“Wow.” Amanda was still so stunned she couldn’t think of anything else to say. For Mary, that was beyond not being judgmental. It was a stretch even for Amanda to grasp, and she considered herself to be far more tolerant than her parents or her former sister—the one who had occupied Mary’s body until recently. She had to bite her lip to keep from chuckling at the idea.
Amanda had spent most of the last seven years on her college campus. She still commuted from her parents’ home, but she preferred the atmosphere of the campus and the tolerance level of most of the students, so she made up any and every excuse to stay there as much as possible. Many hours a day were spent in the library or sitting under a giant oak tree in the quad.
She’d met all sorts of people and branched out significantly in her beliefs. If she hadn’t at least spent her days with normal human beings, she shuddered to imagine how she would have turned out from the influence of her parents and their church alone.
She shook thoughts of college from her head and let Mary’s words about Laurie’s extended family sink in further. Two men and a woman? Why did the very idea send chills of excitement down her spine? Thoughts of the two delicious specimens she’d been dreaming about made her nipples tingle. She squeezed her legs together and shook her dream men from her brain.
Curiosity drove Amanda to haul herself off the couch. “I’m going to get ready to go. So nice chatting with you. What are you doing this evening?”
Someone knocked at the door as soon as the words left Amanda’s mouth. She strode over and opened it to find Jazmine out front. “Hey.” Amanda stepped back to let Mary’s friend in, the growing belief that Jaz was not heterosexual in the front of her mind.
She left the two of them in the living room and went to change clothes, deciding to put on her best jeans and a tight tank top. She tugged on her favorite short boots and grabbed a light cardigan before she left her room. The days were unseasonably warm this late in the year, but the evenings could get chilly.
Jazmine was sitting on the counter, and Mary was leaning into the fridge when Amanda emerged from the hall. “Try not to get so crazy that I have to pick you up from jail later tonight,” Amanda teased as she stepped into the kitchen. “It will be so hard to explain the alien invasion of your body to Mom and Dad tomorrow.”
Jaz pursed her lips and stared at Amanda with a confused expression.
“Here.” Mary handed Amanda a slip of paper. “The address. Stick it in your GPS. It’s easy to find.”
“Got it.” Amanda waved over her shoulder as she left.
Ten minutes later, she found herself gripping the steering wheel and pondering Mary’s vague explanation about how Laurie’s family lived. The idea of Laurie having two men was oddly titillating. Who would turn that down?
The scary crazy thing was those dreams Amanda had been having for weeks, ever since arriving in Montana in fact. How was it possible she would actually meet someone who lived with two men?
She had no idea where the concept had originated or when. All she knew was she hadn’t had more than a few hours’ sleep in a row in so long she was starting to nod off in the day. And even then, two hunky men leaked into her psyche.
She’d had the vision so many times she could actually describe both of them. They were huge, but one was even larger than the other and muscular. They had dark hair—though not as dark as her own nearly black locks—and dark eyes.
At first she hadn’t thought much about it. Fantasy. But then each dream progressed until her men had their hands all over her body. And waking up to find her hand inside her panties rubbing herself in her sleep was disconcerting to say the least. Who did that? Subconsciously.
She hadn’t told anyone. Hell, who would she tell? Mary?
She laughed out loud in the silent car at the visual. Mary would probably have a coronary. Then again, maybe not. Mary was the same woman who nonchalantly informed Amanda that her friends lived in groups of three with two men.
What irony.
»»•««
Caleb Parker licked his lips and fidgeted in his seat across from Pastor Edmund. Why the hell had he bothered to tell his parents about the woman being hired by the college to study the effects of racism on continued education?
He was twenty, for God’s sake. He needed to grow a set of balls and stop finding himself repeatedly in a position of town nark.
He should have learned his lesson last year when Laurie Hamilton moved to town and hooked up with Zachary Masters and Corbin Archers. Who cared? But no. He had to go and run his big mouth, bringing all sorts of trouble to those people’s doorstep.
