She couldn’t avoid the wide trunked tree coming up toward her at high speed. She slammed her foot on the brake, but it was too late. Her car drove into the tree trunk with brutal force. Mia took the hit, her head smashing against her steering wheel.
The lights went out.
Chapter 2
Connor Milton threw another chunk of hay into the pasture for his cattle, thinking over the conversation he’d just had with his mother. Christmas was on the way and it was the time of year when his mom always started grilling him again about when he was going to find a mate.
When Mate.com had been introduced to the people of Fate Mountain a few years ago, Connor had been one of the first people to sign up. But even after all this time, his match hadn’t been found for him. There were plenty of less than perfect matches, but there had never been a one hundred percent match. On Mate.com a hundred percent match always meant it was your fated mate. The algorithm worked every time.
He knew of dozens upon dozens of shifters who had been matched with their lovely curvy human brides through Mate.com. Connor had not been one of them.
Most shifters wanted to have a woman in their lives, and at one point, Connor had wanted one too. But after years and years of waiting for his mate to show up, he had become a little bit cranky about it. He honestly wished his mother would stop bothering him.
He replayed the conversation they'd had that morning over in his head. Always it was the same thing. “Connor, when are you going to find yourself a wife and finally start a family? You aren't getting any younger and neither am I. Don't you want to give me grandchildren like your sister and brother?” she had said.
“Of course I do, mom,” he'd snapped.
Unfortunately for Connor, his mother had picked up on his tone and wasn't exactly happy about it. Getting into this argument with his mom again, so close to Christmas, was not high on his priority list. He honestly wanted her to just let it go. The woman already had three grandchildren from his brother and sister, one of the rare females from a shifter family who was born with the shifter gene.
His whole family were bear shifters. His mom, his dad, his sister and brother. All his little nieces and nephews. They were all bear shifters too. And in the bear shifter culture, finding a mate and starting a family tended to be the number one priority.
Connor’s mom thought that it should be his number one priority as well. And maybe it should have been. But Connor was getting tired of waiting. He figured if it wasn't happening there was no use in worrying about it. He should just move on with his life. Which was exactly what he was doing. After his father passed away, his brother and sister had bought their own land.
His mom moved in with his sister to help her with the kids, and the family ranch had been left to Connor. That was over six years ago. Connor had become an old hat at taking care of his ranch. It was something that he loved. The cycle of the seasons. The new calves being born in the spring. Tending to his animals. He had a nice, simple life that he enjoyed.
In the evening, sometimes he drove down to Fate Mountain Village to get a pint from the brewery. There were plenty of other shifters on Fate Mountain to keep him company. He was sick and tired of checking Mate.com every single day for his match. He hadn't been on there for at least six months.
The dating site would notify him if they found a one hundred percent match. But at this point, Connor had completely given up hope. Because he wasn't a person who liked to be constrained by expectations, he had told himself that he no longer cared. If he never found a mate, fine. That's the way it would be.
But that didn't stop his mom from reminding him that Christmas was coming and that she wanted him to find the love of his life and start a family. Maybe he was thirty-two years old and the time for starting a family was ticking away.
He threw another chunk of hay down to his cattle.
“You ladies love me even if I don't have my fated mate, don't you?” he said to his herd.
Their only response was to moo and chew their cud. One of them took a dump right in front of him.
“That’s support for you,” he said.
At that moment, something flew into his periphery and he turned to squint at it. He nearly had a heart attack when he saw a little Honda run off the road and smash into one of his trees at the edge of his property.
What in the tarnation was that all about? He jumped off the back of his pickup, closed the tailgate, and hopped into the driver's seat. Whoever was in that car accident was going need help. He drove quickly over to the edge of his property and parked his truck. He walked through the crunching frozen snow to the accident and looked inside the window. There was a woman inside, her head resting on the steering wheel. Her hair covered her face. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and tried to get a signal.
“Damn,” he said under his breath.
Of all the mornings not to get reception, this couldn’t be a worse time. He grabbed the car door handle and yanked it open. Reaching inside, he brushed the woman's long brown hair away from her face to check if she was still alive. The second he looked at her pretty face, his bear reared up inside of him so suddenly he almost fell on his ass. This woman was his mate!
She groaned. Thankfully she was alive. The smell of her body mixed with the smell of fear. It made his bear confused and irritable. At thirty-two years old, Connor Milton was a self-proclaimed bachelor. But now he was standing here looking at the woman who was most definitely his fated mate.
It didn't look like anything was broken, but there was no way he could be sure. He put his cellphone into the air and finally got a signal.
He quickly dialed the emergency services and got the operator on the line.
“911, what is your emergency?”
“Hi, this is Connor Milton up on Fate Mountain. I need an ambulance as fast as possible. A woman ran off the road and crashed. I don't want to move her.”
“We have someone on the way, Connor,” the operator said. “Definitely don't move her. It could make her injuries worse.”
“Ten four,” Connor said, waiting on the line.
