by Vivian Wood
He tried to pretend he didn’t care, but the question had rankled him since the day Brooke broke up with him. He’d desperately searched for a reason, any reason at all that Brooke would just dump him out of the blue and then get engaged to another guy right away. She’d always been so genuine, so loving…
“You are in maaaaaajor denial,” Penny said, dusting herself off.
Pax was hardly listening. Brooke’s future mother in law had sidelined Chase, cozying up to him in an almost flirtatious way. While Chase was distracted, Travis was hauling Brooke away from the picnic by the arm, looking equal parts pissed and determined.
Pax stood and left Penny, trailing far enough behind Brooke and her fiance that they wouldn’t know he was listening and watching. His wolf senses gave him the advantage in this scenario.
“—embarrassing me, Brooke,” Travis hissed, gripping her arm.
“I didn’t do anything, Travis.” Brooke jerked from the other man’s grip, looking angry.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you today. First you’re inattentive to Councilman Stevens, after Mother made such an effort to get him out here today.”
“Yeah, I’d love to know how she got him to be one of your groomsmen,” Brooke muttered, crossing her arms. “It’s not exactly romantic, using the wedding for your political aspirations, Trav.”
“Our aspirations, Brooke. From here on out, you represent me, and I provide for you and our future children. I’ve been very, very clear about that, haven’t I?” Travis hissed, wrapping a hand around Brooke’s shoulder.
“Perfectly,” Brooke said through gritted teeth.
“You need to get out there and smile. Otherwise, what are you bringing to the table? Certainly not intelligence or grace, I’ll tell you that much. Isn’t this a partnership?” he snapped.
To Paxton’s horror, Brooke seemed to deflate at that. She gave him a weak nod, and Travis turned her and shoved her toward the rest of the party.
“Go flirt with the Councilman. He’s been undressing you with his eyes all day. Everyone has, actually. You really shouldn’t dress like such a slut. My future wife needs to be pristine.”
Pax sighed and slunk off toward the beer cooler, pretending he hadn’t been eavesdropping. Brooke and Travis walked past him, Brooke’s face flaming with embarrassment. Travis, for his part, just looked like a smug asshole. Pax was beginning to think that was just the guy’s neutral expression. Resting Jerk Face.
He started to trail Brooke as she headed over to where Chase and the Councilman were engaged in a heated debate of some sort, then paused. Lifting his nose, Pax scented the air. Travis was right on Brooke’s heels, his obnoxious cheap cologne obscuring her delicate lavender-and-lemon scent. There was something else though, hidden under all that…
Shifter. Not a wolf or a bear, but something else. A mountain lion, if Pax had to guess.
Across the way, Chase’s head went up, too. Pax could see the same realization happening on his friend’s face. Pax had heard Brooke ask Chase about his eyes. If she didn’t know that the eerie eyes were part of the whole shifter thing…
“Son of a bitch!” Pax cursed. “She doesn’t know about us.”
How the hell could that dirtbag not tell her? Even more confusing, how could Travis have kept from marking Brooke? If he loved her at all, he would have claimed her. Brooke was not only unmarked, but she didn’t even carry the guy’s scent on her skin.
Pax’s eyes narrowed. Something very fishy was going on here.
Chase stalked away from the Councilman and approached Brooke, leaning close to whisper something in her ear. She nodded and Pax noticed Chase making a subtle hand signal to Harlan, who steered himself and Penny into the Councilman’s path, monopolizing the local politician’s attention.
“Paxton!” Chase called, waving Pax over.
Pax went along for curiosity’s sake. He regretted it about three seconds later when Chase grabbed Pax’s elbow and dragged him over to stand before Travis. Pax, Travis, and Chase all scowled at each other for several long seconds. Pax’s lips lifted in a smirk as he stared down at the smaller shifter. After a few seconds, the WASPy asshole started to at least look a little uncomfortable, and then Chase jumped in to stir the pot.
“So, Travis, this is Paxton. This is the guy who my sister picked first,” Chase drawled, arching a brow at his soon-to-be brother in law.
