Prowling the Vet

by Tamsin Baker

  “Go. Quick.”

  Tyler took off through the house and Brandon followed. Even so, Brandon still felt an incredible lightness of heart as he watched his brother transform into his shifter animal and leap out the open back door. He disappeared into the dark and Brandon picked up Ty’s clothes and threw them into the laundry before returning to the kitchen. He took a swig of beer, the cold hops relieving some of the dryness in his mouth and throat.

  I think we’ve found her.

  He sympathized with his brother because he knew what had caused Tyler’s shift. Even with his control over his lion, the shifter in him was standing and pacing along with the wild emotions running through him. He hadn’t kissed her yet, so he couldn’t be sure, but he was beginning to believe his father may have been telling the truth about their destiny.

  Brandon had always hoped their father would be wrong. How could there be just one woman destined for them? And if they were part of some grand fated plan, it didn’t mean he had to just fall into line. He did have some say in how he lived his life. He wasn’t being told what to do and who to mate with.

  But the touch of her skin against his had been nothing short of brilliant. The other problem was that she was nothing like Brandon had expected, let alone what he looked for in a woman. Physically, she wasn’t thin or dressed to impress, and he could see the intelligence in her eyes. She wouldn’t be easy to talk around to his way of things.

  His brother losing control like that wasn’t a good thing. He’d learned how to control his lion in his teenage years, letting it rise and fall enough times to know how to accept it as part of himself. Tyler hadn’t.

  “Brandon?” Laura’s smooth, sensual voice called out to him and he turned like so many men had before him, responding to the call of their siren. The hairs on his arms prickled as he gazed upon her.

  “Can you help me get Belle into my car?”

  Brandon nodded and placed his drink down, not trusting himself to speak as he walked forward and swung the tiny blonde up into his arms.

  He couldn’t help the instant comparison that flashed through his mind.

  Belle was a Barbie doll. Skinny, pretty, and incredibly common. He’d talked to her for an hour, like he always had to when he spoke to these types of women. He was a builder, not an architect like his brother, yet he still struggled to engage with airhead women. Dumbing down every sentence while flirting to keep them interested. He generally ended up bored out of his brain, but at least she agreed to come home with him. He hated sleeping alone and his sex drive had hit an all-time high recently. If that was on account of finding her, then she better be able to handle him.

  Laura walked ahead of them, her lush ass swinging seductively in her jeans. Okay, he had to admit it. Laura was pretty sexy, beautiful even. Magnificent green eyes without a hint of makeup distracting from them and delicious-looking skin. He didn’t usually go for overly fleshy women, but she had perfect proportions. Her huge breasts were just begging to be stripped and sucked. Blood flowed straight to his cock, arousal sweeping through him as he imagined what she’d feel like beneath him.

  Perfect, probably.

  “Thanks for this,” she said as they walked down the stairs and she opened the car door for him.

  He deposited Belle onto the seat, groaning and burping like a baby. She still smelled like vomit, too. Just lovely.

  “I’ll strap her in.”

  He stepped back to allow Laura to slide by him and he got a whiff of her incredible scent. Honeysuckle and daisies—fresh, earthy, and clean. He wanted to roll in the smell, close his eyes, and get lost in it.

  Fuck…move away now!

  That saving-grace thought made him stagger away as he felt his lion rise to the surface. It felt like a pressure in his rib cage, a need to fall away into the abyss and allow the cat to roam. He was calling for his mate, needing to claim Laura as his own. He pushed his lion down with a small struggle, physically clenching his abdominals and breathing out to contain him.

  As he watched the woman his lion believed to be his woman ready herself to leave, he realized he had to do something to stop her. He couldn’t just let her go.

  “Where do you live?”

  Laura righted Belle up in her chair, kissed her forehead like a mother would, and shut the door. His lion purred happily inside him at the maternal instincts within Laura as she moved around to her side of the relatively new car. Obviously, Laura wasn’t a student like Belle.

