A Wife for the Wolves (BBW Shifter Mail Order Bride Romance) (Mail-Order Mates Book 5) (2 page)

Jackie smoothed the paper on her desk. Years ago, when she was in junior high, she’d printed it out from the Internet and hidden it. She’d kept it all these years and pulled it out from time to time. It was a crazy fantasy, not something sensible smart girls did, but she was intrigued.

She pulled the second item from her hidey-hole and sighed. She’d laminated a magazine article she’d found in high school and put it with her printout.

The article was on couples who met in unconventional ways. The one she’d been interested in was about a mail-order bride. The woman was a Lovely and Kind Bride, and the man was a toucan shifter. They lived on a tropical island and had two kids. Jackie’s printout was an old ad for LK Brides. Becoming a mail-order bride had always seemed like a pipe dream, something to imagine when life became too grim. Now, she was starting to think it was more than an escape. Maybe this was what she was supposed to do.

She heard footsteps in the hallway and rushed to put her papers in the top drawer of her desk.

Her dad popped his head into her room. “Dinner’s here. Hurry and get it while it’s still hot.”

There was pounding in the hall as her little brothers ran downstairs to get to the table.

“I’ll be down in a minute, Dad.” When she heard him on the stairs, Jackie took her papers out and hid them in her closet again.

This was it. Tonight she would have to tell her parents she taken a semester off school. She was sure they were going to react badly, so she’d wait until after dinner to tell them.

She went downstairs and made herself a plate of Chinese food. It was day two of takeout, because her parents were both working late at their business. Jackie listened to her brothers talk about their day at school. She laughed in the right places and talked about her last final of the trimester. The entire time, her mind was a million miles away.

After dinner was finished and the boys were upstairs playing video games, she went to the kitchen. Her dad was sitting at the breakfast bar while her mom filled the dishwasher.

She cleared her throat. “Mom, Dad.”

Her parents looked at her. She felt like she was sixteen again, about to confess that she’d scratched the car. Her stomach was a knot of anxiety.

“I have something to talk to you about.”

“What is it, kitten?” her dad asked.

“I decided to take a break from school. I’m going to take the spring trimester off and figure out what I want to do with my life.”

The words came out in a tumble. Jackie didn’t know if her parents were able to understand her or if she’d spoken unintelligibly.

Her mom kept adding dishes to the machine. “That’s a good idea, honey.”

Her dad nodded. “We’ve noticed that you’ve been unhappy at school this year. We didn’t want to say anything in case it was a phase.”

“It’s not a phase,” Jackie said. It felt like a giant weight had lifted from her shoulders. Her parents weren’t mad at all. They supported her and her decisions! She was going to be okay. “I was thinking about working instead. And one more thing.”

“You can work for us,” her dad suggested. “We can always use another set of hands around the office. We’re rolling out a new shipping system and it’s kicking our butts. It would help to have someone else down at the warehouse this week especially.”

“Great idea!” Her mom closed the dishwasher and started it. “You could do part-time at the warehouse and then pick your brothers up after school.”

“Yeah, see, I had another idea.” Jackie pulled at her blonde ponytail, an old habit when she got nervous. “I was thinking I could sign up for a service that helps young women find a relationship.”

“What, you mean like friends?” her father asked. “I guess that sounds reasonable. I don’t know how you kids make friends these days, glued to your devices all day.”

“No, not exactly friends. More like romantic relationships.”

A shadow passed over her dad’s face. He looked at her mom and stood up. “That’s my cue to leave the room.”

He kissed her on the cheek and walked to the front door. A minute later, Jackie heard his car start up and the garage door open.

Her mom looked out the front window. “He’s going to drive around the block a few times and pick up some dessert for everyone. Don’t worry about it, honey.”

Jackie readjusted her ponytail. “I know I haven’t dated much, but I think this is a good idea. I’ve been looking into this company for years. They’re reputable and haven’t had any problems.”

“Why a company? Aren’t there any young men at your school you like?”

