Wolf Seeks Wife (BBW/Shifter Mail-Order Bride Romance) (Mail-Order Mates Book 2) (3 page)

The trip to the falls was interesting. Kellan stayed at least ten feet away from her at all times. When he would start to get close and linger, he would quickly step away and keep up his lecture. Molly knew what he was doing. He was trying to get his mind off her and her smoking hot body. It was so obvious and a little cute but also very frustrating.

He was so perfect. Incredibly handsome and a total gentleman. He hadn’t even slept in the house with her the night before. And he had obviously really wanted to. She could see how much he liked her when they first met. She couldn’t help but stare at his manhood when it was poking her in the stomach. But he hadn’t even tried anything. He’d put her in his sterile little guest room and left her alone for the night.

Her mom thought he sounded nice, too, even though she made Molly swear she wouldn’t tell Kellan that. Her mom thought it was better if he thought he needed to mind his Ps and Qs. Screw that! Molly was going to marry this man, and he needed to lighten up. The romantic trip to see the waterfall was more like a high school lecture. She needed to find a way to get him to relax.

While they were in the car on the way home, his phone buzzed.

“Damn. Do you mind if we take a little detour on the way home?” Kellan asked her. “There’s been an animal attacked on Owen’s ranch and the coyote went after the ranch hand too. This is getting serious.”

“No problem.” Meeting his neighbor and good friend was perfect. She could get a better feel for Kellan’s personality. Maybe he was this stiff around everyone. If not, maybe seeing her interacting with his close friends would help him ease into the relationship. Friends always loved her. Everyone liked her.

When they pulled up to the yellow ranch house, she gaped at the car parked out in front. She didn’t know much about cars, but it looked like a very new BMW. Not the usual car for a rancher or a rancher’s wife. “Nice car.”

“Present for his wife after the honeymoon.” Kellan came and opened Molly’s door. “Do you like it?”

“Of course.” Molly walked around the car. “I’ve never had a new car before.”

“I’ve only bought used myself. Seemed like a waste to spend money on something I was only going to beat up for work,” Kellan admitted. “I’m sure you treat cars much nicer than I do, though.”

“I would need something to drive around town in,” Molly mused.

“I didn’t know you were bringing a guest.”

Molly looked at the porch. An incredibly attractive blond was coming toward them. He shook Kellan’s hand. “Thanks for coming over.”

“We were already on our way past here.” Kellan motioned to her. “Molly, this is Owen Brooks. Owen, this is Molly Pitt.”

“Nice to meet you, Molly.” Owen shook her hand. “How do you know Kellan?”

“I’m a Lovely and Kind Bride.”

Kellan cleared his throat loudly. “We should probably go look at that animal now.”

“Hold your horses. The cow isn’t going anywhere.” Owen smiled at Molly. “You really want to marry this guy? You know he’s incredibly pigheaded.”

Molly laughed. “I don’t mind. I can be a bit stubborn myself.”

“You’re not going to want to come and join us on this trip,” Owen said. “But how about you two join me and my wife for a drink before you head home? I know Erin would love to meet you.”

“Sure.” Molly said at the same time Kellan refused. They looked at each other.

“I thought we’d have a quiet meal at home,” Kellan said. “I was going to make something.”

“He didn’t invite us for dinner. It’s just a drink.”

“Okay,” Kellan said reluctantly.

“You can’t hide her on the ranch and keep her all to yourself.” Owen winked at Molly. “Besides, I’m sure she wants some new company. If you’d like to wait inside for us, Molly. Erin is somewhere in there. Just yell when you get in.”

“Okay. Be careful.”

She went inside the house and yelled. “Erin! Erin!”

“Hold on.” A short, plump woman came down the stairs. Molly could spot her enormous wedding ring from ten feet away. “Hello. Who are you?”

“I’m Kellan’s mailorder bride.” Molly went and picked up Erin’s hand. “I’m Molly, and your ring is freaking gorgeous.”

