Her hair was flaming red. Garrett tried not to think about it as he followed the diminutive woman around the property, listening carefully as she described her thoughts and wishes for the job at hand.

It was the kind of red you didn’t see very often. Pretty but striking, complemented by her pale, freckled skin and petite features. She wore glasses, behind which her eyes were a soft, velvety gray. She spoke in a low voice, as if she were intimidated by him and his friends.

Then again, given the size difference, perhaps she was.

She was tiny compared to them. Tiny even for a human, and he put her height at somewhere around five feet and two inches.

Now that he thought about it, this would be an odd place for her. A small human woman out here in the wilderness all alone, the nearest town a good drive away.

Except she wouldn’t be alone. She was his mate, and as soon as he worked things out and convinced her of the same, he’d be there to protect her.

“So I would like it to face this way,” she said, pointing in the direction of the road. “That way I can see anyone coming from town. And I want the bedroom over here.” She walked to a spot on the dirt and stopped, looking at him expectantly.

His heart nearly skipped a beat, and he had to remind himself to act normally as he crossed over to her to confirm her request.

Truthfully, he already knew all of this from the plans, but it was important for any client to feel like their contractor understood them.

Far more important when said client was the contractor’s mate.

“I got you,” he said, hating how awkward it sounded. He caught Grayson and Hunter staring at him awkwardly and flushed.

It wasn’t like him to be uncomfortable around new people. With all of his traveling, he’d found it easy to be friendly to everyone he met. He treated new clients as friends as well.

But every time she looked up at him with those soft gray eyes, the bear in him wanted to roar possessively, and aside from building her the most perfect house to her exact specifications, he had no idea where to go from here.

She probably knew nothing about his world or creatures like him existing. She certainly wasn’t seeing him as anything more than a contractor.

Perhaps that was where he could start. Doing the best job possible for her while taking any opportunity to help her see him as a man and then going from there.

Certainly saying, “Hey, you’re my mate and I want you, and oh yeah, I’m a bear,” didn’t sound like a good idea.

“Are you okay?” Dawn asked quietly, keeping her distance as she looked up at him. “I know it was a long drive and…” She folded her arms over her generous chest as she shuffled side to side, and Garrett felt his mouth go instantly dry.

This shouldn’t happen. He was a business owner. He was successful. He’d run huge teams of men, built huge projects.

Yet, standing here with this curvy little human, he knew this was going to be his toughest job of all.

The breeze picked up through the clearing, and he noticed the air smelled incredible. It was the kind of place people went to camp just to enjoy the air quality and the nature around them. And she was going to live there.

It reminded him a lot of the kind of freedom he’d enjoyed growing up as a cub.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “It was a long drive, but that’s fine. We’re used to it. We have contacts all over.”

“Traveling is part of the fun,” Hunter said, coming up to them and putting his hands on his hips. He smiled down at her, and for the first time, Garrett wanted to smack his friend for even looking at a woman.

Garrett stepped in front of him in a way that was anything but subtle. “My colleague is right. We like coming out to new places.” He took a deep breath and relaxed slightly. “Besides, I love places like this. Wilderness. Open air. It calls to me.”

“I bet it does,” Grayson muttered from behind him.

Garrett ignored his friend. “Anyway, I think I understand all of your specifications. We’ll rest tonight and then get started right away tomorrow.” He frowned as he looked over at her beat-up blue car. “What’s uh… your plan?”

She waved a hand. “Oh, I’m not staying. At least not yet. I wanted to come out before the start of the project, but I’m still in the process of moving. I need to make a few arrangements, and then I’ll be staying in a hotel in Silver Creek.”

It was the closest town, though still a half an hour’s drive away.

Garrett didn’t like the thought of her staying in a hotel all alone in a strange city with no one she knew around.

“We’ll get it done as quickly as we can,” he said firmly.

“So you think we’ll be able to stay on schedule? We won’t have problems with my budget or any requests? I know I’m asking a lot.”

