Chapter 3

Wiley

A fter a fitful night of shitty sleep, I drag my ass out of bed and across the lawn to my sister's house to start a pot of coffee while waiting for Jimmy to wake up.

I scroll through my messages as the kitchen fills with the heavenly aroma. Sly's starting his day at the gym before he rides down to Great Falls to join Nan at the hospital. We moonlight there, easily picking up nursing shifts in the ER when we have nothing going on at the clinic here. It is good money and keeps our bills paid.

Local humans visit our medical center for basic maladies—colds, flus, broken fingers, deep cuts that require stitches, stuff like that—and have no idea they are being treated by wolf shifters. We set up the clinic for the more extreme shifter cases that require sutures and IV fluids, and we have two private rooms in Great Falls when we require access to a surgical suite—both of which rarely happen for our kind. We're unbelievably resilient if we're in good health, shifting on a regular basis, and maintaining a balance between our human and animal natures.

My wolf whines as I pour a cup of coffee. He kept me up all night, prodding me to search the woods for the mystery woman he's sure is our mate. I denied him, so he denied me sleep as retribution.

Wild ass wolf.

Would you chill the fuck out? We'll take Jimmy to work, put a sign up at the clinic that we'll be out until this afternoon, and then go for a run. Okay?

His lips curl, and he bares his teeth because my answer isn't good enough. Or, more to the point, it's not urgent enough for him.

It rained all night, so we wouldn't have found her, anyway. I roll my eyes and take a sip of my black coffee, leaning my ass against the counter.

Jimmy walks out of his room wearing a T-shirt and pajama pants. His eyes come to my bare chest and a slight blush hits his cheeks as he grabs a mug. We all know Jimmy is interested in men, but he hasn't voiced it out loud yet and we're not going to push him. After his childhood, I think he's trying to figure out how to handle his preferences without shame or fear of repercussions.

He'll get no judgment from us. We don't care about his or anyone else's preferences. Most shifters are highly sexual creatures and many play with both men and women alike, but rarely do we find our Fated mates in the same sex—although I have heard of it happening on occasion. It's a simple question of biology, and the male-female connection is the only way to produce pups, but that doesn't mean love and pleasure can't be shared between anyone.

That includes humans, especially during the full moon. Humans in and near Broken Falls beg to attend our full moon parties because they know they'll be fucked properly for the night if they can catch the attention of a man or woman.

My phone beeps with a message from an unknown number.

Speaking of being properly fucked.

I had a lot of fun Friday night. When's the next time you're coming to Great Falls?

This must be Nurse Tracy. Or was it Tammy? Trixie? Shit, why can't I remember?

I've seen her a few times around the hospital and thought she was cute, so I invited her to the party. With Kade out of town with his mate, I took over his roles in the MC and led the hunt. We ran for over an hour, chasing deer, rabbits, foxes, and a few wild turkeys who put up quite the fight. Rarely do we take down other animals. It's not like we need them for sustenance, and honestly I prefer a medium-rare bacon cheeseburger over wild game. We hunt to keep our tracking skills sharp and let our animal nature surge forward. Of course without the kill, most of us are horny fuckers by the time we come home.

All that primal energy with no satisfying release.

My thumbs hover over the keyboard, but I'm unsure how to reply.

My wolf stands up, snarling and gnashing his teeth in protest.

Would you shut up? I'm not going to go on a date with her.

He persists and I decide to ignore the text to shut him up by sliding my phone into the pocket of my gym shorts.

"Are you working at the clinic today?" Jimmy asks over the lip of his mug.

"This afternoon. I have something to do this morning."

"Are you going to track down that woman and her child?" He glances at me hopefully.

I smile and nod. "Yeah, man. I'm going to see if I can find them."

"Thank you." Relief washes over him and it's palpable.

Emptying my mug, I set it in the sink and wrap my fingers around his shoulder, squeezing his trap gently. "You're a great guy, Jimmy. You know that?"

He shrugs. "I know what it's like to be scared, mostly alone, and terrified that I'm going to let down the one person who looks to me to protect them."

"Those days are over. Kade will die to protect Dinah and you're no longer alone." I walk out of the kitchen, curious if he's still having dreams about running through the woods as a big black wolf. Sly and I should probably sit him down and talk to him about it. "I'm going to hop in the shower and then I'll drive you to work, yeah?"

