Gabriela’s car engine started wheezing and grinding twenty feet from the sign at the edge of town. Welcome to Cadillac Falls the sign read, with a cheery cartoon sun and pictures of happy evergreen trees at the bottom. She had always loved that sign. Today she loved it more than ever. Seeing it meant she’d made it all the way from Philadelphia to western Washington State in her beat up old Saturn sedan. Even her inner wolf was excited. Stir-crazy from being trapped in the car for so many hours of course, but also excited.Now all she had to do was squeeze out a few more miles before her car gave up the ghost. C’mon baby, just keep going a little bit longer, she pleaded with it silently. Otherwise she had a long walk ahead of her to the motel.She glanced at the temp gauge, seeing the needle inching toward red. The fuel gauge needle was headed in the opposite direction, edging toward empty. An empty gas tank wasn’t as bad as an engine meltdown. Gabriela only had twenty-two dollars and sixty-seven cents left in her purse anyway. She would much rather buy herself something to eat instead of putting more gas into the tank and then having her car engine die for good.Still, she’d finally made it to Cadillac Falls. She had to keep focused on the positive. Fake it till you make it…and any other cliché that might apply. She tried to smile, but her expression felt more like a grimace as she inched along the road deeper into town. Tall pines and spruce grew everywhere, lining the streets and covering the hills of Cadillac Falls.Even years ago, she’d believed Cadillac Falls was a weird name for a town. There was no waterfall anywhere close by and the place didn’t have a single Cadillac dealership. That had always annoyed her when she’d lived here during her high school years, before she’d grown out of being irritated at silly things. Mostly grown out of it, anyway. Because why name something “Falls” when there was no water? And where had Cadillac come from? The whole thing was just a bit loco.A truck swung out into the opposite lane and passed her, speeding off down the street. Then another car passed her. And another. She wanted to yell an apology at them, because this was now her car’s top speed. Twenty-three miles an hour, buckle up and hold on to your hats. At least the other drivers weren’t blaring their horns and making rude gestures. Not like in Philly.My God, what was she doing here? Ditching her life in the city to escape to a small town like this? She shook her head in disgust. She was the crazy one.Crazy or not, she’d been happy here once. It was beautiful, with tall trees, mountains, clean streets, and cute little houses. Some of them were even log cabin-style houses. What she wouldn’t give to own an adorable little log cabin house—Her car began shuddering. Her hands tightened on the steering wheel, as if that would help. She’d made it halfway up a mild hill, but now the temperature needle was well into the red zone. There were a few houses around, a bank, and a big brick and glass building she recognized as one of the Cadillac Falls Fire Stations. Station Six was it? She vaguely remembered the name being something of a joke with the locals. Cadillac Falls only had two fire stations. One and Six.The car made a noise like a dinosaur with the stomach flu, yanking her attention back to the problem at hand.“Just get me over this hill, baby,” she cooed to the car. “I know you’re tired, but we can coast down the other side.”She didn’t feel the least bit self-conscious talking to her car. After all, she talked to all kinds of inanimate objects. Sometimes it earned her odd looks, but she didn’t care. Things behaved better if you talked to them. Hey, it worked with plants, so it should work with vehicles and everything else.This time, though, her car wasn’t having any of it. It coughed and shook, then all the dashboard lights came on and the engine died. Steam began billowing from beneath the hood.She quickly steered to the curb. She misjudged a little and almost bit off her tongue when the tires bumped over the curb and onto the slice of grass in front of the fire station. She slowed to a stop. Then she patted her car on the dashboard. “Thank you, tesoro. I know you tried, and you did good.”Nothing to do now but set the parking brake and get out. She groaned at the stiffness in her body, then looked around as she stretched and tried to work out the aches in her muscles. The fire department station was a large and attractive two-story building nestled in the midst of evergreen trees and copperbush shrubs.Her eyes widened when she noticed the man coming toward her. He’d hurried out of one of the big fire truck bays and he was jogging straight for her. The sight of him left her momentarily stunned, as if she’d walked into a light pole. The guy was an absolutely gorgeous package of masculinity. He wore dark blue station pants and a matching dark blue T-shirt that bulged in its attempt contain his muscles. His brown hair was cut short, his bright blue eyes locked on hers with a gaze so laser-focused it was likely to set her on fire.Her body responded to him near instantaneously. Her nipples tightened, poking against the fabric of her bra. Her light brown skin flushed warm. That needy ache deep inside her pussy came to life, reminding her she hadn’t been laid in almost