“Fine, go ahead and let them know.” I had just been thinking that I needed a break, so fighting my brother when he offered up the perfect excuse for me to leave seemed shortsighted. “Just don’t say when yet. Depending on how my call with Riggs goes, I might need you to push the plan back another week.”
“That asshole better not make me wait too long.” Tane made it sound as though me not being able to make it out there next weekend would be a personal insult against him. I’d never understood why he disliked my boss so much, but I couldn’t complain too much when I’d spent even longer hating on the wolf shifter he’d accepted as his alpha. But I sure as heck could laugh at him when he was being ridiculous. “See you soon.”
My giggles kicked up a notch when he hung up, and it took a while before I calmed down enough to give Riggs a call. “Hey, Trinity. Everything okay at La Gloutonnerie?”
“Yup, nothing’s changed there in the past two hours since we last talked after they closed for the night,” I drawled, pinching the bridge of my nose between my index finger and thumb. Riggs had a one-track mind when we were opening a new place. The trait was a big part of why he was such a successful restaurateur, but it could be irritating when I was on the receiving end of questions he should already know the answer to.
“Oh, yeah. Right. Sorry, I should’ve realized.” He paused before continuing. “What’s up?”
I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. “I hate to ask with such short notice, but I was hoping I could take a few days off starting on Friday. Something came up with my brother, and I need to head out to Timber Ridge.”
“Take all the time you need,” he quickly agreed. “Just keep in touch so I know when you’ll be headed back. I haven’t set up any meetings for our next project yet, and things are running smoothly at La Gloutonnerie, so your absence won’t be felt as much as it normally would.”
I felt a little bad that Riggs assumed my reason for leaving was bad, but not enough for me to run the risk of him changing his mind if I offered up an explanation he hadn’t asked for. “Thanks, I really appreciate it.”
He laughed off my gratitude. “I’m sure you won’t be gone more than a minute necessary with how much you dislike Timber Ridge.”
“True story,” I murmured before thanking him again and ending the call. I was excited about getting away from work and spending time with my nieces and nephew, but I wasn’t looking forward to doing it in that sleepy little town full of wolves.
2
Damon
I heard the rumble of my brother’s motorcycle pulling into the driveway, but I didn’t bother looking up from the basswood I was whittling. The piece I was working on was at a tricky spot, and he could let himself into the house since we shared the place. He must have fiddled with something on his bike because I spent another fifteen to twenty minutes working on the tail of the animal I was carving before he stomped into the kitchen.
“Another one bites the dust,” Cason grumbled as he stuck his keys on the peg by the door.
I set my knife on the table and glanced up at him. “What do you mean?”
“Mike was in a fender bender this morning. A cute little human backed into him while pulling out of a parking spot at the grocery store. He was pissed as fuck at the dent in his bumper, but his anger disappeared when he went to check on her and got a lungful of her scent,” he explained with a wishful gleam in his eyes.
My head reared back in shock. “His mate crashed into him?”
“Yeah, she was on a motherfucking road trip across the country to find herself or some shit like that.” He pulled out the chair across from me and dropped onto it.
I shook my head and sighed, “What are the odds?”
“Slim to fucking none, considering how far off the highway we are.” He scrubbed his palms up and down his face. “She had to have taken one hell of a detour to wind up in Timber Ridge.”
“That’s for fucking sure,” I agreed. Our hometown was off the beaten path, which worked well for our pack because we had plenty of room to roam in our animal forms without having to worry about humans spotting us. There were two towns between us and the highway, so we didn’t get many tourists all the way out here.
“And get this—she barely did any damage. That dent was smaller than my fist.” He held up his hand, clenching it tight. “The only reason he was so angry was because he just bought the damn car last week.”
“Some guys have all the luck,” I grumbled, tracing the tip of my finger over the carving I was working on. The animal wasn’t recognizable yet, but I already had a feeling it was going to be one of my best pieces.
“And none of them have the same last name as we do.” A muscle jumped in Cason’s jaw.
I wished I could argue with him, but the men in our family hadn’t had much luck when it came to fated mates. Shit usually seemed to go wrong for Kemp males and the women who were meant to be theirs. Neither of our uncles had found their mates—one of our great-uncles was rejected like Aaron had been, and the other still hadn’t found his. There had been plenty of trouble for the male ancestors further back, too.
Our dad had been one of the few lucky ones. He’d grown up next door to our mom, and they had realized they were mates when my mom turned eighteen. After being together for years and having three pups, my dad thought that they’d broken the bad luck streak. But his hope that the family curse had finally ended dried up when my brother Aaron was rejected by his fated mate.
The human he’d been paired with had cared more about money than love and didn’t think my brother could give her what she thought she needed. She decided she’d rather marry a rich guy she had zero feelings for instead of mating the only man she’d ever desire. Aaron had spiraled after it had all gone down. He’d eventually decided that he couldn’t stay with the pack and went lone wolf. He checked in with us sporadically, but none of us had seen my brother in years, and I missed the fuck out of him.
“Does it bother you?” Cason asked, pulling me out of my dark thoughts.
I shook my head to clear it. “What?”
He got up and walked over to the fridge, pulling out two beers before returning to the table. After sliding one of the cans toward me, he popped the top on his and took a sip. “Does being surrounded by so many fated mate pairings make you wonder if it’s ever going to happen for you?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged and gulped down about half my beer. “I’m happy for our pack mates, but some days, it’s hard to see how in love some of them are, knowing that it’s never going to happen for me.”
Cason guzzled the rest of his drink, slammed the can on the table, and crushed it with his fist. “Never is a long time. Maybe you’ll be one of the lucky ones.”
“Not fucking likely,” I muttered before finishing my beer and heading over to the fridge to grab two more.
Cason flashed me a smile when I handed him one of the cans. “Yeah, I’m having a hard time believing that I’m going to end up mated anytime soon.”
“Or ever,” I sighed as I dropped onto my chair.