"I'll be ready."

We walk through the back door of Broken Diner into the kitchen that smells of sausage and bacon. My stomach rumbles and I tilt my chin in greeting at Milo before I walk past the prep station into the dining room. I'm more familiar with the restaurant than appropriate considering I've never worked here, but it's my nature to make myself at home wherever I go.

I wasn't always like this. For a while there, I took on the lone wolf persona thrust upon me after our pack cast me out—but I realized a long time ago that if you act like you don't belong, someone will agree and push you out.

I take a seat at the counter when her scent hits me. As soon as Carla slaps down a menu, I stand, sniffing the air and walking over to a table recently cleaned. Even though someone wiped down the top, it doesn't matter. Her scent is on the chair that I shamelessly sniff with Carla at my back.

She hisses. "What are you doing, Wiley? We have people watching you act like a madman."

"Where is the woman who was sitting here?" I say without turning around to look at her. I can't lie, I'm fighting the urge to rub my head and face against the backrest to pick up her scent.

Her eyes narrow. "Do you know them?"

"Where?" I snap, my wolf itching to come out. This is the best trace of her I've gotten so far, causing the wild one to sit up and howl.

It's her.

Our mate.

He's positive of it.

Carla shakes her head and looks around. "I don't know, but she's supposed to come back at four."

"Why would she come back at four?"

"Because I'm trying to help her out." Carla's one of us—a cougar shifter with a sister who is a year or two older than her. They live in a house together and have a girl power attitude I love and that their cousin Cricket loves to ridicule.

"Why would you help her?"

She rolls her eyes. "Because she's a woman who could use some help. I don't know her story, but she's obviously scared and running with the cutest little boy I've ever met. Something tells me a man caused this mess and I, as a woman, am the only one she'll trust."

I sigh, glancing around at the diners, some of whom are listening a bit too intently. Turning my back to them, I lower voice. "I'm going to see if I can find them, but I want you to call me if they show up at four."

"What's going on?" She looks me up and down.

I arch my brow as my response.

"No." Her eyes grow wide and she slaps her palm over her mouth. "Again? Another one of you?"

Licking my lips, I run my fingers through the longer strands on top of my head. "I'm not one hundred-percent positive yet, so keep your mouth shut. You're the only one I've told, so if it comes back to me, I'll know it was you and I'll tan your ass for gossiping."

"Wiley." She wraps her fingers around my forearm and shakes her head. "I don't think this is a good match."

My eyes go up to the ceiling. "Since when do the Fates care about what we think?"

Slipping back into the kitchen, I stop by the storeroom, strip out of my clothes, and tuck them into a box on the bottom shelf before shifting into my wolf. Her scent is fresh in my lungs and easy to pick up in the gentle breeze wafting from the front of the diner. It takes nothing to glom onto the trail leading east toward the edge of town. A couple of blocks and I'm standing in front of Bearclaw, shocked by my mate's destination.

What kind of trouble is she in if she goes straight from pancakes to firearms?

I pad up the front steps and sniff at the front door. She's definitely in there, but her pulse is pounding and adrenaline is racing through her veins. Is she frightened? If so, I don't hear Erick, Kade, or Cricket talking, but I do pick up on their thoughts.

Erick: "Why the hell isn't Wiley or Sly responding to our texts?"

Cricket: "What should we do with these two?"

Erick: "I don't know, but we can't hold them here."

I slam my body against the door to make my presence known. "Let me in, assholes."

Erick opens the door, his eyes wide. " What the fuck, Wiley?"

Without answering him, I push past on all four paws and stop at the end of an aisle to see her face for the first time. Despite the bruises, which set my blood to boil, she's a beautiful woman with long wavy brown hair and green eyes.

I sit down on my haunches and stare at her as a little boy no more than five rounds the corner with Cricket chasing after him. "Wow! Look at the size of that dog!"

"That's not a dog, Bo!" My mate screams, scurrying backwards to the end of the aisle before dipping out of view and running toward the spot where her son came from. "Stay away from him!"

On either side of me, Erick and Cricket bombard me with commentary.

"Don't you dare shift." Erick tries his Alpha command on me.

"Holy shit, man. What are you doing?" Cricket chuckles.

"You have to be out of your damn mind showing up here in wolf form during business hours," Erick continues to rant.

"We've been texting you. Where have you been?" Cricket adds.

