Chapter One
“Hey, brat. You ready for this weekend?” Griffen smirked at his sister as she rolled her eyes in his direction.
“You do realize I’m twenty-four years old, right?”
“Yep. But you’ll always be the baby in the family.” He tapped the frame of the door to her bedroom and leaned in. “Why aren’t you packing?”
“I’ll get to it.” She spun her desk chair around to face him and crossed her arms.
Shit. He didn’t like that stance. What was she up to? “Don’t even think about bailing on us. We’ve been taking this trip together for years. All five of us. It’s a tradition.”
“Oh, I’m not bailing. But I am bringing a friend.”
He shook his head. “What? No. No way. This is a siblings-only trip. As usual.”
“Not anymore it isn’t. I can’t spend three days and two nights clambering around in the mountains with four older brothers any longer. The testosterone alone is more than I can handle. I’m bringing a girlfriend this year.”
Griffen stepped inside her room and sat on her bed. “Who?” He didn’t think he was going to like her answer. She didn’t have very many shifter friends, and he couldn’t think of a single one who would be interested in hiking in the Flathead National Forest. And none who could keep up their pace.
“Her name is Rebecca Larson.”
“Rebecca? Where do you know her from?”
“She’s a nurse at the hospital. She taught the CPR class I took a few months ago. We realized we had a lot in common.” Rebecca shrugged. “We’ve been running together.”
“She’s human.” It wasn’t a question. Griffen knew she had to be human. If she were a shifter, he would know the name.
“She is.”
“No.”
Sharon rolled her eyes. “Griffen, stop being an ass.”
“First of all, there’s no way she would be able to keep up. It’s ten miles to the top, steep and rugged. And second of all, I don’t want to spend forty-eight hours babysitting a human girl.”
Sharon stood and pointed a finger at him. “First of all,” she mocked, “she can out-hike you any day of the week, female or not. She’s training for a Spartan Race, and she needs the high-altitude workout. And second of all, she’s my age, twenty-four. We aren’t babies, as you seem to think. We’re grown women.” She settled both hands on her hips and cocked one hip to the side.
Griffen narrowed his gaze at her. He took a deep breath. “Spartan. Is that one of those obstacle course races?”
“Yes.” Sharon tossed her thick brown hair over her shoulder. “Trust me. She can keep up. She’s fun. And I need the female camaraderie.”
He hesitated a beat. “And I suppose you want me to let the rest of your brothers in on this plan.”
“Yep.” She gave him her sweetest smile and batted her eyes.
Griffen was a total pushover when it came to Sharon. He’d been eight when she was born. All four brothers adored her, but Griffen had been the only one old enough to grasp the idea that his parents had brought a girl into the house. He’d spent a great deal of time protecting her from the others when they were small. “Fine. But I hope you’re right about this. Trace will have a conniption if she can’t keep up.”
Sharon smiled hugely. “She’ll put Trace to shame. Trust me.”
•●•
“Are you sure about this?” Rebecca zipped her backpack and lifted it off her bed. “You aren’t trying to set me up with one of your brothers, are you?”
Sharon turned toward the door. “Lord, no. I just need someone with me to balance out the testosterone.”
“I can’t believe you have four brothers, and I’ve never met a single one.” Rebecca had moved to Cambridge two years ago. The town wasn’t that large. How had she never met any of the Masters?
She was apprehensive about this plan. The only reason she’d agreed to go on the trip was because she desperately needed the hiking miles under her belt. The terrain would be steep and rugged and the air thin. It was perfect. And she didn’t want to hike the distance on her own.
Sharon shrugged. “I learned early in life if I wanted any true friends, I needed to keep them away from my brothers. They’re all older. And according to most women, they aren’t hard on the eyes. In high school I never knew who I could trust. Any girl who met my brothers was my ‘friend.’” She made air quotes to emphasize her sarcasm. “I hated it. So, I usually keep them separate.”
Rebecca hesitated. “You know I’m not that kind of friend, right?”