Chasing Sam: Vegas Mates Book 1

Smashwords Edition

© 2013 Krystal Shannan

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Cover Art by Dallas Hodge

To my fabulous husband who let me spend so many
evenings on my laptop.

Samantha Demakis wrinkled her nose at the
barrage of scents coming from the Christmas hordes invading
McCarran International Airport. She swallowed a growl of
frustration and tightened the leash on her inner wolf. Everybody
and their brother traveled for Christmas, and she didn’t like being
one of them. She should have stayed at Duke. Her gut told her it
was a mistake to come home.

Duke Medical School was her haven away from
all this crazy.

People jostled her from all angles. Her
rolling suitcase flipped over, and she leaned back to right it. In
the process, someone snatched her blue leather jacket from the
carpeted floor and dashed away.

Shit. Really?

She straightened and scanned the crowd in
the direction the thief had run.

Nothing.

“Miss.”

Sam turned and looked to her left.
Holy
mother of hotness!
Six and a half feet of beautiful man dressed
in a muscle-hugging beige thermal shirt and army camo pants, stood
holding her royal-blue leather jacket. She curled her lips into a
smile. His scent was magnetic, and she hurried toward him.

“Thank you so much.” She reached for the
jacket, brushing her fingers along his hand on purpose. “I thought
it was gone for good.” His blue eyes widened just for a moment. A
charge had passed between them. She’d never felt anything like it
before. Her wolf howled and slammed against her consciousness. It
took every scrap of willpower she possessed not to launch herself
at him. The canine soul within her wanted him right now and so did
she. The mate connection between them was strong.
No, no, no. I
don’t want a mate right now.

“No problem, Miss…”

“Demakis, Sam Demakis, ummm… Samantha.
Sorry.” She stumbled over her name like a love-struck
sixteen-year-old instead of the perfectly capable
twenty-five-year-old she was.

“
Ask his name,”
her wolf urged.

He gave her a gentle grin. “It’s fine, Sam.
Nice to meet you. I’m Chase Michaels.”

“I’m surprised I didn’t notice you on the
plane.” It was strange that she hadn’t caught his scent earlier.
But it was probably because she tried for the most part to avoid
other wolves.

Chase chuckled. “I don’t tend to fly first
class.”

Sam’s cheeks warmed.
He’d known she was
there.
Maybe being away from the pack really was making her
lazy, but she loved not having to deal with the stress of the
politics.

“Thank you again,” she said and found
herself lost in his sparkling, bright blue eyes.
No, focus.
Medical school, not a man.

“Samantha.” Her dad’s deep voice called her
name from across the bustling lobby. Most of her family trailed
after him.

“Well.” Sam turned back to Chase. “I have to
go.”

He smiled and nodded.

She grabbed the handle on her luggage and
scurried off, pulling the big, magenta suitcase behind her. Her
wolf whined in frustration.
We will discuss him later. Right now
we have to play nice and pray for mercy.

Her mom enveloped her in a huge hug. “Honey,
you look beautiful. It’s so good to have you back home where you
belong.”

“Hey, Mom.”

“What’s up with the hottie, sis?”

“Nicole.” Her mother scolded her sister and
frowned. Nicole gave her mom the
I-don’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about look and shrugged. She
pushed around her mother and gave Sam a big hug.

“It’s good to see you too, Nicole.”

Nicole laughed and stepped back.

“Aren’t you going to give your old man a hug
too?” Sam smiled up at her dad. He moved forward and gave her a
hug, briefly lifting her from the ground. “We’ve missed you
Samantha. You haven’t been home all year.”

And I’m hoping coming home now was not a
mistake.

“Missed you too, Dad.” He released her and
she smoothed out her blouse from all the hugging. “Where’s Hallie
and Tess?”

“They are circling in the car with Brendan,”
Nicole piped up. “There wasn’t anywhere to park.”

“Well, let’s get going.” Her dad grabbed her
suitcase, and she linked arms with Nicole.

Her sister leaned toward her ear. “So…do
tell. What’s up with the soldier-boy hottie back there? You know he
stood staring at you for a full minute or so before he left.”

Really?
Sam felt her wolf perk at the
information, too. Her wolf hadn’t been interested in any guy, ever,
that she could remember. Now, out of the blue, her furry companion
was flipping out. Not to mention her own hormones seemed to be
revving up.

“He could be a good match for us.” The
wolf’s voice urged.

Sam shook her head. She didn’t want a match.
She wanted to finish medical school. “I just bumped into him when
we were got off the plane. He picked up my coat for me. It was
nothing, Nicole.”

“I don’t think he thought it was nothing.”
She laughed. “I know Mom didn’t. You should have heard her. She
started going on and on about the Michaels pack and how they
weren’t worthy of even being in the same room with one of her
daughters. Blah, blah, blah.”

“I dropped my coat, and he picked it up for
me, end of story,” she whispered back to her sister. No need to
mention that the coat had been stolen first and that Chase had
recovered it for her.
There was also that strange connection I
felt.
Maybe that wasn’t the end of the story for “soldier-boy
hottie”. Her wolf agreed wholeheartedly. Michaels pack or not, she
was going to have to talk to the hottie again.

Wait a minute. How did mom
know he was a Michaels?

***

Chase tossed his bag into the bed of his
brother’s black F-150 pickup truck. He pulled open the passenger
door and slid into the passenger seat.

“Hey, bro. Good to see you’re back in one
piece. Mom will be glad.” His brother sniffed the air before
turning the key in the ignition. “Who’s the girl?”