And here he was again.
Same scenario. Different players.
Sitting in Pastor Edmund’s office at the Church on the Hill, wishing he were anywhere but there.
Even the paint made him nauseous. The walls were a pale lime green. The furniture was new and made with the finest local wood. Caleb had no idea what type, but he had heard his parents complaining about how much it must have cost and where their hard-earned money was going with the tithe. Apparently, Pastor Edmund had commissioned the desk and bookshelves from a local craftsman.
“Your mother says the junior college is hiring a woman to put an end to segregation in this area.” Pastor Edmund furrowed his brow. In fact, as far as Caleb could remember, the man’s wrinkled brow had become one of his permanent facial features.
Caleb cringed at Pastor Edmund’s use of the term segregation as though it were intended and legal. “Yeah. It would seem that way.” Caleb was currently taking Anthropology at the college. His professor, Dr. Burnhart, had spoken excitedly for weeks about the grant she’d received. In fact, she had also told the class she would be hiring some of them to help with research.
What Caleb should have done was apply for a position. It would look good on his résumé. Instead, he sat in Pastor Edmund’s office spewing hatred. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He wasn’t spewing anything. He was simply the messenger. But the position was one he wished he hadn’t taken on.
If only he hadn’t told his parents…
“Do you know who’s interviewing for the job?”
Caleb nodded. “Some woman named Amanda Williams. She just moved here.” Maybe Pastor Edmund wouldn’t readily make the connection to another local woman whose last name was also Williams and someone who had left the congregation after last year’s debacle.
Then again maybe not… “Amanda Williams? Isn’t that Mary’s sister?”
Caleb shrugged. He knew perfectly well Amanda was Mary’s sister, but he didn’t need to make things worse by admitting it. Thousands of people had the last name Williams.
“You would think Mary would have better sense than to allow her sister to take such a job in town. Has the woman learned nothing?”
Caleb flinched. Had Pastor Edmund learned nothing? After all, he and his parishioners had been the ones to harass the Masters guy and his partners until they got a restraining order against about two dozen church members. The sheriff’s office would be keeping a close eye on the church and its followers. Pastor Edmund would be an idiot to consider provoking yet another member of the community.
Pastor Edmund’s voice rose, and he slammed a fist onto his desk. “Damnation. We don’t need this swirling pot of blasphemy in Cambridge again. Mary knows it. That woman’s crazy. First she spies on our well-meaning members and turns us in to the police, and then she thumbs her nose at us and walks away like nothing happened.”
Caleb didn’t move a muscle. It seemed prudent to let the man work the venom out of his system.
“Now she thinks she can encourage her sister to work on a project no one in the community wants in our backyards and not receive retaliation? She’s crazier than I thought. A few phone calls, and there’ll be families pulling their kids from her preschool in hours.”
Caleb opened his mouth to point out the insanity of that plan, but thought better of it. If Pastor Edmunds wanted to have his tantrum in front of Caleb, so
be it. Caleb didn’t have to participate.
“I thought we had come to a truce, an unspoken agreement. She walked away with her mouth closed, and in return we didn’t shut down her business. Now this? The last thing we need in Cambridge is more of those damn Indians traipsing up here from their reservation to attend our junior college. We don’t need to be mixing with the likes of them. The quality of education in this town will go down the tubes.” He hauled himself to standing. The man was about seventy. But he was nimble. As he stomped to the window to look out into the night, Caleb considered slipping from the room.
He didn’t have enough time to execute his plan, however, before Pastor Edmund spun around and faced him again. “You keep me posted, kid. Got it? You hear anything else, you let me know. If Mary Williams wants to go to war, then war she will have.”
Caleb’s mouth was completely dry as he lifted gingerly from the chair, nodded, and eased from the room. This was not a war he wanted to be involved in.
Chapter Five
It was after ten when Amanda heard several cars pull into the driveway. She had Adam in her arms sucking a bottle. The other two children were asleep. Finally.
