Bears of Burden: STERLING
Author: Ayers, Candace
Date: 2017-04-12
Publisher: Candace Ayers

Table of Contents

Bears of Burden

STERLING

STORY DESCRIPTION

CHAPTER 1: Ophelia

CHAPTER 2: Sterling

CHAPTER 3: Ophelia

CHAPTER 4: Sterling

CHAPTER 5: Ophelia

CHAPTER 6: Ophelia

CHAPTER 7: Sterling

CHAPTER 8: Ophelia

CHAPTER 9: Sterling

CHAPTER 10: Ophelia

CHAPTER 11: Sterling

CHAPTER 12: Ophelia

CHAPTER 13: Sterling

CHAPTER 14: Ophelia

CHAPTER 15: Sterling

CHAPTER 16: Ophelia

CHAPTER 17: Ophelia

CHAPTER 18: Ophelia

CHAPTER 19: Sterling

CHAPTER 20: Sterling

CHAPTER 21: Ophelia

CHAPTER 22: Sterling

CHAPTER 23: Ophelia

CHAPTER 24: Sterling

CHAPTER 25: Ophelia

CHAPTER 26: Sterling

ENJOY A FREE SNEAK PEEK

KODIAK ISLAND SHIFTERS

COLTON: BILLIONAIRE BEAR’S BRIDE

Chapter one

Chapter two

Chapter three

Chapter four

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WEREBEAR’S MAIL ORDER MATE

STORY DESCRIPTION

Chapter one

Chapter two

Chapter three

Chapter four

Chapter five

Chapter six

Chapter seven

Chapter eight

Chapter nine

Chapter ten

Chapter eleven

Chapter twelve

Chapter thirteen

Chapter fourteen

Chapter fifteen

Chapter sixteen

Chapter seventeen

Chapter eighteen

Chapter nineteen

Epilogue

MATING THE ALPHA

STORY DESCRIPTION

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

PUCKED

STORY DESCRIPTION

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

HOLDING

STORY DESCRIPTION

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

TIGHT

STORY DESCRIPTION

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

NATHAN: BILLIONAIRE BEAR

STORY DESCRIPTION

Chapter one

Chapter two

Chapter three

Chapter four

Chapter five

Chapter six

Chapter seven

Chapter eight

Chapter nine

Chapter ten

Chapter eleven

Chapter twelve

Chapter thirteen

Chapter fourteen

Chapter fifteen

Chapter sixteen

Chapter seventeen

ZAREK

Dragons of Plarizakian

STORY DESCRIPTION

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

OFFICER BEAR

STORY DESCRIPTION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

LOVING THE ALPHA

STORY DESCRIPTION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 18

CHAPTER 19

EPILOGUE

HAUNTED WHISPERS

STORY DESCRIPTION

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14

CHAPTER 15

CHAPTER 16

CHAPTER 17

EPILOGUE

HONOR

STORY DESCRIPTION

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

BEAR’S (mail order) BRIDE

STORY DESCRIPTION

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Copyright © 2017 by Candace Ayers.

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

This book is intended for adult readers only.

Any sexual activity portrayed in these pages occurs between consenting adults over the age of 18 who are not related by blood.

Bears of Burden
STERLING

By Candace Ayers

Note from the Author:

I am currently recruiting readers for my review team. If you would like to participate by volunteering to read advance copies of my latest books, and leaving an honest review on Amazon, please sign up for my email list here: JOIN NOW! I contact subscribers through email when each book is ready for review. You will be under no obligation, and can accept or decline on a book by book basis.

~ Candace

STORY DESCRIPTION

Sterling Mallory likes fast—fast cars and faster women, anything to keep the ghosts at bay. Living life on the edge catches up to him when he carelessly makes an enemy of Kyle Barns. Who knew that Kyle’s younger sister would turn out to be Sterling’s mate? Now, she hates him.

Ophelia Barns left her flourishing journalism career in Nashville to come back home to Burden, Texas. Her brother has always been her rock, and now it’s her turn to be there for him. When someone crosses him, they cross her.

When Ophelia is forced to interview Sterling for the local Burden Gazette, despite the fact that they don’t have an easy time dealing with each other, the attraction is so intense that they might each be willing to make some sacrifices.

CHAPTER 1: Ophelia

Big and furry, I clumsily stumbled through the parking lot and away from the back door of the bar with one foot stuck in a bucket. My bear grumbled and toppled sideways landing in a pile of leaves. Leaves and twigs stuck to my fur. I tried to sit up, but the massiveness of my midsection fought against the action. Tumbling to the side, I rolled onto all fours and forced myself to stand up on my back legs. Just because I was a bear didn’t mean I had to be undignified. Well, actually, I was beyond dignified at this point, really.

I tossed one look back at the bar and shook my head. Yeah, I was way past displaying any semblance of dignity. I jerked my stupid stalker head away from the door where I’d been listening, and tried to watch where I was going as I stepped over logs and mudpuddles. It’d been raining for days and everything was soaked. I wasn’t a fan of mud. As human woman and female bear, I didn’t like having to clean mud from all my cracks and crevices.

I came to the swollen creek and roared. I didn’t want to get wet. Frustrated at myself for my obsession that had driven me to the bar in the first place, I cupped my big head in my hands and rolled my neck back gazing skyward. Why couldn’t I just let him go?

One way or another, I needed to get my big furry butt home, so I scanned the creek and spotted a few rocks farther along down the river bank. If I could step from one to the other, I might be able to leap the last bit of distance. That way, I could stay dry.

I was a complete basket case. Certifiable. There was no other way to view it. Take today, for instance. I’d been minding my own business heading home from work, what little work I had, when I caught his scent around the bar. I knew what he was doing inside there. I knew it, and the thoughts fueled my anger, which threw me into an uncontrolled shift, shredding my clothes in the process. Now, instead of being able to walk home along the sidewalks like any normal woman, I had to cross the creek as a bumbling idiot bear, hoping I could maintain enough balance to keep myself from falling in the creek and getting soaked.

I held my arms out to the side and snorted out a rough breath. I stuck my bucketed foot out and grunted. That wouldn’t do. I stuck my other foot out and stepped on the rock. Gingerly putting my weight on it, I wanted to roar a cheer. I wasn’t going to get wet!

Luck disagreed. My weight pushed the rock into the mud and the motion startled me. I lunged forward, trying to catch myself on the next rock, but the slipperiness of the water along the moss-covered rock sent me sliding into the cold creek. Water swallowed my growl as I went under and was swept downstream in the swift moving creek.

I didn’t even know if creek was the right word for the damned thing, anymore. It was so swollen from all the rain that it was more like a river. I came up sputtering, my clawed, furry mitts slapping at the water in frustration. I found my footing and stood up, looking around to make sure no one was watching the shit show that had become my life.

How had I sunk so low? I used to have it together. Now, here I am stalking men, stepping in buckets while stalking men, falling in rivers with a bucket on my foot while stalking men, and trying to make it home as the clumsiest, most awkward bear in existence. Hell, until coming back to Burden, my most embarrassing moment had been the time I interviewed a popular country singer while unknowingly sporting a milk mustache on my upper lip. Once upon a time, I had my shit together.

I waded to the other side and dug my paws into the bank to try to heave my oversized body out of the water. I ended up basically rolling in the mud. I stood up and kicked my leg out to shake the bucket loose. When it didn’t budge, I roared loud enough to empty the nearby trees of any and all wildlife.

I would have shifted back to my human self, but I didn’t want to risk getting caught so far from home naked. That would be slightly worse than roaming around the woods as a frickin’ bear. Slightly.

I shook off as best as I could and lumbered homeward. After a few steps, I stumbled and caught myself on a sapling, taking it down. I plopped on my butt next to the broken thing and snorted at it. I’d killed a growing tree. I considered just staying there, until I looked up and noticed a bee hive in the distance. I groaned even as my bear took over, rolled to its feet and hurried towards it.

As human Ophelia, I knew better than to mess with bees. Bear Ophelia didn’t care that human Ophelia knew better and was struggling for control. I tried to fight the urge that drove me towards the hive. I was allergic. Not terribly, but enough to swell up painfully and look like a total alien freak show. I had very little practice controlling my bear, though, so she ignored me.

One big paw swipe took the bottom of the hive right off. Honey leaked out and along with it, swarms of bees. They attacked, as I swatted and growled, finally giving up the honey, before dropping to all fours and running back to the creek as fast as my thunderous legs could move. I did a nose dive, and let the cold water sooth the stinging.

My bear grumbled angrily at being deprived of honey as I muttered to myself about the curse of being a bear shifter. I climbed back out when the bees were gone and stomped the rest of the way home. There was some tripping and another roll in the mud, but I finally made it, leaving a dripping trail of muddy water behind me.

Kyle’s truck wasn’t in the driveway, so I shifted back to human right outside of the backdoor and finally shook the bucket off my foot before I let myself in. Kyle never locked his door. No one in Burden, Texas ever did. It was slightly unnerving to me after having lived in a big city for so long.

I resisted the urge to inspect the perimeter to make sure no one had broken in before tracking mud and leaves all the way up to my bedroom. It was the same bedroom I’d had as a girl growing up in good ol’ Burden. From birth to the fragile age of seventeen, I’d made a sanctuary inside these four Pepto-Bismol pink walls.

I slammed the bedroom door behind me and headed to the adjoining bathroom. Climbing into the shower, I scrubbed myself until my skin was raw. Bee stings marred my olive complexion, and I could barely see out of my swollen eyelids by the time I turned the water off.

I avoided the mirror when I got out and dried off. I slipped into underwear and a nightgown that was from my youth. It looked more like a granny nightdress than something a twenty-eight-year-old savvy, independent woman would wear, but I had no one to impress. Ever.

Taking the stairs carefully, I made my way to the kitchen and dug around the medicine drawer until I found Benadryl. I popped three before retreating to the living room to watch an episode of My 600lb Life.

I was asleep before the introduction finished playing. Nightmares of my mate flirting with other women plagued me and I woke up later that night, as a 600lb bear, on top of the severely bent couch frame.

CHAPTER 2: Sterling

“Sweetheart, I will rock your world.” I flashed the pretty blonde in front of me one of my signature cocky grins, and once again bit back the growl my bear tried to release. My bear didn’t like this at all. Now that we’d found our mate, his instinct was to frighten away any woman I tried to callously and rudely flirt with. I’d be inclined to do the same if it weren’t for the fact that nameless, faceless women were the only thing that filled the gaping hole in the center of my chest. And only temporarily at that.

“Aren’t you sure of yourself?” Her face scrunched up like she smelled something bad and she took a step back, away from me.

“You’re not gonna walk away from the best thing to ever happen to you, are you?” Inwardly, I cringed. Maybe I’d start to dig a little deeper into my arsenal of cheap pick-up lines.

Her eyes rolled practically to the back of her head and away she went.

I retreated to the table and sat down next to my older brother, Hutch, and our buddies. Three of them were recently mated. Only Sam and I remained single, and once Sam found his mate, it would be me. Alone. I would be the last single bear in our close-knit group of shifters, of that I was sure, because I’d already found my mate. She hated me.

“Ouch, that looked painful, bro.” Sam grinned at me and cupped me on the shoulder. “I’m going to have a go at her.”

I watched him saunter off and tried to keep my face neutral. The impression I was going for was the goofy, slightly moronic, happy-go-lucky younger brother of Hutch. I was keeping up a pretty good act. Still hitting on women, still pretending to leave with them, still acting like a jackass. I was fooling everyone—except Hutch.

Hutch looked up from his beer and shook his head. “What are you doing?”

I chugged my beer and stood up. “Boys, I’ve had my fair share of striking out tonight. I think I’m going to take a dip in the creek and head home.”

Wyatt stood up. “I’ll join you. Maybe, by the time I do that and head home, Georgia will be home.”

Thorn’s eyes were on his mate while she worked the bar. “I think it’s time Allie’s shift ended.”

Hutch finished his beer and grinned. “I think it’s time I fetched Veronica from her meeting. She should be done with her dirty book sharing by now, which means good things for me tonight.”

Wyatt laughed. “Hell, I’ll skip the swimming and just head over with you.”

I forced a grin and fit my baseball cap on my head. “Ya’ll have fun. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Hutch caught my arm and raised his eyebrow. “You okay? We still need to talk.”

I shrugged his hand off and felt the strain in my grin. “I’m good, brother. I’ll be at the shop in the morning. The car needs some adjusting before the race tomorrow night.”

I slipped away and headed out to my truck. I backed out of the lot and revved the engine before speeding off towards home. On the outskirts of town, my house sat near the top of a relatively small mountain, overlooking the creek that ran through town.

It was a dark, starless night, and all I could see were shadows as I stripped out of my clothes and left them in a pile on my back porch. No matter, I knew the land like the back of my hand. I shifted and ran down the hill splashing into the full, cold water. I dunked my head and came up with a big splash. My mind strayed, as it usually did, to Ophelia.

Thinking of her seemed to materialize her scent out of thin air. It flooded my senses until my bear growled for her, hungry for more than sweets for a change. I listened, but there was nothing but the sound of the creek running and the crickets singing. I was just haunted by her scent.

I tried to distract myself by catching fish, but nothing worked. Having a mate, and knowing that she was nearby but didn’t want anything to do with me, left me with a bone-deep empty ache that pervaded every aspect of my life. It was worse than any pain I could imagined. A year earlier, I would’ve sworn that finding a mate would be fantastic. Settling down, having someone to wake up to, maybe little cubbies running around. I was wrong. Turns out that for me it meant one more person to disappoint. Hah! Not even to disappoint. I wasn’t even being given the chance to disappoint. What I’d give to have her care enough to find me disappointing.

Surrounded day in and day out by my closest friends, as I watched them settling down, one by one, felt like the turning of a knife in my heart. My chest ached whenever I saw them with their mates, and I hated the jealousy I felt. I wanted to be happy for them. They deserved their happy endings. Yet, jealousy ate me alive.

The thought of spending the rest of my life carrying around this ache was a very real and constant fear. I’d spent more than a few nights staring at my ceiling, consumed with anxiety-driven insomnia as I contemplated how I wanted to shower Ophelia with compliments, with kindness, with gifts, with love. But, I didn’t even know how to begin. It was all so fucked up. I’d messed up so badly without even trying.

My carefree, youthful, okay—slime ball ways had caught up with me big time. I didn’t think of them as slimy until I started seeing myself through Ophelia’s eyes. I still put on a show for the sake of hiding my pain, but the thought of bringing a woman home who wasn’t her made my skin crawl.

I climbed out of the creek and flopped over onto the bank. I hadn’t meant to make such a mess of things. I didn’t even know I had a mate when I’d fucked up. The kicker was, at the time, I hadn’t considered myself doing anything wrong. Sure, it was a dick move, but Kyle Barns was truly an asshole. Fuck, I’d considered myself doing the whole town a favor by hitting him below the belt.

Sleeping with his fiancée, uh, ex-fiancée, a few days before their wedding was to be had completely blown up in my face. Kyle was the only family Ophelia had left, and the two of them were tight. Even though he was a giant dick stain, she loved him and I’d managed to humiliate him if front of all of Burden. Who knew his little sister was my mate? Before I’d even found out Ophelia was the one for me, I’d managed to not only alienate her, but also convince her that I was the lowest bear in the entire lone star state.

Tossing a furry arm over my eyes, I groaned. Even as a bear, the sound was clearly a pained one. I needed her to be happy. I wanted her more than anything. I wanted to make her happy, but I’d fucked it all up. By being me.

CHAPTER 3: Ophelia

The Burden Gazette was a two-page paper that could barely scrape together stories enough to fill front and back of its pages. In a town the size of Burden, a reporter had a hard time fabricating enough news to warrant a paper, but one of the old-timers insisted on keeping it going, and for that, I was thankful.

It wasn’t the exciting journalism career track I’d been on in Nashville, and it certainly wasn’t anything worthy of adding to my resume, but it was a job. Karen, an old hippie throw-back of a woman, the one who had insisted on keeping the newspaper alive, hired me straight away after I’d wandered into the tiny office to talk to her. She’d been doing all the research and writing herself and she was relieved to be offered a break.

I was paid a penny a word, and on a good week, I’d make up to a hundred and fifty dollars. Normally, though, I made closer to a hundred. It was a mere fraction of what I had made in Nashville, but, again, it was a job.

To be fair, I wasn’t sure how Karen was even able to afford to pay me as much as she did. The paper sold to a lot of the locals, but that didn’t account for much. By the time she paid for the weekly printing costs and office space, I had to assume I was being paid out of her own pocket. On the one hand, I felt slightly guilty about that, but on the other, I had bills to pay. Student loans and insurance ate up just about every cent of my income. Without Kyle’s help to buy groceries and such, I’d go hungry.

Despite it all, I liked it. I found the gig quaint and charming in a weird way. Sure, the little Burden Gazette wasn’t anything I could take too seriously, but memories of seeing my parents reading it when I was a little girl were still fresh in my mind. I pictured mom at the kitchen table, sipping from the mug of coffee in her hand, as she devoured the tidbits of local gossip, and dad after work relaxing in his easy chair while scanning the same pages.

It was easy work, and through interviews and such, I got to reintroduce myself to locals that I hadn’t seen in over a decade. I’d left Burden shortly after Mom and Dad had both perished in a plane crash. It happened just before graduation. My initial post-high school agenda had been to get a job in Burden, maybe save up some money for a few years before heading off to college. I had envisioned working during the days and spending the nights curled up in the sunroom, talking to Mom while she and Dad played cards. The horrible accident had changed all that. After my parents had passed, I couldn’t get away from Burden fast enough. Everything that triggered a painful memory.

Kyle came to see me wherever I was, so I’d never have to set foot in my hometown. I hadn’t planned on returning. Ever. But, as I’d learned at too young an age, “The best laid plans…”

A bad experience with a groping boss, and listening to Kyle’s painful lamentations on the phone over a lost relationship, had convinced me that now was the time to face any demons that may be lying in wait for me back home. I actually wanted to come home again. At least for a while. It was my turn to be there for my brother, like he’d been there for me for so many years. As my only living family, Kyle had taken on the role of my—everything. Anytime I was really hurting, he came to me. Now it was my turn to be his everything.

Only, once I’d arrived in Burden, I learned that Kyle wasn’t the same man I had seen away from home. He had erected some sort of phony front that hid the hurt he’d faced. Saying his name in town often elicited grimaces and winces from people. Kyle acted like a pig. There’d been moments since I’d returned when I wondered which was the real Kyle—the caring, kind-hearted man who was my rock when I needed him, or the piggish creepy Kyle. Which was the phony front? Regardless, I had to do my best to be there for him, no matter what. Right?

The Burden Gazette was housed in the same narrow office it’d been in since I could remember, and it still held the same musty paper smell as I walked in. Karen, was sitting at her desk at the back of the room, like always, round, wire-framed glasses with pink-tinted lenses perched on the end of her nose.

Her face lit up when she saw me. “Philly! I have a job for you! I forgot to mention it before you left yesterday. The races start tonight. You know the old dirt tracks, right?”

My stomach turned over and threatened to toss the yogurt I’d eaten that morning. “Yes.”

She wiggled in her desk chair, making it squeal. “Well, I want to do a piece on Sterling Mallory. He’s rumored to be the top contender again this season. I saw him driving that fancy car of his through town this morning and I must say, it’s a beaut.”

I gritted my teeth. “I can’t do it tonight.”

She frowned. “We’ve nothing else to put on the front page this week, Ophelia. Unless you want to headline that piece you wrote about the mystery smell at the school on the front page.”

I could tell she was being a smartass. “It’s a fine story.”

“Sure. The headline on the front page will read Shoddy Sanitation Breeds Ominous Odor. I can see it now. Great. Enthralling. Might even get you a Pulitzer.”

I rolled my eyes and released a long, slow sigh.

“C’mon, Philly. This has been the slowest news week in Burden ever. I need the piece on Mallory. It’s exciting. I’ve heard he’s quite the lady’s man. Maybe you can spin some of that into the story.”

There was no way. Karen was pushing for something that she’d never understand. “Couldn’t you do it?”

She shook her head. “I’ve got the trip into Dallas tonight. My daughter will be picking me up here this afternoon. The sleep study is going to figure out if I need one of those Darth Vader machines to breathe at night.”

I closed my eyes and rubbed at my forehead. “Maybe I can find another story.”

Karen’s face furrowed and I got to see the stubborn side of the woman  that I wasn’t normally the focus of. “Do the story or I’ll have to find someone else who will, Philly. I like you and you’re the best writer this town has ever seen, but I need someone I can rely on.”

I swore. I couldn’t ask Kyle to pay my bills. “Fine.”

Her smile popped back onto her ruddy face. “Groovy! I think you’ll have a blast. The races are so exciting. There’s often a crash and the concession stands have nachos. It’s really a good time to be had by all.”

I sat at the desk she’d provided for me, and as I landed on the weird faux leather fabric, my chair made a farting sound that I considered a fitting response. I opened my purse and snapped the easy open Tylenol cap before shaking a couple out into my hand. I swallowed them dry and looked at the smelly school article on my desk that I still wanted to edit once more.

“If you take the camera, maybe you can get a good shot of Mallory. It’ll cost more to print, but he’s quite a handsome young fella. I bet a front-page photo will sell quite a few more papers.”

I resisted the urge to slap my hand to my forehead. Barely.

CHAPTER 4: Sterling

I dropped the hood of my car and zipped up the fire-retardant suit all the drivers wore. The races were a surprisingly big deal for such a small area. The tracks were thirty miles outside of Burden and attracted drivers and an audience from all around. The dirt track was as refined as it could be and it was always a little rough on the cars, but I liked the edge it gave. Everything was a little more dangerous on a dirt track, and there was no telling what might happen.

I’d been practicing all day and I was ready to get on with it. There was nothing like speeding around a track, competing with other drivers to get my bear riled and distract me from whatever issue I was dealing with. Bears weren’t meant to go that fast. I shouldn’t have even been able to fit in the car, but I loved the thrill and liked the challenge.

I looked over the car at Hutch and nodded. “There’s a storm coming in. They need to get this show on the road soon or we’re going to be rained out.”

He lifted his head and inhaled. “Still got about an hour. Enough time for the star to drive his laps.”

I laughed. “I’ll pretend I believe you’re talking about me.”

He grinned. “Try not to break anything too important tonight.”

“That time I know you’re not talking about me.”

“Hell, no, I wasn’t talking about you. You’ll heal. The car won’t.”

I shook my head and leaned against the metal frame. A reinforced roll cage sat just under it, promising to keep me safe should anything happen. Being a shifter meant I’d heal from most things, but fires and explosions were different beasts entirely.

“I’m heading to the stands, little brother. Veronica is sitting with Georgia and Allie. No fucking telling what trouble those three can get into unattended for too long.”

I lifted a hand in a wave. “Good luck.”

“You, too.”

I looked around at the other drivers and inhaled deeply. I didn’t normally get nervous before a race, but something had my hair standing on end tonight. The weather promised a doozy of a storm, but it was more than that.

As a gust of wind swept over me, I immediately identified the source of my agitation. Under the pervading scent of motor oil and rubber, I could clearly smell her. Ophelia. Her unique and delicious smell, whiskey and cupcake, had my dick springing to life faster than I could reach down and hide it.

I muttered a curse and followed the direction of the smell. There she stood, across the parking lot, her wild hair blowing into her face. What the fuck was she doing here? Curly and sun-kissed, her windblown hair threatened to swallow her whole, but she expertly yanked something off her wrist and had it pulled back in a few seconds. I was sad to see it tamed. There was something about the unruly mass that made my heart race and my dick throb. She was made for me. Everything about her was pure seduction to every part of me.

She lifted her head and her eyes locked onto mine. For a second, I let myself believe the parting of her lips was due to her hunger for me instead of shock at seeing me. Fuck, I wanted her.

I hadn’t seen her in a few weeks and I’d missed the way the world seemed to light up her olive skin. She never just blended in. No, she was like the north star in the sky—always the brightest. I wanted to run my hands over her, touching every part of her, but I shoved them in my pockets instead. She didn’t want to be touched by me.

To my utter surprise, Ophelia began walking towards me. Her posture said she would rather be anywhere else in the world and I could see her lips purse as she blew out a rough sigh, but still, she was coming over to me.

I stayed where I was but leaned against my car to keep from grabbing her. I kept my mouth shut, afraid to fuck up any more than I already had.

She stopped a few feet away from me and slowly lifted her eyes to mine. The dark blue outer ring held in pools of silver threatened to melt me. “Hi.”

I couldn’t stifle a low growl at the sound of her husky voice. I wanted to hear that voice crying out my name. Shit. I balled my hands into fists and closed my eyes. It didn’t help. I could still smell her.

My bear wanted to roll over on its back and beg her to forgive us. Just expose our belly and throat in an attempt to win her back. I, however, wasn’t that far gone. Yet. I shut him up and opened my eyes to see her watching me with wide eyes. “Hi, Ophelia.”

She crossed her arms under her chest and it forced her cleavage higher. The little sundress she wore teased me more than any lover ever had. “I have to ask you for a favor.”

I tilted my head to the side and furrowed my eyebrows. I couldn’t imagine what kind of favor she would ask of me. Maybe she didn’t know it, but I’d move heaven and Earth for that girl, or die trying. The wheels in my head started turning, though. “What is it?”

Her wide mouth thinned and the dimples at the corners appeared as she worked the muscles there. Eyebrows that reminded me of a wolf, instead of the bear that she was, rose and then squeezed towards each other. “I have to interview you. I mean, I’d like to interview you. The paper, Karen, thinks an interview with you would be worth gold for the front page of the Gazette.”

I bit back a grin, knowing it wouldn’t be appreciated. “Karen wants you to interview me?”

She nodded and pushed a stray curl back. “Yes. So…can I?”

I grinned fully then, unable to help myself. Her reaction nearly had me reaching out for her. Her mouth went soft and her tongue danced out to wet her lips as the smell of her arousal hit me hard. I couldn’t stop the urge to tilt my head back and breathe it in, memorizing the heady deliciousness of her.

Ophelia’s cheeks burned red and she took a step away from me. “Stop that.”

I bit my lip and nodded. “Sorry. Yeah, you can interview me. Not here, though. After. I’m about to race and I need to focus.”

She narrowed her eyes and her fingers started tapping out a rhythm on her arm. “Where?”

She was at my mercy, I could tell. I knew Karen and I knew she could be one pushy old broad when she wanted to be. It was wrong of me to take advantage of Ophelia’s shitty situation, but I needed her. I needed my mate.

I’d been going on the assumption that I hadn’t a chance in hell of winning her over, but I belatedly realized that an attitude like that was defeatist. I’d never been a quitter, and now damned sure wasn’t the time to start—not about this. I stared down at my sexy little mate and smiled. I might have to trick her into spending time with me, but her arousal was encouraging. Maybe there was hope.

“Meet me at my truck right after the races.”

She frowned but nodded. “Won’t you need to devote time to all your adoring fans?”

I ignored the bitterness in her voice and slowly straightened from where I’d been leaning. I towered over her smaller frame and held her gaze. “I’m more concerned about my mate.”

Her eyes darted around and then settled on mine in a glare. “Don’t call me that,” she hissed.

I turned and walked to the other side of the car, needing the space so I could keep control over myself and my bear. “I’ll see you soon, Ophelia.”

CHAPTER 5: Ophelia

I huffed and puffed all the way to my seat. Frustration and bitterness fought to consume me whole. I was also sexually pent-up. My body was on fire and I couldn’t get the sight of Sterling lifting his head to smell me out of my mind. It was on a reel, playing over and over again. The man desired me. I’d felt the heat pouring off of his body and couldn’t miss the huge erection that he’d shamelessly done nothing to hide. I wanted him, too. I knew he had been scenting my wetness, embarrassment threatened to eat me alive.

I’d done an amazing job of avoiding him thus far. Weeks had passed since I’d last caught a glimpse of him. Not that he’d been trying to find me. He’d seemed perfectly content with the flooziest of floozies Burden and surrounding areas had to offer. I was probably doing him a favor by avoiding him.

I realized I was growling and looked around to find that several of the people sitting next to me were shooting concerned looks my way. I forced a smile and faced the track. He was making me crazy.

I couldn’t exactly help how my bear reacted. I’d never learned to control her properly. She wanted to climb Sterling like he was a tree with a honeypot at the top. She wanted to roll around in his scent until we were covered in it. I just wanted to run away. It was too confusing, this battle raging inside. No one had ever really explained the shifter mating call to me. Mom was a bear and Dad was a human. As far as I knew, they’d just fallen in love and had two kids together. The shifter trait hadn’t even shown up in Kyle. Female bear shifters were much rarer than males, even in Burden, and I hadn’t been around shifters in a long time. Not enough to learn about mates, anyway.

I got the gist. We were meant to be together, yada, yada, yada. Obviously, our fated mating didn’t account for one of us being a horn dog who slept with everything in a skirt. I could deal with not being with the man I was supposedly fated to be with. Clearly, mistakes had been made. What I couldn’t deal with, however, was the incessant pull I had toward him. Just seeing him turned my panties into a pool and my body into a volcano, begging to erupt. It was hard to freakin’ ignore that. I felt like I’d melt if he so much as touched me. I wasn’t prepared for dealing with that.

I didn’t even know if it was possible to outrun the mate call, really. If I managed to keep pushing him away, would I just go insane and wither away in a pair of damp panties? The alternative seemed worse, though. Give myself to a man who couldn’t possibly be loyal to me and wither away from the suffering of daily heartbreak until death do us part.

I took a deep breath and sat up straighter. I’d find a way to do some research to see if there was something I could do to release us as mates. If we could get out of it some way. Until then, I’d just have to put a muzzle on my bear—and lock my knees together.

The races started and I was surprised to find myself leaning forward in my seat to get a better view. The cars were fast and as they rounded the corners, a fine mist of smoke and dirt washed over the stands. The engines were so loud that I couldn’t hear anything else, until metal hit metal. Crashes were minor, but it didn’t stop the heated exchanged between drivers afterwards.

I hadn’t seen the car that Sterling had been leaning against earlier until nearly half an hour later. When I did spot it, my heart tried to crawl up into my throat. My bear paced as she watched her mate do something dangerous. The wrecks hadn’t been bad thus far, but the potential was there, wasn’t it? What if he got hurt?

Without meaning to, I stood up and rushed down the stands until I was right up against the fence, alongside several teenagers and children. My fingers bit into the wire and I sucked in a ragged breath. I felt like I was taking a backseat to my bear’s reactions and had to look down to make sure I was still human.

When the green flag flew and the cars roared forward, I didn’t blink. I couldn’t take my eyes off Sterling long enough to blink. He quickly maneuvered his car from the middle of the pack to the front. As he raced around the track, slinging dirt, I felt as though my lungs would explode. I couldn’t breathe as another driver clipped the side of Sterling’s car in a turn and the back of his car fishtailed for a second before he got control of it. He didn’t slow down at all, despite the lack of air in my lungs. He didn’t know that my bear was trying to kill me with her intense fear for her mate.

By the time the checkered flag flew, there were dots in my front of my eyes and I was holding onto the fence to keep myself upright. I gasped in a massive breath of air and panted as Sterling safely drove into the winner’s circle. He slid his large frame out of the car and pumped his fist in the air as someone ran over to him with the checkered flag waving.

Sterling’s eyes shot to me and his look was pure feral bear as he emitted a low growl. The sound reached me from across the track and I felt a fresh wave of arousal weaken me.

On shaky knees, I turned and stumbled hurriedly to the parking lot, needing some time to get myself together. I had no idea what’d just happened, but I felt like I’d been through the ringer. Just as I got to my beat-up Toyota in the parking lot, a fat rain drop hit my face. I lifted my head and noticed the darkening sky for the first time. The wind picked up and I groaned as the clouds opened up their floodgates releasing a downpour.

I grabbed the door handle and yanked. Nothing. I shielded my eyes and peered inside the car. Sure enough, there were my keys, sitting on the passenger seat where I’d left them. I ran around the car, trying each handle just to be sure. I was sure. I was locked out.

I’d been so stressed about the interview when I’d pulled into the lot, it made sense that I’d done something brainless, but that didn’t make me feel any better about it.

I plopped myself on the hood of my car, shrugging as it dented under my weight. I was already soaked from the hard rain and there was no use trying to find shelter. I was stuck sitting there until I could find help.

Kyle didn’t even know where I was. He’d been gone when I had stopped at home to change and my phone had been dead, so I’d left it on the charger.

I crossed my arms and closed my eyes. I guessed that, if worse came to worse, I could shift and walk home, but I was not much faster as a bear than I was as a human. I was a hell of a lot clumsier, too.

“Quite the hood ornament you make, Ophelia.” Sterling’s deep voice teased a second before his scent washed over me.

I looked up meeting his gaze, and sighed. He looked stunning in the rain. Dark hair slicked back, thick eyebrows wilder than normal, his blue-green eyes bright with excitement. Of course, the man would look edible in the rain.

“Come on, let’s get you somewhere dry.”

I slid off the hood and shook my head as the dent I’d left didn’t pop out. I glared at it and then looked up at Sterling. He grinned at me and shrugged. I shoved my hair out of my face and gestured for him to lead the way. I needed the interview, no matter how awkwardly soaking wet I was.

He walked me through the quickly emptying parking lot to his truck. A big trailer was hooked to the back and I realized he’d need to get his car. I was keeping him from it.

“Don’t you need to finish up here?”

He nodded while unlocking his truck and opening the door. Before I knew what he was doing, he wrapped his hands around my waist and lifted me into the seat. “Hutch is going to help me load the car. I’ll be back in just a bit.”

My skin burned where his hands lingered on my body. I sucked in a breath at how close he was and bit my lip. I felt myself slipping and I knew it was bad, but I didn’t know how to stop it. I was weak when it came to Sterling, and I’d had a really bad couple of days. Weeks, really. Maybe I didn’t have to commit to forever. Maybe, I could just steal a night.

CHAPTER 6: Ophelia

Thoughts raced through my head as Sterling shut the door and closed me into his truck. Crazy thoughts. I’d been adamant about staying away from the man who was now racing his car across the parking lot towards me. I’d been sure that complete avoidance was the best option. I was terrified that if I got too close to him, physically, I’d get emotionally attached to a man who was clearly a womanizer.

That fear was still very much alive, but so was my throbbing neediness downstairs. The need to be touched by him was overpowering any fear. My bear was screaming for him, and damned if my body didn’t agree. The hussy. Wasn’t it crazy to keep fighting the desires that were plaguing me? They were only getting stronger. Wouldn’t it be better to give in and get it out of my system?

It was a cheap excuse, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how nice it would be to be the object of Sterling’s desire for more than the few minutes it normally took before I ran away from him. I felt exhausted from the rollercoaster of emotions that I’d been on. Was it so bad to reward myself with something good? Something to make me feel good.

Crap. There had been a very good reason that I hadn’t wanted to come tonight. I’d never been good at resisting temptation. That’s why my ass wasn’t smaller. But, as strong as my cravings for sweets were, my craving for Sterling Mallory was that—times ten.

I knew better, but I couldn’t help but throw caution to the wind. Sterling had hurt Kyle in a dick move. He could potentially hurt me—if I let him. I didn’t have to let him, though. I could make this night all about me. I could and I would. Tonight, I would indulge myself—just tonight though.

I rubbed my hands down my wet thighs and blew out a rough breath when I realized that I’d already made up my mind. I was going to sleep with Sterling. Tonight. No matter how bad of an idea the angel on my shoulder said it was. No matter how bad of a sister it made me. I pushed Kyle out of my mind and turned in my seat to watch Sterling loading the car onto the trailer.

It was insane. God, so insane. I was going to do it, though.

I rummaged around in my purse for mints and popped two in my mouth before discreetly sniffing my pits to make sure I smelled fresh. I just smelled rain, so good to go. I’d thrown on an older sundress before coming and it was cute enough. I tugged it up a little on my thighs and said a prayer of thanks for the laser hair removal I’d had done in Nashville.

I tugged my hair out of its ponytail and tried to rake my fingers through it so it would look sexy instead of like a wet mop. I had to work without a mirror. I wasn’t going to chance Sterling seeing me check myself out while waiting on him. I probably wasn’t at my prettiest, but he probably didn’t care. He didn’t seem to have a type, so I’d probably do.

I forced myself to be still and waited while he finished up with the car. He was dripping wet and grinning like a little kid when he climbed in.

“Sorry about making you wait.” He pushed his hair back and started the truck. “Dang, sorry about not turning on some heat for you. You’re probably cold.”

I shook my head and opened my mouth to reply, but I seemed to have lost the ability to speak. I spun my head to look out of my window and mentally slapped myself.

“Okay, what kind of interview questions do you need to ask?”

Interview. Questions. Shit. I turned back to him with pink cheeks and said the first thing to pop into my head. “Why’d you do what you did to Kyle?”

Double shit. Not what I had meant to ask. Not what I wanted to bring up at all on the night that I’d just vowed to forget about Kyle so I could selfishly indulge in some raunchy sex.

Sterling coughed and adjusted the vents. “Karen wanted a really personal interview, huh?”

I groaned. “No. I’m supposed to interview you about the race and winning. Forget it.”

He turned to me and just stared for a few seconds longer than I was comfortable with. I pushed my dress down and crossed my legs. I was an idiot, both with my foot-in-mouth and with my stupid decision to sleep with him.

“No, it’s okay. We didn’t really talk much last time we were together, did we?”

My face heated and I thought about getting out and walking home. I might salvage a bit of my dignity. “No, we didn’t.”

“John Wayne has healed just fine, thank you. You never even checked on me.”

I snorted and shifted so I could face him. “John Wayne? No. Forget I asked.”

His grin was crooked and sent tingles straight to my core. “You sure? It’s a good story.”

Maybe sleeping with him was back on the table. “I’m sure. And, of course, I didn’t check on you, Sterling. I don’t know the normal protocol for punching someone in the penis, but I’m pretty sure it’s not to send get well cards afterward.”

“It would’ve been a polite thing to do.”

I laughed and shook my head, sobering up. “A polite thing to do would’ve been to refrain from sleeping with Kyle’s fiancée.”

He sighed and nodded. “You’re right. I fucked up. I can assure you that there’s not a single mistake I regret more.”

“Why’d you do it?”

“Fuck, Ophelia.” He shifted in his seat and gripped the steering wheel. “Want to go for a ride?”

I glanced over at my car and shrugged. “I locked myself out of my car. I guess.”

The heaviness faded as he grinned again. His eyes flashed as he put the truck into drive and pulled out of the lot. “I’ve got to drop the trailer off at Hutch’s shop, but then I have something I want to show you.”

I watched the road fly by and uncrossed my legs. I noticed his eyes stray to them and my heart beat faster. I knew he could hear it, and that just made the situation that much hotter. I was too far gone. Being alone in the truck with him had been a line. Crossing it meant that I couldn’t go back until I’d completed my mission.

I brushed my hand over my knee and nonchalantly shifted the hem of my dress up a bit. “Where are you taking me?”

“It’s a surprise.” His voice was deeper and I could hear his heartrate increase.

“How did winning feel?” I tried to distract myself, because if I didn’t, he was going to know in just a few seconds exactly how turned on I was.

“Better with you in the stands.” He passed a car going too slowly for his liking, and adjusted the heat. “Shit. Are you hot? I’m burning up.”

I smiled to myself and fanned the neckline of my dress, flashing him hints of cleavage. “It is a little hot.”

He swerved to miss a downed tree-limb and swore. He remained quiet, but his eyes moved to me over and over again. I shifted my dress up higher and then lifted my hair off of my neck and fanned myself. Pretending I didn’t hear his growling, I sighed heavily and trailed my hand down my neck and across my chest.

“I can’t wait to get out of this wet dress.”

Sterling blew out a breath and jerked the truck into Hutch’s parking lot. He scrubbed his hand down his face and looked over at me. “I’ll be right back.”

I just smiled. I liked seeing him so unnerved and knowing it was because of me. I felt empowered, and knew I was making the right decision. Just for tonight.

CHAPTER 7: Sterling

My dick was hard enough to bend steel. I didn’t know what was happening in the truck. As I unhitched the trailer, I looked through the back glass at Ophelia and growled. If I wasn’t sure that she hated me, I’d think she was toying with me. Flirting. Trying to drive me fucking insane.

I’d thought I was being sly, getting her alone with me, but now I wasn’t sure it was such a great idea, after all. My bear was begging to mark her and I wasn’t doing well controlling him. I couldn’t stop staring. The few inches of thigh that were showing, the quick flashes of her chest. I’d damn near ran us off the road trying to glimpse more of her bare flesh.

I could smell her heat, her neediness, but I knew that didn’t mean she wanted me. Hell, she still wasn’t over what I’d done to her brother. To pretend that she wanted me was wishful thinking to an extreme.

I caught her watching me and swore. I was going to take her to the cave I’d found in the side of the mountain where I lived. There was fool’s gold lining one of the walls and it gleamed, even in the dark. It was the place I liked to go when I wanted to be alone, yet for some self-sabotaging reason, I wanted her scent there, in my private sanctuary. She’d probably hate it. It was raining harder. It would be slick with mud. She was in a dress. I was practically a stranger, taking her to a dark cave. It could come across creepier than I’d originally thought, but this might be my one and only shot.

I finished unhooking the trailer and hopped back into the cab. Drenched again, I looked over at her and swore that her dress had gotten even shorter.

“The surprise?”

I nodded. “You mind getting wet again?”

Her eyes flashed, the silver glowing. “Again? As though I haven’t stayed dripping wet this whole time.”

I had to bite back a groan and force myself to keep my eyes on the road. The whole night was a gift, but hearing things that could be construed as naughty come out of her mouth was enough to supply me with wet dreams for a month.

“When did you start racing?”

Racing? What was that? I tried to clear my brain of the heated images of her body, but it wasn’t working. “Eighteen.”

“What made you start?”

“I like to go fast.” I’d gone stupid.

“Sometimes fast is fun.” She bit the tip of her finger and then caught the neckline of her dress and tugged at it. “Sometimes slow is even better, though.”

“Fucking hell.” I turned onto my road and quickly parked at the edge of the overlook. “I’ll come around to get you.”

I got out and just stood in the rain for a second, trying to cool down. I couldn’t be completely sure that I wasn’t imagining it, but she might be teasing me. Shaking my head, I walked around and opened her door.

She slid herself out, her body brushing against mine on the way down. Her sandaled feet slipped in a bit of mud and she grabbed my arm to still herself. Her pupils were dilated and her mouth parted slightly as her fingers flexed on my muscle. “I didn’t realize you had to work out to be a race car driver.”

I wrapped my arm around her waist and helped her down the small embankment that led to the creek. Her skin was hot under my fingers and I wanted to explore the luscious curves I felt hiding under the dress. “I work in Hutch’s shop some, too. Plus, being a bear, some things just come naturally.”

She snorted. “Maybe for you male bears. Nothing comes naturally to me.”

I resisted the urge to look down at her body. “That’s not true,” I choked out.

She brushed her hair back and slipped again. With a scowl on her face, she looked up at me and stopped moving. “Where are you taking me? I’m starting to feel like I’m drowning.”

I pulled my hat from my back pocket and slid it onto her head before easily scooping her into my arms. It would at least block some of the rain from hitting her face. “It’s just up ahead. It’ll be drier, I promise.”

She wrapped her arms around my neck and held on tight as I tracked through mud and puddles to get to the cave. As soon as I stepped into the cave, her sharp gasp proved to me that I’d made the right decision.

I put her down and stepped back so I would keep my hands off her. “It’s pyrite, fool’s gold, but it’s beautiful.”

She walked around, looking at everything around her. “This is amazing!”

I’d set up a few things in the cave. Not anything fancy, but a metal lawn chair and a cooler that I kept beer in. I strolled over to it and popped the lid. “Beer?”

She shook her head and kept her eyes on the wall of gold. “I hate the taste of it.”

I put the can I’d grabbed back inside, just in case I found some way to get her to kiss me, and sat in the chair. “Want to do your interview? For real? I know you need it. Karen can be intense when it comes to her paper.”

She turned to me and stared with something close to annoyance on her face. “You really care about that article, huh?”

I frowned and crossed my ankle over my knee. Trying to do anything to keep her from seeing my erection that was growing because of the way her dress clung to her curvy body. “I just want to do whatever helps you.”

She turned her back to me. “You brought me to a dark cave just so I could interview you?”

I leaned forward, grinning. “What else were you expecting?”

Throwing up her hands, she stomped towards the front of the cave. The rain whipped in, pelting droplets down the front of her body. She turned back to me and glared. “What’s a woman have to do to be noticed around here?” she spat, before stomping off.

I was dumbfounded for a few seconds, but as soon as I heard her small cry, I charged out of the cave, my bear on the verge of a shift at the idea of her hurt. I spotted her on the ground, in a puddle, her dress hiked up around her upper thighs as she threw a tantrum.

“This sucks! I can’t seem to go a whole day without falling in a puddle! This is all your fault, Sterling Mallory. Here you are putting on this nice guy act, showing me cool places, agreeing to an interview, when all I want right now is for you to be your piggish, womanizing self. Play me, dammit! Or do you not want me? Is my ass too big? Is that it? You don’t like chubby girls? Well, I’ll have you know that I’m not a huge fan of muscular men… with bedroom eyes… and sexy smiles, so there.” She raked her hand through the mud and then threw a handful at me. “But, I’m your mate. You’re supposed to want me.”

I looked down at the mud on my shirt and then back at her just as another one of her mud balls hit me square in the crotch. I growled. “What’s with your aiming at my dick, woman?”

She growled right back at me. “Out of all that I just said, it figures that that’s all you’d care about, John frickin’ Wayne.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, waiting for her tantrum to end so I could grab her and prove just exactly what I do care about. She wasn’t content just staying where she was, though. She turned on her hands and knees and started crawling away from me. From where I stood, I could see gigantic white panties on display, mud and all. It did nothing to soften the raging erection I was sporting.

CHAPTER 8: Ophelia

Mortified, I was getting the hell out of there as soon as I could get my footing and stand up. I’d just snapped. He wasn’t reacting the way I had expected him to, and I hated that. He didn’t want me, it seemed. I was going to run home and drink a bottle of wine in the shower before crawling into bed and never leaving it.

What felt like a steel bar wrapped around my waist and then I was lifted into the air. I slammed into a wall of muscle and then I felt heaven as Sterling ran his mouth over my neck. Chills broke out all over my body and I muttered, nearly incoherently. “What are you doing?”

Sterling ran his hand down my stomach and over my thighs. He caught the hem of my dress and then yanked it, ripping the material straight up the middle. “Proving to you that I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything.”

I gasped as I looked down at my body, sporting the granny panties I’d worn in an attempt to keep myself away from Sterling. I’d forgotten about them. The matching white bra was just as embarrassing and they were both stained dirty from the mud and rain.  My bear was chanting for me to get on with it. She wanted me to turn around and jump Sterling’s bone. I was a little more reserved, though. While I wanted it, seeing my giant underwear on display like that was mortifying. I’d just gone from feeling sexy to feeling frumpy in seconds flat.

I pulled away from him and held the sides of my torn dress closed. “I changed my mind. Let’s do this some other time. Raincheck.”

His eyes burned bright through the rain. “Is it the underwear?”

Angry that I had just flashed him the awful panties, I put my hands on my hips and glared. “What’s wrong with my underwear, Sterling?”

He grinned, slow and steady. “You’re still wearing them?”

I wanted to stay angry, but I couldn’t. My bear was shouting too loudly for me to drop the ego and jump on him. I still kept my dress pulled together, though. “These were supposed to keep me away from you. These were underwear with a purpose, dammit.”

“They can have a new purpose. If anyone attacks, we can wave them in surrender. Just get over here.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You’re saying they’re flag sized?”

“Jesus, woman! I don’t know what size they are. You won’t let me see them for long enough. You want to fight, or you want to come over here and get some lovin’?”

I thought about it. I kind of wanted to do both. I was feeling feisty.

Sterling shook his head and came at me. He wrapped his arms around me and yanked me into his chest. Before I could argue, he slammed his mouth onto mine and kissed me quiet.

For a first kiss, it was rough and demanding. There was nothing sweet and tender about it, but it was perfect for us. His hands tangled in my hair, tugging as he tilted my head back to deepen the kiss. I wrapped my arms around his waist, feeling the muscles in his back work as he walked up backwards. His tongue stroked over my lips and I opened for him, tasting the rain and something that was purely Sterling.

A moan escaped and he swallowed it while exploring my mouth. As my back hit something hard, his hand stroked from my neck, down to my hips. I felt his fingers slip into the side band of the panties and yank. The material bit into my other hip and inner thigh before snapping and flying off. I tried to pull away to complain, but he followed my mouth, not letting me get away, consuming all of my complaints.

Bare from the waist down, I squeezed my thighs together, trying to ease the tension that was building faster than I could believe. I wanted to touch him as much as he was touching me and it was all I could do to not beg him to just take me right there. I stroked my hands under his shirt, the wet material clinging to him. Moving lower, I slipped my hand into his jeans and cupped his firm ass. His hips bucked forward, rubbing his erection against my lower stomach. Hunger pulsed through me and I wrapped my leg around his, needing him to brush against my core.

His hand locked onto the front of my bra and I felt something sharp brush my chest before the bra fell away, exposing my breasts to his gaze. I looked down to see his hand returning to fingers instead of claws.

I gaped at him. “You can do that?”

He ignored me while drinking in the sight of my chest. He cupped me and groaned when my breasts filled his hands. “Fuck. Your body is a dream, Ophelia.”

My head flew back and a cry left my throat as he dropped his mouth and sucked in one of my hardened and sensitive nipples. I dug my fingers into his ass and pulled him into me harder.

His mouth switched to my other nipple and he devoured me, tugging and pulling with his teeth before soothing with his tongue. His hands pushed my shredded dress off my shoulders and went to my ass. He easily lifted me and then pinned me against the stone behind us. Rain pelted us, but neither of us noticed it as we focused on the sensations of each other.

I wrapped my legs around his waist and tugged on his hair. “Need you.”

His hand slipped below my ass and his fingertips brushed over the folds of my core. He growled as I gasped his name and then slid a long, thick finger into me. “So wet and tight for me.”

I was a woman lost. My body belonged to him and there was no hope of me ever getting it back in one piece. With one finger, he was more skilled than any man I’d ever had before. I clenched around him and found his mouth with mine. Kissing him hard, I felt him add another finger. He scissored them in me, stretching me.

Sterling kissed down my chin and throat before nuzzling his mouth against my neck, igniting a fire in my body. Wetness pooled around his fingers and he eased in a third one before curling them and rubbing an untouched spot inside of me.

Stars flashed in front of my eyes as my mouth fell open in a silent cry. I dropped my head to the wall behind me and blinked away raindrops that fell against my face. Pleasure surged through me as he moved his fingers, pumping in and out of me at a maddeningly slow pace, like he didn’t have a care in the world, like I wasn’t on the verge of dying from the pleasure he was giving me.

“Tell me you want me to take you right here, O. Tell me what you want and how you want it. I want to hear it from your sexy mouth.”

I lifted my head and opened my eyes to find him gazing at me with so much intensity that I couldn’t do anything but give him what he’d asked for. “I want you right here, right now, Sterling. I need you. I need you fast and hard and naked. Why are you still dressed?”

He pulled his fingers from me and pushed my legs down until I was standing. Then, he stripped the wet clothes off faster than I would’ve thought possible.

Gloriously naked, looking like some mythical sex god, he strode to me and grabbed my hair again. This time, when he kissed me, it was a promise that I felt all the way to my toes. He was just getting started with me.

I didn’t know if there was ever any going back.

CHAPTER 9: Sterling

Seeing her standing in front of me, naked, against the backdrop of my cave, hit me like a ton of bricks. Mine. Ophelia was mine. Why hadn’t I been trying harder to make her see that? I just needed to show her what she meant to me. Starting with giving her orgasms enough to send her soaring to the moon. I wanted to make her come harder than she ever had before.

My bear hated the thought of men touching her before us and wanted to brand her, erasing every memory she had of anyone before me. He demanded that I sink my teeth into her neck and mark her. I agreed, but wouldn’t dare do it without her permission.

She wasn’t ready for that, I was willing to bet. So, I’d keep my teeth to myself. For tonight, anyway.

I picked her up again and, that time, when her legs locked around my waist, it was with my dick trapped against her hot core. Her moan was pure seduction and immediately set me teetering on the edge of losing all restraint. I wanted to take my time and be gentle with her, but if she kept moaning like that, there was no telling if I’d be able to maintain control.

“In me. I need you in me, Sterling. Please.”

That was it. My control snapped. I shifted my hips to line our bodies up. Her head fell backwards and her nails raked down my back as I plunged into her, entering her in one fast stroke. Her body gripped me like a glove. I clenched my jaw and braced one arm on the wall behind her to try to find some semblance of stability while the rest of the world fell away around us.

“Sterling! Yes, please!” Her broken voice cried out to me as her walls pulsed around me, squeezing and releasing, milking me until the pleasure damn near had my eyes crossing.

I somehow managed to slide out of her and then pushed back in. Lust dictated the pace and it was fast and hard. I wrapped my arm around her back to keep from hurting her against the rough wall behind her and took her mouth in a kiss that was just as hard and fast.

Her hands were all over me, raking and scratching. Her mouth, as sweet as the rest of her, gave as good as she got. She fought me for control of our kiss and let out a wild cry when I lightly bit her bottom lip. “Too good!”

I buried my face against her neck and growled as her scent beckoned me. I wanted to claim her and mark her as my own. I needed it. Taking her flesh between my teeth, I bit, not hard enough to mark her, but enough to let her know what I wanted. Like a switch, she exposed the entire length of her smooth neck to me. Raking my teeth along it, I stopped at the spot my bear chose and sucked hard on it.

Ophelia screamed my name and her body clamped down on my dick as her orgasm hit her. She practically vibrated against me, her wetness flooded out of her.

I was wasted. There was no way I could watch my woman come and not follow her right over the edge. I growled and let out a roar as I slammed home in her once more before spilling everything I had into her.

My knees shook as I tightened my hold on her and carried her back into the cave. Both of us, naked and wet, moaned as I sat down in the chair with her still impaled on me. My dick was somehow still hard and I felt like the life was being sucked from me every time her walls pulsed around me. She was a fucking goddess. She was everything.

I leaned back in the chair and pulled her with me until her head rested on my chest. Her hands came up to rest there, too, her fingers lightly running over the dusting of chest hair.

“Was that the mate bond?” She didn’t lift her head and I got the feeling that she felt silly asking.

I pressed a kiss to the top of her head and grunted. “Never had a mate before, but that was the most amazing thing I’ve ever felt, and I give you full credit for that.”

She let out a soft giggle that made my dick jerk.

“Calm down, big guy.”

“Like that’ll ever be possible with you anywhere near.”

She sat up, her arm naturally crossing her chest to hide her bareness. “This is dangerous.”

I caught her arm and moved it, taking in the rounded curves and pink nipples. I moved one arm from behind her to cup her breast and flick my thumb over her nipple. My mouth watered and I leaned forward to flick my tongue over the tip of the other one.

Her breath caught and she rocked her hips over mine. “Sterling… Just tonight. That’s as far as we can go with this.”

I straightened and flexed my hips to fill her even fuller. “You really still gonna pretend that’s an option?”

She braced her hands on my shoulders and rocked again. “You really expect me to believe you want more than that?”

I lifted her hips in the air and held her there while I thrust into her from below. I held her gaze and nodded. “Hell yeah, I do. Hell yeah, I want more than one night. A whole lot more.”

She shook her head, even as she moaned and gave herself over fully to me. “I can’t. You know why.”

I yanked her body down to mine and held her face in my hand. “We’re mates. Do you know what that means?”

Her body responded to the rougher treatment and she practically purred against me. “Not really.”

I caught her wild hair in my hand and tilted her head to the side, exposing her sensitive neck to me. “It means that nature made me for you and you for me. It means that every single fucking part of me wants to sink my teeth into your neck and claim you so the whole world knows we belong to each other. It means that no matter what, no matter how hard you try to pretend otherwise, this connection will always exist between us. We can’t run from it. We can’t act like strangers. I’m yours. Just as much as you’re mine.”

She held on desperately to me as I raked my teeth over the spot where I wanted to mark. Her fingers dug into my shoulders and she shook as the beginning of an orgasm built in her. I could feel it in the pulsing of her walls.

“I want to put my mark on you. Right here, so the world can see it.” I bit the skin and sucked, leaving a mark that would fade after a few days. “This is happening, Ophelia. You came to me tonight, and I don’t think I can let you go again.”

With a broken cry, she came again, clinging to me and repeating my name over and over.

CHAPTER 10: Ophelia

“What made you start racing? It doesn’t seem natural for a bear. I felt like my bear was going to crawl out of my skin just watching you.” I was curled in Sterling’s arms, knowing that I should’ve made him take me home. Instead, he’d started a small campfire in the cave with a few twigs he’d found strewn inside. We were snuggled, watching the rain fall outside and the flames quietly dance off the golden walls.

“It was one of the few things I was good at. When I was sixteen, driving a piece of shit beater, I outran a cop. Before he locked me up, he suggested I find an outlet for my skills. It stuck.” He shifted in the chair and ran his hand over my hair. It’d dried into a mass of wild curls that he seemed to love touching.

“So, you were a bad boy, huh?”

He laughed. “I was… exciting. Hutch was the responsible one, taking over everything after our dad died and our mom fell into a depression. I didn’t really have a role to fill. I had a lot of pent up emotions, and no one to notice or care, so I just went with asshole.”

I rested my head against his shoulder and looked over at him. “And you still go with that?”

His other hand was on the curve of my hip and he lightly slapped my ass. “We called a truce while we’re in here. This is a cave of sex and good things. Not anger and name-calling.”

I grinned and shrugged. “Just curious. The guy in here with me isn’t the guy I heard rumors about in town. I want to know which is the real Sterling Mallory.”

My heart raced as he remained quiet. I didn’t know which I was really hoping for. If he was the generous guy who’d given me more orgasms than I’d ever had at the hands of another in my life, I was going to be crushed when I walked out and had to call it quits. If he was the chronic womanizer, I was going to be crushed when I walked out and he didn’t think twice about me after I just had the most incredible night of my life.

“This is me. I mean…  At some point, I was that asshole. I can’t act like I haven’t done shitty things. I slept around, I made a joke of everything, I hurt your brother because I could. Dealing with the consequences of my actions, though, has kind of put things in a different perspective for me. You’re my mate. I fucked up enough to make my mate think that I was too horrible to be with. That kind of hurt runs deep.”

I sighed. Shit. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I’d given in and I didn’t know if I’d be able to quit him. Already, I felt like an addict. Lying in Sterling’s arms was the most I’d felt at home since being back in Burden. I couldn’t be with him, though. I owed Kyle my loyalty. He was the only family I had left. I had to be there for him.

“I’m sorry for what I did to Kyle. Now. Because of you. I’m sorry I hurt your brother. The guy can be a dick, but I fucked up. I should apologize to him, but every time I’m near him, he tries to knock my teeth down my throat, and I’m not sorry enough to let that happen.”

I groaned. “He would be so hurt to know that I’m here with you.”

Sterling’s fingers tangled in my hair and pulled my face around to his. “We’re mates. He’ll get over it.”

I laughed and couldn’t help running my fingers over the stubble on his face. “You don’t know Kyle. He hates you. And he doesn’t understand mates. Plus, he never wanted to know anything about bears since he didn’t get the trait. He was always bitter that his sister was a bear and he was just human. If only he knew how much I would’ve been willing to trade him.”

“Why?”

I sat up and looked at him. “Seriously? I turn into a furry bear. Not just a furry bear, but a fat one. Not just a fat, furry bear, but a clumsy fat, furry worthless bear who has no understanding or knowledge of life in the outdoors. I sprout fur at random times if I’m upset and I break things. It’s horrible.”

He looked at me like I’d spoken a foreign language. “Ophelia, bears are big. That can’t be helped. And your bear isn’t worthless. Every cub learns about nature the same way, by exploring. Didn’t your parents teach you?”

I shook my head. “My dad wasn’t a shifter. Mom was, but she was so worried about upsetting Kyle and Dad all the time that she tried to minimize what being a shifter was actually all about. I never really played outside as a bear. If I had to shift, I’d hide out in my bedroom.”

Sterling grunted. “Seems Kyle has always been a dick.”

I frowned. “He’s my brother, Sterling. He’s nice to me. He used to come all the way to Nashville to see me if I was ever having a hard time.”

Sterling stood up, setting me on my feet and held my shoulders. “It’s been a good night. Let’s not talk about Kyle anymore. Can I see your bear?”

I frowned even harder. “No, Sterling, you cannot. She’s not cute.”

He gave me a stern look. “Let me be the judge of that.”

I growled. “Sterling, it’s embarrassing. With the exception of the granny panties, I’ve felt sexy with you all night. I don’t want to ruin it by turning into some fat, hairy beast.”

He moved away from me and winked before shifting. Suddenly, a huge brown bear was standing in front of me. Sterling’s ocean colored eyes stared out at me and he seemed to be grinning. He casually leaned against the cave wall, slipped on a slick rain-splattered rock and fell backwards on his butt.

I doubled over in laughter before I could stop myself. It was hilarious to see such a formidable animal look so silly. When I straightened, I had tears in my eyes. “Fine. I’ll shift. Only because you’re so foolish, though.”

I moved farther away and took a deep breath. I closed my eyes and focused on letting my bear out and within seconds, I was her, standing in all my furry glory in front of Sterling’s bear. I fought the urge to cross my paws over my chest. It just felt so weird shifting in front of another person.

I hadn’t shown another soul my bear since I was a kid, and even then, it was usually just my mom.

Sterling came towards me, his eyes taking me in. He threw his head back, and I instantly recognized his loud roar as a happy one as it echoed through the cave. He rubbed his nose against my head and I felt a warmth blossom in my chest that had everything to do with being home.

I rubbed against him, too, freer than I could ever remember feeling. I watched as he moved towards the cave entrance and beckoned for me. I shook my head, not wanting to show him how much of a human I still was while in my bear state.

He stepped out in the rain, anyway, stood on his hind legs, and tilted his head back before dropping to all four feet. He looked at me over his shoulder, let out playful growl and then took off running.

My bear reacted instantly. Forgetting the usual hang-ups, I dropped to my feet and chased after him. Sliding and falling in the mud, I had no chance of catching him as he bound into the creek and then turned to face me.

I wanted to laugh, but the sound came out as a choppy growl that he seemed to understand. I turned and ran from him, never before wanting to play like I did now.

Sterling caught me in no time, his big body running into my side and pushing me to the muddy ground. He shifted back to his human form and ran his hands through my fur, petting my side. “You’re beautiful.”

I shifted back and grinned up at him from where I was lying naked in mud. “We’re filthy.”

He leaned down and captured my mouth. “You haven’t seen nothing yet. Want to get dirtier?”

I did, I really did.

CHAPTER 11: Sterling

The sun was coming up over the hills when I dropped her off at the end of her street. I hated not being able to drive her straight to her house and walk her to the door, but she was adamant that Kyle not see us. I didn’t know how she planned on keeping us a secret. I fully intended to claim her. Unless Kyle left town never to be seen again, he would find out about our mating sooner rather than later.

She looked over at me and bit her lip as a slow smile tilted her full mouth. Her eyes sparkled and her skin glowed under splatters of dried mud. “Don’t be mad.”

I shook my head. “I’m not mad. I’m just already resigned to the fact that this sneaking around isn’t going to work. I’m going to claim you, Ophelia. I won’t hide that.”

“Don’t say that.” Her cheeks flushed and the scent of her arousal filled the truck.

I turned the truck off and took her in, wearing my mud-stained T-shirt and nothing else. We hadn’t been able to find her big underwear. No loss there. “Say what? That I’m going to claim you? But I am. I’m going to sink my teeth into you right before you explode all over my—”

“Sterling!” Her shout was supposed to be a warning, but it lost its weight when rolled out of her mouth in more of a breathy moan.

I caught the back of her neck and pulled her closer to me. “We’ll talk to Kyle together. Explain. Make him understand.”

She pressed her hands against my bare chest and groaned. “I can’t. You know I can’t, Sterling. I’ll figure something out. This just has to be our secret for now.”

I let her slide away from me and shrugged. “It’s a bad idea.”

She opened the door and slipped out, tugging the shirt down to cover her ass. “It’s the best one I’ve got right now.”

“What happens when this has gone on for six months or a year? I’m just supposed to stay hidden in the shadows?”

Her eyes went wide. “Six months or a year? I can’t imagine this mate thing will last that long, right? I mean, I’m sure you’ll be bored with me sooner than that. In the meantime, we’ll figure it out. I’ll see you later. I hope you like the article.”

I watched, dumbfounded, as she pushed the door shut and then ran down the road towards her house, holding the shirt down as she did. Won’t last that long? Was she serious? My chest felt like it was being squeezed in a vice. She still didn’t get the mating thing. It hurt like hell that she assumed what we had was temporary, but I didn’t know how I was supposed to show her otherwise while she was so dead-set on keeping us a secret.

She had some ridiculous plan to sneak around for covert rendezvous and clandestine trysts and that didn’t give us a hell of a lot of time for anything but hot and heavy hook-ups. I knew that with what little time I would get with her, I’d have a hard time using it to talk. I craved her too much. Fuck. I suppose it was progress in a weird way. It was at least better than the cold shoulder I’d been getting from her, but dammit, it wasn’t enough. Tasting her had shattered any hope I’d ever had of living without her. The damage was done. She was mine.

I’d just have to figure out a way to show her what she meant to me while trying to keep to her cloak-and-dagger ruse.

I went home and slept for a couple of hours before heading to Hutch’s garage to check on my car. I pulled into the lot and sighed when I saw Hutch standing in front of my trailer with Thorn. My trailer was parked in front of the bay door, at a weird angle that made it hard to move and impossible to get the car off. Hell.

I parked in front of the trailer as best I could and groaned, getting ready for a ribbing from Hutch.

“Were you fucking drunk when you parked this piece of shit last night? High? Mentally incapable of seeing that you’d blocked every single one of my bays? How the fuck am I supposed to work like this?”

Thorn grinned. “More like horny. You nearly ran me and Allie off the road last night. I saw you with a hot little number in the passenger seat.”

Hutch’s eyes rolled to the back of his head. “Tell me you didn’t.”

“Didn’t what? Was she married? Shit, I’m out of the loop. Who was it?”

“Kyle’s little sister.”

“Kyle Barns?” Thorn roared out a laugh. “Like that asshole doesn’t hate us enough as it is.”

“You can’t keep your dick in check, can you, little brother? Why her? She already did a number on you. Why’d you go back again?”

“Shit! That’s right! She punched you in the dick, didn’t she?”

I growled. “Could you two shut the fuck up for two seconds. You’re pecking like a couple of old hens. Jesus.”

Hutch gestured towards his shop. “Think I have an excuse to peck, bro.”

“Christ, it’s rubbing off on me. I’m listening to Allie and Georgia and Veronica and everyone else they bring over peck constantly.” Thorn hid his face in his hands in mock shame.

I stared at Thorn. “You done?”

He crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. “Yep. Just realizing how much I sound like a little bitch.”

Hutch lifted a shoulder. “Yeah, you do. You alright?”

Thorn groaned. “Why do girls talk so dang much? And the things they say that I don’t want to hear. Shit, I’ve been forced to overheard shit that I never needed to know. Like, ever. By the way, sorry ‘bout your dick, Hutch.”

I just stood there, listening as they pretended to commiserate with one another about the negative aspects of having a mate. For once, I didn’t feel like my heart was being ripped out of my chest. I just grinned along with them.

Hutch finally noticed and looked over at me. “Why are you doing that?”

“What?”

“That thing with your face. It’s almost a smile, if it wasn’t so American Psycho.”

I reached up and touched my face. “Bullshit. It’s just a smile.”

Thorn winced. “No, it’s creepy, dude. What’s going on with you? I feel like you’ve snapped or something.”

“You guys suck. Worst buddies in the world. I’m going to have to go find Sam and Wyatt, my real friends.”

Hutch wrapped his arm around my neck and rubbed my head with his knuckles. “Now who’s being a little bitch.”

I broke away and shoved him. “I’m gonna hurt you.”

Thorn saved him, “What are the chances that Wyatt’s mom still has breakfast on the table?”

“Pretty good. Last one there sits in the broken chair.” I took off at a run, yanking at my clothes as I went. It’d be faster as a bear. I looked back and saw them right behind me, shoving each other over as they tore their own clothes off. “Oh, by the way, Kyle’s sister, Ophelia, is my mate.”

CHAPTER 12: Ophelia

I was going to kill Sterling. Even though the sex was the best thing in the world, he had to pay. He had the biggest mouth in all of Texas, and that was saying something.

My day had started out great. I walked around all morning in the hazy glow of post-coitus after playing in the rain all night with my sexy mate. It didn’t get much better. I didn’t run into Kyle in the house, so I was able to sneak in without a problem and without lying to him about where I’d been. I wrote a glowing article and turned it in to Karen, who was thrilled with it and with the picture I’d snapped of Sterling. I found a few extra dollars in my pocket and bought an avocado to eat with my lunch. Life was sunshine and roses.

The day started to get a little rocky when I returned home after work and Kyle asked me to go with him to watch a football game that the local guys held behind the bar. I figured that we wouldn’t do much talking while he watched football. It would be safe enough.

Halfway through the game, though, I’d looked up to see Allie, Georgia, and Veronica staring at me. Georgia crooked her finger motioning for me to join them and my heart began to race. I knew them from book club and around town, but they’d never beckoned me over like they were doing then. I felt like I was being called into the principal’s office.

For some reason, I just knew they knew about me and Sterling. Panic made me shake my head and turn back towards the game. That’s the precise moment when things started to go sideways.

Kyle looked over at me and then past me. “Your friends are waving at you, Philly.”

I pretended not to hear him and pointed at the game. “Did you see that?”

He raised his eyebrows. “What’s up? You’re acting strange.”

Georgia’s voice came from right beside me. “Hey! Didn’t you see us? We girls have some chatting to do.”

I turned to face her, giving my back to Kyle. I made a face and shook my head. “We have the thing tonight. I’ll find you guys there. Right now, I’m enjoying some time with my brother. Alone.”

She made a confused face. “How can you sit here and pretend like you haven’t been keeping a huge secret? Come on!”

Kyle perked up. “Secret? What secret?”

Georgia laughed. “Well, I’m sure you already know—”

I stood up and grabbed her. “Gotta go, Kyle. I’ll be back shortly.”

“What’s your deal? You’re acting weird.” Georgia let me pull her to the very far edge of the grassy area, farthest from my brother. Allie and Veronica slowly made their way over.

“How do you know?” I hissed.

Allie grinned. “About you and Sterling? Congrats, by the way. He might be a little on the wild side, but he’s hot.”

I could hear Thorn’s growl from across the bleacher seats and Allie just laughed.

I made a slashing motion across my neck. “Kyle doesn’t know! You’re not supposed to know either! Who told you?”

They all turned to look at their mates, who were looking sheepish, next to Sterling who was glaring daggers at them.

I threw up my hands and groaned. “I’m going to kill him. This is a disaster.”

Sterling’s head snapped to mine. He frowned and growled under his breath, but I still heard it.

I growled right back at him and shook my head. “Secret. What doesn’t he get about that word?”

Georgia cleared her throat. “Why is it a secret?”

Veronica wagged her finger. “Yeah, and why did you keep it a secret from us? We tell you everything.”

Allie nodded. “We really do. Too much. Just last week, Veronica told you that thing about Hutch’s dick.”

Veronica shrugged and giggled.

“It’s a secret because my brother can’t find out. He hates Sterling.”

“Kyle hates everyone.”

“Yeah, except for himself.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “That’s my brother you’re talking about.”

Georgia grinned. “And we respect that he’s your brother. It’s the truth, though. Kyle hates everyone. You can’t let the fact that he hates Sterling keep you from being together with your mate.”

“I’m with him. I was with him all last night.”

They all laughed and then leaned in closer. Veronica made a ‘go on’ motion with her hands. “Well. How was it?”

I looked back at Sterling and felt my face heat up as he winked at me and leaned back in his chair, looking cocky and sure of himself. I bit my lip and stifled a laugh. “It was okay.”

He sat straight up as his buddies started laughing. Growling, he stood up and started towards me.

I squeaked. “Gotta go, girls. Please, don’t mention it to anyone else. I don’t want it to get back to Kyle.”

They rolled their eyes in unison and shook their heads. Georgia caught my hand. “Come by tonight. We can talk over drinks.”

Behind a stomping Sterling, Wyatt threw up his hands.

Georgia laughed. “Apparently, we hang out and talk too much for our men’s liking.”

Allie mimicked Thorn. “I don’t need to hear this shit, Allie. It’s making me crazy. I think about ya’ll’s shit way too much. Please, Allie. Go to Wyatt’s.”

Wyatt smacked Thorn who tried to act like he had no idea what Allie was talking about. Sterling was closing in on me.

I waved. “See you there. Remember! It’s a secret!”

I turned and sprinted past a cluster of guys waiting to get onto the field. Into the woods I went, hoping to find somewhere private. Seeing Sterling all angry and moody had me eager to get him alone. Knowing he was chasing me made me hot and I swallowed down the knowledge that keeping it a secret was only going to work for so long. We were both too revved up, clearly.

I raced through the woods as fast as my gracefulness allowed and found a little grouping of trees that lent itself to privacy. I swept my shirt over my head as soon as I was hidden and yanked my shorts down, the smile on my face cemented there, despite my frustration at the man who rounded the little tree corner and found me.

He stumbled and his eyebrows shot up. “What are you doing?”

I grabbed his shirt and pulled him to me. “Keeping a secret. Take your pants off, big guy.”

His growl was low and promising as he grabbed my hips and picked me up. “You invest in skirts and I’ll get baggier pants.”

I moaned as his mouth immediately went to my neck. “Skirts with no panties. Got it.”

CHAPTER 13: Sterling

I adjusted myself under the table, trying to hide the constant state of erection I was in. It’d been a couple of hours since I watched Ophelia run off while still slipping into her shirt, but I couldn’t get the image out of my head. She’d looked back at me with so much promise in her silver eyes that I couldn’t help but dream of the next time I got her alone.

Which…I didn’t know when that would be. My mood quickly threatened to go sour as I thought about the arrangement. No part of me was interested in running around like a teenager hiding from his parents. We were mates. Kyle was going to have to get the fuck over it.

I drained a shot of whiskey and groaned. Mood officially turned, I shook my head and grabbed Hutch’s shot before he could take it.

He hit me in the arm and grumbled. “Fucking get your own.”

I glared at him. “I don’t want to hear any complaints from all of you lucky sons of bitches. None of your mates are making you sneak around like a little kid.”

“Like a little pussy is more like it.” Thorn grinned. “She’s crazy if she thinks she can’t keep it hidden from her brother.”

I growled. “One. Don’t call me a pussy. Two. Don’t call my mate crazy. But, yeah, she’s fucking crazy.”

“Why don’t you just tell Kyle? She’ll get over it.” Sam shrugged. “She’s got to, right?”

The rest of us just stared at him and then laughed. Even in my shitty mood, I couldn’t help but laugh at him. “Brother, you’ve got no clue.”

“And you do?”

“Fuck you, Sam,” I nodded towards the door. “You want to get your ass handed to you tonight?”

He grinned and shrugged. “Why not? I’ve got time and nothing to do. I was planning on meeting up with Haley, the Sanders’ girl, tonight, but haven’t seen her around yet.”

I grabbed his shot and threw it back, too. “Alright, let’s go.”

Thorn looked around and grinned. “Why the hell not. Come on. I’ll grab a couple of bottles.”

We all headed outside, ready to act like idiots. Heading into the woods behind the bar, I groaned as I caught a light whiff of Ophelia still hanging around.

Wyatt slapped my back. “It never gets any easier, man. Might as well take all your frustration out on Sam. He’s asking for it.”

Sam nodded. “I am literally asking for it. I’m bored. All of you old farts are settling down on me. I don’t have anything to do these days.”

I just grinned and stripped before shifting. He had no idea how much bottled-up shit I had going on. Not being able to joke away my feelings and act like a complete asshole had left me with a lot of emotional build-up. Thank god for good friends to beat the shit out of.

Everyone stripped and shifted, all ready to brawl. It was nothing serious, just shifters getting out some pent-up energy. Sam was like a brother to me. I’d never actually want to hurt him. Brawling was natural and normal for bears, though.

Sam ran at me and grunted when I easily met his force head on and we both toppled sideways. Rolling around on the ground, we fought until we were too tired to do anything else. The others played and fought around us, sometimes running over to growl and nip at us. It was something the five of us had done since we were little and it was nothing that we wanted our women watching. It was male bonding.

When we’d all tuckered ourselves out, we waded into the creek and shifted back so we could enjoy the bottles of whiskey Thorn brought along. It wasn’t until they were bottoms up that we decided we needed to have some different fun.

“I miss my mate.” Wyatt strolled out of the water and grabbed his clothes. “Let’s go break up their party.”

Thorn and Hutch both nodded while laughing. Thorn grabbed his clothes and grinned. “Allie will be annoyed for a while, then we can have makeup sex. It’s perfect.”

I hesitated for a few seconds and then caved. “I, apparently, am in the middle of a high school love affair that I have to hide. This will be a perfect cover for spending some time with my little mate.”

Sam wagged his eyebrows. “I just so happened to know that there are a few single ladies in attendance at their soiree. I’m right behind y’all.”

“Hey, Sterling, I forgot to ask. What’s it like being mated to another bear?” Wyatt laughed and shook his head. “Not too many female bears around here.”

I stepped into my jeans and decided to just carry my shirt. “She’s beautiful. Her bear…  Fuck. I didn’t know my bear could be so happy. She’s fun. And clumsy. I get the feeling she doesn’t shift much, so watching her is like watching a cub sometimes. She’s got issues with it because her parents didn’t let her shift much, and never in front of Kyle, I guess. That dickhead just keeps becoming more and more of an asswipe every day.”

“That asswipe is going to be family, soon.” Hutch shivered. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

“I’m happy to deal with him if it means getting to be with my mate. I thought I’d ruined it. I was afraid that I was never going to get a real chance with her. After the whole punch to the dick thing, I gave up.”

“Rookie move.”

I nodded. “Yeah, it wasn’t my best. I’m done with that shit, though. She’s mine and I’m not ever giving up on her. She’s just going to have to get over it.”

Hutch ruffled my hair and grinned. “That’s the little brother I know. There’s no quit in this family.”

I rolled my eyes. “Alright, alright. Let’s go see what our mates are up to.”

We walked through the woods, talking along the way. They were all my brothers. They didn’t question anything about why I hadn’t told them sooner about Ophelia. They just accepted it. We each had our own burdens to bear and they’d always accepted everything about me, even the not so pretty parts.

I’d had just enough to drink to be honest with myself, and I knew that there were things I needed to discuss Hutch, man to man. There were things I needed to confess and things I needed to face about myself, too. Things I didn’t really want to deal with, but that I knew I had to in order to give Ophelia the best version of myself.

Hutch put his arm around my shoulders and smiled. “Why the long face, brother?”

I shook my head, realizing that it wasn’t the time. “Just thinking. I’m ready to see my little bear.”

He nodded. “Man, I’m glad this is working out for you. You worried me before. You’ve always had a bit of melancholy surrounding you, but not like that day in the garage. You deserve happiness, Sterling. You’re a good man.”

I looked away, embarrassed by the emotions his words invoked in me. “Thanks, Hutch.”

I had to talk to him eventually, but we’d leave things as they were for the moment.

CHAPTER 14: Ophelia

I was a terrible bear. I didn’t even hear the guys sneaking up, and I didn’t smell Sterling until his bare chest was pressed up against my back. I   squeaked and turned around to find him smiling down at me. I could admit that my senses were a little stunted, but I had to blame the glass of wine for the rest of my cluelessness. Even if I’d been a better bear, I probably would’ve let a train sneak up on me with the buzz that I was floating.

Giggling, I gazed up into the warm and smiling eyes of my mate before planting a kiss on his chest. Heat radiated off him and warmed me. His strong arms reached around and lifted me so I could wrap my legs around his waist. “What are you doing here?”

He kissed me, slow and long, his hands wandering down to my ass. “We crashed your party.”

I looked around and that’s when I noticed for the first time there were other men in the house. Feeling embarrassed, I pushed against Sterling’s chest, but he wouldn’t put me down. I sighed and slumped against his chest. “Supposed to be a secret, Sterling.”

His fingers dipped lower, brushing over my core through my jeans. “We’re going to have to talk about that, but later. I can see neither of us are in the mood to talk.”

I shook my head and ran my fingers through his short hair. I’d just had him a few hours earlier, but I wanted him again. “Let’s go home.”

His eyebrows went up. “Home?”

I shrugged. “My house. Kyle is gone. He’s seeing a friend in Dallas tonight.”

“You want me to go to your house?”

“It’s closer than yours.” I rubbed my chest against his and pressed my mouth to his neck. Nibbling him, I felt my body heating up. “Now, Sterling. Unless, of course, you don’t want to.”

He growled and tightened his hold on me. Addressing the group behind me, he raised his voice. “We’re leaving.”

I laughed as he rushed us out of there. Without either of our vehicles, he carried me all the way across town, through the woods, to my house. I marveled at how he carried me with ease, without breaking a sweat, despite the extra curviness of my body.

When we got closer, I spoke in what I thought was a whisper until I heard it out loud. “Watch out for Mrs. Cummings. She’s a nosy thing. She sells makeup and is always looking for a new customer through her front window.”

He grinned. “You think she’s looking for new customers at midnight?”

I shrugged. “Maybe.”

He laughed out loud then and just kept chuckling, even when I slapped my hand over his mouth. He snuck us around to the backdoor and then planted me against it so he could kiss the hell out of me.

I forgot that I was worried about our neighbors and moaned as I arched my back, trying to be closer to him. “Sterling…”

He kissed down my throat and growled. “It’s harder and harder to not sink my teeth into your neck, baby.”

My hand closed around the doorknob and I twisted it, causing us both to stumble into the house. The door slammed open into the shelf on the wall behind it and something breakable hit the floor and shattered. When Sterling tried to put me down to check it out, I locked my legs around his waist and grunted. “Upstairs.”

We took down a picture frame hanging by the stairs and a side table before making it to my room. Kicking the door closed behind us, Sterling tossed me on my childhood bed and laughed when one corner creaked and then dipped towards the floor.

I buried my face in my hands and laughed. “You broke my bed!”

He unbuttoned his pants and gave me a slow grin. “We could do a whole lot worse.”

I bit my lip and crawled into the middle of the bed. “This is the first time we’ve done it in a bed and we broke it. Maybe we should stick to caves and trees.”

He shoved his pants down, revealing his delicious body. “I’ll buy you a stronger bed.”

I shivered and nodded. “Come here. I want to taste you.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

***

“At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I have to say it again. We aren’t going to be able to hide this, Ophelia.”

I knew he was right. Each time I looked at him, I felt the pull stronger and stronger. It was scary how connected I felt to him already. I kissed his chest and wrapped my leg over his. “I’ll talk to Kyle.”

Sterling stroked his hands through my hair, catching tangles, and sighed. “I don’t want to hide this. It goes against my nature. I want to be able to take you out and show you off. I want to be with you every second I possibly can be. I want what my brother and friends have.”

I grinned to myself, ignoring the anxiety I felt at the idea of talking to Kyle. “I never would’ve taken you for the romantic type.”

“I wasn’t. Meeting you changed me.” He sat up to lean against the headboard and pulled me with him, cradling me between his legs. “I’d always heard that meeting his mate changes a man. It scared the hell out of me because I wasn’t too sure what it meant. I wanted a mate, eventually, but my life was easier before.”

I cut him a look and crossed my arms over my chest. “So sorry for any complications that I’ve caused.”

He ran his big hand up my stomach and chest before lightly capturing my neck and running his thumb over the pulse that was beating erratically there. “Not what I meant. I just mean…  I used certain behaviors to hide issues that I didn’t want to deal with before. I don’t want to use those things anymore, so life is different now.”

“What things?” I knew. I also knew I didn’t want to hear it from him. My bear paced in agitation, annoyed at the idea of any other woman touching him.

“Women. Being a jerk. I made a big joke of everything, instead of dealing with my shit.” He cleared his throat and his other hand rubbed a soothing rhythm over my thigh. “This isn’t easy to admit to you. I want you to want me, not run away screaming.”

I forced down the jealousy and anger and looked back at him. “I’m not running. Talk to me. Why did you need to hide things?”

Sterling frowned and buried his face in my hair. Inhaling deeply, he moaned. “You always smell so good.”

I wiggled. “Focus, Sterling.”

His fingers curled around my inner thigh and tightened. “You keep wiggling like that and the talking portion of this evening will be over.”

“Okay, sorry.” I grinned. “Go on.”

His slow sigh told me that opening up to me wasn’t something he wanted to do, but it was something he needed to. “It sounds so stupid.”

I turned until I was sitting sideways in his lap and rested my head on his shoulder. “I won’t think it’s stupid.”

“I thought this didn’t feel permanent for you. Why do you want to hear this shit?”

I ran my hand over his chest, trying to imagine the idea of never doing it again, the idea of walking away from him. It was impossible. “I just do. Now, get talking.”

CHAPTER 15: Sterling

I held her close as I brought forth memories of my childhood. “Hutch and my dad were always so close. They used to have these father son excursions. I just stayed behind, usually. It wasn’t that they refused to include me or anything. I just didn’t fit in with them, I guess. I usually hung out with mom. It sucked, but I’m glad Hutch got that time with Dad.”

Ophelia stroked my chest and stared up at me. “Did something happen to him?”

I nodded and took a few seconds to get my thoughts together before continuing. It wasn’t that I didn’t talk about Dad plenty; it was just still hard to say that he’d died. It still hurt. Over thirty, I still felt like I’d missed a chance to get to know my own father. I still felt cheated. “Yeah, he died when I was young. Hutch kind of grew up all of a sudden—too fast, and took it as his duty to provide for our family. He was the hardest worker. Still is. He got a job pretty much right away and started taking care of me and mom.”

“How old was he?”

I gritted my teeth and got ready for the awe in her voice. It was the same awe that everyone’s voice held when they found out. Yes, my brother Hutch was amazing. “Fourteen.”

She bit her lip and nodded. “What did you do?”

I blinked a few times and furrowed my eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“I mean what did you do? You were so young. You lost your dad and then your brother took over the role as man of the house. I’m sure it was almost like you lost both of them at the same time.”

I realized I’d tightened my arms around her too tightly and eased up. “I didn’t do anything. My mom went into a deep depression for years. Hardly ever got out of bed.”

“How did you deal with it?”

I looked down at my mate and thanked the world for sending her to me. “I don’t know. I didn’t. I made sure mom ate, took care of the house and shit, and other than that, I just sat around and let Hutch do everything. Not much has changed. He still works his ass off and I race cars a couple of times a week for a job.”

Her face scrunched together. “You don’t really think that.”

I looked around her room, looking for anything to steal my attention away from her question.

“Sterling. You were a child. Hutch was, too, but he was older than you. You were just trying to survive, I’m sure.”

“I don’t know. I always thought that maybe Dad knew the difference in us from the start.”

“What difference?”

I swallowed. “Hutch is a hard worker, serious, and fucking great man. I’m…  Shit, Ophelia, I’m the guy who turns life into one big joke. The fuck-up. Cops, women, a string of jobs that clearly shows I have no idea what I want to do in life.”

She sat up and straddled me, grasping my face in her hands. “You can’t really see yourself that way, surely.”

I grunted, suddenly toeing the line of being way too uncomfortable to keep talking. I wasn’t supposed to be scaring my mate away, and yet I’d single handedly turned the discussion to how much of a loser I was.

“If that’s not who you are or who you want to be, change, Sterling. I don’t think anyone else sees you the way you see yourself, though. Every time someone in this town mentions your name, they do it with stars in their eyes. You’re a great man, too. Except for the whole womanizer thing.”

I raised an eyebrow. “That’s over.”

“You were still doing it a few days ago. I heard you.”

One more way I’d fucked up. I took a deep breath and was about to explain that the truth was not as it seemed, when a truck door slammed outside.

Ophelia jumped up and ran over to the window. “Shit! Kyle’s here!”

I frowned. “Well, I didn’t exactly plan on him finding out this way, but…”

Her eyes went wide and she shook her head. “No way. No fucking way. You have to leave.”

My bear growled and I let it out. “You must be kidding.”

She shoved my clothes at me and shook her head. “I don’t want him to find out this way. I can’t do that to him. Dammit, Sterling, hurry.”

I stood up, suddenly pissed. Shoving my legs in my pants, I yanked them up and fastened them. “You know what, Ophelia? It really fucking sucks to be kicked out right after I bare my soul to you like that. This can’t keep happening. You need to tell him because what we have isn’t going away.”

She rushed to the door and held the knob. She mouthed an apology, but I was too annoyed to care.

“Guess I’ll see you around.” I slid open her window, still shaking my head, and climbed down the side of their house before retreating into the woods. My bear didn’t like it. It felt like I was running away from Kyle. I was a lot of things, but a coward had never been one of them. My bear didn’t like retreat, and I completely agreed.

It also sucked that my mate was choosing another man over us. Brother or not. What we had going—this stealth arrangement—was simply not going to work. I needed more from her. I didn’t want to be some dirty secret she hid in shame. It was fucking with me. That was exactly what it felt like, too. She was ashamed of me.

I shifted, shredding my pants, and charged through the woods heading for my truck. I lifted my face to the heavens and let out a frustrated roar.

CHAPTER 16: Ophelia

I winced as I heard the loud, frustrated roar from the woods behind the house. Sterling was pissed, and, if I wasn’t mistaken, hurt. The timing was terrible. I hurried to get a robe on and kicked the shirt he’d left behind under the bed. I wanted to scream and punch pillows, but I could hear Kyle rushing up the stairs.

“Ophelia?”

I opened my bedroom door and came out. “You’re home early!”

He grabbed my shoulders and looked behind me, scanning my bedroom. “Are you okay? What the fuck happened downstairs?”

I held up my hands and sighed. “I… I came home drunk and stumbled in as a bear. I’m sorry, Kyle. I was going to have everything cleaned up by morning, but you surprised me.”

His face changed and he backed away. “You were walking outside—as a bear?”

I nodded. “Through the woods. It’s normal.”

He rolled his eyes and shoved his hands through his hair. “Nothing fucking normal about it.”

I reeled back like he’d physically slapped me. In an instant, all of my self-consciousness I’d managed to pretend didn’t exist after my tryst in the cave with Sterling came back. “What?”

“Nothing. Jesus. I had a bad fucking night. I’m going to bed. Clean the mess up, would you?” He stormed down the hallway to his room and slammed the door shut behind himself.

I stared after him, finally seeing some of the asshole that everyone else talked about. With tears in my eyes, I locked myself in my room and curled up on my bed. The corner rocked when my weight hit it, still broken from Sterling tossing me onto it earlier.

Shame settled over me as I thought about the size of my bear and Kyle’s words. I was a really fat bear. A not so thin human, too. Heavy enough to break the bed.

I grimaced at the thoughts racing through my head and reached under my bed to grab Sterling’s shirt. Slipping out of my robe, I pulled the shirt over my head and breathed in his scent, calming myself. Sterling didn’t think I was too big or abnormal. He liked my body and my bear.

I’d messed things up with him, though. He hadn’t tried to hide the annoyance at being kicked out of the house. He wanted to confront the issue and nip it in the bud. He was brave and honest and wanted to be upfront. Why did he think his brother was such a great man, but not himself? That’s not what I saw. Not at all.

Growling, I yanked the blanket over my head. I’d somehow managed to land a man who was hot as hell, thought I was sexy and beautiful, wanted me, and talked to me about how he felt. Jackpot! Yet, here I was, fucking it up all over the place. I was pretty sure that there was only so much hiding and sneaking around a man like him was going to put up with before he got sick and tired of it. In fact, he may have reached his limit tonight.

I slept like crap, tossing and turning through nightmares of Sterling walking away from me. It was miserable. I woke up feeling like I’d been through the spin cycle of the washing machine, and crying from an especially raw dream where Sterling rejected me and all my friends shunned me for hurting him.

I threw on some clothes and stumbled downstairs to clean up the mess we’d made the night before. Kyle was already gone, so after I finished, I just sat at the kitchen table with a pot of coffee. I had an article to write that day, but I’d already done the research and completed a couple short interviews with which to compile a few quotes. I could just write it at home and send it to Karen if I wanted.

After an hour of trying, I realized I couldn’t. I went to the library instead, and sat in Veronica’s office while she led a group of kids in a vigorous story time. I got the article finished, and it was passable, and then headed towards Sterling’s house.

I wanted to apologize and let him know that I was going to tell Kyle. After driving all the way up his driveway, though, he wasn’t even there. I went to Hutch’s and he told me I’d be able to find Sterling at the tracks, practicing.

He also gave me a disappointed look that sent me scampering away. I felt guilty enough as it was. I didn’t need Hutch to make it worse.

I parked in the lot and got out. Sterling’s truck was there, his trailer empty. There were a few other cars scattered around, but when I got to the track, I found that Sterling was the only person on it. He sped around the big circle, drifting around curves and sending dirt flying everywhere.

I spied several people, mostly women, sitting in the stands, eating and watching him, too. To my dismay, Kyle’s ex-fiancée was amongst them. My bear threatened to appear, but I tried to soothe her. Presley Gray wasn’t a threat to me. I had to remember that.

Sterling pulled the car to a stop in front of me and slipped out of the window. Instead of coming over to me, he leaned against the hood and crossed his arms over his chest.

I blew out a breath. Yeah, he was still upset with me. I gracelessly crawled over the shortest part of the fence and ended up stumbling to the dirt. I got up quickly though, brushing the dirt off my knees.

By the time I got to Sterling, he was grinning and shaking his head. “Even if I wanted to stay mad at you, I couldn’t. You’re so cute when you’re clumsy.”

I scowled and then grabbed his hat from his head. “You can have this back for a kiss.”

His eyes cut to the stands. “People are going to see us.”

I kept my eyes on his, noticing the way the blue-green flecks turned darker. “I don’t care.”

He grabbed me and spun us around. Dipping, he laid my back down on the hood of his car, his body wedged against mine. Kissing me hard, his hand slipped down and cupped my ass. “You done hiding me?”

I slipped his hat back on him and nodded. “I’ll talk to Kyle tonight. I owe you an apology. And I aim to give it to you. However you want it.”

Sterling buried his face against my neck and his tongue stroked out to tease me. “I have a few ideas.”

I kissed him again and then pushed at his chest. “Alright, that’s enough. We’re giving your fan club a little too much of a show.”

He glanced over at the group and then grinned down at me. “That was nothing.”

“I never thanked you for getting my car back home the other day after I locked the keys inside.” I sat up with him and wrapped my arms around his waist. “So, I owe you an apology and a thank you.”

“And you’re sure you’re not into giving them a show?”

I nodded. “What are they doing here, anyway?”

He shrugged. “I’m here almost every day, practicing. Sometimes people come to watch. There’s a potential sponsor coming to my next race, so I want to be sure I’m ready for it.”

And my man really thought he wasn’t a hard worker?

“What would a sponsor mean?”

“Bigger races. Races that end in five hundred.”

I felt his excitement and smiled. “You’ll do great. I won’t keep you from your practice, though. I just wanted to find you and apologize.”

“Want to do a lap with me?”

I quickly shook my head. “Not a damn chance, you nut job. Bears aren’t meant to fly.”

“Will I see you tonight?”

I shot him a wink. “I hope so.”

CHAPTER 17: Ophelia

I was almost to my car when I heard Presley call out my name. I wanted to pretend like I hadn’t heard her, but I wasn’t that petty. Even though she had broken my brother’s heart. I turned to face her and crossed my arms over my chest.

Her grin was more wince than smile and she held up her hands as she got closer. “I just want to talk to you for a second. Is that okay?”

I nodded without speaking, feeling like I was making a mistake. It would pain Kyle to know that I was having any kind of conversation with his ex, but she’d always been so sweet to me, we’d almost been sisters-in-law, and she looked like she was ready to cry.

“I want to apologize for what happened.” She twisted her hands together and stared at her feet. “I feel terrible. I know we weren’t best friends or anything, but I still feel like I owe you an explanation, too.”

The last thing I wanted to hear was an explanation about why she’d cheated on my brother and slept with my mate. Just being reminded made me want to smack her. “You don’t owe me anything, Presley.”

She nodded. “I do. I’m sorry for hurting your brother, but after what he did, I just…I acted out. I made a very bad choice and I regret it. I should’ve handled things more maturely.”

I frowned. “What are you talking about?”

She looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“You said ‘after what he did.’ What did he do?”

Her eyes filled with tears and she wrapped her arms around herself. “I loved him. No one else ever got it, but I did. Not many people come out to Macon’s Edge. When your brother came to see me, he made me feel special. He was kind and sweet and pretended to care about me. I didn’t have a clue that he had been cheating on me the whole time. When I found out, I kind of lost it. I went to that bar in Burden and met up with the first guy who looked my way. I just did it to get back at Kyle and it was so stupid and juvenile. I should’ve just ended it. Now, he feels like he has a reason to hate Sterling, too.”

I think my jaw hit the ground. “Kyle cheated on you?”

She nodded and a tear rolled down her face. “A lot, apparently. I don’t know why he even proposed to me when he obviously wasn’t finished playing the field.”

I wrapped my arm around her, despite my bear’s grumbling. She was clearly in pain. At my brother’s hands. “I’m so sorry, Presley. I had no clue.”

She nodded. “I guess he just told everyone that I cheated on him and said some pretty nasty things about me. I deserved that part of it.”

“No, you didn’t. I’m going to have a long talk with my brother. I’m sorry for what he did to you. No one deserves that.”

She looked back at the track and nodded to where Sterling was bent over the engine of his car. “He’s a good one. Seems like you’ve got his full attention.”

I resisted the urge to growl. “Why are you here, Presley? Do you have feelings for him after what happened?”

She flashed me a grin and shook her head. “No. Not at all. In fact, I’ve sworn off men. This is the only place close by Macon that I can escape to, is all.”

I smiled back at her and grabbed my keys from my pocket. “I’ll make sure that Kyle feels my wrath for what he did to you.”

With a slight shrug, she turned back towards the track. “No use. It’s water under the bridge now.”

I watched her go and clenched my teeth. Kyle was proving himself to be the asshole that everyone said he was. It made no sense. I couldn’t reconcile the man who came to see me in Nashville with the man who lived with me in Burden. I was going to figure it out, though, and then have the conversation about my mate. It was time to stop hiding.

Kyle was at home when I got back, standing over the kitchen sink, eating a sandwich. He looked up at me and frowned. “What are you doing here?”

Unable to keep the sass out of my voice, I let it fly. “I live here. That going to be a problem?”

His frown deepened. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I just ran into Presley.”

He scowled and grabbed a beer from the fridge. “And?”

“I’ve spent the last few months hating Sterling Mallory because I thought he broke your heart. You said he did. You said he stole Presley from you and that you’d never hurt quite so bad, or something equally as dramatic. You were cheating on her the whole time you were together, though. What the hell, Kyle?”

His face burned red and he glared at me. He reminded me a little of a demon. “It’s none of your business.”

I scoffed. “It really is. I came home because you sounded so depressed. I was so worried about you. You said that Sterling stole your future! I physically assaulted the man for you!”

He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t ask you to punch him in the dick. That was just a great bonus.”

I shook my head and placed my hands on the counter, trying to calm myself down. “I’m being serious, Kyle. Why’d you cheat on her? Why did you play the victim when she decided to give you a taste of your own medicine?”

“This is rich. You’re going to lecture me on what I do or don’t do now? You’re the one stumbling into the house, drunk off your ass, breaking shit.”

“Just answer the question, Kyle. I’m having a hard time reconciling the guy who came to visit me in Nashville every time I was struggling with the guy who cheated on his fiancée and then tried to paint her as some kind of whore.”

“Well, isn’t she?” He drained his beer and shook his head. “Jesus, it’s not that big of a deal, O.”

Tears pricked my eyes and I tried my best to blink them away. “Not a big deal? What happened to you? What made you like this? I never saw this side of you before, but suddenly it’s become blinding.”

Kyle slammed his beer into the sink and grabbed my arms. “I think you should go back to Nashville. I don’t need you here. I’m fine. Obviously. Go back to Nashville where you act normal and I can handle you.”

I withdrew from him and shook my head. “What? What are you talking about?”

He shook me, anger and frustration marring his normally handsome face. “It was easy to be good to you in Nashville. You acted normal. None of this bear shit. You were just a normal girl who had normal job and normal problems. I could forget that you’re one of them.”

My mouth fell open and I stared up at him in shock. My mind went blank and I searched desperately for something to say, but my thoughts were jumbled.

“I hate this fucking place, Ophelia. I hate bears. I hate shifters and all the shit that goes with them. I don’t want to be around it. You were normal in Nashville. You never shifted or talked about it. You were just a normal sister and it was a nice break from all this shit. Being in Nashville was the best escape. I don’t know why I thought you being back here was a good idea. I guess I thought you’d changed for good and I could have someone normal around here in this shithole.”

I wrestled his arms off of me and moved to the other side of the kitchen. “I’m a bear shifter, Kyle. I didn’t ask for it. It’s just what I am. How can you say you hate that?”

“It’s not hard.”

CHAPTER 18: Ophelia

My chest ached as Kyle revealed to me that he hated an entire part of my nature that I was powerless to change. “I’m your sister. Mom was a bear shifter. So many people in this town are shifters. You’re saying you hate all of us?”

Kyle shoved his hands through his hair and looked up at the ceiling, like the answers he was looking for might be up there. “I don’t hate you, O. I didn’t hate Mom. She hid that shit, though. It’s just not normal. It’s weird and I don’t understand why you’d want to be a big ass bear, anyway. It’s not exactly attractive.”

I put my hands over my chest like that would help the pain he was causing me. “You can’t actually feel like this, Kyle. I know the gene skipped you and Mom thought that would cause some jealousy, but this is a little extreme.”

“Jealousy! You think I want to be a freak?!” He laughed and shook his head. “That’s the thing with all the shifters in this town. You all think you’ve been given some great gift. You think you’re the best thing ever because you can turn into a fucking bear. When really, you should all be hiding that freak show shit.”

I shuddered as his words washed over me. It was a nightmare come true. All the self-consciousness I’d felt my whole life about my bear came rearing to life and all I wanted to do was hide.

Kyle scowled at me and walked to the back door. Yanking it open, he looked back at me. “Maybe you should really think about going back to Nashville. Things could go back to normal and we could pretend like none of this shit happened.”

“Pretend like I’m not an attraction in a freak show?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Until you leave, you can stay here, but don’t break anything else, O.”

The door slammed behind him and I clutched at my shirt, attempting to get it away from my skin. It felt like I couldn’t breathe. My heart throbbed painfully in my chest and I started tingling all over. Panic overwhelmed me until I sank to the floor and pressed my back against the cabinets behind me as hard as I could.

I cried openly and buried my face in my knees. Feeling completely raw and exposed, I just wanted to run away. Running back to Nashville didn’t sound like a terrible idea. I could go back to real journalism and it would probably take only a few days to find an apartment.

Sterling’s face popped into my brain and refused to budge, though. No, I was staying in Burden. He was my mate. I might lose Kyle, but it felt like I’d already lost him. He hated what I was.

Needing to feel something other than the crushing weight of Kyle’s disgust towards me, I ran up the stairs to shower and get ready for seeing Sterling. I knew he’d be disappointed that I hadn’t been able to tell Kyle, but he’d get it. I just needed to see him and feel some of the peace he gave me when he was close. I’d deal with the rest as it came.

CHAPTER 19: Sterling

Pure excitement tingled through me as I pulled up to the bar and parked my truck. I got out and straightened my button-down shirt. I’d taken the time to get dressed up for the night. It was the first time I was going out with my woman and it was a big deal. Ophelia had wanted to meet in public, so that meant no more sneaking around. That meant she’d told Kyle.

What the hell was wrong with me? My heart raced and my palms were sweaty. I was as nervous as a virgin on prom night. It suddenly felt real, like she was ready to commit to what we were. I still didn’t know if she really understood the mate bond, but I had plans to take her back to my place that night and explain it in graphic detail, complete with examples and demonstrations.

I pushed my way inside and spotted my little bear at the bar. There were already a few empty glasses in front of her and didn’t that just make my bear grumble. Something didn’t feel right.

I strolled past the guys, offering a wave, and came up behind Ophelia. I grasped her hips and brushed my lips over her hair. “Hey.”

She gasped and spun around to face me. For a second, it looked like there were tears in her eyes, but then she smiled and threw herself against my chest. Her arms held tightly around me and she inhaled deeply. “Sterling.”

I smoothed her wild hair and held her head to me. “What’s wrong, baby?”

She stayed still for a few more seconds and then pulled away. “Nothing. Sorry, just a bad day. I’ve had a few drinks while I was waiting on you.”

As she slurred her words, I counted the glasses behind her and suppressed a sigh. She was sloshed. Still adorable, though. I leaned down and planted a kiss on her mouth. “Tell me about it.”

She shook her head. “Let’s not—not right now. Let’s have a good night. I just want to be near you.”

That time, I did sigh. My bear was agitated and I couldn’t soothe him until he knew that our mate was okay. She looked like she’d been crying and I had to assume it was because of Kyle. Anger washed over me at the idea of Kyle saying something to hurt her.

“Is it Kyle? What did he say when you told him?”

She blinked a few times and then motioned to Allie, who was bartending, for another drink. “No.”

I sat down next to her and caged her between my knees. “Talk to me, Ophelia.”

“That’s not how you and I solve our problems.” Her grin was crooked and her hand rested on my knee and moved higher. “How about you join me in the bathroom?”

A twinge of regret coursed through me at her words. The evening was definitely not going how I thought it would. I shook my head. “I’d rather talk right now.”

She pouted and tossed back the drink that Allie had dropped off. “Well, I’ve got to pee, either way. I’ll be back in a minute.”

I caught her arm and looked her in the eyes. “I’m sorry if Kyle upset you. I wish I could’ve been there with you, to do it together.”

She pulled away from me and shrugged. “It’s fine.”

I let her go and growled. Something had happened. I could feel it in my bones. She wasn’t okay, but she was trying to hide it.

Like some sort of prophetic omen, when I glanced back at the rest of the bar, I saw Kyle walk in. He met my eye and sneered before heading for the pool tables in the back.

I took a deep breath and stood up. I was going to find out what the guy did or said to upset my mate, whether his sister wanted to clue me in or not. I strode across the bar and stopped a few feet from him.

The girl he was with looked up at me and smiled. Kyle didn’t. “What the fuck do you want?”

“Did something happen with Ophelia? She seems upset.”

His scowl deepened. “Why the fuck do you care about my sister?”

I growled. “You might not understand mate bonding, but let me clear it up for you a little. When you have a mate, you care when she’s fucking upset. She talked to you and now she’s upset. What did you say to hurt her?”

I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect visage of horror than the expression on Kyle’s face. His face turned bright red and he stood straighter. He looked like he was trying to double in size.

“What did you just say?”

Fuck. “Ophelia, your sister, my mate, what did you do to hurt her?”

The punch he threw was hard for a human. He must’ve really put his all into it.

CHAPTER 20: Sterling

Kyle’s fist split my lip and knocked my head to the side. He didn’t hesitate to throw another punch into my kidney. I growled and turned back to him, struggling to keep my bear in check.

“Look, motherfucker, you touch me again and I’m going to do something that pisses your sister off.”

He threw another punch that I blocked and then swore at me. “You’re a disgusting animal. Keep your freak paws off my sister!”

I shoved him backwards and growled. “Watch your mouth.”

Hutch showed up behind me and sent his own growl towards Kyle before nodding to me. “You sure you want to beat on your mate’s brother?”

“Don’t call her that. She’s not going to mate with some filthy half-breed. You’re an animal. An abomination. You think she’s like you, but she’s not. She can hide it. She’s not going to stay here and live as some disgusting, vile creature and give birth to more little freaks of nature. She’s going back to Nashville.”

I saw red. Hutch’s growl from beside me was just as loud as mine. He raised his hands and stepped back. “You deserve this ass beating, boy.”

Kyle lunged at me and I swung my fist, connecting with the side of his jaw. He seemed stunned from the blow, but shook it off and came at me again. Without restraint, I picked him up by the front of his shirt and the top of his jeans and threw him across the pool table.

He crashed into a group of chairs and slowly climbed back to his feet, fury rolling off him. “Fight me like a man!”

I held out my hands. “You see a bear here?”

He came back at me, his intent clear in his balled-up fists. He tried to swing at me again, but I blocked it and shoved him backwards again. He stumbled into the pool table and tripped over his date’s feet. Going down to the floor, he screamed at me.

“She can be normal! Let her! She doesn’t have to live like an animal!” He grabbed a pool stick and cracked it over his knee, waving the sharp end around like a lunatic. “The fuck you think you can touch my sister after what you did.”

I scented Ophelia heading our way and growled. I turned to her and shook my head. “Stay back.”

A sharp pain hit the back of my head and I went down to one knee. I looked up to see Hutch charging Kyle. I rushed to my feet and caught him. “Not your fight, brother.”

He growled. “He fucking hit you in the back of the head with a pool stick when you weren’t looking. It’s my fucking fight now.”

I took another hit to the shoulders while trying to get Hutch away from Kyle. Having Ophelia nearer gave me more control over my anger. I wasn’t going to let her see me hurt her brother. Much.

I pushed Hutch to Thorn who grabbed him and held him before turning to Kyle and snatching the pool stick away from him. I threw it away from us and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. Calling on the strength of my bear, I lifted him until his feet left the floor. My fist was jammed against the underside of his chin, making it hard for him to breath.

“You’re a real shit stain. Be nicer to your sister. Jesus, just be nice.”

Ophelia appeared at my side, her hands reaching up for my arm. “Put him down, Sterling.”

I immediately dropped him and turned to her. I stared down at her and couldn’t swallow back the hurt and anger inside. I watched as she rushed to help her brother stand. He leaned heavily on her and glared at me. Seeing her physically choose that asshole over me after lying to me about telling him about us hurt. I suddenly felt hurt and angrier than I’d ever been, even at Kyle.

“You lied.”

Her eyes jerked to mine and then shifted away quickly. “Can we talk about it later?”

I shook my head. “Why not? Everything on your schedule, right?”

“Sterling…” She met my eyes and winced at whatever she saw on my face. No other words came from her, though. She just blinked at me and stayed next to her brother.

I turned away from her, kicking a chair out of my way and only pausing long enough to grab the bottle of whiskey that Sam was holding out for me. I shoved the door open so hard that I heard the thick wood crack, and then got in my truck. Revving the engine, I burned rubber while leaving. A trail of smoke and dust hovered in the air as I fled the bar.

Speeding towards the track, I turned the radio up as loud as it would go to try and drown out some of the painful thoughts threatening to consume me. I was back to feeling like a reject. I hadn’t thought it could get worse than that first night.

She’d waited until we got back to my place to tell me she would never be with someone like me. Then came the infamous dick punch. The punch hadn’t hurt as much as her words. None of that hurt as much as right now—I bared my soul to her, willing to give her everything I had, and she could still walk away from me.

Maybe she wasn’t ready for a mate. Maybe she didn’t know what she wanted. But, the fact that she could lie to me…  It wasn’t going to work out that way.

Frustrated, I parked and got out. Sitting on the tailgate, I opened the bottle and took a long pull. I wanted her, but I didn’t want to spend every day begging her to be mine. Apparently, the only way she’d been able to be with me in public was to get sloshed, it seemed.

“Fuck!” I tugged at my hair and growled. I needed a run. I needed something. Anything.

Tearing off my clothes, I shifted and took off on all fours. I had nowhere to go, but everything to run from.

CHAPTER 21: Ophelia

What had I done?

“I can’t believe it. After what he did, you’d let him fuck you!” Kyle was on a rampage. Instantly sober after seeing my brother attack my mate, I was driving him home in his truck. He hadn’t faired too well, even after taking cheap shots at Sterling.

I’d messed up so bad. I knew it and I wanted to rush to fix it but I didn’t even know how.

“Do you care so little for me? He stole my fiancée! Jesus, O!”

I slammed the truck into park in our driveway and turned it off. I didn’t care what Kyle was saying. I was already out of there in my head, running off to find Sterling and try to make it right.

“I know I said you could stay here, but maybe it’d be best if you didn’t.”

That got my attention. “What?”

He kicked the truck door closed and grunted. “You’re leaving anyway. I think you should do it sooner rather than later. I’m just hurt that you’d do this to me, O. I don’t want to see you right now.”

“So, you’re kicking me out?”

He nodded. “You let that animal touch you, knowing what he did to me.”

Snapping, I kicked open the front door of the house, breaking the wood. “Oh, get off your high horse, Kyle. He didn’t do anything to you. You did it yourself. You’ve been so nasty to me. The things you’ve said to me aren’t anything I would say to my worst enemy. You find me disgusting? Fine. I find you pathetic. You’re jealous because you’re weak compared to the shifters around here. Sterling embarrassed you without even trying. You let that jealousy make you mean, though. That’s on you.

“Mom should’ve made you deal with it when you were little, instead of forcing me to hide. There’s nothing wrong with me but there’s a whole lot wrong with you. I’ll get my stuff and go. I’m not going back to Nashville, though. I’m staying here and I’m going to be a fucking bear. With Sterling, if he’ll still have me after tonight. If you decide to stop being such a jackass, Kyle, you come and find me. I love you, but I really don’t like you.”

I stomped up the stairs to my room and slammed the door shut. With my heart racing, I opened my phone and jammed at the buttons until I finally dialed Veronica’s number correctly.

She answered immediately. “Holy shit, Ophelia. Are you okay?”

I fought back tears. “Can I stay at your place? Kyle just kicked me out and I need somewhere to go.”

“Of course! I’ve been staying with Hutch, anyway, so it’s empty right now. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

A sob escaped. “Does Sterling hate me?”

She sighed. “I don’t think it’s possible for him to hate you. He looked really hurt, though.”

I hurried through the drawers, shoving clothes and other things that I might need into a duffel. I’d get the rest later. “I messed up. I didn’t mean to hurt him. I just panicked. I was wrong. So wrong. I have to talk to him.”

“Maybe give him tonight to cool down?”

I groaned. “He hates me. I knew it.”

“He doesn’t hate you, Philly. Hutch went out to talk to him. I’ll meet you at my house to let you in and we can talk.”

“Hutch probably hates me, too.”

She sighed. “I’ll bring ice cream. You clearly need it. Meet me there, Ophelia.”

I hung up and slipped my bag over my shoulder. Grabbing a few other things I thought I might need, I headed back down the stairs and snatched my car keys out of the bowl on the side table.

Kyle was sitting on the couch in the living room, watching me. “Shit, Ophelia, you don’t actually have to leave.”

I shook my head to stop whatever else he was going to say. “I need some time away from you. The things you said…  You’re my brother, the only family I have left. Because of you, I may’ve just lost my mate. The one man who was made just for me. I’m going to be staying at Veronica’s. You don’t have to worry about me.”

I left before he could say any more horrible things about Sterling, and headed to Veronica’s. The drive was short, but I still had to slow down to see through my tears. When I did get there, she was waiting on me with the ice cream ready.

“Come sit and have a good cry, Ophelia.” She waved a spoon at me. “You can stuff your face, too. Ice cream calories don’t count when you’re sad.”

I laughed through tears as I sat down next to her and took the spoon. I didn’t care if the calories counted or not. I was going to eat until I felt better. “Did you hear the things Kyle said?”

She nodded. “It was ugly.”

“Has he said stuff like that before?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so. You seem to be a hot button for him.”

I sighed. “I didn’t tell Kyle about Sterling, but when Sterling asked me if I had, I was drunk and panicked. I led him to believe that Kyle knew. And then, I was just so freaked out by the hatred that Kyle was spewing that I went to him to try to calm him down—shut him up. I could see the hurt on Sterling’s face, though. He thinks I chose Kyle over him.”

Veronica was quiet for a moment and then looked over at me. “Didn’t you? From the very beginning?”

I shook my head and shoved a spoonful of the mint chocolate chip goodness into my mouth. It didn’t taste as good as it should’ve and I groaned. “No. Not on purpose, anyway. I…  I guess I did. I just couldn’t imagine hurting Kyle when he was supposedly already suffering over Presley.”

“You’ve been rejecting Sterling the whole time. Speaking as someone who was rejected by her own mate for a long time, it’s agonizing. It feels a little like you’re slowly dying inside.”

I dropped the spoon and leaned back on the couch. “You’re making me feel worse.”

She gave a soft laugh. “I’m sorry, but he’s Hutch’s brother. That makes him my almost-brother. You’ve been making the man suffer and, honestly, Sterling doesn’t deserve that. He’s a good man, despite the bullpoopy that comes out of his mouth at times. He cares about you. You’re crazy if you don’t grab him and claim him as your own.”

I threw my hands up. “I know! He’s amazing. I just…  I didn’t realize. I figured the whole mate thing would wear off and we’d want different things, eventually. I didn’t see a reason to tell Kyle when we probably wouldn’t last.”

“No way, mates are forever.”

I glared at her. “I know that now.”

“Then stop messing up.” She dug her own spoon into the carton and swallowed a big bite. “Hutch talks to me about things…  He thinks Sterling is more sensitive than he lets on. This whole situation has really worried Hutch. He thinks it’s hurting Sterling more than Sterling is letting on.”

Guilt turned my face red and sent me pacing the living room. “I didn’t mean to hurt him. I’m new to all this shifter stuff. I’m learning as I go, despite having been a shifter my whole life. Mom never told me anything. She did everything she could to make sure Kyle and Dad were comfortable and didn’t have to face it. She didn’t do either of us any favors. Kyle’s an ass now and I just rejected my mate because I didn’t fully understand what I was doing.

“I was an ass, too. Dammit. I didn’t mean to. I wanted him. I want him. I was just so afraid of hurting my brother. Turns out that Kyle isn’t as protective towards me. I wasted all that time, time I could have used to learn from Sterling about what it meant to be his mate. Instead of denying him.”

Veronica nodded. “Methinks you owe him some sexual favors for having to deal with Kyle.”

I laughed. “Is that all you ever think about?”

With a nod and a shrug, she stood up and grabbed my shoulders. “You’re smart. You’ll figure it out. Make it right. You both need each other.”

“It’s all happening so fast. The feelings, the intensity. Did you never freak out?”

“I don’t think so. After a year of being rejected, when Hutch finally starting paying attention to me, I was ready. It is fast and intense, though. That’s just the way it works. Mates are soulmates, Ophelia. It’s the whole thing. Love at first sight, lust at first sight, can’t breathe, can’t eat, can’t sleep, love. The faster you stop digging in your heels, the faster you’ll get to where you’re meant to be.”

CHAPTER 22: Sterling

Through my drunken stupor, I noticed a bear lumbering towards me. Hutch. I shifted back to human, knowing that he’d want to talk, and sighed. I was sitting on the grass outside of the track, wallowing in my misery.

“You look like hell,” he said after shifting back.

I sent Hutch an unamused expression. “Thanks. What are you doing here?”

“Checking on you. Things got ugly tonight.” He grabbed the bottle of whiskey and tipped it over, letting the last drop fall out. “You did a number on yourself, huh?”

“We’re bears. I’ll be sober in an hour.”

“Yeah. But right now?”

“Drunk as hell.” I chuckled and fell back in the grass, feeling the cool earth beneath my skin. “Did you see her leave?”

“Yeah. She didn’t look like she was feeling too hot. There were tears.” He grunted. “She’s a handful.”

I threw my arm over my face, hating the pain I felt at hearing that she’d been crying. “She chose him over me.”

“Yeah, but we both know she didn’t mean to. She looked horrified and shocked at what was happening.”

I sat up and just started talking, letting the liquor loosen my tongue. “Maybe she made the right choice. Maybe I don’t measure up. I’ve never been very good at anything in life, so why would this be any different?”

Hutch remained quiet.

“See. That’s what we both know. You got everything from Dad. All the good-guy genes. I’m a fucking joke.” I scrubbed my hands down my face. “Jesus, she could probably see it a mile away.”

Hutch slapped the back of my head. Hard. “What the fuck are you talking like that for?”

“Think about it, Hutch. I think there was a reason Dad never asked me to come along with ya’ll when you went up the mountain. Or when you went anywhere. I… I’m not like you. You were both hard workers, straight-arrows, and just…good men. You knew what to do when things hit the fan. He chose you for a reason.”

Hutch jerked backwards like I’d hit him. “What?”

“I don’t know. I have all this shit in me, man. I’m struggling. I’ve been struggling. I feel like a loser. I don’t know what I want, where I should go, what I should do. I’ve just gotten through life by making everything into a joke and trying to be someone I’m not. A grown man, a badass shifter, and sometimes I feel like I could cry. What the fuck is wrong with me?”

Hutch frowned and then shook his head. “Nothing. You’re normal, Sterling. I get sad, too, brother. We all do. That’s life. Shit’s happened in our lives that hasn’t always been great. We all just survive the best way we can. You’ve always taken things to heart, though. Dad used to say that about you.”

I jerked my eyes to his. “What’d he say?”

“That you felt things deeper than most people. He thought you enjoyed being with Mom more, so he let you have your time with her. I promise you that he wasn’t choosing me, Sterling. You were just younger and operated differently than us.”

“I’ve never been as good as you. With Dad, you did everything right. Then, you supported me and Mom. When Mom was heartbroken over losing her mate, wouldn’t come out of her room for days, you took care of us. You did everything you could for us. Shit, you became a man at fourteen and there are days when I still feel like I’m struggling to be a man. I feel so awkward sometimes that all I can do is say the dumbest shit or, before Ophelia, not say anything and just sleep with whatever woman would have me to try to feel like I was doing the normal thing.”

“Sterling, you’re too hard on yourself. You’re normal. You’re doing everything in life that you’re supposed to be doing. What more do you think you should be doing?”

I held up my hands and tipped my head back to look at the sky. “Fuck. I don’t know. I could be farther along in my career. I just haven’t taken any initiative. The only reason I agreed to talk to this new sponsor was because I was suffocating being in Burden when Ophelia wouldn’t talk to me.”

“You haven’t been paying attention. I stopped working as much as I was. I was using it as a crutch to deal with issues that I had, too. Mom’s doing better. I’m fine. We’re all fine and don’t need anything from you, except for you. Brother, you’re okay. Better than that, you’re a good man. Everyone knows it. Veronica is somewhere, right now, lecturing your mate about what a great guy you are. She called you her adopted brother and swore that she was going to get Ophelia in line.”

My heart thudded harder in my chest. “I’ve never felt like I was good enough, Hutch.”

“And you’ve always been wrong. You’re awesome, man. The best brother I ever could’ve refused to look at for the first month of his life. You really killed my only child gig. Dad would be so fucking angry with himself if he knew that in trying to do the best for you all those years ago, he hurt you like this.”

I shrugged and tried to hear what he was saying. “I have shit I have to work out, huh?”

He threw his arm around my shoulders and grunted. “We all have our burdens. Things don’t just solve themselves because we find our mates. I still have shit I have to get through. Thorn does, Wyatt does, and lord knows Sam is a wreck. No one is expecting you to be perfect, man. We love you the way you are. Although, I’d like you better if you started being nicer to yourself.”

I smiled. “So, Veronica is fighting for me, huh?”

Hutch growled. “There are moments when I think she likes you more than me.”

That got a laugh from me. Feeling lighter, I shook my head. “I might’ve overreacted about Ophelia. He is her brother, after all. Shit, it just feels fucking awful when she goes to him instead of me.”

“Yeah, having a mate is equally parts the best and scariest thing in the world. Knowing that this pint-sized woman has so much power over you is frightening. Veronica could kill me by walking away, break my heart by saying she didn’t like me or want to be with me.”

“Maybe I should go find her and talk to her.”

Hutch stood up and shook his head. “Not what I said.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Your girl has had it easy. She needs to want to fight for you. Let her do it. You need it, too. Let her show you that she wants you. It could help with some of those things you need to work on.”

“I’m supposed to be heading up to Dallas tomorrow for the race. I was going to ask her to come with me.”

Hutch grinned. “Let her work for you, man. Trust me, let her show you that you deserve it.”

I shook my head. “I’m the man. I’m supposed to work for her.”

With a laugh and a headshake, he walked back towards my truck. “Veronica’s been reading to me about equality and shit. This is a new era, buddy. The women can work for us, too, sometimes.”

I raised my eyebrows at my brother and watched as he shifted to bear and looked back at me, beckoning me to play. Maybe he was right. It would be nice to know for sure if Ophelia really did want me.

