“How dare you?”
He rubbed his jaw. “We just almost fucked, and now you slap me for a kiss?”
“That was before.”
“When you thought I was Sam?” He moved back in, crowding her with his body. “Did he kiss you like that? Like he couldn’t live without you? Like he hungered for you even after having you again and again and again?”
Her pupils flared. “I—”
“Did he?”
She backed away, scooping up her sneakers and socks. “I can’t do this.”
“Wait.” He stalked after her, stopping just short and stretching out his hand. “Give me a chance. Get to know me. You owe me that.”
“I don’t owe you anything.” She moved back several feet, her expression guarded.
He dropped his hand to his side. “Maybe not. But you owe it to yourself. Before you do anything stupid, make sure which brother is the one you have this connection with. I’ll make you a bet, it’s not Sam.”
A flicker of confusion passed over her face.
“Have dinner with me tonight.”
She shook her head. “I need some space. It’s been a crazy day.”
“Okay, tomorrow night. Dinner. Get to know me. Give me a chance.”
She lifted her eyes to the sky and blew out a large breath. “Okay. Dinner tomorrow night. Pick me up at six. I’m staying in the last guest cabin on site.” She walked away, taking the path back into the woods.
A surge of joy punched through him. He pumped his fist in the air. In the back of his head his wolf answered with a howl. “Hell yeah! I have a date with—”
Damn, he still didn’t know her name.
Chapter Five
Serena walked back to her cabin as fast as her altitude-starved lungs would let her. As soon as she was inside, she locked the door and leaned back on its solid wood panels. “I can’t believe I did that.”
Still reeling from the shock, she made her way on wobbly legs over to the small love seat in front of the fireplace. She leaned back against the smooth leather and stared at the logs, stacked and ready for a match. Her mind was spinning, and she had no idea what to do next. So she did what she’d always done. She picked up the phone and called home.
Her sister Lacey answered. “What’s up?”
A sudden lump formed in Serena’s throat. She tried to speak, but no words came out.
“Serena? That’s you, isn’t it?”
Finally, something emerged. “Mm-hmm.”
“Oh, honey, is it that bad? Mom said you shouldn’t go. Colorado is too far away, isn’t it?”
Right now, it was. Too far away from where she could crawl into Lacey’s arms and receive that fierce, protective hug that sisters always gave come crunch time.
“What is it? Is it the pack? Are they being mean to you? Is it the job? Wait...you don’t start until Monday, right?”
“No, it’s not that.”
“Then what is it? Is it that guy? Sam?”
Hot tears began pouring down her face. “I screwed up, Lacey. God, all of this could have been avoided if I had a physical wolf, like you, and could identify everyone by my nose.”
“Wait a minute. What could have been avoided? I thought he was okay with you being a dreamwalker. If that shifter is giving you any grief I’m coming out there. I’ll tear him apart with my own teeth and claws. No one messes with my sister.”
Serena reached for a tissue from the box some thoughtful person had left on the coffee table. “I haven’t even seen Sam yet. He’s working all day at the restaurant and then he has a night shift as an enforcer.”
“They should pay their enforcers, like we do. That way they wouldn’t have to work two jobs. Being a cop isn’t easy.”
“I think they have a few paid positions.”
“But that’s not it, is it?”
“No.” Serena could almost see Lacey frowning into the phone. Similar size, similar coloring, they almost looked alike to be called twins. Almost. But no one would ever make the kind of mistake that she had. No one. Her throat choked up.
“Tell me.”
“My boss hates me. She wants me to fail. She pretty much told me so.” The more she talked to her sister, the easier the words came. “And the cabin they’ve given me is dark and depressing.” She gave a short laugh. “I don’t think the curtains have been changed out since the seventies. And Lacey...I may have given a blow job to Sam’s twin brother.” That last part came out in a rush, as if by saying it fast her sister would ignore it and focus on the other issues.
The silence on the other end of the phone had Serena’s chest constricting. “Lacey? Are you there?”
