Chapter Seven

Gabe waited until after closing to head into the small deli he and Sam had inherited from their dad the year before. The narrow, converted house was a classic example of Old West architecture, tucked away on a narrow, short street right off Main. It was located in downtown Wolf’s Peak, where miners’ houses from the 1800s rubbed elbows with a few newer tall brick buildings. The downstairs of the house held the prep kitchen, lunch counter, and small dining area of the deli. His dad had converted the two small bedrooms upstairs into a one-bedroom apartment with outside access and its own tiny bachelor kitchen. Gabe had taken it over, and it now burst at the seams with not only his stuff, but all the paperwork and computers needed to run a small business.

He reached for his keys to unlock the back door that led through the storage area that his dad had added on in the nineties, and found the door already unlocked.

“Damn it, Sam.” It got dark early here in the looming shadow of Wolf’s Peak. It was tourist season and the town was full of strangers. Sam should know better.

How they could be identical twins and yet have such different ideas of how to run the restaurant, he didn’t know. Blue eyes, brown hair—all the same, even though Sam never remembered to get his cut until it blocked his vision. Their sense of humor, deep sense of loyalty, and commitment to the restaurant—the same. But when it came to things like keeping track of how many jars of mayonnaise they were going through and the bottom line, Sam just didn’t care. All he wanted to do was try new sandwich combinations and invent different kinds of soup.

Gabe pushed open the door, shaking off his annoyance at Sam’s lack of responsibility. He had come here to apologize, not to start a fight. They’d been doing enough of that lately in the last year since his father had passed away. And tonight, they had other things to deal with.

He turned around and made sure the door was securely locked.

“You’re just going to have to unlock that again.” Sam came through the narrow back hallway by the stairs with two large black trash bags in his hands and a wide grin on his face. “I’m not done with the trash.”

Even though he’d just decided not to fight with Sam about this, he found the words coming out of his mouth anyway. “We’re downtown and it’s late. Anyone could come in. It should be locked.”

Sam snorted. “Like anyone here is going to break into a business owned by two enforcers.”

Gabe reopened the door and held it wide for his brother. “That’s not the point. It’s summer, and the place is crawling with out-of-towners.”

Sam pushed past him and dropped the bags into the dumpster across the alley. “You’re right. I’ll do better.” He came back over to the door, raised his arm up, and gave Gabe a quick hug, inhaling his twin’s scent as he did so. He quickly dropped his arm and backed away into the dim light of the single-bulb security light. His eyes and nostrils widened. “Gabe? What the hell?”

Gabe’s hope that this would be an easy conversation died. “Look, Sam, before you lose it—”

“Lose it?” Sam’s fists clenched at his side. He took a step closer to Gabe. “I’m going to lose it unless you have a great explanation for why you smell like Serena.”

“Serena. So that’s her name.”

“Fuck. You reek of her scent and you don’t even know her name? What the hell is going on?”

“It was an accident.”

“An accident? She just flew in today and I haven’t even had a chance to see her.” Sam pushed his too-long hair out of his face and rolled his neck. Loud pops echoed out into the silence between them. “So tell me, brother, what kind of an accident leaves you smelling like my girl on the day she arrived in town?”

“Cool it, Sam. I don’t want to have an argument here in the alley.” Gabe suppressed the urge to shift and fight sliding along his skin. “And she’s not yours.”

“Like hell she isn’t. I knew from the moment I first saw her, from the moment I kissed her. She’s mine.”

The idea of Sam kissing Serena pushed all of Gabe’s good intentions away. “She’s not yours.” He growled. “How much time have you actually spent with her? A day?” At Sam’s cagey look, Gabe pressed harder. “A few hours?” He snorted. “That’s not a relationship, that’s an acquaintance.”

“We’ve been texting.”

“Texting? And what does your wolf think of that? I’m talking spending real time with her, like a date.” Sam’s eyes dropped away. “You’ve never had a date with her. How did you even get to meet her?”

“I met her at her job interview when I was acting security for the council last month in Denver.”

“Well then, I guess we each have a claim on her now.”

Sam’s shoulders stiffened. “I saw her first.”

“We’re not five anymore.”

“For Christ’s sake, I’m not saying we should share her like a toy.”

The idea of sharing Serena with anyone exploded in Gabe, and his wolf rose for the fight. Sam’s shoulders bulged and the shift rippling over his face. The sound of their labored breathing filled the alley.

“Fuck, what are we doing?” Gabe backed as far away as he could get from his twin in the narrow space between the buildings. He waited until his wolf had calmed and he was sure by the sound of his brother’s slowing pants, that both of them were under control. “Sam, I’m not proposing that we share, but I am going to give her the chance to get to know me. I deserve that.”

“What makes you say that?”

Gabe closed his eyes. For a few precious seconds, he wasn’t in an alley with the hot smell of a restaurant dumpster and his pissed-off twin; he was back with Serena in the meadow. Her long black hair, the mystery in her eyes, the feel of her body against his. In the back of his soul, his wolf gave a long howl.

“Because I think she might be the one.”

Sam slumped back against the bricks. His voice was a harsh whisper. “Christ, Gabe, don’t say that.”

Gabe stared at his twin in the shadow of the alley, the recognition of what was to come reflected in what were essentially his own eyes, and listened to Sam’s next words.

“Serena can’t be yours, Gabe. She’s the one for me.”