by Anya Nowlan
“So you’re not suggesting finding a mate, you’re telling me you’ve found one, and you’re bringing her over to audition? Is that your idea of romance?” Trey asked, pushing back his wide-brimmed cowboy hat as they heaved another beam off to the side. Tyler put his hands on his hips, grinning a little.
“I wouldn’t call it an audition. I mean, it’s not like she’s going to be leaving after she takes one look at you and I.”
“Does this woman, this Sabra, even know that we’re an Alpha pair? What she’s getting herself into if she comes here?” Trey asked, always with the hard questions.
“She knows I have a twin, and she knows about werewolves. Supposedly she used to date one. I figured we could iron things out when she gets here. After all, I can’t know if she’s the one before I’ve really met her, you know? If she’s right, she’s right. If she isn’t then at least we’ll get someone capable helping out for a while so we can finish these projects. I called around a bit, and her credentials check out. She’s a hard worker and can probably teach you and I a few things. And her company wasn’t opposed to renting out her services for a while. Apparently she riled up some foreman in Florida, and it’s best if she lays low for a little while.”
At that, Tyler only received a noncommittal harrumph from his twin. It was the best he could hope for, considering the situation. He grinned, wiping sweat from his forehead. Okay, so several weeks of work had been burnt down by two maniacs and the said numbskulls were biting at the chance to kick his and Trey’s asses, and the woman he was head over heels in love with wasn’t exactly clued in on everything she was going to have to deal with when she showed up in Shifter Grove, but it was all going to work out, right? It had to! He was in love after all, dammit!
CHAPTER THREE
Oh my god, I can’t believe I’m actually going through with this, Sabra thought to herself, wringing the corner of her shirt between her fingers. The little airplane in which she was the only passenger was beginning to make its descent, and every second that passed brought her closer to meeting Tyler for the first time. Her stomach was in knots, and even the dashing, good-natured smile of the handsome pilot didn’t do much to calm her nerves. If all the men in Shifter Grove were as cute as Tyler and Slate, the pilot, then she was in for a hell of a month! Even though she was fairly certain that noticing anyone aside from Tyler was going to be difficult at best. The more she thought about it, the more amazed she was at how quickly things had moved. She’d started chatting with Tyler a few weeks ago and they’d hit it off immediately. Then, not long after, she got a message from Tyler and a call from corporate, essentially telling her that she was going to get to spend time with the hunky werewolf and get away from Joe, the impossible contractor, all at once. Could her life get any better?
When the plane touched down, Sabra let out a breath she didn’t know she had been keeping in. A small smile spread across her lips. It wasn’t going to be long now!
“Just a few more minutes! I see Tyler’s truck already parked at the end of the runway. I bet you’re dying to see him,” Slate teased. Sabra didn’t know what to say to that. Did the whole town know she was coming to meet him?
Probably. Small town gossip must be the same everywhere, no matter if it’s humans or shifters doing the talking, Sabra mused to herself, not letting it dim her smile. To hell with it, if they wanted to talk, they could talk. She’d dealt with being the only woman in a male-centered business for years now and dealing with a bit of friendly chatter would barely register as a blip on her radar.
“Could be,” Sabra replied noncommittally, drawing a chuckle from Slate. It was a loud, purring noise that immediately made her feel at ease. Dammit, shifter men were all so inexplicably pleasant to be around. Slate had helped her into the plane, and she could see all the locals being like that – hat-tipping, cordial and real down to earth people. Just her crowd. Why hadn’t she considered dating shifters earlier?
Oh, right, because she hadn’t considered dating at all in a real long while. Brushing the sudden gloomy memories out of her mind, Sabra got up as Slate hopped out of the pilot’s chair and opened the door. He let down the ramp and offered his hand to make sure she got down safe. When Sabra stepped into the sunlight, she was met with a face happier than the blazing sun itself. Tyler took off his hat, reaching a hand up to her – she took it gladly. The first touch sent a jolt of heat through her. He was even more gorgeous than his pictures had led her to believe. Tall, strong and with a smile that made her knees go weak, Tyler was the epitome of a country man.
