Unexpected Mates

Or maybe that had been Parker. Beautiful Parker, whose last name he’d never gotten. Beautiful Parker, who he’d never been seen again after that night, although he’d looked. She’d managed to soothe the wolf inside him, and he’d wanted more of that.

It had been four months, though, and he hadn’t found one trace of her. He was starting to think he’d dreamed her.

Not a dream, his wolf piped up inside him.

Abruptly aware of the silence in the room, he looked up to find his brother studying him. “What’s up with you lately, Ty? Sometimes you seem different.”

Resisting the urge to shift uneasily in his seat, Ty shook his head at Chase. “Nothing’s different, pup. All right, let’s go to Pete’s.”

A triumphant grin lit Chase’s face as they both stood up. Normally Ty would have smacked it off Chase’s face, but right now, he wanted to get out of here and turn Chase’s attention away from him. Besides, he thought as they walked outside, maybe tonight would be the night he got lucky and ran into the curvy little human again. He wasn’t sure why he wanted to so badly, except for the fact that that night four months ago had been amazing. He’d slept with his share of women in his lifetime, but none had ever felt like she had. That, and the fact that she had managed to shut his wolf up for the first time in years, was heady stuff.

An hour later, Ty was settled onto a bar stool in his usual spot at the corner of the bar with Chase and Garret, one of their farm hands. He spun the beer bottle on the table before taking a sip. He used to wish he could get drunk like a human. For years, he’d longed to be able to do it. He didn’t now, though, and he wasn’t sure exactly what the change was. He just knew he’d been feeling more solid than he had in a long time.

“Sam called before we left,” Garret said.

Ty looked over at the normally quiet fox shifter. Garret had changed, too. He used to be lively, always with a smile, more like a teenager than a man. Some hard shit had gone down last fall that had forced Garret to grow up fast. Now Garret was quiet and broody, not at all like the Garret he used to be. Ty was happy to see him grow up a bit, but he wished it hadn’t come at the expense of Garret’s naturally happy personality. He was more like Ty now, and that wasn’t anything Ty would wish on anyone.

“What’d he want?” Ty asked. Sam was Garret’s brother and worked at Red Moon, although he lived on Bear Claw Ranch now. He was mated to Kendall Montgomery, one of the owners of the ranch.

“Said Adara had her babies. Twin girls, both dragons.”

Ty absorbed that information, waiting on the jealousy and resentment to hit him. It was there, but it wasn’t overwhelming, which surprised him. He’d hated Jared Montgomery for years, and when Jared mated Adara, the burning resentment had threatened to suffocate Ty. Learning Adara was pregnant had been even worse. Jared had always managed to have it all. First Cassie, who Tyler had loved, then finding another mate when Cassie died. The pregnancy had just been the icing on the shitcake.

Which made it all the more surprising that hearing about the babies’ births didn’t make Tyler want to turn wolf and kill shit.

“Good for them. It was a long shot that she could even get pregnant, and then she not only had twins, but had girls, too? That’s pretty much a miracle,” he said quietly.

Silence met his pronouncement and he looked up to find Garret and Chase both looking at him like he’d suddenly grown a second head. Gripping his beer more tightly and fighting not to sound defensive, Ty said, “What?”

Chase shook his head. “Like I said. Different. You’re almost being nice,” Chase said in disgust.

“I’m not fucking nice,” Ty replied, voice hard. “I don’t like Jared Montgomery, but I have nothing against Adara.”

Shooting him a skeptical look, Chase took a swig of his beer. “Because she’d sooner eat you than look at you. Can’t step a foot wrong with that one.”

Lips quirking involuntarily, Ty fought to hide his amusement. Adara was a dragon shifter, and the first time he’d met her, he’d been in Jared’s face. Adara had threatened to eat him if he didn’t back off. Even drowning in resentment over Jared finding a new mate after Cassie, Ty had been amused. He didn’t doubt she’d do it, either, and Ty had nothing but respect for Adara for that. She was fierce, and he appreciated that quality.

Leaning onto the bar, Ty listened with half an ear to Chase and Garret as he absentmindedly ran his gaze over the bar. Pete’s had been around forever, first established in the 1800’s as a saloon and whorehouse. He honestly didn’t think much had changed since then, either, other than the fact that the upstairs wasn’t open for business anymore. There was a jukebox in the front and pool tables in the back, but everything else looked pretty authentic. His eyes passed over Hannah and Wendy, girls he’d known in high school, and he silently cursed as they headed toward the bar.

It seemed like every time he was here, they were too. He half suspected they lived here. They were making their way toward him, Chase, and Garret, teetering in high heels and wearing the shortest skirts he’d ever seen. Ty supposed they were hot, objectively speaking, but he’d never been attracted to them, and their personalities made it a certainty that he never would.

Vipers, the both of them. They’d been the mean girls in high school, and not much had changed.

He nodded hello to them when they stopped by the bar, but he didn’t speak and continued to let his gaze roam the room. Until Hannah said a name that perked his ears up.

“Ugh, what is Parker doing here? And what the hell is she wearing?”

Wendy giggled. “And look. She’s staring at Ty like a moon struck calf. Or should I say cow?”

Ty wasn’t listening to them, though. Because he’d spotted Parker, standing uncertainly by the door. His breath left his body in a whoosh. She was as gorgeous as he remembered. Loose black curls tumbled over her shoulders, and her pale skin looked creamy even in the harsh light of the bar. He couldn’t see her eyes because of the distance between them, but he knew behind the black frames of the glasses she was wearing that they were a pale, light grayish-blue color. She was wearing leggings and a baggy shirt, but he knew underneath those that she had curves for days, with a generously shaped hourglass body.

He watched as she nervously adjusted her glasses, looking around the bar before her eyes landed on him. She stilled, staring at him, and then seemed to blanch as she took note of the girls standing by him.

Ty wanted to get up and go to her, but his body was frozen and he was still trying desperately to suck much needed oxygen into his body. She was really here, and her presence hit his body like a hurricane, the force of it stunning him to stillness. What was this hold she had on him? He didn’t know, and he suddenly wasn’t sure he wanted to find out.

Chapter Two

Parker couldn’t stop staring at Tyler. She told herself to move but she couldn’t get her body to respond to her commands. He was gorgeous, sitting there on the barstool looking at her like she was a cold glass of water and he was a man stuck in the desert.