by Mia Wolf
My Two Wolves
A Paranormal Menage Romance
Double Desert Shifters Book 2
Mia Wolf
Copyright © 2020 by The Wolf Sisters Books.
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of the book only. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form, including recording, without prior written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Contents
Chapter 1 – Jordan
Chapter 2 - Emily
Chapter 3 – Max
Chapter 4 – Emily
Chapter 5 – Jordan
Chapter 6 – Max
Chapter 7 – Emily
Chapter 8 – Jordan
Chapter 9 – Emily
Chapter 10 – Max
Chapter 11 – Emily
Chapter 12 – Jordan
Chapter 13 – Emily
Chapter 14 – Max
About the Author
Books by The Wolf Sisters
Chapter 1 – Jordan
I rinsed my hands in the cold water of the river. With my belly full from the hunt, I only wanted to sit back with a beer and enjoy the brightening sky through the treetops. Despite the water being cold, it was refreshing, acting as the nourishing nudge of nature after a night of being Wolf.
Unlike most folks who were born and raised in the Moonstone pack, Max and I had had the opportunity to experience life among the non-shifter population. My time spent with Max in college had served us well and had certainly given us a four-year crash course into the human world. But there was nothing like waiting for the songbirds to wake up before dawn and welcome in the day after a long night of letting my core self be free in the Arizona desert. No matter how much I missed it, and there were days that I truly did miss San Francisco, the city would never be able to match the serine of the desert wilds.
I returned to the fire off the bank, where Max was stoking it with a stick. Our cabins were just beyond, a couple of hundred feet back, but we kept our fire pit near the river. It was comfortable, soothing, and out of the way of most of the trees. We had three logs that served as seating around the pit, with enough space between each to get through, but most importantly, to nestle a cooler between.
Max’s sandy blond hair looked near-orange in the firelight, though the flames couldn’t alter the piercing blue of his eyes. They looked up at me as I approached, and he put his stoking stick down to reach for a beer for me out of the blue cooler.
“Brewsky?” he asked.
I nodded. “Thanks.” I opened the bottle of the pilsner with my teeth and pocketed the cap.
“I don’t know about you,” Max said, sitting on the log across the fire from me, “but I really needed that hunt.”
“I did too.” I straightened and twisted, trying to stretch my back. The run had done me good, but I still wasn’t feeling quite myself. I hadn’t for a while. Not since the ceremony initiating Lewis and Alex as our new Alphas.
“I’ve been really cooped up,” Max went on. “I feel like no matter what I do, I can’t seem to relax.”
I took a drink from my beer. “I’ve been feeling the same way. That competition really took it out of me.”
I didn’t want to let on too much. I thought Max might be feeling the same way, and I didn’t want to bring up a sore subject. But the failure to find our mate during the competition to become Alpha had taken a toll on me. I felt as though I had let down Max, and I definitely felt let down by myself. It was one thing to lose the opportunity to be pack leaders, but the real heartbreak for me was our inability to find our one and only, our true mate. It had been months since we lost the competition, but the feeling just wouldn’t go away.
Once I set my intentions on finding her, the importance of the competition faded away, and all I could think about was settling down.
“It’s like,” Max said, pausing while he tried to formulate his thoughts. “It’s like since we went out looking for her, I haven’t been able to get rid of this restless feeling. I thought for sure that if we went back to San Francisco, she would have been there.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, nodding. “We met a lot of great girls in college. It made sense to me that maybe one of them at least would have been our mate.”
Max finished the beer he’d been working on and went for another. “I suppose we would have felt the pull more strongly.”
I hadn’t experienced the pull of a mate. Or, at least, I didn’t think I had. I’d been told by many of the Moonstone pack members that it was a definite experience, that when you knew, you knew that you had met your mate. At least, that’s what Lewis and Alex said.
So far, Alex and Lewis, who’d found their mate and won the position of the new Alphas in the process during the competition a few months ago, seemed to be really happy with their mate, Sandra. She was fitting in really nicely. I had had my doubts about her since she had convinced us to let a human into the compound for her mating ceremony. Considering that Moonstone had been almost completely free of humans outside of business associates who came looking for workers, it felt like a reckless decision of the pack to allow it. I felt like she was bold for asking, which was something I admired, but I also didn’t feel it was appropriate to ask before she was even made a member of the pack through her union with the then Alphas-to-be.
However, I did want to make an effort to trust her. I believed in second chances, as did Max, who felt the same way I did. So, I had offered to help her find her role in the pack. Using the skills she’d developed and the laptop she brought with her, she’d created a website and single point of contact for the pack, allowing the developers and any other companies looking to hire freelance workers to be able to contact us. From there, she ran the arrangements and schedule for our work. Twice a week, she would make the trip to the small town of Singleton that was only just big enough for a library and use their internet.