Jackie shook her head. “No. None of them are right. I don’t think I’m cut out for regular dating. I don’t want to hook up and sleep around, Mom. I just want to get married and have a family.”

Her mom blinked a few times. “Huh. I thought you wanted to go to school? You’ve been in college for four years.”

“I know. But I was wrong. I don’t think I ever wanted to be in school. I think I was just going with the flow.”

Her mom bit her lip and wiped at her eyes. “Okay. What’s the company called?”

“Lovely and Kind Brides.”

Her mom’s eyes bulged. She took a shaky breath. “That’s a mail-order bride company, Jacqueline.”

“Yes.” Jackie pulled at her hair.

Her mom came over and took Jackie’s hand off her hair. “Why don’t you tell me a little more about how this works?”

***

Matt got off work first. He’d gotten a text from Dakota Lunar and needed to go visit her. While they weren’t the official alphas of the pack, people did look to the twins for guidance.

Dakota welcomed Matt into her house as soon as he arrived.

“You’re not going to believe this, Matt.” She broke into tears before she could continue. Matt rubbed her arm until she could catch her breath. “Hank has been suspended from school.”

“That’s not so bad,” Matt consoled her. “This is his first suspension. What did he do?”

“That’s the problem!” Dakota wailed. “He was selling drugs. He’s lucky he wasn’t arrested. His counselor thinks this is just the tip of the iceberg. I don’t know what to do. My kids have never been in trouble before!”

Hank Lunar was a quiet kid and hung out with other pack boys exclusively. Matt had a hard time seeing him as a drug-dealing bad boy. If Hank had drugs, it was because someone else had talked him into it. That was a sobering idea to Matt.

“Can I talk to him?” he asked.

Dakota nodded. “He’s up in his room.”

Matt went to the back of the house, where he found Virginia, Dakota’s daughter, leaving her room. “Hey, Matt!”

“Hey, Virginia. Heading in to work?”

“I am.” She looked at Hank’s closed door. “He is in
trouble
. I’ve never seen Mom cry so much.”

“Let’s not jump to conclusions, Virgie.”

She shrugged. “He had the drugs. I don’t think he was going to sell them, but try telling that to his crazy-ass counselor. That guy really has it in for the Lunar boys.”

“I don’t think a counselor in Sunset Falls would have anything against shifters.”

“You don’t know this guy, Matt. He started the year after you left Sunset High. He’s bad news. He’s never even been to Two Wolves.”

Matt smiled. “Everyone who doesn’t like our food isn’t a shifter-hater.”

She shrugged again. “Sure. I’ll see you later.”

Matt knocked on Hank’s door. “Hank. It’s Matt. Can I come in?”

There was no answer, but the door opened a few seconds later. Hank’s eyes were red and his face was drawn. “Hey.”

“Hey. I heard you got suspended.”

Hank nodded. “It’s some bullshit, Matt. I swear I’m not a drug dealer. I was just trying it out. I wasn’t going to sell it to anyone or anything.”

“What did you have?”

“Some weed and a few pills.”

Pills? Matt had tried pot once when he was younger, with his pack brothers. But pills? Matt had a feeling this was a task more suited to Mark. He should have waited for his brother to get off work too.

What did people even do pills for? He tried to remember the news reports he’d seen on TV. He vaguely remembered hearing about Ecstasy, MDMA, and Molly. He didn’t know if Molly was a pill, but he was going to have to check.

“Where did you get the pills?”

Hank shrugged. “Some burnout. Not a friend of mine or anything. You know how it is. Some kids do drugs and you can get them off those kids.”

“You know drugs are bad, right, Hank? They can mess up your mind and with some you get addicted right away. Is that what you want?” Matt looked at Hank sternly. “I know you’re a good kid. I don’t want you to get mixed up in something because you’re curious.”

Hank nodded. “I don’t want to be an addict. I’m sorry. I already apologized to my Mom, but she’s so mad at me. Could you talk to her? I don’t want her to think I’m some kind of drug dealer.”

