Free Completed by Becca Jameson Page A

his. She kissed him—on the cheek. What the fuck?
    “Joshua Rice, this is Nathan Craig. Nathan, Josh.”
    Great. The uninvited man has a name. That’s wonderful. And he’s a shifter? Josh scented him easily. Yep, he was wolf. But something was totally off about this situation.
    “Nice to meet you, Josh. I’ve heard so much about you in the last eight hours.” This Nathan guy was forcing politeness also. What the hell was going on?
    “Samantha?” Josh turned toward her as he shut the door. The room instantly filled with weirdness—both physical and invisible.
    She dropped her purse and computer on the floor and sat on the edge of the bed. Where was her overnight bag?
    “I don’t even know where to begin.” She wrung her hands together and lifted her face to him. Tears filled her eyes.
    Instantly Josh was at her side. He adjusted his towel, sat next to her, and pulled her into his embrace. She smelled so damn good, though she was laced with the scent of the other shifter.
    With her head against his bare chest, he relaxed marginally and lifted his gaze to Nathan, his eyebrows raised in question.
    Nathan pulled the single chair out from the desk and turned it to face the bed. He too dropped a briefcase on the floor and took a seat. “It seems we have a bit of a…situation.”
    Yes. I would say so. The situation is that I desperately need to be alone with my mate and you seem to be in our small hotel room with us. Wanna watch? Josh would have laughed at the thoughts in his head, except he suspected there was nothing humorous about what he was about to face.
    Josh straightened his spine without meaning to. He felt incredibly jealous that apparently his mate had traveled eight hours in a car with another shifter. Someone needed to start explaining. “What sort of situation?”
    Nathan wrung his hands together and faced Josh. “Samantha is my mate too.”
    Josh stiffened. His mouth fell open, but no sound came out. He held Samantha tighter. He couldn’t pinpoint his emotion right then.
    “I know it’s weird, and I’ve had the entire day to process this information. Now that I’m here with both of you, it’s a little clearer to me. Our scents mingle together in a way I’ve never experienced with anyone else.” Nathan smiled, but Josh wasn’t sure there was anything funny or remotely happy about this moment. “I worried all day about what it meant for you and I if we were both mated to Samantha. I can see now this…threesome only includes our interaction with her, not each other.” Nathan’s shoulders relaxed as he grinned.
    Josh shook his head. He couldn’t stop it. On impulse, he stood, releasing his mate and stepping away from her. He ran his hands through his hair. “What the fuck are you talking about?” He stared at Samantha, but addressed his question to the goddamn wolf who had arrived with the woman Josh had claimed yesterday.
    Fuck, had the two of them…? Shit .
    Samantha straightened her spine where she sat. She didn’t stand though. “Josh, don’t look at me like that. I’m not some whore you picked up on the street yesterday.” She narrowed her gaze at him, threatening him with a look. “I have not slept with Nathan. I resent you would automatically assume I have, and if you would take one second to breathe, you would realize the truth…about everything.”
    Josh inhaled deeply. His hands shook and he fisted them at his sides. He closed his eyes, leaned his head back, and sucked in air. His initial thought was to control himself and avoid howling, literally. But, the act of breathing also filled his nostrils with the truth. This Nathan guy indeed had not fucked Josh’s mate…yet. In fact, he hadn’t so much as touched her. His pheromones filled the room and mixed with Samantha’s and Josh’s, but other than being extremely aroused, Nathan was being honest.
    Josh lowered his face and relaxed his expression before turning to address Nathan. “You drove all the way here all day