  “Why?” Laura asked, her elegant eyebrow quirking up.

  “Ah…I need to check on Belle tomorrow.”

  That was a great reason!

  As Laura’s mouth turned down, he realized it probably wasn’t the best way to stay in touch with her.

  “You didn’t get her number?”

  Brandon shook his head, knowing that more than likely he wouldn’t have gotten around to asking for it, even if he had bedded her.

  “I probably shouldn’t, but you know what, who am I to stand in the way of true love?”

  Her voice dripped sarcasm and Brandon worked hard not to let the blush spread across his face.

  True love. Yeah, right.

  “What’s your number?”

  He recited his phone number and she pressed several buttons on her phone.

  “There. Done.”

  She gave him a mocking wave and slid into her car before driving away. Pride blossomed in his chest as his lion rose to the surface once again.

  He held it together by holding his breath and pressing down on his diaphragm until he watched her car disappear, then he bolted inside. He had to join his brother and shift also. His skin burned and his groin was on fire.

  He stripped off as quickly as possible and roared as his body transformed. Cinnamon and white fur, black and golden head.

  He let a contented rumble bubble inside his chest, then ran out the door as fast as he could. When he reached the lake, he inhaled his twin’s scent and knew his brother had been here recently. He didn’t waste any time tracking him down. They both needed to spend the night sorting out their own demons.

  Tyler would accept their fate. Brandon knew that as surely as he knew his blood was red. His twin had always embraced their father’s prediction of their fated mate, but Brandon had never been so sure if it was fact or fiction. Was his father passing down a long ago written story, or was it actually what would happen, no matter what he did?

  If Laura was it for them, how was she going to be enough for them both? Even when Brandon gave some woman a chance at a semi-relationship, within a couple of nights he was bored stupid and sexually—they couldn’t keep up with him at all. He ended up frustrated and feeling more alone than ever

  Brandon turned around and took a slower pace back, his body no longer burning in its need for freedom.

  This woman, Laura, was going to change everything.

  Instead of peace or happiness, inside him was restless fear, and he hated being helpless against it. His future was full of more waiting, and unfortunately he could think of no other way out of this mess than to see how it went with Laura.

  If they developed some sort of ménage mating, then he could always keep his one-night-stands on the side if he needed to. It didn’t matter what his father had said, no destiny could be better than the freedom he had now. No woman was going to keep him starving when there was a plethora of available females out there.

  ****

  Tyler woke up to a terrible hangover, with his head pounding and his body aching from the long-overdue run last night. The beers hadn’t helped his cause either.

  “For crying out loud,” he groaned as he rolled onto his back in bed and squeezed his palms into the sides of his head. It sounded like someone was ringing a gong in there.

  “Morning!” his stupid brother called as he walked in Tyler’s door, already showered and dressed.

  “God, Brandon! How are you so chirpy?”

  Brandon chuckled and handed him a glass of water with a couple of painkillers
.

  “Practice.”

  Tyler forced himself to sit up, his head spinning faster with the change of altitude.

  “Thanks.” He swallowed the tablets, relishing the feel of the cool liquid sliding down his dry throat.

  “I’m going to call Laura this morning. You want in, too?”

  The hairs on Tyler’s neck prickled and he placed his glass down on the bedside table. Was it really possible? Had they found their mate?

  “You like Laura, too?”

  Brandon crossed his meaty arms over his chest, then nodded once. “Yeah, I think I do. I mean…she’s not exactly my type…”

  Tyler groaned, “Yeah, but she’s our mate. Isn’t she?”

  Brandon dropped his arms down and began to pace.

  “I always thought our woman would be a shifter, too.”

  Tyler nodded slowly, relieved to find his headache was disappearing. “Yeah, but we looked at them years ago.”

  And they had. Following their parents urging, they’d dated most of the female mountain lions and found absolutely nothing enthralling about any of them. It would have been so much easier. Now, they had to get Laura used to the idea of them both wanting her, and the fact that they turned into animals. Not an easy thing for a human to understand or accept.