CHAPTER 23: Ophelia

I tossed and turned all night. I kept hearing Veronica’s words over and over again, on repeat, in my head. Sterling was sensitive and I knew it. He was emotional and as surprising as it was, it was a beautiful thing. He wanted to talk to me and connect. He wanted me. Despite all the shit I’d done to push him away, he still wanted me.

I had to show him that I chose him. He was my mate and I wanted him. More than anything else, I wanted him.

I dressed in a cotton sundress and sandals and tried to contain my hair in a bun before going out to my car and heading towards Sterling’s house. It was early, but I was willing to wake him up for what I had to say.

I was done with all the overthinking and bullshit. I just wanted to be with my mate. My bear wanted to go back to the cave and hide away with him for as long as we could. I wanted the same.

It hadn’t been very long, but I missed his touch. I missed everything about him. I wanted to breathe him in and calm the constant panic that’d been there since seeing him turn and walk out of the bar.

I parked outside of his house and frowned when I didn’t see his truck. Where was he? Thinking maybe he’d parked it somewhere else for the night, I went to his door and knocked anyway. When he didn’t answer, my stomach twisted. Had he not come home?

It was too early to visit Hutch’s garage and I had nowhere else to go, so I went back to Veronica’s and made myself drink a cup of coffee on her back porch. I didn’t have any story deadlines for the Gazette and I didn’t want to bother anyone else so early, so I just sat there, counting the seconds until I could go see Hutch and find out where my mate was.

In the stillness of the backyard, I couldn’t distract myself from thoughts of my brother. I’d have to figure out a way to fix things with him, too. My mate came first from now on, but Kyle was still on the list. Even if he’d proven to be a giant ass, he was my only brother. He would have to come around to Sterling and deal with what we were to one another. It made no sense that he would continue to hold onto so much hate.

I grabbed my phone and dialed his number, also okay with bothering him that early in the morning.

After a few rings, he answered, sounding groggy. “Ophelia?”

I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “We’re going to talk in a few days after this settles down and we’re going to fix this. I’m going to be with Sterling, if he still wants me, and you—you’re going to deal with it. You’re going to stop being a jerk and go back to being the brother that I love so much. Got it?”

He sighed. “That’s a tall order, O.”

“Do you love me?”

“Of course, I do.”

“Then it won’t be that tall of an order. I love you, Kyle, but yesterday was awful. I need you to be better than that.” I shook my head and grunted. “I also need you to not get yourself killed by insulting a bar full of bear shifters like that. I’ll call you in a few days.”

I hung up and sat back in my chair. Feeling restless, I decided to walk over to the garage. I’d just sit around and wait if I had to.

I walked slowly and when I arrived, I found that it was still locked up tight. I plopped myself on a bench outside of the garage. Looking at the time on my phone, I groaned. I still had half an hour to wait. I was going to be insane by the time anyone arrived.

I sat there, thinking of the words I was going to say to Sterling when I found him. I went over a speech in my head until I thought I’d perfected it.

The next time I looked at my phone, it was past time for the shop to open. Frustrated, I dialed Veronica’s number, telling myself that she wouldn’t mind if I woke her up because I was making things right with Sterling and that’s what she’d strongly encouraged me to do.

“Hello?”

“Hey! Did I wake you?”

“No, I was forced from my warm bed before the sun even came up this morning. Everything okay?”

I sighed. “No. I can’t find Sterling. I want to talk to him, but he’s not at home and the garage isn’t open today, apparently.”

“Shucky-darns! We forgot to put a sign up at the garage.” She said something to Hutch in the background and then grumbled. “Not my fault. Your fault. Yours and your roaming hands.”

I cleared my throat. “Sterling? Do you know where he is?”

She laughed. “Yes.”

“Are you going to tell me?”

“No.”

I growled. “Veronica. I’m trying to do what you wanted me to do. Now, tell me where he is or I’m going to take scissors to your expensive lingerie drawer.”

She gasped. “You wouldn’t!”

“I really would. Now, fess up.”

“Fine. He’s got a big race today outside of Dallas.”

I bit my lip. How had I not known that? He was my mate. I should’ve been paying better attention. Feeling like a heel, I silently vowed to do better. I would be the mate he deserved. “I’m coming.”

“That’s what I was hoping you’d say. I like that you’re fighting for your man.”

I groaned. “Veronica. Details. I need them.”

She laughed. “Be ready by noon. The girls will pick you up.”

I wanted to argue but she hung up on me. With nothing left to do, I walked back to her house and set out to find something super sexy to wear. I was definitely going to fight for my man. And if it meant pulling out all the stops to get him back, so be it.

CHAPTER 24: Sterling

“Thanks. I’ll see you after the race.” I shook the hand of Gerald Fillian, the man who was here to observe me on behalf of a big-named sponsor. He’d sought me out before the race to introduce himself.

I waited until he’d gotten to his seat in the stands to turn to Hutch with a grin on my face. “He seems interested.”

Hutch laughed. “Of course, he is. You’re the best here. And you’ll prove that in a few minutes. Are you ready?”

I looked back towards the stands and spotted Veronica waving. I waved back and turned to my brother. “I guess. I wish Ophelia was here. I get what you said last night, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t suck to be here without her. I want to start building a life with her, not play games.”

“You’re not playing games. You’re giving her space—room to show you that she wants you. Trust me, it’s what you both need.”

I groaned and turned to the track where a group of smaller cars were racing. “I’m just hoping she does want me, man.”

He looked towards the stands and grinned. “I think you’re going to get your answer sooner than you thought.”

My stomach squeezed as I turned to where he was looking and spotted our friends and their mates, with a singular Sam. Then, before I saw her, I caught my mate’s scent coming closer. My breath caught as I realized how much it meant to me that she’d shown up.

A group of guys parted with a few catcalls and then I spotted her. She was strolling towards me with purpose. While I didn’t appreciate the catcalls, I got it. She was wearing a little white tank top that left a few inches of her stomach showing and a tight black leather miniskirt. In high-heeled shoes, with her hair curling wildly around her pretty face, she was all curves and sex appeal.

My mouth watered as I watched her approach. She put extra sway in her hips and didn’t take her eyes off mine as she came at me. Not stopping until she was mere inches in front of me, she reached up and wrapped her arms around my neck before pulling me down and kissing me.

Ophelia’s mouth was soft and tasted like cupcakes and whiskey as she slipped her tongue into my mouth. With a moan, she pressed her body against mine and tugged on my hair. When she came up for air, her eyes were heavy-lidded and I could smell her arousal. “After you win this race, I want to talk. I owe you an apology and would like to give it to you.”

My dick hardened to a point of pain and I grunted as I tried to adjust myself it in the flame-retardant suit. “You came.”

She nodded and winked. “And so will you.”

Groaning, I grasped her ass and pulled her tighter against my body so she could feel what she was doing to me. “Killing me here.”

Her eyes softened and she cupped my face. “I’m sorry. I’ve been messing up. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

I grinned down at her. “You’re not going to leave here and try to hide me again?”

She shook her head, sending her curls flying. “Not a chance. I want everyone to know. No more hiding.”

“Everyone, huh?”

She tilted her head to the side and bared her neck to me. “Everyone.”

My bear growled and I couldn’t help spinning her around and pinning her against my car. I buried my face in her neck and ran my tongue over the spot I wanted to mark so badly. “Do you know what you’re getting yourself into?”

“Yes. Tonight. After you win.”

I threw back my head and let out a ridiculous shout as I spun her around. “I expect you in the winner’s circle as soon as the car stops, baby.”

She nodded. “Wherever you want me.”

Shit. Right there. I wanted her bent over the hood of my car with everyone watching as I sank my teeth into her neck and claimed her. She was mine. “Tell me, little mate, how much do you want me?”

Ophelia stretched up and rested her mouth against my ear as she lowered her voice and spoke. “More than I’ve ever wanted anyone or anything. In every way. I’m all yours, Sterling.”

Hutch called over that I needed to get ready for my race, but I wasn’t ready to let her go. I pulled her against me again and kissed her. Hard and promising, I wanted to leave her with something to last until we could get out of there.

“I’ll see you soon, little bear.”

She grinned and brushed her hand over my dick before winking and strutting towards the stands. I watched until she was seated next to Veronica and Allie, making sure the guys who looked at her didn’t touch. Knowing we were so close to marking our mate, my bear was feeling especially possessive and predatory.

Hutch came over and clapped me on the back. “Was it worth letting her come to you?”

Fuck, yes. I grinned and finally tore my eyes away from her. “Come on. I’ve got more than one reason to hurry this beast across the finish line now.”

He laughed and handed me a helmet. “Will we see you after the race?”

I glanced back up at Ophelia and groaned as she crossed and uncrossed her legs, exposing even more flesh. “Nope. As soon as she gets close to me, we’re out of here. I’m claiming my mate tonight. Stick around and talk to Gerald, will you?”

“Of course. I’m proud of you, man.”

I met his eyes and nodded. “Thanks, Hutch.”

I climbed into my car, eager to get the race over with so I could get my hands back on my mate. She’d come to me and it was all I needed to know that things were going to be okay.

CHAPTER 25: Ophelia

My heart threatened to pound right out of my ribcage during the race, and I was flying down the stands as soon as Sterling’s car sailed across the finish line, all the other cars trailing behind. I wanted to see him, but also had to make sure he was safe. My bear would never get used to it.

Hutch was at a gate beside the track and he grinned at me when I got closer. “Be good to my little brother, Ophelia.”

I grinned back at him and nodded. “I plan on it.”

He let me through and I ran across the track as fast as I could in my six-inch heels. Sterling was in the middle, standing next to his car, waiting on me. There were people trying to talk to him, but when he spotted me, he met me halfway and caught me when I jumped into his arms. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I laughed and covered his face with kisses.

“You did it!”

He nodded. “Now, you and I have somewhere to be.”

Thinking of him claiming me, I blushed and nodded. “Do you have stuff to do here first?”

He carried me to his car and shook his head. “Nothing more important. Hutch will handle anything that needs handling. We’re leaving.”

I squeaked as he dropped my body through the passenger window. “Sterling… I don’t know about riding in this.”

“I’ve got to do a victory lap and then I want to get out of here as soon as possible. You’re stuck in it for now, baby.” He crossed to his side and climbed into the car. As soon as he was in, the engine roared to life.

Catching the checkered flag someone passed to him, he grinned at me. “Hang on.”

I laughed as he drove back onto the track and then raced around it. Screaming, I couldn’t hide the excitement. “Sterling! This is crazy!”

He took the exit from the track and instead of pausing at the gathering group of people waving at him, he stepped on the gas and sent us soaring across the parking lot and onto the highway.

My heartbeat was wildly erratic as we drove away from the track. Knowing what was coming, feeling the speed and the wind whip through the car, understanding how much he wanted me…it was all exhilarating.

Sterling got off the highway on a little side road and drove up a small forgotten road that was so riddled with potholes it threatened to rip out the bottom of his car. We pulled over behind a tiny house and parked.

“What is this place?”

He grinned at me before getting out and coming around to help me out. “I don’t know. Looks abandoned to me.”

The house did look abandoned. The yard was grown up around it and where we were parked looked like it could almost be a small jungle.

I laughed as he pulled me from the car. His hands on my sides tickled and I wiggled until he put me down. “What if it isn’t abandoned?”

His eyes were wicked as he stalked towards me. For every step I took backwards, he took one forwards. “What if it isn’t? What if there’s someone inside who’s going to watch as I take you bent over the hood of my car? What if they watch as I sink my teeth into your shoulder and we both come like crazy?”

My blood rushed through my body and I was slightly embarrassed by how wet I got from what he was saying. “The hood of your car?”

His grin was nearly feral as my knees hit the bumper and I was suddenly trapped. “I got the image before the race and I haven’t been able to stop seeing it. I want you, Ophelia. I want you more than you know.”

“Even if someone is watching?”

He continued forward until his chest brushed against mine. “Yes. By the time I’m done with you, there’s no doubt that they’ll know that you’re completely mine. Let them watch.”

Feeling wild and a little kinky, I pushed myself back on the hood, thankful that it didn’t cave in under me, and dragged my hands over my thighs. “You don’t mind them seeing your mate spread out like this? Imagine that I was completely naked and someone stood just on the other side of that window. You’d let them watch as you did wicked things to me?”

He growled and dragged me back to him. Shoving his hands in my hair, he caught handfuls of it and lifted me so his mouth could ravage mine. Sucking and licking his way into my mouth, he kissed me like a man starving for affection, like he needed it more than he needed air.

I found the zipper on his suit and dragged it down so I could get to his body. All I wanted to do was touch him and drive him as crazy as he was driving me.

I shoved it off of his shoulders and dragged his shirt up until I could get my hands on his bare abs. I broke away from his kiss and pushed his shirt up until he got the point and reached behind him to pull it over his head. As soon as his chest was naked, I leaned forward and raked my tongue over one of his flat nipples. Hearing his sharp intake of breath, I gently nipped it with my teeth.

I slid off the hood and sank to my knees in front of him, my hands going to his pants immediately. “Let John Wayne loose, Sterling. Now.”

He worked down the suit and then helped me pushed his pants down, too. When just his boxers separated us, he growled and caught my hair again. “Ophelia.”

I grinned up at him before pushing his boxers down. His hard dick sprang up in front of me and I licked my lips. I’d never enjoyed going down on a guy until Sterling. Something about my mate made it hot as hell and fueled me to try to make it the best blow job he’d ever received.

“I told you I owed you an apology.” I took him in my hand and stuck my tongue out, gently tapping the head of him on it.

“Fuck, yes.”

I licked the underside from top to bottom and then took him into my mouth, sucking firmly. I stroked him with my tongue while I sucked and pumped the inches that I couldn’t get into my mouth. Looking up at him, I moaned as the expression on his face hit me. A mixture of pleasure and pain flooded my core with wet heat when I saw it.

I pulled out until just the tip was in my mouth and sucked it like a lollipop. Cupping his balls, I squeezed gently before taking him in again, all the way to the back of my throat. I did it a few more times before Sterling’s hands dug into my hair and scalp and pulled me up.

“Enough.”

I licked my lips and pouted as he yanked my skirt down. “I wanted to finish you.”

He grabbed my shirt and yanked it over my head. “I will let you, I promise, some other time. I want to come in you this time.”

Standing in front of him in a red silky bra and panty set, I cocked a hip out to the side and twirled a strand of my hair. “Want to give them a show?”

Sterling growled and grabbed my waist. “You’re overdressed for the show, baby.”

I gasped as he snapped the bra from my body and did the same with my panties. Suddenly naked, I put my hands on my hips and frowned. “Those were new.”

He tossed them behind him and picked me up. Putting me down on the warm hood on the car, he wedged his body between my thighs. “Don’t care.”

I leaned up on my elbows and watched as his eyes drank me in. Feeling sassy, I grinned. “Well?”

CHAPTER 26: Sterling

Feeling like a man who’d just won the lottery, I dropped to my knees and stared up at her. Her core glistened and called to me, begging to be tasted. I kissed my way up her legs, paying special attention to the spot behind her knees that made her moan. When I got to her inner thighs, she shook under me. I wanted to tease her more and make her wait, but I was too on edge. I licked up her seam and growled as her taste filled my mouth. Sweet and just for me.

Ophelia cried out and ran her fingers through my hair, tugging my head to where she wanted it.

I spread her folds with my fingers and found her clit with my mouth. Suctioning my lips around it, my cock jerked as she screamed my name. I pushed a finger into her hot center and curled it, stroking the band of nerves that set her off.

Her body bucked under me but I kept my mouth on her. Pushing another finger into her, I pumped them in and out of her while my lips and tongue worked her clit.

With a wild scream, she came around my fingers, squeezing them tight. I licked my tongue up her, tasting her. It drove me mad. My vision narrowed and I had to be in her.

I pulled her off the hood and flipped her over so her arms and face were pressed against it. I shifted her thighs and slid into her in one hard stroke.

Her drawn out groan sent me spiraling. I watched as her hands balled into fists and dragged across the hood as I slammed into her. Her ass swayed as I withdrew and thrust back in. I slapped one cheek and then the other, giving into the animalistic need I felt to possess her completely.

“Sterling! Yes, yes!”

My dick was being squeezed harder and harder as her body milked it, but I refused to give in to the urge to come. I grabbed her hair and pulled her hair back, making her back arch.

Ophelia’s body tightened almost painfully around my dick and she called my name, begging me to make her come.

With her neck so close to me, I lost it. I let go of her hair and slipped my hand between her thighs to rub her clit. My thumb pressed farther into her and the sensation was wild against my dick in her. I felt her start to come and gave in to my bear’s urge to claim her. Leaning forward, I sank my teeth into her neck, marking her as mine for the rest of our lives.

Ophelia screamed as she came apart in my arms. Her body squeezed the orgasm out of me. My balls tightened and I thrust into her once more before stilling and spilling my seed into her.

Pleasure threatened to take my legs out from under me and I had to lean us forward so the car would hold us up. We both panted as we slowly came down.

I pulled out of her and wrapped my arms around her, holding her to my chest. “Fuck, Ophelia.”

She let me support her and looked up at me with a lazy smile on her pretty face. “Sterling.”

I pulled my sated body back onto the hood of the car and pulled her up with me. It wasn’t the most comfortable place, but I’d just claimed my mate. We were together.

“You’re perfect, baby.” I meant it. She was perfect. There were things that we both had to work on, my shit and her brother, but she was perfect. Made just for me.

Her eyes filled with tears and she buried her head against my chest. “I almost messed this up. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I’d lost you.”

I caught her face and tilted her face up to mine. “It’s nothing you have to worry about. You are mine and I’m yours. Forever. There’s no going back.”

“I don’t want to go back. I want this. I told Kyle that you’re my mate and that I was going to be with you. I have to figure things out with him, but right now I just want to enjoy you.”

I didn’t let the thought of her brother dampen my mood. No matter what he thought, I had his sister in my arms. “If there was someone in that house, baby, you’re going to get a reputation.”

She blushed and lightly slapped my chest. “Shut up.”

I growled and dragged her on top of me. “I want to be in you again. Everywhere. You make me a caveman. I want to fill you and never stop.”

She shifted and her wetness rubbed against my already hardening dick. “I want you to do…that. Everything. I want everything. You make me so crazy, Sterling. Is it always going to be like this?”

I nodded. “Yeah, little bear. Even when we’re old and gray, I’m still going to be chasing this perfect ass around.”

She laughed and sat up, baring her perfect breasts to me. Cupping them in her hands, she rocked herself against my dick. “We should stop and talk later.”

I nodded around a groan. “Sure.”

“Really. There are things we should talk about.”

I grabbed her hips and lifted her so I could thrust into her again. “Later. One thing at a time and this is more important right now. We’re putting on a show, remember. We wouldn’t want that guy in the house over there to get bored. Don’t want him telling people we’re lame in the sack.”

Her eyes widened and moved to the house, but her walls tightened around me as a fresh wave of wetness coated me. My little mate was kinky.

“Ride me, Ophelia. Show him how much you want me.”

As her body rocked against mine, taking us both higher and higher, I took a second to look towards the sky and thank the heavens for giving me the sexy bear-woman on top of me.

We’d figure out everything else later. For that night, we were going to be as wild as she wanted to be and enjoy being mates. It was too good not to.

The End.

Thank you for purchasing this book. I hope you enjoyed it.

I have included several BONUS STORIES that I hope you’ll enjoy! But first, please enjoy an excerpt from Book 1 of my Kodiak Island Shifters series entitled Billionaire’s Bride. If you like the sample, you can download the full book by using the link provided at the end of the sample.

ENJOY A FREE SNEAK PEEK

(This book is a standalone with a Happily Ever After ending. It is the first book in a series you’re going to love about the Sterling Brothers, Grizzly Bear Shifters.)

KODIAK ISLAND SHIFTERS

COLTON: BILLIONAIRE BEAR’S BRIDE

By Candace Ayers

Chapter one

“Take a seat Doctor Cooper.” Hannah’s lawyer proffered a chair opposite his paper-strewn desk. He adjusted his spectacles before continuing, “It’s all fairly straight forward—all monetary assets are to be transferred from your uncle’s estate at your earliest convenience.”

Hannah smiled tightly, not really knowing what to say. It had been an overwhelming week. It began with her uncle’s funeral, a man she hadn’t spoken to in years and only vaguely recollected. It was now ending, on a warm Friday afternoon, in her lawyer’s office, discussing the deposit of a large inheritance into her bank account.

“I have to say,” the lawyer continued, “it’s a rare pleasure allocating such large funds to someone so risk-adverse. You have a very healthy credit record, Doctor Cooper.”

“Well. I don’t come from a wealthy background, Mr. Moore. I think that helps.”

“Indeed.” He nodded, “There is, however, another matter I wanted to discuss with you today.” He cleared his throat before continuing, “Your marriage to a Mr…” He peered down at the document in his hand, “Bradley…”

“Brad Crawford,” Hannah interrupted him. “Yes. We’re not actually married. I mean, we’re married, technically, but… well, haven’t been together for many years now. We just never got around to a divorce.”

“I suggest that you do. You understand, of course, that he could cause,” he hesitated, looking for the right word, “issues as your legal husband if you were to receive the inheritance and then opt for a divorce. My suggestion to you would be to obtain signed divorce papers before the transfer proceeds.”

Hannah nodded, “I don’t think that will be a problem… once I track him down.”

“You don’t know Mr. Crawford’s location?”

“No. I haven’t seen him in ten years.” Hannah shrugged, she really hadn’t thought about him for an entire decade. They broke up a month before she left for medical school, and neither of them had been in contact with one another since.

“Well, I suggest you locate him. My understanding is that these funds will enable you to start your own medical practice?”

Hannah nodded, “Yes… and pay off my student loans.”

“Admirable. I hope it proves a fruitful endeavor. I will have the divorce papers drawn up for you by next week. Once you have the co-signature, we can reconvene and transfer the funds.

“Okay. Well, great.” Hannah rose from her chair, and shook her lawyers hand. “Thank you for your help, Mr. Moore.”

“It’s a pleasure, Dr. Cooper.”

Riding the elevator down from Delaney, Smith and Wexler LLP, Hannah felt dizzy. She had hoped that one day she’d have the financial means to open her own practice specializing in family medicine, but never in her wildest dreams did she imagine that day would come so soon. Thank you, Uncle Henry. May you rest in peace.

All she had to do now was get a divorce. She slipped on her RayBans as she stepped out of the office building and into the bright Chicago sunshine, heading towards a Starbucks across the street. Hannah wasn’t on call, so this was only the second cup of the day. If she was going to start trying to locate Brad Crawford, she reasoned, she’d need all the help she could get.

As the barista smiled at her mechanically from behind the counter, Hannah contemplated her options. She knew that neither of her parents had heard from Brad in years, and she wasn’t really in touch with anyone from High School. That was one of the drawbacks of medical school; you could forget about maintaining old friendships during the four years of intensive study, as lab partners and classmates became the only faces you ever saw. The four years of residency that followed had been no easier, but at least Hannah had shared an apartment with two other young doctors who understood the need to get shit-faced drunk the first day you lost a patient, that black-out conditions were mandatory during the day if you were on night shifts, and that the fridge needed to be stocked with Diet Coke twenty-four seven.

Hannah figured her best bet for tracking Brad would be to start with his sister. A few months ago, Hannah was sure she’d seen a new baby announcement on Facebook with Brad’s sister tagged in the group. Lila, that was her name. Lila Crawford. As far as Hannah could recall, she still lived back in Montana, so maybe Brand was near that area too. It would be nice to visit. Maybe she could pop by and see her parents.

With renewed vigor and a tall steaming black Columbian coffee, Hannah set off back home to her apartment.

“Lila?” Hannah asked when she heard a confused ‘hello’ at the other end of the line.

“Speaking. Who’s this?” Lila’s voice sounded sleep heavy.

“It’s Hannah Cooper. We went to High School together.” Hannah prompted.

“Oh, yeah. Brad’s wife.”

“Yeah,” Hannah paused. She hadn’t exactly expected a warm reception, but Lila’s tone was particularly cold. “I was actually looking for Brad. Do you know where he lives now?”

“Not really. I haven’t heard from him in over a year. No surprise there.”

Hannah made a sympathetic noise, “Any idea where I might find out?”

“Why are you looking for him anyways? You two haven’t seen each other in years.”

“I just wanted to catch up with him, see how he’s doing…” Hannah trailed off. “I also need him to sign some divorce papers. We never really got around to it, before, you know?”

“You getting hitched again?” Lila asked.

“No, no, just getting my paperwork in order.”

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. Eventually Lila sighed.

“Well, last I heard, he was in Alaska.”

“Alaska?”

“Yeah. He was doing odd jobs here and there. No idea where he’s at now though.”

“Okay, thanks Lila. Do you know what area?”

“Port Ursa.”

Hannah had never heard of it. So much for her trip to Montana.

“Great. Thanks, Lila, you’ve been really helpful.”

“Anytime.”

The phone went dead before Hannah had a chance to say goodbye. Hannah stared bemusedly at it. Lila had always been a bit of an oddball, and as far back as Hannah could remember, she’d never gotten along with her own brother.

The Crawford siblings hadn’t exactly had the Leave it to Beaver upbringing, though. Brad may have been the all-star favorite on the school basketball team, but he had also been a wild card–constantly in trouble, forever in detention, and he often missed long periods of the school semester. It was that wildness that had attracted her to Brad in the first place. Hannah smiled to herself, remembering her days as a straight-laced high school student. She had been forever studying, positively obsessed with getting straight ‘A’s. Brad had caught her attention during senior year, and they had started dating casually.

When High School came to an end, they and a group of their friends decided to celebrate their freedom with a cross-country road trip. Predicated by a night of free drinking at a casino, and Hannah’s first actual falling-down drunk, Brad and Hannah had found themselves in an Elvis Chapel in Vegas, pledging their future to one another.

Hannah went into her bedroom, and dug out a shoebox from beneath her bed. It was full of old photos and mementos. She searched through the piles, till she came to the cheaply framed picture of her wedding day. Brad had insisted on dressing up in a Rhinestone body suit. It still made Hannah laugh. He looked ridiculous, but she didn’t look any better. Having drunkenly decided to go “full Vegas,” she’d found the tightest, shortest mini dress she could find and the highest stilettos. In the picture they were surrounded by their friends—people Hannah hadn’t seen in years. She looked at the picture fondly. Brad had been troubled, no doubt about that, but he had been fun. The foolish marriage aside, she would never regret that vacation. Her last hurrah, a taste of much needed freedom before she buckled down to carving out her career.

She was intrigued to see what had become of Brad. She was actually surprised that this much time had passed without him contacting her to get the marriage annulled. Hannah’s dating landscape had been pretty barren, solely due to her working hours and somewhat narrow-minded focus on her job, but she would have thought Brad would have found a nice girl to settle down with by now.

“Do we have any ice-cream?” her roommate, Laura, stood in the doorway looking utterly miserable.

“No, honey, we don’t. Are you okay?”

“No,” she pouted, “Long shift working with Grayson. It was horrible. He yelled for hours, and I was so tired I didn’t even know what he was yelling about.”

“Yuck. I’m sorry, that sounds rough.” Grayson was the Chief of Staff at the general hospital where Hannah and Laura where finishing off their residency. He was an acidic demon, and getting on the wrong side of him would lead to shifts ending in tears. For Laura, it always necessitated buckets of ice cream.

“Come on,” Hannah ushered her into the living room, and wrapped her up in a blanket on the sofa. “I’ll go out and get some.”

“Really?” Laura’s eyes lit up, “Thank you, thank you. I’ll do your laundry duty next week.”

Hannah laughed, “No you won’t–you never have time to follow through on that promise, but I appreciate the sentiment.”

Laura smiled sheepishly.

“By the way, “Hannah continued, “have you heard of Port Ursa?”

“In Alaska?”

“Yes! Do you know it?”

“Not really. My dad went fishing there once. I think it’s a bit of a nightmare to get to–like, one of the islands you can only get to by boat or bush plane or something.”

“Of course it is,” Hannah sighed, “Salted caramel?”

“Can you get that and a cookie dough one?”

“Don’t push your luck.” Hannah picked up her keys and purse. “Be back in five.”

Laura gave her a helpless wave from her position on the sofa.

Hannah marched down the stairs, mildly annoyed that the one rare week she got off would be spent traipsing around in Alaska, no doubt freezing her ass off, trying to locate her legal husband.

Chapter two

“I think we should expand,” Colton Sterling leaned back in his chair, idly scratching his lean torso as he waited for his brothers’ response.

“It’s risky, Colton,” Wyatt spoke in measured tones, “It makes me nervous that we couldn’t cover it with the income from the current fishery.”

“But we can easily cover it with Sterling Outfitters,” remarked Colton, “We’re running a multi-billion-dollar chain. What else do you want to do with the profits?”

Colton’s brother sighed.

“Come on, Wyatt. You know he’s right.” Tucker Sterling broke the silence, “He was right the last time, he’s right this time, and he’s going to be right next time.”

The three brothers sat around the table. They had been playing a game of poker, but talk had turned to business as it so often did. The whisky had stopped being poured as they tried to reach a solution, the game on pause while each man carefully considered the options.

Years ago, when their father died, the three brothers had been left running the family’s small camping goods and outdoor supplies store right in the heart of “nowhereville” Alaska. Colton alone had seen the bigger picture; Alaska was growing its tourist influx every year. Visitors poured in seasonally for adventure and nature watching in the brutal, pristine Alaskan wilderness. All the small towns had an outdoor goods supply shop, but the quality varied, as did the stock. Colton’s brainstorm had been to take over each of these mom and pop stores, one by one, whilst keeping on board the experts who had been running each shop, as employees. It meant more income for them, as well as access to superior quality products. Thus, Sterling Supplies became Sterling Outfitters, Inc. and within a few years, new stores popped up in various locations in a chain that encompassed Alaska, Canada, and most of the lower 48 states. Sterling Outfitters was now a household name. No one could deny that Colton had a mind for business that bordered on genius.

Now, Colton was keen to replicate the model in the fishing industry.

“You know it’s not just the money, Colton,” Wyatt reminded him, “The Jackson pack aren’t pleased with our stronghold here. Purchasing the fishery that previously belong to their pack isn’t going to help politics.”

“Shit, Wyatt, Jackson drank that place into the ground. If it’s not us, that place will just go to waste. There’s no one here that has the inclination to take on a place with so much bad debt attached.”

The brothers were at a stalemate. Both Wyatt and Colton looked to Tucker, waiting for his input.

“Look, let’s talk to Joe about it, see what he says. I agree with Colton, this is a good opportunity and it shouldn’t go to waste, but we also need to think about what the consequences are going to mean for relations between our clan and the wolves. I don’t want more shit from Jackson and the rest of them cocksuckers.” Tucker reached for the bottle of whisky. His action decreeing that the subject was now closed.

Joe Sterling was the uncle of the three men. When their father, Joe’s brother, died, Joe took over as Alpha of the bear clan. Tensions between the wolf pack and bear clan had been growing steadily more precarious. Their father, Jeremiah Sterling, had died in his car, driving back home from work. The investigation into his death wasn’t much at the time. Port Ursa had been such a small town that the police and legal infrastructure hadn’t amounted to much, and the car had been deemed faulty. The death was recorded as an accident. The Sterling clan had their suspicions, though, grounded in the fact that two of Jackson’s pack members had reportedly been seen hanging around the lot where Jeremiah’s car was parked that day.

Tucker poured each of his brothers a drink, and then raised his glass.

“To the Sterling clan. Long may we prosper.”

“Long may we prosper,” echoed Colton and Wyatt, before each downing the golden liquid.

“How’s that woman you’re seeing from San Fran?” Tucker asked.

Colton had spent the last two months opening a store on the San Francisco coastline, whilst simultaneously catching the attention of a local lawyer.

“She’s great. We’ve had a good time,” Colton shrugged.

“Let me guess – you won’t be seeing her again?” Tucker laughed, rolling his eyes at his younger brother.

“Woman in every port, huh, bro?” Wyatt commented, his smile wry.

“Come on, neither of you can talk. Wyatt, when was the last time you even went on a date? And Tucker, you know you’re as bad as I am. I can’t believe you’re both giving me shit for this.”

“Believe it, brother. We know we’re all doomed to perpetual bachelorhood, so we might as well laugh about it,” Tucker replied.

“Yeah, well, I’m too busy making money for you two, to think about settling down.” Colton stood up and shrugged his coat on before either of them could think of a comeback.

***

Colton stood at the dock, it was about ten in the evening but still not dark. The perpetual half-light of the spring evenings had begun, and would continue till September.  He could still see the light of the horizon, just a sliver, where dawn was breaking over some far off point on the North Pacific Ocean.

The Alaskan spring had brought some warmth with it, but the evenings still remained viciously cold, and Colton pulled his jacket tighter against himself as he gazed out onto the swaying bulks of the commercial fishing ships rocking in the bay.

Colton had a good feeling about the fishing investment. He’d eventually want to expand their catchment all the way to Japan, but for now he would be content with the Alaskan coast. As much as his brothers’ hesitation frustrated him, rationally he knew they had good reason.

The Jackson pack wasn’t just at odds with the Sterling clan, they were also fighting within their own ranks. Drake Hansen, a wolf that had been brought up in Alaska as part of one of the oldest Yupik packs, had returned from the military to find his pack had been taken over by Simon Jackson’s faction. At the time he’d had no choice but to fall into rank, but since the death of Jeremiah Sterling and the civil unrest this had caused between clan and pack, Drake had seen an opportunity to divide the pack and reconsolidate Yupik power.

The days of Port Ursa being a small, local and peaceful town were drawing to a close. As Colton had predicted, the town had grown rapidly in size–almost too quickly for local infrastructure to keep up. The police department was still based a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Port Ursa, which included a ferry trip, and that was on a good day. During winter, it was better to take a bushplane.

Colton sniffed the air, clearing his senses. He could detect an out of season snow rush coming. Earlier this week, he had considered inviting the lawyer to Alaska for the weekend. He had too much work on to travel, but if the weather was going to be bad it was wise to wait. A couple of nights with the woman would have done him the world of good, but he didn’t want her getting stranded for an entire week. A week would be entirely too much together time. Better to remain solo this weekend and get on with persuading the rest of the Sterling family that fishing was the next frontier.

Chapter three

Hannah hadn’t realized the logistical nightmare of getting to Port Ursa. She’d taken a seven-hour flight to Anchorage, then a one-hour connecting flight to Kodiak. Once there, she’d had to rent an SUV before taking a ferry across to Port Ursa.

She’d been able to appreciate the breath-taking beauty of the landscape, the surreal light that turned the sky a sci-fi aqua marine color, the impossibility of such a large, vast stretch of ice and ocean. The moment she’d landed in Anchorage, her phone reception had become laughably obsolete. Hannah knew she would need to lower her city standards considerably and rough it for a while. This part of the world held no prisoners, even less benevolent toward the unprepared and the foolhardy. Hannah had packed the warmest clothes she could find languishing at the back of her wardrobe, and dug out her winter parka. As soon as she got the SUV, she went and purchased an extra gallon of gas to store in the trunk. She wasn’t taking any chances.

She arrived at Port Ursa around four in the evening. The roads were still icy, not yet thawed from the winter. Hannah drove carefully to pick up the keys for the cabin she had rented for the duration of her stay, which she’d hoped would be for one night only.

The town was charming and rustic, mostly wooden buildings dotted here and there selling tourist junk, restaurants and cafes, and expedition centers. Most of the commercial construction took place at the edge of the lively seaport.

Her directions, which fortunately Hannah had the foresight to print out, rather than relying on her phone’s GPS, led her to a small corrugated steel shack. A sign reading ‘Burke Cabins’ hung over the top. Hannah peered in through the window and found a surprisingly cozy room where an old man sat at a table playing Solitaire and smoking a cigar.

She went around and knocked on the door. She could hear him shuffling to his feet, and a few moments later he swung it open.

“Afternoon. Dr. Cooper is it?”

“That’s me, hello.”

“Come on in. Coffee, whisky?”

Hannah wiped her feet on the welcome mat before making her way in, noticing that the old man was wearing a pair of bedroom slippers.

“I’m good, thanks.”

“Suit yourself,” the old man flicked on the kettle, “I need one on the hour, every hour.”

Hannah’s medical degree kicked in and she dearly wanted to comment on the hazards of stomach ulcers, but held her tongue. She didn’t get the impression it would be very well received.

“I got your keys ready, the place is in good shape. Try not to get too lonely out here. Tourist season hasn’t started yet, so you’ll be the only one in the cabins. I got three up the way,” he gestured up past the main road, “but you’re getting the best.”

“Thank you,” Hannah replied, “I really appreciate it.”

“Huh, don’t thank me yet. You’re a city girl, I can tell. If you want heat in that place, you need to burn a log fire. If you don’t, you’ll freeze your backside off.” The man gave a short bark of laughter at his own joke, and Hannah smiled weakly.

“Ah, don’t mind me. There’s plenty of wood in there for you, you need more, just come down and holler.”

The man shuffled over to a wooden cabinet on the wall and retrieved a set of keys.

“These are them. There’s a manual in the cabin, tell you anything you need to know.” He placed the keys in Hannah’s palm. “What you here for anyway? One of those marine biologists? You lot are always coming and poking around.”

“No, I’m… I’m a medical doctor. I’m just looking for a friend. Brad Crawford?”

“Ah. Yeah, I know the guy. What you want with the likes of him?”

“We went to high school together.” The old man’s tone didn’t really surprise Hannah. It reminded her of the way teachers at school would refer to Brad. He was obviously still making a name for himself by being a little bit wilder and more reckless than the next guy.

“Huh. Surprised he went to school at all. Well, you’ll find him at the garage.” He shuffled around looking for something in his desk drawers. “Here–map of the area. Brad’s on the other side of the island, but it’s only about a twenty-minute drive. He’ll be closed by now though–likes to get off early that one.” The man grunted, clearly unimpressed by Brad’s work ethic.

“Great, thank you,” Hannah took the map and shoved it in her purse.

The old man saw her out, nodding in approval at her SUV, and gave her the directions to the cabin.

Hannah drove her vehicle slowly, following the rough track to the cabin. On arrival, she lugged her small suitcase out of the back seat and ventured inside.

It certainly had plenty of rustic charm, she told herself, whilst shivering violently, as she closed the door behind her. Before doing anything, she needed to light the fire. Hastily she pushed the logs onto the grate and crumpled up some old newspaper. Flicking the match, she was relieved to see it rapidly come to life, but it would be a while before she’d be able to remove her coat.

Next, she checked the sleeping arrangements. The bed was in the same room, which was a relief. It wasn’t damp, either, but with only a duvet for night time warmth, Hannah thought it would be wise to invest in a sleeping bag, even if it was just for the night.

She checked her map and found a camping supplies store in the center of the town. Hopefully it would still be open, and plus, she was starving and far too tired to cook. It would be dinner for one tonight at the nearest, least touristy looking restaurant.

***

The storefront lights were still glowing when she reached Sterling Outfitters. It was by far the largest and grandest looking store on the street, and Hannah vaguely recalled seeing a few from the same chain in Chicago. She stepped in and was welcomed by a blast of heat and a genuine smile from the rugged looking man behind the counter.

“Can I help you?” he asked as Hannah approached.

“Please. I’m looking for a sleeping bag.”

The door chime rang as a family entered behind Hannah. Two children ran in, followed by their mother.

“Be with you in a sec,” the assistant called to them, and gestured Hannah over to the neatly stacked sleeping bags. “We’ve got pretty much every type. Are you looking for a one man or two man?”

“One man would probably be best, as long as it’s seriously warm.”

The assistant laughed, “You staying at one of Burke’s cabins?”

“How did you guess?”

“My aunt stayed there one winter during my wedding–house was full. She didn’t stop complaining about the cold. The local motel closes over winter till start of June, so sadly there’s nowhere else to stay.”

“It’s okay, charming really, as long as I can keep warm tonight. It’s only for a night.”

The man nodded and pulled down one of the bags, “This is filled with duck down, as well as some Japanese-made synthetic materials. Can’t really go wrong.”

“Perfect,” Hannah smiled gratefully. She was about to say something else, but froze to listen to the sounds of sharp gurgling gasps coming from behind her, followed by silence.

“Jamie, Jamie!” The little boy’s mother rushed over to him, waving her arms about helplessly.

The boy’s eyes were wide open and desperate. His face blossomed bright red and then rapidly started to lose color. Hannah dropped the sleeping bag and was beside him in less than a second.

Chapter four

From his chair in the back office, Colton heard a commotion coming from up front. It almost sounded like the place was being held up—a loud, blood-curdling cry was emanating from a woman, and he rushed to the door anticipating wolf trouble.

He burst into the main store, his primitive bear senses kicking in as his eyes rapidly surveyed the scene. He relaxed at the absence of wolves, and mere presence of one hysterical woman crying over a child. There was also a second woman, who at the moment was standing behind the child executing an efficient Heimlich maneuver. Giving one final thrust, a bright blue object flew through the air and smacked against the glass display case. The child started crying.

“You need to get him to his pediatrician. He may have damaged his airways,” the woman calmly addressed the mother of the child, whilst soothing the crying boy.

“Thank you! Oh, I can’t thank you enough!” The mother took the boy back in her arms.

“Lego,” the woman commented, picking up the bright blue object, “Happens all the time.”

“We can’t get to the doctor. We can’t cross on the ferry in this weather and the flight path’s closed, do you think he’ll be alright until next week?” The tinge of hysteria was edging back up in the woman’s voice.

“Let me have a look,” the red-haired woman turned and addressed the boy, “Will you open wide for me?”

Amidst his sobs, the boy did as he was told.

“He looks okay. Get him to a doctor as soon as you can, though. Is there really no one around here, not even a general practitioner?”

The mother shook her head.

Colton stepped forward to offer his assistance, then halted mid-stride. The mother had moved, clearing his line of vision and now he could clearly see the little boy’s savior.

For Colton, it was as if time stood still. Her hair flowed loosely down her shoulders, thick, deep red with natural golden highlights. Her skin was alabaster white, contrasting strikingly with full pink lips. She was curvy. Beautiful, voluptuous curves that made Colton’s mouth water. Her eyes were a piercing artic blue, and right now they were looking expectantly at Colton, as if waiting for him to speak.

“I have a plane you can use to take your boy to the mainland if you need it.” Colton addressed the mother. He vaguely recognized her; she was fairly new to Port Ursa.

“Thank you, that would be wonderful. It’s really so kind of you…”

“Colton.”

He glanced over at the redhead. She had broken eye contact with him and was now rising to her feet. He wanted to speak to her before she left.

“Jake, will you get the flight charted?” he spoke to the shop clerk, who rapidly ushered the boy and his mother into the back room.

The redhead made her way over to the camping equipment, picking up a sleeping bag that had been dropped. Colton watched her bend down to retrieve it, admiring her thick, curvy ass encased in hip-hugging jeans.

There was something about her, besides her amazing figure, that had his bear wanting to rip out of his skin. Moments ago he had thought it was just the false threat of wolf attack, but now he wasn’t so sure. His bear was screaming to be let loose, his blood bubbling under the surface of his skin. The pounding in his chest grew more insistent, thundering within his ribcage. His muscles became tauter, tensing as they physically prepared for the change his body instinctively knew was coming his way. It took effort for Colton to hold back the transformation—to halt nature’s will as it strived for his metamorphosis.

“Do you work here?” the woman looked up at him.

“Yeah, hi.” Colton moved behind the cash register, “It was amazing what you did back there. Are you a medic of some kind?”

“I’m a doctor, I work in Chicago.” She passed him the sleeping bag, “I’m just visiting.”

“Staying at Burke’s place?”

“I am–hence the sleeping bag.”

Colton nodded. Her smile was distracting, not helping his inability to recall how the cash register worked. They had upgraded the machinery since the days when he’d had to work behind a register, the multiple buttons and scanning codes were alien to Colton.

“You know what? Have it for free. A thank you for saving one of my customers.”

“No, really, I couldn’t. I was just doing what anyone would do, and a kid choking on Lego is nothing, trust me.”

“I insist. How long are you staying for?”

“Just tonight. I’m looking up an old friend.”

Colton wanted to ask who, but restrained himself.

“Not staying to explore?”

“I wish I could. It’s beautiful here.” Moving to leave, the woman smiled blandly at Colton, “Thank you for this. Much appreciated, really.”

“It’s no problem. I’m Colton Sterling, by the way.”

He was racking his brain to come up with some excuse to keep the conversation going. In truth, this wasn’t usually a problem for him. Women were usually happily flocking around him, hanging on to his every word.

“Hannah Cooper. Nice to meet you.”

It was getting awkward now. The woman, Hannah, clearly wanted to get going. Colton came out from behind the counter to see her out. Holding the door open for her, he got a hit of her scent as she walked past. It almost knocked him to his knees.

He watched her get into the SUV and drive off into town. Colton groaned. He may not have experienced it before, but his instincts categorically knew that the doctor making a one-night appearance in Port Ursa was his. His mate. She also appeared to be completely unaffected by him. Not only was it a blow to his ego, but it was also damn inconvenient. Colton had less than twenty-four hours to make Hannah fall in love with him.

Hannah smiled to herself as she drove around town, looking for a suitable restaurant. It had been a while since she’d laid eyes on such a magnificent specimen of man. That guy had been hot. He’d been about a foot taller than Hannah, a quality she always appreciated, with a huge, broad frame. Even under his thermal hoodie, she’d been able to see a taut, well-defined body, but it was his face that Hannah knew wouldn’t leave her memory for a long time. He wore his dark brown hair a little long so it hung slightly over his forehead, had a defined jawline covered in stubble, and bright green eyes that were shaded by thick lashes. His face was undoubtedly handsome by any standard, but it was his wicked smile that definitely made her girly parts take notice. As she backed into a restaurant parking lot, she caught a glimpse of herself in the rearview mirror and realized she was smirking. Get a grip, lady.

It was nice, she reflected, to know that she was still susceptible to the charms of the opposite sex. It often felt like she’d completely shut herself off from the potential of having any romantic interest in the last four years. Work had come first, and the thought of having her much-needed sleep interrupted by male companionship hadn’t been at all appealing. She just hadn’t had time to entertain the idea of a relationship—not with the kind of time and effort that they required. Laura swore by one-night stands, and they had been appealing during Hannah’s college years, but the longer she’d gone without any intimate contact, the more the idea of sex with a stranger had started to seem like more of a hassle than it was worth.

Until today. She almost wished she were staying longer. If Colton Sterling was single, which she doubted anyhow, he’d be more than welcome to park his boots under her bed tonight.

I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek.

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Check out these other books by Candace Ayers

RANCHER BEAR SERIES

RANCHER BEAR’S BABY

RANCHER BEAR’S MAIL ORDER MATE

RANCHER BEAR’S SURPRISE PACKAGE

RANCHER BEAR’S SECRET

RANCHER BEAR’S DESIRE

BEARS OF BURDEN SERIES

THORN

WYATT

HUTCH

STERLING

SAM (Coming Soon)

MATT (Coming Soon)

SHIFTERS OF DENVER SERIES

NATHAN: BILLIONAIRE BEAR

BYRON: HEARTBREAKER BEAR

FREE BONUS BOOKS SECTION -   STORY DESCRIPTIONS INCLUDED

WEREBEAR’S MAIL ORDER MATE

STORY DESCRIPTION

10 yr. old Chloe loves her dad, but he doesn’t get it. Being the only girl on a working ranch is tough. If she’s ever gonna have a mom, she’ll have to take matters into her own hands—at the computer keyboard, with her dad’s credit card!

Tanner neither wants nor needs a wife. Hell, women flock to the sexy bear shifter. In his opinion, his daughter, and the ranch hands are all the family he needs.

Heather regrets the desperate act of applying to a mail order bride agency, until she receives a heart-warming letter she can’t ignore. Is it insane to marry a man she’s never met, or will it be the fresh start she needs?

Chloe prays that the letter she wrote the pretty lady “from her dad”, will persuade her to give them a chance…. and that her dad doesn’t ground her for life when he finds out!

Chapter one

The building was a brownstone affair; it looked perfectly innocuous from the outside, sitting within the tree-lined street, amidst rows of other replica houses.  Heather double-checked the GPS on her mobile, not daring to walk up the stairs to the entrance just yet. The destination was confirmed to be correct, and eyeing the building again she spotted a small silver plaque by the buzzer, indicating that the building wasn’t residential.

Heather couldn’t quite believe that she was actually here. Lately she’d felt like she was having an out of body experience, and that surely she was living someone else’s life and not her own. Up until a month ago, she had been engaged to her boyfriend of three years, living in a beautiful apartment on the Upper East Side, hosting dinner parties and attending charity functions. She’d never stopped to think that her existence as it was might be transient, that the life she had planned for herself could at any moment veer wildly off-course.

Despite the beautiful New York spring day, Heather felt like she was walking around beneath her own black cloud. The stairs up to the brownstone would lead her into the offices of a mail order bride service – the last place on earth Heather would of have imagined herself being just a short month ago.

Taking a deep breath and summoning what little courage she had left, she slowly made her way up to the entrance, ready to meet her future.

Sitting in the well-lit office of an immaculately dressed Mrs. Atkinson, Heather cowered beneath the woman’s searching inspection. She was no doubt taking in Heather’s expensive attire, but also her haphazard appearance, and the dark shadows that rested beneath her eyes.

“And you are how old, Ms. Ayer?” She asked, pen and clipboard out as she filled Heather’s details into a thick form.

“Call me Heather, please. I’m twenty-nine.” Heather smiled at the woman, and tried to look accommodating and warm. Mrs. Atkinson returned the smile, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

“And what is it that you do, Heather?” The woman looked up from her clipboard expectantly. A silence filled the room. Heather hadn’t been gainfully employed for years. Since becoming Bertram’s girlfriend she had dedicated her waking hours to accommodate his business, his weekend schedules, and his country club meetings and events. She had cooked, cleaned and ferried clothes back and forth to the dry cleaners. Under the scrutiny of Atkinson’s glare, she felt embarrassed, but at the time she’d found her role fulfilling – happy in the knowledge that she was making his life easier, and contributing in the small way that she could to his success.

“Well,” Heather hesitated, drawing out the silence, “I am starting my own baking company. It’s in the initial stages, still ironing out the business plan… but Bergdorf Goodman and Bloomingdales have shown great interest. We’re just finalizing the details.”

Mrs. Atkinson finally looked impressed, but Heather wanted the ground to swallow her whole. It had all been a complete fabrication. Worse, a dream. A dream that she had floated past Bertram, who had subsequently told her in no uncertain terms would his wife-to-be work as a baker.

“Well, that sounds lovely. We do like the women on our books to have passions and joy de vivre. What is it exactly that you’re looking for?”

The question elicited another long pause. What did she want? She really just wanted someone to love her as she was without constantly belittling her, or prodding her to change, to become someone else – a sleeker, more finessed version of Heather. It was doubtful that she would find her perfect match through a mail order bride service but, she would happily settle for companionship, she decided. If she wanted passion and romance, she’d read a book.

“I’d really just like a kind man. I don’t care what he does for a living or where he lives. I also…” she paused, and took another breath. This was important. “Well, the truth is, I can’t bear children.” Trying to speak the words without breaking down was still hard. But it was a fact, and one that Heather had lived with for a while now. The crashing waves of grief that had hit her when she first found out were slowly being reduced to small, daily sorrows that were now a part of her.

“So,” Heather continued, “it would be nice if the man in question had a child, it doesn’t matter how old, or how many. I love children, and it would be nice to be around them.”

Mrs. Atkinson scribbled rapidly on the notepad as she shot Heather a faux-smile of sympathy. Heather tried to return it, but she knew from experience that women who had children, or didn’t want children, never understood the pain of being barren. There were suggestions about IVF treatments, and stories about friends and relatives who did this or that to successfully conceive. Eventually they would run out of things to say, and Heather would end up feeling like a social pariah. Some women that she’d used to circulate with, part of Bertram’s social set, had treated her like she was contagious, as though infertility could be caught.

“Well, many of the men on our books are divorcees or widows, so that is a possibility.” Mrs. Atkinson paused, and sighed. “But, Heather, I must say, we’re unlikely to find you the caliber of man you may have been used to.” She pointedly eyed Heather’s Hermés bag. “Those type of men,” she cleared her throat and shuffled some pages on her desk, “Well, they tend to prefer women who are… let’s say, less curvy. Less, full, perhaps? Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Heather’s cheeks flushed bright crimson. She looked at Mrs. Atkinson’s emaciated figure across the desk, and then looked down at her own full-to-bursting cleavage. She knew exactly what Mrs. Atkinson was trying to say. Despite Heather’s breeding and attractive appearance, the men who ruled Manhattan liked their women looking like polished supermodels. Women who only ate lettuce leaves, had the regulation honey-blonde highlights, and vampish manicures. It was a world that Heather had tried to fit into, ever since she was a young girl. Yo-yo dieting had been a constant companion throughout high school. It was made worse when she met Bertram who’d insisted on buying her a gym membership and a bathroom scale. She had even once tried to dye her deep chestnut brown hair platinum, but her hairdresser had point-blank refused and stormed out in a fury at her request.

“I understand,” Heather’s tone was cooler this time, “I’m not looking for a Manhattan businessman, just a good, kind man, as I said. That’s all.”

Back on the street, Heather felt shame wash over her. She berated herself for thinking that it was a good idea in the first place.  It had been horrible, and made her feel incredibly small, embarrassed that she’d think a mail order bride service was a valid option for starting a new life. It was the two glasses of Merlot she’d had last night, at one in the morning, that had convinced her that this was an exciting, revolutionary plan to turn her life around. Instead, not surprisingly, it had destroyed what little confidence she had left. Never listen to the Merlot.

She ducked into a small coffee shop at the end of the road to lift her dying spirits. It was late morning, between the chaos of breakfast and lunchtime traffic, and the atmosphere in the cafe was sleepy and welcoming.  She went to order at the counter, admiring the plump and freshly baked pastries that adorned every available surface.

“Can I get you one?” the woman behind the counter beamed at her.

“Oh, no. I’m okay. They look incredible though. Is that a frosted lemon curd?” Heather pointed to one of the more elaborate creations.

“Yes! I spend all last week perfecting that recipe. It took me forever.”

“It’s really tricky, isn’t it?” Heather replied, already feeling calmer and more herself.

“Do you bake?” asked the woman at the counter.

“A little.” Heather blushed, recalling the lie she’d told earlier. “I really love baking, but sadly my fiancé didn’t approve so I’m a bit rusty.” Heather eyed the pastries, longing for soft pastry dough beneath her fingers, the slow and agile process of creating delicious treats from a few, simple ingredients.

“If you love it, you should get back into it.” The answer of the baker was so simple and straightforward. Of course she should do it if she loved it. Bertram may have crushed her confidence completely, but there were definite benefits to him leaving. Maybe it was time to think about what she really wanted, rather than what was expected of her.

Chapter two

Chloe pressed her finger down on the ‘delete’ button, watching the letters disappear from the page. It was crap. Sighing deeply, she changed the font type, and then the font size and started again.

It was hard trying to sound like a grown-up. She knew exactly what she wanted to say. It was like writing thank you letters, making sure you came across as polite, kind and cheerful. But as a ten-year-old girl, it was difficult to write one while pretending to be a full-grown man.

She looked out her window, keeping a careful eye on her father. He was standing in the paddock at the back of the ranch, walking one of the horses, a mare they’d recently bought who got spooked easily and was having trouble adjusting to her new stables.

Chloe’s father was so patient with animals, and they loved him for it. All the animals on the ranch flocked to him, from the chickens they kept to the bison in neighboring fields. There was even a ferocious-looking grizzly bear that wandered the outskirts of the ranch at night time, but her dad always told her she was imagining things whenever she brought it up.

He was a great dad. He always seemed so strong and solid. Whenever she’d scrape a knee or elbow, a few kind words from dad and his first aid kit, complete with Batman Band-Aids, would set her straight. Up until recently, she’d never had to worry about anything when he was around.

Even Chloe knew that couldn’t last forever. Lucille, her very best friend, had started her period. She told Chloe all about it in gory detail, and Chloe had almost passed out at the horror of it. Lucille warned her that she’d be next. Her dad wouldn’t be able to help her with that. Chloe was absolutely positive that those types of emergencies weren’t going to be helped by a Batman Band-Aid.

The only other people around were the temporary ranch hands, and Josiah and Wesley, the two year-round ranch hands that made up their small family. Both men were loads of fun. Josiah was like a second dad and her resident sitter, always willing to play a game of Monopoly. Wesley was a really handsome sixteen-year-old who taught her how to ride horses. What would happen if she got her period in front of Wesley? She would die.

It had started to become increasingly apparent to Chloe that what she needed was a mom. One that would braid her hair in the mornings, in the same complicated way that Lucille’s mom did, with French braids and ballerina buns. She had tried to educate her dad on these things, but he was next to useless – though she never told him that. Every day he tried, and every morning after dropping her off at the school gate, Chloe ran behind the pine tree and untied the lopsided attempt, leaving her hair loose for the rest of the school day.

Chloe, with renewed determination, turned her attention back to the letter. She looked at the picture of the woman the agency had sent. She looked perfect. She couldn’t have children, so there would never need to be anyone but Chloe, and she could cook. She also had really, really kind eyes, and long, shiny hair. Her name was Heather. It was a nice name, it sounded like a woman who was good at giving hugs, someone that was nice, and kind to animals.

Before re-reading the letter, Chloe double checked her list of requirements, the same one she’d given to the agency last week. It was scribbled down on a scrap of paper, kept in her jeans pocket at all times. Running through the list, Chloe confirmed that it was likely Heather would fulfill every single one. For some, like being in love with her dad, she would have to wait and see.

Going back to the letter, Chloe wondered whether or not to include that fact that she thought her dad was sad without a wife. She was sure it was true. Sometimes, when he thought she wasn’t around, he would sit on the sofa in the evenings, staring out of the window. He looked so sad, like Chloe would have looked if Lucille wasn’t around. But maybe saying her dad was sad would drive the woman away? She decided to leave that out.

It was an hour later when she finished. Finally, it was perfect. She retrieved her dad’s credit card from his desk drawer, and typed in his information carefully. It was very expensive, but if they were charging that much, Chloe reasoned, then it was more likely that Heather would be the perfect mom.

Chloe pressed ‘send’ on the website, and crossed her fingers tightly. This had to work.

“Chloe – dinner!” Her dad bellowed from downstairs. She hastily shoved the credit card back in the draw and shut down the computer.

“Coming!” She yelled back, giving the room one last glance over to make sure she hadn’t left anything out. It all looked okay. She turned to leave, not noticing her list of ideal attributes still lying just behind the computer screen.

“What have you been doing all day, trouble? I haven’t seen or heard a peep from you.” Her dad questioned her from his spot at the kitchen counter.

“I’ve been busy dad. I had things to do.” Chloe stood with her hands on her hips, surveying the kitchen activity. “Dad. Are we having pork chops, again?”

“Aw, come on Chloe – you know you love ‘em” her dad turned to her with a wink.

“No dad. I do not love them. Plus, we had them last night. I didn’t like them then, and I’m going to like them less today, because now they’re leftovers.” Chloe pursed her lips. This really stinks. She knew for a fact that Lucille never had leftovers, except on Sundays, and Sunday leftovers was okay.

“Well, well, well, I can hear a princess causin’ her old man trouble.” Josiah popped his head around the screen door, and shook his cap at Chloe. “That is no way for a young lady to behave!” He ran in and started chasing her around the table. Chloe squealed in delight and ran behind her father. He laughed and grabbed her, putting Chloe back in Josiah’s firing line. “Dad!” she yelled, “help!”

Just then Wesley walked in, and Chloe abruptly stopped hollering. He towered above her, sun-bronzed skin, and flashing Chloe a huge grin. “I heard a lot of yelling coming from in here,” he eyed Chloe, “You causing mischief, Miss Chloe Holt?”

“No. No, I wasn’t. I am annoyed that we’re having pork chops, again. This is the fourteenth million time, and I’m sick of them!” Chloe recalled her main gripe of the evening, and stood her ground.

“Hmm” Wesley looked thoughtful. “Well, that’s a shame.” He turned back to Chloe’s father who’d started to plate up the offending chops.

Josiah looked at Wesley and agreed, “It is. It’s a shame.” The old man shrugged his shoulders, and shook his head. Chloe’s father just looked bemusedly at both men.

“What?” asked Chloe, “What’s a shame?” they all just shook their heads at her. Staying silent, Chloe folded her arms and jutted out her chin. “Tell me. What’s a shame?”

“Well. I don’t know if you know about Mrs. Maybelle’s fair winning cream pie…” Wesley trailed off, as Chloe gave a small yell and jumped in the air.

“Really? Wes, do you really have Maybelle pie?”

He grinned at her, “Yep, really do. Josiah and I went town special for you, and bought it. But,” he paused, “I’m not sure you should be havin’ any, on account of you being all uppity about your dad’s food and all.”

“I’m sorry!” Chloe grabbed the proffered plate out of her father’s hands and carried it over to the kitchen table.

She ate happily, wolfing down her food. And, truth be told, it really wasn’t that bad. She wouldn’t have to put up with it for very long, she reminded herself. She might have a mom by next week, a mom who would spend all day in the kitchen creating special treats and delicious dinners for Chloe and her dad.

Chapter three

Heather put the phone down. It had been the third call with her lawyer in the past week. She sat still watching spring rains batter against the glass plane of the kitchenette window. She had things to do, laundry, lunch to make and receipts to go through, but she didn’t have the energy.

Heather’s lawyer had finally informed her of what she’d already known to be true; she was completely broke.

In a week’s time, her rental would run out on the apartment she was currently staying in, a grimy, run-down place that you couldn’t swing a cat in.  She had no job prospects, and hardly any income. Since her break-up with Bertram she’d been living on a small amount of savings that she’d squirreled away over the years, and money from a few handbags, watches and jewelry she’d sold to make ends meet.

Ironically, from where she was sitting contemplating her life as an indigent, she could see in the distance the majestic high rise tower of AyerCooke, so tall it pierced the clouds above and gleamed, impenetrable and imposing over the grey New York day. It had been her father’s business – up until two months ago when he’d died suddenly of a heart attack. It now belonged to Bertram.

Her father had never been a particularly warm man, but he’d always been good to her. When Bertram started dating Heather, he was already an associate at her father’s business. Her dad had done everything he could to make hers and Bertram’s lives together easier. He’d bought them a beautiful apartment, made Bertram’s rise up the Manhattan social ladder easy, and eventually made him partner in the company.

Neither of them could have guessed what a snake he’d turn out to be, dumping Heather within a month of her father’s passing, and kicking her out of the apartment which, of course, was in his name.

Bertram had behaved criminally, which made the phone call she was now about to make all the harder to stomach. She dialed the number with a heavy heart, and half-prayed she’d get his voicemail.

“Bertram Cooke, speaking.” A familiar voice sounded at the end of the line.

She took a deep breath. “Hi Bert, it’s Heather.”

“Ah. Heather. Hi! How are you?” His voice was a perfectly bland, as though she was a business acquaintance.

“Well, I’m not great Bertram. I need to speak to you -”

“I’m so sorry to hear that Heather, but I’m a bit tied up at the moment, any chance this could wait?” He interrupted her smoothly.

Heather shut her eyes tightly and gripped the table top, trying to control the fury she felt at his dismissive attitude. “Not really, Bertram. I’m broke. As in, I can’t live. I don’t have any option but to call you.”

Bertram gave a theatrical sigh. “It’s not really my problem, Heather. Why don’t you get a job? I’m sure you have plenty of skills suited to the workplace.” His tone was much cooler now, but Heather could detect the mocking beneath.

“Bertram. Please, I’m going to be homeless in about a week. I literally can’t live. I’m not exaggerating. I’m just asking you to release a few funds, help me with a few months’ rent until I get back on my feet. You owe me that much, surely?” Her voice had turned slightly wobbly, and Heather moved her mouth away from the phone so he couldn’t hear her shuddering breaths.

“Owe you? I don’t owe you a thing, Heather. I kept you in the lifestyle to which you’d become accustomed, and now that we’re no longer together, I won’t.” The line went dead.

Heather’s fingers gripped the phone so tightly the tips turned white. It was such lies. When Heather had first met Bertram, it had been at her father’s company event, a summer party to welcome the new-year recruits. Bertram was one, a shy bespectacled man who sat at the edge of the action, quietly observing all the other Harvard business school recruits dancing drunkenly to the live band.

Heather had felt sorry for him, and went up to introduce herself. They had a fairly pleasant conversation, nothing particularly scintillating, but nice. At the end of the evening Bertram found her again, and asked for her number. She had given it to him, but she hadn’t sensed a spark between them, so she had not expected a call.

Two months later, when Heather had all but forgotten about the incident, Bertram had called her up. Awkwardly he’d asked her out on a date the following Friday, and Heather, charmed by his vulnerability and shyness, agreed. When he showed up at her door, she’d hardly recognized Bertram. The glasses were gone. The cut of his suit had vastly improved, as had his confidence. He wined and dined her that evening, and the next day, he had sent a dozen bouquets of flowers to her apartment.

The spark never materialized, but Bertram hadn’t given up on his efforts to woo Heather. He very quickly told her that he loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Heather couldn’t resist his seemingly ardent devotion. She ignored her own doubts and threw herself into life with Bertram, making every effort to return his attentions.

She didn’t know when, or how, the tables had turned, but they had. Soon it was Heather putting all the effort into the relationship, with Bertram controlling her every move, what she wore, who she saw, what she did in her limited free time, even what books she read. In the end, she was left humiliated and ashamed that she’d let herself be treated that way, as if she were a woman with no mind of her own. The final blow had come when she realized that Bertram would be leaving her with nothing. Everything they owned, everything that was gifted by her father, was now in his name. She had left their home with two suitcases of clothes, all that belonged to her in the world.

Heather had taken a walk. Her coat was wrapped around her tightly, and she hadn’t bothered to bring an umbrella. She knew she looked like a bedraggled mess walking the streets of New York, but she honestly couldn’t find it within herself to care. She kept her eyes glued to the pavements as she marched, not knowing where she was headed, just knowing that she needed to get moving, to try and think of a way out of her current situation.

There was one solution that she hadn’t tried yet. She had a cousin in California. They hadn’t spoken in months. Bertram hadn’t really liked her. Lila was free-spirited. Although she and Heather had grown up together, going to the same elitist high school and Ivy League universities, Lila had broken away from their lives and set up a crystal healing shop in LA.  She always claimed that their upbringing was too oppressive for her, and had longed to leave the cutthroat atmosphere of the Upper East Side.

As Heather contemplated what was looking like the only feasible option she had, her phone buzzed in her pocket.

“Hello?” she picked up, not recognizing the number.

“Ms. Ayer? This is Wendy from Delivery Bride, are you free to speak?” the woman on the line was very softly spoken, a vast improvement from the stern tones of Mrs. Atkinson.

“Hi Wendy, I’m free.”

“Lovely. We have good news. We think we’ve found a likely match for you. The gentleman owns a ranch in Wyoming, one daughter, never been married. We received a letter, if you’d like to read it?”

“Oh!” Heather was shocked. After her meeting with Mrs. Atkinson, she really hadn’t expected anything to come from it. “Well…” Heather hesitated, wondering if she should decline. The entire idea was starting to become faintly ridiculous, an act of desperation.

“Maybe you just want to come and read the letter, and then decide?” Wendy prompted, gently.

Heather looked up at the street sign nearest her. She was about four blocks from the agency; what harm would it do to keep her options open?

“Okay, sure. I’ll be there in about twenty minutes, is that okay?”

“That’s great Ms. Ayer, we’ll see you shortly.”

She hung up the phone, slightly dazed. She turned the corner, heading in the direction of the agency. It had stopped raining, and the sun was starting to break through the gloomy day. For the first time in weeks, Heather felt things were looking up.

Chapter four

The engine rumbled to life and Heather strapped herself into her first-class seat on the Delta Airlines flight. There were few passengers on the aircraft, and the aisle seat next to her was empty except for the three books she’d purchased at the airport to entertain her on the six-hour flight from New York to Wyoming.

“Would you care for a glass of champagne, ma’am, or a hot towel?” the stewardess leaned forward with the tray. Heather smiled gratefully but only took an orange juice. She didn’t like drinking on flights, it made her feel woozy.

She watched New York get smaller from her window, and soon all she could see was an expanse of crisp blue sky that seemed to go on for eternity. She leaned forward under the seat in front of her and retrieved her bag, taking out the letter that she’d been given by the agency. She’d opened it a few hundred times since first receiving it, but each time was touched at the sentiment that leapt from the pages.

Dear Heather,

Thank you for sending your picture. You are beautiful. I love your kind eyes. I am a nice, kind man who lives on a ranch, with a paddock that has five horses, and I would love to take you riding with me. I also have a daughter named Chloe. She is ten and also very lovely. I hope that you like to cook and can do complicated hair styles. I can’t. We are a happy family and we love each other very much, but I am missing a wife and my daughter is missing a mom. It would be very nice if you could come and join us.

I’m looking forward to meeting you.

Tanner Holt.

In the end, what had persuaded her to make the trip was the reference to his daughter. He was clearly putting her needs first, and Heather knew she could feel warm and compassionate toward a man who evidently loved his daughter so much he was willing to request a mail order bride to ensure he found her a mother. Heather believed that she could be that woman.

She had always known, ever since she was in her teens, that she wanted to be a mother. Finding out that she couldn’t have children had been a horrible experience, she felt like her life had been robbed of meaning. She thought Bertram felt the loss as keenly as she did, but in retrospect, she realized what she had assumed was his cold and distant way of dealing with misery, was probably relief as he put his plan to separate from her in motion.

Putting the letter carefully back into the envelope, she took out the accompanying photos. There were two, one of Tanner Holt standing in the sun with the Wyoming mountainscape behind him and another of his daughter Chloe, being given a piggy back ride on his shoulders. She must have been about six in this photo, all gangly legs and a beautiful freckled face.

She studied Tanner more closely. He was the only aspect she was confused by. The man was heart-stoppingly gorgeous, tall, broad and strong, with beautiful brown eyes and dark hair that fell messily around his chiseled face. She didn’t understand why he was using an agency to find a bride. This man should have absolutely no problem finding a woman. She could think of ten women she knew off the top of her head who would happily drop their Manhattan lives in a New York minute to spend time with this man.

She supposed this was a part of him putting his daughter first. Maybe his feelings didn’t really come into account. Maybe he wanted a good mother for his daughter above all else, and he would simply settle for companionship. She admired him for that. She smiled to herself, and looked away from the photo. She hoped he did want more than just companionship. Tanner Holt was delicious, and she didn’t know if she could handle having a platonic relationship with that physique.

Chapter five

Sweet fresh air hit her as soon as she exited the plane. Heather had slept through the majority of the flight. She’d ignored her books and the inflight entertainment system in favor of the best sleep she’d experienced since her father’s death.

She’d woken up as they were landing. The landscape was spectacular, large open fields were interspersed with dense forest. Sweeping mountains had emerged from the tops of clouds as the plane made its decent. The lakes looked like pools of cut glass from the plane, cool and crisp. As they got closer, Heather could see that they reflected the mountain ranges in the distance, making the horizon look eternal.  The plane took its time circulating, and eventually dove down at the foot of a mountain.

As soon as she exited the arrivals lounge of the tiny airport, she was met by a local taxi driver holding a name card. Heather was so grateful she almost wept. Tanner Holt had thought of everything, paying for the first-class ticket, and transportation to and from the airport.

As they made the drive to Tanner’s ranch, Heather enjoyed the beauty and peacefulness of Jackson. After a few miles of farm land, they passed through Jackson Hole, the main town. It was full of rustic charm. Most of the structures were made of pine, giving the area a ski-lodge feel. The town was bustling, but this time of year, Heather supposed there was a lot of tourism.

“How far are we from the Holt’s place?” asked the taxi driver.

“Not far ma’am. Tanner’s out by Cache Creek. It’s just a couple of miles from the town,” replied the Taxi Driver, affably.

“Do you know Tanner?”

“Yup. We all pretty much know everyone round here ma’am. I drink with Tanner in Jake’s Place sometimes, a bar in town.”

“Is he,” Heather hesitated, “a nice man?” She wondered if it was strange of her to ask. If all went well she would be presented as his fiancée at some point, but perhaps the man wouldn’t remember.

“Tanner’s a good man. You a friend or relative?” The driver eyed her in his rear-view mirror.

“I’m a friend.” Heather didn’t elaborate, but smiled winningly at the man. She hoped he wouldn’t ask more questions about her relationship to Tanner. But the man merely nodded in response and gave a short grunt of approval.

“Well, it’s nice around here. You here on vacation?” He asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

“Yes. Here on vacation, but, well, we’ll see.” Heather blushed. She wasn’t very good at being vague, but she certainly didn’t want to reveal her situation to a stranger.

“If you don’t mind me saying, looks like you could use one. Pretty girl like you shouldn’t look so tired and sad.”

Normally Heather might be offended by a stranger being so forthcoming, but she reminded herself that this is what small town living would be like. As he said, they all knew each other around here. She also didn’t think the man meant anything rude by it. He was probably right, she’d had a brief look at herself in the restroom mirror at the airport. She looked tired and drawn.

She pinched her cheeks, trying to get some life into them. She hoped she would have a few moments before meeting Tanner to clean up a bit.

The man smiled at her, “Aw, honey, I didn’t mean to make you self-conscious, you’re a beautiful woman. Just look like you could do with a good sleep, fresh air, and some feeding. Well, you come to the right place.” Heather smiled back at him gratefully. The next moment he spoke again, “It’s just up here.”

He turned the corner on the dusty dirt road that they’d been following for the last ten minutes, and started to follow a rough tire-track road.

Ahead of them, Heather could see a huge log ranch home. It had large windows all along the front, reaching two floors. The rest of the structure was a more traditional log cabin design, with smaller square windows and a low-sloping roof. It was much larger and more beautiful than Heather had imagined, and she hoped that what she’d packed would be acceptable to Tanner. It was mainly hard-wearing outdoor clothing, jeans, fleeces and t-shirts. She’d brought a few nice blouses for the evening, but that was it. She suddenly felt anxious that Tanner might be expecting one of the manicured, lithe hard-bodies of New York, but then she recalled the letter. He knew what she looked like, it would be okay.

She took a deep breath to steady herself. It was time to face whatever her future had in store.

Chapter six

Chloe had been waiting at the window all afternoon. She’d seen the taxi coming down the valley of Cache Creek, and raced down the staircase, knocking Josiah out of the way.

“Where’s the fire?” He’d bellowed after her. Chloe completely ignored him, hurrying to the door and then busting through to the porch where she’d decided she would wait. It would mean she could help Heather with her bags, and Heather would immediately see what a great daughter she’d be.

Josiah came and joined her on the porch. He too, had seen the car coming up the drive.

“Who’s visitin’ Chloe? Your dad never said anything about visitors.” He asked the girl, who by now was practically hyperventilating with excitement.

“That’s because dad doesn’t know.”

“Do you know?” Josiah eyed her suspiciously.

“No.” Chloe lied, crossing her arms and jutting out her chin, without removing her gaze from the approaching car.

“No?” Josiah asked again. Crouching down to eye-level with Chloe. “Are you sure you don’t know?”

Before Chloe could reply, the door of the Taxi opened, and Heather stepped out.

Chloe ran down the porch steps, and galloped over the grass to greet her new mother. She stopped just shy of her, drinking in the long hair, the beautiful brown eyes warm with kindness, and the welcoming smile showing perfectly white teeth.

“Are you Chloe?” the woman asked.

“Hi.” Replied Chloe, suddenly bashful and a little overwhelmed. “You’re Heather?”

“I am. I’ve really been looking forward to meeting you.” Heather opened her arms, inviting the girl into a hug. Chloe stepped timidly into her embrace, and drank in Heather’s smell of fresh laundry and a delicate floral perfume. Her hugs, like her father’s, felt solid and loving, but she found Heather’s to be much softer and gentler. Chloe felt like she could stay in her arms forever, feeling small, and safe and warm.

Eventually she broke away, and looked up at Heather. Her eyes looked a little wet, and Chloe hoped she hadn’t upset the woman.

“Heather, can I show you the house? Would you like to see my room?”

Heather laughed, “I would love to” She paused, looking up at the porch, “Is that your daddy, Chloe?” she asked.

“No! That’s Josiah. He’s my sitter. And works on the ranch with my dad. My dad’s not here, he had to fix Billy Nelson’s fence. He is very sorry that he can’t see you right away, and asked to send you his deepest regrets,” finished Chloe confidently. She beamed up at Heather.

“That’s a shame. Well, I look forward to meeting him later.” Heather replied. She was disappointed that he wasn’t here to greet her, but then a ranch emergency couldn’t be ignored. She shrugged, and thanked the cab driver for retrieving her bags from the trunk. He tipped his cap to her, and then drove the cab back down the track.

Josiah came forward, taking the bags from Heather.

“I was doing that Josiah!” Chloe wrestled one out of his hand, and although it was almost the same size as she was, she bravely staggered with it up the steps.

“Hello. I’m Heather.” Heather held out her hand to Josiah, and he smiled as he took it.

“Nice to meet you, Heather.” Josiah was too polite to ask who she was, and what she was doing here, so he just continued to carry the other bag up to the house.

“I can take that,” said Heather, feeling horribly guilty at a young child and an old man carrying her bags for her, “Really, let me.”

“Nope,” replied Josiah winking at her, “not in this part of the world you don’t. We don’t let guests carry their own bags over the threshold.” Heather smiled, and followed him into the house.

She only just stopped herself from gasping as they entered the front room. The window frontage let in the red, yellows and pinks of the sunset. It was stunning. Despite the majesty of the entrance, the house looked incredibly cozy and inviting. The furniture looked lived in, two huge leather sofas were beautifully cracked and vintage looking, something people were paying a fortune for in New York City.  A huge fireplace crackled invitingly in the center of the room, it’s flue reaching up through the ceiling. The entire house smelled faintly of cedar wood, and Heather could practically feel her body relax as they went from room to room.

“This is your guest bedroom,” announced Chloe, at the door of a very pretty room with a closet, chest of draws and a decent sized double bed. Heather walked over to the window, admiring the view out over the valley.

“It’s beautiful, thank you so much Chloe.” She turned back to face the girl, and as she did so, she noticed a vase of wild flowers sitting on the chest of draws.

“Are these from you?” she asked Chloe.

“Me and my dad,” replied Chloe proudly, “Do you like them?”

“I love them!” exclaimed Heather.

Chloe smiled back at her, “We’re really excited you’re here. My dad can’t wait to meet you. I hope you like it here. We have horses and other animals. I can show you them tomorrow, and we can go fishing in the lake, if you’d like? There’s loads of things to do here.” Chloe finished almost breathless.

“I love it here, Chloe. It’s wonderful.” Heather reassured her. Chloe’s face flushed pink at the compliment.

Chapter seven

“You’ve robbed me blind, woman.” Josiah looked admiringly at Heather and she laughed greedily.

They had been playing an intense game of Monopoly for the last two hours. Chloe had continually robbed from the bank, and then joined Heather’s team when it was time to admit defeat. Together they’d dominated the board, leaving Josiah with one paltry property and plenty of debt.

Heather had long ago stopped anxiously glancing toward the door. The game had completely distracted her from the strange situation, and it felt like the three of them were in their own cozy world, and that Heather had known Josiah and Chloe forever.

Chloe was currently leaning on her arm, her eyes closing every so often as the girl grew drowsy from the firelight and warmth.

“I think I need to feed her,” said Josiah, echoing Heather’s own thoughts.

“Should I get cooking?” Heather replied.

“No, don’t do that,” Josiah hurried to his feet, “I can get on with that. We have some stuff I can defrost.”

“Or I can head into the kitchen and see what I can rustle up? Honestly Josiah, I love cooking. I’d enjoy it.” Heather smiled up at the man, trying to persuade him. As long as she was here, she didn’t want Chloe eating defrosted leftovers. That girl was going to get proper home cooking.

“You sure?” Josiah was hesitant.

“I’m positive. Now, just show me the kitchen.”

Josiah took her through to the farmhouse-style kitchen. All the equipment looked brand new, the stove like it had never been used. Yes, the kitchen was well equipped, and when she opened the fridge, she found it bursting with fresh ingredients.

“Well, looks like we have a chef here already,” Heather asked Josiah curiously, “Does Tanner cook?”

Josiah barked out a shout of laughter, “No ma’am. He sure doesn’t.” He eyed the fridge and smiled to himself. Chloe had dragged him into town early that morning insisting that the fridge needed to be full of groceries. He’d thought at the time the girl had gone nuts, but now it all made a lot more sense.

“Well, I can certainly make something out of all this,” Heather riffled through the contents, “Potatoes dauphinoise, salad and steak? “

“Sounds great.” Josiah had no idea what potatoes dauphinoise was, but it sounded delicious.

Heather turned back around and started to busy herself in the kitchen. With Chloe half asleep in the next room, Josiah felt this was the perfect time to find out what or who Heather was to the Holt family.

“How long you known Tanner for?” He asked, trying to sound as breezy as possible.

“Um,” Heather slightly squeaked out her answer, “Not long.” She hoped that her answer was acceptable. She really didn’t want Josiah asking questions before she’d had the chance to speak to Tanner and understand what he wanted their story to be.

The silence stretched out for about five minutes, before Heather cracked under the pressure. “We’re engaged. I’m, well, I’m Tanner’s fiancée.”

Josiah had no idea what to say to that. He had worked side-by-side with Tanner for about thirteen years. There was absolutely no possible way the woman standing in the kitchen could be Tanner’s fiancée.

After a pause, Josiah fell back on platitudes, completely at a loss. “That’s wonderful news. Congratulations.”

Heather turned and smiled at him, blushing a deep shade of red. “Thank you.” She didn’t really know what else to say either, so turned back to the cooking and hoped that the questioning would now come to a close.

Josiah watched Heather as she moved around the kitchen. After spending time with her this evening, he wished that she were Tanner’s fiancée. She was such a kind, generous and warm woman. She was beautiful as well – just the way Tanner liked them, curvy and soft.

She was good with Chloe too, he reflected. Chloe needed someone like Heather in her life, whether or not she was aware of it. Jesus. It clicked.

“Heather, will you excuse me a minute? I need to speak to Chloe.” Josiah moved swiftly back into the living room without waiting for a response.

“Madam monster, what you gone and done now?” Chloe woke to see Josiah glaring at her from above her as she lay on the sofa.

“Shh, she’ll hear you Josiah.” Chloe scrambled to an upright position, and clutched at the old man’s arms. “Don’t say anything, Heather doesn’t know!”

“Doesn’t know what?” Josiah spoke sternly.

“About dad not knowing. I bought her. As a wife, for dad.”

Josiah sighed deeply. “Chloe, you can’t just meddle in people’s lives like this! How do you know her, do you know her?” He couldn’t for the life of him work out how Chloe had orchestrated this. She sat starting dumbly at him. He sat down next to her on the sofa.

“Chloe, please, tell me what’s goin’ on.” He lowered his voice, and could hear the sound of Heather humming away as she prepared the dinner.

“Fine. But you can’t tell dad.” She turned to face him, her stubbornness back in place and all pleading gone.

“Are you goin’ to tell your dad what’s goin’ on?” Josiah answered her.

“Yes! When he gets back. It will be fine. He’ll see her and he’ll fall in love with her, I know he will. I made sure she was perfect!” Chloe was getting agitated now.

Heather called them through to the kitchen before Josiah could untangle more of Chloe’s story. He was absolutely certain that her dad would be furious with her when he found out, but there was nothing he could do about that now. Better, he thought, that they enjoy dinner together, and then Tanner could sort this out in the morning. And, maybe the kid was right. Tanner sure needed a woman, and he couldn’t imagine a better one coming along that Heather, however she got here.

“Alright kid, I’ll keep quiet if you promise to tell your dad everything before he sees Heather. I can tell that woman’s already been through enough.”

Chloe stared at him solemnly, and nodded her head. “I promise, Josiah.”

Dinner was cozy and quiet. The three dug into the food in near silence, but it was a comfortable one. Chloe seemed a bit subdued, but when Heather asked her if she was okay, she just nodded and gave Heather a sleepy smile.

Josiah insisted on cleaning up after dinner, as a thank you for cooking. Heather let him do it this time, but vowed it would be the last. She wanted to be as much help to this family as she could, and Josiah, while not a blood-relation, was still very much part of the family.

At ten o’clock Heather floated, light as cloud, out of Chloe’s room. The girl had insisted that Heather read her a bedtime story, and then fell asleep, head in Heather’s lap, before she’d gotten even half way through. She’d kissed Chloe on the forehead, gently brushing back the girl’s brown hair, and felt a warm glow emanate from her heart as though it were shifting and growing to fit in the new Chloe-shaped addition to her life.

Chapter eight

Tanner came home a little after midnight. He was exhausted. It had taken the three of them roughly five hours to fix the fence damage that populated Billy Nelson’s two-hundred-acre land. Then they’d had to herd back in the cattle, in the pitch-black night. Tanner’s entire body ached.

Walking into the warmth of his ranch, he saw the dying fire in the grate and smiled, imagining the cozy vignette he had missed out on. He also noticed a different smell in the house, one that mingled with the various distinctive and familiar scents of his daughter and Josiah. This one was lightly floral and feminine, entwining with the other scents perfectly, but still new and different. It smelt nice, he reflected, maybe Chloe had been playing around with pressing wild flowers.

He climbed the stairs to his bedroom, wearily. The scent grew stronger, but he thought nothing of it. He was already fantasizing about collapsing into his large bed, and finally getting some rest.

“Dad?”

Tanner woke to a heavy lump sitting on top of his body, lightly bouncing up and down.

“Dad,” Chloe’s mock whisper came close to his ear, “Are you awake?”

Tanner groaned, “No. What time is it?”

“It’s the morning. But I have a present for you.” Chloe continued her bouncing till Tanner grabbed her and moved over to the other side of the bed.

“That’s lovely honey, but why don’t you leave it by the bed, and I’ll get it when I wake up?” Tanner was still half-asleep.

“I can’t, dad.” Chloe was starting to get desperate, so Tanner gave another groan and sat up in bed, giving her his full attention.

“Okay, okay, what’s this present?”

“It’s downstairs. But, I have to tell you what it is before you see it.” Chloe placed her hands on his shoulders, staring into his eyes as if to emphasize the importance of the information she was about to disclose.

“So, I have been thinking a lot about us.” She began, “Me, you and the horses, and Josiah and Wesley. I think we all need a mom, and you need to be married to a really, really nice lady who can cook. So we can be a complete family.” Chloe stared him down, daring him to disagree with her.

“Well,” Tanner was slightly confused by the direction, “That’s lovely, honey. It’s very sweet of you to think of us all like that, and I’m glad you see Josiah and Wesley as part of the family.”

“Yes.” Chloe replied, “It’s very sweet of me. So, also, I got you one.”

“You got me one what, Chloe?” Tanner noticed his daughter was starting to look very shifty. As he shook off sleep, he could also hear noises coming from downstairs, and the smell of food cooking. “Who’s in the kitchen, Chloe?”

She smiled at him tensely, forming a part grimace. It was a look Tanner knew well. He’d seen it the day that Chloe had decided to ‘decorate’ the bathroom with chocolate mousse, the day she’d tried to keep a wild field mouse as a pet in her pillow, and most recently, the day she’d tried to dye her hair with beetroot juice.

“Chloe,” he sternly prompted, “What’s going on?”

“I told you! I got you a wife. She’s downstairs.” Chloe folded her arms defensively.

“What on earth are you talking about?” Tanner was half dreading the answer. Something was not right, the smell last night, the cooking this morning, the floral notes that were permeating the house…

“I got you a mail order bride.” Chloe stumbled over her words, and hurried to pacify her father as Tanner reared up in bed, looking furious. “But she’s not just a mail order, she’s Heather and she’s awesome, and I love her and she smells nice and she’s really kind and she read to me!” Chloe was shouting now, trying to get her father to understand, scared that he’d send Heather away.

“You’ve got to be joking?” Tanner was flabbergasted. How the hell had this happened? “Chloe, that’s impossible. Can people even do that? Send away for brides?”

“Yes dad! It happens all the time. Lucille told me all about it, her parents were watching a show.  She’s from New York, and now she’s here, and she’s so awesome.” Chloe hurried off the bed. Tanner’s face had grown increasingly pale as she’d been talking. From experience Chloe knew this meant he was going to explode.

“There’s a woman downstairs?” Tanner was livid. Partly with himself, how did he not know this was going on under his own roof? How had she paid for this?

He stood up, wondering what the hell he was going to do. Politely send her away, he supposed, there wasn’t anything else he could do. And refund her any expenses, unless, he amended, he’d already paid for them.

“Chloe, I’m going to have a shower and then go downstairs and speak to this woman. I want you to go downstairs now and be polite to our guest until I get there.” He was really trying to keep his temper in check, but Chloe had pushed every one of his buttons this time, and she would have to be punished somehow. He was just too angry to think of anything suitable yet.

The shower helped calm him. It was just a simple mix-up. He would also call the agency that Chloe used. It was preposterous that they would send a woman over to someone’s house at the whim and desire of a ten-year-old.

He would need to have a good long talk with Chloe. But he’d wait until he wasn’t so tempted to wring her little neck. She was, most of the time, a sensible kid. She wouldn’t have gone to this much effort, and hidden something so significant from him, if she didn’t feel strongly about what she was doing.

Tanner stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. He noticed a bruise on his upper bicep. Some of the grazing cattle had gotten a bit spooked last night when they’d tried to herd them. Tanner was more than capable of handling himself, but Billy had fallen down a ditch and half-dragged one of the cows with him, causing the mammal to get agitated and ferocious.

Tanner pulled on a pair of jeans and a grey t-shirt, and padded barefoot down to the kitchen.

He paused in the entrance. Chloe was standing with her back to him, still in her pajamas at the kitchen stove. A woman standing next to her was calmly giving her directions, “Now, Chloe, knead the dough carefully and slowly… that’s it, well done, that looks perfect. You have talent!” He watched as Chloe raised her head up to the woman. From the doorway, Tanner could see the look of complete adoration.

He fully intended to go and politely interrupt the cozy scene, but as he watched the woman, he became transfixed. Her hair was long, thick, brown and glossy. He could feel his hands twitch with longing, aching to go up and run his fingers through it, feeling its silky softness. He watched her full, curvaceous hips sway gently with her cooking movements, her backside full and heavy, calling out to him, making him want to see more. As she turned her head to speak to Chloe, he caught a glimpse of her profile, long thick lashes and rose colored lips stretched into a beautiful smile that caused small dimples to form at the corner of her mouth.

As Tanner watched, he felt his lower abdomen tense and flicker as he grew hard, straining against the denim of his jeans. He felt foggy suddenly, his skin starting to hum and prickle with energy. He knew then that he was about to shift. The woman, the stranger standing in his kitchen, the woman with the heavenly body, who had introduced the floral scent into his home, was none other than his mate. The one woman he didn’t think existed for him.

He turned away from the kitchen swiftly. Tanner didn’t know how it had happened, how his mate – who he’d given up hope actually existed at all – had found her way to him. But the primal pull she had on him, the instant and overwhelming attraction that tugged him in physically, and in other ways that Tanner couldn’t even begin to explain, made it clear that this woman was his.

His bear was going to emerge any moment now, and he needed to run out his beast. It was calling to him, a primal shudder running through him, echoing the wilderness of the mountains. His ears twitched as he heard the calls of other beasts and creatures in the forests and valleys, bringing him to them.

Tanner ran outside, flinging off his jeans and t-shirt as he did so. He ran to an old outbuilding, which now served as the carpentry workshop for the ranch. He let the change consume him. He let his muscles break and tear to reform into a beast four times the size of Tanner in human form. Once the shift was complete, he bellowed up to the open sky, his thick coat rippling in the sun. His bear had taken over, and he surrendered to it, letting it lead him, running, into the brutal and majestic mountains of Wyoming.

Chapter nine

The two men worked side by side in the final rays of the sun. They were felling a large spruce that had grown sick, contaminating the sagebrush growing around its trunk.

Tanner could feel the sweat trickling between his shoulder blades, and stopped to wipe his forehead with his t-shirt, now hanging from his jeans pocket.

“Who did you think she was?” Tanner turned to Josiah, curious about what had happened last night. The old man removed his cap and sighed.

“Well. I didn’t like to ask.” Josiah replied, looking shiftily at the ground and clearing his throat.

Tanner grunted in reply. He tested the chainsaw, yanking the chord to get the motor running. It sprung to life smoothly, and he made his cut.

“What did you make of her?” he asked. He wasn’t looking at Josiah, so he didn’t see the man’s quiet smirk.

“I think she’s a lovely lady. Smart, beautiful, she’s a born mother. Don’t know what she was doin’ on something like a mail order service, but I think you should be thanking your lucky stars.”

Tanner turned in surprise. Josiah was one of the most taciturn people he’d ever met. It was rare for him to be so vocal about his opinions.

“Don’t you think the whole things a bit weird?” Tanner insisted.

Josiah looked to the sky, and then spat out a stream of tobacco.

“Sure. It’s a bit weird. Seen weirder.” He eyed Tanner briefly, and then got back to work. The conversation, from Josiah’s perspective, was closed.

Tanner eventually refocused on the task at hand, trying to push the woman out of his mind. He would deal with the situation tonight.

Heather laughed as Chloe accidently soaked them both at the out-building sink. They were washing paintbrushes, after spending all afternoon paining a mural on Chloe’s bedroom wall, one that depicted all Noah’s animals marching two-by-two. They’d spoken a lot about Chloe’s school, her friends and Josiah and Wesley. Heather could see the girl had a soft spot for the younger boy, and she recalled her own early crushes. For Heather, they’d mostly been painful and awkward. The boys she’d liked, the big football jocks who had fast cars and smart mouths, always inevitably preferred the cheerleader types, and Heather had no choice but to swoon from afar, writing gibberish in her diaries and wistfully dreaming of the day that she’d be popular and adored. It sounded like Chloe was fairing far better than she ever did, and Heather was glad about that. All in all, the day had been perfect, Heather couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so content and at ease.

The only blight on her day, she reflected, had been the noticeable absence of Tanner. She had known that he’d seen her that morning as she was making breakfast. She’d felt his presence behind her and caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye, as he was vanishing out of the room.

Heather couldn’t understand if he was simply rude, or had taken one look at her and decided that she wasn’t the right woman for him. She had kept trying to push the question to the back of her mind all day, and focus on being with Chloe. But it was hard, being in someone’s home when they apparently didn’t want you there.

She and Chloe walked toward the house. They both needed showers. Chloe was pretty much covered in paint from head to toe, she’d even managed to get it in her ear, somehow.

Heather took at the Wyoming landscape, admiring the majestic mountains in the distance. She took in a breath of fresh air, savoring its sweetness and the scent of fresh pine. She decided in that moment to make the best of things. She would cook for Chloe and Tanner tonight, if he showed up, and try to be the perfect guest. She was here, the house and the surrounding area were impossibly beautiful, and she loved spending time with Chloe. She didn’t want to waste that. She would do her best to enjoy the last remaining days here, and not waste a second moping or wondering about Tanner’s feelings.

“Hi.” A voice came from behind her, startling her out of her reverie. She turned, and came face to face with Tanner Holt.

She stared at him, taken aback by his broad frame. He towered above her, blocking out the last of the sunlight, as tall and imposing as the mountains behind him. Studying him, she observed how his hair was lighter than in the picture he’d sent, but his eyes were so dark they were almost black. His gaze was direct and unflinching, unnerving Heather.

“Hi,” was all she could reply in return. Her brain felt like it had been scrambled. She wanted Tanner to look away so she could recalibrate, but he stayed still, watching her. Waiting.

“I’m Heather. The woman you sent for, from the agency.” She looked around for Chloe, but she had completely vanished. Great.

Tanner nodded. “Thanks for coming.” His voice was low and deep, his words unhurried. Heather found herself hypnotized – by his voice, his gaze, his presence. There was something about the man that drew her in completely, something aside from his undeniably sexy looks, something which seemed to be based on a deeper connection. Rationally, though, Heather knew that to be impossible. The man was a stranger. Then how, she wondered, did he make the rest of the world melt away?

“I was going to cook. For you and Chloe, I mean. Is there anything you’d like, this evening?” Heather stumbled over her words. Her voice sounded overly high pitched and jumbled, and she winced slightly, embarrassed by her awkward behavior.

“Anything you make would be great. I’m not much of a cook.” Tanner stated.

“Oh, yes, you said so in your letter,” Heather smiled at him.

“I did?” He questioned, looking baffled.

“Yes. That and the complicated hair styles.”

“Right. Of course.” He seemed to smile to himself, as though at a private joke, then he turned back to her. “Well, I’m looking forward to it. No doubt Chloe will be too.” He gestured for her to continue inside. She did so, feeling uncomfortable to be leading the way.

Chapter ten

“Dad’s taking a shower, can I use yours?” Chloe peeked her head around the door of Heather’s room. Heather already had the shower warming up, and was trying to find a towel in the linen closet.

“Of course you can. Hop in.” She let Chloe go ahead, handing her the towel. Heather sat on the bed, waiting for her turn. She ran through the ingredients she could recall in the fridge, planning the evening meal. She wanted to impress Tanner with her culinary skills, and make herself useful.

She wandered out into the hallway. Heather could hear that the main bathroom shower was no longer running, and decided she’d use that one instead. That way she could get a head start on the dinner.

She walked toward the door just as Tanner was exiting. His torso was still dripping wet, and he had a towel slung low around his waist. Heather was momentarily stunned by his half-naked appearance, and stared for a few seconds too long before blushing furiously and looking away.

“Oh God. I’m so sorry. Chloe’s in my shower.” Heather blurted out.

Tanner ducked his head, “My fault. I forgot we had a guest.” She should have moved away, but she stood, transfixed in her embarrassment, ogling Tanner’s naked chest. They stood awkwardly in the hallway, till Tanner cleared his throat.

“Um, it’s all yours.” He said, and moved toward his room.

“Yes, thank you. Sorry… again… sorry.” Heather rushed into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.

She closed her eyes as soon as she was in there, mentally kicking herself for behaving so strangely. But she couldn’t help the small smile twitch at the corner of her lips as she recalled Tanner’s torso rippling with muscles, and a smattering of light brown hair in a tantalizing line down his lower abdomen to his groin hidden beneath the towel. She could feel the heat flaring up in her face again. She was blushing just at the recollection.

In the shower, Heather let the hot water rain on her, restoring her to sanity. After Tanner’s behavior this morning, he clearly wasn’t interested in her physically. She needed to get any lustful thoughts out of her head.

She blamed Bertram. Before breaking up, he’d barely touched her in months. When he had, it had been when he was exceedingly drunk, and could hardly get an erection. Whether this was because of the quantities of liquor he’d consumed, or because he just wasn’t attracted to her, Heather didn’t know. She suspected it was a bit of both.

She never wanted to feel like that again. She’d rather remain celibate for the rest of her life with a companion, than be with a man who had to force himself to be intimate with her.

Heather had made fried chicken, biscuits and mashed potatoes, southern style. Before Heather’s mother had passed, it had been a Saturday staple that she’d always prepared for the family. It was also the one recipe Heather thought she could probably make with her eyes closed.

“That was amazing.” Tanner declared, leaning back in his chair. He gazed directly at Heather, giving her a slow, appreciative smile. She blushed in return and looked down at her plate, she’d hardly been able to eat a thing.

“Teach me to make it, please Heather, will you?” asked Chloe. She’d finished her food long before Tanner, and was proceeding to lick the crumbs off the plate with her finger.

“Manners, Chloe” interrupted Tanner, pointedly looking at her plate.

“Sorry.” Chloe glanced mischievously at Heather.

“Of course I will, honey.” Heather smiled at her; pleased her food had been appreciated by the both of them.

“I think it’s time for a movie and maybe we can show Heather how we make our world-famous Holt popcorn?” Tanner got up from the table as Chloe squealed in excitement. He picked up the plates, ignoring Heather’s protests that she’d clean up.

“Okay, fine. I’m looking forward to this popcorn though, can I help with that?” asked Heather.

“Yes! Of course she can, can’t she dad?” Chloe tugged on her dad’s shirt sleeve as he placed the dishes in the dishwasher.

“I was kind of hoping that Heather could just enjoy being waited on for once. I think you’ve been running her ragged, Chloe.”

Heather laughed, “Not at all. She’s been a delight today.” Heather met Tanner’s eyes this time, their dark brown warmth making her stomach somersault.  She suddenly felt like the kitchen was too small, and she was too close to Tanner’s large frame.

“Chloe, why don’t you show me how to get the movie on and we can pick one of your favorites?” Heather re-focused her attentions on Chloe, who was only too happy to usher her into the living room, listing a host of princess-themed Disney-Pixar blockbusters.

Tanner came in a few minutes later with fresh popcorn, and began working on getting a fire going. There was one sofa and an armchair in the room, but only the sofa faced the screen. Chloe insisted that they all pile onto it, and placed herself in the middle, popcorn balanced precariously on her lap.

They watched The Princess Diaries in complete silence, except when Chloe joined in quoting some of her favorite parts.

Heather couldn’t concentrate. She kept glancing over at Tanner’s profile, lit up by the flickering fire and the light of the screen. She couldn’t help but notice his hard jaw line and full lips. He didn’t touch the popcorn, and kept his gaze fully trained on the screen, not moving a muscle. Every now and then his jaw would twitch slightly, as if he were angry or annoyed about something, but he had been perfectly polite to her all evening, so Heather just chalked it up to boredom, rather than irritation at her presence.

As the credits rolled, Tanner stood up abruptly.

“It’s bedtime for you, kiddo.” He announced, picking up a drowsy Chloe and placing her small frame over his shoulder. She murmured a reluctant agreement, but then called for Heather.

“I want Heather to put me to bed, dad.” She yawned loudly, and he laughed.

“Are you trying to make me jealous? I’m taking you. Let your old dad get some time with you.” He rolled his eyes at Heather and she smiled in response.

Once they were gone, and Heather had said her goodnights to Chloe, she went about clearing up the room and the half-spilled popcorn that lay scattered about the floor.

“Dad?”

Tanner had been about to walk out of the room and turn Chloe’s light off, but he returned at her call.

“What is it, pumpkin?”

“I don’t want you to send Heather away. I want her to stay.” Her voice sounded small, half lost in drowsiness and duvet.

Tanner sighed and came and sat on the end of her bed, “I don’t know, honey. She might not want to stay. We still haven’t talked about why you did this – and you know you’re still in trouble, right?” Tanner reprimanded her gently.

“Yeah, I know, but dad, I love her. You will too. And,” she yawned loudly, “I need a mom. You’re the best dad in the world, but you don’t know about stuff, like hair styles, and I’m going to get periods soon because loads of girls in my grade already have them, and you don’t know about those. That’s girl stuff. I won’t know what to do if I don’t have Heather.”

Tanner’s heart ached. He had no idea that Chloe was worried about these things yet, he assumed it would be a while before the subject of puberty came up. He was unprepared. For Chloe to carry that around on her shoulders, that was too much. He berated himself for not realizing any of this sooner. He’d let his daughter become so anxious about it that she’d taken it upon herself to send off for a mom. He hated himself for that.

Years ago, he’d sworn to her mother that he’d protect her child, look after her as his own. He’d tried every day to keep that promise. He loved Chloe with all his heart, yet he’d let her struggle through these feelings on her own. He was ashamed.

“Chloe, I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize, I didn’t think…” He looked down at his daughter. She was already fast asleep. He cursed quietly to himself and walked out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

Chapter eleven

“Heather, we should talk.” Tanner stood in the doorway to the living room, just as she was on her hands and knees clearing away the last of the popcorn. She hurriedly moved to a more dignified position, perched on the edge of the sofa.

Tanner sat down in the armchair, keeping a physical distance between the two of them. He ran a hand through his hair in agitation.

“You need to know, I didn’t… well, I wasn’t exactly the one who… invited you here.” Tanner finished his sentence lamely.

“What do you mean?” Heather folded her arms across her chest.

“Well, I didn’t send the application form. It was Chloe.” Tanner bit out the words and then raised his eyes to meet hers. “I actually had no idea about any of this until you were already here.” He forced a half smile, hoping she’d see the funny side of the situation.

Heather’s heart sank. Quickly replaced by the heat of utter shame and humiliation spreading across her body.

“Oh my god, what you must have thought of me.” Her arms clenched tighter, hugging herself as if she could make herself so small she might disappear.

“No, please. It’s not like that, Heather. I’m sorry to have…” Tanner hesitated trying to find the right words, “inconvenienced you.”

“The letter, then, that wasn’t you at all, was it?” She’d been such an idiot.

“Letter? No. That was Chloe, I haven’t actually seen that letter.”

Heather closed her eyes, as if she could block out the reality of her current situation. She’d made a complete fool out of herself in front of a man who was not only a total stranger who had no idea who she was, but also a total stranger that she was developing inappropriate feelings for.

“I’ll leave tonight, I’m so sorry about this.” Heather looked down at the carpet, desperately wanting to flee from the room.

“No!” Tanner burst out, then amended more quietly, “I mean, no, please don’t go. Chloe would be heartbroken to find you gone. I was thinking that maybe… maybe we could give this a try.” He paused, waiting for Heather to respond. He was met by complete silence, so he continued, “For Chloe’s sake. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea?”

Heather was stung by his words. On the one hand, it was a relief that she wouldn’t have to leave without saying goodbye to Chloe, but it was also utterly gut-wrenching to realize that Tanner was clearly so unattracted to her, with no romantic intentions whatsoever. The sentiment she’d been flattered by in the letter, had read over and over again, had pinned her wild dreams on, had been written by a ten-year old girl.

“I need some time to think, I’m not… I’m not sure about this, Tanner.” Heather looked desolate. He’d seen her face crumple at his revelation, and he wanted to find some way to comfort her, but had no idea what to do without scaring her off with the intensity of his real feelings, feelings that even he found frightening. Better to keep her at a distance, at least for now.

“I understand. Please think about it though. Both Chloe and I would love to have you stay with us.” Tanner cursed himself silently, why did he have to sound so wooden?

Heather stood up. She smiled at him, tightly and briefly. There seemed to be nothing more to say. He was a nice man. He was being polite, and perhaps he was right. Maybe it could work. Maybe she could stay, looking after Chloe, living here amongst the fresh air and wild landscape of Jackson. There would be a freedom in that for her, away from the mayhem of New York, far away from the empty shell of a life she’d lived before, the cloying world of Bertram and AyerCooke.

“Heather, wait.” Tanner moved to block the doorway. “I’m saying this all wrong.” He reached out his hand, placing it on her upper arm. He held her that way, at a distance, while she kept her eyes on his chest. She didn’t dare look up, and risk him seeing the disappointment and defeat in her eyes.

Tanner hadn’t anticipated the reaction he would feel when touching her. His nerves went haywire, energy pulsed through him, hot and urgent. His senses focused sharply in on her, and he became hyper-aware of her soft lips and their cupid bow curve at the top, the light smattering of freckles that danced about her nose and cheekbones, the thick curve of her eyebrows, and the lustrous waves of hair that fell down her back and around her shoulders.

“Heather, look at me.” His voice came out hoarse and broken. It was his tone, not his command, which made Heather look up. She met his brown eyes, noticing for the first time the golden flecks around the iris and their look of burning intensity, so at odds with what he’d been saying a moment ago.

Tanner lowered his head down to meet hers. She drew back by an inch, confused as to what he was doing. The hesitancy on her part should have been enough to stop Tanner, to bring him back to reality, but despite the confusion in Heather’s eyes, he saw his own lust reciprocated. He closed the space between them, pressing his lips sweetly against hers.

Heather broke the kiss first, taking a step backward. He let her, dropping his hand from her arm. They stayed like that for a heartbeat, neither of them breathing.

“Tanner, I should -” He didn’t let her finish the sentence. He thrust his fingers deep into her hair, twining its strands around his fingers, pulling her forward by the back of her head. His lips dove down to meet hers, forcefully this time, pushing his mouth hungrily, deeper into the sweet taste of her mouth, molding her lush lips to his.

Heather reached her hands around his waist, drawing them upward and clinging onto his broad back to push their bodies closer together. At her willingness, Tanner delved his tongue into her mouth, caressing hers in a motion that melted her insides and sent sensations shooting throughout her body all the way to the tips of her toes.

Tanner reached his hands down toward her backside, greedily grabbing her flesh, thrusting her toward him. His body kept urging him onward, seeking satisfaction in Heather’s warm, sweet scent and her softness. Heather groaned softly against his mouth, and Tanner felt a familiar sensation growing in the pit of his stomach. He was about to turn. His bear wanted to claim her.

Shit, Tanner mentally swore. He couldn’t let this happen. Not here, not now. He dragged his lips away from hers, with effort. His whole chest ached as he caught his breath. He took a few steps back, holding out an arm to warn her not to come any closer.

“Heather – I’m sorry, I can’t -” he gasped.

“No, I’m sorry, that shouldn’t have happened.” Heather fought to reclaim her sanity, her head spinning from the intensity of the kiss, and the visceral reaction of Tanner just now. What the hell had just happened? She turned and left without looking back at him. This time Tanner didn’t stop her.

Chapter twelve

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t my lucky night. Two Holt boys in one room.” Kellie Lane drawled, pushing her cleavage up on the bar and smiling seductively at Tanner. “What can I do you for?”

“Just a beer thanks, Kellie.” Tanner replied, trying to keep his response polite. After the kiss with Heather he’d felt restless and irritable, so he’d come to Jake’s Place, the seediest bar in Jackson Hole, where his brother would be the musical act tonight.

“Your brother’s out back,” she continued as she flipped the lid off the bottle, “Want me to fetch him?”

“Nope. I’ll wait. Thanks.” Tanner knew his brother got stage fright before a show, any show, no matter if it was the same tired bar he’d played at for the last five years.

He didn’t have to wait long. His brother’s hulking figure could be seen weaving his way through the small tables that populated the barroom. He was roughly the same size as Tanner, but his features were lighter, blonde hair, blue eyes and most people commented that he had a slightly more cheerful and child-like countenance than Tanner, who was the older of the two.

“Nice surprise to see you here, bro, what’s the occasion?” Derek Holt grinned, and came to sit down on the adjacent bar stool.

“Advice.” Tanner deadpanned.

His brother laughed loudly, “Tanner Holt coming to me for advice? We’re in dire straits, people.”

“You don’t need advice, Tanner, you need a good woman.” Kellie interrupted, pushing a double whisky Derek’s way. She winked at Tanner and then sashayed away to serve another customer.

“My problem exactly,” Tanner muttered under his breath.

“You got women trouble?” asked Derek, “you’ve come to the right place.” He gestured around the bar. There were quite a few women gathered together at various tables, all glancing quite obviously over at the two men.

“Not that kind of trouble.” Tanner took a sip of beer. It was cold and refreshing, and he felt himself start to relax. He’d come to Jake’s Place lots of times in the past to pick up women. It was easy. There were plenty of women who’d happily keep him company for a night, then disappear in the morning before Chloe woke up. It was the ones that wanted more who occasionally caused him headaches. Kellie Lane was one such woman.

“Let’s grab a table.” Tanner said, aware that Kellie could easily eavesdrop on their conversation.

“Sure.” Derek looked sidelong at his brother. He’d never seen Tanner like this. Well, apart from the night when he’d discovered Chloe’s mother-to-be at his door.

Tanner took a long sip of his beer. “I think I’ve found my mate.” Someone on the makeshift stage dropped the cymbals of a drum set. They clattered to the floor making an ungodly racket. Tanner smirked. It perfectly exemplified his feelings.

“Mate? Shit. That’s big, bro.” Derek raised his eyebrows, waiting for more details.

“Yeah. Feels big.” Tanner ran his hands through his hair, and stared at the beer mat. “Chloe actually sent off for her, through one of those mail order bride things.”

“What? She’s ten. How the hell’d she do that?” Derek exclaimed.

“Internet. I’m putting in a child lock or something on that thing next week. Anyway, a woman came. Heather. The moment I saw her, my bear took over.” He glanced up at his brother’s worried face, “Not like that. I just had to run it out. But it was instantaneous. I had no control.”

His brother looked at him with understanding. Derek had yet to find a mate, but he understood what his brother meant.

“Have you thought about telling her?” Derek tentatively suggested.

“Are you kidding? Derek, she’s an angel. You should see her, she’s this perfect, beautiful angel. She’ll hate me.” Tanner had vowed never to reveal that side of himself to anyone, not even Chloe. She had no idea who her father really was.

“But if she’s your mate, then it won’t matter.” Derek argued.

“Where you hear that?” retorted Tanner.

“I’ve thought about it, that’s all. Your true mate wouldn’t reject you, it wouldn’t work like that, otherwise how would we breed?” Derek reasoned. He had waited years to meet his mate. It was maybe the one thing that gave him hope. He knew that he and Tanner were the loneliest guys in Jackson Hole. At least Tanner had Chloe. He had no one. Just a horrible secret, a fledging career, and an expensive drinking habit.

“I don’t know about that. It’s a good thought, bro, but if you’re wrong, and I lose her… If you met her, you’d realize. She’s amazing – beautiful, curvy, her hair… She’s incredible with Chloe, too. That girl’s eyes light up whenever she’s around. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Tanner could have gone on all night, but he stopped on seeing the longing in his brother’s eyes.

“Sounds like you struck gold, brother. Don’t let you be the problem.” Derek drained his whisky and motioned to Kellie at the bar to bring him another.

“Easier said than done. I don’t know how to handle this at all.” Tanner looked imploringly at his brother, half hoping that he’d have some answers.

“Well,” Derek was aware he wasn’t anything close to an expert, but he tried to think of something constructive to say, “Have you been nice, you know, treated her well?”

“I don’t think so, not really. I was just kind of shocked, and I haven’t really known what to say to her. We kissed.” He drained the last of his beer, and stared down the empty bottleneck.

“That’s a start. What happened after?”

“I came here.” Tanner replied shortly.

“You just left?” Derek asked disbelievingly, “What kind of dumb-ass move is that?”

“My bear was coming out.” Tanner growled back in reply.

“She doesn’t know that!”

“Jesus Derek, I was looking for advice, not a ball-busting.” Tanner felt totally lost, truly out of his depth.

His and Derek’s upbringing had been a far cry from ideal, and he supposed this was one of those times when that kind of thing showed, when you had to man up and tell your mate how you felt about her, when you had to trust that the two of you collided for a reason, and when you had to grab the chance, while you could.

“I’m sorry. Truth is, I don’t know anything about this stuff. But I’d tell her who you really you are. Otherwise, you don’t have a hope in hell, brother.” Derek smiled as Kellie approached with a drinks tray.

“Bought you a whisky and a beer,” Kellie winked at Tanner and he nodded his thanks in return. “I was thinking, you and me, we should do something later this week. I got nights off.”

“Err, sure.” Tanner kicked himself as the words came out, and tried to call Kellie back to tell her that he was busy on the ranch this week, but she’d already left.

“Smooth, brother,” quipped Derek.

“Shut it. She’ll forget,” Tanner replied, only half believing it himself.

“I’d happily take that bullet for you.” Derek laughed loudly at his own joke.

“Really? Kellie?” Tanner raised his eyebrows.

“Yeah, really. I haven’t got a hope in hell of meeting a mate. I got nothing waiting for me but lonely nights, empty sex, and emptier bottles. I’m not complaining, it’s just the truth of it. I could do worse than Kellie.”  He downed his second whisky. “You might want to think about that, before you freeze out that woman of yours.”

Derek stood up and left the table, slapping his brother on the back and slinging a leather jacket over his shoulder. Tanner watched him go.

Chapter thirteen

Heather sat luxuriating in the warm breeze watching a hawk swoop, dip and soar across the sky as if putting on a performance for the diners. She was seated on the patio of The Rusty Parrot Lodge, Jackson Hole’s one and only four-star restaurant. The view was breathtakingly beautiful. The patio looked out onto the Grand Teton mountain range. The snowy peaks glittered in the sun, which was rapidly making its descent as the evening approached.

Tanner had gone to speak to the chef, an old friend of his. Heather was amazed how many people he knew in Jackson Hole. Everywhere they went, he was greeted enthusiastically. Many people went out of their way to show him fresh produce at the various market stands they’d passed, new stock at the hunting store, or mothers who wanted to show-off their babies and ask about Chloe. Tanner was patient and warm in every exchange, and Heather was pleasantly surprised to see him so relaxed and at ease.

When she’d woken up this morning she’d come downstairs to discover a different man from the one she kissed last night. She’d been dreading seeing him again, so embarrassed about the kiss they’d shared, and his swift exit from the house right after. She needn’t have worried. He had been making pancakes for her and Chloe when she saw him, and he treated her with warmth and grace. He’d asked her if she wanted to come and see the town with him. She’d hesitated, but ultimately agreed after Chloe had joined in and insisted that she went. It was only later, when Tanner had left the room, and Josiah came in asking where Tanner was because they had a busy day ahead, that she realized that he was going out of his way to make her feel at home. Whatever she felt for him, and whatever he didn’t feel for her, she appreciated the sacrifice and happily climbed into his Chevy Silverado, ready to spend the day in his company.

“Okay, so, the chef’s doing something special for us, no idea what it’s going to be, but I know it’s going to be good.” Tanner smiled down at her, and took his seat.

“Great. How do you know him?” Heather suddenly felt nervous. They had spent the entire day in one another’s company, but it had been full of sightseeing and activity. Now that it was just the two of them, Heather couldn’t help but notice, once again, his broad chest, thick, defined biceps, and how the t-shirt he wore stretched over them, accentuating them, and how attracted she was to him.

“Actually, he tried to teach me how to cook.” Tanner grinned, “Not that any of it stuck.”

“What? You had a chef teach you, and you still didn’t learn anything?” Heather had to laugh, “Okay, there’s really no help for you, Tanner Holt.”

The atmosphere changed as she finished her words. Tanner looked at her intently, his eyes soft on hers, and she felt her stomach flip over in response.

“I like the way my name sounds on your lips.” He leaned forward and with his thumb he gently skated her bottom lip. Slowly removing his hand, he leaned back in his chair again, watching her. Heather blushed and looked down at her napkin and cutlery, trying to hide the smile spreading across her face.

On sensing her obvious discomfort, Tanner changed tactics. “How do you like Jackson Hole so far?”

“I love it!” Heather exclaimed, “It’s so beautiful, so wild and peaceful all at the same time. You’re lucky to live here. Is it where you grew up?”

The spark that had been in Tanner’s eyes visibly dimmed, and there was a pause before he responded. “No. I grew up in Wilkes, my brother and I moved here a while ago.”

Heather was perceptive enough to realize that she should drop the subject, but she was amazed there had been no mention of a brother, especially considering his brother lived in Jackson Hole.

“Are you close with him, your brother?” she asked tentatively.

“Yeah, we’re close. I saw him last night.”

The night after they’d kissed. She’d wondered where he’d gone, but it certainly hadn’t been her place to ask.

“Oh.” She could feel herself reddening.

“He plays at a bar in town. He’s good. Talented guy.” Tanner tried to put her at ease, he knew family was going to come up, he just never felt prepared to talk too much about his.

“Does he get along with Chloe?” Heather asked, feeling that this would be more comfortable territory. She was right, Tanner perceptibly relaxed.

“Yeah, she loves him. He doesn’t come around to the house too often, but they get along great when he does.”

A waiter arrived with a bottle of red wine and proceeded to fill up their glasses. Heather was glad for the drink; her nerves weren’t receding in the slightest.

“What about her mom? Where is she, if you don’t mind me asking?” Heather took a fortifying sip of the wine.

“No, I don’t. Sadly, she passed away. Chloe never met her. She died in childbirth.”

“I’m so sorry Tanner. That’s awful.” Heather felt a wave of compassion for the man, what a horrible thing to happen. It would explain why he’d never married. How could anyone ever recover from that kind of heartbreak? She could imagine the two of them, excited to start a family and making plans to raise their children in that beautiful ranch. It also explained his reluctance to let the kiss continue last night. It may have been years since she passed away, but some people never let go. Some people held on forever. Her own father had done the same thing, unable to find comfort in the arms of another woman after her mother died.

“Yeah, apparently, Chloe’s found it difficult without a mom.” He smiled at Heather, sharing the humor around her arrival. “What about you, what about your life in New York?”

Heather sighed, and smiled at Tanner. She honestly didn’t know where to begin. None of it seemed to paint her in a particularly attractive light.

“Well, I was engaged to a man. My father’s business partner. The relationship ended when my father passed away, a few months ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” Tanner interjected.

“Thank you. I guess there’s nothing much to say, really. Before I met Bertram, my ex-fiancé, I’d wanted to open a patisserie, but Bertram really needed someone to support him. I suppose, in the same way my mother supported my father. Anyway…” she paused, discomfort clearly showing in her face, “I was at a loose end so, in a moment of sheer insanity, I thought I’d try the mail order agency and see where life led me. And, here I am.” Heather took a gulp of wine this time, she sounded pathetic even to her own ears. She couldn’t imagine what he thought of her.  She smiled brightly, but when she met Tanner’s eyes, she just saw understanding, not pity.

“Sounds like you had to get back on your feet pretty quick. That must have been tough. You’re brave. It must have taken a lot of courage to get on that plane.” Tanner could see the hurt she was trying to hide, and his heart went out to her. It sounded like she’d given a lot to a man that had clearly been using her for the connections. Tanner hoped he never ran into the guy.

“Anyway, I’m glad I met you and Chloe, it’s been a pleasure getting to know you both.” Heather wanted to change the subject, and to her relief the food arrived. It smelled absolutely mouth-watering.

“Sweet pepper crab cakes, breast of pheasant, bison short ribs and Wagyu beef” announced the waiter, “The chef insisted you have a taste of the best dishes on the menu.” He smiled at the couple, “Enjoy. And please let me know if I can get you anything else.”

“My goodness.” Heather surveyed the table. The sweet aroma of roasted chestnuts, pine nuts and various spices that flavored the meats filled her senses.

“I hope you’re hungry,” Tanner grinned at her, “I’m just warning you now, that I’m violently opposed to women that don’t have an appetite, so don’t leave me hanging.”

Heather laughed out loud, “There’s no chance of that. This all looks absolutely amazing.”

Tanner raised a glass, “A toast. To you, Heather Ayer, thank you for coming to our home.” They clinked glasses, and Heather met Tanner’s eyes across the table. She suddenly decided to put her reservations about Tanner aside, he might not return her feelings of lust and desire, but he was a good and honest man. She could enjoy being in his company this evening and let her problems vanish off into the horizon. She’d be a fool not to enjoy being on a patio with a drop dead gorgeous man, about to share a delicious meal.

Chapter fourteen

They drove through the town in a comfortable silence. The sunset had disappeared and the sky was awash in navy blue, the mountain pines appearing as black paper cut-out silhouettes. Heather had opened her window and the sweet air filled the truck, making her feel drowsy and peaceful.

“Heather?” Tanner’s voice sounded strange. She glanced over at him, but he kept his eyes on the road. “I want you to stay.”

She didn’t respond. She didn’t really know what she wanted anymore, her original ideas of being a companion to Tanner had started to seem unrealistic given her constant and unrelenting attraction to him. He also seemed to blow hot and cold, and she really didn’t understand the dynamics of their relationship anymore. Maybe she could stay a few weeks and help him out for a bit, and then go back and try to pick up the pieces of her life back in New York.

“I don’t know Tanner. It’s been wonderful,” she hesitated, “but maybe it’s not the best idea.”

“I know our situation is unconventional, but I think we could make it work. If we both wanted it to.” Tanner kept his eyes on the road, not daring to look over at Heather. He knew there was a big chance that he could lose her, and that was unthinkable. He knew he’d given her the initial impression that he didn’t want her around, and had spent the day and evening trying to subtly hint otherwise.

Heather looked over at him. Watching his profile in the dim light, she became aware of how manly and warm he seemed to her in that moment. And how much she longed to be curled up in his arms. Would it always be like this? Would she be happy to stay with him if she were to become a mother to Chloe, but without having anything other than a professional and distant relationship with Tanner? The best she could hope for would be friendship, and she wasn’t sure she could handle that. What if another woman came into the picture?

“I don’t know, Tanner.” She repeated the words softly, and with sorrow.

“I don’t want you to leave. I want you to stay with me, with us. Not just for Chloe’s sake.” His jaw clenched, he couldn’t be too raw with his feelings. Not yet. There was so much he wanted to say to her, but the stakes were too high, there was too much at risk if she rejected him completely.

“Why don’t you want me to leave?” Heather asked. She instantly regretted the question, and hardly dared to breathe as she waited for his response.

“Okay.” Tanner paused. He had turned up the driveway to the ranch, and was shifting gears to get the wheels through the soft ground. “Before I tell you that, there’s something I need to show you.”

Heather felt waves of crashing disappointment flow through her body. Of course, it wasn’t going to be the answer she wanted. Other than being perfect, pleasant, and polite today, he’d given no indication of stronger or romantic feelings toward her. Except for the kiss. Her body tingled at the memory. But that had clearly been a mistake. Clearly.

