To Love A Mate: Somewhere, TX (VonBrandt Pack Book 2)

by Krystal Shannan

  The rattle of wheels and the appearance of overly large floral patterns disguised as clothing could mean only one thing. The damn pastor’s wife had locked in on her position.

  Lucinda allowed her gaze to travel upward from the floor. Sure enough, May Geller had come around the corner to join her in the frozen dinner aisle. There was no reason for May to be in the frozen dinner aisle. The hoity-toity bitch from Church Ave. cooked everything from scratch and the whole town knew it—mostly because the asinine woman bragged about it constantly. May was in the frozen dinner aisle to talk.

  The Lutheran pastor’s wife flashed her an artificially large smile and pushed her buggy forward.

  God, no.

  The last thing Lucinda wanted was to get an earful about how she needed to come to church or bingo night. Or both.

  She took a quick step backward, swiveled her buggy and tried to disappear around the corner before May could open her big mouth. It didn’t work out though.

  The hem of her pants caught on something sharp at the bottom of the shelving unit and she felt her balance falter. She dropped the cell phone she had clutched in her hand and reached up to grab a shelf to catch herself—instead the whole damn thing came down on top of her.

  Fuck.

  Chapter 3

  Somewhere, TX

  Spring Break, March 2015

  “Grab me a beer while you’re in there, would you?” Noah hollered, stretching out on the lounger in front of Kara’s pool. He popped the knuckles in his hands and rolled his neck. Nothing helped though. Tension wrapped around his chest, tightening with each passing day.

  His fraternal twin brother had moved into her house before Christmas. Luke had been in love with Kara for years, but it’d taken a nearly fatal accident to bring them together. Even though they weren’t married yet, they both already sported the magickally induced tattoos around their wrists that marked them as bonded mates. Kara was linked to Luke forever, bound through emotions and physical sensations. Noah could only hope to one day share the same kind of bond.

  “Noah, what’s with the nervous vibe lately? You act like something’s about to jump our and eat you.” Kara peered at him from behind her oversized sunglasses. She sipped her corona and waited. Her blue eyes matched the wide Texas sky. “It’s a beautiful day. No classes for a week. What gives? I’ve never seen you this antsy.”

  The screen door slammed behind them and Noah sat up, taking the bottle from his brother as he passed. Noah laid his hand on his bobbing knee, stopping the movement temporarily. Being still lately, was an issue.

  “Mom said you’ve been sneaking out every night to run,” Luke said.

  Noah rolled his eyes. Of course his parents knew. Maybe he should’ve stayed at the frat house, but after Luke moved in with Kara he didn’t feel like sharing a room with anyone else. He’d always shared with Luke. Instead he’d moved home and back into his old room.

  “I try to be quiet.”

  Luke sat next to Kara and gave her a quick kiss.

  “They’re worried about you.”

  The hair on Noah’s neck stood on end. “Is that what inspired this invite? So you could dig around and find out what’s wrong with me?” He and his brother had always done everything together. Always lived together. Hung out together. He’d always assumed they would find their mate simultaneously, too. It was stupid of him. Love didn’t happen on a schedule and, unlike Luke, he didn’t have a girl in his life whom he’d been pining over for years.

  Still, his wolf had been restless this month. Running every night had been more of a stress reliever than anything.

  “Hey, dad is out of town and...” His brother paused mid-lie and changed his tune. “Yes, dad called and said he could feel your anxiety. He wanted to know if you were okay... if he should come home immediately.”

  “He’s coming home tomorrow night. Why didn’t he wait to talk to me then?” Noah snapped, his shoulders tensing. Then he slumped, instantly guilty to be taking his frustration out on his brother. “I’m fine, sorry. I feel...I don’t know. My magick prickles along my skin constantly and the only way I can get relief is to let the wolf out. So I do, okay. There.”

  “Sorry, I’m just doing what dad asked.” Luke held up his hands. “So you don’t have any idea why your magick feels haywire?”

