by Renee Carr
She wrinkled her nose. “You say that now, but give it a couple years and we’ll be an old married battling couple. Just remember that I’m bigger than you in my wolf form.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’ll never let me forget that.”
I glanced over her shoulder at my father and two brothers. Looking back, she already knew what I was going to ask. She chuckled and nodded. “Go ahead. Tell them.”
I planted a kiss on her and ran over, tapping each one of them on the shoulder. I took them to the side and they looked at me curiously. “I have something to tell you. Lily just informed me that I’m going to be a dad.”
My brothers both threw their arms up in the air and hugged me tightly. I turned to my father, who was standing there holding his glass of champagne, his face expressionless. I reached up and touched his arm. “Dad? Are you alright?”
I was terrified that my father was going to be disappointed. I wanted him to be happy about it because I knew that he would make an amazing grandfather. We all watched with bated breath as he finished his glass of champagne and looked me in the eyes. “I couldn’t be happier. You are going to make an amazing father. I just wish that your mother could be here to see all of this.”
I leaned in and gave my father a tight hug, talking closely in his ear. “One thing I’ve learned over the last year is that while Mom physically isn’t here with us, she still is very much alive. Her curiosity for life vibrates through Christian every day. Her zest for art and beautiful things shimmers in Eric’s eyes. And her constant worry for others and the love of her family is something that we all share. She is here, Dad. And she couldn’t be prouder of all of us.”
I pulled back and my father sniffled, tears in his eyes. He waved to one of the service staff and grabbed four glasses of champagne off the tray, handing them out to us. A smile washed over his face and he lifted his glass to us, tapping each one. “To the future of the Holbrook family. May your lives be full of joy, may your relationships be full of love, and may your wolves run fast and wild in the woods.”
Christian, Eric, and I stopped, wide-eyed, staring at my father. We looked back and forth at each other and then back to him. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Please, my father, your grandfather, was a shifter. You didn’t think that the first time I saw you two idiots come to my house covered in scrapes and scratches that I didn’t know what had happened? Please. And you, Brighton. The day you walked into the house wrapped in nothing but a blanket. I may be old, but I see everything.”
We looked back and forth at each other and all burst into laughter, feeling the closeness that we had before Christian had been changed. Everything felt like it was falling back into place. Our family had grown and was going to continue to grow as the years passed. My brothers wandered over to their wives to tell them the good news and my father patted me on the shoulder, turning and laughing loudly as he walked toward his friends and family. I laughed to myself, Lily walking up beside me and putting her arm in mine.
She tapped her water glass to my champagne. “All of my life, I imagined getting married, and then getting wasted at my reception and having wild, crazy sex. But now I can’t drink. I’m getting married in one week and I can’t drink at my own wedding.”
I turned to her, kissing her pouty lips. “I’m sorry. I will make up for it. And in your honor, I will only have one drink at the reception and then we can just take it easy that night.”
Lily scoffed, slapping me in the chest. “Are you kidding me? I’m fun without alcohol. Not to mention the fact that neither one of us needs a drop of anything to have wild and crazy sex.”
I laughed, turning toward her and pulling her into me. “You know, we could always practice tonight just so we get it right tomorrow.”
She looked down at her belly. “I’m pretty sure you had enough practice, but that doesn’t mean I’m saying no. Just to point that out.”
She giggled and leaned forward, kissing me sweetly. “Are you ready for all of this? For my parents to build a Tucker Industries headquarters here in Galena so that I can stay here, a baby, a new house that we now have considerably less time to renovate, and jumping headfirst into the vice president position at your dad’s company?”
I pressed my lips together and stared up at the sky for a moment before answering. “Are you going to be there?”
She pursed her lips and nodded her head slowly. “I should be around.”
I flicked a piece of hair out of her face and cupped her cheeks in my palms. “Then I’m not only ready, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Besides, where would I be if I wasn’t at your side?”
“You’ll never have to be without me,” she replied. “And to think, I finally got my own weird, furry, happily ever after, and I couldn’t be more ready for it all.”
“My sentiments exactly,” I replied.
The dark wolves might not be gone forever, but our pack was stronger than ever and I couldn’t wait to see what the future held.
Ah, isn’t that sweet! If you missed Christian’s story, the beginning of the series, check it out here! Wild Temptations
Author’s Note
I hope you enjoyed the third book of The Holbrook Brothers Shifters! If you did, would you leave a review on Amazon? I would really appreciate it!
If you missed Book 1 of the series, Wild Temptations, I have included a excerpt on the next page!
Below is a list of my books:
The Holbrook Brothers Shifters
Wild Temptations
Finding the Wolf
A Dangerous Curiosity
Made for Each Other: The Dragon Shifters
The Dragon and the Singer
The Scholar Queen
The Warrior Princess
You can sign up for a free book and my newsletter and
stay up to date on new releases, contests, giveaways, freebies, and deals!
Sign up for a free book through BookFunnel!
Please feel free to email me at [email protected] and let me know any themes, tropes, or anything else you would like to see in a future book!
