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Published by The Hartwood Publishing Group, LLC,
Hartwood Publishing, Phoenix, Arizona
www.hartwoodpublishing.com
Amanda’s Wolves
Copyright © 2016 by Becca Jameson
Digital Release: February 2016
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination, or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Amanda’s Wolves by Becca Jameson
Hoping to break free of the stifling religious constraints of her parents, Amanda Williams has fled her childhood home in Oklahoma to join her sister in Montana. Things are looking up. She even has a promising job interview using her degree in anthropology. Now she just needs to get out of the apartment more and meet people.
Sawyer Hamilton has reluctantly moved to Montana to take a job as a wildland firefighter. With the exception of one brother, his entire family lives in the area. Every one of his local sibling shares their mate with a member of another family, the Masters. He has put off meeting any of them for long enough. If his destiny lies with one of the two remaining unmated Masters, it’s time he faces his fate.
Logan Masters is working as a hiking guide for his family’s business. He’s aware Sawyer has moved to town, but has avoided meeting him. He doesn’t have to come face to face with Sawyer to know they will inevitably share the same mate. When his younger sister presses the issue, he is forced to accept his destiny. They are fated to spend their lives together, but who is the woman they will share?
Amanda has no idea what she has gotten herself into when she agrees to babysit for her sister’s friend. The unrest she has felt since moving to Montana increases tenfold when she meets the members of the Masters and Bartel-Hamilton families. She has dreamed of two men in her bed for weeks. When she steps in front of them and discovers they are indeed real, she is shocked speechless.
Finding themselves mated to a human female, Logan and Sawyer have mountains to climb. In addition to convincing Amanda of her place between them, they must also confront the latest spirit sightings and solve the challenging mysteries Fate has put in their path.
Dedication
To my editor, Lisa, for putting up with all my misspellings and homonym mistakes. And to my family for putting up with all my late nights and frozen dinners!
Chapter One
Amanda picked up the phone and rolled her eyes as she answered it—the third call from her sister that day. “Mary. What now?”
“You’ll be here Sunday, right?”
“Yes.” She was exasperated with the entire ordeal.
“And you’re driving, right?”
“How else would I get my stuff there? Of course.”
“Just making sure. You don’t have to get all sassy on me.”
“I’m twenty-five years old, Mary. I know Mom and Dad like to think I’m some sort of recalcitrant child, but I’m a grown woman. I can drive across the country. I have an actual license and everything.”
Mary blew out a breath.
To be honest, Amanda hated the way she was treating her sister. It was uncalled for. They’d been close growing up. They were only three years apart. But Mary had always been the “good” sister. And Amanda had been the “naughty” one. At least that’s how their parents saw it.
Lucky for Mary, she’d had more brains. She managed to get a college degree—or two—and got the hell out of Nowhere, Oklahoma. Unlucky for Mary—as far as Amanda saw it—she had left town only to go to Nowhere, Montana.
Why? Was she crazy? She said she liked the small-town atmosphere, but she wanted to start fresh somewhere. And she’d chosen a place far enough from home that it kept their parents from visiting.
Molly and Ben Williams were not exactly the type for road trips. They lived a simple life in Oklahoma. As far as Amanda knew, they’d never left the state.
They also spent the last twenty-five years making Amanda’s life a living hell. All her mother cared about was the church she belonged to and making sure her daughters got a clean ticket to heaven.
Mary had suggested Amanda come live with her over nine months ago.
Amanda had balked for every single one of those months, insisting she needed to finish the next semester of school and then deciding to complete her degree in summer school. A degree in anthropology she doubted she would ever use. It had taken her seven years to finish it, and she had no idea what she would do with it now that she had the diploma in her hands.
She’d run out of excuses. And frankly, her mother was driving her fucking bonkers with all her rules.
Nice girls don’t _____. She could fill in that blank with any of about a dozen things without flinching, she’d heard it so many times.
One of the things nice girls didn’t do was move out of their parents’ home before marriage, which was why Amanda still lived under her father’s roof.
It seemed, however, that nice girls could move out to live with their sister. If only that move didn’t seem quite so lateral. Her biggest worry was that she was jumping out of one frying pan into another. There was always the possibility life with Mary would be every bit as stifling as life with her parents.
The town Mary lived in, Cambridge, Montana, didn’t seem to offer much more than the one Amanda was leaving.
It did have a ski resort, though. And she found the idea of learning to ski intriguing. She’d never even seen skis.
What she dreaded most was finding Mary to be as controlling and restrictive as Molly and Ben. Lately, though, she couldn’t imagine the situation being any worse. And she was finally willing to trade residences in hopes that the trade would prove to be up and not down.
Mary sounded excited enough. Amanda hadn’t seen her in over a year—not since Mary moved out of the family home to open her own preschool in Montana. At first, Amanda had been pissed at Mary for abandoning her. But soon she’d switched from angry to jealous. If Mary was having even an ounce of fun out on her own, it would be worth it.