Travis’s jaw clenched.
“I guess we know who she picked, though,” Travis challenged.
Paxton raised his hands and shrugged.
“I got no skin in the game,” was all he managed.
Travis grunted, still bristling.
“It’s hard to imagine what little Brookie could have been thinking when she traded out my good friend Pax here. He’s a medaled Marine officer, after all. And she loved him a lot.”
Travis flushed dark red, which was the only thing that kept Pax from rounding on Chase.
“Are we done here?” Pax asked, growing impatient.
“Sure, sure. Hey, why don’t you go check the apple bin while I chat with Travis? We’re going to be family, after all.” Chase grinned and threw an arm around Travis’s shoulders, his smile widening when the smaller man stiffened at the touch. “We have a ton of stuff to talk about, don’t we Travis?”
The apple bin…
It took Pax a few seconds to catch up with Chase’s reference. He looked around and saw that Brooke was nowhere to be found. Chase had found Pax and Brooke leaning up against the cellar doors once, hidden from the main house by a huge crate of freshly picked apples. By leaning up against, Pax meant pawing each other, tongues impossibly tangled.
Just the reminder of that day, the weight of Brooke’s firm breast in his hand, her skin smooth and warm as she’d pressed against Pax with a hungry look in her eyes… He’d taken Brooke’s virginity only hours later, the first time of many that he’d enjoyed her lush body.
Rolling his eyes at the faint tension growing in his body, Pax headed off around the house.
True to Chase’s prediction, Brooke was hiding out by the apple bin. Two old, thick oak walls concealed her from the picnic, rising ten feet in the air and providing a little shelter from the chilly afternoon breeze.
She’d kicked off her heels and stood barefoot in the early spring grass, wiping at one of her artfully kohl-rimmed eyes with a lacy handkerchief. That alone put him off for a beat; the Brooke he’d known was free and spontaneous and wild. She’d never have thought to bring a handkerchief to stave off tears.
Then the thought struck Pax that maybe this, the crying, was a regular part of her life now. That urged him forward, moving too silently for his own good. He was only a few steps away when Brooke noticed him, giving a little jerk before she identified him.
Then she leaned back against the apple bin wall with a soft sigh, staring heavenward.
“Of course,” she mumbled. “Of course you’re here.”
“Do you want me to go?” Pax said. Even as he spoke, he sidled forward and leaned against the wall beside her, making sure to put several inches between them. Giving her space.
“No,” she said, then fell silent.
He couldn’t help but compare and contrast himself and Brooke. While she wore that fancy designer outfit, Pax wore a simple t-shirt and well-worn jeans. Her skin was lily-pale, his was already tanned despite the earliness of the spring season. She wore heels, he wore Doc Martens.
They each wore their armor, he supposed. They each had their lives, their interests, their hobbies. Well, Pax actually didn’t have much other than Chase, Harlan, and the lodge, but Brooke didn’t need to know that…
“Why are you hiding out?” Pax ventured at last, glancing over at her.
Brooke pursed her lips, her brow furrowing in that way that said she was really distressed.
“I shouldn’t be,” she said, pushing off the wall. She slid her feet back in her heels, making to leave.
Without thought, Pax reached out and snagged her w
rist, stopping her from moving. Brooke resisted for the barest moment, then turned back to face him. To his surprise, she stepped right up against him, staring up at him for a long moment.
Tears glistened in her beautiful hazel eyes, unshed but looming. She watched him, that same long-ago hunger flaring in her gaze.
“I never had a choice, you know,” she murmured, her lashes lowering. “I never would have…”
She didn’t finish her thought, her lips thinning. A tear broke free and rolled down her cheek as she lifted up on her tiptoes, pressing her mouth to Pax’s. Pax wrapped a hand around her waist, the action reflexive, as Brooke sighed against his lips. Heat flashed through his body. Brooke’s soft, familiar scent surrounded him, stiffening his cock and obliterating all rational thought.
Just like that, she pulled back again. She spun and fled from him, a strangled sound coming from her throat. Pax didn’t follow her, too confused by what had just happened.