Like most shifters, Connor had served in the military during the Great War. He’d come home to Fate Mountain six years ago to start his life over. That was when his father had passed away and left the ranch to him. He had a nice little nest egg from his service and had moved on with his life nicely, even without a mate.
But with one car crash, all of that had changed.
He knelt beside the open door and looked at the woman's face again. He prayed to God that she wasn't badly injured as he waited for the ambulance to arrive. Ten minutes later he heard the sirens speeding up the mountain. A moment later, the ambulance pulled up beside the woman's crashed car.
Connor stepped back and let the emergency personnel do what they needed to do to ensure the health and safety of his mate. They put her on a gurney and loaded her into the ambulance.
“How is she? Is she okay?”
“We won't be able to assess the damage until we get her to the hospital.”
“I want to go down there with you. That woman is my mate,” he said.
“Your mate crashed into your property?” the EMT asked, raising an eyebrow.
“So the notorious bachelor Connor Milton has found his fated mate,” said the other EMT.
“Now you sound like my mother,” Connor grumbled.
“A tow truck is on the way to tow away the vehicle,” the 911 operator told him through the phone.
“Great,” Connor said.
He hopped into his truck and followed the ambulance down the mountain to town. They stopped in front of the hospital, pulled the woman out of the ambulance on the gurney, and pushed it into the hospital through the sliding glass doors. He followed and watched fretfully as the emergency room doctors worked on her to assess the extent of the damage.
After a moment, Connor was directed to wait in the waiting room. He begrudgingly left his mate so the doctors could tend to her. He waited for o
ver an hour before a doctor came out to tell him the news.
“What is your relationship to the victim?” the older doctor asked Connor.
“She's my mate,” Connor said.
“Since when do you have a mate?”
“Since now.”
“What is her name?”
“I don't know her name.”
“We need to know who to bill. No ID information was found on her person or in the car.”
“No one can find her identity?” Connor asked.
“No. Since you don't even know her name, I probably shouldn't tell you her condition. But since I am a shifter and I understand what it means to find your fated mate, I will give you an update on her condition.”
“Thanks,” Connor said, fidgeting nervously with the buttons on his coat.
It was the least the doctor could do. He knew that this woman was his mate, and he was worried about her. As far as he knew, he was the only person who was there for her.
“She has a minor concussion. We did a CAT scan and some x-rays. She’s still unconscious but she doesn't have any broken bones or brain injuries. She may be sore and bruised for a while, but aside from that, she looks like she's going to make it out of this mostly unscathed.”
“That's excellent news,” Connor said. “When is she going to wake up?”
“I can't give you an estimate on that. It could be anywhere from a few minutes to a few days.”
“Can I see her now?” Connor asked.
“You aren't next of kin,” the doctor said.
“But I am next of kin. I'm her mate.”
The doctor clicked his pen and shoved it into his breast pocket, giving Connor an irritated glare.
“Fine, but it's on your ass if anybody complains about this. I am breaking all kinds of rules even telling you about what's going on with her. I'm only doing this out of respect for your family,” the doctor said.
Chapter 3
Mia woke up in the hospital. Her mind was blank and blackness swirled around the edges of her vision. She started to panic as she took in her surroundings. How did she get here? Who was the man sitting across the room from her? She gasped and sat up in the bed, her head pounding. She lifted her hand to touch the ache and felt a bandage over the wound.
“Where am I?” she groaned. “Who are you?”
“This is Fate Mountain hospital,” the man said.
If she hadn't been frightened and in agony she would certainly have noticed how breathtakingly gorgeous the man sitting across from her was. He stood and she could see that he was well over six feet tall with broad shoulders, a dusting of dark stubble on his chin and bright blue eyes that looked directly into her soul when he looked at her. He crossed the room and stood above her, looking down at her questioningly.
“Who are you?” she asked again.
“I'm Connor Milton. I’m your fated mate,” he said.
“My fated what?” she asked indignantly.
Who did this guy think he was? She searched her mind, looking for memories of her old life but she found none. No matter how hard she reached, all she could remember was her first name.
She did, however, find a memory of what the term fated mate meant. Shapeshifters had one special person who was the perfect match for them. Most shifters searched their entire lives for their fated mates and apparently, this cowboy thought that she was his.
“I don't know you,” she said.
“I know you don't. You crashed your car into my property. Let's start this again,” he said, reaching out to her. “I'm Connor Milton. What is your name?”
Mia searched her mind, looking for her last name, but it came back completely blank.
“My name is Mia. That's all I can remember.”
“The EMTs couldn't find any ID in your car. Why were you driving up Fate Mountain so early in the morning without ID?”
“I don't know. I can remember anything.”
“You can't remember your last name or you can't remember anything else?” he asked.
“Can’t remember anything about my life.”
The cowboy lifted his cowboy hat off his head and ruffled his dark hair before setting the hat back down. He crossed his arms over the red flannel shirt covering his broad chest.
“I better get the doctor in here,” Connor said.
