Mates Inc.

Mate Manual -- Chapter 1

I pressed 'send' and my manuscript revision was complete, another hit penned by 'Connard Reynolds'. I held up my glass of red wine and saluted myself and polished off the glass.

"Well done, Lange!" I said to the room, smirking at my stupid self. I was also laughing since I chose 'Connard' as the writer's first name, which means asshole in French. Too funny. But I almost had enough saved up to buy my 'getaway' house on the coast, I really needed a place I could just hole up in, relax and forget about the world sometimes. Forget about Connard Reynolds.

Then sighing, I thought back to how this all started.

The 'Mate Manual' began three years ago as a joke and bizarrely became popular in both the human and werewolf worlds, but in slightly different versions. The human version had 'soulmate' and 'love', and for the phrase 'mate bond' I substituted 'attraction'.

Worked like a charm.

Well, for the idiot male population at least. And sadly for most of the female portion of the public as well. Most people were stupid where the mating bond was concerned.

I had been so angry watching the male 'players' keep hurting my best friends- and I was so angry at my best friends for being so blind and stupid. Over and over, rinse and repeat, my friends always ALWAYS got their hearts broken.

The fools.

I simply wrote down what I saw the 'players' did to get a female in their bed, all the tactics- both ethical and more often not ethical at all. I even wrote a highly sarcastic introduction and sent it to a few publishers that were famous in the werewolf world, and much to my shock one of them accepted my stupid book.

My little sarcastic book became an instant hit with the 'players', and they started using these tactics on getting more women into their beds- and not just their mates.

Much to my disgust, all men were dogs. Even my own father.

Even my first ex-lover. The thought of him still stung a little, he really was a dog.

Originally, I wanted all my friends and female classmates to read it so they could see how they were being manipulated, just as I had been- but I soon realized that most of my friends enjoyed being tricked and let down time and time again. Most of the she-wolves thought they could change and rehabilitate a player's ways, but they never could if they weren't mates. The 'players' loved the hunt, then moved on to another easy conquest after they got their sexual release.

It wasn't rocket science to figure out.

But the money from the book deal was good so I didn't have to work past my current part-time job at Mates Inc., which I really loved. None of my co-workers or friends knew I had written the 'Mate Manual', and I had to counter-act the damage that stupid book caused every single day I worked there.

Which made me laugh. Every. Single. Time. Having someone come in and complain about how my book ruined their relationship just cracked me up since it was all complete bullshit. When would people realize there were no 'shortcuts' to love? There was no fast way to create a relationship? It took time, time, and more time to really get to know someone, to let their souls fall in love.

Or not.

Finding your wolf 'mate' was actually pretty uncommon, most wolves chose their mates after they reached their late thirties or forties- and wound up having wonderful relationships if they worked at it just like 'human' bonding.