It was only when Wesley had followed him back in the direction of the ranch that he’d frozen in astonishment. Right before his eyes, that bear had shifted too, revealing his own boss, mentor, friend and father figure—Tanner Holt.
Tanner had broached the subject with him the next day, and Wesley had finally gotten some answers. It turned out Tanner and his brother Derek were shifters too. Tanner and Derek had come from Wilkes, and were most likely part of a larger clan, though neither one, probably on account of their rotten upbringing, had ever sought out their shifter family roots. Tanner had guessed that Wesley was probably descended from the Ontario shifter clan—the area where Westley’s now long-deceased father was from.
Tanner had taught him a lot about shifting over the first few months. But it was only the day before when Wesley had brought up the subject of why it was he’d suddenly gone through his initial shift when he did. Most shifters had their first shift at a young age and even the ones who were “late bloomers” shifted before puberty. Wesley was long past that.
Tanner had shook his head.
“I’m not sure, Wes,” he sighed. “The common reasons are extreme emotion—usually in terms of a rise of testosterone, so a lot of shifters first find out they’re shifters during a dramatic time, or when their body is stressed from puberty, or when they find their mates.”
“What do you mean, ‘mates’?” Wesley had asked. He had no idea at the time what Tanner meant when he used the term ‘mate’.
“Soulmate—like finding your significant other,” Tanner had replied, a smile turning up the corners of his mouth. “But way more intense. Shifters only mate once, and that love lasts a lifetime. There’s no one else. No one else even comes close. I knew Heather was my mate the minute I laid eyes on her, and just prayed to God she felt the same way about me. I was lucky. For Derek, it took a little longer. Audrey was right under his nose the whole time and he fought it tooth and nail.”
“What if the person you know is your mate doesn’t… you know…love you back?” Wesley had asked weakly.
“Never heard of it happening,” Tanner sighed happily. “I don’t think it happens that way. It’s fated. I don’t really know. There’s a lot of stuff I don’t understand about this world, the nature of having fated mates is one of them. All I do know, is that there’s no going back, and a shifter without his mate will rarely find happiness.”
Wesley knew then.
He knew in his heart, without a shadow of doubt, that it was Chloe who had jarred him enough to finally cause the transformation in him—the shift. Ever since the night of his first shift, her face haunted his dreams every night, filled his thoughts every day. Her scent filled the hills and valleys of the ranch and surrounding forest. She was everywhere. He couldn’t hear her laughter without a bolt of aching pain splintering his insides. Knowing that she was his world, and completely unable to do anything about it was eating him alive.
Chloe saw him as an older brother. She was smart, ambitious, able to take on the world. And she would. She was heading off to college and in a couple years’ time, she’d have the world at her feet. And he wanted that for her. He would never be able to give her the kind of life she deserved. And he sure as hell would not be the person who held her back—if by some small miracle she felt the same way about him.
And then there was Tanner to contend with. Wesley knew that Tanner and Heather’s mating was a wonderful, life-affirming experience. But if Tanner knew how Wesley felt about Chloe—well, that would be an entirely different matter. Wesley was a ranch hand. Nothing special. Just a small town guy with no family, no real money, and no future prospects. Chloe had everything, and her life was only just starting out.
Wesley left behind a letter for Tanner.
It was maybe a cowardly way to leave, but if Tanner questioned him as to why, he wasn’t sure he would have been able to lie to the guy’s face.
In the letter, he’d told Tanner he was going to look for the Ontario shifters, to find his family roots. He knew Tanner would respect that and willingly let him go. But if Tanner had heard the explanation face-to-face, he would undoubtedly have seen the abject misery in Wesley’s eyes—the complete reluctance and searing pain that came with leaving Jackson Hole, and his mate, behind. And, if Tanner looked a little deeper, if he’d urged Wesley to say goodbye to Chloe, or mentioned his daughter’s name even just once, Tanner would have known without a doubt that Wesley’s insides were broken, and that his daughter was the reason why.