  “So what’s the plan then?” Tyler looked up and saw a shadow of confusion cross over Brandon’s face. He was definitely not the one to think something through before he did it.

  “What do you mean?” Brandon cocked his head and stopped pacing.

  Tyler moaned and swung his legs off the bed, not liking the dizzy sensation swirling around his brain. “I mean, how are you planning on getting her to agree to be our mate? She’s not exactly going to just move in and accept two of us, is she?”

  Brandon frowned, his handsome face wrinkling. “Why not?”

  Tyler laughed without mirth and pulled himself to his feet.

  “I’ll go get dressed. Don’t call her before I get back!”

  Brandon opened his mouth to retort and Tyler let loose a little growl. Wow. Those noises are way too easy to make now. Brandon’s eyes widened before he turned and headed back to the living room.

  Tyler showered quickly and dressed, doubt and fear filling him up.

  How the hell were they going to convince some intelligent, human woman that she had to love both of them? Brandon and he were like night and day.

  “Big brother, do you have her number?” he called as he walked into their kitchen.

  Brandon pushed his cell across the countertop.

  “Yeah. She messaged me Belle’s number last night, so I have hers, too.”

  Tyler was impressed. Smartest thing Brandon had done in years.

  “So, how are we going to get her to start seeing us?”

  Brandon shrugged and Tyler rolled his shoulders back. They needed to be smart about this.

  “We don’t even know her last name or where she lives. How ‘bout you just call to ask about Belle and if you get the opportunity, invite Laura here for dinner to say thanks.”

  “Thanks for what?” Brandon asked, his eyebrows furrowing together in confusion.

  Tyler clenched his teeth and used all of the patience he’d accumulated over the years to deal with his brother.

  “Thank her for coming here to get her sister, otherwise, you would have had to look after her.”

  “Oh yeah. Great idea!” Brandon grabbed at the phone and dialed Laura’s number.

  “Put it on speaker.” Tyler pointed to the bench and Brandon did what he was told, transferring it to loudspeaker and dropping the phone in front of him.

  The phone didn’t ring, but instead went to voice mail.

  “Hello, you’ve reached Laura Carver.” Tyler shivered as her voice filled the cavernous space. “If you’re calling for an after-hours vet call, please leave a message and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

  Brandon moved his finger over the phone to end the call and looked up at Tyler slowly, his blue eyes sparkling with mischief.

  “She’s a vet?”

  A moment of silence passed, then they both burst out laughing. Tyler collapsed onto one of the kitchen stools, holding his aching side with one hand. Just what their family of lion shifters needed—a vet.

  “Mum’ll be so proud,” Brandon chortled as he walked to the fridge and grabbed the juice.

  “She’ll be handy, intelligent, too.” Tyler mused, pleased by this turn of events. He had always wanted a mate he could talk to, share concepts with. But with Brandon more impressed by looks than smarts, Tyler was worried that their mate would be a little on the dumb side.

  “Yeah…” Brandon said, his enthusiasm lacking.

  “It’ll be fine.” Tyler jumped to his feet and headed off toward the study. “I’m going to go search the Internet for a vet called Laura Carver and see what I find.”

  Brandon made some grunting noise and Tyler continued on his quest for knowledge.

  He was an architect and Brandon was a builder. They were both successful in their own rights, and hard-working. But when it came to the brains versus brawn fight, it was pretty obvious who was the intelligence of the operation.

  Chapter Three

  Brandon cooked some bacon and eggs, shuffling some onto a plate for Tyler in case he was hungry. They were so used to looking after themselves and each other. How would it be to bring some chick in to live with them?

  “I found her!” Tyler cried as he walked back into the kitchen, waving a piece of paper in his hand triumphantly.

  “Where?” Brandon asked. He served breakfast for each of them and sat down with a coffee in his hand. He wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to know.