I stand and stretch my neck, looking up into the mirrors in every corner of the room. Finally, I find her huddled near the children's Nerf shooting range, clinging tightly to her child who doesn't seem the least bit afraid.

But he is holding her back, as if to protect her.

I respect that.

My wolf lets out a low howl which echoes through the room.

At that moment, Kade walks in from the back storage room with Dinah at his side. "What in the fresh shifter hell is going on in here?"

"Our local wildlife has come for a visit and inadvertently scared our customer." Erick makes a big show of pointing out the human to Kade before he says something unforgettable.

Kade's attention shifts to my mate and her child, his thoughts broadcasting to the group. " Have you gone moon mad, Wiley? What happened while I was gone?"

"My wolf says she's our mate," I tell the group who collectively suck in their breaths. "Which one has the infection? Her or him?"

Cricket responds. "It's her. I think it's a cut, but I'm not sure where on her body it is. She'll barely make eye contact, so she's not going to share that information with me."

Good. I don't want her making eye contact with Cricket or Erick or anyone else. She's mine, or at least the wild one thinks she is.

"Keep her here. I'll be back with my med bag."

Fighting my wolf's inclination to stay with our mate, I turn and run out of the store to the diner. I'm changed before anyone knows I've come or gone and driving back to Bearclaw with my med bag in the passenger seat of my Jeep.

The way she screamed when faced by my wolf bothers me. If she's terrified of wild animals, how the fuck is she going to respond to one that believes she's his mate?

I pull up to the front door and take a deep breath to calm my wolf while thinking about what Carla said. Chances are my mate was abused by a man, leery of men in general, and isn't going to fall into my arms like Dinah did with Kade. And with a child tied to her hip, I'm not going to be able to secrete my mating pheromones to see if she responds to me like my Fated mate would.

Dammit.

Since I already busted in on all fours and scared the shit out of her, I'm thinking the opposite of wild is the best approach. Nurse—gentle, calm, and great with kids—Wiley reporting for duty, which means my wild ass wolf needs to chill out.

Walking through the front door, I make eye contact with Erick and Kade behind the counter.

Kade speaks to me telepathically. "Dinah's chatting with her while Cricket entertains the boy. His name is Bo. We haven't heard her name yet. We explained the wolves here are wild, but you come around often enough that we know you. Also, we kept her here by telling her that wolves travel in packs, so she should give them thirty minutes to clear the area before she walks out."

I nod and approach Cricket and the boy, figuring I'll gain his trust first. "Hey."

Cricket smiles. "Hey. Have you met our newest marksman, Bo?"

Crouching down, I take in the five-year-old with the bravado of a young man. He's wearing a blue T-shirt which reveals the clear delineation of fingerprints bruised into his upper arm. It appears someone grabbed and yanked him around. Add the discoloration on his face with the small cut near his temple and it looks like he fell and hit his head, or perhaps bounced off a wall versus being hit with a fist. Regardless, none of the scenarios are acceptable and my irritation at not knowing who, what, and when sets my wolf to pacing again. "How are you?"

"I'm fine." Bo looks up at me curiously. "You missed the big bad wolf. Did you see him outside?"

"Uh, yeah. I saw one walking around the back. He's probably looking for food, but I don't think he's bad."

"Nope, not bad. Just wild," Cricket teases.

I frown and narrow my eyes at him.

"We have chocolate cake. Do you think he wants that?" Bo doesn't wait for my answer, turning to yell at his mother. "Momma, can we give the wolf some chocolate cake?"

I turn to look into the eyes of my mate, this time as a man. She looks up from the small table where Dinah sits with her, two plastic red Solo cups in front of them. Her eyes briefly land on me before she dips her head and looks away to shield her face from my assessing gaze. "No, Bo. We can't."

"It's not a good idea to feed the wildlife, especially chocolate cake." I turn from her and flash him a smile. "You want to show me how good of a shot you are?"

Bo nods and reloads the Nerf gun while Cricket resets the range. I take a deep inhale of both of their scents. He recently bathed and ate, and despite the bruises seems to be in perfect health. She, on the other hand, is running a low-grade fever as is evident by the fine sheen of sweat breaking out on her forehead. That and she's wearing a fleece sweatshirt with the hood pulled up. Even though the hot-blooded bear shifters keep the A/C on all year, it's too warm to be wrapped up like she is.