“Thank you. Owen picked it all by himself,” Erin said a bit breathlessly. They were obviously still in the newlywed phase. She was getting all dewy-eyed just talking about him picking out the ring. Molly couldn’t wait until she could say that about Kellan. Not that she could see him picking out a ring for her. Maybe he would get her a really nice car, though. It had definitely sounded that way outside. She would love a nice, new shiny car to drive around town. Molly could already see her hair flowing in the wind as she drove her new convertible.

“Did you say you were Kellan’s LK Bride?” Erin stood back and looked Molly up and down. “You’re so young!”

“Yes,” Molly said. “Is that surprising? You’re not exactly an old maid yourself.”

“I don’t mean it as a bad thing,” Erin said quickly. “But from what I hear, Kellan likes his ladies a bit more…mature.”

Molly narrowed her eyes. “Interesting.”

“Would you like some water or something else to drink?”

“I could have a glass of ice water, please.”

Molly waited in the living room while Erin got the water. If Kellan liked older women, it would explain why he had been so strange about her. That wasn’t so bad. So, she was a little young for him. It wasn’t like she was a teenager. She sighed. It was going to be easy for her to show him that she was mature and ready to be married. Silly man, age was just a number. It didn’t tell you anything about a person’s experiences.

“So, what do you do?” Erin asked when she came back with the water.

“I’m a preschool teacher. Well, I was.” Molly frowned. “I just lost my job. That’s why I had the time to come out here and meet Kellan.”

“Preschool?” Erin’s eyes lit up. “Do you like the job, or is it something you just fell into? I knew a girl in college who worked at a preschool just to make a few bucks. She really hated being around the kids.”

Molly looked horrified. “I loved my job. It took me forever to find it, and I was so sad to leave. It’s lucky that I lost it. I would have been crushed to leave to move here for Kellan. At least this way, the decision was out of my hands.”

“So you’re looking to move here. It’s a great little town.” Erin leaned forward. “The only thing it’s missing is a preschool. Not to put you on the spot or anything, but this is just too perfect.”

“What? I think I missed a part of the conversation.”

Erin laughed. “No. I’m just skipping around. See, Owen is the alpha of the Brooks Pride. They’re fixing up the farm and the cubs are getting in the way. I’d watch the kids, but I work from home as a graphic designer. That ‘girl I knew in college’? Yeah, that was me.”

“You hate kids?”

Erin looked sheepish. “I don’t hate kids. I can’t wait to have some of my own, but that many kids at once is too much for me. And the cubs are so rambunctious. I can’t work and watch them. We tried to take them to Miss Maple’s preschool, but she has no spots left.”

“I’d have thought in a town this small, it wouldn’t be a problem.” Molly thought back to her research on the town. “There aren’t that many kids here to begin with. It’s basically a retirement community.”

“I know.” Erin sighed. “We’re trying to turn that around, though. It would really help to have another person working at Miss Maple’s. She could take in more kids if she had some help. Maybe you could go down and check it out?”

“I’ve never watched shifter kids before, but I would like to have a job. I would be so bored sitting around while Kellan worked.”

“You would. We’re way out of town. At least when you’re in town, you can grab a coffee a Frank’s or have some soup at Two Wolves. You’ll always have someone to talk to. Out here we have to keep ourselves busy.”

“Bet you drive that spiffy little car into town all the time.”

Erin shook her head. “I still can’t believe he bought that for me. I’ve never driven anything like that. Owen’s so generous.”

“He seems really nice. It makes me relieved that Kellan has good friends.”

“Kellan’s a great guy with great friends. You seem nice too.” Erin smiled at Molly. “I’m glad to have another LK Bride in town. At least I won’t seem like such an odd duck now.”

“Are we the only two?” Molly asked.

“For now. I know a lot of the men in town are signing up. They aren’t all talking about it, but Olivia is a very busy lady.”

“Isn’t she great? She was so nice when she called me about Kellan.”

