Chapter One
Absentmindedly, Mairi scratched her arm and glanced up at the darkening sky. The forced need to shift steadily rose, and as the night progressed, she wouldn’t be able to resist the pull.
“Are you running with Rhodes tonight?” Keegan asked.
She glanced at her cousin, who was dressed similar to her in a plain white cotton chemise. They were deep in the forest, standing in a clearing as they waited for the High Luna’s calling for all her subjects to turn into their wolves.
“I don’t know.” Mairi sighed. “It’s wrong of me to lead him on because nothing can evolve between us.”
Keegan frowned. “Why?”
“You know why.”
“Why are you staying loyal to a man who’s not loyal to you? He basically told you to fuck off.”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“Mairi,” Keegan said with a sigh. “You can’t have a crush on a man you’ve never met.”
“Sure you can,” Mairi replied. “People crush on movie stars and athletes all the time. But that isn’t it.”
“Then what is it?”
“We were friends when we were children,” she murmured. “I always knew there was something about him. Something my wolf liked. I didn’t hesitate to marry him when our grans arranged it.”
“If he was your friend, why didn’t he want any part of you? Why stay married to him?”
“I ... I don’t know.”
Yet, she did know. She just didn’t want to talk about the husband who rejected her.
After their so-called wedding, he sent a text saying he wanted to live separate lives.
That he was coerced into their vows and didn’t want her.
Explained his grandmother held the majority of shares in his company, and she would only turn them over upon their union.
He’d even signed the marriage certificate by proxy.
Apparently, when you’re the wealthiest man in Scotland, you can do just about anything.
Now, he was the controlling shareholder in the business his grandfather had started, and she was his unwanted memory.
It wasn’t long before the change was upon them.
Both slipped out of their gowns and embraced the wolf inside them.
Bones snapped and reformed. Dichromatic vision took over.
Where once two women stood, they now resided in their wolf forms. Keegan’s pelt was dark like her hair, with white paws and white fur running down her neck.
Mairi’s own wolf was reddish-brown and leaned more on the smaller size.
They howled at the moon, and an answering call reverberated back.
They took off running through the forest, Mairi a little slower than her cousin.
Suddenly, another shifter joined them, and Mairi gave a little yip of recognition.
The beast was large. Probably only slightly smaller than Alpha Jericho or Beta Ledger.
Pitch-black, blending in with the night.
Rhodes Madigan. As they all ran through the forest, he played with her, nipping at her heels and causing her to growl at him.
Regardless of her situation, she was still a married woman.
She liked Rhodes and knew he wanted more, but her heart belonged to the man who hadn’t even bothered to tell her face to face what she did to make him despise her.
****
The next day, Mairi wiped down tables while her cousin, Keegan, cleaned the coffee machines.
They were due to open in a few minutes, and she already saw two people waiting patiently.
She loved working with her cousin in the coffee shop.
Loved coming up with different creations of flavors.
This week the special was hot butterscotch coffee.
When the clock hit seven, Keegan flipped the CLOSED sign to OPEN and unlocked the door. Mairi smiled as old Mrs. Smyth bustled inside, the complaints already slipping from her tongue.
“You were a minute late,” she snapped, marching up to the counter. “The butterscotch drink. Large.”
Keegan smiled at her. “Coming right up.”
Mairi didn’t know how her cousin didn’t lose her patience with the mean woman. She was thankful she didn’t have to talk to her. Keegan was far better with that, while she was better with making the orders.
The rest of the morning flew by with a steady stream of customers.
The shop only stayed open until three in the afternoon, closing right after the lunch rush.
She swept and mopped, laying the chairs upside down on top of the tables.
When they were done, Keegan locked up and nudged her with her shoulder.
“Wanna grab an early dinner at the diner?”
Mairi nodded. “That’s fine with me.”
“Good, because I don’t feel like cooking.”
“Hold up,” Mairi said. “I wouldn’t call what you do cooking. More like detonating a nuclear bomb on the taste buds.”
“Rude,” she gasped, then gave a rueful shrug. “But a fair assessment.”
They laughed and linked arms as they headed toward the diner. The one thing Mairi loved most about living in Sheridan was that she could walk everywhere in her little corner of the world.
The days grew shorter as fall approached.
