Mated by Midsummer: Stratton Wolves, #1

CHAPTER 1

W ell, hello there, gorgeous, Kelli Copeland said as she pulled the rental car to a stop and rested her hands on the steering wheel to look at the town laid out below.

Stratton, North Carolina. The very epitome of small town America complete with a picture perfect motel and diner, library, store and garage. No school. Instead, kids had to take the bus to a nearby town, and for colleges even further. For the adults there was Honey’s Bar and Grill, on the other side of town on the road to Katy.

Like many small towns out in the country where the running was good and a person could get back to nature by stepping out of their back garden, Stratton was a shifter town. Many types made their home here. Bert who ran the store in the centre of town was a cat-shifter, and Miriam at the library was a bear, but the main pack, her pack, were wolves.

She sighed as her gaze wandered over the familiar buildings, hit by a pang of homesickness that surprised her in its depth. She’d been born here, grew up here, but ten years ago she’d left for the bright lights of the big city. Her thoughts darkened a little as she put the small car into drive and started down the hill.

She hadn’t left for a job, or to pursue fame, even though her temporary job had turned into a career. She’d left because the new pack alpha, Max, had decided that she was his. Worse, he had decided that he was going to claim her in the eyes of the pack during the midsummer run. Forget human marriage, a midsummer claim bound two wolves together for life. Until death. No divorce, no separation, nothing. All without asking what she wanted. He’d just assumed that she’d be delighted, honored even, when he rearranged her life without so much as a by-your-leave.

Asshole.

Sexy as hell, ripped asshole, but asshole just the same.

A growl spilled from her lips. Kelli Copeland, grand-daughter of a pack alpha herself, didn’t do orders, not even for cuties with cut abs and a dangerous charm. Not even for the sexy alpha’s son she and the rest of the pack females had sighed over when they were teenagers. Cute did not excuse arranging someone’s damn mating without speaking to them. So when Max said jump, she hadn’t asked how high, she’d just given him the proverbial finger and hightailed it out of town.

Alpha’s, as a rule, didn’t like being disobeyed. And Max, all six foot three, alpha wolf still stamping his authority on his new pack, a pack his family had only held for a generation, certainly hadn’t liked it, as several terse messages on her voice-mail had testified.

She snorted as she passed the first buildings on the way into town. He’d always been bossy, and the promotion to alpha after his father’s death had only made things worse.

It had taken her little brother’s wedding to bring her back. The thought brought a smile to her face. Riley. Her baby brother, he of the tumbling golden curls and the cherub-like smile, was actually getting married. The thought kept the smile on her face as she drove through the center of town, feeling curious eyes on the unfamiliar car. Off the main routes these days, through traffic was minimal and, in the nature of small towns, everyone knew everyone else’s business.

Which meant she wasn’t surprised when Bert, out sweeping the front of his store before it closed, openly peered through her window. His expression cleared, filling with recognition as he waved. Kelli waved back as she swept past, taking the next left. The news she was back for Riley’s wedding would be all over town within the hour. That was if her little brother hadn’t already let it slip that she was due to arrive today.

Max would know within the hour.

It didn’t matter, she reassured herself as she drove up the tree lined avenue. She’d been gone ten years this fall. There was no way a man like Max had waited around for that long. He had to be married, with a passel of brats, by now…and bald. Yeah, he totally had to be bald by now. How old was he? Thirty-four, thirty five? That was old enough to start with the receding hairline. Her PA was only twenty seven and already his hair was thinning.

The thought made her feel better as she took the turn that would lead up to her childhood home. Two stories, with white siding and a porch, it was similar to the other houses along the road but the rest didn’t elicit the surge of memories and warmth, nor the swift flash of irritation as she realized the place was dark.

Riley was out, and as her mom had moved in with her new boyfriend over in Katy two years ago. Which meant the house was empty.

Great. Just what she needed after a long drive.

Pulling up behind her brother’s truck, Kelli put the rental in park and reached for her purse. It didn’t matter, she had a key for the place on her… She stopped, hand in the depths of the bag and dropped her head back against the rest with a groan. She had had a key, her mom never letting go of the hope that Kelli would move home, but a break-in last year had forced Riley to get the locks changed. She had the old key, not the new key.

Way to go, Riley. You’d forget your damn head if it wasn’t screwed on, she muttered as she dug around in the purse for her cell. He’d obviously forgotten she was driving down today. Typical of her brother. Her fingers closed around the familiar edge of the phone and she drew it from her bag with a smile of triumph.

It was dead.

Oh, for heaven’s sake!

She shook it, and clicked the power button at the top, hoping beyond hope that the screen would flick on. It shouldn’t be dead, she’d charged it overnight, but nothing she did made a difference. If a blank screen could look smug, this one was managing it. She dropped the useless thing back into her purse.

Could today get any worse?

Sighing, she put the car into reverse and backed out of the drive. There was only one place Riley could be.

Honey’s bar.

It didn’t take long to drive across town, and before long Kelli pulled the small car into the parking lot in front of the bar. As usual for a Friday night, the place was full, forcing her to park on the scrub behind the lot. Kelli’s lips curved into a smile as gentle amusement filled her. Even ten years later she recognized some of the cars lined neatly side by side. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

Honey’s looked the same as always, with the sign on the front repainted in the same design it had sported for as long as she could remember.

Grabbing her purse, she locked the car and paused for a second to check her hair. Shoulder length and dark, it had a habit of escaping. She snapped the clip free, shook it out and ran her fingers through it to get it in some kind of order. It was the work of a second to twist it up into a pleat and shove the clip back in, pinning the heavy weight up away from her neck. A final check in the window of the car got a nod. There, at least she didn’t look like she’d been dragged through a hedge backwards.

A smile still on her lips, she approached the building. The door in front of her opened,