2
Present Day…
“So, I have news!” Mia came bounding up behind Chloe in the hallway.
“Morning Mia,” Chloe replied, amused. There was never any preamble with Mia. It was always straight to the latest gossip, event or announcement that she’d learned—being glued to social media since the moment they woke up tended to do that to a person.
“There’s a party tonight hosted by the Alpha Delta Kappa frat boys, and…”
“Let me guess,” Chloe replied with a laugh, “you managed to get us in?”
“Better than that, I managed to score an invite by Todd Butler.” Mia paused for emphasis. “The Todd Butler.”
“Okay, firstly he’s not ‘the’ Todd Butler. He’s not actually famous, he just thinks he is. And secondly, Mia, he’s a jerk. Do you honestly want to go to a frat party just because you have a crush on Todd? Those guys are such assholes.”
Mia shook her head impatiently.
“Chloe. Listen to me. Todd is not an asshole, he’s hot. And hot people are sometimes mistakenly thought of as assholes, but I am absolutely positive—and have it on good authority—that Todd is a humble, kind, beautiful person.”
“A humble, beautiful person?” Chloe asked skeptically.
“Exactly.”
“Mia–”
“Torres says he’s a great guy,” Mia interjected. “And I trust Torres.”
“I do not trust Torres,” Chloe replied emphatically. “Torres is also on the football team, and is clearly Todd’s wingman or whatever, and you my friend, have been duped.”
“We’re going.”
“We both have early classes tomorrow. This idea of yours stinks.”
Chloe moved her heavy, book-laden knapsack from one shoulder to the other while Mia pursed her lips and stood with her hands on her hips, blocking Chloe’s path.
“We’re going. That’s final. I’ve already texted Harper and she’s responded appropriately—with excitement and gratitude to have such a well-connected friend.”
“Do I have to?” Chloe sighed.
“You have to. You owe me one, remember?”
Chloe let out a sigh of suffering. “I do.”
When Chloe first came to the University of Michigan as a freshman, she’d been housed in Bailey Hall which meant that she’d had to take the 20 min Campus Connector trip just to get to her classes on East and West Bank. She’d mentioned the inconvenience to Mia, who she’d met in the student commissary their first week. Mia had known someone in admissions, who’d got her a contact at the housing association, and before Chloe knew it, she was sharing a dorm room with Mia in Frontier Hall. The girls had both recently moved to off-campus housing a few months ago, just before the start of their senior year.
“Great,” Mia chirped happily. “And for the record, I don’t have a crush on Todd, I just admire Todd–”
“And Todd’s girlfriend, do you admire her too?”
Mia pulled a face.
“She’s short term.”
“Mia!”
Mia shrugged her insult off as Chloe laughed at her friend. Mia was off the charts sometimes. Where normal people saw mountains, Mia just saw mere mole hills. In every situation she seemed perpetually confident that she’d get her own way eventually. Chloe’s attitude was vastly different. She knew from bitter experience that you didn’t always get what you wanted. No matter how much you wished and prayed for it, sometimes life just didn’t pan out the way you thought it would, and there was nothi
ng you could do about it.
“Hey, earth to Chloe. Where you just go?”
“Sorry,” Chloe shook off the maudlin thoughts.
“You’re thinking about him again, aren’t you?” Mia asked perceptively.
“No!”
“Liar.”
Chloe rolled her eyes. She wished she’d never told Mia about her childhood crush from back home, her dad’s ranch hand, Wesley. Or, he had been her dad’s ranch hand until the day he’d disappeared from Jackson Valley without so much as a goodbye. She’d kind of been forced to come clean when Mia confronted her about rarely dating and her general lack of interest in boys.
Unthinkingly, Chloe reached up to her neck, her fingers lightly fingering the silver bear that hung against her collarbone.
“I think you should be taking an interest in Todd Butler,” Mia smirked, “because there’s not a single guy on campus that wouldn’t give his right nut to go on a date with you.”
“Oh, please,” Chloe retaliated. “That’s bullshit and you know it. Honestly, I’m more interested in my grades this year. We’re not all mini genius’s like you.”
