More than a Cheetah (Shifty Book 6) Read online

  Table of Contents

  More than a Cheetah

  To anyone who has ever felt that love is a risk

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  More than a Cheetah

  By Sara Summers

  To anyone who has ever felt that love is a risk

  Chapter 1

  Okay, for the record, I didn’t ask for a famous painter to be my soulmate. I mean, yeah, I liked paintings. Lots of people like paintings. But that didn’t mean I wanted be married to a painter.

  Not that I wanted to be married to anyone else, either. I would’ve been happy just being a loner cheetah shifter for the rest of my life, teaching at Shifty University and designing cool buildings.

  But the universe decided, and bam, I was soulmates with Haiden Day.

  “Mrs. Jazzy Day.” Brooke’s grin was big enough that it could’ve fallen right off her face. So much for being my best friend—she threw me right over to the wolves.

  The one wolf.

  Or the one cheetah, I guess.

  Heck, I didn’t even want to think about that.

  We were still in Kennedy’s museum. Brooke and Kennedy might’ve said some things to Haiden, but my head was spinning too fast to hear. Plus, my leg was still on fire. The gray cotie that ran up and down my right leg had changed as soon as I touched Haiden, so that was painful. Not as painful as the shock that accompanied finding out I had a soulmate…

  And not just some random guy as a soulmate. My soulmate was Haiden Day.

  It took a few seconds for the facts to set in—I had a soulmate.

  There were a lot of things going through my mind. I wouldn’t be as forever-alone as I’d thought, my soulmate was famous, I’d get to see Haiden’s paintings every day. Despite all the thoughts playing tag in my brain, there was only one idea that stuck around.

  I was supposed to start teaching classes the next week, and Haiden would want me to leave the school and go with him to wherever he lived.

  “I can’t just abandon the school.” I said that, or something like that. I was thinking too fast to pay attention to the exact words.

  “Let’s not talk about abandoning anything.” Haiden took my elbow, and I didn’t pull it away. “How about we start with lunch and a game of twenty questions?”

  I don’t know if I answered or hyperventilated or what, but he pulled me out of the museum and into a nice, new-looking car. I’d say it was the nicest car I’d ever seen, but it wasn’t. I’d gone to Harvard, and well, some of those people had really nice cars.

  And before I had time to process any of it, I was sitting down at a table in Olive Garden, right across from the painter I’d always had a crush on.

  Haiden Day.

  My soulmate.

  Yeah, I felt like I was going to pass out.

  Chapter 2

  “What can I get you to eat?” the waiter asked. I blinked up at him, my stomach so tangled that I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to speak again, let alone eat.

  “I don’t want anything.” I finally forced the words out.

  “Can you just bring us two cups of soup?” Haiden asked the waiter, who nodded. He told the waiter which soup he wanted, but I was too busy trying not to explode to hear what he said.

  “So, your name is Jazz?” Haiden asked. Unlike me, he looked completely comfortable. Sitting across from me, wearing a sweater and a pair of semi-skinny jeans, just calm and collected and hotter than a volcano. His dirty blonde hair was long on top but short on the sides, messy and sexy. His scruff… well, it added to the look.

  “Yeah.” I nodded. My name? That was one question I could handle. Anything else… not so much.

  “Did you know who I was before today?” he asked the question carefully, like he was afraid I’d hate him for being famous. That was a tiny sliver of what was causing me to panic, so no, I didn’t care one bit.

  “Yeah. A few of my friends and I really like your paintings.” I nodded again.

  Phew, if he asked me questions like that, I could last all day.

  “Does it bother you?” he checked.

  “No.”

  Three down, only a lifetime to go. I could make it, right?

  “So you know who I am, will you tell me about yourself?” he asked.

  Wrong. I wouldn’t make it a lifetime; I wouldn’t even make it ten minutes.

  “I, um, I’m going to use the restroom.” I ran away from him, locking myself in the bathroom and pulling my phone out of my bra.

  There were no pockets in my fancy dress, unfortunately.

  “J, why are you calling me instead of making out with the sexy man you just left with?” Brooke answered the phone. The normalcy of talking to my best friend calmed me down a bit.

  “I need you to get me out of here.” I said, looking over at the door to make sure no one was coming.

  “Why? He didn’t kidnap you, did he? Where are you?” Brooke was suddenly on high-alert.

  “He brought me to Olive Garden.” I leaned back against the wall, using it to hold myself up. My heart hadn’t stopped racing since my cotie tingled in the museum, where I’d first been introduced to my soulmate.

  “You can handle this.” Brooke promised. “The Creator made him for you. You’re going to be perfect for each other, you just have to let him get to know you. Don’t hide your past from him.”

  “You know why I have to.” I closed my eyes and prayed that the unfortunate situation would just somehow disappear.

  “He’s not going to be like your aunt.” Brooke assured me. “He’s an artist, he’ll understand. Artists are passionate and understanding.”

