She threw her toiletries bag into her suitcase, took everything down to the basement parking lot, and loaded it into the car.
As she got behind the wheel, she turned on the classic nineties rock that she and Austin used to listen to in the truck as they drove around at night doing doughnuts in the mud, singing and making out like the free and wild kids they once were. She wanted so much to be that person again, to feel like her whole life was ahead of her, like she could have and do anything. As she pulled onto the expressway, she thought to herself that maybe now, after all this time, she would finally get her chance.
Cheyenne drove several hours down the freeway, her mind ping-ponging between positivity and anxiety. One moment, she was sure that she and Austin would get married, have children, and grow old together, just like they should have twenty-five years ago. The next minute, she imagined him rejecting her, saying that he deserved a much younger woman, that he resented her for her family’s lies, that he never wanted to see her again. It was a torturous journey.
By the time she pulled off the freeway into Fate Rock and the nostalgia of her youth began to sweep over her, she was utterly exhausted, questioning her very existence, and not sure whether she felt fifteen or fifty-three.
She pulled up in front of Fate Rock Lodge, memories of barbecues on the Fourth of July coming back to her. The Lodge overlooked a lake and served as a ski resort in winter. Now, early spring, was one of the slowest times of year for the resort. But hikers and campers frequented the lodge, as did the locals who came to dine at the five-star restaurant.
She wheeled her bag into the lobby and was greeted by a happy, plump elderly woman who smiled at her as she peered over her reading glasses.
“Cheyenne Bailey?” the woman asked. “It can’t be you. Your father said you passed away when you were sixteen!”
“It’s me. And I’m very much alive. I booked room 207,” she said, opening her purse to pull out her wallet. She placed her ID on the counter. The woman picked it up and looked it over.
“I still can’t believe it’s you. I could have sworn you passed away. I usually don’t get things like that so wrong. I must be getting old.”
“It’s not that,” Cheyenne admitted. “There were some rumors going around after my mom passed away, right before we moved.”
“Wasn’t it your father who started the Antishifter Coalition?”
“Yes, it was.”
“You used to go around with that sweet young man, Austin Wilde.”
“Austin was a good friend for a long time,” she said with a sigh.
“He’s taken over his father’s ranch. They’re doing good work out there. The Wildes provide all the beef for the restaurant. And the ham and bacon, the lamb, and the eggs!”
“That’s amazing. When I knew them, they only had cattle.”
“Austin’s done great work with that place. Too bad people like the McCoys aren’t following suit. But I don’t think I should get into that right now. Let me get you the keys for your room.”
Mrs. Cora Baker—whom Cheyenne now remembered she’d known since she was ten—slid the keycard across the counter and handed her several brochures for the amenities at the lodge.
Cheyenne thanked Mrs. Baker and started across the lobby. It was just as she remembered it: elkhorn chandeliers, big open windows that looked out onto the forest and the lake, gleaming wood floors, and exposed logs. It was the very picture of a rustic mountain lodge. And it made her feel like she had really come home.
She hadn’t visited Fate Rock in all these years, and she was experiencing ridiculous amounts of nostalgia. Upstairs, she wheeled her suitcase down the hall, over the red patterned carpet, past the oil paintings of elk and bison to room 207. She slid her key card into the lock, opened the door, and stepped inside. She couldn’t remember whether she’d ever gotten a room at the lodge or if she and her family had just come out here for barbecues.
The room had rustic charm with modern luxury finishes. It was exactly what she needed right now. She kicked off her shoes and stepped onto the plush white carpet. She placed her suitcase on the suitcase stand and unzipped the top. After she hung all her dresses, blouses, and skirts in the closet, she unpacked everything else into the drawers. Cheyanne had brought mostly practical outdoor wear and several nice outfits that would be suitable for a date in Denver or Fate Rock.
She hoped to go hiking if the weather held. And maybe Austin would want to go with her. It was one of the things that they used to do together as kids. A tear slid down her cheek, and she shuddered, wiping it away. She couldn’t believe she felt so emotional.
She looked up at herself in the mirror over the desk. She shook her head. Pursing her lips, she plucked the bobby pins out of her bun and shook out her wavy red hair. She sat down on the bed and pulled her phone from her purse. Austin was supposed to meet her tonight. Her heart pounded in her chest. Part of her didn’t want to face him. She didn’t want to know for sure if he didn’t want her. She wanted to stay in this suspended moment, in which it was possible that she could have everything she’d ever wanted and longed for all these years.
“I’m here,” she texted.
They’d been exchanging texts and phone calls since they were first matched on Mate.com. The two weeks she’d had to wait to get her vacation had been excruciating and eye-opening. Austin had seemed extremely eager to see her and to move forward with the relationship, but he had been nothing but a gentleman, treating her with courtesy and respect. He’d texted her only once until she replied.
He occasionally sent her pictures of his work on the ranch. He even sent a candid selfie of him and his brothers holding a newborn calf. Getting to know him again for the last two weeks had been pleasant and heartwarming. Cheyenne didn’t want it to end. But she knew that once he saw her and they really got to know each other, the potential for him backing out and changing his mind grew exponentially.
