Fated Mate

Chapter 1

1

Liliana North watched the snow float down around her as she stood beside her car on the side of the road. It was an early winter morning in Catamount, Maine with snow barely falling as the clouds cleared. The sun was cresting the horizon, its rays bright against the wintery white landscape. The road wound through the outskirts of Catamount, a wooded tract of land on one side and a field on the other. The scent of balsam fir was sharp in the cold air. She leaned over to check her tire.

“Definitely flat,” she said to herself. A crow squawked in reply. She glanced up to see the crow had landed on the roof of her car, watching her curiously. She glared at the crow who might be providing her some company, but would be of no help with her flat tire. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and sighed. Reception was notoriously spotty anywhere on the outskirts of Catamount. Catamount was situated in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the hills and valleys making merry with cell phone reception.

Liliana, Lily to those who knew and loved her, tugged her jacket tighter around her and looked down the road. It was just past seven in the morning, and she didn’t expect too many drivers at this hour. Shaking her head, she set to work changing her tire. Moments later, she managed to send two of the tire lug nuts rolling on the icy surface and had to shimmy under her car to recapture them. She was on the ground, the snow cold against her back when she heard a car come to a stop and footsteps slowly make their way toward her.

“Need any help?”

The voice was low, gravelly, most definitely male…and sexy. Seriously? How can you think a voice is sexy when you don’t even know the man attached to it? Lily rolled her eyes and brushed her hair out of her face. She knew the answer to her mind’s taunting question. She was twenty-eight years old and somehow, despite her best efforts, she was still a virgin. Lately, she had s*x on the brain. Between a few members of her inner circle falling in love recently and her own annoyance with her virginity, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from assessing, and occasionally lusting after, every man who crossed her path. Yeah, but this is just some random guy who stopped to help you by the road. She wished she had an off button for her tendency to converse with herself. She considered whether to tell the man with the sexy voice to carry on. She could use the help though because she wasn’t so sure her spare tire was in good enough shape to use.

She stretched and curled her fingers around the last of the errant lug nuts. Holding them firmly in her grip, she wiggled her way out from under her car and almost choked when her eyes landed on Noah Jasper. Tall, dark, smoldering, enigmatic, and most definitely sexy as hell—that was Noah Jasper. Lily had many fantasies about Noah in high school. He’d been two years ahead of her and had half the girls in Catamount drooling over him. He stayed above the fray. To Lily’s knowledge, he’d never dated anyone in Catamount. He’d gone straight to college and then on to the Marines. Rumor had it he’d been in the Special Forces. A few months ago, she heard Noah had moved back to Catamount.

There she was flat on her back in the snow and a flush raced through her at the mere sight of Noah. He leaned forward, stretching his hand out. She placed her hand in his and shivered at the contrasting warmth. Her hand was engulfed in his. Without appearing to exert effort, he steadily pulled her to her feet. Once she was standing, she tucked the lug nuts in her pocket, glanced up into his amber eyes and tried to keep from blushing. His mouth quirked slightly.

“What?” she asked.

Noah gestured to her hair. “You’ve got pine needles sticking out of your hair.”

She reached up and felt several sticking straight up. She brushed her hands through her hair. When she thought she had tugged the last pine needle out, she glanced back at Noah who stood quietly. She gave her jacket a shake to knock the loose snow off. Of all the people to see her with pine needles in her hair and snow covering her back, Noah was most definitely not her choice. He was a sexy and mysterious shifter who’d moved away, while she was a boring, quiet computer programmer. In the world they lived, she was the least likely to be noticed. Catamount, Maine was a town filled with mountain lion shifters. While Lily came from one of the oldest shifter families in town, she tended not to attract attention and preferred to keep it that way. Noah, on the other hand, attracted plenty though he didn’t seem inclined to care.

She forced her attention to the moment. “Thanks for stopping. I got a flat tire, but I’m having trouble changing it, and I’m not so sure my spare’s in good enough shape anyway.”

Noah met her eyes again and nodded. Damn, he was handsome. He had chiseled features. As with most shifters, his face had a feline cast, his cheekbones angling up, eyes tilting at the corners. His almost black hair made his amber eyes stand out. His mouth was sensual and full. He nodded to her spare tire. “Mind if I take a look?”

