by Ardy Kelly
It wasn’t until she graduated college and returned to Lone Wolves Ranch that she finally discovered happiness. She met and fell in love with her true mate.
Despite the relatively lax requirements for a shifter mating, what Diana most desired was a “traditional” wedding. “I want the whole family there,” she said. “Especially Mother.”
Though Raff offered to pay for a beach in Maui or a vineyard in Napa, Diana insisted it be on the patchy lawn that overlooked a basketball court behind the guardhouse.
The groom was happy to participate in the human mating ritual. “Anything to please the new in-laws.”
Pleasing wasn’t Diana’s intent. She was going to make sure the three Morehouse women got a taste of life at Lone Wolves Ranch.
Which is where Chapter One starts.
Except…
There is one more piece of family history that will play a part in the story. With Mr. Packman now convinced David was human and Constance never wishing to learn anything about the shifter culture, certain telltale signs were missed.
No one in the family knew that David was an omega.
Not even David.
Chapter 1 - Two Years Ago
David was convinced he had died and gone to hell. How else could he have ended up at his future brother-in-law’s bachelor party?
Truthfully, his sister deserved the blame. Diana had goaded her fiancé into inviting him. “Lionel, you two could use some bonding time.”
David attempted various excuses but she silenced him with, “Could it be any worse than babysitting Mother?”
“I’d rather go to your bachelorette party tonight. At least I’ll know one person there.”
She shook her head. “Sorry. Ladies-only night. And you need to get to know Lionel.”
Which left the mythical road lined with good intentions dead-ending here. In hell.
David wasn’t much of a drinker. He would have enjoyed a beer or two, but early in the evening, there was a game that involved performing oral sex on the keg spigot. David declined a turn, despite his experience with deep throating. Lying, he claimed he was working toward his thirty-day chip in Alcoholics Anonymous. He hoped he remembered the fib during the champagne toast.
He waited patiently for all the groomsmen to shift and go off on their run, but the group lacked enthusiasm for leaving.
It became obvious why when a giant cake rolled into the room. The stereo blasted the song “Catch Me If You Can” just as a naked woman popped out of the top layer, singing along to the lyrics.
The groomsmen cheered, lifting her out of the paper mâché dessert. When her feet hit the ground, she shifted into a rabbit, shaking her tail and hopping up on the groom’s lap. Never losing the beat, she shifted back to human for the chorus, before moving onto the laps of the rest of the guys.
David took a step back, hoping to hide before the party-animal found him. Mother had protected her children from what she called “the shifter culture’s glorification of their baser desires.” Much as David prided himself on being less lycraphobic than his mother, the sight of grown men salivating at the sight of an actual bunny wagging her butt strengthened her argument.
There was a brief interruption as a cool draft of air proceeded the slam of a door.
Standing at the entrance, imperiously witnessing the bunny debauchery, stood Constance Morehouse-Packman. She gave an icy stare at the groom-to-be.
“Sorry to interrupt the…entertainment,” she said with enough of a sneer to frighten the rabbit who hadn’t been scared of a pack of wolves. “I need to speak to my son. In private.”
David fell in behind her as she exited, relieved for any excuse to escape. He hoped she had a big enough problem to prevent him having to return to the party. Not that the festivities would last much longer. Fun rarely survived a visit from Constance.
Outside, she scanned for eavesdroppers while walking briskly toward the parked cars. “Darling, we’ve got a little situation, and I need your help.”
He nodded, willing to do whatever it took for his freedom.
“Your sister has been arrested.”
David blinked. “What?”
She threw her hands in the air. “Isn’t it obvious? It’s this place. They’re all so free and…animalistic. No sense of dignity or decorum.”
“That doesn’t get you arrested.”
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Her bachelorette party stripped naked and paraded through Timber Crossing.” She placed her hand on David’s arm. “That’s where our side of the family is staying. It’s imperative they don’t hear of this.”
That was why he wasn’t invited to his sister’s event. He would have talked her out of it. “Why would she do that?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Diana has a vendetta against me. This is all about embarrassing the Morehouses.”
“It can’t just be about that,” he reasoned.
“Oh David, are you really so blind to your sister’s faults? Why else would she insist on a wedding at the one place I swore I would never set foot in?”
“Maybe she likes it here,” David offered.
“Of course she likes it here with all her shifter friends, but that’s not the point. Instead of just biting her mate—or whatever these wolves do—she chose to have a traditional wedding here. Why? I’ve seen better looking dog parks. This isn’t about the wedding. This is about punishing every Morehouse because she thinks we abandoned her.”
David rarely contradicted his mother for the same reason he didn’t argue with the television. Neither heard him. But her martyrdom would only escalate tensions this weekend. “You sort of did abandon her after she shifted.”
“I did no such thing. I encouraged her to spend more time with her father. I don’t know the first thing about raising a shifter.”
David’s nervous stomach rumbled ominously. The condition had developed during his teenage years when the family tradition of polite civility gave way to dysfunction and recrimination. After a battery of tests, the doctors declared it was stress induced, which was only partly true.