The crisp air causing her to slip on a heavy sweater against the slight chill.
When they stepped into the busy diner, Luna Payton waved at them and gestured to a booth in the back.
Her pregnant belly had started to show and the pack couldn’t be more excited.
Various people waved and smiled at them in greeting.
That was another thing Mairi liked about Sheridan.
Once you were pack, everyone looked out for you.
It had been quite different in Scotland.
There weren’t any wolves in the UK and no packs, so shifters generally kept themselves a secret.
After Tavish had sent the text saying he wanted no part of her, that he found the whole nonsense of marriage to her distasteful—his word, not hers—she felt the need to disappear. So, she contacted her cousin Keegan, who lived in the States, and she’d been in Sheridan ever since.
She liked being in a pack, having people say hi to her from the other side of the street.
People who didn’t think she was distasteful.
She’d been a sad, pathetic woman wallowing in self-pity when she asked Alpha Jericho for sanctuary, but she was tired of being that woman.
Maybe Keegan was right. Maybe it was time to cut all ties to Scotland and send divorce papers to His Grace Tavish MacAlary.
It wasn’t like they were ever going to meet and live happily ever after.
“Hello, ladies,” Esmeralda said with an easy smile. “It’s the after-full-moon special of meatloaf, butter-sautéed zucchini and squash, with a baked potato and strawberry pie for dessert.”
“Sounds delicious,” Keegan said. “I’ll have that.”
“Me too,” Mairi added.
Esmeralda’s gaze lingered for a moment on her, her gaze turning from inquisitive to troubled. Mairi squirmed, not liking how uncomfortable she suddenly felt.
Then, as if realizing what she was doing, Esmeralda smiled. “Coming right up.”
After she left, Keegan raised an eyebrow. “What was that about?”
“If she wasn’t a wolf, I’d swear Esmeralda was a soothsayer or something,” Mairi replied.
“I was thinking the same thing.”
A few minutes later, their dinner came and they thanked Esmeralda. The old woman nodded and left, and Mairi was grateful there were no more sly glances. They ate, keeping conversation light. As they finished, both drinking coffee with the slice of strawberry pie, Savannah approached their booth.
Savannah was an “Other,” which meant something other than a shifter.
She was a gifted enchantress and caster, and Mairi was grateful for the potions she made for her, to help keep her polycystic ovary syndrome under check.
Unfortunately, it was an awful condition to both her human and animal side.
Before Savannah, she suffered every month with pain and irregular menstrual cycles that even affected her wolf.
When she arrived in Sheridan, Keegan had taken her to visit Savannah, and discovered a lifesaver.
Mairi had thought she would have to suffer for the rest of her long shifter life.
“Good evening,” Savannah greeted. “I hope I’m not interrupting.”
“Not at all,” Mairi said, smiling. “We’ve finished dinner and are now enjoying this delicious pie. I might have to unbutton my pants.”
“I know exactly what you mean,” Savannah said with a slight chuckle. She patted her hips. “My curves are far too used to Esmeralda’s pies. I just wanted to stop by and give you this month’s medicine, Mairi.”
She sat a brown paper bag on the table.
“Thank you,” Mairi replied. “You are a miracle worker.”
“My pleasure,” Savannah said with a wink. “Enjoy the evening, ladies.”
As the enchantress left the diner, the door was held open by a man.
Something about him caught Mairi’s attention.
Dark auburn hair. Tall, muscular. A trimmed mustache and beard.
A blue tartan scarf wrapped around his neck.
Ocean-blue eyes met hers and lingered for a moment before she looked away, leaving her shaken.
“You okay?”
Mairi turned her stricken gaze onto her cousin. “It’s him.”
“Him?”
“M-my husband,” she whispered, still in shock.
Keegan turned in her seat. “The hunk in the blue and black tartan scarf?”
“Sh! Stop looking!”
“What’s he doing here?”
Mairi could only shake her head in stupefied confusion. “I don’t know. How did he find me?”
Questions she loved to know the answer to, but was far too scared to approach him to ask.
She had to get out of there and regroup.
Allow herself a moment to think. He had to be in Sheridan for her.
Did he want her back? Did he come to apologize and ask if they could have a real marriage?
Hope flared in her heart, because even though he said he didn’t want her, she very much wanted him.