“Nobody,” he grumbled and crossed his arms.
He could still smell her scent, too
.
It clung to him like a
sweet cloud
.
Even his wolf was fidgeting, irritated that she
had slipped away so quickly at the airport.

His brother grinned. “Nobody, huh? She sure
has you all sullen and broody.”

“Shut it, Chris,” he snarled. “Sorry,” Chase
apologized immediately. His wolf was practically screaming in his
head, but he didn’t want to hear it. He shouldn’t take out his
frustration on his brother. “She’s a Demakis.”

That explained it all.

Chris sighed and pulled out into the busy
airport traffic. “You didn’t know?”

“No, I just bumped into her getting off the
plane.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I can’t explain
it, but there was just something about her, Chris.”

“Well, keep it to yourself. That family will
come after you in a heartbeat if you mess with one of theirs.”

“I know.” Chase flexed his hands. “My wolf
disagrees though.”

“Chase,” Chris growled in warning.

“She was just so… God, I can’t stop thinking
about her. In seventy-five years I’ve hardly dated. Now I brush
against a woman, barely speak to her, and my wolf is going
crazy.”

He stared out the windshield at the colorful
neon lights as Chris drove through the main strip of Vegas. The
huge Glass House Hotel and Casino sparkled as they passed. The
gleaming reminder of their exorbitant wealth and prestige was the
pride and joy of the Vegas branch of the Demakis family. Originally
from Greece, Demakis werewolves were considered one of the first
noble families. The Michaels…weren’t.

“Which one did you run into?”

Chase flashed Chris a confused look.

“Dude, you’ve been gone a long time, haven’t
you?”

“Kinda enrolled in the army, remember?”

Chris laughed. “Yeah, you need to stop doing
that. It really freaks Mama out. Anyway, the Demakis sisters are
like Vegas royalty. Always plastered all over the tabloids,
especially the younger twins. Now, the oldest sister is off
studying at Duke to be some kind of doctor. I forget exactly what
the article said, but man, she is gorgeous. She’s not usually in
town though.”

“Her name is Samantha,” Chase murmured.

“Yes! That’s her. That’s the oldest one.” He
shoved Chase’s shoulder playfully. “You met the oldest one. Sweet.
She’s probably the only normal one in the bunch.”

Chase looked at Chris. “Why the hell do you
know all of this?” He grinned when Chris turned three different
shades of pink.

“It’s Maggie. Geez, Dad’s had me working
with her up at the accounting firm, and it’s all she ever talks
about. I guess more of it rubbed off than I realized.”

“No kidding. You actually sounded like
Maggie there for a minute.”

“Shut up!”

Chase laughed again and ran his hands
through his hair. It was good to laugh, to be home—at least for a
while.

“If she is our match we can stop running off
to fight in wars and settle down with a family.”

He sighed. Keep dreaming. A Michaels would
never have a shot with a Demakis.

***

Chris pulled the pickup into their parents’
driveway and parked. Before Chase could even get his bag, the door
of the house opened wide and people flowed out.

“Chase!” His mother’s voice carried above
the noise of the group.

He dropped his bag back into the bed of the
truck and bent down to embrace his mother, completely enveloping
her petite five-foot-two-inch frame. He was her oldest son and the
largest of the Michaels boys. “Mama, it’s good to see you.”

“How long are you on leave?”

“Three weeks before I have to report back to
Arizona.”

“Good,” his father interjected. “It’s been
too long since we’ve seen you, son.”

Chase shook his father’s hand and then gave
him a hug. “It’s good to be home, Dad.”

“Your unit doing well? Everyone make it back
safe with you?” his dad asked.

He nodded. Chase hadn’t lost a man yet in
the three tours he and his unit had been through in Afghanistan. It
was the record he was most proud of—getting his men home to their
families. He’d lost so many friends over the years. Vietnam had
been hell. Tracking people was much easier in the Persian Gulf and
Afghanistan. Desert air carried scent well.

He got hugs from all his cousins and his
Aunts and Uncles before his mother announced that everyone needed
to head back inside the house for dinner. Just the idea of food
made his stomach grumble. He turned to grab his bag, but Chris
already had it halfway to the front door.

They walked in together and flowed with the
crowd to the back porch. The smoky aroma of beef, pork, and lamb on
the barbeque assaulted his empty stomach. The scent was divine. His
mom’s special sauce was his favorite. It was good to be home. He
was tired of being away.

The lights of Las Vegas whirred by. Sam
furrowed her brow in confusion. They were headed for the Spring
Valley house instead of the Villa on the northern edge of the
city.

“Mom? Why aren’t we going out to the
country?”

“Oh, honey. We have a special dinner planned
for you here. We’ll head out to the estate this weekend. Plus your
dad has a few loose ends to tie up at the casino before he takes
his Christmas vacation.”

“A dinner. Just for me?”

“Of course, sweetie,” her mom answered and
flashed her a coy smile.

“This has nothing to do with the fact that I
turned twenty-five this year. I told you I am finishing medical
school.”

“And you still can.”

“Mom!”

“It’s tradition, sweetie. A Demakis doesn’t
toy with tradition.”

“We don’t live in the Dark Ages anymore,
Mom.” She turned to her Dad, who was sitting quietly on the other
side of the limo. “Dad, please. This is supposed to be my Christmas
holiday with the family.”

“Don’t think you will get any help from him,
young lady. He organized the whole thing, right down to the three
men coming to dinner.” The venom in her mother’s voice surprised
her. Wow, Dad had picked all the suitors?
Not good.
Even the
twins stopped chattering, which immediately made the limo
uncomfortably silent.