“Don’t worry, honey. I understand how we look to people who don’t know us,” Marietta said. She smiled at Dale with love in her eyes. “We’re a mismatch now, but we’re actually the same age.”
“You must be a shifter,” Maya said, putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
Marietta nodded. “I am.”
“But then—” Maya looked from Dale to Marietta. “I’m sorry if I’m being rude, but I thought shifters’ mates got to stay young a little longer.”
“Sometimes,” Dale said wistfully. “But it’s okay. I don’t need to look young. I’m just happy I get to be with Marietta.”
“Well, you have to tell me the story of how you two met,” Maya prodded. She wasn’t usually into “how they met” stories, but this one interested her. She didn’t know many shifters and was always curious to hear how shifter-human couples had met. It was a rare pairing and she was always curious how it worked. It had to be disconcerting to have your husband or wife age so slowly.
“We met in high school,” Marietta said.
“But didn’t date.” Dale continued the story. “I was with another girl.”
“And I wasn’t as in touch with my animal back then,” Marietta added. “I left town for college as soon as high school was over.”
“And I left as soon as my first marriage ended in divorce in 1975,” Dale said. “Traveled the world until my parents got sick. Then I came back to Emerald and took over the shop.”
“I came back years later for a high school reunion,” Marietta said. She reached over the counter to take Dale’s hand. “The minute I saw him, I knew. And the rest, as they say, is history.”
“Including me and my brother, of course,” Logan said.
Maya smiled at the tall, gorgeous drink of water. “What a sweet story. You must have heard it a million times growing up.”
“I don’t mind,” Logan said. “I guess I’m a bit of a romantic myself.”
“Your wife must be so lucky,” Maya said enviously.
“I don’t have a mate,” Logan said.
“Yet.” Marietta gave him a stern look. “I swear, you and Tate are so pessimistic. Every shifter has a mate. You’ll find her.”
Logan shrugged and turned back to Maya. “Does your husband know you’re traveling during a snowstorm?”
“I don’t have a husband, and even if I did, he couldn’t tell me what to do,” Maya said hotly. Something she heard often. People always wanted to know what her husband or boyfriend thought of her chasing storms.
“Good for you!” Marietta said. “It’s always nice to hear a woman with a mind of her own. Although Logan is right. You shouldn’t be traveling this morning. This isn’t just a little snowstorm, it’s a blizzard.”
“I can beat it. I just need to get on the road now. I was actually hoping to get a few pictures of the storm.”
“Is that your tiny car out front?” Logan asked.
Maya looked outside. It had started snowing while she was inside. There was already a light dusting of snow on her windshield. “It sure is.”
He pointed out the window. “Well, if you’re dead set on going out, why don’t you let me drive you? I have a big truck with four-wheel drive. It’ll be much safer.”
“I don’t know. I’m better driving alone.”
“Nonsense,” Marietta said. “Let Logan drive you, and then you can come home with him. We run a bed and breakfast that’s empty right now. You can stay here until the roads are clear. You’ll still get your pictures and you’ll be safe.”
“You’d let your son chase a storm with me?” Maya asked, astonished. Everyone she knew thought she was insane for chasing danger. She’d never thought she’d hear a mother tell her son to go out and do it.
“He’s a big boy,” Marietta said. “And he’s a great driver. I know he won’t let you get into any trouble. Plus, I know my son. He’s not going to take no for an answer.”
Logan shook his head. “Nope.”
Maya took a look at his truck outside. “Oh, what the hell. Sure.”
Chapter Two
Logan Wizard rushed ahead and opened the passenger door of his truck for Maya. “We can head to the inn first and leave your bags there.”
Maya looked at her car. “How close is it? I could just take my car over. It’s barely snowing.”
Logan kicked up the white fluff already coating the ground. “It’s a few blocks away, but I think it’s better if you just leave your car here.”
She pulled up her hood. “I can make it. I’ll follow you.”