“Hoping it does some good.” Erin sighed again. “I’m sure you’ve heard about the
American Shifter Weekly
list we’re trying to make.”

Molly shook her head. “Not at all.”

“Really? Kellan’s pretty excited about it now. He’s just thinking about all the tourists the hotel will get if we make it.”

“So what’s this list?”

“ASW has a list of the best shifter towns in the country every year. Sunset Falls made the list back in the fifties. Owen is spearheading the campaign to get us on the list again in the next three years.”

Molly was impressed. “That sounds great. It would turn Sunset Falls into a tourist town. You guys have the perfect downtown for it. So quaint, and perfect for strolling.”

“Yeah, but it’s going to take a lot of work to whip this place into shape.”

“Because it’s a retirement community?” Molly guessed.

“Exactly. Shifter towns are big on family. We have a great community, but it isn’t family friendly right now. We have way too many single men. If we could get more married couples and young families in town, it would balance our aging community.”

“That’s going to take a lot of work,” Molly agreed. “I think having a world-class preschool will help out with that, though.”

“I hope so.”

The front door opened and closed and Kellan and Owen came into the living room.

“Looks like we’re going to have to take a rain check on those drinks,” Kellan told Molly. “Erin, would you mind keeping Molly company a little longer?”

“Sure. What’s the problem?” Erin asked.

“We need to go looking for these animals,” Owen told her. “The tracks are funny.”

“Funny how?” Molly asked.

“We aren’t sure yet,” Kellan said. “They don’t look like regular animal tracks. Could be nothing or it could be an issue.”

“Are we safe out here?” Molly had only taken one self-defense class and that had been three years ago. “I don’t know how to use a gun or anything.”

“The coyotes haven’t come up to the house yet,” Owen assured her. “If they do, we have a shotgun and Erin knows how to use it.”

“You’re going to need range time when this is all over,” Kellan told Molly. “Living out here, you really need to know how to shoot.”

“I guess.” Molly didn’t know if she’d ever be able to shoot anything, but it was better to know how than to be helpless. “When are you guys going?”

“Right now,” Kellan said. “We want to get the jump on them before they go out for the night.”

“Be careful.” Erin got up and kissed Owen goodbye.

Molly just nodded at Kellan. She didn’t want to kiss him for the first time in front of his friends. She’d wait until he got back. “Be safe.”

“We will.” He nodded at her before leaving with Owen.

“You’re taking it slow?” Owen asked, incredulous. “How the hell are you managing that? I jumped Erin as soon as I saw her.”

“I wanted to,” Kellan admitted. “I had to fight all my instincts not to. She’s a human, and a young one. I don’t want to be wrong and get her hopes up.”

“You can’t be wrong. If your wolf says she’s your mate, she’s your mate. Your animal knows.”

“I knew before, and see where that got me.”

“You didn’t know,” Owen corrected him. “You wanted her to be your mate. That didn’t make it happen. You see the difference?”

“I don’t know.” Kellan crouched down and looked at the tracks. “These aren’t regular animals.”

“Way to change the subject.” Owen followed the tracks to the small stream. “It looks like we’re going in the right direction still.”

“These can’t be our coyotes,” Kellan pointed out. “We only have three in town and two of them are way too old to do this kind of thing. This is a whole pack.”

“I know. We have to find them to be sure. We haven’t had a problem with out of town shifters in a decade.”

Kellan thought back. “We did have those flamingos who wouldn’t leave the ice cream shop.”

Owen laughed. “Those don’t count. They were confused. That was funny as hell to watch, though.”

“Let’s hope these coyotes are just as funny.”

The pair shifted down and followed the tracks. The lion and the wolf crossed the stream and had to walk for two more miles before coming to a hill and rocks. Kellan shifted back to human. “They’re just over this ridge.”

“I know.” Owen looked conflicted. “You think we should go in now? Maybe we should go back and get reinforcements.”

