Beneath a Spring Moon (Those Sexy Shifters, Book 1) Read online

  Beneath a Spring Moon

  Those Sexy Shifters, Volume 1

  ISBN: 978-1-93176-168-0

  Published 2013

  Published by Liquid Silver Books, imprint of Atlantic Bridge Publishing, 10509 Sedgegrass Dr, Indianapolis, Indiana 46235. Copyright © Published 2013, Becca Jameson, Lynn Tyler, Nulli Para Ora, Elle Rush. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  Liquid Silver Books

  http://LSbooks.com

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  Tessa’s Wolf

  By Becca Jameson

  Blurb

  Fate determines who a wolf-shifter’s mate is. Tessa just hopes she has enough time before she meets him to have her own life. She’s seen how it goes for her friends—each of them submitting to their mate and becoming consumed in their new life without ever looking back. That won’t be her.

  Aaron Garrett is the new vet in town. New job. New home. New life. Although he wasn’t planning on meeting his mate, he’s ready to give in to fate the instant he scents her.

  Unfortunately, Tessa’s determined to prove her will is stronger than the passion between them. To have her own life, she’s willing to fight Aaron, the heat between them, and fate itself.

  But fate has a way of bending things to Her will…

  Dedication

  To my bestest fan and cheerleader, Georgia Woods, without whom I wouldn’t have half the smiles I sport each day.

  Chapter 1

  Aaron Garrett stepped down from his truck and glanced around at the acres of farmland. This was his first visit to the Masters’ farm since taking over the veterinary office after Doc Simon retired. The air was crisp—a perfect spring day. The fields were lush and green. Snow still capped the mountains, but that only added to the beauty of the land. God, he loved this job.

  “Afternoon.” The tall, distinguished man walking toward him tipped his hat back and resituated it on his head. He reached out with his right hand. “Richard Masters. You must be the new doc. Doctor Garrett, right?”

  “Please, call me Aaron.” He grabbed Richard’s hand firmly. “It seems I am. Quite a nice place you have here.” Aaron examined the ranch home and barn not far away. The house was a welcoming structure that begged him to climb the front stairs and take a seat in one of the numerous rockers along the wide front porch.

  “We love it. Thank you. Come on,” Richard motioned with his head, “I’ll show you around.”

  “How long have you been in the dairy business?”

  “Almost twenty-five years now. Wouldn’t trade it for the world.” Richard ambled toward the barn, in no particular rush. The man’s warm smile and twinkling eyes made Aaron feel right at home. “Did you just move to the area?”

  “Yes, sir. Got here two weeks ago. I’m still learning my way around. So far I’ve met the most hospitable people everywhere I’ve gone.” Of course, shifters generally were. It was rare, in Aaron’s experience, to encounter unfriendly packs. And most of his clients in the Corvallis area were wolf shifters like himself. That was one of the things that kept him in the northwest.

  “Where are you from?”

  “Idaho. My family still lives there. There wasn’t much need of a vet in the area, so I decided to take this opening and head up here.”

  “Well, we’re sure glad to have you. Folks around here have been worried for a while about replacing Doc Simon. We were biting our nails in hopes another shifter would emerge. It’s so much easier.”

  “I’m sure that’s true.”

  They’d reached the barn. “Come on. I’ll give you the lay of the land.” Richard pulled the large barn door open and stepped inside.

  Aaron trailed right on his heels.

  Not more than a few yards in Richard began to point around at all the recent improvements he’d made with pride.

  Aaron took a deep breath and froze in his spot. Luckily he was at Richard’s back, and the man couldn’t see his sudden start. He kept speaking, but his words were muffled and unintelligible.

  Aaron gripped the bag he held in one hand and tipped his head back to better scent the air. Perhaps he was mistaken. He closed his eyes and inhaled long and slow.

  Nope. No mistake.

  Somewhere in this barn was his mate.

