Alastair and Connor McTavish have been charged by their clan leader, their Alpha, to find the Tree of Life. Without it, their people will die out. When they run into Charity Webber, their Tu braith, they’ll do what they must to protect her from the men determined to kill her for what she’s seen, but that’s only half their battle. Because they must somehow convince her that men can turn into Jaguars, they both sensed she was their mate and they have every intention on keeping her.

Alastair McTavish closed his cell phone and tossed it onto his backpack on top of the bed. After one last glance around the motel room to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything, he went to the bathroom door and started pounding on it. “Hurry up in there, Connor. We don’t have all day, ye know. I don’t know how a cousin of mine can take longer than most women to shower and dress before leaving to go anywhere.”

“Hold on a minute, Alastair. I slept like hell last night and I needed the hot water to work the sore muscles from sleeping on these lousy motel beds. We’d have been better off sleeping on the hard ground in our sleeping bags than those monstrosities of what passed as mattresses.”

Connor opened the bathroom door and a wall of steam billowed out in front of him just as Alastair was ready to start pounding on the door again. The man did enjoy his hot showers in the morning preferring it over a cup of hot coffee to wake the sleep from his eyes. Alastair couldn’t understand it. He’d already raided the motel room’s two cup supply and been to the lobby and had a cup while waiting for Connor to finish his shower. Now he was ready to get on the road.

His Alpha, and Laird of their Clan, Rory Gordon, felt certain that he and their Beta were near the area the Tree of Life had been hidden and had called in all of his clansman currently here in the States to search. He wanted to get on the road this morning. As soon as they finished breakfast they would begin making their way to the Appalachian Mountains.

“Are you ready to break yer fast, Cousin Connor?”

“Aye. I’m starving something fierce this morning. Do ye think this town has anything better than fast food? I’m getting sick of eating burgers and fries since we’ve been over here. I miss eating sit down family meals with the clan.”

Alastair shrugged. He had to admit, he was beginning to miss the family style sit down meals the clan put together as well. It wasn’t the food so much as the companionship of listening to the men and women and even children sharing about their day—what few children there were anyway. Where Connor seemed to have always looked forward to those evening meals, lately he’d begun to dread them. He’d begun to feel envious of his mated clansman and it shamed him.

He had a good job, provided much needed income to the clan by marketing their crafts to people who want authentic Scottish ales, yarns, kilts, and wools and anything else their clan made to sell to outsiders. Yet, he had no one to share his successes with, no one to cuddle with when he came home or to make wee bairns with or to snuggle with during the long, cold winter nights, or to lie in the heather with during the summer. As the years passed, the ache for more continued to grow until now it felt like a gaping wound in his soul.

He needed his Tu braith—his soul mate. For now, he’d settle for breakfast. After that, he’d see if he could at least help his Alpha find the Tree of Life. Perhaps his mate merely waited to be born. “There’s a diner on the other side of the parking lot. How could you not see it—or smell it—when we came in last night, Connor?”

Connor snorted, pulling a T-shirt over his head he then tucked it intae his pants before meeting Alastair’s gaze. “I was tired. We’d been traveling—backpacking—for two days. I just wanted sleep. Now I want food.”

Shaking his head, Alastair clipped his cell phone to his jeans then shrugged his backpack onto one shoulder. “After I feed you, we need to see if they have a bank here in town where we can withdraw some cash. We either have to rent a car or buy a cheap one to get to where we’re going. Rory and Gavin want us in the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia as soon as possible.”

“What’s the hurry?”

“They think they’ve narrowed the location of the Tree of Life to that general location. Oh, they’ve also met their Tu braith and have mated her.”

Connor gasped, shock clearly written all over his face. “We’ve only been in the State’s a week. How could he and Gavin have met their soul mate in just a week?

Alastair stuck his hand in his pocket while Connor finished pulling his hiking boots on. He asked himself the same question. How could something happen so quickly? And could lightning strike twice? Or five times? Because there were six teams of Scots here from Kinross searching for the Tree of Life, six teams of men all in need of mates, all looking for love, all wanting women and bairns of their own. Who would he have to beg and plead with and what would he have to sacrifice so that Fate would have mercy on them all?