  “Trenthy. About twenty minutes away. She works in a small vet clinic there. Maybe one of us could surprise her at work?”

  Brandon wasn’t sure he should be the one doing the wooing in this situation.

  “Maybe you should do the talking, Ty. I mean, she’s obviously pretty clever, and I picked up her sister last night.”

  Tyler opened his mouth, then shut it quickly.

  Brandon continued with his train of thought. “Yep, I know. Pretty stupid but at least I didn’t fuck her.”

  Tyler frowned and looked down at the address again. What else could be said, really? He’d potentially ruined their chance to be with Laura.

  “Maybe I should get one of mum’s pets and take it in to her?”

  Brandon nodded at his brother. “Great idea. Then drop into the conversation something about how we both want to mate her for life.”

  Woah, that sounded heavy.

  Tyler gave him a dirty look and picked up his knife and fork, hoeing into the food in front of him.

  Brandon gave the look straight back before putting his now-empty plate in the sink. He had to get out of here for a bit.

  “I’m gonna’ head off to the gym.”

  “You’re kidding?” Tyler sputtered behind him.

  Brandon let his head drop down as he thought about what he was going to say. He whirled around when he felt the words come, not sure if being honest was truly the right thing to do. But that was how he was.

  “Ty, I know you’ve been waiting for this chick our whole lives, but I haven’t. If she really is ‘the one’ and I have to be mated to her, then so be it. But I’m not going to put my whole life on hold in the meantime.”

  Tyler pushed himself to his feet, his eyes burning lion-brown. Shit, where did this temper of Ty’s come from?

  “We need to pursue her together.”

  Brandon shook his head and headed off toward his bedroom. He didn’t want this, any of it. How hard was that for his brother to understand?

  “Get her over for dinner and I promise I’ll be on my best behavior.”

  He changed into his gym clothes and headed out of the house without a backward glance.

  He had his job, his friends, his fitness, and of course his family. If he had some predestined perfect female coming his way, he
wasn’t going to turn her away, but he certainly wasn’t going to go out of his way to get her either.

  ****

  Tyler stepped up to the front doorstep of Trenthy Vet Clinic with an injured dog in arms. Unfortunately for the dog but very fortunate for him, when he’d called his mum an hour ago to ask about her animals, she’d been on her way out the door to the vets. She informed him that poor Cotton had been in a fight with a pit bull just that morning and had come off second best.

  He opened the door and stepped into the clinic, the overly sterile smell of surgery assailing his nostrils. Yuck!

  “Can I help you?” A cute woman with freckles and red hair asked him from behind the desk.

  “Ah, yes.” He walked forward, holding Cotton in his arms.

  “She got into a fight this morning and has a cut on her front leg, hind leg teeth punctures, and a ripped ear.”

  Cotton began to struggle a little and he held the dog more firmly against his chest, soothing the warm lump with murmured sounds.

  “Oh, poor little thing. I’ll get the nurse for you.”

  “No! Ah, I’d like to see the vet, Laura, if that’s not too much trouble.”

  The woman stared at him for a moment, then smiled. “Doctor Laura’s a little busy this morning, but I’ll ask her if she has time to see you.”

  Tyler put as much warmth into his eyes as he could. “Thanks heaps. I appreciate it.”

  He sat down on one of the uncomfortable, white plastic chairs. His ass was almost numb by the time he was called into a small examination room fifteen minutes later.

  The second door to the room opened and Laura walked in, her spectacular hair tied up into a bun and wearing a pristine, white lab coat.

  “Hello, it’s nice to meet…it’s you.”

  Her green eyes went wide and her pupils dilated as she stared at him.

  She’s attracted to me. Thank God for that.

  “Ah, I brought Cotton in to see you. She got in a fight this morning.”

  Tyler placed the injured pup down on the stainless-steel table, putting his hands in her soft fur when she whimpered.

  “It’s okay, pretty girl.”

  Tyler could feel Laura’s eyes boring into him as he concentrated on the dog.