  Aaron set his bag of medical supplies down right where he stood and strayed from Richard as though a magnet were pulling him down the row of stalls on the left.

  “Aaron? Doc? You okay?”

  Aaron could hear Richard’s words, but he couldn’t respond just yet. He was on a mission.

  The scent was fading. He walked faster, peeking back and forth into each horse stall on his way down the long row. When he reached the end, he pivoted on his heel and turned back around. “Where’d she go?”

  “Who?” Richard was catching up with him, a quizzical look furrowing his brow.

  “The woman.”

  “What woman? I don’t have any women working here in the barn.” Richard reached Aaron’s side and gently laid a hand on his arm. “Are you okay, son?”

  Aaron shook his head. Had he imagined her? No way. “I don’t know whether or not she works for you, but there was definitely a woman in here a moment ago. She’s … vanished.”

  Richard tipped his head to one side and gazed at Aaron with dark brown eyes. He spoke softly. “I don’t think so. The only women around here today are my wife and my daugh … ter…” His eyebrows rose up into his forehead. He pursed his lips.

  An awkward silence ticked by. Shit. Just what Aaron needed. To find his mate and piss off a client.

  “She’s kinda young for you, son,” Richard muttered. The man removed his hat and slapped it on his leg. He glared at Aaron, but didn’t appear on the edge of rage. “Are you sure?”

  “How old?” Aaron held his breath for a beat. God in heaven, please don’t tell me I’ve been fated to fall for a twelve-year-old girl.

  “Oh, don’t look at me like that. She’s not that young. She’ll be twenty-three next month.” Richard actually smiled now. “Damn.” He glanced around. “I’d hoped for more time. She isn’t going to like this.”

  Aaron exhaled long and hard when he heard the woman’s age. Not a child after all. His hands shook with the fear he’d been feeling. Twenty-three was a grown woman. Granted, Aaron himself was thirty, so she was young compared to him, but not unreasonably so.

  Now Aaron furrowed his own brown. “Why not?”

  “She’s always been … a homebody, I guess you could say. Says she doesn’t want to get married, er … mated, until she’s at least thirty. Wants to live life. Enjoy herself before she settles down.” Now Richard laughed. “I bet she’s good and pissed. Probably scented you, too, and ran for the house.”

  Aaron flinched. Could this day get any worse?

  “Don’t worry. She’s with my wife now. Nancy will calm her down.” Richard leaned his head back and chuckled long and hard again. “Ranting and raving, she is. Good luck to you, son.” Richard slapped Aaron on the back, a broad grin pasted on his face.

  “You’re, um, communicating with your wife? She said that?” Of course the man was speaking to hi
s wife. All shifters could talk to their mates telepathically.

  “Yep.” The man winked.

  Richard Masters was awfully calm for a man who just found out his daughter’s mate had come a-calling. “You’re not mad?”

  “Mad?” Richard situated his hat back on his head and sauntered back down the row of stalls, looking over his shoulder when he spoke. “Why would I be? It was bound to happen eventually. She’s old enough, even if she does disagree. I could do a lot worse than a clean-cut, polite veterinarian.”

  Aaron was rather speechless. Good thing he liked Richard. Seemed he was going to be seeing a lot of the man. For the rest of his life. His pulse rate accelerated and his brow sweated. How was he going to concentrate to get his work done today?

  Richard was still chuckling under his breath when Aaron caught up with him. “Guess we might as well get these calves immunized before we go inside. Let my wife deal with Tessa for a few hours, and then join the family for dinner.”

  Tessa. He hadn’t realized it, but until that moment he hadn’t known the woman’s name. Aaron’s stomach churned with fear of the unknown. Just how big of an obstacle was he up against?

  Aaron’s hand shook as he reached for his bag and resumed following Richard.

  “Her brothers are going to have a field day with this.” Richard shook his head and chuckled again as though each thought were funnier than the last. “Man, I don’t envy you one little bit.”

  “Brothers? How many?”

  “Five, if you count the extra one we raised.”