Logan nodded. “We’re going to take it real slow.”
“I’m from Wisconsin. This is nothing.”
He closed the door to the truck and then got in the driver’s side. He turned on the truck and waited for Maya to get her car started. Driving would be safe, even though it was snowing hard. There shouldn’t be anyone on the road this early, and most of the town was going to be closed down for the day anyway. He was still worried, though. His snow leopard was pacing anxiously and extremely agitated. They had just found their mate and she was putting herself in danger. Until they marked her and put a cub inside of her, his animal was going to stay irritated.
Logan had never expected this. He hadn’t even planned to take his mom to the gas station this morning. She was going to drive in with his twin brother Tate at seven, but she’d gotten up early and wanted to go in.
Logan didn’t want his mom driving unnecessarily. If he took her in, she could drive home with Tate or their dad. And he hadn’t been planning on going inside, either. At the last minute, he’d decided to grab a cup of coffee since he was out of creamer at the house.
The coffee was forgotten as soon as he caught a new scent in the store. It smelled like freshly cut grass and sugar cookies. An unusual smell, but very appealing. As soon as she walked out of the back room, he knew that Maya was his mate. He’d never understood what people meant when they said, “You’ll know it when you meet her.” But it made perfect sense now. Everything made sense. He didn’t know much about her, but he already loved her. He was sure her personality would match her beautiful looks.
She was a knockout. She was much shorter than he was, but she was perfectly proportioned—perfect in every way. Her skin was light brown and she had light blue eyes with dark lashes. She was a natural beauty, and he couldn’t wait for her to take off her bulky coat so he could get a look at the rest of her.
He hoped he hadn’t looked like too much of a dope in the store. He couldn’t stop smiling at her. It was a good thing that his mom had offered for him to drive May around. He’d begun debating how to stop her from driving in the snow the moment he heard what she was doing.
He couldn’t wait to tell Tate. They’d been looking for a third to complete their mating triad for over a decade. They’d met many beautiful women, but none of them was the right one for both brothers. He was starting to lose hope, and he knew Tate was too. Tate was going to be over the moon, too.
Logan only hoped his brother would be able to hold off trying to mate with her. Tate had a habit of speaking his mind, and it often got him into trouble with women. He could come on a bit strong, and Logan didn’t think that would work with Maya. She seemed like she was quite the independent woman. She’d gotten sassy when he’d suggested her husband wouldn’t like her choice to drive in the storm.
After he’d said it, he’d realized that it might have sounded sexist, but he’d just been trying to find out if she had a man in her life. At least the answer to that was a big no. She was single, and that meant he and Tate had a chance. He’d grown up hearing the tale of his parents’ missed opportunity, and he didn’t want to make that same mistake. Now that he’d met his mate, he wasn’t going to let her get away.
As soon as she had her headlights on and her windshield wipers going, he eased out of the parking lot. It had only been snowing for a few minutes, but the road was already covered. He drove less than fifteen miles an hour all the way to the Wizard Inn.
He kept a close eye on his rearview mirror to be sure Maya was alright. When they got to the inn, he hopped out and went to help her get inside.
“I’ll get those.” He grabbed her bags from the trunk of her car as soon as she opened it. Then they went inside and he yelled for his brother. “Tate! You still here?”
“Yeah,” Tate called from upstairs. “Should I even go in? It looks like everything is closed.”
“Your choice. You should probably call Dad.” Logan set Maya’s bags down. “We have a guest.”
“No, we don’t.” Tate was laughing as he emerged from the kitchen. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the small figure standing next to Logan.
Maya nodded. “Hi. I’m Maya. Nice to meet you.”
“Hi.” Tate couldn’t take his eyes off their mate.
Logan beamed. His brother was feeling it too. This was it: she was their mate. “Maya is a storm chaser passing through town. I’ve offered to let her stay at the Wizard for free, since the snowstorm caught her off guard.”
