Bjorn Ritter only wants one thing -- to live his life away from nosey, demanding bears. That's easier said than done when you're the son of the female running the Bayside Bear Community. Cecil Baxter might be a bat, but he grew up away from shifter communities and he's doing his best to continue to keep his distance. Shifters aren't an accepting bunch and Cecil has never fit the norm. Already facing a dreaded meeting with his mother, the last thing Bjorn needs is a stranger using his elevator to escape a pack of werewolves. And Cecil, whose day just seems to be getting worse and worse, could really do without the added stress of finding himself trapped in an elevator with a huge bear shifter. Still, what could go wrong in three minutes?

Elevator Pitch

If he allowed them to usher him into a dead-end street or somewhere desolate, he’d be in a world of pain. Wolves weren’t known to hold back, and he didn’t think these would listen to an apology.


Cecil had grown up in the system, he knew bullies when he saw them. The only reason he was alive today was because the social workers hadn’t known he was a shifter—they didn’t know shifters existed. Had they placed him in a wolf pack or in a bear community they’d have killed him. He had none of the extra strength most shifters had. He was small, slim, and weak. It made him an easy target, something they’d figured out once he’d turned eighteen and was thrown out on the streets.


All he wanted was to blend in with the humans, work, and paint. They could have their empires and pack hierarchies, he wanted nothing of it.


Chapter 3