His Reluctant Mate

Trinity

Spotting my brother's name on the screen of my cell phone, I curved my lips up in a grin. When Tane moved to Timber Ridge, I missed being able to pop over and see him whenever I wanted. Even after all these years, I still didn't understand why he'd chosen to join a pack out there. Tiger shifters tended to be more solitary, sticking to family groups. I'd been shocked when he'd decided to leave New York City to spend his life in the boonies with a bunch of mangy wolves. For the first year or two, I expected my brother to change his mind, but I eventually accepted that he wasn't in a rush to come back to civilization. No matter how much I wished he was. And once Tane met Calliope, his mate, any hope I'd had about him coming back home for good disappeared since her best friends were mated to the alpha and beta of the pack.

The distance between us felt like it had grown even more when they'd started having cubs. His mate and children kept him pretty busy, especially since my nieces and nephew were a handful. Alena, Kyla, Azlyn, and Rush were the center of my brother and sister-in-law's world, and traveling all the way to the East Coast with the four of them wasn't easy, so they tended to stick closer to home-a place I didn't visit often since I resented the pack for luring my brother away from his family.

"Hey, little brother," I greeted after accepting the call. "Have you and Calliope finally decided you're ready to leave your sleepy little town behind and move to the big city where you belong?"

"Not even a little bit." I flopped down on my couch as my brother's laughter drifted through the line. Leaning against the cushions, I closed my eyes. Work had been kicking my butt lately, and I was exhausted. Opening a successful restaurant in New York City wasn't easy, but I'd just finished launching another one last week. It was already my third for the year, and the first had earned a Michelin star last month. My boss was beyond thrilled with my work, but he was pushing for me to start my next project when what I needed was a little break. "It's more like the opposite."

My eyes popped open, and my brow wrinkled as I wondered what my brother meant. "How so?"

"Instead of us coming to you, I'm hoping you're free to take a little trip to Timber Ridge," he explained.

"As if," I scoffed, shaking my head as I hit the button to turn on the speaker function. He knew better than to expect me to agree to his request, especially now that I'd lost someone else to a wolf. My best friend from childhood, Corinna, recently mated with a wolf Upstate in the Silver Lake Pack. "You know how I feel about being in wolf territory."

"C'mon, Trinity. Mom and Dad have plans, and Tabara is in the middle of production for a new show." His voice took on a pleading tone. "None of them can come watch the kids, and I want to take Calliope away for our anniversary. I know how you feel about coming here, but I really need your help."

"Dude. I love you, but-"

Before I could finish my argument for why I had no interest in coming out to babysit the nieces and nephew whom I loved, he interrupted me. "Alena, Kyla, Azlyn, and Rush would love to see their Auntie Trinity. It's been too long, and they'll be devastated if I tell them you wimped out on coming here to babysit them."

"What?" I shrieked, sitting up and glaring at the screenof my phone even though Tane couldn't see me. "You can't tell them that."

"Sure, I can."

His smug tone made me wish we were having this conversation face-to-face so I could make him pay for it. But just because I couldn't kick him in the shin or twist his nipple didn't mean I couldn't fight back against my little brother. "Fine, if you insist on being a jerk, then I'll be forced to share all sorts of fun stories about their daddy the next time I see them. I'm sure Calliope will be thrilled when Alena and Kyla get inspired by your antics since they're old enough to try some of the crap you pulled when you were younger."

"You don't play fair," he grumbled.

He sounded much less satisfied with himself, which made me grin. "I never have, and I never will."

"That's putting it mildly." He chuckled again. "I guess I'll just have to resort to bribery to get you to come out here."

"What kind of bribe?" I tilted my head to the side, intrigued by what he thought he could say to lure me to a place I hated.

"You can name our next child," he offered, much to my surprise.

"Calliope is pregnant again?" I jumped up and did a little dance, excited by the possibility of another little niece or nephew.

"Yup." He let the P on the end pop. "And you're the first to know, so don't spill the beans to anyone yet. I never would have let you in on the secret before I told Calliope if you weren't being such a pain in the ass about doing me this small favor. All I want to do is celebrate my anniversary with my pregnant mate, but I can't do that unless someone watches over our cubs for us while we're gone."

