For these two, having an arranged marriage could either be a catastrophe, or the best thing that’s ever happened to them. Cam has always known that his mating would be arranged by his father, and his best hope is for a mate who respects him and could eventually be friends with him. He has no choice in the matter and is resigned to the worst-case scenario of a mate he’ll end up hating for the rest of his life. His biggest worry is that he’ll no longer be able to keep his best friend in his life. If his mate says he can’t have friends, that will be the end of it and he won’t be able to say a thing against that decision. It’s his worst fear, and he can’t keep his tears at bay even during his own mating ceremony as he feels like he’s losing the only real friend he’s ever had. Jenner isn’t entirely sure why his new mate looks like he’s going to his death. He wants to be friends with Cam, and his traditions make it hard to get close to him. His father wanted to make sure he fell in love before he was thirty and thought mating him to someone would be the best way to get that accomplished. Jenner is looking forward to getting to know his new mate, if only Cam will let that happen. The little glimpses he’s had of the real Cam tell him he’s been mated to a feisty man who won’t back down, and Jenner wants more time with that side of him and a lot less with the one who only wants to do what’s expected of them and looks absolutely miserable all the time. Having an arranged mating isn’t ideal, but for Cam and Jenner it might be the best thing for them both.

Being forced into an arranged mating is the last thing Leo needs, especially when he knows it will end horribly and he’s already falling for another man. Leo, a cheetah shifter, knows he will be married off to a man of his parents’ choosing. He won’t have any choice in the matter. When his father informs him Antonio will be his mate, he doesn’t exactly like the man, but is determined to make the best of it. Knowing he’ll be cut out of the life he’s known before, he wants to go from Spain to Washington state so he can have a last few days with his best friend Cam. But Cam and his mate are out on vacation and Leo finds Taruk at their house instead. Taruk doesn’t exactly understand the recent trend in the elk herd he belongs to toward having arranged marriages, but he’s not overly worried about it, since he’s not high on the pecking order. After seeing how happy his best friend Jenner is with his mate, Cam, Taruk wonders if it’s not so bad. When Leo shows up while he’s house sitting, he responds to the fear and sadness emanating from the young cheetah. The two are drawn together only to be torn apart when Leo’s promised mate arrives and takes Leo away. The two struggle with the feelings their brief encounter has awakened. Then when disaster strikes, only that new love is enough to hold them both together.

Morris intends to stay in his arranged mating for a month, but his new mate has other ideas. Since he was seventeen, Morris has been working as an escort for Critters on Call. It was the best way for him to get away from his abusive father, but going all over the world for his clients has kept him away from his brother who hasn’t been the same since the last beating their father gave him. His brother, Jeremy, is in one of the best care centers in the world. But that level of care is expensive, and their uncle, who is in charge of paying for Jeremy’s bills, has come for Morris. For years he was allowed to live his life with the knowledge that Jeremy was being taken care of, but now unless Morris agrees to an arranged mating to an elk in Washington, and pretends to be a virgin on top of it all, their uncle is threatening to move Jeremy out of the care center and into somewhere horrible. Harrison isn’t sure why the African shifters are seeking mates within the Washington elk herd, and he doesn’t much care, either. All he wants is to make his family happy, and that means being mated to an elephant he’s never met. Having his own modified version of virginity has always been fine with him, up until he realizes that being with Morris for the first time could have been great. But Morris is nothing like he expected either, and once they get the initial awkwardness out of the way, Harrison is excited to spend his life with his new mate. But Morris has other plans. The deal he made with his uncle was to be mated for a month, and he’s counting down the days. Then control over Jeremy’s life will transfer to him and they can finally be free of their family’s abuse. It would have been a good plan, too, and one he could have lived with, if his past as an escort hadn’t come back at the worst possible time.

After years of being in a walking coma, Jeremy, an elephant shifter, isn’t sure he wants a mate, but when the crab shifter who took care of him during his illness makes the ultimate sacrifice to give him a second chance, all of his resistance breaks down. For Jeremy, being awake and aware again is a miracle. He’s been in a walking coma for years, and knows his recovery could be temporary. No one knows why the medicine worked, or how long he’ll have before a possible relapse. Jeremy plans his days only hours ahead and can’t make commitments further out than that just in case. Which is why he absolutely cannot have a mate. He won’t force someone else to live with him while he’s being a zombie again. It wouldn’t be fair. Ansel knows he’s Jeremy’s mate. He’s known it for years, and he helped take care of him when he was in Florida. Now he’s traveled to Washington to be with him and no matter what happens to Jeremy, Ansel is prepared to stay by his side. Ansel loves him, he only wishes that Jeremy would take him seriously for once and stop pushing him away.

