Ocelot of Trouble Read online

  Mina is cursed. Robar is a playboy. The Crossroads brings them together to break old magic and make a new start.

  Mina is a walking disaster. Any man who dates her ends up with some minor or major trouble in his life, body or vehicle. Her community bands together to send her to the Crossroads in an effort to find her a mate far away from the human world.

  Robar is sent to the Crossroads by his matriarchal grandmother who demands a proper match for her grandson. He has a plan to cheat the system, but fate shorts out the most carefully laid plans when he is transported.

  Together, they run, frolic and he ends up wearing her drinks. What more could you want of a first date?

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  Ocelot of Trouble

  Copyright © 2013 Zenina Masters

  ISBN: 978-1-77111-667-1

  Cover art by Carmen Waters

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

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  Ocelot of Trouble

  Shifting Crossroads Book Eight

  By

  Zenina Masters

  Chapter One

  The party raged on, but Mina was miserable. Every member of her family was here to support her aunts’ efforts to send her to the Crossroads. It was well known that Mina wouldn’t find a mate any other way.

  Nine of the blind dates that she had had in the last year were in attendance, dancing with her cousins. They had paid to come to the fund-raising social in an effort to get her a mate. Even the men she had bruised and broken were supporting her in her effort to find a man who wasn’t them.

  Mina was a klutz, and there was no way around it.

  “Hey, Mina! You will be able to spend a month or more at the Crossroads with all of the donations rolling in!” Her cousin Leevi grinned and gyrated to the music.

  “Yes. It’s great. I am so grateful to you all.” She mumbled it with the same tone she had been using throughout the entire evening. She was grateful. Really. She was just humiliated by her family banding together in order to send her somewhere else where the men had no idea what they were getting into.

  It seemed unfair to her that she was going to be circling around in search of a mate and the men wouldn’t know that they were walking into the path of the Lancaster jinx. No man could possibly withstand her skill at causing injuries while simply trying to make a good impression.

  She looked across the dance floor and saw the tables that were taking hair and nail clipping samples for payment to the transporter. It was heartwarming that her family was getting the community together like this, but Mina’s soul felt heavy.

  There was nothing like knowing that you were the biggest loser that your friends and family could think of. She dragged in a deep breath and plastered a smile on her face. She forged into the crowd and shook hands and grinned at everyone she met, inwardly wincing at their eager faces as they told her how happy they were to support her chance of meeting someone outside their community who didn’t know who she was.

  No, that didn’t hurt at all.

  * * * *

  Robar sat with his mother and grandmother glaring at him. “What?”

  His mother tapped her fingers on the rich tablecloth. “I said you need to stop screwing around and find a mate, Robar. I want grandchildren and your flirtations are not going to get them for me.”

  “Stop fucking bimbos, Robar.” His grandmother sipped her tea and smiled beatifically, but there was steel in her gaze.

  “But, Nana…I have yet to find the woman for me.” He tried to put an innocent look on his face, but his elegant grandmother saw right through him.

  “Zip it, Robar. You have been enjoying the good life for over three decades. It is time to do your duty to your family and be a man, not a boy.” His grandmother glared at him with her dark bronze eyes still keen. “Grow up.”

  He blinked in surprise. “You are serious.”

  Arduna Pickwik looked over at her mother. “She is serious. She is talking about cutting you out of the will.”

  That sent a flutter of panic through him. “Nana?”

  Loreada Alenfleur gave him an impassive look. “I have arranged for a transporter. You are going to the Crossroads, and you are not coming back until you have a mate. I don’t care how long it takes. Your time as a bachelor is over. Settle down and start making babies. That is an order.”

  Robar Pickwik stared into his grandmother’s eyes, and his predicament came home with a thud. He was going to have to find a wife.

  “May I call some of my previous women?” It was the last effort he could muster to get the process over with quickly.

  His grandmother smiled. “Of course. If they will meet you at the Crossroads, you will be able to choose one of them. Good luck with that. You leave next weekend.”

  She waved her hand lazily at him in dismissal, and Robar got to his feet. He had some calls to make.

  This was not the way that he was planning his luncheon to go. Normally, his nana was very cheerful and reasonable. Something must have struck her to make her turn like this.

  All he knew was that he had five days to find a woman willing to meet him at the Crossroads. How hard could that be?

  * * * *

  Loreada sighed and leaned back. “I know it is harsh, Arduna, but he needs to find someone. This flitting around will not do him any good. He needs to get on with the rest of his life, and he needs someone at his side.”

  Her daughter was concerned. “Are you sure that this is the best course of action for him?”

  “I was sure when I sent you to the Crossroads, wasn’t I?”