David had no stomach for conflict. Fighting, both physical and verbal, made him ill. He developed two coping strategies—being agreeable or being absent.
Neither was an option tonight. Constance was correct that Diana’s motive was to force the Morehouses onto Lone Wolves Ranch. “They don’t know the first thing about shifters,” Diana had told him. “I refuse to let them stick their heads in the sand any longer. It’s time to shatter their stereotype of us.”
Mother and daughter were on a collision course of conflict if David didn’t try to defuse the situation. “To Diana, you were someone who was confident that you knew exactly how to raise her for thirteen years. Then she shifted, and you didn’t see her as Diana anymore. She still thought of herself as Diana, but you suddenly saw her as something less.”
“Don’t fool yourself. A Morehouse daughter would never parade naked through a town. Even one as small as Timber Crossing. This is her wolf behavior, and no amount of my mothering is going to change that.”
In thirty-six hours, this will all be over. David took a few calming breaths. “What do you want me to do?”
She produced a stack of $100 bills. “Go bail her out. Bribe the sheriff if you have to. A small-town lawman shouldn’t be hard to pay off.” She shoved the money into David’s hands. “Now, walk me back to your father’s house. I don’t feel safe alone at night here.”
A bell attached to the door clanged when David entered the sheriff’s station. He didn’t expect high-tech security in Timber Crossing, but this was folksier than even he imagined. It was also ineffective, drowned out by the sound of drunken bridesmaids chanting, “Take it off!”
It was twenty degrees cooler inside than outside, and David zipped up his coat while crossing to the counter. He rang the desk bell, synchronizing the tapping to ring between the chants.
A tall man in a tan uniform emerged from where the noise originated. David couldn’t be
sure whether the sheriff was running his hands through his blond hair, or pulling it out by the roots.
He straightened and the two men locked eyes. Despite never attending sheriff school, David was pretty sure it was unusual for men in uniform to look so startled when someone walked into the station. He willed himself to blink. If this man was the prison guard, no wonder the bachelorette party broke the law.
Lionel’s party was full of big, broad men but none of them compared to the uniformed hottie. The chin was chiseled, the blond hair tussled, and his blue eyes sparkled.
A genuine smile replaced the brief look of shock on the man’s face. “Can I help you?”
David swallowed. “Who do I speak to about releasing the bride and bridesmaids?”
“That would be me.” He held out his hand. “I’m the sheriff. Chet Thompson. And unless you brought tranquilizing darts, they’ll eat you alive.”
“I’m David.”
They shook hands.
Something in the touch of his hand made the temperature in the room seem to rise. David took a deep breath in through his nose. Spending the day at the ranch had awakened his ability to “sniff out” a shifter. The sheriff smelled really good but in an entirely different way, making the joke about being eaten alive unintentionally ironic.
“My sister is the bride-to-be, and she is too obsessed about fitting in her dress to eat anyone.”
Chet seemed surprised. “Your sister?”
“Twin sister.”
“Identical twins?” Chet paused. “Oh yeah. She’s a girl and you’re a boy, so probably not. I guess that was a stupid question, even for a back-country sheriff.”
“You’re not the first to ask it.” He shivered. “Is it always this cold in here?”
Chet shook his head. “No, I had to crank the AC up. It was the only way to keep the bridal party from flashing me every time I walked by.”
Is it too early to pull out the stack of money? “So, about my sister. Do I need a wedding cake with a file in it to take her home?”
“Can’t help you right now. It’s my dinner break.” He crossed the room, almost brushing against David. “But if you want to come along, I wouldn’t mind the company.” Chet held the door open.
The warm night air felt good after the chill of the air conditioning. The warmth in the sheriff’s smile felt even better.
Chet cocked his head. “Are you coming?”
David blinked. “Yes, yes.” He hurried out the door, too embarrassed to look Chet in the eye.
They walk silently for a bit, and David debated whether this was a friendly invitation or something more. He’s probably straight and you’re reading too much into this.
“Where are you visiting from?” Chet asked.
“San Francisco.”
“Well, Mabel’s Café may not be up to your culinary standards, but us locals love it.”
“I’m not snobbish about food,” David answered.
“What are you snobbish about?”
David laughed. “Can’t think of anything off the top of my head.”
As they entered, an older woman glanced at her watch. “I figured you’d be late for dinner once I saw the parade of naked women chanting ‘Lock us up.’”
“Bridesmaid’s party,” Chet replied. “David, this is the world-famous Mabel of Mabel’s Café. Mabel, this is David. Brother of the bride, come to bail her out.”
“Flattery doesn’t work on me,” she said. “The kitchen closes in fifteen minutes, so you’d better order quick.”
Chet gently placed his hand between David’s shoulder blades and steered him to a table in the back. The touch felt both reassuring and intimate, and David leaned into it.
The contact was lost when Chet took his seat. David turned to survey the room.
“Something wrong?”
“No,” David replied. “I just always make sure to see what other people are eating when I walk through a restaurant. I completely forgot this time.”
