Chapter One
“I swear I’m going to throw this damn thing out the window.” Lincoln Wheeler banged the side of his fist against the monitor. He’d never gotten along with technology, and the frozen screen only proved he should’ve stuck with his spreadsheets.
“Did you say something?” Mercy stuck his head into Lincoln’s office, and then his stepbrother’s eyes widened when Lincoln struck the monitor again.
“I’m certain that’s not how you fix things.” Mercy held up his hands and waved them back and forth. “Just hold on and I’ll get Red. He seems to know a bit about computers. He fixed my laptop when it was on the fritz.”
“You better hurry up before I throw this thing into my trashcan.” Lincoln dropped into his seat, cursing. Not because his computer was for shit but because Redford Wailing would be in his office.
Lincoln’s mate.
He’d discovered that fact when Red had stepped onto his ranch a month ago, and Lincoln had been ready to claim the human, but Red always seemed to run from him.
Lincoln’s Bengal tiger had been pissy since then, always wanting to hunt Red down and solder their souls together. Too bad Red never stuck around long enough for Lincoln to have a personal conversation with him.
He walked to the window and rested an arm on the frame, looking out over his ranch, wondering how much longer he had to keep his distance. Red was skittish and always backed away whenever Lincoln got close.
Time. That was all his mate needed. Something had obviously happened to him, though you couldn’t tell by his carefree spirit. But it was in Red’s eyes, the expression he tried so hard to hide. Some kind of pain and suffering he’d gone through.
“You wanted to see me?” Red rapped his knuckles on Lincoln’s open door.
Lincoln turned and groaned. Fuck. Every time he laid eyes on Red, his heart started thundering like wild horses. The human was tall, with a slight build and brownish-red hair, though his nickname didn’t come from the color of his hair. It was a shortened version of his name. He also had stunning green eyes.
Lincoln’s Bengal tiger purred at the sight of the man. All he wanted to do was sweep Red into his arms and kiss the living daylights out of him.
He wanted to do other things to Red, as well. Every time he laid eyes on him or if he just thought about his mate, Lincoln got a hard-on.
Lincoln waved at his desk. “My computer is acting up.”
Red’s smile was sweeter than honeydew. “What’s going on with it?”
He still hadn’t come any closer. Red lingered at the door, smiling, but looking uncertain.
“He’s been beating on it,” Mercy said from beside Red, and Lincoln noticed how Red didn’t shy away from Mercy.
Then again, Lincoln’s stepbrother was slight in stature. Mercy was about as intimidating as a baby bird. His entire life Lincoln had looked out his for stepbrother, always making sure he wasn’t picked on. But he hadn’t always been there for Mercy, not every second, and now the guy was only half the man he used to be.
Lincoln was half-tempted to hunt Lloyd down and beat the daylights out of him. He would’ve done that already if Mercy hadn’t begged him to stay out of it.
Thank fuck Mercy’s ex-boyfriend had fled town or the temptation might have been too much to resist.
“I think if you got closer you might be able to see what’s wrong with it,” Mercy said to Red. “I promise, Lincoln doesn’t bite. He growls a lot, sometimes he purrs, but he would never show you his teeth.”
Talk about letting the kitty out of the bag without letting the kitty out of the bag. Lincoln gave his brother a look that told him to shut up. Red didn’t need to know that Lincoln was a shifter. Not yet, anyway. Not until he’d gotten his mate’s story and found out what the man was hiding.
“Mercy,” Lincoln said in warning. He loved the guy, but damn could Mercy talk.
A lot of times at the most inappropriate moments. Like now.
Lincoln moved farther away from the desk so Red could approach. His mate gave a tight smile, as if trying to appear friendly, but Lincoln couldn’t get over the mistrust in Red’s eyes.
Lincoln crossed his arms and tried to keep a good distance as he watched Red take a seat and stare at the screen. Then he started typing, his fingers moving so fast that Lincoln’s head spun. Red murmured to himself, and even though Lincoln had superior hearing, he couldn’t make out what his mate was saying.
Red furrowed his brows and looked at Lincoln. “When was the last time you updated?”
“Updated?”
Red tapped the screen. “You have twenty-five updates waiting to be installed. You shouldn’t have that on manual. It should be on the automatic setting.”
Lincoln glanced at Mercy because he hadn’t the faintest idea what his mate was talking about.
His brother held up his hands. “Don’t look at me. I understand what he’s saying about as much I understand your foreman.”
Adam Perry had gotten his jaw broken more than once in his life, and now he mumbled everything. Even Lincoln had a hard time understanding the guy.
Red went back to looking at the screen. “You’re also running Windows XP when you should be running Windows 10, but I prefer Linux. And you’ve got an outdated motherboard and processor.”
Lincoln didn’t understand a word Red was saying.
Mercy snorted. “Can you at least pretend you’ve had sex?”
Red jerked back then chuckled. “I have had sex. And I’m sorry. I tend to forget not everyone is computer literate. What I’m saying is you need something that wasn’t invented in the Stone Age. Buying a new computer wouldn’t hurt, or Quicken. It would help you keep better records, though I’ve never used that program, so that’ll be a learning curve.”
Lincoln didn’t need to hear about Red’s past lovers. He felt his canines trying to descend, and he wanted to kill every last one of them. Even though they hadn’t even kissed yet, let alone had sex, Lincoln was as possessive as any other nonhuman when it came to his or her mate.
“Wow.” Mercy gave a low whistle. “You’re being wasted as a hired hand. How did you learn so much about this kind of stuff?”
Lincoln saw Red shut down. The light in his eyes faded as he shrugged. “Picked up a trick here and there.”
The guy was definitely hiding something, and as badly as Lincoln wanted to help, he couldn’t do anything if his mate kept running from him.
“That’s pretty much all I know.” Red scooted back from the desk and walked to the door. “I really need to get back to work.”
“You should tell him,” Mercy said when Red was gone. “Clearly he’s hiding something, and you need to find out what that something is.”
“The guy runs from me like a scared colt. I just need to earn his trust first.”
“From the way Red acts, you might earn it in about a hundred years. What you need to do is—”
“Don’t even go there,” Lincoln growled. “You let me handle this situation with my mate while you go handle Adam. He needs the new schedule.”
“Fine, be stubborn. It’s not as if Red might need a friend.” Mercy spun on his heel and walked out.