“You say that every year!” Mia squeaked. “This is our last year, our final hurrah. Which is exactly why this is the time for us to hook up as much as possible, sew our wild oats, before we have to go out into the real world and do the corporate nine-to-five, mortgage, kids, minivans, whatever.”
Chloe laughed at her logic. She’d never had a hooked up with a guy before, or even a boyfriend. Yeah, she was getting a little old, but she’d never met a guy who she had feelings for. Who was she kidding? She never met a guy who measured up in any way to Wesley.
“Well, I’m all for your hook up plan—for you,” Chloe emphasized. She checked her watch, ignoring Mia’s cries of outrage. She had about an hour before her next lecture, just enough time to go and grab a coffee and go over her notes from last week’s reading assignment.
“I’m heading over to Starbucks. I need to read my notes before the lecture. See you tonight?”
“See you tonight. I’ll help you choose your outfit,” Mia replied with a wink.
“You wish.”
Chloe grinned at her friend as she departed. An outfit for tonight? That was a joke. Chloe was very specifically a jeans and t-shirt dresser. Every time they went out, Mia tried to wrangle her into slinky dresses or tops that left next to nothing to the imagination, but Chloe stood her ground. Mia looked amazing in that kind of stuff, her dark hair fell down her back like a waterfall and her deep, smoky eyes appeared exotic and alluring. Chloe just felt silly when she made an effort and hated the stares she’d receive.
That hadn’t always been the case. When she was younger she’d love dressing up. She and her mom, Heather, had spent weeks picking out the dress for her sixteenth birthday. But the dress had been picked with Wesley in mind. She’d wanted to show him how adult she was, maybe convince him that she was no longer someone he could treat like a kid sister. The plan hadn’t worked. The excitement of getting dressed up, doing her hair and transforming herself had dulled a bit. There just didn’t seem to be much point.
“A tall iced coffee,” she told the barista.
“Sure thing.”
He rang the drink up on the register.
“Two dollars if you have an ID card?” He asked. Chloe nodded, flashing her U of M student ID.
“What you studying?”
Chloe was taken aback by the question.
“Oh, International Relations,” she replied quickly. “Are you a student, too?”
“I am—English Lit.”
“Nice.”
The barista grinned at her. He was attractive, sandy blond hair with an impressive array of tattoos running up and down either arm and kind, chocolate eyes. Chloe warmed to him instantly.
“You a senior?” He asked.
“Yeah, you?” Chloe replied with a chuckle.
“Junior. I haven’t seen you here before. And I’d remember you, if I had.”
Chloe blushed and smiled, trying to ignore his flirtatious comment.
“Here you go,” he handed her the coffee. “It’s on the house. I’m Eli, by the way.”
“Chloe,” she replied, taking the coffee. “Thank you so much for this.”
“Anytime. Hope I see you again soon.”
Chloe nodded, and took her coffee over to one of the tables. She could feel Eli watching her, and it made her movements awkward. She wished she’d taken the coffee to go. She’d probably do a better job of concentrating elsewhere.
Despite her reservations, she soon became lost in her work—startled by her phone alarm indicating that she had five minutes to get to the lecture hall. She hastily packed away her papers.
She’d forgotten all about Eli and was momentarily caught off guard as he shouted out a goodbye across the coffeeshop. Chloe waved back, thinking about what Mia had said earlier about the ‘final hurrah’. She had a point. Four years ago when he’d sent her off to college, her dad had told her that these were the best years of her life and that she should grab every minute of it. Chloe had tried—halfheartedly—but she could never get her mind too far off of Wesley.
Maybe this year, she’d change all that and make an effort to see that this ‘final hurrah’ of her college life at U of M was a full, enjoyable one. From now on, she’d make a more concerted effort to grab every minute of it.
3
The music was deafening. It hit them the moment they arrived at the entrance to the frat house. They were vivaciously welcomed by a very drunk guy wearing a sombrero.