  “You know you were. Johann is the best man I could have wished for. Shouldn’t he know about this?”

  Loreada nodded. “Of course he should, that is why I went to lunch with him yesterday. He is all for his son getting his act together, Arduna. You are the one who has been holding his hand every time he breaks a woman’s heart and has to deal with it. Of course, he does not deal with it. He just takes the pat on the head and the shoulder and moves on to the next woman. That can’t continue. He can and will be a good husband. He just needs the right woman, and he is not going to find her on your yacht.”

  Arduna stiffened, and Loreada looked at her daughter with her eyebrow raised.

  “Mother, he is a young man with hot blood. He needs to be out and finding females that catch his fancy.”

  “If Johann was running around with other women, how would you feel?”

  Arduna blinked. “I would be horrified and devastated, but we are a Crossroads match. He wouldn’t do that.”

  Loreada smiled grimly at her daughter. “Exactly. I want Robar’s wife to have that security as well. No woman enjoys knowing that her mate is a whore who gives it away, but knowing that he will be faithful from this moment on is a key point that I cannot stress enou
gh. Your father catted around, and it was only strength of will that kept me from killing him.”

  Arduna shook her auburn head. She had her father’s features and his sense of propriety. It was Loreada’s burden to try and control her only child, as well as her sole grandchild. She was not going to be walking the earth forever, so it was time to make sure that Robar settled down with a good woman.

  He was a good man with a good soul; he just needed a woman who made him want to be a better man, all day, every day. She hoped that the Crossroads could work its magic, because she was at the end of her rope. The boy needed far more help than she could offer, and hopefully, he would get it.

  Chapter Two

  Mina sat in the transporter’s office and knit her fingers together. “Is everything all right?”

  Theo looked up with a grin. “It is better than all right. I will just have to catalogue all of the samples that your family provided. Fortunately, we have an hour.”

  She bit her lip. “Is this normal?”

  “No. Normally, we don’t get samples from cousins, aunts, uncles and ex-boyfriends.” Theo raised his dark brows. “It is not usual that we get an entire community participating.”

  “I guess they want me gone.”

  Theo paused. “Don’t think of it like that; think of it that these people, including men who were in your life at one point, have all given something of themselves to find you a true mate. That shows affection that goes far beyond casual. These people care about you. You are taking them with you, and your attempts to find a mate will be cheered on from this realm.”

  Mina smiled and sat up a little. “Thank you, that makes me feel better.”

  “It is the truth. I have sent close to a hundred folks to the Crossroads, and this is the largest donation I have ever been given. They love you far more than you know.”

  Tears surged into her eyes. She breathed in deeply to stop the flow and smiled brightly instead. She was good at smiling. When you caused trouble wherever you went, it was second nature to pretend that nothing had gone awry.

  “I know that I am loved; I also know that I am a goof. Did you know that I actually lit my last date on fire?”

  Theo paused. “Fire?”

  “I was just reaching out to take his hand, and I elbowed the server passing us, he bumped into Larry, and Larry knocked the centerpiece candle over on himself, starting a paraffin fire on his lapel.”

  Theo was staring at her, aghast. “That must have been a coincidence.”

  “Accident, coincidence, jinx, disaster. I have had all of these tags and more.”

  “And yet, you have more of a lust for life than any woman I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Your list of hobbies is endless, and you participate not only in your community but your family and wilderness activities.”

  Mina shrugged. “It comes with being from a social species.”

  Theo smiled softly. “And you are one of the first ocelots that I have ever transported. If you like, we can get in position and I can check on the location of the gateway. It is coming closer a little more rapidly than I anticipated.”

  “You can feel it?”

  “Yes. For us, we wait until it arrives. It is only our guild master who can summon the gateways at will. I would not wish her power on anyone. Her efforts to restrain herself take up a good portion of her day.”

  Mina wrinkled her nose and picked up her luggage. “That sounds tricky.”

  “Wielding that much power is tricky. I wish Kris luck. She needs it.”

  With all the paperwork that required her signature taken care of, she stood on the spot that Theo Yeoman had marked out for her.

  “I am correct; it is coming quickly. Stand there; I will prepare to open the gateway. You have your charm?”

  Mina lifted her wrist where the small disc dangled.

  “You will be meeting Teal and Tony when you arrive. They are the swan and raven. They guard access to the Crossroads. Don’t light them on fire.” Theo grinned and waved his hands, a column of light started at Mina’s feet and rose rapidly until it swamped over her head and the light was bathing her completely.

  The gleam slowly faded, and she was now standing on a stone floor with two dark-haired guardians looking at her with wary welcome.