“She knows that. She’s just very disappointed in you. If you have questions about drugs or any of that stuff, you know you can always come to Mark and me or any of the other older pack brothers. We’re here for you.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Matt.”

“Okay. Don’t get into trouble while you’re out of school. Read a book or something.”

Hank smiled. “I’ll try.”

Matt went back downstairs. “Dakota?”

She stood up from the couch and wiped her eyes. “How did it go?”

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about. I think this is just teenage stuff that’ll work itself out.”

“Thank you.” She gave him a hug. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Matt left the house feeling drained. He’d done a good job, but it could have gone better. He was out of touch with the pack. The only reason a kid like Hank was getting caught up in drugs was the lack of leadership. If the pack had an alpha, the boys wouldn’t be running around like wild animals. The conversation with Rusty that morning had told him as much. The boys of the tribe needed a strong male figure to follow. He and Mark could provide that.

They needed to make a move for alpha sooner rather than later. They’d agreed to wait until they had a mate, but Matt was rethinking that decision. It didn’t look like they were any closer to finding a mate, even with Olivia’s help. Maybe they’d have to wait another year… or two, or five. He didn’t want to wait. He wanted to be alpha now. He was going to have to talk to his brother.

Mark had been nonchalant about the mate search, anyway. Matt didn’t think his brother would be too unhappy with moving ahead with their plans. His biggest fear was being rejected by the pack. Without a mate, they would look weaker than a male with a mate. There were only a few men who could challenge them and Matt wasn’t that worried. He and Mark could fight them all and win.

It was a big step that he would rather take when he and Mark were part of a solid triad. But the situation was what it was. They weren’t going to find a mate soon enough. They were going to have to go it alone.

“Just go to your rooms!” Jackie yelled up to her brothers. It was way past their bedtime. She had sent them to wash up for bed an hour ago and they were still up. Her parents were out on a date and she was babysitting for the night.

The boys were being more rambunctious than usual tonight. They’d been rowdy on and off during the week, and now that Jackie was watching them more, they were testing her to see how far they could go. It was very annoying.

She couldn’t spank them, but she could ground them. She’d already taken away their video game consoles for the night. She was wondering if she could lift their TV off the wall when finally, they quieted down.

She finished cleaning the kitchen, then sat down with her laptop. She was working on the Lovely and Kind Brides application. Her father wasn’t a happy camper but he still supported Jackie’s decision.

The application was taking her a long time to figure out. It was a straightforward psychological test to start. That made sense to Jackie. It was the part where the test asked her open-ended questions that was tripping her up. There were some very personal questions on the list that pertained to her sex life. Seeing as how she’d only gone “all the way” a handful of times, she wasn’t sure how to answer the questions. She could fill them in with what she assumed her response would be, but she could be wrong. She’d always had the feeling that she wasn’t doing it right or was missing something very important. Maybe she was into BDSM and she didn’t know it yet. Or she could be a furry, or have a foot fetish.

She decided to err on the side of caution and fill out only the parts she knew for sure. She wanted to get the dang thing done already! The sooner she got her application in, the sooner she could find out if they even wanted her. That was her secret fear deep down. All this buildup and putting herself out there, and they might turn her away. Maybe she wouldn’t be fit to be matched with anyone. She was too weird and her standards were too high.

Jackie hit “submit” on the application and closed her laptop, then popped a romantic comedy in the DVD player and waited for her parents to get home. By the middle of the movie, she was itching to check her email. It was silly, but maybe they had gotten back to her already. She resisted the urge for ten whole minutes before running to her laptop.

She squealed with delight when she saw an email back from LK already. She jumped up and down in the living room and read the email with a big smile on her face. The smile was soon replaced with a perplexed frown. The lady who had emailed her sounded very excited. Her name was Olivia Grey and she was an agent with the company. As soon as Jackie’s application was evaluated by the computer, it had been matched with a few bachelors. Lucky Jackie! Olivia had snapped up her application herself and wanted Jackie for a pair of bachelors she was working with.

