Fearful Symmetry

Tiger shifter, Valens Thatcher, is the only doctor on Thatcherton mountain. He knows just how fragile and mortal humans are. He’s patched up enough of them to know. When a woman walks into his office needing stitches, he’s furious to learn she is his mate. Especially when he finds out exactly who she is.

Isa Ellis is a daredevil. She enjoys doing dangerous stunts. She built her entire online career as an adrenaline junkie. She loves it too much to ever give it up. When she needs stitches, she’s not bothered. At least, not until the doctor gives her a lecture about the dangers of her lifestyle. The doctor might be hot, but no one tells her what to do.

The pair couldn’t be any more different. But the polar opposites can’t seem to stay away from each other. Especially not when fate is involved. Yet, no matter how strong the pull is between the destined mates, trouble is brewing on the mountain. More than one enemy lurks in the shadows.

Fate will need the help of a few dares to get these two together…

Valens

Valens Thatcher was a damn doctor.

A good looking one, too, if he did say so himself... But for whatever reason, tonight, the ladies in the bar weren’t responding to his charms. 

Maybe they sensed he was in a shit mood. 

Not that Valens had anything to be mad or upset about. He had a good life. He had a practice on his family’s land on Thatcher Mountain. Being the doctor for a streak of tigers would have been boring, but thankfully, every summer, tourists descended on the mountain like their lives depended on it.

Not that they treated their lives with any sort of care.

Humans did a lot of dumb shit on the mountain during the summer. That kept him busy. 

Thank god, because I can’t take your moping anymore.

Valens knocked back his bourbon, ignoring his tiger. He had to agree that he was particularly grouchy, but he didn’t know why. After a strange summer last year, things had settled on the mountain. Sure, there was a whole thing happening because the wolves in Mainville, the next mountain over, were involved in some bad stuff.

But the tigers were fine.

More than fine, actually.

After a year of engagement, his older brother, Egon, had finally married his mate, Bree. The human was a Thatcher now. It was a nice ceremony on the beach the week before the tourist season began.

Now the tigers had an Alpha Mate.

It was kind of sweet, really. Bree was still heading over to his parents’ place to do her tasks, involving their mother in the whole process. It was touching and a testament to the respect Bree had for shifter traditions.

Valens wasn’t jealous.

No. 

Not at all.

Not even a little, fucking bit.

He knocked on the bar and asked the bartender to top off his drink. Not for the first time, he wished he could get drunk. Maybe then he would understand why he was in a perpetually crap mood.

“Well, look who it is.” 

Valens turned to see his younger brother and Thatcherton’s Mayor, Oz, sit in the seat beside him. “How did you find me?”

Oz chuckled. “You’ve been spending a lot of time here. It was a safe bet.”

“Was it?” Valens emptied his drink again.

“So, unofficially, the family has sent me here to ask you what the fuck is wrong with you lately.”

“Nothing.”

“You’re a bad liar.”

Valens shrugged. “Am I? I don’t think so. I’m a terrific liar. Like right now, I’m going to tell you that you’re my favorite brother. You’ll believe me and leave me alone.”

“You’re a dick. Tell me what’s happening.”

Valens shrugged. “I feel a bit restless, I guess.”

Oz arched a brow. “Restless? Like, you want to meet your mate kind of restless?”

He sputtered on his drink. “No. Nothing like that. I guess I just missed the bustle of tourist season. I’m sure once it really kicks off tomorrow, some human will do a dumb thing, and I’ll feel better.”

Oz laughed. “You really are a dick. You’re sitting here, thinking that you’ll be fine as soon as you can patch up some humans.”

“Well, yeah. That’s my job.”

“Fantastic,” Oz continued to snicker. “You should try having a job for which you need to be elected.”

Valens waved him off. “You still have a year before elections. You’re fine. Besides, who the fuck else are people going to vote for? A wolf from Mainville? After the shit they’re in? Ain’t no chance for that.”

“It’s weird they got involved with all of that illegal stuff, isn’t it?”

Oz nodded. “Can you imagine adopting humans to use them as a scapegoat? I’m just happy Egon found Bree before her life could be destroyed. She’s a good egg.”

Valens puffed out a breath. “Yeah.”

“Okay, seriously. What is up with you? Do you not like our new sister?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t think our mates could be humans. I mean, I know it happens, but the Alpha’s mate is a human.”

“And?”

“What if I’m fated to be with a human too?”

Oz scrunched up his face. “I don’t get the issue.”

“They’re fragile. They die easily. Just look at what happened to Old Man Warner. He used to be a brilliant artist, but now — he’s a half-mad tiger who prefers to be an animal than work on his art. If I couldn’t be a doctor, I don’t know what I would do.”

“I don’t understand how you, maybe, having a human mate would mean you can’t be a doctor anymore.”

“Well,” Valens sighed. “If she was human, whoever she is, when she dies, I’d lose my mind. Fate,” he spoke to the ceiling, “if you’re gonna send me a mate, make sure she’s a shifter. Something cool like a lioness or a mermaid.”

“Mermaids aren’t real,” Oz laughed.

“Something cool. Not human. My dick is a no-human zone.”

Oz tapped his back. “You just totally jinxed yourself. You know that, right? You just tempted fate.”

“Did not.”

Valens asked for another drink and downed one, too, barely tasting the bourbon. “I don’t think I’m tempting anything.”

“I guess time will tell,” Oz laughed. “Better you than me, though. For the next year, I need to be on my best behavior. Be the best Mayor this town has ever seen to secure my job for the next little while.”

“You chose politics,” Valens reminded his brother.

Oz merely shrugged. “Naw. You don’t choose politics. They choose. Especially in this family. What was I gonna do? Let someone else run this town? It should be a Thatcher, and with Egon as the Alpha, it should’ve been you as the next eldest.”

Valens shook his head. “No way.”

“Exactly,” Oz grumbled with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You didn’t do what was expected, and now it’s on me. No biggie.”

He thought about his brother’s words for a moment. “I hope you’re happy as Mayor, Oz. If you’re not, you can always choose to do something else.”

Oz slapped his leg and choked on a dry chuckle. “Not how it works. It was a calling to do right by the family. By the streak. I didn’t get a choice any more than we get to pick our mates.”

Valens knew that was true, but he once begged fate to bring him a nice shifter mate.

Just, please... NOT a human.