“It’s tropical in here!” He cried loudly, wildly gesturing them to enter.
The girls laughed, shuffling into the house while removing coats and scarves. It has freezing outside. Fall had quickly made way to winter, and in Michigan, that meant the ground was frosted over, even though it was still only September. It wasn’t weather new to Chloe, and she was far better able to bear it than Mia or Harper who complained near constantly and turned the heaters up to a stifling level.
They dumped their coats in a huge pile that was starting to form near an overflowing coat rack.
“I think I’ve probably lost this forever,” sighed Harper as she solemnly placed her parka on the heap.
Chloe shook her head, grabbing both Mia and Harper’s coats and dumping them under a chair in the corner of the room. They’d be much easier to find later, and Chloe was determined she wouldn’t be staying out too late.
“Okay, let’s find Torres!” Mia announced, yelling over the music.
The three of them fought their way through sweating bodies dancing enthusiastically in narrow corridors and spilling out from the other rooms. At the far end of the hallway, someone had placed a ‘BEER HERE’ sign. Mia motioned for them to move toward it.
“Hey, hot stuff, wanna dance?” A stranger yelled loudly in Chloe’s ear.
“Screw off,” she snapped back, pushing him away from her.
Oblivious, the guy just grinned manically and danced off, grabbing another female within his eyeline.
“Gross,” Harper muttered, moving closer to Chloe and Mia. A huge number of the Wolverines football team were pledged to the Alpha Delta Kappa fraternity. The parties at Alpha Delta Kappa house had a reputation for being a bit rowdy and full of horny guys desperate to see some action, but the girls had all soon realized, since arriving on campus, that guys in general were pretty horny and desperate to get some action. It certainly wasn’t behavior restricted merely to football players or frat guys.
“I can see Torres!” Mia shouted, pointing up ahead.
Suddenly a roar went up, and Torres appeared from the crowd. He rushed forward and lifted Mia up in the air, whooping and laughing.
“You made it Mia!” He yelled.
“Put me DOWN, Torres!”
Torres let her go reluctantly. He was a big, beefy offensive lineman for the Wolverines. He was part Samoan with long, dark hair, tanned skin and bright blue, piercing eyes which M
ia, Harper and Chloe had on many occasions debated whether they were colored contacts or real. Mia always came down on the side of ‘real’. Harper and Chloe weren’t so sure.
“Okay, I’m going to get you ladies a drink,” Torres continued, “and introduce you properly to Todd, who, by the way, is very happy you could make it.”
Torres looked directly at Chloe as he spoke and gave her a wink. Chloe turned to look at Mia, wondering what the hell Torres meant, but Mia was just grinning at her in a sly way—as if she knew something that Chloe didn’t.
Great, thought Chloe, I’m part of a Mia master set-up plan.
That was not ideal. Chloe had only seen Todd from afar and heard more about him through rumor than anything else. That was never a good sign. Plus, Todd had a girlfriend who was just as infamous as Todd was on campus.
“Lead the way!” Mia replied gleefully, before Chloe could object.
Chloe shot her friend daggers but knew it wouldn’t do any good. Once Mia had a plan in mind, there was no stopping her.
“I thought Mia had the hots for Todd,” Harper whispered to Chloe.
“So did I,” Chloe groaned. “I think she’s been pulling the wool over our eyes.”
“Lucky you,” Harper grinned.
“Great. Thanks for the support.”
“There’s not a lot I can do,” Harper pointed out. “If Mia wants to try to hook you up with Todd, then you’re going to hook up with Todd.”
“I am not.” Chloe replied quickly. She motioned her head in the direction of Mia and Torres. “I think this is so Mia can date Torres, and have us in the same social circle or something. This is going to be a long night.”
Torres had his arm flung over Mia. She was chatting animatedly as they made their way through the crowds—which now parted like the red sea on account of a football hero leading the way.
“Okay,” Harper laughed. “I think you might be right.”
Jackson Valley Shifters Complete Series: Bear Shifter Romance Page 20