Tempted (Two Marks 1)

Which meant… we’d just thrown our sweet mate under the bus. We’d just allowed Gib to condemn her without saying one word in her defense.

Worse, she believed our entire relationship was a manipulation. That we’d only been with her to thwart her research. She thought we’d used sex and even the double marking as a weapon.

Our idiocy may have just cost us our mate. We may have lost her for good.

No.

I couldn’t accept that.

Wade and I would figure out a way to get her back. We’d have to.

Somewhere in the distance, I heard a wolf howl, an eerie sound at this time of day. A forbidden sound. Because it was against pack rules to shift and run during the day when the chances of being seen were greater. When the chances of being hunted were too dangerous.

It was Wade, sending his mournful cry after Caitlyn.

Without hesitation, I stripped off my clothes and shifted to join him. He was my scent-match.

We ran, and mourned together.

21

CAITLYN

I drove straight to my apartment, barely remembering the drive. I climbed into bed and stayed there the rest of Sunday. Slept and cried, and slept some more. The place smelled like Wade, which meant it smelled like Landry, since they had the same fucking scent. So I cried some more.

It was a call from my mother the next morning that pulled me out of my funk. I grabbed my cell when it rang, my heart thinking it would be either of the guys. But I’d been the one to walk away, to tell them it was over, so I’d been stupid. I sighed, and answered, knowing she’d call back if I didn’t.

“Hi, Mom,” I said.

“What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

I sat up, brushing my snarled hair back from my face. “No, just tired.”

“I didn’t hear from you yesterday and I was worried.”

I sighed. “I’m fine.”

I wasn’t, but the last thing I was going to tell my mother was the truth. Not that she’d believe it. I broke up with two men after having a heated and tawdry fling for the past three weeks. Oh, did I mention that they shift into wolves, and bit me to mark me? I think you could’ve had half-shifter grandchildren by either one of the guys, although I wouldn’t know which since I fuck both of them, but that’s not happening now.

“Well, Dad talked to Dale Dickman again at Oakview. He said the job is yours, but you’d have to be back by August fifteenth for teacher meetings, as school starts after Labor Day.”

I popped from bed, suddenly wide awake and full of… anger.

My parents were constantly pushing me to return to Connecticut and be a prep school science teacher. A safe job. A worthy one they could tell their friends at the country club about. Not that their daughter roamed the Wyoming wilderness tracking wolves.

Then there were Landry and Wade, who were deciding for me that my research and all the time I’d put into it had to be abandoned. Then there was Dr. Andrews, who was pushing me on the paper when he did jack-shit, just to take all the credit.

Then there was Gibson, the alpha of a wolf shifter pack, who accused me of horrible things all because of… what? Greed?

“Mom, I love you.”

“I love you, too, honey.”

“But I’m not coming back to Connecticut. I’m not. I’m not sure what’s going to happen with my research and paper, or my teaching position at Granger State for that matter, but I do not want the job at Oakview. If you like it so much, you take it. Or Dad. It hurts my feelings that you can’t see that it won’t make me happy, that it’s what you want for me.”

“Honey—”

“I’m tired of people telling me what I should be doing. Until you can accept me and my work as-is, then we need to take a little break.”

“Oh, Caity,” she said on a sigh. “I’m sorry.”

I sighed, swallowing back tears. “I am, too. I have to go to work. Here, in Wyoming. Studying wolves.”

I ended the call and strangely felt better. I’d stood up for myself with my mother. I wasn’t going to work at Oakview no matter what happened.

But I was tired of being pushed into what others wanted me to do. I couldn’t figure out Landry and Wade right now, but I could get my paper published. That was tangible. What I’d been working on. It was me. My goal, my dream.

WADE

For fuck’s sake. I woke up in my bed full of pine needles and dirt. I hardly remembered making it home last night after running until my paws bled.

Landry had been with me, I remembered that much. We’d howled at the moon until we’d gone hoarse. I didn’t know how we even found our way home.

I rolled out of the bed, cursing myself under my breath. Now I had to wash the sheets, which meant I’d wash away the scent of our mate. I stripped the bed with a snarl and padded out to the laundry room.