Forrest knocked on the front door of the small bungalow style home. It wasn’t fancy and in some places it was showing the wear and tear that inevitably came with age but other than that, it looked well maintained. The outside of the house had a warm and inviting feel about it. The porch swing begged for someone to sit in it.

“You don’t have to knock. I’ve got my key. I can unlock the door and we can just go inside.” Seth pulled a set of keys out of a pocket on the side of his backpack. “See,” he said as he held up the key. Seth unlocked the front door and pushed it open. “Welcome to my home.” He stepped aside and gestured for Forrest to enter.

“You really should have knocked and waited for your aunt to open the door.” Forrest shook his head.

“Why?” asked Seth.

“Because I’m a stranger and you just invited me into your aunt’s home without her knowledge. It’s not right for me to enter without her permission.”

“So it’s another adult thing.” Seth rolled his eyes. “Why do adults make everything so complicated. The world would be a better place without all of the complications. Simple is so much better, and it makes more sense.

“Because we just love driving teenagers crazy. It’s an unwritten rule we have to follow.” Forrest grinned. “But honestly, you have to think about your aunt’s safety first. You are physically stronger than she is, and you will grow stronger. All females are precious and need to be cared for.

Seth groaned but nodded. “I get what you’re saying. It’s our job to protect the females. But the part about driving teens crazy wasn’t funny. Why do adults think they’re comedians?” Not waiting for an answer, he walked into the house.

“Because we have to deal with kids skipping classes instead of staying in school and learning what they’re supposed to be learning.” Audrey stood a few feet from the front door with her arms crossed over her ample chest.

“Aunt Audrey, this is Forrest Durant.” Seth gestured to Forrest. “Forrest, this is Audrey Thomas, my aunt.” He looked at Forrest and nodded his head toward his aunt.

Audrey raised her eyebrows as she tapped her foot. “Are you two going to come inside or are you going to stand there with the door open air conditioning the entire outside. It’s definitely hot enough out there to need it, but I don’t feel like paying for the electricity to cool the whole town or the entire state.” She stared at the man standing behind Seth. He wasn’t just handsome; he was yummy gorgeous. He could easily be a cover model on a romance book. He was definitely the stuff fantasies were made of, and she had a feeling she would be seeing him in her fantasies for a long time.

As much as she wanted to continue staring at him, she had to focus on the problem child. Hopefully it would give her a chance to get her rebellious body and thoughts under control before she did something stupid like, oh maybe, drag Forrest to her bedroom. She shook her head. No man had ever made her have thoughts like that within seconds of meeting him. Who was she kidding. Not one man had ever made her feel this way. She never had such an intense and instant attraction to any man before.

Seth looked from Audrey to Forrest. He noticed they were staring at each other as if there wasn’t anyone else in the room. He smiled to himself. “Maybe I should just go to my room so you two can talk.” He started to walk past Audrey.

“Oh no you don’t.” She grabbed his arm as he tried walking by her. “Seth Andrew Martinez, where do you think you’re going?”

“To my room so you and Forrest can talk to each other alone.” He tried to keep an innocent look on his face.

Forrest closed the door as he walked into the house. He couldn’t do anything but stare at the beautiful woman standing in front of him. She had the most beautiful killer curves he had ever seen. Her over-sized clothes did nothing to hide them. He wanted to pull her into his arms and strip off her clothes so he could explore every inch of her body. His eyes paused on her gorgeous breasts. He almost licked his lips. Forrest wanted to caress and kiss each one. He wanted to stare into her gray eyes as the storms of passion built inside her until all she could do was scream his name as he pounded deep inside her.

His bear pushed forward, wanting to be closer to their mate.

Their mate.

Forrest closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The scents of wildflowers, peppermint, and desire filled his nose. She was the one female made specifically for him and after all these years, he had finally found her.

Audrey Thomas was his mate.

His bear made a low rumbling noise.

Forrest opened his eyes and studied her face. Her beautiful soft gray eyes had been the first thing he noticed. Her pink lips stood out against her pale ivory skin, but so did the dark circles under her eyes. She looked tired. He needed to find out what was going on so he could fix it, but first he had to help Seth tell her about shifters.