“I couldn’t possibly put you out like that,” Maya insisted. “I’m going to pay for my stay. Your family is too nice. Don’t worry. I can afford a night’s stay.”
“You’re not paying,” Tate said. “We won’t take your money. Our parents already said you were staying for free and you aren’t even staying for the night.”
“I’m a grown woman with money,” Maya said firmly. “I can afford it. Thank you for the compliment, but I can pay.”
Tate rolled his eyes. “Sure. Okay. We’ll take your card later if you stay for the whole night. Let’s get you set up in a room.”
“We actually need to get going,” she said to Logan. “If you can show me where to put my bags, I’d love to get out on the road now.”
“You want to go back out there?” Tate asked. “It’s a blizzard. Whatever you need, it can wait.”
“It can’t, actually,” Maya said. “I’m chasing the storm.”
“The storm found you,” Tate said.
Maya shook her head. “No, I need to be out on the road for a while. I think I can still get some good pictures and salvage this trip.”
Tate looked at Logan. “You agreed to this? Are you insane? You guys can’t go out there.”
Maya sighed. “Thanks for your opinion. Are you ready, Logan?”
Logan nodded. “Just let me set down your bags. Wait here.”
He took her bags upstairs to the biggest room. Tate followed him. “Logan. That’s our mate.”
“I know,” Logan said. He put her bags in the honeymoon suite. “Can you believe it? After all this time, she just appears out of nowhere.”
“Yeah, that’s great and all, but why are you taking her out there? She’s our mate. We should be protecting her.”
Logan turned to see Tate’s green eyes blazing with rage. He put his hand on his twin’s shoulder. “I know. I am protecting her. We can’t stop her from doing something she wants to do. We have to support her. She’s going out there no matter what. Better that I’m the one driving, at least. If it gets too dangerous, I’ll be able to get her out of there.”
“Not good enough. Have you even told her she’s the one yet?”
Logan laughed. “I just met her. We don’t want to scare her off.”
“She isn’t going to get scared. She’ll understand why we don’t want her going out there.”
Logan tightened his fingers around Tate’s shoulder to hold him in place. “You are not telling her. It’ll scare her off, or at best freak her out. We don’t know anything about this woman. Yes, she’s the one for us, but she’s a human. She isn’t going to understand right away.”
“Then we need to bite her,” Tate said.
“Are you insane? You don’t just go around marking women without asking them first.”
“It’s happened before. Once she’s marked, she’ll understand. Don’t worry; you won’t have to be the bad guy. I’ll be the one to do it.”
“You can’t bite her. From what little I know of her, she wouldn’t appreciate that at all. Tate, promise me you won’t do that.”
Tate crossed his arms over his chest. “You promise me that you won’t take her out in the blizzard and I’ll promise not to mark her.”
“That’s not how it works,” Logan growled. “You know better than this. I’m not going to argue with you. If you make a move toward her, I’ll stop you. We have to do this right.”
The twins stared at each other. Logan had to battle to keep his animal inside. His leopard wanted to maul Tate. If they took Tate down, Logan would be able to get Maya out of the house unscathed. He hadn’t fought Tate in years, but he was confident he could take his brother down if he needed to. This was for his mate, after all. Better to piss off Tate than run off their mate.
“Are you coming?” Maya called up the stairs.
The two brothers stood staring each other down in tense silence. Tate moved first. His clothes exploded off as he shifted quickly. Logan jumped for his brother as he shifted. His leopard landed on Tate’s back and the two began to fight. It was lucky they were at the front of the room and there was nothing to knock down.
The pair wrestled on the floor and growled at each other. Tate twisted and threw Logan off and sprinted for the hallway. Logan jumped again and managed to sink his teeth into Tate’s flank. Tate screeched and tried to throw him off again. Logan wouldn’t let go. He bit down until he tasted blood and then began to pull Tate to the floor. Tate fought hard, but Logan was more determined. Once he had his brother on the floor, Tate put his paw on Logan’s neck and held him down.
