Callie
“Hoo wee, did you see the hot new guys?”
I ignored the annoying voice and continued to read the text in front of me. My organization was about to start working on legislation having to do with fracking and I needed to be as knowledgeable as possible.
“Callie. Did you hear me?”
I looked up to find Aubrey perched on the table beside me. When had she even gotten there?
“What’s going on?”
Aubrey rolled her eyes. “The new guys. Did you see them? They’re delicious-looking.”
I frowned at her choice of words and shook my head. Since when were men described the same way as you would a cake? “Um. No. I didn’t.”
Aubrey huffed out an irritated breath. “That’s probably because you’ve got your nose so far inside that book I’m surprised you don’t have ink on the end of it.”
I self-consciously reached up to rub the tip of my nose. “I’m studying, Aubrey. We have a huge case coming up and I need to–”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said, cutting me off. “Anyway, I’m just letting you know I call dibs on both of them.”
Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. “What are you, five? You can’t call dibs on a person. Let alone two people.”
Aubrey shrugged and hopped off the table. “Well, I just did.” With that, she sauntered off.
I watched her for a moment longer before I shook my head and returned to my textbook. She was ridiculous and I didn’t have time for her nonsense. Truthfully, I should have been up in my room studying, but the walls had felt like they were closing in on me and I thought a change of scenery was in order.
My environmental organization was slowly picking up speed and I needed to be ahead of my game now more than ever. So far it was just me and Katie doing what we could when we could, but I had plans to change all that. Within the next year, I wanted to hire another scientist and possibly acquire a lab of our own. That would take money though, and that wasn’t something we had at the moment.
In the meantime, I needed to finish this text and fill my already overflowing brain with everything I could learn about fracking and its potential effect on the air, water, and soil before we went out in the field ourselves.
I don’t know how much time I lost in that textbook before I was tapped on the shoulder. When I looked up, I found my brother, Abey, with a smile on his face.
“Sorry to interrupt, but I wanted to introduce you to our new packmates.”
This must have been what Aubrey was jabbering on about. It was no surprise really. She’d already made her way around most of the men in the pack. Eventually she’d need some fresh meat, or she’d starve.
“Wyatt, Wes, this is my sister, Callista.”
Ugh. I really didn’t like when he called me Callista. It reminded me of our parents, and those were usually sad thoughts I tried to steer clear of.
I looked up and smiled at the first of the two men. This one had messy blond hair, light brown eyes, and a mischievous smile on his face. With a nod at him, I turned to what I assumed was his brother. He had a similar hair color, although his was much shorter than the other’s. But it wasn’t until I met his eyes that the whole room ground to a halt.
They were almost the exact same color as the first man’s, but that’s where the similarities stopped. This man’s eyes gripped me like a boa constrictor, cutting off my oxygen and the blood flow to my extremities. It felt like I was suffocating as I fell deeper and deeper into his warm gaze.
I’d never felt that way in my life. Never had that kind of instant connection with another person.
It threw up bright red flags that I couldn’t ignore.
I wrenched my eyes away from his and took my first real breath in what felt like forever. I had no idea what just happened, but I knew I couldn’t let it happen again. Something that powerful and all-encompassing had no place in my life.
With my eyes on the wooden table in front of me, I mumbled, “Nice to meet you both.”
The first man answered, “You too,” and I found myself yearning to hear the second man’s voice instead.
While I was silently chastising myself, the voice I was longing to hear rang out in the space between us. “Right. Nice to meet you too.”
Jeez. Even his voice was captivating.
If these two guys were really about to join our pack, I was in deep trouble.
My brother spoke up next and I silently thanked him. “Now, let’s go take a look at the rest of the pack lands. I can show you where your house is and then let you get back to your mom so you can all prepare to move in tomorrow.”
“Sounds good,” the second man said, and I had to actively hold back a shiver from racing down my spine.
Thankfully, they left moments later, and my heart was able to slowly return to its normal pace. I wasn’t alone long though.
“I changed my mind,” Aubrey said. “I call dibs on that one.”
I whipped my head in her direction to see her pointing at Abey and the men he’d just introduced me to.
“Which one?” I asked cautiously, although I felt like I already had a pretty good idea which one she meant. That’s just the way my luck went.
“The one with the shorter hair. He’s mine, so hands off.”
I scoffed. “You can’t be serious. He’s not a toy, Aubrey. You can’t claim him.”
She narrowed