Tanner turned off the engine and jumped down from the driver’s seat. He crossed the front of the truck, over to Heather’s side and opened the door for her, holding out his hand for her to take as she stepped down. As her small hand slid into his, she felt the warmth emanating from his body, smelled his musky male scent mixed with fresh soap.

“Will you come with me to the barn?” his lips were close enough to her face that they tickled her ears, and sent a shiver running down her spine. She could only nod in return, hardly able to breathe with him in such close proximity, let alone speak.

She followed him in silence, staying close. The ranch was in complete darkness. Chloe and Josiah must have already gone to bed. She stumbled on a patch of uneven grass, and Tanner spun around and caught her.

“Sorry, I was going too fast. Are you okay?” She was pressed up against his torso, feeling his smooth hardness beneath his cotton t-shirt.

“I’m fine, thanks.” She removed herself slowly from his body. Trying to steady her breathing as they proceeded to walk to the barn side-by-side.

Tanner switched on the light and a solitary bulb flickered, casting a soft glow over the various pieces of farming machinery and neatly ordered tools. They stood in the center, directly beneath the light.

“There’s something I need to be honest about, if we’re going to make this work.” He took a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair, messing it up. “I’m not exactly… normal.” He exhaled. Heather felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had absolutely no idea what he was trying to tell her, but judging by his anxious demeanor, it wasn’t good.

“Both my brother and I are the same. We, well…we change. No one knows, other than us, not even Chloe. But I can’t seem to keep myself in check around you, and I want you to see me for who I really am.” Tanner wanted to explain more, about who she really was to him, but tonight would be shocking enough without her also thinking she was bound to him in anyway, or that she owed him anything. If she was disgusted, then they could go their separate ways and that would be all there was to it.

“It’s okay, Tanner. Whatever it is just tell me, I can deal.” Heather steeled herself. She could deal with whatever it was. She wanted to know everything about Tanner and his life before she could make a final decision about staying or leaving.

“Can you turn around?” Tanner asked, looking directly at her. His gaze was heated, and Heather felt a rush of lust run through her, mingling with the apprehension she was already feeling. She dutifully turned around, facing the wall of the barn.

She heard the sound of his shirt lightly hitting the floor, the zipper of his jeans being pulled down and then the clunk of his belt as it landed on the wooden boards. What in the world was the man doing? Should she be frightened? It was so quiet she could hear their breathing, both of their bodies creating heavy, short breaths that betrayed their nerves.

Tanner closed his eyes, relaxing his body and letting the fluttering of energy that had formed in his abdomen grow. It spread like wildfire through his central nervous system, flares of heat zipping through his veins. His body started to change, his torso grew longer and wider, his solid muscle tearing and ripping to form something entirely different. His hands turned to claws, and he let himself fall forward to the natural all-fours position of his inner beast. He roared, an animalistic and raw sound that shuddered through him, and punctured the quiet of the barn.

He could see Heather standing in front of him. She still had her face turned to the wall, but her whole body was trembling in fear. He took a few steps forward, and nudged her with his nose at the small of her back. With agonizing slowness, she turned to face him. In her eyes, he read complete and utter disbelief as she took in his form.

“Tanner… what the…? Is that you?” She whispered, her voice barely audible. The trembling hadn’t ceased. Her heart was hammering in her ribcage so loudly they could both hear it.  Tanner couldn’t say anything, so he just looked at her, trying to convey that he wasn’t a threat to her through his eyes.

“I can’t, I can’t believe… that I’m seeing this.” Heather felt shell-shocked. The complete unreality of the situation sent her head spinning, and she felt like she would faint. Instead, she tentatively reached out her hand. Part of her insisted she was going insane, and the other part wanted to reach out and stroke the luxurious fur surrounding his face. When her fingertips landed on his coarse fur, a shiver went through her body. He was so beautiful and wild. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from him, marveling at the enormous, ferocious looking bear in front of her.

“You’re so beautiful, Tanner.” She ran a finger down his snout, and then slowly moved alongside him, repeatedly stroking the fur down his back, and then following down to his hind legs. In this light his fur was a dark, chocolate brown. Heather suspected that in daylight his coat would look exactly like his human hair would, flecked with light brown and gold.

As she became more comfortable with him, her caresses deepened, and she luxuriated in the feeling of him beneath her hands, fur gently tickling her lower forearm. Tanner started to emit a low-toned hum that shook his entire body, similar to that of a cat purring. Heather smiled to herself, and continued to caress the beautiful beast.

“I don’t know if you can understand me or not, when you’re like this. But you are incredible Tanner, you’re so incredible.”

Tanner could understand her, and felt a blissful stillness encompass him. He never in a million years believed that he’d get a reaction like this, especially not from someone as pure and true as Heather. He nudged his nose into her side, trying to indicate that he’d understood her, and how much he appreciated it.

“Will you change back? I want to tell you that I’m not going to leave. I’ll stay, as long as I’m wanted or needed.”

Tanner backed away from her to let his human form reemerge. It was difficult, with Heather being in the room. His primal instincts felt dominant, and they fought against his human will. He turned away, and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself and forget her presence. It took a while, but eventually he felt his muscles contract and the cool air of the barn caress his naked human skin.

Looking up from his crouched position on the floor, he found Heather staring at him. She had watched his transformation this time. Her eyes were widened in astonishment, but as she gazed at his form her expression changed. He saw her face heat up, a ripe blush spreading across her cheeks.

He hastily found his boxers and jeans, aware that his erection was plainly visible. Once dressed, he stepped closer to Heather, who hadn’t moved from her spot across the barn.

“I can’t tell you what it means that you’re not…repulsed by me, this way.”

Heather was momentarily taken aback by his words. Why would anyone be repulsed by such a magnificent creature? Before she could say anything, Tanner had stepped closer to her and bent his head downward, and the words stuck in her mouth. Her throat ran dry as she became consumed by the desire to be wrapped in his strong arms, to move her head up an inch to meet his waiting lips.

Tanner ran his hand gently down her side, skating the edge of her breast and coming to rest on her hip. A shudder ran through her, and she closed the space between them. His hand tightened in response, his thumb digging into the curve of her hipbone, and sending a shooting pleasure straight to her core.

As their lips met, Heather inhaled his warm breath and arched her body against his. His kiss deepened, Tanner exploring her mouth as if he couldn’t get enough of her taste. Heather reached her hands to trace the trail of his spine up his back. Tanner groaned against her, Heather’s lips reverberating with his sound.

“Not here. Come into the house, I want you in my bed.” Tanner’s voice was thick and soft like honey, and Heather gazed up at him. Reading the unabashed lust in his eyes, she nodded in agreement.

Chapter fifteen

Tanner shut the bedroom door quietly behind him. Heather had turned on the bedside lamp, casting a warm glow over the bedroom. She stood waiting by the side of the bed, watching him as he approached.

Her face glowed in the half-light, and it lit up her hair so the strands appeared hazy and soft, with tinges of red running through it. Tanner’s erection felt like it was pulsing, on and off all day. His blood had been continually rushing downward without offering it any kind of release. Being around Heather was a continual interplay of pleasure and pain, as he fought his instincts in order to behave like a gentleman.  Finally, he didn’t have to hold back any longer, and he stalked toward her.

Heather lifted her head slightly, expecting a kiss. Instead, Tanner reached out and gently tugged down part of her wrap-around top, exposing her bra cup and the plump creamy breast spilling out of it. He ran a finger slowly over her cleavage before pulling the bra cup away. He leaned down, placing his lips on her breast and gently sucked her nipple whilst flicking its tip with his tongue. Heather gasped, the slow sucking motion made her breasts feel achingly heavy and full. He repeated the action, moving over to the other breast, and shivers ran down Heather’s sides.

She reached out and ran her fingers through Tanner’s hair, recalling the thick, luxurious hair of his bear. Tanner groaned softly, and moved his mouth upward to take hers in a deep kiss. She could feel his erection pushing against her thigh, and her panties grew damp in response.

Tanner cupped her breasts in his hands, gently pushing them upward and teasing her nipples with his thumb.

“These are beautiful. Damn, Heather, I can’t tell you how much I’ve wanted you.” His voice was raspy and low. Faint, short breaths escaped his mouth.  He broke away and roughly removed her top, expertly unclasping her bra so that it fell to the floor. He moved back to kiss her, and her nipples hardened as they gently grazed his bare chest. His fingers reached up and ran through her hair, massaging the top of her neck as he did so, sending torrents of pleasure cascading down Heather’s back.

Gently Tanner moved Heather backward onto his bed. He guided her down so she was lying on her back, and peppered kisses from her collarbone down to her stomach. Unfastening the button and zipper of her pants, he continued to kiss down her lower abdomen, stopping at the top of her panties. Tanner ran his tongue softly along the lace lining, and then pulled away to remove her clothing, leaving only her panties still in place.

Tanner marveled at the beautiful woman reclining on his bed. Heather’s full breasts with their hardened nipples begged to be caressed, and he longed to push his throbbing erection against her soft, rosy flesh. Without clothes on, he could finally see her magnificent curves, in the warm light she looked like a Botticelli angel, voluptuous and welcoming.

With a groan, Tanner leaned forward on the bed and gently spread her legs apart, exposing the dampness of her panties. Embarrassed, Heather tried to reach down and cover it with her hands, but Tanner firmly grasped her hands, holding them over her head. He saw the blush on her cheeks intensify.

“Heather,” he said gently, “Look how much I want you, don’t hide from me.” Heather eyes were drawn to the obvious bulge pushing against his jeans, and his lightly trembling torso, her own desire rippling through her at witnessing his.

He placed one of his hands between her legs, gently caressing the damp lips of her sex through the lace underwear. He felt the wetness grow and smiled to himself, ever so slightly intensifying the pressure of his movements. Heather’s eyelids were half closed in pleasure, and Tanner could see her chest rapidly rise and fall in response to his touch.

He gently pulled the crotch of her panties to the side, exposing her to the cool air of the room. With one finger, he traced the outline of her delicate folds, watching them swell and moisten at his touch. When he heard her release a soft moan, he slipped his finger into her entrance, massaging the more sensitive skin within. Finding her hardening bud, he stroked it gently, feeling her wetness gush from within her, dampening the bed sheets beneath them.

“You’re so wet Heather. Look at how much you want me.” Tanner rasped, trying to control the movements of his finger to keep his touch light. Heather almost whimpered in return, and he could see her thighs clench in response to her pleasure.

The restriction of Tanner’s jeans was now agony. He leaned backward to unfasten his button, and felt Heather’s hands cover his.

“Let me.” She looked up at him with her beautiful, angelic face, and he melted at the open and innocent gaze that met his. He nodded briefly, words dying on his lips as with trembling fingers she slowly released his zipper and gasped as his boxer-clad, heavy erection was exposed.

She took it in her hands, gently rubbing the material of the cotton. Heather greedily eyed his size and thickness, feeling a desperate ache within her core as she anticipated him entering her. She moved her hands to the waistband of his jeans and pulled them down his muscular thighs. Tanner stood up, and let the jeans fall to the floor. Heather stayed seated on the bed, drinking in his toned, broad body.

Tanner removed his boxers, and stood naked before her. The tip of his shaft glistened with a bead of moisture, ready for her. Heather leaned backward, expecting him to climb on top of her. Instead, Tanner approached the bed and gently turned her over. He pulled down her panties, gently stroking the plump cheeks of her backside as he did so. Once they were removed, Heather felt his erection rest against the opening between her legs. She trembled in response, opening her legs a little wider to allow him access.

Tanner groaned, gently grabbing the flesh on the back of her thighs and guiding himself to the swollen lips of her sex. With incredible gentleness, he rubbed himself back and forth against her, enjoying the wetness sliding up and down his length. He’d never known a woman to be so ready and willing, as if her entire being was built for his pleasure. Heather cried out, she couldn’t contain the unrelenting shocks of pleasure running through her body.

Tanner flipped her around, more aggressively this time, and pushed her further up on the bed. He buried his head between her legs, parting her lips gently with his fingers and lapped up the warm wetness within. The stokes of his tongue drove Heather to near oblivion, she spread her legs wider and pressed herself against him, driving his tongue further inside her.

Tanner flicked his tongue against her bud, and Heather could feel the waves of an orgasm building within her.

“Please…Tanner – I need you inside me. Please.” Heather gasped, trying to fight the tides of pleasure as she felt herself tipping over the edge.

Tanner didn’t need any more encouragement. He guided his ready shaft into Heather’s channel, sucking in a short breath as he felt her amazing, swollen, soft, moist flesh surrounding him, sucking him in tighter, clenching at his erection.

Heather called out his name as the pinnacle of her pleasure crashed and reverberated around her body. She clung to him, not wanting his motion to stop. She’d never felt so full and greedy as this, feeling complete yet yearning for more. Tanner leaned over her, balancing his frame on his elbows and forearms. His chest and shoulder muscles twitched with the effort of restraining himself.

Heather looked up into his eyes, seeing dark pools of lust meeting hers. She moved her head up and kissed him, deeply, trying to convey the myriad of emotions that were raging within her.

Tanner felt himself lose control as her lips met his. Deep within him he felt the familiar tug, centered within his lower abdomen, as his primal urges struggled to be released. Tanner tried to regulate his breathing, slowing down the motion of movement within Heather’s body, but it was too late. Heather arched against him, moaning in pleasure, clenching him tighter within her.

“Heather,” he gasped.

She reached up and stroked his jaw with her fingers, her eyes looking deep into his, “Come in me, Tanner.” The words were hoarsely and breathlessly whispered into his ear, but he felt them deep in his soul. He stopped struggling against the feeling and let his urges flow unchecked.

His desire increased, not just physical desire, but one that was driven by heart and mind. It overtook all bodily sensation apart from Heather and the way her hips were gyrating against him.

His hands clenched at the bedding, as his entire body spasmed. “Heather,” he half-growled her name, releasing himself in pulsating jets within her.

Sated, Tanner’s head dropped onto Heather’s soft breasts. He was still inside her, and despite finding release, he was still hard. His body couldn’t get enough of her.

Heather closed her arms around him, curling her body into his. They slept like that, entwined on the cotton sheets, till morning.

Chapter sixteen

“Watch this one, Heather!” Chloe was on the back of a pony, practicing jumps with the help of Josiah. She leapt cleanly over the wooden jump bar, and the horse landed on the other side, before cantering around the yard to complete the jump a second time. Heather applauded enthusiastically from beneath the shade of the ranch out building.

Tanner was standing a few yards off, tirelessly removing rocks from the earth. His aim was to create a soft, fertile area in which Heather could have her own herb or vegetable garden. He’d kept his plan private, telling them all that he was extending the chicken coop, but the conspiratorial wink Josiah gave him told Tanner the old man knew differently.

That morning Heather had set up a make shift easel and brought out some paints, intending to capture the beautiful Wyoming scenery. She had started to do just that, but the moment Tanner had begun work, she’d been unable to take her eyes of him, and so the page now captured his muscular form, shirtless in the heat.

She watched as his back and biceps rippled as he moved, lugging rocks back and forth over the soft earth. As she watched, she noticed that when his body stood under direct sunlight, she could see faint markings all over his chest and back. It looked like long strips of his flesh had been carved out of him, and Heather wondered if, when in bear form, he fought with other beasts in the forest. The thought made Heather shudder. She hated the idea of Tanner fighting alone in the wilderness, unable to protect himself with human tools.

Heather caught Tanner’s eye, and gestured toward the pitcher of lemonade on the table next to her. She rose to carry it over to him, but instead he made his way toward her, wiping away his sweat with a spare rag.

“You are a good woman, Heather Ayer. My mouth feels like the desert.” Tanner came and sat down next to her, emitting a sigh of relief. Heather poured him a glass of lemonade.

“What are you– oh, that’s me.” Tanner’s eyes rested on her half-finished drawing, and raised his eyebrows in respectful acknowledgement at how good it was, “You’ve got talent. That’s impressive.”

Heather blushed, “It’s not finished yet. You got in the way of the mountains.” Tanner gave a short bark of laughter, “Yeah, sorry about that.” They smiled at each other, and then Heather’s eyes drew back to his chest. The scars weren’t as noticeable in the shade, but she could still see very subtle outlines of their grooves marking his skin.

“Tanner, what are those marks on your body? They look pretty ferocious… I thought maybe a wild animal had hurt you?” Heather was tentative approaching the subject. She didn’t want him to think she was prying.

Tanner smirked. It was not a happy look. In fact, his bright mood seemed to have immediately vanished. There was silence for a few moments before he spoke, “Not an animal exactly.” Tanner took a gulp of his lemonade and then rand his hands through his hair. “I guess there’s a couple of things I still need to tell you.”

“Not if you don’t want to, Tanner. You can keep whatever you want private,” Heather replied, meaning it. She didn’t want to pry into his life, she knew without a doubt that Tanner was a good, honest man, and whatever he wanted to keep private he could do so. She trusted him.

“No, there’s stuff you should know. It’s about Chloe, too. But I guess I’ll start with the scars. As I said yesterday, my father died when I was young, he was like me and my brother – a shifter. He and my mom were crazy in love. She never really recovered from his death.”

Heather nodded in understanding, a loss of a loved one was always painful, but if his father had been anything like Tanner, it would have been unbearable.

“I don’t remember much of him. Which is a shame, but just the way it is. Anyway, my mom married again, not so well this time. He was a nasty junkie, beat her up something rotten. When he found out what me and my brother were, well, he didn’t like it. He would lock us up in cages. Whip us with chains and whatever was lying around. Starve us.” Tanner shrugged, “Like I said, a mean bastard.”

Heather looked away. Her vision had started to blur as tears welled up in the corners of her eyes, but she didn’t want Tanner to see her crying. What would be the benefit to him of her tears? There weren’t tears enough in her body for the sorrow of a child being treated that way.

Tanner hadn’t noticed that she’d turned away. He wasn’t able to look at her. Still, after all these years, the subject of his stepfather bought up nothing but shame. He hadn’t been able to protect his brother, and he hadn’t been able to save his mom from her eventual fate and her bad choices. Ashamed that he let himself be treated that way, ashamed that he’d spent the whole of his life believing he’d deserved every whip, every slice of flesh ripped from his body, every hour that he spent in starvation, closing his eyes as he drank stagnant water left for them in a dog bowl.

“Anyway, my mom couldn’t cope. She got hooked on heroin. Didn’t know whether she was coming or going. My brother and I ran away. I was sixteen, he was fourteen. I worked down in Arizona. Mining. It was good, better than we had it at home. After a year, we found out that she’d died. We went back briefly to pay our respects, but then we never went back again.”

Heather couldn’t find the words to express herself. The tears were streaming down her face now, and she kept her eyes fixed on her hands, clasped together tightly on her lap. She couldn’t stand the thought of Tanner going through so much pain. How lonely he must have been, how neglected. She knew about men who worked as miners. It wasn’t an easy life. Not by a long shot.

Tanner glanced over at her, half dreading Heather’s response. Seeing his bear was one thing, knowing how he’d let himself be so dehumanized was another. On seeing her tears, he rushed to comfort her.

“Shit, Heather, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to get upset.” He placed his hand on her back, finding a comfort in her warm sun-heated skin.

“You’re sorry?!” Heather was half-hysterical at his apology, “What do you have to be sorry about? Oh God, Tanner, what happened to you is awful. Appalling. I’d like to rip that man apart with my bare hands. But I’m the one who should be sorry. I don’t mean to cry. I’m sorry, I am… it’s just…” She couldn’t finish. A fresh set of tears erupted from her, and she hastily wiped at her cheeks. Aware that Chloe wasn’t far away, and she didn’t want her to see her like this.

“You’re amazing.” Tanner’s voice was hoarse with unshed emotion. He hadn’t expected this kind of reaction, hadn’t expected her to care so deeply about him. He should have known better. He desperately wanted to pull her into his arms, take her upstairs and make love to her again. She was unbelievably beautiful to him in that moment, her eyes red-rimmed from crying, her rose bud lips swollen from bites as she anxiously tried to repress her emotions.

Tanner steeled himself. He needed to tell her about Chloe as well. It was important that she knew everything, but the worst of it was done.

“Are you okay to talk about Chloe?” Tanner asked, gently caressing her back.

“Of course,” Heather tried to smile, “Just ignore the crazy weeping woman over here.”

“You’re not crazy, Heather, I can’t tell you what it means to me that you’d have that kind of reaction.”

Heather nodded, trying to shake off the tears and return to normality. “Go on. About Chloe, what is it you need to tell me?”

“Chloe isn’t mine. Biologically speaking.” Heather raised her eyebrows at Tanner’s words. It was the last thing she’d expected him to say.

“I can’t have children. Chloe’s mom and I, well…” Tanner looked down again, he wasn’t sure what to say exactly. He knew that the situation surrounding Chloe’s birth wasn’t his finest hour. But, he took a breath and continued, “When she turned up pregnant, I was just getting the ranch up and running, and was kind of resentful towards her. She was in delicate health, and when she gave birth to Chloe, she died, as you know. She died in childbirth. I knew Chloe wasn’t mine from the start, but, when I looked into her tiny eyes… she was mine.”

Heather looked over at Chloe, now brushing down her horse, guided by Josiah. She felt sorry for the girl who had grown up without a mother, so like herself. She also knew absolutely that Tanner had raised her loving her as much or more than any biological father could. She also knew, without a doubt in her mind that she was absolutely, unconditionally in love with him.

She had questions—questions that she wasn’t about to ask. Tanner hadn’t explained how Chloe’s mother had become pregnant if he was unable to father a child. Had they used a donor? Had she been unfaithful? Maybe they’d met and fallen in love before she knew she was pregnant. Since Tanner hadn’t offered an explanation, Heather wasn’t going to pry. The man had dug deep enough into his painful past for one today.

“I can’t have children, either.” She smiled at him, and took his hand in hers. “But Chloe has brought so much love into my life, she’s all I would ever need or want.”

Tanner exhaled in relief. Her small hand over his made him smile. Chloe may have brought love to her life, but she had brought it to both of theirs. “I wanted you to know something else, too. Once a man like me, a bear shifter, finds his mate, it’s for life. They can have companions that they treasure if something separates them from their mate, but it’s never the same. The bond between a shifter and his true mate, it’s one that’s eternal.”

Heather nodded and tried to smile. She suddenly felt cold. She understood completely, and a few days ago being Tanner’s companion would have made her content and happy. Now, she wasn’t sure. It almost seemed like a gentler and kinder parallel to her and Bertram – a man who just couldn’t truly love her. But this would be worse, because what she felt for Tanner made her old feelings for Bertram pale to insignificant in comparison.

It was as if the universe had played a cruel trick on her, gifting Heather the one man she could be herself with and love completely, but then having that man forever bonded to a ghost, unable to love her the way she needed.

Tanner rose from his chair. He hated how awkward he could be with words, what had meant to sound romantic had probably come out too cheesy and ridiculous. The smile she’d given him in return hadn’t quite reached her eyes. Though, Tanner reflected, he had just dumped a lot of information on her. Maybe she just needed some time. It wouldn’t put a halt the afternoon plans he had hatched up. Whatever she felt, he knew he was doing the right thing.

“Chloe and I need to go into town this afternoon. Just for a couple of hours. Can I get you anything when I’m there?” Tanner asked her.

Heather tried to pull herself out of her mood, and smiled brightly back at him. Shaking her head in a ‘no’, not trusting herself to speak. She watched as he walked toward the main body of the ranch, and felt a knot of misery form in her stomach.

Chapter seventeen

Heather retreated to her bedroom after Tanner and Chloe left. For the first time since she’d arrived at the ranch, she felt lonely. It wasn’t a novel emotion. She’d spent years of her relationship with Bertram feeling like she was a stranger in her own home, and when she ventured out onto the streets of New York it was as if she got lost, a nobody that faded more and more every day.

Would the same thing happen if she stayed here? Heather knew that Tanner would care for her, and they got along well. That would only grow as they became more comfortable with one another. Last night had been amazing. She may not be his mate, his true love, but he certainly treated her that way in bed. And Chloe. She wanted to stay with her, watch her grow and help her along the way. She already loved her so much. It would be agony to leave her.

The doorbell of the front entrance rang. It surprised Heather. All the men used the back entrance. Maybe Tanner was expecting company and had forgotten to tell her. As she made her way down the stairs, the doorbell rang again. Whoever was on the other side was impatient.

Heather opened the door, and her senses were immediately assaulted by incredibly strong, sweet perfume.

“Oh.” Kellie Lane looked perplexed by Heather’s presence. “Tanner here?” she asked, looking Heather up and down.

“He just stepped out with Chloe. They won’t be long.” Heather replied, wondering who the woman was. She had a mane of platinum blonde hair, and large breasts barely concealed by a neon pink tank top.

“I’ll wait.” Kellie barged passed Heather, accidently-on-purpose hitting her with her handbag.

“Do you… know Tanner well?” Heather asked. She didn’t want to be rude and ask the woman who the hell she was, but it was certainly tempting.

“We have a thing. We’re supposed to be going out on a date this week. I’m here to see if I can tempt him out tonight. Who are you?” Kellie asked, flipping back her hair and taking a seat in the living room.

Heather felt sick. She paused for too long, and Kellie raised an eyebrow, clearly thinking Heather was some kind of slow idiot.

“I’m Heather. I’m staying with Tanner and Chloe.” She muttered, too embarrassed to tell her the truth. If this woman had been dating Tanner up until recently, then she’d know that a fiancée miraculously appearing out of the blue was suspect.

“Oh. Tanner didn’t mention that. Are you related?” Kellie asked.

“Um. No. I’m here to look after Chloe.” That was about the sum of it, thought Heather. She couldn’t believe that Tanner had arranged to go on a date with Kellie this week. He wasn’t that kind of man. He’d probably arranged it before he had any idea that he’d have a mail order bride delivered to his doorstep, but the idea that she’d gotten in the way of a budding romance, a romance on Tanner’s own terms, rather than Chloe’s, made her feel awful.

“I’m Kellie, by the way. That’s so cute that Tanner’s hired help. Chloe’s great, isn’t she?” Kellie had never actually met Chloe, but Derek had spoken about her. Despite what she said, Kellie was not keen on Tanner having a live-in sitter, that meant competition.

“She is great.” Heather desperately wanted to end the conversation, but she was probably stuck here until Tanner returned.

“How long you thinking of staying then?” Kellie asked.

“I’m not sure.” Heather hesitated, “Can I get you a lemonade or anything?”

“Sure,” Kellie replied, snuggling back into the couch. Heather nodded and made her way to the kitchen.

As she was adding ice to the pitcher, Josiah came through the back entrance. Heather had never been so happy to see anyone in her life.

“Hi Josiah. Can I get you some lemonade?” Heather asked the man a little too brightly.

Josiah’s eyes narrowed. Something wasn’t right. He noticed the slight tremble of Heather’s hand as she held the glass. “Be lovely, thanks Heather. Tanner still in town?”

“Yes. They are, but… err… Kellie’s in the living room. Do you know her?” Heather turned back to the lemonade so the old man wouldn’t see her expression. She’d tried to make her question breezy, but it had come out a little too high-pitched.

“What? Yeah, I know her. Works at Jake’s Place. Excuse me a second Heather.” Josiah stormed off through to the living room.

“Kellie Lane, what in God’s name you doing coming over to Tanner’s uninvited?” Josiah kept his voice down so that Heather wouldn’t overhear him. Kellie turned around in surprise at the man’s tone.

“He did invite me you old coot!” She stared daggers at Josiah, pursing her lips tightly.

“No, he didn’t, Kellie. Trust me, whatever he said, you clearly misunderstood. That woman through there is with Tanner now, so you can get back to whatever it was you was doin’ before you came here.” Josiah folded his arms across his chest. He’d known Kellie for a long time, and she wasn’t Tanner’s sort by a long shot. God only knows what garbage she’d been filling Heather’s head with. No wonder the woman looked so shaky.

“I’ll do no such thing. Tanner don’t want a woman like her.” Kellie spat out.

“Kellie Lane, if you don’t get out this minute I will call your momma and she’ll come drag you out.” Josiah threatened. He played cards with Kellie’s mother every Friday night. She was a good, honest woman. He had no idea how Kellie had come out such a bad apple.

“Fine. But I’m telling Tanner how badly you treated a guest, and he will not be happy.” Kellie stood up, huffing and puffing as she flung her bag over her shoulder.

“Girlie, you’re delusional.” Josiah opened the front door, and as Kellie marched through, cheeks aflame, he shut it firmly behind her. That was enough of that, he thought.

Heather walked in carrying the pitcher with three glasses. She looked around for Kellie, but all she could see was Josiah standing smugly by the front door.

“Kellie had to leave.” The man winked at her, smiling. Heather couldn’t return the smile. She placed the drinks down on the nearest table.

“Thanks for getting rid of her. I wasn’t prepared to deal with that.” Heather replied.

“Don’t you worry. You know she’s full of hot air, right?” Josiah clarified, “Tanner’s been trying to avoid her since forever.”

“Oh, well, I didn’t think he would date anyone while I was around. He’s not that kind of man. Would you mind if I went upstairs, Josiah? I’m feeling a bit tired, must be the sun.”

“No, he wouldn’t date anyone else.” Josiah emphasized the point before continuing, “Sure, go on. Is there anything I can get for you?”

“No, really. I’m fine. Thanks Josiah. It’s been a pleasure getting to know you.” Heather turned toward the staircase leading up to the bedrooms.

“Well, you too, Heather. Long may it continue.” The man watched her go, puzzled by the finality of her comment.

Chapter eighteen

As soon as Heather was out of Josiah’s sight, she hurried to her room. There, she quickly packed her belongings, what little there was, into her suitcase. She needed to get out now, while she still had the courage.

She knew that Kellie was most likely inventing stories about her and Tanner, but it didn’t matter. She couldn’t stomach being forced onto him, not when his heart would always belong to a dead woman and the best she could hope for was a companionship. With any other man, she would have been happy. But knowing what an incredible man Tanner was, all that he’d been through, all that he’d become, well, she wanted that man’s heart in the same way she’d given hers to him. Anything less would be painful and humiliating.

Once packed, she made her way to the study, in search of a pen and paper. She couldn’t face seeing Chloe or Tanner before she left. Facing them again would make it too difficult to go through with her plan. But, she owed them a goodbye in some form, and an explanation for her behavior.

Hunting around in the desk, her eyes caught a piece of paper resting behind the computer. She recognized the handwriting as Chloe’s. At the top, she’d written, “my new mom” and below was a list of all the attributes Chloe had dreamed Heather would have.

Must cook well.

Must have nice eyes.

Must smell nice, like sunshine and warm.

Must like to hug.

Needs to be nice to dad.

Let’s me stay up sometimes to watch shows, if it’s an important episode.

Must like to play games.

Needs to know about women things, like periods and hair. Really important.

Must love me.

Heather thought she heard the sound of her own heart breaking. She felt the hot burn of tears escaping her eyes for the second time that morning. She couldn’t leave, she couldn’t turn her back on Chloe. She didn’t want her growing up without a mother, and missing out on all the love and care that Heather herself had been deprived of.

She was about to put the papers away when she glanced up and saw a photograph of a woman, smiling down at her from a plain gold frame. She could see the echoes of Chloe in that face, and knew immediately that it was Chloe’s mother. Tanner’s one true love, the woman who he’d formed a bond with that couldn’t be broken.

No, it had to be done. Tanner was a good man, and an incredibly handsome one. He would find a replacement for Heather, and Chloe would get her mother. It just couldn’t be Heather. She scribbled them both letters, taking care to keep her tears from staining the paper, then sealed them. She took the letters and her luggage downstairs, relieved to see that Josiah had left. She would have a lot of explaining to do if he were still here.

Heather realized she had absolutely no idea how to get out of Jackson Hole, and frantically searched around the kitchen for a local taxi number. Finding nothing, she decided that she would make her way down to the main road. She recalled seeing a bus station somewhere, and if she could get herself to the town center it would be easier to find someone to take her to the airport.

With a heavy heart, she took one more look around the kitchen, a place that had already started to feel like home, and made her way through the back door.

Chapter nineteen

Chloe couldn’t keep still the entirety of the ride back. Her stomach was churning with excitement, and she regretted demanding the ice cream at Moo’s Parlor.

Her hands were clutched together tightly. Her dad had let her keep the ring safe. It was a beautiful, sparkling diamond and sapphire design, bought from the best boutique jeweler in Jackson Hole. Dad had said, after they exited the shop, that he’d need to import one from the city as this wasn’t quite special enough for Heather, but this would do in the meantime. That baffled Chloe, she couldn’t imagine anything more spectacular than the creation she held.

As soon as they parked in the driveway, Chloe tore into the house, ignoring Tanner’s yells to help him with the groceries. She slipped the ring box into her pocket. Her dad planned to propose later, when she wasn’t around. Even so, she still desperately wanted to see Heather.

The house felt quite though, and after yelling from downstairs Chloe raced up to the bedrooms. She froze as she came to Heather’s room. It was empty. Thinking that maybe she’d moved her stuff into Tanner’s bedroom, Chloe barged in there too. But it didn’t look like her things were there. Opening the closet, she just saw her father’s work gear hanging like always. Chloe started to panic. She was frightened something had happened to her. They shouldn’t have left her alone for so long, what if she’d let in a stranger?

Chloe raced back downstairs, her heart hammering in her chest.

“Dad! She’s not here… Her room’s empty! We need to call the cops… urgently. I think something’s happened.” The words came out a bit jumbled, and Chloe felt that this time the ice cream really was going to come out.

“She’s probably in the back yard, Chloe. Calm down, you’re making yourself sick.” Tanner came in carrying the bags, and dumped them on the kitchen table. Right next to two envelopes, one with his name on, and as he moved it over, another addressed to Chloe.

Chloe saw them at the same time. She dived forward and grabbed hers, tearing it open. She quickly scanned the letter, coming to rest on Heather’s signature. Going back to the top, she slowly read the letter in its entirety.

Dear Chloe,

I’m so very, very sorry to do this. But I have to go. Please don’t think my leaving is in anyway a rejection of you. I love you more than I can say, you’re a wonderful, independent, perfect girl and if I could give birth to a daughter, I would want her to be exactly like you. I know you’re going to grow up to be a wonderful woman, and I’m just sorry I can’t be there to see that happen. I would love to keep in touch. At the bottom, I’ve left you my cousin’s address in California, that’s where I’ll be.

You will always have a very special place in my heart, and I will never forget you.

My love always,

Heather.

At the bottom was the address. Chloe felt her chest heaving, and strangled sobs wracked her body. She felt, as if from a distance, her father wrap his arms round her tightly, picking her up so her head rested on his shoulder. He stroked her back, and she could do nothing but cry into him.

“I’m going to get her back. This is all my fault. I’m so sorry Chloe, I’ll fix it, I promise.” Her dad could fix anything. She couldn’t speak but nodded into him, forcing her sobs to subside. Of course he could fix it.

“Tell Heather, please… that I’ll be really, really good. And I’m sorry I got paint all over her shirt, and I didn’t help you with the groceries, I’m sorry.” She burst into tears again, and her father put her down.

“Chloe, look at me,” Tanner forced her head up to meet his, “This is not your fault – this is me, it’s my fault, okay?”

Chloe nodded. “Aren’t you going to read your letter, she left one for you.” Chloe gestured toward the envelope and Tanner glanced at it, shaking his head.

“I don’t care what it says. I love that woman, and I’m going to get her back – for the both of us. Stay here, she can’t have gone far, call Josiah on his cell and get him to come over, okay?”

Chloe managed a small smile. “Yeah, go dad.” She practically pushed him out of the kitchen, but he didn’t need much persuading. He picked the truck keys off the table and raced out of the door.

As he started up the truck, Tanner prayed she hadn’t gotten a cab, she’d already be at the airport by now. But considering he’d seen Paul Moore, the only taxi driver in Jackson Hole, standing outside of Bubba’s Barbeque earlier clutching a brown paper bag, it wasn’t likely.

He pulled out of the drive and made his way down the road toward the main town. He headed to the bus station, praying he would find Heather there.

At first, the station looked deserted, but as he slowed down he could just make out a figure sitting at the far end of the shelter.

“Heather?” Tanner jumped out of the truck, leaving it idling by the side of the road. Her face turned toward his, startled. He could see that her eyes were red-rimmed from crying, and she looked so small and lost.

“Jesus, Heather, what are you doing?” He walked swiftly towards her, taking her frame into his arms, just as he’d done a moment ago with Chloe. She didn’t hug him back, but he just held on, feeling her body shudder with sobs.

“Tanner, stop.” She broke away from his grasp, hastily wiping her tears away as she did so. “I can’t do this. I’m so sorry. I wish I could stay, but I can’t.”

Tanner looked down at her, confusion written clearly across his face. “Heather, help me to understand. What’s going on?” His voice was gentle, and Heather was too fraught to hear the pain that simmered below the surface.

“I just… I can’t do it again.” Heather mumbled. She had covered her face with her hands, so ashamed at the dramatic state of events. She hadn’t meant for him to chase her here, causing a scene, disrupting the beautiful tranquility of his life.

“Do what again? Heather, sit down.” Tanner commanded her. He wasn’t getting any sense out of her like this. He ushered her back onto the station bench and sat quietly beside her. “Breathe, and then start again. I want to know what’s going on.”

Heather took a breath and tried to calm herself. She looked into his eyes, seeing nothing there but reassurance and compassion. “I know that you want a companion, and when I came here, I was happy with that. Really, I was.” Heather hesitated, Tanner’s eyes had narrowed and his lips were pulled into a thin line of displeasure. She continued, “But now, now that I know…you, who you really are, I can’t. I just can’t.”

“Is this about my bear, about my past?”

“Yes.” Heather replied, “It’s about all of you. I’m completely in love with you, Tanner. Completely and utterly head over heels in love with you, and I can’t be your companion. It’s not fair to me, not the way I feel.”

Tanner smiled at her words, he couldn’t help it. His entire body had heated on hearing that she loved him, some of the tension he’d been carrying since seeing the envelopes on the table, left.

“Then I don’t understand. I feel exactly the same way about you, Heather.”

“But you’re bonded with someone else,” Heather cried out, exasperated, “You told me. You said that once you bond, you bond for life.”

“What are you talking about? Who am I bonded with?” Tanner was utterly baffled by the exchange. He thought he’d made his feeling clear earlier that morning.

“Chloe’s mother.” Heather whispered. She was less sure of her theory now.

“No! What the— how the hell did you reach that conclusion? I’d only known Chloe’s mother for a week! We had sex, but it didn’t mean anything. She was a dancer, I was about twenty-five, young and reckless. She was just traveling through, and we hooked up. Then she moved on. About seven months later, she turns up at my door saying that she’s pregnant. I laughed and was about to send her away, knowing I wasn’t able to father a child, but she collapsed on my front step. She wasn’t my mate, Heather. It’s you. You’re my mate. You’re the woman I’m in love with. We’re the forever, Heather, you and me, baby.”

Heather was stunned. She’d made such a huge mistake. “Oh Tanner, I didn’t realize… I thought… I assumed…” She trailed off as a huge grin spread across her face; she blushed bright red and looked down at the ground. “I’ve been so stupid.”

Tanner barked out a laugh, “Yeah, you have. You can’t leave me, Heather.” His tone turned somber and he covered her shoulders with his hands, “I get it. I get why, after Bertram, you would think that way, but Heather, you’re what I’ve wanted all my life, the missing piece of me. I promise you, if you come home with me now, I won’t ever let you doubt that again. I will spend the rest of my life showing you how loved you are.”

Tanner bent his head down, not waiting for a response. His lips sought hers, and the answering kiss was sweet and salty all at the same time. Heather wound her hands into his hair, flooded with lust and a warm, tranquil contentment. She was home.

Epilogue

Chloe admired the gentle waves that the hairdresser was creating in Heather’s shiny chestnut hair. Her make-up had already been done, and she was chatting animatedly with the woman, occasionally glancing over at Chloe, a light, content smile resting on her lips.

Chloe looked down at her own dress, she was the flower girl, maid of honor and chief bridesmaid, all in one. It was easily the happiest Chloe could ever remember being, including the day that Heather had returned. That night, she’d tucked Chloe into bed, the engagement ring glinting on her finger, and Chloe had known then that everything was going to be okay.

She made her way over to the window, watching as the band set up in the back yard. The ranch and its substantial grounds had been completely transformed, wisteria weaving its way around every bench, table and through the small pine pagoda where the ceremony would take place. Bouquets of Peonies, Calla Lily, Sweet Pea and Hydrangeas covered the table tops, and toppled out of the seat backs. Fairy lights, Chloe’s idea, were tacked everywhere, so come evening, the place would look like something out of a magical kingdom with Heather as it’s beautiful queen.

She searched for her father. He was talking to his brother, Uncle Derek, and looked incredibly handsome in his three-piece suit. She felt a rush of pride as she watched him. Not long after he and Heather had gotten engaged, they had told Chloe about his bear. She smiled to herself. She knew she’d seen a grizzly on the outskirts of the surrounding forest. She’d been sworn to secrecy, which she thought was awesome. It was something special that just her family knew. She was sad she’d never be a bear, but then, neither would Heather, so it was okay.

The guests were milling around, admiring the flowers, and she spied Wesley over by the stage, helping set up the sound system for Uncle Derek’s band to play later. Kellie Lane was hovering, but Wesley was completely ignoring her. Chloe hoped he noticed her tonight. Her dress was a lapis blue to match the flowers she’d be carrying. Both she and Heather had roughly designed it together, before sending it off to New York to be made.

“Are you ready?” Heather had risen from the chair, her hair finished and tumbling down her shoulders perfectly. Chloe nodded, and took her arm. Together they made their way down the stairs.

Josiah was waiting for them in the kitchen. He was going to be giving Heather away today.

“Everyone’s ready for you. Chloe, you go in front.” He commanded. Josiah took Heather’s elbow and she smiled at him, nervously.

“Don’t be nervous. It’s going to be perfect.” He reassured her.

Chloe took one look at the pair behind her and made her way to the door. She signaled to Derek, and his band began the opening chords of the wedding march. Everyone turned to look. Practically the entire town of Jackson Hole had wanted to be here today, and it made Chloe extra proud at how her parents were so loved by everyone. Heather had opened a small patisserie on the town’s main road. The locals raved about it and already tourists were venturing from nearby cities to taste Heather’s divine creations.

She could see her best friend, Lucille, in one of the back rows. Lucille was practically green with envy as she surveyed her friend’s dress. That just made Chloe all the happier, and her smile just that bit wider as she walked slowly down the makeshift isle on a soft bed of rose petals.

She looked up to see her father’s smiling face, grinning at her. Chloe watched as the grin faded, and was replaced with a look she couldn’t quite ascertain as he gazed past her at his soon-to-be wife. Chloe quickly checked over her shoulder to see if Heather was okay, but whatever was in Tanner’s look made Heather blush bright red and smile, averting her gaze to the floor. Chloe shrugged and continued her slow march to the front.

Chloe stood to the side of the ceremony, gently wiping away tears that she repeatedly wished wouldn’t fall but couldn’t be helped. Watching her mother and father together, she gave a small smile of triumph. Her plan had worked, against all the odds. Chloe closed her eyes and sent up a small prayer of thanks to the God of bear shifters, amazing moms who could love, cook, and hug properly, and the families that got their happily ever afters.

THE END

MATING THE ALPHA

STORY DESCRIPTION

Dr. Lexi Green has seen strange things in the local ER, but this takes the cake. After eight gunshot wounds to the chest, this guy shouldn’t be alive much less giving her a wink and a nod on his way out the hospital doors. WTH?

Lexi has secrets that have caused her to rule out dating, but the hot guy with sculpted muscles and exceptional healing powers is too delicious to ignore.

As next in line for Alpha, making him the most powerful wolf on the East Coast, Shane has no time for women – especially a human. His reign is being violently contested by the anti-human shifters. So, why is it that he can’t resist the sexy ER doctor?

Shane knows that being with him makes Lexi an enemy target. He must decide to either abdicate or Turn her, but how will Lexi handle it when she finds out her new boyfriend is a werewolf?

Chapter 1

There was nothing in the world that Lexi Green loved more than her job. Hell, she was good at it. And you don’t become a well-respected trauma surgeon in a major city without really liking your job. It had been a slow night and Lexi was sitting at the nurse station, sipping coffee from a Styrofoam cup. One of her favorite nurses, a young girl fresh out of nursing school, was just telling her about the apartment she was looking into when the doors of the ER slammed open and two harried looking medics rushed in with a gurney.

“John Doe, probably in his thirties, eight gunshot wounds to the chest, a few to the legs, and a knife in his neck!” One of them shouted.

“A knife in his what?” Lexi almost dropped her coffee.

“Neck.” The adrenaline that surged through her whenever a big job came through the doors hit her with full force.

“Book me an O.R. Now!” She shouted. Her relaxed, chatty attitude was gone. It was like she was a completely different person. The room began to bustle and the gurney was driven into the O.R. as Lexi scrubbed quickly.

The man was hooked to various machines, but nothing that was happening around Lexi mattered. All that mattered was saving this guy. Her heart hammered in her chest as she surveyed the knife wound. It just missed his jugular, otherwise he would have bled to death. As it was, she didn’t know how he was still alive.

Even though his face was covered in blood, she couldn’t help but realize how attractive he was. He had sharp features and black hair that was a little long. It softened his face. He was tall and well-muscled, and if she had seen him at a bar, she might have asked him to have drinks with her. But he was on her table, and his cuteness was completely irrelevant. She needed to save his life.

“I’m going to need compression immediately after I remove the knife,” she said firmly. Her scrub nurses nodded, preparing themselves. She put her hand around the knife and pulled. The nurses slammed the gauze down, but there was very little blood.

“What the…” She looked down at his torso. The medics had cut his shirt off so she could examine the bullet wounds. But there weren’t any. She looked up, and saw the nurse, wide eyed and scared, no longer putting pressure on the wound. Because there was no wound.

“What the hell is going on?” she growled.

Chapter 2

Two hours earlier…

Shane ran his hand through his black hair and sighed. The last thing he wanted to do right now was deal with his cousin’s bullshit. He had a business to run. And a pack to manage. He was exhausted. He leaned against his desk and looked out at the rapidly darkening sky.

“I think you need an assistant.”

He turned his head. His sister Amanda stood in the doorway. It was obvious they were siblings. They both had the same black hair, the same slate-grey eyes, but where he was all sharp angles and lines, she was soft curves. She was tall for a woman, almost six feet, and always wore high heels. She was gorgeous, and Shane had been in more fights because he was protecting her honor than for any other reason. She hadn’t needed him to protect her lately (not that she really ever did, she liked to remind him. She was just as fierce as he was.). She was about to get married. It was a good match. A great match, in fact. They were madly in love, and Shane liked the guy. And he had never liked anyone Amanda dated. And it didn’t hurt that she was about to unite two of the largest wolf packs on the East Coast.

Shane sighed. “I don’t need an assistant.”

“You do. But you’re too much of a control freak to admit it.” She crossed the room and hugged him. “I just want my big brother to be at my wedding and not die of exhaustion before I make it down the aisle.”

“You’re being melodramatic.”

Amanda rolled her eyes. “I’m worried about you. Between all of this bullshit with Matt— “

“Can we not talk about our cousin?” Shane pushed himself off the desk. Matt was the last person he wanted to talk about now. It was bad enough that he had to deal with him during pack meetings, he didn’t want Matt’s shadow to effect his human business too.

“We have to talk about it, Shane. It’s a week until the next pack gathering and dad is going to announce that he’s stepping down as Alpha. And then you’re going to have to start training for the role.” It wasn’t a surprise to Shane that Amanda assumed that he was going to be the next Alpha. Indeed, it wouldn’t be a surprise for anyone in the pack. Shane was the obvious choice. He had been groomed for running the pack since he was a young boy, and he was the strongest wolf around. And he was part of an Alpha lineage. He couldn’t remember when someone from his family was not the pack Alpha.

When his father started to get sick a few months ago, everyone in the pack assumed he would be the uncontested choice to fill the role. And then Matt stepped into the picture. Shane’s and Amanda’s cousin Matt was the sort of wolf who always had a chip on his shoulder about his pack status. Most wolves accepted their place in the pack; everyone had a place, and everyone was valued for their place. But Matt wanted more. And he was apparently willing to fight Shane for the title.

“I’m going to deal with it, Amanda.”

She pursed her lips. “If you say so. But you should do it sooner rather than later. He’s been talking to people in the pack, trying to sway opinions. There hasn’t been an Alpha contest in years, I don’t think one now would be a positive thing. Especially since we’re trying to come out to humans.”

Shane scrubbed his face with his hands. “Please don’t remind me. Everything will get handled. When have I ever left anything undone?”

“You haven’t. Because you’re a workaholic.”

“Thanks for that glowing recommendation.”

“That’s what sisters are for. Now, are you done here? Henry is waiting downstairs. We have dinner reservations in half an hour.”

“I just need to grab a few things. Head to the car; I’ll be down in a minute.” Shane turned to his desk and began to collect his laptop and a few files for the weekend.

“If you’re not down in five I’m sending Henry in to drag you out.”

Shane snorted. Henry was many things that Shane would never be, romantic, patient, but Shane was much stronger. “I’ll be down in five, promise.”

He heard her leave his office. He finished putting the last of his files into his briefcase and turned the lights off. He walked to the elevators and pressed the down button. The doors opened, and a man pointed a gun at him.

The bullet was in him before he could move. He roared in pain and then leapt forward, trying to get the gun out of the man’s hand. He heard multiple shots fire, and then he felt the knife plunge into the side of his neck.

The pain set his blood on fire. He tried to shift but couldn’t. There were too many bullets. He hoped they weren’t silver.

His attacker stood over him. “That’s from Matt,” he said before he spit on Shane’s face. The world went blurry and then Shane only knew darkness.

Chapter 3

He woke up to the sound of soft, steady beeping. He groaned and slowly opened his eyes. The bright light and the intensely chemical smell could only mean one thing. He was in a hospital.

“Fuck.”

“Oh, you’re awake.” Shane turned his aching head to the sound of the voice. The woman in his room was dressed in scrubs. Her chestnut-brown hair was pulled into a messy bun, and her hazel eyes were scanning him. She was beautiful in an understated way. He was sure that in better lighting (the hospital florescent were giving him a headache) and in something a bit more form-fitting than a pair of scrubs, she would be a real knock out.

“Where am I?”

“County General Hospital.” Her voice was clipped. “You were shot multiple times and stabbed.”

He rubbed his neck and cringed when he couldn’t feel bandages. “I know.”

“Would you like to tell me how your wounds managed to heal before I even put stitches in?” Shane closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He should have expected a question like that. Someone must have found him and called an ambulance. Amanda and Henry would have just taken him home.

He decided to avoid the question. “I still have bullets in me, don’t I?” He probably would have healed before he was on the O.R. table. Shit. Today was not his day.

She pursed her lips. “Yes. You do. Based on the location of the bullets and the scaring where they entered you, you should have some very serious internal injuries.”

“Let me hazard a guess. I don’t?”

She crossed her arms over her chest, drawing Shane’s attention away from her face. From what he could tell, she had quite the voluptuous body under those baggy scrubs. “Correct. But we still need to get the bullets that are still in there, out. A few went clean through, but there is one in your thigh and one in your shoulder.”

“Okay.”

“I’d like to take them out.” He surveyed her. Her matter-of-fact attitude combined with the girlish roundness of her face turned him on. He blinked, trying to rid himself of the image of mounting her here on the hospital bed.

Shane leaned back. He wasn’t quite sure what to do with this doctor. She wasn’t pushing him about the healing, but he couldn’t take the risk that at some point she would. Or would mention it to someone else. He wasn’t sure how to keep that from happening.

He spread his arms. “Do your worst, doc.”

She turned to the counter where a tray was laid out. He could see a scalpel and what looked like large tweezers. She washed up and pulled on gloves. “Your leg please,” she said, her voice muffled by the mask she wore. He stretched out his leg. There was only the faintest mark where the bullet had entered his leg.

She rubbed a wet cloth onto the area. “This is a topical anesthetic. I’m going to inject a bit of local into the area so you won’t feel it.”

“You don’t have to.”

“It’s going to hurt. A lot. I have to reopen the wound.” Her eyebrow was raised, and she was looking at him like he was insane. To her, maybe he was. But it wouldn’t hurt him that much. He’d had more painful injuries. Injuries that took days to heal. Young, male wolves were constantly fighting each other. He remembered his first major leg break. Setting that on his own was one of the most painful moments of his life.

“I’ll be okay.”

She sighed and shook her head. “If you need it after I start, tell me.” He shrugged and she began her work of digging into his thigh with the knife. The room was filled with the soft, wet noise of flesh being separated, and blood being spilt.

“So, are you in the military?”

“What would make you think that?” He looked down at her head. Her hair looked soft. He wanted to run his fingers through it, grab it. The cool and professional way she was handling a knife was just making her more attractive to him. He enjoyed a tough-as-nails professional woman.

“Uh, the healing. Maybe you were in a military experiment or something. A super soldier experiment?”

He laughed, hard. It was such a ridiculous leap, but the reality was even more insane. “No, doc. I’m not the next Captain America. I’ve just always healed real fast.”

She blushed at his words. He could feel the heat coming off of her. He heard the ping of metal hitting metal. “That one is out.” She packed the wound with gauze and picked up a hooked needle and thread.

“Just start on the other. Don’t bother to stitch it back up.”

She raised her eyebrow but put the needle and thread down. “Lay back please. And remove the top of your gown.”

He pushed the shoulder of the scratchy paper gown down his arm. For a moment he considered taking it all the way off, letting her see all of him. But her scalpel was in his shoulder before he could decide either way. She was so close to him that he could smell her now. The Clorox smell had been overpowering. But this close…she smelled like lavender. He wondered if it was her perfume or her shampoo. Either way it was nice.

She finished, inspected his newly healed leg wound and straightened up. “I would like to keep you overnight to confirm that you don’t have any lasting internal injuries.” It didn’t seem likely that she was going to give up trying to figure out what was going on with him. He knew that on the surface, his labs weren’t that different from a normal human’s. But if anyone looked further (and how could a curious doctor not?) they would see that there were strange markers in his blood. Markers that belonged to wolves.

He laughed and stood up, the gown sliding down his chest. “Sorry sweetheart, you’re going to have to give me that paper that says I’m leaving despite doctor’s suggestions because I’m not staying here.” He couldn’t allow any more lab tests to be done. He would have to get a copy of his lab results to see how much blood they had drawn and if they had anything left.

She pursed her lips. “Fine.”

“Where are my clothes?”

“They were cut off. Do you have anyone I can call for you?”

“Thanks, but no, sweetheart.”

“Don’t call me that. It’s Doctor Green.”

“Alright Doctor Green. Where can I get some clothes?”

“I’ll have a nurse bring some in.” She turned on her heel and left. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He saw the bag containing his personal items sitting on the counter. He grabbed his phone and dialed his sister.

Twenty minutes later he had his ride set up, he had signed his release papers and he was wearing a shirt and pants that were too big. He handed off the papers to a nurse, figured out who else was on his case, and walked through the ER waiting room.

He felt eyes on him as he crossed the room, but didn’t look back until he was outside.

She stood at the door of the hospital watching him go. The look on her face said she wasn’t going to give up trying to figure out why he healed so quickly. It would have been easier if he had a doctor that didn’t care. He looked back and gave her a wave. She turned around and went back inside. Goodness, she was delectable. What in the world was he going to do with her?

Chapter 4

Lexi couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. She had felt it all day. The gentle prickle at the back of her neck. She knew what it was like to be stalked. And she wasn’t going to be a victim again.

She woke up later than she usually did. She hadn’t been that tired after a night shift in a long time. Her brain had been working overtime, trying to figure out what was going on with the John Doe. Was it some form of hyper-metabolism? He looked healthy otherwise so she didn’t think it was that. Even his labs were a little odd, but not so much so that she would have assumed anything was wrong with him if she had just been looking at the charts.

As she put on her workout gear and made herself a quick breakfast, she tried to put the John Doe out of her mind. It wasn’t just his medical information that interested her. He interested her. Any red blooded girl would have been interested. His dark hair looked so soft. And it was clear that he took good care of himself.

She shook off the thoughts. It wasn’t like she had time to date. Or that she even wanted to. She had had enough of men and their craziness for a good long while. One ex-boyfriend behind bars was enough. She didn’t need to complicate her life.

She left the house and headed to the gym. It was twenty minutes into her spinning class that the feeling started. At first she assumed that it was someone in her class. She was usually one of the more advanced students, so the newbies would sometimes watch her to make sure they were doing it right. But the longer it lasted, the more it felt…ominous.

The moment classes were over she sprinted to the locker room and splashed water on her face. She gripped the edges of the counter and looked at herself in the mirror. “You’re being silly. The anniversary is coming up. You’re fine.” She took a deep breath and ignored the looks of the two other women who walked in. She gave herself another minute to cool off before heading back to her car.

It was broad daylight in a crowded parking lot but she couldn’t help but slide her keys between her fingers. It was something she learned in her self-defense classes. She got into the car and headed home.

She showered quickly. Halfway through the shower she began to relax. She wasn’t being watched. She didn’t know anyone who would want to watch her. She didn’t have friends outside of work. Not really. She didn’t date. There was nothing going on. She was being paranoid, she reasoned.

If she continued to freak out, she would call her shrink and make an appointment. She had properly convinced herself that she was imagining it until she made it to the grocery store. And then the feeling was back full force. She shoved food in her cart, not bothering to check the list she had made.

She turned down the bread aisle and almost slammed her cart right into the very man who she had been fixated on most of the day. “John Doe!” she wanted to hit herself in to forehead for calling him that. But she never got his name. “What are you doing here?”

He smiled and pointed to her cart. “The same as you’re doing, I expect. Grocery shopping.”

She laughed and rubbed her arm. “That makes sense. Well, I’m glad you’re doing alright.” She turned the cart, but he caught her arm.

“Doctor Green— “

“We’re not in the hospital. You can call me Lexi.”

“Alright, Lexi.” He smiled a wolfish smile, like he was going to devour her. It should have made her uncomfortable, but instead, it made her stomach tighten with desire. “Running in to each other is apparently fate, so let me take you to dinner. A thank you for saving my life.”

“It’s really not necessary— “

“I insist.” The words were so firm that she stood up straighter. She wondered again if he had been in the military at some point. He certainly looked like he had just walked out of boot camp.

“Um, okay. Sure. It’d have to be during the day, though. So lunch, not dinner. I work at night.” She slammed her mouth shut, willing herself not to keep talking. She was rambling.

“Whatever works for you.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Give me your number, I’ll call you.”

She typed in her number and handed the phone back to him. ” I’m Shane, by the way,” he said.

“Oh, yeah, calling you John Doe on a date probably wouldn’t be great.” He laughed and nodded. She took it as her que to end the conversation. “Okay then. See you later, I guess.” He smiled, she grabbed her bread and turned away. He was cute, she thought. But did she really want to date? Not really. Okay, fine, if she was being honest with herself, she sort of did. But she was afraid that it would be like her ex all over again. That was why work was so much easier: she was calling the shots.

She checked out and tossed her groceries into the trunk of her car. She had to get home and do some cooking quickly, she had to get back to the hospital soon.

The night started off normally. A broken wrist, a guy with a massive asthma attack, a pretty bad allergic reaction, so Lexi was able to check her phone around nine. She had a text from Shane.

Lunch on Monday @ Leonardo’s on 5th street? Noon?

She quickly sent an affirmative reply. She had two days to prepare. Everything would be fine.

Chapter 5

She told him to pick her up at the hospital. It made the most sense. It was central, and she practically lived there anyway. She didn’t want him to know where she lived. Not yet. She called her therapist to make sure she wasn’t being crazy. He said, “Do what makes you feel safe.” She wanted to throw the phone across the room when he said that. That was the whole problem. She almost never felt safe.

He didn’t seem to think it was odd. He turned it into a joke about how much she worked. The text read: You really do live at the hospital. It didn’t sound judgmental either though. Or she may have been reading too much into it. That was always a possibility.

She had her scrubs for her shift in her purse, but dressed in a nice, purple top that made her eyes pop and a pair of fitted jeans. He was right on time. His car pulled up to the hospital entrance, and he got out. He looked amazing; he wore a fitted button down shirt and slacks that showed off his muscular thighs. He took her hand and led her to the car. He even opened the car door for her.

“How are you?” he asked once they were on the road.

“Good,” she answered honestly. Usually she said good and meant tired, or stressed, but today she meant it. “This is probably a stupid question, but the doctor in me has to ask it. How are your injuries?”

He laughed. It was a low rumble that made her toes curl. “They’re fine. I feel absolutely fine.” She nodded. She desperately wanted to ask him about the healing but she figured she wouldn’t get any more of an answer than she did when she was digging bullets out of him. “I hope you like Italian,” he said, quickly changing the subject. She could tell that he wasn’t comfortable talking about the injuries.

“Yeah, I like it a lot.”

He smiled. From the side she could see how much it lit up his face. “Good. Leonardo’s is the best in town.”

For the rest of the car ride they chatted idly. She found out that he invested in restaurants (which is why he knew Leonardo’s so well). He found amazing chefs and helped them with marketing, and their platforms. None of the restaurants that he helped with every failed. It was interesting to her that he picked a business that was so prone to failure. Most restaurants didn’t survive their first year in business.

“That’s part of the challenge. Keeping people coming back. Making a name. I went to college for marketing and advertising, so figuring out all of that is the easy part. The hard part is finding a chef whose work you care enough about to represent.”

“So I’m guessing you like food?” She asked as they entered the small restaurant.

“That’s an understatement.”

It was the middle of the afternoon and the place was packed. Shane gave his name to the hostess and her eyes widened. “I’ll have the chef come right over to your table!”

Shane nodded. “Tell him there’s no rush.”

She quickly brought them to a table that was near the large window, and rushed off to the back. “So you helped with this restaurant?”

Shane smiled. “I did. And within the first year Leonardo was doing so well that he bought me out my share. I still come here all the time though.”

A young man, much younger than Lexi would have expected arrived at their table. Shane stood up and embraced him. “Leo!”

“Shane!” Leo looked at Lexi and took her hand. He kissed the back of it. “And who are you?”

“Lexi,” she blushed as Leo eyed her. It somehow didn’t feel sexual. It was almost as if he was sizing her up, trying to decide if she was good enough for Shane.

“Shane, you need to warn me next time you bring beautiful women into my restaurant so I can wear my shirt without tomato sauce stains.” Lexi looked at his shirt. It was white and indeed speckled with sauce stains. “I’ll get you two the special, yes? And Lexi?”

“Yeah?”

Leo nodded towards Shane. “He’s a good guy, don’t let him fool you into believing differently.”

“Thanks for the glowing recommendation Leo.”

The young man shrugged but didn’t look apologetic. “I better get back there. They can’t boil pasta without me.”

Shane turned to Lexi. “He seems fun!” She said.

“He really is. And he’s a great cook.” He then asked her about her work at the hospital and why she picked being in the ER. She told him all about her residency and the mentors she had.

“So basically doing emergency surgery in the ER is challenging but highly fulfilling. It keeps me on my toes and I have to think about things constantly and quickly. But sometimes people come in and we can’t save them. That’s always difficult, but we do what we can.”

She was interrupted by their waiter, who brought them two enormous plates of food. “This looks delicious!” Lexi picked up her fork, excited to try the food in front of her.

“Dig in,” Shane said with a smile.

“I love food, I can’t help it,” Lexi said before she tried the first bite. She stifled a moan, it was the best thing she had ever eaten.

“I like a girl who enjoys her meals,” Shane said with a smile. He picked up his fork and began to eat. Lexi watched him as she took her next bite. He was so controlled and graceful. Lexi slowed down her eating, trying to savor the delicious taste of the pasta sauce and chicken.

Lexi was thrilled when they brought over a soufflé for desert. She speared a bite of the chocolatey cake on a fork and her eyes rolled back in her head. This was the best thing she had ever eaten. It was soft and melted in her mouth. Sweet and tart. When she opened her eyes, Shane was staring at her.

“What?” she asked.

“I’ve just never seen anyone enjoy their food so much.” She flushed, feeling silly. “I don’t mean it in a bad way, it’s adorable.”

Lexi could feel herself blush. She pushed the soufflé dish towards him. “You try it. It’s amazing.” He took a bite and chewed slowly.

“You’re right, this is fantastic.”

When the waiter brought the check Shane grabbed it before Lexi even was able to lift her hand. His reflexes were incredible. He wouldn’t let her pay. He moved to help her out of her chair, and placed his hand on the middle of her back, guiding her between the tables.

Right as they reached the door, a man stepped to block their path. He had dark hair, like Shane’s but he was a bit shorter. They had some similar features but the way they held themselves was completely different. Shane was all power, where the man was purely posturing. Shane apparently knew him because once he was aware of him, he growled, “Matt.” Shane pulled Lexi closer but slightly behind him, as if shielding her from the man’s gaze.

“Pretty girlfriend, Shane.” The man, Matt said. He didn’t seem to recognize the hostility in Shane’s voice, but Lexi sure did. Shane did not like Matt. One bit.

“This is our first date,” Lexi clarified. Matt’s expression didn’t change, but Shane’s grip tightened around her middle. Lexi wasn’t sure what was going on, but Matt made her uncomfortable.

“Well, enjoy your time with Shane, dear. While it lasts.” Matt brushed past them, and walked into the restaurant.

“What did he—” Lexi started, but Shane interrupted.

“Let’s go. I’ll drive you to the hospital.” His hand went around her wrist and he pulled her forward. She wanted to yank her arm away, but she figured that if Shane had good reason to keep her away from him then best to go with it.

Shane opened her door and helped her in. It would have been polite if she hadn’t felt like she was being shoved inside. He moved quickly, she would have called it inhumanly quick, and was peeling out of the parking lot in seconds. She was sure he broke at least ten traffic laws on the drive there. He pulled up at the front and took her hand before she got out of the car.

“Text me when your shift is over and let me know when you get home.” He seemed both worried and angry all at once.

“I will.” She leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “I had a good time today.”

“Me too. I’ll call you later.” She could feel his eyes on her as she entered the hospital.

Chapter 6

Shane texted her constantly and always called her when she got home in the evenings. They went out a couple more times over the next week. She was absolutely enamored. He was always so calm, and collected. He talked about his business with such competency that it almost made Lexi want to switch professions. Almost. It was strange to have something to do when she wasn’t at work. Usually, when she wasn’t at work she was wishing she was. But she looked forward to spending time with Shane.

She was itching to ask him more questions about the night he was shot, and about Matt, the man from the restaurant but she couldn’t quite figure out how to pose the questions.

It was a Friday evening when Lexi was at the hospital. It was relatively early in her shift, and one of the nurses scurried over to her. “Doctor Green! There’s someone asking to see you. He’s in the waiting room.”

“Thanks Gracie.” Lexi turned towards the waiting room and peaked through the glass window in the door. She assumed it was Shane, but she didn’t see him. Instead, it was the man from the restaurant. She frowned. She wasn’t sure why he was here, or what he wanted. Hell, she didn’t know how he knew where she worked. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. She walked into the on-call room, and dialed Shane’s number.

“Lexi, did you get off early?” his voice soothed her.

“No, I just had a quick question.”

“What’s up?”

“Remember that guy who stopped us at lunch the other day?”

“Matt? Lexi, what’s going on?”

“Uh, he’s here at the hospital. One of the nurses said he was asking for me.”

“Fuck. I need you to clock out and wait for me at the back entrance of the hospital. Don’t talk to anyone. Tell the nurse to say it’s your night off or something. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“Shane you can’t—I have to work!”

“Lexi, you need to listen to me. He’s a dangerous guy. Do what I told you. Now. I’ll call you when I’m here.” Lexi lowered the phone from her ear, heart hammering. How could she trust Shane? She hadn’t known him for long. But she wasn’t about to not listen if someone told her that Matt was dangerous. Who wouldn’t listen to something like that?

With her heart hammering in her chest, she popped her head into the floor supervisor’s office. “Gwen, I just got a phone call. There’s an emergency at home with my sister’s kid. It’s a slow night, is it okay if I take off?”

Gwen pursed her lips. “Don’t put me in this position ever again Lexi. Yes, you can go. Let Feinstein know you’re leaving so he can cover your patients.”

“Thanks so much Gwen. It won’t happen again.”

“I know it won’t Lexi, you love it here too much.” Lexi smiled tentatively and backed out of the room. She managed to find Feinstein in the hall and let him know she was leaving. He looked pissed but there wasn’t anything she could do. They would call her if they needed her that badly.

Her phone buzzed. It was a text from Shane. I’m here.

She grabbed her bag and headed to the back exit. He was standing outside his car, his posture rigid and his mouth set in a hard line. He looked so hot. He pressed a fast kiss to her lips. “Get in the car.”

“Shane, what’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you on the way.” He shut the door after she got in and floored it. His jaw was clenched and she could see the muscles in his neck tense and release. He was gripping the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles were white.

“Tell me,” she said fiercely.

“Matt is my cousin. A couple weeks ago I was told that I’d be taking over the family business. Matt was angry. He thought that he deserved the position, even though my business track record is better than his. Lately, he’s been crazed. It started small, just him trying to turn people I work with against me. But he was the one responsible for me getting shot. And now I think he’s trying to go after you to hurt me.”

“But we’ve only been dating for like two weeks!”

“It doesn’t matter. He knows I care about you so he wants to get me where it hurts. I’m taking you home with me.”

“Why aren’t we calling the police?”

Shane laughed. “There isn’t a whole hell of a lot they can do.” Lexi knew the truth of that. If it hadn’t been for a fantastic female detective who believed her story, even without proof, she’d still be under the thumb of her sadistic ex. “I can protect you Lexi. I know you have no reason to believe me, but try to trust me. I can keep you safe.”

“Okay. I trust you.” The second the words left her mouth she knew them to be true. She did trust Shane, for whatever reason. They didn’t speak until they pulled into an underground parking lot. Lexi’s heart hammered with nerves.

Shane took her hand. “I live in this building. Try to relax.”

She followed Shane to the elevator. His whole body was tensed as he walked. His eyes darted around, as if waiting for some attack. In the elevator, he positioned them so he was closer to the door. It was like he was using his body to protect her if anything bad was on the other side of the elevator. The door dinged and opened to a wide hallway. Shane had his keys out and quickly opened his door.

He stepped inside, and held her back with his arm. He took a deep breath, and looked around, and then let her in. “No one is here,” he muttered. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to hear it or not.

“How do you know?” He didn’t even go room to room, he just sniffed.

“I know.” She knew she wasn’t going to get any other answer out of him, so she followed him into the apartment. “I’ll show you the guest bedroom.”

He took her hand and led her further into the apartment. He pushed open a door revealing a tastefully but sparsely decorated bedroom. He walked in and pushed open another door. “Here’s the bathroom.”

“Thanks for keeping me safe,” Lexi said as she rubbed her arm. She took a tentative step towards him, and stood on her tip toes to press a kiss against his lips. He looked shocked for a moment, but then he moved so quickly he was almost a blur.

His lips crashed down onto hers and his hands went to her hips, pulling her closer. Her heart pounded against her chest. Her hands went around his neck, keeping her anchored to him. His tongue explored her mouth; somehow he was plundering sweetly, and she wasn’t sure how. He was a complete contradiction. His body hard, but his hands held her gently, as if he was afraid to break her. His hands moved up her back, and came to rest at the base of her neck. He angled her head back, and his lips left hers. She stifled a moan at the loss of contact but his lips moved down her neck. He sucked and bit at her skin. Her nerve endings felt raw and exposed, like he was somehow kissing every part of her at once. She had never needed someone so much in her life.

“Strip darlin’,” he breathed in her ear the barest hint of a southern accent pushed through in his raw whisper. She hadn’t realized he was southern. She assumed he had practiced the crisp, accentless speech when he came to New York. Something about him forgetting to keep up his perfectly curated appearance turned her on.

She raised an eyebrow, as if daring him. She wanted to see what he would do. He was so much coiled, masculine energy. She wondered what it took to make that coil snap. The thought of him becoming undone made her feminine juices flow. She could feel her panties getting wet.

She wanted to, so badly. But she couldn’t. Her voice sounded thick with tears even as she willed herself not to cry. “I can’t.”

He stepped back. “Fuck, I’m so sorry.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I shouldn’t have pushed you like that. This is brand new.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s not that.”

He took her hand and pulled her along with him to sit on the edge of the bed. “Tell me.”

“I just…” She took a deep breath. This is why she didn’t have sex. This is why she didn’t date. The shame of what her ex-boyfriend had done to her body. She lifted the hem of her shirt, displaying the long scar that started at her right hip and moved around her back.

“Who did this to you?” He didn’t sound disgusted, and for that she was relieved. Instead, he sounded furious. It both scared her and turned her on.

“My ex-boyfriend. He’s in jail now.”

Shane pulled her into his lap, and ran his hands along her back. “I’m so sorry this happened to you.” She relaxed into his embrace and let his scent wash over her. His warm hand against her back felt so good. “Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes searching her face.

She nodded and leaned into him. He relaxed backwards, bringing them both down onto the bed. He rubbed her back gently, and she slid her hands under his shirt. His skin was warm, almost too warm. He followed suit. His hands pressed against her stomach, his fingers traced the long line of her scar. Somehow the way Shane looked at her, his eyes thick with desire, made her abandon her self-consciousness. She shivered.

He slowly pushed the hem of her shirt up and over her head. He kissed her gently, and she let herself fall into the sensation. She felt safe with Shane, protected. He carefully cupped her breast, massaging it gently. She reached behind herself and unclipped her bra, giving him full access. They continued to kiss as his fingers brushed against her skin.

His lips left hers and he trailed them down her neck. Kissing, and then blowing on her neck. The sensation made her shiver, and he pulled her closer to him. When he reached her breasts, he took one in his hand, and ran his finger across the hardening nipple. He took the other one in his mouth, his tongue circling. He sucked gently, and she arched forward, needing more. He switched to the other breast, and when the cold air hit her she moaned.

She tugged at his shirt, silently letting him know what she wanted. He paused, and pulled the fabric over his head. She ran her hands down his hard abs, marveling in the solidness of him. His breath hitched as she reached the edge of his low-slung jeans. She unbuttoned the top button and slowly slid the zipper down. Her bravery was rewarded with the tip of his hard cock. She ran her fingers along the head, marveling in the smoothness of it. He drew in a sharp breath.

“Not fair, sweetheart,” he said, his voice thick with desire. “Now you’re overdressed.”

She wiggled out of her scrub bottoms and his fingers brushed against the thin fabric of her underwear. For a moment she wished that she had worn sexy underwear but he didn’t seem to care. He was looking at her like he wanted to devour her. “Fuck, you’re gorgeous,” he whispered against her bare skin. She blushed. Gorgeous was never a word she associated with herself, especially because of the scar.

He moved down, kissing and laving at her skin. He settled on his elbows between her legs, and slowly slid her panties off. He ran a finger between her slick folds, and groaned. “You’re so wet.” And she was. Kissing him made her come undone. He kissed her right thigh, and slowly moved closer to her pussy. Her eyes fluttered closed, waiting for the touch of his tongue and lips. But when he got to the junction of her thighs, he jumped to the other thigh, ignoring her need.

“Shane,” she groaned.

She opened her eyes and looked down at him. “Good things come to those who wait, darlin’.” He continued to kiss her left thigh. His hand moved up to massage her right calf, slowly moving upward. She moaned as he worked out the knots in her legs. Then, finally, he went where she needed him to go. His fingers spread her apart, exposing her to his lust-filed gaze. He looked at her for a moment, before licking a slow line up her slit. His tongue found her clit and pressed down. She nearly jumped at the pressure. He sucked on the bundle of nerves, and slowly slid one finger inside of her.

Pressure built in her stomach, and she grabbed hold of his hair, holding him to her. He added another finger, curling it to hit the spot inside of her that made her shake. He rubbed and her toes curled. She was on the precipice of an orgasm, and then it hit. Her hands tightened on his hair, as she arched upwards. His tongue didn’t stop. Instead, he picked up his pace. It was too much and she fell over the edge again, a second orgasm rolled through her, leaving her panting.

He lifted his head, and moved up, over her body. He turned to the side, and pulled her into him. She felt like jello, like every bone in her body was liquid.

She felt his hardness against her back and she turned and took him in her hand. He took her wrist. “Later,” he said. “I wanted this to be about you.” She raised an eyebrow. “I promise, I’m fine. Fuck, you looked so hot when I was making you cum.” The male pride in his voice was so obvious.

He pulled her naked body close and ran his nose along her neck. “You smell like me,” he muttered. Her nose scrunched. How could he tell? To her everything just smelled like sweat and sex. Maybe a super sense of smell came with his weird healing abilities. She had to remember to ask him in the morning. His fingers traced up and down her stomach, almost tickling her. “You’re so beautiful. And you’re all mine.” Shane’s words washed over her as she fell asleep in his arms. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if it were so, she thought as she drifted off. But she knew he was keeping something from her, something about Matt and this feud. And she was going to find out what.

Chapter 7

Lexi rolled over, and was met with a large solid mass of warmth. Her vision was blurred with sleep. She could only see the outline of a bare, masculine back. She took a deep breath, panic threatening to overwhelm her. He was back. And she could only imagine what he was going to do to her as punishment for his time in jail.

She slid as slowly as she possibly could away from him, trying desperately not to make the mattress move. She stopped and pressed a hand to her chest. Her heart was beating so fast she was sure it was audible to him as well. She made it to the edge of the bed and was just about to lower a leg onto the ground when he rolled over and put his arms around her.

“Good morning,” he whispered into her neck. She was silent, willing herself not to cry or scream. And then he looked up, and her breath left her in a sob. “Lexi?” His voice was urgent. “What’s wrong?”

She buried her head against his chest. “I’m sorry, Shane. I just sort of freaked out a bit when I saw you.” She didn’t need to tell him that she thought he was her ex. He knew. And he wasn’t angry. Not like the few guys she’d dated soon after. They always seemed to be upset at her for the reactions caused by her trauma. Shane was different.

He put her hand in the middle of her upper back and pressed down gently, grounding her. Her breathing calmed. “I’m here,” he whispered against her skin. The roughness of his day old stubble against her skin was somehow so comforting. “I’m here and I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

He hummed gently and rubbed her back. It took a few moments but she slowly opened her eyes and looked up at him. He brushed a bit of her hair out of her face and cupped her cheek. He slowly pressed a tentative kiss to her lips. “Good morning, darlin’. How about we get up and I make us breakfast?”

Lexi nodded. Shane got out of bed first and she followed. It took her a moment to remember everything from the night before: Matt showing up at the hospital, Shane coming to get her to keep her safe from his insane cousin, Shane’s hands all over her body…

She flushed as she remembered the feeling of him between her legs. Heat filled her and Shane’s nostril’s flared. “What are you thinking about?” he asked calmly.

Lexi flushed a deeper shade of red. “Uh, last night.”

He chuckled before taking her hand and leading her to the bathroom. “Maybe we’ll go for a repeat later today?”

Lexi nodded, both nervous and excited. He turned on the faucet in the shower, and tested the water before he started to undress. Lexi took a moment to admire his body. He looked like he shouldn’t have been graceful. He had the sort of muscles that she associated with guys who were always in the gym. But he moved with an awareness of his body that reminded her of professional ballet dancers. He pulled down his pajama pants, revealing his toned thighs and butt. She had never considered herself a butt girl before but Shane was changing her mind.

He turned to her and grinned. “I’m feeling a little objectified right now,” he teased.

She laughed and followed him into the shower. “I can’t help it. Have you seen your body?”

“I like yours more,” he said as he cupped her face in his hands. He kissed her deeply, sending electric shocks down to her toes. She wondered if she’d ever stop being a little sad whenever his lips parted from hers.

Shane maneuvered them so she was under the warm water. It cascaded down her body, easing tension that she hadn’t known was there. She moaned softly. “Fuck, whenever you make noises like that it drives me insane.”

She turned away from him. “Sorry,” she muttered.

He grabbed her face and turned her towards him. “You have nothing to apologize for. You’re so sexy, and you don’t even know it. It is really kind of astounding but also a major turn on. If you hadn’t noticed.”

He looked down between them pointedly, and she followed his gaze. His thick cock was standing up between them. There was just a small bit of pre-cum leaking out. She took his cock in her hand, and slowly rubbed her fingers over the head. His head fell back and he groaned.

She slowly sank to her knees. The tile was uncomfortable but she didn’t mind. She brought his length to her mouth and gently rubbed it along her lips. His eyes found hers. She slowly slid him inside of her mouth, savoring the masculine taste of him. His hands went to her wet hair, slowly guiding her. It was never rough, and he never gave her more than she could handle. One hand moved from her hair and caressed her face as she slowly sucked at him. Her tongue ran along the bottom of his shaft, exploring him. She noticed every twitch, and every groan, taking note for later.

She ran her nails up his thighs. He shivered and his grip tightened on her hair. He thrust slowly into her mouth, and she took all of him.

“Lexi, I’m going to cum,” he whispered.

Her hand moved from his thigh to his balls, and gently rubbed at them. She could feel his body tighten as he moved to release. He groaned and his hot seed filled her mouth. She swallowed quickly, and he slowly pulled his semi-hard cock from between her lips. He helped her stand up slowly. Her knees hurt a bit from the hard tile. He pulled her against his chest and kissed her head.

“That was fantastic, thank you.” She nuzzled against his bare, wet skin, enjoying the feeling of his warmth combined with the hot water. He released her and gave her a lingering kiss before grabbing a bottle of shampoo. “Turn around.” She obliged and he began to massage the shampoo into her scalp. She sighed and relaxed against him. After a few minutes, he turned her around and rinsed the soap out of her hair.

Then he picked up the soap. He lathered it in his hands and started at her shoulders and neck. He worked her muscles in small circles, gently ironing out the kinks. Her eyes fluttered shut and she relaxed into the delicious warmth his hands were creating. He moved down her body. His hands on her breasts made her feel like she was on fire. Her breath caught in her chest as his fingers circled her nipples, never quite touching them.

“You’re teasing me,” she said. She wasn’t sure if she was annoyed or if she was loving it.

“Maybe just a little,” he replied before he took her nipples between his thumb and forefingers and rolled them. She gasped as the sensation shot directly to her core, making her clench her inner muscles. His hands were magical.

He moved down, over her scar, careful not to ignore it. And then he dropped to his knees. He took the same care and time that he did on her shoulders on her legs and thighs. Then his hands ghosted over the curve of her buttocks. He pulled her in close, and ran his tongue against her slit. Her head fell back and she put a hand up against the wall of the shower as his tongue found her clit and pressed against it. She felt the orgasm move through her immediately. Her legs shook, and he kept her upright. Two fingers slid into her clenching sex and rubbed against that special spot inside of her.

She cried out in pleasure, her moans reverberating against the walls of the shower. His tongue lapped against her, licking up everything she gave. When she finally stopped shaking he stood up, turned off the water, picked her up in his arms and stepped out and into the steamy bathroom.

He sat her at the edge of the tub and she watched with half-lidded eyes as he grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her. He slowly dried her off, and then quickly toweled himself off. She leaned her head against his hip, and took in the smell of him. His hands moved through her hair, carefully working out the knots.

“I could get used to this,” she said as he bent down to kiss her.

Chapter 8

Once they were out of the bathroom, Shane lent her a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. Both were too big but at least the sweatpants had a drawstring. She sat in his kitchen as he cooked breakfast. It was a nice kitchen, very homey. Lexi wondered if his mother or sister had helped him pick everything out. There was a wooden block island in the center of the kitchen, and pots hung overhead. There were two chairs on one side of the island, creating a tiny breakfast bar area.

“Do you cook a lot?” she asked as he flipped over the omelet.

“When I have the time I do. You don’t get into helping restaurants out without really loving to cook. I was always the one helping my mom out in the kitchen because my sister can’t boil a pot of water. It’s pretty sad. Her fiancé can’t cook either, so they’ll probably survive on take out.”

Lexi snorted into her orange juice. “I’m trying to imagine you as a little kid but I can’t.”

“Well since I refuse to show anyone pictures of my horrifically styled childhood, you’re out of luck.” He turned and slid part of an omelet onto her plate. It was steaming and looked delicious.

He pulled the second chair around so he was facing her and began to cut up his own omelet. “This is amazing,” Lexi said after her first bite.

“I’m glad you like it.”

“So are you and your mom still close?” she asked.

“Sort of. Things have been extremely busy in the last few years so it’s a little hard to spend time with her. And my dad is pretty sick, so that takes up a lot of her time. We don’t see each other very often, but she usually tries to go to all of my restaurant openings and we do try to have dinner as a family once a month or so.” He took another bite and then looked at her. “How about you? Are you and your family close?”

“We used to be. And then when I started dating my ex we became distant. He sort of isolated me from everyone. So the last year has been a lot of relationship rebuilding. I try to spend time with my sister and her kids a lot, but both my parents died in a car accident about six months ago.” She tried to sound calm, but her lip quivered. She could feel a tear leak from the corner of her eye. It killed her that her parents died just as she was in the midst of repairing her relationship with them.

Stood up and moved around the table. “Shit, Lexi. I’m so sorry.” He put his arms around her and she buried her head against his side.

“It’s okay,” she whispered. She took a deep breath, and calmed herself. “I’m okay.” She looked up at him and his lips met hers. His touch was so comforting that it almost made her nervous. He was too good to be true. She was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. “Your food is going to get cold.” She pointed to his omelet.

“Are you alright?” His eyes searched her face.

“Yes, I’m fine. Promise. Now eat!”

They were halfway through their meal when Shane’s phone began to buzz. He didn’t go to check it, but the moment the call went to voicemail it began to buzz again. It happened three more times. “I think you may want to get that,” Lexi said, pointing at the phone.

Shane picked up the phone and looked at the caller ID. “It’s my sister, Amanda. I don’t really want to get it. I know exactly what she’s going to say.”

“Are you two arguing?” Lexi asked as the phone began to buzz again.

“Something like that.”

There was a loud knock on the door and the phone began buzzing once more. “Fuck,” Shane hissed. He dropped his fork, and stood up. “I’ll be right back. Stay here.”

Lexi could hear him move through the living room and open the front door. She couldn’t quite hear what was going on, but Shane and the feminine voice at the door (Lexi assumed it was his sister) were clearly going at it.

The voices became clearer as they moved into the apartment. Lexi figured whatever was going on, Shane was losing his battle.

“Shane you’re being ridiculous— “

“Get the hell out of my apartment, Amanda. I’m dealing with things the way I see fit to do so.” Lexi stood up. She didn’t think Shane wanted her to hear this. If she peeked her head in, maybe they would quiet down. If not she wanted to let Shane know she could leave while he and his sister figured things out.

She padded to the living room, and stopped in the doorway.

Amanda stood in the living room. She was the tallest woman that Lexi had ever seen in person. She was also wearing six inch heels. Her arms were crossed, and she looked so angry. “Shane, what the hell were you thinking? You brought a human into your home? Matt is at the council right now, screaming about how you’re betraying our kind— “

Shane locked eyes with Lexi. “Amanda, stop it.” Shane’s voice was low and angry.

“No, you have to listen to me. This isn’t appropriate right now. If you want some human side piece that’s fine but not right now!” Amanda turned away from Shane and looked right at Lexi.

Human? Why in the world would she call Lexi human? It wasn’t as if Amanda wasn’t too. And what council was she talking about? Was it Shane’s board of trustees or something?

“Oh, shit. You didn’t tell me she was here,” Amanda said as she looked over her shoulder at Shane.

“That’s what I was trying to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen.” Shane crossed over to Lexi. “You should go Amanda.”

“I will not! Not until you do something about all this. No offense, Lexi. I’m sure you’re lovely, but this is a really bad time for our family.” Amanda waved Lexi away, as if banishing her.

“Fuck, Amanda!” Shane ran a hand through his hair.

“Would one of you mind telling me what’s going on?” Lexi asked. She was getting really sick of being talked about like she wasn’t here. Family issues or not, she was involved now. Especially because Matt wanted to hurt her.

Amanda and Shane looked at each other. If was as if they were having an entire conversation silently. Anger rose in Lexi. This was completely inappropriate. If Shane didn’t want her involved in his crap, then he shouldn’t have asked her out. Or he should have let her handle Matt. “Whatever. I’m done. Shane, call me if you want. Or don’t.” She turned, and walked towards the door, planning on grabbing her purse and leaving. Her hand was on the doorknob when she realized that her car was still at the hospital. She hesitated for just a moment before Amanda spoke.

“We’re werewolves. Or shifters. Or whatever the hell you people call it.”

Lexi shook her head. She must not have heard it right. She turned to the two siblings. “What are you talking about?” She searched Shane’s face, waiting for him to shout ‘Punked!’ But he didn’t. He wasn’t looking at her.

“People who can turn into animals. They exist. Some people can turn into bears. Some into wolves. I’m sure there is other shit out there too. But Shane and I can turn into wolves and Shane is heir to the pack throne. So obviously it looks messed up when he’s dating human women instead of one of the girls from the pack.” Amanda tossed herself onto the couch and crossed her legs. She looked like she was on a photoshoot. Even her relaxed position looked beautifully posed. “So that’s what the whole fight with Matt is about. Well, it’s not about you. It’s about Shane being into humans and what humans can do for us, and Matt fucking hates humans. For good reason, you are all sort of assholes. But Matt would be a fucking horrible leader. He’s too hot headed. Case in point.” Amanda pointed at Lexi.

“Who attacks someone their rival has been seeing for like two weeks? Hell, I’d have been more worried that you put this all together yourself once you had Shane’s bloodwork. You wouldn’t be the first doctor to figure it out. So it would have made sense to try to kill you because of that.”

Lexi leaned against the door, her legs suddenly week. “Is this some joke? Are you trying to get me to stop seeing your brother?”

Amanda laughed. “No, sweetheart. He really seems to like you. I don’t care who my brother fucks. I do care about the pack and what is best for the pack. And right now, you’re not. It really isn’t anything personal.”

“You’re crazy.” Lexi mumbled.

Amanda laughed. “I wish I was!”

Lexi looked at Shane, but he wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Shane? Is this…is she telling…” Lexi couldn’t even finish her sentence. What was she supposed to say? What was she supposed to do? Just accept that…werewolves existed? That made no sense. It would be medically impossible for someone to shift forms. She had to look at the lab work. She had to know the truth.

“I’m leaving,” she whispered. She pushed herself up. One hand on the wall kept her steady.

“Lexi,” Shane whispered. “Lexi, I’m sorry.”

“I don’t know what you want from me, Shane. I really don’t.”

She wasn’t sure if she imagined his reply, because she was halfway out the door, but she was almost certain he said, “I just want you.”

Chapter 9

When she was two blocks away she called a cab. She sat on the sidewalk and waited. It wasn’t until she was home that she remembered that she left her favorite scrubs back at Shane’s. She opened her door and checked the time. She had a few hours until her shift started. She jumped into the shower. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt dirty. And wrong.

She finished, dressed for work, and then sat on the couch. She turned on the television, hoping to distract herself from Amanda’s words, and Shane’s reaction, but she couldn’t focus on the television. She stood up and paced around the room. How was it possible for a human body to mimic an animals’ body? There was research that came out a few years ago that suggested that dogs shared some human DNA, but humans turning into wolves…no, it was impossible. Right?

Lexi needed to see the lab work. That was it. The lab work would tell her everything she needed to know. She called another cab, cursing the fact that her car was at the hospital, and then called a lab she worked with to find out if she could get some wolf blood.

The guy on the other line made her feel insane. But she made up a story about a patient being attacked by a large animal and needing to confirm the DNA. She scheduled the courier service to the hospital. Her heart thumped as she walked through the sliding doors.

“Lexi!” One of her favorite scrub nurses greeted her. “Your shift isn’t scheduled for another few hours. Why are you here?”

“Just checking on a couple of things,” she smiled.

“You’re such a workaholic,” the nurse admonished playfully.

Lexi shrugged. “I can’t help it; I love my job!”

The nurse laughed and turned to walk away. Lexi headed towards the lab. She pushed open the lab door and was greeted by one of the lab technicians, Greg.

“Hey, Lex! You got a package. It’s in the fridge; it’s the box with your name. Obviously.”

“Thanks, Greg. Can you pull the file on the John Doe who came in with the gunshot wounds the other week?”

“Are the two things related?”

“No, not at all.” Lexi felt bad lying to him. “Just figured that since I’m down here I can double check something with that anyway.” Lexi took her samples out of the medical refrigerator and began to set up slides. She compared her slides to the pictures and pathology from Shane’s report. The more she compared the more her heart sank.

Amanda wasn’t insane. And she wasn’t trying to drive Lexi away from Shane. There were too many similar markers. Amanda was telling the truth. Werewolves, or shifters or whatever, were real.

Lexi sank down onto one of the chairs and put her head in her hands.

“You okay, Lexi?” Greg asked. He put his hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah, I think my blood sugar is just low. I got a little faint for a second.” Lexi took two deep breaths and Greg handed her a protein bar. “I’m not going to take your lunch,” Lexi said, passing the bar back to him. Greg basically lived in the lab, she was sure he lived on protein bars and protein shakes.

He smiled and opened a cabinet, displaying three boxes of the meal bars. “You wouldn’t be. Eat something, Lexi. You look like you’re going to pass out.”

She opened the wrapper and took a tiny nibble. She felt too sick to really dig into it. She wrapped it up as best she could and slid it into her pocket. “Thanks for that,” she said and gave Greg a smile.

“No problem. Try not to over work yourself,” he said with a sympathetic look. She cleaned up her slides and deposited them into the proper waste bins.

“I’ll do my best. No promises.”

Her shift ended too quickly. It was a blessing to have a heavy work load with lots on her mind but the moment she badged out everything came crashing back. She sat in her car for fifteen minutes before she managed to put the key in the ignition. She held her phone in her hand, hovering over Shane’s contact information, trying to decide if she should text him about the blood samples.

She put her phone in the cup holder and drove home. She made herself something to eat and then crawled into bed. Her phone beeped and she picked it up. It was a text from Shane.

Can we talk?

She looked at the text. Before she was able to type a response her phone began to ring. Shane’s number popped up on the screen. She swiped the screen, answering the call. She stayed silent for a moment.

“Lexi? Are you there?”

She found herself nodding. When she realized that she slowly said, “Yes.”

“I’m sorry about earlier. That’s not how I wanted you to find out. I’m not sure how I wanted you to find out because I’ve never dated a human in any serious capacity before. I was going to tell you.”

“When?”

“I don’t know. This is new territory for me, Lex. I…I don’t know how to handle it. How are you doing?” She looked at the phone, and ended the call. What sort of question was that?

It started ringing again almost immediately. She dropped the phone on her bed and rolled over, pulling a pillow over her head. The moment the ringing stopped and sent Shane’s call to voicemail the phone started ringing again. She let him call twice more before picking up.

“Honestly, Shane? I’m not sure how I feel. I don’t exactly think there’s a litmus test for the guy you’re dating telling you that he’s a…a…werewolf.”

“We prefer the term ‘shifter.’”

“Ugh… It’s a lot to take in.”

“I get that. I just wanted to know if this… I mean, if there’s a shot... can you forgive me?... Please, Lexi, allow me another chance.” He sounded a bit nervous, not quite like the cool and collected Shane he was used to.

“I really don’t know.” She sighed. “I’ll call you when I’ve thought some things out.” She didn’t wait for his response before hanging up. She sighed and scrubbed her face with her hands. Too bad there wasn’t a manual on how to feel after you find out your boyfriend isn’t a human.

Chapter 10

Shane paced back and forth in his office. He had never been so angry in his life. Not with his sister at least. She had not only potentially ruined what was turning into a great relationship, but she also exposed the entire pack to a human. He didn’t think that Lexi was the sort of girl to go to media outlets, not that anyone would believe her, but he wanted to tell her on his own time, when he thought she could handle that sort of information.

Amanda’s big slip had made Shane reconsider his entire relationship with Lexi, and ask himself some questions he wasn’t prepared to answer just yet. Did he like Lexi? Yes, quite a bit. She was sweet, and under that timid exterior was a curious little sex kitten. Could he see himself with her for a long time? Yes. Definitely. Would he ever be able to find out if she was his mate? Now it seemed unlikely.

“Thanks Amanda,” he growled under his breath.

His office phone rang and he went to pick it up. “Shane,” he said sharply.

“Uh hi,” his assistant’s timid voice came through the other end. “Your sister is here to see you.”

“Tell her she can rot in hell and do not let her back here.”

“Sir?” Poor Scott. He was a good assistant, and polite too. He would never tell Amanda what Shane had said.

Shane sighed. “Tell her I’m busy and that if she wants to see me she can schedule an appointment for next month.”

“Um okay, sir. I’ll schedule that for you. One more thing. Your father is here too.”

“Fuck,” Shane swore loudly. This was not what he wanted to deal with right now. A meeting with his father would mean a discussion about Alpha status and bringing together the council for voting. “Send my dad in.”

“But not your sister?”

“No, Scott. I don’t care if you have to knock her out, do not let her back here.” Scott wouldn’t be able to take Amanda down anyway, but he just wanted to be sure that he would be able to talk to his father alone.

“Okay, sir. I’ll do my best.” There was a soft click, letting him know that Scott had hung up.

A few moments later the door to his office inched open. Shane’s father moved slowly into the room with the help of a cane. Shane quickly helped him to a seat and the old man sat down with a sigh.

Shane’s father, despite his age, was still an imposing man. He was still around six feet tall, even hunched over, and although he was slightly soft around the middle, it was clear that at one point he was astoundingly muscular. Shane had always looked up to his father. He was a fair man and the pack loved him dearly. If Shane was elected as the new Alpha, he wasn’t quite sure how he was going to live up to his father’s legacy.

“Dad,” he said once he sat down on the other side of the desk.

“Son,” his father replied. His dad’s cool, grey eyes searched his face carefully. “I believe we need to talk about a few things.” Shane nodded once. He had been avoiding this conversation for weeks. He wasn’t sure if his dad was disappointed in him because Matt was after the Alpha position. His father’s status as Alpha had never been challenged, it was simply a given. Being challenged could show weakness. Or defeating a challenger could solidify the strength of your reign. It was hard to tell what people would think until you were on the throne. Once you were seated, everyone wanted to weigh in on every single thing you did.

“I think we do.” Shane took a deep breath.

“Let’s start with the obvious. Matt is a problem. He isn’t strong enough to be Alpha and his head isn’t in the right place. A good Alpha knows that he doesn’t deserve the position, he isn’t entitled to it. He must work for it, earn it constantly. Matt is too trigger happy, as was made obvious by his attack on you the other week. How are you feeling, by the way?”

“Absolutely fine.” Indeed, Shane was fine. He didn’t even have any scars from the bullet removal, but that was more about Lexi’s ability to use a scalpel than it was about his healing ability.

“We will talk about that doctor of yours in a minute.” Shane flinched. Of course Amanda would have said something to their father. It was too much to ask that she would have kept her mouth shut. “Anyway, Matt is out of control. He has been talking to council members, trying to sway them away from voting from you. Most think he is insane, but a few are willing to believe in him. Matt is strong, but his desire to be Alpha comes from some silly boyish need to be better than you. I love the boy like a son, I practically raised him after my idiot brother left the pack, but there has always been rivalry between the two of you.”

It was true. Shane and Matt had grown up almost like brothers. When Matt was ten, his father left the pack to become a lone wolf. He left Matt with Shane’s father. Shane’s parents tried as hard as they could to raise them on equal footing, but something in Matt was always sour. He wanted to be the best but he was unwilling to work for it. Shane, on the other hand, wanted nothing handed to him. The two young wolves were complete opposites, and it made their rivalry even stronger.

It culminated in a final fight when the boys turned eighteen, right before Shane left for college. Matt went after Shane’s girlfriend, an extremely taboo move in shifter society, and it ended with Matt on his back, and his neck in Shane’s mouth in an extremely public and humiliating fight. The relationship with the girl didn’t last much longer, and any semblance of comradery that the two boys had was destroyed that day.

“I know there has been. But I don’t know why Matt is doing this. He knows that he couldn’t beat me in a fair fight. And that’s what it will come to regardless of the council votes. We will have to fight for it.”

“I don’t think Matt will let it go that far.” Shane realized how tired his father looked in that moment. He looked every bit his age. He wondered if it made his father nervous to think about having to step down from his Alpha position due to his health.

“What do you mean?”

“This is where your little doctor friend comes in.”

“What does Lexi have to do with any of this?” Shane could feel the anger rising in him. Lexi didn’t need to be drawn into a fight that had absolutely nothing to do with her. She had been through enough in her life.

“I think Matt is trying to use her to get you to step down from the Alpha position. It won’t fly, there is no way he would be allowed to serve if you were coerced out of the position but I think he’s willing to try anything at this point. I know he is trying to make people upset about the fact that a potential Alpha is dating a human woman rather than a wolf.”

“That’s ridiculous. There are no rules about not dating humans. If there were we would have become extinct.”

“I know that. And you know that if things got serious, turning her would be possible and most likely necessary, but you’re correct. There is no rule forbidding human relationships. That doesn’t mean that isn’t frowned upon for someone in such a high position to be with a human rather than a wolf.”

Shane scrubbed his hands over his face. This is exactly why he didn’t want Lexi to know about him just yet. Humans who stayed with shifters usually made the decision to get bitten, thereby turning them as well, but it wasn’t something anyone took on lightly. Turning someone bonded you with them forever. There was no going back from that.

Shane hadn’t even thought about the possibility of turning Lexi. Not yet. But he wondered if it may be necessary to keep her safe from Matt. He wondered what Matt’s plans were for her. Was it just about spooking Shane into giving up the Alpha position? Or was Matt really willing to do anything to get what he wanted, even kill an innocent woman? Shane sighed.

“Look, the thing with Lexi and me is too new for her to be able to make a decision about whether or not she wants to be brought into the fold. Hell, it’s so damn new that it’s very likely that Amanda ruined it the other day. But I need Matt kept away from her. Can that be arranged?”

“I will do my best but I can’t make any promises, Shane.”

“I only ask that you try.” Shane had a funny feeling that the Alpha’s guards would rather do anything else besides guard a human.

Shane helped his father stand up and walked him to the door. “Shane, one last thing. I know that the girl is new, but have you thought that it may not be as unimportant as you seem to believe. Matt is so willing to hurt this girl because he is convinced that it will hurt you. The boy may be unhinged, but he isn’t stupid. I know you care for her, but I think there may be something deeper here than even you realize.” He clapped a hand on Shane’s back. “Be well, son. And be safe.”

Shane watched his father hobble to the elevator, his heart sinking slowly. What if his father was right? He had been unable to stop thinking about her for more than two minutes ever since he met her that night he was lying in the hospital bed. There was no true way to tell if someone was your mate until well, mating happened. And he and Lexi hadn’t gone that far yet. But he couldn’t deny that something had drawn him to her. He normally wouldn’t have asked out a human, especially one who had just pulled bullets out of his body, but something inside him made him do it. It was as though his inner animal knew something he didn’t.

Even touching her gave him a thrill he had never experienced before. Just the thought of her thick curves made his cock twitch. Was it possible that she was his mate? Maybe.

Part of him hoped she was. But for her sake, a huge part of him hoped she wasn’t.

Shane grabbed his cell phone off his desk and scrolled through his contacts. He sent out a quick text message, and packed up his briefcase. He wasn’t going to get any work done today. There were other things to deal with.

Half an hour later he pulled into the parking lot of an apartment complex. He parked his car and rolled up his sleeves and untied his tie. He tossed his tie in the passenger’s seat and got out of the car. He checked his phone for the apartment number and moved to the stairs. His agitated energy moved him up three flights of stairs easily.

He scanned the numbers for the apartment 605 and then walked in that direction. He could smell the wolves here. It was the right place. He knocked on the door, hoping that Matt would be stupid enough to let him in. He waited a moment before the door squeaked open.

He saw Matt’s face register shock before he tried to close the door. Shane quickly stuck his foot in the jamb, and the door bounced back slightly. “I’m here to talk,” he growled. Seeing Matt in the flesh made him so angry that he wondered if he would change accidently. He hadn’t accidently changed since he was a pre-teen. He took a deep breath, calming himself, as Matt looked at him wearily. He clearly didn’t believe that Shane was ‘just here to talk.’

“Fine.” Matt opened the door. Before he could step back, Shane pushed into the apartment. It was relatively sparse and tidy but it smelled like sex. That was why the hallway had smelled like wolves. Apparently Matt was trying extremely hard to find his mate. Shane could smell at least six different female wolves. None of them were here, and the most recent scent was a few days old but it permeated everything.

“You’ve been busy,” Shane said, turning to look at his cousin.

“An Alpha has to have a mate,” Matt said blandly. Shane rolled his eyes. Matt believed his own idiocy.

“Yeah, great. Now leave mine the fuck alone,” Shane said viciously.

Matt’s eyes brightened. “So Lexi is your mate? I knew it. It was clear in that restaurant.”

“That wasn’t what I meant.” Shane cursed himself for the slip of the tongue. “Leave her alone. We aren’t seeing each other anymore. Fuck off Matt, she’s not part of this. Be enough of a man to actually fight me instead of attempting to scare some fragile little human woman.”

Matt’s eyes shone. “She’s part of you, Shane. She’s fair game.”

“Fuck off, Matt. She’s not my mate. But she is under my protection and if you touch her, I’m going to kill you.”

“Strong words for a little human, particularly one who is ‘not your mate’ as you claim.” Shane tried not to roll his eyes. Making Matt see reason was going to be close to impossible. Shane took a step forward, crowding Matt’s space. He was taller than his cousin, and more muscular too. Whereas Matt relied on his anger in a fight, Shane wasn’t going to leave anything to chance. He still sparred with his friends, both in human and wolf form. He was a good fighter. He just didn’t want to fight in a residential area.

“Touch the girl and I’ll rip you to pieces. Are we clear?” Shane crowded Matt, hoping that he would just be smart and back down. But he didn’t.

“Anyone you touch is fair game, Shane. You fuck a human, she gets put into play. No one wants our Alpha fucking human bitches. It’s disgusting. I’m taking care of a problem by putting her down.”

Shane’s fist swung before he realized it was happening. He saw red. His hand throbbed and Matt hit the floor. Matt looked up at him. Shane waited for him to get up. He was going to win this fight fairly.

“Get up you shit excuse for a wolf.” Matt pushed himself up and took a swing. Shane dodged it easily. “A real wolf would understand that we are the top of the chain and we don’t go after those weaker than ourselves for no reason.”

Matt took another swing, and Shane side stepped. Shane swung at Matt’s face, and as Matt blocked the incoming hit, Shane got him in the stomach. Matt doubled over. Shane grabbed hold of his shoulders and slammed his knee into his stomach, which brought Matt down to the floor again. His fists connected with his face.

His control was gone. He had never felt so possessive over a woman before. Just the thought of Matt looking at Lexi made something inside of him snap. Matt’s groans finally made him stop. Shane stood up and wiped his bloody fists on his slacks. “Touch the girl and I’ll kill you,” he said to the man on the floor. Matt didn’t even look at him as Shane walked out of the apartment.

It had been almost a week since he had talked to Lexi. Maybe it was making him a little crazy, he thought as he got into his car.

Chapter 11

Lexi was having a bad night. She wanted to speak to Shane but wasn’t sure what to say. Honestly, she just wanted him to hold her. The comfort and security she felt when Shane’s strong arms were wrapped around her body was unparalleled. Safe was something that she hadn’t felt in a very long time.

Usually she was hands-on and spent lots of time with her patients, but tonight she was mostly barking orders at nurses. They had noticed and a few asked her what was wrong but she waved them off.

Her phone kept going off in her pocket. It was Shane. She knew he wanted to talk to her. He had wanted to talk for a week, ever since Amanda blew the whistle. Something must have really been upsetting him because he had been texting constantly for the last hour. She hadn’t checked any of the messages.

Finally, when her phone buzzed in her pocket twenty minutes before her shift ended. She reached for it and Shane’ name flashed across the screen. She quickly read the newest text.

Be careful. Matt may be keeping an eye on you. Call me if you need me.

She took a deep breath but it didn’t calm her down. Fuck Matt and his bullshit. She wasn’t involved in this crap. She didn’t want any part of it. She was a very breakable human. She knew that. She wasn’t about to get in the middle of some insane pack war thing.

She packed up her bag and pulled her Taser out of her purse. She was breakable, but she sure wasn’t going to act like it. She thought about texting Shane to see if Tasers worked on shifters but decided not to.

She left the hospital, her Taser firmly in her hand. Her finger was on the trigger button. She looked around the parking lot before setting out to her car. Her pace was rapid. She wanted to get to her car as fast as possible. Her keys rattled in her hands. She reached her car, and pushed the key into the lock. The click let her know the door was open. But before she could pull on the handle, she was knocked to the ground. Her head slammed against the concrete floor of the garage and she screamed in pain.

There was an animal-like growl and she turned her head. Her vision was blurry from the impact.

“Doctor Green, so nice to see you.” Her vision returned slowly, and she could make out Matt. He looked horrible. There were bruises and cuts all over his face. It looked like he had been in a serious fight. She wondered if Shane had done the damage. Probably.

“Why are you here? We’re not together. I’m not even with Shane—” she started, but he interrupted.

“It doesn’t matter sweet stuff. He still cares, so you’re the best way we have to get to him.” Matt bent down and brushed her hair out of her face. “I have a surprise for you. I’m not sure that you’ll be thrilled to see him, but he’s certainly excited to see you.”

From behind Matt’s bulk, another man stepped forward. He stood over her. His gorgeous blond hair was longer than she remembered it, and he looked more muscular, but there was no mistaking that terrifying grin. The grin that she had once loved. The grin that meant she was about to get very hurt.

“Adam,” the name left Lexi’s lips before she could stop it. Her scar throbbed as she looked at the man who had caused her so much pain.

“Hey, Lex. It’s good to see you. I’ve missed you.”

Chapter 12

Lexi awoke with a throbbing head. There was a dirty cloth stuffed in her mouth, something was covering her eyes, and her arms were tied behind her. Her ankles were tied to the legs of a chair. Her breath hitched as she felt a panic attack coming on. She tried desperately to dampen the rising panic but she couldn’t. She shut her eyes tightly, praying that it was just a horrible dream. But it wasn’t. And Adam was back.

She didn’t know why she wasn’t notified that he was no longer in jail. Someone must be responsible for telling her something like that. Her heart pounded and she closed her eyes again. She thought about what she was taught to do in her self-defense class if she felt panicky.

She took three deep breaths and situated herself into her body. She was here. She knew how to fight, and she would get out of this. Just as Adam had left her with scars, physical and mental, he had also left her with an intense knowledge of who he was and how to handle him.

“What are you thinking about Lex?”

Any calm she had disappeared completely with the sound of his voice. She tried to speak but the gag prevented her from saying anything that actually sounded coherent. There was a soft chuckle and hands at the side of her face. Then the gag was removed.

“Adam?”

“I’m here.” His hand on her face made her skin crawl. This was Adam in true form, the sweetness after the injury, the kindness that had drawn her in to him and kept her hanging on. Making her believe that he had to punish her for the things she did wrong.

She wasn’t that girl anymore.

“Let me go,” she said firmly.

He withdrew his hand. “I can’t do that, Lexi. If the only way to keep you safe and away from that monster is to keep you tied up and safe here with me.”

She wanted to laugh but she knew it would only infuriate him. She needed Adam calm, especially if she was going to figure out why the hell he was hanging out with Matt.

“Adam, is Matt here?”

Adam scowled, clearly not thrilled that she was mentioning other men in front of him. “He went out a bit ago. I decided to stay and make sure you were okay.”

She sighed. “I appreciate that. Could you take off my blindfold? I’m really uncomfortable right now.”

“I’ll take off the blindfold but I’m not going to let you up.”

She nodded and braced herself for his touch.

Everything inside of her was tense and coiled as she felt him brush her hair back and take the blindfold off. His hand lingered in her hair for a moment. “You cut your hair,” he said, sounding annoyed.

She had cut it. It had grown out quite a bit but after he went to jail, she cut it super short because he had liked it long. “Uh, yeah,” she said uncomfortably.

He stepped away from her and she let out a slow breath she hadn’t been aware she had been holding. She ran her fingers along the rope tied around her wrists, trying to figure out how tightly it was tied.

Adam just stood there, watching her. She looked at him, her chin raised. She wasn’t going to show him that she was afraid.

“Have you let that monster touch you?” he finally asked.

“What are you talking about, Adam?” She was pretty sure that he meant Shane but she wasn’t about to play into his psycho possessive bullshit.

“You have. He’s a fucking freak, Lex. Why would you let him touch you?”

“Adam, nothing has happened,” she said, hoping that she sounded convincing. “I’m assuming you know about him and Matt then?” She wanted to know how the hell Matt had gotten Adam involved in this.

“Matt told me about Shane’s…ability.”

“But Matt didn’t tell you about his ability?” She hoped that Matt had lied, then she could use that information against them.

“He did. It’s how he helped me out of jail. He hates what he is Lexi, which is why he wanted me to save you from Shane. He feels responsible for keeping women away from monsters like Shane.”

Bullshit, Lexi thought. Clearly Matt didn’t mind putting women back into the hands of monsters like Adam. Lexi knew what she had to say, but the idea of actually saying it was killing her. “Thank you for keeping me safe, Adam.” She wanted to vomit as she watched a grin cover his face. She needed time to scope out the room without him there. “I’m thirsty. Can I have some water or something?”

“Of course, whatever you need. I’ll be right back.” He approached her, and she cursed silently, hoping that he wasn’t going to blindfold and gag her again. Instead, he leaned forward and kissed the top of her head. She felt vomit rise in her throat. That moment of tenderness was worse than anything else he could put her through.

“Thank you,” she said, kindly as he walked towards a heavy-looking door. He looked at her one more time before he pulled open the door and left the room.

She turned her head frantically, trying to absorb as much of the layout as possible. She wasn’t sure if she was in a warehouse or just a very dirty half-built house. The cement and lack of paint made her think warehouse. There was one door, the one that Adam had left through and no windows. There was a small cot in the corner of the room. She assumed that was where she was supposed to sleep. She tested the rope around her wrists again. It was exceptionally tight, and was cutting off the circulation to her hands. She pulled and tugged. She heard the door open, and she stopped wiggling. Her wrists ached and felt burned.

Adam approached her with a bottle of unopened water. He opened the cap and held it to her lips. Even though she hated having to drink with his assistance, she so desperately needed the water. She sipped carefully, trying to get the most water possible before he took it away. And she knew he would. He wouldn’t be able to resist playing games with her. She would rather starve than play his mind games. He soon took the water away from her, and although she was still thirsty, she didn’t complain.

He petted her head again and put the bottle down on the ground. She kept her mouth shut, waiting for him to make a move. “Are you tired?” he asked.

“A little,” she said, even though she wasn’t. She just wanted him to untie her and let her up from the chair.

“I made up a bed for you in the corner. But if I let you up then you need to promise to be on your best behavior.”

“Of course, Adam,” she lied.

He moved behind her and untied her hands. The relief was instant as blood rushed back into her fingers. Then he untied her legs. She stood slowly, trying to get her sea legs back. Once she felt steady, she turned to him and brought her knee into his crotch just as she slammed her palm into his nose. He screamed in pain and she leapt towards the door.

Her hand wrapped around the handle, and she yanked but the door didn’t budge. It was locked. Adam must have a key. She turned to him, ready to grab it from him but before she could move, she was on the floor. Adam’s body pressed her down.

“You fucking bitch. I’m going to kill you.” His hands wrapped around her throat. She tried to buck him off but couldn’t get leverage. Her hands clawed at his. “Fucking whore. I try to save you and this is how you repay me.” His eyes were darkened and she could do nothing but try to get a good grip on his tightening fingers.

Blackness filled her vision and Adam’s threats filled her ears and then she knew no more.

Chapter 13

Shane had never been so angry and distraught in his life. Matt had sent him a text with a picture of Lexi tied to a chair, and knocked out. He immediately called his friends and found a scrub shirt of his that Lexi had worn while she stayed with him. It was ridiculous to watch four wolves sniff a shirt in his living room but he was going to find her, and then he was going to make Matt pay.

The thoughts that went through his mind troubled him slightly. He thought about skinning Matt in wolf form, and presenting the pelt to Lexi as a gift. He knew she wouldn’t appreciate it, but goodness, he would probably feel a whole hell of a lot better if he did it.

He and his friends went to the hospital, the place from which Shane assumed Lexi had been abducted. They went to the parking lot and two of them shifted while two of them kept watch. They found the place where Lexi had been taken. There was a small amount of blood on the floor that smelled just like her. It wasn’t enough for a serious injury, but Shane felt his own blood boil at the sight of it.

They were able to follow her smell to her car, which had been driven a couple miles away and dumped off the side of the road. The keys were in the glove compartment. Shane drove the car back to her apartment. It smelled overwhelmingly like Lexi, but there was another smell. The smell of a man. It was fresh. Was Matt working with someone?

It would make sense. Matt wasn’t smart enough to do much on his own. Shane took another deep breath of the man’s scent before pocketing Lexi’s keys and walking down the block to meet his buddies. The next course of action was to make sure Lexi’s life stayed as together as he could keep it. He had Amanda call the hospital, pretending to be Lexi, to cobble together a leave of absence.

He arranged to have people come to her place to clean. He wanted to make sure she was going to come back to as normal of a life as he could provide. And she was going to come back. She was. To think otherwise was not an option for him right now. He spent most of his time wandering around the city, sniffing for her. Any sent of her. It was almost impossible with so many people around. Scents that were more than a few days old were hidden under exhaust fumes, and collective sweat.

At the end of the second day, he called together the council and told them what was going on. He was going to do everything he could to politically fuck Matt. Shane was the next Alpha, and he was going to find his girl, come hell or high water.

He was leaving a coffee shop, a tray of coffee for his buddies in hand, when he caught the scent. It wasn’t Lexi. It was the scent from the car. The man.

He spotted him in the crowd. He was a bulky guy, muscled, and angry-looking. He wasn’t sure how he was related to Matt’s scheme but he was going to find out. He shot off a quick text to his friends, and followed the man.

When he man got in his car, Shane followed him, keeping two cars in between them. At first, it seemed like the man was running a bunch of errands. Shane was about to give up hope. Perhaps the man was a simply a mechanic and Lexi had brought her car in recently. The man turned off a main road.

Shane followed carefully, all the way out to the warehouse district. The man pulled into a parking lot at a storage facility and Shane rolled down his window. He needed to smell the area without leaving a scent track for Matt. He leaned out slightly and took a deep breath. Matt’s smell was everywhere. And under it, was Lexi’s.

Shane’s heart pounded in his chest. He knew where they were keeping her, now he just needed to figure out how the hell to get to her. He turned the car around, planning on stopping by the side of the road to keep an eye on the facility. He wanted both the strange man and Matt gone for his rescue. He didn’t want Lexi to get caught in the crosshairs of a fight.

He sat in his car, a few blocks away, completely focused on the building. And then someone walked into the parking lot. A woman. He took a deep breath and caught her scent in the wind.

It was Lexi.

Chapter 14

Lexi woke up on an uncomfortable cot. Her neck and throat ached horribly. She rolled over, and she heard her bones creak.

“Welcome back to the world, princess.” She looked up. Matt was sitting on the chair that she previously been tied to.

“Fuck you,” she hissed as she pushed herself up to a seated position. She could tell that Adam kicked her around a bit when she was passed out. Her stomach and ribs ached.

“It’s good to have you here. I’m sure Shane is going crazy trying to find you.” Matt reclined slightly and observed her. “He’s not going to find you. And his anger will make him sloppy. And when we fight, I’ll kill him, and then you’re free to go. I’m not a monster.”

“I guess you didn’t hear me the first time, fuck you.” Matt grinned but didn’t strike her, as she expected him to. Instead he stood up.

“Well, it may be a few days. Hopefully Adam will feel like feeding you. Because I certainly don’t have the time to take care of you.” She wanted to ask him why he was doing this, why he was so focused on hurting Shane, but she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction.

“Toodles,” she waved, hoping she seemed braver than she felt. Matt unlocked the door and closed it behind him. She took a deep breath, and tried to hold back her tears. She was screwed. She was going to die here. And she was probably going to lose her job.

She took a moment to freak out about everything. She wrapped her arms around her knees and let the tears fall onto her pants. She hiccupped and wiped her eyes. She was done being upset. She wasn’t going to give Adam and Matt the satisfaction of seeing her like this. She stood up, picked up the chair and walked towards the door. She sat on the floor next to the door, the chair close enough to grab. She was getting the hell out of here.

She didn’t know how long she was sitting there. Her butt was starting to go a bit numb and she was getting tired. Her stomach ached with hunger and the bruises that dotted her side didn’t help. She fidgeted every few minutes but stayed as quiet as she possibly could. She needed to make sure she could hear any footsteps coming in her direction.

She had nodded off but when she heard the door creak she jumped up. She held the chair in her hands, and lifted it over her head. She saw just a glimpse of Adam before he completely entered the room. She brought the chair straight down on his head. The chair splintered, and Adam’s shocked eyes connected with hers before he hit the ground.

His body was in the doorway, keeping the door ajar. She kicked his side gently, hoping that she had truly knocked him out. He didn’t budge. She took a deep breath and stepped over him. She rummaged around in his pockets and pulled out a small key ring. She pushed him into the room and shut the door behind her.

She was in a long hallway with a couple of doors, all similar to the one she had just closed. She tried to open it but it was locked. She pushed a few keys into the lock but the door didn’t budge. Her heart beat faster. Why weren’t the keys working?

She moved onto the next door, and tried another key. It didn’t work. Panic threatened to overwhelm her. She tried the second key, then the third, and finally the fourth. And then the lock clicked, and the door opened. She moved quickly, pushing it open. The warm light of day hit her face and she cried out in relief. She pocketed the keys and began to run away from the building. It looked like a storage facility. There was large parking lot and a small road leading away from the warehouses. She wasn’t sure if she should follow the road or not. She didn’t know where Matt was, and wasn’t sure if he would be coming down the road. She stopped a few feet from road, and looked around. There was a line of trees on the opposite side of the road. She quickly crossed to it and stood in the shade of the trees.

Lexi started down the road, keeping close enough to the tree line that she hoped she wouldn’t be terribly noticeable if a car happened by.

She made it a few feet when a car came screeching by her and slammed on the breaks. She moved quickly, turning to run, cursing the fact that she had been caught so quickly.

“Lexi!”

She turned automatically at her name, and then her entre body stopped, heartbeat and all. It was Shane.

He stood there, his clothes slightly rumpled, his hair an absolute mess, his eyes full of fire.

“Shane,” her voice sounded raw and her throat ached.

He took two steps towards her, as if he wasn’t sure of what he was seeing.

She quickly moved to close the gap. Tears filled her eyes.

She threw herself into Shane’s arms. He caught her and wrapped his arms around her. He kissed her head and then pushed her away, holding her at arms distance. His eyes scanned her entire body. “Are you hurt at all?”

She shook her head. “Not really.” She didn’t want him to be worried. She had already taken stock of her injuries, and none of them were worrisome.

“Good.” He pulled her back into his arms and lifted her. He carried her bridal style to his car. He carefully placed her in the passenger’s seat and kissed the top of her head.

He moved to the driver’s seat and shifted out of park. He hit the gas and the wheels squealed as the car lurched down the road. He took her hand and squeezed it.

She couldn’t stop the tears that were falling. It was taking everything in her to not break down completely. He drove them to his apartment, and he half carried her into the living room. Once they were inside, he picked her up and brought her to the bathroom. He sat her down on the toilet and turned on the bath. The sound of the water soothed her.

“Sit in the water for a bit, I need to make a few phone calls. Let my people know that you’re safe.”

“Your people?” she asked.

He brushed his hand over her tear-stained face. “I wasn’t out looking for you by myself, darling. I practically had the whole pack mobilized.”

Tears began to fall again. “Thank you.”

He shook his head and kissed her softly, his lips barely brushing hers. “I will do anything to keep you safe, Lexi.” He brushed her hair back from her forehead. “Take a bath, relax a little bit. I’ll be right out in the bedroom if you need me.”

She nodded and watched him go. He closed the door halfway, so she was able to see him. She turned off the taps and shed her dirty clothing, dumping it in the garbage can. She slid into the warm water. Her muscles ached horribly. She scrubbed her skin, and then pulled the plug on the drain to let the dirty water filter out of the tub. She listened to Shane’s voice as he made his calls and she ran clean water over herself.

It felt like a baptism, a renewal. Shane’s voice in the distance washed away Adam’s. The water washed away the physical reminder of what she had been through. She stood and grabbed a towel from the rack. She wrapped it securely around herself and walked into the bedroom.

Shane looked at her, and quickly ended his phone call. “Everyone is out looking for Matt. We’re going to bring him in.”