“He has a twin? Why the hell didn’t he tell you?”
Relief bubbled up, and her breathing resumed. “Oh, Lacey, it’s such a mess.”
“Dish.”
“I had such a bad day. It took forever to get here. It’s hours away from the airport and by the time I got here I had to walk directly into a meeting with the full council without even changing clothes. And then my boss, Nancy, basically told me I had two weeks before she fires me. So I went for a walk, and there he was. Sam. Like it was meant to be. He shifted and I saw him. And all I could think about was how I wanted him. It’s been so long since I’ve seen him, and all that spark and attraction were still there.”
“But it wasn’t Sam.”
“No.”
“And neither of you figured that out until after you’d blown him?”
“I know. It’s crazy. If I had a physical wolf I’m sure I would have known by his scent, but he’d been running and he smelled like the woods and sweat, and I was just so relieved that I still wanted him after coming out all this way.”
“So, what now? What did he say when he figured out that you thought he was his brother?”
“I have a date.”
Lacey’s laughter echoed into the phone. “That must have been some blow job.”
Serena giggled back. “Oh, Lacey. Thank you.”
“Hey, that’s what sisters are for. What are you going to tell Sam?”
What was she going to tell him? How could she explain? “I don’t know. Here I am with all my social work experience. I have scripts up the ying-yang to give people in tough conversations, but nothing for something like this.”
“You can’t be your own therapist, Serena, you know that.”
“I know, but it doesn’t stop me from feeling like I should know better.” She sighed. “I shouldn’t be such a mess.”
“Sure you should. You’re human too. Or mostly.” Lacey giggled at their old joke. “Okay, enough about that. Tell me about the dragon boss.”
Fifteen minutes later she hung up the phone feeling better, but still unsure of how to break the news to Sam when she saw him in the morning. A cool breeze blew through the cabin. She realized it was getting dark. Night was almost here, and it got cold in the mountains. She got up and turned on a light. The breeze blew stronger and the bedroom door slammed shut.
Serena jumped. “What the—?” She thought she’d closed all the windows and doors when she’d left earlier. She remembered double checking the locks. Hadn’t she?
She turned on every light she could reach as she walked over to the bedroom door. She paused with her hand on the knob and told herself it was just a breeze. This was an old cabin and summer at this altitude meant chilly nights. She eased the door open and poked her nose into the bedroom. In here, it was much darker. She flicked on the switch. This was the room that was tucked up under the old pine tree, with the back door—that was now wide open with only the screen to keep out intruders.
Colder now, she rubbed the goose bumps on her arms and crossed the room to close and bolt the door securely. Next time, for sure, she was triple checking all the doors before she left the house. Twisting the knob and shaking the door, she made sure it was locked tight before going to each and every window and double checking the locks and pulling the curtains closed. Then she checked the front door, opening a
nd closing it firmly before sliding the deadbolt.
The old cabin’s dark wood seemed to close in on her, and she shivered in her shorts and t-shirt. Maybe a fire tonight would be a good idea. It might take away this chill that wouldn’t let her get warm.
Chapter Six
Vince used his binoculars to watch from where he’d parked his car behind a small group of trees. The lights came on in the little cabin and all the curtains were pulled. She was in for the night. Good. He ran a hand over his head and put the binoculars down to take a shaky drink of water. He couldn’t believe he’d been unable to follow her earlier, when she’d ventured into the woods. It would have been the perfect opportunity.
Instead, he’d had to follow up with Nancy. By the time he’d gotten free and snuck into the cabin, he’d only heard the last half of her phone conversation. As he’d listened to Serena tell her sister the details of Nancy’s derision and the challenge of meeting the entire pack council through the poor funnel of the bedroom door, his resolve had hardened.
His mentor had told him he needed to stand up for himself more. And now was the time to do just that. Serena needed him. Needed his kindness, and consideration. Needed someone to support her here, where life was not being kind. Needed what only he, a fellow dreamwalker, could give her.
