Once Bitten Twice Smitten: BBW Werewolf Shifter Menage Romance by Ariana Hawkes Page A

As soon as she smelled the woods, she badly wanted to shift. But she was scared to do it without having Brad and Chase to look out for her. Later , she told herself. She followed the fence that divided the hotel from the forest, all the way to the rear of the hotel complex. She stopped at the tree where Brad and Chase had left their clothes after they’d shifted. Standing on tiptoe, she reached up into the lower branches of the tree. Her fingertips made contact with a scrap of paper, she flicked at the edge of it, until it came close enough to grasp. Pulling it down from the tree, she unfolded a small rectangle of notebook paper. On it was scrawled an address in a town she’d never heard of, and three interlocking hearts. Aspen’s own heart leapt. It was totally adorable. She tucked the note into her bra, wanting to skip around the tree like a little kid.
    She picked her way back through the forest and got into her car. She looked up the address on her phone’s map app, absently scratching at an itch on the back of her ankle. It’s a four-hour drive away, in the next state! What are they doing there? I know dad was throwing a lot of threats around, but they didn’t have to go that far away! This wasn’t about to put her off, though. She took one final look at the map and headed north, in the direction of the Canadian border.
    *
    Time had passed very slowly while Brad and Chase waited. Their parents called them all the time, demanding progress reports. Brad even started to feel sorry for Chase when he overheard his father yelling at him on the phone. After yet another call that had evidently been full of aggression and accusation, Brad wondered what it would be like for Chase to go back to the pack empty-handed, without his destined mate. Is she coming? was the thought each of them refused to voice to the other. Their relationship had come to an uneasy truce. They ate together when they were in their human form, but bickered constantly about who was the more deserving of Aspen’s affections.
    One afternoon, Chase went for a run in the forest, just behind the National Federation complex. These woods were more like home, much bigger than in Aspen’s town, and with an exciting scent of wolf here and there. He was just walking back to his room, when he picked up another, very familiar scent. It was thin and far away – maybe three miles or more – but it was undoubtedly her. His body sprang into full alert, and immediately his mind began to hatch a plan. He could go and find her, catch her by herself, and spend some time together, just the two of them. And then he could convince her that he was the one destined to be her mate. He put his nose in the air and sniffed. He could no longer make out her scent, but it shouldn’t be difficult to pick it up again. He started walking in the direction that he’d first smelled her.
    But, after he’d gone a few yards, he stopped. He couldn’t do this. Aspen was an amazing person; he couldn’t win her by trickery. They all had to be together at the same time, so she could figure out fairly and openly which one had bitten her. His wolf whined in confusion. Chase Cooper, not winning at all costs? That was unheard of! Shaking his head as if he didn’t fully understand it himself, Chase went over to Brad’s room and knocked on his door.
    “What’s up, bro?” Brad said, his chiseled features breaking into a friendly grin at the sight of him. He’d done the right thing, Chase acknowledged.
    “Guess who’s here?” he said. Brad’s grin turned up a hundred watts.
    “Where? – Oh, wait, I can smell her!” Brad started running towards the courtyard in front of the Federation building, and Chase followed. And there she was, getting out of her cute little red car. The two men stopped and stared. She was wearing a black, clinging, v-neck shirt, an indigo A-line skirt and black lace pantyhose. Her hair was loose and she had on the same black boots as before. She looked