  Noah shook his head. He’d been through stacks of old books about their family history and the curse. The only thing he’d found was that some male werewolves experienced restlessness and agitation before their mate would appear—an early alert system that told them to keep an eye out. But it was inconsistent and rarely documented. No one in their family had ever spoken of it and he wasn’t about to tell his brother that he thought his magick was honing on his one his one true mate the way a meteorologist’s radar zeroed in on an impending storm. Except that he wasn’t expecting a tornado; he was looking for a girl.

  Life is so freaking complicated.

  He downed the beer and set the bottle on the concrete beside his chair. Pulling off his shirt, he got up and walked to the edge of the pool. Kara had threatened Luke’s balls if he tried to throw her in, but to a werewolf the water felt great. The chill was warded off by their supernaturally raised body temperature.

  “Don’t you dare splash me with that freezing water, Noah VonBrandt!” Kara screeched, reaching for a towel.

  Flashing her a quick grin, he put a hand to the concrete and jumped into the water feet together, barely making a sound and certainly not splashing his brother’s mate. The icy cool water washed away the heaviness in his heart and he dipped down, dunking his head under momentarily to wet his shaggy hair.

  “It’s not that cold, Kara. You should try it.”

  She snorted. “When the little thermometer says the temperature is out of the sixties, I’ll consider it.”

  “Wimp,” he teased.

  “Wolf,” she shot back, sticking out her tongue.

  Luke moved to the side of the pool and sat on the ledge, letting his legs dangle into the water. “You’ll tell us if something changes, right?”

  Noah took a deep breath and sighed. “Dude, I’m fine. Give it a little time to blow over.”

  “It’s hard, man. It’s not like any of us ever get sick.”

  “I’m not sick. I think it’s.” He looked away.

  “You think it’s what? I know that look. You know something.” Luke narrowed his gaze.

  “I think my wolf is sensing something is coming... or someone.”

  “A girl?” A wide grin spread over his brother’s face.

  “Maybe. Leave it be, okay.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Fine,” Luke answered.

  “You’re gonna tell dad aren’t you.”

  Luke nodded his head up and down slowly. “I have to. He asked me to talk to you. He’ll know if I try to keep this from him. Plus, it’s not like he’s going to be upset that your wolf is looking for its mate.”

  Noah stared at the two intertwined Celtic knot bracelet tattoos winding around both of his brother’s wrists. The magick ink only appeared when the spell was cast and as far as he knew, it could only happen once in a lifetime. The curse allowed for one bonded mate and only one. If a mistake was made, a werewolf could wind up pining for the wrong woman for the remainder of his very pathetic life. If his wolf really was sensing his mate’s approach, he prayed that lightning would strike or the heavens would offer up some other sign so he would know it was her for sure.

  Chapter 4

  The city flew by in a blur of neon colored lights as Emma left Austin as fast as she could legally go without risking being pulled over by a cop. Her stomach rumbled, upset it’d lost its dinner. But there was no time to stop and nothing to stop for. The pickings between Austin and Somewhere were sparse and she couldn’t risk being caught on camera at a convenience store.

  Hollis and Grimes would be able to track her too easily.

  She took the main highway out of Austin and headed east. Only having been to Lucy’s once before when her
mom was kidnapped a couple years ago, she hoped she could find her way in the nearing dark.

  The thing with her mom had blown over without incident. Her dad had paid the ransom and her mom had been home the next day. Even so, at least she’d gotten to see her Lucy again. She wasn’t allowed to visit. The whole point of having a safe house was to have a place no one else knew about.

  When her father had removed Lucy as her bodyguard/caretaker at sixteen, he’d compromised by keeping her on as a safe-house manager who would only be involved if Emma or the family was in danger.

  One time in five years.

  That was how many times she’d gotten to see the woman who’d practically raised her from infancy. She might have biological parents, but Lucy was the person she considered her mother.