“Hey,” she said, coming down the stairs.
“Hey to you too,” Tyler offered, his hat in his other hand. As soon as she got down on the ground, Tyler pulled her against him in a warm hug, enveloping her curvy frame in his big arms. Her face rested against his chest, and she could feel his heart pounding a mile a minute. She could only assume hers was doing the same. He had a peculiar effect on her, making her tingle all over and smile like nothing could ever go wrong. Being against his hard muscles made her mind quickly traipse down all the possible paths of what she could do with his body, and she wasn’t even ashamed about it. The man was hot, no doubt about it, and Sabra thoroughly enjoyed the immediate effect he had on her.
“C’mon now, no time to waste,” another voice called, breaking Sabra’s breathless focus on the drop dead gorgeous werewolf. Tyler let her go and put his hat back on, snorting at the sudden intrusion.
“I believe you’re just jealous that the lady has not greeted you yet, Trey. Sabra Adams, meet Trey Warfang. My brother and the other half of Warfang Construction.”
“Pleased to meet you, ma’am,” said the werewolf with the same kind of striking green eyes as Tyler’s. He reached his hand out to her, taking off his black cowboy hat, and she shook it automatically, still a bit flustered by being in Tyler’s arms just a second ago.
“Likewise,” she said, her hand disappearing in his huge paw. Sabra gasped as heat radiated from where he touched her, sending a shot coursing through her veins and desperate need pulsing in her core. She stared at him dumbfounded. While Tyler made her think naughty thoughts and want to giggle like a schoolgirl, Trey’s touch sent a wild, desperate throb through her unlike anything she’d ever felt.
They must have been standing there for longer than they should have, because Slate’s purring chuckle shook Sabra from her revelry, and Trey quickly let go of her hand. She tossed a look at the weretiger standing at the hatch and leaning against the frame with a knowing smile on his lips.
“You three have a nice day,” he said, throwing Sabra a conspiratory wink. He looked like he knew something she didn’t, and at any other time it would have bothered her, but right now, she was too busy trying to get her mind and body to co-operate again, because the damned werewolf twins had just done a number on her and short circuited her senses.
“We intend to,” Tyler shot back, looking like nothing could faze him or bring down his bright mood. He slipped an arm around Sabra’s shoulders, and she didn’t mind it one bit. Quite the contrary, she leant into the touch gladly. There was something safe about the Warfang brothers that made her feel immediately at ease, save for the fact that she was turned on like crazy by both of them. “Thanks for getting her to us safe, Slate. And tell Teresa we’re real sorry about what happened with the kindergarten. We’ll have it fixed up for her as soon as possible, and we’re going to be posting guards at the site every night so nothing like that happens again.”
Slate’s happy expression dimmed a little, and he nodded quietly, shrugging his shoulders.
“No problem. We know it wasn’t anything you two did. This isn’t the first time someone tries to mess with Shifter Grove. Just let me know if you need any extra hands for the construction or the patrols. Unless I have a flight, I’d be glad to pitch in, and you know the rest of the group feels the same.” Sabra watched the exchange wordlessly, trying to wrap her mind around what was going on with her. How could these two men make her spark to life
like that? What was it about them that affected her so deeply? She glanced at Trey while Slate and Tyler were engaged in conversation, and the look he gave her kicked the breath right out of her lungs. His green eyes burned with something primal, something deep that bit down into her soul and exposed her like he could see right into her depths. There was fire and need there that she could feel mirroring her own feelings, but on a much more animalistic level. When he looked at her, she felt like the most beautiful woman in the world.
Wow. What the hell was that? Sabra thought as Trey broke the eye contact, securing his grip on her heavy suitcase and heading past her and Tyler wordlessly, his steps directed towards the big black truck parked at the edge of the runway. She hadn’t even noticed when he’d retrieved her bag. The Warfang brothers seemed to be functional to a fault. She loved that in a man.
