Prowling the Vet (3 page)

“Ah…I
need to check on Belle tomorrow.”

That was a great reason!

As
Laura’s mouth turned down, he realized it probably wasn’t the best way to stay
in touch with her.

“You
didn’t get her number?”

Brandon
shook his head, knowing that more than likely he wouldn’t have gotten around to
asking for it, even if he had bedded her.

“I
probably shouldn’t, but you know what, who am I to stand in the way of true
love?”

Her
voice dripped sarcasm and Brandon worked hard not to let the blush spread
across his face.

True
love.
Yeah, right.

“What’s
your number?”

He
recited his phone number and she pressed several buttons on her phone.

“There.
Done.”

She
gave him a mocking wave and slid into her car before driving away. Pride
blossomed in his chest as his lion rose to the surface once again.

He
held it together by holding his breath and pressing down on his diaphragm until
he watched her car disappear, then he bolted inside. He had to join his brother
and shift also. His skin burned and his groin was on fire.

He
stripped off as quickly as possible and roared as his body transformed.
Cinnamon and white fur, black and golden head.

He
let a contented rumble bubble inside his chest,
then
ran out the door as fast as he could. When he reached the lake, he inhaled his
twin’s scent and knew his brother had been here recently. He didn’t waste any
time tracking him down. They both needed to spend the night sorting out their
own demons.

Tyler
would accept their fate. Brandon knew that as surely as he knew his blood was
red. His twin had always embraced their father’s prediction of their fated
mate, but Brandon had never been so sure if it was fact or fiction. Was his
father passing down a long ago written story, or was it actually what would
happen, no matter what he did?

If
Laura was it for them, how was she going to be enough for them both? Even when
Brandon gave some woman a chance at a semi-relationship, within a couple of
nights he was bored stupid and sexually—they couldn’t keep up with him at all.
He ended up frustrated and feeling more alone than ever

Brandon
turned around and took a slower pace back, his body no longer burning in its
need for freedom.

This
woman, Laura, was going to change everything.

Instead
of peace or happiness, inside him was restless fear, and he hated being
helpless against it. His future was full of more waiting, and unfortunately he
could think of no other way out of this mess than to see how it went with Laura.

If
they developed some sort of ménage mating, then he could always keep his one-night-stands
on the side if he needed to. It didn’t matter what his father had said, no
destiny could be better than the freedom he had now. No woman was going to keep
him starving when there was a plethora of available females out there.

****

Tyler
woke up to a terrible hangover, with his head pounding and his body aching from
the long-overdue run last night. The beers hadn’t helped his cause either.

“For
crying out loud,” he groaned as he rolled onto his back in bed and squeezed his
palms into the sides of his head. It sounded like someone was ringing a gong in
there.

“Morning!”
his stupid brother called as he walked in Tyler’s door, already showered and
dressed.

“God,
Brandon! How are you so chirpy?”

Brandon
chuckled and handed him a glass of water with a couple of painkillers.

“Practice.”

Tyler
forced himself to sit up, his head spinning faster with the change of altitude.

“Thanks.”
He swallowed the tablets, relishing the feel of the cool liquid sliding down
his dry throat.

“I’m
going to call Laura this morning. You want in, too?”

The
hairs on Tyler’s neck prickled and he placed his glass down on the bedside
table. Was it really possible? Had they found their mate?

“You
like Laura, too?”

Brandon
crossed his meaty arms over his chest,
then
nodded
once. “Yeah, I think I do. I mean…she’s not exactly my type…”

Tyler
groaned, “Yeah, but she’s our mate. Isn’t she?”

Brandon
dropped his arms down and began to pace.

“I
always thought our woman would be a shifter, too.”

Tyler
nodded slowly, relieved to find his headache was disappearing.
 
“Yeah, but we looked at them years ago.”

And
they had. Following their parents urging, they’d dated most of the female
mountain lions and found absolutely nothing enthralling about any of them. It
would have been so much easier. Now, they had to get Laura used to the idea of
them both wanting her, and the fact that they turned into animals. Not an easy
thing for a human to understand or accept.

“So
what’s the plan then?” Tyler looked up and saw a shadow of confusion cross over
Brandon’s face. He was definitely not the one to think something through before
he did it.

“What
do you mean?” Brandon cocked his head and stopped pacing.

Tyler
moaned and swung his legs off the bed, not liking the dizzy sensation swirling
around his brain. “I mean, how are you planning on getting her to agree to be
our mate? She’s not exactly going to just move in and accept two of us, is she?”

Brandon
frowned, his handsome face wrinkling.
“Why not?”

Tyler
laughed without mirth and pulled himself to his feet.

“I’ll
go get dressed. Don’t call her before I get back!”

Brandon
opened his mouth to retort and Tyler let loose a little growl.
Wow. Those noises are way too easy to make
now.
Brandon’s eyes widened before he turned and headed back to the living
room.

Tyler
showered quickly and dressed, doubt and fear filling him up.

How
the hell were they going to convince some intelligent, human woman that she had
to love both of them? Brandon and he were like night and day.

“Big
brother, do you have her number?” he called as he walked into their kitchen.

Brandon
pushed his cell across the countertop.

“Yeah.
She messaged me Belle’s number
last night, so I have hers, too.”