Lexi nodded, not trusting herself to say anything without crying. Shane pulled her into his arms and she leaned against his chest, listening to the strong, steady thump of his heart. “Oh!” she said as she remembered something. “The hospital, I’ve missed shifts.”

Shane ran a calming hand through her damp hair. “I called them. You’re on a leave of absence.”

She could have kissed him. She was amazed that he did something so small but so important to her. She would have been devastated if she had lost her job.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Of course.” He carefully peeled the towel away from her and pulled one of his shirts over her. He carefully examined the bruises on her torso. “You said you weren’t hurt.”

“It’s not bad. It doesn’t hurt much.” He drew her to him gently and held her close for a minute. She inhaled his scent. He carefully let go of her and pulled the sheets down.

He tucked her into bed and turned to walk out of the room. “Shane, can you stay with me for a little bit?” She needed to feel his arms around her right now, she felt too vulnerable.

“Of course.” He toed off his shoes and slid into bed with her pulling her hard up against him, his arms around her. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

She shook her head. “Just hold me. I need to just feel safe again.”

She knew that he felt almost as helpless as she did but for a very different reason. She was sure he was upset about not being able to protect her. He had been surly since they got to his apartment. She knew that he needed to feel like he was keeping her safe. She buried her nose against his chest and wrapped her arms around him tightly. His hand moved up and down her back, and sometimes he stopped at her neck to rub some of the kinks out.

She sighed against him. She lifted her head and pressed a kiss to his neck. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

He snorted. “You rescued yourself, darling. I was the get-away driver.”

“The only reason I was able to escape was because I knew you were coming for me. I could have easily given up. But I wanted to make your life a little easier.”

He laughed, and she could feel the vibrations against her chest. “You were being held captive, by people who are after me, and your concern was that you didn’t want to put me out by rescuing you?”

“When you put it like that it sounds silly.”

He tilted her head back and kissed her softly. “You’re amazing.” His lips brushed her jaw. “And beautiful.” He moved along her neck. “And so strong.” She nuzzled against him and peppered his chest with kisses.

His hands moved up her back, bringing her shirt up. His fingers danced along the edge of her panties, and she moaned. He immediately stopped. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

He let go of her. “We can’t do this. You were just captured and injured and all I want to do is make love to you.”

She took his hands and pulled him back to her. “Make love to me,” she whispered.

“You’re injured.”

“I don’t care. I just want you. And I want you to make me forget about everything that’s happened in the last few days.”

Shane’s eyes went dark. His hands moved up her back and he pulled her on top of him. “You set the pace. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You’re not going to hurt me!” she protested.

“Lexi, you don’t get it. You make me want to lose control. You should have seen me when I was looking for you. I was scary. I’ve never been so frustrated, and angry and afraid in my entire life.”

She pulled him into a seated position and wrapped her arms around him. She leaned in, pressing her chest against him. She brought her lips to his ear. “I trust you.”

Her words changed something in him. He turned them so her back was on the bed, and he pressed his lower half into her. She could feel the length of him, hard and hot, between layers of cloth. She fisted the back of his shirt in her hands, needing to feel anchored. He moved his hips in slow circular motions, giving her a taste of what was to come. His teeth ran across her collar bone.

She gasped, and her mouth opened, giving him the perfect opportunity to slide his tongue inside. She pulled at the hem of his shirt, trying desperately to get closer to him. She needed the feeling of his warm skin against hers. He got the hint and crouched on his knees, between her legs. He pulled his shirt up and over his head. It was like he was exposing himself tantalizingly slowly. She wanted more of him, all of him, immediately. She reached forward, her fingers brushing the hard ridges of his lower abs.

“You are so beautiful, Lexi,” his voice was tight with desire. She could see the outline of his cock as it strained in his pants. She let her fingers trail downward, and across his length. He hissed in pleasure and his head fell backwards, exposing the musculature of his throat. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.

“Fuck, Lexi.” He drew her name out. It sounded like a benediction.

“Your pants,” she reminded him. It wasn’t fair that she was naked and he wasn’t. She wanted to even the playing field. He reached down and unbuttoned the top buttons of his jeans, and pushed them down his hips. Somehow he was able to gracefully get his pants off. She wasn’t sure how. If she was trying to do the same thing, she was sure she would have gotten tangled up and fallen over.

He straightened back up. He huge cock stood at full attention. Lexi pushed herself up. Her legs were between Shane’s knees. She touched the head, gently running her finger across the drop of pre-cum that was on the tip. She loved the way he groaned when she touched him. She felt so in control.

She leaned forward, and her tongue followed the line of her fingers. She marveled in the taste and smell of him as she ran her tongue across one of the veins. His hands fisted in her hair but he didn’t direct her in any way. He seemed content to allow her to explore him.

She ran her tongue around the rim of the head, and then moved downwards. Her fingers gently massaged his balls, making him twitch. She almost laughed at the immediate reaction from him.

“Are you almost done teasing me?” he asked, looking down at her.

She smiled at him and slid his whole cock in her mouth. She relaxed her throat as she tried to take the length of him. When it became too overwhelming, she eased back. He swelled even more in her hand.

“I need to taste you,” he demanded.

She let go of his cock and he carefully guided her onto the bed. He lifted her leg and kissed the inside of her knee. His tongue made slow circles against the area. She wasn’t sure how such an innocuous area could turn her on so much but she was practically shaking with desire. His fingers danced up the inside of her other leg, as his tongue moved upwards. He ran his nails along the crease between her sex and her thigh. She shivered.

One of his hands went under her butt, so he could angle her upwards slightly. He licked a long line from the start of her slit to her clit. His free hand traced shapes on the outer parts of her. He captured her clit between her lips and sucked on it, his tongue circling and grinding against the tiny bundle of nerves. He sucked one of her lower lips into his mouth, brushing his teeth against it, and then repeating the same thing on the other side. She hadn’t realized every part of her was so sensitive.

His tongue dipped inside of her, tasting her juices. One finger slowly joined his tongue, and he curled his finger up against her. She jumped slightly as the pad of his thumb hit a spot that made her feel even more turned on. He rubbed the spot, and his tongue moved back to her clit. He hummed against her, sending vibrations throughout her pussy. She felt the stirring deep in her belly. Her hands fell from his hand and onto the bed.

She clutched the sheets as the first wave of an orgasm crashed over her. He slid another finger into her wet tunnel, and she gripped down on them. “Cum, Lexi. Cum for me.”

And she did. One hand went back to his hair, holding her down to him. She couldn’t take the pressure on her clit and g-spot any longer, but she needed more. She felt wired and full of contradictions. It was amazing.

His tongue was restless and drew another orgasm from her. “Shane…I need…” she began, her breath coming in shallow pants. “A break…too much.” He eased off her clit and g-spot, only stroking her leisurely. Her legs spasmed as she tried to get ahold of herself. He grinned up at her, and right when she was ready to go again, he dove back between her legs and brought another orgasm from her.

“Shane, make love to me,” she begged. He looked up at her. His mouth was covered in the silky sheen of her juices. He licked his lips, and began to kiss her hip bones. He moved up her body, his lips and tongue running along her skin. It was like she was on fire, and the only thing that could soothe her was his touch. He kissed every inch of the scar on her stomach. She wanted to flinch away. The scar always reminded her that she wasn’t beautiful, but he held her in place.

“You’re beautiful,” he said against her skin. “All of you.” As he reached her breasts, he said, “You’re perfect.”

He took her nipple into his mouth and ran his teeth gently across the areola. He kissed between the valley of her breasts and then moved to the other one.

Lexi’s hands fisted in his hair, pulling him closer to her. He hummed and she could feel the vibrations all the way down to her toes. Her eyes fluttered shut. “Shane, please.” She needed him more than she had needed anything in her entire life. She felt so connected to him. It scared her, but it also excited her.

His arms went to the side of her, and she wrapped her legs loosely around his hips. His cock brushed against her pussy. He took his length in his hand and ran the head between her folds, not quite penetrating her. When she looked between them, the head of his cock was coated in her juices. It was an insanely erotic sight.

He did that a few more times, running his cock along her sensitive pussy lips. She bucked up twice, but he pushed her hips back down, making it clear that everything was going to happen when he decided it would.

“Shane.” His name sounded like a plea when it fell from her lips.

“Are you ready?” he asked, his eyes searching her face as he positioned himself at her entrance.

“Yes,” she whispered breathlessly. “Yes.”

Chapter 15

Shane felt it the moment he entered her. The feeling filled him completely, leaving him warm, and sated even though he hadn’t reached completion yet. It was her. This was it, everything that he had ever heard about finding your mate. Lexi was his mate. He was positive now.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her even closer. It still wasn’t enough. He somehow needed to be completely inside of her, surrounded by her. Her presence filled him with a pure sort of joy that left him reeling.

“Lexi,” he gasped. He looked into her gorgeous eyes and brought his lips to hers. He wanted to stay like this forever, connected with her in such an intimate way. Her inner walls clenched around him and he knew he needed to finish with her in order for the mating to be completed.

He slowly rolled his hips, pushing even deeper into her. She was so warm, so wet, and she gripped him perfectly. He whispered her name against her skin, over and over, as he slowly pulled out of her. She moaned at the loss of him.

“Shane, I need you,” she whispered. He pushed back into her, just as slowly, savoring every inch. She bucked against him but he pressed her hips down with one hand. He was setting the pace. He was in charge of their love making.

He had let her take her time, let her decide things for a while, but it was his turn now. He cradled her body against his, his arms pressed against her back. He needed her as close to him as possible. He needed the connection on every level.

There was an intensity in their love making that he had never felt with anyone else before. When he was inside of her, her inner walls gripping down on his cock, he felt like he was home. All he knew, all he wanted, was Lexi. It consumed him. Was this what finding your mate was like? This intense need, this energy? He couldn’t tell if he wanted to make this last forever, or if he wanted to cum immediately. He wanted both to happen at the same time.

He buried his nose against her neck. Her pulse raced against his ear. His tongue danced across her sweat-drenched neck. The taste of her was like Persephone’s pomegranate. He would never be able to leave Lexi. She was part of him now.

The little moans she made every time he pushed back into her were addicting. He turned them, so he was on the bottom. He wanted to see her ride his cock. Her hands were firmly set against his chest, and she used him for leverage as she maneuvered herself up, and then slowly back down his hard length. Her lips were parted in a soft ‘O.’ Her breasts swayed with her rhythm. His fingers circled her wrists, holding her down to him.

A moment later, he pulled her down so she was flush against him. The soft pillows of her breasts were cushioned against his chest. He captured her lips and thrust upwards into her. His hands roamed her back, and squeezed at the soft flesh of her ass. He could feel the rough skin of her scar under his fingers. He wanted to erase her pain, he wanted to erase the reminder of everything that had happened to her before they made love.

She gasped into his mouth as an orgasm took her. She clenched down, her inner muscles milking him. He couldn’t hold off any longer. With a moan, he released into her. His warm seed filled her. He thrust twice more and slowly relaxed back down onto the bed.

He carefully rolled her off of him, and placed one more kiss on her lips before standing up. “Where are you going?” she asked. She looked at him through half-lidded eyes, still filled with desire, but also slightly nervous.

“Bathroom. I’m going to get a washcloth to clean you up. I’ll be back in a moment, darling.” He felt his eyes on her as he went. He ran a cloth under hot water, knowing it would be lukewarm by the time he got back to the bed.

He rang out the extra water and reentered the room. She had pulled the covers over her body. He tugged the sheets back down, and was rewarded with her flushed nudity. He could get used to this. Picked up one of her legs and rested it in his lap. He ran the cloth along her folds and wiped up the mess they had made.

She hummed low in her throat and it made him hard all over again. He had never had a response from anyone quite like he responded to her.

“Uh, Shane?”

“Yeah, darling?”

“This is going to sound kind of crazy, but did you feel that?” she asked tentatively as he dropped the wash cloth onto the floor.

He rolled over and looked at her. She was so beautiful. Not classically so, but beautiful to him. “You’re not crazy. That was, uh, my fault. We’re mates.”

“What?”

“A shifter, a wolf, has one mate. We can go our entire lives without finding our one true mate, but if we do, when we make love for the first time, the emotion, the depth is overwhelmingly intense.”

“Are you saying…” she didn’t look upset, just confused.

“Yes. You’re the one.”

She took in a deep shaky breath. “Wow.” His heart sank. Was she unhappy with being his mate? He had, after all, complicated her life irreversibly. She must have noticed his expression because she placed her hands on his face. “It’s not a bad wow. It’s just a lot to take in. Things are so new with us, but we’ve been through more shit than most couples will go through in a life time. But…” she trailed off, as if searching for the words. “I’m not trying to complicate this, but basically, what I’m trying to say, is that I think I’m falling in love with you.”

Shane’s heart swelled. “I am in love with you, Lexi.”

Chapter 16

For a few brief hours, everything was too good to be true. Shane made love to her again before they fell asleep, and he woke her up with gentle kisses and they made love again. He couldn’t get enough of her. They showered together and he made her breakfast. They curled on the couch together and he held her. Every few minutes he confirmed that he wasn’t touching her bruises. It was sweet how worried he was about her. She thought about how nice it would be to have him around every day, checking in on her, making sure she was okay. The thought of it made nervous bubbles blossom in the pit of her stomach.

She was nodding off on his chest when she felt him stiffen. “What’s wrong?” she asked groggily.

“Matt. He’s here.” He slowly put her down on the couch, moving her off his chest. She moved to get up but his gaze pinned her to the couch. “Stay there. I don’t want you involved in this right now.”

He turned and walked out of the living room. She stayed put until she heard the front door close. Then, she jumped up and followed him out. She moved down the stairs quickly but quietly. She figured Shane wouldn’t hear her because he was far enough ahead.

She skidded to a stop at the edge of the parking lot. There were only a couple of cars in the lot, and the two men stood there, facing each other. The tension was palpable. Shane’s hands were twitching at his sides. His head turned as he caught her scent in the air. “Lexi,” he said, his tone a warning. She didn’t move. He turned to Matt. “Get out of here.”

Matt stood there, his anger palpable. He looked directly at Lexi. She flinched and moved to stand behind Shane. “Don’t worry, he’s not going to risk a confrontation out in the open like this,” Shane whispered. Somehow, she wasn’t reassured. Shane seemed to think that Matt was still somehow a rational person. But Lexi knew he wasn’t. He was a mad dog.

“Lexi, you’re looking well. Those bruises shouldn’t take too long to heal.”

“Walk away, Matt,” Shane spat. A low, menacing growl emanated from his chest.

“You don’t want to fight in front of your precious mate, Shane? Don’t want to show her what a monster you can be now that she’s stuck with you? You could have walked away from the human, but you fucked her. I can smell it on you. You soiled our line, Shane and poisoned everyone against me. I was doing what was best for the pack. Human blood pollutes us. Makes us weak.”

“You don’t need human blood to make you weak, Matt. You just always were.”

“We’ll see who’s weak, Shane.” Matt’s eyes flashed and Lexi gasped. Matt began to turn. It was both incredible and grotesque. Despite everything that Lexi knew about human anatomy, everything seemed wrong. Matt’s bones changed under his skin, and hair sprouted everywhere. It was the same color as his human hair. So similar to Shane’s but not quite identical.

She took an automatic step back. Something in her lizard brain equated wolf with danger. Then, in half a second, Shane was on his knees, his body twisting in the same way. She gasped as she watched him. Somehow it was stranger watching Shane transform than it had been watching Matt.

Shane was replaced by an enormous wolf. He was clearly bigger than Matt.

Matt was already in motion. She hadn’t noticed him; she had been too wrapped up in watching Shane’s transformation, but in the moment it took Shane to shift, Matt was already on her. His paws hit her chest straight on, and she hit the ground.

She heard a growl and a pained yip as Shane’s mouth closed around Matt’s neck and he threw him off her. She scrambled backwards, and tried to stand up. Her legs were shaky. She backed away slowly, trying not to draw any attention to herself.

The motion made Matt’s head snap towards her and he launched himself over Shane. The world seemed frozen to Lexi.

Everything sped up and Lexi screamed as Matt in his wolf form came barreling into her. She felt searing pain and felt her warm blood careen down her leg. She watched as Shane clamped down on Matt’s leg and yanked him off of her. The pain was blinding. The muscles and skin on her leg looked like it was in tatters. She couldn’t breathe. Her vision began to blur. The last thing she saw was Shane’s bloody face in front of her.

Chapter 17

The beeping of a monitor woke her. She felt tremendously groggy. Her eyes fluttered open and she blinked. The lights in the room were so bright it was almost blinding. Her eyes felt crusty and she reached up to wipe the sleep from them. Her right arm ached horribly, and so did her leg.

She tried to push herself up, but she didn’t quite have the energy to do so.

“Hey, you’re up.” Shane’s voice came from beside her. He pushed her hair off her face and smiled at her. “How are you feeling?”

She opened her mouth, realizing how dry it was. “Thirsty,” she replied.

“I’ll get you some ice chips.”

“And in pain.”

“There isn’t much we can do for that right this second. But it will pass, promise.” She heard rummaging and the sound of ice being put into a cup. He handed her the cup. “This should be a bit better at least.” She sucked a few of the chips into her mouth and closed her eyes. The feeling of ice on her tongue was pure bliss.

“What happened? Where am I?”

His hand went to her back and he started to rub in small circles. “Matt attached you in the parking lot. I took him down, shifted and got you into the car. The pack has a doctor that usually handles any of our issues so we brought you to the pack infirmary. Dr. Smith left a while ago. You’re bandaged up.”

She lifted the sheet and looked at her leg. It was covered in clean gauze. She was confused about the lack of blood on the bandage. The sort of wound that a wolf would have inflicted would likely still be bleeding. She frowned.

“Did he put something on the wound before he put on the bandages?”

Shane looked down and cleared his throat. “Uh, no.”

“Why not?” she demanded. “Did he tell you why?”

Shane sat at the edge of the bed and took her hand. “Lexi, I uh, have some…interesting news. There are two ways to become a shifter. You’re either born a shifter because one or both of your parents are shifters or…” he trailed off.

“You get bitten by a werewolf…” Lexi finished, her heart sinking. “Like in the legends?”

Shane looked uncomfortable and Lexi wasn’t sure what to tell him. Hell, she wasn’t even sure how she felt about it. Was she still going to be able to practice medicine? What if she accidently scratched a patient with her nails? A thousand things could go wrong. A choked noise left her lips.

Shane put his arms around her. “This isn’t as insane as it seems. You can live your life completely normally. On the full moon for the first few months, you’ll shift but after the first few times you’ll be able to do it at will. We’ll practice it. You’re only…” he searched for a word. “Contagious? That sounds horrible. But you can only make other shifters if you’re in wolf form.”

He pulled her close, careful not to shift her leg too much. “I’m so sorry about this. Honestly, I never, in my wildest dreams, thought anything like this would happen. Ever.”

Lexi took a deep breath. Nothing that Shane explained was so bad. And he would coach her through it. It wasn’t like they weren’t going to be together for…forever. The word made her stomach knot. They were mates. That was it. She was falling in love with him, but somehow being told that fate had a hand in it made her bristle a little. She took a deep breath. If they could handle his homicidal cousin and come out on top, then they could handle anything.

She kissed his shoulder. “It’s okay. If anything, now I can actually rip Adam limb from limb if I wanted to.”

Shane laughed. “You could. As much as I’d love to see that bastard torn apart, you’d feel awful if you did. You’re still in full control of your human faculties when you’re a wolf, sweetheart. You’d remember all of it.”

She sighed and nuzzled closer into him. “Good.”

He kissed her forehead. “The consolation prize is that you’re going to heal really quickly from now on.”

It was her turn to laugh. “That would have been a bit more useful a few years ago.” Shane’s eyes darkened. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“The thought of you being hurt by anyone just sends my instincts into overdrive. I can’t really explain it. It’s all very ‘Me Tarzan, you Jane.’” He looked thoughtful for a moment. “God, this is what it’s like to have a mate. Constant concern for their safety and wellbeing, but in an insane way.”

“God help anyone who tries to hit on me then.” Lexi pulled away from Shane and moved down on the bed so she was lying flat. “Come cuddle?”

Shane followed her down and turned so he was holding her. In the short period of time that she had been awake, her leg did feel a lot better. Maybe there was something to be said for being a werewolf after all.

Chapter 18

Shane brought her back to his apartment the next day despite her still bandaged leg. It was going to take a few days for everything to heal completely, but she had already taken off the bandages. Amanda was waiting for them at Shane’s apartment. She was sitting in his living room, looking very agitated. The moment they entered the room she stood up.

“We have a problem,” she snapped.

“We have multiple problems, Amanda. Which one are you talking about specifically?”

Amanda rolled her eyes and made a move to help Lexi sit down on the sofa. “Dad was officially told to step down last night.”

“Fuck. I thought we had more time.” Shane ran a hand through his hair, disheveling it even more.

“Apparently not. And this morning, Matt officially filed a bid for Alpha so the council has scheduled a match.”

“When is it supposed to happen?”

“In two days.”

“Fuck.”

“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.” Amanda didn’t look sorry though. Lexi thought she looked a bit smug about the whole thing, and maybe relieved. Did she think that Shane was going to drop his bid as Alpha because of Lexi? She probably did. Lexi wondered if Amanda’s opinion of her was going to change now that she was technically part of the pack, and Shane’s mate. Somehow, she doubted it.

“One more thing,” Amanda continued. “The council wants to know if you are going to challenge Matt for attacking your…mate.” She cast a look over at Lexi.

“I wasn’t planning on handling it officially,” Shane said darkly.

“You may have to. And probably Lexi will have to be part of it, since she’s one of us now.” Amanda stopped for a moment, opened her arms wide and looked pointedly at Lexi. “Welcome to the club.”

“Amanda. What exactly did the council say about Lexi being involved in this?”

“Just that as the mate of our possible new Alpha she’d probably have to prove herself as someone that can hold their own in our community by taking on her attacker, Matt.”

“They want a brand new wolf to take on Matt?”

“Uhh, it’s unclear.”

Shane buried his face in his hands. Lexi put her hand on his shoulder. “We can handle this.”

“You’re not going to have to deal with anything besides healing and getting the change under control. I’ll handle Matt and the council. They’re being absolutely idiotic. Making you prove yourself to the pack forty-eight hours after you were turned is insane. This sort of trial is usually planned out for months.”

“Usually the incumbent Alpha knows they’re going to step in months ahead of time but you’ve been dragging your feet on this, Shane. It’s your fault.” Amanda looked completely unsympathetic. “I’d love to say that I would challenge for Alpha but I really have better things to do.”

Shane rolled his eyes. “The pack would be a mess with you as Alpha.”

“I know. That’s why you have to do it. Taking care of Henry is practically my full time job.” Lexi remembered Henry, Amanda’s fiancé. He was a wolf and he had some sort of big wig finance job. She remembered him being a nervous sort of guy. Amanda probably had quite the leash around him. Lexi giggled at the imagery.

“This really isn’t a laughing matter,” Amanda told Lexi drolly.

“I wasn’t laughing at our situation…” Lexi started.

“She was probably laughing at our luck. Because it really is quite hysterical, once you get past the fact that one of us is probably going to have to kill Matt.” Shane stood up. “Okay, I’m going to make a few phone calls. Amanda, please keep an eye on Lexi. Get her anything she needs.”

“Fine.”

“I’m really okay. I feel fine, Shane.” He pressed a fast kiss to her lips.

“I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and walked towards the kitchen. She could hear his voice, sharp and frustrated, from where she sat.

She looked at Amanda and Amanda looked right back at her. “Uh, look,” Lexi started, not quite sure how to handle her boyfriend’s sister. “Since I’m in the pack now, and since I guess I’m Shane’s mate, we should try to get along.”

Amanda raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow. “Sweetie, until you prove that you’re good enough for my brother, I’m not going to be nice to you. So far, all you’ve shown me is that you get yourself into a lot of trouble and that isn’t exactly something my brother needs more of.”

“To be fair, the whole reason I’m in all this trouble is because of Shane.”

“Then prove you can handle it.” Amanda stood up and crossed her arms before she turned away from Lexi. The conversation was over.

Lexi rolled her eyes. Fine. Two could play at that game. “Amanda, be a dear and get me a glass of ice water. I’m parched.”

Amanda turned back to her. “Why don’t you do it yourself—”

Lexi tapped her bandages and tilted her head. Amanda scowled but walked into the kitchen to get Lexi some water.

Chapter 19

Lexi didn’t remember falling asleep, but she must have. And Shane must have carried her in to bed, because she woke up in his room, wrapped tightly in sheets that smelled like him. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. “Shane?” she called. “Are you here?”

The door of the bedroom opened and he entered the room. He was wearing sweatpants that rode low on his hips and his muscular chest was bare. He walked to the bed and set his knees on the edge of the bed. He leaned over her and kissed her forehead. “Hey you,” he said against her skin. “How are you feeling?”

She pulled him down so he was lying next to her and she curled into him. “Better. I want to take the bandages off today.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

“I’m a doctor, of course I’m sure.” But she really wasn’t. She had no idea how fast she was going to heal from now on. She had more important things to focus on, however. She wanted Shane to teach her to fight properly and to shift at will. She didn’t want to be stuck in a situation where she needed control and didn’t have it.

He raised an eyebrow. “I can’t guarantee that the wound is completely stitched up, babe.”

“You don’t need to.” She paused. “Shane, I need you to teach me to fight. If your pack wants me to prove myself, then I need to learn all the wolf stuff as soon as possible.”

Shane sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I talked to them, but they are pretty insistent about testing you. It’s really not a usual thing, but I think they want to make sure the Alpha bitch is up to standards.”

Lexi scowled. “Is that what my technical title would be?”

Shane laughed. “No, it’s totally an informal thing, but some people are going to call you that. Not everyone is thrilled about the fact you aren’t a bred wolf.”

“But isn’t like half your pack turned?”

Shane nodded. “That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a hierarchy. Is it right? No. But that’s the way it is.”

Lexi pursed her lips and rolled away from Shane. She pushed herself up and sat on the edge of the bed. She propped her bandaged leg up and began to pull at the gauze. She gently unraveled it. She expected it to stick to her open flesh but nothing like that happened.

When the gauze was fully peeled back, she examined her leg. The skin was completely knit back together. She ran a finger along the puckered, red scar. It looked like it was already months old.

“That healed faster than normal…” Shane muttered in her ear. He was looking over her shoulder.

“That sounds really ominous.” Lexi stepped off the bed and tested her weight on the injured leg. It twinged slightly but didn’t really hurt.

“It’s just unusual. But it could be because Matt is a powerful wolf, so you’ll probably be quite powerful.”

She jumped in place a few times. “It seems to be okay.” He nodded. “Alright, teach me how to shift.”

He laughed. “Right now?”

“Yeah. Right now. No time to waste.”

He took a deep breath. “Sit down.” She sat back down on the bed. He sat as well and turned to face her. “This is all going to sound very odd.” She raised an eyebrow expectantly. “But you also can’t assume that anything is going to happen today. This sort of thing takes time. Close your eyes and examine the way your body feels. Kind of like meditation.”

Lexi took a deep breath and reached into herself. She felt so stupid. She didn’t feel different. She just felt like normal Lexi. She squeezed her eyes shut even tighter, hoping that something would happen. But nothing did.

She opened one eye and looked at Shane. “Nothing happened.”

He nodded. “It’s going to take a while. I turned for the first time when I was 13. It usually hits right around puberty. But this is what they teach you before it happens. Everyone needs to be in control of their shifting ability. What would happen if a 13-year-old kid turned in the middle of their classroom? Disaster. No one would get hurt, you’re still pretty in control of your human mind, but instinct is a way bigger deal as a wolf. You feel everything more intensely. Fear, hunger. You practically smell what people feel too. It’s amazing. But terrifying.”

“This isn’t making me feel any better.” Lexi didn’t want to feel things more deeply, or be so tuned in to what others were feeling. She had enough to handle with her own emotions.

Shane reached forward and took her hand. “It’s not as bad as it sounds, promise. It’s actually pretty amazing.”

She closed her eyes again, and instead of focusing on herself, she started focusing on Shane. The way his hand felt in hers, rough and strong. She took a deep breath in and released it slowly. The warmth of Shane’s hand grounded her.

She thought about seeing him change, the way his bones bent and shifted, the hair, everything. She imagined herself doing the same thing. An itch started at the top of her head and moved down her body. She opened her eyes as she felt something lurch inside of her.

Shane smiled. “It’s happening.”

She looked down at her arm which was rapidly sprouting course brown hair. There was a pain in her skull as the bones began to shift and move. The way the room looked changed. She assumed it was the difference between seeing things through a wolf’s eyes and a human’s eyes.

Shane reached out and ran a hand over her head. “You’re an adorable wolf. Now that you’ve changed, it’s time to try becoming human again.”

The change from wolf to human took much longer. Shane was right about the feelings and sensations. Lexi could barely keep still. The sheets felt so strange on her paws. Shane smelled so interesting. She constantly pressed her nose against his skin. He laughed whenever she did. She wished she could bottle his sent and save it for when she turned back into a human.

Finally, after an hour of padding around the apartment as a wolf, she managed to turn back. “You smell awesome,” she said.

“That smell has to do with us being mates. I don’t actually think I smell that good.”

She shrugged, and as she came back to full awareness of her human body she realized something important. She was naked.

Shane’s eyes were roaming over her body and she blushed lightly. “I want you,” he said, his voice low and full of desire.

Her eyes found his and she closed the space between them. “Take me, then.”

When they finished making love, they lay on the couch together. Just as they were drifting off, Shane’s phone rang. He moved her so she was laying down on the sofa rather than on him. She watched his firm backside as he ran to the bedroom to grab his phone. She closed her eyes and listened to the distant sound of his voice. She couldn’t quite make out what he was going to say.

She heard his footsteps and she opened her eyes. He stood in the entryway of the living room. He was wearing clothes and there was an expression on his face that made her worried.

“What’s wrong?”

“The council called. We need to go.”

Chapter 20

They drove for almost an hour before they made it to their destination. It was a small house out in the country. Lexi wasn’t sure what to expect as she followed Shane out to the enormous back yard. There was a small crowd of people milling about. She didn’t recognize anyone, but Shane did. He walked over to an older man who looked a great deal like him.

“Dad,” he said, as he embraced the man. “I’d like to introduce you to Lexi.”

Shane’s father pulled Lexi into a big, bear hug. “Welcome to the family,” he said gruffly. He released her and then introduced her to the woman standing next to him. The woman resembled Amanda so much that there was no doubt in Lexi’s mind that she was Shane’s mother.

Just as they began to talk, a hush fell over the rest of the crowd. Matt rounded the corner of the house and stepped into the center of the yard. He looked terribly smug and he nodded his head at Lexi. “You’ve healed well,” he said, a dark smile plastered on his face.

“Fuck off,” Lexi said angrily.

Matt grinned. She turned to Shane, deliberately turning her back on Matt, and then she heard the words that made her skin crawl.

“Hey, doll.”

Her heart stopped. She turned around. Adam stood right next to Matt, a matching evil grin on his face. He had a massive wound that looked like a wolf bite on his arm. And she could smell the wolf on him. After her shift, her senses were more intense. He had been changed and it seemed like Matt was the only one who would have done it.

Shane’s hand went to her back. “Get him the fuck out of here,” Shane sneered.

Matt shook his head. “He’s my second.”

Shane laughed. “You’re really chicken shit enough to have a second?” Matt scowled as Shane continued. “It’s been centuries since someone had a second.” Shane laughed. Lexi felt unconcerned until Matt turned to her.

“It’s traditional to make your mate your second in a fight.”

And then it dawned on Lexi that Matt knew exactly what he was doing. If Matt died, he wanted reassurance that Adam would try to hurt Lexi. It wouldn’t matter that Adam was supposed to fight Shane. Matt knew that Adam would go directly for Lexi.

Lexi burned with rage. Matt considered her weak. That’s why he targeted her in the parking lot, why he turned her. He thought that he was going to hurt Shane. He underestimated Lexi. She didn’t mind. It happened all the time. Other surgeons counted her out because she was a woman, or because she was younger than they were. And then she performed flawless surgery to prove them wrong. This wasn’t any different. If it had been anyone but Adam, the thought of hurting someone would be appalling to her. But it was Adam. The man who abused her. The man who stole years of her life from her. The man who made her live in fear of other men and of herself.

She wasn’t going to lay down and roll over. She was going to fight, and if she had to, she was going to rip him apart.

“Obviously, I’m Shane’s second,” Lexi spat. “Enjoy having your throat ripped out, dickhead.” Lexi mentally patted herself on the back. She sounded a whole lot braver than she felt.

Shane took her hand and squeezed. She wanted to throw her arms around him and kiss him. He didn’t protest what she had said, even though the set of his jaw told her that he wasn’t happy about her proclamation. She knew he was going to do everything he could to make sure that she wasn’t going to wind up in the middle of the fight, but he was going to let her stand up for herself. And she knew he was proud of her for doing so.

“Are we going to keep talking or are we going to do this?” Matt growled. The people around them, who Lexi assumed were part of the council, took a few steps back, creating a circle that surrounded Matt, Shane, Lexi and Adam.

“Lex, stand back a bit,” Shane said quietly. Lexi took a step back, melting into the circle and watched as Shane began to transform. It was magical to watch now that she knew what it entailed.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Matt start his transformation. Shane waited for Matt to finish his shift before he leapt at him. The two wolves met in mid-air and then slammed into the ground. Shane was on top, his teeth in Matt’s belly. There was a sickening noise and Lexi turned her head. She wasn’t sure what was going on but she was sure that she couldn’t watch it happen.

Shane’s mother began to narrate everything softly for her. “Don’t worry, darling,” she began. “Shane just snapped Matt’s hind leg. Ohh, Matt bit Shane’s tail…Shane has Matt pinned to the ground…”

It went on, almost endlessly. And then Shane’s mother swore loudly. Lexi looked up and into the circle. One wolf was on the ground, not moving. And the other was walking right at her, blood on its muzzle.

She bent down and opened her arms. “Shane!” She hugged the wolf and patted its head.

Then there was a collective gasp from the crowd. Adam had turned and he moved around Shane. He was aiming for Lexi. The moment she realized what was happening, she began to shift. It had never happened so organically before, without her trying.

It started as an itch along her skin. Her arm rapidly sprouted hair and she felt her bones shift. It was amazing to feel. But just as she was appreciating the feeling of her transformation, Adam managed to break away from Shane’s teeth and head towards her. He hit her side just as the transformation was complete. She growled with the pain of his teeth sinking into her side.

She dropped to the ground, knocking him off balance slightly. She pressed her paw into his chest and was able to push him off of her completely. Her heart pounded as she turned herself over. Shane moved rapidly, so he was standing next to her. Adam stared the two down and took another lunge for Lexi but both Shane and Lexi reacted almost immediately. They jumped on Adam together and Lexi’s teeth ripped into his stomach, keeping him pinned as Shane went for his throat.

The wolf slowly stopped twitching. Lexi let go of the flesh quickly and backed up. Shane followed her movement. He shifted back into his human form, but she couldn’t quite manage to focus on herself enough to make the change. The smell of blood was too strong. She felt sick. She had just witnessed the man she was in love with kill two people. Even though they were threatening both of them, it still made her ill.

One of the council members took a step forward. “The winner is clear. Shane is our Alpha. Lexi has proven herself to be a strong and proper mate.”

Shane bowed his head and put his hand on Lexi’s head. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Shane must have been to the house before because he led her to the bathroom without anyone showing him where it was. She followed him, still in her wolf form. He turned on the shower and ushered her inside.

“Stay a wolf as long as you need.”

The water hit her fur and it felt so strange. She watched through the foggy glass as he took a wet towel and began to wipe himself down.

Minutes passed as she sat under the hot water, and then the change began to happen. She felt her bones elongate and the hair pull into her skin. When she was fully human she stood up. Shane opened the shower door and stepped inside with her.

He pulled her into a strong embrace and whispered, “I’m so sorry you had to see that, but I’m not sorry that I did it. Without Matt and Adam in this world you are so much safer and I would do anything to protect you. Anything.”

She buried her face in his strong chest, and let herself cry.

Chapter 21

The crowning ceremony was to take place at Shane’s parent’s house. The place was practically a mansion. The driveway fit multiple cars and the front door was enormous. “You grew up here?” Lexi asked, stunned by the fanciness of the building.

“Uh, for the most part. I was probably ten when we moved in. The pack owns it collectively, so anyone is allowed to stay if they need it. At some point, everyone decided that it made the most sense for the Alpha to live here permanently so that when people did need to stay here, there was someone around to actually let them in.”

“Are we going to move in here?” Lexi asked as they approached the door.

Shane shrugged. “We could if you wanted to. If not, I’m sure my parents wouldn’t mind running it for a while.”

“The second option, please.” Lexi didn’t want to live so far away from the hospital. Living with Shane already added fifteen minutes to her commute each way.

“Your wish is my command, darling.”

The door opened and Amanda guided them inside. “Everyone is waiting for you,” she said as she rushed them inside.

They followed her to a large room. There was a dais in the center and chairs surrounded it. Lexi was glad she had chosen the dress she did. She purchased it for a friend’s wedding a few years ago. It was dark blue and fell to the floor. One shoulder was exposed and a thick strip of fabric covered the other one. She wore tan high heels. Shane guided her through the room, his hand on her lower back. He was so self-assured, and he looked fantastically elegant in his suit. She hoped she looked elegant by extension.

He helped her up the steps to the small platform and they turned to look out at the crowd.  Lexi stood on the small dais with Shane. His hand was in hers. She wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be like the videos of coronations she had watched online. What did wolves do when they replaced their Alphas? Was she expected to turn? Because she had no idea how to do it voluntarily. She figured that Shane would have said something if that was the case. Her heart pounded heavily in her chest.

The council stood in a circle around them. Shane’s father joined them on the platform and someone from the crowd handed him a massive knife. Lexi’s eyes bulged. What was he going to do with that?

He held out his hand, and Shane mirrored his movements. The older man brought the knife down and sliced his palm. Blood flowed freely. Shane took the knife and did the same thing to his own hand. They shook hands, mixing the blood, and when they pulled their hands from the grip, the cuts were closed. Shane’s father was saying something but Lexi couldn’t hear him over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears.

Shane turned to her and took her hand. Her mouth opened in a pained ‘O’ as he sliced her palm open and then re-opened his palm. He pressed their hands together and then leaned forward to join their lips. She reached for him with her uninjured hand, and she heard the crowd cheer.

He pulled away and released her. Her hand tingled and she looked down. The cut closed before her eyes. Shane took her hand and smiled at the crowd.

“Ladies and gentleman, I present to you your new Alpha.” The cheers and claps overwhelmed Lexi. “Dinner will be served in the dining room.”

She watched as everyone began to file out of the room. Shane leaned over to her. “Are you alright?”

She nodded. “I expected something a little more…intense.”

Shane chuckled and took her hand. “Sorry that being crowned queen of the wolves wasn’t intense enough for you.” She stuck her tongue out at him. He laughed and led her into the dining room.

The meal passed in a blur of introductions and discussions about the merits of various locations for shifting. Everyone took it upon themselves to impart bits of advice to her. She didn’t mind, but it got a bit repetitive.

Finally, everyone began to filter out and Shane took her hand and announced, “We’re tired. We’re going to head to bed.”

He led her up a long staircase and down a hallway. “I’m so happy to have you alone. You look amazing in that dress.” She grabbed his hand and rubbed her nose against his shoulder.

“You look pretty darn good in that tux.”

He stopped outside of a door and turned the handle. He let her enter first and then followed her inside. The room was beautiful. There was a large four-poster bed and the comforter looked thick and soft. The wooden furniture was masculine-looking but the small touches, like the pillow on the chair by the window, all seemed softer and more feminine.

The second the door closed, Shane had her up against the wall. His hands went to her wrists and pushed them up above her head. His mouth devoured hers. Kissing Shane made her feel like she was losing herself to him, like he was absorbing her. It was simultaneously terrifying and beautiful. His hands roamed down her body, over her clothes. Even though he let go of her wrists, she kept them up. She knew he would want her to stay like that. He liked the control. And she loved giving it to him.

His mouth trailed across her jawline. He nipped at her before moving down her neck. “You smell so good.” He licked a line down her neck. “I can taste the adrenaline and strength on your skin. Fuck. How did I get so lucky to have you as my mate?”

She laughed. “You got shot.”

“Lucky me,” he mumbled into her collar bone. “You looked gorgeous tonight. Regal.”

“I guess that fits. I’m queen of the wolves now, right?”

He laughed. “You are.” His hands moved up her thigh, gently lifting the dress. “And I’m stuck between wanting to rip this dress off of you and wanting to see you wear it again at some point.”

“Keep the dress, rip the panties.”

He groaned. “You are full of good ideas.” He bunched her dress up at her waist and ran his fingers across her lace-covered slit. Her hips bucked against him. “Needy girl,” he whispered. She nodded. He yanked the dress up and off of her, revealing her surprise that lay underneath.

“If I had known you were wearing this, I doubt we would have made it to the coronation.” She bought a half-shelf bra that left most of her breasts exposed, but pushed them up.

Two thin straps crisscrossed around her back and came around her front, ending at the bottom of her rib cage. Her underwear matched. Most of it was strappy and barely covered anything. She slid under his arm and skipped to the bed.

She jumped onto the bed and slid down so her butt was in the air and her torso was flat on the soft comforter. She gave him a moment to look at her before she slid down completely and rolled onto her back. She had never felt so sexy, or so confident.

She spread her legs and ran a hand up her thigh. “What are you waiting for?”

He walked towards her, and stopped at the edge of the bed. He took her ankle and put her foot up against his shoulder. He ran his hands up her leg and then took her other foot. He pressed his thumbs into her arch and then placed it flat on the bed. He bent down and licked a line up her thigh.

His lips pressed against her pussy and he licked her through the lace. One finger slid under the lace and he pressed his forefinger against her clit. Her hips bucked as she silently demanded more. She wanted him so much. The way he worked to protect her made her so hot.

She hooked her free leg around his waist, trying to get him closer. She so wanted to feel him against her. He lowered his hips against hers and pressed close. His hand slid between their bodies and down into her panties. “So wet,” he muttered.

He worked one finger into her wet pussy. He slid it out almost all the way and circled her entrance. She squirmed. How could it be that the very start of her was so sensitive? He circled one more time before penetrating her again. He added a second finger and separated the two fingers, stretching her. “I need more,” she whined. “I need your cock.”

He chuckled, the rumble reverberating deep in his chest. “Say it again.”

“I need your cock.” He slid his fingers out of her and put them in his mouth, tasting her. He yanked her underwear off her hips and down her leg. He ran his nails up her legs and his head dove between her legs. His tongue fucked her shallowly as his thumb pressed up against her clit.

Her toes curled as the start of an orgasm moved through her. Her eyes fluttered shut and her hands took hold of his hair, pushing his face even deeper into her. Her heart pounded and her stomach clenched as she came again. His fingers joined his tongue, pleasuring her unrelentingly. It was almost painful, the pressure on her clit. It made her ache deeply.

And then, suddenly, it stopped. She groaned, annoyed at the lack of contact. “More, please, Shane.”

He kissed her soaking lips and licked along the seam of her again. His body covered hers and he reached behind her to unclasp her bra. He tossed it away and gripped her breasts. He moved his knee between her legs and she rubbed herself against him desperately. His head dipped to her right breast, and he took her nipple into his mouth. She shook as he sucked on it, his teeth created the perfect opposition to the pleasure of his warm mouth.

She pulled on his hair and gently moved his head up so she could kiss him. Lexi pushed him over so he was on his back. “Your turn.” Her voice was firm.

She pulled his shirt from his pants and kissed his tight, muscled lower stomach. She kissed upward, pushing his shirt as she went.   Once it was over his head, she moved down to his pants. She fumbled with his belt for a moment before she was able to toss it aside. She worked the zipper down and pulled his pants down his thighs. She pulled his thick, hard cock out of his boxers and ran her fingers over the head. The pre-cum wet her fingers and she brought it to her lips. It was salty and she loved it.

She ran her tongue around the tip of the head and slid her lips over him. His head fell back as his cock disappeared into her mouth. She sucked hard, and ran her tongue down the large vein that ran down his length.

“Lexi, fuck. What are you doing to me?” Lexi grinned around his cock, loving how vocal he was. His moans and hisses made her toes curl with pleasure. She loved turning him on like this. “Lex, I’m going to cum. Fuck.”

His cock twitched in her mouth and his breath hitched as he released into her mouth. She swallowed his ejaculate quickly and slowly released his cock from her mouth. He came up on his forearms and looked at her. “Damn. You’re amazing.”

She giggled and crawled up his body. He lay back and opened his arms. They faced each other, each laying on their side. Shane took her leg and put it over his hip. Even though he had just cum, he was hardening again. He ran the tip of his cock along her folds, and gently slid inside her. He pulled her hips close to his. The front of their bodies were pressed together and Shane leaned forward to connect their lips.

Their bodies moved in sync. Shane’s hands roamed all over her skin and her nails dug into his back. With every slow, purposeful thrust, he hit the spot inside of her that made her see stars. His pelvis pushed against her clit. He whispered her name against her lips. Their eyes never left each other’s.

Lexi could feel tears threatening. She felt so full, so connected to him. “I love you,” she said, her voice choked with emotion.

“I love you too, darlin’,” he said with a conviction that rocked her to her core. They kissed leisurely, and he rocked into her so slowly. It was so different from the frenzied pace of their previous love-making. Even different than her sucking him off, or him licking her.

It was amazing and she never wanted it to end.

The rolling wave of an orgasm moved over her. Her inner walls clenched down on his cock and his kiss became more frantic. He let out a breath against her lips and she felt his cock twitch before he released inside of her.

They stayed like that for a moment before he slid out of her, and got out of bed. He disappeared into the bathroom and reappeared with a cloth. He was always very considerate about cleaning her up. He ran the cloth between her legs and tossed it on the floor.

He crawled back into bed with her and pulled her close. She breathed in the smell of him, her heart swelling. He kissed the top of her head. She was almost completely asleep when he began to move. “I need to grab something,” he whispered.

He rolled out of bed and walked to his crumpled pants. He pulled something out of the pocket but she couldn’t see what it was. He climbed back into bed and laid something cool and small on her stomach. She looked down. A gold ring with a gorgeous, understated diamond in the middle sat right above her belly button. She looked over at Shane.

“Will you marry me?” he asked.

She picked up the ring and slid it onto her finger. “Yes.”

He leaned over her and captured her lips in a deep, sensual kiss.

Chapter 22

A week later, they were having dinner with Shane’s parents, Amanda and Henry. She sat to Shane’s right and looked down the table to his parents, Amanda and Amanda’s fiancé. It was the first family dinner they had all had together. Shane had told her on the way over that it was the first family dinner they had had in years.

“I’m thrilled all this nonsense with Matt is over,” Shane’s mother finally said. She smiled over at Lexi. “We’re thrilled to have you here. Shane has told me a lot about you. And from everything I’ve seen in the last few days, we’re lucky to have you as part of the family.” She looked at Lexi’s hand. “The ring looks gorgeous on you. It was my engagement ring, and Shane’s grandmother’s ring.”

“I didn’t know it was a family ring.”

She nodded. “Oh yes, it’s been in the family for generations. And now it’s yours.” She reached across and took Lexi’s hand. She squeezed it. Shane’s mother was elegant but felt frail. Lexi knew that under that frailty was intense strength. She smiled. “Enough of my yammering on. Everyone, eat!”

There was a rustling as everyone began to serve themselves. Lexi took her first bite and almost moaned. It was delicious. Shane’s mother could really cook meat. It was funny, before she was turned she practically was a vegetarian, but since she changed for the first time she constantly craved meat.

Shane reached under the table and took her hand. She smiled at her. Amanda leaned back in her chair. “You know, Lexi, I had my doubts about you but I think you and Shane are a good match.”

“Hurrah! Blessings from the sister,” Shane said sarcastically. Lexi poked him in the leg. Lexi smiled at Amanda. She appreciated Amanda’s statement. She wanted to be part of Shane’s family.

“Thanks,” Lexi said, looking at Amanda. Henry smiled at Lexi, and she wondered if Shane did the same thing to Henry.

Lexi helped with the dishes and then everyone went to sit in the living room for coffee. Lexi sat next to Shane and he pulled her close. She rested her head on his shoulder and let the enthusiastic conversation lull her into a deep relaxation. She felt safe, truly safe, for the first time in years. And she felt like she belonged.

THE END

PUCKED

STORY DESCRIPTION

Aiden Cooper is the chiseled center for the Los Angeles Knights.

Also known as the "Bad Boy Brawler of the NHL,"

Aiden likes his hard partying ways.

Drinking, bar fights, a different woman to warm his bed every night.

Hell, his life couldn’t get any better.

Until he meets Skyler…

Skyler Larking has no business being in a relationship.

But, Aiden Cooper is just too delicious to refuse.

She only ever figured he’d be a one-night stand

Then, when one night turns into two,

And two nights turns into mutual feelings,

Skyler realizes that the secret she is carrying could ruin more than just their careers,

Her secret could tear both their hearts to shreds.

Chapter 1

I stood outside the locker room for the Los Angeles Knights waiting to get in. The Knights had just lost their third game in a row after Aiden Cooper, their twenty-six-year-old center, and ‘bad boy brawler’ of the team, started a fight with one of the referees. It wasn't the first time that Cooper had started a fight out on the hockey rink, but it was the first time that I was covering such an event. In fact, it was first day on the job as a reporter for a national news station and here I was on the outside. I was a little pissed. I’d put in my dues to get here, and then some. I’d worked my way up through the ranks at local stations, to get noticed by the national news. My work spoke for itself, yet I couldn't even get back there for a damned interview. Sometimes it sucked being a woman in this business.

I watched as male reporter after male reporter was let into the locker room. My camera man, Billy, stood patiently by, waiting for his opportunity to get some video footage. I hated the way he kept looking sympathetically over at me, as if I was a lost child wandering around in a sea of testosterone.

"Want me to go in?" Billy asked.

"No," I said through gritted teeth. My stomach rumbled and I forced it to calm itself. These recent bouts of nausea were driving me crazy.

I knew Billy was just trying to be helpful, but I couldn't send a cameraman in to do my job. This was bullshit. I'd worked too hard to get here. Besides, if the rest of the station found out I couldn't get the interview myself, it would confirm every whispered innuendo about me. They would all assume I'd gotten the job by sleeping with Troy Mannen, the station head. People were ridiculous that way- even other women. Always a judgement laid down on a woman who was comfortable with her own sexuality. I could tell the truth, but it wouldn’t matter. Yeah, I slept with Troy. He’d gotten me drunk and we had a one-nighter. No big fucking deal, and instantly regrettable. It didn’t mean anything to either one of us. Well, it didn’t mean anything to me. The truth wouldn’t matter, though. I mean, the part about a one night stand with the boss would, but not the fact that I'd already signed the contract long before we had sex, or that I had earned this job on my own merit as a reporter plain and simple. Nope. I’d be permanently labelled as the female reporter who slept her way up the ladder. Total bullshit.

"This is ridiculous," I snapped, after Matthew Waters, the sleazy reporter for the country's biggest tabloid, was allowed inside. I turned to the security guard who stood blocking my entrance. "I need to get in there," I told him.

My blue eyes raged with anger. My dark hair, which I had pulled back into a tight bun, began to come loose as my head spun around.

"Sorry Ms. Larkin," the guard said, reading the name on my press badge. "I can't let—"

But I was too tired and too irritated to listen to any more of his excuses. I stormed passed him and burst into the room. All eyes turned to me, the lone woman in a room full of half-naked men. Aiden Cooper stood at the back of the room, a towel wrapped around his waist. He grinned when he saw me. His lips curved up and met the light in his dark brown eyes, which seemed to shine even in the dimness of the locker room.

I couldn't help it. My heart fluttered. Seeing Aiden in nothing but a towel, I realized that the rumors I'd heard regarding his body were woefully inadequate. His chest was not just chiseled with a hard lines of muscle rising and falling in peaks, it was as if some sculptor had carved him out of stone—the perfect specimen of man.

"And who have we here?" he asked, approaching me.

"I'm, um," I shook my head, trying to clear it. "Skyler Larkin, channel 10 news," I finally said, holding out my hand. "Mind if I ask a few questions?"

"Not at all," Aiden said, but instead of shaking my hand, he dropped his towel and pushed his crotch towards me. Everyone in the room laughed. His coach stood in the background shaking his head, looking embarrassed. Aiden just stood there with a smile on his face, like it was no big deal that he was naked and only a foot away from me.

"I, um..." My mouth ran dry.

I knew my cheeks were burning, but I didn't know how to make them stop. I tried to look away. I didn't want to play into Aiden's hands—he was obviously testing me. I wasn't sure whether he simply wanted to embarrass me or if he wanted to get me to admit that he was the sex God that all the papers and online magazines made him out to be. What was that headline I'd read only last night? BAD BOY BRAWLER OF THE NHL—A GIRL IN EVERY RINK.

Despite knowing that I was playing into his hands, I looked. I couldn't help it. Holy shit. The man was as well-hung as they said he was. A monster of a cock hung down between his tanned, toned thighs. I blinked and forced my eyes back up to his face, only that didn't help much either. His bronzed hair and deep golden eyes bore into me like sunshine through a window pane.

"I, er, just have a few questions," I finally managed to squeak out. Damn, I wanted to be cooler than this.

"Shoot," Aiden said.

"Yeah, okay, um..." But my stomach began to churn. Damned nausea. My nerves were on high alert and the blood that raced to my head wasn’t mixing very well with the cheese enchiladas I'd eaten for lunch. I put my hand on my stomach and stepped back. I had to find a bathroom. Where the hell… but I was too late.

My dinner came up and landed at the base of Aiden's feet, splashing his legs and, um, every other part of him. The shit-eating grin left his face to be replaced by a look of disgust. I ran out of the locker room with the laughter of Aiden's teammates echoing in my ears.

Where the hell was the ladies room?

Chapter 2

A half hour later, I exited the restroom.

"Skyler," Billy called, waving me over. "Hey, I've been waiting. Are you alright?"

"Thanks Billy," I said, offering up a weak smile. "I'm fine. Just something I ate I guess."

Billy leaned in, looking much more serious than he had only seconds before. "I also wanted to warn you."

I lifted my eyebrows.

"Troy called. He reamed me a new asshole, and I'm pretty sure you're next."

"Great," I said dryly. My stomach was still doing somersaults. Of course Troy would be calling. Tonight was a total bust. We were supposed to have the spot with Aiden wrapped up and transmitted to the station in plenty of time for the evening news, but of course, instead of interviewing Aiden, I'd vomited all over him. Ten o'clock had come and gone, and the sports segment had broadcast without it. Great way to start a new job, Skler.

Billy looked on worriedly. He was a kind man, maybe two or three years younger than me. I'd have guessed twenty-two to my twenty-five. He was anxious to please and just sort of anxious in general.

"Don't worry," I told him. "It's my fault we missed the interview. Not yours. I'll make sure Troy knows that."

Billy looked sheepishly at me but his shoulders relaxed. "Thanks," he said. "Are you ready to go then? It's almost ten. I should've had the news van back by now."

I shook my head, digging out a piece of peppermint gum from my purse. "I don't think I can handle being in a car just yet. You go ahead. I need to sit for a few, I'll grab a cab in an hour or so, when my stomach's calmed down."

"Oh, I don't want to leave you here."

"No really, it's fine. This is L.A. Billy, not Smalltown, Iowa. Not hard to get a cab out here, any hour of the day or night."

He looked around, uncertain, then finally conceded. "Alright, feel better."

"Yeah, thanks. See you tomorrow."

Billy drove off and I wandered around the stadium a while, trying to work off the lingering rumbles that continued to flip flop in my belly. I’d always felt at home in a stadium, probably because my dad and I spent so much quality time together at hockey games when I was young. My dad had been a good man. The best, and I was a daddy’s girl. After my mom died when I was 5 years old, dad stepped up and into the role of being both parents to me until the day he died 4 years ago. I couldn’t have asked for a kinder, gentler, more loving parent. I could only hope to do as good a job parenting my little munchkin as he had done for me. I absentmindedly rubbed my belly. Daddy had been a huge hockey fan. I could only imagine how thrilled he’d be if he knew I was now covering sports for a nationally syndicated station. If I still had a job after tonight, that is.

"Heeey!" a voice called. I looked up and saw one of the players on the Knights opposing team, Rory Shelton, walking towards me. "Hey hey pretty lady, what are you doing out here all by your lonesome?" Fuck. Rory was not someone I wanted to see, and definitely not someone I wanted to be alone with if the rumors surrounding him were in any way true. I quickly glanced around the stadium. Yep, we were pretty much alone. I'd been so preoccupied with daydreams and getting my stomach under control I hadn't realized how quickly the stadium had emptied out.

Rory's breath reeked of booze. His team had probably been celebrating their victory in the locker room. Against the rules, certainly, but apparently the rules were bent once in a while. He reached out one hand and brushed a stray strand of hair out of my face. I involuntarily flinched.

Rory had a bit of reputation as an asshole when it came to women. He'd been in jail a few times and there'd been certain allegations of harassment thrown at him by several women. Nothing concrete, and the allegations seemed to evaporate after a short while, but I’d been in this business long enough to strongly suspect that that only meant the women had been paid to keep quiet.

"I'm fine," I said, rising from the bench.

"Yes, you certainly are fine,” he said as his eyes raked up and down my body stopping at my breasts. I swear the asshole was drooling.

"Just waiting for my ride. Should be here any minute. Good game tonight." I took a step away from him but he reached out one hand and grabbed my wrist. My heart jumped into my throat.

"No, no, baby, you're not leaving so soon. Why don't you come with me? Let me show you a good time."

"I am leaving, and you’re going to get your hands off me. Now.” My voice was loud, and I hoped I sounded more confident than I felt.

I tried to pry his fingers loose from my wrist but he had a firm grasp.

"Let me go," I shouted trying to pull loose from his iron grip. But my anger wasn’t working the way I intended, in fact, it seemed to have the opposite effect. The angrier I became, the more encouraged he seemed.

"Not until you give me a kiss," he said, tugging me hard so that I nearly fell into him. His other hand wrapped around my waist.

"I'm not kissing you, you piece of shit. I don't even like you touching me. Let me fucking go!" I managed to pry one of his fingers free but it didn't make any difference, the other hand only gripped me that much tighter. "You're hurting me," I told him, a little louder. "Let go!"

In the near distance, a car door slammed. "Hey!" A man's voice screamed across the lot. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

I looked over and saw Aiden Cooper running towards us. Rory let go of me so quickly that I fell back and landed on my butt. When I looked up again, Aiden was in Rory’s face.

"What the fuck is the matter with you, man?" Aiden screamed, pushing Rory's chest. "I heard her saying no from a hundred yards away."

Rory shrugged, a smirk on his face. "Sometimes a woman don't know what she wants till it's already in her, know what I mean?" He pushed Aiden back and before I knew it the two of them were scuffling on the pavement.

I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I go look for someone to break it up? When I saw that Aiden had the upper hand, I figured maybe I’d just let it play out. It didn't exactly bother me to see Rory get a taste of his own medicine. Aiden slammed his fist against Rory's nose and blood gushed out. Aiden let him go and Rory scrambled out from under him looking a bit dazed. He seemed to come to his senses a little, though, and instead of throwing another blow, he held his hands up in a gesture of surrender and backed away. Aiden and I watched him until he turned the corner out of sight.

Aiden took several deep breaths and turned towards me.

"You ok?" he asked, holding out his hand to help me up. I took it and warm electricity surged through my fingers and up my arm.

"Yeah," I replied. "Thanks."

"No problem. It felt pretty good to hit that asswipe. Can I give you a ride home?”

I didn't know what was wrong with me. My body was responding to the narcotic power of his voice and eyes with an overwhelming onslaught of raw physical desire. His voice was like a warm rain pounding against my skin causing moisture to pool between my legs. I wasn't sure I could trust myself around him.

"Sure. Thanks.” I wondered if there was the remotest chance that he didn’t recognize me from earlier.

“My car is just over there," he said, pointing towards a cherry red Porsche. "Just promise not to puke all over it." He recognizes me.

"I’ll do my best," I mumbled, blushing. Would I ever live down the embarrassment of throwing up all over Aiden Cooper? He opened the passenger door for me and I slipped into the seat beside him.

Chapter 3

Aiden's Porsche sped along the road. I clung to the door handle as his tires raced over the pavement, keeping my eyes closed at first, then finally opening them when I heard him chuckle.

"What?" I asked. "Something funny?"

"You’re tough as nails inside a locker room, but look at you. Terrified of a little fast driving."

"I just don't want to crash," I said. My heart was pounding against my chest. Something about the way Aiden drove—hard, fast, but completely in control of the powerful machine—made me think he'd be a fantastic lover. My phone vibrated and I looked down at the number. Troy. I turned it off. The last thing I wanted to do right now in front of Aiden Cooper was to get my ass handed to me by Troy.

"So, where are we going?" I asked, suddenly aware that we were nohere near my home.

"Home," he replied. “My home. That okay?” he asked.

I glanced at him, "Your place?" Aiden probably thought he could have any girl he wanted. Did he think I was just gonna hop into bed with him because he was Aiden Cooper? Probably. After all, he was the hottest man to ever grace the cover of sports Illustrated, I would bet he didn’t suffer many rejections.

"I assure you, I’m nothing like Rory fucking Shelton. I might appreciate the company of a beautiful woman, but I also respect her choices.”

And, there it was.

“Besides," he replied, “My place is closer than yours.”

"How could you know that? I never told you where I live."

"Yeah, but I live in Beverly Hills." He said it with the complete arrogance of a hot, sexy, talented, wealthy asshole who thought the world revolved around him. His brash ego made my blood boil, but every time I turned to him to say something that might cut him down a peg or two, I kept picturing his naked body in the locker room. Especially the long, thick cock that had lain against his thigh. I was pretty sure that tonight, despite his arrogant demeanor, my choice was gonna be yes.

We passed through a wrought iron gate that opened at the click of a button and he pulled the porche up to a beautiful stucco mansion crafted in a hacienda style of architecture. There was a fountain in the center of the wide, circular drive, and beautiful stone archways. I was awed by the size and splendor of his home.

"Nice," I said before I could stop myself. I didn’t need to give his ego any more stroking.

Aiden ushered me into the kitchen and poured us both a drink.

"Thanks." The scotch was expensive, like everything else about this place. I couldn’t drink it, but that was none of his business. So, when he wasn't looking, I dumped it in the sink.

"Why are we here?" I finally asked. I wasn’t good at games. My style was blunt and forward. Got a question-ask it. One of the qualities that made me so good at my job.

Aiden raised an eyebrow. He looked a little taken aback. “You don’t want to be here?”

“I didn’t say that. I’m simply curious about your intentions.”

He grinned widely, clearly amused, and walked towards me. "Because I wanted to get to know you better.”

“You… wanted to… You mean you wanted to fuck me.”

Aiden coughed, choking on his scotch. “Wow,” he said, “Okay, yeah, I’ll admit it, you’re hot.”

“You want to fuck me after I tossed my enchiladas all over you? What, are you some kind of freak?”

He threw his head back and roared with laughter. “I said I wanted to get to know you better.” He set down his scotch and stepped closer, “You barreled your way into the mens locker room, then barely flinched when I flashed you, even though all eyes were on you. Then, the way you stood up to Rory ‘sexual harassment’ Shelton, was impressive. What are you all of about 120lbs? And, no, I could have done without you gifting me your stomach contents, thank you very much. I just never met anyone like you. Like I said, I wanted to get to know you better."

He was inches from me now. I could feel his breath on my face. "Say the word and I'll take you home, but I don't think you want to leave. Not yet anyway."

He cupped his hand under my chin and tilted my head back. I was breathing way too fast. I knew this was a gigantic mistake—it had to be—but when his hand touched my face my discretion forgot itself.

His lips pressed against mine and I gave in to the bold caress of his tongue. Relax relax relax. Only I couldn't relax, not with Aiden's fingers sliding under my shirt and up my back. His hands were surprisingly tender yet strong. My bra snapped open and my breasts spilled out. Aiden pulled my shirt over my head and stepped back to look at my ample chest.

“Beautiful,” his voice was husky with desire. He lowered his mouth to my nipples, swirling his tongue around one then the other, sucking gently. I moaned softly and my whole body seemed to convulse with need. My hormones were insane. His tongue moved faster until it left my breasts, sliding down towards my skirt.

Aiden lifted me off the floor with startling ease and sat me atop his kitchen counter. He buried his face between my legs, his mass of golden hair tickling my thighs. Pulling my panties off with his teeth, he ran his tongue over the length of my pussy before circling my clit. Holy shit. I arched my back and threaded my fingers through his hair. His hands slid over the outside of my legs as he worked his magic with his mouth, sliding his tongue in and out of my pussy, before running it up to encircle my clit. He continued the pattern moving faster and faster until a familiar tingling started deep in my core. I moaned softly. He was so in tune with my responses, that he instantly dropped his pants to the floor and next thing I knew, he had rolled a condom over his rigid dick and was inserting himself inside me.

It happened so fast I didn't even realize what was going on until his hands grabbed my ass and slid me off the counter on onto his thick length. His cock entered me an inch at a time until I felt completely full. He gave me a moment to get used to his girth before he turned us and slammed my back up against the opposite wall as he thrust into me again and again sending me into a state of sheer ecstasy. I clawed at his back and at one point I think I heard my moaning become screaming. He didn’t stop. He knew what I needed. With each push and thrust, my body released the tension and anxiety I'd felt building up for the last week. My heels dug into his ass and my fingers dug into his shoulders. He groaned, but it seemed to turn him on.

The electric sparks in my core began to build, and every time he thrust his rigid cock into me until our pelvises met, the sparks grew more intense. My head felt like it was floating, a light, airy feeling that grew brighter and bolder until I was flying amongst the clouds. My head rolled back as wild, delicious waves of pleasure enveloped my body climaxing in a tidal wave of bliss. My pussy pulsed with orgasm as Aiden let loose his own climax.

When I opened my eyes, he was smiling. "I thought that might be what you needed. I think you could use a little more, though."

Chapter 4

I woke up with my head pounding and my stomach in knots. Ugh! Unfair- I hadn't even had anything to drink last night. I lifted my head off the pillow and surveyed the bedroom. Aiden was gone. I picked up my phone to check the time and realized I'd never turned it back on last night. It lit up when I pushed the power button and I saw that I had fifteen missed phone calls from Troy.

"Shit," I murmured. I held the phone to my ear and listened to one of his voicemails. "Skyler, where the hell are you? Do you know how much you screwed up tonight? No interview? What the hell was I thinking when I hired you?"

And another, "Skyler, dammit! You call me the second you get this, you hear me. The second!"

I wasn't stupid. I knew that most of Troy's anger stemmed from our personal issue rather than my blowing the spot with Aiden. I wondered what he would think of me now if he knew just how up close and personal I'd interviewed Aiden last night. The thought made me chuckle.

"Morning," Aiden said when I entered the kitchen. He stood at the counter wearing nothing but a pair of low slung sweatpants that showed off his perfect abs. Day-um.

"Good Morning.”

"I can call you a cab when you’re ready," he offered.

A cab? My smile faltered slightly. So much for morning-after etiquette. I didn't expect him to be falling all over himself, but jeez, a cab seemed kind of crass even for Mr. Arrogant.

"Gee, thanks," I said.

"I've got a press conference this morning, so I don't have a lot of time. There's coffee ready if you want some," he told me.

"I know about the conference; I'm supposed to cover it. Coffee would be great, thanks." I stood by, waiting for him to get me a cup, but he barely looked up from his phone. I rolled my eyes and started opening cabinets until I found the right one. I poured a small amount of coffee into the mug— I knew pregnant women weren't really supposed to overdo the caffeine but I figured a cup wouldn't hurt. It was mostly milk and sugar in the cup anyway.

I stood awkwardly near him, not exactly sure what I'd expected, but certainly not this. Okay, whatever. I was a big girl. I could handle the brush-off. But, if he thinks he’s gonna call me a cab, he’s mistaken. I’ll call my own fucking cab.

"So," I said, "I guess you're not much of a morning person, huh?" I smiled sweetly not willing to let him see me irritated by his behavior.

"I'm just looking up some of the scores from last night. There are other hockey teams out there you know, and I was little preoccupied last night." He shot me a glance.

Preoccupied? Is that what he called it? Okay, asshole, you wanna play that game?

"Some would say that the Knights aren't much of a team," I said flippantly, and was delighted to receive the response I'd been hoping for.  His brow creased and he looked up from his phone. "The Stanley Cup isn't even a glimmer in your eye right now," I added.

"Some people are idiots who don't know what they're talking about," he said through gritted teeth.

"Well, my Dad was a huge hockey fan, and his buddies still are. He's the reason I love the game. Unless you played for the Original Six, your team barely counts in their eyes."

"The Original Six huh?" he said, grinning. "What do you know about the Original Six? Name the teams."

I lifted an eyebrow. He had to be joking. This was basic hockey trivia. "Red Wings, Blackhawks, Rangers, Canadiens, Bruins, and Leafs. They sort of symbolize the game for hockey fans across North America. You've gotta give me something harder than that."

"Okay," he said, setting his mug down. He actually seemed interested now. Yes, Mr. Full-of-himself, I am in the room. "First fifty goal scorer."

"Easy. Maurice Richard. Scored fifty goals in fifty games in the 1944-45 season. I thought I told you to give me something hard." My lips curved up at the corners and Aiden grinned at me.

"You know more than I gave you credit for," he said.

"Typical," I told him. "People figure 'cause I'm a female reporter I must not know my stuff, but that's gender-biased bullshit."

"I see that." His caramel eyes glimmered as the morning sun shone in through the picture window. "Where do you live?"

"Mid-Wilshire."

"I’ll drive you home."

That’s what I’m talkin’ bout. I stifled a grin.

"What about the cab? I thought you were too busy this morning to drive me?"

He shrugged. "Conference doesn't start for a little while yet, so no worries."

We hopped into his car and he headed east driving in silence for a while. His hand casually slid over my knee and I noticed the fresh cuts along his knuckles from last night's fight nestled in amongst the older ones, probably from previous fights.

"Why are you trying to ruin your career?" I burst out before I could stop it. I had a big mouth, and sometimes a very defective filter. Or, maybe, I was just irked that he'd been prepared to blow me off this morning.

"I'm not," he said, his jaw muscles tensed. His whole demeanor changed in an instant. He pulled his hand off my knee and gripped the wheel. "Are you still trying to get your interview?"

"No, I'm just asking you a question. Between you and me. Off the record. You've got a lot of talent. More than most. Seems a shame to waste it."

"I'm not wasting it," he said, his temper flaring. "I'm playing the game the best I can. Where am I taking you?"

"Wilshire and Western," I barked, folding my arms across my chest. I don't know what I was so mad for. I was the one who had started this.

We drove in silence a few more minutes before I opened my big mouth again. "It just seems to me that—"

"It just seems to me," Aiden raised his voice above mine, threw the car into park and faced me, "that some people are so wrapped up in other people's lives because they're not happy with their own."

"You have no basis to say that," I yelled back. Though it was a more astute observation than I would have thought him capable of making. After all, I wasn’t very happy being single and pregnant.

"I'd wager that I'm happier than you are," he shouted.

"Sure, that's why you're drinking yourself to death and engaging in bar fights every other weekend." I opened the car door and slammed it shut.

"At least I have someone to warm my bed each night," he shot back.

“Yeah, someone you barely know who doesn’t give two shits about you,” I yelled, furious. What the hell was wrong with me? These pregnancy hormones are crazy. I can hold my own with the best of them, but an insult like that was normally beneath me.

He stared at me for a moment, his mouth agape before his Porsche peeled away from my apartment, tires squealing.

I watched him go, anger and shame flushing my face. I didn't know why any of this should bother me so much. I barely knew him. Besides, he really was an arrogant fat-headed jerk. I was so preoccupied in my own emotions that I didn't even register it when he stopped his car at the end of the street and glanced back at me. I ran up the stairs to my building, lost in my thoughts. Waiting just outside the front entrance was Troy.

This day just keeps getting better and better.

Chapter 5

"What are you doing here, Troy?" I demanded. I didn't even realize he knew where I lived. Then again, of course he knew where I lived. He’d hired me. He had my address on file. I unlocked the front door and he followed me inside.

"If you're here about the interview—"

"I'm not," he said. "Though I don't know what the hell you were thinking blowing the very first interview I gave you. It makes you look like a complete amateur.” He flopped himself on my sofa. “Worse, it makes me look like an imbecile, and I'm not in the habit of looking like an imbecile."

I had to bite my tongue. "I'm tired. Was there something you wanted?"

"Have you thought about what we talked about?"

I lowered my eyes. I knew he wasn't gonna like my answer and I didn't want to see his reaction.

"I'm not getting an abortion, Troy." My words lingered in the air. I heard him stop breathing and finally looked up just to make sure he was still alive. His face was red.

He pounded his fist on the side table, "Why the hell not?" he demanded.

"Because this is the hand I've been dealt and this is the hand that I'll play."

"What the fuck does that mean?" he snarled. He spun around, throwing his hands in the air and letting out a loud grrrr that made me jump. When he turned back to me his eyes were dark.

"Don't you dare expect anything from me, you hear?"

"I don't."

"If one word of this leaks out to anyone I'll personally make sure that you never work in this town again."

"Fine."

He stood staring at me for a long time. "For God's sake Skyler, just terminate the god-damned thing. Do you really want to let a one-night stand ruin your life? It wasn't even that good!"

I knew he was just trying to bait me. "I'm not getting an abortion," I repeated, “And I’d like you to leave. Now.”

Anger exploded out of him. He flipped my coffee table over and pounded his fist into my wall, leaving a hole. I jumped away from him, terrified at his sudden violent outburst.

"I'll schedule it myself. I'll even take you there. You don't have to do anything."

"Still no," I said flatly. Despite the slight tremble in my voice, I was adamant and I wasn't going to be bullied. Ever since the night we'd slept together and the condom didn’t hold up, I'd felt like he was keeping tabs on me, maybe he was afraid I’d have something to hold over his head. After I told him I was pregnant a few days ago... well, something inside him seemed to have snapped.

"You can forget the press conference today," he said. "Don't even bother showing up."

My mouth dropped open. "Why not? You said—"

"I said a lot of things. But that was before I found out what a fuck up you are. I called you fifty times last night and you never answered. You already missed one interview. I wasn't about to let you miss this press conference too. I sent Gary."

"Gary? Gary can barely tie his shoes!"

"Well next time I send you for an interview, you make damned sure you get the fucking interview. Where were you last night anyhow?"

"Nowhere," I said, blushing. He stared at me a second, deciding something.

"Next time I call you, you answer. And don't forget, if you ruin me I'll ruin you," he finally said. "Got it?"

"Got it," I said quietly, turning so he wouldn’t see the tears pooling in my eyes. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he made me cry. Without another word, he turned to leave. I let out a long sigh and locked the door behind him.

Chapter 6

I stepped out of the shower, wrapped a towel around my body and another around my hair, and stepped into the bedroom to turn on the TV. The press conference where I was supposed to have been was on ESPN. The Knights were making some big announcement about their new goalie, Erick Calquin. He was the first hockey player native to Africa who would be playing with the Knights.

Aiden sat beside the coach. His eyes kept flicking back and forth between the camera and the crowd of reporters. If I didn't know better, I'd have thought he was looking for someone. It can't be me. He doesn’t even like me right now. In fact, he probably hates me.

Last night had been amazing. Not only had Aiden taken me in the kitchen, but later again in the bedroom, and then in the shower as well. I sighed. But I knew better. One-night -stands weren't about like or dislike, they were about lust. Sometimes, as in the case with Troy, they were about the worst kind of lust—drunken lust that didn't make any sense to either party in the light of day. But with Aiden, the lust was definitely based on good chemistry. Physical chemistry, anyway. We obviously didn’t do so well otherwise, if this morning’s harsh words to each other was any indication.

My stomach turned over. Oh, no, here it comes. I made it to the bathroom just in time. The toilet bowl was becoming my new best friend.

I returned to the bedroom and climbed up against the pillows to watch the press conference. My phone lit up with a new text. I was shocked to see Aiden's number pop onto my screen. He'd put it in my phone last night sometime between the kitchen and the shower. I'd figured he'd just been playing around.

"He can't be texting me now," I murmured to myself. "He's still at the live press conference." I looked back up at the TV and saw Aiden, still sitting beside his coach, with his phone in his hand. I looked back at the text.

WHERE R U?

I couldn't believe he might really be messaging me on TV.

@ HOME

I saw his face fall the second he got my text.

U WATCHING?

I couldn't understand it. He'd dropped me off three hours ago and the last words we'd exchanged were angry ones. Why did he look so upset that I wasn't at the conference? Why the hell would he care where I was or if I was watching?

YES

Suddenly, he stood up. His coach stopped talking and looked at him.

"Uh," Coach laughed, turning back to the press. "Aiden just wants to give Erick a proper Knights welcome," he said. Then he covered the microphone, but everyone could still hear him tell Aiden to sit the fuck down.

Aiden was standing there with a sexy grin on his face. "I just wanted to give Erick a proper welcome, like Coach said."

Then Aiden turned his back to the cameras and dropped his pants. His bare ass came into view and flashes went off everywhere. Coach shook his head as Aiden wiggled his bare ass for the press. Coach tried to laugh it off, but I could tell he was pissed.

"Aiden," I mumbled to myself. "What the hell are you doing?"

Chapter 7

I paused in the hallway, peeking around the corner towards my front door, listening to the banging of a fist as it flew over the heavy wood.

Troy again? It had to be, who else would be pounding on my door like that at midnight? He'd called me again after Aiden's press conference and told me he'd made an appointment for my "remedy," as he called it over the phone. He was so paranoid that someone would find out he'd slept with me. I knew why. I thought I did, anyway. According to Jessica, the office gossip, Troy was heavily courting the station owner’s socialite daughter. As the station manager of KGLB, he could be easily replaced at the owners discretion. Troy was just trying to cover his own ass.

I crept slowly towards the door and peeked out the side window. I was shocked to see, not Troy, but Aiden standing in the dark with a goofy grin on his face and a bouquet of flowers under his arm.

I opened the door and a flash of relief passed over his face. "Oh good," he said, obviously drunk. "I thought maybe you weren't home." He shoved the flowers towards me. Red roses. I took them, confused.

"Aiden, it's midnight. You know that right?" He smiled sheepishly and leaned in to kiss me. I pushed him away.

“Is this some sort of booty call?” I asked. He actually looked hurt.

"I just... I wanted to see you," he said it so sincerely that I almost considered inviting him inside. But that was a really bad idea. I mean, one night of earth-shattering sex was great, but anything more than one night seemed a little too close for comfort right now. Being pregnant, and with Troy acting crazier and crazier every day, I wasn’t in any condition to entertain even a casual relationship.

"I wanted to apologize. I once heard that you should never go to bed angry with someone, so I didn’t want you to go to bed still angry with me.”

I was pretty sure that saying only applied to people with whom you were in a committed relationship, but this time I was able to keep my mouth shut instead of blurting out that fact. Besides, the flowers were a very nice gesture.

“Thank you. I’m not still angry," I told him. "and you can see me at your next game, unless your coach banned you after that stupid stunt of yours."

He grinned at me. "You saw that, huh? I hoped you would."

Even drunk off his ass, Aiden was adorable. His hair tousled in a carefree style, rock hard pecs peeking out from behind his shirt, and sexy half-grin. Desire flooded me when I thought about the way his hands had slid over my body, and how his dick had slid into my body. I shivered in the doorway thinking about it.

"Oh," he said. "You're cold. Here." He took off his jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders. It was a surprisingly tender gesture.

"Is there something else, Aiden?" I asked, softer this time.

"Yeah, let me take you out. Tomorrow night."

"Out? You mean on a date?"

He nodded.

I bit my lip. "I don't think that's such a good idea. Why would you even want to?"

He shrugged. "Why wouldn’t I? I can't stop thinking about you, and something tells me... that you might be good for me."

I smiled in spite of myself.

"C’mon, just give me a chance. Let me cook you dinner."

"You cook?" I asked.

"Well, no," he hesitated. "But I'm superb at ordering take out. You don't even have to go anywhere. I'll come here- to you."

It might have been the way his eyes glimmered in the moonlight, or the way his silhouette looked so sultry and delicious as he leaned up against my doorway or the way his T-shirt bulged with his rock-hard chest and muscled arms, but the man breached my every defense.

"Alright," I agreed. "Dinner at my place tomorrow night."

Chapter 8

Aiden showed up at my place at seven with a huge grocery bag of take-out cartons from my favorite restaurant, Luigi's.

"I can't believe you read my mind," I said, as he began opening up boxes. It almost looked as if he'd ordered everything on the menu, afraid that I wouldn't like what he picked. I dug into some eggplant parmesan, my mouth watering. I kept waiting for him to get drunk and paw at me, but the strongest thing he had to drink was Diet Coke.

As I pulled out plates and silverware, he wandered around my living room, looking at my diplomas. I'd had them professionally framed and hung on the wall. I was incredibly proud of them.

"Looks like you're smarter than I gave you credit for," he grinned at me when I narrowed my eyes and glared. I threw a couch pillow at him. He caught it and threw it back. "Yale huh? I couldn't even get in there."

"Well, it wasn't easy," I told him. "I had to work hard for it. Scholarships don't exactly fall of trees."

"You got a scholarship?" he asked, interested.

"Yeah. My dad didn't exactly have the money for me to attend. Yale was one of the schools that offered me a full work scholarship."

"Work scholarship?"

"Yeah. I got my tuition waved as long as I kept my grades up and worked on campus. I worked in the cafeteria." I wrinkled my nose.

"Didn't much like it, huh?"

"Let’s just say it taught me that I didn’t want to make a career of picking up people's leftovers. Have you ever seen cafeteria food when it's being made? It's all powders. Powdered eggs, powdered beef—"

"Powdered beef?" Aiden laughed.

"I'm not kidding," I laughed with him. "You try eating that stuff for four years straight. You'll never look at food the same way again."

He hesitated. "My family wasn't exactly rich either. That's why hockey's always been so important to me. It was my ticket to a different life, you know? I didn't want to end up being a custodian all my life, like my dad. I love him, and I’m proud of him for supporting his family, but... he's never seemed really happy to me."

"I get it," I told him. Aiden gave a smolderingly sexy look that told me exactly what was on his mind. He took a step towards me. I knew I should stop him before it went any further, but I couldn't bring myself to push him away. My body was crazy about this man. My blood flowed through my veins like liquid lava.

"Aiden, there's something you should know." But was there? Did I have to tell Aiden that I was pregnant? What did it matter? He wasn't the father, after all. A woman only had to tell the father. Chances were that what Aiden and I were experiencing wasn’t going to last much longer anyway. It was just something we had to work out of our systems, like the flu. So, our one-night stand turned into a two-night stand, so what?  I was sure that tomorrow morning would probably be our final goodbye.

Aiden stopped moving towards me, waiting to see what I would say. But instead of continuing, I stepped closer and pressed my lips against his. My hands searched his chest and found the hem of his shirt, lifting it over his head. Now that we had started, it was like I couldn't waste any time. I didn't just want him, I needed him, craved him.

My heart rate quickened and my breathing sought to match it. I kissed his bare skin, tasting his body as I moved my tongue across the dips and crevices of his chiseled abdomen. My mind raced. What are you doing? Stop this now. What are you thinking? But I told my mind to shut up. Rational thought wasn't needed for tonight. My body took over and shut my brain down. There was no reason to think, only act.

Aiden's strong, soft hands cupped my breasts, feeling them through my bra. Slowly, he brought each strap down and slid it off me. We took turns exploring, tasting and pleasuring each other. I traversed the landscape of his hard chest and tight abs, but when he turned his attentions to my breasts, I was overcome with an acute surge of desire. His hands seemed fascinated by their soft roundness and heavy curve. His teeth, lips and tongue worshiped my nipples. An aching tension was building between my thighs and my body began to tremble, my knees buckled. Aiden scooped me into his arms before I could fall and carried me to the bedroom.

My bed was soft and inviting, and he laid me down in the center, while he stood at the foot of it unfastening his jeans. He slid them down his hips, freeing his large cock that jutted out towards me, thick, long, and erect. He stood for a moment while I admired the full length of his powerful physique. He watched me, eyes at half-mast, as I slid my own jeans off and kicked them off the bed. My stomach wasn't revealing anything yet; it was still hard and smooth and when I leaned back on my elbows, spreading my legs for Aiden, his eyes widened, and jaw slackened.

"I thought you might like to score," I teased. "Here’s the net, you bring the puck." I spread my legs wider and Aiden grinned at me. He slid on top of me, his bare skin against mine leaving his jeans in a pool on the floor. He didn't try to enter me right away. Instead, his deft fingers found that soft, sweet spot between my thighs and began to strum me like a violin. His warm, calloused fingers teased my pussy lips apart and gently circled the tiny bud of nerve endings. His fingers strummed my instrument, and with my head back, and eyes shut, a moan escaped my lips as the vibrations carried through my body.

Slowly, he lowered his head and allowed his tongue to delve into my soft mound. "You taste fucking delicious," he murmured, his breath hot against my skin. I wrapped one leg behind his neck and pulled him tighter against me. His tongue licked the length of my slit. "More," I whispered. He responded by dipping and swirling his tongue deep into my canal, tasting me from the inside. His tongue swam inside me, pulsing with soft precision. When he curled his tongue out and flicked my clit, my whole body shuddered and without warning exploded into an intensely delicious orgasm that had me crying out his name.

Before the last tremors of my climax subsided, Aiden brought his rigid, engorged erection to my slick entrance. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and his mouth opened ever so slightly as his shaft slowly slid into my waiting pussy. I felt his heartrate quicken when I thrust my pelvis up hard to meet his. We moved against each other perfectly in sync to a rhythm only we could capture.

I couldn't believe how right it felt to be with him like this. I ran my fingers through his thick golden hair, pulling his lips to mine and slid my tongue into his mouth to entwine with his. I could taste my juices on him as his hips thrust forward again and again, pounding into me like waves against a shore.

Power surged between us, intense and electric, sending sparks up my arms and to my brain. I had shut down my thought processes earlier, not wanting to hear the mindless chatter of why I should or shouldn't be doing this. But now, my brain confirmed that I'd done the right thing by being here with Aiden. In fact, I couldn’t think of anything I’d ever done that had felt this right

As I felt the beginning flutters of my second orgasm, I used my legs to pull him tighter against me, and as my body convulsed into waves of ecstasy, I was vaguely aware of his body tightening and his hard, muscular ass cheeks clenching as he exploded inside me. My arms and legs were coiled around him like a snake. I didn't want him to let go. When I felt the energy subside, I loosened my grasp. He was staring at me with wide, wondering eyes.

"I've never felt anything that powerful before," he said.

I grinned. Score!

Chapter 9

I sat between Billy and Troy. Billy kept his camera trained on the game and didn't notice Troy's dirty looks directed at me. Troy had insisted on coming to the game tonight. He'd said that he was a fan of the Knights and wanted to see the game. He also added that as the manager of the station he had to make sure I got my interview this time. I assured him I would. Aiden had already set it up to make sure I was allowed full access to the locker room and told his teammates to cooperate. I'd been flattered when he'd offered to help, but had initially declined. I hadn't wanted it to seem like I was using him.

Aiden had persisted, and without informing me until it was done, had secured me the equivalent of a backstage pass at one of the biggest games of the season. I was thrilled. Technically, he wasn't helping me to anything that I didn't already deserve. As a member of the press, I should have been given full access from the beginning, but being a woman in a man's sporting world wasn't always easy.

"After the game," Troy leaned over and whispered, "I want to talk to you. Alone."

I tried to ignore him but his hand gripped my wrist much too hard. I turned to face him and he glared at me with a menacing look. "I'm serious," he said.

"Fine," I whispered, looking around. I knew it had only been a week since Aiden and I had first slept together, but I didn't want anyone reporting back to him that I was involved in any way with Troy. Even though it was just a hate-hate relationship. Luckily for me, Troy didn't want anyone noticing our relationship either. He had no idea about my involvement with Aiden and I intended to keep it that way. Even though Aiden and I hadn’t quite ended, as I thought we would, there still wasn’t any spoken commitment between us. I just didn’t want Troy knowing my business.

Despite only having slept with Troy once, he was bitter and jealous like no one I had ever known. He seemed to think he owned me. I had to turn off my phone every night when Aiden was over just to make sure that Troy's phone calls didn't send the wrong impression.

"Cooper's on fire tonight," Billy remarked.

I couldn't hide the smile that played at my lips. Aiden was indeed on fire. He made goal after goal, and it looked effortless. And he hadn't gotten booted from the game once.

"Don't worry," Troy said. "He'll fuck up. He always does."

I glared at Troy, who noticed my rising temper. "People can change," I said. "They can grow. At least most people can."

"What's with you?" Troy asked. His face was tight and red. "Cooper's a jerk off. Everybody knows that. Maybe that Coach of his finally got him whipped. He's been pretty quiet since that mooning stunt of his. I heard Coach threatened to toss him if he had one more outburst."

I didn't say anything. I knew that was true though. Aiden and I had talked about it. He was terrified of being thrown not just out of the game, but out of the league. I'd told him if he just did his job, which was playing hockey not drinking and carousing, then he'd be fine.

"But a little carousing can be a good thing for a man," he'd said, his fingertips gliding over my arm. I'd smiled and told him so long as it was me he was carousing with, he'd be safe.

The game ended and I jumped up with Billy, Troy trailing behind us. We ran to the locker room and I could see Troy getting ready to make some sort of speech about how we were to be let through.

"Right this way Ms. Larkin," the guard said before Troy even had a chance to say anything. Billy and I jogged ahead of Troy.

"Why is he following us around?" Billy asked. I shrugged. "He gives me the creeps," Billy said, glancing back.

Then we were in the locker room and the players were coming out. They stood around with towels draped over them, half naked, and completely oblivious to the fact that a woman was in there with them. Reporters started shouting questions over each other, and my voice seemed to get drowned out with the others. But Aiden looked right at me and smiled.

"Let's start with the prettiest reporter here," he said.

I blushed and the other reporters chuckled. No one thought anything of Aiden's remark. He was so known for being a ladies man that comments like that were just a part of who he was. When the interview was over, and the reporters were booted from the locker room, I walked to the van with Billy, intending to ride back with him.

I felt Troy's hand shoot out and grab hold of me. "Ride with me," he whispered. I shook my head, not wanting Billy to notice. "Ride with me," Troy repeated, "or you're fucking fired," he spat.

My shoulders tensed and I planted a fake smile on my face. "I'm gonna ride with Troy," I told Billy. I leaned in and whispered. "I think he wants to ream me out for not asking better questions."

Billy's eyes widened. "I thought your questions were good," Billy said. "As good as anyone's, that is. He's just a jerk." I nodded and watched Billy drive off without me.

"Now," Troy said. "Was that so hard?"

Chapter 10

My phone starting ringing almost the second I plopped down in Troy's car. It was Aiden. I glanced at Troy and ignored the call.

"What is it you need to talk to me about?" I asked.

"I made an appointment for you in the morning. We're gonna get this thing taken care of."

My eyes bugged out of my head. I couldn't believe how little regard he was paying me. "I'm not getting an abortion," I told him for the umpteenth time.

"Yes you are," he said. "Or I'll make sure you're blackballed in this business. You'll be nothing but a joke. The slut that ruined her career by getting pregnant."

"You're the one who got me pregnant!" My phone rang again and I hit the ignore button.

"No one's going to believe you," Troy said. “I'll just say you're mad because I fired you."

"But..." I didn't know what else to say. I felt cornered. Troy smiled. "So what are we doing tonight then?" I asked, my heart sinking. I fought back the tears that were starting to form.

"Tonight," he said, his hand creeping once more onto my knee, "We’re gonna spend together."

"You can't be serious," I shouted, astounded that he could possibly think I was gonna spend the night with his crazy ass.

"Why not?" he asked. "You don’t really think I’m going to let you out of my sight before tomorrow morning, do you?" His eyes were malicious and his laugh was like a lunatic. I felt disgusted with myself for ever having slept with this man.

"I'm not having an abortion," I told him.

"Well, we'll see about that."

My phone started vibrating in my hand. "What?" I snapped, answering Aiden's call.

I heard the confusion on the other end. "Skyler?"

"Yeah, what is it?" I knew I was being rude, but I was too upset with Troy to care. Tears were starting to spill over my cheeks.

Aiden hesitated. "I thought I'd come over to your place. Is everything okay?"

"Fine," I lied, fighting back the tears in my voice. I didn't want Aiden to hear me cry. "I'm just tired. Not tonight okay?"

Funny, I never thought you could hear someone think, but I swear that's what if felt like now. I could actually hear Aiden's mind spinning. "Something's wrong," he finally said.

"No," I told him. Troy was watching me. "Everything... I just don't feel well. I'll see you some other time." Then I hung up before he could respond.

"Who was that?" Troy demanded.

"No one."

"Sounded like someone to me. You got another bedmate I should know about?" His voice growled low and steady. I knew what he was implying, that he wasn’t the father of my baby.

With the way Troy was looking at me, I didn't think it was wise to explain. "It was just my sister," I told him. He stared at me a moment longer then seemed to accept that. Idiot. I didn't even have a sister.

We pulled up to my apartment building and were almost to the door when a Porsche came screeching into the parking lot. Troy and I turned around and saw Aiden jumping from his car and running towards us.

"Aiden Cooper?" Troy said, confused. He looked over at me and understanding lit his eyes. "Oh, hell no," he said. "You've been fucking this asshole?"

Aiden heard him and only slowed his approach because he didn't yet understand the situation. Tears were filling my eyes again. More than anything I wanted Aiden here with me. I didn't to send him away, but I didn't know what else to do.

"Aiden, what are you doing here? I told you not tonight."

He looked from me to Troy. "Who's this guy?" Aiden asked.

"My boss," I said, my cheeks going red. Despite what some people thought, Aiden wasn't stupid.

"Why are you crying?"

"I'm not," but I couldn't meet Aiden's eyes.

"You heard her," Troy said. "She doesn't want you here." He yanked my arm, pulling me towards him.

"Ow," I said. "That hurts." I tried to pull my arm away and Troy slapped me once across the face. That was all it took. Aiden made a tight fist that sent Troy sprawling backwards. He fell to the ground, hitting his head. When he sat up his nose was bleeding and his eyes were black. He lunged at Aiden.

Aiden fought back, hitting Troy again. I scrambled backwards, shouting for them to stop. A few neighbors came out. One of them recognized Aiden and pulled out his phone. Then a couple others joined him and began recording the fight.

"Troy stop!" I screamed. He got one good punch in at Aiden, but Troy was just no match. Aiden used a wrestling move he knew and flipped Troy onto his back. He punched Troy again until finally Troy stopped fighting.

When Aiden stood back up, I took his hand, pulling him away. There were more neighbors and more phones out now.

"You'll pay for this," Troy shouted. "Both of you."

Aiden made one final attempt to lunge for him but I held him back and ushered him into my apartment. Tears streamed down my face.

"That asshat is your boss?" Aiden asked, bewildered. His nose was bleeding. "Skyler, please, talk to me. Tell me what's going on."

"I'm pregnant," I told him, unable to take it anymore. His face paled for a second before righting itself again. "It's not yours," I added quickly. "It's Troy's. We slept together. Once. Four months ago. It was a mistake, but, well.. he's been hounding me ever since. He wants me to have an abortion, but I can’t. I just can’t. He..." I began to choke on my sobs as they poured out of me. "He says if I don’t he'll blackball me from the industry. Ruin my career before it even has a chance to get anywhere. And I believe him."

I slumped against the wall and covered my face with my hands. My body shook. I was certain that Aiden was about to walk out my front door and never look back. Instead, his strong arms enveloped me and pulled me in close against his firm body. He held me tightly and kissed the top of my head as his hand rubbed up and down my back.

"I don't know what to do either," he said. "But what I do know is that that guy is never coming near you again." I laid my head against his chest and he held me like that for the rest of the night.

Chapter 11

The next night, I stood with the other reporters, watching the Knights get trampled by their opponents. Aiden sat on the sidelines. He'd been out the entire game. The videos of him beating up Troy were all over YouTube. His picture was plastered all over the internet. Troy had already announced his intention to sue Aiden and the team, unless Aiden was immediately released from his contract. Troy was trying to get Aiden kicked out of the NHL forever.

And just to rub it all in, Troy was actually at the game. He was sitting far from me in expensive box seats with the other station owners. Billy kept glancing at me. My face had been hidden in the videos. No one had bother to focus their cameras on me, it had been Aiden they were interested in. Still, it had taken a lot of makeup to cover the black eye Troy had given me when he'd slapped me. It looked a little weird.

"Your face..." Billy said.

"What about it?" I snapped.

"Never mind," Billy said quickly.

The game ended and the Knights slunk off the court, defeated once more. Reporters fled to the locker room, eager to get a word in with Aiden.

"Aiden, Aiden!" one reporter shouted. "How do you feel about your meeting with the Knights owner tomorrow? Think he's going to kick you off the team?"

"Yes," Aiden answered honestly.

"Why were you fighting with Troy Mannen?" another reporter shouted. "Was it over money?"

"Was it over a girl?"

"Are you on drugs?"

The questions kept flying in. They weren't even giving Aiden a chance to answer.

My heart broke into a thousand pieces. This was all my fault. I had to do something to make it right.

"It's not his fault," I said, quietly at first. Then louder, "It's not his fault! IT'S NOT HIS FAULT!"

Everyone stopped and stared at me. Billy moved to turn the camera off but I told him to keep it rolling. "Aiden Cooper is a good man," I said, facing the camera straight on. "He was fighting Troy Mannen because..." I took a deep breath. "He was defending me." Tears flowed freely over my face now. The makeup I had so painstakingly applied began to wash away.

"Not long ago, Troy Mannen, who is my boss at KGLB... we slept together. It was a one-time thing, but I’m pregnant." I was self-conscious of all the cameras in the room, now trained on me, but forced myself to continue.

"Troy... yesterday he tried to blackmail me into having an abortion, but I refused. He told me if I didn't terminate the pregnancy, that he would not only fire me, but see to it that I never worked in this industry again. Then he hit me." I rubbed at the makeup I'd been hiding my black eye with. Mixed with my tears, the makeup rubbed away easily. There were gasps all over the locker room. Even Aiden's coach looked stunned.

"Aiden came along as Troy was trying to hurt me. That's the part no one saw on the videos. The part where Aiden was only coming to my defense. He won’t lose his job because I’m sure that the owner of the Knights has no intention of firing a good and honorable man like Aiden Cooper. Not when Aiden Cooper exemplifies all that the Knights and the NHL stand for- honor, bravery and courage."

I suddenly felt lightheaded. My legs started to crumple and I felt myself rushing towards the floor. Aiden's strong hands reached out to steady. He pulled me up and held me to him, wrapped in his arms. "I love you," he whispered.

"Did you hear that?" someone shouted, excited, as cameras went off. Then Aiden, attention seeker that he is, kissed me.

"Hey!" someone shouted. "Troy Mannen's in the stadium. Let's find him!"

Reporters, eager to jump on the bandwagon, fled the room. Aiden stayed right where he was, with his arms wrapped around me and his heart beating in time with mine.

Chapter 12

Billy sat next to me as we watched Aiden score another goal. The crowd cheered as the announcer's voice blared across the stadium. "That's four in a row for Knights center Aiden Cooper." There was another roar as the announcer said his name.

"Is he really as great a guy as the papers make him out to sound?" Billy asked. Then he looked over at me, smiling ear to ear. My baby bump was showing now, but Aiden said it just made me look that much more beautiful. "Look who I'm asking," Billy said. "Of course you're gonna think he's great. You're his girlfriend." He laughed to himself and shook his head.

It was weird being thought of as Aiden Cooper's girlfriend, but It was definitely official now. After the whole Troy ordeal, we discussed our future together. A future we both wanted.

"It's kind of crazy to think how much he's changed," Billy said.

"Not really," I replied. "Everyone is multifaceted, it’s just a matter of which facet you choose to let shine." I glanced at Aiden who winked at me. Billy nodded with understanding. Troy would never change facets. He hadn't just been fired, he'd disappeared off the face of the Earth as far as I knew. Right after the station told him to get out, he'd tried to get a job elsewhere, but no one wanted to hire a man with his reputation for beating on and bullying women. Before he'd left Los Angeles, he'd said he never wanted to see me again, and that he was going somewhere where they'd never heard of hockey. That had been three months ago and true to his word, I hadn't heard from him again.

The Knights won their game easily and the rest of the players jumped on Aiden, congratulating him. Reporters started to head to the locker room to ask their questions but before they could file out, Aiden grabbed a microphone and started talking. Everyone stopped moving.

"Thanks, folks, for coming to the game tonight," Aiden said, smiling. "Three months ago it looked like I might not be playing hockey anymore, and tonight, we're on the verge of hitting the playoffs." The crowd cheered.

"A lot of people think it's me that's to thank for the turnaround this team has taken, but that's not true. Everyone on this team has worked equally as hard at creating the awesome outcome we’ve been experiencing, including our fabulous coach." The crowd cheered and a few of the players patted Coach on the back. "But there's only one person, who has made a difference in turning my life around. Her name’s Skyler Larkin. Skyler, where are you? Come out here, please."

My cheeks turned red. Aiden held out his hand for me and Billy gave me a push. I stepped onto the ice and started to slide. Aiden scrambled over and helped to the middle of the rink.

"What’s going on?" I whispered. He just smiled at me.

"Skylar Larkin," he said, kneeling on the ice. My jaw dropped. He pulled a small velvet box from his pocket and the crowd in the stadium grew completely silent. You could have heard a whisper from the other side of the stadium.

"I never would have believed I could meet a woman as kind as you, as beautiful, as funny, or as strong. You've changed my life immeasurably and I never want to be without you. I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but I love you more than hockey. Will you marry me?"

For a half a second, I forgot to breathe. "Yes, of course!" I screamed. Throwing my arms around him. The crowd cheered. Aiden kissed me and spun me around. "I love you too," I told him as he slid the ring on my finger. It glowed bright in the stadium lights.

"The only thing left to do," Aiden said, "is figure out how this adoption stuff works. Our baby is gonna grow up with a father. And if it's a girl, she's gonna be the first girl to ever play pro hockey in this rink."

I smiled as the baby kicked, adding its seal of approval.

THE END

HOLDING

STORY DESCRIPTION

Mia made one mistake – one.

She secretly dated her best friend, Rachel’s brother, whom she’d had a crush on since third grade. But, that one mistake changed Mia’s life forever.

Logan doesn’t regret the love he gave to Mia, if it were up to him, they’d be married by now. It clearly wasn’t up to him, when Mia dumped him three years ago in an email. Logan went on to pursue his dreams of playing pro football, and has made a huge success of his talent. He never saw Mia again….

Now, his sister Rachel has called everyone back home to Oakville for her lavish, over-the-top wedding.

The upcoming nuptials leave Logan with questions- Will Mia be there? Has she moved on? Can he rekindle their spark? Can he convince Mia that she’s the only woman he’s ever truly cared for?

Mia is not looking forward to the wedding. She is a terrible liar and she has secrets that she’d rather keep buried. One in particular- her three-year-old daughter, Emma.

How will Mia explain why she forfeited her Harvard Law scholarship in favor of working at SmartMart?

Chapter 1

Mia stood at register, waiting for the next person in line to hurry up and make their decision. Candy or no candy? Gum or no gum? A rather large, gray haired woman made a face at Mia as she eyed the chocolates, as if Mia was somehow personally responsible for tempting her. The man behind her grumbled and shuffled his feet.

"Come on lady," he yelled. "It's not rocket science."

The woman glared back at him then turned her wrath on Mia. "I don't like the way you're looking at me," she said. "Where's your manager?"

Great. The only thing Mia needed less than a root canal was to drag Mr. Rayner over to her register. Why couldn't anyone who shopped at Smart Mart actually be reflective of the store's name. "Ma'am," Mia started her attempt to placate the woman.

"Ma'am? Did you just call me ma'am?"

Mia sighed, realizing her error. "I'll just get the manager for you."

She signaled Mr. Rayner, who came over and took the woman aside, apologizing for something Mia never did. At least her third hour on register was over. Lara brought a new drawer to replace Mia's, who gratefully left her post in search of fresh air. Mia tried to sneak past Mr. Rayner for her last break of the night, but he caught her opening the back door to the alley with the bench.

"Mia, a minute please?"

Mia paused. She was so close to the fresh air—well, alley fresh air, but at least there were no fluorescent lights—but she turned into Mr. Rayner's office instead. He sat on top of his desk, leaning against the edge. He pushed out a chair for her with his foot and she took it.

"Mia, why do you insist on making things difficult for yourself? I can help you if you'd just be a little nicer to me." He reached out an arm and tried to grope Mia's shoulder. She jumped out of her chair and took two steps back. This was an old game.

"I have a boyfriend," she lied.

"No you don't," he laughed, as if the thought was too ridiculous to entertain. "Come here why don't you?" He opened his arms and Mia considered relenting. She was so tired of working double shifts and standing at register for three hours at a time. But then Mr. Rayner licked his lips and Mia's stomach churned. Things were bad, but they weren't that bad.

"I'm going on break," she said.

"Fine," Mr. Rayner said, straightening up. "But that old bat complained about you. I have to make a record of it. That makes three complaints this month Mia. One more and you're facing suspension."

Mia bit her lip. She only had an hour left. "Can I go now?" He nodded like he was doing her a favor and she scurried away while she still could.

Mia was almost out the alley door when Jake ran up to her.

"Hey, Mia." He was out of breath. "Glad I caught you. Listen, there's a hot party on for tonight. Can you cover me?"

"Doesn't your shift start in like an hour?"

He lifted his shoulders. "So?"

Mia wanted to slam his head against the wall. Jake knew she'd never turn down an extra shift. She and Emma needed the money too badly. But she was so tired. She pictured the pink princess dress Emma had gone crazy for at Smart Mart the other day. Who would have thought that fake satin was so expensive?

"Fine," she said.

"Thanks," he said, grinning. "That's awesome."

She watched Jake run off and a pang of jealousy hit her heart. He was only a year younger than her, yet his life was so different. She was twenty-one. She should be going to parties instead of... but that was a horrible thing to think. Emma was the one good thing about her life.

She stepped outside and sucked in the cool night air. Late August was always a peaceful time for the weather in Wisconsin. Football would be starting soon, and she was sure to see Logan splashed across the screen even more as the weeks went on. She never could get away from him completely. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she looked with shock at the number. It was from Rachel. She hadn't talked to Rachel in three years. Not since Logan was drafted and they both moved to San Francisco.

Mia, I'm getting married this weekend. I need help. I can't make it in Oakville by myself. Please come. I've missed you.

Mia turned off her phone and drew in several deep breaths. Why would Rachel be getting married in Oakville? She'd heard people in town talking about the wedding. Her fiancé was some big shot Hollywood actor. Shouldn't they get married there, in L.A.? She went back inside. Her ten minutes were up.

Work lasted forever. Mia walked through the door of her tiny apartment to find Emma asleep in Tera's arms. It wasn't quite dawn. Mia shook the babysitter gently and paid her double what she'd promised. The money was almost too precious to part with, but it was worth it to keep Tera coming back. She's the only one who would come down to Harvest Road with any regularity. Everyone else deemed the area too poor to set foot in.

Mia moved Emma back into her bed, kissed her forehead and returned to the living room. Their couch was starting to fall apart and Mia made a mental note to keep an eye out at the Goodwill. Logan's face flashed across the screen when Mia turned the TV on. She knew she should go to bed. She had to be back at work in a few hours, but Logan's face smiled at her and she couldn't turn away. She remembered the last time she'd seen him... the night they'd finally made love. It had only been three years ago, yet it felt like decades. Even now, his face was smooth and tan and he stared at her from the TV screen with wild blue eyes and a smile too charming for his own good. In these moments, she missed him even more than she would have believed possible.

Chapter 2

Logan stood for the cameras with his back straight and a smile on his face. His sand colored hair swept back over his head, and the girl on his arm—Crap! What was her name again?—kissed his cheek as the lights kept flashing.

"Hey Logan! Over here!" shouted a reporter. The blonde on his arm threw her body over his, like she was a blanket, or maybe a snake. She coiled one leg around him and pulling him close with both her arms. His face smacked against hers hard; it felt like he'd just been tackled. She ran her tongue over his lips, and he continued to smile for the cameras as if he was enjoying it all. In truth, he wanted to run away from this woman and the cameras and just go sit in a library or a coffee shop somewhere and be alone.

He was twenty-six and already tired of the girls and the fame. It was great being the best quarterback in football, but all he really wanted now was to play the game. He didn't care about the other stuff, like the money or the girls or even the trophies. Okay, maybe he still cared a little about the trophies, after all, he wasn't crazy. But the girls were a dime a dozen. He flashed back to college. Just before he'd gotten drafted to San Francisco, he and Mia had shared a magical night together and a promise that she'd ultimately broken. He couldn't stop his heart from fluttering when he pictured her face of cream and her golden hair falling around her shoulders like a string of halos.

The blonde pinched his ass and the reporters all laughed. She was posing for them like they cared about her. Like she was an actress or a model instead of a groupie. Was he sure she wasn't? It looked at her again and tried to remember where he'd met her. A bar. It was always a bar. The flashes continued, blinding him for a full minute before he blinked enough to regain his sight. Vultures. All of them. It occurred to Logan that maybe the blonde was a vulture too, and he eyed her suspiciously as she swiveled her hips.

He wondered what Mia was doing now. If she was happy. He hated the idea of going back to Oakville for Rachel's wedding, but if he had to, maybe he could at least look her up. He was sure she'd be gone. Harvard law was a far cry from Oakville, Wisconsin, why would she have returned? But still... her parents were probably still there. Maybe he could find them at least. Get an address.

Why torture yourself?

He had left Oakville, but it had been Mia who'd left him. He should just leave well enough alone.

The cameras flashed again, too close to his face this time, and his eyes started to tear up. What were the taking pictures for anyways? They acted like he was doing something really juicy—like robbing a bank or breaking a world record. The season hadn't even started yet. He was just walking into a restaurant with a girl he barely knew. What was so interesting about that? Would they still want pictures if it was he and Mia walking into the restaurant, or did the blonde hold some strange charm he couldn't see?

The flashes must be getting to his head. Why was he still thinking about Mia right now? It had been three years. He couldn't still be pining for her. He shook his head and opened the door to the restaurant. The blonde—Vicki! Her name was Vicki!—put her hand on his back as she ushered him inside, swinging her head back for one last look at the photographers. Her lips were too red, he decided. He longed for the soft pink petals that had belonged to Mia.

What's wrong with me? Stop it now. There's no point in thinking about her.

It was definitely Rachel's wedding that was doing this to him. And the idea of going back to Oakville after all this time. At least he'd be going back rich. His parents had insisted on staying there, but then he'd insisted on buying them the nicest house in town, far away from the gutter they used to live in when he was growing up. Hell, maybe the town would even throw him a parade.

After dinner, Logan dropped Vicki at her apartment. Two other girls, pretty in an overdone, trampy sort of way, tried to help draw him inside. There was a time, right after Mia had dumped him, that he would gladly have accepted their invitation. Now he fought them off and headed back to his empty mansion. It was filled with priceless artwork his manager had insisted he buy because it was somehow good for his image. Except of course, there was no one but him to enjoy it or even look at it. Rachel and her fiancé Erik were hardly ever over here. She was too busy modeling, and he was too busy being absorbed by Hollywood. Rachel had told him she was keeping her house in San Francisco but moving down to Hollywood after the wedding. He wasn't sure what the point of it was. Why keep two houses when they're both going to be empty?

Disgusted with the strange and irritating melancholy he'd stirred within himself, he grabbed a suitcase from his closet and started to pack for Rachel's wedding. At least Rachel would be stuck in Oakville with him. There, he wouldn't be alone.

Chapter 3

Mia looked in the mirror for the third time, unable to believe she was doing this. Her natural blonde highlights were pulled up high on her head, piled into a sort of upside down ponytail that left soft golden waves falling around her face. Her dress was what she liked to call "new old," meaning it was new to her. She'd run to Goodwill after her morning shift and found it stacked in with the pinks and purples. It had spaghettis straps and soft pink cotton with magenta flowers printed all over. It looked very summery and she smiled, thinking that despite the slight yellow stains under the arms, and the tiny rip near the bottom hem, she looked pretty good. And it was only five dollars. Rachel would probably not even notice the small imperfections.

"You look pretty Mommy," Emma said from behind her. Mia turned and smiled. Sometimes Emma said something that made the last three years all worthwhile.

"I'm sorry I'm going out sweetie," she said, really meaning it. She hardly ever got any time with Emma these days. Work was constantly nagging at her. "I'm off tonight though, so I'll be home after dinner and we'll play dress up."

Emma's face lit up. "Princess?" she asked. Mia's smile faltered. "I haven't gotten the princess dress yet sweetie," Emma's face fell. "But soon, okay? It's still there, it's just waiting for Mommy to get paid next week." Fifty dollars was more than she'd paid for food this week. It would be worth it though to see Emma get something she wanted for once, instead of being told they couldn't afford it.

Mia kissed Emma goodbye and walked to the restaurant, looking for Rachel. Maybe I'm early. Better yet, maybe I'm late and they're already gone. Then she heard a voice peal through the air.

"Miaaaa! Aaahhh!" A woman with ultra-blonde curls and a skin tight dress ran up to her in six inch stilettos. "I can't believe it's you! It's been so long."

Mia shrank back slightly from this woman who only barely resembled the Rachel she'd grown up with. This Rachel was rich. She had clearly traveled the world. Mia had never left Oakville. "It's, er, nice to see you Rachel."

Rachel pulled her into a hug and Mia thought she could smell California on her. "Mia, this is my fiancé, Erik." Rachel shoved Erik towards her. Mia recognized him from some of his movies, but decided not to mention that or the two Razzies he'd won last year.

"Hi Erik," Mia said, extending her hand. "Nice to meet you.

He was tall and tan and wearing sunglasses that drooped far down his nose. He gave Mia a once over then pushed his glasses back up. "It's almost fall. Should you still be wearing a summer dress?" he asked.

Mia's cheeks burned crimson, from anger as much as from embarrassment. Rachel laughed off his comment and shuffled Mia into a chair. Erik started playing with his cell phone.

"So tell me," Rachel said. "How are you? Where do you practice now? Do you have your own law firm?" She turned to Erik, who wasn't listening, and said, "Mia got a full scholarship to Harvard you know. She wanted to be a lawyer so she could change the world." She turned back to Mia, beaming at her, proud of accomplishments Mia had never achieved.

"Er... I'm fine," Mia mumbled. "All good."

Rachel's expression clouded. "All good?" Her eyes began searching Mia's face. They stopped at the stains on Mia's dress, the ones she'd missed in her initial excitement, and the bags under Mia's eyes. "It looks like you haven't slept in a while," she said.

"Oh well, yeah," Mia coughed and grabbed for some water. "You know how it is."

Rachel was watching her with a strange expression that made Mia uncomfortable. "How come you didn't stay in touch?" she asked, hurt showing on her face.

"Oh." Mia wished she hadn't come. She should've stayed home with Emma. "I just... you know."

"No," Rachel said. "I don't know."

Mia started to feel heat rise in her chest. She had to get out of here before she said something stupid. "Look, I have to work later, so I should probably—"

"Work?" Mia squealed. Erik looked up from his phone, then immediately decided his phone was more interesting and looked back down. "Where's your office? You don't work here in Oakville, do you?"

Mia kicked herself for not being more careful. "Er, well, temporarily. You know."

Rachel stared at her with wide eyes. Finally, after an eternity, Rachel slid a gold embossed wedding invitation across the table. It had ultra-fancy lettering that looked impossible to read, and something that looked like a small diamond glued to the center of the invitation, between Rachel and Erik's names. Rachel saw Mia looking with wonder at the invitation. "It's real," she said happily. "The diamond, that is. Just wanted something a little different."

Mia sat in shocked silence. A real diamond? This single wedding invitation probably cost more than she made in a month. Rachel saw her staring and finally caught on. "It's just a diamond sliver. Hardly worth anything. More for show." There was a long silence as they listened to the bleeps on Erik's phone as he played some sort of game, completely oblivious to his surroundings. "You don't have to be in the wedding, but I really wish you'd be there. At least come to rehearsal dinner." Rachel's request sincere and should have been simple for Mia to consent to, but it was just the opposite.

"I should go," Mia said. She hadn't ordered anything to eat or drink except water. She hadn't even been there long enough to place an order, but it was still too long. She told Rachel she'd see what she could do, then ran from the restaurant before Rachel could ask any more questions.

Chapter 4

Logan arrived at his house in a limo sent by the city to meet him at the airport. There wasn't a parade exactly, but it was close enough. A line of people he didn't know streamed into his parents' house, waving at him as the limo parked in the curved driveway. He got out and a cheer went up. He waved back to everyone and saw his parents standing near the garage, smiling. He gave them each a hug then followed them inside.

The house was the same as when he'd bought it for them. Dark mahogany cabinets and floors ran throughout, creating the effect of living in a museum. Except that his mom had personalized the museum with a dozen cat figurines and roomfuls of football memorabilia, mostly from Logan's school days before he was drafted. They'd saved every photo, every newspaper clipping, every game ball Logan had ever earned.

It was nice seeing his parents, but it was strange seeing so many faces he didn't recognize. He poked his head out the window for another look and someone pulled at his hair, trying to get a souvenir. Out of the crowd who cooed and pawed at him, he saw his sister. "Rachel," he called. She waved and ran towards him. A few heads turned towards her, after all, she wasn't exactly a nobody. Her face graced the cover of countless magazines and billboards these days.

He still didn't understand her desire to get married back in Oakville. They could have easily flown their parents out to San Francisco or Los Angeles for the wedding. He supposed Rachel wanted to show off a little. Wanted her old friends and neighbors to see how well she'd done for herself. He didn't really blame her. It might be wrong of him, but he'd sorta liked seeing the jealous looks on men's faces when he'd shown up in a limo, and despite his weariness of nameless women, he appreciated the way all his hometown girls swooned at his arrival.

Rachel grabbed his arm and steered him into the backyard.

"See all the lights?" she asked. "We're gonna have those Chinese lanterns hanging everywhere in different colors."

"Like a disco?" he teased. She pinched his arm but didn't let him break her stride. The backyard was huge and she started walking him through it, giving him details he didn't really care about, but was contented listening to if it made her happy.

"And then I've had a stage built for the band. And the waiters are all going to be wearing imported Gloriosas in their lapels." She snuck a glance to see if he was appropriately impressed with her flower selection, but he had already started to tune her out. Expensive flowers weren't exactly front and foremost on the minds of football players.

"I don't suppose Mia is going to be here?" he asked.

Rachel shrugged her shoulders and sighed. "Who knows. I met up with her the other day but something wasn't right with her."

"What do you mean?" He'd never told Rachel about his relationship with Mia. It had been something private only the two of them had shared. That was one of the reasons he still treasured Mia's memory. He didn't have many private moments these days.

"Oh I don't know," Rachel said, surveying the yard. "Her dress... she just... I don't know," she shrugged again, exasperated. "She just doesn't look like a lawyer."

Logan felt his brow furrow and was glad there were no reporters in the yard to capture the moment. "Maybe she's not. I mean, law school can take a while. And it's hard, right? Maybe she's taking a break."

"Maybe... I don't think she even has a car. I can't imagine where she must be living. It's not with her parents."

"Wait a second," he stopped walking and turned to her. "You don't mean that she's living here again. In Oakville."

Mia shrugged and Logan wished she'd stopped doing that. "I'm not really sure. I tried talking to her yesterday at lunch but couldn't get one honest answer from her."

Logan couldn't believe Mia was in town, let alone the possibility that she was living here. He felt his old protectiveness returning, wanting to defend whatever choices she'd made. It was infuriating. He wished he could just stay bitter and resentful, rather than think of her with rainbows and lollipops. That wasn't a real image, that was just a fantasy he'd built up over time.

Rachel continue leading Logan around the yard, pointing out stuff he didn't care about and some of which he didn't even understand. He followed her around like a zombie. When she pointed out something called, "The Gold of Kinabalu," he kept looking around for a treasure chest until he finally picked up on the fact she was still talking about flowers.

Rachel stopped to chat with a group of girls she'd gone to high school with who'd somehow broken through the crowd and made their way inside. Logan searched their faces, wondering if maybe Mia might show up with one of them, but no such luck. As Rachel chatted though, she asked about Mia.

"Oh she works at Smart Mart. Ain't you kept in touch?"

Logan did a double take. "Did you say Smart Mart?"

She nodded. "Yeah, been workin' there for months."

"Years," another girl correct.

The first girl rolled her eyes. "Years, months, whatsa difference when you're in Oakville?"

The girl didn't realize it, but she'd just nailed the problem with Oakville down to a stroke. Time stopped here. It was just another reminder of how glad he'd been to get when he did. He wondered what on Earth could have dragged Mia back here after Harvard and the east coast. Maybe her parents were sick. But couldn't she have gotten a better job than Smart Mart?

He excused himself from the party, determined to find Mia and figure out what the hell was going on.

Chapter 5

It was another midnight shift. That is, it started around nine, and ended at five in the morning. Mia stood at an empty register. This was her punishment for turning down Mr. Rayner yet again. She was stuck on register her entire shift. She didn't even know why Smart Mart was open twenty-four hours. Hardly anyone ever came in after nine or ten. Small towns went to be early.

She stood there and played with her shoe. She tried to think of new, inventive ways to make it feel comfortable on her foot, instead of like itchy cardboard stuck together with tape. She stood on her tiptoes, leaned back on her heels, then looked around before daring to pull her foot out for a moment of sweet freedom. Mr. Rayner was watching her across the store, but he couldn't see her toes wiggling in her socks. She smiled at him. He scowled and walked in the opposite direction.

Hours passed. At least, it felt like hours, but when she looked at the clock it was only one. She'd rang up exactly three people since eleven. Strangely, they were all buying kitchen appliances. She looked at her register and set a brochure on the old train depot down on it, hoping that if Mr. Rayner saw her it would look like she was reading some interesting piece of work material, then let her eyes flutter shut.

They couldn't have been closed very long. The sounds of the store never faded from her ears.

"Hey." A deep voice shot out of the darkness, hitting her like a hammer.

Her eyelids snapped open and her head jerked to attention. She wasn't sure, but she thought she must've fallen asleep standing up. Is that even possible? But there was no other explanation for the voice she'd heard.

"Sorry," she said to her customer, brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ears. "I was just..." When she looked up into Logan's eyes, she thought she was dreaming.

Crap. Wake up! Wake up before Mr. Rayner catches you!

When the image before her refused to fade, she slowly came to the realization that she was already awake. That was even worse. That meant that Logan Knight was standing in front of her, looking like he'd just stepped out of the pages of GQ, while she was stuck behind a register in her beige Smart Mart shirt and an old pair of jeans.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," he said, smiling.

How was she supposed to respond to that smile? "Hi," she finally said. Keep it short and sweet. Or at least short.

"How are you?" he asked. It was a perfectly normal question but it came out sounding stilted. The awkwardness of the situation was so thick it almost made the air around them unbreathable. "Do you work here?" he asked, then immediately regretted the question when Mia scrunched her face and tapped her name tag. "Right. Duh." He tried his smile again but Mia was looking for Mr. Rayner and missed it. She thought if she could say her boss was wandering the aisles it would be a good excuse to get rid of Logan. But there was no Mr. Rayner when she actually needed him.

She gave in a little, deciding it was better to talk to him than stand there like a statue. "I'm fine," she lied. "I guess I don't have to ask how you are."

He shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe my life isn't what you read in the papers."

His eyes were just as mesmerizing as she remembered. Blue and perfect. It felt like he was hypnotizing her withthem. "Well..." she said, softening just a little. "So how are you really then?"

"Fine," he lied.

They stood opposite each other, nodding their heads, so many things to say yet neither of them having the courage to say them. Mia wanted to know what the hell Logan was doing here. He must be in town for Rachel's wedding, but why would he even step foot in Smart Mart?

As if reading her mind, Logan said, "I heard you worked here. I was looking for you."

Her heart thumped in her chest. "For me?" she whispered. "Why?"

He looked at her like she was nuts. "Why do you mean why? Because... because..." He was starting to stammer. Mia thought it was cute. "Because we have unfinished business."

Oh my God. He knows about Emma.

"When do you get off?" he asked, deciding to turn his charm all the way up and shoot her his million-dollar smile. The smile faltered a little when Mia showed no reaction.

"Not till five," she said.

