Katlyn (M/F/M red-hot menage shifter romance) Standalone (Shadow Creek Shifters Book 1) by Madison Johns Page A

her inside and, luckily, all of them were completely in human form. When the children were seated, Katlyn asked, “Has anyone seen, Maxwell?”
    “He’s not coming,” Melody said. “There was trouble at Silver Creek last night.”
    “Like what?”
    “Mama said it had something to do with one of the ranchers looking for his missing sheep.”
    “I heard about that, but what makes the rancher think his missing sheep would be at Silver Creek?”
    “Beats me, but grown-ups can be crazy sometimes.”
    “I’ll agree with you there. I just hope Maxwell is okay.” Katlyn turned to put math problems on a dry erase board at the front of the class. “There’s paper on each of your desks. You have ten minutes to do the math problems on the board. It’s a startup quiz.”
    “Quiz,” Robert muttered. “On our first official day?”
    “Yes. There will be one every morning so you had better get used to it now.”
    While the children were busy doing their math, Katlyn’s mind wouldn’t stop spinning. The neighbor had missing sheep, all right, and it was obvious that Paige might just be responsible for their disappearance and now the werewolves were being blamed. That wasn’t fair. But as Katlyn had already learned, life just wasn’t fair; she’d speak to Brendan about it later.
    The school day went by fairly quick and after the children were gone, Katlyn straightened up. When she strolled outside, Brendan and Chase were waiting outside on horseback.
    “What are you two doing here?”
    “Brendan insisted we come. There’s trouble brewing in town.”
    Katlyn’s brow arched. “Oh, that sounds serious.”
    “It is. Our neighbor, Jonathan, is stirring trouble up with the Rancher’s Committee. He’s there lodging a complaint. I just don’t know to what extent yet.”
    It seemed her hopes to see Tessa would be delayed, but since Paige had already told her that it would be sometime later today before she was able to determine Tessa’s true condition, she might as well get to know the goings on around town. “Can I tag along? I really would love to learn how the process works.”
    “I suppose,” Brendan said as he held out his hand.
    She backed up. “You’re not going on horseback, are you? The last time I was on a horse didn’t go so well.”
    “I don’t agree with that. You ride like a pro,” Chase winked.
    “I have a vehicle here. I’ll catch up with you back at my cabin. I’d like to freshen up before we leave for the Rancher’s Committee. One of the students said that a rancher was at Silver Creek looking for his sheep.”
    “Wouldn’t surprise me,” Brendan said. “We’ll catch up with you in half an hour.” With that, Brendan and Chase rode off, leaving Katlyn to her thoughts. She was happy that they were allowing her to accompany them into town.
    Back at the cabin, Katlyn straightened up the kitchen since she didn’t have to do it last night. The cabin was so silent without Tessa here.
    When Brendan pulled up to her cabin, Katlyn came out and hopped into their SUV.  As they made their way into town, Katlyn got up her courage and asked, “Can you arrange a visit for me with Tessa later. I’m really worried about her.”
    Brendan kept his eyes glued to the road. “She’ll be fine. Paige is looking after her.”
    “I know, but that’s not going to stop me from worrying.”
    “I assure you that Paige is doing everything she can for Tessa,” Brendan said. “She’s taking responsibly for her actions.”
    Katlyn tried to relax, but since she knew so little about all of them, how sure could she really be that Paige would be able to help Tessa at all? It was hard enough for her to get used to the fact that shifters were real, and now vampires, too?
    Brendan parked along the street and led the way inside a white church. As they passed the oak pews, Katlyn wondered what kind of town this really was. “The Rancher’s Committee operates business in a church?”
    “Yes, does that seem strange