Wild Wolf: Black Mesa Wolves #4 by J.K. Harper Page A

“Truer words were never spoken, my friend. We've got to help you find her. Trust me when I say life won't be the same until you do.”
    “I'm getting that,” Tate said ruefully. “Earlier today I forgot about a client appointment I have tomorrow morning. I would have been a no-show if they didn't call me to ask a question about what part of the training we'd be working on.”
    “When it comes to the right woman, you might just forget your own name at times,” Kieran said softly before he slid into the car beside his own right woman.
    As they drove down the curving road back toward the den, Lily continued to pepper Tate with questions. What were the names of Claire's books? Did she remind him of any neighboring pack members? Where exactly had he looked for her so far? Even though he'd asked himself those same questions over and over for the past two weeks, he eagerly answered, hoping she'd come up with a new insight he hadn't been able to see.
    “Maybe she's a cousin from a pack that's farther away?” Lily's voice was thoughtful as she turned over the possibilities in her head. “Maybe she's visiting.”
    “She said she could smell the desert of home on me,” Tate replied. “I'm positive she lives here somewhere.”
    “She lives down in the desert, you mean,” Kieran interjected. “She's got to live near Cortez, where you first scented her.”
    “Then why have none of us ever scented her before? It's not like none of us ever go over that way.” Tate blew out a slightly frustrated breath. “How is it that none of us knows about her existence if she lives so close to us? We know every wolf who lives within two hundred miles of here.”
    He didn't think it was possible he could have lived here all his life and not met Claire yet. Unless maybe mates were only meant to meet when they were ready to meet. Kind of like how certain horses came into his life to be trained at just the right time. The ones that were fearful, or shy, or had been abused by heavy hands and needed a new, light start.
    Not, of course, that he was comparing Claire to a horse. His wolf snorted, plainly disgusted with that line of thought. Claire was a sleek, dangerous predator like him.
    “The part I really don't get,” Kieran said, sounding both puzzled and troubled, “is how she's able to be by herself in public. As far as I know, all the packs within five hundred miles and more are using the rule of three for their own wolves as well.”
    Tate nodded, more to himself since they couldn't see him from the front seat. “That's been really bugging me, too. I can't imagine a pack whose alpha would let that rule slide. Even if the rogues haven't been spotted in months.”
    “You didn't ask her?” Kieran questioned.
    Tate shook his head, smiling a bit as images of him and Claire sweaty on the bed rocketed through his mind again. “Didn't get that far in our conversation.” Before his sister could make a teasing comment on that, he added, “And there's something she'd just hiding. I didn't want to ruin the moment, to be honest. Besides,” he hesitated for a moment, then confessed, “my wolf was close to out of control around her. Had to deal with one thing at a time.”
    Over Lily's triumphant “A-ha! She is definitely your mate,” Kieran said with confidence of a man who knows, “There are definitely some things that need to be handled before any other situations can be addressed.”
    Tate let a grin tug up his mouth. “Apparently. Though I wish to hell I could figure out why she's being a little cat-and-mouse about it all. I've never felt anything like that connection, and I know she felt it, too. But there's some kind of wariness there I don't think I've encountered from another shifter.”
    Silence blanketed them for another several miles along the curving, dark road back to the den. Until, several miles later, Lily's thoughtful voice broke it. “Wait,” she said slowly. Tate could practically hear the gears turning in her head.