"In the morning?" His eyes bugged out of his head. "That's right," she said. "And I think you should go before I get in trouble." She'd seen the way his eyes had lit upon her face. The smile he kept trying to charm her with. He didn't know about Emma, he just thought he could finagle a little action with her for old time's sake. But she wasn't about to give in to him, no matter how damned beguiling he was.

"Listen Mia, I've missed you."

Her mind raced. She reminded herself he was just trying to get her into bed. That was the only thing that made any sense. With millions of dollars and millions of women, it was ridiculous to think that Logan could have missed her. Her heart longed for it to be true, but her mind knew better.

"My boss is coming," she finally said, just to get rid of him. Mr. Rayner was probably sleeping in the back."

"I'm not—"

"Leave Logan, before you get me fired."

His eyes looked hurt, and for a second Mia felt bad. But then she remembered the womanizing he was so known for, and felt justified in sending him away. When she didn't say anything else, Logan turned his back to her and left the store. Mia relaxed her shoulders, then burst into tears.

Chapter 6

Once five o'clock hit, Logan started to question just what he was doing. Mia had obviously changed since he'd last seen her. He'd hit her full throttle with his million-dollar smile and she'd had no reaction whatsoever. So why was he standing outside, waiting for her like a schmuck?

Apparently I'm a sucker for heartache.

He laughed to himself. If his friends could hear him they'd say he was a pansy. Football players were tough. They didn't have feelings. The only place they could get hurt was on the field. It was an image Logan had cultivated well, but finally come to loathe. He looked up and saw Mia crossing the parking lot.

"Mia," he shouted, running over to her.

She jumped and looked wildly around until her eyes found his and settled there.

"Sorry," he said, "did I scare you?"

She broke into a smile to rival the approaching dawn and shook her head, laughing. "Maybe a little. I'm not used to people stalking me." There was a hesitation in her voice, which was still as soft and sensual as ever. It almost seemed like she didn't trust herself around him.

"I'm not stalking you," he said. "But maybe I should. You look good." It was true. Though she clearly wasn't the same Mia he'd left in Oakville three years ago, her looks had only improved. He'd already thought she was beautiful before, but now her hair had more gold. Her eyes had more caramel. He wondered if it was only that he hadn't seen her in so long, or had she really gotten prettier with time?

She blushed and her pink lips formed into a perfect "oh" as she opened her mouth. "You too," she said. "Look good, I mean." Then it seemed like some unseen force smacked the back of her head and her smile faded. She did a complete turnaround. Instead of the soft, almost demure way she had paused and looked at him, her eyes darkened and she turned abruptly on her heels. "I have to go."

He couldn't believe it. She was leaving. Again. "Wait!" he called. "I came all this way to see you, won't you at least talk to me? Let me buy you breakfast. You must be hungry."

She paused mid-stride and Logan jumped on her before she could run.

"Where's your car? You can follow me to Maui's. It's still there, right?"

"Yes..."

"Good. Then let's go."

"I don't have a car," she said, as if that somehow prevented her from eating breakfast. "I have to get home. I... I don't have time for Maui's."

He wouldn't relent though. He was desperate to get her to talk to him. "What about Lou's? Everyone has time for fast food. Right?" But she just stood there, uncertain. "It's drive-thru Mia. Come on. What's so important at home you don't have time for drive-thru?"

Finally, Mia consented. It was his scent. Ocean breeze wafted through the air and filled her like oxygen. He smelled good, and the parts of her that had been hidden away for the last three years—the parts that belonged to a young woman—began to power on.

"But we can eat and drive, right? We don't have to sit there?"

He nodded before she could change her mind, at the same time kicking himself for being so eager to please her. She'd dumped him in an email. He couldn’t forget that, no matter how good she looked or how much his heart sang when he was near her. He realized he might be acting a little pathetic, but this new knowledge wasn't enough to stop him from opening the car door for her.

Mia's eyes widened when she slid into his red Corvette. "Is this a rental?" she gulped, hoping he'd say yes.

"No, I bought it for my parents a while back. I'm just borrowing it while I'm here. I hate rentals."

"Oh." Logan was clearly living in a different world than hers. She instantly regretted getting in the car with him. The richness of it suffocated her. They drove to Lou's and Mia hesitated before asking, "Um, do you think it would be alright if I got an extra burger to take home?" She was thinking of Emma and what a treat Lou's would be for her.

Logan smiled and said "of course," but immediately assumed she must have a boyfriend she lived with. He resented buying food for her lover. He should have listened to his inner voice. This had all been a huge mistake.

"Where do you live?" he finally asked, deciding he should just take her home.

"Harvest Road," she mumbled, not meeting his eyes.

Logan thought he did a pretty good job of hiding his shock. Harvest Road had always been for hookers and druggies. No decent person was found there. Even his family, as poor as they'd been, had avoided Harvest Road. "Is that where your boyfriend lives?" he asked, disgusted.

"No," she said a little defensively. "That's where I live."

They were just approaching Harvest when he decided he couldn't take this anymore and gave in to the thoughts eating away at him. His head snapped around and Mia shouted, "Watch the road."

He slammed on the breaks and pulled over in front of an old apartment building that looked like it was probably run by homeless people. His mind was racing. "Okay Mia, what's going on?"

"What do you mean?" she asked. Her heart hammered in her chest. "Why did you stop?"

"Because I want to know what you're doing living on Harvest Road. And working at Smart Mart. And not at Harvard. When did you even get back from the east coast?"

Mia's lips trembled and Logan felt bad for yelling, but she was driving him crazy with her vague answers and her weepy eyes that were so beautiful in the breaking dawn they made his head buzz.

"I... I..."

"You what?" he demanded. "Just tell me."

The tears ran from her eyes in thick waves stained with anger and embarrassment. "I never went to Harvard," she finally exclaimed. "I lost the scholarship. I never left Oakville." Giant sobs shook her shoulders and Mia opened the door and ran from Logan's car into the building that he'd thought was waiting to be bulldozed.

He sat watching her go, too shocked to follow her except with his eyes. "Mia," he finally managed to whisper and stretched a hand towards her open door. But it was too late. She ran into her apartment and shut the door, closing him out.

Chapter 7

Rachel was driving Mia crazy. She texted her all morning. It was her one day off this week and she was trying to enjoy playing with Emma. Luckily, the wedding was tomorrow and soon both Rachel and Logan would be out of her life for good. But she couldn't keep avoiding Mia, it was just creating more questions and Logan was already suspicious. She finally responded to one of Mia's texts, agreeing to meet her at her parents' place for a late lunch. She called Tera, who was making a small fortune off Mia in babysitting money, and asked her to come by for a couple of hours. She didn't think a visit with Rachel would take longer than that; she wouldn't let it.

At four Mia showed up to Rachel's. She'd had to walk from the bus stop, but it wasn't too far and she could use the exercise. She'd heard about the place Logan had bought his parents after getting drafted by the NFL, but seeing it in person was sort of spellbinding, especially done up for the wedding. The long driveway curved towards the house, creating a masterful scene as it wove its way towards dark gray stones and spires, just like a castle. It almost looked like a real one, and given the multi-millions Logan—and Rachel too for that matter—were supposed to have, Mia couldn't be sure it wasn't a real castle, imported from Europe and reconstructed here in dinky little Oakville.

Different colored Chinese lanterns were strung from invisible wires across the front and back yards. Mia had no idea how they'd done it, but it actually looked like the lights were floating in mid-air. She walked up the driveway, the hair on her arms standing up. Her breath was sharp and shallow. She didn't like being here. The door opened and Rachel stepped out with a wide smile.

"Hi," she cried, running towards Mia like it was old times. Mia accepted the hug but hung back when Rachel stepped inside. "Come on," she said, pulling her arm. "The house isn't gonna bite." She led Mia up to a spare bedroom that was serving as the pre-honeymoon chamber. It was decorated in soft French lace and looked like something straight out of a magazine.

"So," Rachel said. "Smart Mart huh? What happened to Harvard?"

Rachel always had a way of cutting right to things. Mia shrugged and raised her shoulders. "Things happen," she said. "Life doesn't work according to plan." She looked at Rachel, surrounded by designer clothes and plush carpet. "Except maybe for you and Logan."

Rachel sat on her bed, staring up at Mia with eyes that hinted at something she wasn't sure she should ask. "Was it drugs?" she almost whispered.

Mia burst out laughing in spite of her discomfort.

"No," she said. "It wasn't drugs."

Rachel let out a long sigh of relief. "Good. Though I wouldn't judge if it was and I could totally help you." She smiled and Mia saw why she was such a good model. A perfect mouth, with perfect blonde hair falling in ringlets. She was made for the camera.

"So," Rachel whispered, more conspiratorially this time. "Was it a boy?" She half winked at me and I felt the blood drain from my face. Logan and I had never told Rachel about us. We weren't sure how she would react. It had been my excuse for breaking things off with him so long ago. I'd told him I couldn't keep seeing him because I was afraid it would hurt Rachel.

A few weeks ago at work, I'd read my horoscope in some magazine in the break room. I'd been regretting it ever since. It had told me that I was cursed with bad luck. Forever. Okay, maybe it didn't say forever, but you had to read between the lines. My fears were now confirmed when there was a light tap on Rachel's door and Logan stepped inside. His eyes registered surprise and I immediately looked away, embarrassed at the way I'd left things with him the other night.

Logan stood there for a second with a dumb expression on his face before Rachel finally said, "Well? Did you want something?"

He looked startled, like he'd forgotten she was there, then said, "Yeah. Mom wants to know how many of those little swan vase thingies should go on each table."

Rachel's eyes widened in alarm. "Those don't go on the tables!" she shrieked, jumping off the bed and running out the door. She paused just long enough to turn her head and say to Mia, "We're not done here. And you're coming to the rehearsal tomorrow, whether you want to or not." She turned to Logan. "Talk her into it, will you?" Then she ran down the stairs before her mom could misplace the swan vase thingies that would, apparently, make or break this wedding.

Logan and Mia were left alone in the room. There was an awkward silence before Logan finally said, "So, you're going to the dinner?"

Mia shrugged.

"You want to talk about it?"

"About what?" she asked.

He rolled his eyes. "About all of it. Why are you living in that... place? And what happened to Harvard and law school?" Logan felt his blood boiling. "And what happened to us?" He took a step towards Mia and she wished she could pull her eyes away and run, but something about his face glued her to her seat. "The last time I saw you..."

Mia knew what he meant. The last time they'd seen each other was her eighteenth birthday party, when they'd made love and declared a commitment that seemed naïve now. There had been promises made... to always be together, to always be honest with each other. Mia had broken each of them.

Logan read the memory in her eyes. He could almost always tell what she was thinking. "Why did you dump me like that?" he asked.

"I..." Mia had started to say she didn't, but of course that wasn't true. She'd sent him an email saying they couldn't be together anymore and blaming her friendship with Rachel as the reason. Was it too late to tell him about Emma? She'd come this far alone. Even if she wanted to tell him, now was not the time. "I told you why."

He shook his head and sat on Rachel's bed, dropping his head between his knees. "Fine," he said. "Don't tell me. But you owe me, for the way you left. Do something for me."

Mia stared at him, her breath caught in her throat. "What?"

"Be my date for Rachel's wedding."

"I can't," she said without thinking it over. "I have to work."

"At Smart Mart?" he said, sounding cynical.

"Yes," she said, getting defensive. "At Smart Mart. And there's nothing wrong with that. I have to make money somehow. What do you think? That me and Em—" Her face went white as she realized what she'd almost said.

Logan was watching her, looking confused. He opened his mouth and she interrupted. "Fine," she said, hoping to stop him from asking whatever was on the tip of his tongue. "I'll go with you to the rehearsal, not the wedding."

"Okay," he said, "sure." In the back of his mind though, he thought that if he could get her to the rehearsal, he could get her to the wedding too.

Chapter 8

Logan decided that being back in Oakville definitely had some advantages. He just couldn't decide if Mia was one of them or not. She'd broken his heart when she left him, and every woman he'd hooked up with since then had been but a pale comparison. He realized now that he'd been trying to fill Mia's void with meaningless relationships so he wouldn't get hurt again.

He opened the door to the Steak Shark Bar and Grille. He wasn't surprised to find that it was still here—Oakville was only so big. Once a store opened in a small town, it generally stayed open. Everyone knew the owners of Steak Shark. If someone from an outside town had tried to put up a new bar, no one would have gone.

Logan raised his hand and waved to his old friends as he entered. Johnny saw him first.

"Hey! Look who's here, the wild man of football." His friends started chanting and yelling, "Uuhhooough Uuhhoough," and soon the whole place had their eyes on Logan. He had to admit, it felt good being the center of attention.

"A round for everybody," he shouted to the bartender. "On me!" He'd always wanted to say that. The crowd at Steak Shark cheered and someone shoved a beer into his hand. He thought a beer sounded like a great idea, maybe even something a stronger. If he drank enough, maybe he'd be able to forget about Mia for the rest of his trip. It was only a couple more days.

Soon Logan was walking lopsided. How'd I get so drunk so fast? He wondered. I've only been here a few minutes. He pulled on Rob's arm and when Rob turned his head, Logan asked what time it was.

"Midnight thirty," Rob said, laughing. He was drunk too.

Logan did a double take. Twelve-thirty? That meant Logan had been here at least three hours, not three minutes.

"I gotta go," he said. His words slurred together but they were clear enough that his friends understood him and started shouting.

"What do you mean go?" Anthony asked loud enough to draw attention. He sounded angry.

"Yeah!" someone else he couldn't identify yelled. "The least a money bags like you can do is buy another round for us working stiffs."

"That's right," Rob chimed in. "And I need a new car." He laughed but his eyes were hard and looked at Logan like he was a dollar sign instead of a person. Logan was suddenly uncomfortable. He signaled to the bartender to give everyone another round on him, then began gathering his things.

"Now, really. I have to go." Logan said, making his way to the bartender. He asked how much his tab was, and was floored to find that it was over a thousand dollars. One thousand dollars in three hours? That didn't seem possible. He started to call Johnny over to help him sort it out, when suddenly he realized that most of the town who was over twenty-one was here in this bar. And they were all buying drinks off him. These people were using him. And the bartender was a part of it.

He felt disgusted and handed the bartender his credit card with a slow churn growing in his stomach. Better to just pay and be done with it. Outside, he stood beside his car for a minute, wondering whether or not he was okay to drive. When he realized he was seeing two of everything, he decided to walk.

He took River Road, startled by the unchanged landscape around him. The cross street up ahead was Harvest Road. Mia. The thought struck him like a lightning bolt that Mia was the only one in this town who hadn't asked him for anything. She hadn't even wanted to see him when he'd turned up at her job. She was the only one he could really trust... except that he knew she was keeping something from him.

His feet veered down Harvest without even thinking about it. He stood outside Mia's building, a combination of anger and passion swelling inside him. "Mia!" he shouted. "Mia!" He was going to get some answers tonight. He didn't know what her problem with him was, but he wasn't leaving until he found out.

"MIA!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

A light went on in a fourth floor window and Mia's head poked out. She rubbed her eyes. Good, he'd woken her up. "Logan?" she asked, blinking.

He felt like Romeo and Juliet. Sudden inspiration hit him. He ran towards the fire escape that scaled her building and started to climb. Mia's initial reaction was to shut the window. She couldn't let him in. He saw her close it but kept climbing, not caring. When he got to the fourth floor her window was shut but not locked. He pried it open and put one foot through. She stood staring at him.

"Logan! You can't come in here. What are you doing?"

"I'm saving you," he said, not thinking about his words, just spitting out the first thing that came into his head.

"Saving me from what?" she demanded.

"Yourself," he said, climbing the rest of the way inside. Mia tried to push him back out but it was too late. "I'm not leaving until you tell me what the hell is going on," he said.

"Oh crap. You're drunk."

"Yeah I'm drunk. So what?"

"Logan. Lower your voice."

"Why? Scared your neighbors will hear? Well I DON"T CARE! LET THEM H—"

That was when a sleepy, dewy eyed toddler with blonde hair and Mia's skin walked into the living room. "Mommy?" she asked, looking frightened.

Mia glared at Logan, who stood with his mouth hanging open. "It's okay sweetie," Mia said, going to her daughter. "This is Logan. He's a friend of Mommy's. Logan... this is Emma. My daughter."

Logan's heart stopped beating. Emma smiled tentatively at him, and he thought he smiled back.

"Let's get you back into bed, alright? Logan's sorry he was so loud and rude." She threw him a look and took Emma into the back. Logan stood there feeling numb. He didn't know what to think. Emma... Mia's daughter. She was small. Maybe three or four at the most. When did Mia...

Mia walked back into the room and Logan watched her move. It was like he was seeing her for the first time. "Emma..." he said. "How old is she?"

Mia turned her head a fraction of an inch so that he couldn't see her eyes. "Three."

Logan gulped. Suddenly he was sober. "Is she... mine?"

Mia laughed, then shook her head no, but she refused to look at him.

"Is she?" he repeated.

Finally, Mia looked up and said, "You're drunk. There's a pillow and blanket on the couch. You can sleep it off here if you want, but leave before Emma wakes up please." Then she turned and left him alone with crazy thoughts that scared him more than the idea of never playing football again.

Chapter 9

Mia laid in the dark with her eyes open. She listened to her breath and felt the weight of the situation she'd made for herself. What a mess. What was she supposed to do now? Was she really going to lie to Logan forever? Was it fair to Emma? Especially with Logan in the next room? She felt sick and wished this was all a bad dream.

She'd been in bed for at least an hour and was sure that Logan must be asleep by now. She couldn't resist because she couldn't stop thinking about him. She got out of bed, wrapped a robe around her nightshirt, and stole a peek at him on her couch. His breath was shallow and worried, his brow furled against the cushions. She leaned closer to him, wanting to see how much of him was in Emma. She was close enough to feel his breath on her face, then his eyes flew open and Mia screamed.

"Shit!" she said, putting her hand over her mouth. "Don't scare me like that."

"Don't scare you?" he whispered. "You're the one hovering over me while I sleep."

"Pretend to sleep," she said. "Weirdo."

"Crazy woman." They glared at each other for a second before the corners of their lips curled up and they started laughing. It felt so good to laugh again that for a second Mia forgot all about the lies and secrets and doubts.

"Sshh," she said. "Emma will wake up."

"Let's go to your room then."

She hesitated. "We can close the door," he said. "It'll be quieter. I'd like to talk a little."

Finally, she nodded. He followed her into her tiny room with her twin bed and old dresser. She was embarrassed when she realized there was nowhere for him to sit except the floor or the bed. He chose the bed. She sat next to him. The energy in the room was buzzing. She felt the air move around them, saw lightning strike, heard thunder inside her head as Logan breathed next to her.

"She's really not mine?" he finally said, breaking the silence.

Mia considered her answer. She'd missed Logan. She'd never gotten over him. But she didn't want him suddenly back in her life just because she'd gotten pregnant. That wasn't fair to any of them. "She's really not." Then, just for good measure, "I slept with lots of guys in high school. You weren't the only one Logan." She hoped she sounded sincere, but he just laughed.

"Yeah, you were a real pro that night we were together."

She looked at him with wide eyes. "What do you mean? Are you saying I was bad in bed?"

"On the contrary," he said, looking at her with deep blue eyes that sunk into her like a stone on a lake. "That night was the best night of my life."

Mia wanted to laugh, but couldn’t find voice enough to do it.

"Tell me you don't still care about me," he said.

She looked away and he reached out with his hand, placing it on her cheek, and forced her to turn back to him. "Don't look away. Just say it. Tell me."

She felt her eyes trying to run from his and knew she couldn't lie. Not now. Not when they were so close, when his hand was pressing against her face. "I've never forgotten you," she said.

Logan smiled. "Knew it," he said. Then he reached out and tickled her. It was so unexpected that Mia cried out and jumped back in her bed. Logan got on top of her, straddling her while his hands ran over her clothes, up and down her body, covering her with tickles. Then the tickling stopped, and Logan was moving his head towards her.

Mia tried to draw away from him but his hold was too powerful. She wanted him too much. His lips brushed hers and her body trembled. She felt his hands shake as he pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. "You know I still love you," he whispered.

She nodded and opened her mouth, uncertain what might come out. "I..." but she couldn't finish the thought. The fact that she'd started the sentence was enough for Logan, for now. He pressed his lips to hers and she tasted honey. His skin was warm and tan and his muscles made her feel safe when he took her in his arms.

Logan was the only person Mia had ever slept with. She thought she'd never have these feelings again, for anyone, but when he pushed the robe from her shoulders her heart quivered and her mind didn't protest. Her nightshirt was large and hung past her thighs, but stopped above her knees. Logan lifted it up and her breasts fell out, creamy except for the strawberry nipple that stood at center attention. Mia couldn't believe this was happening. Her heart ran a race inside her chest, beating against her like a drum. Logan's tongue ran over pink soldiers and carried waves of undiluted passion through her blood, landing at all the most important ports.

Mia's thighs clenched and unclenched. Logan's body was so hard. He pressed his core against her and Mia shuddered under him. Tears welled up as she remembered the last time they were together. She'd been so happy that night.

"Mia," Logan said, alarmed. "Are you okay? Did I hurt you?" She shook her head, feeling foolish. "I'm fine, I just... I don't think I knew how much I needed you till now."

Logan caressed her neck with his tongue and with his hand reached between Mia's legs. He found her soft mound and rubbed its center with delicate strokes of his large fingers. Her body melted and when she opened her eyes they burned with a dormant passion that she had to fulfill or die trying. She lifted Logan's shirt over his head and was astonished at the mass of muscles under the cotton. She'd thought chests like this only existed in Photoshop.

She reached towards him with her tongue, wanting to taste him. His body quivered as she licked him. He was champagne and strawberries as she ran her tongue across his abdomen, examining the nooks and crannies of his muscles as she went. When his chest wasn't enough for her anymore, she undid his belt and helped him kick his pants to the floor.

Chapter 10

Logan felt Mia's body tremble under his and it nearly undid him. He'd dreamt of this moment since the last time they were together. He didn't want to rush things. He sensed she had an enduring strength beneath her soft skin and moist, pink lips—it took a strong woman to care for a child on her own—but someone had hurt her. They'd left scars along with Emma. If he ever found out who it was that had left her alone with a child to raise, he'd break their body in half.

He found the tip of Mia's nose and kissed it tenderly, drawing more giggles from her. Her laughter was like music to him, and he let his ear drums swallow the sound like she was a concert pianist playing just for him. His hands ran up and over her breasts. They were cream colored satin under his fingers, rising towards him like mountains. He didn't remember them like this and wondered if they'd gotten bigger after the baby. It didn't matter. Small, medium, or large, she was more of a woman than the over-plasticized bleach blondes people thought he was so fond of. It was incredible to have someone so warm and real in bed with him. He'd missed Mia more than she would probably believe.

His lips ran over her skin, sailing across her abdomen and over her hips, down to her thighs. He found that special spot between them that made her body thrash. His tongue flicked along the delicacy of her sex. She still tasted like mangoes to him, even after all these years. Mia placed her hands, so soft and warm, on his head, holding him to her. The sweetness of her body was like soft electricity charging his erection, and when her thighs clenched he knew he was fully charged. He took one last draw of her mango scent before moving back to her breasts, and then her neck.

The rest of her smelled like cinnamon. He used to think it was something in her body wash, but now he knew her skin simply cultivated sweetness. He slid his tongue along her body, around her nipples, like sweet pink strawberries. They seemed to be standing there waiting for him to suckle, and he didn't want to disappoint them. Her body was the magic he'd been waiting for the last three years, the magic that he needed to make him feel whole again.

When she lifted his shirt over his head he thought his heart might burst. Finally, it wasn't just him chasing her, it was her chasing him back. A fervor like he'd never known gripped them both. Mia's fingers tore at his belt buckle and undid them with hands so soft he thought they must be made of cotton. Mia's panties, a faded pink silk, were on the floor the second after his pants were off. She pressed herself against him, wrapping her legs around him and pulling him to her. He felt her desire and craved her with the same passion.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked. He told himself the question was for her sake, but really it was for his. She'd broken his heart once, was he ready to give it back? What would she do with it a second time?

But her breath was so sweet and her golden hair shined in the moonlight like a treasure chest. When she said, "Yes, do it," and spread her legs for him, he couldn't have stopped his body if he'd wanted to. Thankfully, his mind decided to play along for now, and let him believe this was all real.

He slipped into her with the ease of a practiced lover, though they'd only been together the one time. It was like their bodies had been created for each other. She moaned and arched her back. Logan tried to control himself. His heart throbbed in his chest and his ass clenched tight as he moved against her. She brought her hips up to meet his, reaching around him and grabbing his backside, guiding him into her. Her skin was so soft outside, and inside her body was the warm bath he'd been waiting for since leaving Oakville three years ago.

The room was dark except for the moon and stars that refused to be kept out, invading their space through a cracked window in the corner of Mia's room. The light began to pulse around them as Logan pressed his manhood to her, Mia receiving him like a good massage. Her hair whipped wildly around her head, as if a strong wind was blowing her, an unseen force in the sensual darkness.

Electric heat sprung from their bodies as they molded themselves together. Logan moved his body faster and felt Mia tighten. The light pulse surrounding them quickened, flashing with a growing urgency, getting brighter and brighter until Mia dug her nails into Logan's back and moaned under him, her back arching like an acrobat's. Her skin was warm and soft and when she smiled it was like she'd offered him a slice of apple pie. Logan saw a billion stars. He felt as if he'd suddenly been shot into space and was seeing what only the privileged few got to see in a life time. Their bodies rose together far into heaven and everything around them went white.

Logan fell beside her on the mattress, smiling. She smiled back. His body was still hot next to hers, his breath like sun against her neck. "That was fun," she said. "Why didn't we do that last night?" Logan laughed and wrapped her in his arms, happy for once to be back home.

Chapter 11

Mia woke to the sun hitting her eyelids, which she was trying desperately to keep pasted shut. There were strange sounds coming from the living room. Laughter and voices; she could almost hear them smiling. She lifted her head off her pillow and put on a T-shirt and jeans. She had to work, but not for a few hours.

Somehow, she'd thought she would find Tera sitting in the living room playing with Emma. It never factored into her mind that Logan might still be here. Her jaw hit the floor when she saw him high five Emma, who curled to the floor in a fit of laughter. Blonde ringlets circled her head like a halo. Did Logan curl her hair? Emma looked up just then and squealed.

"Mommy!"

Mia threw a look at Logan that said she was not happy about this, but then she wondered why she shouldn't be. Here was Logan, playing with his daughter. For the first time in her short life, Emma had a father. Only, neither of them knew it. Mia's head swam with mixed emotions. She felt light headed and made her way to the couch, sinking more than sitting into the tired old cushions.

"Are you alright?" Logan asked, jumping up and kneeling beside her. Concern was etched on his face and Mia felt guilt overwhelm her as he pulled her hand into his.

She nodded. "Fine, fine. Just... thirsty." It was all she could think to say. Logan immediately went into the kitchen. She heard him shuffling around and then he called, "Don't you have anything to drink. Orange juice or something?"

Mia shook her head then remembered Logan was in the kitchen. "No," she called out. "I need to go shopping." The truth was, Mia was trying to hold out for a few more days until the next round of food stamps kicked in. "Water's fine," she said.

"Just tap water," Mia said. Emma laid her head in Mia's lap and looked up at her with wide blue eyes that seemed to beg for something Mia wasn't sure she could give.

"I like him," Emma whispered.

Logan appeared with water, which he handed to her in a warped plastic cup she was sure was the best he could fine in her cupboard, then scooped up a delighted Emma and said, "Get dressed. I'm taking us out to breakfast."

Mia shook her head but Emma was already running around the room, squealing with excitement. "I have to work," Mia said lamely.

"No. The wedding rehearsal is today. You said you'd go with me. Come eat with us, then I'm gonna go help Rachel for a while and I'll be back later tonight to pick you up."

Mia was shaking her head, trying to protest, but Logan's eyes were so blue. His face so set. And Emma... she was zipping around the room like a butterfly. Mia finally consented.

The three of them walked to a nearby restaurant that wasn't on Harvest Road, but also wasn't far from it. It was both clean and dirty. The booths were cracked and old, the tile floor pasted with dirt stains, but the silverware sparkled and the food smelled good. Breakfast was fun, but it was also weird. Logan kept staring at Emma. Mia saw him doing the calculations in his head and wanted to yell at him to stop. That it was none of his business. Most guys would be happy to hear that the kid wasn't theirs. What was wrong with Logan anyway? His eyes darted back and forth from Emma to Mia and back again.

"So Emma," he said after a plate of French toast was delivered to her. She looked up to him, smiling. "Where's your dad?"

Mia's jaw tightened and her lips went blue. She had to bite her tongue to stop from yelling at Logan. Instead, she kicked him under the table. But it was too late. Emma was answering.

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Mommy doesn't like to talk about him. She says he's famous and lives far away somewhere, but I don't know where. Do you know Mommy?" She turned her small head to Mia and looked at her with accusing eyes. Mia thought that was probably in her head, Emma wasn't really accusing her of anything, but the guilt still lingered.

Mia sat fuming, glaring at Logan. She wanted to leave but didn't want to make a scene. "I think we're done here," she said. Emma looked at her plate of French toast and her eyes welled up.

"I can't finish?" Emma asked with tears sitting in her eyes.

"Just take big bites," Mia said, softening her voice. "I have to go to work."

Logan shot her a look. "I thought we agreed," he said. He looked genuinely hurt and for a moment Mia felt her guilt double. "You said you'd go to the wedding rehearsal with me."

Emma's squeal peeled across the restaurant. "Wedding? Who Mommy?"

Mia turned to Emma. "No one you know. An old friend of Mommy's."

Emma scrunched her face up. "Like Logan?" Mia nodded, wanting this conversation to end. "Can I go?" Emma asked.

Now Mia turned on her. "No!" Emma's face crumbled and Mia instantly regretted the outburst. "Neither of us are going," she said, trying to soothe her now. "We can't. We don't have dresses."

Logan's ears perked up. "Is that all it is?" Mia looked at him to see if he was joking. "What kind of dress do you want?"

"Princess dress!" Emma cried. "Like the one at Mommy's job."

Mia slammed her hand onto the table, startling all three of them and drawing looks from others. "We can't go," she repeated. "I have to work." She stood up and dragged Emma to the door. Logan followed, sullen, and walked them back to Mia's apartment with a pleading look in his eyes. Mia hesitated, then pushed Emma inside and shut the door on Logan.

Chapter 12

Logan was in the middle of stringing up some lights when Rachel poked him in the back. "Where were you last night?" she asked with a sly smile.

"Out," he snarled.

Her eyes flickered with irritation but instead of backing off she continued. "Out where? With who?"

"Nowhere," he said. "With no one." He took two giant steps away from her but heard the crunch of the grass under her feet as she followed.

"What's with you?" she asked. "My wedding's tomorrorow. You're supposed to be nice to the bride. "

"Who's not being nice?" he demanded.

She looked at him incredulous, then finally gave up and decided to leave him with whatever was causing his foul mood. He stared after her, feeling guilty for snapping at her. She hadn't done anything. Except introduce him to Mia.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. Mia had cut him off years ago without any explanation—unless of course you counted that bullshit about not wanting to hurt Rachel. Emma was three. The last time—the only time, until last night—that he'd been with Mia was three years ago. Emma even looked like him. Mia had brown eyes. They were beautiful, but they were brown. Emma's were blue. They reminded him of a fresh, bright sky at the start of a new day. Mia's hair was golden. His was sandy. More dishwater blond than the treasure chest Mia had. Emma's was right between the two colors, an amalgam of the two of them. Everything fit physically.

Then there was that stuff Emma said about her dad being famous and living far away. That could have just been some story that Mia had told Emma, but what if it wasn't? Logan didn't usually think of himself as famous, but his picture was in the papers a lot, and he was on television. And California was certainly a far cray from Oakville.

Logan parents still lived here. They'd never left. He didn't understand how they didn't know more. How no one in this town could give him any answers. And what about Rachel? She used to be Mia's best friend. She must know something.

He went up the stairs to her room—it was actually her and Erik's room, but he'd somehow managed to hide out since his arrival, not to be seen except perhaps at dinner time.  Logan didn't get what she saw in him—he was kind of a dick. He knocked on her door. It was a light rap at first, but when Rachel didn't answer he started pounding on it.

"For God's sake," Rachel screamed from down the hall. "I'm in here!"

He knew he was on the verge of throwing a temper tantrum, and tried to check himself. He marched down the hall to find Rachel in their parents' room trying on her veil.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Seeing which earrings look best with this veil," she said, looking in the mirror. Her voice was cool and crisp. She didn't turn to look at him, and Logan knew she was still mad.

"Sorry I snapped at you before," he said.

Though she was pretending not to look at him, Logan saw her eyes slid sideways and catch a peek at him. He knew was forgiven. "Is Mia coming to the rehearsal tonight? Who's coming tomorrow?" he asked. "I mean, has Mia decided on anything?" He was stumbling over his words and felt like an idiot. Luckily for him, Rachel was too reoccupied to notice anything weird.

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "No. At least, I don't think so. You know, I don't know what's happened to her. How do you go from Harvard law to Smart Mart over night?"

Logan shrugged. "Don't Mom and Dad know anything? Or some of your friends? It's a small town, someone must know something."

"You'd think, right? But apparently Mia's super mysterious. She doesn't go anywhere or do anything. No one knows anything about her except for her job at Smart Mart. That's the one thing everyone seems to agree on." Mia shook her head. "I feel bad for her. It sounds like she has zero social life, and a bad job on top of that. No wonder she hides herself away, she's probably miserable."

"You really don't know anything else?" he asked, trying to hide his disappointment.

Rachel glanced at him. "No. Why do you care so much?" Rachel was looking at him a little too closely now. Logan felt the heat rise back up in him.

"Did you ever stop to think that the reason you don't know anything about her is because you're a spoiled brat who only cares about themselves?" Logan shifted on his feet, knowing full well that he was blowing up at Rachel for no reason, but unable to stop himself.

"I am not spoiled," she said, then smirked. "At least no more than you are." He paused in his exit.

"I'm not spoiled," he said. "I worked hard to get where I am."

"Yeah? Well me too." They glared at each other from across the room until Logan stormed off, deciding to go ahead and wallow in his tantrum for a while longer.

Chapter 13

Mia stared at the clock on her wall. She had no idea whether or not Logan was going to show up. She'd felt so guilty after breakfast that she'd meandered around her apartment, half-heartedly playing with Emma, before finally texting him that she'd go to the stupid dinner. Then she'd called Mr. Rayner and told him Emma was sick. He'd been less than thrilled but surprisingly understanding.

Logan had texted back that he'd pick her up at six. Now six o'clock had come around and Logan still wasn't here. She was about to tell Tera to go home, that she wouldn't need a babysitter tonight after all, when there was a light knock on her door. She opened it to find Logan standing on the outside landing, flowers in his hand. Mia's heart melted. She hadn't realized till this very second how much she really wanted to see him again. She quickly turned her head so Logan wouldn't see the momentary tears well up in her eyes.

He handed her the flowers which she put into water, and said hello to Emma, who tried to crawl up his legs. "I won't be back too late," Mia said and kissed Emma's head. Emma waved to them from the window and they both waved back. It wasn't until they were in Logan's car that Mia realized he hadn't said one word to her since he'd knocked on her door. He'd silently handed her the flowers. He'd silently stepped inside when she asked him to come in. He'd spoken to Emma, but not to her. She glanced at him in the driver's seat.

"I'm really sorry about breakfast," she said. "Emma loved her French toast." He didn't say anything but at least he looked at her. She felt herself getting irritated. What right did he have to be mad? He'd crossed a line today. "You shouldn't have asked Emma all those questions you know. That wasn't right."

"What is right then?" he snapped. "Not telling Emma who her father is? Does the father know?"

Mia fought back the tears that constantly seemed to be threatening to spill over lately. "None of your business," she said.

They drove the rest of the way in silence. When they got to the dinner, Logan didn't even open the car door for her, he just went straight inside. Mia followed after him, wishing she'd gone to work after all. Maybe it wasn't too late to get out of this. Then Rachel saw her and swooped in, throwing her arms around her and telling Mia how happy she was that she'd come.

"Well, your brother dragged me," Mia said. Rachel shot Logan a grateful look, but he ignored them both, choosing to focus on the scotch at the bar instead. He poured himself a drink and only allowed himself a quick glance at Mia when she turned her back and couldn't see him looking.

Dinner was nice, except for the awkward silence between Mia and Logan. Luckily, no one else seemed aware of it. They were too busy making speeches, listening to speeches, and stuffing their faces with free food. After dessert had been served Mia found Logan out on the deck and told him she wanted to go home.

"Am I supposed to care?" he asked.

"You brought me. It's your job to take me home." She studied him. His eyes looked lost and sunken. "Damn it!" she shouted. "You're drunk again! Forget it, I'll find my own way home."

She turned to go back inside, thinking she could walk to the bus stop if she had too, even in heels.

"Wait!" Logan called, grabbing her arm. It wasn't forceful, it was just urgent. "Please don't go. You're always going." His voice cracked.

Mia turned and was shocked to see tears in his eyes.

"Logan," she said, pausing, then throwing her arms around him. She didn't know what she was doing. She should either leave him alone or tell him the truth, she just wasn't sure which was better for everyone involved. Which would hurt the least?

Every time Logan looked at her she melted a little more. Mia hated seeing him upset and knowing that she was the cause. She wrapped her hands around him, trying to comfort him. His lips were soft and warm and the taste of them instigated a short replay from the previous night. His hand reached up and caressed her cheek. His touch was too much to bear.

"Why won't you be honest with me?" he asked.

She jerked her head away and stepped further into the darkness, turning away from him. The finishing touches were still being set on the yard for the wedding tomorrow, and the Chinese lanterns were all off, just hanging gray against a black sky.

"I wish you'd stop," she said.

"Why? Stop what? Trying to get the truth out of you? I'm not stupid Mia!" Logan wasn't holding back anymore. He let his rage and pain out and hit Mia with it full force. "If you love me then stop lying to me!"

Mia's heart broke a little more each time she heard the anger in his voice directed towards her. "I don't think you're stupid," she said.

"Then what the hell is it? Emma's three. She looks just like me. Like us. Just say it already. Just tell me!" He was screaming at her and if the music inside hadn't been so loud Mia was sure the whole party would have heard.

"Fine fine yes!" she screamed, and spun back to face him. Tears poured over her cheeks. "She's yours. You're right. Emma's your daughter." Logan stared at her, his face screwing into a mass of internal explosions too complicated for words. "Well?" she continued to scream. "Are you happy now?" She sank to the ground and curled her knees to her chest, sobbing.

Logan knelt beside her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me?"

She heard the hurt in his voice and wanted more than anything to take that away. To make him understand. "I was trying to help you," she said. Now that it was out, she might as well tell him everything. "You'd just gotten drafted. I didn't find out till after you'd left. I knew I couldn't do Harvard. But I knew I couldn't give her up either. I didn't see any reason to steal your dreams from you."

Logan stared at his feet. "You should have told me. It wasn't your decision to make."

She nodded, seeing that so clearly now. "But at the time, it felt like the right thing to do." She wished he'd understand. See her side. She only lied because she loved him.

They sat on the deck, in the dark, while Mia sobbed. Finally, when her tears subsided, Logan said, "Come on, I'll take you home."

Chapter 14

Logan watched the staff set up the chairs and the band check their instruments. Loud, unpleasant music hung in the air as someone tuned an instrument. It had been a long, sleepless night for him. He couldn't believe Mia had lied to him like that, and for so long. If he hadn't come back for Rachel's wedding, would she have ever told him the truth?

On the other hand... what an incredible sacrifice she'd made for him. He could only imagine what it must have been like for her when she'd found out she was pregnant. And to go through that alone, without the support of her parents or even a friend... That must have taken incredible courage. He was mad at Mia, but he kind of admired her too.

"He big brother," Rachel said, walking up to him. "Whatcha doin'? Contemplating the gift you're going to give me on my wedding day?"

He smiled in spite of himself. "Rachel... are you happy? With Erik I mean? He seems like kind of like..."

"A jerk?"

Logan smiled. "Well, yeah."

She shrugged. "Nobody's perfect. He might be a jerk to others, but he's nice to me. And everything he does, he does for me." She smiled. "Even when he's being a jerk, it's all for my benefit."

Logan laughed. Rachel gave a small cry just then as their mother stepped out onto the lawn holding what looked like a penguin ice sculpture.

"That's for after the ceremony," Rachel screamed, running towards her.

Logan couldn't believe his little sister was getting married. He looked around the yard with the perfect decorations, the perfect band, the perfect day. There was only one thing that wasn't perfect about the wedding, and that was Mia missing it.

It happened in a flash: one minute Logan was contemplating Mia and the wedding, the next his decision about everything was made. It was all so clear. He jumped into his car and almost crashed pulling into the parking lot of Smart Mart. He searched the aisles, frantic to find what he was looking for. Finally, his eyes lit upon it and he ran to the checkout counter.

It was dark when he pulled up to Mia's. He saw the glow from their apartment and hoped Mia wouldn't get mad when he knocked. She opened the door and a smile registered immediately on her face. She threw her arms around Logan, who returned her embrace. Her lips were soft as she pressed them against his.

"Wow," he said. "In front of the babysitter and everything." Mia looked behind her and saw Tera watching with wonder as Mia kissed Logan again. Mia had been terrified she'd blown it last night. That she'd never see Logan again. When she heard his knock on her door, it was like a weight had been lifted. She was determined never to let him get away again.

"Emma honey," Mia called. She turned to Logan, smiling, radiant. He'd always found her radiant though. Emma walked over and beamed up at Logan.

"Hi you," he said.

Emma smiled, but seemed shyer than usual. She cast a sideways glance at Mia.

"Emma, tell Logan what we were talking about earlier." Mia knew this couldn't make up for the last three years, but she hoped it was a start.

"Mommy said you're my Daddy."

The second Emma uttered "Daddy," Logan's heart melted. Football players weren't supposed to cry, but in that moment, he didn't think he could stop himself.

He nodded. "That's what Mommy told me too. I'm sorry I've been gone for so long." He hesitated, suddenly uncertain what to say. Emma's eyes spoke for him, moving to the box in his arms. "I've got a present for you," he said, holding the box out to Emma. She smiled and gently took it from him. He had a whole lot of presents to make up for.

Mia gave him a look which, for once, looked happy instead of angry. He wrapped her hand in his, and they watched as Emma ripped open her gift.

"Princess dress!" she screamed, excited. Mia's eyes brimmed with tears.

"Go ahead and put it on," he told Emma. "We've got a wedding to get to."

Mia's head snapped towards him. Her eyes searched his face. "All three of us?" Logan saw her grow pale and tightened his hold on her hand.

"We're a family now. I'm not embarrassed, and you shouldn't be either. Just hold onto me, and I promise I'll never let go."

THE END

TIGHT

STORY DESCRIPTION

She didn't even know how it happened. One minute she hated him, and the next she was wrapped in his strong arms giving herself to him completely...

Emma Davis is nicknamed “mouse.” She's quiet, brainy and keeps to herself. At nineteen, she's never even had a boyfriend.

Mason Haley is rumored to be the best football star the college has ever had. His hot bod and all-American good looks make it easy for him to get whatever girl he wants, and he wants them all.

To Emma, the most important thing is school, maintaining her 4.0 GPA. A social life is the least important thing she can think of.

Biology is the love of her life.

Until she meets Mason...

To Mason, grades are the least important thing he can think of. It’s important that he doesn't disappoint his team or his father.

Football is the love of his life.

Until he meets Emma...

When other students start calling Emma a stalker, it seems that Mason has played her for a fool. Is Mason so embarrassed to be seen with Emma, the mouse, that he spread a rumor that she’s stalking him?

Will Mason prove that he truly cares for Emma, or will he watch as she slips through his grasp and he loses her forever?

Can the dorm room mouse and the college football hero find love despite their differences?

Chapter 1

Emma opened one eye and peered into the darkness. Her first thought was that a burglar had invaded her home, then she remembered that she was in her dorm room, not her parents' house, and the noise was more likely her idiot roommate than some dorm room prowler. She closed her eyes again but opened them immediately when there was a loud thump followed by an "Ouch!" and a giggle. It had only been a few days since school started but she'd recognize that giggle anywhere.

"Zoey! For God's sake it's two in the morning." She rolled onto her side and tried to drown out the noises.

"Sorry Mouse," Zoey called back. Emma groaned. She hated the nickname that she'd earned in so short a time. Just because she preferred a quiet evening in to the party house atmosphere that the sororities and fraternities espoused didn't mean that she was a mouse. She was just smarter and cared more about her education than most of the people attending school here.

Emma closed her eyes and tried to block out the sounds. A second voice echoed in the room—a man's voice—and Emma's eyes shot back open. Mason Haley. Of course it was Mason. Zoey's boyfriend was not only the college football hero, he was also something of a fixture in the girls' dormitory. His sandy hair and blue eyes made him the epitome of popularity. Of course, it helped that his body looked like it had been sculpted by Michelangelo himself.

He'd dated nearly every girl housed here, though as she understood it, there was only a handful of girls that he'd actually deemed worthy enough to see more than once. Zoey was one of them. Of course she was. She was head cheerleader for the college—beautiful and blonde with long legs and a perfect tan. What man wouldn't want her?

Emma's own appearance was drab compared to Zoey's. She had dark hair and glasses which pinched her nose. Her body wasn't bad, but it wasn't a cheerleader's body either. She had always been "the smart one" of her friends growing up. Smart, quiet, and boring. But that was how she'd gotten into Stanford on a full academic scholarship. Her parents never could have afforded it otherwise. She had to keep her grades up or she'd lose everything. After Stanford, she had hopes of getting into the master's program at MIT.

She grabbed her pillow and held it over her face, wondering if maybe her parents were right. They had warned her that life in a dorm room was not going to be fun. They'd practically begged her to reconsider and stay at home with them, but she was nineteen and ready to fly the nest a little. Or so she'd thought. They'd told her she could move back home any time she wanted, but she was afraid if she did that she might never leave again.

Emma groaned as Zoey and Mason jumped onto Zoey's bed. It was much louder than her own, and Emma didn't think she could handle the noises that she started to hear coming from that direction. She jumped off her bed, keeping her eyes shut, and walked blindly towards the door, her blanket and pillow under her arm.

"Hey, shut the door!" Zoey called as Emma stepped into the hallway. "Jeez! Some people." Then the bed started squeaking again. Emma hurried away from the room and made her way to the common area. Only a handful of people lingered around, and Zoey was able to find a chair big enough to curl her legs onto. She tried to fall back asleep, but it wasn't exactly a restful night. She woke again and again as people wandered in and out.

Around five in the morning, just after she had finally fallen asleep, there was a peal of laughter as several drunken coeds stormed through the area throwing beer bottles across the floor. One of them splattered beer across Emma's face. She jumped awake and fell out of her chair. Everyone laughed. She laid on the floor a minute before finally standing up.

She decided to give up. She was obviously not going to get anymore sleep tonight. Besides, the sun would be coming up soon anyway. She stumbled across the floor, back to her room. Surely Mason had left by now. She opened the door and heard Zoey snoring. Thank God. She plopped onto her bed, thinking maybe she could at least rest if not sleep, and immediately jumped back up.

"Aaahh!" she shouted, flicking on the lights and turning towards her bed. Mason climbed off her mattress. He was naked and stood facing her, smiling like it was the most normal thing in the world for him to be naked in her bed. It had been him she'd heard snoring, not Zoey.

"Mason!" she shouted.

"Sorry," he said. "Zoey kept dragging the covers off me." He yawned and stretched his arms. His muscles flexed and Emma couldn't stop her eyes from catching the way his golden skin shimmered in the early morning rays as they seeped in through her windows. At twenty, Mason was already considered the best football player the school had ever seen.

"It's okay," she mumbled, turning towards Zoey's bed to yell and realizing Zoey wasn't even there. "No... no problem." She felt her cheeks burn and wondered why Mason just kept standing there. Didn't he know he was naked?

"How was your night?" he asked. "Did you do anything fun?"

Emma's heart hammered in her chest. Was he brain damaged? Maybe all football players had the misfortune of not being able to tell an awkward situation from a normal one. "Not really," she said. "Um, I was just going to take a shower."

"Yeah, me too," he said, crossing the room. "So what classes do you have this morning? I had to switch some of mine around. They interfered with football practice."

Emma nodded, trying to keep her eyes averted from the thick mass of skin and muscle that hung between Mason's legs. "I-I don't know," she said. Mason looked at her with a strange expression. She couldn't think. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. If he wasn't going to leave, she had to. "Excuse me," she said, grabbing her shower caddy and running out the door before he could ask another stupid question.

Out in the hall her breath finally caught up to her and she felt the blood return to her face. A peal of laughter echoed off the walls and she turned to see Zoey and her friends doubled over.

"Guess you ran into Mason," Zoey said, her eyes bright and sarcastic.

"Yeah, thanks for that," Emma retorted.

"Oh whatever," she said. "You're lucky you even got to peek at someone as hot as he is."

Zoey's friends echoed their agreement. One of them, another blonde who's name Emma always forgot, said, "I wish I could get a chance with him some time." She looked at Zoey with pleading eyes.

Zoey flipped her hair behind her head. "Maybe when I'm done with him," she said, then resumed whatever discussion they'd been having prior to Emma's entrance. She heard them discussing rush week and what sororities they would all be pledging. For a brief second, Emma considered her parents' offer. She could just commute to school five days a week. Then she pushed it away and headed for the showers. It was way too soon to decide something like that. She just had to give things more time.

Chapter 2

Emma stepped into class exhausted from last night. She couldn't let the lack of sleep get to her though. She had to focus. Her first lab was the most crucial one. It could set the tone for how the rest of her classes went the next two years. If it went well, she'd know that all of her other classes would go well too. It might have sounded a little like superstition, but she firmly believed it.

She took a seat at a lab table and opened her new blank notebook. A pencil sat beside it, another one tucked behind her ear. Professor Douglas walked into the room and the class fell silent. She felt the discomfort she'd been facing since her arrival at this school ease ever so slightly. These were her people now. Science majors like herself.  Professor Douglas was supposed to be brilliant, and she looked forward to his first lecture.

"Good morning," Professor Douglas said, opening his briefcase and setting some papers on his desk. "Glad you all could make it. Welcome to Biology 101A. This class contains a lab. If you are in the wrong class, you have the opportunity at this time to gracefully remove yourself from this room without any harm coming to you." He smiled and a few people chuckled.

"Alright," he said after a moment. "So I shall assume you all belong here. Let us begin. Biology is possibly the most important class you will have during your time at this school. It will give you the foundation for—"

It was just then that the door opened and Mason walked in. He looked around the room, and instead of heading quietly to his seat, rose one hand and pointed at a group of football players sitting in the back of the room. "Hey! You guys are stuck in this class too! I thought I was gonna be forced to get through this all alone."

He walked to the back of the class and raised his hand, palm open. The players took turns slapping it. Emma watched the scene, horrified at the egotism and disrespect Mason and his friends displayed. She'd somehow managed to ignore the other football players in the room. They'd been quiet enough until Mason arrived, now they joined him in his coarse social meanderings. Professor Douglas stood at the front of the room, his head in his hands. "Mr. Haley, please take a seat. Class has already begun and you are late."

Mason's smile faltered a second before resuming the idiotic grin Emma was starting to think was permanently etched on his face. He searched the room and his eyes fell on Emma. His smile widened. She quickly looked away. It wasn't until he was pulling out the chair beside hers that Emma realized her table had the only open seat left in class.

Great, she thought. What did I do to deserve this? Any of the other football players would have been better. Mason seemed to her the king of the Cretans.

Professor Douglas continued his speech. "The person you are sitting next to will be your lab partner for the rest of the semester. So exchange phone numbers, emails, and whatever else you kids are using these days. The point is you will need to work together or neither of you will succeed in this class."

Emma's stomach churned. She watched Mason out of the corner of her eye as he clicked his pen, tapped his foot, and doodled all over his notebook instead of writing down anything of value. She saw a few heads turn and look at him, so she knew it wasn't just her that he was distracting.

"Mr. Haley," Professor Douglas called. Mason looked up from a drawing he was doing of a big breasted woman holding a banana. "Why don't you tell the class the answer to my question."

"Sure. What was the question?" Mason grinned at their professor, who looked like he was getting closer to a coronary the longer class went on.

"The question was: what is the definition of biology?"

Mason hesitated a moment then said, in all seriousness, "It's like, when you cut people and pets open to see what they look like inside."

There were several chuckles from around the room. The light in Mason's eyes dimmed ever so slightly but his smile stayed plastered where it was.

"Biology," Professor Douglas said, "in the simplest terms, is the study of living organisms. Perhaps later in the semester we'll be able to study you, Mr. Haley. I'd be interested to see how just how much damage playing football has done to your brain. There's obviously been a great deal." Mason's face turned a shade pinker but Emma didn't care. It had been such an easy question a squirrel could have answered it. She didn't think Mason was even trying.

When the professor finally told everyone to turn to their lab partners and begin the first assignment, Emma groaned. She opened her lab book to the first page and when she looked back up Mason was staring at the door.

"We should get started," she told him.

"Sure," he said, still staring at the door.

"Why don't we read through the assignment together, then I'll do the first section?"

"Whatever you want," he said, finally turning to her and grinning. "I've got practice today."

She stared at him, her mouth dropping open, wondering what the hell his having practice had to do with their assignment. She saw the vacant look in his eyes and realized this was never going to work. She slammed her book shut and walked to the front of the room, where Professor Douglas was seated.

"Professor," she said, lowering her voice, though not bothering to lower it enough so that everyone in class couldn't hear if they tried. "I think I need a new partner."

Professor Douglas peered over her shoulder at Mason, who was watching them with wide, hurt eyes. Emma was sure it was all an act; she doubted that Mason cared enough about her or this class to be hurt.

"I understand, Ms. Davis, but I'm afraid that there is no one else left to partner with at this time. Just do your best and let me know if you have any problems."

Emma turned away, expelling a breath a frustration. Luckily for her, class ended and she was able to put Mason off until tomorrow. She'd have to figure out a way to deal with him if she was going to be stuck with him. She couldn't trust him to understand the material, let alone do any work. She'd just have to do it all herself and hope for the best. Maybe she could join a study group.

"Hey, Emma," Mason was calling from behind her in the hallway. She turned to him, afraid to hear what idiotic thing might come out of his mouth next.

"Yes?" she asked, her voice cold. She resented being forced to have him as her partner.

"Look, I just wanted to say... to tell you not to worry. I'll pull my weight on our assignments."

Emma laughed. She couldn't help it. It wasn't like her to be sarcastic, but she was still mad at him for keeping her awake last night. "Gee, thanks Mason. You've given me so many wonderful insights into biology already, I can't wait to see what you come up with next." Then she turned, a twinge of guilt flickering across her face as she saw Mason's hurt expression. She pushed it away and hurried to her next class.

Chapter 3

Emma sat on her bed, books piled at her feet. She pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes as she scribbled her answer to her chemistry professor's questions. Her glasses slid down her nose and she pushed them back up. The door opened and Zoey and Mason stumbled in, their faces pressed together in a hard lockdown that made Emma groan. Zoey shot her a look but said nothing.

"Hey Emma," Mason said, before Zoey pulled him to her bed.

Emma ignored them. At least at first. But the sucking noises they were making just kept getting louder and louder until Emma thought her ears might start bleeding.

"Can't you guys give it a rest for one night?" she finally shouted, snapping her head towards them.

Zoey propped herself up on her arms and peered across the room at Emma. "This is my room too Mouse. I can do what I want in it."

"Zoey," Mason said, "maybe we should just—"

"No," Zoey snapped. "Mouse is just jealous." She craned her neck up and kissed Mason. Emma saw him watching her out of the corner of his eyes. He actually looked embarrassed. "I'll be right back," Zoey told him. She stomped over to Emma's bed. "I'm going to use the bathroom, or do you think you own that too?" Then she turned, her blonde hair swinging out behind her. It was so long it actually smacked Emma's face before she stamped off.

Emma resumed trying to concentrate on her chemistry homework, but she was much too aware of Mason sitting across from her on Zoey's bed. She could feel his eyes on her. "What?" she finally demanded, turning to him.

"I didn't say anything."

"Why are you staring at me? Don't you have something better to do, like..." Emma's mind raced, trying to think of an insult. "...Like count sheep or something?"

Mason raised an eyebrow. "Count sheep?" He grinned at her and Emma felt her cheeks go red. She'd never been very good at quick and witty comebacks.

"Never mind," she said, burying her nose in her book.

"Why does Zoey keep calling you Mouse?" he asked.

Emma looked back at him, not sure whether he was serious. "Why don't you ask Zoey?"

He shrugged. "I'd rather ask you."

Emma felt the red in her cheeks deepen. "Because," she said. "I'm quiet like a mouse and like to hide in my room a lot. That's what most of the girls here call me."

"Doesn't seem very nice," he said.

Emma stared at him, uncertain what was happening. Mason was displaying real human emotions. He was actually interacting with her in a way that didn't make her want to smack him. Is it possible I've been too hard on him? Zoey came back in just then and went straight to Mason, tousling his hair with her manicured fingers before dragging him back on top of her.

"Miss me?" Zoey asked.

"Always babe," Mason said. He dug his face into her Double D chest and Emma rolled her eyes. She didn't know what she'd been thinking. Mason was exactly like she'd always thought—loud and crass and dumb.

Emma scrunched her brow and turned back to her books. The bed started squeaking and Emma froze. She peeked over her shoulder. She didn't want to be in the room if they were actually having sex. She thought she might vomit if that happened. But they were still just making out. She breathed a sigh of relief and wished that she had some head phones she could just plug in. Classical music was supposed to help make your brain retain information. She wondered why she hadn't thought of that before and made a mental note to pick up some ear buds when she had a chance.

Zoey let out a loud moan and Emma threw her book down. "That's it," she said, jumping off her bed. Zoey and Mason paused in their face sucking to throw Emma a look that she interpreted to mean they both pitied her and wished she'd leave.

"Sorry," Zoey smirked, "are we being too loud?"

Emma sighed as she threw her books into her bag along with her notebooks, pens, and anything else she might possibly need for the next few hours.

"Where are you going?" Mason asked.

"The library," Emma replied. She turned with her bag strapped over her shoulder. The weight of it forced her shoulders into an uneven posture and Emma shifted her weight uncomfortably. Mason was staring at her.

"Where did you say?"

Emma couldn't believe he was really this dumb. "The library! It's the place with all the books where people go to study and get away from distractions."

Zoey laughed and nuzzled her head against Mason's neck. "Finally," she said. "We can be alone. She started to nibble on Mason's ear as Zoey grabbed her jacket.

"Why don't you come with us to the party at Phi Kappa Psi?" Mason asked suddenly. Zoe pulled away from him, her eyes bulging out of her head. Emma paused with her hand on the door. Is he talking to me?

"I'm sorry," Emma said. "Did you just ask me to go to a frat party with you?"

"Sure," Mason said, smiling. "Why not?"

Emma didn't even know how to respond to something like that. Frat parties were the furthest thing from her mind. Mason obviously didn't get it. Still... it was nice that he had asked.

"Are you crazy?" Zoey screeched at him.

Mason turned to her and said, "She's got as much right to go as anyone."

Emma stifled a laugh as Zoey tried to stop her head from exploding.

"Thanks," Emma said, "but I really do need to study. Frat parties aren't really my thing." She gave Mason a tentative smile before stepping into the hallway. As soon as the door was closed Zoey started screaming at him.

Emma felt bad for Mason. He was too stupid to realize that being nice to her would only make things harder for him with Zoey. Maybe Emma didn't have to be quite so hard on him. It probably wasn't his fault his was dumb. He was probably born that way. She headed to the library, wondering what went on at frat parties anyways, and wishing for the first time in her life that she wasn't quite so mouse-like.

Chapter 4

Emma had never realized what a blessing sorority rush night was. The dorm was silent. For the first time since she'd arrived, Emma actually thought she could hear herself breathe. She smiled as she sat back on her bed, her books spread open around her.

She reread the biology riddle Professor Douglas had given at the end of class today. Though technically not homework, he was offering a whopping ten extra credit points to anyone who could answer it. She flipped through the pages of her bio book again. She'd already been looking for the answer to this question for a half hour. It was getting ridiculous. Even Google hadn't been able to help.

There was a knock on the door and Emma sighed. She got off her bed and opened it, expecting to see one of Zoey's friends. Mason stood there, his eyes widened when he saw her.

"Hey Emma," he said. "Sorry to bug you. Is Zoey here?"

"No," Emma said, annoyed at the intrusion. She'd finally gotten some time alone and of course Mason has to show up.

"Oh." Mason stood there, his eyes moving around in their sockets, uncertain how to proceed. "Do you know where she is?"

"No," Emma said again, her irritation growing. "Why don't you call her cell?"

"I tried." His eyes struggled to maintain their normally light and carefree attitude. He looked so distressed that Emma couldn't help but notice it.

"Er, is everything okay?" she asked. She didn't really care, but he just looked so... unhappy. It wasn't in her nature to disregard someone when they were in the midst of a crisis, even if that person was Mason.

"Sure," he said. Emma relaxed. Good, he didn't want to tell her anyways. She could send him on his way without any guilt. "Actually, yes."

Emma sighed. She should have known this wouldn't be so easy. She noticed then that his hands were twitching. His eyes continued to dart around in their sockets, like his mind was racing. "Why don't you come in?" she finally asked, giving in to her better nature and opening the door wider.

He blew out a deep breath and Emma was caught off guard when she realized he smelled like cinnamon and chocolate. It was a favorite combination of hers that reminded Emma of her grandmother. She inhaled deeply as he stepped into the room.

"I'm sorry," he said, pacing the floor now. "I thought Zoey would be here and you'd be at the library."

"It's alright," Emma said. "I tried the library. It was just as loud and crowded as the frat houses tonight. Er... so what's up?"

He stopped pacing and looked at her, his face distraught. "It's Zoey. I... I think she's cheating on me."

Emma's eyes widened. "What makes you say that?" It was hard to believe she'd cheat on someone like Mason. He was perfect for her. Sexy, gorgeous, the star of the football team. Who better to date the head cheerleader?

"She's just been acting so weird lately. I mean, she seems like she's into me when I'm with her, but then I've been hearing things from some of the other guys on the team."

Emma scoffed. Mason shot her a look with red rimmed eyes and she immediately regretted it.

"Sorry," she said. "Look, maybe she's not cheating on you. She's probably just busy with school work and, you know, cheer stuff." Even as she tried to comfort Mason though, she remembered what Zoey had said to her friend not so long ago when she'd expressed an interest in Mason: Maybe you can have him when I'm done with him. There had been something very cold and cavalier about Zoe's words that made her think Mason's instincts were probably correct.

"Why do I always do this?" he said, pounding the sides of his head with his fists. "Why can't I just fall for someone simple, like you?"

Emma laughed. Simple? Mason didn't even know when he was insulting a person. She turned back to her bed and opened her book. "She's at one of the sorority houses," she said. "Why don't you just leave her a note and go?"

"I'm sorry," Mason said. "I didn't mean that you were... uh, simple. You're really smart."

Emma smiled in spite of herself. "It's fine Mason."

He sat down in a chair at Zoe's desk. "Um, do you think I could borrow a sheet of paper? That was a good idea. To write her a note."

Emma groaned as she ripped a sheet of paper from her binder and handed it to him. "What are you working on?" he asked.

"Our bio homework."

"Oh. Are you doing that extra credit question?"

She glared at him from the corner of her eye. "Yes, but don't even think of asking me for the answer. I've already spent a half hour trying to figure it out. I'm not sharing it with someone who hasn't even tried to do it."

"I wasn't asking," Mason said, irritated, turning to his paper. "Why do you get so upset about stuff all the time? It seems like you're not very happy."

Emma started. Mason's words stung her without meaning to. She was happy. Wasn't she? "I'm... I just don't like being disturbed when I'm trying to work. My grades are important to me. If I don't keep them up I can't stay at Stanford."

Mason turned back to her, curious. "You're on a scholarship?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Me too," he said. "Only what I need to keep up with is football. It's not easy. I bet it's not easy for you either. There's a lot of pressure."

"Well," Emma said, softening a bit. "Yeah. There is."

They looked at each other a moment, their eyes locked. It was the first time Emma realized they might actually have something in common. Finally, she shook her head, clearing it. "I really need to finish this," she said.

"Yeah, of course," Mason said, turning back around and continuing with his letter. Emma was deep into hating Professor Douglas for his stupid biology riddle when something struck the side of her head. She looked at her bed and saw a paper airplane flittering to her mattress.

"Mason!" she yelled. Even without Zoey here she just couldn't get any peace. "Get out!"

"Sorry," he said, grinning.

"Just go!" Emma said, and threw a pillow at him. He scurried from the room, and Emma let out a loud scream. He was so irritating!

She picked the airplane up and tossed it into her wastebasket. Its nose hit the bottom and Emma noticed some writing on the inside of the right wing. She picked it back out of the waste basket and unfolded it, curious what Mason had been writing to Zoey before deciding to play darts with her head.

Emma's jaw dropped open. Written on the paper was not a letter to Zoe, but the answer to the riddle she had spent the last forty minutes working on.

Chapter 5

Zoey spent the entire night at the sorority she was pledging. Emma couldn't have asked for anything better. But instead of sleeping like a baby, she tossed and turned all night. She couldn't get Mason out of her head. How had he known the answer to that question she had struggled so hard with? Surely someone else in class must have given it to him. He couldn't have figured it out by himself... could he?

In biology the next day, Emma waited anxiously for Mason to appear. She didn't know why she was so bothered by him. So what if he'd gotten an answer to something she had struggled with? Good for him. Right? But it burned her up. There was nothing right about it. Either Mason was brilliant and was faking the whole dumb football player thing, or he really was as stupid as he appeared and was cheating. Either way, she had to know.

He got to class late, which was not atypical for him. Professor Douglas sighed as Mason stumbled across the room to his desk. His eyes were bleary. He looked like he'd barely slept.

When their professor was finally finished with his lecture, he released everyone to their experiments. "Remember, these experiments are due at the end of class today." Emma opened her lab notebook. Mason followed along. She watched him set up his things, trying to figure him out.

"How did you know?" she finally blurted.

Mason looked up at her from his book. "Know what?" he asked. He genuinely looked like he had no idea what she was talking about, which only infuriated Emma more.

"The answer to the riddle," she said. "Last night."

"Oh," he smiled. He actually had sort of a charming smile. She felt her pulse quicken ever so slightly and willed it to go back to normal. He shrugged. "I just knew."

Emma's mouth gaped. "What does that mean? Did you Google it?"

"No."

"So someone told you then. Someone in class?" Her eyes scanned the room, wondering who could be feeding him answers. Surely not his football buddies.

"No," he said, sounding irritated now. "I just... stuff like that just comes easy to me."

Emma couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Are you telling me that... that you actually understand all this stuff?" She held their lab book up, incredulous. Mason nodded. She felt herself start to stammer. "B-but, if that's true, then, I mean, why the act? Everyone thinks you're..."

"An idiot?" The corners of his lips turned up but it didn't look to her like he was smiling. The smile never reached his eyes.

"Well... yeah." Emma said.

"That smart guy stuff just isn't me," he said.

"But... but why not? That doesn't make any sense. If you understand—"

"It's just not who I am," he snapped. "Just drop it, okay?"

Emma silenced herself, but she felt her cheeks burning. She flipped her book back open and tried to concentrate on the lab at hand. She pulled out two beakers from the cabinet and filled one with the solution Professor Douglas had set out for them. A jar of dried Earth worms sat on the table with them, and she prepared to drop one into the solution. Mason started fidgeting, then grabbed the empty beaker sitting on their table and tossed it into the air.

"Mason!" she cried. "Don't do that! You'll break it!"

"Tanner! Go long!" he cried. Tanner looked up from the back corner of the room and stretched his hands into the air as Mason threw it towards him. Professor Douglas looked up just in time to see the beaker smash into a thousand pieces as Tanner missed it.

"Mr. Haley!" Professor Douglas shouted. Mason turned and his arm caught the beaker full of solution, knocking it over. It soaked into Emma's lab paper and turned her pink shirt a bright yellow.

Emma felt tears of fury creep into her eyes. Mason was an idiot. This had been her favorite shirt, and it was ruined. Even worse, there wasn't enough time left in class to clean up his mess and restart the experiment. Her hands shook as she quickly grabbed some paper towels and began wiping off their table.

"Mr. Haley, Ms. Davis. Come here please." Emma felt her face grow pale as she approached their professor's desk. The eyes of their classmates lingered on her and Mason as they stood at the front of the room.

"Mr. Haley," Professor Douglas said. "Your behavior is inexcusable. This is a science class, not a football field. You will be receiving an F for this assignment." Emma thought she saw Mason flinch. "I will not, however, punish Ms. Davis for your screwball antics. You," he looked at Emma, "may repeat the experiment tonight, for full credit."

"Thank you Professor," she said. He smiled sympathetically at her.

"What if I help?" Mason asked.

Professor Douglas's smile fell off his face. "You've had your chance, Mr. Haley. Perhaps a failing grade will serve to remind you to take the next experiment more seriously.

Mason nodded. "Yes Sir." He returned to his seat and helped Emma finish cleaning their table just as class ended.

"Emma!" he called after her as she exited the room. But she didn't wait to hear what he said. If she never saw Mason again it would be too soon.

Chapter 6

Emma sat on the lab table, her feet swinging under her as she ate her sandwich. She'd never liked those crowded dining halls. Even though dinner should be ending by now, she'd much prefer to just sit here in the lab and eat her food before really digging into the experiment that Mason had so thoroughly ruined earlier today.

She took another bite of her sandwich and reached for her water bottle, knocking it off the table. She tried to catch it before it hit the ground and fell off the table instead, smacking her face against the floor. She sat up with a jerk, her eyes bulging from her head. Her hands instinctively went to her throat. She opened her mouth and tried to breathe, but all that happened was that her face turned red and panic seized her. She stood up, her heart racing, her knees weak, pushing on her rib cage with her hands as the sandwich she'd been eating stuck in her throat.

She gasped for breath, feeling her head grow light. What do you do what do you do? Lectures from high school health class flashed back to her and she turned her body towards the lab table, wedging the edge of it against her ribs as pushed herself against it. Nothing happened. Oh God, I'm gonna die in biology lab. No one will even find me until tomorrow!

Just as blackness was starting to overtake her a pair of strong hands tightened themselves around her, gripping her abdomen and pulling themselves against her. Within seconds the bit of uneaten sandwich that had nearly been her undoing was flying across the room. Emma gulped at the air, tasting the sweetness of it as it filled her lungs.

"It's okay," Mason said. "You're alright. Just listen to my voice, alright? Emma look at me."

Emma turned her eyes to Mason. He swam in front of her, but slowly the dim edges of his face came into focus.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" he asked.

"Two," Emma said.

Mason looked at his hand and smiled. "Three, but close enough. Here," he said, leading her to a chair and helping her into it. "Just sit for a bit."

The panic that had gripped her began to diffuse now as she realized she wasn't going to die. Tears welled in her eyes and spilled over her cheeks.

"Oh hey, it's alright," Mason said, putting an arm around her and drawing her to him. "You're just fine now."

She allowed herself an uncharacteristic moment to lean against the wall of muscle that was Mason's chest and just let herself be held by a man. He smelled so good. Finally, she pulled away from him and gave an embarrassed smile.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"For what?" Mason asked, confused. "For crying on you like that. I'm sure Zoey wouldn't like it very much."

His expression changed. "Zoey and I broke up, so I don't really think she'd care a whole lot about what I did or who I did it with."

"Oh," Emma said. "I'm sorry."

Mason smiled. "Do you always apologize so much?"

"Um, no. I don't think so. I just...Thank you for saving my life." She blushed and Mason handed her her bottle of water. She took a giant gulp and started coughing.

"Easy there, I don't want to have to save you twice in one night. That's asking a lot of anyone."

Emma giggled. Her face flushed. "Um, what are you doing here?" she asked. "Not that I'm complaining."

"I came to help."

"With the experiment?" she asked, surprised. "Did Professor Douglas say he'd change your grade after all?"

"No," Mason said. "I'm getting an F. But I'm the one who messed it up, it's only right that I help you fix it."

"Oh... uh, that's very... considerate." After the way Mason had acted in class, she was shocked to hear him talk like this.

"Yeah, well. I'm sorry I was such a jerk today." His cheeks grew pink. "It's just my dad, you know? He doesn't want me putting too much pressure on myself about school. He wants me to focus on football."

"So that means you have to act like a crazy person in biology?" she asked. She wasn't mad, she genuinely wanted to understand. How could someone so smart act so dumb?

"If I don't try, the professors let me get by more easily. They just figure I'm a dumb jock and it can't be helped. Then I can focus on football without having to focus on grades. See?"

"Yeah," Emma said. "I guess. Your dad actually wants you to do that?" Mason nodded. "Jeez, my parents would kill me if I came home with less than an A. I got an A minus once in gym class and they flipped out."

Mason laughed. "My dad really doesn't like it at all that I even have to take tests. He thinks I should be excused from finals. I bombed a final once—got a straight up F—and he didn't care. But I fumbled the football once during a game, and he grounded me for a month."

Emma laughed, but she felt bad for him. "My parents didn't want me to move to the dorms. They were worried it would affect my grades. If I drop below a 4.0, I have to move back home."

"God that's harsh," Mason said.

"Yeah, it is sometimes." She looked at Mason, something slowly taking shape in her mind. "I guess, in a way, we kind of have the same problem."

Mason cocked his head to one side. His sandy hair swept across his face and Emma resisted the urge to run her fingers through it. She blushed when she realized what she was thinking.

"I guess we do," he said. "Who woulda thought?"

They sat in silent wonder for a minute, each processing this new information. Finally, Emma spoke: "I'm sorry about Zoey. She's a bitch anyway, but it still sucks to get dumped."

"Actually, I dumped her."

"You did? I’m sorry, I just assumed..."

Mason grinned at her. "You're doing it again." When she didn't get his meaning he said, "Apologizing."

"Oh," Emma laughed. "Yeah… I am." She didn't know what was wrong with her. She suddenly felt all jittery. She laughed again and heard her voice take on a high pitched nervous sound she barely recognized as belonging to her. "Why did you break up with her then? If you don't mind my asking."

Mason shrugged. "I was right. She was cheating on me. With most of the football team."

"Oh, I'm—"

Mason scrunched his brow in an over-exaggerated look of disapproval. "Don't say it," he said, the corners of his lips turning up.

"I was going to say that I'm happy for you that you've removed yourself from such a bad situation."

"Yeah," Mason said. "She actually wanted to stay together anyways, can you believe that? I told her to go jump off a bridge."

Emma raised her eyebrows, her face lighting up. "Do you think she really will? Maybe I'll finally be able to get a decent night's sleep."

Mason stared at her a second, his mouth hanging open, then burst into a generous round of laughter. Emma joined him, and they sat together in the lab, a strange feeling of camaraderie between them that they would never have imagined at the start of the day.

Chapter 7

Mason leaned over Emma's shoulder, looking at the worm under a microscope. She breathed his scent in and felt her arms tingle. Her hands shook.

"You okay?" he asked, noting her hands.

"Mmhmm," she nodded. She was afraid if she spoke her voice would betray her.

"You know, you look real pretty with your hair down like that," he said.

Emma's cheeks lit up like a fireworks show. "Oh," she stammered. "Um, thanks." She turned her head so he couldn't see her smile.

"I guess we're about done here," he said.

"Yeah, guess so. Thanks for helping me."

"No problem. I owed it to you."

"Well, I think saving my life more than makes up for being a jerk in biology." She smiled, hoping he couldn't sense how nervous she'd grown around him.

"You really do look very pretty tonight," he said. "Not that you're not normally pretty, you are, I just mean..." Then he laughed and Emma realized that he was nervous too. She took a step closer to him. They were the only two people in the lab, probably in the whole building. It was ten o' clock and no one was going to set a foot into lab so late at night. No one besides her and Mason, that was.

"Mason, I um..."

He stepped closer to her and put his arm around her waist. Her breath caught in her chest. He leaned towards her, and before she knew what was happening his lips were pressing against hers.

She drank him in. His scent filled her nostrils as she tasted the honey that was his mouth. She opened her own mouth wider, allowing him full access. Her heart jumped as his hand slid over her back, pulling her tighter to him. She had kissed boys before—well, one boy, but she wasn't sure the awkward lip smacking of two twelve year olds counted in this situation.

Mason's hand moved under her shirt and began caressing her breasts. No one had ever touched her like this before. Her heart hammered in her chest as Mason's fingers moved to her pants and fumbled with her zipper. Emma jumped back, her cheeks burning.

"Mason, I...."

He looked at her, waiting. "What's wrong? I thought you wanted to."

"I do."

"Well then?"

Her cheeks were a bright crimson and her eyes glowed in the light of the lab. "I just, I'm... uh, I don't have as much experience as you."

Mason laughed. "That's okay. It doesn't matter. It's not like you're a virgin, right?" Mason's smile faltered as Emma looked towards the floor, her face pale except for the cherries of her cheeks. "Oh my God," he said. "You are? A virgin?"

Emma forced her head to move up and down. Mason went to her and slowly put his arms around her, drawing her into a hug. It felt safe and warm and Emma felt her body tingle again. "I'm sorry," he said. "I had no idea. Look, if you don't want to—"

"No!" she cried, looking directly at him now. "I do!"

Mason smiled. She could have swum in his eyes they were so luminous. He didn't say anything, he just reached down and kissed her. Slowly, tenderly. A heavy buzz filled her head. Mason's tongue swirled around inside her, tasting her as he pressed himself harder to her. This time, instead of going for her pants, Mason brushed aside some equipment on the lab table and laid Emma down on top of it. She shivered.

"Cold?" he asked.

"A little."

"I'll warm you up. Just tell me if you want me to stop." She nodded, her heart pounding. Mason pulled his shirt over his head and let it drop to the floor. He climbed onto the table with her, Emma's eyes widening as Mason let her explore his body. She ran her hands along the hard plane of his abdomen, his chest muscles rising and falling like something out of a bodybuilder's magazine. Emma could hardly believe he was real.

Slowly, Mason's hands pushed her shirt up. He caressed her breasts over her bra. Her breath quickened and her back arched. When Mason thought she was ready, he unsnapped her bra and watched as her creamy breasts spilled out. He touched her nipples with his finger, enjoying the way her body quivered.

"More," she whispered suddenly, the heat she felt inside her growing to a desert temperature. Mason moved his mouth onto her body, swirling his tongue over the dark pink points that stood at the center of her satin breasts. She couldn't help the grin that spread across her face as Mason asked if she was alright. "Yes," she replied, reaching out her hands to unbuckle his belt.

It took her a minute of fumbling before she found the zipper. Mason helped her push his pants and underwear to the floor. She held her breath as his manhood went on display for her. She'd never seen a man's body up close like this. She touched him with tentative fingers. Mason didn't make a move other than to continue caressing her breasts. Emma's hands moved over Mason's body, stopping at his erection. She touched it and it was harder than she would have thought, yet still tender.

Mason's hands moved to her legs now, sliding along her thighs as he slowly guided himself to the center of her perfect mound. Even through the pants she wore Emma felt the strength of his fingers as they moved dexterously over her, making her blood race. "Ohh," she moaned. She removed her hands from Mason's erection and pushed her pants off.

They were both naked now, and Mason rubbed himself against her, teasing her as he slid himself over her sex. "Tell me when you're ready," he said. She nodded, too scared to breathe. Would it hurt? Despite her anxiety, her body urged her along, crying out for Mason to finish the job he'd started. She could no longer take the heat that had built up between her thighs, so she pushed her hips against Mason to let him know it was time.

He hesitated, wanting to make sure she was really ready, then slid himself inside her with one swift move. Emma's mouth opened and her eyes widened. "Are you alright?" he asked, alarmed. She nodded, then lifted her head to kiss him. Mason began to move his hips, slowly at first, then increasing his speed when he sensed her body convulsing under him. He moved faster and faster, her breath quickening.

She wrapped her legs around his back and pulled him tighter to her. He pumped harder against her. Emma's mouth ran dry as her body began to shake. Mason drove himself deeper into her, and Emma's heart felt like it was going to burst through her chest. She moaned and Mason felt himself losing it. He held on long enough to press his hips harder against hers, driving himself deeper into her perfect moist cave.

When Emma's head flew back and her breath stopped, Mason let himself go. They sailed together into the air, high above the clouds, losing their breath as the atmosphere thinned. Then they were back in the lab and Mason was pulling Emma into his arms, their bodies acting as one.

Chapter 8

Mason and Emma stopped in front of her dorm. The outside air was warm and his hand was soft in hers. He put his hand under her chin, tilting her head back and laying his soft, pink lips over hers. She felt the slow and steady hum of electricity pulse through her as Mason pressed himself harder against her.

"I had a great time tonight," he said, finally pulling away.

She blushed. "Me too." She had a million questions racing through her mind, but she didn't dare ask them. The main one was when would she get to see him again. Would she get to see him again? Did he even want to see her again?

He kissed her one more time and she felt like he was reading her mind and answering her question. Yes, he liked her. Yes, he'd see her again. His lips still tasted like honey to her and she gently ran her tongue over them, relishing their buttery smoothness. Emma was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't hear anyone approach until the peals of laughter rang through the night air, breaking their kiss.

"Oh my God!" a voice said. Emma turned her head and saw Zoey standing with her friends, her face red, her body shaking with laughter. "What are you doing?" she asked Mason, her eyes bulging. "I mean, I know we broke up, but God... Emma? You must be really hard up."

Mason stiffened and dropped his hand from Emma's back, shifting his weight away from her. Emma looked at him. His face tightened and his lips thinned. She tried not to read too much into it, but it seemed like he was embarrassed to be seen with her. She waited for him to say something, anything, to defend his honor at least if not hers, but Mason just stood there.

"Mason, you know that you could have any girl on campus, right? Are you drunk right now? Is that it? Did you get high and forget that it was Mouse you were kissing?"

His eyes hardened. "I'll see you later Emma," he finally said, and walked away without a further good-bye. Emma's heart sank. He was leaving her to face Zoey alone. She went upstairs and tried to ignore Zoey as she followed her into their room, but Zoey's incessant talking was impossible to ignore.

"I don't know what Mason was thinking," she said, "but he must've been desperate. That's the only thing that makes sense."

Emma put a pillow over her head, hoping to drown out the sound of Zoey's whiney voice as it tried to shatter her ear drums.

"He should've come to me," Zoey continued. "I would've thrown him some pity sex. For old time's sake, you know? It's the least I could do. I should let him know that, so that next time he's this hard up he can at least get in a little action with someone who's not deformed. Right Mouse?"

"Why do you care so much Zoey?" Emma finally snapped. "You were cheating on him for crying out loud? Did you even like him?"

"Of course I liked him. He's a football star!"

"Yeah, but do you even know anything else about him? Do you even care? It seems like you only liked him because he played football."

Unfortunately for Emma, she had managed to get to the root of Zoey's true feelings, which only served to piss Zoey off more.

"You're only using him," Zoey said.

"For what?" Emma asked, unable to believe that Zoey could say something so ridiculous.

"You hope it will help your social life. It's understandable. When one has no social life to speak of, they must get very lonely. Do you have any friends at all? Oh wait, let me guess. Your mom is your best friend? Isn't that sweet? Well, maybe when Mason's done with you, you can introduce them. I'm sure your mom could use a little Mason in her life as well, if you know what I mean."

Emma couldn't take it anymore. She grabbed her pillow and a blanket and went to sleep in the common room. It wouldn't be the first time, and it was better than listening to Zoey all night. She curled up into a chair, her head spinning. Things were only going to get worse for her with Zoey, especially if she continued to see Mason. Wait. Would she continue to see Mason? Maybe it would be better if she went back home. She could still go to school here.

Emma hated the idea of moving back in with her parents. She knew she needed to get away from them or she would end up forty and still living at home, but she wasn't sure she had a choice. Especially if Mason wasn't going to stand up for her. She just couldn't go through this alone.

Chapter 9

Emma sat in lab the next day, her heart pounding as she waited for Mason to get there. She was afraid she had imagined his feelings for her. What if Zoey had been right? What if she meant no more to Mason than any other girl? She had given herself to him so completely... what if it had been a mistake?

Mason walked into class on time, for once. He high-fived his football friends, like he always did, not even giving Emma a glance. He stopped to talk to one of his buddies, who Emma could hear saying something about an upcoming frat party at their house. Mason nodded his head, standing there for what felt like forever. Emma wondered if he was ever going to come and sit down, and then class started and Mason finally took his seat next to hers.

"Hey," he said.

Hey? Emma's heart sunk. Was that his standard greeting to girls he'd recently slept with? Hey? What did that even mean? She waited for some other sign from him. Something to tell her whether last night had been a crazy fluke or if there was going to be something more between them, as she'd hoped. Mason just stared ahead, doodling in his notebook as Professor Douglas lectured.

Emma felt her face redden and tried to stop the tears threatening to form in her eyes. She managed to push them off, and when she turned her head again Mason was watching her.

"You okay?" he whispered.

Emma nodded.

"You look upset."

"I'm fine," she whispered.

"Are you sure?"

She hesitated. Maybe she was making things more difficult than they had to be. After all, Mason was talking to her now. He was expressing an interest, concern even. She smiled at him. Then she looked at his notebook and saw what he'd been doodling. It was a cartoon woman with huge breasts—the kind of woman that couldn't possibly exist in real life.

Emma turned her head, disgusted. Was that the type of woman Mason wanted? If so, then Zoey was right; he'd only been with her last night because he was desperate. He'd just broken up with Zoey after all, maybe he regretted it. Maybe he wanted to get even with Zoey for cheating on him by sleeping with Emma. She'd seen Zoey's reaction to Mason kissing her. It was driving her crazy to think that Mason and Emma had been together. What better way to get revenge?

Emma looked at Mason from the corner of her eye. He was playing with his pencil, pretending it was a golf club and swinging it at a little rolled up ball of paper he'd made.

"Alright now everyone," Professor Douglas said. "I have a surprise for you all. Friday's test has been moved to today."

Emma's eyes shot to the front of the room, followed by a series of groans from the rest of the class.

"You can't do that!" someone shouted from the back.

"Ah, but I can," Professor Douglas said. "I want to see how much you have all learned, not how much you can memorize the night before an exam."

Emma's heart thumped in her chest. She'd heard of pop quizzes, but who gives a pop test? It wasn't fair.

"Relax Emma," Mason whispered. "You know this stuff. You'll be fine."

But Mason's words didn't help. If anything, they only irritated her more. Who was he to tell her to relax? He was acting like they were friends instead of lovers. It was infuriating.

Professor Douglas passed the test out and Emma looked down at it, the questions jumbling before her eyes. What was he asking about photosynthesis? Ultimate causation? She knew that definition, she just couldn't think of it. Her mind raced to find the answer to questions she should have been able to answer in her sleep. She just couldn't concentrate. Her mind was filled with too many other thoughts.

She'd made and unmade her mind a dozen times during the night to move back in with her parents. She'd finally decided to wait and see what happened in class today with Mason, but clearly, she wasn't nearly as important to him as he was to her. She kicked herself for falling into his trap at the lab. Those liquid eyes... that rugged face... he'd used his charms to get her into bed and take something she hadn't, until now, thought she would ever want to give. She felt humiliated.

A watery splotch landed on her test, making the ink run. Another tear fell on top of that one. Emma threw her pencil down and pushed the test away from her like it was on fire. She grabbed her things and ran for the door. She felt everyone watching her and knew she was acting like a child, but she didn't care. She had to get out of here now, before she made an even bigger fool of herself.

Chapter 10

"Emma!" Mason's voice called to her across the hall.

She turned and saw him running after her. "Emma," he called again. She stopped running, waiting for him to catch up even though she wasn't sure she wanted to talk to him. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Tears flooded her eyes and ran over her cheeks in giant rivers. "How," she hiccupped. "How can you act like nothing happened last night? Didn't..." hiccup, "didn't it mean anything to you?"

Mason stared at her, his eyes opening wide. He looked like he'd just seen aliens land on the White House lawn. "What?" he finally said. "How can you ask that? Of course it did."

Emma felt her heart start beating again and tried to get herself under control. She hiccupped again and Mason suppressed a smile.

"Really?" she asked.

"Of course. Is that what's been bothering you?" he asked.

She nodded, starting to feel silly. "I just... when you came into class you seemed so... normal. You acted like nothing had changed." She tried to stop herself from blushing but failed miserably.

"So you bombed a test because you were afraid I wasn't into you?" he asked, smirking a little.

"No," she said, turning her head away from him. She tried to stop herself from hiccupping again but lost the battle. They were the only ones in the hallway. Something occurred to her then and head snapped back around. "Wait! What about you? You're missing the rest of the test."

"I finished."

Emma thought she'd misheard. "You finished?"

"Yeah, I got a C."

"How do you know that?" she asked, suspicious.

He shrugged. "I only tried hard enough for a C. I don't need any A's mucking things up for me."

Emma bit her lip, not sure she approved of his lackadaisical attitude about his grades, but not wanting to say anything. "But don't you need a certain GPA to be eligible to keep playing football?"

"Yeah, but my dad will fix things if I run into trouble."

"Oh." She resented the idea that his father could just swoop in and "fix things." She also felt really bad for Mason. If no one ever expected more from him, how would he ever be able to grow and learn?

"Come on," he said suddenly. "I'm taking you out." He threw an arm around her and ushered her down the hall to the door. "You need a nice dinner."

"It's a little early for dinner."

"So we'll see a movie first. You need to get your mind off things. Relax a little. Have some fun."

Emma smiled, and when he opened his car door for her her hiccups were gone. He drove them off campus to a local theater. She couldn't help noting that he didn't want to stay on campus. She didn't mind, but she couldn't shake the feeling that it had something to do with her. Still, it's not like he'd driven them two hours out of the way to see a movie, he'd simply gone into town. She decided she was being silly, overthinking things again, and that Mason was right. She needed to relax and have a little fun.

The movie was bad—a cheesy horror film about a possessed goat—but it didn't matter. They sat in the darkened theater, laughing and screaming at all the right places. She grabbed hold of Mason more than once, and he held her hand tightly when she needed him to.

They had an early dinner and walked around town a while until it started to get dark. They passed a group of people outside a pool hall and one of them shouted to them, "Hey Mason!" Mason turned and his face grew a shade lighter. He dropped Emma's hand.

"Hey," Mason said, "Kenny, what's up?" He peered in through the window and saw several more of his friends hanging out inside.

Kenny's eyes moved to Emma, who blushed. She stood just behind Mason, waiting for him to introduce her.

"You wanna get in on this game we've got going?" Kenny asked.

Mason shook his head. "Nah, another time."

There was an awkward silence where Emma looked at Mason, who looked at Kenny, who looked at Emma. "Well okay, have fun."

Mason turned and walked down the street, hurrying away from the pool hall. Emma hurried to catch up. "Mason," she said. "What was that?"

"What?" he asked.

"Who was that? Why didn't you introduce me? Are you... are you ashamed to be seen with me?"

Emma's heart felt like it was cracking. Clearly, Mason did not want his friends knowing she even existed.

"It's not like that," he said.

"Then what is it?"

"I just... I hate that guy. He thinks we're friends and I try to be nice to him because his father knows my father, but I can't stand him."

"Oh," Emma said. She supposed that made sense. Mason had acted somewhat cold and aloof because he just wanted to get away from Kenny, not because of anything she'd done. She wasn't sure she entirely believed him, but she was willing to accept the possibility he was telling the truth.

"Let's get out of here," Mason said, ushering her into his car. "Before we see anyone else I don't like."

Chapter 11

They got back to school and Mason parked in his spot outside his dorm. It was so dark, there was hardly anyone around.

"So," he asked, grinning at her. "Are you feeling more relaxed?"

She nodded and turned her head shyly towards him. She didn't know why she should still feel so uncertain about him. Hadn't he just spent almost the whole day with her?

"You look like you still don't trust me," he said.

"I trust you."

"Can't you tell how much I like you?" he asked, pulling her tightly to him and wrapping his arms around her. She felt her body melt the tighter he held her. Her blood pulsed in her veins, making her heart throb. "I missed practice today to be with you," he whispered. "My dad is gonna kill me. So you better trust me."

"You missed practice?" Emma's mind raced. Oh my God oh my God. He really does like me! Sudden passion overtook her and she flung herself at him. Her lips mashed against his and he laughed as he held her back, catching his breath.

"If I knew you were gonna act like this, I'd have told you that sooner," he said.

But Emma didn't want to talk anymore. He had told her to trust him, and she'd made her decision. The time they'd shared in the lab the night before had been special, but Emma had almost been too nervous to enjoy it. Now, despite the racing of her heart, she relished each sensation her body afforded her.

Mason reached down and pushed the button beside his driver's seat that slid the seat backwards, and Emma was able to climb on top of him. She was glad she'd worn a skirt. His body was warm and she pressed herself against him, drowning herself in the scent of his skin. He massaged her neck with his tongue, gently pulling at her skin with his teeth as she leaned back. The horn honked and Emma jumped, giggling. Mason laughed too.

"Trying to draw a crowd?" he asked. Then his mouth was on hers again. His kisses were deep and sensuous. She took a long breath and held it as his hands worked their way under her shirt. He lifted it over her head and Emma looked around them to see if anyone was watching. She thought she'd die of embarrassment if anyone caught her and Mason naked in his car. But there was no one there.

The light next to Mason's car was burnt out; the lot was so dark that Emma doubted whether anyone would be able to see them anyways, even if they were standing no more than a foot from the car. His kisses trailed from her mouth to her neck to her chest, where they stopped at her bra. He slid the straps over her shoulders and pushed it down. Her breasts were so white and creamy that they stood out even against the blackness of the sky.

Mason's tongue flicked over them, causing her nipples to jump to attention. He tasted her dark pink nubs; they were sweet and creamy and he couldn't resist teasing them with his tongue. Emma's back arched as Mason's tongue slid over her stomach and back up, landing once more on her perfect pink centers.

She had no idea how to move things to the next level. The car was cramped and when she shifted her legs to get her panties off she fell back onto the horn, sending a loud honk ringing across the night.

Mason's eyes lit up with laughter. "Need some help?" he asked.

She looked away, embarrassed. Mason put his hand under her chin and forced her eyes back onto his. He kissed her until she forgot her embarrassment. Then she tried again. Mason helped her slide her panties passed her ankles and then unzipped his pants, pushing them down just enough so that he was exposed to her.

She hovered over him, stretching her legs as he reclined in the driver's seat. She wasn't sure she was doing this right, but then she felt Mason's manhood between her legs and let herself sink onto him. They both closed their eyes as Emma and Mason let their bodies merge, becoming one.

"Oh boy," he said, opening his eyes. He looked at her with such tenderness that Emma wondered how she could ever have doubted him. She lifted her hips off his body, then dropped them down again. The resulting friction was slow and deep and filled them each with an increased passion they had not anticipated.

Emma moved faster now, pushing her hips against him over and over. Mason met her with his own hips, lifting them off his seat and driving them harder against her. Their bodies smacked together, creating a kind of music only they could hear. Emma allowed herself to feel everything her body had been too shy to feel the first time they'd been together. Emma's toes curled, her heat raced, her breath dipped in and out of her lungs like someone testing out the deep end of the pool.

Mason's own heart thumped hard in his chest. He had been with lots of girls, but he had never experienced anything like what he shared with Emma. He wished his father could know what a good person she was, what a good influence she was, then she bounced her body harder against him and all thoughts of his father fled his mind.

Mason moved his hips, trying to meet hers, but his position was somewhat cramped, confined as he was by the seat and the arm rests. But Emma didn't need any help from him. Her natural rhythm took over, and she rocked on top of him as Mason's legs began to tremble. Every time her soft mound pressed into him his body quivered more violently and his heart rate increased.

"I'm not sure how much longer I can wait," he said.

"Shh," she whispered. "Just another minute." She rocked back and forth, moving her hips in a circle before thrusting her weight forward once more. Her eyes grew bright and her skin began to glow. Mason reached out with one hand and caressed her cheek. She felt his erection grow and moved her hips faster, Mason meeting her beat for beat.

Finally, her head fell back and her arms dropped to her sides as her body began to shake. Mason let himself go and Emma felt him explode inside her, their bodies feeding off of each other's energy as the sky wrapped around them, binding them together in its darkness.

After they had caught their breath, Mason walked Emma to her dorm. She leaned in to kiss him goodnight, but he pulled back at the last minute.

"I don't want to give Zoey any more ammunition," he said. She nodded, pretending to understand, but she went to her room more confused than ever.

Chapter 12

It had been two days since Emma had last seen Mason. He had missed biology and when she texted him he hadn't responded. She didn't want him falling behind with his work. She knew he didn't take his classes seriously, but she had hopes that maybe she could change that. She checked her phone all throughout chemistry, hoping Mason would finally respond, but he never did.

During class Emma kept thinking that people were watching her. She'd turn to look and see someone quickly look away. You're just being paranoid, she told herself. But then she'd feel another pair of eyes on her and the same thing would happen. She began to wonder if she had a sign stuck to her back and tried to nonchalantly reach behind her and feel her shirt. She didn't feel anything though, except her clothes.

Maybe there's something on my face.

She reached up and began wiping around her mouth and cheeks with a Kleenex, trying to remove the offending matter. Nothing seemed to come off, and she decided to just let it go. She was probably just imagining things.

Emma left class with her mind lost in her thoughts. What was Mason doing? Was he ignoring her on purpose? What if he was sick? That last thought struck her as the most reasonable. After all, he'd missed practice to spend time with her, so why would he suddenly ignore her now?

She was so deep in her thoughts that she didn't even notice Zoey come up behind her. "Hi Mouse," she said.

Emma turned, her face flushing. "Leave me alone Zoey."

"Sure. I just thought I'd let you know that if you blow things for Mason, the whole school is gonna hate you."

"What are you talking about?" Emma felt her blood starting to burn. Why couldn't Zoey just leave her alone?

"Well it's all over the school how you're stalking him," Zoey said.

"What?" she asked, her eyes bugging out of her head. "That's not true."

"Oh really?" Zoey asked, acting innocent. "I heard that's why he missed practice the other day. Well gee, I don't know why anyone would think that if it wasn't true."

Emma wanted to punch her pouty little mouth in. "You're just making that up because you're jealous of me and Mason," she said. "If you start spreading rumors about me I'll go to the Dean."

Emma saw Zoey's eyes darken. "Listen Mouse, it's not me who's spreading anything. You think Mason likes you? Think again. I'm doing you a favor right now. You can't trust him. You're not his type. Leave him alone before you get hurt."

Zoey stormed off in the opposite direction then, leaving Emma feeling like she'd just been threatened. Instead of going back to her dorm, as she'd planned, she veered and headed to Mason's frat house. She'd never been inside one before. When she rang the bell a buff looking guy answered in his boxers, holding a beer.

"Wassup?" he asked her.

"Uh, is Mason here?" she asked, forcing her feet not to turn and run the other way. Frat houses were not her thing.

"Sure," he said, opening the door for her. Emma breathed a sigh of relief and stepped into an entryway littered with pictures of naked girls and beer cans. "He's up in is room," the guy in his boxers said.

"Thanks." Emma started up the stairs but stopped when the boxers guy called after her.

"Hey, wait a second. Are you her?"

"Excuse me?"

"The stalker."

Emma's face burned. "No," she snapped, "I am not the stalker." She turned around to finish her ascent. She heard the guy mumble something about being "so touchy," but she decided to ignore him. Upstairs, she was faced with a series of doors going down two long hallways that criss crossed each other. She had taken two steps in one direction when she heard Mason's voice and turned the opposite way, following the sound to a door with a poster of some football player on it.

She knocked lightly and almost jumped when a severe looking man in a suit answered the door. He scowled at her. "Um, hi, is Mason here?" she asked.

The man turned away from her and Emma saw Mason standing in a corner of his room.

"Mason," she said, relaxing a bit and stepping into the room. "Where have you been? Didn't you get my messages?"

Mason's eyes shifted from her to the man behind her. She realized how upset he looked.

"Is this what you're doing with your time?" the man screamed at Mason, veins bulging in his neck. "How can you be a football player when you're busy fooling around with some little tramp?"

Emma's eyes began to blur as Mason stood by, saying nothing.

"Is this why you missed practice the other day?" the man demanded.

"Dad," Mason finally said. She'd never heard him sound so fearful and uncertain. "It's not like that."

Mason's father raised his eyebrows.

"Oh? Well why don't you tell me how it is then. Because from where I'm standing it looks like you care more about your girlfriend here than you do your career!"

"She's not my girlfriend," Mason screamed. "I barely know her. She's... she's been following me."

"Is that true?" Mason's father turned on her. "Well I want your name. I'm gonna have you thrown out of this school if you bother my son again, do you hear me?"

Emma turned and fled from Mason's room. All of her fears had just been confirmed. What was even worse was that everything Zoey had told her was true. Mason didn't care for her. He'd been using her all along. She ran to her dorm and was grateful that, at least, Zoey wasn't there to watch Emma flood her pillow with tears.

Chapter 13

Emma woke up tired. Her alarm buzzed and she rubbed at her eyes as they tried to focus on her surroundings. She reached across her nightstand and shut the alarm down, looking at her phone. She had five new missed calls from Mason. She deleted them without listening to one of them. There were a slew of text messages that he'd sent her too. She started to read one of them then deleted those too. Why didn't he just leave her alone? He obviously didn't care about her. She felt like a fool.

It had been three days since the incident at Mason's frat house, and Zoey had not let Emma hear the end of it. "I told you so Mouse," was the new running phrase in their room. Oh, and Emma's personal favorite, "Poor Mouse, she got screwed by a rat."

The only consolation Emma had was that she wouldn't have to deal with Zoey much longer. She picked up another pile of clothes and threw them in a box, then pushed it against the wall with the others. Her father was coming for her in the morning; she would be back home and in her own bed within twenty-four hours.

She made her way to biology, dreading seeing Mason again. Maybe he wouldn't be there. If he had any class he'd leave her alone and drop bio altogether, especially since he didn't care about his academics anyway. She walked into the classroom and was surprised to find Mason already seated. He stood up when she came in and she almost turned and left, but unless she was planning to switch majors she was gonna have to get used to seeing him in here. She needed biology before she could advance to the four hundred level class she'd need to graduate.

"Emma," Mason said as soon as she sat down.

She ignored him.

"Please, let me explain." She glanced at him and saw his eyes were moist and sincere looking, but that did nothing to sooth her anger. He could cry her a river for all she cared. There was nothing he could say to fix this.

"Emma, please. I just freaked out when my dad showed up like that, and then you came in, and I didn't know what to say."

"So you told everyone I was stalking you?" she snapped.

"No! Well... yes. Kind of, I mean. I told the coach that when he laid into me for missing practice. Emma he threatened to kick me off the team, I had to tell him something."

"Uh huh, and your dad?"

"I just... I froze. I didn't want him thinking—"

"Thinking what? That you would lower yourself to date someone like me?"

Mason's face turned red. "That's not what I meant," he said.

"I don't care what you meant Mason. Just leave me alone."

"Maybe this weekend we get together. Let me try to make it up to you. There's a frat party at my house tonight and I thought—"

"I won't be here this weekend," she said, not taking her eyes off her notebook.

"Oh. Where are you going?"

"Home. I'm moving back in with my parents."

Mason's jaw dropped and he started to say something but Professor Douglas began his lecture. Emma tried to concentrate but couldn't stop sensing Mason's eyes on her. When class finally ended she gathered her things and ran into the hall. Mason followed after her, catching her arm as she tried to flee before any more tears could fall.

"Emma, would you please just listen?"

Just then Mason's football buddies filed out of class. "Look, it's the stalker," one of them quipped. The others laughed. Emma's cheeks went red and her eyes grew wet.

"Hey stalker. Why don't you stalk yourself a better grade in this class? I heard you bombed the last test." They hunched over laughing, and Mason turned on them.

"She is not a stalker," he shouted.

The guys stopped laughing and stared at him.

"Why don't you guys go throw the football around and leave her alone? That's all you're good for anyway. I hope you make a lot of money playing the game, because you'll never be able to use your brains to make one dime."

The expression on his teammates' faces made it difficult for Emma to suppress a smile. She was glad Mason had finally stood up for her, but she couldn't forget how he'd treated her. His teammates shuffled off, looking hurt, and Emma turned to go.

"Wait," he said. "Don't you believe me now?"

She hesitated. "Maybe. But the thing is... I don't care." He looked at her with questioning eyes that couldn't grasp what she was saying. "You hurt me so much. You humiliated me. There's no coming back from that."

Then she fled from him before he could try to change her mind again.

Chapter 14

The library was packed, but Emma knew it would empty out soon. The frat party at Mason's place was tonight; she'd heard Zoey and some others talking about it. Apparently it was a big deal. It was alumni night—past members and new members got a chance to welcome each other. Everyone was trying to cram their studying into one short, intense session before heading over there. Even Zoey was here right now, her nose grinding against her books. When seven o' clock hit though, Emma would have the place all to herself.

She flipped through her biology and chem books, marking important passages with a tab before writing things into her notebook. There was another big test in biology on Monday and Emma couldn't afford to bomb it again.

The only good thing to come out of the last test was that no one in class had passed it with anything higher than a C, so Professor Douglas had decided to grade everything on a curve, thus turning her F into a C. Mason, as it turns out, had received the highest grade in class, much to Professor Douglas's astonishment. He appeared to have decided that Mason was some sort of idiot savant, and was now trying to nurture his untapped scientific genius rather than make fun of him.

Emma flipped back and forth between the pages of her bio book looking for the answer to question fourteen on the practice test Professor Douglas had given them. There were to be no surprises this time, he said, for which the entire class had thanked him.

She was flipping back to chapter nine when something hit the side of her head. She looked down and saw a paper airplane fall to the floor. It toppled onto its side; written in bright pink letters were the words "Open Me." Emma looked around but didn't see anyone watching her. She unfolded the airplane and read the message:

I love you. Please give me another chance. I'd do anything for you, including humiliate myself. Look up.

Emma raised her head and saw Mason walking towards her, a feather boa draped around his shoulders, a pink bathrobe covering his body. A small giggle escaped her throat. She couldn't help it. He looked ridiculous. Someone next to her looked up, and that person nudged the one next to them. Soon the whole library had their eyes on Mason. He stopped in front of Emma, who was trying to hide her smile.

"Mason," she said. "If you think that parading around in a bathrobe makes up for what you did to me..." But she couldn't hide the light creeping into her eyes.

"I don't," he said. "But I'm betting this does." He jumped onto the table where Emma sat with her books spread out. "Here ye, here ye," he said, raising his arm like the Statue of Liberty. He had the total attention of everyone in the library, including the librarians and professors who were working there.

"Mason," Emma whispered, tugging on his robe. "What are you doing?"

He took a deep breath. "I would like to declare, right here and now, my undying love for Emma Davis." He looked down at her and she felt her cheeks burn. She really wished he'd come back down from the table now. She appreciated what he was doing. But apparently he wasn't done.

"To prove my love for this woman, I would now like to perform a song just for her."

There were laughs and groans. She saw Professor Douglas in the back, holding a book and watching with a surprised smile on his face. Then, before Emma knew what was happening, Mason removed the pink bathrobe. The library burst into a round of laughter and applause as Mason stood before everyone in a hot pink lace thong. He began to sing:

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine,

You make me happy, when skies are grey,

You'll never know dear, how much I love you,

Oh please don't take, my sunshine away."

People stood up and began to stamp and applaud, hollering so that it didn't seem like a library anymore. It was more like a football stadium. Mason's cheeks were glowing. He looked down at Emma and reached out a hand to her. She took it.

"Am I forgiven?" he asked.

"Most definitely," she said, her face beaming.

"Good. I have one last thing I need to do. Will you meet me outside my frat house tonight at seven?"

"Okay."

He smiled and gave her a kiss that made her heart race before raising his head back up and looking across the sea of students who were still applauding. The librarians were trying to get things under control again.

"And just so this love of mine will never again doubt me..." he said, then he pulled the lace thong off in one swift move and jumped off the table, streaking through the library as the applause tripled and the librarians gave up.

Emma's heart had never felt so light. Zoey came running up to her. "I got it all on video. What's your email? I'll send it to you."

Emma couldn't hide the shock on her face as Zoey took her email down and seconds later Emma had the video in her inbox.

"Thanks."

"No problem," Zoey said. "Do you have a dress for tonight?"

Emma shook her head.

"Come on," Zoey said, closing Emma's books up. "There's not much time."

An hour later Emma emerged from her dorm room with Zoey, who was now behaving like they were old friends rather than enemies. They walked across the grounds together, Zoey leaving her when she saw Mason approaching. "Good luck," she whispered.

"Thanks," Emma said. The dress she wore was bright pink—Zoey said she should wear it in honor of Mason's love declaration—and hugged every curve of her body.

"Hi," he said, taking her in his arms. "You look beautiful."

He kissed her hard and her insides tingled. She was ready to forget the frat party and go back to her room. "Thank you for coming. You know I meant every word I said in the library, right?"

She nodded. There was no denying his feelings for her anymore. "I love you," he said, pressing his lips to hers once more. She could almost feel his pulse as his mouth moved against hers.

"I love you too," she told him. He smiled and took her hand. "Come on," he said. "My father is an alumnus. I'll introduce you, properly this time."

"What if he hates me?" Emma asked.

"I don't care," Mason said. "I'm not losing you, ever again." He squeezed her hand and led her inside. They didn't know what the future might hold, but they knew that from now on, they'd be facing it together.

THE END

NATHAN: BILLIONAIRE BEAR

STORY DESCRIPTION

What happens when a matchmaker meets her match?

Chloe Carpenter is an account manager at a public relations firm and a natural matchmaker. She’s smart, funny and talented, but Mr. Right just hasn’t made an appearance. Not for her, anyway.

That doesn’t stop Chloe from playing mix and match with friends.
When Chloe sets up a weekend camping trip, her intention is to match up a coworker. But, while deep in the darkened forest, she comes face to face with a sexy-as-sin forest ranger who is the stuff of her own wildest fantasies.

Nathan Varga is a bear shifter and a highly successful CEO of a multi-billion-dollar Fortune 500 company. His raw masculinity tempered by power, strength and control is enough to command the fear and respect of any Ivy League business competitor.

Nathan always expected that he would one day meet his mate. He never expected that she’d be human. That complicates things. Not only does he have to figure out a way to explain his bear and reveal that he’s not really a forest ranger, but he also has to convince her that he is the match for her.

Chapter one

Jason’s lights flashed us from behind.

“I think he wants us to pull over,” Tim stated the obvious.

I turned my gaze to the left side window. Sure enough, a sign for a gas station emerged from the overgrowth of trees.

“Great, I could use a coke.” I was dangerously low on caffeine intake, and felt that the responsibility of keeping this camping trip upbeat rested mainly on my shoulders. If I was going to play matchmaker, then I needed fortification.

Both cars pulled into the parking lot and I hurried out of the backseat, instantly overcome by the ferocity of the afternoon heat. It was intense, practically suffocating, without a hint of a breeze.

Tim and Jake, the two guys up front, followed me out. Laker, one of my coworkers who’d been riding in the back with me, groaned as soon as his shoes hit the hot pavement.

“Chloe, you need to use the restroom. Don’t you?” Brianna approached me, her hands jammed on her hips. Behind her, Jason and the rest of his passengers were making their way inside the station.

“Sure… um… yeah,” I replied brightly, feigning innocence. I knew that Brianna was annoyed with me.

We walked to the restroom in silence. Once we were inside Brianna checked the stalls and then turned on me.

“What the hell’s going on?” She hissed, “Why am I riding in a car with complete strangers, while you ride with both Laker and Jake?”

“You know Jason!” I replied defensively.

“No, I met him a couple of times – but all those guys know each other, and its super awkward – not to mention that Janine is insanity personified.”

Janine was Tim’s ex-girlfriend, and admittedly, a total nightmare. She and Tim dated for years before he finally managed to break it off, but she still seemingly refused to let him go anywhere without her.

“Sorry ‘bout Janine,” I sighed, “I was really hoping that you and Jason would hit it off…”

My sentence spluttered into silence as Brianna narrowed her eyes in a vicious glare.

“Is this whole trip one of your match-making sessions?”

Busted.

“No! Not exactly – Bri, listen, I just think Jason is an awesome guy, and I also think that if you’d only talk to one another, you’d see the same.”

“Chloe!” She hid her face behind her hands in frustration.

“I’m sorry,” I was starting to feel a little bit guilty, “I really did think this trip would be fun. Work’s been so crazy, and we’ve hardly spent any real time together – I thought we could all do with some getting back to nature-type activity.”

Brianna rolled her eyes at me, and then turned toward the mirror over the sink to inspect her make-up.

“It will be fun,” she replied eventually, “It’s fine. But promise me you’ll ease up on the Jason thing, he’s really not my type and I don’t think he’s into me.”

I smiled at her reflection. I had won. I also had it on good authority, from the man himself, that Jason was interested in Brianna. He just had no idea what to do about it.

“So,” continued Brianna, putting the pieces together, “You suffered the torture of riding with stalker Tim so I could hook up with Jason?” She asked with a small, mischievous smile starting to spread across her face.

“Yes!” I exclaimed, realizing I could win back some friendship points. “I did. Though to be honest, he’s been cool.”

Brianna nodded, but didn’t remove her smirk. Tim had pretty much asked me out every month or so throughout college, and then for another three years after that – including while he was dating Janine. The first few times I declined politely, after that it had gotten offensive, and now I was left in a place where I point-blank ignored his come-ons.

“That’s true friendship,” she laughed, “Okay. You’re forgiven.”

“Can we leave now, so I can get a soda?”

“Sure, but those things will rot your teeth.”

I gave her a mega-watt smile showing off my perfectly white teeth to prove a point. She shrugged and muttered something about home whitening kits which I ignored. Soda was a necessity.

Chapter two

“It’s creepy out here,” Janine whined, cozying up to Tim on the fallen log. We’d set up camp as soon as we arrived, finding a spot at the base of the mountain we’d all climb tomorrow.

The area was densely wooded, but we’d managed to find a small clearing where previous campers had artfully arranged fallen logs in a circle, around a burnt patch of soil. I thought we’d done really well on the set-up. The woods didn’t feel creepy at all; Janine was just using it as an excuse to get Tim’s attention. In a way, I was grateful.

Laker and Jake had collected dead branches and dried leaves to start a fire, and then argued for about a half-hour on the best way to arrange it. I lost my patience and built it myself.

Now our faces where lit by the flickering of red and orange flames, making us all look slightly sunburnt as we sat and roasted marshmallows on the end of spindly twigs.

This was my favorite part of summer- the long evenings when it was still warm, the smell of wood burning and all of us speaking in low, muted tones so as not to disturb the creatures of the forest. I felt perfectly drowsy. We’d all had a couple of beers after dinner, and the alcohol combined with the hypnotic light of the fire sent me into a meditative state where time seemed to stand still.

I smiled over at the figures on the log opposite me. Brianna and Jason were finally talking, sitting slightly apart from everyone else. Bam.

As I watched, Brianna stood up and walked around the fire to where I was sitting.

“Hey. What are you doing?” I asked quietly, “You’re finally talking to him. Don’t stop now!”

Brianna sighed theatrically, “We’re just talking. I’ll go back later, but I need to pee. Help a girl out in her hour of need?”

“Oh.” This was the major drawback of outdoor pursuits as far as I was concerned. But I wasn’t about to let Brianna walk off into the forest by herself.

“Okay, fine. Let’s go. I’ve got a flashlight.”

I dug around in my backpack and fished out the equipment we needed: hygiene wipes, hand sanitizer, and a flashlight. Brianna was impressed, but not surprised. My hyper-efficient organizational skills fluctuated between being amusing and awe inspiring to the other employees at Barefoot PR, the public relations firm where we both worked. To me, being organized was a necessity and came as naturally as breathing.

“Are you sure you don’t have a porta-potty in there as well?” Brianna snickered.

“You laugh, but I really wish I did,” I sighed as we walked off into the darkness of the forest.

When we couldn’t see the camp lights anymore, I decreed that we’d gone far enough. We’d stayed side by side as the forest had become eerie with only a flashlight to guide us, casting shadows that shifted and moved as we walked.

“Okay, now I think I’m too spooked to pee,” Brianna hesitated as she glanced around the chosen spot.

“Don’t be silly. C’mon, Bri, the faster you do your thing, the faster we can be back at camp.” I reasoned. I held the flashlight by a tree and turned away to respect her privacy.

“Chloe… I hear something,” Brianna whispered quietly. I turned back. She was frozen in fear as she squinted into the depths of the dark forest.

I was about to tell her not to be so jumpy, when a low rumble seemed to shake the soil beneath us. I could hear bushes being thrashed aside and tree branches being snapped as if some great bulk of a thing was tumbling toward us.

“What the hell is that?” I whispered back, too frightened to move.

My legs felt like they were going to collapse beneath me at any moment. Instinctively I wanted to shine the flashlight in the direction of the noise, but I refrained. If whatever it was happened to be passing, then I didn’t want to attract attention. I threaded my arm through Brianna’s and flicked the light off.

“What are you doing!”

I hardly heard Brianna’s hysterical plea. The noise was getting closer, as if it were heading straight toward us. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness I saw the trees tremble ahead, and then shake violently.

A deafening roar, solitary and vicious, splintered the air. I ducked, shielding my face with my arm, as something flew out of the trees toward us. Whatever it was yelped on impact.

I was able to focus enough to see a massive heap of fur lying motionless at our feet, no more than a yard away. As I watched, the furry heap moaned pitifully and rolled onto its back.

Thick fur. A muzzle. Sharp claws… Grizzly. It was a huge grizzly bear. Its sheer size alone was terrifying. The fluffy fur, small ears and inquisitive eyes that I associated with a cuddlier version of the animal did nothing to quell my fear as I gazed at the eight hundred pounds of muscle and brute strength lying before us. As it moaned in pain, its jaw stretched to reveal a ferocious, blood-stained set of canines.

“It’s hurt,” murmured Brianna, “The poor thing.”

What?

“Brianna, don’t – please don’t – go near it. We need to back away, quietly. Come on.” I tried to keep my voice at a whisper, but anxiety turned it into a high-pitched, sonar-like shrill instead. The bear turned its head in our direction.

“We need to help it! I think it’s bleeding,” Brianna replied, completely ignoring me as she rose from her crouched position.

“Or it’s just caused something else to bleed,” I spat, “We need to go.”

She stepped toward it. It whined again, and tried to move off its back. Brianna paused. I could see her body, like mine, trembling in fear. But, she continued regardless, edging her way toward it, cooing softly as though it was a new born.

I refused to abandon her. As much as every part of my body was desperate to turn and run, I wasn’t about to leave my idiot friend with a creature that could snap her neck in a matter of seconds.

Chapter three

“Excuse me ma’am, can you please step away from the animal.”

The man startled me almost as much as the bear had. I jumped, emitting a strange squeaking sound, and landed badly, twisting my ankle on a small rock.

I’d been so preoccupied with Brianna and the bear that I hadn’t heard him approach. He shone a flashlight in my face and I grimaced and covered my eyes, wondering why the hell I was the target for suspicion, and not the killer grizzly lying prostrate on the ground.

“Can you not do that?” I replied haughtily.

The man lowered his light, but didn’t apologize.

“Are you a forest ranger or something?” I asked, relieved to have some back up.

The man was silent for a moment before he replied, “Yeah, a forest ranger. You both need to go back to wherever it was you came from. I’m guessing the camp that way?”

He waved his light in the direction we’d just come.

“Yes.”

“I think the bear’s badly hurt,” Brianna interjected, “What are you going to do? Do you have a truck or something? How are you going to help him?”

I looked around, but saw no sign of a vehicle. The man seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

“My trucks about a mile back. I’ll drive it up here and haul him on. Do it all the time.”

He sighed as if this was an annoying event that happened on a regular basis. How many fights did these bears get themselves into?

“Will the other one be back?” I asked with slight trepidation, “Do you think we should move camp?”

If the other bear was strong and vicious enough to be able to cause this beast harm, then there was no way I wanted to be intruding on its territory.

“Not tonight, no,” he muttered darkly, “You’ll be fine.”

I tried to get a better look at the ranger, but the lack of light made it difficult. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with a more than capable looking physique, but his face was almost fully cast in shadow. The only thing I could make out for sure was that he certainly didn’t dress like a forest ranger. I could definitely make out dark wash jeans, and a plain black t-shirt, but they looked clean and pressed, without a hint of forest debris or mud anywhere.

“You don’t look like a forest ranger,” I speculated out loud, “I thought you guys all had those camo uniforms?”

“It’s my night off,” he deadpanned.

The forest ranger clearly wasn’t a fan of ours. No doubt he saw it all the time – urban dwellers who came to the forests and open landscapes of the Rockies to let off steam and ‘get back to nature’ without knowing the basics – which I’m pretty sure included running the hell away from grizzly bears.

“Well, we’ll be on our way… Bri?”

She hadn’t taken her eyes off the bear, and barely seemed to hear my invitation to leave. I could tell just by looking at her that she was desperate to reach out and touch its fur.

“Not a fan then?” The forest ranger asked.

“Huh?”

“Of bears – I take it you’re not a fan.” He clarified, and I was sure I could detect the hint of a smirk on his face.

“They’re awe inspiring,” I replied truthfully, “But that doesn’t mean I want to get close enough to get my head chewed off.”

“Very sensible.”

I could definitely detect a hint of amusement lacing his tone, and it ticked me off. Brianna was the maniac here, not me. I would have expected a park ranger to applaud my good sense in keeping a safe distance. But then again, I already had the impression that this guy was probably the maverick of his ranger unit.

“Whatever. Bri, can we please get going, I think I twisted my ankle,” I pleaded. It was beginning to throb, and the hike was going to be ruined tomorrow if I didn’t prop it and get some ice on it soon.

“Let me take a look,” the ranger replied, and started to approach me before I could protest.

“Is it bad?” Brianna finally re-focused and looked over.

“Really, it’s fine,” I tried to shrug off the pain, “We should just get back.”

The ranger ignored me completely and bent down to look at my ankle. I felt his hands touch my leg, his fingers warm and firm as they felt around the bone. I winced when he touched a sore spot. He didn’t say anything, but softly palmed my calf as if in an apologetic gesture.

“It’s a bit swollen, try not to walk on it tonight, and put some ice on it. If you don’t have ice, dip a towel in water and wrap it around the ankle, okay?”

I nodded before realizing that he couldn’t see me, “Yes… okay.”

Suddenly I wasn’t feeling that chatty. At this close range I noticed just how broad and muscular the man was. His t-shirt strained over his thick shoulders giving me an ample view of the bulging bicep muscles and the toned definition of his forearms. He wore his hair slightly long, pushed back behind both ears. As he inspected my ankle, tendrils dropped in front of his face and for a split-second I felt a strong urge to push them back off his forehead.

“Are we done?” I said instead, my tone weirdly brisk and hoarse.

“We’re done,” he replied and straightened up. He towered over me. I’m average height, but in his presence I felt miniscule.

“Thanks,” I breathed, “We’ll go now.”

He nodded at me slowly, but I didn’t move and neither did he. I looked up and our eyes met. His face was still cast in shadow, but his eyes where hypnotic. They seemed to gleam in the darkness. His irises were an unusual midnight blue, but the tones within appeared as if they were moving and shifting, sparking like electricity. The overall impression was like looking into the midst of an electrical storm.

I looked away. My heart hammered irregularly in my chest.

“Are you ready?” Brianna called, having picked up the flashlight where I must have dropped it on the ground.

“Yep,” I gulped, “Thanks, see you around.” I muttered to the ranger’s chest, unable to look up again.

“Yeah, see you. I hope he’s okay,” Brianna replied, looking back longingly at the bear. The ranger waved us off.

I felt his eyes on us, follow us as we walked back toward the camp, and the feeling didn’t go away until we re-entered the clearing.

It was only then that I could actually breathe again.

Chapter four

That night, Brianna and I had returned to camp, practically falling over ourselves to tell the tale of our bear adventure. We mentioned the ranger briefly. Brianna hardly seemed to have noticed him. It appeared that I was the only one who he’d made a lasting impression on. Later, curled up in my sleeping bag, I’d listened for his truck, but heard nothing.

The next morning, our adventures were old news after Janine almost got bitten by a snake, and Laker found a scorpion curled up inside his boot.

Jason and Brianna hadn’t really spoken on the hike, and as we made the final descent, I had to give up on my matchmaking skills. No matter how many subtle ways Jason tried to vie for her attention, Bri just didn’t seem to notice. In fact, she was more preoccupied with wondering how her bear was faring in his recovery.

Now we were making our way back home on route thirty-six, sun-kissed and drowsy. Brianna sat next to me in the back of Tim’s car, her head slumped on my shoulder as she snored softly in sleep.

