Prowling the Vet Read Free Page A

away now!
    That
saving-grace thought made him stagger away as he felt his lion rise to the
surface. It felt like a pressure in his rib cage, a need to fall away into the
abyss and allow the cat to roam. He was calling for his mate, needing to claim
Laura as his own. He pushed his lion down with a small struggle, physically
clenching his abdominals and breathing out to contain him.
    As
he watched the woman his lion believed to be his woman ready herself to leave, he realized he had to do
something to stop her. He couldn’t just let her go.
    “Where
do you live?”
    Laura
righted Belle up in her chair, kissed her forehead like a mother would, and
shut the door. His lion purred happily inside him at the maternal instincts
within Laura as she moved around to her side of the relatively new car.
Obviously, Laura wasn’t a student like Belle.
    “Why?”
Laura asked, her elegant eyebrow quirking up.
    “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