  Five. Five brothers? God help him. “How old are they?”

  “They range from thirteen to twenty-one.”

  Younger brothers. Lordy.

  Chapter 2

  Tessa ran from the barn to the house. She’d been brushing Penny, her favorite horse, when she’d first scented the newcomer. Speechless, shaking, frightened, and frankly angry, she’d bolted from the back of the barn.

  No, no, no. She paced her bedroom, her fists clenched at her sides when she wasn’t pressing her palms to her temples. The day had started out so nicely. She’d intended to go for a ride. Maybe picnic in the north pasture. Read a novel.

  Everything she’d planned—ruined.

  “Tessa, honey. This is not the end of the world. It’s just the beginning.” Her mother’s normally soothing voice was currently grating on her nerves. The woman sat on her bed and tried hard to hold back a grin, but Tessa was on to her.

  Tessa stopped pacing and glared at her mother. “Mom, I’m not ready. I need more time.”

  “Honey, it doesn’t work that way.”

  “Well, it should. The entire process is barbaric at best.” Tessa blew her hair out of her face. Long strands hung down, irritating her even more than she already was.

  “It’s just the way of shifters. When we meet our mates, we just have to go with it. Lucky for you, it seems this gentleman is polite, and nice, and intelligent.” Nancy’s voice was even and soft.

  “Mom, you haven’t’ even met the man.” She was nearly shouting. A shiver wracked her body from head to toe. She leveled her stare at her mother. “You know I hate it when you talk to dad behind my back.”

  Nancy just smiled. “Comes in handy on occasion.”

  Tessa plopped down on the bed beside her mother, lay back, and covered her eyes with one arm. “What if he’s ugly?”

  “He’s not.”

  “What does Dad know? Mom, be reasonable. Dad is hardly the litmus test I’d normally use to gauge cute guys.

  “What’s his name, anyway?”

  “Aaron.”

  At least his name is nice.

  “Does Dad like him?”

  “Yes. Very much. He’s the new vet replacing Doc Simon.”

  “Vet? Great.” Tessa blew out a breath and forced herself to relax. “What if he doesn’t like me?” Perhaps that was the real question bothering her, though she was loath to admit it.

  “He will. It’s just the way of shifters, honey.” Nancy gently grazed her hand down Tessa’s arm. “He will love you instantly and with an unbelievable passion … as you will him. Trust me. Now, let me make a suggestion. Pull yourself together. Maybe clean up a bit? You’re filthy from working in the barn. A shower, a dress, some makeup—”

  “Mom.” Tessa bolted upright. “I don’t even do those things normally. Why should I go out of my way—?”

  “Because this isn’t ‘normally,’ sweetheart. This is your mate. Look, do what you want. It won’t make any difference. But your father and Aaron are going to be working a few hours with the calves, and then they will come in for dinner. I’m just saying…”

  “You invited him for dinner?” Wonderful. Just what she needed. A strange man sitting at the kitchen table with her five brothers. Perfect. Why not? Because you know good and well you can’t sit in the same room with him for even one minute without fidgeting, because his scent alone will drive you crazy with the need to be kissed … and so much more…

  Three hours.

  That’s one hundred and eighty minutes, when one is waiting to get a glimpse of the man they will spend their life with.

  Why on earth would shifters still mate like this in the twenty-first century? It pissed her off women couldn’t just meet a man in the regular way, go on a date, and make a reasonable judgment—based on more than his scent.

  She had no intention of going down easy. Just to thumb her nose at the system. Never mind the system was ingrained and biological, not created by wolf law. She still didn’t have to like it.

  Let this Aaron fellow squirm for a while. That was her plan. She could hold her head high and feign indifference for a few days, right?

  She sure as hell hoped so.

  Nevertheless, Tessa did shower and dress—not in a skirt for God’s sake, but clean jeans and her favorite blouse. She headed for her bathroom and even attempted to tame her hair, the long, dark curls mocking her in the mirror as she tried to comb them into submission.