Max and I helped her set this system up. There weren’t many of us who knew how to use the internet or how networking went. Furthermore, we needed to make sure that we had the right information down for our particular specialty of work. During this time, I got to know Sandra, and my opinion of her softened. She seemed like she would fit in well with the Moonstone pack and help bring it into the ever-changing world while still respecting its remote preferences.
While I liked Sandra, there was still an element of jealousy that I felt toward Alex and Lewis. It wasn’t that they had won. They were proving to be great Alphas. It was that they had managed to find their mate.
I concentrated on the flames, watching the little sparks rising into the morning air. “Finding our mate might be one of those things that can’t be pushed,” I suggested to Max, rubbing my hand through my beard. I was going to need it trimming soon. I didn’t like it getting longer than the thickness of my fingers. “I think it might be a timing thing. We’ll meet her when we’re ready to. Fate decides our mate. Maybe fate decides our timing as well.”
We sat in silence, watching the sparks from the flames lift upward while the light breeze carried them toward the river and rustled the leaves.
“Are you guys still up?” a woman’s voice said from behind me. I turned to see Emily, Alex’s little sister, making her way to us in her
green cargo pants and black tank top layered with an open red and black flannel shirt rolled up to the elbows. Her long brown hair was tied up in a loose bun, and strands of hair fell out at the sides.
“Just winding down after the hunt,” I said. “Beer?”
“Sure.”
Max reached into the cooler and opened a beer before passing it to Emily. She clinked the neck of her bottle against ours before taking a drink.
“Catch anything good?” she asked.
“A couple of rabbits at the beginning,” I said. “But we ended the night with a big-horned sheep.”
“Nice,” she said, high-fiving me.
“Are you still up, or are you just getting up?” Max asked.
“Just getting up.”
“Beer for breakfast,” Max laughed. “I like your style.”
“Well, coffee’s taking too long.” Emily smiled. She had a unique smile that lit her face up each time. Color came to her cheeks, and her eyes would always twinkle. Every time. It was infectious. “Actually, I smelled your fire and thought I should make sure it was a controlled one.”
“Good call,” I said.
“But, since it’s you guys and since we’re all here, I have a little bit of news.”
“Do tell,” I said.
“I was talking to Alex and Lewis last night, and they were saying that the storm really did a number on a bunch of our southern solar panel set. They want you to have a look, but they’re pretty convinced that we’re going to need new ones.”
“That’s not news,” Max said. “That’s a chore.”
“Yeah, well, you’re the science guys. You like this stuff. Should be fun.”
“You like cubs, but that doesn’t mean that training them about the water system and station isn’t work,” Max retorted.
“Touché,” she giggled. “Anyway, can I tell them that you’ll check it out today?”
“Yeah, but it won’t be until later,” I said. “I definitely need to sleep before I look at anything.”
“I’ll have a look at it,” Max offered. “I’m not ready to go to sleep yet. As soon as it’s fully light, I’ll go.”
“Thanks, Max,” Emily said, nudging him with her knee. “I’m glad one of you is proactive.” She shifted her eyes to me with a raised eyebrow, face arranged in mock scorn.
“If you want a job right, you need the right frame of mind,” I said. I drained the last of my beer and gestured for another. “And unlike Max, I don’t work as well with machinery after a few drinks.”
Max had this innate ability to zero in his focus after he had a drink. It was a weird superpower he had, where he could completely focus on what was right in front of him. It was how we passed college. Not that we were drunk all the time, but it meant that we didn’t have to divide our time between partying and studying. His unique ability allowed us to multi-task.
I stood up as Max handed me another beer. “This one’s for the road,” I said. “I’m going to bed. I’ll catch up on the solar panel situation when I get up.” I looked at Max. “Is that cool?”
“Not a problem.”
***
“They’re all busted on the south side,” Max confirmed. I caught him on his porch next door just as he was coming in. I had been sitting in the morning sun on my own porch, sipping at my coffee when he sauntered onto his property. I still hadn’t had much of a sleep, but enough that I could navigate through the day.
I arched over and rested my elbows on the railing of my cabin, my coffee steaming in the mug between my hands.
“Did you look at the ones on the east side?” I asked.
“Yeah. Those ones seem fine.” He ruffled his shaggy hair as he reached to scratch the back of his head. “They’re saying it was that storm, but I think it was animals or something. I just don’t think a storm would have caused damage to one set and not the other.”
“What did you say when you told them that?”
“Lewis said he’d look into it more. I mean, I don’t think it really matters other than we need to make sure the panels are more secure.”
I nodded. “Can we fix them?”
Max put his hand on the door handle and opened the door. “I don’t think so. We’re going to have to get new ones.”
I swore under my breath. “And where are they expecting us to do that?”
“Apparently, there’s a trade fair in San Francisco that they’ve heard about,” Max said, yawning. “They want us to go and see what we can do as far as getting a better system. They’re thinking now might be a good time to upgrade all of our systems.”
