The Woodland Packs

“Nope… So, I’m pretty sure I’ll be alone forever, because I can’t imagine any guy taking on all the baggage I come with.”

Claire laughed suddenly. “Oh, sweetheart, you’re too young to give up on love.”

I stared at her, not sure what else to say. If my story wasn’t enough to convince her that I was cursed, I didn’t know what was.

And the biggest problem was, I kind of agreed with her. I had my whole life ahead of me, and yet the idea of going back to that place of vulnerability gave me nightmares that haunted me right through all my waking moments.

I didn’t trust myself to choose well this time.

“Maybe you’re right, Claire. But for the moment, I think I’ll concentrate on work, and try not to envision you with three men at once.”

I shot Claire a side-long look and waggled my eyebrows.

She giggled, actually giggled! “It’s hotter than you can even imagine, my friend. Oh, speaking of which, what’s happening with Dr. Ferrari and that patient?”

“Oh, it’s gotten so much worse since last time you were there!”

We slid into a comfortable conversation about hospital gossip and the afternoon fell away under our friendship.

Chapter 2.

Aaron.

After seeing that gorgeous woman a few hours ago, my world had tipped on its axis. I couldn’t seem to settle my racing mind, nor the racing of my heart.

Which didn’t make any sense. It was just one human woman.

A friend of Claire’s, probably.

So, we’d managed to go to work, but all three of us had been desperate to go home for lunch, unable to stay away for some reason.

Her beautiful face… it had haunted me all day.

And the way she’d run away from us had worried me. Were we really that scary to a human woman? How would we ever find a mate if that was how normal women responded to us in our natural environment?

As I stepped onto the porch and turned my head towards Claire’s house, sweetness tickled my nostrils that hadn’t been there before. “What’s that smell?”

I put my nose in the air and took a deep inhalation of crisp, fall air. Something I don’t normally do because, well, I’m not in shifter form and it looks like strange behaviour.

But I did, and it was because there was the most incredible scent on the air. Like honey and apple cookies, comforting and yet arousing somehow.

“What…”

Grayson, who was beside me, did the same thing—inhaling deeply until a deep rumble rolled through his chest.

“That’s our mate. Fucking hell… It’s the woman we saw this morning, isn’t it?” Grayson began moving, looking around, sniffing the air. Walking towards Dex’s house.

“How is that possible? We’ve been looking for a month with no success, and she just suddenly turns up? What are the odds?”

I’d been to a dozen interviews, as had Grayson. We’d scoured the streets of Little Creek, even going into town like the rest of the larger pack, frequenting bars and restaurants most nights.

I hadn’t been able to find her and neither had my Alpha.

“Come here, quick!” Grayson called from the front of Dex’s house.

I ran over to the small black car parked out the front.

“Smell the air here. It’s her.”