She indeed had her work cut out for her that evening. It had only been three hours, and she felt wrung out. She didn’t envy either mother.
The door opened, and Rebecca stepped inside first. She smiled at Amanda and came straight toward her. “I can’t thank you enough for doing this. I haven’t had three straight hours without a baby on my hip for a year and a half.” She reached for Adam, keeping the bottle in his mouth to gently transfer him.
The way she looked at his sweet face told Amanda that Rebecca was full of shit. She missed those kids in that short amount of time. She was salivating to get her little boy back in her arms.
Amanda smiled as Rebecca moved farther into the house with the baby, and several others entered the great room.
There were so many of them. Amanda had pieced together that this house belonged to Laurie, Zachary Masters, and Corbin Archers. The smallest baby was theirs. Or at least two of theirs. If she had to guess, she would go with Zach as the father since the baby had his features and complexion.
She shuddered as Zach stepped into her line of vision. This was the second time she’d seen him, the first being when they’d left for dinner. And she was as haunted by his looks now as she had been four hours ago. When she’d first met him, her knees almost buckled as she recognized him as one of the men in her dreams.
How was that possible? She had to be hallucinating. But the resemblance was uncanny. And her dreams had been frequent enough lately she was certain he was one of them. Who dreamed about a man they’d never seen in their life and then met him? And more importantly, what did it mean since he was clearly already in a relationship and very much in love with Laurie?
She’d fought visions of Zach the entire time the family was gone, and now he was back to confirm she was indeed insane.
She bit her lip as she watched two other men enter who Amanda assumed were Rebecca’s significant others—another Masters, Griffen maybe, and Laurie’s half brother Miles. Sucking in a sharp breath, she couldn’t even blink as she laid eyes on Griffen Masters. He was nearly identical to Zach and could just as easily have been one of the stars in her dreams.
The men confirmed who they were as they politely introduced themselves. Griffen winked as he released her hand. “Don’t worry. We won’t quiz you later.”
She could only nod subtly as she felt her pulse increase. She was losing her mind.
Behind them entered someone’s parents and a grandmother. The older woman was tiny, but her eyes sparkled as she spoke to Amanda. “You’re such a dear. We’ve had the most enjoyable dinner thanks to you.” She held out a small hand. “I’m Laurie’s grandma. Please, call me Mimi.” She winked.
Amanda took her hand, surprised at the strength the woman had.
Mimi kept Amanda’s hand in hers, her eyes widening a bit as if she were shocked by some unknown revelation. In fact, she pulled Amanda in closer to her side and reached behind with her other hand to grab the woman who’d entered with her. “This is my daughter Joyce, Laurie’s mom. Well, mother to half these hooligans, actually. And the man heading toward the kitchen is her husband Gene.”
Joyce. Gene. Amanda tried to memorize the names, knowing she would fail to identify anyone later, especially the brothers who had such an uncanny resemblance to each other and her imaginary lover.
Already the house was filling with love and warmth, and she knew there were several more people who hadn’t come through the door yet. It still stood open.
Laurie came forward with a quizzical look on her face that changed to a grin as she got closer. “Mimi…” It sounded like a warning, which Amanda found perplexing.
As the volume rose in the enormous great room, Amanda met Joyce, and then Laurie tucked Amanda’s arm in hers and led her to the kitchen area. “What can I get you to drink? You might as well stay a bit. The others are right behind. You can meet them. You aren’t in a hurry are you? Wine? Beer? Soda?”
She fired off so many questions in quick succession, Amanda didn’t know which one to answer. “I’m fine, thanks.”
Laurie released her to shove Gene out of the way and grab a bottle of water from the fridge. “Dad, scram,” she teased as Gene wandered out of the kitchen area with several beers perched along his arm. He passed them out to the men. It would seem the evening was just getting started for this large crew.
“How was dinner?” Amanda asked.
“Amazing. Miriam go to sleep for you okay?”