“Gas station!” I called out as we passed a sign, “I really need some water.”

“I need a smoke,” Tim agreed, and pulled over. I saw Jason’s car do the same behind us.

The station was run down, built from cinderblock and corrugated tin. It looked like more of a shack than a gas station, which made the McLaren P1 sports car parked out front all the more obvious. I only recognized the make because a few year ago they’d been a client of the PR firm I worked for. Those machines where upward of eight hundred thousand dollars.

Laker and Tim both emitted low, envious whistles and stopped in their tracks to stare longingly at the gleaming body. I carried on toward the entrance of the station, desperate for rehydration and air conditioning.

The door swung open just as I was about to push. I stood back to let the customer pass, and froze. It was the forest ranger.

He was wearing the same clothes as yesterday, the dark denim jeans, black t-shirt and surprisingly given the ensemble, some barely-scuffed black Converse. Finally, in the light of day, I could get a clear look at him.

Good Lord, he was magnificent!

Last night, I’d noticed he was large and wide, but in the daylight, it was obvious that the man was a wall of solid muscle. His chiseled jaw was clean-shaven, and his defined facial features portrayed remarkably classic good-looks. His looks were marred only by the slightly too-hollow cheeks and dark shadows under his eyes that gave him an edge which looked almost savage.

I had been wrong about his eyes. They were a dark midnight blue, but that’s where the strangeness ended. I must have imagined the electric-like sparks that had stormed within them.

“How’s your ankle?”

It took a minute for my brain to process. In fact, I was probably staring at him with my mouth hanging open.

“Uh, fine. Fine. Thanks for asking.”

He looked down at my bare legs. I suddenly wished I wasn’t wearing such short shorts. His gaze travelled from my legs up my body slowly. The look in his eyes was raw and hungry with an intensity that made me feel exposed, and I shuddered involuntarily.

“H.. how’s the bear,” I stuttered when it became apparent that he wasn’t going to speak.

“Recovering.”

I saw him unconsciously flip a set of keys in his hand. The unmistakable logo of the McLaren flashed in the sunlight.

“Was that the ‘truck’ you carted him off in?” I quipped, staring pointedly at the key.

“I thought about it. But blood’s a nightmare to get off upholstery.” He smirked at me, showing off a set of gleaming white teeth. I took a step back.

“They must pay you well. I didn’t realize ranger positions were so lucrative.”

He raised an eyebrow at my pointed tone.

“Sorry,” I blushed slightly, “That was rude.”

Damn my lack of a filter. But in my defense, I couldn’t quite merge the sharp, well-dressed man in front of me with the profession of a park ranger. He looked like he’d be more comfortable in a board room – despite the Converse.

“It’s fine,” he shrugged, “I have other interests.”

“Chloe?” A sharply questioning voice interrupted and Tim came to stand next to me, slinging an arm around my shoulder.

“I thought you were getting water?”

I shrugged him off, wanting to punch him in the ribs for thinking he could be this territorial around me when I was speaking to another guy.

“This is the park ranger. He rescued the injured bear,” I replied.

Tim held out his hand, but I could see that he was reluctant to do so. The ranger towered above Tim, and was easily twice as broad.

“Tim Hutchins, nice to meet you.”

The ranger looked him up and down, with a very different expression than the one he’d just adopted with me.

“Nathan.” He replied tersely. He didn’t shake Tim’s proffered hand. Instead he looked toward me, expectantly.

“I’m Chloe – Chloe Carpenter.”

He nodded, his expression contemplative.

“Very nice to meet you, Chloe Carpenter.” He replied eventually.

“Nice to meet you…Nathan.”

The name sounded strange on my lips. It was a common enough name, but there was something that suddenly seemed so personal about referring to him that way.

He walked back to his car, not saying another word. As I watched him move across the parking lot, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a beast’s prowl. There was so much repressed power and control in his movements.

Tim and Laker watched him as greedily as I did. I saw Tim pale when the engine thundered to life and the machine revved out of the lot.

I smiled to myself and went inside.

Chapter five

Monday came too soon. My whole body ached from the hike, hurting in places that I didn’t even know I had. Sunday night I’d immersed myself in a bath with Epson Salts, but it hadn’t seemed to make the tiniest bit of difference to my aching muscles. I felt like I needed another weekend to recover from the one I’d just had.

Brianna had called me later on Sunday night. I’d been dropped off around four, so I was surprised to hear from her so soon. She wanted to talk about the bear. How did I think he was? Where did I think the ranger was keeping him? She’d been looking up bear sanctuaries online, but couldn’t find any in the immediate Denver area. I hadn’t known how to respond, other than to repeatedly sooth her anxiety with unfounded reassurances.

Her behavior was odd, but in truth it was no stranger than mine.

Since we’d seen the ranger, Nathan, at the gas station, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him. I’d never met a man who’d had such an effect on me. I’d met guys I thought where hot before, of course I had. I’d also experienced that little fission of excitement and dreamy head space as I launched into a fully blown crush. But this was different.

I didn’t know the guy at all, but everything about him intrigued me. His physique, his face, the way his voice sounded, the memory of his warm touch that refused to fade. It all drew me in, preoccupying me so that every thought I had, every action I took, was saturated with the sexy-as-sin Ranger Nathan.

That’s how I started my day, thinking of him as I walked the few blocks down to Eighth Avenue to work. I stopped off at Starbucks for a non-fat latte, which was ready and waiting for me at the counter when I arrived, and then practically glided through the doors to my office.

“Looking good dollbaby, hiking obviously agrees with you,” Cory called out from behind the reception desk to me as I crossed the lobby. He looked as good as he usually did – clearly he’d spent another productive weekend at the gym and topping up his tan.

“I’m not feeling so hot on the inside, trust me. Everything hurts.” I moaned in reply.

“No pain, no gain and quit whining. Debra is on the warpath this morning.”

I rolled my eyes at Cory. He was such a drama queen- highly tuned in to the emotional nuances of our boss. He seemed to live and die by her mood swings. I could handle Debra. She could be frosty, but I respected her a great deal - and that made all the difference. It meant that I could tolerate some of her less redeeming aspects; the package as a whole was worth it.

She’d brought me in two years ago to set up the digital team at the PR firm that she’d created from scratch. When she’d brought me in, it was just her and Brianna in Debra’s front room. They had been growing rapidly but they were behind the times when it came to digital and social marketing. I now had a team of five working for me, and the firm as a whole was reputed to be the best in the state.

Debra came marching toward me, her stiletto heels rapping sharply on the wooden floors.

“I need you in the Varga meeting. The comms manager just called me to say they want digital input.”

“What time?” I replied, unfazed by her brisk tone.

“In an hour.”

“I’ve got a call with Yo-Go, do you want me to reschedule?” Yo-Go was a new trendy yogurt drink that was just about to launch in North America. We’d only just won the pitch. Rescheduling it wouldn’t be ideal, but Debra knew that.

“You’ll have to. Sorry.”

She swept passed me, and I continued on to my office – texting my perpetually late, but nevertheless brilliant PA. Hopefully she could reschedule the call for later in the day.

“How are you feeling, Chloe?”

Laker called out to me from the water cooler. I smiled and waved, not having time to stop. If I was going to be in a meeting with a client in an hour, I needed to do some prep work, stat.

Debra had spoken to me about the Varga client last week, but I’d been focused on two on-going pitches at the time, and most of it had gone in one ear and out the other. All I could recall was that the company was heavily involved in surgical and medical products.

I did a search online, and found their site. It was what you’d expect from a business-to-business enterprise - the blue and white design cues of the medical industry, somber fonts and lengthy, detailed texts. There was a ‘For Investors’ tab, and I clicked on that. It sent me to a page with streams of press release links on financial profits, and a few recent photos of a company event; nothing of particular value. But I couldn’t find out who owned the company, if anyone actually did, or who the major shareholders were.

“Are you coming to the meeting?” Brianna poked her head around the office door. I looked at my watch. I’d managed to have a hugely unproductive hour.

“I am – any heads up on this thing?” I hissed at her as we sped to the central meeting room.

“Not much, I can fill you in later – basically they want the same thing all major corporations want – a friendly face and a Twitter feed. You’ll be fine.”

“Who are we meeting?”

“The CEO - Nathan Varga; head of marketing, Lucy Fielding, and a couple of other marketing heads.”

Another Nathan.

I sighed, frustrated. Having the name of a key client replicating the name of my strange obsession wasn’t going to help me get over him. I took a sip of coffee and forced myself to stay focused. Ranger Nathan would be forgotten within a week. Nathan Varga, CEO and head of Varga Corporations, would mean thousands of dollars-worth of business pumping into our company coffers.

Chapter six

Lucy Fielding was an attractive, willowy woman in her late thirties. I warmed to her immediately as she entered the room. I generally liked seeing women heading up departments in Fortune Five-hundred companies, and she had an easy manner that set a relaxed tone for the start of the meeting.

“I’m sorry Nathan’s running late. He had a conflicting appointment that’s run over, unfortunately,” she smiled brightly at Debra, Brianna and me, “In the meantime, it would be great if you could take me through your usual process. I’m particularly interested in amplifying our digital presence, so if you could start with that?”

“Sure,” I returned the smile, “I can show you a couple of cases studies as well, if we have the time.”

I didn’t normally like giving presentations without any prior notice, but our digital process deck was something I’d talked through with clients hundreds of times before.

I was half way through when Cory announced Nathan Varga’s presence. I looked up, my client-friendly smile at the ready.

Standing in the doorway to the meeting room, taking up the entire doorframe, was Forest Ranger Nathan. Except this man looked every inch the CEO of a billion-dollar company. He was dressed in an impeccable grey suit and white shirt, with his longish hair tucked neatly behind his ears.

Debra and Brianna turned to stand and welcome him. I watched Brianna look confused, as if she vaguely recognized him, but clearly dismissed the thought and welcomed him in a professional manner.

I wasn’t as capable. He came toward me, arm outstretched in greeting. I shook his hand slowly, feeling goosebumps run up my arm and over my body as his warm skin touched mine.

“I’m Nathan Varga, pleased to meet you.” His tone was formal, giving little indication that we’d met before, but his eyes said something else. They were teasing, challenging. Daring me to say something.

Two can play at that game.

I smiled as breezily as I could, “Chloe Carpenter, a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Varga.”

He cocked an eyebrow, and shot me a quick smirk before taking a seat at the table.

“It seems I was interrupting something. Please, go ahead Ms. Carpenter,” he drawled.

I nodded and turned back to the screen, trying to recall what the hell I’d been saying before he came in. The words on the deck seemed to swim and dance, completely nonsensical. Starting to panic, I looked over at Debra. Her face was turning puce as I stood there, unable to speak.

Though it said I’d be getting my ass chewed later, Debra’s look saved me. My job swam back into focus. Nathan Varga might very well look like sex-on-a-stick, he also might very well be a deadly stalker tracking me all over the greater Denver area, but he was also our client. Debra didn’t pay me to stand, admire and drool.

The meeting progressed without any more hitches. Lucy did most of the talking, outlining what they were looking for in terms of creating an ‘approachable’ face for the company.

I tried not to stare at Nathan as we discussed the project, but I couldn’t seem to tear my eyes away. He didn’t belong in that suit. Not that it didn’t look good. It looked amazing, but there was something about him that made the suit resemble a shackle – like he wanted to break free of the confining tie and buttoned shirt, shed his clothing completely and…

And what?

Oh, crap, where was my mind going? I blushed as he caught my eye. I looked away. Honestly, in that moment, I irrationally wondered if he was psychic. I hoped to God he wasn’t hearing my thoughts. He cleared his throat, a strange gurgle of a sound that was suspiciously like suppressed laughter. I glared at him sharply, but his face was a mask of composure.

“It was lovely to meet you, Chloe,” Lucy smiled at me as we shook hands goodbye, “The digital approach you guys take is fantastic. I’m really looking forward to us working together.”

I nodded in agreement, pleasantly surprised by her enthusiasm. Clearly I hadn’t been that bad.

“I couldn’t agree more.”

Nathan’s voice was quiet as he leaned toward me. He placed a hand firmly on my upper arm, moving me a step backward. I glanced to see what everyone else was making of this, but they were all preoccupied with the removal of laptops and swapping business cards.

“Chloe, Have dinner with me tonight.”

His words were a gentle murmur. I looked up into his eyes; their midnight depths burned brightly with amusement and I couldn’t help but wonder if this was all a game to him. Was I a mouse to his predator?

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I hissed back, “Besides, who would I be going out with, the park ranger or the CEO?”

I instantly got the impression that he hadn’t expected that response. His eyebrows rose and inwardly I laughed with glee at finally being able to turn the tables on him.

“I’ll explain. I promise. Please consider dinner. I won’t bite.”

I hesitated, weighing the pros and cons. Dinner with a man I was undeniably attracted to, okay obsessed with really, but who could also be a crazed stalker and some sort of weird billionaire bear hunter? Hmm.

“I will explain, and we can go anywhere you choose.”

“Fine,” I agreed eventually, “Pick me up here at seven.”

“Here?”

“Here,” I repeated adamantly. I wasn’t comfortable with him knowing where I lived, not yet.

Debra made her way over, giving me warning eyes. She was obviously correctly concluding that I had the hots for the guy, and wanted me firmly back in my professional box.

“At seven,” he confirmed, and walked out with his employees.

“What was that about?” Debra asked sharply as she smiled at their retreating backs.

“Nothing,” I lied smoothly, “Seems everyone’s digital crazy these days.”

She gave me a look, and then folded her arms.

“Careful, Chloe,” she warned, “I need this client.”

I nodded meekly, feeling guilty. If she found out I was having dinner with Nathan she would not be pleased. I vowed I’d have one meal with the guy and then gently untangle myself from this obsession – for the sake of my job and my sanity.

Chapter seven

Debra left at six, as I hoped she would. That gave me an hour to transform myself in the office restrooms, and I roped in an enthusiastic Cory to help.

About six months ago, I had signed up on a dating app. It had been fun for about two months, and I’d frequently had several dates lined up during the week. After a while, though, I’d lost interest. The men were fun, and I’d enjoyed myself, but hadn’t really found any connections that sparked my interest. However, as a result of my dating spree, I’d kept a few dresses in the office and a full make-up bag for last-minute emergencies.

I chose the most casual dress I could find - a dusty pink skater dress which complimented my skin tone and dark hair. I was wearing gold-strapped sandals already, and didn’t want to change into anything with a heel, with the dress it would be overkill.

“Hair down, princess,” commanded Cory.

I unraveled it from the tight bun I’d been wearing, and then let Cory go to town on with my make-up.

“Don’t go all out, just natural, please Cory,” I begged. He tended toward drag-queen creativity if he wasn’t reigned in.

“I know what I’m doing,” he sighed, “Trust me. I’m so jealous, by the way. Nathan Varga is gorgeous. You know he’s a billionaire, right? Where are you going tonight? Please tell me it’s somewhere fancy.”

I laughed, “Rioja on Larimer. It was my choice.”

“What? You could have gone anywhere. We go there all the time!” Cory was disgusted with my choice. I guess in his opinion it was a complete waste of a date with a billionaire. I chose it because it had good food and a terrace area, so if we got stuck for conversation there would plenty of people-watching to do.

Cory stood back to admire his handiwork. I checked myself out in the mirror. He’d done a good job. It barely looked like I was wearing makeup, but he’d done a fair amount of genius contouring so that my cheekbones appeared more prominent, and my skin seemed to glow.

“Oh, Cory – you’re my fairy godmother – thank you.”

“Thank me by inviting me to the wedding and private pool parties,” he winked at my reflection and I rolled my eyes. At least one of us was wildly optimistic about the success of the evening.

“Okay – I’d better wait out front. He’s going to be here soon.”

“Wait!” Cory squealed at me.

I turned to him alarmed, and he liberally covered me in perfume.

“Jesus, Cory, I don’t want to smell like a department store – enough,” I coughed, waving the spritz away.

“Perfect,” smiled Cory, ignoring me. I left him smiling in satisfaction as I strutted out of the office and went to wait by the entrance.

As soon as I left Cory, my confidence started to diminish and I felt the nerves that I’d be holding at bay all afternoon return. I was grateful at least that we’d be going to a restaurant I knew. Hopefully it would make the experience less overwhelming. But I had my doubts.

Nathan’s car was waiting for me as I exited the building. It was the same one I’d seen in the gas station over the weekend. He opened the door when he saw me, and rose out of the car. Had it been anyone else I would have noted the good manners with approval, but in Nathan Varga it only served to make me more skittish.

“You look absolutely beautiful, Chloe.”

The compliment and the matching smile where given lightly, but his midnight eyes were intense as they watched me approach.

“Thank you. You look nice yourself.”

He was still wearing his suit, but it was as fresh and un-crumpled as it was this morning. Either Nathan had a closet full of matching outfits, or he’d done nothing all day but sit in an office chair controlling his empire from the touch of a button. I didn’t know which was more plausible.

He opened the car door for me, and then walked over to the driver’s side. I sunk into the plush seat, marveling at the interior. It looked like it was built for space travel, not cruising the streets of Denver.

“Where to?” He asked.

“Rioja. Do you know it?”

“I do.”

He picked up his phone, “Elle, get me a table for two on the terrace of Rioja…yep, Rioja,” he smirked down the line, “Thanks.”

I’d completely neglected to make a reservation. It would be unlikely that we’d be able to get a table outdoors at this late notice, which put a massive flaw in my people-watching back-up plan. But then again, maybe Nathan’s had some substantial influence in this town.

“She was surprised at the restaurant choice,” I stated, referring to his smirk.

“Very.”

“It’s good,” I replied, “But perhaps a little below your standards.”

“Nope. I agree with you. It is good. It’s just usually when I’m eating out I’m wooing clients, and their tastes tend toward something flashier. This is a blessing, trust me.”

I emitted a small smile of satisfaction. Just having Nathan in such close proximity was playing havoc with my nervous system, but perhaps tonight would be more enjoyable than I had first anticipated.

Chapter eight

When we arrived, we were shown to a terrace table immediately and the Maître d’ practically fell over himself trying to make us feel welcome. Okay, Nathan had a lot more influence in this town than I realized.

Nathan caught my eye and smiled. I don’t know if it was my imagination but I got the idea he was slightly embarrassed by the attention. We ordered a bottle of wine and water for the table, and then were left alone with our menus.

“Do you know what you want?” He asked. It took me a moment to realize he was referring to the food. I smiled smoothly, and didn’t bother to check the menu before I replied.

“The mixed seafood with fries. You?”

“Steak. Rare.” He replied, placing the menu back down on the table, “With fries. Of course.”

“Of course.”

Well, at least we had something in common – even if it was as arbitrary as french fries. He leaned back in his chair, studying me. A silence fell between us, but it wasn’t uncomfortable; I was just as interested in studying him.

I tried to find the tell-tail signs of a man that spent a lot of time outdoors, but there was nothing. His hands, though large and capable-looking where smooth and clean, his nails clipped short. His face didn’t convey ruddiness or windswept coloring. He was tan, but this was summer in Denver; we were all tan.

“Okay, so tell me,” I asked, stumped, “The park ranger thing – that was a lie, right?”

“Not exactly,” he started to re-arrange the cutlery on the table and didn’t meet my eye, “I have hobbies. Other interests besides my business. Babysitting bears currently seems to be one of them.”

It was a vague answer, and I was dissatisfied.

“You said you’d tell me. You promised. Can you be a bit more specific?”

“That was me telling you,” he smirked, “Trust me. I can’t really divulge more than that.” He looked repentant, and strangely subdued for a moment.

“You’re not,” I hesitated, “Doing anything…weird with them are you? Like using them for animal testing?”

He laughed out loud. It was a relief.

“Nope. No science experiments. Our company doesn’t do animal testing. But then, I’m sure you already knew that?”

Now it was my turn to feel uncomfortable.

“Honestly? I was only asked to come to the meeting an hour before it was due to take place. I really don’t know much about your company.”

He cocked an eyebrow in my direction, but before he could speak the waiter came to take our order. I took a sip of wine and settled back into my chair, enjoying the sunset’s warmth without the afternoon glare as Nathan ordered for us both.

I found it baffling that the man I was sitting with was the same man who tended to my ankle in the woods only a few nights ago. They seemed like they were two different people entirely, and it made me curious. I wondered which one was the real Nathan – the one in the thousand-dollar suit sipping wine, or the one who trekked the wilderness of the Rockies tending to wild animals.

“Well, we don’t do animal testing, and the bear is making a full recovery in a sanctuary not far from here.”

“Which sanctuary?” I asked, knowing that Brianna would want to look them up.

“A good one,” he replied sternly, “Please trust me on this - the bear is safe,” he added, a little gentler.

I did trust him. I wasn’t exactly sure why. I wasn’t really in the habit of trusting strange men that appeared out of nowhere, who I then repeatedly ‘bumped’ into, but with Nathan I did. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, the desire for this man who made my pulse race to be honest and good on the inside, too. Whatever the reason, I uncharacteristically decided to let it go.

“Okay, I trust you.”

“Thank you,” he replied softy. The midnight blue of his eyes started to glow again, the electric flairs dancing in his irises. I must have leaned in closer, because he jerked his head backwards and laughed softly to himself.

“You have a curious effect on me, Chloe Carpenter.”

“I could say the same thing about you. I don’t usually agree to go to dinner with clients.”

“And I don’t usually ask,” he replied, “But, with you I had to make an exception. I hope it doesn’t cause any issues with your boss.”

I recalled the vow I’d made earlier to untangle myself, and to gently assert that this wouldn’t be going any further. Yet, I felt the desire to untangle melt away with every passing second.

“Well, she doesn’t need to know right now. We’re both adults. I’m sure we can handle…whatever it is this is,” I finished lamely.

“This is me dating you. Or trying to, once you stop wondering if I’m some crazy stalker,” he quipped.

“Is it that obvious?”

“Yes.”

I blushed. I had agreed to go out with him, and it did seem kind of rude to continue to doubt his motives. Still, what girl on a first date didn’t keep an eye out for red flags?

“I’m sorry. It’s just… you strike me as…unusual,” I said as delicately as I could. He wasn’t offended. Though I did feel like he was smirking at his own private joke.

“And you’re not?” he asked, leaning toward me. He reached out and ran his thumb across my bottom lip, just barely skating the skin. It was a wildly intimate gesture, and it sent molten lava running around my insides and down to my core.

“You’re driving me crazy, Chloe Carpenter. What is it about you?” He asked quietly, staring at me as if I was some great enigma that he hadn’t managed to solve.

“My winning personality?” I croaked, trying to lighten the mood. He smiled and removed his hand, which I immediately missed. I ached for him to reach for me again, wanting to feel the heat of his touch. I cursed my flippant response. It was such a classic reaction of mine when faced with any real intimacy.

After that, we continued a more first-date line of conversation; brief summaries of childhood, families, schools, films and books. The time flew by, till we were the only ones left in the restaurant and the candle on our table was nothing but liquid wax.

“Let me drive you home?” Nathan asked as we walked onto the avenue.

“I’ll get a cab,” I replied sleepily, “It’s easier.”

“Easier for you to get home, or easier meaning less potentially complicated?”

“Both?” I smiled up at him, grateful that he understood.

In the next moment, his arms were wrapped around me, solid and warm, and his body was pressed up against mine, hard and unyielding. I inhaled sharply at his surprising, but not unwelcome, boldness. His lips brushed my forehead, and I thought I heard a soft growl escape his chest.

“Let me see you tomorrow night?” His voice sounded low and husky.

“Yes,” I whispered, no longer able to pretend that I could stay away from this man any longer than twenty-four hours.

His lips touched mine, lightly, sweetly – sealing the promise. I was the one that deepened the kiss, sliding my hand up his chest. He gripped the back of my neck, angling my head as our lips molded together. He tasted like wine and warmth. As his tongue gently brushed over the seam of my lips; they parted. I heard myself release a small moan as his tongue delved into my mouth, exploring, tasting. The man had my head spinning, and my whole body tingling in an erotic haze. His hand reached up to cup my face, his fingers lightly grazing my earlobes and shivers erupted around my neck.

He ran his other hand down the curve of my spine, gently pushing my backside further into him as he firmly cupped my ass. Through the flimsy material of the skater dress, the heat of his touch was almost searing. The hardness of his erection dug into my abdomen. The sensation made my stomach flutter and my panties damp with arousal.

“We need to stop,” he gasped, “I can’t…”

He didn’t finish the sentence, but I was right there with him. I couldn’t control myself. We were on a public street, but my body was responding to him like we were alone in a bedroom.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I replied, trying to get my breath back. He nodded, and then physically stepped away – giving me some space.

He turned and hailed a cab from the steady stream of traffic that hadn’t abated despite the hour. One came all too soon. He opened the door for me, and then made sure the driver knew where he was going before letting me ride off.

Alone in the cab, watching the bright lights of the various bars and restaurants reflect on the window of the car, I sat back and exhaled. I still had so many unanswered questions about Nathan.

Unanswered questions and a vague feeling that he wasn’t quite what his image portrayed. I was certain that there was something else about him, something that he was keeping hidden. I could feel it in my bones.

What was even stranger was that, aside from overwhelming lust, when I’d been wrapped in his arms and held against his warm body, I had felt safe. Safe and protected, as if we could hold the world at bay.

Chapter nine

“This the place ma’am?”

The taxi pulled up outside my apartment building.

“Perfect. Thanks. I’ve only got a twenty.” I waited for him to give me change and then pulled myself out onto the sidewalk. It felt like it had grown slightly cooler since I’d said goodbye to Nathan, but it was probably just my fatigue starting to make itself known.

I dug for my keys as I walked up the steps to the lobby entrance. My apartment was on the fourth floor of an old converted bottling factory. The factory had been divided up into modern apartments, all with an industrial décor- high ceilings, polished concrete floors and huge old factory windows that let the cold in come winter and made it blazing hot in the summer.

As I was struggling to get the lobby door open, cursing our super for not replacing the decade-old lock, I noticed a man standing at the far end of the street. My building wasn’t too near the main avenue, so it was rare for people to dawdle in this area. His presence made me slightly uneasy, and I glanced the length of the street to see if anyone else was around, but found it otherwise deserted.

Eventually the lock gave, and relieved, I stumbled inside. Another man, broad and muscular, dressed head-to-toe in black, was standing by the bank of mailboxes that ran alongside the right wall of the small lobby.

He turned and nodded in my direction with disinterest. I figured he was a new resident in the building, so I returned the nod and made my way toward the elevator.

I was starting to wish that I’d invited Nathan back for coffee. There was a perceptible tension that hung in the air. The loitering men had the hair on the back of my neck standing at attention. As a result, I became hyper-aware of the sounds around me – the creaks of the elevator as it shuddered and jolted its way down to meet me, the pipes that ran through the walls of the old building, groaning and moaning with age.

When the elevator doors opened, I stepped inside. The man in the lobby dashed inside with me, and I backed away into the corner of the compartment in surprise.

He didn’t say a word to me, and kept his eyes straight ahead. I pressed the fourth floor button, and the doors closed.

“Are you new here?” I asked, my voice small.

He didn’t turn around, and he didn’t reply. His silence terrified me. I rapidly took in his attire; black work boots, jeans and a long black-sleeved t-shirt.

You’re in danger. Get the fuck out.

As soon as the doors opened, I made a run for it. I dashed toward the emergency exit at the opposite end of the hallway. There was another man waiting outside my apartment.

I yanked the emergency door open and took the steps down, two at a time. My heart hammered wildly in my chest, and my throat ran dry. I heard them clattering down the steps behind me.

I can’t outrun them.

Starting to panic, I missed a few steps and skidded painfully on the sharp edges of the concrete. I righted myself quickly and kept going, racing down as fast as I could go. I guess I was less than a couple yards ahead of them the whole way. Had they been yelling or shouting at me it may have helped, but it was their silence, even as they ran, that made my blood run cold. Professionals.

The exit lay ahead of me, and I wanted to cry with relief as it came into sight. I at least had a chance.

Flying through it, I heard the door bash angrily against the brick wall. I leapt out from the top landing, and smashed into the body of a third man. As he caught me, his vice-like grip tightened around my neck. I struggled in his arms with what little energy I had left.

Something hard slammed into the back of my head. For a brief moment I felt like my brain exploded. Bright lights danced screaming in my line of vision.

And then nothing.

Chapter ten

Dinner last night had been amazing. Just being close to her, breathing in her scent, watching her sweet lips as they formed a smile. I hadn’t wanted it to end. When I’d held her in my arms, it took everything in me to slow down. I desperately wanted to make love to her, to bury myself in her warmth, to pleasure her until I could feel her explode in release.

I’d had to cool it though. She was human. Humans didn’t feel the same kind of intensity for their mates that shifters felt. I’d known the moment I touched her in the forest that she was mine.

It hadn’t been difficult setting events in motion so that I could see her again. It was simply a matter of getting my investigator to track her down using her friends license plate numbers, then hiring her PR firm.

Now, I’d have to prove my worthiness to her- and have patience. Allow her feelings to develop. And, at some point I needed to reveal my bear without her riling in disgust or running scared. Simple. Not so simple.

This morning I’d had to go for a ten mile run just to try and keep my bear sated and beneath my skin.

When I got back to the apartment to shower and change, my brother languishing on the sofa didn’t help my mood. I considered his presence to be an unnecessary pain in my ass. He had a home of his own to go to – albeit a crappy shitstain that stunk of take-out, but that was his problem, not mine.

Evidently my housekeeper, Lucinda, agreed. She kept muttering under her breath as she went from room to room trying to vacuum up the crumbs and collect the empty beer bottles he left in his wake.

“Byron, please tell me today is the day you’re getting the hell out of my home?”

I used the end of a pen to pick up a pair of boxer shorts that he’d left strewn over the coffee table. The kid was disgusting.

“I can’t go home. I’m telling you, the Bow Mar clan has it in for me. It’s not safe,” he groaned from under a blanket, “And, what time is it anyway?”

“Time you got out of bed,” I muttered, downing some black coffee before I had the urge to do more damage to his already broken arm.

“It’s not like you haven’t got the space. I swear Nathan, you’re one cold-hearted motherfucker.”

I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before. Byron had a convenient habit of forgetting those times I did things to help him, and holding onto the times when I’d decided enough was enough and pushed him to stand on his own two feet.

We came from a pure-bred bloodline of Colorado’s most powerful shifter clan, and had he in anyway been inclined to work for it, my brother could have had all the wealth and power that he wanted. Instead, he chose to get drunk. And high. And drunker.

“I’ve got to be in the office in five. You want me to take you anywhere?” I offered.

“No man, I’m telling you - they’re out to get me. I’ll be a dead man.”

“Byron, it’s your own goddamn fault. I swear, next time you get into a fight with a Bow Mar, I am not going to be around to help out.”

The Bow Mar clan were another of Colorado’s old shifting families. There had been years of antagonism between the two clans, that in the last decade I had been doing my best to smooth over.

They were a mean bunch, vicious, cruel, and entitled. They spent years terrorizing the Littleton district till we eventually came to a peaceful agreement, which cost me millions. To have my brother’s antics threaten to mess it up when we were experiencing our first few years of peace was infuriating.

“Whatever. They started it,” Byron retorted, “I just refused to back down. That jerk got what was coming -”

“What was coming? That jerk got away clean. You’re the one with the broken arm,” I laughed at him, “Anyway, I’m leaving and I’m calling Lucinda at lunch time. If you’re not out I’m coming home to drag your ass out.”

He mumbled an expletive under his breath which I ignored.

I drove to work, blasting an oldies station so loud that the body of my car shook. For some reason, it was the only way I could actually focus, by drowning out everything else.

The office was calling my cell, but I ignored it. Whatever it was, it could wait till I arrived.

Chloe. My bear wanted her so badly. I wanted her. The whole thing was unusual, a human and a shifter creating such a bond. I’d slept with countless human women before. None of them had called to my bear – none had produced the same effect on me that Chloe did just by smiling, just by walking across a gas station parking lot in short shorts.

Fuck.

I punched the steering wheel. I wasn’t a man who harbored an abundance of patience. When I wanted something, I got it.

I wanted Chloe.

Some asshole in a Hummer ripped past me, laying on his horn. I realized I’d been stopped at a green light. I really was losing my mind over her. I cut the music and drove the rest of the way to work in silence.

As I pulled into the underground garage, Elle came running toward me.

“Nathan, Nathan – shit – something’s happened!”

Her face was ghostly pale, and she reeked of fear.

“Elle – calm down, what’s happened?”

“It’s the Bow Mar’s – they’ve got your date, Chloe,” she took a deep shuddering breath, “They said you need to come alone to meet them, or they’ll kill her. I’m so sorry!” She cried out in anguish.

“It’s okay, Elle.” I tried my best to comfort her. Inside, I’d turned to stone.

Fear ran through me, shutting down any emotion and letting an icy rage take over. I would arrive alone. But it wouldn’t stop me from ripping each and every one of those bastards to shreds. If they had so much as harmed a hair on her head, I would annihilate their entire clan.

“Where did they say to go?” I asked calmly.

Elle looked up at me, wide eyed in shock.

“There’s an old barn on South Summer road. They said you’d know it,” she whispered, drying her tears and trying to match my composure.

“I know it.”

I did. It had been the place where shifter feuds where once resolved through fights to the death. Well, if that’s what Bow Mar wanted, that’s what they would get.

Chapter eleven

I didn’t know how long I’d been out, or where I was, but a shooting pain throbbed in my temple. Looking around the room, I assumed I was in a basement of some kind, but it was too dark to be sure.

Above me, I heard footsteps, a low murmur of voices, and the occasional shout of laughter. I didn’t know, and couldn’t even begin to imagine, who these men were or what they wanted with me. The only thing I knew for sure was that I’d been specifically targeted. They had known where I lived, and had hunted me down with purpose. But, why?

The room was cold and dank, and I had no coat or sweater to keep me warm. I sat in the corner, too frightened to move around, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the darkness.

Just as I was beginning to make out the shapes of what I guessed to be farming equipment in the far corner, light flooded the room.

Two of the men who had attacked me walked in. They turned on the light, a dim, solitary bulb that hung naked in the middle of the room. Beneath it they set out chairs and an old wooden crate.

“Why am I here?” I asked eventually, watching them move about the room as if I didn’t exist.

They ignored my question. They ignored me. Not even once did they glance in my direction. One of the men took out a deck of cards whilst the other popped open a beer.

“Please – what’s going on, goddammit!”

The silence was starting to gnaw away at me, like I was losing my grip on reality. I didn’t understand how I’d been out on a date on a summer evening, dizzy with lust and longing, and had now been transported into a hell that made no rational sense.

“Lady, keep your mouth shut.”

One of the men turned around and snarled at me, his eyes flashing in the darkness. They were a different color, but they reminded me of Nathan’s eyes. They had the same electric sparks that marked both men as something other.

What the hell have I gotten myself wrapped up in?

“What are you going to do with me?” I asked, trying to stop my voice from quivering – I didn’t want to give these men the satisfaction.

“Nothing. We’re just waiting for your boyfriend to get here. You’re bait, baby.”

They laughed and returned their attention to the card game.

“If you’re talking about Nathan Varga, he’s not my boyfriend,” I cried back, “You’ve made a mistake. I went on one date with him!”

A date I was now regretting. I didn’t know what Nathan was mixed up in, but I didn’t want any part of this.

“Lady, if you don’t shut up, I’m going to rip your face off,” the second man growled.

“You need to listen to me. I don’t know if he will come for me. This is ridiculous…” I stopped mid-sentence as one of the men rose from his chair.

“What the hell did I tell you?”

He loomed over me, the light in his eyes practically glowing.

What were these men?

My jaw went slack. The man in front of me seemed to be vibrating with energy. I watched as his muscles bulged and his veins pulsated violently beneath his skin. I pushed my back against the wall, clutching my knees up to my chest in an effort to gain as much distance as I could.

He let out an inhuman growl, tearing the sound from his chest. Then I heard the sounds of ripping, as if his skin was being pulled apart to let something within him escape. The growl turned into a roar that shook the building.

I think I screamed.

Shutting my eyes against the vision of the monster before me, I could hear the sounds of muscle and organs being squished and ripped apart, the laughter of the other man in the background, deep and throaty.

Then silence.

I opened my eyes. I expected to see a dead man on the floor, a body turned inside out. What I actually saw sent my head spinning wildly.

A bear. A huge, black grizzly stood on its hind legs peering down at me. It roared again, louder than before. Instinctively I covered my ears, desperate to block out everything that appeared before me.

My heartrate kick-started and I gasped for air, not realizing that I’d stopped breathing. Adrenaline surged. I desperately wanted to fight for my life; I didn’t want to die here in a dank basement, alone and afraid, with men that could transform into animals.

I scurried to my feet and lurched to the side. The bear raised a paw, and with one swipe knocked me backward. My head slammed into the wall, and I cried out in pain. Not giving up, I tried to make a run for it, sidestepping his great hulk. I was pushed back again, this time, claws scraped across my chest. Blood dripped down my dress, and I felt light headed with terror.

“Give it up lady,” the other man called out, “You don’t want to make him mad – trust me.” He laughed, and casually took another sip of beer.

The bear just stood still, watching me. I leaned back into the wall, my legs no longer able to support my body. I sunk down onto my knees. I was defeated, and I saw the glow of triumph in the beast’s eyes.

Nathan, please help me.

He was the only hope I had.

Chapter twelve

They had heard my approach.

I got out of the car, as the lieutenant of the Bow Mar’s stepped into the front yard to meet me. I recognized him from the peace talks. He was the eldest son of the clan leader, and as despicable as his father.

“Where is she?” I asked, not bothering to slow down my pace toward the house.

“Fucking wait, Varga. I want to talk to you.”

He held out his arm across my chest, trying to halt me. I grabbed it and twisted it sharply behind his back, hearing the satisfying sound of a bone cracking. He yelped in pain.

“Your brother brought this about! He started shit with the clan. We’re just retaliating!”

I yanked his head toward mine.

“You don’t touch humans. You don’t touch MY woman. And you certainly don’t threaten me,” I hissed at him, “Was it the peace talks? Did you somehow get the idea that I was soft? Did you mistakenly believe that I would go easy on you?”

I tightened my grip on his arm, pushing it further up his back. He whimpered in pain.

“She’s downstairs. We didn’t touch her, I swear it.”

“We’ll see about that.”

I ushered him through the old barn house. I could smell Chloe from here; her scent that was like the sweet aroma of the mountains, and the acrid scent of her fear. It cut my soul. I had done this to her. This was my fault.

I followed her scent in the direction of the basement. We descended the steps, my grip tight on the shifter.

Chloe was in the far corner of the room, cowering behind a bear. I could now smell her blood, fresh and potent. My bear jolted inside me. It wanted out.

Both shifters spun around to face me. I knew who they were. I threw the lieutenant to the floor. Both these men were the pride of the Bow Mar pack. They were trained killers, both having served time for human crimes, and both reportedly unmatched in their strength and brutality.

I wanted to take Chloe in my arms. To just run from this place, make sure she was safe before I hunted each one of them down and repaid their torture in kind.

But I couldn’t.

If I went to her now, they would gain the upper hand. We would both be dead.

“Just remember your brother started this Varga,” the Lieutenant growled from the floor, “You both die for his mistakes today.”

The bear started to gain on me, and the other shifted to join him. I took one look at Chloe’s face, terrified and confused, and I knew what I was about to do would cause me to lose her forever.

The realization added to my fury. I had planned to break it to her gently, in the kindest way I could. Now she was getting a shifter 101 in the most brutal way imaginable.

I felt my bear tugging on me furiously. He wanted out. I didn’t have an alternative option.

I shifted. Chloe’s scream echoed across the room, and I cursed myself along with the rest of the vile creatures for causing her pain.

Roaring, I fell upon the first shifter. He tore at my back with his claws, but it was too late. With a hunger I hadn’t possessed since the times of peace started, my teeth tore into the flesh and fur at his neck. His blood seeped into my mouth, his body whipping and jolting as his life was cut short.

The other bear leapt onto my back. Digging in where I had already been sliced open, his claws raked at the raw flesh and I howled with pain.

“No!”

I heard Chloe’s cry, pleading, desperate. I wouldn’t leave her here to die. I spun around, clubbing the bear’s head backward. He pawed at me again, catching my snout. My own blood mingled with that of the dead bear.

He opened his jaws, ready to bite down and deliver his death blow.

I’m so sorry Chloe.

I heard a clatter, and turned to see Chloe standing behind my would-be killer with a chair leg raised in her hand. Distracted, the bear turned.

I took the only chance I had left. Grabbing each side of his muzzle with my claws, I bit down, breaking his jaw with my own. I released him and he reeled back. Swiping with my paw, I caught him around the throat; carving four deep gashes that instantly spurted bright red blood.

His body fell to the floor.

Behind me I heard the Lieutenant scrambling to his feet and running toward the stairs. I let him leave. I would find him later.

“Nathan?” Chloe whispered, her voice high and wavering.

I lowered myself down on all fours, unable to look into her eyes; unwilling to see the disgust I knew would be there waiting for me.

She hesitantly took a step closer. I tried to focus on shifting back, but with her so close, and the scent of dead shifters running through my veins, it was near impossible. My bear demanded he protect her.

I felt something warm on my forehead. I looked up to see Chloe standing close, her bare legs almost touching my nose. Her palm was pressed softly against my fur.

“Thank you,” she whispered, “I was hoping you’d come.”

My bear sighed with contentment at her touch.

Inside I felt my heart crack and break in response to the bitter sweet token of her acceptance. She would probably never see me as anything more than a beast, but at least she didn’t hate me.

It was enough. For now.

Chapter thirteen

We drove back to town in silence. There were a million things I wanted to ask, questions buzzing about my mind as it flipped itself inside out trying to come to terms, logically, with what I’d witnessed.

After the fight, Nathan had transformed back into a man. I had watched as the fur slowly receded from his body to be replaced by smooth skin. The huge bulk of the grizzly had adapted and transfigured into a human physique, tall, broad… perfect.

Despite the awful strangeness, the horrific sounds that once again accompanied the transformation, when I looked at him – human once again, I felt the same stirrings of carnal lust that I’d experienced on every encounter I’d ever had with the man. Only this time he was naked. My own feelings disturbed me more than anything else.

I wanted to get home. I needed space to think, to process the nightmare that I’d lived the last few hours. But home didn’t feel safe. The fact that those creatures knew where I lived made my home feel sullied and unwelcoming.

“I know you probably want to go home,” Nathan broke the silence, anticipating my request, “But it’s not safe there at the moment. There are others, more of the Bow Mar clan that pose a threat.”

I nodded slowly. Great. More half-humans happy to hunt me down in some kind of bear war, while the rest of the world remained completely oblivious to their existence.

“I’m so sorry, Chloe. I know you’ve been through a lot.”

I glanced over, watching his jaw twitch with repressed anger. I recalled the men saying that this was his brother’s mess – I wondered if Nathan’s anger was directed at the Bow Mar clan or his own kin.

“I have lots of questions,” I replied as levelly as I could, “But I need a shower, and I need food and some rest. I… I don’t know where to go.”

“I want you to stay at my place,” he hesitated, “I know it’s not ideal. It’s probably the last place you want to be right now, but it’s also the safest.”

I nodded again. No, it wasn’t ideal. I wanted space from Nathan. I was so grateful that he’d saved me, but at the same time I needed to process everything that had gone on tonight.

I watched from the window as the landmarks started to look more familiar. Nearing the city, I started to feel better. There might be mythological creatures surrounding Denver, but there was also a Starbucks and a Seven-Eleven. The world hadn’t gone completely bat-shit.

“I’ll stay with you,” I murmured.

He exhaled with relief, and I could practically feel some of the tension leaving his body. He was genuinely concerned, and the realization surprised me. I no longer understood what was going on between us, but perhaps the magnetic pull I seemed to have toward him was reciprocated. I didn’t want to dwell on it.  Whatever my body, and in all honestly my heart, felt, I needed cold, hard logic to take over for now.

“I need to know a few things first,” I demanded.

“You can ask me anything.” He replied, his tone somber and full of regret.

“Your…abilities – was it something you were born with? Have you always been this way?”

“Yes,” he nodded, “It’s passed on through the genes. My father and mother were like this, and now so are my idiot brother and I. We come from a long line of shifters.”

“And who were those guys? Another pack or something?”

“Clan,” he corrected, “Yes. They’ve always been a problem. One I thought I’d solved – until Byron fucked it up by starting a fight with them.”

He’d spoken about Byron on our date, though obviously not about him being a bear. Oh. The bear in the woods.

“When I saw you in the forest, was that Byron you were helping? That bear? Was that the fight that started this?”

“Yes,” he replied tersely.

So, Brianna and I had witnessed a shifter fight. Wow. The thought that Brianna had been tending to a half-human bear made me feel slightly hysterical, and I started giggling.

“What?” Nathan asked, bemused.

“Nothing…it’s just – Jesus. I can’t get my head around this. I need coffee.” I groaned, my hysteria subsiding as a pounding headache grew in its place.

“We’re almost home. I have coffee.”

I nodded and hoped he also had a shit-ton of painkillers and a powerful shower. I leaned back into the plush car seat, closing my eyes. The questions would just have to wait.

Chapter fourteen

I let her sleep.

As soon as we got home, she made a bee-line to the shower. When she emerged, she was wrapped in my bathrobe, only her toes and face visible from the swathes of terrycloth that engulfed her. Color had been restored to her cheeks, and her damp hair smelled summer-orchard sweet.

My bear had tugged at me again, and I felt my hard-on, rock solid and needy, pressing uncomfortably against my suit pants.

I’d shown her to the guest bedroom, thinking she’d be more comfortable without being surrounded by my things. It was now seven in the evening and she still hadn’t woken.

I had spent the day working from home, but it had been torture knowing that Chloe’s naked body was nearby. The thought of her laying between the cotton sheets, her hair and skin pressed against my pillows, her soft, large breasts exposed, was enough to drive me near insane with distraction.

The only blessing was the absence of Byron. Had he been here, my rage at his stupidity and the selfishness of his actions would have potentially put him in an early grave.

“You look angry.”

I’d been so consumed by thoughts of my brother, I hadn’t heard her enter the room. She looked rumpled and adorable, a light crease across her cheek where she’d slept.

“I was thinking about my brother,” I smiled, pulling out a chair, “Good morning.”

“Don’t you mean good evening?” She asked, looking out across the city expanse visible from the window.

“Morning for you. Coffee?”

“Yes, please.”

I set about brewing a fresh pot, noticing with satisfaction that she sat on the chair next to mine. Part of me had been worried that when she awoke, she’d run screaming from my apartment. But even in the short time I had known Chloe, I should have realized that she wasn’t the kind of woman to run. She was brave, bold and courageous. In truth, I was in awe.

“How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve just been in a mental car crash. I’m still having a hard time believing everything.”

“Well, if you have questions, I’ll answer as honestly as I can.”

She didn’t say anything for a while, and it was only after she took her first sip of coffee that she spoke again.

“Where you ever going to tell me?”

I sighed. That was a complex question. I didn’t know how to reply without telling her how I truly felt about her.

“Yes,” I said eventually, “If things had gone as I’d hoped between us, I would have tried to break it to you gently.”

A corner of her mouth turned up at that and I could see the barest hint of amusement dancing in her eyes.

“Break it to me gently? How did you think you’d accomplish that?”

“Honestly,” I laughed, “I had no fucking idea. I’ve never… well, I’ve never felt this connection with another human, or shifter for that matter.”

She took another sip of coffee and I could see her digesting the information.

“Do shifters normally only date other shifters?”

‘Dating’ was a strange term for the bonding that took place between mates, but I knew what she meant. I also knew that humans had no concept of the strength of two souls entwining completely the way we did in the shifter world. Our bonds were sacred, unchanging and forever.

“As far as I know, yes.”

“Oh.”

She looked down at her coffee, not meeting my eyes.

“But everyone is different. And I’ve never felt the way I do about you before, not with a human or a shifter.”

It was as close as I could get to the truth. The brief second she took to reply felt like an eternity. I’d put myself on the line. Emotional exposure wasn’t something I was used to.

“Oh.” She said again, but this time I could see a small smile teasing at the edges of her lips.

Her bathrobe had fallen open slightly at the top revealing the plump curve of her cleavage moving slowly with the rise and fall of her chest.

I wanted to claim her. To move her luscious hair from her neck and expose the soft, silky skin of her throat. To mark her with a bite that would show the world that this woman belonged to me. Marking her as my own would seal our unbreakable bond, so that I would never have to spend another day of my life without seeing, touching or being allowed to pleasure Chloe Carpenter.

I carefully took the coffee cup out of her hands and placed it down on the table. I did move her hair, tilting her chin up toward me, but only to kiss her softly on the lips. She tasted like mint and coffee, and I groaned as I parted her lips with mine, wanting to drown in her taste, to lick and kiss every inch of her.

The kiss seemed to have the same effect on her as it did on me. She rose out of the chair, pressing her body to mine. I squeezed her full, ample bottom and drew her against my rock-hard cock so that she could feel how much I wanted her.

She gasped, but clung to the back of my shirt, driving me closer.

“I don’t know how I feel,” she said, breaking away from me, “But I want you – I need you inside me, I need you to make me feel safe again.”

I nodded, gazing into her clear brown eyes, praying that I’d be able to melt away her furrowed brow. I never wanted Chloe to feel like she was in danger ever again. I would eagerly end anyone who threatened her. Hell, I’d wipe out the entire world if that’s what it took to keep her safe.

She kissed me again, and I picked her up in my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist. I could smell her arousal and feel the heat and wetness from between her thighs pressed against my belt. Damn, it was nearly enough to make me lose all control.

Gritting my teeth, I moved her through to my bedroom. I wanted to make Chloe scream with pleasure and ecstasy before I allowed myself to be lost in her.

Chapter fifteen

It felt like tingles of electricity were tearing up and down inside my body and collecting at my core. The dampness of my arousal was flooding between my legs.

Nathan’s arms around me and his and body pressed against me were on fire, but it was nothing compared to the scorching gaze he held fixed on me. His eyes were glowing again, the navy midnight storm brewing within him, hypnotizing me.

Nathan laid me gently on the bed, parting the soft robe and exposing my body to the cool temperature of the room. My nipples pebbled, and goose bumps ran lightly across my skin as he moved his body away from mine and stood looking down at me.

My chest heaved, nerves and anxiety now mixing with my desire as I lay completely exposed to him. His eyes were hooded and wanting, and his gaze drank in every curve and crevice of my body.

“Fuck, you’re so beautiful.”

His voice was horse and ragged, his obvious hunger causing my body to tremble in anticipation of his touch.

He removed his shirt, button by button, his scorching gaze never leaving my body. When his chest was finally exposed, the taut muscle and undulations of his six-pack looked like they had been carved from marble. The raw, animalistic power that I knew simmered below the surface terrified me, but my body desperately ached for him.

He discarded his pants on the floor, and stood before me in designer boxers that could hardly contain his thick, heavy erection. My legs drew together in response to his sheer size, but he leaned forward and gently parted them.

“Don’t hide from me Chloe,” he breathed, “Please.”

He didn’t remove his boxers. He knelt up on the bed, running his fingers up and down my thighs, and as I started to relax, his fingers travelled slowly upward.

He extended his index finger, and ran it lightly along the sensitive lips of my core. I felt my muscles spasm and widen in response, and blushed at the juices that coated his finger. He inhaled sharply and his cock twitched beneath the cotton of his boxers.

He continued to softly trace between my legs with his finger, exploring, his eyes watching my face for responses. My clit tightened and hardened, and as the tip of his finger traced it gently, my entire body quivered.

Parting my legs wider, he slid me further up the bed. He began to kiss lightly up the length of my thigh, closer and closer to my center. Instinctively and wantonly, I moved toward him, desperate for more.

He smirked, teasing me. I felt cool air dance between my legs as he blew gently on me. My head felt light as I gasped with pleasure, no longer able to look at what he was doing, I could only feel; my blindness making the sensations all the more overwhelming.

I felt his tongue lick the length of my pussy, it’s heat after the cool air made me cry out. My whole body responded, from the shivers at my neck to the curling of my toes.

He lapped up my juices with his tongue, long and flickering licks that sent firecrackers shooting inside me. As the waves of my orgasm started to engulf my body, he pressed deeper, his tongue burrowing into my folds and his mouth clamped tightly over my pussy. Orgasmic waves crashed violently over me. Somewhere, I heard myself crying out his name, but I was lost in oblivion.

Weak but wanting more, I rose up on my elbows. He smiled at me, a dirty and wicked grin that fluttered my stomach.

He removed his boxers, his erection long and heavy jutting out above his swollen ball sack. This time, rather than feeling overwhelmed by his size, I widened my legs greedily and felt my muscles expand and contract with need.

The tip of his cock glistened with his seed. Before he could take control, I sat up and pulled his hips toward me. I glanced up at him, checking his reaction. The smirk was gone, and now his expression read surprise and full-blown lust.

I licked the tip of his engorged erection causing him to groan in response. The heady feeling of having this powerful man at my mercy was intoxicating. I slid my lips over him, wrapping them around his girth, tasting his hot, salty warmth in my throat.

I moved my mouth up and down his shaft feeling his heart rate accelerate wildly. When he entwined his fingers into my hair and balled them into fists, gripping my head, I sucked harder. A cry escaped his lips and he pulled away.

“I don’t want to come like this,” he responded gruffly, “I need to be inside you.”

I released him from my mouth, and fell back onto the sheets. My body temperature felt a hundred degrees hotter than it should, and droplets of perspiration ran between my breasts.

With his cock slick and coated in my saliva, he gently pushed at my opening. He bent his head and took my nipple between his teeth, teasing it with his tongue as inch by inch he slid himself inside me.

I could feel my body stretch to accommodate him, his thickness and length stretching me and filling me completely. As he moved, the delicious friction of our skin caused me to cry out.

“Are you okay,” he rasped, his eyes suddenly full of concern.

“God, yes – don’t stop.”

He pushed deeper inside me, then gently pulled back, finding a rhythm which would too soon make me lose all control. My legs wrapped around him, my heels digging into his sculpted ass. He buried his face between my breasts, a low growl emanating from deep within him.

Our rhythm increased, growing faster and hotter. I wanted more. A deep yearning was spreading throughout my veins, the muscles of channel clutching at him, driving him inside me.

I felt the waves of another orgasm starting to build. He grasped my bottom, drawing me upwards, allowing himself to plunge deeper, filling every part of me.

“Fuck,” he cried, and rode into me with a thrust that sent an orgasm ricocheting through every nerve ending in my body. I screamed, loudly, and then felt his hot throbbing pulses as his seed flooded into me.

Chapter sixteen

I drew her body closer to mine. She sighed with contentment as I kissed her lightly on the forehead. I couldn’t seem to keep my hands off her. My fingers lightly traced the soft skin of her breasts, gently teasing the nipples as they hardened under my touch. She was exquisite. So beautiful.

I could feel my cock growing hard again, pushing against her thigh. When she smiled wickedly at me, I turned her over so that she faced the window and I could bury my head in her soft hair, and sink my fingers into the full, round orbs of her ass.

“Again?”

I could hear the smile in her voice, and nuzzled her neck in response.

“This is entirely your fault,” I grinned, “But I’ll be gentle.”

In this position I had to be. It was more aligned with natural bear mating, and had my bear crying out to claim her. Scratching at my skin to take control. I wouldn’t allow it. I desperately wanted to mark Chloe, claim her as my mate, and to bond fully with the woman I now knew without a shadow of a doubt owned my heart and soul. But she was human, and it was too soon to ask for forever from her.

I kissed her shoulder blade, lightly running my tongue over the smattering of freckles that decorated her skin, tasting her sweetness. I closed my eyes, keeping my bear’s urges to bite her at bay.

My cock pressed against her ass cheek, my pre-cum leaving a trail on her skin. I slid between her legs. She was wet and warm and groaned softly as I entered her.

Her arm reached back to clasp my thigh, and we moved against one another soundlessly, lost in the languid, lazy friction that was pounding waves of heat through our bodies.

“I never want you to leave my bed.” I sighed against her skin.

“Then I won’t,” she replied softly. She turned over to face me, breaking us apart.

She kissed me deeply, her tongue finding mine with a renewed, needful energy. She drew me back inside her, and then straddled me. I clutched at her waist, watching her beautiful, soft, curvy body glide up and down on my cock.

Fucking hell.

She was a complete goddess. Her dark hair gently fell around her breasts as they swayed and bounced gently with her motion. Her breathing came in short gasps and her legs clasped against the sides of my body. She was close.

I watch her, mesmerized by her beauty as she took her pleasure from me. I thrust upward, moving my hips off the bed. Her eyes widened and pussy clenched me tightly as she cried out, my name falling sweetly from her lips.

That was all it took. I couldn’t hold back any longer and my entire body exploding in release.

“Fuck Chloe.”

She collapsed down next to me, smiling up at the ceiling.

“That was incredible,” she sighed.

I wondered if she could feel it. The strengthening of our bond every time we touched one another. I felt more in tune with her body, her moods. As if part of her now inhabited me.

“Are you hungry?” I asked, feeling my own stomach knot with a ravenous appetite.

“Starved,” she laughed.

“I’m going to order in, I don’t really feel like sharing you with the world right now. We can eat on the terrace.”

“Good, I feel the same way,” she gave me a mischievous look, “I also don’t think we should move too far from the bed.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

Chloe stood and retrieved herself a fresh white shirt from my closet and brought it back to the bed. I smiled. Just the thought of watching Chloe spend the evening in a shirt that only just covered her sexy ass made my balls ache.

“This will do,” she smiled back at me.

I reached for my cell. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten at home in the evening. And I’d never done it with a woman before. It felt good. Natural. For the first time since I’d moved in five years ago, my apartment suddenly felt like a home.

Chapter seventeen

Nathan’s terrace was spectacular. Its view overlooked the twinkling lights of the city below and the mountains beyond. A few candles I’d found in Nathan’s kitchen drawers flickered on the table.

We’d ordered Korean food, the take out boxes cluttered the table because Nathan had distracted me with neck kisses when I’d tried to plate up the food. He held my foot in his lap, his fingers running up and down my leg while we ate. The evening was perfect, and I wanted to get lost in the moment but all I could think about was returning to his bed.

Something strange had happened when we slept together. I didn’t understand it, and I wasn’t sure if it was just my hormones going crazy after sex, but I felt connected to him on a deeply profound level that I couldn’t explain. This whole thing just felt so… big.

“Do you feel…?” I started to ask him if he was experiencing the enormity of emotions that I was, but stopped suddenly afraid he’d think I was crazy.

He smiled at me, his eyes burning bright.

“The connection?” He replied.

“Exactly. I feel like…I don’t know – like I can feel your moods, like you’re inside my head. Or something…” I trailed off. I needed help here, before I started sounded like an infatuated teenager.

“Good,” Nathan answered sounding relieved. “Yes, I feel it. It’s the start of the bonding process,” he cleared his throat and I could feel a nervous energy pass between us, “I don’t want to scare you off, but I think, I know, that my bear wants to… claim you. As my mate.”

“Wasn’t what we just did – mating?” I asked, confused.

“Not exactly,” he smirked, “When a shifter claims his mate, he marks her.

“Marks her?”

“A claiming bite.”

He laughed when he saw my expression.

“The bite is a mark that tells the world, and other shifters, that his mate has been claimed. Forever bonded,” he continued. “Once mated, the process is irreversible. I know you’re not ready for that yet.”

Wow.

“Are you?” I asked, with genuine amazement.

“Yes,” he replied simply, “But as a shifter, I know. I can feel – in every fiber of my being, that you’re mine. You’re it for me. It’s not the same for humans. I can’t expect you to feel the same way. So we’ll wait.” He shrugged, unperturbed by the intensity of the conversation.

I thought about it. The crazy potency of feelings I had for Nathan, which in retrospect I’d felt even that first day in the forest. It had grown exponentially in the ridiculously short time I’d known him, but forever?

Was I ready for forever? I knew without a doubt that Nathan was the one for me. I couldn’t walk away, even if I wanted to. Now that I had experienced our connection, there wouldn’t be a day or an hour that my body and soul didn’t yearn to feel it renewed.

“I will never pressure you into anything,” Nathan held my gaze, “My feelings for you won’t change, however long it takes you to decide.”

I nodded. A blissful contentment saturated my entire being. This incredible man loved me, without wanting anything in return. I felt humbled.

“Am I interrupting?”

A man appeared through the kitchen doors, grinning at us both.

“Yes you fucking are,” Nathan growled at him.

“Hey, you’re one of the girls from the forest,” he smiled at me and held out his hand, “I’m Byron – and I hear I’m the reason you spent the night in a dank basement – my sincerest apologies.”

The brother. I shook his hand, bemused. I had thought I’d feel anger toward the man responsible for such a mess, but there was something about him – a recklessness and a rebel charm that made it impossible to hate him on sight.

He looked so much like Nathan, but Nathan cultivated an image of raw masculinity tempered with a strength and control that would put the fear in any Ivy League business mogul. Byron was the kind of guy that put fear into the hearts of mothers – the poster boy for broken hearts, unwanted pregnancies and bad choices.

“You’re not forgiven.” Nathan snapped.

“Chloe – I am so sorry.” Byron beseeched my forgiveness again, practically getting down on one knee in earnestness.

“It’s okay,” I smiled at Nathan, “It’s nice to meet you Byron.”

“You too,” he shot his brother a look of triumph.

“How are you feeling,” I asked, “after your fight?”

“Fully recovered, so my generous brother is kicking me to the curb.”

“You’re lucky I haven’t thrown you off the roof, idiot.”

Byron ignored him and turned his attentions back to me.

“Tell me about your friend, Bri – the girl who was so bear friendly in the forest.”

I laughed. Not in a million years would Byron appeal to Brianna. His good looks couldn’t be denied, but Bri was violently allergic to any whiff of ‘bad boy’ impulses.

“Brianna,” I corrected, “She works at the same company I do. I’ll introduce you if you like.”

He beamed at me, delighted. He didn’t have a chance in hell, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. Besides, after all my failed matchmaking attempts, perhaps I wasn’t the best person to judge what my friend actually wanted.

“Alright, you got what you came for – now get out,” Nathan commanded.

Byron backed away with his arms out in mock surrender.

“It was lovely to meet you Chloe. Call me if he gets out of hand.”

Nathan rose to his feet, furious, and Byron turned and ran from the terrace. I burst out laughing. Seeing Nathan antagonized by his younger brother showed me a new side of him, one I hadn’t seen yet, and it warmed me.

“I’m going to get him a collar and a bell,” Nathan said in disgust.

“He’s harmless – and it all turned out okay,” I soothed him, “I can think of a million things we can do to distract you, if that’s what you want?” I teased.

He grabbed me, his mood suddenly light and playful.

“That’s what I want,” he smirked.

“Good, it’s what I want too,” I smiled up at him and batted my lashes and he tightened his grip around my waist.

“And while we’re at it, we’ll talk about that claiming thing.” I looked up into his eyes, wanting him to read the unspoken promise in mine. He nodded perceptibly.

Suddenly I could think of nothing I wanted more than Nathan, forever.

THE END

Want to read more? This is book one in a series. Look for Book 2, Byron: Heartbreaker Bear, which can be found in Amazon’s Kindle store.

ZAREK

Dragons of Plarizakian

STORY DESCRIPTION

When Alien Warrior Weredragon Zarek Rav meets curvy biologist Aubrey Moss, sparks fly!

As the newest biologist at Gen-Ex, mousy Aubrey Moss wants nothing more than to please the president of the research facility, her domineering and overbearing father.

But, despite being the top female research biologist in the country, she still can’t seem to escape his demeaning jabs and cutting insults.

When Aubrey is tasked with a job that no one at the facility has been able to achieve, retrieving samples from one of the research subjects, an extra-terrestrial called Zarek Rav, her attraction to him is so powerful, it overwhelms her.

Zarek’s planet is destroyed, his people on the hunt for a new home. When Zarek is wounded, the Parizakians are forced to leave him behind to shuttle the others to safety. But they’ll return, and when they do….

…they will destroy all who oppose them.

Zarek need only bide his time before he will leave Earth and be reunited with his people. The last thing he expected to find on this obscure planet was a mate. But, the human female called Aubrey with her thick, soft curves, beautiful smile and warm heart initiates an attraction deep inside of the warrior that is stronger than anything he has ever felt.

When the fate of millions rest in Aubrey’s hands, will she defy her father’s wishes to help Zarek return to his people? Will Zarek and his people accept her into their fold?

Chapter One

Zarek Rav shifted the control stick, moving the monitor’s red bull’s eye a fraction of an inch. The adjustment wasn’t really necessary, but Zarek needed something to distract him from the anxiety of landing on a new, virtually unknown planet. The two-foot monitor in front of his pilot control displayed images of a desert area in the southwestern region of the United States. This area, over which Zarek’s ship hovered, would provide both the isolation and the aridness Zarek’s race, the Plarizakians, needed to live a peaceful and comfortable existence.

It looks so much like home, Zarek thought, sighing. No matter the climate, though, Zarek knew it would never feel like home. The Plarizakians no longer had a home. The Nefarianics, a water-dragon race, had flooded Plarizakia’s desserts, making it uninhabitable to the shifter dragon/humanoid Plarizakians.

“You gonna make it over there?” Virlek, Zarek’s best friend and weapon’s operator, asked.

Zarek jumped at the sound, turning his head quickly in Virlek’s direction. Then, he picked up his empty metal drinking container and tossed it toward his friend, a gesture of feigned irritation. Virlek caught the bottle easily.

He tossed the bottle back before speaking again. “No one’s gonna make it anywhere if Jandric doesn’t get out here. Hey, Jandric? You done in there yet?”

A door in the rear section of the circular spacecraft opened. A short, stocky man entered the room, shutting the bathroom door behind him.

“Fine, fine,” Jandric said, walking to the telecommunications panel, sitting, and entering his access code. He was preparing to send a transmission to the other Plarizakian ships that waited in the shadows of the Milky Way. “What’s the hurry? We’ve been looking for an inhabitable area for what—five years now?”

Zarek reached for his drink container again. Virlek followed his lead. Jandric, his back to them, kept tapping away at his control panel as both Zarek and Virlek threw their empty bottles at him.

“Ow!” Jandric shouted as the metal containers hit him on the back. He picked up Virlek’s bottle and flung it back. “Do you want me to send this message or what?!”

“Yes!” Zarek and Virlek hollered at the same time.

Virlek and Zarek sat in silence as they waited. Zarek’s mind went back to his home planet. Images of his family, now dead, flashed through his mind. He saw his father falling and drowning in the waves that enveloped Plarizakia. His saw his mother succumbing to the same fate. His little brother had almost made it to the ship, but a Nefarianic had spotted him. Zarek saw his little brother’s petite body disappear, covered in a blast of water. Zarek blew out a long, slow breath and, shaking his head to clear the memories, forced himself back into the present.

“Transmission sent,” Jandric said. “The ships will be heading this way soon. Meanwhile, we’re clear to land.”

Zarek let himself smile—the first real smile that had crossed his face since the Nefarianics had attacked, since he had lost his entire family, since all hope for a future life had drained from his very being. He took the control stick between fingers, readying the ship for landing. As he was about to move the toggle, though, the ship rocked. He pulled his hand away from the panel. The ship shook again, sparks flying from the weapons-control panel. Virlek covered his face with his forearm and turned away.

“Weapons are down,” Virlek said as soon as the smoke cleared.

“Human aircrafts!” Zarek hollered, looking at his own monitor. “Ten of them. We’re surrounded.”

“The weapons won’t come back online,” Virlek reported. “Unless…”

“Unless what?” Zarek yelled back.

“Unless one of us repairs them from the outside,” Virlek answered. “The shots tore the front panel off. They pulled the wires right out. If one of us could reattach the wires, we might have just enough juice for one shot. That should give us a chance to get out of here.”

“Fine,” Zarek said, standing. “Jandric and I can cover you while you reattach the panel.”

“But—” Virlek started to protest.

“I know it’s dangerous, Virlek, but our people depend on us. If this is the only to get out of here, to warn them, then we take this way.”

“But—” Virlek protested again.

“Enough!” Zarek growled, already starting to transform. He shrugged his uniform vest off as his shoulders expanded, their bulging muscles growing and lengthening. He unbuttoned his white pants, hurrying before his fingers turned into claws. He pulled the pants down, exposing his abdomen, his hips, and briefly, his well-endowed frontal parts. Like his shoulders, his thigh muscles tightened, grew, and lengthened. His tan skin turned to green scales, reflecting rainbows of color.

“Open the doors!” he ordered Jandric, looking over at his stocky friend. Jandric’s brown skin had turned to black scales. Jandric pushed the release button for the door. Both dragons darted out while Virlek, still in his human form, followed them. He had a magnetic breast plate strapped over his chest, one that would secure him to the surface of the ship and leave his hands free.

“Now!” Zarek jumped from the ship, expanding his massive wings as he flew right. Jandric flew out the ship’s door, veering toward the left. The dragons circled the ship, forcing the planes to move back.

“How much longer?” Zarek asked Virlek, who had been working on the panel for five minutes.

“Now!” Virlek shouted. From the corner of his eye, Zarek saw Virlek slide the weapons panel back in place. As he did, though, sparks shot out from the edge of the panel. An explosion rocked the ship. The panel shot back out, pushing Virlek, magnetic suit and all, off the surface and into empty air.

As Zarek dove to catch Virlek, one of the planes opened fire on the dragon, catching him just below his left wing. Zarek started falling before he could reach his friend. He watched as Virlek transformed, his clothes shredding as his muscles and bones rearranged themselves. His skin became dark blue scales.

“Go!” Zarek shouted to his crew members, to his friends, even as he continued to fall. “Go! Save yourselves. Save our people.”

Virlek flapped his giant wings, directing his body toward Zarek.

“I said, go!” Zarek hollered as loudly as he could. He felt himself weakening. His chest hurt so badly. His breaths were shallow. “Go while you still can. Go while their attention is on me. This is the chance you needed.”

Then, Zarek lost consciousness. His body continued to fall toward the desert floor. His ship hovered for half a second, hesitating before it shot up and away from the military ships, away from Earth, away from its captain, and toward the outer shadows of the Milky Way.

Chapter Two

“Don’t blow this,” Aubrey Moss whispered around the edge of the ID badge she held between her teeth. She started wrapping an elastic around her ponytail.

“Don’t blow this,” she whispered again as she clamped the ID badge onto the chest pocket of her size-18 black pantsuit. She tried to get the badge to lie flat but gave up. The fullness of her cleavage did not lend itself to anything lying flat against it.

“Don’t blow this,” she repeated one more time. These were not words of self-encouragement, though. As she spoke, she was hearing the voice of her father, Raymond Moss, the president of Gen-Ex. Aubrey was about to head out of the locker room and into her first briefing as an employee of her father’s company.

As Aubrey tightened her ponytail, a stubborn, curly bump popped up on the top of her head.

“You’re so going to blow this,” Aubrey whispered, looking down at her shaking hands. She felt like she was going to cry. Tears welled in her eyes. She tried to take deep breaths. She closed her eyes.

You are an elite female biologist, she thought, trying to encourage herself. You graduated at the top of your class. You got the job because you deserve it. Prove that to yourself. You deserve this. Prove that to you father.

“You deserve this,” she repeated out loud. Her heart rate slowed. Her breathing became regular and she started to feel better.

“Aubrey!” her father yelled, pushing the locker door open a crack. “What the hell is taking you so long? You need brains to work here, not beauty, thank God.”

Aubrey’s shoulders tensed again. She put her hands in the pockets of her black dress pants, trying to hide the fact that they were trembling again. Her father held the door open for her.

“Don’t blow this, Aubrey,” he said under his breath as she squeezed between his bulbous belly and the door frame. She stiffened her entire body to try to hide her trembling that had increased in proportion to the proximity of her father, but she kept walking.

“All right, gentleman,” her father’s voice boomed around the room as he shut the door of the briefing room behind him. He walked to his seat, leaving Aubrey standing by the door. One of the ten men sitting around the table stood, offering her his chair.

“No, no, she’s fine,” her father said from the head of the conference table. He sat, clasping his hands atop his belly, leaning back in the chair.

“She can sit there. We won’t be long.” Her father unclasped his hands long enough to point to a row of chairs against the wall.

Aubrey sat, putting her shaking, sweaty hands under thighs. The middle-aged gentleman with the goatee who had offered her his chair shrugged before sitting back down.

“I assume you’ve all already discussed the statuses of our, uh, samples?” her father asked, looking up from an open folder and meeting the gaze of every man in the room.

“Yes, Mr. Moss.”

“Yes, sir.”

The men around the room uttered similar sentiments before the room fell silent again. Raymond Moss shuffled through a few more folders.

“And the new one?” he asked, looking up again.

The goateed man sat straight before speaking. “Well, uh, we’ve had problems getting samples and, uh—”

“And?” her Father asked gruffly.

“We’ve had problems obtaining specimens from the newest sample,” the man said, clearly this time.

“Robert, Robert, Robert,” Raymond sat back in his chair, clasping his hands over his belly again. “You are the top biologist in this damn country. I pay you the wages of the top biologist in this damn country.”

“Yes, sir,” Robert said, looking down at the table that separated him from his boss. “But—”

“I don’t want excuses, Robert,” Raymond slammed his fist on the table.

“Yes, sir,” Robert said, still looking down.

“Now, go get me a damn sample.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And take Aubrey with you,” Raymond nodded toward his daughter. “She’s the top female biologist in the country. Maybe all you need is a woman’s touch. You don’t look like you get much of that.”

Robert stared open-mouthed at Raymond’s crudeness. Aubrey fought the urge to cover her face with her hands.

“Go!” Raymond growled, pointing to the door.

Robert nodded, stood, and led Aubrey out the door.

“Sorry,” Robert said when the elevator door closed.

“How far down does this thing go?” Aubrey asked, trying to change the subject. She gestured toward the many buttons by the door.

“The elevator goes down twenty-one floors, but there are really twenty-two floors below the surface.”

Robert didn’t say anything else. The elevator was uncomfortably silent, so Aubrey tried again.

“What are these samples everyone keeps talking about? I mean, why just call them samples? Are they plants? Animals? What? Why all the secrecy?”

“You’ll see for yourself,” Robert said. “There’s no better way to explain. You’ll see.”

The elevator dinged.

“That’s us,” Robert escorted Aubrey out the door.

Aubrey watched her feet as she exited the elevator. She was only wearing small heels, but to her, any heels were gigantic. The last thing she wanted to do right now was fall on her face in front of her new co-workers.

Don’t blow it, her father’s words echoed in her head again.

As soon as she was sure her feet were on solid ground, Aubrey looked up. What she saw was no different than any other lab, though perhaps cleaner and more humane-looking. There were rows and rows of aquariums, not the cages most research companies used to house their mice and gerbils and cats and dogs and primates. It was quieter, too.

The glass must be soundproof, Aubrey thought.

Robert grasped her elbow, leading her through the lab.

“This way,” Robert said, pointing to a metal door on the far side of the room. He scanned his ID badge in the slot beside the door and they entered an anteroom. The first door slid closed behind them. The panels on each side of the narrow anteroom began to emit a bright blue light. After a few seconds, a zapping sound filled the room. Then, the lights turned off and the door in front of them opened.

Unable to keep her eyes from the sight that unfolded in front of her, Aubrey took a step into the room, catching her heel on the door’s bottom guides and stumbling forward. Fortunately, she didn’t fall.

Aubrey and Robert stood on a metal floor. Ten feet from her was a railing that opened up into a round hole in the center of the floor. The walls held hundreds and hundreds of glass tanks similar to the ones she had seen in the first room. The sizes of these tanks were different, though. Some could have fit in the palm of her hand. Some were over four stories high.

Aubrey turned to the tank closest to her. It was a small tank that held what appeared to be an octopus, but this octopus was barely the size of her thumb. Instead of suction cups, it had yellow flower-like protrusions running the length of its arms. As soon as the octopus thing saw Aubrey, its eyes grew larger and larger, almost covering its entire body. Its arms tensed. With a sudden movement, metal-like hooks shot out of the flower protrusions. The animal darted to the edge of the tank, its hooks making contact with the glass. Aubrey jumped back, gasping.

Robert laughed a little, but Aubrey didn’t sense anything but good humor in that laugh. She walked on.

“Is that Jello?” she asked, pointing to a ten-foot by ten-foot aquarium.

“No, that is Bob,” Robert responded.

Bob was a red, gelatinous, square blob.

“Fitting name,” Aubrey said. “What does he do?”

“Uh, nothing really.”

Aubrey looked at Robert. “What do any of these things do? What are they?”

“They’re, uh, well, that’s kind of what we are trying to figure out. That’s what we do.”

“Where did they come from?”

Robert shrugged. “Mostly, well, from space.”

“Space…huh,” Aubrey thought for a minute. She supposed she should have been more shocked, but she had always been obsessed with alien movies. She had even done a paper defending the existence of aliens, so she was far more curious than shocked.

Or maybe I’m in shock.

Aubrey moved on to the next tank. It was the same size as Bob’s tank, but it held something much hairier. As Aubrey moved closer, the creature looked up, exposing its electric blue face. The massive gorilla-like creature stood. The hairless skin of its front was entirely blue. The thing flexed its arm muscles. Its hair stood on end, filling every inch of the container. Electric sparks started making their way from its body to the ends of its hair.

“Cover your eyes,” Robert told her. Aubrey obeyed, but she could still see the brilliant blue light through her fingers as the electricity in the aquarium continued to build. Then, the light was gone. She lowered her hand and saw only hair again.

“It builds up the electricity to defend itself,” Robert explained nonchalantly. Aubrey nodded as if she completely understood.

“But enough of these for now,” Robert told her, picking up speed as he continued toward the door on the opposite side of the room. “We need to get down to the next floor.”

“What’s there?” Aubrey asked.

“Something…something…more…”

“More than all this,” she asked, gesturing around the room.

“Yes, something more than this.”

“How could anything be more than this?”

“You’ll see.”

Aubrey followed Robert through the metal door, which was decorated with a giant “No Unauthorized Access” sign.

“Geez,” Aubrey said as they entered another anteroom. “What kind of access do you need to get in here? I figure if you can get into the other room— ”

“Trust me. This one’s different. There are only three people with access to this room—me, your father, and now you.”

Aubrey was about to ask more questions, but Robert had already exited the anteroom. She followed him as he descended a spiral staircase. At the bottom of the stairs was another metal door. Robert scanned his badge. Aubrey, expecting to walk into yet another anteroom, inhaled sharply when she caught site of what was behind this door. She stood in the tiny control room as a scaly, green dragon, larger than an airplane rushed toward her, spewing fire in front of him. As the flames hit the glass separating the control room from the creature, Aubrey realized she had stopped breathing. Still, she couldn’t will her frozen self to take a breath.

Don’t blow this, she heard her father’s voice.

Too late, she responded as she fainted, crumbling to the floor.

Chapter Three

“Wake up,” Aubrey heard Robert’s voice above her. Her eyes fluttered open. Robert cradled her head under one of his hands, fanning her face with a piece of paper. She blinked a few more times before struggling to rise up onto her elbows.

“You okay?” Robert asked. “You sure you don’t need a few more minutes?”

“I’m fine,” she said, standing.

The room was set up like a cockpit, a chair on each side of the glass doors that led into the enclosure beyond. Like the metal doors they had passed through, the passageway leading into the giant aquarium had two sets of doors separated by an anteroom. Aubrey looked through both doors, and what she saw made her exhale sharply.

Breath, she told herself, forcing air in and out of her chest.

There was no longer a dragon behind the far door. Instead, there was a man, a very well-built, very sweaty, very naked man. She saw his well-toned calves. She stared at his muscular thighs. She traced the v of his abdomen with her eyes. She licked her dry lips before abruptly turning toward Robert.

“Is that—” she stuttered. “What—is—What is that?”

“Right now,” Robert answered, “it appears to be a man.”

“But—it—was—”

“It was a dragon, yes. It shifts from dragon to man. It is also an alien.”

“How did you…”

“It came in a few nights ago. The military shot it down over New Mexico. There were others with him, but they got away.”

Aubrey looked back at the dragon man. She watched as beads of sweat dripped down his chest, around the muscles of his abdomen, dipping into the v that lead to his—Aubrey looked back toward Robert.

“So, exactly what kind of specimens are we supposed to collect from this ‘sample’?” she asked.

“The usual, you know, hair, skin, saliva, sweat…”

“Oh,” she whispered, looking back into the container. The man had placed his forearms on the glass just over his head. His biceps tightened. His shoulders muscles hardened. She licked her lips again.

“Can he can speak our language? Can he understand, at least?” she asked.

“Sure,” Robert said. “Both. Doesn’t talk much though.”

Robert had walked to the corner of the control room to retrieve a clipboard and a large black duffel bag, both of which he carried toward the door. After scanning his card, he stepped into the anteroom gesturing for Aubrey to follow.

“I haven’t had a problem collecting specimens from him while he’s in human form. He doesn’t shift into dragon form often, though, so I haven’t been able to get any dragon specimens.”

Aubrey nodded, acknowledging that she had heard Robert, but she had a more pressing question to ask. “Uh, does he have a name? It’s a bit weird, you know. He looks like a man and all.”

Robert shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t asked him.”

Robert handed Aubrey the black bag as the blue lights dimmed. He motioned for the sample to move aside as the inner door slid open. The sample sneered at Robert, but moved aside, sitting in a cushioned chair a few hundred feet away. Robert and Aubrey followed him.

“First, the blood,” Robert said marking something on the clipboard.

Aubrey opened the bag, withdrawing a rubber band. She tied the band around the specimen’s bicep, watching the veins in his inner elbow bulge.

“Just keep it there,” she told him.

“He knows the process,” Robert said.

Aubrey didn’t answer. Somehow it made her feel better to lead the man through the process as if preparing him for it might help in some way. She withdrew a syringe and collection tube from the bag on the floor beside her. She attached the components and took the cap off the needle.

“This’ll only pinch a little,” she said, looking into the man’s eyes, expecting see a bored look. He had been through this. He was a tough guy. But what she saw in his amber and green eyes was not boredom. What she saw was fear. His jaw was clenched. His nostrils dilated. He stared straight back at her. He looked determined. He looked courageous. He looked strong. But the soul behind his eyes was terrified. She could sense it.

She paused. She couldn’t do it. She held the needle in midair.

“It’s okay,” the man said. “You have to. I understand.”

She didn’t move. Her brain told her she had to do this. She needed this job. If she were fired, she would never be able to work as a biologist again. Her father would make sure of that. But her heart screamed too. It told her not to do this, to drop the needle, to tell the world about the torture taking place in this cell. She wanted to quell this man’s fears.

“Do it,” he commanded softly between clenched teeth.

She obeyed, moving the needle to his arm, placing its tip on his vein. She pushed, glancing up into his eyes as she did so. His jaw remained set, his muscles remained stone-still, but she saw the screams of his soul in his eyes. Her own eyes watered. She looked back to his arm, removing the rubber band.  When the syringe was full, she extracted the needle and handed it to Robert who took the needle and sample and put it back into the bag before taking out a saliva swab kit.

Chapter Four

“You are attracted to me, yes?” the dragon man asked her the next day as she stroked the inside of his cheek with a swab. Aubrey’s hand jerked, the swab poking into his mouth.

“Ow,” he said, putting his hand to the outside of cheek. His eyes sparkled with humor, though.

Aubrey blushed as she looked down, clipping the end of the swab into a collection cup.

“You are attracted to me,” he said. “Why does that embarrass you?”

“What is your name?” she asked, changing the subject. She took another swab out of the black bag and began rubbing it up and down a one-inch section of his bicep.

“Zarek, but my question—”

“That’s a nice name. Zarek, I like that,” she cut him off. She was alone in a giant room with Zarek, and yes, she was attracted to him. Who wouldn’t be?

“Yes, but you haven’t answered—” he started again, his bicep muscle clenching as he leaned forward. Aubrey stopped swabbing.

“Sit still,” she said as she placed her hand on his chest, pushing him back, feeling his warm, soft skin, his firm, hard muscles, under her palm. She quickly withdrew her hand and picked up another collection jar.

When she had taken all the samples except a blood sample, she reached for the rubber band. His jaw tightened.

“I’m sorry,” she said as she wrapped the band around his bicep.

“I know,” he answered, looking into her eyes.

Aubrey took the needle out and attached the collection tube. Zarek didn’t flinch, though Aubrey detected the change in his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated. Her own soul felt sick at having to perform this test. “Why does it hurt so much?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, you’re big, and obviously strong, and it’s just a small needle prick, but each time I can see the pain in your eyes, in the way you clench your jaw—”

“It is very painful. It doesn’t hurt when your blood leaves your body?” he asked.

“Not really.” She held the needle up.

“My blood is part of me. It runs through all of me.”

“Mine too.”

“When you take my blood, you take a part of me.” Zarek held his hand up. “It’s like if you take my hand or my foot or my eye, but worse. My blood is a part of my whole body. My whole body hurts when you take any of my blood.”

Aubrey stared his hand, his foot, his eyes. Then, she stared at the needle. How could she do this to him? But what if she didn’t? She’d lose more than her career. She’d lose any access she had to this magnificent creature. She’d lose any chance at—at what? She looked into Zarek’s eyes again. Yes, she was attracted to him, incredibly attracted. Somehow the confession that she’d been causing him excruciating pain with every blood draw, as horrifying as it was, attracted her to him on a deeper level. She couldn’t do it to him anymore. She had to leave. No, she had to stay. She couldn’t get fired. She had to perform this test.

“I understand,” Zarek whispered.

“Understand what?” she asked.

“Take the blood,” he said as he raised his free hand and guided the needle to his vein.

She pushed the needle through his skin. She didn’t look up at his eyes this time, but somehow, she could feel the screams of his soul in her own body. They were a tingle at first then an electric current. She closed her eyes as the pain grew.

“It’s full,” he said hoarsely, pointing to the collection tube. She opened her eyes and extracted the needle, letting out her breath as she did so.

“How did you—Why could I feel that?” Aubrey asked, her breathing still quick and shallow.

“What is a career?” he asked.

“It’s like a job, but—”

“Who is your father?”

“Raymond Moss, the president of the company that runs this lab, but how did you—?”

“What is your name?”

“Dr. Moss,” she answered with a sigh.

“No, what is the rest of your name?”

“Aubrey,” she answered, giving up on her own question.

“Aubrey,” Zarek said, looking at her through eyes still heavy with pain. “Aubrey, everyone on this planet will be sorry when my people arrive.”

He reached up and brushed her jawline with his thumb. “It’s too bad, really. I’m growing fond of you. Still…”

“Still what, Zarek?” Aubrey stood, grabbing the handle of the now closed bag. She took a step back. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m sure your people told you my crew escaped?”

“Yes.” Aubrey took another step back.

“They will return soon. It’ll take them what you call two weeks at the most. If your people do not allow me to escape peacefully, your world will be destroyed along with everyone in it.”

Zarek stood. His amber eyes darkened. He walked to the far corner of the enclosure, a corner bathed in light-grey shadows. The shadows danced across his face, accentuated his sharp cheekbones and jawline. Aubrey swallowed.

“Come closer, Aubrey,” he said deeply.

Aubrey shook her head and took a few more backward steps toward the door.

“I won’t hurt you, Aubrey,” he said. “I just need to rest for a bit. You felt it. You know how that test hurts, how it weakens me. I just need to rest, but I want to tell you about everything. I want to tell you about my home, my people, my…please?”

Aubrey knew she shouldn’t do it. She knew she should run. She knew…but she felt drawn to the corner, to the shadows, to Zarek. Aubrey set the bag down and walked to the corner of the room where Zarek was now sitting cross-legged. His chest moved in and out. His eyes were closed.

“I find breathing to be quite useful when dealing with fear or pain,” he said. “You might try it sometime.”

Aubrey smiled at his jest despite herself. They both smiled, but only for a moment. Zarek’s face quickly sank. His eyes illustrated his immense burden once more.

“Sit,” he said, patting the ground in front of him.

She sat facing him.

“Five years ago,” he began, looking into her eyes, communicating the emotions of his words through the soul that rested behind them. She felt as if she, too were feeling his emotions, as if she had been there, as if she were a part of him then and now. “Five years ago, my planet was attacked by water-breathing dragons.”

As he spoke, she saw his people, the Plarizakians, as they rushed to their ships. She saw the Nefarianics as they spewed water on the deserts of his planets. She saw his father, mother, and brother die. She was snapped back to reality when Zarek brushed a finger under her eyes, wiping the tears from her burning cheeks.

“That is why we have come here,” he whispered. “The spot where we tried to land was just like our home planet. It was abandoned. There were no houses, no roads. We hoped we could live a quiet existence there. We meant to cause no harm to anyone. We just wanted a home. We just wanted peace, but now…”

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered before covering her face. Her shoulders rose and fell as she sobbed. She was sorry, but she didn’t know what she could do.

“I know,” he said, putting his fingers under her chin, pulling her face up so her eyes met his. “I know you are.”

“I don’t know what I can do,” she said.

“Nothing,” he answered. “There’s nothing you can do. I understand. There’s nothing either of us can do except what we’re already doing.”

“I have to get back to work,” she said, rising and brushing off the seat of her pants. She wiped the remaining moisture from her face.

“Don’t forget to breathe,” he said as she walked away.

Chapter Five

“You’ll do fine,” Robert patted Aubrey on the shoulder as they headed for the conference room.

“We still haven’t got the dragon specimens,” she reminded him. She stuck her trembling hands into her pockets. They were about to enter the weekly briefing conference. They would have to face their failure. They would have to face her father.

All the chairs around the table were full except Robert’s. This time Robert didn’t offer his seat to her. She sat in the chair by the wall.

“What about the new sample?” her father asked from the head of the table. Aubrey looked up.

“We, uh, still haven’t—” Robert started.

“You mean to tell me,” her father’s face reddened, “that I have the top two biologists in the country, in the whole damn country, and neither one of them can get a sample?!”

Her father rose, circled the table, towered over Robert.

“We—it—” Robert shrank into his chair. Raymond Moss leaned down toward him, placing one beefy hand on the table, the other on the back of Robert’s chair.

“Why don’t I have the damned samples?!” her father yelled, his face almost purple.

“It’s her. She’s—” Robert stuttered. Raymond turned on his daughter, eyes narrowing. She stared back, horrified, humiliated. She had though Robert was her friend. Now, he was turning his back on her.

“What about her?” he asked, glaring at Aubrey.

“The samples she’s giving me,” Robert said more confidently, shuffling through a file, “are completely inadequate. She’s wasted a week’s worth of testing. See, the blood sample here is too small. This one must have sat too long before she put it in the refrigerator. She been in there every day this week, and she hasn’t been able to get any dragon samples at all.”

“I knew you’d blow it,” Aubrey’s father spat, his face inches from hers. She tried to breath, tried to still her trembling hands, tried to hold back the tears that burned her eyes. “You have one more chance. If you can’t do this, I will fire you. I will make sure you never work as a biologist again. Now, go!”

Aubrey bolted out the door and ran to the locker room. Once inside, she leaned over the sink. She breathed in. She breathed out. She closed her eyes.

Don’t blow it, her father’s voice echoed in her mind. Then, another man’s words came to her mind. There’s nothing either of us can do except what we’re already doing.

With that thought, Aubrey splashed cold water on her face before drying it on a paper towel. Then, she stood straight and walked out the door, heading for the labs.

Aubrey was still working at ten o’clock that night. She had tested all the animals scheduled for testing on the day shift as well as the night shift. She had told Jeff, the guy who usually fed the animals on the night shift, to go home. She’d finish up for him. She had already fed most of them. Now, she stood beside a metal work table reading off the numbers for Bob’s food tray.

“Two, four, one,” she whispered to herself, squinting at the sheet. She rubbed her eyes. She was absolutely exhausted and her vision was beginning to blur. “Two, four, is that a one or seven? One. Definitely one. Yup.”

She nodded and walked to the cart lined with metal drawers. She pulled out drawer number 241. It was Bob’s food—a mixing bowl full of red Jello. Aubrey walked to Bob’s tank. She set the bowl down on the floor and used both hands to push the buttons on the tank’s handgrip. The glass slid down just far enough to allow her to insert the bowl and dump its contents into the tank’s water. Bob jiggled as the Jello floated down. When the food finally touched Bob, he absorbed it into his gelatinous body. Aubrey raised the glass again, listening for the click that meant the pane was closed. She returned the bowl back to its drawer and moved on to the next creature.

“Two, six, zero,” Aubrey said out loud to herself, tapping a pen on the clipboard. She walked to drawer number 260 and opened it. It was the electric blue gorilla’s meal. So far, the only meal they had found for him was electric-fried rabbits. Aubrey cringed as she lifted the tray of crispy bunny flesh and fur.

She set the tray down on the floor before reaching to open the creature’s aquarium. This one opened from the bottom, its buttons an arm span apart. She pushed and lifted, hurrying before the creature could charge itself. She grabbed the tray, slid it under the glass, and slammed the pane shut. She didn’t hear the click, though. The animal inside was charging, pulses of current running through its hair. The air in the enclosure brightened. Aubrey reached to check the latch. She pulled up on the pane. The glass slid up an inch. The air grew brighter and brighter. She kept her eyes lowered, tried to slam the handgrip down. There was something in the way, though. The creature had jammed the food tray toward her, blocking her from closing the door. Without the soundproof glass between her and the creature, Aubrey heard the thunderous explosion as the creature released its electric charge.

But, Aubrey also heard another explosion, this one from behind her, coming from the circular hole in the floor, from Zarek’s enclosure. She heard glass shatter. She felt claws dig into her back. She felt herself being lifted into the air. A bolt of electricity reached her, even up there, and as she drifted into unconsciousness, she felt the heat of fire on her face.

Chapter Six

“Aubrey,” she heard her name being called through the haze of fog that separated her from full consciousness. She groaned, trying to open her eyes. “Aubrey, wake up.”

She groaned again, her eyes fluttering open this time. The room was flooded in blue, strobing lights. Thinking the blue was electricity, she shot up into a sitting position, sharp pains shooting through the top of her back. She covered her ears against the sirens that filled the air. Zarek wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. After a second, she pulled away, looking around the room. They were back in his enclosure, in the shadowy corner now lit by the strobing lights. She shifted around in his arms to survey the damage. Glass covered the center of the floor. There was a whole in the ceiling.

“It was you,” she whispered. “You saved me.”

He moved around her to look at her back. “I am sorry for the scratches. My talons aren’t exactly precision points, you know?”

She stood, walking toward the center of the room.

“Is it dead?” she asked, referring to the blue creature.

“Yes.”

She looked down, ashamed. She wished the beast didn’t have to die. It wasn’t his fault. He shouldn’t have been here. He shouldn’t have been caged. He shouldn’t have been captured at all. She thought of Zarek’s home planet. None of these creatures should have been there. They belong in their own homes, on their own planets, with their own families.

Zarek watched her as she thought. He approached her, putting his arm around her waist.

“It is not your fault,” he whispered into her ear. Several of her curls had fallen out of her ponytail. His words made the strands move, tickling her ear, sending chills down her neck, down her arms, down her back. She shivered. She had grown used to his nakedness, but suddenly it was different. She looked away from him, blushing.

“None of this is your fault,” he said. “I wish…”

He leaned closer, his warm breath tickling her ear again, her jaw, her neck. He drew back a little, his still smoldering eyes darkening.

“I wish…” he repeated, leaning in again, brushing his still hot lips over hers. She felt as if her lips would melt into his. She couldn’t help but kiss him back. She couldn’t help but push her lips farther into his. The tingling she had felt turned into a warm fire that spread downward, heating her core. He put the tips of his fingers on her neck, traced back to her ear, around her ear, down her cheek, then back to the side of her neck again. He started to pull away, but she wanted more. She pressed her lips against his again. He groaned, putting his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him, against his firmly muscled abdomen. He swiped his tongue against her lips parting them, tracing the sides of her tongue with the tip of his, then pulling his tongue out to trace her lips. She sighed. He groaned again, pulling her even closer. Then, he pulled away.

“I wish…” he repeated hoarsely, turning away.

She watched him as he faced the door to the aquarium. Then, she saw movement in the control room. Robert was watching them. She wondered how long he had been there. He scanned his ID badge and door opened. Her father entered the anteroom behind Robert. They simply stood in the anteroom, though, even after the blue lights stopped flashing.

What were they waiting for?

She soon found out what they were waiting for when the armed men dropped from ropes out of a hole in the ceiling. Once on the ground, the men pointed their guns at Zarek. Zarek held his hands up. Robert and Raymond entered the room. The military men inched closer and closer to Zarek, circling around him.

“Stop!” Aubrey shouted. None of the men responded to her. They didn’t even look toward her. “Don’t hurt him!”

Aubrey’s father hurried toward her. He grabbed her by the arm, digging his fingers into her skin.

“Shut up!” he commanded.

“But he didn’t do anything but save me!” she cried. “He saved me!”

“I said, shut up, Aubrey! Shut up!”

By then, he had dragged his daughter to the door of the control room.

“Please, don’t let them hurt Zarek!” she cried as he shoved her into the anteroom after Robert. He followed her in. She beat on the glass door as it shut, her father holding her back.

The men began beating Zarek. She watched as he knelt in front of them. They hit his shoulders, kicked his stomach, slammed the barrels and stocks of their guns against his back. She watched as he slumped to the ground, bleeding and bruised.

She tried to breathe slowly, like he taught her. If she had any chance, if Zarek had any chance, she would have to calm down enough to tell her father what was going on.

She took a few more breaths before beginning to explain. “Zarek and his people are a peaceful race. Their world was destroyed. They found an area in New Mexico where they thought they could settle. It’s a desert, just like their home planet. It’s abandoned. No one lives there. His people just wanted a place to settle. They don’t want to hurt anyone. The only reason Zarek escaped this room, the only reason he turned into a dragon and caused so much damage, was to save me from that beast upstairs.”

“And?” her father glared down at her.

“And, he saved me, your only daughter, from death,” she repeated, trying to hold her temper in check. A cold, hard truth hit Aubrey in that moment. She finally saw her father for what he was—a repulsive tyrant. She wanted to spit at him.

“A death that would have been completely your fault,” he stared into her eyes as he said this.

She couldn’t hold her temper any longer. “He saved your only daughter and you don’t give a shit. I know I’m not perfect. I never have been. I never will be. But, I’m your damned daughter. This man saved my life! You are the president of this company and you have the chance to save his life. If you are any kind of father, any kind of man, you will return his favor and spare his life.”

She had taken a step closer to him, had looked up into his face, had met his eyes. He stared back for a second before slapping her across the face. As she reeled backward, her father turned toward the military men and Zarek. Zarek, Aubrey noticed, had seen the blow. Zarek’s skin was starting to turn into green scales. His fingers were becoming talons.

“I knew you were going to blow it,” her father spat on the ground in front of her before scanning his ID and entering Zarek’s enclosure.

“Enough!” he yelled to the men. “We need to keep him alive. We still need samples.”

Aubrey saw Zarek start to lunge toward her father. He held himself back, though, forcing himself to breathe, forcing his scales to retreat back into his human form.

Chapter Seven

Surprisingly, Aubrey’s father didn’t fire her. He did, however, make sure she was assigned more tasks. She had been volunteering to stay late, but now, she was ordered to stay late. She was in charge of both the day and evening sample-collecting and feeding, as well as the cage-cleaning, a task that was usually performed by low-level interns. She, the leading female biologist in the country, was in charge of cleaning cages. Every day. Every evening. No weekends off. There was one advantage to this situation, though. She got to spend more time with Zarek. In fact, every night since the event, she had been staying past ten o’clock so she could linger in Zarek’s enclosure. Tonight, a week after the incident, was no different.

“Your wounds are healing quickly,” she observed, looking at the fading bruising on Zarek’s arms and the shrinking gouges on his chest and shoulders. They sat in their usual spot, the shady corner of Zarek’s aquarium, in their usual position, facing each other cross-legged. The enclosure had been repaired. The walls had been reinforced with extra layers of glass.

“Yours, too,” he said softly.

Aubrey looked at him quizzically.

“The ones on your back,” he clarified. “I sense less pain in you every day.”

“They are healing. You can sense my pain?” she asked. She had often sensed his pain, had even felt it occasionally, but she had been too embarrassed to tell him.

“Yes,” he answered her. “But the real question is, how do you sense my pain?”

Aubrey sat up straighter. “How did you know?”

“Parizakians can sense things in others. We can sense physical sensations and emotions. Humans can’t do this, correct?”

“Correct,” Aubrey answered. “Well, mostly correct. I mean, some humans have more empathy than others, but no, humans can’t sense anything with much intensity.”

“You sensed my pain when you put the needle in my vein.”

“Yes…”

“You saw my stories.”

“Yes…,” Aubrey answered. “But that’s not normal for a human.”

“Why does your father treat you so cruelly?” Zarek asked, showing that he sensed more than her physical pain.

“I don’t know,” Aubrey said, looking down at her hands.

“Come here,” Zarek held up his arm indicating for her to move beside him. She tentatively did so. She wasn’t afraid of him, but she was afraid of her feelings for him. She was beginning to feel more than lust, and that “more than lust” was also more than impossible. He was an alien creature, and if things worked out, and she hoped for his sake they did, he would be returning to his own people very soon.

Aubrey sat stiffly, but as Zarek began caressing her arm and nuzzling his head into her hair, she relaxed. She felt her body melting into his.

“I’ll make a deal,” Zarek said. “If you tell me about your father, I’ll tell you more about my planet.”

Aubrey smiled. She had grown to love hearing about his planet.

“Deal,” she said.

“My Mom died when I was little,” she explained mechanically, using the same words she had used to tell the story to every psychologist she had ever visited. “I lived with my grandparents for a while. They were Brazilian, like my mom. Then, my grandfather died. He had a heart attack. My grandmother was aging, too. She couldn’t take care of me anymore. I moved back to the States to live with my dad. I don’t know why he hates me.”

“Aubrey,” Zarek put his fingers under her chin, raising her head so he could look into her eyes. She wanted so badly to close the gap between their lips. “Aubrey, tell me something you haven’t told twenty other people.”

Zarek put his hand over her heart before he continued. “Tell me something that comes from here.”

Aubrey slowly let out the breath she had been holding. She looked down again. “I think my dad hates me because I’m not worthy to be my mother’s daughter. My mother was beautiful. I can still see her in my mind, her dark hair shining, sparkling as the sunlight streams from the open balcony doors behind her.”

Aubrey looked up at Zarek, tears in her eyes. “Zarek, she was so beautiful, so, so, beautiful, and I’m—”

“Just as beautiful,” Zarek cut her off with a whisper. “Aubrey, you are absolutely the most beautiful female I have ever seen.”

Zarek closed the distance between their lips, kissing away the tears that had made it down to her mouth. Then, he pulled away, kissing her tear trails up to her lower eyelids. He drew her in for a hug, rocking her and holding her for a few moments. Then, she pulled away, wiping at her face with her fingers.

“Your turn,” she said, trying to smile, “You promised.”

“Alright,” he said, clearing his throat. “My mother and father found each other early, even for Plarizakians. You see, we are born with mates, in a way. I believe the word is destiny. We each have a mate that is our destiny. There is a connection that we feel when we meet our destined mate. It is undeniable. We can feel our mate’s pain; we can sense their emotions, but it is more than that. When we feel the pain and emotions, we feel it as though the feelings are ours, too. It is like we are that person. Their experiences are our own. It is intense.”

“But—” Aubrey said, remembering how she had felt Zarek’s pain and experienced his memories as if they were all her own.

“Allow me to finish,” he said, laying back, pulling her down beside him. She nuzzled into his side. “Most Plarizakian mates meet in their teens, some as late as their twenties, but my parents met when they were four. They were always inseparable. They especially loved playing Claxianica.”

“What’s—?” Aubrey tried to ask.

“Shhh,” Zarek shushed her. “It’s a game we play while we’re in dragon form. It’s like juggling and baseball and basketball and acrobatics all in one. Anyway, they would always play this game, but as they grew older, my father’s friends would tease him for playing the game with a girl. No Claxianica team had a girl member then, but my mother was quite good at the game. So good that, other teams started picking up girl members. My dad was always so proud of her. He told us stories about their games all the time.”

“You said ‘us’,” Aubrey pointed out. “Were you talking about your brother, too?”

Zarek’s eyes went dark. His voice was deeper. “Yes, my brother. He was nine when the Nefarianics attacked. I tried to save him. I was leading him to the ship. I was trying to help him avoid the Nefarianics, but…I… I couldn’t save him. It was my fault.”

Aubrey rose enough to lean on her elbow. “Zarek, it wasn’t.”

Zarek looked down. “It was.”

“Oh, Zarek,” Aubrey whispered, leaning toward him. She kissed his lips. Then, she kissed along the cut of his jawline, and down his neck. He placed his hand firmly on the back of her neck, pulling her lips back to his and keeping them there.

“Don’t stop,” he whispered between kisses.

Aubrey didn’t stop. She pushed her lips harder into his, parting his lips with her tongue. She ran the tip of her tongue along the side of his, withdrawing it to trace his lips again. He leaned over, guiding her head to rest on his other arm, which was still on the ground. He pulled his lips away from her, tracing a path up her jaw to breathe lightly in her ear. He twisted a loose strand of her curly hair around his finger and traced her jugular firmly with his tongue, biting lightly on the base of her neck, sending shivers of pleasure through her.

“You are so, so beautiful,” he whispered hoarsely, looking up at her. She looked back into his heavy, sensually-darkened eyes.

“Zarek,” she whispered through lips that felt swollen. “You said mates sense each other as if they are the same.”

“Yes,” he answered, unbuttoning her dress shirt, pushing the cup of her bra down, and taking her breast in his hand, leaning down to trace the edges of her nipple with his tongue.

“But when I felt your pain and saw your memories, I felt as if they were mine,” she said.

“I know,” he said, taking her nipple between his lips. She gasped. Her back arched. She closed her eyes.

“But, does that mean,” she finally exhaled the words.

“Shhhh,” he said. She obeyed. She couldn’t speak, anyway. He pulled her shoes off as she sat to take off her top layers of clothing. When she was completely naked, he ran his hands down the length of her sides. His gaze followed his hands, a look of awe in his eyes. As he caressed her ribs, her waist, her full hips, her inner thighs, he looked at her as though she really was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. His kisses followed the center of her torso, down to her belly button, down to her abdomen, down to her hips. He pushed her legs apart, gently caressing her inner thighs with his thumb.

Aubrey breathed in sharply through her teeth, reaching down to lace  her fingers with his free hand as her hips moved up, wanting him. He stroked the fingers of his other hand farther up her thighs. His index finger caressed her lower lips, slick with her desire. Then, his tongue did the same. A molten heat shot through her core as his tongue caressed her small bud of nerve endings. She raised her hips against his tongue, entangling her fingers through his hair.

Finally, he slid his finger inside her. She released a low moan at the intense spike of pleasure. His tongue continued to circle her clit as his finger slowly caressed her vaginal walls by sliding in and out. His tongue flicked firmly, and she bucked against him. She couldn’t wait. She had to have him inside her—now. She tugged on his hand, trying to get him to rise. He obeyed, bringing his face near hers, nuzzling into her neck so he could kiss and lick and lightly bite.

Then, he entered her. His alien member was large, larger than a human male, but felt unbelievable—like nothing she’d experienced before. She cried out in ecstasy from the most intense pleasure she had ever felt.

“You are so beautiful,” his voice was thick and gruff, sex roughened. His incredibly hard shaft moved with short strokes, deeper and deeper inside her. She grasped his hips, feeling the muscles of his ass tighten and loosen with each stroke. Her hips rose and fell in perfect rhythm.

“You are so beautiful,” he repeated. Then, he added the word “mate.”

Aubrey gasped. Had he just said “mate”? Perhaps she wasn’t thinking straight. Her body was taking over her mind. The tingling in her core became waves of pleasure until, finally, the tension broke. Orgasmic waves rushed through Aubrey’s body. She exhaled, her eyes clenched shut, her head back. But the pleasure didn’t stop, Zarek kept moving in and out of her, throbbing inside her, her over-sensitized nerve endings picking up on each movement. Aubrey looked up at Zarek. He looked down at her, their gazes held, his dark hair slick with sweat, his eyes dark with pleasure. Suddenly, she felt his pleasure, too, and as he found his release, she came for the second time.

Chapter Eight

Aubrey hurried through her duties the next day. She couldn’t wait to get back down to visit Zarek. Finally, at ten o’clock that night, Aubrey entered the control room that led into Zarek’s enclosure, expecting him to be standing next to the door as he usually was. Zarek, though, was sitting in his shaded corner.

Aubrey scanned her badge and entered the anteroom, suddenly wondering if Zarek was regretting the events of the previous night. For her, being with Zarek had been the most intensely pleasurable experience of her life, but maybe the experience hadn’t been the same for him.

Was I that bad? Aubrey asked herself as the second door slid open.

Zarek remained in his corner, looking up only as she approached him. His arms were wrapped around his knees. There was no trace of joy in his eyes. In fact, he looked agitated.

“Zarek,” she asked him softly. She remained standing. “Are you okay?”

“They are coming,” he said.

“Who’s coming?”

“My people. They are close. I can feel it.” Finally, he stood, his six-foot frame towering over her. She took a step back.

“But—” she stopped herself, not knowing what to say. What could she say? That she wanted him to stay? That she wanted him to live in a cage for the rest of his life just so she could have the pleasure of being with him? No. She didn’t want that for him.

Zarek took a step forward. Aubrey flinched.

“Aubrey,” he whispered, looking at her. His eyes cleared as if he were seeing her for the first time since she had entered the room. She ”ried to relax as he approached her. He put his arms around her, drawing her toward him.

“What about—” she started, paused, then started again. “What about us?”

“I don’t know Aubrey,” he said, his cheek resting on her head. “I don’t know.”

Aubrey clenched her eyes shut, willing herself not to cry.

“Except,” he pulled away from her, still holding onto her shoulders. “There might be a way, but…”

“But what?” Aubrey asked pleadingly. If there was a way she would take it.

“My people won’t take prisoners. They will kill anyone who stands in the way of rescuing me. But, if you don’t stand in their way, if you helped me...

“I could, perhaps, talk to them,” he continued, “Maybe there would be a way for us. I don’t know, but it is worth a try. Anything is worth a try. Aubrey, I want to be with you. Help me escape. Meet me here at midnight tomorrow night. Don’t come before then.”

“Why?” Was he trying to trick her? Did he want to get a chance to escape before midnight, before she knew where he was going? Was he trying to escape from this building, this planet, as well as from… her?

Aubrey thought. She had worked so hard to be here. What if Zarek did escape? What if they couldn’t be together? Worse, what if he was just using her to escape? Not only would her career be ruined, she would be ruined. She didn’t know if her spirit could survive that kind of devastation. But, what choice did she have? She couldn’t allow him to live in a cage.

What if he was the man she thought he was? Hoped he was.

Regardless, he deserved freedom, whether or not she had a chance of being with him outside the confines of this lab, he deserved freedom. Still, she was scared.

“Fine,” she said, looking down.

“What?” he asked as if he hadn’t expected her to agree.

“I’ll do it,” she said, looking up into his eyes again. Once again, she was unsure of the thoughts his eyes held. Did he care about her? She looked down at her own body. She looked at his body. How could he?

But what if he did? Her body tensed. She had to get out of here. She had to think without him right in front of her. She would help him, but she had to prepare herself for—for the worst.

“You don’t believe I want to be with you, do you?” he asked her, lifting her chin up. She couldn’t look at him, though.

“It doesn’t matter,” she answered. “I’ll help you anyway.”

“It matters. It matters to me. I want to be with you,” he said. “I love you, Aubrey Moss.”

As much as she had been looking forward to this moment, she couldn’t say the words back. She couldn’t let herself say the words back. She wasn’t ready to let herself believe him. Instead of speaking, she leaned up, kissed him for what might have been the last time, and turned around, exiting into the anteroom, into the control room, and up the stairs. She didn’t look back.

Chapter Nine

Aubrey waited, her legs shaking, her hands trembling. It was ten minutes before midnight. The fate of her life, of her love, was on the line, and all she could do was wait. She couldn’t stand it any longer. She rose from her chair in the Earth-animal lab. She walked through the extra-terrestrial creature lab, looking down into Zarek’s enclosure but seeing nothing in the spot that the circular viewing area covered. She kept moving, swiping her ID badge near the far door that led to the stairs. She swiped her ID badge again at the control-room door. Two men stood at the control panels. They were pushing buttons and turning levers.

“Maybe it’s this one,” of the men said, reaching for a button on the side of the control panel.

“No!” Aubrey shouted, lunging toward him to try to grab his arm.

The men turned. Jandric grabbed her wrists as Virlek put his arm around her neck, his forearm against her windpipe.

Aubrey choked, trying to speak. Talons began growing out of Jandic’s fingers. He raised his hand back, about to strike Aubrey across her face, about to tear her apart, ending her.

Then, the glass doors and observation windows that led into Zarek’s enclosure shattered, the glass flying into the control room. A piece caught Aubrey’s cheek. Another piece caught Virlek’s wrist. He released his hold on Aubrey. Sirens blared.

“Not her!” Zarek growled over the noise. He stood in front of them as he transformed back into his human. “Not her!”

“They’ll be coming now!” Aubrey screamed, running into the enclosure, looking up at the glass so she could see upstairs. “They’re here.”

She watched Jandric, Virlek, and Zarek transform into huge dragons, even as they exited the chamber and climbed the stairs.

“I have the key,” she shouted, running to keep up. They let her squeeze by, but crowded past her as the upstairs lab door opened. The men finished transforming as they walked through the second door and into the large lab. She heard the pellet sounds of gunfire. She heard the woosh of fire as it escaped the dragons’ lungs. Breaking glass and clattering metal. She peeked around the door in time to see Jandric strike a soldier. The man, his face torn to shreds, fell over the metal railing, landing with a thud on top of Zarek’s enclosure. Aubrey screamed as a soldier pointed his gun up toward Zarek’s tender throat. Virlek followed her gaze, saw that his friend was in trouble, and lunged for the soldier. The soldier’s body followed his comrade’s, landing on the glass of the lower enclosure.

The soldier hadn’t fallen before his shot hit Zarek, though. The massive dragon fell to the ground. More soldiers fired at him, though many of the bullets were deflected by Zarek’s scales. As he lost consciousness, Zarek’s body began transforming back into a man’s body. Aubrey whimpered. Jandric and Virlek tried to help their fallen friend, but they were busy struggling with their own attackers. The soldiers’ attention on Zarek seemed to fade after he transformed. Instead, the soldiers concentrated on the larger threats—the dragons.

Aubrey lowered herself to her hands and knees and crawled to Zarek. If she could just get him through the door, he would be safe, at least for a little while. No one else in the building had authorization to pass through that door. She tugged at his foot, then his arm, but she couldn’t drag him on her own.

“Wake up, Zarek,” she said as she shook his shoulders. She touched his face. His eyes opened. “I need your help.”

He groaned, but began to stir. She looked down at his neck. He hadn’t been shot in the neck. The bullet had entered in his shoulder. Another had entered in his arm. She looked down. He had been shot in the leg, too.

“We need to get you to that door,” she pointed. He nodded, pushing himself up with his healthy arm. She put his healthy arm around her shoulder, but he cried out in pain as his chest muscles tightened, tugging on the wound on his other shoulder. She cringed. “We have to hurry.”

He nodded again, leaning against her and hobbling toward the door, gushes of blood seeping from his leg wound with every step. Finally, they got to the door. He collapsed as they exited the anteroom.

“I’ll be right back,” she told him, running down the stairs.

When she came back upstairs, she found that Zarek had lost consciousness again. Beads of sweat coated his body, he felt cold and clammy. He was going into shock. She did the only thing she knew to do. She began working on his wounds, wondering what was going on in the other room, hoping the man she loved would survive his own rescue.

It would be better to lose him to freedom, she thought, than to death.

Chapter Ten

As Aubrey tended to Zarek’s wounds, wiping away the blood, digging for the bullets, sewing the torn flesh back together, she realized the wounds weren’t as bad as she had thought. The bullets hadn’t penetrated deeply. The skin wasn’t torn as badly as she’d first suspected. Actually, the wounds seemed to be getting better as she tended to them.

Must be the dragon skin and scales, she guessed as she sewed up the last hole.

Still, his body was in shock. But, they didn’t have time for shock. There was still a war raging on the other side of the door, and even if his friends won this battle, there were sure to be military reinforcements on their way. No, none of them had time for shock. What could she do?

Aubrey took the smelling salts out of her bag, cracked one open, and held it under Zarek’s nose.

Zarek’s nose scrunched. His eyes open. He pushed the salts away.

“What is that?” he asked. “That is repulsive.”

“And that is the point,” Aubrey answered, a grin spreading across her face. “It’s smelling salts. We use them to wake people up after they have lost consciousness.”

“Lost—” Zarek suddenly sat up, flinching as he did so. “I lost consciousness? How long? Where are Jandric and Virlek?”

Zarek reached for his now dressing-covered wounds.

“We’ve haven’t been in here for more than fifteen minutes or so.”

Zarek stood. He flinched a little as he stepped on his wounded leg, but he didn’t favor it much. He touched the door with his palms, resting his cheek against the metal. He closed his eyes.

Finally, he looked back at her. “Not good. There are so many casualties, so many wounded, so much blood.”

Zarek shook his head. “We must get out of here. The rest of my people are waiting in Virginia.”

“Virginia? Where in Virginia?”

Zarek shook his head again. “I don’t know the name of the place. I can sense them, though.”

“How did you know it’s Virginia, then?”

“My people saw a large sign. This other place does not have a large sign.”

“Great,” Aubrey deadpanned. “A town in Virginia without a large sign.”

“Yes,” Zarek agreed in all seriousness.

Aubrey knew her priority should only be getting Zarek to safety, but she couldn’t keep her own feelings entirely subdued. She didn’t want to have to say goodbye to him. She didn’t want him to leave her.

“Zarek,” she asked softly. “What if they don’t accept me? Can’t you just stay here with me? We could go somewhere where no one would find us. We could—”

Zarek turned to face her. He put his arms around her, pulling her to him.

“No, we could not,” Zarek said sadly. “We could never get away from these people. We would be hunted for the rest of our lives until they found us, you know that.”

Zarek pulled back, still holding her shoulders but now looking into her eyes. “My people will accept you. Will you come with me? Please?”

“Yes,” she answered him in less than a second. What did she have to lose, now? Not nearly as much as she had to gain. She smiled. “Yes, I will come with you.”

“I don’t know how we’re going to get out of here, though.” Aubrey said, pulling away from him and starting to walk towards the door. Zarek held onto her arm.

“We must wait,” Zarek told her. “Jandric and Virlek need a little more time to clear a path for us—a half of an hour maybe.”

Aubrey sighed. She didn’t know if she could wait that long. Adrenalin was still pumping through her veins. She’d have a hard time waiting just ten minutes. Zarek took a step toward her. He winced again when he stepped down with his wounded leg. She should check his wounds again. They would have a long ride ahead of them when they got out of here.

“Sit down,” she told him. “I want to check the wounds again.”

“I’m fine,” he said.

“Please,” she replied. “I’m not good at waiting. Plus, I really should check those again, just to be sure.”

Zarek sat, but realizing she couldn’t get to the wounds with him in that position, she nudged him down all the way. She peeled back the dressing on his leg wound. It was seeping blood, but not much, it looked as though it was healing unusually fast- by human standards, anyway. So, she just changed the gauze. She repeated the routine for his arm and shoulder. The entire process took only five minutes. They still had twenty-five minutes to wait.

She looked down at her handiwork, but found that she couldn’t keep her eyes on the gauze. Zarek was still naked, and even though a battle raged on the other side of the door, even though she knew they would have to be ready to bolt through the lab and find a way to get to Virginia, she was suddenly and acutely aware off his perfectly-sculpted, heavily-muscled naked body. She inhaled. Reached down, she tracing his pec muscles with the tips of her fingers. She did love him, even if she hadn’t said it aloud, she hoped he could sense it.

Zarek reached up, tucking the loose strands of her hair behind her ear. He traced the ridges of that ear. Then, he traced the lobes. He caressed the hollow behind her ear. Her eyes fluttered closed as he put his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her down toward him.

What was she doing? Seducing him while a battle was being fought, while people were dying only yards away? Yes. Yes, she was, because what if they didn’t make it out of here? What if they died? She knew exactly how she wanted to spend the last minutes of her life. She willingly pressed her lips to his.

He pushed the lapels of her blazer back. She shrugged her blazer off as his fingers worked to unbutton her dress shirt, exposing her bra. He leaned up, but flinched as he put weight on his shoulder.

“Let me do the work this time,” she whispered, reaching back to unhook her bra before standing and stripping off her shoes, her pants, and her underwear. As she stood above him, she looked down at his eyes. He was hungrily watching her every movement. His amber and green eyes traced over every inch of her body as his fingers and tongue had done a few nights before. Never had she felt so desired, and she reveled in it.

Aubrey leaned back down, running her lips, her tongue and her teeth over Zarek’s lips, then his jawline, then his neck, his chest, his abdomen. She was keenly aware that their time was limited, but she wanted to savor every inch of him. What if this was their last chance to be together? She pushed that thought from her mind, trying to concentrate on the moment- on being present for every second of pleasure with this man… dragon… beast… alien creature.

She kissed his rippled abdomen, using her tongue to trace the v that ran down to his erection. She ran her tongue up the large vein on the underside of his length. He shuddered. His erection responded by tightening and growing even more. She took the tip in her mouth, using her tongue and cheeks to moisten it. Then, she slowly took more and more of him into her mouth, sliding up and down on his shaft each time she took him deeper. He groaned, his hips lifting, wanting more of her.

Aubrey rose, quickly kissing her way back up to his face. She rolled on top of him, caressed his shaft with her female juices, sliding back and forth, teasingly. As she bent to kiss him again, he grasped her hips and thrust into her warm, wet channel as far as she could take him. She moaned, her insides stretching in sudden, intense pleasure. They didn’t have time to prolong the pleasure, and she was already so close to climaxing, and from the sound of his breathing, so was he. He thrust his hips up and down in controlled, firm strokes. She sat up, matching his pace, bracing her hands on his abdomen.

He opened his eyes, and she met his gaze. Again, she saw his pleasure, felt his pleasure. She no longer had any doubt that he wanted to be with her as much as she wanted him. She had no doubt that he wanted her to escape with him. The knowledge made her tighten even more, clutching at him, tingles shooting through her nerve endings. She slid up and down, then wiggled forward and backward. She tried to keep her eyes open. She wanted to sense his pleasure, but her own was overwhelming her. She closed her eyes, expecting the shared pleasure to disappear, but it didn’t. She could sense him without even looking at him.

“Yes,” he said. “We can feel it without looking. You are so beautiful, my mate.”

That was more than she could handle. The waves of pleasure turned into a bursting climax. She wanted to shout out at the intensity of it. Then, when he began to release his seed in her, she did holler, his loud groans mixing with her cries of pleasure. Even afterward, she didn’t want him to stop. He didn’t want to stop, either. He kept moving up and down.

“We don’t have time,” she finally managed to whisper.

“I know,” he replied, moving a few times before opening his eyes. “But we will. We will have all the time we want very soon.” His hand caressed her cheek. “I promise.”

Chapter Eleven

“It’s time,” Zarek said. He stood with his hands against the door. Having been reminded of Zarek’s nakedness, Aubrey had retrieved an outfit from Robert’s locker in the control room. Needless to say, the clothes did not fit Zarek well. He had barely been able to pull the pants over his bulging thigh muscles and they rose about four inches above his ankles. The shirt was entirely too tight and gaped between the buttons, occasionally sliding up to expose his bellybutton. The shoes hadn’t worked at all, so Zarek was still barefoot.

Aubrey nodded, confirming she had heard Zarek. She scanned her ID badge in the slot near the door. When the second door slid open, it revealed a macabre scene. Bloody, torn, scorched, dead military men were slumped on the floor. Some bodies were draped over the railing. Other bodies were piled on the glass at the bottom of the opening in the center of the room.

“Jandric and Virlek aren’t here,” Zarek said, looking around as he jogged to the other side of the lab.

Aubrey and Zarek didn’t meet with any resistance as they made their way to the elevator. They didn’t meet with any resistance in the lobby, either. The entire building was eerily silent and empty. The security stations and reception areas were abandoned, their screens black. Jandric and Virlek had certainly cleared the way, but that wouldn’t last long.

“We can’t take my car,” Aubrey suddenly realized. “They’ll be looking for it.”

She stopped at the valet station, opening the cubby that held the keys. The keys hung on pegs, each peg labeled with a lot number. She chose a key to a car that was parked near the entrance of the parking garage. Fortunately, she had chosen well. The compact, silver Honda had a full tank of gas that should be  adequate to get them to their rendezvous destination.