Jacob and Adrian fell in love in high school. They are mates and always have been, but then Adrian cheated. It was one night of stupidity, and it ruined their relationship forever. Or so they both thought. Now, three years later, they’re thrown back together when Adrian’s parents want Jacob to mate with Charlie. Adrian isn’t thrilled with the idea of Jacob being with his little brother, but there’s nothing he can do about it either. If Adrian wants him back, he’ll have to prove to Jacob that he’s never going to hurt him again. But it might already be too late for them.

Charlie is not the first shifter to be interested in West, but he certainly is the most persistent. It doesn’t help that they’re all living together. West needs a break from him, but he can’t get that right now, and it’s not as if Charlie is really doing anything to him. If West was in a different point in his life he might have actually been interested in the crab, but right now he needs to focus more on getting his degree than on starting a relationship. Charlie wants West. That’s undeniable. He doesn’t even care that West used to work for Critters on Call. He likes him and he can’t explain why, or how come West doesn’t seem interested at all. Whatever West needs, Charlie wants to help him with it. He just needs the cheetah to give him a chance. He’s sure if he can impress West enough that eventually West will want him too. Too bad the universe has other plans for them.

A dark secret ties this family together, but it may also set them free. When Malorne came to Kirin asking to drill on his Texas ranch, Kirin thought it was a joke. The animosity between the bear and the bison had been long lived and there was no way Kirin would ever let a bear destroy his land. But Malorne insisted and eventually Kirin gave him a choice. Either he could shut up about it, or Malorne could give Kirin his son. Jackson has been crushing on his neighbor for years. After all, Kirin is attractive, moody, rich, and just two years older than him. If Kirin didn’t seem to hate him so much Jackson would have gone over there to ask him out a long time ago. There’s a world of difference between a date and suddenly finding himself mated to a guy he’s hardly even spoken to. With Jackson being his, Kirin is forced to accept Malorne drilling on his land. The bear gets richer and Kirin only has his son in trade. But there’s a mystery Kirin needs to solve; the murder of his little sister, and Jackson might know far more than he realizes about the horrible crime. When it comes to family, Jackson is loyal to his father, and Kirin will have to show him just how foolish it is to trust the wrong people.

Can beauty tame this wild beast? To his family, Elan is something precious and beautiful to be secreted away and protected at all costs. He's never allowed to be alone and his only hope of freedom is when his parents decide to mate him off. He's felt like a prisoner for years, and he's sick of it. He's a hawk, and he just wants to fly away. Raja was badly burned in a magical fire, and his scars have left him feeling like a monster. He lives a life of isolation, only interrupted by his father's insistence that he get out and explore the world and stop letting his physical appearance limit him. At his wit’s end, his father decides to mate him to Elan, a man Raja could never hope to attract the attention of on his own. Elan wants his freedom, and Raja only wants to be left alone. It should be a simple arrangement where they both get exactly what they want, only falling in love is never so easy, especially when it comes to a beauty and a beast. Word Count: 12,596

Brenda has been asked to come along with her alpha, Aedan, and his human mate, Brody, to settle a bit of an issue in Texas. The local bear shifters are planning to drill for oil in an area that has previously been considered protected territory. They're threatening the ecosystem and these otters are determined to knock some sense into them. The bears are crafty and when one offers Brenda a chance to end it all and protect the environment as she so desperately wants to, Brenda jumps at the opportunity. She only has to mate with the woman's son. He's attractive and seems nice enough. What could possibly go wrong? Everything would be fine, and Hanson and Brenda might have even been happy together, except for one minor issue—Hanson is already in love with someone else, a badger named Roger. His mother's deal is the perfect solution for breaking them apart forever and destroying Hanson's happiness in the process. When Brenda finds out about who Hanson had to give up in order to be with her, she's livid, but she's also determined to find a way around a contract neither of them wanted to sign in the first place. The situation may seem hopeless, but Brenda doesn't believe in no-win scenarios, and she's determined to build a life with the three of them together as they should be.