Roused (Moon Claimed) by Lilou Roux

ONE
    Erin couldn’t believe it.
    Her sister wanted to marry. After she’d known the guy for about eight weeks.
    And Erin knew it was basically her fault. She had been the one urging her sister to take a break, to get some air after her break down. Tess hadn’t been doing well. Plagued by dreams she had become so restless and tired that she had finally hit the roof – unfortunately during her working hours. Erin had hoped that a change of pace and in scenery, that getting her sister out of her four walls was the way to go. And it had…in the beginning. Her level-headed baby sister who usually planned spontaneity had followed her heart and on a whim she had taken a bus to Montana . She had been happy and calmer there, and Erin had thought that everything was going to be alright.
    A guy changed that, of course. Men always did.
    He’d swept Tess off her feet, which Erin wouldn’t mind so much if she wasn’t pretty sure her sister had fallen on her head in the process.
    Marriage, after barely two months? Erin knew that Tess was the romantic of the two of them but even for her sister that was a little too fast. However, there was something else that made her stomach clench with dread and a bad feeling of apprehension. During their last conversation on the phone Tess had started babbling about soulmates and fate and magic in a way that had Erin’s alarm bells going off, putting even AC/DC’s ear-battering Hells Bells to shame.
    She had dropped what she had been doing, gotten on a plane to Montana, and now she was on her way in a rented car to a B&B hiding somewhere in the forests of Western Montana.
    She would get her sister back. They would talk. If it was truly love she felt for that guy, Nathan, then Erin would have a good look at him before she could give her blessings. Tess was her baby sister, even if only by a year, and Erin had always taken that role very serious, ever since their parents had died and they had gone through several abusive foster homes before finally settling into a more or less healthy one. They had always looked out for each other and Erin wouldn’t stop now. She had the feeling her sister needed her, even if Tess didn’t realize it.
    Reaching the small town she had been looking for, Erin checked the map she had gotten o ff the internet and turned left at the next crossroads.
    Early morning touched the sky in soft hues of pi nk and fog wafted around the tree tops. But Erin didn’t stop, didn’t even slow down to take in the breath-taking landscape surrounding her. When she reached the main cabin of the B&B she had been looking for, she parked the car in front. After a quick check in the mirror, she ran a hand under her mismatched eyes, one blue and one green, and through the short cap of her blonde hair. It was the best she could do for now, she decided and got out.
    Damn. She was a woman with a mission and sure as hell wouldn’t be distracted by cute, honey logwood cabins against the magnificent blue-green backdrop of the rise and fall of the mountains. Taking a deep breath, she pulled her dark blue blazer in place, straightening it and her spine at the same time, before putting on her serious face.  A face some grown-up men had run from, tucking tail as quickly as possible – those mismatched eyes of hers had to be good for something after all. She was the out-going, impulsive and casual one of the two, but the moment it concerned her sister she was as serious as could be.
    Confident , Erin marched up the stairs to the main cabin and knocked at the door.
    Waited. And waited.
    She had already lifted her hand to knock again when the door suddenly opened. Erin’s mind short-circuited and left her staring. She had seen some fine specimen of the opposite sex in her life but he left them in the dust – by far.
    He was tall, probably six feet three and topping her five feet nine easily. Strong arms and broad in the shoulders covered in a black shirt that tapered down to lean hips and what she