I have to persuade her to let me examine her.

Bo shoots all six shots, knocking over a plastic bottle and a rubber ducky. "Wow. You are good."

Cricket takes over, keeping Bo distracted while I slide over to the table where Dinah makes small talk with my Fated mate. I offer her my hand. "I'm Wiley, the town medic."

"Medic?" She doesn't shake my hand and instead withdrawals tighter into herself.

"Yeah. My sister is a doctor and I'm a military-trained medic. We run the clinic here." I glance at Erick and Kade who watch our interchange with interest.

"Oh." She takes quick glances at me before looking somewhere else, always keeping her head down and face obscured by the fleece hood of her sweatshirt.

"They're great," Dinah adds to fill in the awkward silence. "They helped me and my brother last month."

Fuck this. I need my mate to connect directly with me.

I project to Kade. "I appreciate Dinah, but I need some space."

Kade says from a distance, "Honeysuckle, can you help me with something?"

Dinah smiles and gently touches the woman's arm. "I'll be right back."

Thankful to be alone with her, I offer my hand again as my wolf secretes a touch of mating pheromone. Not enough to stink up the place, but enough to grab her attention if she is truly my Fated mate. If I'm lucky, it'll be enough to get her to feel safe and trust me. "I'm Wiley."

She takes a long, deep intake of air before bringing her eyes up to mine, holding my gaze and slowly accepting my hand. "Geneva."

As soon as our skin touches my wolf howls, my nostrils flare, and I inhale her scent deep into my soul.

Oh yeah, she's definitely mine. The question is, who do I have to kill to claim her as my mate?

"Nice to meet you, Geneva. I'm sorry if this is rude, but you look a little flushed. Perhaps a tad feverish? How are you feeling?"

"It is a little warm." She stares back at me, our hands still connected in a friendly handshake.

"Well, you are wearing a sweatshirt in the middle of summer. Why don't you take it off?"

She pulls her hand back and shakes her head. "No, thanks."

Glancing around, I lean forward and lower my voice—not that Erick, Kade, or Cricket can't hear me. "I'll get directly to the point. If you think you're fooling anyone, you're not. We saw the bruises as soon as you walked in. Let us help you. Let me help you."

"We have to go." She pushes off the stool and backs away from me, calling to her son. "Bo. Let's go."

"But, Momma! I'm having fun."

"Now, young man! Let's go." She positions herself close to the door with her hand held out for him.

The little boy has tears in his eyes as he scurries forward and grabs her hand. Geneva looks around the room, clocking each of our positions. Cricket, across the room. Erick and Kade behind the counter. And me, staring after her like the asshole I am.

Could I have fucked this up anymore? Probably not, but I don't think I've ever met a woman more scared of men in my life.

Her voice is shaky as she fumbles for the door handle behind her. "I'm sorry, but you can't help me."

"They can." Dinah walks toward her slowly while enthusiastically nodding her head.

"No. Please leave us alone." Geneva flings open the door and turns, walking as fast as she can with her five-year-old in tow.

"Fuck!" I knock the table over with one swipe of my hand, sending the two red solo cups sailing across the floor.

Kade is immediately in my face. "You will control your temper in front of my mate."

"Outside, now," Erick growls, pointing to the backdoor.

I glance at Dinah who stares back at me with wide eyes. "Sorry, Dinah."

"It's okay." She flashes me a tempered smile. "Do you want me to run after her?"

Kade answers for me. "No, Honeysuckle. Will you secure the front door and turn the closed sign around? We're going to have a meeting out back."

I march out with my pack members, glancing up at the sky. It's clear right now, but we'll get another thunderstorm this afternoon. Another rain shower, and I'll lose her scent again. Coming face to face with Kade and Erick—both ready to rip into my ass for different reasons—I hold up my hands. "I already know what you're going to say, but I don't have time for it. I need to shift and track her."

"You really don't," Cricket says casually.

"What are you talking about?"

"I slipped a tracker on Bo, so unless she loses him, we'll know where they bed down for the night."

Erick shakes his head, his lips curled into a frown. "That's an invasion of her privacy."

"And tracking her scent isn't?" Cricket raises his brow and pulls out his phone. "Wiley was going to be stalking her no matter what. Might as well make it easy on ourselves."

I step to Cricket's side and peer down at his phone. "Where are they heading?"

"Looks like the old train yard."