Free One Last Prowl: BBW Were Mountain Lion Shapeshifter Mail Order Bride Romance (Shifter Grove Brides Book 6) by Anya Nowlan Page B

like, and she was beginning to think that all that fresh air was playing tricks on her. No way one little town could feel so… right. Like she was meant to be there all along.
    Smiling, Dahlia shook that thought off. She was sitting on the porch swing, watching Austin teach Marcus how to chop firewood. Marcus’s face was twisted with concentration, focusing on the heavy blade in his hands and the block of wood before him. There was a hardness to his expression that Dahlia had never seen before but that struck her as entirely familiar.
    That’s the way Arthur used to look when he was building something…
    A sigh rose to her throat and she let it out, shaking her head a bit. There were all these moments she wished Arthur was there to see, but that life had denied him and her both. The true victim here was Marcus, though. He was the one growing up without a father. That had never been as clear as it was in Shifter Grove, where he was surrounded by men who were like what Dahlia wanted Marcus to grow up to be. Dependable. Assertive. At peace with themselves.
    And she had to admit that with every day in Idaho he looked more like the kind of boy who could become that man. So different from the hurt teenager she saw in New York, the one she had to worry about constantly. Here, he was exactly like Dahlia had imagined him to be if Arthur was still around. Austin had a lot to do with that, she knew.
    She hadn’t noticed at first, but he’d been spending a lot of time with Marcus. Whatever he could teach him, he did. From fixing small electronics to changing a truck tire, to driving and fishing, Austin let Marcus try his hand at everything. The way Marcus was beginning to look up to Austin for it was obvious as well. Yes, they had their squabbles, when Marcus’s fiery nature got the best of him, but these were growing rarer and further in between. Her child was growing up right in front of her eyes and she couldn’t be happier that it was with the help of the man who had completely won her over.
    The one thing she still hoped and prayed for was that Marcus could really connect with his shifter side. She’d been patiently waiting for that primal part of him to wake up and demand dominance, with Austin reassuring her that he had no doubt it would happen if he roamed free and got his “forest legs” under him, but still, there was no sign that would lead Dahlia to believe that Marcus was truly following in his father’s footsteps.
    Give him time, she reminded herself.
    “Looking good out there!” she yelled to Austin and Marcus, grinning as she got a quick wave and a smile back from Marcus.
    She got up from the swing and went inside to make some hot tea for the hardworking men in her lives.
    A girl can really get used to this, she thought, adding some sugar into the drinks to sweeten it up.
    Dahlia grabbed a tray of mugs and sauntered out with them, carefully balancing the tray as she made her way across the cold ground, her feet tucked in some warm boots.
    “Thought you two could use a drink. Careful, it’s hot,” she said, letting both of them grab a mug.
    Steam rose from their mouths as both Austin and Marcus took a sip. Marcus was breathing heavily, a healthy glow on his face and one foot on the heavy stump they’d been using. He looked… content. And that was an emotion she had very rarely felt about her petulant son. She shared a quick look with Austin, who gave her a reassuring wink.
    They still hadn’t told Marcus that there was anything going on between them. Every day she found a new and perfectly reasonable excuse as to why she couldn’t do it yet, and every day it sounded perfectly feasible if she did say so herself. And Austin humored her, being the patient guy he was, but with time running out, Dahlia knew that she didn’t have that many chances anymore.
    Standing there in the chilly October afternoon, with the sun already threatening to set, she felt at peace. Not only because Austin was standing next to