Not really, considering he’d move the sun for her if it was possible.

“Nope,” he said. “We’ve got what we need here, and it’s going to be perfect.”

She bit her lip nervously, and he knew he still needed to reassure her somewhat.

“Dawn? Look at me. I promise it’s going to be great.”

She flushed and nodded slowly. Then smiled. “I know. I’m just a worrier. Things have been difficult lately. It would be nice for something to go right for once.”

“It will.”

“And I have a good feeling about you guys,” she said, looking at all of them.

Garrett wanted her only to look at him, but knew it was unreasonable at this juncture.

“So you don’t have any more questions for me?”

Will you marry me?

“No,” Garrett said quietly. “I think we’re all good.”

She pushed her purse up over her shoulder and smoothed a few stray wisps of hair the color of carrots that had escaped her thick braid. “Good. I’ll leave you guys to it.”

“Looking forward to seeing you soon,” Garrett said as she stepped away.

She looked back at him, a puzzled expression on her face, but then gave them all a vague wave and hurried over to her car as if she couldn’t wait to get out of there.

While Garrett couldn’t wait for her to get back.

The bear in him roared to go after her, but he knew he’d have to be patient, just a little longer.

He’d already waited for years just to find her. What was a few more days?

* * *

“I don’t like this forest,” Grayson said, looking around them. He ran a hand over his close-shorn head and sat uneasily in the camp chair he’d set up by the fire they’d built.

They’d brought a huge trailer, as usual, and Garrett was the one cooking dinner for them, also as usual.

He’d dumped a few cans of chili on the small outdoor grill and was enjoying the sounds of nightfall as his friends bantered back and forth.

He didn’t think there was anything too odd about Grayson not liking an area. He disliked a lot of areas. And a lot of things. Kind of an unhappy person in general, though he had his reasons.

“It just smells weird,” Grayson said, folding his arms and slumping slightly with a pout.

As a wolf, he had the best sense of smell, along with several other unique powers that came with his heritage.

Hunter, as a cougar, was undetectable by other shifters, like most cats.

Garrett’s main ability was strength and his sheer size when shifted. Sometimes he envied the others for their more complicated abilities.

“I know she’s your mate, but you should have talked her out of this project,” Grayson added, accepting a bowl of chili from Garrett. “It’s not safe for a woman alone out here in the woods, far from any nearby town.”

“It’s not my job to make decisions for her,” Garrett said.

“Even if she’s your mate?”

“I don’t know how wolves do it,” Hunter said. “But most of us give our females a choice over what they want to do with their lives.”

“Most of us?” Grayson asked with a chuckle. “And what would you know about how your kind does it? From what I’ve heard, you haven’t spent any time around other cougars.”

“I did as a child,” Hunter said. “With my cousin, Wyatt.”

“Growing up in Montana, I know,” Grayson said, rolling his eyes.

“Hey, don’t be mad because I still have a family I could go back to,” Hunter shot at him.

Grayson narrowed his eyes. The disbanding of his pack while he was in the army was still a sore spot, but Garrett guessed he was getting what he deserved by attacking Hunter.

He tended to let the two of them sort out their beefs alone.

Hunter snorted. “Oh, come on, wolfie. I didn’t mean it like that.” He left his camp chair to walk over to Grayson, who was now demonstrably pouting.

To Grayson’s shock, Hunter walked behind his chair and wrapped his arms around Grayson’s neck, leaning his head over his shoulder playfully. “I’ll make it up to you later, in the trailer. With us three big boys around, there won’t be a lot of room…”

Quick as a flash, Grayson whipped around and caught Hunter with a punch to the jaw, knocking him backward and sending him rolling over the grass and into a tree.

Hunter stood, groaning, and brushed sticks off his butt, totally unhurt. He grabbed his Stetson, which had gotten knocked off, and brushed it off as well. Then he hung it on the corner of his chair and sat next to Grayson.