Her heart pounded so loudly, she could barely think. She nodded quickly. “Go ahead.”

Noah rolled the tire away from where she’d leaned it by her car and ran his eyes over it, giving it a push. The rubber gave easily under the pressure of his hand. He looked up and shook his head. “It needs air.” He lifted it and strode to the back of his truck, tucking it under the cap. Without a word, he quickly adjusted the jack and lowered her car.

“What are you doing?”

Noah swung her way, his amber eyes sending her belly into a tailspin of flutters. “Making sure your car’s safe for now. We can’t leave it jacked up like that. I’ll drop you off wherever you need to go and stop by here later after I get your tire repaired.”

“Oh, um, you don’t need to do all that.” Lily felt off-kilter and confused to have him so quickly step in to help.

Noah met her eyes again. She didn’t know how she could handle riding in a car with him. His proximity had all but turned her to mush. Wet heat coiled through her when he arched a brow. “I’m not going to leave you here, and it’s not safe for you to try to drive on that spare.” He glanced at his phone. “Since there’s no phone reception here, you can’t think I’m going to drive off. What’s your plan, wait for the next person to come along?” Suddenly, his eyes widened and then a look of bitterness followed. “Ah, I get it. You think I had something to do with the mess my uncle landed in?”

Lily shook her head forcefully. “No! I wasn’t even thinking about that.” As she spoke, she considered that if she hadn’t been so bowled over by him, she probably would have wondered. The last few months in Catamount had been marked by turmoil and betrayal after the death of a shifter unraveled the secrets he left behind. Callen Peyton had died in mountain lion form when he was killed by a car in Connecticut, of all places. Lily’s brother, Jake, was the one who uncovered Callen’s plans to sell the services of Catamount shifters to a d**g smuggling network out West. The ensuing events had involved a k********g and a cross-country trek to Montana.

Noah’s uncle, Theo Jasper, had been arrested a few weeks ago for his involvement in the smuggling network. That was the public story. The full story circulated only among the mountain lion shifters in Catamount. The glaring detail missing for everyone else was that Theo had shifted into mountain lion form and taken Lily’s brother, Jake, and another friend on a wild chase through town first. This little event was yet another in a cascade of events in Catamount that had driven deep fissures in the shifter community in Catamount.

Catamount shifters had stayed safe for centuries by keeping their existence a well-guarded secret. Callen’s death and the tentacles of the d**g smuggling network threatened to blow that secrecy to pieces. Lily considered that Noah had a point. Though she hadn’t been thinking of it right now, she figured he’d had many eyes cast in doubt on him since Theo was arrested. She was so twisted inside at being near him, her tendency toward suspicion had been turned off. She took a breath and met his eyes.

“I really wasn’t thinking about that, Noah. I’m not so great at accepting help, that’s all.” Her words were true, but the other truth was it was hard to know who to trust in Catamount anymore. Even though Noah sent her body into a tizzy, her gut told her he was trustworthy. Her breath misted the air. The crow that had been sitting on her car earlier squawked from a nearby tree. Snow sparkled where the sun’s rays landed.

“I’m guessing it’s not so fun being you these days in Catamount,” she finally said.

Noah shrugged, his eyes guarded. “Theo’s an a*s. I barely know him. He’s my dad’s brother, and I wasn’t exactly close to my dad before he passed away. I get why people would wonder, but trust me, I had nothing to do with any of that bullshit. My mom’s about half out of her mind about it, but I figure we have to wait until the dust settles.” His words were matter-of-fact and polite. He met her eyes again. With the barest nod, he continued. “Did you want that ride after all?”

Lily nodded, hugging her arms around her waist, shivering when a gust of wind blew across the road, stirring snow in a swirl. “Let me get my purse.” She rushed over to her car and grabbed her purse. Noah waited by his truck. When she reached his side, he opened the door for her. She hadn’t realized how cold she’d gotten until he closed the door and the warmth of his truck cab seeped through her.

When he climbed inside, he sat still for a moment before turning to her. “If I came across like a jerk, I didn’t mean to. This whole…” He paused and gestured vaguely. “…mess makes me sick.”