He shifted back to human form. “Are you going to stop, or am I going to have to really hurt you?”
Tate shifted back to human too. He glared at Logan angrily. “I’ll stop.”
Logan let him up slowly and then called down to Maya. “Give me a minute. I need to use the bathroom.”
He grabbed Tate by the arm and took him into the bathroom with him. He didn’t trust his brother not to try to make a move for Maya again. “We have to do this right. Look at what happened with Mom and Dad. You want to lose her forever because you can’t be patient?”
Tate wiped his side with a towel and winced. “That’s why I want to mark her now.”
Logan’s leopard wanted to bite Tate again. “Just give me some time. I’m sorry if I hurt you.”
“Like you could hurt me. I let you win because I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“Sure. Whatever you need to tell yourself.” Logan grabbed his coat off the floor and went to his room to get new clothes.
“I thought you got lost,” Maya said when he came downstairs. “I was starting to think I’d have to go without you.”
“I was just talking with Tate. Ready to go.”
“Talking? It sounded like you guys were rolling around on the floor. You guys walk like elephants.”
“Just the house settling. Old house make a lot of strange noises. Where are we headed?” Logan asked before stepping outside. “Do we just drive around and hope to see something?”
“Let me check my maps to be sure.” Maya took out her phone. As she searched, the lights in the parlor dimmed, and she looked up. “Is this normal?”
The lights flicked off and on twice and then went out completely. “It’s the storm. There must be a line down somewhere,” Logan said.
He reached for Maya and held her by the arm. He waited for the lights to flick back to life, but no luck. The power wasn’t going to come back on.
Chapter Three
“I don’t think the lights are going to come back on,” Logan told her. He had tightened his grip on her arm and drew her to his side. “Let’s go get some flashlights.”
She shone her phone on the floor. “I have a flashlight.”
“I think I can do better than that.”
He led her through the house to where his family kept the flashlights. As they walked, she could hear Tate moving around upstairs and wondered if he would join them soon. T
hey were a good-looking pair. Being pressed up against Logan while he held her arm, she couldn’t help but think of what it would be like to press against his naked body. It wasn’t like either of them had a significant other. They were free to do whatever they wanted. In fact, she wondered what it would be like to be sandwiched between the two Wizard brothers. Would they even go for such a thing?
She still wanted to get on the road and take some pictures, but once that was finished she could have a little fun. How often was she going to be snowed in with two ultra-hot shifters? It had been a long time since she’d gotten down and dirty with anyone. So long, in fact, that she couldn’t even remember the last time. Good grief! She was certainly overdue for a good roll in the sheets.
“Got it.” Logan switched on his flashlight and the whole wall in front of him lit up.
They were in the kitchen of the inn. She’d never stayed in a bed and breakfast before, and it still seemed strange to her. It was like sleeping over at someone’s house and not like being in a hotel. She liked the anonymity of staying in a hotel. In a place like this, she would feel like she had to make small talk with the owners or hang out with the other guests. With someone like Logan running the place, she was sure most of the women coming to Wizard Inn were hoping to get a little alone time with the owner.
“Got one for me?” Tate said from behind them.
Logan rummaged around inside the drawer until he came up with a second flashlight.
“I’m going to call Mom and Dad,” Tate said. He sat at the table while he waited.
“I’m going to check the maps,” Maya said. “The storm must be closer if the power’s gone out here.”
When she checked, sure enough the front of the storm was almost at Emerald. Strangely, there were no tornado watches and only a severe thunderstorm watch but not a warning. From the looks of it, the storm had slowed down. She leaned against the table and unzipped her coat.
“I don’t think we’re going to need to go out,” she said glumly.
“Why?” Logan asked. “It has to be close now. I don’t mind going out.”
Shifter Wonderland: Twelve BBW Paranormal Holiday Shape Shifter Romances Page 32
