work. It had all been fine, but now that women were showing up on his doorstep, it was starting to get out of hand. He was going to have a word with these kids in the morning.

"Whoa, whose head are you going to bite off?" Beau, his second-in-command, asked when he got to the office.

"No one's," he growled. He was head of the local shifter Keepers and he loved his job. But he didn't want to spend his whole life at work. He wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone. A moment too late, he realized he should have brought his book with him. He could have read it here.

"Aren't you supposed to be off for the night?" Beau asked.

"I am. Why is Tucker here?"

The young dragon shifter took his feet off Beau's desk. "Maybe you should sit down. Relax a little before I tell you."

Rhett's shoulders sagged. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Cut to the chase, Tuck. We don't have all night."

"Don't you, though?" Tuck asked. "You aren't going anywhere."

Beau chuckled. "We all know you're hiding from those pretty ladies. Your neighbor just called the cops to report a disturbance."

"Shit. Do I need to go back and take care of it?" Rhett frowned just thinking about it. He didn't want anything to do with those ladies. Not a single one of them.

Beau shook his head. "Best to let the humans take care of their own."

"You'll probably get them all riled up again if you go over there anyway," Tuck laughed. "I don't know why you're mad about this, though. Those pranksters are doing you a favor."

"A favor?" Rhett snarled. "They're lying to those human women. I have to turn them all down. You think that's fun for me? Hurting these poor women's feelings and then sending them home? You think I like having to do that?"

"You could just let them stay," Tuck suggested. "We all know you haven't had a woman at your house in ages. It wouldn't kill you to have a little fun, man. Hell, it would probably help you relax."

Rhett wasn't a violent man, but he wanted to punch the smirk off the younger shifter's face. Tuck never hurt for companionship. The tall brown-haired dragon shifter took full advantage of the Speed Mating trend, and he never passed up an opportunity to brag about it. Tucker worked for a Keeper office in Abbott, the shifter town a few miles away, and as the newest recruit, he did all the errands. Which meant he was in Rhett's office weekly. He'd never had an issue with Tucker, but now he was starting to hate when he showed up. He'd heard more than enough details about Tucker's love life.

"Thank you for your opinion," Rhett deadpanned. "Now, I'll ask you again. Why are you here?"

"Well, first, did you see the dog I just got?" Tuck tossed a picture at him. "Just picked him up from the shelter this afternoon."

It was a picture of an old dachshund. Its muzzle was gray, and it looked like it would fall over any minute. Not the kind of dog he would expect Tuck to want. "Nice looking dog."

"Thanks, man."

"Stop stalling." Rhett looked at Tuck pointedly. It wasn't going to be good if Tuck was buttering him up with dog pictures.

"Oh, yeah." The dragon shifter put his baseball cap back on and started for the door. "Just wanted to let you know, we have it under control. I want you to know that. We totally have this under control. But there's a scorpion terrorizing the countryside."