Also available from Totally Bound Publishing:
Were Chronicles: Pack Mates
Crissy Smith
Excerpt
Chapter One
It was late March and already the temperature had hit over ninety degrees in south-east New Mexico. Nikki Stratton groaned as the air conditioner in her old Jeep barely managed to cool the interior of the vehicle.
Thirty-two years old and she’d been called home like a teenager. She resented the fact that she’d let her older brothers demand her appearance and was still disgusted with herself for not having put up a fight.
She continued to speed down the interstate toward her home town, both dread and anxiety sitting in her stomach. A new Alpha had been named for her Pack. Since she still maintained Pack status, she’d been beckoned home to welcome him and the new members he’d brought to join their family. That was what she supposed, anyway. Brandon hadn’t actually told her why he wanted her home. He’d just stated she needed to leave the next day. Justin, the middle sibling, hadn’t given any hint, either—had just told her the new Alpha would take over this week and she needed to come home.
It wasn’t even that she didn’t want to be there. She’d planned to take some vacation time and visit her siblings soon, but being ordered home left her feeling like a cub again. She loved her brothers, but sometimes they put the needs of the Pack ahead of their immediate family.
Her oldest brother, Brandon, worked as both the town sheriff and enforcer of the Pack. Her other brother, Justin, was a teacher, in public and in Pack life, too. Their wants and needs had been built around being able to serve their fellow wolves. Nikki just hadn’t been born that way. She liked to be free, to travel and to be on her own. Unusual for a wolf, yes, but not unheard of. Away from home, she’d not only met other wolves who felt like she did, but other shifters, too—felines, birds and even a very nice shifter bear family. Nikki felt more at home with them sometimes than with her old Pack.
Her family had never understood her independence, but at least they’d always supported her. She’d been lucky and couldn’t bitch too much about it. And she began to feel guilty and just a little childish about her feelings. Except…she liked her life. Now she worried that her carefully constructed way of living was about to change. Why else would she have to come home, with no choice in the matter? Brandon had never asked that of her.
The exit sign for their town came up and Nikki had to fight the urge to keep driving. She slowed to make the curved side road that would take her straight into downtown Lawton, a small, private cotton and farming community.
Little had changed in the year and a half she’d been away. She’d gone to the big city of Houston, Texas, at nineteen to attend college and had never returned. Oh, sure, she’d made certain that she returned every few years or so, but only to visit her brothers. Nikki was different from many of the others she’d grown up with. Instead of craving a mate and children, she was looking for excitement. She wasn’t ready to settle down quite yet. And living in Lawton would ensure that would happen.
The county line WELCOME sign drew a sigh from her. She felt like a different person in Lawton. Always having to defend her nomadic ways.
If she were as honest as possible, it felt good to know that she always had a place to return to. Yes, even if she never said it out loud, sometimes she missed her family.
Nikki let up off the gas pedal even more to drive in at the posted thirty-five miles per hour. She wouldn’t put it past Brandon to pull her over and ticket her if he caught her speeding. She chuckled to herself—it had, in fact, happened many times.
The library was closed already, reminding her that at six on a Sunday night, she wouldn’t have to worry about running into too many people. The café was open and had a half-full parking lot. But the other buildings—post office, salon, thrift store—were dark and locked up tight. Lights blazed to the right. Of course, the sheriff’s office stayed open twenty-four hours a day. Not that there was a lot of crime, but put a group of secretive wolf shifters in a community and there were bound to be several paranoid people. She happened to be related to one.
As if her thoughts had brought him out, the front door of the sheriff’s office opened and Brandon stepped through.
His dark brown hair looked to be several weeks past a trim and reached over his ears. His strong muscular shoulders and arms bulged from his khaki uniform shirt, while his long legs ate up the ground as he made his way to the street. He turned and his green eyes flashed as he spotted her vehicle. The grin he sent her was so much better than the pictures she carried that she couldn’t help but smile back.
He wrenched the door to her Jeep open before she’d even cut the engine. She slammed it into Park and turned the key right and he pulled her out and into his arms.
“Hey, sister,” he greeted her, squeezing tight.
“Bran!” she managed to squeak out.
He chuckled then set her on her feet. “Let me look at you.” He did the customary check she went through every time she came home. He ran his hands over her head, down her hair to her face, coming to a final rest on her shoulders.
He nodded. “You need to eat more, but you look good.”
Nikki rolled her eyes. She hadn’t expected him to say anything different.
Brandon grinned and threw an arm around her neck, yanking her close once again. “I was just headed to meet Justin for a bite. Now you can join me.”
She groaned. After driving for a day and a half, all she wanted was to rest.