In her experience, most men wanted to get laid immediately. And then if you had the nerve to oblige them, they rarely ever called you back. Those that weren’t just trying to get laid would date her for a time. And then when she showed any kind of backbone or revealed that she had career aspirations of her own, they would contact her less and less until it seemed as if they’d never even known each other.
Cheyenne had been in several long-term relationships. One had lasted seven years, and another had lasted two. Both of the men, she had hoped, would eventually pop the question. But they never had. Getting tired of waiting for someone who obviously didn’t want to commit to her, she had finally ended it. It was a waste of her time and a waste of her life. Now, at forty years old, she wasn’t sure whether it had been a good decision or a bad one. All she knew was that she was sitting in Fate Rock again for the first time in twenty-five years, staring at her phone and waiting for her childhood sweetheart to return her text.
Chapter 5
Cheyenne changed from her traveling clothes into the outfit she’d chosen to wear for their first date. It was a form-fitting green dress with a sweetheart neckline and a hemline that hit just above the knee. Even at forty, Cheyenne could still pull it off. She kept in shape by eating well and continuing all the outdoor hobbies she’d always enjoyed.
In all her years of camping and hiking in the Rockies, she had never returned to her hometown. Maybe part of her just couldn’t handle the pain. Maybe part of her had always known there was something off about how her father had hastily moved her and her brothers away from their childhood home. She had no idea that her father had told everyone in town that she was dead. That had been long before social media made it so easy to connect to people. Moving even a few hundred miles away back then might as well have been a million miles.
But she had always had the lingering question of why no one had reached out to her. Now she knew. Every single one of her childhood friends and every single person in the town she’d grown up in believed she was dead. It was as if that entire part of her life had been erased. And why? So
her father could prevent her from seeing Austin, a person who’d always loved her.
She shuddered at the idea of it. She knew why her father had done it. He had been so angry after her mother’s death that he had started the Antishifter Coalition. And when she refused to stop seeing Austin, he told her and her brothers to pack their bags, because they were moving.
After a lifetime in one town, they were gone in a matter of days. It had been so fast and so disorienting, mixed with the grief at the loss of her mother only months before, that it had been difficult to think clearly about the situation. When she’d started school in Denver, she’d struggled to make friends, still shell-shocked from the change. But eventually she’d been able to put it all behind her and move on with her life. It had been what her father wanted. He and her brothers were the only things that connected her to her mom, whom she’d missed every single day of her life.
She tried not to cry as she freshened up her makeup and looked at herself in the mirror. Some people told her that she looked ten years younger than she was. And it made her hope that maybe she could still have a baby. But like her friends said, just because your face isn’t wrinkled doesn’t mean your uterus isn’t.
“Here goes nothing,” she said, picking up her purse and heading to the door.
Downstairs in the lodge, she found the entrance to the restaurant and told the host she had a reservation.
“Your guest, Mr. Wilde, has already arrived,” he said.
“He has?” She was suddenly as nervous as a teenage girl on her first date.
“I’ll show you to the table.”
The host grabbed another menu and led Cheyenne through the restaurant to a table for two by the window. The setting sun glowed orange and red over the emerald-green forest and the rolling hills that swept up into Fate Rock Mountain.
A man in a deep burgundy shirt and slim-fitting dark blue jeans stood from the table when she stepped near.
Her heart slammed in her chest as their eyes met. A surge of emotion crashed over her like a tidal wave hitting a tiny island. She was completely swept away, tumbling through the waves of time and back to the age of sixteen and that hot summer night they’d spent together in the old trapper’s cabin.
“Cheyenne,” he said in a low, husky voice.
His wolf flashed in his eyes as he reached out to take her hand. She slipped her smooth, small hand into his big rugged one. She gasped as he smiled and pulled her close, wrapping his arms around her in a hug. She breathed into it, inhaling the alluring aroma of his skin, like deep forest pine and lemonade—and something dark and musky like the scent of a predator on the hunt. She stepped away, too overcome and too aroused to remain in his embrace a second longer, even though everything in her screamed that this was home. This was everything.
“You haven’t aged,” she said. In her eyes, he looked just like the boy she once knew. But the truth was, he was bigger than he had been back then by at least thirty pounds of muscle and the density that age put on a man. His face was lined with wrinkles around his eyes, and there was a kind of wisdom and solidity in his expression that hadn’t been there when he was sixteen.
“You look amazing,” he said, his eyes sweeping up and down her body as they sat down at the table.
“I try,” she said with a laugh, looking down at the menu. “I hear your ranch provides most of the meat and eggs to the lodge. Impressive.”
“It’s true. Since I took over the reins, we’ve come a long way. It was rough at first. But we’ve really gotten to the summit. And it feels like we’re just plowing downhill now that we have all our systems in place.”
“That’s amazing. I’m really happy for you.”
The host poured her a glass of wine and left them to look over the menu.