Amanda decided to needle her sister a bit. “Any cute guys in that town?”
Mary hesitated. “Is that all you care about?”
“Yep.” She flopped down on her bed in her childhood room and stared at the ceiling. She was restless, like a caged tiger. She needed to get out of this house, this town, and this state, and live a little.
“Well, I’m sure there are. But they don’t work at my preschool, so I can’t say I’ve had a chance to meet any of them.”
“So, you aren’t dating?”
There was another pause.
“Mary?” Did her sister have a secret? Amanda smiled. Oh yes. This was going to be great. If Mary had a boyfriend, the world would be a perfect place. No way would she hound Amanda about her extracurricular activities if she had her own.
“No. I’m too busy.”
“Uh-huh.” Amanda wasn’t buying it. Something was up with Mary. She knew it. And for the first time, she felt good about her decision to leave Oklahoma in hopes of greene
r pastures. She sat up and looked around her childhood room. She didn’t have much to pack really. Her clothes and a few trinkets. She could do that by noon. “On second thought, I think I’ll get there Friday.” She pushed off the bed and tugged her suitcase out from underneath.
“Really?”
“Why not? Tossing my stuff in boxes now. I’ll leave in the morning.” Tomorrow was Thursday. Ten hours each day, and she’d be there.
“Are Mom and Dad okay with you driving by yourself this far?”
“They let you do it last year. I’m not really giving them an option. It’s not like I would want Mom to come with me. Gah. And Dad? Are you crazy? Besides, then they’d have to fly back. And you know that isn’t going to happen.”
“True. I’m sure you’ll be fine. Call along the way if you need me.”
“Will do.” Amanda ended the call and hustled around the room, stuffing her worldly belongings in her suitcase and then heading out to the garage to find a few boxes.
Yep. Tomorrow. Excellent day to finally fly the coop. Why on Earth had she been dragging her feet for so long?
»»•««
Sawyer Hamilton glanced at his GPS and took a deep breath. He hardly needed the device to get himself from Spokane, Washington, to Cambridge, Montana. He could probably make the drive blindfolded. But he liked the idea of knowing exactly what his arrival time would be as he cruised along.
He had his truck bed filled with everything he cared about. He’d only been in Spokane for five months. In that time he worked several odd construction jobs while training with the Bureau of Land Management to become a wildland firefighter. He was now a trained hotshot, but there were no openings in Spokane for someone with his skills. Sticking around waiting for a job to become available was growing old. And so was Sawyer. He was twenty-eight. Not getting any younger while he put off the inevitable.
Hanging out with his younger brother, Cooper, was also growing old. The man was a seismologist. At twenty-four, he worked long hours and made good money. He also made Sawyer feel like a freeloader lately.
Sawyer had fled their tiny hometown in Montana with Cooper to avoid their sister, Laurie. She was twenty-six now with a new baby and two mates. And she was pissed at him for not visiting the wailing little tyke. He could hear it in her voice on the phone every time he called.
Actually, it wasn’t Laurie herself he was trying to avoid. It was more what she represented. Her mating with Zachary Masters and Corbin Archers was a sure sign that a similar fate was about to befall Sawyer. And he’d done everything to put off the inevitable.
Truth be told, Sawyer had avoided Cambridge, Montana, like the plague. As a wolf shifter, he knew Fate was drawing him toward the city. No matter how often he denied it, it was inevitable. In fact, it was undoubtedly the reason he’d been unable to find steady work in Spokane. Fate. She had her ways.
But Sawyer was stubborn. He wasn’t in the mood to find a mate and settle down.
And more importantly, he wasn’t in the mood to shack up with two mates. There was about a fifty-fifty chance of that happening, the way he saw it.
Coming from a family of wolf shifters with five total siblings, he knew the odds. Three of his siblings—Miles, Melinda, and Laurie—were all mated to someone from another family of five kids—the Masters. And that would probably be okay too, if it weren’t for the fact they were also mated to another person.
The Masters family had something weird in their line. All of the males on two sides of the family had mated with another male and a woman.
Sawyer shuddered for the thousandth time as he put the car in gear and backed out of the driveway. He could sit in front of the condo he shared with Cooper all day, but it wouldn’t change anything.
The last remaining question, as far as he could tell, was whether he would be fated to mate with the remaining Masters son and a random woman or—if he was lucky—the only Masters daughter, who would undoubtedly mate with just one man. The weird threesome gene apparently only extended to the men in the family.
Sawyer had never met either Sharon or Logan. He’d intentionally left the Cambridge/Sojourn area the moment his third sibling mated a Masters. That had been too eerie. He wasn’t ready to face that destiny. The best way to avoid whatever Fate had in mind for him was to flee the state, so he had.
