Amanda's Wolves(2)

“Really?”

“Why not? Tossing my stuff in boxes now. I’ll leave in the morning.” Tomorrow was Thursday. Ten hours each day, and she’d be there.

“Are Mom and Dad okay with you driving by yourself this far?”

“They let you do it last year. I’m not really giving them an option. It’s not like I would want Mom to come with me. Gah. And Dad? Are you crazy? Besides, then they’d have to fly back. And you know that isn’t going to happen.”

“True. I’m sure you’ll be fine. Call along the way if you need me.”

“Will do.” Amanda ended the call and hustled around the room, stuffing her worldly belongings in her suitcase and then heading out to the garage to find a few boxes.

Yep. Tomorrow. Excellent day to finally fly the coop. Why on Earth had she been dragging her feet for so long?

»»•««

Sawyer Hamilton glanced at his GPS and took a deep breath. He hardly needed the device to get himself from Spokane, Washington, to Cambridge, Montana. He could probably make the drive blindfolded. But he liked the idea of knowing exactly what his arrival time would be as he cruised along.

He had his truck bed filled with everything he cared about. He’d only been in Spokane for five months. In that time he worked several odd construction jobs while training with the Bureau of Land Management to become a wildland firefighter. He was now a trained hotshot, but there were no openings in Spokane for someone with his skills. Sticking around waiting for a job to become available was growing old. And so was Sawyer. He was twenty-eight. Not getting any younger while he put off the inevitable.

Hanging out with his younger brother, Cooper, was also growing old. The man was a seismologist. At twenty-four, he worked long hours and made good money. He also made Sawyer feel like a freeloader lately.

Sawyer had fled their tiny hometown in Montana with Cooper to avoid their sister, Laurie. She was twenty-six now with a new baby and two mates. And she was pissed at him for not visiting the wailing little tyke. He could hear it in her voice on the phone every time he called.

Actually, it wasn’t Laurie herself he was trying to avoid. It was more what she represented. Her mating with Zachary Masters and Corbin Archers was a sure sign that a similar fate was about to befall Sawyer. And he’d done everything to put off the inevitable.

Truth be told, Sawyer had avoided Cambridge, Montana, like the plague. As a wolf shifter, he knew Fate was drawing him toward the city. No matter how often he denied it, it was inevitable. In fact, it was undoubtedly the reason he’d been unable to find steady work in Spokane. Fate. She had her ways.

But Sawyer was stubborn. He wasn’t in the mood to find a mate and settle down.

And more importantly, he wasn’t in the mood to shack up with two mates. There was about a fifty-fifty chance of that happening, the way he saw it.

Coming from a family of wolf shifters with five total siblings, he knew the odds. Three of his siblings—Miles, Melinda, and Laurie—were all mated to someone from another family of five kids—the Masters. And that would probably be okay too, if it weren’t for the fact they were also mated to another person.

The Masters family had something weird in their line. All of the males on two sides of the family had mated with another male and a woman.

Sawyer shuddered for the thousandth time as he put the car in gear and backed out of the driveway. He could sit in front of the condo he shared with Cooper all day, but it wouldn’t change anything.

The last remaining question, as far as he could tell, was whether he would be fated to mate with the remaining Masters son and a random woman or—if he was lucky—the only Masters daughter, who would undoubtedly mate with just one man. The weird threesome gene apparently only extended to the men in the family.

Sawyer had never met either Sharon or Logan. He’d intentionally left the Cambridge/Sojourn area the moment his third sibling mated a Masters. That had been too eerie. He wasn’t ready to face that destiny. The best way to avoid whatever Fate had in mind for him was to flee the state, so he had.

Cooper had run just as fast and hard. And he’d since made a name for himself in Spokane. Lucky bastard.

Sawyer pulled out onto the highway, gripping the steering wheel so tight his fingers hurt.

His cell rang, and he hit the hands-free button on the steering wheel to take the call. “Hello.”

“Sawyer. You on your way?” Laurie’s voice was too cheery.

He narrowed his gaze. “Yes. Should I turn around and go back to my regularly scheduled life instead?”

“Nope. You’re meant to be right here.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of.”