“Okay, we’re even,” Hunter said, leaning back with his hands behind his head.

Garrett couldn’t count the times Hunter had earned a punch from Grayson, but since no one actually seemed hurt by the endeavor, he didn’t plan to stop it.

And besides, Grayson looked a bit cheered up by the event and was back to eating his chili aggressively.

He paused for a second to look up at Garrett. “I’m going to stay at the hotel.”

“Me, too,” Hunter said.

Garrett laughed as the wolf cursed at Hunter and the two began arguing again, Hunter enjoying the attention of anyone he could provoke and Grayson being at least a little distracted by the fighting.

Garrett ate his chili quietly, looking into the dancing orange flames and wondering what Dawn was up to right now.

“So your mate,” Hunter said, setting aside his bowl. “Quite a dish.”

Grayson grunted. “What is she, cookware? Who even talks like that anymore?”

“I do,” Hunter said smugly, blue eyes darting over to Garrett. “So what do you think about her?”

“Other than being obviously, aggressively jealous when Hunter tried to talk to her?” Grayson asked sarcastically.

“So you noticed,” Hunter said.

“Would have to be blind not to,” Grayson said. He pointed his spoon at Garrett. “You need to be careful about this. How do you know it’s her? Is she an alpha? Is she—”

“He’s not a wolf,” Hunter said, folding his arms impatiently.

Grayson sighed. “I know that, but we’ve never really talked about mating. We’ve talked work and some of our history, but we don’t… I mean, we haven’t talked about women.”

Hunter exhaled wistfully as he sat back in his chair, looking up at the starry sky. “Wish she was my mate. Did you see that hair?”

A low growl emanated from Garrett’s throat before he could stop it. He clapped a hand over his mouth.

Hunter and Grayson both looked over at him intently.

“Well, that settles it,” Hunter said. “Okay, big guy, we’ll help you get her.”

“And keep our hands off,” Grayson said. “Right, Hunter?” His tone was stern, and Hunter nodded, putting his hands up.

“I know, I know. Hey, I don’t mess around when it comes to my friends.”

“That’s all you do,” Grayson spat at him.

“Right, but I mean not in that way,” Hunter said, looking at Garrett. “Your mate is safe with me. Any woman is, for the most part. I haven’t met one yet who made me want to settle down, and if I wasn’t going to settle, I never thought it was fair to start up with one.”

“And I never thought about it because I was in the military,” Grayson said pensively, stirring the fire with a long stick he’d found. “I guess I just thought maybe things would work out with one of the females in the pack when I got back. I didn’t even have one in mind.”

“And I’ve just been working,” Garrett said. “Hoping to build something amazing so I could take care of the right woman when she came along.”

“So there you are,” Hunter said. “Our closet romantic.”

Garrett scratched his beard. “I suppose so.” He frowned. “Do women like beards?”

“You’ll have to ask her,” Grayson said flatly.

“I could do it for you,” Hunter said.

“No,” Garrett said sharply. “If anyone talks to her, it’s going to be me.”

“So what, you’re going to ask her out? How does that work?” Grayson shifted in his seat. “If bears typically mate with humans, how do you explain the shifter thing?”

“I don’t know yet,” Garrett said. “I’m just hoping everything will work out.”

Hunter smiled over at him reassuringly, putting out a cheesy thumbs-up. “We got your back, man. We’ll start by building her the most kickass house possible so she can’t help but wonder, ‘Who is this mysterious, sexy builder? I have to know more.’ And then we’ll take it from there.”

“That was inane,” Grayson said. “But the thought is accurate.” He pulled a piece of wood out of his pocket, along with a knife, and Garrett knew the wolf would be carving something by firelight for the rest of the night.

“Seriously,” Hunter said, looking over at Garrett. “It’s going to be fine.”

Garrett smiled back at him as he relaxed in his chair to enjoy the night. “I know.”

Their little group might not be perfect, but they were family. And with the challenges ahead of him, he was glad to have his family by his side.