Cooper had run just as fast and hard. And he’d since made a name for himself in Spokane. Lucky bastard.
Sawyer pulled out onto the highway, gripping the steering wheel so tight his fingers hurt.
His cell rang, and he hit the hands-free button on the steering wheel to take the call. “Hello.”
“Sawyer. You on your way?” Laurie’s voice was too cheery.
He narrowed his gaze. “Yes. Should I turn around and go back to my regularly scheduled life instead?”
“Nope. You’re meant to be right here.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“You’ll love it here. They have hiking in the summer and skiing in the winter.”
“What makes you think I’m planning on staying?” He had only consented to a visit as far as Laurie knew. He grinned to himself as he pictured her reaction when he told her he was moving there for good.
“You will. I know you will.”
“Don’t tell me you’ve had some sort of premonition about it,” he teased.
Laurie was sensitive. She had feelings about things. And ever since she’d moved to the Native American reservation and reunited with the estranged half of their family, her powers had manifested in full swing.
No. That wasn’t exactly true. In reality, he realized it was Laurie, himself, and Cooper, along with their parents, who comprised the estranged side of the family. His mother, Joyce Hamilton, and her mate, Gene, had been banished from tribal land twenty-eight years ago when his mother found herself mated to the Caucasian shifter and pregnant with Sawyer. She’d had to leave her three-year-old twins, Miles and Melinda, with their grandmother and flee her land. For nearly three decades they waited for the old generation of tribal elders to die off so they could return to their homeland.
He shook the melancholy away. What’s done was done. It was time to move forward. His parents had moved back to the reservation, and it was time for Sawyer to join the family. The last remaining holdout was Cooper. And Sawyer knew it was only a matter of time before he followed also.
In any case, Sawyer had heard all the stories about Laurie’s bizarre experiences with Native American spirits. He knew better than to question her intuition.
“No. I haven’t had some sort of premonition, smart ass. Just being realistic. I promise you’ll love it here.”
He decided to keep up the banter. “As long as they have fires, I’ll be set. The only reason I’ve agreed to this crazy, harebrained idea is because I can’t find work in Spokane.” What he didn’t tell her was that he’d already secured a job in Cambridge north of where Laurie was living with her mates. He was keeping that as a surprise, especially because he knew she would go crazy with excitement as soon as she found out.
“So, you might stay?” She sounded so elated he almost chuckled. “I’m sure the local fire department will have openings. Shall I call them and ask?” She didn’t even know he’d been training to be a wildland firefighter.
“No. I’ll handle it when I get there.” He couldn’t help smiling. Laurie was nothing if not pushy. Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad after all. If he could somehow manage to get his feet under him and start working before he was forced to meet either of the leftover Masters kids, he’d be happy as a clam.
He ran a hand through his short-cropped hair and resumed his grip on the steering wheel. “What’s for dinner?”
“You crazy? I have a newborn baby here. I’m lucky if there’s orange juice in the house. We’ll order pizza, or I’ll send Zach or Corbin out to get something.”
Sawyer chuckled. “If you even think of inviting anyone to join us, I will personally kill you. Could you please, please, please
let Nature take its proper course? Can’t I simply run into these Masters people on my own without your meddling help?”
“Of course. What kind of sister do you think I am?” Her voice was too cheery.
“Laurie…”
“I’ll be good. I promise. Just get yourself here and meet your niece. Fate will handle the rest.”
That’s what he was afraid of.
Chapter Two
One month later…
Logan shoved the last sleeping bag into its cubby and turned around to find his sister, Sharon, leaning against the rental counter, both elbows on the surface as she met his gaze.
Not again…
He’d been avoiding her and her meddling for weeks, and the best way he knew how to do that was work. So he’d immersed himself in the summer hiking and camping program his family ran from their ski lodge during the warmer months of the year. The place had never been so organized, inventoried, or clean.
“I’m going to see him.”
“See who?” he asked as if he were oblivious. He knew exactly who she meant, and he didn’t want to have anything to do with it.
Sawyer Hamilton. Laurie Hamilton’s older brother. Miles and Melinda Bartel’s younger half brother. One of the two unmated siblings left in that family.
It infuriated him that his fate lay in the hands of, well, Fate. It infuriated him further that there was little doubt Sawyer Hamilton was fated to mate with either Sharon or himself.
It was bad enough that wolf shifters were nearly always destined to fall for whoever the Universe deemed appropriate precisely when She deemed it so. What really pissed Logan off was realizing his family was obviously merging with the Hamilton-Bartel family, leaving no mystery at all concerning who he would spend his life with.
Not that he’d met either remaining sibling. He’d avoided them like the plague. And until Sawyer moved to the area a few weeks ago, he’d managed fine. Now, the clock was ticking. He could only avoid Sawyer for so long living in a small town in the middle of basically nowhere.
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