She needed him. And he wasn’t going to let her down.
Chapter Seven
Gabe waited until after closing to head into the small deli he and Sam had inherited from their dad the year before. The narrow, converted house was a classic example of Old West architecture, tucked away on a narrow, short street right off Main. It was located in downtown Wolf’s Peak, where miners’ houses from the 1800s rubbed elbows with a few newer tall brick buildings. The downstairs of the house held the prep kitchen, lunch counter, and small dining area of the deli. His dad had converted the two small bedrooms upstairs into a one-bedroom apartment with outside access and its own tiny bachelor kitchen. Gabe had taken it over, and it now burst at the seams with not only his stuff, but all the paperwork and computers needed to run a small business.
He reached for his keys to unlock the back door that led through the storage area that his dad had added on in the nineties, and found the door already unlocked.
“Damn it, Sam.” It got dark early here in the looming shadow of Wolf’s Peak. It was tourist season and the town was full of strangers. Sam should know better.
How they could be identical twins and yet have such different ideas of how to run the restaurant, he didn’t know. Blue eyes, brown hair—all the same, even though Sam never remembered to get his cut until it blocked his vision. Their sense of humor, deep sense of loyalty, and commitment to the restaurant—the same. But when it came to things like keeping track of how many jars of mayonnaise they were going through and the bottom line, Sam just didn’t care. All he wanted to do was try new sandwich combinations and invent different kinds of soup.
Gabe pushed open the door, shaking off his annoyance at Sam’s lack of responsibility. He had come here to apologize, not to start a fight. They’d been doing enough of that lately in the last year since his father had passed away. And tonight, they had other things to deal with.
He turned around and made sure the door was securely locked.
“You’re just going to have to unlock that again.” Sam came through the narrow back hallway by the stairs with two large black trash bags in his hands and a wide grin on his face. “I’m not done with the trash.”
Even though he’d just decided not to fight with Sam about this, he found the words coming out of his mouth anyway. “We’re downtown and it’s late. Anyone could come in. It should be locked.”
Sam snorted. “Like anyone here is going to break into a business owned by two enforcers.”
Gabe reopened the door and held it wide for his brother. “That’s not the point. It’s summer, and the place is crawling with out-of-towners.”
Sam pushed past him and dropped the bags into the dumpster across the alley. “You’re right. I’ll do better.” He came back over to the door, raised his arm up, and gave Gabe a quick hug, inhaling his twin’s scent as he did so. He quickly dropped his arm and backed away into the dim light of the single-bulb security light. His eyes and nostrils widened. “Gabe? What the hell?”
Gabe’s hope that this would be an easy conversation died. “Look, Sam, before you lose it—”
“Lose it?” Sam’s fists clenched at his side. He took a step closer to Gabe. “I’m going to lose it unless you have a great explanation for why you smell like Serena.”
“Serena. So that’s her name.”
“Fuck. You reek of her scent and you don’t even know her name? What the hell is going on?”
“It was an accident.”
“An accident? She just flew in today and I haven’t even had a chance to see her.” Sam pushed his too-long hair out of his face and rolled his neck. Loud pops echoed out into the silence between them. “So tell me, brother, what kind of an accident leaves you smelling like my girl on the day she arrived in town?”
“Cool it, Sam. I don’t want to have an argument here in the alley.” Gabe suppressed the urge to shift and fight sliding along his skin. “And she’s not yours.”
“Like hell she isn’t. I knew from the moment I first saw her, from the moment I kissed her. She’s mine.”
The idea of Sam kissing Serena pushed all of Gabe’s good intentions away. “She’s not yours.” He growled. “How much time have you actually spent with her? A day?” At Sam’s cagey look, Gabe pressed harder. “A few hours?” He snorted. “That’s not a relationship, that’s an acquaintance.”
“We’ve been texting.”
“Texting? And what does your wolf think of that? I’m talking spending real time with her, like a date.” Sam’s eyes dropped away. “You’ve never had a date with her. How did you even get to meet her?”