a year. Damn, if the man could rev her up with just a look, what could he do when he got his mouth and hands on her? Her knees went a little weak at the thought. She’d never had so raw, so immediate a physical reaction to a man before. It was staggering.She stood there gaping at him as he finally reached her. Her car was busy hissing out clouds of steam. She half expected steam to be coming out of her ears as she ogled this sexy firefighter. If anything, he was even better-looking up close. His strong, clean-shaven jawline and bright smile caused her heart to skip. His lips were—“Howdy,” he said, interrupting her stream of lustful thoughts with his full baritone. While his voice might have disrupted her thoughts, it also sent a bolt of pure desire shooting through her from brain to groin and back. “Looks like you’re having some trouble.”“I, uh… I um.” She struggled to get her mouth to work correctly. Heat crept up her neck. “Well, yeah. Some trouble,” she finished lamely. God, what was wrong with her?But she already had some suspicions. The main thing being this particular man standing so close to her.“Mind if I take a look?” he asked.“No. I mean yes! Wait.” She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as he grinned at her. Mischief danced in those beautiful blue eyes of his. She swallowed and her throat made a loud click. “I mean I’d be grateful if you could take a look.”More handsome men were coming out of the station now. They had to be the rest of the on-duty fire crew. They were all attractive enough in different ways, but none of them left her feeling as pole-axed as this smiling man who’d been first to offer help.Wait a minute… She squinted at him, searching her memory. There was something vaguely familiar about him…“I’ve got it!” She did a little hop of victory. “I remember who you are.”His grin widened and he crossed his arms over his broad chest. A chest that she ached to run her hands across… Enough, chica! Get a hold of yourself! Here she was all lust-crazy as if her car hadn’t just now died, leaving her stranded in a town where she didn’t even have a place to stay yet. Clearly it had been far, far too long since she’d last been laid.“So who am I then?” he asked, his eyes twinkling with humor. “You get one guess, not three.”“You’re Luke. Luke Taylor. All grown up.”He laughed. “You got it. I’m amazed you remember a skinny, pimple-faced punk like me from way back then. But I recognized you right away.”The fact that he’d recognized her sent a pure thrill throughout her body. “You’re not so skinny anymore,” she said, and had to clench her hand into a fist to keep from reaching out and fondling his biceps. Which would’ve been weird. And awkward. Again, what the hell was wrong with her? Was her wolf in season or something? “And I only see good complexion on your face… So. Yes. Uh. Very different. Yep.”“I seem to remember you being more eloquent back then,” he teased.More heat rose up her neck and flushed her face with warmth. She couldn’t think of one witty comeback. Not one.His smile had transformed his face into something both cheerful and kind. Thankfully, some of the blunt-force attraction she had for him had lessened enough that she finally started forming coherent thoughts. The attraction hadn’t disappeared. No way. If anything it had settled in deeper, but it had lost that distracting edge that had scrambled her brain. Now she might be able to think straight again and maybe even talk like an intelligent person for the first time in the conversation.Luke held his hand out to her. “Good to see you again, Gabriela Acosta.”She hesitated, then took his hand and gave him a smile. His grip was firm, but not crushing. It was easy to tell that he was very strong, though he didn’t seem to need to squish her hand to prove anything. Now it was her turn to tease. “Good to see you again, Luke. And something tells me that even though you’re all grown up, you’re still a bit of a punk.”He took it in stride and his grin widened. “You got me in one.”Five or so other fire fighters had ambled over to see what was going on. She caught a few appreciative glances, but they were respectful. She’d always been curvy—a curvy body and well-proportioned shape—and she didn’t mind letting the world know she was proud of it. If a man wanted to look, she wasn’t going to fault him for it. But the only man setting her body on fire with his gaze was Luke. He also seemed aware of the attention of the other men on her. He turned to face them with a scowl.“All right, meatheads. I got this.” He seemed to be looming to the full height of his over-six-foot tall frame.“You sure you don’t need some help?” asked one of them, an athletic blond-haired surfer type. “Been kinda boring around here. No kittens to save.”“No help needed, Adam. You can go on back to polishing the pole.”