Over four hours later, they arrived at the edge of a forest leading to the meeting spot. Aubrey parked the Honda on the side of a dirt road. She didn’t know if there were any access roads into the forest, so they would have to walk.

Aubrey and Zarek walked as quickly as they could through the trees and undergrowth. Finally, they arrived at a clearing. Aubrey froze, staring at the enormous ship. Its triangular running lights looked as though they were made of a kind of gelatinous substance from what Aubrey could surmise. They emitted a pulsing, green glow. The ship, too, was triangular. A door was open under the bulky ship, and a ladder hung from the door to the ground. Two men stood at the bottom of the ladder. Aubrey, still frozen in wonderment, stood still as Zarek ran to Virlek and Jandric, embracing them each in turn. Zarek motioned for Aubrey to join them.

“The others are waiting for us,” Aubrey heard Jandric say as she approached. “They know about your mate. They’re waiting to meet her, too. They are very grateful, Aubrey. We all are.”

Aubrey smiled and was about to say something in return, but she saw movement in a corner of the clearing. Pairs of headlights, one after another until there were hundreds, were making their way into the clearing, surrounding the ship.

The Plarizakians started toward the door of the ship, but the vehicles were too quick. A large SUV speedily approached the small group. Military men climbed out from the back seat and hatch section. A tall, rotund man stepped down from the passenger seat.

The man was Raymond Moss, Aubrey’s father.

“Kill them all,” he said. He looked straight into his daughter’s eyes when he repeated, “All of them.”

Aubrey watched as her father spoke, unable to believe that even a man as cold-hearted and cruel as her father could utter such words.

“Get behind me!” Zarek hollered to her. Aubrey turned and ran behind the transforming dragons. She watched as Zarek shifted into a green dragon with thick scales and leathery wings. His majesty, even under these circumstances, was awe-inspiring. A rush of fire shot out from somewhere in front of her. She watched as Jandric, now a thick, stocky black dragon, spewed fire on the military men. Virlek, too had transformed, and was hovering above the enemy, reigning down torrents of fire, his dark blue body darting back and forth in the air. Zarek remained on the ground, fighting in front of Aubrey, trying to protect his mate.

The military men wasted no time firing their own rounds on the dragons, but most of the bullets simply ricocheted off the dragons’ scales and back toward the soldiers. One hit Zarek’s scales at an angle, though, and instead of flying back toward where it had come from, the bullet bounced and slid over Zarek’s scales. It made a path straight for Aubrey, lodging itself into her chest.

Aubrey felt searing pain. A moment later, she heard a gut-wrenching dragon-scream, and within the next few seconds she slipped into blackness.

Chapter Twelve

Aubrey’s eyes fluttered open. She tried to open them completely, but the white light was too bright and her head hurt.

Am I dead? she wondered.

“Where am I?” she asked aloud, her voice emerging in a dry croak.

“Shhhh,” she heard a female voice hush her.

“Where am I?” Aubrey repeated, louder this time.

“Hush,” the voice said again. “You need rest.”

“Where is Zarek?” she asked, finally forcing herself to open her eyes. All she could see was white light. It burned her eyes and she squinted, but she kept them open. The woman didn’t answer this time.

“Where is Zarek?” Aubrey repeated, the volume and pitch of her voice rising. “Where is he?” What if he was hurt? What if they killed him?

Aubrey tried to sit, but a woman approached her and pushed down on her shoulder.

“You really need to rest.” The woman wore a white coat. Aubrey guessed she was a nurse or doctor.

“Tell me where Zarek is. I’ll rest when you tell me that.” Aubrey’s anger was rising. She tried to push against the woman’s hand, tried to sit up despite her wound. She flinched as her chest muscles tightened. Still, she kept trying to sit up.

Aubrey heard a door open. The door seemed to appear out of thin air.

What kind of hospital is this? Aubrey wondered.

The figure in the doorway was just a dark outline at first. Then, the shadow stepped in and the door closed. Aubrey tried to focus her eyes on the figure, but had a hard time making out its features. Then, the figure took a few steps forward.

Zarek.

Aubrey tried even harder to sit up.

“Careful, mate,” Zarek’s deep, wonderful voice reached her from across the room. “You need rest.”

Aubrey stopped struggling. She laid her head back on the pillow.

“I’ll watch over her for a bit,” Zarek told the nurse. The woman nodded and exited through the door Zarek had used to enter.

Zarek held Aubrey’s hand. He bent to kiss her. The feeling of his hand on hers, of his lips on her lips, calmed her more than anything else possibly could have.

“Where am I?” she asked.

“You’re on a hospital ship,” he said. “Virlek, Jandric, and I brought you here as soon as we left Earth. They say you’ll have to stay for a few weeks, so we docked my ship in a bay for now. We’ll stay with you as long as you’re here. Then, when you’re healed, we’ll head back to lead the caravan. My people have found a completely unsettled planet. We’ll colonize it. We’ll have a home.”

Zarek paused before continuing. He looked into Aubrey’s eyes. “You’ll have what you have never had the pleasure of experiencing. We’ll start a family.”

“I would really, really like that, Zarek,” she responded, smiling from ear to ear.

“I know,” he said his face breaking into a grin to rival her own, “So would I.”

He bent down to kiss her, and she was overwhelmed with a feeling of contentment.

“I can’t wait to get started on making that family,” he grinned, pulling away. “but, you need to heal first.”

She sighed in disappointment.

“Awww, am I healed yet?” she asked, smiling.

“I wish,” Zarek said, his bulging hardness apparent under his uniform pants.

THE END

Want to read more? This is book 1 in a two-book set. Book 2, Virlek, can be found in Amazon’s Kindle store.

OFFICER BEAR

STORY DESCRIPTION

Major Chad Matthews is a soldier's soldier.

He’s made a name for himself in the Air Force by doing things better, faster, and with more confidence than the next soldier.

It hasn’t always been easy for him to hide the fact that he’s a bear shifter, but he’d managed.

When he was assigned to teach survival skills at the Air Force Academy, he had no plans to change his staunch, uncompromising approach to life and to his career.

No plans at all.

So, when the tough and sexy Doctor Brenna Thiel is placed as his medical consult, the sparks immediately begin to fly.

And not the good kind.

He thinks she's unreasonable and inexperienced, she thinks he's arrogant and impossible.

Neither one suspects they'll fall for the other.

Neither one could have been more wrong...

CHAPTER 1

Brenna

I was under no illusions about my new colleague

When I heard I’d be working with Chad Matthews, I knew exactly what to expect. I’d heard the stories. I knew dozens of men like him during my military career.

I’m not saying all military men are arrogant assholes— not by a long shot. And I’m not saying I don’t know any good ones. I do. A lot of them.

All I am saying is that Chad Matthews isn’t one of them, and I was dreading every minute of working with him. No ifs, ands, or buts.

That being said, it didn’t matter what I felt about it. My assignment was my assignment. As a relatively new medical school graduate and a Captain in the U.S. Airforce, I didn’t have a lot of sway with the higher ups.

So, I was stuck being the medical advisor for the survival training class.

I had nothing against the cadets needing to learn survival techniques. It wasn’t that long ago that I’d done my own training — it was a required component. What I wasn’t crazy about was getting stuck with a job no one wanted simply because I was the new face on the block.

The reason no one wanted the job was because the bulk of the program would take place in the foothills of the mountain during the hottest, driest, part of the season. No one in their right mind wanted to be outside roughing it then.

The reality was, though, I could be as unhappy about it as I wanted — it wasn’t going to change a damn thing.

Chad

It was good to be back in the States.

Not that I minded the long deployments. Not really. They kept me on my toes.

Kept me in touch with that part of me I always had to curb. That part that was always hungry for something just beyond my reach. And, it managed to keep me in check, too. Always there, right under the surface, ready to come to the forefront in a moment of need.

But coming home was nice, too. Especially, after the recognition I’d received for my most recent tour, and with the cushy interim assignment I’d been given at the Academy, where I would be teaching the thing I loved the most.

Survival.

Skills.

The things the cadets would need to know if their plane went down and they were on their own in the middle of nowhere.

It could happen to anyone, no matter how much experience you had or how good you were. It happened every damn day. And if I was the one to give these men and women the knowledge that could save their lives, you better believe I was going to take pride in giving it.

I would have liked it better if I could go at the job alone, without a medical advisor. That was just how I was — a lone wolf, so to speak. And I didn’t need someone else there telling me things I already knew.

I’d done my best to have her position removed, but apparently a medical doctor was required while doing ongoing survival simulations.

Something about unexpected catastrophic injuries and negative experiences in the past.

I argued that I could triage with the best of them and that it was almost the same thing as having a doctor on site, but that hadn’t changed the final verdict.

Overruled.

I was stuck working with a newbie doctor. Zero combat experience. Fresh out of med school. A woman with literally no experience surviving anything other than midterms and boards.

I couldn’t wait to hear all her “expert” advise. It was bound to be six weeks of pure torture.

So far I’d been able to avoid coming face to face with her, though she had been pointed out to me once in a near miss, dressed for PT with her dark hair up in a ponytail.

I hadn’t paid much attention to her beyond that. And I figured I would have my fill of her soon enough, so no need to rush anything.

I was in the middle of praising myself for my ability to skulk around the campus without having had to engage in any kind of conversation with my soon-to-be-coworker when I heard the sound of a clearing throat behind me.

I knew who it was immediately, even before I turned to see her standing in the doorway, and it served me right for getting all cocky about having avoided her.

Damn if she didn’t smell sweet and fresh, like a garden in bloom right after a heavy rain, and I resented that fact immediately. I didn’t want to have to be reminded of her femininity, how far removed she was from the reality of the survival course out in the field.

“Major Matthews?” she asked, and I equally resented the sound of her voice, husky, sure, and no-nonsense.

I frowned. This was absolutely not what I needed.

“Yes?” I asked, not at all hiding my impatience.

“Dr. Brenna Thiel,” she said, giving a little acknowledgement of my seniority with the dip of her head before thrusting her hand out toward me and waiting for me to take it.

I did. I didn’t want to. But, as our working relationship was going to be difficult enough already — I didn’t need to make it more awkward by leaving her hanging.

“I’ve been assigned as your medical consult,” she said. Her voice told me that she was about as thrilled with the idea of working with me as I was her.

“Correct,” I said, as though she’d asked me a question instead of stating a fact.

It didn’t faze her. “Classes begin next week and I was wondering if you wanted to discuss the medical histories of your cadets and the best way to structure the program —”

I cut her off. I didn’t need to hear any more of her pitch. “That won’t be necessary.”

“I would have preferred to do it earlier, but you’ve proven difficult to get ahold of.”

I suspect that was her code for unresponsive and refusing to return her emails or phone calls. “I have the program outlined just the way I want it. It’s proven and effective and I don’t feel it needs alteration in any way. Additionally, the medical backgrounds of the cadets will, in no way, play into the course.”

I could see her glowering, the corners of her mouth turned downward, and I couldn’t help but wonder how those lips might look if she weren’t glaring at me.

I had to rein myself in. It was apparent I was still adjusting to being home after the deployment. If this conversation was any indication I needed to get out and spend some time at the bars, maybe meet a pretty thing I wasn’t going to hate spending time with.

Maybe then I would stop studying the doctor like she was a woman I might want to take home. Maybe then I would stop noticing exactly how her voice rasped against my skin and the way sweet fresh way she smelled. Like wildflowers.

“Well,” she snipped. “I’m not entirely sure why you even have a consult and advisor on the team if you’re refusing to take any suggestions or input.”

I tried not to notice how her hands fit on her hips, or the way her uniform swelled over her curves.

All of that fell directly under the category of things I should, most definitely, not be paying any attention to at all.

“To be entirely honest, Captain, that makes two of us. I specifically requested several times to work the course alone and was denied repeatedly. It looks as though you and I are just going to have to make the best of the situation and accept the fact that neither of us will be enjoying our time together.”

“That certainly is what it looks like,” she said, before turning on her heel and storming away from me.

I couldn’t help watching her go.

And enjoying every second of it.

CHAPTER 2

Brenna

He was exactly how I thought he’d be.

Worse, actually.

An infuriating, frustrating ass. Yes, a total ass. A misogynistic, selfish, arrogant, ass.

I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.

Yet, I would be forced to see him daily. It would be imperative that we kept ourselves in check around the cadets. They didn’t need to see their superiors arguing. It set a bad precedent and I didn’t want to be responsible for setting free on the military an entire group of people just like Matthews.

God knows, one of him was more than enough.

I thought a run would help ease the hostility I was feeling, but in the end, when I stopped to catch my breath, hands on my hips, dripping sweat in the summer heat, it was worse than it had been when I started. After a quick shower, what I really needed was a drink.

It was good to wear something other than my issued clothes, but anything fancy was out of place for midweek at a local bar. Especially one where the food was barely passable and the liquor was watered down.

Not that I was going to enjoy it any less because of those things. That was exactly what I needed.

I pulled on my favorite pair of blue jeans and a cream colored tank top. I liked it because the color made me look more tan than I actually was. Not that it was going to matter once I was seated in the dimly lit bar, where most of the lighting came from neon lights advertising cheap beer.

A swipe of lip gloss and that was as good as it was going to get tonight. Flip flops, my bag, and my military I.D. and I was out the door.

I drove myself. Partly because I didn’t want to subject myself to any more physical activity in the heat, but mostly because it would be a good way to keep my drinking in check. I did not need to get hammered the week before classes started. I wasn’t the young thing I’d once been, and my recovery periods could now extend beyond 12 hours.

Way more.

The things you miss about youth.

Evening was just beginning to settle, the sky moving from blue to grey and into that pretty husky limbo between day and night. I found a parking spot and headed in.

I’d picked the bar I thought would be the least likely to attract anyone I knew. I didn’t want to hit the O Club and risk having to run into someone I’d need to have a civil, intelligent conversation with.

Not tonight. Tonight I just wanted the chance to be sullen and enjoy a drink.

I found a spot at the bar and ordered from the bartender, a good looking man in a tight shirt. Hmm, if I played my cards right, maybe I wouldn’t need to drive myself home after all.

He returned with my vodka and asked my name, but it turned out I wasn’t in as much of a mood to flirt as I thought.

I didn’t have the energy to keep a conversation with him going, and when he disappeared to take someone else’s order, he wasn’t eager to return to me.

So much for playing my cards right.

Chad

I pushed the door open. God, I needed a drink.

I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her, and it was pissing me off.

Everything about her had been irritating. The way she’d assumed she had some sort of expertise that she could provide me with. Even if I hadn’t been her senior, I would have been damn insulted by that. Didn’t she have any knowledge at all about my background and career?

Irritating didn’t even begin to describe it.

The bar was just what I needed. The heavy smell of smoke lingering in the air, the haze that came with people looking to get away, to forget who they were and where they were coming from.

Desperation, I suppose some people might call it.

But, I call it relaxation.

There was a brunette at the bar, her long hair tumbled down her back, the smooth skin of her back and shoulders mostly exposed. The scrap of a tank top she wore barely hid a tattoo that peeked out by her shoulder blade and then again just above the waist of her pants.

That was what I needed. I tried not to notice the incredible shape of her ass in those jeans on that stool.

I was moving toward her, intent on buying myself a drink and on buying her a drink too, I hoped. I needed to ease some of the frustration I’d been feeling since that encounter with Doc Thiel that morning.

Shit. I immediately resented the fact that I was thinking about her right now, right when I was in the midst of escaping her.

At first, I attributed that faint smell of wildflowers and sunshine to the unwanted memory of her. Until I sat down next to the woman at the bar, deliberately brushing up against her just enough so she might turn my way.

Fuck. It’s her.

The woman I’d spent an entire day stewing over.

The woman I had come here to forget about.

The woman whose ass I’d been eyeing the whole way across the bar.

Dr. Brenna Thiel, herself.

I stared blankly at her for a moment, unable to process the fact that moments before I’d been contemplating how I might take her home, peel the clothes off of her, and inspect that tattoo up close and personal.

Apparently, I didn’t recover quickly enough, because I watched her eyes narrow, her full mouth twisting down into a frown.

“Major,” she said in what I suppose was meant to pass as a strangled greeting.

“Doctor,” I said in return, knowing that the omission of her military rank was going to eek a rise out of her.

And liking the flash of heat and fire I saw snap in her eyes.

Damn. The woman was infuriating.

But, even knowing it was Brenna Thiel did nothing to mitigate the throb of desire I was feeling for her, the urge to run my hands through that hair and pull that killer body of hers close to mine.

I was going to need a double shot.

Silence stretched between us, and I was wondering if I should relocate, or even leave the bar altogether and just consider this night a failure when she sighed and began to talk.

“Listen,” she said, pushing a piece of hair behind her ear so I got an uninhibited view of the delicate shell of her ear, a series of little silver hoops through the lobe.

I tried to ignore pangs of desire that shot through me.

“I think we got off on the wrong foot. I’d like to start over with you. Whether we agree on things or not, we are going to have to work together, and I think it will be in our best interest and in the best interest of our cadets to display civility and respect towards one another despite our different views.”

My eyebrow arched upward.

That was certainly not what I had been expecting.

I watched her press down on her lower lip with her teeth and I had the sudden thought that I wished it was my lip instead.

Dammit. I wanted her. Fiercely.

It had been a long time since I’d had a woman, and of course it would be the one woman I shouldn’t have at all. The one woman I shouldn’t even consider wanting.

That seemed pretty par for the course these days.

“Alright, Captain. I think we can do that.” I knew I should stop there. I knew it, but instead I said, “Can I buy you a drink to celebrate our fresh start?”

She graced me with a genuine smile, and I thought my heart might stop beating.

“That sounds perfect.”

It did. I raised my hand to catch the bartender’s eye and waited for him to come and take my order.

I don’t think either one of had anticipated being out that late, but it was closing time when we finally headed out.

I hadn’t wanted to file away the sound of Brenna’s laughter, or the little face she would make when she was thinking.

But I knew it was happening, becoming a memory I was going to pull forward again and again. It didn’t matter if I wanted it to be a savored memory or not.

“Do you need a ride home?” I asked, as we walked into the parking lot.

“No, I’m good,” she said, flipping her hair back over her shoulder in an unmistakably feminine gesture that reminded me she was a woman first, doctor and soldier second.

I knew she probably was good to drive, but I still felt a little tinge of disappointment. Not that I was really sure what I thought might come from giving her a ride home. A torrid little tryst? A kiss goodnight on a front step like an actual date?

Neither one of those was going to happen, no matter how damn appealing I found them, and I cursed myself for even considering them.

She stopped walking next to a car I could only assume was hers and gave me another one of those heart-stopping smiles.

“Thanks for tonight, Major. I think we’re off to a good start.”

“I think you should call me Chad,” I said, not ready yet to have her disappear into the car.

She gave a little noncommittal sound and pulled open the door to the driver’s side. “Maybe,” she said, positioning herself so the door was separating us.

I stepped in toward her anyway, the door providing me with an excuse to stand closer than I should to her.

“Definitely.” I wanted to hear her say my name, see its shape on her lips.

God, I wanted that. Which was exactly why I needed to get away from Doctor Brenna Thiel.

“Goodnight,” she said, folding herself into the car and fastening her seat belt. She gave the smallest wave of her hand before starting the car and pulling away, leaving me in the parking lot watching her taillights disappear into the dark.

I stood there a moment longer, both wishing things had ended differently, and wishing I hadn’t let them go where they had.

Then I crossed the lot to my bike and pulled my helmet on, kicking the bike into gear, the sound of the engine drowning out the sound of my thoughts, at least for a little while.

CHAPTER 3

Brenna

I let myself sleep in later than I should have.

I figured I deserved it because I hadn’t let anything happen between Matthews and me last night.

And, somehow, somewhere along the way, it was like I’d forgotten what a total ass he was, and I’d desperately wanted something to ignite between us.

I knew I wasn’t alone in that desire — I’d seen it reflected in his eyes — but if that overture at the end of the night was any indication, I was certainly the more likely of the two of us to prevent it from happening.

I wasn’t sure if that was something to be proud of, or something to be resigned to.

I put him out of my mind as best I could and managed to make it through the next few days without our encounters hanging over my head.

I wasn’t going to be able to avoid it forever, though, because classes were about to ramp up and I’d see him daily.

It wasn’t going to be pretty, either. We’d be doing unpleasant simulations, and at the end of the six-week course, we’d have the mother of all survival experiences. The plan was to turn loose the cadets at the bottom of the mountain and let them rely on everything they’d learned to pull them through.

I’d seen sworn vegetarians kill a rabbit with their own hands at the end of a week of survival skills.

Major and I would be out there on the outskirts, watching them, aiming to be as undetectable as possible, just an emergency resource at their disposal. One more safeguard against a tragedy happening.

That meant he and I would be spending a lot of time together. Alone. Unsupervised. In the mountains. With nothing to do.

I was trying not to focus on that part of the course. I was pretty sure I could come up with a few ways we could keep ourselves occupied. And it wasn’t gin rummy.

I fought a growing desire to “accidentally” run into Chad Matthews. I threw myself into rounds at the hospital. I stayed late. I picked up shifts. I did whatever I could to avoid going home to my military issue two-bedroom apartment. Idle hands and all that.

But I was officially out of time.

Tomorrow, bright and early, I was going to be in a classroom with a list of cadets in front of me.

And a man beside me that I couldn’t seem to put out of my mind.

Chad

I had the distinct impression I was being intentionally avoided.

Not that I was broken up about it, or anything. The Captain was just one in a sea of pretty women I didn’t have time for. Yep, one more that I had no interest in using as anything more than a brief distraction.

I told myself that at least twice a day.

I also tried to kid myself into believing that I wasn’t looking forward to the coming week, when I would have the excuse to see her every day.

Not excuse. It wasn’t an excuse. It was a job requirement.

If I were being brutally honest with myself, I would have to admit that Brenna had totally derailed me. Since that night at the bar, I had only felt myself spiraling further and further from myself, the pull of the mountains and the night stronger than I wanted to admit.

It was part of the reason I had enlisted in the military. To learn to control it. To learn to dampen the urges and needs that were rooted in my very soul.

But now, each step outside into the new summer air sent a tingle spiraling along my skin, had me on the very edge of my senses, all but sniffing the air like an animal.

I hadn’t felt this out of control since I was a teenager, dammit, and I wasn’t relishing the trip down memory lane.

A cold shower and two cups of biting hot coffee later, I was dressed and ready to meet the class.

The campus was a quick walk from temporary housing, where I had been put up over the summer. This wouldn’t be a long term position for me — just something to fill the stretching void between deployments. It looked good to my teams when I was overseas, and it looked good to the cadets when I was there at the Academy. The Air Force knew how to use its resources.

I’d been in the classroom the day before to make sure I had everything I’d need. I wasn’t a big believer in using a classroom for teaching something like survival. Anything I could teach in a classroom, they could learn themselves from a damn book. But, there were a few things we could go over for safety’s sake.

We’d spend the first week in there, max, then we would be out in the field, setting snares, starting fires, putting out fires, working without instrumentation… thinking about the syllabus had me excited all over again. We would do our best to address any and all of the scenarios they might find themselves faced with.

Maybe that was the way to keep Brenna out of the equation. Focus on the nitty gritty. Don’t engage her.

Certainly don’t think about that tattoo, or the incredible way she filled out a pair of jeans. Or that mouth.

Dammit. I hadn’t even seen her this morning and she was already consuming my thoughts.

This could prove to be the longest summer of my life. If I couldn’t get my bear under control.

She hadn’t arrived at the classroom yet, so I set about writing on the board organizing the handouts, and setting up my clipboard so I could call roll as soon as class started.

It was five minutes to the start of class and cadets were already arriving. Brenna hadn’t made her appearance yet.

I was beginning to wonder if she didn’t value punctuality, if she wasn’t planning on coming, or if she had somehow managed to get herself reassigned, when she arrived. She looked pleasantly flushed, like she’d been rushing to make it on time.

“Morning, Doctor,” I said when she approached, her feet tapping on the old linoleum floor.

“Morning, Major,” she murmured, her voice soft, making me think of early mornings and midnight confessions.

I passed copies of the paperwork in her direction. “I assume you’ll be sharing some basic info with the class about how they should handle themselves and their bodies in a survival scenario?”

“That’s correct,” she said, still not meeting my eyes and flipping through the paperwork she had brought. “Basic things they should know already, but we’ll go over it anyway.”

Her dark eyes found mine for the first time that morning, and I immediately thought of that last heated moment in front of her car at the bar, before she’d driven off into the night reminding me that I meant nothing to her.

Which was probably the cold, hard truth.

“Besides,” she continued, one finely shaped eyebrow lifting upwards, “I expect you’ll be going over everything I’d planned to cover anyway.”

I couldn’t help the grin I gave her, because she was correct. Whatever trauma protocol she was interested in giving them, I would cover without a filter.

I was going to go ahead and tell them all about emergency trachs and compound fractures. They deserved to know the worst of the truth before finding themselves wading through it all. Whatever clinical definition and direction Brenna was planning on giving them wasn’t going to do them a damn bit of good in the field.

I knew from experience. She had only controlled environments under her belt.

She probably hadn’t done half of the things I’d had to do, in environs beyond unsuitable for the task, with no tools to speak of.

But we weren’t in class to talk about my achievements or experiences. We were there to prepare the cadets for the career they’d chosen and the worst of the unforeseen circumstances.

Wherever we differed in opinion, I was sure we were on the same page there.

The clock struck the hour, and I turned to the class. I gave a brief introduction of both the doctor and myself before running roll.

With everyone accounted for, I outlined the expectations, further class locations, appropriate clothing and foot wear, and the syllabus.

Teaching cadets is sometimes like staring at a classroom full of children. You know they’re trying to process the information, but they’re distracted by every freaking thing.

Worse than children, maybe.

And if I caught one more fucking cadet staring at Brenna, I was going to be sending him into a survival sim he was most assuredly not going to enjoy.

I might not be able to make many promises during a survival class, but that was one thing I could state with certainty.

CHAPTER 4

Brenna

I’d somehow managed to make it through the first two weeks of the class without killing Matthews.

Or having sex with him.

So, as far as I was concerned, we were in pretty good shape.

We would meet wherever we were scheduled to meet, and it changed every time. Sometimes we were in a flat field. Sometimes we were in the shade of the craggy mountain. Frequently, wherever we were, we were caught in the growing heat of the Colorado summer in full gear. Hot and uncomfortable.

Everyone, that is, but Matthews who seemed to thrive under those conditions. The man looked like he was basking in the damn heat.

Meanwhile, I was melting into a pathetic puddle of existence. But I was just here as the consult, anyway. With a man like Matthews, that meant my position was entirely a formality.

A fact which he never let me forget.

Now that we were well into the program, we were coming up on our first overnight, and I had the sinking suspicion things were about to get real.

Our role as facilitators was clear. We weren’t there to hamper or interfere. We weren’t there to give direction.

We were there to navigate emergencies and give them a grade, and if they deserved it, a recommendation.

I was dreading the trip.

And, part of me was looking forward to it. Whether I liked to admit it or not.

I arrived on time with my duffel, just as expected, packed with all the things I was supposed to bring and nothing more. Major Matthews wasn’t one that would take kindly to fancy makeup brushes and clay facial masks.

I wasn’t surprised to find Matthews on site already, waiting for everyone else. He was shading his eyes against the sun, looking for all the world like he had just sprouted out of the earth, and was waiting for his moment to return to it.

He was breathtaking, if I were being honest, and it wasn’t the first time I had noticed. His clear grey eyes, the hard line of his jaw and strong brow.

He was exactly the kind of man you imagined might teach a survival course. Right down to that scruff on his cheek that had him constantly looking like he’d shaved twelve hours earlier. Not to mention his tan.

I definitely did not need to mention that. And I most definitely did not need to be thinking about tan lines.

“Major,” I said, stepping up next to him, depositing my duffel on the ground next to his. I was fairly certain he could wear his duffle indefinitely without breaking a sweat, but in this kind of heat, I was going to take advantage of every possible way to reduce the strain.

It wasn’t actually the heat, but the humidity, that was overpowering. It wasn’t usual during this time of the summer, but the weather reports showed clear skies and good weather.

Other than the heat, and the heavy humidity.

“Doctor,” he said, making a little check on the paper in front of him, next to what I could only assume was my name.

I hadn’t failed to notice that he only ever addressed me as Doctor. Never by my last name. Never by my first. Never by my rank. I guess he was consistent, if nothing else.

“Muggy today,” I offered, like an old man sitting on a front porch.

He looked out at the empty field in front of us, like he was considering it for the first time, like up until then it had somehow escaped his notice that the weather wasn’t fit for man or animal.

“I guess it is,” he said, and silence stretched between us.

It seemed to be how it always was, that underlying zing of tension that never went away, that barely concealed hunger that neither one of us wanted to address.

Well, I wasn’t sure that neither of us wanted to address it, but at least we both acknowledged we shouldn’t address it.

Sort of.

It wasn’t long before the cadets arrived, and after a quick equipment check we were on our way.

We were given a simulation scenario: the plane had gone down and each cadet was placed in a small group of three. They had between them rations for one day, no communication devices and no change of clothing.

Like everything about survival sims, it seemed pretty upfront. None of those stipulations presented as a deal breaker. We collected their phones as they arrived, and stored them in a single bag I was going to be in charge of.  The Major and I tossed ours in there for good measure.

And then we were on our way, a seven-mile walk scheduled before we hit the base of the mountain.

Matthews wasn’t from the area, and as far as I knew, he hadn’t spent much time up in the mountains, but when I’d looked at his sketch of how he thought the cadets would play out their sim, it certainly appeared that he’d spent an extended amount of time scoping out the area.

We were off at a nice clip, but by the time we had four miles under our belt we’d all started to drag.

All of us, except Matthews, of course, who looked just as fresh as the moment I’d first seen him in the field.

Damn that man. It was not fair that he could be trudging through this kind of heat and looking so fine, while I was all but dissolving.

I was more than ready for the shade that greeted us at the edge of the mountain. Not that I would ever admit that. I didn’t need to give Matthews any more fuel for his fire. He’d made it perfectly clear where he thought I stood in the pecking order of soldiers.

Fortunately, I didn’t need to do the grumbling about the exercise, because the cadets were doing it for us.

I agreed with each and every one of them- silently.

By early evening we had reached our final destination and were setting up camp before each team moved to address dinner.

Per the requirements, the teams were set up twenty feet apart from one another, and were expected to engage in conversation, discussion, and strategizing only with the others in the group. Each was to pretend there was no one else around them.

Matthews and I were to be flies on the wall.

We found a spot perched above them, so we would have a better view of them as they worked. From there we could take the notes we would need to add to their files.

He watched them intently from up above. There was something vaguely predatory in the way he studied them.

In fact, since we’d entered the woods, he seemed different. Not that I knew him very well before, but we had been spending a fair amount of time together in the past few weeks, and he just seemed…different. More at ease. More in tune. Like there was something about being there that reset him.

I really couldn’t understand it, since I was pretty much a hot mess of exhaustion. My back and feet were killing me, but to each his own, I suppose.

“So what do you think?” he asked, settling onto his bedroll.

“About the walk?” I turned toward him, and then wished I hadn’t. If I had thought he was good looking before, it was nothing compared to how he looked now, dappled by the tree’s shadows, his face swimming in and out of the light, his eyes that amazing shade of grey.

Christ, I was like a teenager just learning she had hormones.

He gave me something I could only classify as a smirk.

“Actually, I meant about the cadets. What do you think about them and how they’re doing?”

“Oh,” I said, peering down at them, watching them sort through their belongings, take stock, and begin to formulate a plan. “I think they’re doing well?”

I hated myself for turning it into a question, for having to ask something when I knew damn well I had my own opinions about it.

“I agree,” he said. “They’re doing fairly well. No one’s done anything exceptionally well, and no one’s done anything exceptionally stupid. So all things considered I think they’re in a good place.”

We watched them a while longer, not talking to one another, sitting closer to each other than we should.

The rain came sometime in the night.

Before it did, there was a single crackle of heat lightning that zipped through the sky, one loud clap of thunder I was sure must have been something else at first.

And then the pouring rain.

It came down in sheets. It was hard to see even a few feet in front of us; the ground immediately softened, sucking at us with each step.

“Fuck,” I heard Matthews say loud enough to be heard over the sound of the spattering rain, from somewhere near me.

I was struggling with my bag, trying to find my poncho, my hair plastered to my head, blinking away the drops that were making it hard to see.

“I thought we weren’t supposed to have rain,” I called back to him.

“We weren’t,” his body was close enough to touch mine, his hand on my elbow. “This isn’t the right time of year for rain like this.”

It was dark and I couldn’t see his face, but I could hear something I didn’t like in his voice.

Something like worry. Something I had never heard from him before.

“We have to round up the cadets, and get them somewhere else.”

In the darkness and the rain, I could see him turn slowly in a small circle, like he was trying to intuit where that space we could take them might be.

“Where should we take them?” I asked.

He was looking up, even further up from where we were.

“I don’t think we have a choice. We need to get somewhere flatter, drier, before this ravine becomes a raging river. And these trees…Dammit.”

He didn’t need to go on. We weren’t supposed to be having a storm, but that didn’t matter, because we were.

And, though he was new in town, he seemed to know that when we did get storms like this — they were a big deal.

He was sliding down the hill toward the cadets. I could hear the mud splattering, his boots sticking as he went, and I realized I hadn’t yet put mine on.

He was, apparently, the kind of man who slept with his boots on. I didn’t actually think those men existed, but Matthews was here to prove me wrong.

Another thunderous boom sounded overhead, and it felt like we might as well be in the middle of an open field instead of under the cover of the woods. I could hear Matthews down below, pulling the cadets together, listing off what they should grab, and what they should bring.

I heard him say three times it wasn’t a drill.

While he did that I hurried into my clothing. It was soaking wet by the time I finished putting it on, but I pulled the emergency poncho I had in my pack over my head, hoping it would protect our supplies, our phones, and radios, because once the worst of the storm cleared we were going to have to phone in our location and that we were okay. The base would be waiting to hear from us.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” I heard him calling as he came back up the hill toward me, more slowly than he had gone down.

The water was coming down hard and fast, sitting on top of the ground, making everything slick and loose, waiting for one wrong step, one wrong footfall to pull free an entire mountain side.

He had been right. We needed to get out of there. And we couldn’t take our time.

The cadets were tuned into his urgency, and they were scrambling along behind him, sticking in their little groups, keeping count of one another.

Trial by fire. It was how I had learned on the emergency room floor of the hospital, too.

He stopped near me long enough to pick up his belongings and then he careened along up the hill.

I waited for the cadets to pass, bringing up the rear. As the second most senior leader, it was where I belonged, ready to scoop up anyone who might fall behind, who needed the extra help. If that person was me, I was going to be in some serious trouble.

We were scaling a steep part of the cliff, going wherever it was Matthews seemed to think we needed to go, when one of the cadets near him lost his balance and reached for a tree.

We’d gone over it a dozen times, but it’s always different in the moment, which is why we do the damn simulations in the first place. It’s hard to override your instinct with what you’ve learned.

He reached for a tree, which would have been fine two hours earlier, but the whole damn thing came up by its roots sending him flying backwards into the other cadets.

It was like watching in slow motion, his vague, dark form clutching a tree trunk and free falling, getting ready to go flying over the edge of the cliff side. It was impossible to see how far the cliff dropped or into what.

I was moving toward him as the cadets scattered the best they could, some of them losing their footing and crashing to the ground, others standing stock still lost in the horror in front of them.

I never saw him move, but suddenly, Matthews was right next to the cadet, reaching for him, pulling him back and spinning, so the cadet was catapulted back toward the others.

It was like a bad frame in a bowling game, the one who’d fallen crashing into the others until they were littered on the mountain side like so many upset pins.

It was great news for the cadet.

But not so great for Matthews who couldn’t change his trajectory in time to avoid slamming into a large tree.

This one didn’t give way beneath the assault.

I heard the crack, and the sound of the air escaping Matthews.

And then quiet.

The worst kind of quiet.

I was scrambling toward where he lay at the bottom of the tree, the cadets still righting themselves.

“Keep moving!” I yelled to them. “Get up that hill, and for Christ’s sake, do not grab on to anything. Assume nothing will keep your ass from falling. Keep your center of gravity low.”

They grumbled their responses, or didn’t bother to respond at all, I wasn’t sure, because I was already focusing on Matthews.

“Doing alright, soldier?” I asked, like I’d asked countless men and women who’d ended up on a gurney with me, some out in the field, some in the E.R., some in the comfort of an exam room.

Up close I could hear him breathing right away, even though I couldn’t see him well enough in the dark to determine what had been hurt.

That was alright, though, because any doctor worth her salt wasn’t going to be using her eyes anyway.

First I snatched his pulse, which was elevated, but considering the strain we’d been under, appropriate. I leaned over him, trying to hear his breath sound between the roar of the rain, one hand on his chest, feeling for its rise and fall.

“Good, good,” I murmured, waiting for him to regain enough of his breath that he could talk to me about what he’d hurt.

He wasn’t struggling to get up, yet, and that was my biggest hint that he had, in fact, hurt something.

Chad Matthews wasn’t the type to let a little fall keep him down. If he was still down, it wasn’t good.

I continued to run my hands over his body, staring with his left shoulder, speaking to him the whole time.

“Where does it hurt?” I asked, working my way down to the left wrist before moving back up and to the right side of the body.

That was where I found the first break, confirmed by the malalignment and the sharp intake of breath.

“Collarbone,” I said in sympathy, continuing to gently palpate the shoulder. It was probably the point of impact, so most of the injuries would be concentrated to that area.

There was nothing we were going to be able to do for the collarbone. Not here. When we got to where we needed to be I could stabilize it the best I could, but otherwise he was going to be uncomfortable until we could get him back to base and some good painkillers in his system.

The shoulder wasn’t going to be able to wait, though.

“Christ,” I finally heard him mutter.

“Sorry,” I murmured, not sure if he was even going to be able to hear me, before collecting his arm in mine, bracing myself against the tree he had connected so soundly with in the first place.

I counted down in my head, because I didn’t want him to know it was coming. And then, with a quick jerk upward, I slammed most of my bodyweight into him, feeling the resistance and then the give as the shoulder popped back into its place.

“Sorry, sorry,” I murmured again, knowing it must be hurting like hell. “Think you can get up?”

“Of course I can get up,” he said indignantly, and I couldn’t help but feel a little tweak of relief at his words. “Alright, then, I’ve sent the others on ahead. We’ll meet them at the top.”

I reached for his hand — his good one — and helped tug him to his feet, standing close to make sure he wasn’t going to topple over from pain or the change in elevation.

I could see his vague, dark outline, the injured side of his body stiff, his breathing more rapid than it should be.

The rain was still coming down. Hard.

An injury to the upper body is something you can’t really appreciate until you experience it yourself. It’s hard to imagine how connected it is to the rest of your body, just how much it’s going to impede every one of your movements.

Until you’re struggling with one. Worse, when you’re trying to haul yourself up a mountain, working against gravity and nature.

It was slow going, to say the least.

We climbed in silence, me mostly trying to keep tabs on his breathing while trying not to fall flat on my face.

I let him lead, which I was sure suited his ego. He didn’t need to know I wanted to be back there in case he lost his balance or passed out and toppled backward. He outweighed me by a good hundred pounds, so I didn’t anticipate being able to stop his fall, but maybe I would at least bring that fall to an end, and not have him somersaulting down to the bottom of the mountain.

I didn’t even want to think about that.

We’d long ago lost sight of the cadets — and I was hoping they were going to make it to the top, that they would somehow know exactly where Matthews had planned on taking them in the first place. I prayed we weren’t going to become separated out here — when we rounded a sharp curve in our makeshift path.

It happened suddenly. So suddenly, it was like I didn’t know it was happening at all, until it already had. The earth gave out beneath us, and we both started to fall, feet first along the side of the mountain, our feet scrambling, looking for purchase.

“Cover your face, watch your head,” I heard Matthews call, and I did as I was told, listening to him grunt as he tried to protect himself as well.

We managed to come to a stop when we tumbled into an outcropping of rock, where things seemed to level out, where we were able to rely on more than just dirt for purchase.

I would have been happy to just sit there, on that little ledge, but we’d barely stopped at all before Matthews was beginning to pick his way down the side.

“Can’t we just wait here?” I asked. There was no way we were going to catch up with the cadets now. We’d only get ourselves more lost if we tried.  We’d be better off waiting it out, and starting fresh in the morning, when the rain had cleared and we had some visibility on our side.

“Trust me,” he was saying, not pausing.

I guess I didn’t have much of a choice, so I scooted over toward him, feeling like I was on a ledge, waiting for something else to happen, one more thing that was going to send me over the edge.

I wasn’t a huge fan of dangling over the side of the mountain in the dark, but I felt Matthews snag my boot, sliding upward along my calf and guiding me toward the ground.

Damned if I didn’t have to remind myself that it wasn’t the ideal time to be stirred by his touch, and that, just like when I’d been roaming my hands over his body, it had been merely a clinical exercise.

Of course I had happened to notice how extremely sturdy and well-muscled his body was at that time, but it was still strictly clinical.

I thudded to the ground next to him and realized we were in a shallow cave. Everything around us was damp, but we were out of the rain, sheltered just a shade from the wind.

I peeled off my poncho first. It was covered in mud, torn and useless.

I wish I could say it had at least done its job and kept the rest of me dry, but it hadn’t. I was soaking wet and muddy.

And then I started to shake.

It was just a tremor at first, but then it was the real deal, head to toe quaking.

I thought I was never going to stop.

Matthews clapped me on the shoulder.

“Come on, now, soldier,” he said, calling me something other than Doctor for the first time, bringing to mind the words I had said to him not too long ago — even though it felt like hours ago now. “You’ve got this.”

He was right, of course, and through the fog that had accompanied the quaking, I realized everything was catching up to me and my poor body. Good old fashioned shock.

He was moving toward the back of the little cave and I followed him.

He sank down, his knees drawn up in front of him, his back against the wall.

I was right beside him.

Inside the cave, it was dark, the sounds of the rain muted, there was nothing to do but sit together. And talk. Or not talk.

It was certainly not the kind of night I had envisioned us having during our first overnight survival training mission.

But, it did seem fitting, somehow.

CHAPTER 5

Chad

My shoulder ached.

Everything hurt, if I was being honest.

I could feel the swelling setting in, the burning that accompanied even the most basic movements.

The landslide we’d gotten caught in was exactly what I had been afraid of happening when the rain began, but at our location on the mountain, the answer was to head up, not down. We would have only been more likely to get caught in a mudslide there, and when we did, it would have had momentum behind it.

We’d been so close to where we needed to be when that kid had grabbed ahold of the tree.

Christ. I hope they all made it. I could tell we were getting close to it. I could smell the vague hint of diesel and people. A hunting cabin, if I had to guess, and it would make sense in this part of the mountain, where large animals were plentiful.

Thinking about that reminded me how close I was to the figurative edge. How difficult it had been to keep my bear in check when I’d hit that tree, how close I had come to shifting right then and there.

If she hadn’t gotten there so fast, if she hadn’t put her hands on me, grounded me, who knows how things might have ended.

She was still shaking next to me. Cold, probably, among other things. I’d seen what she was sleeping in. By the time she got dressed she must have been soaked to the bone.

Of course, standing next to me by our bedrolls in the dark she’d probably thought there was no need to hide from me, in her little shorts and her tank top.

Fortunately, my night vision was excellent, and I had certainly enjoyed the view.

But then we had become swept up in our exit, and now we were here.

I wasn’t sure when it had happened, but somewhere along the way we had managed to lose our packs. The cadets had them or the hillside had them, but whichever the case, we didn’t.

Which meant all the things we could have used right now — an extra blanket, supplies to start a fire, even something to eat — weren’t doing us any good at all.

I could still hear her body jumping beside mine, and I knew the cold wasn’t doing her any favors. Sure, most of it had to do with the adrenaline surge catching up with her, the fallout from the evening. Every moment of it had been creeping up on her, adding up, until it had this moment to begin to unravel.

And she was definitely unraveling.

I couldn’t let her go on like that, so I reached my good arm over her shoulders and hauled her over to me. Whether she liked it or not, we had to get her shivering under control.

My injured side was still throbbing, but it was better than it had been and would continue to heal. Rapidly. By the time we actually managed to get off the mountainside and back down to a hospital, I knew I would be in the clear.

And I knew I was going to have to find a way to get in, get approved, and be on my way before Brenna had managed to piece all of those things together.

There were some immediate drawbacks to being placed with a doctor when you were a shifter. Especially when that shifter found himself injured, in the middle of the night, out in the middle of nowhere.

She didn’t complain about being hauled against my body like that, and even covered in mud and rain, beneath the tang of urgency and fear, I could smell that field of flowers.

There was something about the woman. She was going to be my undoing. I was becoming more and more certain of it with each passing moment.

We sat in silence for a long while, just looking out of the cave and into the dark. I could smell morning on the air, but I knew it was still going to be a long time in coming to the skies, with the storm.

The rain had finally let up, now a drizzle, a heavy mist making it seem even darker than it was.

Her shakes had long since subsided, but she had gone on pressing into me and I hadn’t been in a rush to detangle myself from her either, that floral scent engulfing me.

“I’m going to go,” she said, giving a little nudge to the outside. “I’ll be right back.”

I let her go. Whether she needed the space or go to the bathroom, I wasn’t going to ask. Truthfully, I could use a moment to regroup, too. Having her around seemed to make me suddenly unable to do any of the things I told myself I should be doing.

Which was, first and foremost, not thinking about her. Especially not thinking about her naked.

Unfortunately, that had started to capture quite a bit of my attention. Especially when I remembered that tattoo creeping up along her back, dipping in and out of her clothing.

She was gone just a minute, just one minute, when I first smelled it on a breeze coming into the little cave.

I was on my feet faster than I would have thought possible given the situation.

It was a cat. A big one, and if I were to guess, he was probably wet and irritable as fuck.

And Brenna was out there, traipsing around in the dark with prey written all over her damn self.

I reached the mouth of the little cave and rolled my shoulder, touching it tentatively, wondering how far I could push things with it before I was doubled over in pain. “Brenna!” I called, and I realized it was the first time I’d said her name out loud.

But I didn’t have time to think about that just then.

I couldn’t pinpoint where she was, just the lingering scent of her and the feel of her presence.

And another overwhelming scent of wet cat.

Dammit. I was going to have to find one of them, and fast.

Mountain lions in these parts didn’t mess around, and that was on a good day. I was fairly certain this particular cat was not having a good day.

CHAPTER 6

Brenna

I just needed a minute.

If I was pressed up against him another second, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to control myself.

With the rain letting up, I found a quiet spot where I could lean against a tree for a few moments and just try to gather myself.

I wasn’t there two seconds before I heard Matthews shouting for me. He was using my actual name, so I suspected it was an emergency.

I pushed off the tree, spun and headed back toward him as quickly as I could in the darkness.

I never saw it, but I heard it. The loud, unmistakable sound of a mountain cat.

We knew they were out here, of course, but this time of year wasn’t as bad as in the fall, where they seemed to be on the sudden hunt to fill their bellies before the unreliable winter came. During the summer they were leisurely, the deer plentiful. There it was again, that low pitched scowling growl, followed by a hiss.

I froze. I’d already done irreparable damage by letting it see me run. There was nothing left for me to do but be as still as I could be and prepare for the attack.

I heard him say my name again, but I didn’t want to upset the delicate balance I had created by responding.

The cat heard him, too, and though I couldn’t see it well, I heard a rustling that suggested it was changing positions, preparing itself for an attack.

That was when Matthews came bursting onto the scene.

“No, Chad!” I yelled, but it was too late. The mountain lion flew through the air, its claws extended. I was screaming.

I heard the sound of one body hitting another, an unmistakable squeal of a cat, the grunts of a man.

And what sounded like another animal altogether.

I hoped Chad wouldn’t fight back. I hoped he’d play dead until the animal thought its prey was under control.

I hoped this was something we were both going to walk away from, but I’d seen maulings out in these parts, and I didn’t have a lot of hope.

I heard the cat cry out and scamper away. Maybe, just maybe, Matthews had somehow managed to get the better of it.

I scrambled over toward him. I was entirely unprepared when my hand came in contact with long, thick fur, instead of mauled flesh.

“What, the…” muttered, unable to process what I was touching. “What is…?”

I never finished the thought, because suddenly the thick fur was slipping out of my hands, and that hulking body was…

Well, it was becoming Chad Matthews.

Which was right about the time I thought I might have officially lost my mind.

Chad

I was on a freaking roll.

First the tree, now the goddamned cat.

My shoulder burned where he’d caught me across the back and his claws tore through my clothing and into my flesh.

I was sure there were long gouge marks there. Just like I was sure we weren’t going to have anything to clean it with and the wound was going to close up before I could get the damn thing taken care of.

Another round of antibiotics for me. Fortunately, I had a person I could call the script in to. We all did. We wouldn’t be able to exist out in society the way we do if we weren’t in every possible pocket, making things happen for the rest of us.

I suppose that was sort of how I’d ended up in the military in the first place. I was a beacon for every other shifter out there looking for someone to guide them into a successful career.

I’d already been shifting when the cat had launched itself at me, every one of its claws out stretched.

That had probably saved me from the brunt of the attack. After all, bear hide is a sight thicker than human skin.

What I hadn’t counted on was how quickly Brenna would get to me afterward. I wasn’t able to change back in time.

I felt her hand tangle in my fur, I heard the sound of her gasp, imagined the whirring of her thoughts as she began to put it all together.

That it wasn’t a human she was touching. It wasn’t me she was touching.

It was a goddamned bear.

I was a goddamned bear.

Her touch pulled me back quickly, setting me to shift right back.

If she was surprised by the skin beneath her fingertips, she didn’t let on. “We should get back,” she said, but I noticed there was something strange in the way she spoke the words.

“You go ahead. I’ll be right there.”

I had to get my damn clothing situation figured out, first.

At least — when I heard the cat making that threatening sound — I had the foresight to strip as much as I could as quickly as I could, so I wasn’t completely without clothing.

Well, I was at the exact moment, but once I sent Brenna on her way and had a few minutes to search the grounds around us, that problem should be solved.

At least it would be one thing cleared up for me.

She didn’t argue, and I felt her step away from me and back toward the little cave.

The fog was heavy now, with the first morning glimmer beginning to peek through.

I didn’t think I’d ever been so happy to see morning come.

It took me just a few moments to track down my clothes and pull them on, and when I made it back to the cave, Brenna was back in her original position.

“Well?” she asked expectantly.

“Well what?” I asked, not wanting to walk into something if I could avoid it.

“Well, how are your injuries?”

“Injuries?”

I realized I sounded like I didn’t have two brain cells to rub together, but I was having a hard time focusing, because she had reached for me and her hands were moving back over my limbs, pressing against my dislocated shoulder, her fingers tapping over my collarbone.

I heard the intake of breath.

“This can’t be right,” she said, giving my arm a vigorous shake.

“Dammit,” I said, wrenching away from her and grabbing it with my other hand. “Christ, Doctor, it still hurts.”

It did hurt. I mean, it might be a hell of a lot better than it had been just a few hours earlier, but I wasn’t at a hundred percent. Not yet. And I wouldn’t be for a while.

“Good,” she muttered. “It’s supposed to hurt. Your collarbone…”

“I know.” I didn’t want her to talk about it any longer. I didn’t want her puzzling through it, or sorting it out.

“Take off your shirt,” she said. A thrill spread through me, and I was instantly thinking about the very first time I had seen her.

Well, the second time. Maybe, technically, the third time.

But it was definitely the first time I’d seen her, sitting on that barstool, her back to me, her body the perfect shape for a pair of hands to settle on her waist, to press her up against something —

I shouldn’t be having those thoughts. I definitely should not be having those thoughts, but the way she told me to take off my clothes had me thinking of all the scenarios where those very things might happen.

I gingerly peeled the undershirt over my head. I could feel where it was sticking to me across my back.

Where I was still bleeding, no doubt.

She inspected me unceremoniously. “Come toward the light, so I can see you,” she said, though there still wasn’t much light to speak of. I moved toward the front of the cave anyway, the lightening sky offering a little bit of visibility.

I was still thinking about bending her over a damn bar, and she was touching my body like I was just another cadaver on a gurney ready for study.

“This is…,” she said before clearing her throat and trying again. “This just isn’t possible.” Her fingers slid back and forth over the part of my collarbone that had snapped like a twig when I’d plowed into the tree. It had knitted. Cleanly.

What I wasn’t ready for is when she ran her fingers down my chest, making a point to pull her fingertips through the smattering of chest hair there.

“Turn around,” she said.

I wasn’t going to argue with her just then.

She found the gouge right away. I could feel her fingers on either side of the wound, like she was trying to see exactly how far the extent of the injury was.

Then, she was letting one of those hands move over my injury-free shoulder, over the smooth skin of my back, down toward the tops of my pants.

“There’s no hair,” she said abruptly.

And that was right about the time it clicked for me, that those caresses of hers weren’t really caresses at all.

Brenna had just been looking for a hunk of body hair that she might have been able to confuse with animal fur.

She was just going to have to keep on looking. I’d happily shed my pants for her continued search.

“These claw marks, the edges are already healing. You’ve already stopped bleeding. It looks like it’s hours old. A day old.”

She circled around me, so we were face to face, and in the early light I could make out her dark eyes alight with something like anger and accusation.

“What are you?”

“It’s complicated,” I said, even though it really wasn’t complicated at all. It was just a fact.

“Try me,” she said, “Because this,” she gave a dramatic wave in my direction. “Is literally impossible.”

I stepped in close to her, thinking maybe I could distract her, my hands reaching out the capture her arms.

It was a goddamned mistake.

Once I was touching her, there would be no stopping.

My hands skimmed up her arms, my fingers caught in her hair, tipping her head back until I had easy access to her mouth.

And then I kissed her.

But, more importantly, she kissed me.

We were migrating toward the back of the cave, her arms wrapped around my neck, running along the top of my shorn hair.

“But, really,” she said when I pulled away from her long enough to unbutton the front of her BDU and push it over her shoulders.

“I have got to see this tattoo,” I growled instead.

“This…what?” she asked, dazed, and I couldn’t help the smirk I felt coming on.

Apparently I’d kissed her well enough that she could no longer function in the conversation we were having.

And I took that as a win.

CHAPTER 7

Brenna

I hoped he wouldn’t notice how much his kisses had rattled me.

But I was pretty sure that it was more than obvious. I could barely string two thoughts together.

His kiss had taken me by surprise, but it was more than welcome. Right now, out here, I didn’t care about protocol and decorum.

It had been one disaster after the next, and who knew what was just around the corner. I hadn’t thought we’d be able to top the landslide, but then the next thing I know, we’re attacked by a mountain lion.

Moral of the story: move on things while you can.

Because who knows when one of you will become a bear.

Okay, I maybe the bear part wasn’t part of the moral, but the fact remained that I was going to go on kissing Major Matthews, and if he wanted to check out my tattoo, I was damn sure going to let him.

He spun me around so I was facing the wall, what light there was falling across my back, and with a quick tug, my tank top was pulled over my head and discarded.

I could feel his fingers tracing along the ink, stopping at my bra to casually flick its clasp undone.

As though he already knew I would say yes.

And I wasn’t denying it. It was definitely a yes.

His fingers came to a rest at the flare of my hips, and he pressed kisses along the same trek his fingers had just taken.

“Chad,” I heard myself breathing, even though I remembered clearly refusing to call him by his name earlier.

Again, it didn’t seem the time for decorum.

He made it down to the last rose on the vine — I’d picked up the tattoo in celebration of my acceptance into the Air Force medical program. I was going to owe them time, but when I graduated I was going to have my M.D. and zero debt.

And that was a hell of a thing to celebrate.

I’d always thought I would end up overseas, either in the field with the soldiers or in the little pockets of oversea towns where real medical care was lacking. But I was just the beginning, and I needed time under my belt.

I had never expected to be so thoroughly derailed by a man I was working with. A military man. A Major, no less, who wasn’t even in the medical field.

But none of that mattered just then, when he spun me back around, so my back was pressed into the stone behind me, and his mouth was on mine, hungry, demanding.

I was melting into a puddle of desire.

I’d already taken off his shirt, so it only seemed logical that my hands would drop to his pants. I began to fiddle with his buckle and buttons.

He was evidently in agreement, because his hands reached for my pants, too. We quickly and fully divested ourselves of any fabric separating us.

“Your tattoo is beautiful,” he said, as he pressed hot kisses along the column of my throat, across my collarbone, his hand came up to capture my breast and run his thumb over my taut nipple. “It suits you.”

I arched against him. “I’m glad you like it,” I whispered, already having a hard time catching my breath, grounding myself.

His touch was confident and warm, and gentle, with the rasp of roughness that comes when a man works with his hands. Just as I had imagined it would be. Better, even. Perfect.

But I didn’t see why he should be having all the fun, so I let my hands do the same kind of exploring, moving over his chest and down his abdomen, the flat of his stomach quivering as I drew my fingers across the skin there.

And he had thought I was just a powerless Doctor masquerading as a soldier.

I moaned against his mouth as he dropped his hand between my thighs and slid a finger through my slick folds, until I was trembling and desperate to have him.

I wasn’t the only one with power, it seemed.

He reached around behind me, lifting me until the stone of the wall was biting into the flesh of my back and my legs were wrapped around his hips.

But, then he was sliding into me, hard and eager, filling me completely.

I said his name again for good measure, because I knew he would like it and because I didn’t think I was actually capable of saying anything else at that exact moment.

I rocked against him as he set an easy pace, the rhythm he created driving me wild.

It had been a long time since I’d been with someone, and when I had, it certainly hadn’t been like this.

“Christ, Brenna,” he was muttering, his face pressing into the curve of my shoulder, a spasm tearing through him. “You feel good.”

“Hmm,” I said, bringing my hands back to his head, the short hairs there little more than a peach fuzz, but soft and silky. So much softer than that tuft of fur I knew I hadn’t imagined.

My first orgasm caught me by surprise as I shuddered against him, cried out his name again.

But he wasn’t finished with me, and I wasn’t going to complain. Gone were the gentle ministrations from earlier, he was moving roughly against me, looking for his own release.

Then he was groaning my name, nipping the skin of my shoulder, and I could feel him pulsating inside of me.

Sending me right over the edge behind him.

Afterward, he wasn’t in a hurry to set me back down on the ground, and I wasn’t sure I was in a hurry to be placed there.

“You’re a goddamned bear,” I said suddenly, like I was picking right back up in the conversation we had been having when I had been entirely, epically, distracted by his touch. “And don’t think you’re going to avoid that conversation by having sex with me. What kind of girl do you think I am?”

If I’d wanted to go on being held like that by him, saying that was probably not in my best interest, because he was disentangling himself from me and setting me back on the ground.

Now the morning was well on its way, and I had a good view of his body.

Which meant he also had a good view of mine.

But I wasn’t going to let that prevent me from enjoying what I saw.

“I wish you’d stop asking about it,” he all but growled, running his hand over the back of his head and then reaching for his pants.

I guess the timing had been pretty bad on my part. But it was sort of important.

I mean, bear.

“Get dressed. We should be able to see well enough to find the others now. And it will be easier to tell where the problem areas are.”

Then he turned away from me, and left me to collect my own clothing and hurriedly pulling it on.

Officially dismissed.

We walked in silence, which was probably for the best, because every time I opened my mouth I seemed to put a foot in it.

Only, not talking about it wasn’t doing anything to answer my questions, and I really did want to know.

Need to know was more accurate.

As he had said, the sun was up, more or less, though the heavy rain still had us trapped in the fog of post storm. Even so, we were able to easily navigate the mountain side.

I never would have been able to find it on my own, but Chad seemed to have no problems at all, winding this way and that, turning here or there, moving further and further upward.

Which, I guess, was exactly why he did what he did and I did what I did.

We’d been walking about an hour and a half when we came to a little lodge on a level piece of land.

“How did you —” I began, forgetting that I’d already told myself I wasn’t going to ask him any more questions until he answered the one incredibly pressing question I’d already asked.

He turned toward me, one eyebrow raised.

And I was right back there, thinking about the damn bear again.

“They’re here,” he said, moving toward the door, knocking briskly on it. “Cadets!”

The door was pulled open immediately, by cadets who looked to be in much better shape than we were. The blonde at the door — the same boy who had reached for that tree in the first ill-fated experience of the night — looked utterly relieved at our appearance.

Bedraggled as I’m sure it was.

“Sorry, we’re late,” Chad said, stepping into the little cabin, nothing but a single room on the inside. “We got caught in the rain. And a slide. And by a mountain lion.”

They responded only with silence, but I was guessing based on how we looked, all of those things seemed plausible.

Maybe even highly likely.

No one even ventured a laugh.

“Anyone have a phone? Anyone find one on the premises? A radio?”

He was stepping through the room, opening cupboards, waiting for an answer.

“We were unable to find anything, sir.” A girl from the back said.

He finished his search anyway, and I knew it was because it would be unlikely to find a cabin this far out without some sort of emergency kit.

In the end, though, he wasn’t able to turn anything up either.

“Alright, team, we’re going to have to hoof it back on our own. Keep your eye out for the missing bag full of gear. I’m sure the base is waiting to hear from us.”

We’d left most of our things in the hurry to escape the storm, but apparently that wasn’t pressing because Chad was leading us down the other side of the mountain, away from the mess we’d left behind.

Away from everything that had happened in that little cave. Everything I couldn’t stop thinking about.

Chad

We’d made it back unscathed.

At least, the cadets had.

I could have used one or two less injuries, but I was on the mend, too.

The biggest damage done was that Brenna knew.

I’d done my best to avoid her finding out. I’d done my best to redirect the conversation after she’d put the pieces together.

And in the end, after we had reached the campus and the cadets had departed, I had been quick to escape her presence.

I couldn’t be near her and not think about the cave — her body hot against mine, writhing, exploding.

The thought of her had my dick hard all over again.

And if one thing was beyond evident, it was that it would never be able to happen again. She already knew more than she should. More than was safe for either one of us

My solution was juvenile and faulty, but I figured the best thing I could do, at least for the time being, was to avoid her.

At all costs.

And that meant no going back to the bar where I’d run into her that first night. Even though I told myself I wasn’t going there to look for her, and it wouldn’t make any difference to me whether or not I saw her car in the parking lot.

Of course, avoiding her was only going to do me so much good when we still had weeks of classes left.

I gave the cadets a week off, figuring they’d earned the time after the experience they’d had. I asked them to reflect on it and write me a paper, and I thought that was probably enough to justify the lack of class.

I knew it was mostly so I could put off seeing Brenna. I also knew I wasn’t going to be able to do that for much longer.

But, to my surprise, the Monday after the week off, the cadets trickled in.

And no Brenna.

I thought at first, maybe she was running late, that she might feel awkward about our tryst in the cave, how I’d touched every inch of her and would sign up to do it again in a heartbeat.

But, no Brenna. I even dragged my feet, making sure to double check my files and sort through papers that didn’t need sorting. Class commenced, class was dismissed. Still, no Brenna. She hadn’t shown for class that day at all.

Or the next day.

Or the day after that.

In fact, I didn’t see her again until Friday, back on the green where we usually met.

The cadets had already gone, preparing for their next practical experience — a week-long trip we were hosting next to a lake, in the hopes that we would be able to foster some different kinds of skills in that landscape — when I spied her walking across the field toward me.

She looked just as good as she had when she’d been naked and pressed against the wall of that cave, her body hot against mine, searching for the same thing I had been.

Brenna was flipping through a sheaf of papers she had in her hand, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what was in them, especially if her expression was any indication of what it might be.

“Major,” she said tartly.

“Doctor,” I said, stepping in toward her even though her body language told me it wouldn’t do any good.

I couldn’t help myself.

“Brenna,” I corrected myself, my voice low.

She was pressing the papers in to my chest. “This is your blood work. I pulled samples from your clothing.”

I looked down at the charts in front of me, the vague numbers attached to valued I didn’t understand.

“And?” I finally asked when it became clear she wasn’t going to provide me with any more information.

“And, it’s not good. In fact, it’s probably the worst news you could ever get. Because you’re not human. According to these values, you just aren’t human.”

She was stabbing at something on the paper, something I was to understand must be the defining thing that made me not human.

I caught her hand in mine.

“Stop,” I growled, not wanting her to go on, knowing I was in a horrible, vulnerable position with her acquisition of that knowledge.

“Do you know what might just be worse, though?” she asked, and in the bright day light her eyes were inky and endless, and I wanted to get lost in them, not talk about my deficiencies as a human being. “It’s that you’re a bear.”

“That’s not possible,” I said flatly, not knowing what else I could do, desperate to end the conversation and find a way to put it all behind us, to wipe the knowledge from her mind. “Do I look like a bear?” I asked instead.

“No,” she said, her eyes fixing on mine. “You don’t look like a bear. Now. But I imagine sometimes, you do. I’m not an expert on things like that, but Major, I think that makes you a werebear.”

I froze. I suddenly felt exposed and naked with the truth laid out there like that.

“And?” I asked.

“And,” she clipped, “I want to know more. How? Why? I want to ask all the questions and have all the answers.”

“Well, I’m not sure I have those for you.”

That part, at least, was true. There were so many unknowns in it, even for me.

She was reaching out for me suddenly, her hands twisting in the fabric of my BDU. “I need to know, Chad,” she said, and there was a rawness in her voice, a hunger, that had me thinking of that moment back in the cave. “I need to know how I can care so much, want someone so much, when he’s not even human.”

That, I definitely didn’t have an answer to.

Brenna

I waited impatiently.

To be honest, I didn’t have much of the virtue of patience, and today I was especially lacking.

I hadn’t meant to storm away from him, not really, but I couldn’t stand to look into those cool grey eyes a second longer. I couldn’t stand knowing what I knew and having him deny it to my face.

And I didn’t want him to see how much he affected me.

By the time I’d thought better of it, it was too late to go back. I knew he would be long gone.

I headed back to the hospital, thinking I might be able to find something there to occupy my time, but there was nothing in my office or in my paperwork that could capture my attention enough to draw it away from Chad Matthews.

Not long enough, not completely enough, not exciting enough.

It took just a moment to find his current address in the hospital’s database, and then I was on my way to temporary housing.

I’d stood outside his door. Walked up and down the hall. Perched on various inanimate objects, waiting for his eventual return.

I had barely processed his arrival before I was leaping to my feet and moving toward him, the small space that moonlighted as a window seat at the end of the hall, disappearing behind me.

I knew the minute he saw me, his step faltered, as though he was weighing whether or not he should continue forward, or whether he should turn around and run. Could he could move away from me more quickly than I could move toward him?

“What are you doing here?” he asked bluntly.

“I came to see you,” I said with just as much tact. “I shouldn’t have left earlier. We weren’t finished. There’s still so much more I need to know…”

“Look,” he growled, his voice filled with gravel and laced with angst, his hand reaching out the grab my upper arm, his fingers biting into the soft flesh there, a reminder of his physical strength. “I don’t know what you think I can tell you. I’ve given you everything I have to give.”

His touch had already sent me back to that moment in the cave, and now with those words on his lips, I was melting into him, a veritable puddle of emotions and desire.

His mouth came crashing down on mine as he roughly hauled me up against him, his tongue teasing against mine, his hands moving over my body like he already owned me.

And I was thinking he already did.

Somehow he managed to open the door to the little suite while kissing me, a feat I was going to have to marvel over later, and we were crossed the room toward the bedroom at the back.

I knew exactly where we were going, and I had no qualms about going there at all. I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him since the first time I’d let him slide his hard cock into my body, and now, I wanted him back where he belonged.

I was moaning against him, saying his name, because I knew it was something he liked, and something I’d tried so hard to hold back from him.

But now I was putty in his hands, turning into whatever kind of pliable thing he wanted me to be, desperate to have him.

“Does it matter?” he asked, his teeth nipping at my lip. “Does it really matter?”

I twined my arms around his neck, letting him carry me the rest of the way to the bed, moving eagerly against him.

“No,” I heard myself say, and my voice was ragged, pleading.

It didn’t matter, I suppose. I thought it had, but the truth was, it didn’t matter at all.

The only thing that mattered was that I was here with him, our clothing being pulled from our bodies one piece at a time, exploring one another with a sweetness and an urgency and a desperation that reminded me of our time in the cave all over again.

Would it always be like this?

And I was certainly going to look forward to finding out.

THE END

LOVING THE ALPHA

STORY DESCRIPTION

Curvy Kira Bentley is smart, beautiful, frightened and alone. She is a freshly cursed werewolf, and clearly ignorant on the subject of what's happening to her. As if that weren’t bad enough, she can’t seem to avoid her sexy English professor, either inside or outside of the classroom, and not only does Professor Sawyer Donovan have looks to die for, he also invokes feelings in her unlike any Kira has ever experienced before.

The last thing Sawyer Donovan expected was to find a pretty she-wolf in his English class. A ruggedly handsome young English professor at a prestigious university, the solitary werewolf has enough trouble dodging the unwanted attention of his female students without deliberately seeking one out. Yet, Professor Donovan’s sense of honor demands he shelter and guide his student in the transformation that she’s experiencing.

When he vows to reach out to her through any means necessary… even calling her into his office at inconvenient hours and detaining her after class, what he isn’t planning on are his wolf’s strong insistence on his young protégé being his mate.

As the full moon draws nearer, and student and professor find themselves reluctantly drawn to one another, can Sawyer fight his growing attraction to the one woman he knows he can't have? Can Kira, convince Sawyer to give in to forbidden passion, if only just this once?

What will happen when Sawyer reveals the secret he has been guarding - that the date Kira was mysteriously bitten aligns a little too perfectly with his last blackout?

CHAPTER 1

There were certain students who attracted notice.

As a young male professor at Rider University, he had expected, even prepared, for this. It was something advisors went over discreetly, and something that was brought up again and again in staff meetings, though never expressly named. There will be students, went the school of thought, who you will want to look at more than the others. Don't look at them more than the others.

Sawyer Donovan was looking at the girl strategically stationed in the back of his classroom toward the window. He had seen her around campus before now, in snatched moments when he shouldn't have been looking, but a man would have to be dead not to notice her: she was a natural blonde of average height, with long, loping legs and a devastatingly athletic body. She was a freshman, he knew, otherwise she wouldn't be in his class. He had noticed the way the male students perked up when she entered, late, and took a seat alone in the back. He had noticed the way they deflated, too, upon being passed over.

There was no denying that the girl—she had responded to the name Bentley, Kira when he had read it off his chart—was beautiful. Donovan was certain he was the only (relatively) young male in the classroom glad to have her sequestered in the back. It meant he wouldn't have to look at her as often. It meant he wouldn't have to notice.

Because there was something else about Kira Bentley that drew his attention to her, something that he wanted to ignore, desperately. Feelings of sexual attraction he could deal with, had dealt with, before—but what attracted Professor Donovan to his student was something very different. Something horrible.

He recognized the bags beneath her eyes. He recognized the weight loss; the unwashed hair; the woodland scratches she tried to conceal beneath her sweatshirt, but made themselves apparent every time she shifted and her sleeves rode up her wrists or her hood fell back from her neck. If he hadn't noticed the little details already, he would have sensed her in an instant: her pheromones were, to him, nearly overpowering in the small room.

He didn't remember this about her before the break. When he had passed her then in the cafeteria, or on the footbridge as strangers, he had not smelled a fellow wolf.

She had been bitten. Likely in the past month. The physical signs seemed to indicate that she had already undergone her first change.

The timing was too perfect, and dread pooled like cold standing water in the pit of his stomach. But Donovan had a class to teach, the subject of which was decidedly not werewolves. He turned from the rows of expectant eyes to write his name on the board.

"I'm Professor Donovan," he introduced himself to the class. "And this semester I'll be your guide through English 101."

"Aren't you a bit young to be a professor?" a female student more toward the front asked without putting her hand up. It was usually the first question to be voiced.

"If you'll turn to page two of the syllabus," Donovan continued. "You'll find that I have already addressed this concern. I turned twenty-eight in December, for those interested. Belated birthday presents are welcome, though they will have no effect on your final grade."

A few of his students groaned, at least half of them in response to his deliberately lame attempt at humor. Donovan had a great sense of humor, he just enjoyed hearing their vocalizations of pain more.

Kira Bentley said nothing.

"You'll notice on that same page that I outline my philosophy on tardiness," Donovan continued, raising his eyes from beneath his brows as he continued to track the girl's nonresponse. "Lateness by my students will not be excused. Starting today."

Bentley raised her brown-gold eyes from a continued spot of interest on her desk to meet his stare; when she saw the direction he was gazing, a muscle in her face tightened almost imperceptibly. Her look of veiled distress her cheekbones more pronounced. Leave it to the young and beautiful to make the effects of the curse look good.

Donovan spent the remainder of the hour going over the rest of the syllabus. It was an easy first week for his students; it should have been an easy first week for him. But nothing about English 101 was going to be easy now that there was another wolf in the room. He would have preferred the proverbial elephant at this point.

The analog clock wound down the hour, and his students rose, grappling with their books and backpacks and putting out hands to introduce themselves to one another. Kira Bentley didn't take part in the overtures, and instead moved along the back wall in an attempt to slip quietly out the door.

He was half-tempted to ignore her. He should just let her go, and figure things out on her own the way he had. He could be lenient with her attendance, even her grades, to help make navigating her newfound shifterhood easier; he could remain a removed presence all the while. He should just stay out of it.

But he couldn't. He had pursued a career as an educator because he believed in taking a positive, active role in the development of his students' lives. He couldn't let the one who might need him most slip out of reach because confronting her would be uncomfortable.

He put up a hand to her, and Bentley froze in the doorway as if she had been expecting it. He feigned interest with his seating chart as she approached his desk.

"Miss Bentley, I believe I mentioned my policy on tardiness?"

"It won't happen again, professor." She cast her eyes from him and looked longingly toward the exit. Donovan sat back and removed his glasses, retiring them to the far corner of his desk.

"Rough night?" he asked her.

The girl bristled, before shooting a quick glance around her to see if anyone had heard him. With the exception of a few stragglers, the classroom had nearly completely emptied by this point. "Excuse me?"

"I'm intimating that you were out all night," he said patiently. Kira Bentley's eyes narrowed, flashing at him like twin burnished coins, and he thought he could see some of the wolf rearing up inside her.

"I don't smoke. I don't drink. And I would appreciate it if you kept your baseless accusations to yourself," she said. She was more articulate than he had expected for a freshman, and completely justified in making her preferences known; her confidence was on par with that of other, older gorgeous women he had met, but he knew what she was feeling on the inside. She was terrified. English 101 was a core requirement, and she needed to do well in his estimation for him to open the door for her to more advances courses.

"Let's not start this semester off on the wrong foot," Donovan suggested. He rose from behind his desk to collect his things; Kira Bentley didn't budge from where she stood, evidently waiting for him to show her where to put the right foot. "Come by my office tomorrow with lunch and I'll forget all about it."

"Excuse me?" Bentley demanded again.

He could almost find it in him to feel sorry for the additional toll this interview was taking on an already sick and stressed-out young woman, but he alone knew how necessary it was. He needed to establish a connection with her immediately, and the only way he was going to manage it was outside of a classroom. His office was the perfect place: it wasn't as off-putting as suggesting some place outside of campus, and he was almost always in there, anyway. They needed a scene change to get familiar, and fast, if he stood a chance of helping her at all before her next full moon phase. They had less than a month.

"See you at noon. Don't be late," he added as he brushed past her. While his hearing was preternatural, Donovan couldn't claim to have heard the internal scream that Kira Bentley was surely emitting. He contented himself with imagining it all the same.

If his occupation prevented him from flirting with the pretty girl, making her life miserable would have to be second best.

CHAPTER 2

"This isn't quaint or quirky. This is blackmail."

Kira Bentley was standing in the doorway of her least favorite professor's office. While she wanted to make her opinion clear, she was also holding a takeaway bag from one of the sandwich vendors in the quad.

Professor Donovan—as if she knew, or cared to know, his first name—glanced up from grading a stack of papers, although she couldn't shake the distinct impression that he had known she was there all along. She supposed it was possible he had heard her coming down the hallway. He was wearing his glasses, although he never seemed to wear them when he was addressing the glass, leading her to believe that he was farsighted. Kira hadn't been farsighted herself until very recently, but she was afraid to go to the optometrist to get a prescription. She didn't know what an eye doctor might do if he suspected she could now see half a mile in every direction.

With or without glasses, Professor Donovan was incredibly good-looking. His hair was that silver-brown color that his cherished literature would have described as "mouse-brown", although that wasn't quite right to Kira's mind. It matured him without giving him any indication of the early onset of gray hair. He might have stood a better chance at fitting in with his older colleagues if he wore it shorter, but it reached to his strong jawline, and he kept it swept back behind slightly-pronounced ears. The aforementioned jawline, the one that drove Kira's fellow freshman females crazy upon sight, was overshadowed by a deliberately-maintained stubble that accentuated his disaffected image.

The pale eyes that regarded her from behind the glasses were deep-set, and probably a breathtaking gray, but Kira had only ever seen them look at her with an infuriating twinkle reflected in their depths. As if they shared some great secret or joke, when the reality was that she was the punchline. No wonder girls of every age made themselves crazy about him; the amused, carefully-guarded look on his face gave him the distinct appearance of flirting, when in reality that impression couldn't have been further from the truth.

"You're not helping your case, Bentley. Well, maybe you are," he amended when she moved to his desk and deposited his sack lunch. "How did you know roast beef was my favorite?"

"Who said anything about bringing you roast beef?" That had been her selection, of course, but it seemed weird to her that he would know that. Professor Donovan ignored her in favor of opening his spoils. The crinkling of the paper was almost painfully loud to Kira; it was strange, and borderline debilitating, the sounds that could invade her mind and break her concentration now. She couldn't deal with the enhanced hearing in the same way she couldn't deal with her new eyesight. Satisfied that she had delivered on the terms of their agreement, she turned to go.

"Take a seat, Bentley," Professor Donovan invited her in a manner that clearly wasn't an invitation. She turned in the doorway, her mouth set grimly, and crossed once more into the room to deposit herself on the edge of the only other available chair.

"It's Kira," she said in annoyance.

"I've spoken to a few of your other professors about you." The sandwich was unwrapped, but Professor Donovan's were laced, and he was leaning on his desk as if he had already completely forgotten about it. "Several of them haven't even seen you in class. They barely knew who I was talking about."

Kira felt her pale face flush furiously, but she kept a steady grip on the edge of her chair. "You're not my advisor. I don't need to explain myself to you."

"I just find it curious," Donovan continued as he finally sat back and tucked into his sandwich. "From what I'd heard semesters previous, you were a stellar student."

"You heard about me?" It was strange to think that the instructors spoke amongst themselves, especially on the topic of students, but she supposed it was to be expected. Half of them lived out of their offices, if Professor Donovan was any indication, and there was probably little to gossip about amongst themselves. "Look, I… please don't think I don't appreciate what you're trying to do," she said finally. "I get it, and I'm grateful. There aren't a lot of professors at this school who would take notice or really care about how their students are doing. But your concern is completely misplaced. I'm off to a bad start, like you said, but that's all."

Professor Donovan appeared to be considering the contents of his sandwich, and Kira thought he was probably only half-listening to her excuse. She gripped her chair again, before retreating suddenly from doing so; she could feel her nails digging indents into the underside of the metal foldout seat.

"I have to go," she said suddenly as she rose from the chair. Professor Donovan surprised her by rising with her. Her eyes darted quickly to the door, even though she knew she wasn't trapped, not really—it was only animal instinct, she thought, rearing up to cloud her judgement of the situation. She shouldered her bag and took a tentative step toward the exit, and her heart sped up when the older man mirrored her.

"You don't have to, you know," Professor Donovan said quietly. "You can stay and talk to me for a while. Look, I'll even share half my sandwich." He indicated his extorted lunch, breaking the momentary spell the unexpected sincerity of his words had worked on her. Kira gazed up at him, sure that all of her dormant fear and barely-checked hysteria was brimming in her eyes, before shaking her head.

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind."

She could smell him beneath the cable knit sweater he wore. It was the heady spearmint of generic male body wash, and something else, lingering just beneath it…

She didn't want to know, she told herself. Of course Professor Donovan would smell sexy, when everything else about him radiated the same. She took another step to broadcast her intended path to the door, and he moved aside, hands retired amicably into the front pockets of his trousers.

"Don't be late," he advised her as she made her successful escape from his office.

She was late. She was over fifteen minutes tardy to his lecture the next day. The moment she tried to sneak in through the door to his classroom, she knew she had made a mistake. She should have skipped class entirely and just suffered the consequences, but the last forty-eight hours had been absolute hell for her—and despite what Professor Donovan probably thought, Kira loved English. She had even been thinking about pursuing her degree in it until two weeks ago.

Until the bite.

Now it was appearing less and less likely that she would be able to complete school. She couldn't keep most of her food down; the headaches were almost constant; and now she was experiencing spasms and split-second changes that threatened to bring her entire world grinding to a complete halt. She was late today because her friend Marissa had commented that she thought Kira's contacts were "edgy".

"What contacts?" had been her confused reply. When Marissa gave an incredulous laugh and told her to not be such a freak, Kira had nodded and smiled broadly as if the gig was up. Then, as soon as her friend was out of sight, she had run like a hound out of hell to the nearest bathroom.

Her irises were bright gold, the pupils contracted to inhuman slits. Kira pulled her lids down and pawed at them and splashed lukewarm water into her eyes until they were bloodshot; she stared at her own unchanging reflection, crying soundlessly, until she remembered her sunglasses. She fumbled them out of her backpack and slipped them on. She looked utterly ridiculous wearing them indoors, but she had often observed that it was something hungover college students did to disguise their symptoms.

Now, she made her way quietly to her seat at the back of Professor Donovan's classroom, feeling every eye on her. She knew what she must look like: a partier, a careless student. She was watching her pristine reputation on campus spiral down the drain, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. There was nothing she could do to stop any of it.

Professor Donovan had paused in his speech, but he resumed it now. Kira sat, bracing herself for the moment he would call her out, but the moment never came. Eventually, she began to relax back into her chair.

"Your thoughts, Bentley?"

She should have known better.

After a moment, Kira stirred slowly and raised herself up. "I'm sorry, Professor Donovan, but I missed what was said."

Several of the students closest to her shifted and snickered. They thought she was being purposefully defiant, even funny. Kira stared straight ahead resolutely. Her face beneath the sunglasses felt hot, and there was a hideous lump forming in her throat. She was thankful for the way her sunglasses screened her against the other occupants of the room, because she felt like crying. She was running on empty.

The only other person in the room who didn't look amused was Professor Donovan, but he didn't look angry, either. He looked like he was trying to puzzle something out. Kira would have thought he almost looked sympathetic, if the very idea of it wasn't so absurd. Clearly the glasses were impairing her vision more than she thought. He was expecting her to crash and burn and they both knew it.

"I asked you if you thought 'Jane Eyre' was a romantic story?"

"No," she said frankly. She sighed mentally with relief at the subject.

"You seem very sure. May I ask why?" Professor Donovan leaned back against the front of his desk and crossed his arms.

"Because there was a complete power imbalance going on between them the whole time. He was the master, and she was his employee. Not to mention he lied to her about the relevant details of his past, and tried to hook up with her without revealing his darkest secret of all, which was…"

"Hey! Spoiler alert!" one of the male students exclaimed indignantly. Kira blinked. It hadn't occurred to her that she could possibly ruin the ending of a nineteenth century classic, but the fact that students like the jock who interrupted her were invested was a testament to Professor Donovan's skills as a teacher.

Kira shrugged, and bit her lips as she lapsed into silence. Professor Donovan was definitely studying her now, and she wondered if his response had been the one he was fishing for or expecting.

"I see you've read this book before," he said finally. "Is that why you thought you could arrive late today?"

Damn.

CHAPTER 3

He could get used to having Kira Bentley in his office.

The girl was currently folded into the chair in the far corner making up the quiz she had missed at the beginning of class; her hood was drawn up. Donovan tried not to look up too often to watch her, but supposed his observation could be excused as him looking for signs of cheating. Not that she needed to: he had been made painfully aware that she knew the material already today in class.

"You misused a semicolon," the girl said grumpily as her pencil scratched along.

"No I didn't."

Aside from the black cloud that hung over her everywhere she went—not to mention the very distinct and very female pheromonal signals he could detect hovering around her at all times—it was a lot less lonely in the office with another body around to occupy space. The roast beef sandwich he had made her bring for him wasn't bad, either. It pleased him more than he could say that it appeared to be homemade today.

"I wish you would have just given me a zero on this," she mentioned. "I heard you graded other people down who didn't do the reading."

"But you did do the reading, Bentley," Donovan pointed out.

"Not this year I didn't. And it's Kira."

He didn't have a ready response to that, so he sat back in his chair and glanced across the room at the calendar posted over her head. The days of the month were crossed off systematically, dates circled and arrows crisscrossing weekly columns like an indecipherable series of football plays. He should have tried to work the dates out in an electronic document, or at least on his chalkboard, where he could erase his work when he arrived at an answer, but he didn't think she would guess what he was trying to figure out.

"Last names keep things professional," he said finally.

"That's easy for you to say," Kira said without glancing up from her test. "No one knows your first name. Everyone just calls you 'the Don'."

"Do they?" Donovan leaned even further back in his chair and crossed arms. "I hadn't heard that. Well, I suppose it's better than 'the Van'."

"Do your jokes just get more and more unfunny once you become a teacher?" Bentley asked without missing a beat. "I used to think it came with age, but you're not that much older than me."

"I'm a lot older than you," he said quickly. He could perceive a dangerous line of thinking when he saw it… especially because he had been starting to think the very same thing himself. "And also, you're an incredibly rude young woman, Miss Bentley."

"I'm also finished." The girl untangled her long limbs and rose, crossing to his desk with the clipboard and pen extended. He had been awaiting this moment, and rather than accept her completed quiz sitting down, he stood abruptly and snatched it from her with a flick of his wrist. It clattered to his desk unceremoniously in the next instant.

She was close, now—closer than she had ever allowed herself to be in his presence. She was still wearing her sunglasses, and Donovan raised his hands to either side of her face. Her pale hands flew to stop him, but froze before alighting on his wrists. His touch was gentle as he smoothed her hair back with the pads of his fingers, and extracted the dark frames in one fell swoop.

Startled brown-gold eyes stared back at him. She wouldn't know what he was seeing until it registered in his face, and for a moment he could tell she was terrified. Her fear abated when she saw him studying her in mute disappointment. He knew what symptom had made her late for his class, and he had held out a hope that he could confront her about it now. It would have been the perfect gateway to a real conversation about the girl's lycanthropy.

Her frightened eyes held his for a long moment, and Donovan realized that he had been gazing down at her for several seconds more than was strictly necessary. He recalled the fleeting softness of her hair, and wished that he could stroke it back calmingly from her temple again, but he recovered himself before he could act on the inappropriate impulse.

"Just checking to make sure," he said, angling himself away from her and turning her glasses over in his hands. "You never know. Sometimes students write test answers on the undersides of things. I had one particularly creative gentleman try it with a water bottle once."

"So not only do you think I'm an awful student," Kira growled, but he heard a distinct quaver in her voice. "You think I'm a cheater as well."

She snatched her sunglasses back from him, and Donovan felt the brief, angry stroke of her fingers against the backs of his. He wanted to grab her by the hand, to yank her against him and make her listen; it was the brute in him, he knew, the wolf that wanted to demand her attention and force her understanding. Sawyer Donovan was as mild-mannered as young teachers came, but he was starting to feel some frustration at his own inability to breech the subject of their likeness to one another. He needed to tell her, needed to help her—but as his eyes traveled back to the calendar on the wall, he felt that sick feeling of dread return once more. Too much of what he had already determined pointed toward a fatal alignment in their schedules. Kira Bentley had been turned recently, there was no denying that. And Donovan…

Donovan had allowed himself to black out two full moons ago. It couldn't be coincidence, no matter how much he tried to massage the math.

There were smaller damages between them he could work to control now. "I don't think you're—" he started to assure her, but he had come back to the conversation too late. Kira's backpack disappeared out the door, and she departed in a scissoring of lean legs and angrily-swishing blond tresses.

Donovan stared a moment more at the empty doorway, before retiring back behind his desk with an exhausted sigh. He had almost had her. He could have come clean about what he was without using one of her symptoms as a jumping-off point, but to come clean about what he had done…

He rotated the clipboard idly between his fingers, before picking it up to pore over her answers. She had gotten them all right, of course.

And he had indeed misused a semicolon.

CHAPTER 4

It had been Marissa's idea to go to the Fun Fair.

Marissa's idea, Kira reminded herself, as she fought her way through the crowd of students on the makeshift midway. And where was Marissa now? Sixty feet up in the Ferris wheel and locking lips with a boy she barely knew from their dorm.

The Campus Fun Fair was an event hosted annually every spring. This was Kira's first, and likely to be her last. There was nothing much to attract her interest as she wove between the stalls. The whole affair had been set up in the main parking lot and adjoining track field: there were bumper cars, roller coasters, a Ferris wheel, a Tunnel of Love…

There were also food trucks and food vendors almost everywhere she turned, and the smell was starting to make Kira nauseous. She could feel herself salivating every time she passed by a hot dog vendor, but she wouldn't stop long enough to let herself look. It was likely she wouldn't be able to keep any of it down, anyway.

Her clothes were starting to hang more loosely off her as a result. Tonight was warm, and she had used it as an excuse to don a flannel shirt and a pair of tight cutoffs. She noticed she was getting a lot of looks as she passed down the open alleyway between stalls, enough to make her regret her wardrobe choice. The last thing she wanted was for people to be looking at her in case something unexpected happened. She already had to pull out her phone every five minutes to check her face in the reverse camera display.

This was bad. She wasn't having any fun, and she shouldn't be out this late. She was just turning back to head to her car when a commotion drew her attention over to the dunk tank.

There was Professor Donovan, dressed casually for once in fitted jeans and a white V-neck. Kira stopped, momentarily startled by the disparity. He was surrounded by a small cluster of students; all of them were grinning and laughing. She felt a momentary tremor of envy run through her, and was startled by how affected she was by the sight. Under different circumstances, she was sure she would have been a part of that same group, adding another easy smile to the happy legion, sharing their jokes and conversation.

Seeing her English teacher smile so broadly as the result of what someone else had said to him filled was enough on its own to fill her with instant remorse. She wanted to be liked by Professor Donovan, even if she wouldn't admit it out loud to anybody, even herself. So when the man's eyes eventually fell upon her in the crowd, and he shouted her name…

"Bentley!"

… Kira didn't immediately turn from the scene to walk the other way. After a moment's disbelieving pause, she decided to approach them cautiously. Several of the male students' eyes lit up at the sight of her in jean shorts; she had always been a popular student, so the girls looked happy to see her as well. The person whose reaction to her she was most interested in was currently turning himself away and walking around back behind the dunk tank.

"Dude, Kira's going to love this," one of the boys from her dorm said knowingly.

"Love what?" she asked curiously, eyes moving to track Professor Donovan as he ascended the stairs of the tank.

"The Don is the next teacher up to be dunked for charity," one of the female students giggled. "He's promised us all a free throw."

Kira watched as he adjusted himself on the tank's springboard and reached down to roll up the cuffs of his pants. When did he ever get out of his office to have calves that well-muscled?

"Do I get a free throw?" Kira asked. Everyone in the group readily agreed that she did. She stood near the back of the queue as she watched the other students in line before her go through various goofy and dramatized warmups before their ultimate pitches. Five students threw, and five missed handily. When Kira finally stepped up to the chalk line, Donovan was grinning at her fairly confidently, his arms crossed across his chest. She plucked one of the softballs off the top of the bucket of ammunition and gave it a measured toss.

"Late to the party as always, Bentley?" Professor Donovan called to her. He had taken to the part of heckler like a—hopefully English—teacher to water.

"Is this a party?" she asked, keeping her tone of voice carefully neutral. "I thought it was about to be a massacre."

The male students exploded into hoots and hollers around her. Sports and competition of any kind brought out the beast in her, almost more so than the full moon did nowadays.

Almost.

"Let's see you drop me like your grade point average," Professor Donovan returned. The whoops from the peanut gallery immediately became a chorus of agonized moans: ohhh. Kira's eyes narrowed into slivers as she honed in on the target. It was tempting to just lob the ball at Donovan's stupid, insultingly gorgeous face, but she was determined to win this round for once. "Let's see you dunk me like—"

Kira reared back and let loose with her ball. It sailed straight and true; she had scarcely heard the metallic 'thunk!' of it hitting home before Donovan was sent dropping in a thunderous explosion of water. She mobbed almost immediately by her fellow students, who leapt all over her in their excitement and banded together to support her in raising her arm high above her head in triumph. She couldn't help it then—a huge smile bloomed across her face, banishing every lurking shadow from the past few weeks, and she laughed aloud with them.

Once the furor had died down, she managed to extract herself from the group as they formed plans for the next attraction they wanted to hit up. She moved around the side of the tank to locate her victim.

Professor Donovan was drenched, standing on a mat and shifting his weight from one bare foot to the other as if he didn't know where to begin to tackle the drying process. Kira alighted by the side of the tank and observed him, half in shadow, a hand raised to guard against the smile tugging helplessly at her lips. The man shook himself all over like a dog, before turning abruptly to find her when she gave vent to a little laugh. The look in his eye invited her to approach; she realized too late what a mistake this was. She hadn't even put one shoe down on the mat before she felt him pulling her in hard against him for a hug.

"You son of a bitch!" Kira exclaimed before she could censor herself. He had her wrapped tightly in his arms, so tightly that she didn't stand a chance of drawing back from the cold, wet press of his chest. She had no choice but to suffer in agony as the water seeped into the front of her own shirt. She might as well have been the one to get dunked for all the good the chalk line was doing her now.

"You have no idea," he said strangely. She was already rigid against him as she suffered through his payback, but his voice made her go still all the same. They were so close that his words felt like a murmur in her ear, and its proximity sent chills racing down her spine that had nothing to do the transference of water. When he finally extracted himself from her, Kira found herself staring up into a genuinely kind, if a bit roguish, smile.

The smile appeared to collapse somewhat when he got a good look at her. Kira blinked, uncertain about what could have caused the change, until she glanced down at herself. The front of her chest was completely soaked through—the white tank top that she had worn beneath her open flannel shirt was now rendered completely translucent, clinging to the swell of her cleavage and revealing her black-laced pushup bra.

"That was a bad move," Donovan said, his eyes raised to the sky as if prayer could bleach the image from his memory. "Very, very bad."

"It's all right." Kira blushed as she wrapped the flannel across her front and hastily set to buttoning. She wasn't faring much better having to look at him. Her teacher's white V-neck was currently leaving nothing to the imagination: it molded to his pectorals like a second skin and excavated a six-pack that she had no indication had existed before this moment. She felt a flare of momentary desire in her belly, but angrily forced the feeling back down. He was her professor, and she was… hormonal. Possibly more so than any other freshman, considering the silent war currently being waged within her on a cellular level. She was glad when Professor Donovan finally turned away to grab a towel and reclaim his jacket.

"You did that on purpose," she said eventually.

"It was for charity. Believe me, I did not want to plunge into freezing cold, bacteria-infested water on purpose," Donovan returned as he pulled his clothes on.

"You wanted to include me," Kira said. The man turned to look at her, and after a moment, her mouth flexed into a tired smile. "When you saw me walking through the crowd alone."

"I meant what I said about your GPA," her teacher responded. It didn't escape her notice that he had avoided confirming her suspicion about his intentions. "You need to get a handle on it, now, before it's too late."

"Yes, professor," she replied. Donovan turned on her then, startling her, and Kira took a step back off the mat. For a moment, she could have sworn his eyes flashed at her, and not just with frustration. She took another step away just to be certain of their distance, but her teacher surprised her by following her. She felt her shoulders connect with the backboard of the dunk tank, and her heart fluttered wildly in her chest as he overshadowed her. It occurred to her that they were hidden from the midway behind the tank. Possibly it occurred to Donovan, too, because he didn't move any nearer to her… but each exhalation of breath seemed to bring his chest closer to pressing once more against her own.

"Don't just pay me lip service, Miss Bentley." Storming gray eyes dropped to her mouth unconsciously at the word. "Be a good student. It's your future on the line."

Kira was staring fixedly at his mouth as well. Was he holding back his anger, or was it something else? She could feel tension radiating from him, could sense something barely leashed inside him, but what was its source?

"Why do you care so much about my future?" she whispered harshly. "You're a complete asshole to me. You barely even know me."

"I know you better than you think," he replied. "And I care. Let's leave it at that."

Professor Donovan thrust his towel into her chest and detached from her, striding around the side of the dunk tank and disappearing into the crowd. Kira turned to watch him go, feeling confused, and as if she really, really, didn't want to leave it at that.

She had a horrible night. She woke well past one in the morning to the crunching of bones as her body shifted and contorted at disturbing angles beneath her sheets. She had been dreaming about running through beautiful fields of wildland green, dodging between trees, skimming over undisturbed puddles left fresh for her after a long day of rain. The reality of her room, and of the betrayal of her own body, was like a nightmare by contrast.

She managed to stumble to the adjoining bathroom without knocking over more than a desk lamp. Her roommate was at home for the weekend, thank God. Kira barricaded herself inside the tiled room, moaning and sobbing as she contorted in pain on the floor. She just wanted it to stop.

In her worst moments, she recalled Professor Donovan's face. She tried to remember what it had looked like when he smiled at her, what it had felt like when he banded her tightly to him, even as a joke. For a brief instant, she hadn't felt so horribly alone. But it was his words to her, his assertion that she was sinking herself and her education, that kept cycling through her thoughts in the darkest hours of the morning.

And she knew how to put an end to it all tomorrow.

CHAPTER 5

He found her in his office after class.

"Did you really decide to skip class and come straight to my office?" Donovan asked her incredulously. He had a mug of steaming coffee from the staff room in one hand, and a folio of assignments tucked under his other arm as he entered.

Kira Bentley was standing in front of his desk. She looked like hell. Beautiful hell. Her tawny hair was a tangled mess, and her eyes were red-rimmed, but he wasn't of the impression that she had been crying. Donovan seated himself behind his desk, but the girl remained standing. After studying her critically for a moment longer, he pushed the mug of coffee toward her. "Here. Drink this. You look like you need it more than I do."

"Thank you," she said in a stilted voice. "I don't know if I can."

The overture did succeed in getting her to sit down, even if it didn't succeed in caffeinating her. When he noticed the aroma seemed to be troubling her, Donovan pulled the mug back over to his side of the desk.

"I'll go easy on you today," he said finally. "You can bring me lunch tomorrow, but I want a dessert, and I want it homemade. It's either that, or you help me grade the multiple choice quizzes from today. What do you want to do?"

"I came to tell you that I'm dropping out," Kira said.

The room lapsed into a stunned silence. Donovan was leaning across his desk, staring at her intently, but she wouldn't meet his eyes. At least she didn't have the damn sunglasses on today. Her pale skin looked translucent and fragile, almost as if a thoughtless touch could bruise it. The effect was breathtaking on her, but not in a good way. She looked hopelessly, heartbreakingly ill, and Donovan was starting to feel afraid that he wouldn't be able to save her.

But she had come to him. Him. He could tell by her tone of voice that he was the first to be notified of her decision. If she hadn't talked to anyone else at the school or put in the paperwork, then there was still hope.

"Jesus, Bentley, just tell me what it is. Is it drugs?" The girl flinched, but Donovan passed over his first guess quickly. "Did you have a death in the family? Is Dracula entering your room and sucking your veins dry every night?"

"That is the weirdest thing anyone has ever said to me," Kira responded haughtily. "And probably the nerdiest. I can't believe I was actually considering pursuing my degree in English."

"I'm not… wait, what?" Donovan blinked in confusion and removed his glasses. Now the girl was staring wildly all about the room in an attempt not to meet his gaze. She looked utterly miserable, and Donovan realized that she had never intended to tell him that part. "English? Really?"

"Yes, really." She still wouldn't look at him. "I wanted to do what you do. But I've decided that I can't. And it's not because of my family or vampires or anything."

"What I meant by that…" He was struggling. He was trying to open the door to the conversation they needed to be having, but he didn't have the proper key to get in. He had to enter through the side window; vampires it was. "I'm saying you can tell me anything. No matter how crazy it might sound."

"The only reason I'm talking to you right now," Kira said, voice shaking, "is because I wanted you to be the first to know. I don't know why, I just… wanted you to be the first. I know you don't respect me, or even really like, but you… you've done a lot for me." She rose suddenly from her seat. "And I'm sorry that your efforts were wasted."

"They're not wasted." Donovan was out of his chair. "I refuse to let them be wasted. And I refuse to let you leave this room until you tell me why you're about to throw away a perfectly good education."

Kira scoffed at this, and he watched as some of the fire behind her eyes rekindled. "You can't prevent me from leaving your office."

"Can't I?" As Kira came around the side of his desk, Donovan moved in front of his door. His shoulders were broad enough to almost fill the frame. While the healthy, athletic Kira Bentley he had observed walking around campus weeks ago might have stood a chance against him, the thin and hungry-looking young woman standing before him wouldn't hold a candle to his strength.

She didn't look forlorn anymore; she looked furious. "Get out of my way," she growled, through teeth that suddenly appeared far sharper than before. "I knew it was a mistake to try and tell you anything. You can't hold me in here!"

"You haven't told me anything," Donovan pointed out to her pleasantly. Kira paced away from him, agitated, before returning to him with a sudden vengeance.

"I'll scream. I'll throw that mug of coffee on you," she threatened.

"I'm prepared to bear it," he said nobly.

"I can do worse than that," she promised.

"I'm afraid I don't believe you, Miss—"

Kira, whose rage at being held captive had brought her only inches away from the man, now shed the remaining inches as she raised herself up on her toes and kissed him.

The move stunned Donovan. He remained planted where he was, unable to process what was happening fast enough. He felt a vengeful body pressed against him in cold fury, but her lips… her lips were soft and warm. And her closeness triggered something inside of him.

He snaked an arm around her waist and flipped her over, until Kira Bentley was pinned beneath him against the door. She gasped quietly in surprise, and Donovan took full advantage of the involuntary parting of her lips to take command of a second kiss. He swept his tongue between that natural, maddening purse, and Kira reacted to him instinctively, inviting him in with a sweet moan as she wound her arms around his neck. His hands were on her ribcage, sliding up past her heaving breasts to her shoulders, and he felt her shudder beneath him. His mouth roved against hers, forcing her to open to him, again and again, willing her to take everything she had asked for before he pulled away suddenly with a gasp.

"I know what you are." No more pretenses. She was gazing up at him, stricken, her beautiful face a map of every agony Donovan had ever experienced and was currently experiencing now, with this forbidden girl in his arms. He had to release her from her secret before it was too late. He had to release them both.

"You've changed these past two weeks. You're sick, and you're tearing yourself apart inside. You think you're alone, but you aren't.

"Kira, you're a werewolf."

CHAPTER 6

Kira, you're a werewolf.

The revelation was more startling than the kiss. Of course, the kiss had been her idea, as much as you could call a frustrated impulse an "idea". She wasn't sure what possessed her to lock lips with Professor Donovan, but it wasn't an expectation of having her heated kiss returned—that was for damn sure.

But he had her backed against the door of his office, which was exactly where Kira Bentley needed to be. As brown-gold eyes met his in disbelief, her shaking fingers groped behind her for the door handle. His gaze shot to her hand, but he was too late—in the next instant she was out the door and running down the hallway of the English building.

Kira's need to escape was all-encompassing, especially now that he had revealed to her what he knew. Professor Donovan knew. She had to get away before fear overwhelmed her. Whenever strong emotion overwhelmed her these days, she—

Kira felt the change already starting. Her spine was shifting and bowing, and as she took the stairs of the fire escape down, she could see that the hand she used to brace herself on the railing had twisted into a claw. She trapped a low sob of despair in her throat and pushed herself to run faster. The English building was right on the edge of campus near the woods. If she could just make it to the safety of the trees…

She was out the door and sprinting. She had arrived early that morning to speak to Professor Donovan before classes, and she didn't encounter any other students or staff as she ran for cover. She made it about thirty paces into the woods before a larger body brought her down.

Kira tried to scream, but all that escaped her was a strangled noise as her attacker carried them both to the ground and knocked the wind from her lungs. She overturned herself to kick and slash at the body atop her, but felt her limbs slammed back into the dirt; the person astride her had driven her legs down beneath him until he was pinning her with his knees. She felt strong hands manacle her wrists and restrain them.

"Get off me!" Kira sobbed aloud. The fact that she could still find her voice was a good thing, even if she was too hysterical to recognize it—it meant that the change hadn't advanced as far as she thought. Not yet, anyway. Who knew if the wolf would still decide to rear its ugly head, and with someone forcing themselves so close to her, she had no hope of concealing the change before it was too late. "Please," she begged.

"Look at me." Professor Donovan's face resolved above her. Kira blinked. She hadn't realized who it was before who held her pinned. Shafts of early morning sunlight that penetrated from the canopy above darkened his handsome silhouette. Wisps of brown hair hung in his face, and he was breathing as heavily as she was from their run. How had he managed to catch up to her? She had always been fast, but ever since the bite, she had been almost superhumanly so…

Donovan leaned down, and Kira finally saw what he was trying to show her. The familiar silver of his irises had vanished completely; in their place, she gazed into a pair of inhumanly gold eyes. The pupils were still black, but reduced to thin, vertical slivers. She could see her own stricken expression reflected in them.

"Please don't make me spell it out for you," Professor Donovan said to break the silence. "I already have a lecture on Jane Eyre I have to give in the next hour."

"You're…" Kira struggled with the words as she struggled to raise herself off the ground. Perhaps still wary of an escape attempt, the man didn't budge. "You're like me! You're a werewolf!"

"The clinical term for it is lycanthropy," Professor Donovan said. "If there was a clinic established for this sort of thing. And yes, it's an affliction we both share."

"You knew," Kira said in wonder. "You knew all along. All those stupid detentions and manufactured excuses for me to come to your office after class…"

"You earned every one of those yourself," Donovan clarified in a low murmur. Kira suddenly became aware of just how closely their bodies were positioned. It reminded her a little too much of their brief entanglement in the doorway to his office—only out here, the handsome professor asserted complete control of her capture by using gravity and superior strength to his advantage. Professor Donovan had an animalistic side. She felt her face heat at the realization. It was a side she had become all too familiar with when she baited him with a kiss.

Why had she done that, anyway? To throw him off? To force his hand into letting her go? Or was there another reason?

She felt his weight shift atop her, and her heart slammed heavily against her ribcage. But Professor Donovan wasn't looking to resume whatever it was that had happened between them earlier. The older man pushed himself off her, and Kira sat up, absently bringing a hand up to feel for leaves tangled in her hair.

"Am I…?"

"You're fine now," he confirmed for her. "But you weren't when you left my office. Your eyes were the first thing to visibly give you away, and I have a feeling it didn't stop there."

"No." Kira blushed harder. "I… I could feel the transformation coming."

"It's flaring up in public because you haven't learned to control it yet." Donovan sat back effortlessly on his haunches as he considered her. She saw that his eyes were back to their usual gray, and Kira couldn't help but envy how easily he had managed to banish the wolf back down inside him. She would give anything to be able to exercise the same control.

"I know," she said quietly. "It keeps coming on when I least expect it. I feel like I'm living in hell." The hand combing the leaves from her hair was shaking now. She dragged the other through her scalp and hung her head, staring hard at the forest floor to prevent herself from giving over completely to exhausted tears. "I don't know what to do, professor."

"Sawyer."

Kira looked up. Professor Donovan was gazing at her intently.

"Sawyer." She repeated his first name. It felt like a strange expression of trust, and it flooded her with relief. She wasn't alone. There was one person who understood what she was going through, even if it was the one person she had least expected.

"I want you to believe me when I say I'm here to help you, Bentley. I've been in your shoes before. I was once young and uninformed and falling on my ass in the middle of the woods with my knees bent back the wrong way."

"You tackled me!" Kira exclaimed. "I didn't fall on my—"

"All I'm saying is, at the time I would have given anything for someone to be there to help me through it," Donovan continued. He rose and offered his hand to her. After a moment's hesitation, Kira accepted, and allowed herself to be pulled to her feet. "I'm offering my help now, but you have to do something for me in return."

"I knew it," she muttered. She blew a strand of tousled blond hair out of her face and waited impatiently. She could affect indifference all she wanted, but on the inside she was apprehensive about Donovan's ultimatum. What would it be? More sandwiches? More blackmail?

"You can't drop out of school. Give it another semester." Professor Donovan's eyes shone with conviction. "Give me another semester. And if we can't work together to find a way for you to balance your dual lives, then you have my permission to give up school and seek out something else."

"I don't believe I asked for your permission to begin with," Kira muttered. Their hands were still linked, however, from him offering her help up from the ground, and she gripped his fingers a little harder in silent agreement. Professor Donovan gave her a shake of approval before withdrawing. The terms of their arrangement were set.

But what did he have to gain from helping her? Kira studied the man's back as he turned away. "Wait a few minutes before you follow me out," he advised over his shoulder. "Wouldn't want to give anyone who might see us the wrong impression."

Kira was glad her professor exited the woods before her, because he would have seen the expression on her face if he had waited up. She ran a hand through her hair out of nervous habit and shook the remaining leaves from her tresses as she contemplated his words.

"The wrong impression?" she repeated under her breath. She could still feel the possessive heat of his lips on hers. "What would the right impression be, professor? Please tell me, because even I don't know."

CHAPTER 7

When he had told Kira Bentley "a few minutes", he hadn't meant an hour and twenty.

Sawyer Donovan watched as Kira walked through the door to his classroom late and navigated her usual route along the wall to her desk. He had left her alone in the woods an hour before the start of class, and now he was already a third of the way through his lesson. He knew firsthand that she had no excuse for being tardy today.

Kira sat down, crossed her long legs, and… Jesus, he hadn't realized what a knockout smile the girl had, she expressed it so rarely. She was grinning right at him, and Donovan momentarily forgot where he was or what he was doing. The students in the front row shifted uncomfortably, and several shot looks over their shoulders to see what had distracted him from his lecture. But Kira folded her smile back up like an origami crescent moon, and she was now idly flipping forward through her copy of Jane Eyre to the pages he had specified on the whiteboard.

He wanted to call her out. The class would be expecting it from him—his dynamic with Kira Bentley, their almost constant friction, was well-known at this point. But all he could think about in that moment was another kind of friction they had shared against the closed door of his office, with only a taped window and a panel of wood screening them from anyone who happened to pass by in the hallway…

So no, he couldn't think of anything funny to say at her expense, and Kira spent the remainder of his lesson jogging the ankle crossed over her knee beneath the desk and looking pleased with herself. Well, he supposed she had a reason to smile. She had just found out she wasn't alone in what she was going through.

He'd let her off easy today.

"You know, it isn't necessary to come late to my class just to keep up the pretense," Donovan said when she rejoined him in his office after English. Kira crossed to her usual seat and sat down. It almost amused him to see how readily she entered his domain now, when she had always been so reluctant and mopey to do so before. He sat back and rotated his pen between his fingers as she set a brown paper bag down between them.

"Don't you ever have other students stop by?" she inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"So far this semester it's been only you."

"I guess I wasn't sure if I still needed an excuse." Kira watched as he unwrapped his usual roast beef sandwich. "I mean, not that I needed one before to… see you. But I'm guessing that's why you called me in here so often. The whole lycanthropy thing."

"Guess again." Donovan brandished his sandwich at her, and watched as she recoiled a bit. "I call you in here because I need to make sure you stay caught up with the material. It wouldn't be any different if you were any other student." His claim was partially true, at least. "I hate to say it, but you didn't miss much in my lecture this morning, so your trip to my office today is at least unnecessary in that regard. Want a bite?"

He offered the sandwich to her, mainly to see if she would retreat from it again. She did, and put her hands up to rebuff his offer.

"No thanks. I'm a vegetarian," Kira said.

Donovan choked. He actually had to turn his head aside and pound a fist against his sternum to dislodge the piece of food that had gotten stuck there on his incredulous intake of breath. Kira watched him suspiciously, as if uncertain of whether or not he truly needed help. Once he had recovered himself, Donovan took a quick swig of coffee, slammed his mug down on his desk, and leaned forward.

"You cannot be a vegetarian," he emphasized.

Kira crossed her arms and scowled at him. "Of course I can. I've been a vegetarian my entire adult life."

Donovan gave a sharp laugh at this, and he could practically see the girl bristling at his amusement. Her flashing eyes demanded the unvoiced question: you don't think I'm an adult? Donovan knew a little too well that Kira Bentley was an adult, but that was beside the point.

"You cannot be a vegetarian," Donovan repeated, "because it is physically impossible for you to be so. Have you ever heard of a wolf surviving on fruits and veggies in the wild? Of course you haven't." His eyes raked her as this latest revelation sank in. No wonder Bentley had lost so much weight these past few weeks. If all she was attempting to put down was herbivorous fair, there was no way her changing body was keeping it down; she was essentially starving herself to death without realizing it. It horrified him to think of what might have happened to her if he had waited any longer to confront her on the subject.

The look on her face said it all. The girl was devastated. Donovan sat back and ran a hand through his hair as he considered how to proceed with the situation. There was so much he needed to go over with her before the next full moon, it was probably best that they start with the basics.

"All right, I get that this is a major life change for you," he said. "I'm not unsympathetic, Bentley, believe me. And I'm not trying to be an asshole."

The blonde snorted.

"But you're going through a lot of major life changes right now," Donovan continued. "So we'll start from the beginning. You need meat in your diet, and you're going to need a lot of it. Your body is going to be burning a lot more calories from here on out, and it's important for you to stay healthy. Not only that, but having excess energy to burn is going to help you remain in control of your shifts. There's no fighting the wolf and winning if you're running on empty. I'm willing to bet the reason your symptoms keeps flaring up is your body is trying to shift into a form better suited to feeding itself. That's a nice way of saying your biology is wigging out, Bentley."

"Ugh." The girl dropped her head into her hands. "There's nothing nice about this! There's nothing nice about eating meat!"

"You don't have the luxury of being human anymore." Content that there were no more surprises in store for him, at least for the moment, Donovan took another enormous bite out of his sandwich. He couldn't imagine ever purposefully choosing to be a vegetarian, but he had been a werewolf for much longer than she had.

"It just feels like every choice has been taken away from me," Kira muttered miserably. "I never asked to be bitten."

Donovan stilled at this, but she was so caught up in her own emotions that she was beyond noticing.

"I feel like I'm losing myself," she said finally as she raised her eyes to look at him. "I know it sounds stupid."

"It doesn't sound stupid," he replied. "Not to me."

They sat in silence for a moment. It would have been easier to endure if they hadn't locked eyes before Donovan said the words; now, he found that he couldn't look away from her. Kira's beautiful hazel eyes searched his for something more, some unvoiced meaning behind his words, but he couldn't allow her to find anything there. His sandwich was long finished, so he used his free hand to pluck his glasses off the desk and push them back up his nose. The move broke the spell, and Kira looked away.

"Have dinner with me." He surprised them both with the invitation. He followed up quickly so she wouldn't have time to read between the lines. "I cook for myself every night, and I can show you the basics of how you should be eating now. In exchange, you can help me grade quizzes."

"Do you even remember how to grade them yourself at this point?" Kira asked as she arched an eyebrow. They both rose in unison and headed for the door. His intention was to hold it open for her, but Kira stopped dead in her tracks, and Donovan realized his error too late. The last time the two of them had been in the doorway to his office together…

He gazed down at her and wet his lips; his mouth felt suddenly dry beyond words. In the wake of everything that had happened that morning, he thought Kira's stunt—and his guileless reciprocation—could go unacknowledged, but he saw now this wasn't the case. The kiss weighed heavily on Donovan's mind, almost every time he looked at her, and he could tell by her reluctance to join him in the doorway that it was the same for her. Maybe he should say something—but what was there for him to say that wouldn't make it more awkward? What words, and in what combination, would succeed in releasing them both from the memory?

It occurred to Donovan that maybe he didn't want to be released, and that was the worst realization at all. If that truly was the case, then he wasn't fit to call himself her teacher. No matter how similar their situations were—no matter how fired up Kira Bentley got him—he couldn't let himself be more than a mentor to her. Thinking about her in any other way betrayed all that he stood for.

"I'll come."

Donovan blinked. It took him a moment to remember the thread of their conversation. Kira was gazing up at him, and looking more vulnerable than he had ever seen her. Her pale, upturned face had managed to regain some of its usual color in the few minutes they had spent together in his office. Why? Surely it wasn't on account of something he had said? Unless the renewed flush to her cheeks was due to frustration…

"To dinner," she reiterated. "I'll be there. What time?"

"I haven't even given you my address yet," Donovan said, an amused smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"I'll meet you back here after classes. You're driving." She shrugged beneath his outstretched arm, and allowed him to continue to hold the door open for her as she left. Donovan leaned his head out of his office to watch her trot back down the hallway. When he turned, he noticed one of the older male professors had paused in coming out of the breakroom to scrutinize their exchange. Dr. Kilman, was it? Donovan flipped the other man a casual wave as he receded back into his office.

The invitation had probably been a good idea, all things considered. The frequency with which Kira visited his office was starting to get noticed, and not in a good way.

Donovan crossed back to his desk and unnecessarily straightened a stack of papers, whistling all the while. His pulse had started to speed the moment she agreed to have dinner with him, the same way it would have had a beautiful woman at the bar accepted his offer of a date. But this was not a date, and he was not meant to enjoy being in the company of his student this evening. Kira Bentley had a lot to learn about being a werewolf, and unless he wanted professors like Dr. Kilman hovering suspiciously outside his door, then this was the only conceivable way for Donovan to continue his lessons. They required complete privacy moving forward, like it or not… and Donovan was beginning to suspect that he liked it too much.

I never asked to be bitten.

The echo of her words yanked him from his thoughts, and his smile died instantly. Donovan threw the papers back down on his desk and dragged his hands through his hair. His happiness gave suddenly and viciously away to despair, and he crossed to the far side of the room. The calendar he had used to mark the days since the last full moon hung on the wall, right above where Kira sat, like a terrible clue waiting to be discovered.

He tore it from the wall.

CHAPTER 8

Professor Donovan's—Sawyer's—apartment was significantly larger than the dorm room she shared with her roommate; all the same, the smallness of the space took Kira by surprise.

"I guess they must not pay you very much," she noticed as she bent to take her shoes off in the entryway. Professor Donovan crossed to the kitchen and set an armful of groceries down on the counter. They had stopped off at the store first, and come away with items Kira would never have dreamed of putting on her own shopping list two weeks ago… breasts and ribs and flanks, all dressed in seeping blood-soaked butcher paper and tied off like nightmarish Christmas presents. They spent more time browsing the meat aisle than she had ever spent inside his classroom—a fact that Professor Donovan was all too happy to point out to her on their way back to his place.

"Most of my money goes toward buying groceries," Donovan replied now to her comment about his living conditions, and Kira blushed to think of what his budget must have been now that he was buying for her. Well, it served him right, she thought—she had already spent half of the remaining balance on her student account buying his stupid overpriced sandwiches from the quad. "If you choose a life of professorship, this is what you have to look forward to," he continued. He held out his arms to encompass his domain, and Kira couldn't help but laugh a little at how proud he looked. She crossed in stocking feet to the kitchen and took a stool on the opposite side of the counter from him.

"Now I know why you practically live in your office," she agreed as she surveyed the tiny living area. She could see the bathroom further down the hallway, right next door to an alcove that housed a washer and dryer, and a closed door across from these amenities which she could only assume was Professor Donovan's bedroom. She felt her curiosity immediately piqued, but tried to distract herself by helping him unpack the groceries. She hoped he hadn't noticed the way her eyes had lingered on the door.

"It's better than having a roommate at my age," Donovan said. "Roommates are sort of out of the question, anyway, considering my affliction. I just have to live sparingly."

"My roommate goes home every weekend," Kira mentioned. "But it's still been… difficult. I'm thinking about moving out of the dorms next semester to live on my own."

"Probably a good idea," Professor Donovan said as he turned the stove on. "Even once I've taught you to control your shifts, you'll still want your privacy. Next semester."

"I see what you're doing," Kira warned him. She had been the first one to bring up her nebulous next semester, of course, but Professor Donovan had latched onto it instantly. She played with the string tying one of the packages together until he took it away from her. "Professorship. Next semester."

Donovan replaced the package he had whisked out from beneath her hands with a slim brown bottle. A wisp of carbon dioxide escaped out the neck of the freshly-opened beer. Kira's eyes widened. "Drink this," he ordered. "I like to maintain my reputation as a young, hip professor, and it will help you relax. I'm driving you home later, anyway."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Kira raised the bottle hesitantly. It's not as if she had never had a beer before, but she wasn't much of a social drinker—she usually left that up to her roommate.

"It's a terrible idea. Drink it anyway." Professor Donovan also had a beer in hand, which made her feel a bit better. Once he had laid a slab of seasoned meat out on the heating skillet, he turned back to her and leaned casually on the counter. Kira leaned forward as well. "To being cursed," he toasted as he raised his bottle to her. Kira clinked hers against it, and they both took a long, communal sip together. The richly bitter carbonated liquid raced down her throat and hit her empty stomach within seconds, and Kira pulled back with a wet gasp. She could feel her abdominal muscles already clenching at the invasion.

"This was a terrible idea," she stated as she set the bottle down. Professor Donovan watched her with twinkling gray eyes. "Professor, I can't remember the last time I had anything to eat."

"Which is why I'm only allowing you one until after dinner." He turned away from her once more to busy himself over the stovetop. "If you manage to keep solid food down, we can celebrate with another."

The smell of sizzling meat hit her like a one-two punch, and Kira's mouth immediately started watering. It was the same reaction she had to the hot dog stands on the fun fair midway, and she felt no less guilty for it now. The vegetarian in her was mortified, but the carnivore—the wolf—was ravenous. She knew it was only a matter of time before the latter won.

"So you eat meat and live alone," Kira mentioned as she took another tentative sip off the top of her beer. "What else do I need to know to be a successful werewolf?"

"The only time you should ever need to shift completely is during a full moon." She watched her professor's broad-shouldered figure move about the kitchen industriously, and felt a tightening in her stomach that had nothing to do with how empty it was. Maybe it was the effects of the alcohol already hitting her, but she was suddenly aware of how intimate their current situation was. There had to be a dozen rules against this sort of thing, and they were breaking all of them. Her fingers clenched over the cold bottle as she forced herself to concentrate on his answer.

"It's compulsive," he continued. "The longer you put it off, the more painful the change will be when it comes upon you anyway. It's better if you just let it happen. Get plenty of sleep, plan your schedule ahead of time, and make sure you're somewhere secluded. Once you figure out a location, it's better if you cache clothes around, too, in case something happens to the ones you're wearing."

"You sound as if you know from experience," Kira said. Mainly she just wanted to get his attention, and she succeeded; Professor Donovan turned to fix her with smoldering gray eyes, and it was impossible not to smile at the embarrassing memories she could clearly see playing out behind them.

"Laugh it up, Bentley. My experience is your hard-won lesson already learned for you," he said with a mock bow. Some of his beer sloshed onto the floor, which only made it harder for her to suppress her laughter at his expense. It was her first time in recent memory that Kira could actually remember enjoying herself, and it was all because of a man she had thought she hated. She slid from her stool and tore a paper towel from the roll to help him mop up the spill. As she bent to her task, a sudden thought occurred to her that immediately sobered her mood.

"Will I… will I be aware when I do? Will I be myself?"

It scared her just to ask the question. After a long, silent moment, Professor Donovan set his beer aside and bent down beside her. Kira had stopped cleaning the floor without realizing, and his fingers gently extracted the paper towel from her hand.

"There's the possibility that you'll blackout."

Kira raised her eyes from the floor, and noticed tired lines cutting across his face that hadn't been there a minute ago. He was staring off into the middle distance; he didn't appear to realize he was even in the same room as her anymore. A moment later, his gaze cut back to hers, and she was startled by the ferociousness of his expression. "But you don't need to worry about a thing. I'll be there with you your first time, and any time after that, if you want. You don't have to go through this on your own."

"Thank you, Sawyer," she whispered.

It was like her gratitude—or was it the use of his first name?—jolted through the man like electricity. He moved to stand, and Kira grabbed the front of his shirt without thinking. Rather than stay down, the man carried them both to their feet. The swiftness of the move made her dizzy—was she really buzzed already on half a bottle of beer? His own hand came up to grasp her fingers and work them free, which was fine; the moment they came loose, she clutched his hand instead.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked in an unsteady voice. Donovan glanced away from her, as if he had some pressing business to attend to on the stove, even though he had already finished and set aside their meal moment ago. "Why are you really helping me?"