“We should get eyes on these guys first.” Kellan sniffed. “There has to be at least seven of them. I want to know if we should bring back ten guys or if only two more would do it.”

“Okay.” They shifted back and got closer. There was music playing softly and the air smelled more and more of drugs the closer they got. Kellan didn’t think these guys were serious at all. When he got to the top of the hill, he could see dirt bikes lined up next to a fire. There were figures around the fire. He counted at least nine. Since they were on bikes instead of motorcycles, he suspected they were all teenagers.

They got even closer so they could hear what the group was saying. Kellan realized he was wrong. Most of the group were teens, but there was one who looked like he was in his twenties at least. He was regaling the group with a tale of stealing his parents’ car while he was drunk and crashing it. Kellan wasn’t impressed. The kid sounded like a jerk, but the rest of the boys were eating it up.

He didn’t recognize any of them, but one was wearing a sweater that had a logo on it. If he could get a little closer, Kellan knew he could figure out where the kids were from. As he scooted closer, Owen made a low growl. Kellan knew it was dangerous but he only needed to get a hair closer to see.

The oldest boy stopped talking and stood up. “Shut up!”

The rest of the group quieted and Kellan stood stock still. He and Owen were still in the shadows but he didn’t want to make any noise. Owen was frozen just to his right.

“What’s wrong?” one of the boys asked as he opened a beer.

“I think I smell something.” The oldest boy walked to the edge of the fire’s light. “There’s some animal out there.”

Two of the other boys got closer to the darkness. Kellan’s heart was pounding. He struggled not to move while his wolf was telling him to run like hell. He wanted the kids to get back to drinking and smoking. He and Owen would return with more people but he didn’t want to fight these kids.

“I smell it too. It’s not a normal animal, either.” The second boy sounded scared. “I think we were followed, Mitch.”

“Everybody shift and spread out. If something’s out there, we’ll find it.”

Shit. Kellan ran. Owen was hot at his heels but he could hear the coyotes coming after them. He didn’t turn to look but kept running. Owen passed him for a moment but Kellan was keeping up. He didn’t know how long coyotes could sustain high speeds, but he hoped he could outrun the kids.

They had almost made it to the stream before the first coyote snapped at his hind legs. It knocked Kellan off kilter and he ended up falling in the sand. Two of the teens were on him before he could get up. They were biting at his side and face. A roar made them stop and look up.

Owen was throwing them off Kellan with a shove before they could get out of the way. Kellan got up and snarled at the coyotes. The whole pack was now behind them but they hesitated. Seeing a lion in the desert did that to smaller animals. It didn’t belong there and Owen looked terrifying when he was angry.

Kellan shifted back to human form. He stood with his legs apart and hands on his hips. He was still bleeding from his side and calf where the coyotes had bitten him. “Get out of here now. I don’t know what you kids are doing, but this stops tonight.”

It was a risky move, but they were still teenagers and Kellan was an adult. Five of the coyotes sat down and two got down on their bellies and whined. It was working until a mangy one in the front made a move for Kellan. It had to be the leader. Only one other followed. Owen roared and whacked the leader with one of his giant paws. Kellan shifted back to his wolf and went after the leader too.

He was smarter than Kellan had given him credit for. The man ran off into the darkness before Kellan could take him down. The other coyotes followed, and he didn’t get a chance to see who they were. He and Owen went back to the campsite before returning home. They didn’t find any IDs or anything that would help them figure out who the kids were.

Kellan cursed in his human form and then spent another fifteen minutes sniffing around as his wolf. There were too many trails to follow. The dirt bikes were still there, but he didn’t want to take one back with them. If the kids couldn’t get home and were stuck in the desert overnight they would likely die. Neither he nor Owen wanted that on their heads.

“This isn’t as bad as it seems,” Owen said when they were back on his ranch. “We know that it’s just kids now. They were scared by you talking to them. I don’t think they’ll come back.”

“We need to be sure,” Kellan said. “Punk gangs aren’t going to make Sunset Falls attractive to the ASW. We need to nip this in the bud. I don’t want these kids coming back for months and bothering us.”