“Guess we better start moving. I’ll see you at the picnic next week,” Tyler said with a grin, tipping his hat to Slate.
“You can count on it,” Slate called back. Sabra waved to the pilot, and he gave her another one of those I-know-more-than-you-do looks, which lingered with her. But Tyler squeezed her arm, and it made all the other thoughts waft away. Without thinking about it, she draped her arm around his waist as they headed towards the truck, feeling completely at ease with him.
“Now, little missy, we need to get you to Shifter Grove. I’m glad you came here. Couldn’t believe you’d actually take me up on that offer before I saw you stepping down those stairs!” Tyler said, his eyes twinkling with mirth.
“I’m glad I came too,” Sabra replied, hooking a thumb in his belt loop like it was the most normal thing to do.
I think I’m going to like Idaho, she thought to herself with a smile.
***
“I see what you mean by wanton destruction,” Sabra remarked drily, standing on the concrete steps of what was to become the Shifter Grove kindergarten. The building site was littered with piles of burnt wood and destroyed frame pieces, looking like a particularly gruesome before and after next to the fresh stacks of timber planks settled in neat stacks.
“Yup. This wasn’t exactly the situation I was hoping to invite you to help sort out, but it just means we have more work to do. There’s an additional crew coming in tomorrow, and we’ll split up between two sites. Trey’s taking the ranch house we were contracted to build East of here, and I’m going to be managing this one. We’ll split the crew evenly between us as well. I don’t think you’ve worked with shifter builders before – at least not knowingly – but we have a pretty eclectic bunch coming in. A couple of bear carpenters, puma roofers and masons, I think the tile guy is actually a gator, etc. Just be prepared for some weirdness. But most of them work in regular construction so they’re used to taking orders.”
“So what do you want me to do?” Sabra asked, surveying the land they were building the kindergarten on. It was a lovely little hill nestled in some woods, just far enough from Shifter Grove to give the kids room to run around, but not too far to make getting to it a hassle. Her eyes kept creeping over to Trey, who was cutting up some of the beams to build new frames to replace the ones that had been destroyed in the fire. They had come to the site straight from the airport, and the drive had been torturous. Sabra had been nestled between the incredibly hot twins, the bumps and turns making her lean against one or the other every now and then, and every physical contact had left her panting and biting into her lip like she were a fangirl meeting her favorite celebrity.
They made her tick in just the right way, heat and lust combining together to make her throb with desire for the wolf twins, even if she knew that she wasn’t supposed to feel that way for both of them. She knew Tyler, and his kind heart and happy demeanor spoke to her, filling her with excitement for their possible future. But Trey… Dammit. He made her all breathless and eager to submit to his every whim and will. There was something dark in him that she recognized, a kind of pain carried just below the surface that she knew all too well. Saying that she was eager to know more about the mysterious brothers was an understatement.
“Well, I want you to stay here forever and say that this is what you want to do with your life – building things with me in Shifter Grove,” Tyler said with a devilish smirk, his predatory grin making her squirm a little. The thought of staying with him in Shifter Grove sounded damn appealing. “But for the meanwhile, I need you to go between this site and Trey’s and handle all of the logistics and make sure we’re kept on track. I’ll show you the blueprints for the kindergarten when we get to the house, and Trey will show you the ones for the ranch. We’re also going to have shipments coming in pretty steadily for both of the sites from Warren’s lumber mill and other suppliers in the area, and a lot of these need to be split up between the sites. Men need to be moved from one place to the other depending on how far along the construction is, etc. Essentially, I need you to make sure we get these things built in time, because if we wait until the heat really starts coming down, then you’re going to be dealing with some unhappy customers and grumbling workers. So don’t be shy, I trust you to boss us around when the situation calls for it. Does this sound like something you could do? I’ll be staying here for most nights and Trey will be at the ranch, so you can have the house. Or you can join us for watches. After what happened here I don’t think it’s safe to leave the sites unguarded.”