“Yep. Not a problem. All three of them were a delight.” Though I don’t think I’ll be having any of my own anytime soon. She’d been to the preschool Mary owned several times, and each time she’d left there exhausted from just watching. Mary had reminded her at least once a week she would give her a job there if she wanted, but that had only given Amanda the flame under her butt to hit the job search harder. The last thing she wanted to do was work at a preschool.
Laurie handed Amanda a water.
She took it, suddenly thirsty even though she’d denied being so moments ago.
Voices outside told her more of the family had arrived. They didn’t come inside yet, though, and it sounded louder outside than inside.
∙•∙
Sawyer stepped onto Laurie’s front porch and rolled his head from side to side, trying to stretch his neck and relieve some of the stress of the past three hours. To say the evening had been awkward would be an understatement. When Laurie called and invited him to join the birthday celebration, he’d hesitated.
He hadn’t spoken to Logan since they’d met under tense circumstances the day before. And frankly, he was okay with that. They both needed a chance to process the inevitable and wrap their heads around it.
Laurie had other ideas. She insisted both of them join the dinner party. It wasn’t a stretch. After all they were all family. But Sawyer was uncomfortable anyway. Luckily, he got so caught up in meeting the other dozen family members that he didn’t even sit next to the man he’d fought with yesterday.
And damn if the guy wasn’t likeable. It seemed everyone enjoyed Logan’s company. He was the fourth son and much beloved. It was difficult to stay mad at him.
He was also in excellent physical condition.
Sawyer worked hard to stay in perfect shape as a wildland firefighter. It was mandatory and crucial to his survival. Especially now that he’d moved into the more specific designation of hotshot. But Logan wasn’t in bad shape himself. He was a hiking guide in the summer months and a ski instructor in the winter. The guy was buff. Sawyer almost felt sorry for whatever woman was intended to be theirs.
On top of everything going through his mind and the boisterous insanity that was dinner with two huge families, Sawyer spent the majority of the meal glancing around the room, wondering if she was in the restaurant. Maybe she was another customer… Maybe she was a waitress… He prayed
she was a shifter.
The last thing he needed was a human woman who knew nothing about his kind. It happened. Hell, Rebecca was human. Some of his cousins had mated with humans. But it was never easy. Explaining the ways of wolf shifters to someone who wasn’t raised knowing about their kind was always a challenge. Doing so while fighting the driving need to mate with her was damn near impossible.
No one in the restaurant stood out, however. And he would know. Mates could scent their intended immediately. Both he and Logan would have instantly been aware of her presence if she had been there.
Insanity. He had fully expected to find her immediately as soon as he entered normal society, especially in the presence of Logan. It was unbelievable they’d managed to escape the restaurant without meeting her.
As much as he dragged his feet over the concept, part of him was growing impatient. In part because he simply wanted it over with so he could move on and in part because he had to admit he had grown increasingly more restless since meeting Logan. His skin crawled with something indescribable.
Reluctantly, he’d been led back to Laurie’s house for the night. He’d left his truck there in the first place and headed to the restaurant with his parents, who were elated he’d moved to town.
Of course they were. They knew what his arrival meant. And now that he’d attended this giant family gathering, everyone knew. They’d all spent the evening walking on eggshells, silently acknowledging the peculiar arrangement that left two men without the woman they were destined to claim.
Now that they were back at the house, Sawyer had no desire to enter the mayhem. All he wanted was to enjoy another beer on the porch and try to relax. Another day had ended without him finding his mate. Of course, except for dinner, he’d had no other opportunity. She certainly wasn’t at Laurie’s house. The only person inside was the babysitter. He could finally let his guard down and loosen his shoulders.
Trace Masters stepped inside and returned a minute later with an armful of beer. He handed one to his mate Keegan and the other two to Logan and Sawyer. Trace’s other mate, Melinda, who was also Sawyer’s half sister, shook her head and disappeared quickly, claiming the level of testosterone on the porch was more than she could bear.
Amanda's Wolves Page 4