That was the hang-up. Jackie read the email a few more times.
Bachelors
? Like, more than one guy. She couldn’t tell if Olivia meant Jackie was going to have her pick of guys, or if she had two guys for Jackie to marry. That didn’t make any sense. There was a phone number and a link at the end of the email and Olivia urged Jackie to call her at her earliest convenience.

Jackie clicked on the link and her heart stopped. It was two men! There was a bio page for two brothers from a small town in the west. They were very attractive. Hotter than any guy Jackie had ever seen in real life. The twins had inky black hair and grey eyes. With a last name like Lunar, they had to be wolf shifters. Jackie’s skin prickled with heat as she looked at the twins.

This had to be a mistake. Two men? What was she supposed to do with two men?

The movie was forgotten as Jackie started searching the internet for answers. It was too late to call Olivia to ask her to explain, and she had a sinking suspicion that this was something she should already know. It would be very embarrassing to have to ask something that any other girl her age would understand. A quick search turned up pages and pages of information.

There was a thing called a triad. It was a three-person relationship between two shifters and a single partner. It was most common among wolf shifters but it did occur in other shifters as well. Jackie found a book about the phenomenon and bought the electronic version quickly. She was engrossed in the third chapter when her parents came home.

She quickly snapped her laptop shut and stood up. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Her mom gave her a funny look but didn’t ask. “Sorry we’re so late. I’m sure you’re tired.”

Jackie faked a yawn and nodded. “Yup. Really sleepy. I’ll go to my room now. Good night.”

Her cheeks were burning hot as she slunk upstairs with her laptop. Could she be any more obvious? Her parents had to know something was going on.

She wasn’t ready to tell them about her possible match yet. From the book, it seemed there was a lot she could do with two men. The possibility had never crossed her mind before she’d received the email from Olivia.

Two men. Could she really do that? She would need to do more reading. There were so many deliciously dirty scenarios to wrap her mind around before she decided anything.

***

Mark read the email two more times before jumping in his truck. When he got to Two Wolves, he dragged Matt into the back room. “We have a match.”

“I’m working, Mark,” Matt snapped.

“Who cares? We have a match.”

Matt’s eyes lit up when he finally heard his brother. “Seriously?”

“Yeah.” Mark smiled. “Bro, we have a match!”

The brothers slapped hands and hugged.

“What’s she like?” Matt asked.

“We don’t know yet,” Mark admitted. “Olivia has only spoken to her via email. The girl said she was thinking about it and would call Liv when she’d made a decision.”

Matt’s face fell. “That means she’ll probably turn us down.”

“No, she won’t,” Mark assured him. “She’s a human girl. She hadn’t heard of a triad before. She just needs some time to get used to the idea. She emailed back right away.”

“That doesn’t mean anything.” Matt went to the swinging door that led to the dining room. “Come back and tell me when we have an actual match.”

Mark glowered at his brother’s negativity. They had a match! Just because the girl hadn’t said yes right away didn’t mean she wasn’t the one. She hadn’t said no. That had to mean something to Matt.

Mark had more than a good feeling about it. He knew this was it. They had to get ready. Matt could be a negative Nancy all he wanted, but Mark was going to start preparing.

Their house wasn’t in any shape for visitors of the female persuasion. He went home and did a quick clean top to bottom. Then he called a local maid service and scheduled them to come out twice weekly for the next two months. Even if their mate didn’t make up her mind for a while, he would be ready.

Next Mark called Kai Waters, the local pilot. Kai picked up on the first ring. “Kai Waters. How can I help you today?”

“Hey, Kai! It’s Mark Lunar.”

“How’s it going, man?”

“Great. Listen, I’m going to need a pickup from the airport to town.”