Tyler
was impressed. Smartest thing Brandon had done in years.

“So,
how are we going to get her to start seeing us?”

Brandon
shrugged and Tyler rolled his shoulders back. They needed to be smart about
this.

“We
don’t even know her last name or where she lives. How ‘bout you just call to
ask about Belle and if you get the opportunity, invite Laura here for dinner to
say thanks.”

“Thanks
for what?” Brandon asked, his eyebrows furrowing together in confusion.

Tyler
clenched his teeth and used all of the patience he’d accumulated over the years
to deal with his brother.

“Thank
her for coming here to get her
sister,
otherwise, you
would have had to look after her.”

“Oh yeah.
Great idea!”
Brandon grabbed at the phone and dialed Laura’s number.

“Put
it on speaker.” Tyler pointed to the bench and Brandon did what he was told,
transferring it to loudspeaker and dropping the phone in front of him.

The
phone didn’t ring, but instead went to voice mail.

“Hello,
you’ve reached Laura Carver.” Tyler shivered as her voice filled the cavernous
space. “If you’re calling for an after-hours vet call, please leave a message
and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”

Brandon
moved his finger over the phone to end the call and looked up at Tyler slowly,
his blue eyes sparkling with mischief.

“She’s
a vet?”

A
moment of silence passed,
then
they both burst out
laughing. Tyler collapsed onto one of the kitchen stools, holding his aching
side with one hand.
Just what their family of lion shifters
needed—a vet.

“
Mum’ll
be so proud,” Brandon chortled as he walked to the
fridge and grabbed the juice.

“She’ll
be handy, intelligent, too.” Tyler mused, pleased by this turn of events. He
had always wanted a mate he could talk to, share concepts with. But with
Brandon more impressed by looks than smarts, Tyler was worried that their mate
would be a little on the dumb side.

“Yeah…”
Brandon
said,
his enthusiasm lacking.

“It’ll
be fine.” Tyler jumped to his feet and headed off toward the study. “I’m going
to go search the Internet for a vet called Laura Carver and see what I find.”

Brandon
made some grunting noise and Tyler continued on his quest for knowledge.

He
was an architect and Brandon was a builder. They were both successful in their
own rights, and hard-working. But when it came to the brains versus brawn
fight, it was pretty obvious who
was the intelligence of the
operation
.

Chapter Three

Brandon
cooked some bacon and eggs, shuffling some onto a plate for Tyler in case he
was hungry. They were so used to looking after themselves and each other. How
would it be to bring some chick in to live with them?

“I
found her!” Tyler cried as he walked back into the kitchen, waving a piece of
paper in his hand triumphantly.

“Where?”
Brandon asked. He served
breakfast for each of them and sat down with a coffee in his hand. He wasn’t
entirely sure he wanted to know.

“
Trenthy
.
About twenty minutes away. She
works in a small vet clinic there. Maybe one of us could surprise her at work?”

Brandon
wasn’t sure he should be the one doing the wooing in this situation.

“Maybe
you should do the talking, Ty. I mean, she’s obviously pretty clever, and I
picked up her sister last night.”

Tyler
opened his mouth,
then
shut it quickly.

Brandon
continued with his train of thought. “Yep, I know. Pretty stupid but at least I
didn’t fuck her.”

Tyler
frowned and looked down at the address again. What else could be said, really?
He’d potentially ruined their chance to be with Laura.

“Maybe
I should get one of mum’s pets and take it in to her?”

Brandon
nodded at his brother.
“Great idea.
Then drop into the
conversation something about how we both want to mate her for life.”

Woah
,
that
sounded heavy.

Tyler
gave him a dirty look and picked up his knife and fork, hoeing into the food in
front of him.

Brandon
gave the look straight back before putting his now-empty plate in the sink. He
had to get out of here for a bit.

“I’m
gonna
’ head off to the gym.”

“You’re
kidding?” Tyler sputtered behind him.

Brandon
let his head drop down as he thought about what he was going to say. He whirled
around when he felt the words come, not sure if being honest was truly the
right thing to do. But that was how he was.

“Ty,
I know you’ve been waiting for this chick our whole lives, but I haven’t. If
she really is ‘the one’ and I have to be mated to her, then so be it. But I’m
not going to put my whole life on hold in the meantime.”

Tyler
pushed himself to his feet, his eyes burning lion-brown. Shit, where did this
temper of Ty’s come from?

“We
need to pursue her together.”

Brandon
shook his head and headed off toward his bedroom. He didn’t want this, any of
it. How hard was that for his brother to understand?

“Get
her over for dinner and I promise I’ll be on my best behavior.”

He
changed into his gym clothes and headed out of the house without a backward
glance.

He
had his job, his friends, his fitness, and of course his family. If he had some
predestined perfect female coming his way, he wasn’t going to turn her away,
but he certainly wasn’t going to go out of his way to get her either.

****

Tyler
stepped up to the front doorstep of
Trenthy
Vet
Clinic with an injured dog in arms. Unfortunately for the dog but very
fortunate for him, when he’d called his mum an hour ago to ask about her
animals, she’d been on her way out the door to the vets. She informed him that
poor Cotton had been in a fight with a pit bull just that morning and had come
off second best.