  Mina inclined her head. “Hello, I am Mina Lancaster.”

  The woman smiled, “Mina, you are early.”

  She bit her lip nervously. “The portal arrived ahead of schedule.”

  “Please, come this way. I am Teal, this is my husband Tony.” The woman made the introductions with a wave of her hand.

  “Pleased to meet you both.” Mina clutched her bag to her and white knuckled it out the door.

  “You will be staying at the hostel for female predators?”

  Mina nodded. “Yes. I didn’t want to waste any of the money that was collected to send me here.”

  Teal nodded with a smile. “I understand. Please, ask any questions that cross your mind. We were just getting your visit organized, so you caught us a little flat footed.”

  “Oh, I thought it had all been arranged.” She bit her lip.

  “It has been, but we thought we still had an hour until your arrival. I guessed that the portal was early.”

  Mina swallowed and nodded. “It suddenly showed up. The transporter panicked and sent me through before I could make up my mind to run for it.”

  “Don’t worry about it. It is all set up. We have two predators who are probably leaving today. You will have the hostel all to yourself in short order.”

  Mina followed Teal with a sense of hope. “Oh good.”

  Teal cleared her throat. “We have been warned of your special circumstances.”

  “Polite way of putting it. I am a jinx, a klutz. No man can stay in my vicinity and not suffer an injury.”

  “I know. Chuck is being briefed as we speak, so are the staff at the café and restaurant.”

  “It is so embarrassing.”

  “No, it is inconvenient. We will make sure that your actions do not ruin your chances to find happiness.” Teal put her arm around Mina’s shoulders.

  Mina felt like laughing and bawling at the same time. “How can you be so calm about it?”

  “We are professionals. We are here to design and maintain an atmosphere in which you can meet your match. However it is going to happen, we will support you. Oh, and we also have a full-time medic on hand. Lee is ready for anything at a moment’s notice.”

  A bit of Mina’s soul unfurled happily. “How long do I have here?”

  Teal smiled. “As long as you need. There has been no limit to the amount of time you are here. The involvement of your entire community has earned you an open account that will provide you with every resource we have at our disposal.”

  “I don’t want you to go to any trouble.”

  “It is too late. We love working with special cases. Yours is the most peculiar we have seen in some time.”

  Mina groaned. “Nothing like feeling special to make one’s day.”

  “It is going to be fine. Nothing to it. Just relax and let your senses guide you. They are your best determination of what is right for you.”

  Mina nodded and hiked her bag over her shoulder. She had clothing selected that would leave no doubt as to her availability. “Right, well, I had better get in a hunting frame of mind.”

  “Good. Well, here is the hostel. It is gender and predation locked. We want all of our guests to feel secure. I will show you where to put your things, and then, we will continue our tour.”

  Mina nodded eagerly and asked, “Should I change first?”

  “Sure. That way, I can leave you at the Crossed Star after the tour and you can get to work.”

  It was set; she was going to do this. With her shoulders straight, she followed Teal’s lead and checked into her temporary home. The possibilities of her future life began tonight.

  She hoped that she was ready for it.

  Chapter Three

 
; Mina smiled shyly as another male showed interest in her. Women surrounded him, his dark auburn hair had an adorable curl and his eyes were a solid leaf green.

  She quickly turned her back to him, sure that a male so pretty with all those women could not possibly be interested in her.

  “Another strawberry margarita, Chuck.”

  “Coming right up, Mina.” He inclined his head and went to work.

  Four days in the Crossroads made her a regular and known to almost everyone whose path she crossed. Chuck knew her preferences for beverages, the café prepared her meals with no more than a cursory confirmation and Lee stopped by the predator hostel to play checkers every afternoon. It was a wonderfully safe routine.

  With the drink in hand, she turned to watch the handsome male and his harem. “Oh-my-god-excuse-me.”

  The pink and red that had looked so tempting in the glass looked less so while running down his shirt.

  “It is fine, I am sure that it will wash out.” He tried to keep the charm on, but his bevy of women surrounded him and coaxed him back and away from Mina.

  She stopped and whispered, “I am sure it will.”

  Turning back to Chuck, she met his amused gaze. “Another please.”

  Chuck got to work, but he had to ask, “Are you tagging him for later capture?”

  “No, just to mark and release him back into the wild. He needs to be with his own kind. The pretty ones.”

  “Aw, Mina, you are very attractive. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

  “Wrong, Chuck. I am cute. There is a world of difference between attractive and cute. I accept it.” She saluted him with the drink he handed to her and took a sip. “Wonderful as always, Chuck. Are the strawberries from Teebie’s garden?”

  “Of course. Where else could we get such freshness on a daily basis?”