She waited while Connor left the room and then came back a few moments later.
“She says she can't remember anything,” Connor said to him.
“You're awake, good,” the doctor said.
“I don't know how good it is when I can't remember anything about my life,” Mia objected.
The doctor pulled a small flashlight out of his breast pocket and shined it into Mia's eyes, checking her pupils.
“You seem to be in pretty good shape for someone who was just in such a bad car accident. No broken bones, no skull damage. Everything checks out fine. Temporary amnesia is common after a head injury like you sustained. I'm sure all the memories will come flooding back in no time at all,” he said. “It's nothing to worry about.”
“Nothing to worry about?” she asked. “I have no idea who I am. And for some reason I was driving up Fate Mountain with no ID.”
“It is a mystery,” the doctor said. “But the fact remains that you're in good physical condition and in ninety-nine percent of these cases memories return fairly quickly. I wouldn't worry too much about it. In the meantime, Connor Milton here says that he is your fated mate. I know one bear shifter mother who is going to be overjoyed about that fact.”
“Doctor, really?” Connor said looking up at the older man.
Mia may have lost all her memories, but she still had her other senses intact. She could tell that there was something going unsaid between the doctor and the cowboy who claimed to be her fated mate.
“Mother?” Mia asked.
“It’s a long story,” Connor said.
“Why don’t you tell her, Connor?” the doctor goaded.
“I think that's an inappropriate conversation right now, don’t you?” Connor said.
“Mia you need your rest. Don't let Connor bother you too much.”
“When can I leave?” she asked.
“You've just had a pretty bad shakeup. I'm sure you're feeling achy. But after the nurses come back and check you out one last time, you have my clearance to be discharged. You can rest at home,” he said, turning toward the door.
“Where is home?” she asked.
The doctor had already slipped into the hallway and didn't respond. She looked back at the cowboy questioningly.
“You can come to my house,” he said. “I’ve got a nice place.”
“Your house?”.
“Sure thing, Mia,” he said. “You can stay in the guest room. I'll take care of everything. Don't you worry about a thing. I'll even get the nurse in here to check you out and start the discharge papers.”
The cowboy hurried out of the room and left Mia alone with her thoughts. Having a gorgeous cowboy greet her in the hospital as soon as she awoke wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened to her.
But not knowing who she was, well, that was the worst thing that had ever happened to her, as far as she knew. She couldn't remember anything about anything. Since all her memories were new, she had just had the worst thing that had ever happened and the best thing that had ever happened at exactly the same time.
The cowboy came back to the hospital room a moment later with a nurse. The nurse went about checking her vitals and filling out the discharge papers that she had Mia sign. Since Mia didn't even know her last name, she just signed it Mia. The hospital staff seemed willing to accept that. They also seemed to think it was okay to let a woman with amnesia go home with a complete stranger. But since they all knew Connor better than she did, she had to accept their judgment.
Mia changed out of her hospital gown and into the clothes she'd arrived in. They helped her into a wheelchair after and wheeled her out of the hospital. She stood up on sha
ky legs, her head still woozy and aching.
They'd given her some pain medication but that didn't help the dizziness, and it didn’t take away all the pain. Connor wrapped his arm around her waist, helping her walk through the parking lot. The snow was still gently falling over the dark evergreens in the distance.
She reflected on it wistfully for a brief moment before Connor helped her into the passenger seat of his pickup truck, a Chevy from the late seventies. She climbed onto the bench seat and looked for a seatbelt. Her hands trembled, her body having just been in a near fatal accident. She hoped she wouldn't be completely terrified on the way to Connor’s house.
Connor gave her a strange look from the driver’s seat. She wondered what it must be like for him to have suddenly found his fated mate. If she really was his fated mate.
He could be some kind of sicko serial killer. She’d decided it was a good life choice to climb in his car and drive back to his house. All she’d had to go on was the word of the strangers in the hospital. The fact that they had discharged her into his care made her question every single one of them. But as he drove onto the highway, she realized she had no other choice. She might as well go along for the ride and hope for the best.
And Connor Milton was drop dead gorgeous. She glanced over at his profile as he drove up the mountain and noted his strong straight nose and his masculine jaw. His biceps bulged so big, they strained against the arms of his red flannel shirt. The tight blue jeans and cowboy hat, along with the leather belt and big rodeo belt buckle, definitely pulled the whole cowboy look together.
Mia may have had no idea who she was, but she was pretty sure she was not a cowgirl. She didn't know how she knew that, but she had the distinct feeling that the she'd never even been on a ranch before. She watched him drive up the mountain, marveling at his handsome face and bulging biceps. If she had to be kidnapped by a man claiming to be her fated mate, there were definitely worse ways to go.
Chapter 4
Connor helped Mia out of the pickup truck and held her waist as they walked up the front steps of his house. It was a classic Victorian farmhouse built a hundred years ago. He had done a lot of work on it over the last couple of years and it was starting to regain its old luster.
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