by Jane Jamison
“Same here.” Derek sniffed then cleared his throat. A quick glance at his brother came next.
She shifted to the right to find Evan lurking in the shadows of the storefronts on the opposite side of the street. Dark clouds rumbled overhead, threatening to bring showers. “Hi, Evan.”
He glanced skyward as though checking for incoming missiles then quickly strode across the street and joined them. “Hi yourself. You’re looking good.”
Good as in good enough to have sex with? Or good as in healthy? “Thanks. So do you.” She let her gaze rake over all three of them, soaking in every muscle. “All of you do.”
“It’s that good old county living.” Derek’s laughter rang out. “That and a whole lot of hard work.”
“How is the ranch doing?” If they kept making small talk, she was going to go insane. Did she dare ask them direct questions? Could she stand it if the answers weren’t the ones she wanted to hear?
The men’s Glowing Moon Ranch was one of the largest spreads in the area. From cattle to horses, the men did it all. From what she’d heard, they did it well, too.
“We can’t complain,” answered Evan.
They stood there, all of them silent, for far too long.
Tell them. Just come straight out and tell them you want them.
Yet, as she always did, Emeline kept her mouth closed. That was one thing she’d learned since leaving her old life behind. Sometimes it was better to keep quiet.
So many of the townspeople were in relationships with more than one person. Stranger still, most of the relationships were between two or more men and one woman. She’d gone from merely curious to fantasizing about the possibilities. If given the chance, would she get involved with more than one man? Especially if those men were the Mitchell brothers and their cousin?
Then there it was. A question she’d wanted an answer to but had yet to ask. “Are a lot of people around here into ménage relationships?” As soon as she’d asked, she clammed up. It wasn’t as direct a question as she’d wanted to ask, but it was close enough. Downright personal.
The men exchanged another telling look, but it was Tyler who spoke. “Yeah, they are. It’s hard to miss, isn’t it?”
“I may come from a big city, but I know ménage isn’t the way it usually is in a small town.”
“I guess not. Then again, Fate’s not just any town. It’s a special place.” Tyler tilted his head to the side. “Why do you ask?”
She had to backpedal as fast as she could. All three men had their focus fixed squarely on her. Tyler and Derek had inquisitive looks while Evan’s stare pierced her as though he could see straight into her soul.
“I was just wondering. I mean, like you said, it’s hard to miss. Although it seems like it’s usually two or more men with one woman. Instead of the other way around, I mean.”
“Would you want it the other way around?” Evan’s voice was as dark as his sexy looks. “Two or more women with one man?”
Hell no. “No. I don’t think so. I mean I never gave the multiple women with one man idea much thought.” She had, however, thought about the ménage thing a lot of times, especially with the Mitchell brothers and their cousin involved.
“Would you like having more than one man?”
Oh shit. Derek had finally asked a real question. One she wasn’t sure she could answer. If she told them the truth, would they say they wanted her, too? Or would they realize how she felt and back off, letting her down easy?
“I don’t know. I never gave that much thought either.” Liar.
“You’ve thought about it enough to wonder. Enough to ask just now.” Evan’s voice flowed over her like sweet sap down the side of a tree.
She averted her gaze, dropping it to the sidewalk. “What about you three? Have you ever thought about it?” When in doubt, go on the offense. Throw the questions back at them.
“Sure we have.”
She brought her gaze back up to Tyler’s. “You have?”
“Yep. We wouldn’t mind it one bit.”
“So you’d share one woman? Between the three of you?”
“Sure.”
She swallowed as their gazes bored into her. “Really?”
“Damn straight we would.” Derek’s smile, a smile that could break any woman’s heart, lifted the corners of his mouth ever so gently. “As long as she’s the right woman.”
She stared, slowly moving from one man to the next. A thick air of sexual need swamped her, and she wondered if they felt the same thing. If they did, then she had a chance with them. “The right woman?”
“Yeah. The right woman.”