Sabra nodded through his description, tucking her hands in her pockets. It was good to get her brain working in tune with the actual task at hand again and to give it a bit of a breather from daydreaming about two hot werewolves doing unspeakable things to her.
“Sounds exactly like what I’m good at. Don’t worry, we’ll have these done in time.” Sabra smiled, full of certainty that what she was saying was going to come true. She never missed a deadline even with the more difficult foremen, and with men who actually wanted to work, well, it was going to be no trouble at all. Hard work, sure, but doable. Even Joe had been whipped into shape after Sabra had shared her report and her suggestions on how to fix the situation. The Warfang brothers didn’t seem like the kind of men she’d have to connive into doing good work, but she was looking forward to butting heads with them a little. Hell, this was shaping up to be the most enjoyable job and date she had ever had, and she was just a few hours into the whole mess!
CHAPTER FOUR
Trey watched as the last of the day crew packed up for the night and headed out. The sun was setting, and it was getting too dark to work, so it seemed like a good of a time as any to wrap up. A few of the carpenters were going to town to grab a bite to eat and then to come join him on the nightly watch, but for the next few hours, Trey expected to be completely alone. It wasn’t any skin off his back – it gave him a chance to catch up on the paperwork and sort through his thoughts on how the work was going. He stepped into the small, utilitarian trailer he and Tyler had towed onto the site of the huge ranch they were building. It had sort of become his refuge in the last few days, at least as far as dealing with people went. Sadly, it didn’t do anything to help him escape his thoughts.
Trey sat down heavily and pulled the leather-bound notebook he kept of the work site’s activities across the table, flipping to the page with the day’s notes. The carpenters were doing great work and the roofers were real class acts as well. With any luck they could coax a few of them to settle in Shifter Grove. Lord knows, there was so much construction going on in town that it could use people, who were good with their hands. Tyler and Trey constantly had a line of people begging for their time, and there was only so much two werewolves could do on their own. This was the first time they’d employed a crew, and other than some squabbles here and there between men who hadn’t worked together before, things were going great. Better than great, actually. The headway they were making was fantastic, and Trey had to admit that they owed most of it to how efficiently Sabra made them all run.
His pen stopped on the notepad paper as Sabra floated into his mind. Curvy, sassy and
delicious, she’d turned his world upside down the moment she’d stepped out of that airplane. When they shook hands, he’d felt something come to life that had been dead for a long time. Hope had pounded through his veins – an emotion he’d scarcely allowed himself to experience since his last run-in. Carmen had taken his heart, smashed it into pieces and then trampled on it. He hadn’t thought it possible that he could ever look at a woman and think that she could be more than just a quick lay anymore. The part of him he’d believed to be dead and buried had come out of the shadows with a vengeance, and now, Trey was faced with an entirely different kind of problem – what to do about it?
Being separated on different worksites, Trey didn’t see his twin as much as he was used to. It was odd, being so far from him. As Alpha twins, they’d done everything together all their lives, and now, even the few miles of distance between them felt like too much. Still, Trey knew why Tyler had planned it like this. He was sure that Tyler wasn’t as much worried about the safety of the two buildings as he was interested in giving both he and Trey ample time to get to know Sabra in private.
Trey had come to look forward to Sabra’s frequent visits to the site during the day. Hell, he’d even caught himself smiling a few times when the headstrong, confident woman bossed every big shifter on the site around like she’d been doing it all her life. She was tiny compared to the men, none of whom were under 6’3’’ and 220 pounds, but her voice was the loudest when needed and her remarks the sharpest when anyone got any ideas about disagreeing with her. She was right for it, too, seeing as she never got into a work related conversation unprepared. Trey couldn’t keep his eyes off of her. Her chocolate skin and mouthwatering figure had him in knots, and it was getting harder by the day to keep his hands off of her. He constantly wondered what her lips would feel like against his and if her ass was as juicy in his big palms as he thought it would be. His wolf was wild about her, and everything in him told him that Tyler might have been onto something when he brought her to Shifter Grove. For once, his little brother had come up with a plan he could get behind wholeheartedly.