  “I can’t do this.” I was suddenly desperate. Never mind her flawed logic (how could all artists be one way?), I needed to get out of there quickly. “Please, come get me.” I begged, though I knew before I even asked what her answer would be.

  “I’m sorry, you know that I can’t.” she apologized. “I love you, Jazz. Go out there and woo your hot millionaire soulmate. He’s going to fall madly in love with you, history and emotional scars and all.”

  “No, I really—“

  “Good luck, me and Kennedy are praying for you.” She hung up the phone, leaving me stranded in the bathroom, completely alone.

  I turned to look in the mirror and saw that I was sweating through my dress.

  “Great.” I muttered. I was a mess. A complete and utter terrified mess.

  “Is everything okay?” a middle-aged woman asked, stepping out of the stall to wash her hands.

  “Fine.” I forced a smile.

  “If you’re in trouble, I can help.” The woman told me.

  “I’m fine, I just met my soulmate.” I shook my head.

  “Oh, sweetie.” She pulled me into a hug, which sort of scared the living crap out of me. Hugging a random stranger? Yikes. “It’s going to be perfect.” She promised. As she stepped back, she rolled her sleeve up just a little to show me the cotie on her arm that marked her as a panther shifter. “I would know.” She winked at me.

&n
bsp; I nodded at her, having no idea what to say to that. My situation was undoubtedly different than hers had been.

  “Come on, I’ll walk out with you.” She put her arm around my waist and pulled me out of the bathroom, propelling me back to Haiden. I don’t know how she knew he was mine, but she did.

  “Have a good lunch.” She smiled and left me with my soulmate.

  I felt even more disoriented as I sat back down. While avoiding looking at Haiden, I noticed some doodles on his napkin. Even his doodling was gorgeous.

  Was there anything not hot about him?

  “You were going to tell me about yourself.” He reminded me, shooting me a small but encouraging smile.

  I looked around for somewhere else to go, another reason to get out of there.

  “Jazz?” Haiden checked.

  My eyes narrowed in on the front door, my only escape route. I had two options:

  Stay and open up to him and risk losing my chance at love

  Get out before he could hate me and try again in twenty or thirty years.

  The second one won easily. In twenty years, I could be ready to have a soulmate. Twenty years was long enough.

  But that day? I wasn’t ready yet. I needed time to process, time to move on from all the crap I’d been through when I was younger. And that time couldn’t happen unless I was away from Haiden.

  “I have to go.” I said, jumping up and sprinting out of the Olive Garden. I felt like a character in any number of movies, running to save my own life.

  “Jazz!” Haiden called out, following me outside. I ignored him, forcing my aching lungs and legs to move faster. My right leg wanted to fall off, it hurt so badly. Fricking cotie.

  “Wait!” he yelled.

  I ran faster, down the sidewalk and toward some sort of city park. If I could just get to the park, I could—

  My foot landed wrong, the three-inch heels Brooke had forced me to wear slipping into a crack and getting stuck. I went down hard, my ankle making a noise as I fell.

  “Are you okay?” Haiden asked, crouching down next to me. Good gracious, he was attractive.

  “Fine.” I winced as I pulled my foot out of the shoe.

  “Is it broken?” he asked, concerned as he looked down at my ankle.

  “Probably just sprained.” I pulled my long, tangled blonde hair over one shoulder.

  “Alright.” Haiden nodded. He put his arm around my waist, then helped me to my feet. It was my left foot that I’d hurt, so now both of my legs were killing me.

  Great.

  “Here, I’ll help you back to the car.” He grabbed my heels in his free hand, then helped me walk all the way back to his car. I was still surprised that his car wasn’t anything unusually fancy; the guy was loaded.

  “Thanks.” I said, after he helped me sit down in the passenger seat.

  “Sure. I’ll be back in a minute, I’m just going to grab our food.” Haiden went back into Olive Garden, and my focus went immediately to the steering wheel.

  Was escaping worth it? Sure, my leg was hurt, but I could drive. I could be so far gone that he wouldn’t even find me. He hadn’t known who or where I was before he touched me, so maybe he was different than most shifters. Maybe he couldn’t find me.

  Maybe I could get away.

  I looked back toward the Olive Garden, then back at the steering wheel. Was it worth going to jail? Stealing a car could definitely get me into trouble, but was jail better than dealing with a soulmate who might hate me?

  I looked back at the restaurant again, seeing him chatting with the hostess. He was friendly, super friendly…

  But then again, he was my only chance at love.

  Did I want a chance at love?

  Well, yeah. But was it worth giving up my freedom, was it worth maybe getting rejected or having him hate me? Was it worth losing my place at Shifty University?

  He walked out of Olive Garden. It was my last chance. I could jump into the front seat, I could turn on the car and hit the gas, and…

  I would lose my only chance at love.

  He sat down in his seat and handed me a plastic bag.

  “Ready to go?” he checked.

  “Where are we going?” I hesitated.

  “I was thinking I’d take you back to my apartment, if that’s alright.” Haiden explained. “I live in Seattle.”