“Oh, don’t complain. You need to eat. Then Justin can grab a ride home with you instead of waiting on me.” He slammed her vehicle door closed then led her away. It didn’t escape her notice that he didn’t lock it up—something she could never forget to do in Houston.
“Fine.” She let herself be dragged down the street, heading to the café she’d passed on her way into town. The stores she passed were new. Lawton now had a flower shop, tattoo parlor and dry cleaners. “New businesses?” There hadn’t been any of those shops in the entire time she’d grown up there. No one had ever moved there to open a business.
“Cameron started working with the new Alpha to bring his Pack members here before he stepped down. Cam wants us to be comfortable and see the plus side of adding to the Pack,” Brandon explained.
“How many shifters did we add?”
“Over fifty.”
She gasped. In a matter of a few months, the Pack size had doubled.
“It’s a good thing.” Brandon responded to her reaction. “Offered jobs to those in the Pack who needed them.”
He’d said that with more feeling than normal. Either he was still trying to convince himself or there were already problems. She’d have to talk to Justin about it later. Justin didn’t usually try to keep her out of what was happening, thinking he’d protect her, like Brandon always did. Not all the time, anyway. Her brothers couldn’t help it. Brandon had raised his two younger siblings since he’d been barely an adult. Their father had left them as soon as he felt they’d been old enough to be on their own. The loss of his mate had been just too much for him to live with.
She wanted to remember good times with her parents but as she’d gotten older, she found it harder and harder to bring up those memories. Brandon had been the one who’d attended her parent-teacher conferences. Brandon had bought Nikki her first pair of soccer shoes and later her first camera. Her older brother had been the dad she’d needed more than her real old man had ever been.
After having left home, Nikki had come to understand everything that Brandon had sacrificed for her and Justin. And thinking about this made the guilt from earlier return. Nikki needed to give Brandon a break. She knew that, but sometimes her brother frustrated her.
Just as they reached the door to the café, she was greeted with a shriek and yanked into the arms of another woman. Chuckling and glad she still remembered the scent of her best friend from childhood, Sabrina, she grinned, hugging back.
“Nik!” Sabrina held her close.
“Hey there, honey,” she greeted. “It’s good to see you.” Nikki meant the words, too. Part of leaving Lawton had meant not only being away from her brothers but also the friends who were just like family as well.
“I can’t believe you’re here. I was just saying the other day that you haven’t come to visit in forever. You haven’t even met little Julian yet.”
Since she was still being squashed, she gently tried to extract herself from her friend. Sabrina didn’t seem to want to let go.
“Baby, give her room to breathe or you’re gonna make her pass out,” Sabrina’s mate, Max, said, coming to her rescue and pulling her friend from her.
Sabrina laughed. “All right.”
Nikki smiled over at her friend. Sabrina had grown to be such a lovely woman. Short-cropped blonde hair, styled and sassy, fit her petite frame and her quirky personality. But it was the glow in Sabrina that warmed Nikki’s heart. She looked so happy.
“We have to catch up. Oh, we have so much to talk about,” Sabrina said grabbing Nikki’s hands.
“Oh, yes, and I’ll finally get to meet baby Julian and see Jesse and Jeremy,” Nikki agreed. She still talked to her oldest friend as much as she could, but with two busy lives, work, family and everything else, it had been too long. “Why don’t you bring the kids over for breakfast in the morning?”
“A breakfast cooked by someone else?” Sabrina asked with a smile. “We are so there.”
Nikki nodded and pulled her friend in for another hug. “Eight o’clock—don’t be late.”
Sabrina agreed then let her mate lead her across the parking lot.
“She looks so great,” Nikki told her brother.
“She’s happy,” he answered. “But I want to know why you’re not making your favorite brother breakfast?”
She slapped his stomach then pulled the door open. “Justin can eat if he wants to.”
Brandon growled and reached for her. She laughed and jumped out of the way, bumping into someone.
“Oh, sorry,” she murmured, peering up. And up. She was forced to tilt her head back to see the man in front of her.
“No problem at all,” he responded in a deep rumble that vibrated the air around her.
Her breath caught as she stared up at the man. Dark, almost black hair hung over his dark eyes. His lips tilted up at the edges in a small smile while he moved to the side. She didn’t even realize she had stepped closer until Brandon touched her lower back, breaking her attention on the stranger.
“RJ.” Brandon greeted the stranger. Nikki didn’t miss the tension in her brother’s body or his tone.
“Good evening, Sheriff.” The man nodded. “Ma’am.”
Nikki snorted. “Ma’am?”