Tyler’s eyes lightened with bits of amber. She’d noticed the change before. Not only in his eyes but in a lot of people’s eyes. She’d even mentioned it to Heather, Raven, and Betsy, but none of them had an explanation for it. “I’ve been meaning to ask you. Your eyes. Sometimes they—”
The music of her cell phone going off in her pocket was the last thing she wanted to hear. She hesitated, not wanting to stop their conversation. Not even for Miss Charlotte.
“You’d better answer that. It might be important.” The amber in Tyler’s eyes faded away.
The small bit of hope that had come alive died. She sighed and pulled out her phone. “Hello?”
“Tell Miss C hey from us,” whispered Derek. “We’ll catch you later.” He motioned to Tyler and Evan and headed toward their blue Chevrolet pickup.
She wanted to beg them to stop, to wait until she could talk again, but they were already halfway to their vehicle. Instead, she forced herself to listen to Mrs. Jacobs, the neighbor lady who sometimes watched Miss Charlotte when Emeline had to run errands, asking her to pick up a few items from the market.
Hells bells. I was so close this time.
Would she have enough nerve to try again? Would they?
Chapter Two
Tyler swung the hammer and pounded the last nail into the fence railing. Most of the time, he hated jobs like fixing fences, but today, doing the laborious chore freed his mind to think. Since they’d run into Emeline earlier in the day, he hadn’t been able to think of anything else.
He would’ve sworn she was warming up to them. Since the day they’d first met her strolling down the street with her arm entwined in Miss Charlotte’s, he’d known she was the one for them. One sniff was all it had taken. That and a good hard look at her body.
Some shifters could sense their mate. Others swore by an invisible connection that brought all mates together. He wasn’t about to tell them they were wrong, but he’d always counted on one thing to tell him if a woman was their mate or not. Her scent. All the women he’d known had different aromas, but none of their personal aromas had pulled at him, inflaming his need to possess them, to claim them as his own.
Until Emeline.
Why were they taking their fucking time to claim her?
Logically, he understood that they needed to give her time. Time to get used to Fate. Time to get an understanding, if only subconsciously, that the people in town were different from anyone she’d ever met. Almost everyone in town knew who was a shifter or another kind of supernatural being except newcomers. They were kept in the dark until they’d been around long enough to develop strong ties to the community. Or to have been claimed and mated.
She needed time to warm up to them. If they gave her enough time, she’d be less likely to run like hell once they showed her what they were.
What they were was even harder to explain. They weren’t the only inter-supernatural family in town, but they were the only shifter family to have someone like Evan.
Shit. If only he and Derek had changed Evan.
Tyler and Derek were lucky. They’d been born werewolf and had lived in Fate all of their lives. The Glowing Moon Ranch had been their parents’, and when their folks had passed on, they’d inherited the prosperous spread. The sons had never wanted to do anything other than ranching.
Evan, however, hadn’t been so
lucky. He was their cousin, but he’d been born to one of their father’s sisters. As far as Tyler was concerned, Evan’s bad luck had started from the beginning when he was born fully human. Not one drop of werewolf had made it into his veins. If it had, then maybe he would’ve been spared his eventual transformation.
A growl escaped Tyler. Damn, how he wished he’d been around when it had happened. If so, either Evan would’ve stayed human or he would’ve protected him.
The rogue vampire that had attacked Evan had left his cousin reeling, unable to comprehend how radically his life would change. Eight years ago, he was a carefree twenty-two-year-old. Then one fateful night, he’d ended up lying in the alley behind the bar where he worked, feeling the blood seep down his neck. When Evan’s first transformation had overtaken him, he’d been lucky enough to find refuge from the sun and anyone who might see him. Somehow, Evan had made it to Fate and to his cousins’ ranch soon after, seeking refuge and help. Several months passed before the rest of the town was aware that he was there. Once they’d found out, it had taken time for them to accept him.