"Quit it with the guilt trip," I snapped, shaking my head. "As shocked as I am to admit it, you had me at naming your next child."

"You're going to come to Timber Ridge?"

He sounded as surprised as I felt. "Yup. When do you need me there?"

"Can you come next weekend?"

Tane wasn't one to let an opportunity pass him by, so I expected him to ask me to get there soon. Just not next weekend soon. "I need to talk to my boss first. Things are running smoothly at the newest restaurant, but Riggs may not be okay with me taking a trip with such little notice. I usually submit my vacation requests way in advance."

"I like how you used 'requests' plural, as though you take a ton of them," he scoffed. "How often have you taken time off other than for a holiday since you started working for your asshole boss? Maybe once in the past five years?"

Ignoring the insult he aimed at my boss, I squinted at my ceiling as I tried to remember the last time I'd used my vacation days for just a fun trip. When I couldn't come up with anything, I sighed, "Probably not at all."

"In that case, your boss should be more than fine with you taking some time between projects to help out with a family emergency," he insisted.

I rolled my eyes at my brother's exaggeration. "Taking Calliope on an anniversary trip isn't an emergency."

"The hell it isn't," he disagreed, his tone lowering to a deep growl that signaled how close his tiger was to the surface. "I need some alone time with my mate before our next little cub arrives."

The last thing I wanted to hear-or even think-about was my little brother's sex life. "Yeah, yeah. Stop right there. I'll tell Riggs that I have to go out of town to help my little brother. I'm sure he'll understand since he has his own irritating siblings to deal with, too."

"Whatever it takes for him to agree." He had returned to sounding smug, and I heaved a deep sigh, making him chuckle again. "I'm going to tell Calliope and the kids that you're coming, so there's no backing out of it now."

"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.

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.

"I'm trying not to let my pessimism reach quite that level yet." My brother's shoulders slumped. "But I'm not doing a great job at it."

"I'm the last person who can judge you for being a cynic when it comes to finding a mate. It's not as though my odds are any better than yours." My wolf huffed inside my head as though he thought his human counterpartwas an idiot.

"That fucking curse," he muttered, shaking his head. "Our family has paid more than enough for whatever bad luck they earned way back when."

"Damn fucking straight," I agreed. "It pisses me the fuck off that Aaron is going to suffer for the rest of his life when he's never done shit to hurt anyone."

Cason leaned back in his seat and stared up at the ceiling. "Do you think he'll ever come back?"

"Fuck, I hope so." I scrubbed my hands over my face and sighed, shaking my head. My gut told me that the odds of Aaron returning to Timber Ridge were slim to none. As much as I missed my brother, I didn't blame him for leaving. Living the rest of his life without his fated mate was tough enough, so spending time in the place where he had been rejected would be like a knife to the gut every day.

"Yeah, neither do I." Cason sat up, guzzled his beer, and crushed the can with his fist. He tapped the top of the carving I had been working on. "What's this?"

"It's going to be a tiger." For some odd reason, my wolf was feeling territorial over the piece. When I felt his fur brush against the inside of my skin, I snagged the chunk of wood off the table and clutched it in my fist.

"Relax, dude. I'm not going to steal a half-finished carving." Cason held his hands up, palms facing me. "Are you making it for Tane or one of his pups?"

That was a good guess since I often gave my finished pieces to members of our pack. Usually when I started a new carving, I had someone specific in mind. Not this time, though. I'd planned on a completely different design, but once I'd gotten my hands on that chunk of basswood, it had felt as though each stroke of my blade along the wood was guided by my wolf. The sentiment was strange as fuck, considering my inner animal had never been interested in my hobby. But the tiger I was whittling sure as hell had his attention. "Nope, I think I'm going to keep this one."

My brother's head jerked up, and his eyes widened. "Really?"

His surprise was understandable since I'd given away every single carving I'd made over the years. I whittled because it relaxed me, not for any emotional attachment to my pieces. Once they were done, I was ready to hand them off and get to work on something new. But not this time. The thought of anyone other than me owning the tiger I was creating pissed me the fuck off. "Yup."