“Damn. You’re right.” Owen looked at Kellan’s leg. “You’re still bleeding. You’re going to need to bandage that up. You might even need stitches.”

“I’ll do it when I get home.” Kellan went inside and told Erin goodbye and then he hustled Molly to the car.

“What was the rush?” Molly asked as she put on her seatbelt. “We didn’t even talk about how it went.”

“You’re tired. We should get home,” Kellan lied.

Molly looked at him hard. “I am tired, but you didn’t have to be so curt in there.”

“I’m sleepy. I’ve had a hard night,” Kellan snapped.

“Sorry for asking.” Molly looked out the window and didn’t ask him any more questions. He felt terrible. It wasn’t him talking, it was the pain. Blood was filling his sock as he drove. He knew how to do stitches himself, so he wouldn’t have to go to the hospital, but he wasn’t sure how he was going to keep this from Molly. She wasn’t going to stay mad at him forever.

“How did it go?” she asked when they were back at the house. “Did you find out anything?”

Kellan went into the bathroom. “We did. We can talk about it in the morning.”

He took the first aid kit out of the medicine cabinet and went to work on his calf. There was a sharp knock at the door while he was pouring alcohol on the wound.

“Kellan? Would you please talk to me? Did I do something wrong?” She sounded on the verge of tears.

He gritted his teeth against the pain. “Nope. I’m just a little busy. I’m sorry I’m being so short with you. We’ll talk when I get out of here.”

“Are you okay?” Molly sniffled. “Hello?”

Kellan made a strangled yelp when he pulled a pebble out of his wound.

“Kellan? Seriously, what’s going on in there?”

He was lightheaded but the worst of it was over. He stitched himself up and poured more alcohol on the wound. It would be healed by morning. He opened the door and Molly looked into the bathroom behind him. There was a towel covered in blood sitting in the corner.

Her eyebrows shot up. “You’re hurt!”

“I am, but I’m going to be fine.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? Show me.”

Kellan sighed and lifted up his pant leg.

“Oh, Kellan!” She touched it and he winced. “This doesn’t look good. I thought shifters healed quickly.”

“We do, except when we’re injured by another shifter. I was bitten by one of the coyotes and I got some sand and pebbles in the wound.”

“They were shifters? Tell me everything,” she demanded.

Kellan complied and told her the whole story while they sat in the kitchen. Her mouth was a tight line when he finished. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

“I didn’t want to scare you. You were already on edge, being out this far. I didn’t want you to think this is a dangerous place. This kind of thing never happens.”

“But it did, and you were trying to hide it from me. What if you had passed out in there while you were stitching yourself up?”

“I…I wouldn’t have.”

“You were making noises. It must have been difficult. I could have helped you.”

“I didn’t want to worry you,” he repeated.

“Is that how you think a relationship works?”

“I don’t think I have to tell you everything.” He was defensive. He knew he was wrong, but he had good intentions. Shouldn’t that count for something?

“What about the important stuff? Would you keep all that from me too?” Molly’s arms were crossed and she was standing up now. She wasn’t going to back down on this one.

“I wouldn’t keep something really important from you. This was a little thing.”

“We’re going to have to discuss what’s serious and what isn’t.” Molly yawned. “I’m too tired for this right now, and I don’t want to say something I’ll regret. I’m going to bed.”

Kellan was left at the table by himself feeling very confused. She had just walked off without a big blowup. He wasn’t sure what to do. He had been thinking of what he was going to say next to win the argument. Now he felt stupid and very tired. He should have told her what had happened. He could have fought with her for a few more hours, but it would have all come back to that point. He was wrong.

He laughed to himself in the empty kitchen. She had outfoxed him by ending the argument. They didn’t even have to say mean things to each other or go to bed mad. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a fight where he’d realized he was wrong without a woman having to drag it out of him. She was good. He was going to have his hands full with her.