“You’ve been quite successful yourself. An accounts manager at a big corporation in Denver.”
“It’s less exciting than it sounds.” But she knew that it didn’t sound exciting either.
“You don’t seem very enthusiastic about it,” he said.
The sympathy in his eyes was so genuine that she did a double take. She wasn’t used to seeing that kind of thing from a man on a date. And she hadn’t even realized she’d revealed so much of herself so soon. Usually, she kept a much better guard up. But that hug had definitely made her drop a few boundaries.
“I have been due for a promotion to C level for four years. And it’s just not happening.”
“Is that what you really want?” he asked.
“It’s what I’ve been working for.” But Cheyenne was at a point in her life at which she no longer knew if it was what she wanted. Being matched with Austin was bringing all kinds of questions into her life that she’d never let herself ask before. There were so many new possibilities on the table that she was almost afraid to consider them.
“My friends tell me that I should sell my artisanal jams for a living. But that’s just silly.”
“Why is it silly? I bet they’re amazing. Didn’t your mom win the jam contest at the county fair every single year?”
“I can’t believe you remember that.”
“I remember a lot of things about you, Cheyenne Bailey.”
“Oh, I remember a lot of things about you too, Austin Wilde.”
She sipped her wine, trying not to get emotional. It was all so heady and intense. So many feelings were swimming around inside her. She was not used to feeling this disoriented or out of control. It was like driving a car fast, downhill, without any brakes. And she wasn’t sure she liked it. But every time she looked into Austin’s eyes, the teenager inside her just screamed, “Faster, faster, faster.”
The waiter returned, and they both ordered ribeye steaks, artichoke appetizers, a cheese-and-meat plate, and chocolate soufflé for dessert.
Mrs. Baker had certainly been right about the steak. It was one of the best she’d had in years. But Cheyenne wasn’t sure whether it was the amazing tenderness and flavor of the meat or the company. Austin told her stories about his incorrigible brothers. None of them had found their mates yet. And they all had a suspicion that it was because their alpha hadn’t found his mate yet. It was really a superstition, he explained. But he hoped that soon, they too would find their matches.
“You all have your own houses on the ranch?” Cheyenne asked as she slid her fork into the soufflé.
“Yep. We all helped each other build them with timber from the ranch and a little blood, sweat, and tears from the Wilde brothers. Everyone but Gunner; he still lives with me at the original house. Gunner’s only twenty-two, so I haven’t kicked him out yet.”
“That’s understandable.”
Gunner hadn’t even been born when Cheyenne had left Fate Rock.
“That must’ve been hard on your mom. You and Gunner are almost twenty years apart.”
“It’s different for shifters. Female shifters can have babies much longer than humans. At least, it’s a lot easier for them.”
“Really?” Cheyenne asked. That was a fact she had never heard before.
“My mom and dad said they were done after the twins, but things happened.” He laughed.
She laughed too, thinking about the Wilde brothers and the time she’d spent with them. Back then, her own three brothers had still been friends with the Wildes. After their mother’s death, her older brothers didn’t want anything to do with their friends the Wildes anymore. Even though basically every other shifter in the world had nothing to do with what the hyenas had done, her father and brothers didn’t see it that way. One shifter was as bad as the next and just as likely to go rogue as the hyenas had.
Cheyenne took another sip of wine as the waiter came to clear away the dessert plates.
“If it’s not too cold outside, would you like to take a walk around the grounds?”
“I’d love to,” she said. “I just have to grab my jacket from upstairs.”
“I’ll meet you on the balcony right outside.”
Austin pulled a credit ca
rd out of his wallet and placed it in the billfold as Cheyenne stood from the table. She turned away with one last look at Austin and hurried upstairs to grab her coat. When she made it back downstairs and slipped out the back door onto the patio, she found him standing against the railing, looking out at the gardens.
The fairy lights that were strung around the poles and along the roof sparkled in his hair. He was everything she thought of as a man. His strong, solid body, the posture he struck as he stood with one boot resting on the railing. His ass. Oh my God. That was the kind of ass you couldn’t get in a gym. That came from working every day of your life. She bit her lip and stepped forward. He turned when he heard her and smiled, the light shining in his eyes. She stepped to him, and he reached out to take her hand.
“Come on,” he said.
She was struck by a memory of that same boy saying those same words, mischievously inviting her on an adventure. She took his hand and giggled as they hurried down the steps and onto the stone walkway that led deeper into the garden. There were lights along the path and wrapped around the trunks of the trees. In the fading twilight, a waxing moon rose over the mountain in the distance. They hurried down toward the lake.
Memories whirled around her like a blanket of love and safety and excitement. They hurried to the dock and started down it. At the end, they stood looking over the water. The moon glowed in the rippling depths.
“Do you remember this place?” he asked, still holding her hand. She turned to him and noticed the moon bright in his eyes. He was smiling. She felt a wave of emotion crush against her, bursting in her heart.
Elder Wolf (Wilde Brothers Ranch Book 1; Tate Rock Shifters) Page 3