David glanced at the other tables. The salads looked good, but it was the red meat that caught his eye. Must be from visiting the ranch.
When Chet ordered a burger, David did the same. Once the waitress left, he leaned toward the sheriff. “I know you said it was your dinner break, but I’ve got family depending on me to return with the inmates. Certainly, the bride at least. Will we need a lawyer?”
“Don’t bother. I’ll let them go once we finish eating. They need time to sober up and feel miserable enough that they’ll never do it again.”
David relaxed at the words, assured there would not be a Morehouse scandal tonight. He could simply enjoy the company of the sinfully attractive sheriff.
“Why did you leave Lone Wolves Ranch but your sister stayed?”
Nothing I can explain to a human. “I never lived at the ranch. Dad and Diana moved here when my parents separated. I stayed with Mother.”
“That’s odd.” Chet gave him a puzzled look. “For Lone Wolves Ranch,” he quickly added.
Is Chet signaling he knows about the ranch? “It was an unusual marriage.” He steered the conversation into safer territory. “How about you? Have you always lived in Timber Crossing?”
Chet shook his head. “No. I grew up farther north, near the Oregon border. Not that the town was much different.”
“How did you end up here?”
“Well, the official story is that I came out here on a vacation and fell in love with the place.”
“But that isn’t true?”
“It’s true,” Chet replied. “As far as it goes. I was moving to Los Angeles.”
“To be a movie star?” David winced at his words. Of all the stupid things to say.
Chet covered his blush with a shrug. “Or a model. Everyone always told me I should go to Hollywood. Even the school guidance counselor. I thought it would be easy money.”
“I guess that didn’t work out when you got there?”
“Never made it. I took a detour to see Yosemite, and found Timber Crossing.”
David suspected there was more to the story than just a detour stopover. “And when you saw the town, it was too beautiful to leave?”
Chet smiled. “I saw what was waiting for me in Los Angeles. A vision, I guess you would call it. It wasn’t what I wanted for my life.”
“Maybe it was just stage fright.”
“No,” Chet replied. “I’ve learned to trust when fate taps me on the shoulder. If I don’t, it usually slaps me in the face. I’ve never been comfortable with the way I look, so why did I think I’d be comfortable acting or modeling?”
“You’re not comfortable with how you look? You’re stunning.”
Chet blushed again. “That’s what people say. Then they make all kinds of assumptions about who I am based on my appearance. I probably would have been settled down by now if I had been ordinary.”
“I’m ordinary, and I’m still single.”
“I don’t think you’re ordinary at all.”
It was David’s turn to blush. Maybe he isn’t straight. All my friends tell me my gaydar is worse than Liza Minelli’s. “Your vision told you to stay in Timber Crossing?”
“People told me my face would open doors. The vision showed me they were only bedroom doors.”
“Wow. Going from movie star to sheriff is quite a career change.”
“Yeah,” Chet agreed. “Sheriffs have to do their own stunt work.”
The food arrived before David could ask how Timber Crossing fit in the vision. They smiled at each other between bites, each smile growing a little warmer.
“What about you?” Chet asked. “What do you do for a living?”
“I’m a chef.”
“A chef who’s not snobbish about food?”
David chuckled. “I’ve cooked in restaurants, diners, and taco trucks. I’ve run a deep fryer at a state fair. I’ve even cooked over a campfire for a wilderness retreat. For me, it’s more about people enjoying what I make. The only downside is that I have to wo
rk nights.”
“Do you have your own restaurant?”
David shook his head. “It’s a dream, but rents are so high in the city I would never make a profit.”
“Who says it has to be in the city?”
David shrugged. “I know the city. It is bad business opening a restaurant if you don’t know the area. I’m the risk-averse type.”
“Is that why you’re single?”
Before he could answer, Chet flagged down Mabel. “Do you think Timber Crossing could support another restaurant?”
“I wish we had one! Then I could close for dinner. I’m getting too old to be working morning, noon, and night. Some couple is opening an Italian restaurant in the old jewelry store. I tried to give them advice, but they said they were planning something more upscale than my café.”
“Sounds too snooty for Timber Crossing,” Chet said.
Mabel nodded as she flipped through the receipts in her apron for their bill. “I predict they’ll be out of business in two years. People shouldn’t open restaurants if they don’t know the area.”
“Unless they have expert advice from someone like yourself,” Chet added.
Mabel rested a hand on her hip. “Are you thinking of changing careers? Because your sheriff’s uniform is sexier than any chef outfit.”
“Not me,” Chet replied. “David wants to open his own restaurant.”
She looked at the two men with a twinkle in her eyes. “Well, I’d be happy to help any friend of Chet’s. Don’t hesitate to ask.”
As she walked away, David pulled cash out of his wallet.
Chet held up a hand. “Sorry, can’t let you pay. It might look like you’re trying to bribe an officer of the law.”
“Well, we certainly can’t have the town gossiping about you.”
Chet laughed. “Try to stop them.” He stood. “Now let’s see if we can solve the case of the missing clothes. Nobody had any keys on them, so they must be nearby. Where are the out-of-towners staying?”
