Chapter One
Abraham “Bram” Gerrick stood behind the counter at Pete’s Garage where he worked for his dad, Jason, as a mechanic. He’d been turning a wrench for as long as he could remember. His first job had been cleaning around the shop when he was a preteen, then he’d moved up to the gas pumps and helping with easy automotive work like oil changes. And now, at twenty-three, he was a full-time mechanic.
Which was not the most exciting thing in his life, frankly.
He was also next in line to take over the Tressel Pack once his dad stepped down.
Now that was something to look forward to.
His dad was only in his late forties, so it wasn’t likely he’d be stepping down anytime in the next decade barring something terrible happening. And Bram certainly didn’t want that. But he did want to get moving with the next chapter of his life.
While he could take over the pack without being mated, it was preferable for the alpha male to have a mate. Since Bram wasn’t mated, he knew his dad wouldn’t be stepping down now anyway.
Someone rapped on the counter, and he lifted his eyes from the screen where he was going over the supply list and saw his younger brother, Gideon, who also worked at the garage.
“What’s up?” Bram asked.
“Jay Samuel is coming in at noon to pick up his Jeep. I finished the work and pulled it around to the front, so you can run his invoice.” Gideon pushed the key across the worn counter.
Bram glanced at the big clock on the wall shaped like a hubcap. Eleven-thirty. “I’ll run it right now.”
“You going to Jake’s after work?” Gideon leaned on the counter and looked at him expectantly.
“I don’t know. Maybe. I’ve got laundry piled up so high in the bedroom that I can’t get to the bed without climbing it like Mt. Everest.”
Gideon snorted. “Friday nights are not for laundry, my dude.”
“I’ve been saying that for two weeks.”
“Come on. I’ve been looking forward to going to the bar all week.”
“Didn’t you and Kash go last night?”
“Thursday night at the bar is nothing like Friday night. And we only went to get dinner since the fridge is empty.”
“Is it still empty?” he asked.
Gideon lived with Kash who was a fae male. Gideon had previously lived with two other wolves, Luke and Micah, who’d both recently found their truemates. Bram lived alone in a house he rented in the small Kentucky town of Allen. He lived on a quiet street full of similar homes with manicured front yards and big, old trees that sent leaves everywhere in the fall.
“Yeah,” Gideon said with a chuckle.
Bram shook his head. “All right, I’ll meet you guys at the bar, but not until later. I definitely need to take a crack at the laundry.”
What if he met his truemate tonight? He couldn’t bring his forever girl home to a messy bedroom.
“How late is later?” Gideon asked as he straightened.
“I don’t know, maybe nine.”
“That much laundry?”
“Yep.”
“Don’t leave stuff to the last minute and you won’t have to miss out on fun at the bar to do house chores.”
“You have an empty fridge,” Bram said as his brother walked away. “At least I could make someone breakfast.”
“I can always order out,” Gideon countered, giving him a wave as he disappeared into the back.
Gideon shook his head. His brother was an idiot. A lovable one, but an idiot all the same.
Turning to the computer, he saved his progress on the supplies and opened the work order for Mr. Samuel. Once he’d entered in the information, he printed out the invoice and attached the key to it, setting it next to the computer for when he showed up.
He glanced at the hubcap clock again.
How had only a few minutes passed? He felt like he’d been talking to his brother forever.
With a low sigh, he returned to cataloging the supplies and hoped the rest of the day would pass swiftly.
* * *
Jake’s Bar had belonged to the alpha of a pack that had shared Allen alongside the Tressel Pack back when his parents first got together. That pack had left town after a fight between Jason and their oldest son, ending in that son’s death by pack justice. He’d heard the story growing up, a cautionary tale to remind them that nothing should be taken for granted, least of all a mate.
He closed his truck door and stared at the neon signs in the windows, listening to the muffled music coming from the house band, TrayneWrek, which had been playing at Jake’s for as long as he could remember.
There was a line at the door where IDs were being checked by pack members Lenny and Ferris. Pack members were relegated to waiting in line with humans and other types of supernatural creatures, except for the high ranked ones, or the next generation of high-ranking members, like himself and his brother and friends.
Ferris gave him a head jut when he approached. “How’s it going?” he asked, offering his fist for a bump. Bram bumped it and then did it again for Lenny’s fist.
“Good,” Bram said. “Busy tonight.”
“Fridays,” Lenny said with a shrug. “TrayneWrek’s got Destiny singing lead.”
Bram hummed. Destiny was the daughter of Jazlyn, the lead singer, and her mate, Fritz, a former Tressel Pack member. They lived on the outskirts of Allen and were not technically part of the pack, but they communed with them on the full moons from time to time.
“See ya later,” Bram said as he headed inside. Making his way straight to the bar, he greeted his grandparents, Peter and Tina, who’d been alphas before his parents.
“Hi, baby,” Tina said as she picked up a tray. “Pops will get you what you need.”
“Thanks, Grandma.”
“What can I get ya, kiddo?” Peter asked as he stepped aside to let Tina by and then rested his hands on the worn counter.
“Just a beer.”
“You got it. Your brother and his roommate are on the left. Or they were a minute ago,” he said as he looked in that direction with a frown. “Oh, they’re dancing.”
Dancing was not quite the right term. His brother and Kash were holding females on the dance floor, but they were both making out and not actually dancing.
It was a few days before the full moon. Wolves tended to get particularly horny around the full moon, and the two males on the floor were proving the point, although Kash was fae, and although he was half-wolf, he couldn’t shift. It wasn’t that Bram wasn’t horny, because he was. It was just that he’d been around the block with the females in the pack and none of them were his mate. And none of the human females who came to the bar had ever made his wolf sit up and take notice.
He could take anyone home he wanted. He was the oldest son of the alpha, poised to take over and run the pack someday. That gave him power that no one else in the pack had and made him a male worth knowing. But he didn’t want a female because she thought he was powerful, he wanted to find his truemate. The one female in the world meant to be his.
Wherever the hell she was, she sure wasn’t in Allen.
Every month as the full moon rolled by and his bed was empty and his wolf longed for someone to be with, he wondered if this would be the month. Maybe in February he’d finally find his female, finally know what it was like to love someone.
He settled in the booth, wondering why he was suddenly feeling so melancholy and thinking about mating.
Gideon, face flushed from not-quite-dancing, twirled the human in his arms and asked her to grab him a drink from the bar.
“You made it,” Gideon said as he slid into the booth. Kash wandered over to another table with the female he’d been making out with.
“I said I would.”
“Laundry pile cleared up?”
“As much as I could get done.” It was passable, not quite a mountain like it had been before he’d started.
“Well, maybe you’ll find your mate tonight.”
Bram let out his wolf a little but didn’t really need to have his heightened senses to know that no one in the bar was his truemate. As he nursed his beer, he mused that there was a time when he didn’t care if the female he was with was his mate, but it wasn’t like that for him anymore. He wanted to find his truemate and settle down. The randomness of the hookups didn’t appeal to him anymore, so he wasn’t going to be taking anyone home tonight or any other night.
Not until he found his mate.