Free Summer Loving by Cooper McKenzie Page B

going to spend the rest of your life with.”
    Summer nodded and took a long drink. “But how do you know that? I’m supposed to go back to Russia at the end of the week.”
    “Whether or not you go back to your job is one thing, but know this,” Bridget said with a gentle smile, “your men will always love you. It doesn’t matter if you are here with them in Sanctuary or they are there with you in Russia. You should never question their love or loyalty. They are your mates, and you are the only one they will ever be with from now until their deaths.”
    “I don’t understand,” Summer admitted after another long drink from her beer.
    “For shape shifters, the most important thing in life is to find their mate. It’s not like in the human world where you fall in love with a person’s looks or personality or whatever. For shape shifters, there is one single person who was put on this planet for them, one person who will be their mate. Once they find that person, they’ve found their reason for living.”
    “So why haven’t they proposed? I told them that I thought getting married tomorrow with Spring and Winter would be special, but they said they had to think about it,” Summer said, hearing the whining tone in her voice.
    Bridget chuckled. “Knowing my boys, they’re planning something very special. But even if you don’t get married tomorrow, know this, being mated to Cole and Dawson gives you an even stronger bond than a marriage license ever could. The mating bond is only broken by death of one of the mates.”
    Summer thought over the words as she drank the rest of the beer and Winter took them on a tour of the house that no one had been in since he’d started decorating it. When they reached the office the three mates shared, she’d made her decision.
    “Winter, in all of these fancy electronics is there a phone I can use?” she asked as Spring and Bridget left and headed back downstairs.
    “Local, national, or international?” he snarked as he pulled a cell phone off its stand.
    “National. I’ve got to call my boss.”
    “What are you going to tell him?”
    Summer didn’t answer. Instead, she turned on the phone and dialed her boss’s cell phone.
    “Hi, Travis. It’s Summer. I wanted to let you know that I won’t be returning to Russia like I’d planned. In fact, I’ve decided to take some time off.”
    She pulled the phone from her ear when he began yelling and waited until he stopped before speaking again. “I finished the preliminary report before I left, and Hammond can go over and take care of the details. I’ve got nearly a year of vacation time you’ve been fussing at me to take, so I’m going to take some of it. Hell, I might even take all of it.”
    That statement got another earsplitting response before she said, “Have Cindy pack up my stuff and ship it to my parents’ house. Thanks, Travis.”
    Before he could say anything further, she clicked the end button and turned the phone off. “He’s not happy, but he’ll let me have a couple of weeks to think about it.”
    “Good, now let’s party. Maybe Bridget will tell us how to keep our men in line without resorting to wooden spoons or frying pans.” Winter giggled as he led the way back downstairs.
    “I don’t know,” Summer said. “Wooden spoons could be interesting.”
    * * * *
     

    The next morning as Summer helped her sister into the pretty yellow sundress that would serve as her wedding dress, she couldn’t help but smile. Talking with Bridget about life with the twins, she’d come to the realization that it really didn’t matter whether she married Cole and Dawson or not. They were her mates, and there would be no other woman for them but her. And she, who had dated but had never found Mr. Right, now had two of them who would lay down their lives for her.
    Life was good.
    Sure, a marriage proposal would make things perfect, but it didn’t matter. They were mated, and that was even more important