“You didn’t come across like a jerk. Everyone’s on edge these days.” She didn’t add that he set her on edge in an entirely different way.

He held her eyes for a long moment, and she felt the flush crawling up her neck and face. He was way too sexy for her to think straight. Her traitorous body swirled with heat. Noah was seriously out of her league. There was a reason she was still a virgin, and it definitely wasn’t because she was saving herself for anything. It was because she wasn’t the kind of woman men noticed. Female shifters were supposed to be sexy, but even though she couldn’t quite say what she was lacking, she knew Noah had only noticed her because her car was broken down.

He nodded slowly. “On edge is one way to put it.” He turned away and put his truck in gear. “Where to?”

* * *

Noah glanced over at Lily and took a breath. Lily North was about the cutest woman he’d ever laid eyes on, and he couldn’t figure out how he’d never noticed her before. Her golden brown hair fell in loose waves around her shoulders. She’d tried to tidy her hair after she pulled the pine needles out, but had only slightly succeeded, which was just fine with him since it only made her even cuter. Her blue eyes darted sideways to meet his, and she bit her lip. He forced himself to take another breath. Damn. He’d known Lily for as long as he could remember, but only in passing. It wasn’t that he didn’t notice her, but he’d never gotten close enough to her to realize she was flat out gorgeous with her sky blue eyes, her flushed cheeks and her petite curvy body.

They were both from shifter families in Catamount. Difference was, Lily’s family was revered in Catamount while his family, on the other hand, was probably better forgotten. Theo’s involvement in the d**g smuggling scandal was just another notch in their list of misdeeds. Noah’s father, Willis Jasper, had died from a heart attack five years ago. Noah had felt only relief and regret at his death. Willis had been abusive to his mother for as long as Noah could remember. Just as with humans, there were plenty of shifters who wanted nothing more than easy power. Knocking around anyone close was Willis’s way of finding power. Noah had cultivated the skill to stay out of the way. The only thing he could thank his father for was his skill at staying quiet and almost invisible, which had served him well in the Marines and enabled him to climb his way into the Special Forces. Stealth missions came easily to him.

Noah moved back to Catamount a few months ago when he found out his mother’s health was failing. She’d said nothing to him about it, but his aunt had called him and told him his mother had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Since he’d come home, he’d learned from her doctor that her cancer was Stage Three and had spread to her spine. Sadly, she’d never smoked in her life. The doctor had explained that she was likely exposed to radon gas for years. New England had high rates of radon present in the soil. Many homes dealt with this by installing systems to filter it out, but their home had never had one.

His mind flashed to this morning when he found her coughing up blood in the kitchen. He immediately shoved the memory away. She was sick and most likely dying. He had to find a way to come to terms with that. In the narrow world of his childhood, his mother had been the only bright spot in his heart. Though she’d never managed to walk away from Willis, she’d done what she could to shield Noah and been a source of steady support and love for his entire life.

He hadn’t thought twice about moving back to Catamount when he heard she was sick. While his career in the Marines had saved him in many ways, he’d been moved to administrative duties on base after sustaining multiple injuries in a bombing in Afghanistan. While he could have bided his time and been cleared for full duty again, he couldn’t even consider leaving his mother to die alone. His father may have been a big part of the reason he left Catamount, but his mother was who kept his heart tethered there.

He’d also missed Catamount—the stark seasons, the weathered beauty of the forests here, the nooks and crannies hiding in the Appalachian Mountains, and being in the one and only place he felt safe being true to himself as a shifter. While he’d lived away for over a decade, he could count on one hand the number of times he’d shifted into mountain lion form while he was away. It wasn’t safe, so he barred the door to that part of himself. It wasn’t like shifters walked freely around as mountain lions in Catamount, but at least half the town were shifters, and the expansive wilderness nearby allowed shifters to roam freely when they wanted. In the few months he’d been home, he’d spent hours and hours roaming the forest and foothills—feeling and flexing into his mountain lion again.

Lily’s phone jangled—a cherry chirp of a ring—and she jumped in her seat. Noah canted his eyes sideways to find her fumbling for her phone in her purse. As soon as she got it out, she dropped it. The phone slid out of sight under the seat. He bit back the urge to laugh. She looked so flustered and damn cute.