Hand on his lips, Paxton just watched her go, hearing her words echo in his head.
I never had a choice.
Chapter Four
“Fine! I will find another venue, thank you very much!” Brooke snapped, disconnecting the call.
She stood on the porch at Winter Pass, leaning down and taking a deep breath. She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to suppress the urge to scream. She was already close to pulling her hair out over the idea of becoming a Marchand; now everything in the wedding was starting to go wrong.
Her first thought was how the hell she was going to tell Travis. His family had married at that chapel for three generations, and telling him he’d be the first to break the tradition would be… unpleasant. Travis loathed surprises, especially the kind that were unfavorable to his expectations.
After their fight at the barbecue last night, Brooke had crashed on Chase’s couch rather than go back to her apartment and face her fiance. Now the thought of seeing him, giving him bad news after their argument, turned Brooke’s stomach to lead.
“Are you going to puke?”
Brooke glanced up to find her brother approaching with two steaming cups of coffee in hand.
“No.” She frowned. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Here,” Chase said, handing it over.
Brooke accepted it and took a sip, then walked over and settled on the edge of the porch, sitting and folding her legs underneath her. Chase sat next to her, keeping his curiosity to himself. He’d always been good at that.
“The chapel double booked the day of my wedding,” Brooke sighed. “Travis’s mother pulled some strings to get us the date, but now the church is pulling the rug out from under us.”
“When exactly did you start planning this wedding? I haven’t heard you say a word about it in any of the emails we’ve exchanged in the last six months,” Chase said, raising a brow.
Brooke snorted.
“You’ve been here at the lodge, in the same town as me, and I didn’t even know. I guess neither of us has done a good job of keeping the other informed, huh?”
Chase cocked his head.
“That’s not an answer.”
“Fine,” Brooke shrugged. “I almost left Travis about eight months ago. I got tired of… well, a lot of things, but mainly the waiting. I literally had a bag packed, ready to take a vacation to Europe until the scandal of me leaving Travis blew over.”
“But you stayed, obviously.”
“Yeah. He took me out to this really nice restaurant in the city, invited a bunch of important people. He sort of re-popped the question, asked me to set a date with him. It was romantic, I guess. We booked the chapel right after that.”
Chase’s gaze narrowed, his lips thinning.
“But he didn’t get romantic until you were going to leave him,” her brother replied.
“Yeah. It’s… complicated,” Brooke said, sipping her coffee. Avoiding the hard stuff, as usual. Maybe Chase deserved to know, but she’d rather keep it from her big brother as long as possible. If Brooke went through with this, married Travis and met all his expectations, there was no reason for anyone to know…
“Is there something you need to tell me, B?” Chase asked, his tone gentle.
Brooke pursed her lips and shook her head.
“Nah.”
“Cause the thing is, I don’t get you and Travis. I’m not saying you had to stay with Pax, but… they’re opposites. It’s confusing,” Chase went on.
“I was looking for something new, I guess,” Brooke lied.
Chase eyed her for a long moment, then dropped it.
“Kay. As long as it’s what you want,” he said.
Brooke opened her mouth, the truth on the tip of her tongue. Then she looked out at Winter Pass’s beautiful wooded glory, the place her parents had put so much love and sweat into. Chase was just now settling here again, the only place they’d ever called home.
What right did Brooke have to risk all of that?
“Yeah. It’s the right thing,” she said, feeling the bitterness of the lie as she spoke.
“You can do it here, you know,” Chase said. “The wedding, I mean. We have the space. We’d just need to spruce things up. It’s not really at the standard of Lynne Marchand right now, but… we could get some guys out here tomorrow, get it rolling.”
“Yeah?” Brooke said, canting her head and watching her brother. “You think that’d work?”
“Yeah, B,” Chase said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “You should go grab some stuff from your place and stay out here for a few days, make sure it’s all done right. Spend some time with your only sibling. What do you say?”
Brooke smiled and nodded, her anxiety easing a fraction.
Maybe this would all work, after all.