Love ya!
Renee
A Little Bit of Wild Temptations
The Holbrook Brothers Shifters (Book 1)
1
Christian
“Eric, grab the tackle box,” I yelled across the yard to my brother. “It would be a shame to go all the way out to Apple River Canyon State Park to fish, and have no tackle box.”
Eric gave the thumbs up, while my other brother, Brighton, shoved the last of the equipment into the back of the SUV. He stuck his head around the corner of the truck. “It wouldn’t be the end of the world. It’s not like tackle boxes and manufactured fishing gear have been around for all of time. You can catch fish the old-fashioned way.”
Eric shoved the tackle box into Brighton’s chest. “All right, when we get out there, I want you to sharpen the end of a stick and then spear the fish to death, using your all-powerful connection to nature.”
I chuckled as Brighton rolled his eyes, shaking his head and shoving the tackle box in the last empty spot. “All I’m saying is that we have more gear than most people take to live out in the wilderness for the rest of their lives. Remember the old days when we were kids? Dad would take us out camping and fishing, and we literally would have sleeping bags on the ground, a tarp in case it rained, one fishing pole each with a hook, we found our worms, we had to cook our own food, and start our own fire.”
We all climbed in the SUV, me in the driver seat, Eric next to me in the passenger seat, and Brighton in the back. I glanced in the rearview mirror as I put the keys in the ignition. “Yeah, and I fully remember that one time when it rained the whole way and I had never heard you complain so much in my life. Didn’t you get, like, pneumonia or something after that?”
Brighton sniffled, his forehead wrinkled. “Yeah, Mom never let Dad live that one down.”
Smiling, I put the truck in drive and pulled out onto the driveway heading
toward the street. “You always were the baby. But hey, we’ll go easy on you this weekend since the trip is to celebrate you graduating from college.”
Brighton grumbled, but I knew he was glad to be back with us. He had accomplished something big, graduating with his master’s degree, something only two people had done in our family, Eric being the other. I took a different route. I never saw myself as the college kind of guy so since my father didn’t have to pay for me to go, he gave me the money to start my own sporting goods store. We didn’t have one in Galena, a town known for its rich history with President Ulysses S. Grant and the numerous opportunities to get out in nature and enjoy what was around us.
Since the whole family was well known in Galena, my sporting goods shop took off pretty fast. I had opened it when I was just 18 years old and made quite a few mistakes along the way, but it had turned into something that I was very glad that I had done. Eric was a photographer and had gone to art school to get his degree. Now all he did was take pictures, but it was what he loved so we all supported it. Just like the guys supported my shop, filled in working when I had an emergency, and celebrated the accomplishments that I had made. It was Brighton’s turn, his master’s degree in business accomplished with honors and intended for use with our father’s business.
The drive to Apple River Canyon State Park was something that we had done multiple times. It wasn’t very far from where we lived, and it was the best place to go for fishing and camping. We had gone there all our lives with our father, and our mother when she was alive. After her death, our father spent a lot of time with us there. I know he liked it there, but I also knew part of it was because he could barely stand to be in the house without her. Cancer was a bitch, and it drastically changed our family. Sometimes I think it was for the worst, with my father’s bout of depression after she had died, but it also brought us all closer together and years later, we were all thriving. We knew Mom would’ve been proud.
Eric turned in his seat, looking back at Brighton. “Now that you have that expensive piece of paper, what’s the next move?”
Brighton took in a long, deep breath and put his arms up on each side of the seat. “Well, I’m going to start working with Dad soon, really learning the ins and outs of the business. I figure, even if something happens along the way where I don’t take it over, I’ll know how to run one successfully. We all know Dad’s a business genius when it comes to that stuff. I mean, hell, he started the business in our garage and what do we have now, twenty-something stores? All across the country?”
Eric nodded. “True. So, if it doesn’t pan out with Dad’s company, what kind of a company do you want to start?”
Brighton shrugged. “I haven’t really given it much thought. I guess my whole life I just assumed I would be working with Dad.”
I snickered. “Well, if things don’t go how you think they are with Dad, you always have a place to work at the sporting goods shop. I’ll give you a free employee T-shirt and a baseball cap to go along with it. Hell, if you want to, you can just buy the thing off of me. I’ll go live it up on some island and drink alcohol out of coconuts. I always did like the idea of living life in board shorts.”
Eric scoffed, shaking his head. “Are you kidding me? You wouldn’t last on an island for two months. All that rest and relaxation, that’s not for you. You need to be in the country, close to the forest, so you can go bounce around and fish and explore like you always do when we’re out there.”
I smiled. “Yeah, you’re right. It’s nice to think about, though. I do have to say, island life wouldn’t last too long. I would explore the whole thing within three days and then be bored. I need a big piece of land with woods and forest, and a stream where I could stand in my waders just dangling my line, waiting for the fish to bite.”
Brighton wrinkled his nose. “You sound like Dad. He swears he’s going to retire one day and just build some small shack by the river and live there, eating whatever he catches.”