"Huh." He craned his neck, trying to get a better look at the carving clenched in my fist. "That doesn't sound like you at all. Why are you keeping that one?"

"Because I want it." I didn't have a better answer for him since I didn't have a clue what was different about this piece.

Cason quirked a brow before standing up and walking over to the trash can to toss out the cans he had crushed. "Alrighty then. Now that you've cleared that up for me, I guess I'll leave you to your whittling. Maybe you'll be a little less touchy about your carving once it's done."

"Sorry," I grumbled, loosening my hold on the partially completed tiger to set it on the table. Now that my brother wasn't sitting across from me, my wolf relaxed a little over his proximity to the carving. I needed to get the damn thing done soon, and then maybe I could figure out why it was so fucking different from all the other pieces I'd done.

Trinity

As I headed toward the car rental area in the airport, I sent a quick text to my sister to let her know my plane had landed. I didn't make it much farther before her ringtone sounded from my cell phone. "Hey, Tab."

"How was the flight?"

I sidestepped around a family with two kids who were barely moving before answering, "Longer than it should have been, stinky, and loud."

"See, springing for a first class seat was worth the cost," she boasted.

I wasn't a big fan of being trapped in small spaces with hundreds of strangers, so I tried to avoid flying when I could. But I didn't have much of a choice for this trip since I hadn't been able to leave the city early enough to drive all the way to Timber Ridge. Riggs had been understanding about me using some of my vacation days, but he'd still expected me to take care of a bunch of stuff before I headed out of town. When I'd complained to my sister about the flight, she'd talked me into paying the upgrade fee so I'd be more comfortable. "It's a good thing I listen to you sometimes. You have no idea how happy I am that I forked over that extra cash."

"That bad, huh?"

"Worse." I shuddered at the memory of the baby who'd cried for an hour straight. Luckily, I'd brought my noise-canceling headphones with me, and the family had been seated farther back in the economy section. "I'd be way more irritable if my seat had been smaller and the flight attendant hadn't brought me free beer before we even pulled away from the gate."

Tabara laughed, making me grumble under my breath. My annoyance only made her crack up more, and she didn't pull herself together enough to speak until I'd made it to the back of the line at the car rental counter. "I'm surprised they had a brand you were willing to drink. You're such a beer snob."

"That's fair." My lips curved up in a small grin. "I was shocked when she told me that their options included Fat Tire Belgian White and a Sam Adams seasonal."

"If I was placing money on it, I'd bet that you just had to try both," she guessed.

"You know me well," I murmured as the line slowly moved forward.

"I do, which is why I called to check on you," she admitted softly. "What with being stuck on a plane for a couple of hours to visit your favorite place in the world."

I stretched my neck to the right and then the left, trying to work out the kinks in my muscles. "I might as well be headed to Timbuktu."

"Nah, Timbuktu is way bigger than Timber Ridge," she disagreed with another laugh. "There are more than fifty thousand people who live there, but our little brother's hometown is what...maybe a quarter of that?"

I rolled my suitcase in front of me and released the handle. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I thought about all of the things I would miss during this trip. "Not even."

"You could've said 'no' when Tane asked you to go babysit the kids," she reminded me.

"True," I conceded as I shuffled forward again. "But he made me an offer that was nearly impossible to refuse."

She snorted in disbelief. "You're making our baby brother sound like a mafia boss or something."

"As if." It didn't matter how much bigger than us Tane had gotten, Tab and I would always remember him toddling after us when we were younger.

"Right?" I could practically hear her eyes roll as she complained, "I still can't believe you get to name our newest nephew or niece. It's so unfair that I couldn't go out there instead."

My lips curved up in another grin, but this one was a little mischievous. "Aww, poor Tab. Your career got in the way of this opportunity, and now you'll have to concede favorite aunt status to me."

Tabara was a costume designer and in the middle of production for a new show, so she couldn't get away from the city. But we both knew that she would've been the one headed to Timber Ridge to help out with the kids if it had been possible since she didn't resent our brother's pack as much as I did. "I never thought I'd come to regret working on the biggest show of my career, but this is definitely making me think twice about how many hours I'm spending slaving over the costumes for this one."