Audrey shook her head at Seth. “You are going to stay here and explain to me why you skipped classes this afternoon.” She let go of his arm.

“It really wasn’t a big deal.” He looked down at his feet.

Audrey closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She held it for a couple of seconds, and then let it out as she opened her eyes. “Do you realize how worried I was?”

“No.” Seth glanced at her.

“I didn’t know where you were, what you were doing, or who you were with. You weren’t answering any of my texts or phone calls. I was terrified something had happened to you.” Audrey wiped the corners of her eyes. She really didn’t want to start crying again but she was powerless to stop it.

He shrugged his shoulders. “You don’t have to be worried about me. I can take care of myself.”

“I was worried about you because I love you. And yes, you probably could take care of yourself, but you’re only thirteen years old. I need to be taking care of you” Audrey’s bottom lip started trembling. She looked at Forrest. “Thank you for finding him and bringing him home.”

Forrest took a couple of steps closer. “I’m just glad I was there to help.” He glanced at Seth. “I think someone has something he needs to tell his aunt.” Forrest looked at him expectantly.

“Maybe this isn’t such a good time.” Seth scrunched his nose as if he had caught a bad scent.

“The sooner you tell her the better for everyone,” said Forrest.

Audrey looked at them as she crossed her arms. “I think someone needs to start talking.”

“Aunt Audrey, I think it might be a good idea if you sit down.” Seth weakly gestured at the couch.

Audrey tilted her head to one side as she studied Seth’s face. Very rarely did Seth call her Aunt Audrey. She knew something serious was going on with Seth. “Okay,” she said as she sat down on the couch. “Does this have something to do with skipping classes this afternoon?” she asked though she already suspected it did.

Seth slowly nodded. “It’s kind of the reason I had to skip school this afternoon.”

Audrey glanced at Forrest then looked back at Seth. “Do you want to talk about this with just the two of us, or do you want Mr. Durant here?”

Forrest didn’t like Audrey calling him Mr. Durant, but he didn’t say anything to her. She needed to focus on Seth. Later, he would have a talk with her.

“I asked Forrest earlier if he would stay while I told you what I had to tell you. That way if you had any questions he could answer them because I don’t exactly know everything yet.”

“Come here.” She patted the coffee table. Normally she would have yelled at him about sitting on it, but right then it seemed like the best place. “I don’t expect you to know everything. You’re a teenager and there’s still lots of stuff to learn. I learn new stuff all the time,” she said as he sat down in front of her.

“It’s just you’re going to have questions, and having Forrest here helps because he is kind of like me,” said Seth.

Audrey drew in a sharp breath. She closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip. Daniel had been wrong. The one thing he said probably wouldn’t happen was happening. It was the only answer. Her brother-in-law would have been so happy about Seth being able to shift into a coyote, and he probably would have gone into triple over-protection mode.

“Audrey?” Seth stared at her.

She opened her eyes. Her hands shook as she reached for Seth’s. She slowly smiled. “Why didn’t you tell me when it first started happening?”

Seth frowned. “What do you mean?” Slowly his eyes widened and then narrowed. “You knew? You knew I was different…and you didn’t tell me?”

Realizing Forrest was a shifter too, Audrey glanced at him before turning her attention back to Seth.

“Seth,” she started to say.

“You knew and you didn’t tell me.” Seth jerked his hands out of Audrey’s and jumped up. “How could you have kept something like this from me. Don’t you think I had a right to know?”

“When you were a baby, you never shifted nor showed any signs that you were going to shift. As far as I knew, you weren’t going to ever shift into a coyote. I didn’t want you worrying about something that probably wasn’t going to happen.” She stood up and took a step toward him.

He shook his head and stepped out of her reach. “You lied to me. You should have told me, but you didn’t. What else have you kept from me?”

“Seth, come sit down so we can talk.” Audrey tried keeping her voice calm.

“Why would I want to talk to you?” Seth shook his head as he glared at her. “You lied to me about what I am. Everything else you say is probably a lie too.” He ran from the living room. A few seconds later, the slamming of his bedroom door reverberated through the house.

Audrey blinked several times.

An anguished cry ripped from her throat. She hugged herself as she sat down on the couch and cried.