“Dammit!” She leaned forward, but quickly sat up again. “No way I can reach it. I can’t even see it.” She sighed and leaned back.

“I’ll get it for you when we stop,” he offered.

He looked over at her when he stopped at an intersection near downtown Catamount. She was looking out the window, chewing her lip and twirling a lock of silky hair around her finger.

“Where should I drop you off?”

She turned to him. When her gorgeous blue eyes collided with his, she flushed, uncertainty flashing in the depths of blue. She bit her lip, and a jolt of l**t hit him. Noah didn’t know what had come over him, but his body had all kinds of things to say about Lily. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d even noticed a woman. He’d done his share of dating, but nothing ever went beyond light and easy. After the nightmare of watching the devastation his father wrought on his mother, he didn’t believe in the fairy tale of love and romance. Hence, he threw himself into his career and kept relationships superficial. The effect Lily was having on him was—unusual. He wanted to know what lay behind those flickers of uncertainty. His body wanted to tug the bundle of her—lush curves and softness—into his lap and kiss her senseless.

He shackled his urges and focused on the moment. “You can drop me off at my brother’s office,” she finally said.

The light changed and he drove through the intersection, turning toward the center of downtown where Jake’s office was. “You work with Jake?”

She shook her head. “Not really. Sometimes I help him with projects.”

“I know Jake’s does something with computers, but what do you do?”

“Jake does coding, website building and is what most people call a forensic computer expert. Short description: he can hack like nobody’s business, but he keeps it legal. I work in the same field, but we do different things. I work the other side of hacking by identifying network vulnerabilities and helping create fixes. I freelance and mostly work from home. When Jake needs extra help on something, he usually calls me.”

“Damn. Guess you could say being brilliant runs in the family, huh?”

Noah pulled up in front of Jake’s office as he said this. He turned to Lily. Her cheeks were flushed again. She shrugged, still twirling that lock of hair around her finger. “Not really. We both like computers though.” She glanced toward Jake’s office and back to Noah. “So, um, do you want me to see if Jake can deal with the tire?”

Noah couldn’t explain it, but there was no way he was giving up the chance to see her again. Even if seeing her only meant picking her up with the repaired tire and returning her to her car. “Nah. I got it. How long were you planning on being in town today?”

“I hadn’t really planned much. What time were you thinking of heading back out?”

“I have a few errands to run, but I should be done this afternoon. How about I pick you up around two?” He left out that what he would be doing for most of the day was sitting with his mother while she received her latest round of chemotherapy.

Lily nodded. “Sure. That’ll work.” She moved to get out of the car. “Oh, I have to get my phone!”

She climbed out and looked under the seat. Noah watched her for a moment and leaned down to see if he could find her phone. Just as his hand closed over it, all the way over to the driver’s side, he looked up to say something and found Lily’s face inches from his.

Her blue eyes widened when he met her gaze. The flush simmering under the surface of her skin flared on her cheeks. Her lips, plump and an almost perfect bow shape, were so tempting, his breath hitched and pulse pounded. His eyes, clearly under their own control, flicked down. She wore a scoop neck shirt, which hung forward since she had leaned over. The generous curves of her breasts were on display, a glimpse of blue lace teased him. Holy hell. Her ivory skin was taut. He could see the beat of her pulse in her neck.

She froze and suddenly scrambled away. His body literally ached for a split second. He’d come so close to touching her, the loss of the chance was a sharp pang. He forced himself to take a breath before he sat up. He held his palm out, her phone on it. “Here you go. So, uh, I’ll see you this afternoon?”

Lily brushed her hair back, tucking those honeyed locks behind her ears, and pulled her jacket together in front, hiding her delectable breasts from his view. He doubted she had a clue the effect she had on him. It was like a lightning bolt out of nowhere. He was beyond relieved he was sitting down with his jacket covering the bulge in his pants. She nodded quickly and snagged her purse. She turned to leave when he realized she hadn’t taken her phone from him.

“Hey, did you want your phone?”

She whirled back. “Oh! Yes, yes, of course.” She reached out, her fingers brushing his when she took the phone. “See you in a little bit. Thanks for the ride.” She turned away quickly and all but ran up the walkway to her brother’s office.