“Wait, they’re sending us to San Francisco?”
Max nodded. “Yep.”
“And we’re somehow supposed to come back with, what? Upgrades turbines, water pumps, geothermal systems—?”
“No, nothing like that. They just want to invest in better solar panels for the minute. But, because it’s an eco-trade fair, they want us to look at any other information there might be to upgrade our other systems. Emily’s going to come with us to price it out.”
I sipped my coffee. “Why Emily?”
Though I was feeling a bit groggy, the news that we were going back to San Francisco made my ears perk up, though with some apprehension. I loved the city and had loved our college experience. But the last time we went had ended in such a disaster that I wasn’t sure I wanted to go back there. For the briefest moment, I had thought that this might be the chance to have a couple of nights out for old times’ sake: just Max and me out, tearing up the SF like we used to. It would be a chance to make new memories to put the idea of our last trip out there to bed.
But if Emily was going to go too, it could put a damper on things. She was great to hang out with here in Moonstone, but I didn’t think she’d do too well in the city. In fact, I had the impression she might need looking after.
“Lewis put her in charge of the funds. She’s our new treasurer,” Max said.
“Oh.”
Being treasurer made sense for Emily. She was really good with the cubs, but she was also smart with practical matters and responsible. I had forgotten that Elder Amelia had announced that she wanted to step down from that role a couple of weeks ago.
“When do we go?” I asked.
“I don’t know. Emily’s going to book the tickets and then let us know.” He yawned again.
“Well, let’s go help her. Come on,” I said, trying to conceal a smile. I straightened myself up and headed for the steps to my porch.
“Dude, I just want to go to bed,” Max whined.
I laughed. “I know. I’m screwing with you. Go to bed. I’ll catch up with you later.”
Chapter 2 - Emily
“Kat,” I said as sternly as I could while trying not to snap at the young Bobcat cub. “Don’t let that water splash out of the bucket when you change it. We’ll end up with a big mud pit all around the station.”
The water station already was somewhat of a mud pit when we maintained it. The cubs were only half focused on their job, which resulted in water sloshing all over the place, mixing with the dirt. I couldn’t blame them. My head wasn’t in the game today, either.
I was somewhat annoyed, and it wasn’t because Kat still wasn’t listening. I gestured to an older cub, Carter, to help her with her job.
What was really bugging me was that I was going to San Francisco with Jordan and Max. I knew when I took on the responsibility of treasurer that it would mean more traveling, but I hadn’t expected anything quite like this.
“Carter,” I directed again. “Can you make sure the pump is working? You know how to do that, right?”
The cub, who’d never had a haircut in his little life, nodded and ran toward the reservoir.
Getting thrown into a big city within the first month of my new role was somewhat intimidating. This wasn’t just a jaunt into the local town for supplies. This was one of the largest metropolitan cities in the west. I’d only been to Phoenix when Alex and I were little, and while it
was fun, it was an overwhelming experience. I had parents to guide me then. Now, I was acting as the parent to make sure Max and Jordan didn’t blow all the pack’s money on frivolous things.
“Emily?” a voice called out. I looked back to see Cameron soaking wet, climbing out of one of the water filtration tanks. “I fell in.”
I closed my eyes and breathed out slowly before opening them again. “That was silly, wasn’t it?” I said, as calmly as I could. I tried to smile. These things happened so easily and regularly. I remembered constantly having to have Alex fish me out of one tank or another when I was their age and doing this job.
“Have I ruined it?” he asked, looking as though he was about to start crying. Perhaps I’d driven the importance of these tanks into their heads a little too hard. At eleven, he should not be about to cry over falling in. The water filtration and the stations were a passion of mine. There were few in the pack who understood the importance of clean water and hydration better than I, though this understanding was gained with a price. It made me a strict instructor.
“No, honey,” I said as kindly as I could. “You haven’t ruined it. Here, let’s have a look.” I helped him down the ladder and climbed it myself, peering in. We used a series of filtration tanks, one which passed the water through gravel and charcoal. The water was clouded from the disturbance, but as far as I could tell through the murkiness, nothing was damaged.
“Everything’s fine,” I reported. “You just need to dry yourself off. Why don’t you run and get yourself some fresh clothes, hm?”
Cameron marched off, looking somewhat defeated. As I watched him go, I caught Jordan crossing the courtyard. I inhaled sharply at seeing him, the way I always did when I saw either him or Max.
If I was honest with myself, that was really what made me nervous about this trip. I enjoyed their company, but I thought I enjoyed it too much. My schoolgirl crush on them put me on edge around them. It was silly, I knew. They didn’t feel the same way about me. And since it was just a crush, there was no reason to try and pursue it. After all, if we were mates, they would have won the competition. I was right here for them, after all.