“I met her at her job interview when I was acting security for the council last month in Denver.”
“Well then, I guess we each have a claim on her now.”
Sam’s shoulders stiffened. “I saw her first.”
“We’re not five anymore.”
“For Christ’s sake, I’m not saying we should share her like a toy.”
The idea of sharing Serena with anyone exploded in Gabe, and his wolf rose for the fight. Sam’s shoulders bulged and the shift rippling over his face. The sound of their labored breathing filled the alley.
“Fuck, what are we doing?” Gabe backed as far away as he could get from his twin in the narrow space between the buildings. He waited until his wolf had calmed and he was sure by the sound of his brother’s slowing pants, that both of them were under control. “Sam, I’m not proposing that we share, but I am going to give her the chance to get to know me. I deserve that.”
“What makes you say that?”
Gabe closed his eyes. For a few precious seconds, he wasn’t in an alley with the hot smell of a restaurant dumpster and his pissed-off twin; he was back with Serena in the meadow. Her long black hair, the mystery in her eyes, the feel of her body against his. In the back of his soul, his wolf gave a long howl.
“Because I think she might be the one.”
Sam slumped back against the bricks. His voice was a harsh whisper. “Christ, Gabe, don’t say that.”
Gabe stared at his twin in the shadow of the alley, the recognition of what was to come reflected in what were essentially his own eyes, and listened to Sam’s next words.
“Serena can’t be yours, Gabe. She’s the one for me.”
Chapter Eight
“Open the door, Serena. I know you’re in there,” a familiar male voice shouted. The pounding on her front door jolted Serena out of what had been a heavy sleep.
Holy crap, what time was it? She groped around the unfamiliar room in the dark for the light switch.
“Serena!” More pounding.
She rolled out of bed. “I’m coming. Hold on.” She had to search for her bathrob
e, finally locating it on a chair in the corner. She tossed it on over her t-shirt and yoga pants.
The pounding continued. “Serena!”
She peered out of the small window by the front door. She could just make out the figure of a tall man in the shadows cast by the inadequate porch light. It was either Sam or Gabe. God, they even sounded the same! No. From the tense expression on his face and the anger in his voice, it had to be Sam.
Damn. Why hadn’t Gabe let her tell Sam in the morning? She would have been showered and dressed, and her brain wouldn’t be fuzzy with lack of sleep and coffee.
She undid the dead bolt and cracked the door open. “I’m here, Sam.”
He lifted his face and sniffed. “So, it’s true. You slept with him. How could you? What the hell happened?”
Serena looked out into the night. “What time is it?” She was still on East Coast time and after her very full day of travel and stress she’d fallen into bed at eight o’clock. It was very dark outside and this area of the compound looked totally deserted.
“It’s around eleven.” Sam shook his head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think. I usually work nights, so—”
“I get it.” Reminding him of the lateness of the hour somehow calmed him, so she took one more look around the area at the row of dark cabins, then let him in. “Would you like some coffee? I think I can figure out how to work the coffee maker.”
“No.” Sam paced past the small seating area, from the kitchen by the front door, to the fireplace, and back. He stopped, his face twisted in anguish. “What happened?”
“Didn’t Gabe tell you?”
“No. Yes.” He pushed his hair out of his face. “I don’t know.”
His much longer hair than his brother’s. She stared at Sam. They were so much alike and yet now, she was starting to pick up on the differences—Gabe with his hair cut military-short, and Sam with his hair too-long—falling in his blue eyes like an absentminded rock star.
She sat down on one of the large leather seats, sinking into its well-worn cushion and wishing she could just curl up and go to sleep, instead of dealing with all this raw emotion face-to-face. On the dreamscape, where she handled her patients, there was always the option to wake up and make it all go away. But Sam, with his hurt written all over his face and his big hands tight with anger, was right here. All six foot four of him. And he wasn’t going away without answers.
Claimed Mate Page 3