Amusement shined in the stranger’s gaze. “Well, if I knew your name…”
“It’s Nikki Stratton,” she informed him, holding out her hand. She wasn’t worried about Brandon’s cold greeting. Her older brother’s protectiveness had always had him growling at her dates. This man deserved a real introduction instead of the shortness of her brother. “You must be new to town.”
He took it and winked. Electricity sizzled from her fingertips up her arm. She’d become locked into that dark gaze and her body tingled with need. His dark eyes had a sparkle to them. “RJ Cross. I haven’t seen you around here. Visiting?”
“You could say that,” she replied. Nikki was still a registered Pack member, so she wouldn’t call her coming home a visit, but she didn’t mind the flirting. “Although I do know all the good places around here, if you need a tour guide.”
“Is that so?” RJ’s grin remained wicked.
Damn, maybe I can ditch my brothers and—
“Now that everyone’s met, can we go eat?” Brandon snapped from beside her.
She sighed and removed her hand from RJ’s hold. Okay, maybe I can’t bail on dinner, but I’ll certainly go find Mister Tall, Dark and Handsome again. “Well, I guess I’ll be seeing you around town,” she flirted with the stranger. She really, really wanted to see him again.
“Oh, I can almost guarantee it.” RJ looked over to Brandon and nodded. The smile was no longer present and the chill grew between the two men.
Interesting. Brandon usually didn’t allow his job to interfere out in public, but she got the feeling that he and RJ had had a few run-ins.
“Sheriff,” RJ said, while already walking away.
His spectacular ass in a pair of tight, worn blue jeans kept her attention until Brandon tugged on her arm. Nikki allowed herself to be manhandled into the café.
“Who’s that?” she asked once they’d stepped inside.
“Trouble,” Brandon replied. “You don’t want to get involved with him.”
“Get involved with who?”
Nikki turned to Justin and jumped into his arms. Justin, of course, embraced her, only stumbling a little. “Hey, bro,” Nikki said.
“Hi, so who were you checking out?”
“No one,” Brandon interrupted. “Do we have a table?”
Justin raised an eyebrow at her before giving his winning smile to the oldest Stratton. “Over here,” he said, guiding her toward the back.
Nikki was surprised to see the old restaurant almost packed to capacity. There weren’t a lot of places to eat out in town, but almost everyone cooked their own meals. Even more shocking were the number of new faces she didn’t recognize. Several people waved and called out a greeting as she passed.
There was definitely something going on that she didn’t know about.
Justin pointed to a booth and she slid in, with him following close behind. Nikki glanced up and saw that several old men at one table had stopped Brandon to talk. It wasn’t like the sheriff’s office wasn’t right across the street. They could talk to Brandon anytime, but by the looks of things, they had plenty to say.
“What’s that about?” Nikki nodded toward the group.
Justin picked up a menu and passed it to her. “There are a couple new dishes you might want to try.”
The non-answer was not a good sign.
“Justin?”
“Let it go.” Her brother peered around. “There’ll be plenty of time to talk, but here’s not the place or time.”
So he knew why Brandon had wanted her home. “Fine.” The menu had indeed been updated. It seemed like the White family had at last listened to the residents’ complaints. Nikki had always believed that the only reason the café was still in business was because of lack of choices. “This doesn’t look so bad.”
“New Pack members brought in some business. There’s now a bakery and coffee shop plus a family style restaurant. The Whites had to step up or lose their business,” Justin told her.
Nikki glanced around the crowded area. “It worked.”
Justin snorted. “This isn’t because of the food.”
“What’s that mean?” she whispered, leaning closer to Justin.
“But who’s here?” Justin advised. “All the busybodies of the Pack.”
That was true. While she received warm greetings from several of the Pack, she also received glares from a few of the older women. The ones who’d told Brandon that she shouldn’t be going off to college.
Brandon straightened before heading toward their table. Justin picked up his menu, hiding his face. Nikki guessed she’d have to wait to get him alone to grill him further.
“Order whatever you want,” Brandon said as he sat. “You’re too thin.”
Nikki rolled her eyes. She was in fact at a normal range on the weight scale. It wasn’t easy for a shifter to gain weight, anyway. Still, the complaint was common and, as she’d done in the past, she’d just ignore her oldest brother.
“So, Brandon,” she said. “How’re things going here?”
He glanced up at her for a second before peering around. “Fine.”
Okay, so she needed another topic—something safer.
“How’s the crime in town? Bust any bank robbers or million-dollar theft rings?” Nikki joked.
Brandon grunted as Justin folded his menu, sighing.
Damn. Nikki was running out of ideas on what they could discuss. Luckily, the waitress approached their table. Nikki wanted to get the meal out of the way as soon as possible, so she could find out what was going on.