Free Beneath the Broken Moon: Part One: Shifter/Vampire Romance by Sarah Makela

sniffing the relaxing scent, and felt a hundred times better.
    Jessa placed a few jars in a tan tote bag with her store’s logo on it. “I can’t believe you’re still seeing him. Doesn’t your brother hate his guts?” She glanced at me, a look of disapproval in her eyes.
    “Geez...you as well? Can’t a girl have relationship bliss without even her best friend disapproving? Why does everyone have to second-guess me and my decisions?”
    “Honey, it’s not you we’re second-guessing.” She wrapped her arms around me, stroking my back gently. I rested my head on her shoulder. “It’s your choice in men.”
    I jerked away, not happy with the direction this was going. “That’s not fair! Everyone has their moments of.... Fine. I’m not thrilled with dating Greg, but I won’t break his heart before Christmas. Besides, I don’t want to be alone for the holidays. Sue me if I’d rather be in a lame relationship with a pushy guy, than with no one at all!” I tugged a jar of wolf’s bane off the shelf and dropped it in the tote bag. “If you all have such a problem with me dating him, then why can’t I do the deed after the New Year? It could be a resolution.”
    Jessa opened her mouth to give me a piece of her mind, but my cell phone chimed a melodic dubstep tune. “I’ll ring this up.”
    Nodding, I mouthed a thank you. “Hey, Greg.”
    “Sis, if you ever call me that again, we’re going to throw down, and you know I’d never hit a girl.” Nolan’s tone was playful, but his voice resonated with a clear underlying anger at the mention of my boyfriend.
    “Sorry, Nolan.” Hearing my brother’s name, Jessa glanced in my direction, and I walked a little farther away from the counter. “What do you want?”
    “Huh, why do you ask like that?” Mischief saturated his words, and I wished I hadn’t answered the phone. Nolan was a great brother. However, behavior-wise, most people usually thought I was the older sibling instead of visa versa. Wonder why.
    “Now isn’t—”
    “Ethan is arriving home tomorrow. I have to work late, so you don’t mind picking him up from the airport, do you?”
    I sucked in a breath, surprised he was even asking me this. Should I turn him down? Make him find someone else to handle this?
    “Great. I’ll text you the flight info. Thanks, sis.”
    “Nolan!” His words punched me in the gut. “Nolan?” Looking at the cell phone, I gritted my teeth, seeing he’d taken the coward’s way by hanging up once he had what he wanted. When was I ever going to learn?
    “Honey? What’s wrong?” Concern softened Jessa’s voice.
    I shrugged, not wanting to get into this.
    “No, you can talk to me. What did your brother do this time?”
    I headed to the register, closing the space between us. “It’s just that I have so much going on, but Nolan has delegated to me the responsibility of picking Ethan up from the airport tomorrow. If I were him, I would have at least tried to get off work, especially since he’s known about Ethan coming back home for the holidays.” Letting out a sigh, I grabbed the tote bag’s handle, but Jessa held onto it.
    “Call him back. Tell him you can’t.” She smiled at me. “Besides, Ethan is his best friend, so he should grow some balls and deal with it himself.”
    “I’ll do that.” Jessa’s smile turned into a glare, and I threw up my hands. “I’ll do that right now then.” Digging into my pocket, I pulled out my phone and rang Nolan. The chime of a text came through in my ear. Ethan’s flight details. But I only managed to get through to Nolan’s voicemail. “He’s not answering. Grrr....”
    Jessa shrugged. “If that’s the case, you’ll have to let it go. It’s Nolan’s problem. While you love your brother, you can’t let yourself get caught up in his faults. Learn to say no.”
    Easy for her to say now, when she’d basically done the exact same thing to me by telling me to come visit her shop and then nearly forcing