Fate had its share of vampires, but that didn’t make the werewolves of the town warm up to Evan any faster. The “homegrown” vamps were considered different than “outsiders” like Evan. Other shifters, including the werecats, were even more reluctant to welcome their cousin. But with the passage of time, and the fact that Evan was their cousin, almost everyone had started thinking of him as one of their own.
I could’ve saved him. I could’ve made him one of the pack.
“You’re doing it again.”
Tyler didn’t turn around. The day was cloudy enough that he should’ve expected Evan to get out more than he usually did. How shitty would it be to be confined to the indoors until the sun went down? Some other vampires wouldn’t come out during the day at all, no matter how cloudy it was, but if Evan wanted to get to know their mate better, then he’d have to risk getting sickened by the sun’s rays. Although a vampire wouldn’t burst into fire as it was often portrayed in movies and books, being out in the direct sunlight could make a vampire ill. If he exposed his skin to the sun for too long, he could even die.
Why the hell didn’t I hear his horse? Damn horse is getting as sneaky as his vampire rider.
More than likely, he’d been too immersed in his thoughts and just hadn’t heard them.
“What the hell are you talking about? Fixing a damn fence? Someone has to do it.” Not that he didn’t know what Evan meant, but it pissed him off that his cousin knew what he was thinking. Evan would never say if he was just a good guesser or if he had the ability to read minds.
Vampires are so fucking tight-lipped.
He growled again, knowing Evan would pick up the whisper of a sound. Tyler shoved his werewolf back down. Dealing with a vampire could be difficult even on the best of days. Dealing with one after they’d just seen their future mate and hadn’t taken her—again—made it almost fucking impossible.
“You can’t take the blame for everything, you know.”
Tyler straightened up then hooked the hammer into the tool belt he’d tossed over the rump of his horse Triumph. “I’m not.”
“Then stop thinking you could’ve saved me. You weren’t there. What was meant to be was meant to be.”
He hated it when people believed their entire destiny was already laid out. He’d rather believe he made his own destiny.
“You had even less control over what happened to me than I did.”
Evan was right, of course. Tyler hadn’t been anywhere near the bar. He couldn’t have known a rogue vampire would show up out of nowhere. Yet he’d always felt responsible for both Derek and Evan, even when they’d lived miles apart. At thirty-two, he was the oldest. He’d been the one who’d always taken charge and had kept them out of trouble when they were younger.
“You need a shrink, cousin. Get your head examined. It doesn’t make any sense for you to feel guilty.” Evan’s smile was bright under his large cowboy hat. Even when it was cloudy, he still wore the hat or a hoodie, something to keep his face in the shade. There was no telling when the sun might come out, hard and bright, from behind a cloud. “Besides, I like what I am.”
“Are you saying you like being a vampire?” Tyler grabbed the saddle horn, put his boot in a stirrup, and pulled his body onto the saddle. Triumph, trained to understand every move Tyler made, barely moved. “When you could’ve been a werewolf? That’s bullshit.”
Evan leaned back on his black horse, Knight. “If I’d wanted to be a werewolf, I could’ve asked a lot of folks in our family to change me, but I never did. Contrary to what you might believe, cousin, not everyone wants to be a shifter.”
“Only because they don’t know what it’s like.” He clucked at his horse and tugged on the left rein, turning him toward the ranch house. “Tell me, cuz, can you read minds?” It wasn’t the first time he’d asked the question, and it most likely wouldn’t be the last time, either. He didn’t know why he kept trying when he knew Evan wouldn’t answer. Wasn’t that the definition of insanity?
“I told you I can’t.”
“Yeah, but I’m not sure I believe you.”
“Is all the shit you’ve heard about werewolves true?” Knight snorted as Evan brought him alongside Tyler’s mount.
“’Course not.”
“Then why do you expect all the shit you’ve heard about vampires to be true?”
“I don’t. That’s why I’m asking.”