True to his word, Chase had a whole crew of guys working when Brooke arrived at Winter Pass the next morning. After a whole night of Travis’s snarling disappointment, she was ready to hang with her brother and just… not stress.
Everyone chipped in to help the work crew as they swapped out furniture and mattresses, repaired windows, and did a hundred other little tasks. Things went surprisingly fast, and Brooke had a great time clowning around with her brother. She hadn’t let loose in a long time, so wearing a comfortable pair of jeans, drinking beer, and rehashing childhood stories as she worked alongside Chase was pretty amazing.
Unfortunately, hanging with Chase also meant hanging with his two inseparable best friends. Brooke acquainted herself with Penny, Harlan’s new lady, and struck up an easy camaraderie. True to Brooke’s memory, Penny had grown up in Winter Pass, but their parents’ incomes relegated them to two different social classes, preventing them from ever meeting. Brooke had gone to private school, taken horseback riding lessons, joined French club. Penny was more laid back, though at the mention of parents the other woman just rolled her eyes and pulled a face.
Money didn’t matter when it came to crazy parents, apparently. At any rate, Brooke liked Penny instantly… when she could get her attention, that is. Penny and Harlan were glued to the hip, giving each other teasing glances as they moved mattresses and cleaned cobwebs from the highest parts of the lodge’s ceilings.
Just now, Harlan had Penny on his shoulders, walking her around as she giggled and swept a long feather duster over the rafters in the lodge’s big main living room. Brooke tried not to stare as she wiped down baseboards nearby, though Harlan and Penny seemed not to notice anyone else’s presence. They were totally, grossly in love. Brooke wrinkled her nose as she watched them, her stomach giving a funny flip flop.
She remembered what that felt like, all too well..
“Jealous?” Pax asked, coming up behind her on silent feet.
Brooke was crouching to wipe down a baseboard, and he surprised her enough to make her lose her balance. She fell onto her butt and glared up at Paxton, unappreciative of his stealth.
“No,” Brooke said defensively. “I’m just… thinking about other stuff.”
Smooth, Brook
e.
“Riiiiight,” Pax said, wiping sweat from his brow.
Brooke let herself stare at him for a minute. He was clad in a tight white t-shirt and well-worn jeans, plus his usual shit-kicking Doc Marten boots. His dark hair was tousled, his damp shirt clinging to his sculpted shoulders and torso, his jeans slung low on his hips, riding up to give her just a hint of tanned abs and dark hair…
“Don’t know if your fiance would appreciate how you’re looking at me right now, Brooke Harbin.”
Brooke’s eyes widened as she dragged her gaze up to Pax’s face. Already she was flushing, embarrassed at her lapse.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she said, brushing her jeans off and making to get up.
Pax was over her in two steps, holding out a big hand to help her up. Say what you wanted about Paxton Gentry, he was a damn gentleman. He didn’t say anything about her denial, though he looked amused.
“Thanks,” Brooke said, blushing harder as she slid her hand into Pax’s. He pulled her up, his touch sending a thousand little sparks racing across Brooke’s skin, bringing every nerve ending to life.
Pax pulled her up, stepping in so that they were standing toe to toe, hands clasped. He looked down at her, those eerie green eyes searching her face. Looking for… what, exactly?
Brooke ran her tongue across her bottom lip nervously. Pax’s eyes followed the tip of her tongue, then he seemed to give himself a shake. He smirked, releasing her fingers from his.
“Chase asked me to tell you that we’re taking a break. I guess he’s got the hot tub cleaned out and hooked up, so we’re going to kick back and let the crew work for a while,” Pax told her. “Which is great, since I feel like you and I have some unfinished business from yesterday.”
“Ohhhh…” Brooke breathed. She intentionally forced herself to take a big step back, break the spell that Pax held over her at close distance. “It was just… I was blowing off steam.”
“You said something pretty serious to me,” Pax said, arching a brow.
“I was stressed. Trav and I had a fight—” Brooke almost winced at Pax’s reaction to her speaking Travis’s name.