Eric and I glanced at each other and burst into laughter. “Dad definitely loves the outdoors but he also loves the food that the chef cooks at the house now. He would last maybe a month eating fish every day. He may be a fisherman, but he’s definitely not a hunter and not a cook. The best thing he ever did was hire that chef. We would’ve starved as kids, growing up on poorly made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.”
“If he remembered to buy the jelly,” Eric groaned. “I can remember at least a month straight that we ate nothing but crunchy peanut butter sandwiches. That’s when the intervention came. When our grandfather came over and said, hey, you gotta feed these boys more than peanut butter. Dad didn’t even realize what he was doing. He just was happy that we weren’t starving to death.”
We all laughed, our chuckles simmering out to a comfortable silence. “He did what he could. Personally, I think he could’ve done a better job at raising you two assholes, but he did what he could.”
Both of them looked at me and Eric punched me in the side. We laughed back and forth, driving along, talking about the future and the little town of Galena where we lived. It was a great town, very family-oriented, and even an artistic kid like Eric didn’t want to leave. He had a lot of dreams of traveling and big cities, but all his dreams always ended up right back here with us. Personally, I was more than happy where I was. I had my shop, I had my brothers, and I had my house, a big old farmhouse right on the outskirts of town that I had renovated with Dad.
The drive to the park seemed like it was over within minutes and we jumped out, pulling our packs on our backs and grabbing our stuff. We knew exactly where we were going, the same spot we always went right by the river. We had our insect repellent, our tents, and all our gear. Anything other than that, we didn’t need, not while we were out there.
By the time we got to our spot and set everything up, it was midday and the perfect time to go fishing. We had managed to find a spot years before, away from the hustle and bustle of the tourists that walked the trails. We assumed that one day somebody would find our spot, but nobody ever had. It was always exactly the same as we had left it the time before, with, of course, the addition of a few new shrubs.
Out in the river, the water raced around us, and the sun peeked down through the trees, warming our skin. For a moment I closed my eyes, listening to the rushing water, the swaying of the leaves, and the chirping of the birds. I felt like if I spent too long away from that place, I would go crazy, so it was always refreshing when I was able to get back. “I really do love it out here. I still don’t understand why we don’t do this all the time. We have more than enough weekends that we can head out here, even with me running the store. We should be down here once every other month, if not more.”
Eric set his fishing pole on the shore and grabbed his camera. “I have to agree. We should definitely be out here more often. Now that Brighton’s back, we can all be here. And he won’t throw a fit when he finds out we came without him.”
“You know I’m standing right here,” Brighton shouted out. “And I never threw a fit. Am I not allowed to be disappointed when I’m stuck in college and you guys are fishing?”
I chuckled and glanced back at him. “You’re allowed to be envious, but I’m also allowed to come down there and beat the hell out of you because you’re talking so loud, you’re going to scare the fish away. I don’t want to hear you complain when you’re stuck with the trail mix in the bottom of the bag that’s probably been in there since our last trip.”
Eric stood up straight and took a picture of Brighton pouting. He looked down at the screen of his camera and nodded. “This is definitely a keeper. It’s like the mascot to our weekends as brothers. Brighton’s pouting, Christian’s out in the middle of nowhere in his own mind, and I’m just snapping pictures.”
“I told Dad he should come,” Brighton said, shaking his head. “He said he had too much to do, and for us to enjoy.”
Eric snickered. “Yeah and he would have gone upstream about a m
ile just to get the hell away from us.”
"Or brought back the no talking rule," I laughed. "You remember that? He told us if we talked too much he was going to make us sleep right on the edge of the riverbed."
Eric shook his head, rolling his eyes. "Yeah, and wake up covered in mosquitoes."
Nodding, I pointed at Eric. "That's right. Luckily he was only half serious. Half as in he made us move out there at three in the morning and we were just about eaten alive by the mosquitoes. But we definitely learned our lesson."
The sound of our laughter echoed across the old bark of the trees that lined the riverbed. I couldn’t help but think about how lucky I was in my life, having almost everything I wanted. The only thing I was missing was someone special to share it with.
2
Libby
“Did you hear the patient in room 7B last night?” my best friend, Melissa, asked me as I sat on the phone talking to her. “I thought she was crazy at first, but then when I went in there, she just really liked to sing show tunes. She had severe anxiety and singing the show tunes made her calm down. She really didn’t want to have to take Valium or anything like that, so the doctor allowed her to sing.”
I cringed just remembering it. “Trust me, I heard it. I wish that I hadn’t heard it, but I did. There isn’t a single musical that isn’t ruined for me now. It’s all cool when you have a coping mechanism to deal with your anxiety, but if you are the worst singer to ever grace this earth, you should probably rethink your tactics. I hope she doesn’t have close-by neighbors.”
Melissa giggled. “Me too. Her husband just seemed to ignore it. I wondered if maybe he didn’t turn off his hearing aids. I would. Live my life in silence. Especially if that was my ultimatum. Godawful show tunes all the time or not hear anything.”