There was some noise at Kai’s end as he wheeled around his office. Mark remembered the one time he’d seen where Kai worked. His office was a mess of Post-its, calendars, and scraps of paper. Mark was glad he had Matt to keep their office clean. He knew what it was like to try to find an appointment time or an invoice when you had no organizing system.

“What day and time were you looking at?” Kai asked finally.

“I don’t have an exact day yet,” Mark said sheepishly. He realized how stupid he sounded as the words came out of his mouth.

There was silence at the other side of the line again. “Okay. What can I do for you today, then?”

“I guess I just wanted to let you know to get ready. I’ll need you to do a flight for me soon, though.”

“Let me guess. You’ve got an LK Bride coming in?”

“I do.” Mark liked the sound of it. He had a bride coming. His bride.

“Good for you. I’ve got an open schedule now, but it’s going to pick up soon. Spring break season will be in full swing coming up in two weeks.”

“Okay. Thanks for the heads-up.”

“For sure. I’ll fit you in, but if it gets into the spring break season, it’ll take me a while.”

“No problem.”

“Take it easy, Mark.”

That was done. If it came down to it, Mark would drive to the airport himself to pick his mate up. He knew the drive was boring as hell. His cousin’s wife had almost gotten lost in the desert on her way up, and he didn’t want to risk that happening to his girl.

He looked at his moderately clean house and realized he had no bedding for the guest room. Then he wondered if it was presumptuous to think she would stay with them right away. Kellan’s wife had stayed with him, and so had his friend Owen’s. But Frank’s wife had stayed at the Lunar Motel when she first got to town.

Maybe he should be ready for both. It couldn’t hurt to ask what vacancies were like at the hotel now.

Mark called the hotel’s front desk.

“Hello?” Gwen Cates said. Her voice sounded so different when she was talking to customers. Mark had known Gwen his whole life, but he didn’t get to hear her “professional” voice often.

“Gwen? It’s Mark.”

She instantly relaxed. “Hey, Mark. What’s up?”

“I wanted to ask you about vacancies at the hotel.”

Gwen whistled. “Let me tell you about the vacancies. We have none! We’re filling up fast now that it’s spring break season. So many people are coming to try out the bakery and see the Falls.”

“Damn. That’s what I thought. You usually this busy?”

“No, we aren’t. It’s that TV special of Frank’s. It still reruns late at night, you know.”

“Oh, yeah.”

The local baker had taped a holiday special for a cable channel. Since then, Sunset Falls had seen a real uptick in tourists. It was nice for the town and for Two Wolves too. Mark hadn’t realized that most of the people were from way out of town. He didn’t spend a lot of time talking to new customers; that was more Matt’s kind of thing to do.

“Maybe I should make a reservation now, then. Keep a room ready.”

“What do you need it for? You and Matty fighting again?” Gwen joked. As she laughed, she started to retch. “Let me call you back, Mark.”

She hung up before he could agree.

Mark’s stomach rolled. He hated hearing people throw up. It was probably morning sickness, but he was always worried about stomach flu. Whenever sickness went around, business was slow for two to three weeks. Nobody wanted to eat out when people were getting sick all the time. Mark liked the quiet hours at the restaurant, but the waitresses hated it. No people meant no tips for them.

His phone rang fifteen minutes later.

“Hey, Mark. Sorry. It’s this morning sickness. It’s kicking my butt.”

“Sorry, Gwen,” Mark said. “I need a room for a friend coming in from out of town. I don’t know if she’ll stay here, but I don’t want to presume anything.”

“Is this an LK Bride?” Gwen asked suspiciously. “I haven’t heard anything about you getting a match yet.”

“It is. But it’s kind of a secret right now.”

“Okay. I’ll save you a room. Olivia does good work. I’m sure everything with your little lady will work out fine.”

“Thanks.”

Mark sat down on the couch feeling good. He had gotten a lot done. When their potential mate decided to come to town, Matt was going to owe him big time. Mark had done all the work already.

He wished his bride would hurry up and email them back. He was dying to meet her.