“And I’m telling you. I can’t read your mind.”
“Then how do you know when I’m thinking about what went down with you?”
“I don’t have to be a mind reader to tell. All I do is look at your expression, and I know.”
Tyler pulled his horse to a stop and glared at his cousin. “You’re a lousy liar. You didn’t see my face.”
Evan’s grin didn’t help matters any. It just made Tyler want to punch his cousin’s lights out. As a werewolf he was just as powerful as a vampire, but he didn’t like the idea of testing that idea. Not because he was afraid of getting his butt kicked but because family didn’t fight family. At least, most of the time.
“Sure I did. You just didn’t see me.”
He paused, trying to determine, as he had so many times before, if his cousin was telling him the truth. Evan had always been hard to read, but after he’d become a vampire, reading him had become damn near impossible.
“Hey, you two. What’s up?”
Tyler and Evan turned to see Derek on his horse, Storm. Derek pulled Storm up fast and hard, kicking up dirt. Tyler should’ve seen him coming, but again, he’d been too involved, his mind occupied.
“Did you get your part fixed?” Tyler had sent Derek to repair another broken railing farther down the fence line.
“Sure.” Derek’s gaze slid from one to the other. “Were you talking about her without me?”
Tyler nudged his heels against Triumph’s sides. He had no intention of rehashing their discussion. “What if we were? Do you think we need to have your fucking permission?”
“Damn, Evan, what’d you do to get his cock tied in a knot?”
“Not a damn thing.”
Tyler tugged his hat lower and tried to ignore them. At times, he felt as though they liked to get on his last nerves just to see how far they could push him. It wouldn’t take much today to push him over the edge.
“I got a good whiff of her today.”
Every time they were near her, they tried to get a good whiff of her. And each time, Tyler became more convinced that they’d finally found their mate. “Me, too.”
“She smells fucking amazing. Am I right?”
“You’ve never been more right.” Tyler glanced at Evan. As a vampire, Evan didn’t have the advantage of sniffing their future mate. But what advantages did he have? “Evan, can you read Em’s mind?”
Evan didn’t show if the question had irritated him, but Tyler was fairly sure it had. A blink of Evan’s eyes w
as enough to think so. He pushed a little harder. “Well? Can you?”
“No. Just like I can’t read yours.”
“Bullshit. I bet you can.”
Now it was Derek and Tyler joining together. Tyler couldn’t hold back a grin. “Then riddle me this. You can’t smell her like we can, right?”
“Not like you mean. No.”
“Then how do you know she’s the one for you?” Tyler spun Triumph around, putting the horse in front of Evan’s Knight, blocking him in between Triumph and the fence. “Maybe, just maybe, she’s only meant for Derek and me. What then, cuz?”
Those impenetrable black eyes bored straight through him. “I just fucking know, got it?”
Tyler couldn’t help it. It was a rare day when he was able to razz Evan. It was an even rarer day when his razzing bothered his cousin enough to make him cuss. “Yeah, but how do you know?”
Evan grew serious, the muscle in his jaw twitching. “I know because I know who she is. I can sense that she has a good heart. Hell, she takes care of Miss Charlotte like she’s her blood relative.”
Damn. Now I feel like shit.
Evan continued, leaning forward over the saddle horn, his body tense. “I know because I fucking know. I know because I can feel her here in my soul.” He fisted a hand against his chest. “I can already feel her becoming part of me. Because, cousin, vampires have better senses than you shifters. We’re more intuitive than any werewolf, including you two, could ever be.”
Tyler’s wolf leapt to the surface so fast that he couldn’t hold back the initial shift. Fangs sprang to replace teeth. Claws sprouted from the ends of his fingers to dig into the leather of the saddle. The world around him colored into an amber hue. His wolf howled, demanding he tear his cousin’s throat out.
But Evan wasn’t afraid. Instead, he gave Tyler a soft smile. “And because I can screw with you just like you can screw with me.”