"I'm sure all of your hard work will be worth it." I was proud of everything my big sister had accomplished, especially the Tony Award she'd received last year for the iconic looks she'd come up with for a musical that had instantly become a smash hit. She was one of the most sought-after costume designers working on Broadway. Between her innovative designs and killer work ethic, she received a continuous flow of offers from the best producers. "You're freaking amazing, and they're lucky to have nabbed you for that show, no matter how big it is." "Thanks, Trin." She heaved a deep and dramatic sigh. "But I hate that I'm missing out on seeing the kids."

"I'm sure that's the only thing you that's giving you FOMO," I drawled, shaking my head.

"Okay, maybe I'm a little more upset about losing out on the chance to name the baby."

Her soft admission made me grin. "Uh-huh."

"C'mon, have pity on your poor big sis," she wheedled. "The very least you could do is promise to let me help you brainstorm names. I'm the creative one, so I'll come up with some awesome options for you to consider."

I grinned as I finally reached the front of the line. "I guess I can consider your oh-so helpful offer, since you asked so nicely."

"Or if it's a girl, you could just pick Tabara."

Her suggestion didn't surprise me since she'd already tried to talk Tane into naming one of the girls after her. Not that I could be upset with her for it since I had too. "Sorry, sis. If Calliope is carrying another baby girl and I decided to use one of our names, it would be mine."

"I should've known you'd take advantage of the situation like that, even though it'll be weird for one of Tane's daughters to be named after you when I'm the oldest," she grumbled.

I barely stifled my laughter at her irritation. Pushing her buttons was a lot of fun, but I didn't want to rub this in too much since I would have been feeling envious if our roles were reversed. "Shouldn't you be too busy on your sewing machine to bother me?"

Tabara's career involved a heck of a lot more than just sewing, so I knew my little jab would distract her. "Geesh, you're awfully cranky today."

One of the car rental agency representatives gestured in my direction, giving me the perfect excuse to end the call. "Sorry, Tab. I've got to run so they don't give my car away to someone else. Talk to you later."

I walked over to the counter after disconnecting the call and was incredibly frustrated when I left with keys in my hand. I'd only been joking when I told my sister that they might give my car away, but the agency had somehow overbooked the vehicle class I'd reserved, so that was exactly what had happened. I'd been looking forward to putting the top down on the convertible for my two-hour drive to Timber Ridge, but I was stuck with rolling the windows down on an economy car instead. By the time I was pulling into the rinky-dink town where my brother lived, my crankiness level was at an all-time high. Jabbing my finger against the screen of my cell phone, I called my brother and switched it to speaker before he answered. "Are you close?"

I switched over to the map on my cell to check my estimated time of arrival. "I should be at your house in about five minutes."

"Try not to sound so happy to be here. I don't think I can handle all the love you're sending my way."

"I'd be careful if I were you. If you give me too much of a hard time, I'll turn this car around and drive straight back to New York." The second he saw me pull into their driveway, Tane would realize that I was bluffing since there was no way I'd ever drive this car that far. But he had no way of knowing that yet, so at least I could tease him about it until I got there.

"You can't do that," he growled. "The kids would never forgive you for it."

"Hmm"-my lips curved up in a grin that bled into my tone-"are you sure it's your children that you're worried about me disappointing? Or are you pissed about the possibility of losing your alone time with Calliope?"

He sighed, his frustration palpable through the line. "When you're mated, you'll get where I'm coming from."

"I don't see that happening anytime soon, so I guess I'll just have to pretend to understand." I drove past the small downtown area, where most of the lights in the storefronts were already turned off even though it was only early evening. As a night owl, it wasn't a welcome sight. One of the great things about living in New York City was that a ton of places stayed open late, some even around the clock. Not that it really mattered for this trip since I couldn't leave the kids home alone to do some late-night shopping. "As long as you keep in mind that you owe me big for helping you out. I'm not sure that naming rights for the newest baby is going to be enough to pay me back for staying somewhere without a decent restaurant."