  The landscape changed rapidly from city to prairie and then to forest. The highway was dark and filled with those annoying orange construction barrels. Emma had hoped to go faster once she got out of the city, but the construction was slowing her down more than the traffic had. About three hours later, she reached the outskirts of Somewhere.

  Who names a town Somewhere, anyway?

  She drove through the center of town and exited south onto Farm Road 16. Lucy’s place was on the southern outskirts, close to some big ranches owned by a family named the VonBrandts.

  Now there was some money that had strangely found its way into a little no-name college town.

  VonBrandt Oil Industries, INC was a major player in the American energy industry. They owned rigs in the gulf and natural gas wells all over the Midwest. Mostly she knew them because there were a couple VonBrandt women that had recently married into two of the Hamptons’ wealthiest families.

  When couples said vows in the Hamptons, their whole life story became gossip for the season.

  Funny thing was, the VonBrandt women she’d heard about were pretty boring. Apparently, there wasn’t much in the way of gossip when a girl grows up herding cows or baling hay. Both women, Judith and Courtney, had grown up on ranches ... in Somewhere, Texas. Their weddings had been the highlight of the season. The headlines had read COWGIRL COUSINS MARRY HAMPTON MILLIONAIRES.

  A sign for Farm Road 519 came up on her right and she turned. She thought it was the right road to Lucy’s place. As she drove farther, she wasn’t so sure. She remembered a white mailbox not long after the first turn.

  Damn. All these numbers ran together in her head. She’d passed a left turn a few minutes ago, but it had said Farm Road 516. Maybe that had been it?

  A gate came up on her right with the VonBrandt family name spelled out in wrought iron. She didn’t remember seeing that when she went to Lucy’s before. Crap. How the hell was she going to manage a U-turn on this narrow road?

  Turning her eyes to the asphalt, she screamed as the car collided with a deer. Airbags shot into her face as the vehicle lurched from the impact. The deer rolled up onto the windshield and crushed the glass. In her panic, she swerved.

  The car careened off the road and tipped into the ditch.

  Everything went sideways and she threw her hands up.

  The force of the landing jarred every bone in her body. The shoulder strap of the seatbelt cut into her neck. She groaned, struggling for several minutes to unsnap her seatbelt. It finally released and she pushed open the driver’s side door and crawled out onto the grass. Giving up wasn’t in her blood, but damn, what else could go wrong today?

  She flopped to her back and stared up at the stars for a few minutes, letting the shock of the impact filter away. The sky was a soft black, twinkling with stars. The night wasn’t as dark as she first thought. She could see cleared fields stretching out on either side of the road in the light of the nearly full moon.

  It was time to suck it up and figure this out. She was a Carrington. A fighter. If she could navigate years of social torture and rich stuck-up bitches, she could handle finding Lucy’s place in the middle of nowhere. This should be easy in comparison.

  She crawled to her feet, grabbed her bag, and closed the car door. The road had curled a lot and the shortest way back to Route 16 should be directly across the field she was staring at. Trespassing wasn’t at the top of her To-Do list, but it was the middle of the night. No one would see her. The fence was barbed wire, but surely she could get over it without too much trouble.

  Finding a place on the fence, she pushed down, but the taut wire didn’t have any give. She moved to one of the posts and put her foot on the bottom wire. Maybe it would hold her weight and she could climb over.

  With both hands holding the top of the fence post, she carefully found footing. The wires gave a little beneath her weight, but seemed to be holding steady. She got to the middle line and gingerly swung her leg to the other side.

  When she tried to maneuver her other leg over, it wouldn’t budge. Her jeans had snagged on a barb. She tugged a little harder. Then again. Finally it came loose but her movement was too forced and her momentum made her lose her grip on the fence post. Her left leg dragged across the top line of the fence and she bit back a cry as she tumbled to the ground, landing in a large gooey mound. She picked up her hand and gagged at the smell.