  Screw it. Hadn’t her mother always said the unruly hair she’d forever complained about was actually one of her strongest assets? Tonight she could put that theory to the test. If the man didn’t like her thick wavy hair… Who was she kidding? She’d be devastated if he didn’t like even one aspect of her.

  She drew the line at makeup. If this Aaron didn’t like her without makeup he was in trouble, because she hardly ever wore the stuff. Her father had always said she didn’t need it anyway, with her tanned, smooth skin and dark eyelashes.

  She was no supermodel, but to hear her parents talk…

  Her brothers were loud and obnoxious every day, but considering the level of noise coming from the living room, she had to guess her father had returned with her mate, and the group was currently inside the house.

  What choice did she have? It wasn’t as though she could stay in her room for the rest of her life. Taking a fortifying breath, Tessa put her hand on the doorknob with the knowledge that as soon as she opened the door, Aaron, the presumably cute vet, would fill her with his smell and send her brain cells scrambling out her ears.

  God, help me.

  *

  Aaron had followed Richard all afternoon from calf to calf, all the while praying he was doing what he’d come there to do. His mind was running a mile a minute, and he could hardly concentrate.

  Now that they were finally done with the work and entered the main house, he tried to slow his heart rate and relax.

  A petite older woman with kind brown eyes met the men at the door. “Hello, you must be Aaron.” And she had to be Richard’s wife.

  “Yes, ma’am. Thank you for having me in your home.”

  “Please, call me Nancy. And you are most welcome.” She stepped back and motioned toward the living room. “Have a seat.”

  His first impression was noise. It was louder in this house than any home he’d ever visited. Did all these adult children live here?

  As he followed Nancy into the great room, she spoke over the mayhem. �
��These are my sons.” She clapped two times, producing an amazing thwack with her hands. “Boys, listen up. This is Aaron. He just took over for Doc Simon. Stand still for one minute so I can introduce you.”

  The room went marginally silent. Marginally.

  Nancy pointed to the right and made her way around the room. “That’s our oldest, Justin. Next is Trevor. He’s not biological, but might as well be. Then we have Ryan, Charles, and the youngest, Michael.”

  Aaron would never remember their names, except Michael, the gangly teenager. The rest were nearly full-grown and looked almost alike.

  “Can I get you a drink? A beer perhaps?” Richard eased past Aaron from behind and looked back over his shoulder as he headed for the kitchen area.

  The living space was huge, as it would need to be with this many people in the family.

  “No, I’m fine. Thanks.” In truth, he didn’t believe he could actually hold a drink without dropping it. His hands were shaking too bad.

  Where was this mate of his? Her scent was in the room, but faint. She’d not been in the area recently. Would she even come to the table? Or was she too pissed off to leave her bedroom? Suddenly it seemed absurd to sit down for a meal with this wild, rambunctious group of people. How was Aaron supposed to swallow anything?

  “Staying for dinner, doc?” The man heading toward Aaron was the oldest son. Justin?

  “Yes.” Aaron cleared his throat when his voice came out squeaking. “Your father invited me.”

  “Cool. Come. Sit down. We’re a bit loud, but you’ll probably get something to eat if you’re quick.” Justin teased him, his smile broad. No doubt it was difficult to get a bite to eat with this bunch all reaching across the table, but it was lucky for Aaron; he couldn’t eat if he tried.

  Aaron was swept into the thick of things by Justin, who graciously played host. “Let’s grab a seat, and you can tell me about your job. You’re a vet, right?” Justin motioned to a chair and took one across from Aaron.

  “Yes.” Aaron obediently followed. He had nothing else to do. Was it hot in here? Probably. He plucked at his shirt, doubtful the act would allow air to enter his lungs, but at least he’d be able to cool his skin a bit. “I just moved here a few weeks ago to take over Doctor Simon’s practice when he retired. Loving it out here.” Especially now.