“Since when did you know how to fix a Saturn?” the guy named Adam persisted.Gabriela heard a low growl from Luke. Her inner wolf perked up, responding with interest to the implied threat in the sound—a sound that hadn’t been directed at her. She didn’t know why she hadn’t sensed it right away. Her hunky hero was a shifter—a werewolf. In fact, at this range her inner wolf could tell that all of these men were werewolves. That lit up a bunch of old memories from her time in this town years ago. Fire Station Six had been dominated by werewolves, hadn’t it? There’d been some humans, and at least one other kind of shifter, but it had always been a tight-knit werewolf pack. When had Luke changed? It must have been shortly after she’d left. Most people born into a family of two werewolves came into their wolves about midway through puberty.Great. So not only was Luke drop-dead sexy, he was a werewolf. What had she gotten herself into? A lone, pack-less wolf whose car had just ker-ploded on the front lawn of a bunch of sexy male werewolf firefighters. A recipe for disaster.The other firefighter snorted, giving Luke a wry smile. “All right, all right. She’s all yours, buddy.”The men waved to her as they headed back to the station. One of them even quipped that she’d broken down in the best place possible if her car was going to catch on fire.“It’s not though, is it?” she asked Luke, pointing at her poor car. “Going to catch on fire, I mean.”“Doubtful.” He put his hands on his hips and stared at the vehicle. “Though I’ve seen weirder things happen. Pop the hood for me and I’ll have a look-see.”She moved to the driver side and did as he’d asked. He raised the hood, propping it up with the rod, and started waving away the billowing steam.“So how is Nicole?” Gabriela asked as they both peered at the engine.Part of her hoped some chitchat about his sister would delay the inevitable moment when Luke turned to her and announced that her car was deader than a dodo bird. But she was also genuinely curious. Nicole had been her best friend when she’d lived in Cadillac Falls during high school. That was before her parents had moved her back to Philly the summer before her senior year. Luke had been Nicole’s younger brother. Hadn’t he been a freshman when Gabriela had been a junior? She couldn’t quite remember. All she knew was that he had really grown up well. It was hard to imagine him as the gawky, awkward kid from way back then.“Nicole’s great,” he replied. “She’s a kindergarten teacher. Loves working with kids.”“I can’t wait to see her again. It’s been way too long.” She glanced toward where she knew the downtown area was, though she couldn’t see it now because the top of the hill blocked her view. She took a deep breath, inhaling the scents of green trees and green grass…and melted rubber, hot metal, and smoldering plastic. She coughed and wrinkled her nose. Maybe she’d wait until the air cleared before trying to suck in the smells of nature again.He chuckled. “She’ll be very excited to see you again. You planning on staying in town for long?”“Moving back.” She jerked a thumb behind her. “Got my suitcase in the trunk. Along with everything else I still own.”“You moved off to Philly, didn’t you?” He wasn’t looking at her. He remained focused on examining the engine hoses and radiator, but she detected an odd note in his voice. “Your junior year, right?”“I can’t believe you remember that.”He shrugged. “I have a brain like a stainless steel trap.”She smirked. “Stainless steel? Is that better than a regular trap?”“You got it. Never rusts.”She laughed. He made her feel at ease, and she appreciated that… Well, that wasn’t quite true. He made her feel at ease now that her body had come down from the explosion of arousal that had rocked her when she’d first laid eyes on him. She really needed to get fucked. Hard and fast and soon. An image of a very naked Luke pulling her into his arms and scorching her skin with kisses pushed into her brain with so much detail she could almost feel his hands on her body. On her breasts. Cupping them. Playing with her nipples. Teasing them as she panted for him to take them into his mouth and nip at them…Damn, she was getting herself wet just thinking about it. If she kept this up, her car wouldn’t be the only thing overheating.Luke lowered the hood again and his brow furrowed. “Your engine is hosed. Literally. You blew the radiator and some of your hoses have more holes than a puppy-chewed shoe. Your water pump might also be gone. I’ll have to see if you cracked the head or damaged the head gasket. Bottom line: I’m afraid you won’t be going anywhere in this thing for awhile.”“Crap.” She stared helplessly at the car, feeling sick to her stomach. She’d hoped to make it to one of the cheaper motels past the downtown area before her car died, but clearly she wasn’t having any luck today. As usual. She set her hand on her car’s roof. “Thank you, baby.”Luke raised an eyebrow at her. “No problem.”She laughed at the misunderstanding. “No, not you. I was talking to my car. I mean, thank you too. But I wasn’t calling you baby. Or anything. Is it hot out here today or what?”He shared another one of his dazzling smiles. “Why don’t you hop in and steer while I push your car clear of the road. Then I’ll arrange a tow for you.”She hesitated, not knowing how to tell him she didn’t have enough money to pay for a tow. Her cash was down to the dregs, and her debit card only had enough left in her account to buy her a few nights at a cheap motel, but not if she spent it paying for a tow truck. Still, she certainly didn’t want Luke to know about her financial challenges or why she’d risked everything to make it back to Cadillac Falls. A place where she’d been happy.That’s all she really wanted. To find a good place where she could belong and finally be happy again.