  She hadn’t landed in mud.

  Her leg burned. There was a large rip in the left pant leg of her jeans and a bloody gash stretched down the inside length of her thigh. The bleeding was minimal. She could patch herself up when she got to Lucy’s place. Right now she needed to get moving.

  “Damn fence.”

  She clambered to her feet and walked as carefully as she could across the field in the moonlight. As the trees became thicker, the light filtering through the branches was less and less. She picked her way through the trees, stumbling to the ground several times before she got through the first grove. She was filthy. Covered in manure, dirt, and leaves. The boots she’d gotten from the chick in Austin were a little too big and it was really screwing with her balance.

  Once through the first grove of trees, she misjudged a step down and slid face first into a shallow ditch or dry stream bed.

  “Cow patties and open sky, huh Lucy. Really? You had to move to the Old West? I feel like I should be in an episode of Bonanza or Gunsmoke,” Emma growled under her breath, wiping bits of gravel and dirt from the side of her face. The smell of fresh manure hit her nostrils again and she shuddered, searching for the source of the foul odor. Sure enough, her right knee was planted directly in the middle of a large smelly mound.

  A vehicle door slammed not too far away and she pulled herself up to the edge of the ditch and peered out. The wind blew gently against her face. She noticed a silver glint not too far away and a man ... taking off his clothes?

  What the hell?

  First the shirt came off, revealing a six-pack that any red-blooded woman would be hard-pressed not to want to lick and rub themselves against like a cat in heat. She certainly would if given the chance. His chest and shoulders were defined, and flexed as he removed his pants too. A grin curled on her lips. He was wearing boxer shorts made from fabric covered in superhero logos. He turned toward the truck to put his clothes in the passenger seat. Then slid his boxers down too, baring a tight muscular ass. Good grief, why weren’t there men like this living in the Hamptons? She was constantly surrounded by scotch-drinking golfers or financial investors. And then of course the lawyers who golfed with them.

  Damn.

  He turned to the side, but still not far enough around for her to really get a good look. But what happened next defied all laws of nature and the real world. He knelt to all fours and his skin shimmered. His head elongated while fur sprouted all over him. His body morphed from man to wolf. It was done in less than ten seconds, but those moments felt like an hour.

  Oh. My. God.

  She swallowed a scream and held her breath until the sexy-man-now-turned-wolf loped off into the trees. Her palms were sweating as she reached into her bag for her stun gun before climbing out of the gully. She crept forward on her hands and knees a few steps
, keeping her eyes glued to the place where the wolf had disappeared into the tree line. The moon shone down brightly on the open space she was crossing. She prayed he didn’t turn around, because he’d be able to see her without difficulty.

  She rose to her feet and walked faster toward the big pickup. The cowboy boots were heavy and noisy on the ground, no matter how hard she tried to keep her footfalls quiet. She reached the truck and walked around the front to the driver’s side door.

  The windows were down and it was unlocked.

  She pulled the handle slowly, breathing a sigh of relief when it opened without a sound. Closing it was going to be another matter.

  Climbing up into the cab, she checked the ignition. No keys. Her eyes fell on the pile of clothing in the passenger seat. She dug through, pulling his jeans into her lap and feeling through each pocket. The first pocket she checked held a cell phone, but the second held a ring of several keys, including the fob for the truck.

  Holding her stun gun in one hand, she put the fob in the ignition with the other and turned it. The huge vehicle roared to life. Its headlights and overhead lamps cut a bright swath through the darkness ahead of the truck.

  Shit. If he didn’t hear me, he’ll definitely see me.

  She glanced in the rearview mirror in time to see him running toward the truck... every gorgeous naked inch of him. Slamming the door shut, she locked it and hit the button to roll the windows up.

  “Hey!” he shouted, yanking on the door handle. “What the hell?”

  She reached for the shifter, but her hand swooped through empty air. Where the hell was it? She looked at the dash again.