  I looked down at my lap. Seattle was two hours away from Glacier, which meant I’d have to wait a while if anything happened and I needed Brooke to pick me up. Not to mention that school was starting in a week and I had already signed a contract agreeing to work for Shifty University for at least a year.

  “I have to be in Glacier a week from now.” I slipped my hands under my thighs to warm them up. It was cold, despite the nervous sweating that was most definitely going on.

  “Then we’ll be in Glacier in a week.” Haiden nodded. “But it will be easier to get to know each other if we stay in my apartment for a few days.”

  “Fine.” I nodded, biting my lip and looking away.

  I couldn’t tell him what I was thinking, I couldn’t let him know just how awful it sounded to go to his apartment.

  Getting to know him? That… that was exactly what I was afraid of.

  Or rather, him getting to know me. That scared me more than anything else, because what if he didn’t like me?

  Soulmate or not, there was every possibility that could happen. After everything I had seen and been through, Haiden could be disgusted by me. He could hate me, he could wish he had someone else, he could think the Creator made a mistake putting us together…

  There were so many what-ifs’ that I could’ve drowned in them. Instead, I half-chatted with him for the hour-long drive to Seattle.

  The whole way there, I was so scared that I couldn’t even manage a smile.

  Chapter 3

  “Welcome home.” Haiden gestured around the apartment—the very modern, very nice-looking apartment. It had two floors, the second one being this cool little loft. I could see a bed up there, and that was about it.

  On one side of the apartment, there was a kitchen with a couch and a TV mounted to the wall. The other side was obviously an art studio. There were canvases everywhere, all different sizes but none of them small. A few were on easels, a few were lying on the floor, and some were leaning against the wall in stacks.

  “Wow.” I said, as I looked around. “So this is how millionaires live.”

  “Like normal people?” Haiden raised an eyebrow.

  “In fancy apartments.” I countered, and he shrugged.

  “This place inspires me. If I lived in an old crappy apartment, I’d have to pay to rent an art studio too. This is cheaper.”

  “Valid point.” I nodded, sitting down on the couch. “Oh, shoot. We didn’t grab my suitcase.” I sighed, leaning back against the couch. It wasn’t one of those uncomfortable modern ones; it was soft and cushy and probably comfier than my bed back in Glacier.

  “We can stop at the store and grab you some clothes.” Haiden sat next to me.

  “I hate shopping.” I admitted. “When my best friend forces me to go, she just hands me the things she thinks I’ll like.”

  “That’s the first thing you’ve told me about yourself.” Haiden noted. “You hate shopping.”

  “I hate heels and dresses too.” I said, tugging on the hem of my dress, which had risen up to the middle of my thighs when I sat down.

  “What’s your story?” Haiden studied me, and I looked away.

  “I’m just like anyone else.” I shrugged.

  “I don’t think you are.” He disagreed.

  “Well sorry.” I scooted away from him. “I’m really not ready for this soulmate thing.”

  “You and me both.” Haiden scooted to his own side of the couch, and I looked at him.

  “What do you mean? You took me to Olive Garden like you were expecting to find me, even though you didn’t talk to me until we got to the art studio.” I folded my arms.

>   “I had no idea I was going to meet you there.” Haiden admitted.

  “What?” I frowned.

  “I’m supposed to be able to find you. You know that, it’s one of the basic shifter rules, but it didn’t work for me.” He explained. My eyebrows knitted together, an outward expression of my inward confusion.

  “Then how did you know I was your soulmate?”

  “Your cotie matches mine.” He gestured to the mate marks on my leg, the ones that trailed all the way up to my waist, not that he could see it. “I noticed during the tour.”

  “But didn’t you think you should be waiting until you could find me?” I challenged.

  “No.” Haiden shook his head, but didn’t say anything else.

  “Why not?” I prodded, wanting to know how we had ended up in the same place if he didn’t know that I was going to be there.

  “I can’t open myself up to you before I know anything about you.” He shrugged. “You know at least a little about me, but I have no idea who you are. Tell me about yourself and I’ll answer your questions.”

  I folded my arms. I hated opening up to people, and honestly, I didn’t open up to people. I let them guess about me, I let them ask questions but didn’t answer their questions honestly. The only person who really knew me was Brooke, but she had been my best friend since the 6th grade.

  “What do you want to know?” I finally asked. I wouldn’t tell Haiden everything, but I could tell him a little.

  I wanted to know how he found me, and if that’s what it took, I would deal with it.

  “Everything.” He said.

  “You can ask me three questions.” I decided.

  “Alright.” Haiden nodded. “Where are you from?”

  “I was born in Pennsylvania, but had to move to Poulsbo, Washington when I was nine. My parents were killed when shifters came out to the world.” I replied.

  “Who raised you?” Haiden checked.

  “My aunt and uncle.” My expression remained flat, even as I remembered their faces. I remembered their words, the way they had made me feel.

  The way they had treated me.

  The memories were painful, and wouldn’t leave me no matter how much I wished they would.