"Don't ask stupid questions, Bentley." His larger fingers worked to free themselves from hers, but she held to him fast. "I know that as your teacher, I'm supposed to tell you there are no stupid questions, but you've just proved academia wrong by finding one."

"Why is it stupid?" she demanded. "Everything has only gotten more confusing since I met you!" She felt the hand trying to escape hers suddenly tighten, and her heart sped up. "And why can't you call me Kira? Is it because you have feelings for me? Because I—"

"You're confused," Professor Donovan interjected heatedly. "You said so yourself. I've put myself in a position to guide you because I've been in your shoes, but that's all I can do… that's all I can be."

"But when I kissed you," she whispered, eyes desperately searching his in the low light of the kitchen. "When you kissed me back—"

Professor Donovan groaned, and for a wild moment, Kira thought he would pull her to him. He didn't need to speak the words; his response to the memory was confirmation enough. All he needed to do now was take her, the way they both knew he wanted to, and…

"Bentley, do you remember your assessment of Jane Eyre?"

Kira blinked. "My what?"

Donovan's hand, the one that wasn't holding hers to his chest, reached forward to tuck a strand of blond hair back behind her ear. His touch was gone before she even knew it was there.

"On Rochester and Jane," he intoned quietly.

The moment in class came crashing back to her, and suddenly Kira knew what he would say—how he would use her own words against her.

She didn't wait for the rejection to come. She wrenched her hand free, and moved back around to the other side of the bar without looking at him. Her face burned in humiliation. She had been confused about where they stood since their kiss that morning, but now the line had been drawn—it was the same line she had drawn herself, by pointing out the impossibility of a romance when there was already a preexisting power imbalance.

Kira dropped her head into her hands as Sawyer Donovan—her professor—finished preparing dinner.

This was why it never paid to go to English class.

CHAPTER 9

The week passed without further incident.

Sawyer Donovan was beginning to qualify incidents as anything involved Kira Bentley outside of the classroom. She was on-time to his lectures every day, and from a carefully-maintained vantage behind his desk, he could see that she was beginning to look much healthier. Her blond hair looked fuller and glossier; her skin luminous; her lips…

But that was a dangerous path to go down. All he needed to content himself with was the knowledge that had taken his dietary advice to heart, and that she was now subsisting on food beneficial to a wolf's appetite. He wanted to ask her how she was progressing himself, but she appeared to be avoiding him—she had taken to striking up conversations with her neighbors after the clock struck the hour, or gliding past his desk when he was preoccupied with another student.

Their distance was for the best, but it still irked him. It more than irked him. It drove Sawyer Donovan absolutely insane to be so near her, and yet so necessarily removed. There were times he spoke to the class that he was only aware of her presence, of her eyes, on him. It was enough to make him wish he had let that staggering confession slip past her lips in his kitchen. Did it still linger there beside the taste of his kiss, or had she moved on? Had she taken his advice and let her unspoken feelings for him burn themselves out?

Walking past her desk when everyone else's head was bent to their reading was sheer agony, but he had to do it. He slid her graded assignment back to her, purposefully disrupting her line of sight, before moving on. When she overturned it to read his 'additional notes', she would find his true message:

Gosling Park. Sundown. Full moon tonight.

She wouldn't be able to ignore or mistake his meaning. He knew she felt it as strongly as he did: the tidal pull in her blood, the heightened senses, the raw and itching skin that yearned to be split wide open so that the pure and feral form beneath it could emerge. She would meet him there, he had no doubt.

And then… what? They would resume their unlikely relationship? Kira had been right to call him out. Her instincts about Donovan's own feelings did her credit, and his dismissal had caused her to doubt herself at a time when he should have been helping her build confidence. It was a necessary evil, he knew, but that didn't make him feel any less the villain. He had already damned himself with a kiss.

He had determined that Gosling Park was a halfway point between his apartment and the campus dormitories, and within easy walking distance of both. He had changed here a time or two, and knew it to be forested and fairly secluded—a lack of play structures or paved paths meant that it was rarely frequented, and even the park rangers charged with maintenance didn't appear to see the point. There was a duck pond on the property that a migrating flock of geese had taken to calling a temporary home; their enduring presence, year after year, gave the park its namesake.

He stood on the park lawn now, a breeze ruffling his windbreaker, and watched the figure slowly making her way toward him. She carried a duffle bag—good. It appeared she had been listening to him that night at his apartment despite the enormous elephant in the room.

"We'll go into the woods here. About five minutes," he said as he turned and started walking. A few more strides and Kira fell into step beside him. "There's a glade that the moon hits just right."

"What happens when the moon hits just right?" she asked as they passed the outer trees and lost themselves in the woods.

"Everything gets a lot easier," Donovan responded.

They found the glade right where he had left it, although he would spare her his cringe-worthy joke. The night around them was silent, as if every living thing was holding its breath. The sun was down now completely, and the moon was rising over the canopy of the trees.

Donovan stripped his jacket off as Kira dropped her duffle bag. "Stash it," he said without looking. "Anywhere that's easily accessible, but that someone out walking around won't readily find. A bush will work."

"Do we…?" The girl trailed off as Donovan pulled his shirt over his head without a second thought. "Are we just… getting naked, then?"

"Unless you want your clothes ruined." He turned back around, and her eyes cut away from him quickly as she grabbed up her duffle bag. "Feeling shy?" he called after her as she disappeared behind a tree. "That's not the Bentley I know!"

"I hate you!" she shouted over her shoulder.

"We both know that's not true," Donovan murmured below his breath. The thirsting question of whether or not Kira still had feelings for him had been satisfied. There was no light out save for the moon, and she could still barely bring herself to look at him. Then again, maybe that had something to do with the fact that he was half-naked.

Donovan pushed his jeans off his hips until he stood fully naked in the middle of the clearing save for his boxers. He let the gentle moonlight filter down from the night sky and spill like milk across his bare skin. He could feel its pull on him much more strongly now. Something else pulled at his awareness, though, and he returned his attention to the tree that Kira had disappeared behind. She moved out slowly from behind it, and his breath caught at what he saw.

Kira had successfully concealed herself behind one of the taller bushes, but there was no disguising the fact that her shoulders were bare. His eyes traveled downward helplessly, but the rest of her remained hidden. He saw her clutch her shoulders against the cold and knew her arms were crossed.

"What now?" she called from across the clearing. "Do I go first?"

"Do you feel it?" Donovan asked her. He saw her nod of confirmation. "Then we go together on my count. Ready?"

"No," she moaned woefully.

"Three… two…"

The one was swallowed back down into his throat as his vocal cords stretched and shrank. His skin shivered beneath the moon, and dark fur erupted down his arms and sprang up along his chest. He eased out of his boxers as he fell to all fours, shaking himself to dispense what remained of his clothing. The change, abetted by exposure to the moon, was seamless; it was over in less than a minute. Donovan turned his lupine head and gazed down his snout in the direction that Kira had disappeared. Maybe he should have let her go first. If anything went wrong with her own change, he wouldn't be able to shift back to help…

But his innumerable worries were put to rest when the bush rustled, and a tentative foreleg stepped out into the moonlight, eventually carrying the rest of a she-wolf into view with it. He could tell by her all-too-human hesitancy that Kira was completely in her right mind, if a little disoriented by finding herself inhabiting a new body. Like her human counterpart, the wolf was sleek and beautiful; had Donovan a canine's predilections, he was certain he would have pursued her to the ends of the earth and carved his teeth into every rival he met along the way.

He waved his tail like a playful flag in greeting, and the she-wolf raised her head from where she held it sunk between her shoulders. Her body language was all wrong for a wolf, but he could see that she was coming around. He feinted left, then right, then shot off across the glade. He heard clumsy feet beginning to pick up the pace as she followed him, and soon they were running, side-by-side, through the midnight trees.

They ran for what felt like miles, doubling back frequently when the forested terrain of the park threatened to run out. Donovan took them along all of his favorite routes, and even branched out to find a new one—they skirted the pond, deliberately loping past the slumbering geese until they had all of the birds flapping in a whirlwind of feathers and honks as they rushed for the safety of the water. Donovan wanted to throw his head back and howl—something he had never dared do before—and he knew Kira would join in with him if he did. But he couldn't give over to his joy, no matter how much fun they were having. It had to come to an end.

They made their way back to the clearing hours later after having run the better part of the night into the ground beneath their paws. Donovan was already shifting himself upright out of habit; he grabbed hold of a tree before propelling himself into the glade proper, his exhausted wolf's pants giving over to peels of deep human laughter.

"That was—"

He turned back around to find Kira standing upright behind him, her long, bare legs twined together mid-step. She froze when she saw him looking, but Donovan wasn't faring much better. He was absolutely riveted by the sight of her. Though the shadows from the shifting trees above climbed her bare body like clutching, modest fingers, there was no hiding her womanly nakedness from him. He could see every curve, every dip and swell—everything he had felt beneath him for that fleeting moment in his office, now laid bare.

As she stepped into the glade, the moon hit her.

Just right.

CHAPTER 10

For a moment, Kira thought she had done something wrong. The way that Donovan was looking at her made her nervous that she had. Were her bones set right? Was a part of her still hairy? Oh God, had she forgotten to shave her legs?

Her professor advanced toward her, and her pulse kicked into overdrive. The way he moved… there was still so much of the wolf in him it nearly left her breathless. All that coiled power, that predatory stalk, that unleashed heat in his gaze…

He kept walking as if he perceived no obstacle in his path, and Kira retreated out of necessity. She wanted to protest how overassertive he was being, but she couldn't find the words. She fell back another step, and then another, until a final stride from Sawyer Donovan carried her back up against the trunk of a tree and plunged them both in shadows. There was no light to illuminate their transgression as his mouth collided with hers.

Her body reacted to him instantly without her mind's consent. She was confused, flustered, and maybe even a little angry that he was doing this to her now after his rejection of her feelings, but her body… her body cast itself toward the burning heat of his. She came unmoored from the tree, and Sawyer's hand gripped her flank possessively and shoved her back into it. His hard, naked body pinned her between her legs, and Kira scarcely felt the abrasive bark of the tree digging into her back then; her thoughts were completely wiped out, and she felt numb to everything save the intensity of his kiss and the thrill of their joining.

After the build-up of all that tension this past week, the release felt extraordinary. His hands burned imprints into her wherever he touched; his tongue pushed its way into her mouth and swept against hers until he had her panting and moaning against him with mounting need. He must have imagined this moment playing out between them at least as often as she had, and now there was nothing to keep them apart them—no desk, no classroom, no student-teacher restrictions, no clothing…

"Kira," Sawyer panted her name as he drew back. She moved her head to pursue him, wanting his lips on hers again, but he kept her pinned firmly against the tree. "Kira. There's something I have to tell you."

"Please, Sawyer," she begged. She didn't even know what she was pleading with him for. She watched his eyes fall to her exposed neck, to the bite mark that had scarred but never completely healed. The expression that passed across his face then was enough to silence her. She had never seen a man in so much pain.

"I did this to you," he said tersely. "It was me, Kira. I'm the one that bit you."

The words were out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

Granted, Donovan should have stopped himself moments before, the minute he saw Kira Bentley's glistening naked figure and the notion came into his head to do something about it. Now, hindsight couldn't help him: he had the young woman, his student, wedged beneath his own naked body, and his desire for her was in rigid evidence. She gazed back at him with eyes that he would have likened to a doe's had he not known her to be otherwise. Her own arousal was apparent in her expanded pupils; her ragged breathing; her plump lips reddened from the fervor of their kissing.

But her breathless expression was rapidly changing. Confusion, as he watched her brow knit, then horrified understanding passed across her beautiful face, and as Donovan watched her, he felt as if his heart could break. His own pain in that moment was nothing compared to hers, he knew—after all they had been through together, and all the help he had offered… he was the shadow that chased her in her nightmares, the phantom whose slip in self-control had doomed her to at least half an animal's existence. He gripped her bare shoulders, eyes desperately searching hers. He should never have let his feelings for her escalate; now that they had, he had to tell her.

"Kira, I'm the wolf that—"

Even his heightened hearing and reflexes couldn't alert him to the threat of her hand whistling through the night air toward him. The flat of her palm struck him, and fingernails flintier than the average human's raked across the side of his face like talons. Donovan jerked his head away in the aftermath of the attack and doubled over. She hadn't raised blood, but god damn, it hurt.

"No." Her voice quavered. "You… I… oh God, what am I doing?"

He glanced up and watched the backs of her bare legs retreat as she moved away from him. His eyes climbed her figure upward, and… well, this was no time to enjoy the view. Kira was sprinting back behind the trees and out of sight to gather her clothes. He had minutes, maybe only seconds, to find the words to get her to stay.

But maybe he had already said enough.

"Kira." He lumbered after her. His predatory grace was gone, replaced by clumsy human strides. The girl glanced up as he joined her around the backside of the bushes and clutched her clothes tightly to her chest.

"Don't come near me!" she exclaimed. "Turn around!"

Donovan froze; then, like an animal more domestic than he actually was, he followed orders and turned away. He didn't want to attempt a conversation with her this way, but he could see he had no choice. He heard the rustle of clothing as she hastened to get dressed.

"Kira, I'm sorry." His voice caught on the words. "I let things get too far. I knew I was responsible, and I wanted to help you. I knew you wouldn't let me near you if I told you the truth."

"Was that near enough for you?" Kira spat back at him furiously. Donovan cringed at the implication of her words. "You led me on! God, why would you even…"

He glanced helplessly over his shoulder, and saw that she was clothed. More than that, he saw that she was shaking—either with fury, or with some other powerful emotion he couldn't think to put a name to. He made to move to her side, but Kira turned away from him.

"Don't come near me," she repeated. "Just… don't."

Donovan complied with her request. He stayed in place, even though his every instinct screamed at him not to give her up so easily. She was pulling away from him, and the distance that grew between them with each passing second already felt larger than what he had been forced to surmount at the start of their doomed relationship.

"I should have left you alone." The words were his, barely audible despite the perfect silence of the woods. Kira darted a glance at him, but Donovan stayed where he was.

"I have to go," she mumbled. She shouldered her duffle bag and turned to make her way swiftly across the field, back toward the light of civilization and the tamer trees of campus. Once he was certain she was out of earshot, Donovan turned and drove his fist into a nearby tree. There was an explosion of wood chips and a shower of bark, but he pulled back before he did irreversible damage to the landscape; still, his knuckles were bloody, and he left a dent where no human fist should have been able to.

He didn't expect to see her in class tomorrow.

#

After Professor Donovan's moonlit confession, she didn't go to class. She couldn't bring herself to go anywhere near the English building all week and risk seeing him. Maybe that made her a coward.

Or maybe it just made her royally pissed.

There was too much to think about, and it made Kira's head spin every time she attempted to mentally scratch the surface of their fucked up situation. Thankfully, with the introduction of her new carnivorous diet, the headaches that had always plagued her before had subsided—in their place, she now had Sawyer Donovan to contend.

He had bitten her. Him. She probably should have realized it sooner. What were the odds of there being another werewolf running rampant around campus? To think that after all his lessons, all his talk of controlling the change, that he was the one…

His interest in her made all too much sense now that she knew the truth. He was only trying to help her because he had caused her problem to begin with. There was no deeper connection between them outside of the one he had forced on her by transferring his affliction. She was completely deluded in her feelings for him: not only was Sawyer Donovan and asshole and a liar and a hypocrite, he was a complete life-ruiner.

So why couldn't she stop thinking about that moment in the woods.

"Ugh." Kira overturned herself and wrapped her quilted comforter more tightly around her until she risked cutting off circulation completely. She was alone in her dorm room for the evening, thankfully—she had unexpectedly grown claws earlier while she was working on statistics homework, and she had consigned herself to bed to weather through the unexpected change. It was the first time since her full moon out with Professor Donovan that she had lost control like this, and she had a feeling thoughts about said professor were to blame for her lapse in concentration.

That, or it was the early September rain pouring down outside her window. If Donovan had done one thing for her, he had changed her way of thinking, at least when it came to matters of biology. An unexpected cold turn in the weather likely meant that the wolf inside her was trying to force its way out now to ensure she stayed warm. It was strange, but she was starting to think of her lycanthropy as less of a curse, and as more of an… unexpected development. She had managed to survive puberty back in high school, and she was feeling more and more confident that she would find a way to survive this.

Her confidence plummeted the moment she heard a key turn in the lock. Kira shot out of bed, yanking the comforter with her as she dove for the cover of her closet just in time. The dormitory door swung open, and her roommate, Shannon—who was supposed to be home for the weekend—came trudging in with two fast food bags clutched in her fists and her keychain hanging between her teeth.

"Surprise! I decided not to go home this weekend after all. I knew you'd be in bed already," Shannon mock-chastised as she yanked the door closed behind her. "Here, I brought you a veggie burger. I'm going to unpack if you want to cue up Netflix—"

"Can't!" Kira shouted from behind her closet door. She was manically pulling clothes off their hangers and jamming them into her duffle bag; she barely even noticed what she was packing. She pulled her winter gloves on the second she located them; her elongated, claw-like fingers were uncomfortably cramped inside, but it was better than the alternative, which was Shannon actually seeing her hands. "Going out! Thanks for the burger!" Kira pulled one arm of her jacket on as she lugged herself and her bag toward the door. Shannon stepped aside quickly to avoid being barreled into.

"I guess I won't wait up then," Shannon said, though she was clearly more mystified than irritated by Kira's sudden departure. "Just, uh… be safe?"

"Yeah, got it." Kira wasn't really listening. She was already out the door and hurrying down the stairs… straight into the pouring down rain. She knew where she was headed, but she didn't want to acknowledge it. Not yet.

An hour later, and she was standing outside Sawyer Donovan's apartment soaked to the bone. She raised her fist to knock, before retracting it quickly to pull the glove off. She turned her hand over, scrutinizing it in the light of his stoop, but there was nothing to indicate anything had ever been wrong with it.

She still hadn't knocked. She could still turn back now. This wasn't her only option, even if that's how it had felt to her all along.

The door opened, and Kira looked up.

Professor Donovan was standing barefoot in the doorway with a bottle of wine clutched in his hand. From the easy, almost unconscious way he held it, she assumed the bottle was mostly empty. The apartment smelled like no one but him. Had he been drinking alone?

Kira blinked in surprise. Her eyelashes felt clumped together and heavy with rainwater. She hadn't knocked, but he must have heard her standing outside the door deliberating all the same. A gust of warm air hit her from inside the room, and it was only then she realized how cold she was.

"Did you walk all the way here?" Donovan's voice was hushed. He seemed as surprised to see her as she was surprised to be standing there. Rather than give him an answer straight away, Kira brushed past him to enter the apartment. She was shivering violently, but her discomfort was secondary to the emotion possessing her now. She rounded on him as he pulled the door closed behind her.

"Did you bite me on purpose?" Her whole body quaked, but her voice was steady. She watched steel gray eyes flicker over her as he took her in. Kira could only imagine what she must look like standing there in his living room dripping water on the rug—she must look half-drowned, or bedraggled, or worse, crazy. She kept her own gaze fixed on his, and asked him again. "Did you bite me on purpose? Did you choose to curse me? Or was it just something that happened?"

"It was an accident," he said.

Kira watched as her professor's face twisted in miserable confirmation. After a moment, she expelled a shuddering breath. The tension broke, and Donovan drew himself away from the door, setting the half-drained bottle of wine on the kitchen counter as he exited the room for the hallway. Kira stared at the steadily-expanding puddle beneath her on the floor as she tried to figure out what it all meant.

Did she forgive? Did she really have anything to forgive, if it had been an accident? Her head spun, and her body shook. At least she wasn't dealing with any more unexpected changes. It was as if they vanished the moment she made up her mind and directed herself to his apartment…

A towel came down over her head and shoulders, and she clutched at it instantly, gratefully. Donovan spun her around in his arms and mopped the water from her hair as her shuddering slowly subsided. Kira stared at his chest. How did she get herself into these situations with him? It didn't seem to matter how angry she was, or how resistant he was to the idea of them together. She always seemed to find herself back in Sawyer Donovan's arms.

"I want to talk about that night. Please," she said. "I need to know what happened. I need to understand… this. I need to understand us."

Donovan was silent for a long moment. Once he had satisfied himself that she was as dry as a bathroom towel was going to get her, he pulled back to look at her. Kira gazed up into his face, and a different sort of tremor took hold of her as their eyes met. No matter what tonight revealed, she knew one truth—and that was the reality of his warm body pressed against hers, and the deep, sensuous mastery of his lips as he articulated in a kiss everything he couldn't bring himself to say. Sawyer Donovan had feelings for her, and if their shared passion in that clearing under the full moon was any indication, they were as strong as hers were.

"Get changed out of those clothes first, and then we'll talk." Professor Donovan's eyes dropped from hers to consider the duffle bag that lay forgotten at her feet. He raised an eyebrow. "Overnight plans?"

Kira blushed hotly at his implication, despite having been too cold to be capable of doing so only moments before. "No, I… I was having a little bit of trouble shifting when my roommate came home and surprised me."

"Still having trouble?" The teasing note left his voice at once, and Kira shook her head, grateful for his switch over from levity. Whatever tonight revealed, he really did care about her. She felt tears starting to well in her eyes and bit her lip in an effort to battle them back. She wanted to throw her arms around his neck, but an impulsive move like that would only succeed in getting them both wet.

Then again, didn't she still owe him for the Fun Fair?

Kira threw her arms around his neck, and Sawyer's hands came up to receive her.

CHAPTER 11

Once they had both changed into drier attire, they reconvened back in the living room. Donovan now regretted drinking all the wine by himself. He hadn't been expecting company.

Then again, maybe wine was better left out of matters concerning himself and Kira.

He did manage to rustle up the last two bottles of beer in his refrigerator, and he offered one to her now. The girl accepted, scooting over to the far side of the couch as he dropped himself down beside her with a sigh. He ran a hand through his scruffy brown hair in a failed effort to tame it. No amount of last minute primping in his bedroom could make him look anything other than old and fatigued sitting next to her on the couch. The way Kira was gazing at him, shy but expectant, he assumed she wasn't seeing him clearly. The look of guarded attraction in her eyes could bring a man to ruin.

"I have a feeling you're ready to forgive me because I've told you it was an accident," he began. "But you might like the real story a lot less."

"Whatever it is, I'm ready," she said. She pulled her knees up and settled her back against the opposite arm of the couch. Donovan wetted his lips.

"It was… an experiment." Not a good start, but her expression hadn't changed, so maybe she really was willing to hear him out. He shifted to prop his arm against the back of the couch, his beer dangling forgotten in his fingers. "I didn't leave my apartment during the last full moon. Not at first, anyway. I wanted to test the limits of my control, and well… I had been out at the bars earlier in the evening with some of the other faculty. I wasn't at my sharpest, but I felt good. I felt like for the first time in my life, I could fight the wolf and win. I thought that I would find the strength inside me not to shift during the full moon."

"What happened?" Kira Bentley's brown-gold eyes shone as brightly as the amber bottle she held.

Donovan sighed. "The wolf won. I held out for as long as I could. An excruciating headache and the room spinning were the last things I remembered before blacking out. When I came to, I was naked and lying in a pile of broken glass in my bedroom. I had gone through the window to get out, and returned the same way before dawn. I have no recollection of that night. I have no recollection of what I did, but I…" His mouth was dry, and Donovan swallowed. "I was an animal, Kira. That night was the only night I have ever blacked out on a full moon, and I have no doubt about who was driving in my stead. Like that, I would have been capable of anything. You're living proof of what I was capable of."

"I was walking home from the library," she said quietly. "I passed by the English building on my way back to campus. It all happened so fast. One minute I was alone, and the next I was being pulled to the ground by my backpack. I was… I was being dragged toward the trees. I thought I was going to die. I didn't realize that whatever was attacking me wasn't human until it was too late."

Donovan rocked forward and pressed his forehead into his hands.

"Should I stop?" Kira asked quietly.

God, he didn't want to hear this. It was worse than anything he could have imagined, and he had forced himself to imagine it countless times. Almost every time he looked at her. "No," Donovan breathed finally. "Yours is the only memory either of us has of that night."

She didn't continue right away. Instead, Kira hooked a finger in her shirt collar and pulled it aside to expose the bare expanse of her shoulder. He could see the scar clearly in the dim, warm light of his apartment, and the sight of it hit him like a punch to the stomach. He had savaged her.

"I guess we wrestled for a bit. You stopped dragging me, and for a moment, I thought I could get away. I opened my mouth to scream, and then…"

Her throat worked, but she couldn't bring herself to go on. He watched the memory of the attack overwhelm her, and she moved her fingers to release her collar.

He was there in the next moment. He shifted across the couch to press against her, his own fingers catching the fabric of her shirt before it could retreat back into place. He tugged her collar back, and bent to press a kiss against the angry raised flesh. Kira trembled beneath him, but she didn't push him off, and he didn't lift his eyes to take in her reaction. He could feel it, and that was enough. He pressed another gentle kiss to the wound, as if the human in him could undo all that the wolf had done.

"Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't falling in love with you," she whispered.

"Don't say that." He breathed the words against her skin, helpless to pull away despite his own warning. "You can't fall for me, Kira. I'm your teacher."

"Teachers don't kiss their students. And they definitely don't kiss them the way you kiss me," she said in earnest. Donovan groaned into the base of her neck and said nothing. Now would be a good time to pull away. Now would be a good time to put an end to something he should have never allowed them to begin.

"Not without losing their jobs they don't," he murmured. "And it's more than the job, Kira. It's wrong. For all the reasons you've already outlined aloud in class. There has to be a certain… innate attraction between us. I hold power over you in the classroom, and you are young and beautiful and expressly forbidden to me. Even without the werewolf curse that binds us together, it's a disaster waiting to happen. How can you know it's not just a phase? How can you know I'm anything more than just a fleeting infatuation, a crush?"

"Other girls have crushes on you," Kira stated firmly. "I'm not one of them."

Donovan drew back and grinned wolfishly. "Really?"

Kira shoved his shoulder. "Don't pretend like you don't know." She rolled her eyes. "You're a complete campus sensation. I bet your supervisors have to have special talks with just you to ensure complete pandemonium doesn't break out every time you do something different with your hair."

"Goes to show you how effective those talks are." Donovan reached up to tuck a strand of hair tenderly behind her ear.

"I won't tell anyone." Kira's eyes pleaded with him.

Though it was getting harder and harder to resist her offer of a romantic relationship, Donovan persevered. "You don't even like me," he reminded them both. "You think I'm a son of a bitch. Remember?"

"I still think that," she responded automatically. "But that doesn't mean I don't love you."

"What if I don't love you back?" he pointed out.

Kira's eyebrows drew together in confusion, and he could tell that his question had come as a surprise to her. Good. Maybe it would hurt her, but it had the potential to wake them both up. He doubted he could do much more damage to her than he had already done.

"Kiss me again," she said finally. He moved to pull away, but Kira reached up to grab hold of his wrist. "Kiss me and prove it if that's the truth. Otherwise I know you're lying."

"Maybe I don't want to kiss you," he said.

Kira's eyes narrowed. "If that's true, then it will be over quickly."

He could give her a swift peck on the lips and call it good. Hell, he didn't have to rise to her challenge at all. This wasn't a freshman lab where experimentation was required to prove a theory.

Donovan leaned in, and Kira parted her lips against the seam of his mouth as he gave into her demands and kissed her. She was determined not to make this easy for him. Her approach brought with it all the wetness and warmth that he normally would have had to work toward; she opened like a flower to him, urging him on wordlessly. Her hand alighted on his neck and her fingers flared up toward his jaw. She didn't hold him with any force, but Donovan couldn't have pulled away if he wanted to.

"Like hell this is going to be over quickly," he growled. He surged forward, pressing her back into the couch, and Kira sighed against him blissfully as he escalated the kiss past what he had promised himself he would. His tongue delved against her mouth, testing her defenses, and she gave herself over to him. Despite her eager submission, they both knew who held the real power in that moment.

Donovan parted her knees with his hand and pushed his aching body between her legs. Kira shifted to accommodate him, but he wouldn't allow an inch of her to escape; his hand alighted on her thigh and smoothed up the denim that sheathed it, cupping the curve of her backside. A tug had her sliding back beneath him as he moved to align himself atop her. Again, she went willingly, melting into the strength of his embrace, as Donovan continued to do for the next hour what they both knew he shouldn't: he kissed them both into a state of lightheadedness that even his earlier bottle of wine had failed to achieve.

CHAPTER 12

Kira returned to her apartment without incident the next morning, but over the course of the next several days, she started to feel… strange. It wasn't a feeling she could put into words, but she guessed it had begun with her long make-out session with Professor Donovan on his couch.

She felt lighter; her hips rolled more deeply when she walked; her legs seemed longer, and the swells of her body seemed somehow more ample. It was an overnight change, if it was a change, and it confused her. Was it just her body reacting to feeling good? To finally scratching the surface of what it wanted? Was she less tense now that she knew Professor Donovan, without a doubt, reciprocated her feelings for him?

By the time the weekend concluded and Monday rolled around, it was obvious that the changes were taking place in more than just her imagination. She was used to getting occasional appreciative looks as she walked between classes on campus, but today it felt like male students and teachers alike were stopped in their tracks by the sight of her. She noticed that even Dr. Kilman paused overlong to stare at her on his way to the faculty break room. Kira nodded to him uncomfortably, and was grateful when she was finally able to duck into Professor Donovan's classroom.

She wasn't the first student to arrive by any stretch, but she was earlier than even Professor Donovan today. Kira took her usual seat by the window and stowed her bag beneath her desk. When it became apparent that the awkward boy who sat next to her was about to find the courage to strike up a conversation, she quickly pulled out her copy of Jane Eyre and hid herself behind the text. Her heart was racing—just trying to get to class had felt like an event in and of itself. What on earth was going on? Was she just anxious to see Donovan again? Her lips still felt raw from their last heated session together, and she passed her tongue over them unconsciously. The words blurred together on the page as she lost herself in memories of his passion, his skill, his taste…

Something crashed to the floor at the front of the room, and every head raised itself in alarm. Professor Donovan had entered his class and knocked over his chair in almost the same stride. His eyes were riveted on Kira.

After a loaded moment, she sank back behind her book once more as he bent to pick up his chair. Her pulse was racing in her veins, and she felt like she was running a fever. Was that why he had knocked over his chair? Because he felt the same reaction upon seeing her?

What the hell was going on?

Professor Donovan didn't call on her for the entire lesson, which should have come as a relief to Kira, but whatever was mounting between them was decidedly the opposite of relief. She found she couldn't hold still as the minutes ticked by; she squirmed constantly. Was she imagining it, or did Donovan pause every time she moved in her seat?

This was a disaster. She couldn't believe her fellow students hadn't picked up on it with the way they were carrying on. Donovan had been right to protest a romantic relationship with her—they were way, way too obvious.

The clock struck the hour, finally, and Kira was out of her chair in an instant. She tried to pack up her materials quickly, but her hands shook, and her fingers fumbled, until it was a sure thing she would be the last one out of the classroom. Once she finally thought she had her shit together, both literally and figuratively, she turned to make a break for the door. She wanted to say something to Donovan, but she couldn't bring herself to look at him, much less speak—she had no idea what had come over her. She needed to get this figured out, and fast, before…

As she passed his desk, his hand shot out to seize her inner thigh. She shot a startled look toward the door and watched as it only narrowly eased shut behind the last student. Professor Donovan's grip on her couldn't be mistaken for anything other than intimate.

What was he doing? Someone could walk in on them at any moment!

He reeled her in and out of view of the window inset into the door. His face looked unusually flushed, and his glasses lay forgotten on his desk. "What did you do?" he demanded. The pressure of his hand between her legs was exquisite agony, too much and yet not enough. He gripped her in a way that Kira knew meant he wouldn't let her go until he had an answer. The only problem was, she didn't have one. It was like the early days of English 101 all over again.

"Something is different," he continued.

"I know." Being this close to him, Kira felt as if she had forgotten how to breathe. The classroom was the exact wrong place to be having these feelings, but she felt as if her carefully-guarded attraction for Professor Donovan was rapidly overrunning her. She could get in a quick kiss, couldn't she? Maybe even more than that? She imagined how it would feel to have the pressure of his hand higher up at the junction between her legs and shuddered. She had guessed all along that they would probably take things slow in their relationship, but this was a new and unexpected development.

"Well, what the hell is it, Bentley?" Donovan demanded in a hard whisper. "Are you wearing perfume?" She didn't flinch from the temperamental tone of his question; she was mesmerized by it. She had never seen Professor Donovan acting this way before. His loss of composure made her feel raw and achy, almost as if she wanted him to turn that aggressive energy on her.

"No," she gasped. "I don't wear perfume, professor."

"You smell different. You're… everything about you is different." He drew her closer, until she was practically seated in his lap. His hand inched upward, and Kira bit her lip to keep from making any sound. "I think I know what this is. Jesus."

"What?" she demanded tersely. "Is there something wrong with me? If there is, just tell me. I've felt like this all weekend ever since I left your apartment! I feel…" She struggled to form the words. The hand creeping up her thigh was doing nothing to help her concentration. Had he forgotten it was there?

"I feel… like I need something. Desperately. But I don't know what it is."

Professor Donovan dropped his bomb. "It's possible you've gone into heat," he murmured. "I've heard about it happening in the wolf world. Your body senses that there is a viable mate around, and it begins to produce pheromones to let them know you're sexually available."

"That's creepy," Kira said, but she couldn't hide the fact that she was blushing behind her unhappy tone. "And clinical. How do I stop it from happening?"

"It's unconscious, from what I understand. I doubt you have any real control over it."

"It would explain the way everyone is acting," she mentioned. "At least, the way the males on campus are acting."

Donovan's steely eyes narrowed territorially. "How are they acting, exactly?"

"Like they're attracted to me," Kira said despondently. "Like they're' stupid attracted to me. But I don't understand how anyone else would even pick up on it, if what you're saying is true. Isn't that something only a werewolf would know?"

"Pheromones are something that every species gives off to varying degrees. You're a wolf, but you're also a human woman." Professor Donovan paused, and she saw his throat work. "Those poor fools probably have no idea what's hitting them now."

"Are my pheromones affecting you?" Kira asked in a breathless whisper.

"To say the least."

The hand that gripped her flank drew her all the way in against him, and Kira settled into straddling his lap. The magnetic pull between them only grew stronger the closer they were. She had a hazy awareness that they were still in his classroom, but it seemed somehow less important than it had been only moments before. She slipped her arms around him as he lowered his mouth to her neck. It felt so easy to come together like this, so natural, so…

"This is a mistake," Donovan insisted huskily. His hot breath gusted across the base of her throat, but he held back from giving her what she wanted. Kira wanted his lips on her, not hovering maddeningly close to her skin in a state of unbearable indecision. "I don't want to do this with you now. Not when it's some… biological imperative."

"But you've been wanting to do this," she said. She was getting better at reading between the lines of his words. "Haven't you?"

Donovan groaned. "God, Kira, you can't say stuff like that to me. Not now."

She had never seen him like this before. She had found herself on the receiving end of his overwhelmed passion for her, of course, but she had never had him eating out of the palm of her hand. The animal in her wanted to take full advantage of it.

"We can't do this here," she whispered against the shell of his ear. "What is someone sees us?"

Donovan shoved her off of him immediately and rose to his feet. "My office. Five minutes," he ordered.

Apparently 'biological imperative' was about to take precedent over romance. Not that she was complaining—she needed this heat inside her extinguished.

Kira recovered her bag hastily and moved ahead of him out the door. Her heart beat wildly in her ears. It felt like it hadn't ceased pounding this hard all morning. She walked briskly down the hall to the water fountains and occupied herself with slaking her thirst, but it definitely wasn't the thirst that needed to be quenched. When she was finished, she turned and stared hard at the bulletin board as she waited a few minutes more.

Then she was mounting the steps to the upper offices, trying not to sprint in her eagerness to get where she was going. She strode down the hall to Professor Donovan's office and pulled opened the door.

The moment it was secured closed behind her, the man was upon her. Kira gasped, and the door thudded hard in its frame as he thrust her up against it in a sizzling encore of their first kiss. He lifted her off the ground and pinned her beneath his insistent body as his hand shot behind her to lock the door. Their mouths collided in a fevered exchange; her teeth caught on his lower lip as he tried his best to devour her whole.

His thumbs glanced beneath her rib cage and hooked themselves on the hem of her shirt, yanking it up and over her head without even the briefest break in contact. Now the black pushup bra he had first seen at the Fun Fair bleeding through her wet T-shirt was in full evidence. He palmed one of her proud breasts and squeezed, and Kira went wild; she wanted to throw her head back, but his mouth kept hold of her, swallowing her impassioned moan.

He whirled away from the door, carrying her with him. She wrapped her long legs around his waist to secure herself to him as he deposited her on the edge of his desk. Papers scattered beneath the careless sweep of his hand and fell to the floor in fluttering clumps. He pushed his hard body between her legs, and Kira opened to receive him, her form-fitting camel-colored skirt riding all the way up her thighs. His right hand detached itself from the desk to aid in its ascent, and she shuddered.

"I can't count the number of times I've wanted to throw you across this desk," he growled into her neck. He followed up his dark admission with a nip beneath her ear, and Kira gasped. "Did you ever think about that, Kira, all the times I had you in here? Did you think about what you would do if I tried to have my way with you? Would you let me?"

She cried out as his hand delved beneath her skirt and cupped her between her legs. Only the cotton of her panties remained as a barrier between them, but it suddenly felt as thin as tissue paper. Donovan's hand rubbed her, and she moved her body in time to his deep caresses, latching onto him with her mouth once more.

"I'll take that as a yes," he concluded as he thrust his tongue past her parted lips. His kiss was hot and penetrating, and her awareness narrowed instantly in that moment to the way their mouths danced and joined. She barely noticed how he shifted their lower bodies closer until his pelvis was grinding her back against his desk.

The fingers caressing her between her legs gave a firm, intrusive press over her entrance, and Kira nearly shot off the desk. Donovan's strong body barricaded her, forcing her back until she was situated precisely the way he wanted her to remain. There was nowhere for her to escape to… nowhere to turn except to the release his touch promised… she opened her legs wider, and the pads of his fingers slid at last beneath the damp fabric of her panties…

A low knock at the door had them separating from one another in an instant. Kira gave a flying leap across the room as Donovan dove for her T-shirt, which was still hanging off the door handle where they had left it. He turned, reared back, and pitched it to her like the outcome of the ninth inning depended on it. Kira caught it handily and yanked it down over her head as Donovan straightened himself out.

"Yep! Just a minute!" His voice sounded rough around the edges and much deeper than usual, and he hastily cleared his throat. His thumb flicked the lock and he leveraged the handle down just as Kira tossed herself down onto the couch and grabbed a book off the nearest shelf. She flipped it open to a random page and lost herself behind it just as the door opened. She didn't look up to see who it was.

"Was this door locked?" Dr. Kilman's voice resonated from the other side. Kira pushed her hair back and glanced up incuriously. She was certain the frantic beating of her heart could be heard miles away, with or without heightened werewolf hearing. Donovan's glance in her direction seemed to confirm this.

"No." His voice was neutral. "What's up, Kilman?"

Donovan's fellow faculty member leaned around the corner to look at Kira. She raised her hand in a bored little wave. "Just waiting for Professor Donovan to finish grading my last essay," she explained, her tone implying it was the most inconvenient thing on earth and she was so over it. Dr. Kilman's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly behind his glasses, but he nodded in acceptance of this. He withdrew and started back down the hall to his own office. Donovan pulled the door closed once more. They both expelled a simultaneous sigh of relief.

"Holy shit!" Kira tossed her book aside and covered her mouth to keep from laughing uncontrollably. Donovan collapsed behind his desk and dropped his head into his hands. He looked like he had just lost years of his life.

"Jesus. That has got to be the dumbest thing I have ever done," he muttered.

Kira raised an eyebrow. "Does that mean we're done?"

His pencil holder sailed across the room toward her in response, and she laughed as she shielded herself against it. They hadn't consummated their feelings, but she still felt good. Really good. Apparently all the wolf in her had required to be satisfied for the moment was a quick tryst at the hands of the man who sired her.

"You're going to get me fired, Kira. I'll be blacklisted from ever teaching for the rest of my life." Donovan raised himself up from behind his desk and straightened the front of his sweater. Kira licked her lips playfully, and he noticed this immediately. Donovan raised a finger and pointed it at her. "No. No more. I don't care how fucking sexy you look or how good you smell. We're not doing this again here. There's a lot more at stake than either of us can easily remember when we get like this."

"Fine." Kira pouted. "But there goes your perverted fantasy of having me over your desk."

Donovan groaned and dropped his head into a stack of papers; unnoticed by Dr. Kilman, most of them still resided on the floor. Content that she had won, Kira picked up her book and resumed pretending to read. She didn't even notice that her tag was sticking out in front.

CHAPTER 13

"Professor Donovan?"

It was Tuesday, a day later, and Donovan was sitting behind the desk in his classroom. It was unbearable being inside his office after his near-transgression with Kira Bentley; the scent of her still lingered, and it made grading papers or engaging in anything else remotely related to his career as a professor impossible. More and more often these days he was contemplating finding a new line of work. Remaining an upright instructor who taught in the hallowed halls of Rider University and being a horny werewolf were proving increasingly impossible to juggle. To think all of this might have been easily avoided, if he had only made better decisions on a full moon…

Then again, given the chance, would he have done anything differently? Who's to say he wouldn't have found himself entangled with Kira Bentley in some other way? There was more than animal magnetism at work between them, of that he was now sure. He found her irresistibly attractive, and infinitely fascinating, and his feelings for her were…

"Professor?"

Donovan glanced up sharply over the rims of his glasses. There was a female student standing in the doorway, one who looked vaguely familiar to him. He sat back and removed his eyewear to have a better look at her.

"Yes? You're…"

"I'm Shannon Drieling. You had me last semester," the girl explained. "I'm Kira Bentley's roommate."

"Yes? What can I do for you, Miss Drieling?" Instinct already told him what this was about. "Is everything all right with Kira? She missed my class again today. Not unusual," he added out of a bit of playful spite. If she insisted on keeping up their old pretense, even in the face of everything that had come to pass between them, then he was certainly game to continue giving her a hard time.

The expression on Shannon Drieling's face instantly took the fun out of it for him, though, and his wan smile curled into a thoughtful frown. "Is she ill? If she is, tell her she can makeup her assignments when she gets back. Either that, or I can send them with you now." Donovan pulled open a drawer to hunt for a spare copy of the reading assessment. "Classic literature will always be here. It's more important that she remains healthy."

"She talks about you all the time, like you're her advisor or mentor or something," Shannon blurted out as if she hadn't heard him at all. Donovan froze. Now he could definitely see that something was wrong. Her eyes were nearly brimming over with tears, and he could smell her heightened anxiety suspended like a cloud above them both. He eased the drawer shut.

"What is it, Drieling?" he asked quietly. "I assure you that you have my complete confidence." It was a promise he might have to break, depending on what she told him now. If he was her first point of contact… if there was an emergency…

"I came home last night and our room was completely trashed!" Shannon sobbed. "All the furniture was overturned, and there were clothes everywhere. It was all Kira's stuff—none of my stuff was touched. Even her bed was flipped over. It looked like… it looked like… oh God." Shannon sank to her knees, and Donovan came instantly out of his chair to join her on the floor. He could still hear her voice muffled behind her hands. "It was like someone tore through it with a knife. There were these long jagged marks in it…"

"And Kira?" he demanded. "Where's Kira?"

Her sudden silence unnerved him, and Donovan grasped her shoulders to force her to look up at him once more. Her eyes were streaming, and her face was deathly pale.

"I think someone broke into our dorm room," she said. "I think something has happened to Kira."

Kira woke in the woods.

She blinked blearily up at the sky as she tried to remember how she had gotten outside in the first place. She could see a patch of blue through a fringe of autumnal leaves, but nothing about the canopy above her recalled any memories. She overturned herself to look for any familiar landmarks, and was greeted by a terrible discovery.

She wasn't naked—that, at least, was a relief. But her clothes were torn to ribbons, and the skin beneath her tattered clothing was scratched as if she had been in a scuffle with some wild animal. Even her jeans were ripped beyond recognition.

Panic flooded her system, and Kira sat up quickly. She was hit by an immediate dizzy spell, but it didn't succeed in knocking her back down again; if anything, her lightheadedness forced her to take quick stock of her surroundings in case she happened to pass out again. Aside from her clothes and the superficial wounds, she appeared otherwise unharmed. Judging by the noonday sky overhead, she was able to guess that she had been out for a while, which would account for some of her dizziness—her stomach felt empty, and she was likely dehydrated. The surge of energy she had felt upon waking was only due to adrenaline, and that would probably deplete itself shortly. She needed to figure a way out of here before then?

But where was she? She wanted to say Gosling Park, but she couldn't be sure how she knew. Relying on her largely-untested wolf instincts to tell her where she was seemed risky, but it was all she had to go off of at this point. She thought she could tell from the position of the sun that time had passed, but what was the last thing that she could remember?

She had been up late studying well into the early morning. Her roommate was out—likely sleeping over with a new guy she didn't want Kira to know about yet. So Kira had been in her dorm room alone, and then… chaos.

Someone had splintered the door in. She remembered that much. No knock, no trying of the handle first—the door had caved upon first impact. Her body had reacted out of instinct, and shifted her partway before she even had time to draw a startled breath. She remembered a whirlwind of claws, teeth, and fur… but whose? Surely it wasn't Donovan who had attacked her.

Was it possible she had done this to herself?

The prospect was starting to seem more and more likely. She knew that werewolves occasionally blacked out, depending on the circumstances—Professor Donovan was a testament to that. Could it have been lack of sleep that allowed the wolf to take her over with a vengeance? Oh God, what if she had hurt someone?

Kira staggered to her feet, pressing a palm to her forehead in shame. The only blood on her was blood that she could readily identify as her own, and there wasn't much of it. Her mouth was dry, and as she swept her tongue between her teeth for a telltale taste of copper, she came up short. All signs were pointing toward a positive conclusion, but that still didn't explain what had happened, or why she was here.

A rustling in the undergrowth drew her attention, and Kira froze. Her sensitive ears picked up on something close, something large, moving steadily toward her location. She turned and planted herself in a defensive position, legs wide and fists raised. Whoever, or whatever, it was, they were approaching at a speed that couldn't be mistaken for anything other than intentional. They knew her location, and were banking on her still being there.

She wasn't out of the woods yet.

CHAPTER 14

"And this is how you found it?"

Kira Bentley's roommate, Shannon Drieling, nodded.

Donovan stood in the doorway to the girls' dorm room for a long, terrible moment; then, taking Shannon's silence for permission, he stepped over the threshold.

The room was a disaster—exactly as she had described it to him and then some. The bed was overturned, assignments and clothes were scattered everywhere, a desk lamp was shattered and pillows were torn to ribbons. There were goose down feathers littered everywhere, covering half of the room like a fresh powder of snow.

Donovan's stomach lurched at the sight. He knew what this was all too well: this was the handiwork of a werewolf out of control. Was it possible that after all of their time spent together—after all of his advice and teachings—Kira's wolf side had still got the better of her? He could see now how lucky it had been that Shannon had been out for the evening.

"Your side of the room is basically untouched?" he inquired. He moved through the wreckage, but couldn't bring himself to touch anything that had been overturned or destroyed. It was probably for the better—they would need to notify campus police if Kira couldn't be located, and having his fingerprints at the scene of the crime would open an entirely new can of worms.

In response to his question, Shannon shook her head. "No. I… I think whoever broke into our dorm room was after Kira and Kira only. Everything she owned was trashed," she said.

"I can see that." Now that he was deeper in the room, Donovan caught a whiff of something he didn't understand. While the damage had clearly been done by a wolf, Shannon's theory that someone had broken in and attacked Kira seemed suddenly and starkly more likely than Kira being the sole party responsible for the damage.

His nostrils curled as they were assaulted by a third scent. The left side of the room, Shannon's side, smelled like it had been drenched in hairspray and perfume; the right side, Kira's side, smelled like the generic brand of soap she used combined with the more recent aroma of pine trees. Beneath it all, he could smell her wolf's pheromones, indistinguishable to any non-shifter, but his own awareness of them packed a wallop. It was enough to make his pulse quicken and his blood race, even with the girl herself absent.

But that third scent. So alien, and yet… so like his own. Donovan put out a hand to grab the back of Shannon's desk chair, breaking his promise to himself not to touch anything, and sat down hard. He had never smelled it before in his life, but there seemed to be no mistaking it.

It was the smell of another male wolf. It was the smell of the brute who had come after Kira.

"Professor, I think there's something you should know," Shannon mentioned hesitantly from the doorway.

Donovan turned his head slowly to look at her, eyes still distant as he took in every detail of this new, horrifying reality. "Yes?" he asked finally.

"I think Kira was… well, I think she might have been seeing someone. In secret." Shannon's voice was hushed. "You could say I know the signs. I've had a boyfriend I've been keeping from her for weeks; I was just waiting for the right time to introduce them… anyway, that's neither here nor there. But she's been really private recently, and there are a few times I've come home early over the weekends to just find her… gone. Without explanation. I mean, obviously she has another place to stay."

"Is it obvious?" Donovan echoed her without thinking. "I had no idea."

"And I guess I've just been wondering… well, I guess I wondered if there was a reason she was keeping whoever she's been seeing a secret. Like, maybe he isn't the nicest guy, and she knows that she needs to break up with him. Maybe she tried to break up with him, and…" Shannon cut herself off, as if the very idea of what had become of Kira strangled her like two sets of fingers. "I wish I had been here!" she finished brokenly.

"There was nothing you could have done," Donovan said firmly as he rose. "And I'm not one to say you were right to find me before you called campus police, but I'm glad you told me. I've advised Kira on more than just her schoolwork this semester, and her location and well-being are incredibly important to me."

"Where do you think she could have gone?" Shannon moaned. Donovan surveyed the room once more, his eyes taking in the drifts of goose feathers.

"I have an idea," he said. "But it's only a hunch."

He turned on his heel and was about to exit the room, but he ultimately paused to lay a comforting hand on Shannon's shoulder. Her eyes were misted over, and she looked as if she had been through a hell equal to Kira's these past few hours.

"Give me an hour. One hour. That's all I ask. If you don't hear from me or Kira by then…" Donovan sucked in a quick breath before continuing. "Call campus security. Tell them everything you've told me."

He gave her shoulder a squeeze, and Shannon nodded her understanding. Then he moved off into the hallway and hurried down the stairs, leaving the destruction of the room behind him.

The goose feathers from Kira's burst pillow had sparked an idea. There was only one wooded area near here that a wolf shifter could hope to escape to, and that was Gosling Park. He thought he knew where Kira's supernatural assailant was likely to have taken her.

He just hoped he wasn't already too late.

CHAPTER 15

When her kidnapper came out of the woods, Kira was ready for him.

She sidestepped to the perimeter of the clearing and lunged. There was no time to take in his identity, or anything other than the fact that he was male—she threw all of her weight into him and hoped that surprise would give her the upper hand. Her hands fisted in his jacket as she wrenched them both off their feet and spun them down, down toward the ground.

"Kira!"

Her eyes widened at the rough, familiar voice, but it was too late to take back the attack. The man landed on his back beneath her, and her knee drove into the ground just beneath his groin with only a calculated last-minute inch to spare.

"Sawyer!" she exclaimed. Past the tangled blond hair tumbling into her frantic eyes, she saw the handsome, grizzled face of her English professor blinking up at her. Her surprise assault had knocked his glasses askew, and they hung off his nose and one ear at an almost ninety degree angle.

To her surprise, his hands came up to seize her shoulders, but it wasn't to push her off him; it was to hold her there, as if he feared the young woman sitting astride him was only a vision.

"Jesus, Kira, what happened to you?"

His hands trailed down her arms, skimming over scratches and bruises and catching on the tatters of her clothes. Kira tried to examine herself more carefully, but it was no use without her phone or a mirror. She assumed by the tone of Donovan's voice that she looked even worse than she felt.

"I don't know… I'm not sure," she stuttered. "I don't really remember what happened, so I think I must have changed, at least partially—but then, why do I still have my clothes on?" She started shaking uncontrollably as tears welled in her eyes. "What's happening to me? For a moment, I thought you were someone else—someone who wanted to hurt me—"

"Shannon came and found me in my classroom." Donovan pushed himself up slowly from the ground, and Kira fell back on her haunches to give him more room. He followed her up and caught the back of her neck, as if he was afraid any break in contact between them would cause her to disappear again without warning. "She showed me your dorm room."

"Is it bad?" Kira's eyes tracked his, and what she saw wasn't good. "Oh God, did she call the police?" Thoughts of campus security combing her room for evidence, and finding that the damage could have only been caused by a large animal—

"Not yet. She came to me first." Donovan's fingers tightened possessively at the nape of her neck. "I told her to call them in an hour if she didn't hear from either of us. I think it would be best if you called her on your cell to let her know yourself that you're all right. Do you have your phone with you?"

"Not with me." Kira hunted through every pocket, and found nothing—no cell phone, no wallet, and no ID. "Sawyer, this is weird… I could have sworn I had it on me. I know I at least had my wallet on me. I know for a fact." She could feel the dread she had experienced earlier at her situation slowly starting to creep back in, despite the comfort of her professor's presence. "You didn't see it in my room, did you? On my desk? Because if it isn't there, then it means someone must have taken it—"

"No," he said quietly. "I didn't see it. And believe me, I memorized every detail."

They were both quiet for a long moment.

"I think I know why you don't remember what happened to you," Donovan began slowly. "You shifted, Kira, it's true. At least a little. The wolf knew you were in danger, and she took over for you—think of it like swapping out drivers when the person usually behind the wheel is too afraid or too exhausted to continue. I think it's likely that you blacked-out, and let instinct take over."

"You said it happened because I was in danger." Kira's voice quavered. "I remember that there was someone in the hallway. Someone trying to get in."

"Whoever it was did get in," Donovan said. "He got in. I smelled another werewolf in that room with you, Kira."

It made sense. It aligned with everything she had already been subconsciously beginning to suspect, and yet the conclusion seemed impossible. Wouldn't have Donovan known if there was another wolf shifter on campus? Wouldn't she have known? But then, she hadn't realized before that Donovan was a werewolf—not until he had told her himself. And he had only suspected her because she was displaying symptoms left and right.

"The two of you must have," Donovan continued. "Either you ran, or he dragged you out here and took off the second you started to regain awareness."

"But what for what purpose?" Kira demanded hysterically. "To mug me? I'm a student—I don't own anything valuable! Why would he go to all that effort just to take my stuff?"

"He might have a fixation with you." Donovan's eyes flashed like silver coins. "You're in heat, Kira. It's possible he just wanted to get you alone to see how things would play out between the two of you."

"Oh God." Kira dropped her head into her hands. "I think I'm going to be sick."

She felt the pressure of Donovan's hand once more on the back of her neck; gentle, coaxing. After a few moments, she raised her head, and allowed herself to be drawn out of her silent anguish into a warm and loving kiss. Donovan pressed his lips firmly against hers, and Kira slotted her own mouth against his. Every kiss they exchanged now felt perfect and right, even if they did still qualify as stolen. A wave of calm washed over her, and for the first time since she had woken delirious in the clearing, she felt safe and secure. Donovan would never let anything happen to her—and she would never let anything happen to Sawyer Donovan.

God help the mysterious male wolf who tried to get between them.

Donovan pulled away first. The hand that rested on the back of her neck slid down her shoulder to grip her arm and help her stand. Though her thoughts were steely, Kira felt grateful for the support—she couldn't be sure that her body had fully caught up with the day's staggering revelation. As soon as she was upright, she slipped her hand into his.

"We should go back to my apartment," he murmured. "I've already cancelled my remaining classes for today. I don't think it's wise for you to go back to your room until we figure out who did this to you."

Kira nodded. At the very least Shannon would be safer without her there. If it really was a wolf that had attacked her, then surely he could smell when she wasn't around? All the same, Kira didn't think it was worth the risk. She would ask Shannon to stay with a friend, or stay with the boyfriend she didn't think Kira knew about. She would just have to think of an excuse to feed her that had nothing to do with the truth.

Donovan pulled his jacket off, and Kira accepted it gratefully. It was a short walk back to his place from Gosling Park, but her own shirt was torn to ribbons. She pulled the coat on and zipped it securely closed as Donovan guided her out of the clearing, darting infrequent looks over his shoulder. She didn't blame him for being paranoid. Even though she couldn't sense another presence there with them in the woods, she still couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.

"We're going to figure this out, Kira," he promised. "If we have to, we'll confront the wolf that did this to you. We'll make sure he knows where the line is drawn, and that you aren't available to be messed with."

"What if he doesn't listen?" Kira asked quietly. "It wasn't a wolf that kicked my door in, Sawyer. This man knew exactly what he was doing."

"And where to find you," Donovan added. A chill ran down Kira's spine, and her teacher looked like he regretted his words in the next instant, but he hadn't said anything she didn't already know. He pulled her in against his side as they made their way slowly out of the woods.

"Sawyer," Kira said quietly. "I think we need to start exploring the possibility that you aren't the wolf that bit me."

CHAPTER 16

A call to Shannon, and any crisis with the campus police was averted… for now. They only barely managed it under the one-hour deadline that Donovan had himself installed.

"No, Shannon, there's really no crazy weird boyfriend I need to tell you about," Kira said as she shot a look across the kitchen to Donovan. He pretended not to notice; he pushed his sleeves up and busied himself over the stovetop. "I haven't even been back to the room. Some of the boys on our floor must have been trying to prank us—remember that shit they tried to pull our first week? But you're right, it's not funny. Definitely tell the resident advisors. I'm sure they'll get someone to clean it up. Maybe you should stay somewhere else until they do." Kira was silent for a long a moment, and Donovan could hear Shannon speaking on the other line, as clearly as if she was in the room with them.

"Okay. But where are you staying? And whose phone are you calling me from, anyway?"

"I'll catch up with you in a few days," Kira promised. "All right? Okay, bye girl. I feel bad for throwing them under the bus like that," she mentioned to Donovan as she hung up the phone. "The guys in our dorm, I mean. They didn't do anything wrong."

"No one is going to confess to a crime they didn't commit," he reasoned. "All of your resident advisors will be on high alert for the next few weeks, and then the incident will be forgotten. It's a good thing. It means that a stranger coming in or out of your dormitory would draw a lot of unwanted attention. I don't think whoever attacked you there is likely to risk it again."

Kira settled into the kitchen stool and wrapped her long legs around the outside supports. She was wearing his clothes once more, and Donovan couldn't help but notice the way his favorite flannel shirt hung loose and slightly open down Kira's front. It hadn't been his favorite shirt until he saw her in it.

He ferried a bowl of beef stroganoff over to her and leaned on the counter. He knew she was hungry; still, she didn't immediately touch what was offered. "Kira," he began in a low voice. "What you said back there in the woods… I don't want you to get your hopes up. Even if there is another werewolf on campus, it doesn't change the fact that I blacked-out during the full moon when you were bitten."

"What are you talking about?" she demanded. "This changes everything! I don't believe it was you. Not for one second. I know you're just trying to protect my feelings… both our feelings," she amended. "But how can you still believe it was you that bit me? I know you would never hurt anyone, professor."

His temper got the better of him then, and Donovan slammed his fist down on the counter, making the bowl in front of her jump and rattle. The girl herself didn't so much as flinch; her eyes flashed, but it wasn't the wolf he saw. It was determination to win their argument.

"Will you listen to me?" he growled. "Of course I'm capable of hurting someone! In fact, I feel extremely capable of hurting the man who did this to you! If the werewolf who attacked you is bold enough to come to your dorm room in broad daylight…" He trailed off, and retracted his fist from the countertop. He was shaking.

"He could attack others," Kira surmised. "I know, professor. I've been thinking the same thing. It's not something anyone else besides us is equipped to deal with. We have to prepare for a worst-case scenario, right? We have to be ready to confront him… and decide what to do with him next if he refuses to stop."

"We don't have to decide anything," Donovan stressed. "This is something I need to do alone. I'm your teacher. I'm older than you, and I've been cursed longer. You've been through enough already because of me. I don't want to see you harmed any further."

"As your student," she replied waspishly, "and as the woman who loves you and would do anything to keep you safe, I don't agree."

And suddenly, there was an L-word between them that wasn't 'lycanthropy'.

Donovan gazed at her for a long moment, his gray eyes storming with emotion. It had been harder and harder to keep the word locked behind his own lips recently. Why didn't he just give into it now? Kira, ever the braver half of their strange partnership, had already said it. It was out there, only waiting now for an identical confession from him to fulfill its promise.

There was so much wrong with the foundations of their relationship. Even now, Donovan thought that if he could woo Kira Bentley all over again, her would—he would wait until the semester was over to ask her out to dinner; he would kiss her goodnight on the cheek and leave it at that; he would meet her parents and plead his case for why he, an older man, wished to be with her and only her. Maybe there was still time for all of those traditional, boring motions. He would go through them gladly with her.

Kira slipped down off the stool and came around the side of the counter. Donovan didn't draw back from the advance. He watched as she placed herself between him and the all-too-temptingly hard surface of the kitchen bar. It would be so easy to unravel that stubborn line of her otherwise plump lips by capturing them with his own and thrusting her body back against the counter. It would be easier than saying what he knew he had to say.

"I told you before," he murmured as she wound her arms around his neck. "I would much rather wait until you weren't in heat to try and sort things out between us."

"Maybe I'll be in heat forever," Kira said. Donovan groaned in horror at the thought and tightened his grip on her waist. Wait, when had he allowed his hands to grab hold of her? "Maybe one of us will get hurt. Maybe tomorrow you'll decide you're no good for me, pack up, and skip town."

"That last one's a very real possibility," Donovan admitted as she drew him down to her. "If you really love someone, you'd do anything to keep them out of danger, wouldn't you?"

Kira arched an eyebrow. "Is that your confession?" She sounded disappointed.

"I love you, Bentley," he said very clearly. "Don't think that knowledge will help you pass my final."

His words caused Kira's face to take on a glow he had never seen before. Her skin, normally as pale as the face of the moon, didn't blush so much as seem to glow suddenly and radiantly. She fought to keep her mouth turned down, which resulted in her expression becoming hilariously lopsided from the effort, and she lost the battle, anyway. Soon she was beaming up at him, and the scholastic veneer that Donovan had used to get his own words out fell away. He gazed warmly at the woman in his arms as his thumb came up to sweep the curve of her cheekbone. He leaned into her the same moment she tilted her face up, and he once more gave himself over to kissing his student senseless in the kitchen of his home.

CHAPTER 17

Kira was starving, but it was more than one hunger of hers that she thought she needed sated.

After dinner she sprawled on Donovan's couch with a book propped open in front of her face. If she spent as much time reading recently as she actually did pretending to read, she might stand a chance of actually advancing her goals of becoming an English teacher.

Despite confessing their feelings for one another, this time, Donovan didn't join her on the couch. He sat in the armchair beside his flat screen TV, which was currently broadcasting a virtual fireplace he had found on Netflix. Despite the gravity of their situation, Kira couldn't help but think the effect was hilarious—it was part of the reason she was so distracted from her reading. The other, more pressing reason for her distraction had all to do with the man whose apartment she was staying over at for the second time in what felt like just as many days.

The rims of Professor Donovan's glasses glinted in the faux firelight as he pored over a campus map he had spread out across his thighs. His leg jogged occasionally as he scanned each pleated square for some clue as to how two male wolves could have existed in the same territory for so long with at least one remaining unaware of the other. His dark auburn hair was parted down the side, and he kept reaching up to idly sweep it back out of his line of vision. An open beer sat beside him on the mantle; Kira had declined one of her own.

She ached all over, and it wasn't just from the day's harrowing adventure. Every time she looked at Donovan, she was overcome by a yearning so intense that nothing outside of multiple cold showers stood a chance of taming the heat—and she wasn't about to increase his water bill just because she couldn't keep a handle on how she was feeling.

Think about it, Kira, she reasoned with herself angrily. It's just… 'that time of the month'. Something that, as a female werewolf, you're just going to have to learn to deal with.

But maybe there were better ways of dealing with it than doing absolutely nothing. They had confessed, they had kissed, but it wasn't enough for her. She yearned for Donovan's closeness, and this time, she wanted more than just a hot make-out session. She wanted him to make good on all of the promises his all-too-obviously virile body had made her in the relative privacy of his office only the day before.

"You haven't turned a page in the last half hour, Kira. Finish the chapter, at least," Donovan advised her without glancing up from his study of the map.

"What will you give me if I do?" was her automatic response. Kira winced at the childishness of the challenge, but quickly composed her expression when Donovan glanced up sharply. She couldn't help it—the urge to flirt was too strong. Especially if she thought it stood a change of leading to something else.

"Very likely a passing grade," was his offhand reply

She hated it when he switched gears on her. Sawyer Donovan was incredibly accomplished at going from mentor to adversary to lover and back again; he often ran the gamut of all three before Kira could even catch her breath to protest (or encourage) the actions of one. Their romance was still so new and unexplored. Couldn't he leave her with an opening for more than half a second at a time?

Kira grudgingly hunkered back down to finish the chapter. It didn't help stem the tide of her own sexual frustration observing the constant back and forth between Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester. She was definitely starting to carry her personal issues over with her into the realms of classic literature. Good. At this rate, maybe she really would have a shot at becoming a professor—most of the instructors she had encountered so far while pursuing a higher education tended to imbue their subjects with all sorts of private meaning.

When it was finally time for bed, Kira insisted on taking the couch this time. Donovan had forced her into his bed during their last sleepover, and not in a fun or even remotely satisfying away—she had occupied a cold, lonely mattress all night long, and her mind had raced every time she picked up on a sound or movement in the other room. If she had hoped her professor would join her beneath the covers, he never did—he remained chivalrously on the couch, and when they came together again the next morning in the kitchen, they both looked as if they hadn't slept a wink.

She would be damned if she suffered through another night like that.

So Kira wrapped herself in the living room quilt, patiently allowed herself to be close-mouthed kissed good night, and waited an hour past the time that Donovan had turned off all the lights. The virtual fireplace burned on the mantle, offering her at least something in the way of a distraction as she counted down the minutes and summoned courage for what she was about to do. Then, when the hour struck midnight, Kira Bentley slipped out from underneath the blanket and began to undress herself.

It was a hell of a play, and she wasn't sure she could pull it off. Odds were Donovan would eject her from his room before she could even get past the bedroom door. For someone who so incautiously (and continuously!) started things on his own, he still seemed to have some reservations about the nature of their relationship. She hoped to put them all to bed, literally, tonight.

"Come on, Bentley," the now-naked Kira coached herself. "You can do this."

She straightened her posture, and padded as quietly and unselfconsciously as she could down the hallway. Donovan's bedroom door was slightly ajar, although no light bled through to indicate that the occupant of the room was still awake. Kira pushed it slowly, and was grateful when it eased open beneath her touch without protest. A few more paces carried her to the bed. She hiked one knee up as she bent forward, placing it on the mattress; the other soon followed. She knew time was of the essence as soon as the bed sagged beneath her weight. If this seduction stood any chance of going off successfully, then she needed to be on Donovan, now. She found the muscular outline of his body beneath the sheets and leveraged one slender leg over his waist to straddle him. When his hands came up out of the darkness the next instant to grab her, he was already too late—outside of slinging her off him onto the floor, she now held the dominant position. Kira settled herself smugly atop his chest.

"Bentley? What are you doing?" His voice was rough in the darkness.

"Listen!" she whispered. "I've thought of a plan!"

"For God's sake, does this plan of yours not involve clothes?" Donovan gritted his teeth. It was amazing how little adjustment time her vision required—she could see him now as clearly as she could by the light of day. His eyes were decidedly not on her face.

"I'm in heat, Sawyer." The fingers on her waist dug into her flesh in tortured agreement. "What if that's why the male wolf attacked me?" she asked.

"We've been over this," he replied. "I promised I won't let him get anywhere near you."

"There might be a way that you can help protect me all the time." Kira leaned forward and caressed a loving hand down the side of his face. "Even when you're not around."

"What are you saying?" he whispered hoarsely. "What way?"

"Claim me as your mate."

There. She had said it. Kira rocked back into a sitting position and grinned as Donovan lapsed into a stunned silent. Maybe it was a crude invitation—she had no way of knowing how a werewolf's manners were meant to differ from a regular human's in this situation—but she couldn't help feeling pleased with herself for having said it. She couldn't rely solely on Sawyer Donovan to take their relationship to the next level, so she might as well try to advance the romance herself.

The man beneath her choked out a laugh. "This is really how you're going to play this?

"I'm not playing," Kira said. "I do want to be with you. More than anything. To the point that I can hardly concentrate sometimes!"

"You think you're the only one?" Donovan muttered mutinously.

"I'm just saying that the two of us together makes sense," she reasoned. "Right here, and right now. You can protect me by marking me as yours, and vice versa. I mean it, Sawyer. I want this. And if that's not enough, you saw how terribly I study when I'm thinking about you. You're supposed to be making my education easier, not harder."

"God, don't even say that word." The hands on her hips pushed her lower, and Kira could feel how rigid his erection was beneath the sheets. It felt like there was hardly anything left between them keeping them apart. She wondered if he slept naked.

Only one way to find out.

CHAPTER 18

"Kira," he moaned as she slipped beneath the covers.

"Yes?" she asked innocently. His temperature had spiked the moment he saw her standing naked in his doorway, and now that he could feel the coolness of her bare flesh sliding against his own, he thought he was going to lose his mind. Having her so enticingly close, especially when his hormones screamed that she was a viable mate, was testing his last modicum of control. Donovan moaned as she lowered her mouth to nip at his neck, one hand coming up to clutch her as he wrestled the bedside drawer open. His fingers groped blindly until they finally found what he was looking for, and he withdrew the condom just as Kira's head vanished beneath the covers.

"All right, you she-wolf, as long as we're—Christ!"

A deep throb of warmth in his abdomen and a thrill at the edge of his senses cut him off as he felt his manhood encased in a taut, damp paradise. He felt Kira's tongue, always so sharp with comebacks, slide luxuriantly along his shaft as she tasted him for the first time. Donovan's hands shot beneath the covers to grip her by the roots of her hair, and he felt it when she hummed a laugh deep in her throat. She began to bob her head up and down, and each movement thrust him back into enveloping warmth of her mouth.

Donovan groaned and shuddered as he relaxed back into the pillow. To think Kira Bentley, his student, was the one doing this to him—it made his cock twitch involuntarily, and he felt her fingers encircle the base of his shaft in an effort to hold it still. Donovan groaned again as she sucked him harder than he had ever been in his life. He needed her, now, while there was still no release in sight—at the rate she was going, he might surprise them both by bringing their foreplay to a sudden unwanted conclusion.

Donovan seized her shoulders and yanked her back up above the covers, crushing her mouth against his even as he flipped her over and pinned her beneath him. He tore open the plastic wrapped, never breaking contact with Kira Bentley as his hands worked swiftly to prepare himself. Once he was satisfied that they were both protected, a powerful stroke of his fingers between her legs urged her open, and he positioned himself above her.

She was slick with wanting, and he glided into her easily. Their slow, explosive cries rang out in harmony as Donovan allowed himself to sink fully into her. Kira arched beneath him in a display of sheer animal ecstasy, her legs winding around his thrusting waist as their pelvises slapped together, again and again. His fever got the better of him, and Donovan didn't go slow; she didn't ask him to. She rode the fervent, bucking rhythm of his hips, and raised herself up each time to meet him. Nature, and their overpowering feelings for each other, took them over completely in the darkness of his bedroom, where nothing was forbidden between them any longer. He claimed her exactly as she requested, and she gave herself to him with his name and his alone moaned on her lips.

He would give Kira Bentley this much—she was certainly louder in the bedroom than she had ever been in class.

CHAPTER 19

It was quite a sight that greeted them when Professor Donovan drove her back to campus the next morning.

Kira was grinning like the cat that ate the canary and barely paying attention to their surroundings. Last night they had consummated their secret, and she was feeling good. They still didn't have a plan for how to track down the rogue werewolf, but it seemed certain that their adversary would rear his head sooner or later.

It turned out to be a lot sooner than either of them was expecting.

"What the hell?" Donovan's question roused Kira from her thoughts, and she craned her head to look out the passenger window. As they drove by her dormitory, she noticed two police vehicles parked near the entrance, and several uniformed officers wrestling a man out the front door. Shannon trailed behind them.

"Oh my God." Kira met Donovan's eyes, before fumbling for her seatbelt. Donovan threw the car into park and they both spilled out of the vehicle. Kira had just made it to Shannon's side when the struggling man's eyes locked onto her.

It was Dr. Kilman. Dr. Kilman of the English department. For a moment, his gaze flashed tawny yellow, and Kira was at last treated to a look at the wolf hiding within. She stood her ground, glaring him down as she wrapped an arm around Shannon's shoulders. Professor Donovan likewise wrapped an arm around hers.

"You were supposed to be mated to me!" Kilman exploded. "Why do you think I sired you in the first place?"

Kira cast a look at Donovan, and watched as his gray eyes widened incredulously at the revelation. She had been right—Donovan hadn't been the one to curse her.

"Ugh!" Shannon darted Kira a sympathetic and appropriately grossed-out look. It took the latter a moment to process just how creepy Dr. Kilman's comments would sound to the uninitiated. The police officer tasked with his arrest thrust the professor's head under the hood of his car, and Dr. Kilman vanished from sight. The back door of the cop car slammed closed on him.

"Can you believe it, Kira? I saw him hanging around our dorm room on my way back from breakfast, and I tried to call you… only when I called you, that creep pulled your cell phone out of his pocket!" Shannon pointed at the car and shuddered. Kira broke away from Donovan only long enough to squeeze her friend.

"Holy crap, Shannon, I don't think you know how much I owe you one," she said gravely.

"Ma'am, I believe these are yours." Another officer approached as Kira extracted herself from their hug. He held out a plastic evidence bag; inside, Kira could see her missing wallet and phone. "We're taking him down to the station now, but I'm going to need you to stay and answer a few questions."

Kira shot Donovan a look. "I guess I'm going to be late to English class again today, professor."

"No excuses, Bentley." Sawyer Donovan smiled broadly, and Kira could see all of the guilt that had been weighing on him for the entirety of their acquaintance was long gone. She smiled back in response, so full of elation that she couldn't even attempt to hide it. She was completely oblivious to anyone who might be observing their exchange.

"Detention?" she guessed over her shoulder as she was led away by the police officer. Sawyer Donovan watched her depart, hands retired affably in his pockets. She knew he would stay as long as she needed him to see this thing through.

"You got it," he said. "I'll look forward to seeing you again after class today. Kira."

EPILOGUE

FOUR YEARS LATER

"Wait up, professor!"

Sawyer Donovan paused in his stride, and turned to glance over his shoulder in feigned disinterest. Kira Bentley, his student teacher, loped towards him. Her rollicking blond hair was tied up in a ponytail, and it swept the back of her neck as she jogged; she wore dark, thick-framed glasses that only appeared to magnify her warm, gorgeous eyes, while serving the dual purpose limiting her vision to acceptable human levels. His former student looked older and wiser, and ten times lovelier than he could have ever believed. Despite seeing her daily basis, Donovan still sometimes felt like he was getting the wind knocked out of him for the first time.

Not that she needed to know that. Any endearments he conceived, he kept to himself, until he could tell them to her in the privacy of the woods or in the apartment they shared off-campus. Now, Professor Donovan shook out his shirt sleeve and glanced at the face of the watch she had given him for their first anniversary. They didn't have a date officially set for when they had started dating—as with most things, they counted in full moons.

"You're late," he observed. Kira stopped beside him, and stood a little too closely as she pretended to scrutinize the hands of his watch. When she dipped her head, he was treated to the perfume of her hair, and a low growl of desire rose in his throat. While their situation—that is to say, their forbidden relationship—had certainly changed since her graduation, having her for his student teacher had ushered in a new set of all-too-familiar problems. With Kilman gone, there was no one who knew the true nature of their relationship… although he thought that Shannon Drieling, Kira's former roommate, probably suspected. They both thought it best to continue to keep their secret under wraps, at least for now. Some days were more trying than others.

"If I'm late, what does that make you?" Kira's eyes flickered upward to fix him from beneath the frame of her glasses.

"Fashionably late," Donovan answered easily. They were outside his old classroom, the classroom they now shared. Donovan pulled the door open for her, and Kira offered him a poised, polite smile as she entered first.

It was the start of their first semester teaching together, and with the advent of the school year came a fresh batch of students. As Kira made her way to the table set up beside his desk, Donovan set his briefcase down and crossed to the board to write their names. Kira was already dividing a pile of syllabuses to pass around.

"Welcome to English One-oh-One," he stated. The greeting was automatic by this point. He looped his name in big, bold letters on the whiteboard. "I am Professor Donovan, and this is my sidekick, Miss Bentley." He knew without turning back around that Kira would pull a face at that. She hated being referred to as the 'sidekick' or 'assistant' in their duo, but he would continue to milk the terminology for as long as she taught beneath him. If she wanted to get even with him later, well… Donovan certainly wouldn't mind being the one occupying a position beneath her for a change.

"Would someone mind cracking a window?" He was certain it wasn't just the ferventness of his imagination that was making the room warm. One eager-eyed student toward the back complied, and quickly turned to work the window crank. A cool summer breeze blew in, fluttering Kira's papers, and carrying with it a familiar scent that froze them both momentarily to a spot.

Kira straightened, and Donovan's gaze snapped upward over the rim of his glasses. Sitting beside the eager student was a fellow freshman, a boy—or at least, Donovan assumed he was a boy. The second student had his hood drawn so far down that his face could hardly be seen, and was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses that succeeded in hiding the remainder of his features. He was slumped forward across his desk, as if hoping his poor posture would help him escape detection… but there was no escaping the wild musk that the breeze carried with it, nor any of the other all-too-familiar symptoms.

Donovan looked at Kira.

Kira looked at Donovan.

"This semester is about to get a lot more interesting," he muttered below his breath.

The End

HAUNTED WHISPERS

STORY DESCRIPTION

Jim and Julie have known each other since she was his little sister’s third grade friend with skinned knees and braces, and he was an awkward teen ager.

Jim is now a handsome and brave member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Julie is a gorgeous blonde who turns men’s heads. Every man, that is, but Jim, who still sees her as his little sister’s best friend.

If only Julie could get Jim to actually notice her, she’s certain he’d see what she does- that they’re meant for each other.

Veronique and Etienne know just what to do.

Passionately in love, both in life and after death, the ghosts are dedicated to helping others find their own true passion.

But, just as some spirits assist those on the earthly plane, others spread depravity, hatred and ruin.

When Julie is cast into a terrifying nightmare, will Jim finally admit his true feelings for the beautiful woman who has been right under his nose this whole time?

CHAPTER 1

The clang echoed through the entire camp. They all knew the sound and what it meant. Dick Harden had ruined his axe. Without it, he had no job.

Dick held the axe in his hands and stared at it stupidly. Half of the axe head was still attached to the handle. The other half lay by the log he'd been cutting. He looked hopelessly at the hidden rock inside the log. The rock must have slid down the slope and landed in the crook of the tree and stayed there. The tree grew around the rock and hid it.

Dick wasn’t a lumberman. That much was obvious. He’d been working for just a week for the Great Northern Logging Company and still wore city shoes, shirt and pants. He hadn’t filled out yet. His muscles weren’t up to the task of felling huge, old-growth pine trees. He had a good work ethic. His body would adapt if given enough time. He saw the foreman looking at him. The man was mean, a bully with no empathy. The foreman walked toward him.

The scene was half paradise and half sterile ruin. On one side, trees as tall as any building in Victoria worked together to make a forest that was fragrant and alive with animals of every size. The other side looked like the scar from a very bad burn. The trees were gone. The loggers tore up the dirt with their trucks, killing everything that was green. It was empty, lifeless and ugly.

He looked around him at the other men. He needed help and an axe. He didn’t see anyone with either to give him. Except Etienne. Etienne had two axes. He kept one beside him in case his first one failed.

Dick looked at Etienne’s eyes. His need was obvious to anyone within a hundred yards. Etienne shook his head.

The year was 1935 at the height of the Depression and jobs were as scarce. The logging camp sat on the west side of Vancouver Island. Logging was the only business open to Dick. There were men who owned fishing trawlers who hired other men to serve on the boats, but Dick couldn’t swim and got violently seasick. It was either logging or starvation.

The foreman fired Dick on the spot. The company didn’t buy axes for the lumberjacks. They had to have their own. If a man didn’t have an axe, he didn’t have a job.

Dick walked down the dusty dirt road headed towards Hatchet without hope.

Hatchet was Dodge City in the wilderness. Seven hundred people lived there in chaos. The citizens of Hatchet hadn't elected a sheriff or mayor yet. Most didn't stay in Hatchet for any longer than it took to buy a mule, a pan for finding gold and a few provisions.

CHAPTER 2

Etienne didn’t think about Dick. He shrugged. Bad luck happened to everyone. If it was your turn to be under a falling tree, that was the way it was. Sympathy didn’t change anything.

Etienne took up a lot of space. He stretched up to six feet five inches tall and out far enough to discourage bar fights. Anybody with a grudge or a temper looked at Etienne and walked away.

After work, he caught a ride into Hatchet and found Dusty’s Saloon. He wore the same clothes he worked in; rough shirt, heavy pants and lumberjack boots. He took a seat at one of the tables scattered around Dusty’s and watched the stage.

The curtain rose and a line of dancers flowed in. The girls lifted their skirts high and kicked their legs. They whooped and hollered and the men whooped and hollered.

Etienne watched for a minute and noticed his vision had narrowed to the fourth girl from the left at the exclusion of everyone else. His soul concentrated as well. He made a decision. When Etienne made a decision, it took dynamite to change it.

Etienne had a reputation. He wasn’t mean, but he got what he wanted. The fourth girl from the left had everything Etienne thought he would ever need. She had intelligent eyes and a pleasant smile. He noticed the curve of her legs, the slope of her breasts and her thin waist.

He stood up, walked slowly but with purpose across the room and up on the stage. The girls stopped dancing to watch him. Everybody in the saloon watched him. He didn’t notice. Without a word, he threw the fourth girl from the left over his shoulder and walked off the stage.

He didn’t know it, but the girl noticed him thirty seconds before he saw her. She liked his great, rough face. It looked like it had been cut out of a heavy log with only the biggest tools. His broad shoulders and heavy arms made her heart tingle. They looked sturdy and safe to her. Ten seconds after she saw him, she decided she was going to marry him and give him babies.

When he walked onto the stage, she stepped forward while the other girls retreated. She placed herself in front of him and smiled.

She happily found herself on his shoulder with her skirt falling down her back. He patted her rump and grunted. She waved at her friends in the dancing troupe and said, “I am being carried off by a big mans with many muscles. Au revoir, mes ami, au revoir.”

Veronique Despain was twenty-four, with lustrous hair the color of a sunset and blue eyes. She had a voluptuous, curvy figure. She had to. Dance troupes don’t hire skinny girls to dance in front of burly, frontier men.

Etienne climbed the stairs and found an empty room. He dropped Veronique on the floor on her feet and reached for the buttons on her costume. He stopped when her soft hands landed on his. She didn’t try to keep his hands still. She simply touched him, and he stopped moving. She said, “Just a short moment, my huge friend. You can have me, but I want some information before you do. What is your names?”

Etienne’s voice carried wonder and surprise. Nobody’d ever stopped him from taking what he wanted before. This little girl did it just by touching him. He said, “Etienne Beauregard.”

“That is a fine name.” She let go of his hands and ran her hands up and down his arms and across his chest. “You are very big. I like that. The big mans gets to me every time. I am Veronique Despain.”

She made him look into her eyes. She studied his with intensity. She said, “Yes. I see it. We have the future, my man of many muscles. You and me.” She found a stool in the corner of the room and stood on it in front of Etienne.

She grabbed his hands and planted them on her breasts. She held both of them against her with one hand and stroked his cheek with the other. “You must listen to me. Your life isn’t yours any more. It’s ours. Trust me. You won't mind. Not even a little bit. I will give you much more than I take.”

Etienne’s eyes narrowed. Veronique saw it and pulled the hand that had been caressing his cheek back to rest on his hand. She held both of his hands on her breasts. Neither moved. She said, “Look at me, my fine strong man. Look into my eyes.”

Etienne didn’t have a choice. He stared at her eyes with intense concentration.

She moved his hands, and her breasts underneath, around her chest. She squeezed his hands, and he squeezed her lovely mounds in turn. She said, “Feel me. Feel my breasts. They are yours and yours alone. No other mans will touch me. Ever. Just you. Do you understand that which I say?”

She left his hands on their own and held his cheeks with both of hers. “Answer me, my dear. I am telling you the future. We are together forever, you and I, but you have to say ‘yes’.”

He didn’t talk. She saw comprehension in his eyes, but his mouth didn’t move. She pushed his hands away from her body and held them in the air. “Don’t do the movements for a minute.” She shook a finger at his hands. "Stay." She paused to make sure his hands obeyed. "Good boys."

She quickly undid the top of her costume and let it drop to her waist. Etienne studied her bare breasts as if they were a map to true happiness. She let him look for a long time then brought his hands back to her, now bare, breasts. He molded his hands onto her body.

He moved his hands gently, allowing his rough palms to slide across her soft mounds. She felt his calluses catch and pull at her tender skin. She smiled. “That is good. Do that more.”

After a few minutes, Etienne looked like a man who’s been struck between the eyes with a heavy board.

Veronique brought his head up to look at her eyes. “Can you hear me, my big, burly fellow? Look at my eyes, again.” She waited until they were both in the same universe. “I will give myself to you now, but you must agree to have me as your woman all of your lives. I am to be your only woman. Do you understand?”

He nodded.

“I will ask you again tomorrow when you aren’t insane with the need for my lovings. If you say ‘yes’ again, we are together forever.” She pushed his hands away again and slipped out of her skirt and frilly panties. She said, “Take your clothes off too. I won’t be the only one naked.”

Etienne ripped off his shirt and threw it across the room. His hands seemed to move so quickly that he’d taken off his pants, shoes and socks before his shirt hit the floor.

He moved to lift her up, but she stopped him again with a touch. “Wait. I must tell you somethings. I am not the fragile woman. You don’t need the soft touches to please me. Also, I like the mans who grunts and howls as he takes me. You can do that too.” She kissed him very quickly. “Stand there, still as the statue. I must pay the attentions to your manhood.”

She dropped off the stool and fell to her knees. She stroked his half-hard erection. “What a cock. How big and hard. Will it fit inside of me, I wonder? We shall have to make the attempt.”

She inhaled the head of his cock and sucked. She held onto the shaft with both hands and pumped him up and down. After a minute, she held his walnut-sized balls with one hand and pumped his shaft with the other.

She lifted her head and licked her lips. Her hands kept doing their job. “Que Magnifique. What a man.”

She stood up and held her arms out on either side. “I turn myself over to you. Do to me what you want. I am not the doll made of china. I will not break.”

Etienne picked her up effortlessly with his hands under her arms. He turned and rammed her into the wall and followed up by slamming his body into hers. She said, “Oof. That was strong. I may be broken somewhere.” She smiled. “But I liked it. I really did.”

Etienne spread her legs with his and pushed himself against her hips. She wrapped her legs around his waist and clasped her hands in back of his neck.

She pulled him in for a kiss. He pushed against her and the back of her head bumped against the wall.

Etienne supported her with his hips blocked against hers. He broke the kiss and leaned back. Veronique said, “What will you do to me now?”

Etienne ran his coarse hands over her chest and breasts then her shoulders and neck. He didn't stop for many minutes. The harsh skin on his palms rubbed her delicate skin like sandpaper. He didn’t stop. Veronique looked at him in wonder as her skin became hot and red. She said, “That is new. I know nothing of this thing you do. I like it.” She grabbed his hands and put them directly on her breasts again. “Do my lovely pillows. I want to see what you do to me. What it makes inside me.”

Etienne made his hands more forceful. Her breasts glowed a deep red. He paused from time to time to pinch and twist the delicate flowers on the tips of her breasts. She rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes. She held his wrists with her hands and encouraged him.

Abruptly, her breathing slowed down and her eyelids opened halfway. She groaned. “That is so wonderful. Never have I felt this before.”

She began to gulp and work at breathing. It seemed to her that the air in the little room had become thick with the essence of aroused bodies. She inhaled deeply, smelling his intense male odor and her elegant female smell riding along on top of it. She felt her body melt into his at that moment.

She moved her hips around and let them drop down. She found his cock and nestled it into her entrance. Her sleepy eyes met his. Her voice was little more than a whisper, “Go slowly, mon amor. You don’t want to hurt me, do you?"  She waited until he shook his head. “Bon. I can make you very happy with the loving and the cooking, but I won’t be hurt.”

She sunk down a few inches, groaning and whimpering. She closed her eyes. “This does hurt, but I need to feel it hurt me.” She opened her eyes enough to see him. “Do you understand? You are taking me, but I also am taking you. The hurt tells me that you are mine. I have to hurt to win you. It is what the woman does for her man.” She sunk down all the way, whining and moaning over every inch of his penetration.

He filled her completely. She opened her eyes again just a little bit. “We do not do any further for a moment. I must get used to your size. You are the very big man. It is nice for me, but it will take a bit of time to grow accustomed to you.” She smiled. “Is it the right word in the English? ‘Accustomed’?”

Etienne said, “Yes. Perfect.” She smiled again. “You haven’t made the talk before now. You have the deep, manly voice I enjoy.” She sighed from all the way down. She kept sighing and moving her hips around. She lowered herself down even further. After a few minutes, she smiled. Her face relaxed into happy acceptance. “Bon, I have made the adjustment. More.”

Etienne whirled around and put her on the bed on her back. He kept his penetration of her body. She smiled and pulled her knees higher on his back. “Mount me, my stallion. Do not be the gentleman. I want you to be rough in your taking of me.”

Etienne pounded into Veronique. Her belly and breasts shook with the force of his blows. She smiled as he did it.

They held the same rhythm and penetration for a long time. Suddenly, Veronique’s mouth fell open and her eyes retreated up into her head. She arched her back and trembled like land suffering an earthquake. Her arms flailed against the bed, and she cried out in time with the contractions of her orgasm.

Etienne lifted his face to the ceiling and howled in triumph. Veronique recovered enough to grin at his compliment.

Male voices howled in response on either side of them. Veronique laughed, "We have made the hit with the others doing the same thing."

Etienne started his climb to orgasm. He paused enough to groan, “Baby?” before he increased the depth and tempo of his movements.

Veronique touched his cheek. “My sweet. I want your babies. Make your seed inside me. Maybe we’ll have the luck.”

She felt him stiffen and lengthen then stop. His pulsing, pumping cock delivered ten bursts of semen inside her. She curled her body toward him as he did it. She groaned long and low and closed her eyes.

He fell down on her, letting all of his weight press her into the mattress. He mumbled, “Too heavy?”

She brought him closer with her legs around his rump and her arms around his chest. “No, mi amor. It is the weight I deserve. I earned it. I have given you myself and this is my reward.”

The next morning, they made love again. Veronique paused on her way to the bathroom. Etienne sat on the bed and watched her. She said, "Now, it is the morning. You are happy with your cummings in my body and relaxed. The passion doesn't push you so much at this moment. Last night, I said I would ask again. We will be together as one person for the rest of our lives, leaving out any other who would intrude? What is your answers, big fellow? Are you man enough to keep me happy?”

Etienne got up quickly, with surprising grace, and held her in his arms. He kissed her with commitment. When the kiss ended, she said, "My, you have almost made me aroused like the first time. But you have to say the word. Are we the couples? Are we going to have babies and raise them as one person?"

His voice was heavy and clear. Veronique knew men. He said, "Yes", and she knew he'd keep his word.

CHAPTER 3

They dressed and walked up the street in the little mining town. Dick Harden passed them. He saw Etienne. His expression would have killed lesser men. He spat at Etienne's boots and grumbled something obscene. Etienne paid no attention.

Veronique said, "Why does that man give you the dislike, mon amor? He has hate in his heart toward you."

"We worked in the same camp. His axe broke, and he got fired. I had a spare and wouldn't give it to him. It's not my problem."

Veronique held his arm and made him stop walking. "That is wrong. When someone else wants an important thing, and you can help; you have to help. God will punish you if you don't." She saw that her argument didn't penetrate beyond the surface of his eyes. "Let me ask you the question. What if it had been around the other way, your axe did the breaking and he had the other axe instead. How would you feel?"

"Same as he does. It's still not my problem."

"Listen to me. This is important. Do you credit me? Do you think I have the wisdom? Answer me."

Etienne took a deep breath. "Yes. I credit you with wisdom."

"Bon. The world makes things even. If you hurt someone this afternoon, the world makes someone else hurt you tomorrow morning. It goes the other way, backwards, too. If you help someone, someone else helps you. You must give to get. Do you understand?"

Etienne gave that some thought. "Yes, I understand."

"You are big and powerful, but that will not always be. Help that man. You will need his help sometimes again."

Etienne nodded.

Veronique waited. "Now, my handsome fellow. Now."

Etienne grinned. "You think I'm handsome?"

"Yes. Brutish, like the cave mans, but handsome. Why do you stand before me still? Catch up to that mans and help him."

Etienne ran down the street. Buildings along the way didn't actually shake as he loped past, but they could have. He spotted Dick walking quickly and angrily along the sidewalk. Etienne caught up with him. Dick turned, still angry. "What do you want?"

"I've got to help you. My woman told me I should have done it yesterday. She's right. Let's get you an axe and get your job back."

Dick couldn't move. He was so used to life giving him a kick that he couldn't process something nice. Etienne put his arm around his shoulders. "Let's get this done." Etienne steered Dick into a hardware store. They bought an axe and some decent work clothes.

We don't always see the changes in our life when they happen. They seem too insignificant to notice. Etienne didn't notice his character change at that moment. He looked Dick in the eyes and saw gratitude and something else. Etienne said, "When was the last time you had some grub?"

"Two days ago. I haven't been paid yet."

"You can't go without eating. You'll fall over."

Etienne bought him a meal and gave him enough money to eat for the rest of the week. Dick tried to keep the tears out of his eyes and failed. "Thanks. You rescued me."

Etienne said, with sincerity, "I'm glad I could help." He ran out of the cafe and found Veronique looking in a store window at some very silly hats. Etienne said, "I made it right. I bought him an axe and some clothes and a meal. I know where the foreman lives. I'll talk to him this afternoon."

"Very good. It feels better. The giving of the good instead of the bad. It makes you happy, does it not."

Etienne's face lit up in surprise. "It does." He grinned. "Damn all. That's a surprise."

Something occurred to Veronique. "He didn't have the meals since when?"

"Two days. I bought him some grub and gave him some money. He'll be able to eat until he gets paid."

"Bon." She kissed him on the cheek. "You are the good mans as well as the big one. Bon."

CHAPTER 4

Ten years later, Etienne and Veronique, now his wife, moved to the bigger city of Victoria. Etienne worked as a town marshal. Veronique tended to their three children, two girls and a boy.

It was dinner time. Veronique put food on dishes and set the dishes on a tray. She called, "Angelique, Jean Paul, come for the tray to give to Mrs. Peters."

A beautiful girl, age eight, and a handsome boy, age seven, ran into the kitchen. Veronique handed Angelique the tray and covered it with a towel. Jean said, "Why do we take food to Mrs. Peters every day, mama?"

Etienne answered, "Because she doesn't eat if we don't. She loses track of time and forgets."

Jean continued, "But why do we do it?"

Veronique said, "We have the communications problem on this. She won't eat unless we take it to her. Comprendre, mon amor?"

"But why us?"

Etienne stood up. "Because we can. It's that simple."

Jean said, "Oh."

Etienne, his son and daughter carried the food over to Mrs. Peters while Veronique fed the baby. Mrs. Peters was delighted for the food and the chance to visit with her neighbors.

In 2008, an eighty-year-old Etienne and his seventy-seven-year old wife, Veronique stood, happily, in the basket of a hot air balloon flying over the whales off the coast of Quebec. They made a fine wrinkled, grey-haired couple. They loved their grandchildren and great grandchildren, and it showed in their faces.

They heard a hissing sound and looked up. The tanks full of propane exploded with enough force to shred everything and everyone in the basket.

Within seconds, they found themselves standing on the water underneath the obliterated balloon. They stared at each other in surprise. Veronique said, "We are young again." She stared at Etienne. "My darlings, I can see through you. You aren't you, anymore."

"I also can look at the ocean through your body. It's a lovely body. This is how you looked when I first saw you."

"We ought to wear some clothes, though, I think. It is more dignified. We might meet others like us."

Etienne walked across the water and slid his hand into Veronique's body. She giggled, "Etienne, that tickles."

They said the next words at the same time. "We're dead.

CHAPTER 5

“I can’t just strip my clothes off and jump on him. That won’t work,” said Julie

“Well, it would work, but not the way you want it to,” responded her best friend Monica.

“That’s true, but I’m getting pretty desperate. I might have to actually give it a try,” she giggled.

“Jim’s blind. You are hot. There’s not a single guy on campus whose head doesn’t turn when you walk by. I’ve seen it.” She thought for a moment. “I could always put a little birdy in my brother’s ear. I don’t know, just kind of suggest that you might be interested in him in more than a friendly kind of way, or something.”

Julie was mortified. “Don’t you dare! You know Jim as well as I do. He is not going to find pushiness or over-aggressiveness attractive. This is Jim we’re talking about here. This has to be his idea.”

Monica knew she was right, which is why she hadn’t said anything thus far. Her brother, Jim, was highly competitive. He had been a basketball star in high school. In fact, Jim excelled over others at most things he tried. Not necessarily because he was naturally gifted, but because he worked harder than the next guy until he was the better of the two.

As far as women were concerned, he liked to take the lead. Monica always teased him calling him “Mr. Macho”, and saying that he was ultra-picky when it came to women. But, that wasn’t it. He was selective, he called it. He had dated a few women. Jim didn’t want just any woman, and women who threw themselves at men, he felt, lacked dignity and self-respect, as did men who slept with any woman just because she was available to him.

Julie and Monica both sighed at the same time.

Julie and Jim had known one another since he was a pimply-faced greasy-haired teenager, and she was a skinned-kneed third grader with braces and a pixie haircut. She and Monica met in third grade, became instant best friends, had been inseparable ever since.

The problem for Julie was that while she now fawned over the handsome, honorable man Jim had become, he still saw her as the annoying awkward tomboy who hung around with his little sister. If Julie could only catch his eye, capture his attention, she knew they were right for each other. She was pretty sure he’d see it if only he could see her.

They all lived in Victoria, now a well-ordered and active city. Julie and Monica were seniors at the University of Victoria. Jim was a constable in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Julie and Monica continued their walk along a forest path on the west side of Vancouver Island. The island is divided along the mountain range that runs north and south down the middle. One side is dense rain forest and the other almost a desert.

"I love the forest. It's so alive and growing." Julie looked around her. She absentmindedly rubbed her tummy below her navel. "It makes me think it's getting thicker as I look at it."

"Doesn't it ever make you think it's coming for you? Like it's going to grab your ankle and drag you into the moss and bushes and eat you alive or something?"

Julie laughed. "Is that what this makes you think of? Monsters in the undergrowth, waiting to take you away."

"Don't laugh. It's true. Well, anyway, it seems to be true." Monica threw a pointed looked at Julie's hand as it made small circles on her body. "Are you baby hungry?"

Julie studied her hand. It hadn't stopped moving. "Frankly yes, I am. I want Jim's baby,” she giggled, “I could grow it right in here and give birth and raise it. Why can't I?"

"Because he can't see you!” Monica played along. “No, he won't see you. If he doesn't notice you, he can't plant the seed that makes the baby," she wiggled her eyebrows up and down and flashed Julie a cheesy grin.

Monica agreed that Julie and Jim would make a perfect couple. They were similar in some ways, and in others their differences seemed to complement one another. Plus, there was the fact that her best friend was almost family already. Heck, if Jim and Julie got married, they would actually be family. Hers and Julie’s children would be cousins, they could plan family reunions together, spend holidays together... If her brother would just get his head out of his arse.

They looked at each other with dissatisfied faces. Monica said, "Tonight's the party at his frat house. Maybe you can make some progress."

Her friend Julie was indeed hot Monica thought to herself. She had deep blue eyes and blonde hair and a figure that men who aren’t Monica’s brother, Jim, thought about way too much. Monica was the opposite. She was shorter than Julie and fuller. Julie had longer legs but Monica was more outgoing and flirted much more effectively.

CHAPTER 6

In Julie’s bedroom, Etienne and Veronique Beauregard sat on top of a tall dresser; or rather, they sat three inches above the tall dresser because it was dusty. They'd gotten dressed. Veronique said it was not dignified to be naked in polite society alive or dead.

Veronique wore a dress from the 1920’s; silver with a short skirt and a low neckline. Etienne wore the clothes of a lumberjack; rough pants and a wool shirt with heavy boots. They'd worn the same clothes the first time Etienne saw Veronique in a dance troupe at the local bar. Veronique came west to Vancouver Island because she was tired of polite, slow moving men with no hair on their chests.

They watched Julie and Monica walk into Julie's bedroom, Veronique with a worried frown on her face. Veronique shook her head. “These English girls are never taught to be the woman. My mama showed me how to sit, stand and walk in a way that attracts the mans attentions. They have no idea.”

“It’s just ‘attention’, mon petit chou-chou, not ‘attentions’.”

As Julie grew, her bedroom changed. It no longer held dolls and a play house. She'd gone through the stage of putting rock stars on her walls and moved on to a pleasant, sunny room with quilts on the bed and pictures of her family and friends on her dresser.

Veronique said, “English is tres ennuyeux. I looked it up to say it in the English. ‘Ennuyeux’ means boring, stupid, awkward, tedious and annoying. That is what this language is.”

“That’s all true but it is the language of Canada today.”

“If we had stayed in Ontario, I could hear French spoken every day.”

“That’s true, but we are here.”

“That’s not the only thing. The weather out here makes my skin dry.”

Etienne looked at her steadily for a few seconds. Veronique frowned and said, “Well alright, if I still had skin, it would be dry all the time. Anyway, I can’t stand the rain in the winter.”

“I know, mi amour. But we stray from the topic which is how to get the dull-witted Jim to notice the beautiful Julie.”

“Bah, that is easy. I will her mind open to the possibilities of her feminine side. It will surprise her English morals, and I will love it. But first, she must have a case of the desperates. She must fail at something she most wants to make happen."

CHAPTER 7

That night, Etienne and Veronique followed Jim to a party thrown by Jim's former fraternity. Jim stood six feet four inches tall. In addition to playing high school basketball he had also been on the swim team at his high school and college. His shoulders stretched far enough on each side to have their own time zone. His smile, dark hair and deep blue eyes could turn any woman under the age of eighty into a puddle of desire. As Jim went in the door, an acquaintance named Inez Moreau took his arm.

“Jim, it’s nice to see you. Come with me. I’ll introduce you around.” Jim went.

As was true to his nature, he'd exercised good sense in the fraternity he’d chosen. Pi Delta Zeta stood out from the rest of the fraternities. They had strict limits on drinking and rules against cheating on tests. The club house was always neat; not because the young men were neat, but because the fraternity hired a cleaning company to pick up, dust and polish, and a woman to cook and wash up. It cost twice the price of any other fraternity, but Jim came from major money, and he could afford it.

Inez didn't fit, or rather, she fit into the fraternity like a marauding mountain lion in a flock of lambs. She was the product of greed, naked ambition and talented plastic surgery. Her eyes were the only thing that hadn’t been expanded, trimmed or sucked. In a soft light, she looked experienced and intriguing. Daylight made her look hard and avaricious. Her bleached blonde hair failed to soften her look.

Standing in a corner, three inches above the floor, a man who had been known as Jacques Moreau watched Inez capture Jim. Jacques had been hung in 1924 for murdering an elderly couple for the rent money that they kept in a glass jar under their bed. His eyes sunk back inside his skull as if they were recoiling at what he’d done. His mouth was a thin, corrupted pink line across his face. His body was emaciated and weak. He moved his neck around as if it still hurt.

He waved his hand and Inez pressed Jim’s arm into her left breast. She whispered in his ear, “I’d like to talk to you some place private. I need your help on something.”

She didn’t wait for an answer. She grabbed his hand and pulled him into a spare bedroom. Jacques floated through the door and stood directly behind Inez talking into her ear.

Jim asked, “What is it?”

“I’m thinking of having plastic surgery. I wanted your opinion of my boobs.”

Jim frowned. He considered ‘boobs’ to be crude and unromantic.

Inez missed it. So did Jacques. Neither had much regard for other people, so they paid little attention.

Inez stripped out of her blouse and threw it on a chair. She’d spent time picking out the best bra to use on Jim. Jacques was a big help. He’d known dozens of women, most of them purchased for an evening, and he remembered what he’d liked. He helped her choose a push-up bra with wide set straps and lace along the top. Her already augmented breasts made a lovely fullness above the fabric of the bra.

She turned from side to side. She stopped and held up a hand. “Wait a minute. How can you give me a good opinion with the bra in the way?” She unhooked it and threw it on top of her blouse.

The previous year, a talented plastic surgeon had changed her 32A breasts into 32C with the careful addition of pads of fifth-generation, semi-solid, silicone gel. Inez paid him partly in cash and partly with access to her new body.

She turned her weapons on Jim. “Should I get implants? What do you think?” Once again, she raised her hands, “Stop. How could you know it you haven’t touched them?”

She pounced, leaping toward him and snagging his hands which she held on her manufactured breasts. “Now, you can make a judgment. No, you can’t. You need to see my entire body to see if bigger boobs would fit with my figure.”

She reached for her skirt. Jim stopped her with his hand on hers. She said, “You don’t want to?”

Jim said, “You're beautiful, but we don’t know each other well enough to make love. I think that's where this is headed.”

Inez responded without thinking, which meant she told the truth. “I don’t think you’re understanding me. I just want to fuck, none of that ‘make love’ shit.”

“I’m sorry. I have to have a relationship with a girl before we get intimate.”

Inez took a few seconds to readjust her expression. She held her hands over her breasts. “Good for you. You passed. I have that little test for men who interest me. If you’d accepted my offer, I would have dumped you. I’m tired of men who go to bed a few hours after they’ve met a girl.”

Inez watched him move away. She put on her bra hurriedly. “Don’t leave. You passed.” She scrambled into her blouse. “Like I said, that was a test.” She buttoned the last button on her blouse.

Jim had the door open again. “I’m glad I passed. Why don’t we go back to the party?” He hurried out and closed the door behind him.

Jacques said, “Bastard.”

Inez said, “Bastard.”

CHAPTER 8

Julie stood next to the table with drinks and cookies, Monica by her side. Julie said, “I don’t know what to do.”

“Do anything. You know doing nothing won’t work. Just talk to him. See if that helps.”

Julie’s expression continued to be grim and unhappy. “What will that do? I’ve talked to him a lot, and he still sees me as a little girl.”

“Well, right now, I can’t think of anything else. Just talk to him to make sure he knows you’re still alive.”

“Alright. I’ll give it a try.”

Julie walked slowly over to Jim as he chatted with two other men. She touched him on the arm. “Hi Jim.”

Veronique stood at Jim's elbow. She waved her fingers over his eyes. They darted here and there without landing on Julie.

He said, over her head, looking at someone else, “Hey, Julie. Enjoying the party?”

“Yes. It’s nice.” She paused. “No drunks.”

Jim chuckled. “Everything’s better when there’s no drunks around.”

“How’s work?” Jim scanned the crowd instead of looking at her.

“It’s about the same. Vancouver Island isn’t a hotbed of violence and lawbreaking. I mostly break up family fights and haul drunks down to the jail.” It was obviously a canned response, his typical answer to the same question. Julie didn’t know what to do. Why won’t he look at her? She was growing so frustrated, she felt tears sting the backs of her eyes.

“Okay. I’m going to talk with Monica again. See you later.”

She walked across the floor to her friend. “Complete failure. Maybe I will take my clothes off. At least he’d look at me for more than a second at a time.”

"I was watching,” Monica said, incredulously, “He never saw you, not even for a second."

"It's because I've always been there. You and I have been best friends since the third grade. I'm like his sister. Invisible."

"This party is a total waste. Let's go home."

Julie stood at the front door. Her mouth suddenly turned into a straight line across her face. She said "I have one more utensil in my drawer, and I'm going to use it."

The big room in the frat house had one light that played down on the center of the dance floor. The rest of the room was in shadow. They'd hired a DJ for the party. Julie spoke softly to him and he nodded.

The music ended and the dancers drifted off to the edges of the floor.

Julie walked out on the empty floor and stood under the light shining down. The light emphasized her blonde hair and her long graceful arms. The DJ waited until the crowd quieted down and started a song meant for slow dancing. It made them think of soft skin and quiet whimpers.

Julie listened for a moment then did something she'd learned in dance class. She bent her knees and arched her back. She looked straight up into the central light. She closed her eyes. The expression on her face reminded everyone of a woman basking in warm sunlight. She put both hands on the back of her neck and slid them up into her hair. This made her neck look long and graceful. She waited a few moments for the crowd to appreciate her before she dropped her head and began swaying her hips from side to side. She'd worn a white blouse and tight, short, black skirt. Her light skin glowed and shimmered against the fabric. She lifted her arms with painful grace over her head and let them writhe slowly around each other.

A few seconds later, she bent her knees and lowered herself. She dropped down very slowly and pushed her hips from side to side farther and farther. She paused at the bottom, with her rear end no more than three inches from her shoes and allowed her arms to fall down her body until they hung by her sides.

She began the trip up. Her hands slid up her legs, catching her skirt for a second and pulling it up until a length of leg showed.

Her hips never stopped moving.

She moved her hands up her hips, pausing again to bring attention to their womanly curves. She moved her hands from her sides to her belly then up just below her breasts.

She stopped her hips and waited while the crowd closed their collective mouth. Keeping her hips still and moving nothing else but her hands, she let her hands drift up until they cupped her breasts. She paused for a moment before she gave her hands permission to move up her chest and neck and back into her hair.

The song ended. Julie walked off. The room was completely silent and stayed that way until Julie and Monica walked out the door.

Monica said, "I didn't know you could do that! It was beautiful... and so sexy. Wow!"

"Thanks. The question is, did it do any good?"

Monica frowned, "No. Sorry, honey, nothing. You attracted the attention of everybody in the room but Jim. My stupid brother never saw you."

Julie stopped walking. "I feel like crying. I did everything I could think of to get him to look at me. None of it worked."

CHAPTER 9

Veronique nudged Etienne. “It is what I told you. The girl has no idea of how to be the woman.” Etienne nodded. Veronique continued, “It is the basic part of being female. We have to know the ways of capturing and controlling the mans in our lives. How else can we move forward?”

Etienne said, “What should she do then, hit him with a heavy stick?”

“She must use all of her weapons. She only uses the weak things to get him. She doesn't know what else to do. I will show her, and she will succeed."

Etienne floated around until he stood in front of Veronique. “Let me look at you.”

Veronique delightedly turned around for her husband. “Do you think I’m still the entrancing woman?”

“Most assuredly.” He paused. “Do you remember that little hotel room in Nanaimo?”

“Our wedding night?”

“Yes. I was so taken with you. You were so beautiful.”

Veronique sighed deeply. “Thank you, Etienne. You make me feel very feminine.”

They both faced the party again. Veronique said, “When we make the finish here, let’s visit our great-grandchildren. Michelle is having nightmares.”

“She needs the soothing hand of her arriere grand mere on her anxious brow.”

“Yes. I can give her the loving of my heart. She feels it.” Veronique studied Julie. “I have work that must be done with that petit Anglaise. She will lose the mans if she doesn’t change her actions. I will do that after her eyelids fall in sleep.”

That night, Julie went to sleep in her oversize tee shirt and panties. She tossed and turned for a few minutes then settled down and let herself dream.

She couldn’t see Veronique hover above her. She couldn’t hear Veronique say loving words to her and make suggestions about the direction of her dreams.

Julie found herself standing in the center of a room with seats on every side. Handsome young men filled the room. All looked directly at Julie with serious expressions on their faces.

She looked down at herself. She wore a dress she would never have worn in her real life. It came down just below her rump. Her long legs trailed down to the floor. She paused a moment to study her legs. They curved deliciously from her thighs through her perfect knees and down to shoes that were all straps with very high heels. She bent one knee and brought her leg in front of her to examine it. She was surprised to hear a massive gasp from the men in the room.

Her dress sparkled with golden threads. It covered her, but it was translucent. As she moved, the dress allowed a breast to show then her lovely ass, then her waist. The men stared at her as if she were a time bomb ready to go off.

She looked at their faces. They were trapped by her extraordinary beauty. She held her arms away from her body and turned around.

Veronique's influence changed the direction of the dream. Up to that point, it followed most girl's fantasies, and it would have gone no further if Veronique hadn't interceded.

Without thinking about it, Julie lifted her dress over her head and dropped it to the floor. She stood in front of a group of young men wearing only her high heels. She didn't blush or cover herself with her hands.

Veronique told her to sway her hips. Soft music filled the room. She slipped her hands into her hair and swung her hips from side to side in an outlandish movement just as she had done in the frat house. She bent her knees and dropped down slowly. When she was all the way down, she let her hands fall to her sides.

She felt her hands touch her legs. Once again, her hands framed her hips then caressed her tummy. She gasped.

Her hands traveled up her naked skin until they reached her breasts. She held them up as if they were ripe fruit, and she was offering them to the men around her. She felt the heavy, full softness of her breasts and gasped again. When her hands slipped into her hair, she turned in a circle, swinging her hips in a circle. She let the men study each side of her body.

She’d been aware of male breathing since this part of the dream started. As she twirled slowly in place, the sound stopped. Every man in the room held his breath and drank her in.

She’d never felt like this. She said to herself. "I am beautiful. I am desirable. Men want me, and I want them to want me. It feels delicious." All her life, she'd enjoyed her parents and her own approval of her femininity. She moved on to include men and their special kind of appreciation.

She finished the circle and smiled at all of them. They stood and clapped and yelled and stomped their feet. It was all for her.

Etienne and Veronique watched from overhead. Etienne said, "That has done it. She knows how desirable she is. Our work is done."

Veronique shook her head. "It is not done. She hasn't begun the part most important. It is quite one thing to show a girl that she is beautiful and that the mens will want her. It is another thing that she knows that the mans touch is welcome and good." Veronique raised her translucent finger and waved it in the air. "It is the difference between little girls and grown women. Grown women know what a man can do to her and likes it. That we must bring to pass right now. We must go back to the lovely Julie and give her another dream."

Julie found herself walking down the hall of an opulent hotel. She wore an expensive, exquisite light blue gown that covered very little above her waist and flowed in graceful folds down to her feet. She looked at a mirror at the end of the hall and wondered who that extraordinary woman was. She knew it was a stranger. She would have remembered anyone so sophisticated and lovely as the woman in the mirror. She kept walking and studying and thinking.

It wasn't until she was within ten feet of the mirror and raised her hand to touch her neck and the reflection did the same thing that she realized with a shock that the reflection was her own.

She tried to reconcile her own image of herself, created as she grew up, through countless pictures taken by her mother at proms and graduations, with the fully formed woman in front of her. Her grown self looked like a stranger.

Jim appeared behind her, wearing a tuxedo and looking very mature and handsome. He was serious and intense.

He put his arms around her. Julie smiled. She noticed that a good-looking man was holding the woman in the mirror. Julie and her reflection shared a feminine expression of satisfaction.

When Jim wrapped his arms around her, she'd held her arms against her chest. Jim gently pulled her arms down and moved his hands toward her chest. Julie watched them come closer. She knew they would land on her breasts. She felt a moment of alarm until she saw the woman in the mirror. Her reflection smiled in joy as her Jim cupped her breasts in his hands.

Julie let him touch her. She felt the pressure of his hands lift her breasts and move them around her chest. Warmth flowed through the rest of her body as he caressed her.

His hands left. She'd been keeping her eyes closed so she could concentrate on her feelings. She felt abandoned for a few seconds until he kissed the side of her neck.

The Jim in the mirror slid his fingers under the straps of the other Julie's gown. He lifted them and moved them away from her shoulders and down her arms. Her Jim did the same thing.

The gown dropped away from her breasts. She looked at herself with satisfaction. She knew she had good breasts and now she could show them off to Jim. Jim stood rock-still, his eyes riveted to her chest. She twisted her upper body, making her breasts sway, gracefully from side to side. The motion woke him up. He wanted to touch and hold as well was look.

She felt his masculine hands on her white skin and her senses exploded. Her eyes misted over. She caught a glimpse of the poised, attractive woman in the mirror and saw her mouth drop open in arousal.

Jim's hands left her upper body and dropped to her hips. He slowly began to gather up the material of her skirt in his hands. To Julie, it took several centuries for the hem of the gown to rise above her knees then her thighs.

Jim held her skirt around her waist and slid his hand in glacial progress inside her panties. In the mirror her reflection looked steadily back between her legs as Jim's fingers reached their goal. The woman in the mirror stepped each foot to the side, opening her legs and allowing Jim full access to her most private place.

Julie felt Jim's fingers rubbing and caressing. He generated excitement that made her head twirl. His other hand found the tip of one breast and twisted and pinched her. She felt a welcome sense of entrapment. His massive body blocked any retreat she might try to make to the rear. One arm hemmed her in on her right side. She had no escape in that direction. The hand attached to the arm held her solidly between her thighs, fingers locked on her pubic bone and a long finger exploring inside her. His other arm controlled the left side of her body and held her chest tightly against him. She felt both arms and his muscular chest cutting off flight on any side.

The hand that had been caressing her breast found her hand and brought it back behind her. It pressed her hand on a long, thick rod of firm, male erection. She reflexively closed her fingers around it and moved her hand up and down. She heard Jim moan, and the sound filled her with pride. She knew she'd caused that erection and no one else.

Nothing changed for several minutes except Julie's feelings of excitement. For the first time in her life, she wanted a male cock inside her. Not anyone's cock. She wanted Jim's. She ached for it.

Jim's hand left her breast and pushed her hand away from his trousers. He pressed both of her hands against the mirror. She shared a moment of female intimacy with the woman in the mirror until Jim distracted her by bending her over with a large, firm hand in the middle of her back.

Within seconds, she felt a truly magnificent male cock push against the entrance to her womanhood. She jumped. Jim was really big. She raised her head and saw the woman in the mirror smile, spread her feet apart and bend her knees. Julie realized she'd done the same thing. She wondered if her panties would interfere with his activities then felt her hips with one hand. Her panties had evaporated.

Jim pushed gently inside her. She gasped at the same time the woman in the mirror gasped. She closed her eyes as Jim penetrated her in one long, relentless move.

She felt completely full. Her mouth dropped open. She opened her eyes and heard the woman in the mirror and her own voice say, "Heavenly."

Jim moved back and forward again. She pushed back against his thrusts.

Her excitement rose until it leveled off. Her body accommodated Jim's cock easily. He stayed in a careful, considerate rhythm that she matched without effort. She felt sleepy and content.

Abruptly, her contentment vanished. She felt her body tense and contract. She groaned as the muscles in her chest tightened. Her body twitched as her orgasm took control of her. She felt an explosion of sensation in her core and a burst of delicious joy run through her body.

She settled down slowly, bit by bit, until she felt calm and happy. She checked. The woman in the mirror had enjoyed it as much as she had.

However, her hips still contained a stiff and determined visitor. She tensed her internal muscles and moved against him. He howled once and grabbed her hips with both hands. He held her in place and rammed himself inside with extraordinary force and energy. He did it again and again. The woman in the mirror almost bumped the mirror with her forehead several times.

Jim howled again and penetrated her deeper than ever before and held her against him. He pumped his semen into her in great pulses. She counted. He did it eight times. She felt a warmth in her center.

Jim withdrew and walked away. Julie stood up and shook her skirt down over her legs. She smiled at the woman in the mirror and woke up.

Julie stretched and smiled. She felt delightfully feminine. Since it was Sunday, she took a long bath. She threw the yoga pants and sweat shirt she usually wore in the dirty clothes basket and dropped a short chemise over her head. It reminded her of the dress she wore in her dream. She wore nothing else. All day, she felt the silk of the chemise touch and caress her skin.

CHAPTER 10

For the next gathering, Julie changed her tactics. She chose a pretty dress that came down four inches above her knees. She'd chosen it for its scoop neckline. She remembered the dream and stood before a mirror looking at herself.

Etienne and Veronique stood directly in back of her. Veronique sighed. "I have done no good with this one. That dress won't make Jim howl like the wolves."

"The dream you gave her was perfect. It should have worked."

"Just a minute. Now, she responds."

Julie raised her skirt up her legs to mid-thigh, then higher, and turned from side to side. She had to admit she had really pretty legs from all those years of dance classes. She'd spent time and a good deal of her budget buying shoes that resembled those from her dream. She'd worn them on and off to get used to their high heels.

She took a deep breath and bent over. Her dress fell away from her chest. She looked and frowned. She could see her breasts and the bra she wore, but the bra would hardly attract a man.

Veronique said, "That bra is better done holding a water dam together."

"I understood that. Your English is improving."

"Merci, mon amor."

Julie took the dress off and removed the bra. She put the dress back on and bent over again. She could see everything she owned above the waist.

Veronique murmured, "You're very lovely, dear heart. Your breasts are perfect. But Jim will suffer the heart attack if you show him that."

She remembered a bra she'd purchased a year earlier. It went with a dress she never wore. She put it on and bent over a final time. Perfect. Just the right combination of lace, ribbon and her lovely figure. If Jim didn’t react, she could assume he’d died and take him out and bury him.

At the party, Julie showed Jim her legs by sitting opposite him during a game of Charades. As she sat down, she slid her skirt up her legs and moved it a little higher each time she moved in her seat. Her legs trailed down and to the side and looked very long and graceful.

She crossed her legs and let the shoe on one foot drop off until it was held by her toes and nothing else. She bounced her foot up and down. The movement distracted Jim from the game. He glanced… then looked… then memorized.

There was a mirror on the wall. Julie kept track of Jim by looking in the mirror. She never looked directly at him.

After the game, she helped serve cookies. She bent at the knees when she held the tray in front of everyone else, but when she offered the plate to Jim, she bent at the waist as she had done in her apartment. She knew her push-up bra made her breasts look full and soft above the cups. The bra had lace across the top and a tiny, blue bow in front.

She watched him as she held out the plate. He brought his eyes up from the cookies until he looked down her dress. His hand stopped halfway to his mouth and his jaw hung open. He froze. Julie paused to see how long he'd stay that way. It didn't end. She realized that people were going to notice if she prolonged it any more. She moved on to the next person and glanced back at Jim. He hadn't moved. The cookie was still suspended in mid-air.

It’s working, Julie thought. He’s finally noticing me. She sunk the hook after the food was eaten. She invited him to clean up the kitchen with her. No sooner had she spoken the words, than he was following behind her as she led the way to the kitchen. If she wasn’t mistaken, she thought she saw him in the mirror studying her ass. Yesss!

While they washed the dishes, they talked about things other than Monica. This time when she spoke, he actually seemed to be hearing her. He conversed with her while looking into her eyes, and asked questions about her life with genuine interest. In spite of the sexual tension, their conversation flowed easily.

They'd finished putting the dishes away when Julie lifted her shoulder and moaned. Jim said, "What's wrong?"

And that’s when Julie sunk her hook. "I have a cramp in my neck. I get these when I stand for a long time." She turned her back to him and lifted her long hair. "See, I've got a knot in the muscles of my shoulder and neck. It hurts."

The Jim that never noticed her, that was slow to act on her suggestions or enticements, disappeared. The new Jim quickly put both hands on her shoulder and neck and massaged. "Does this help?"

"Yes. That's perfect." His touch was amazing, and Julie had waited for this moment for so long. The moment when the man of her dreams was genuinely attracted to her as a man to a woman.

Jim spent time on the muscles in her shoulders. After a few minutes, the massage turned from attention to her muscles to gentle strokes across her skin. She encouraged him by leaning toward the hand that was caressing her the most. She moaned. "This is perfect."

She had to make a decision. Should she acknowledge the change in their relationship or act as if it hadn't happened?

She was pretty sure she knew what to do. She’d seen Jim play basketball a number of times. Whenever the defense pressured him, he reacted immediately by attacking the basket. She smiled at him and said, "Thank you. The cramp is gone" and moved back toward the sink.

One of Jim's hands landed on her shoulder and stopped her progress. The other turned her around slightly. He looked down into her eyes with a very serious expression. He turned her back around so she was facing away from him, pulled her in close to his body and moved her hair away from the side of her neck. She tilted her head a little to make it easier for him.

She felt his lips graze her skin and smiled knowing she’d made the right play. He kissed the tender skin of her neck just under her ear. She lifted her hand to his head to hold him against her. The soft, tender kisses went on for some time.

Jim said, "I'm sorry."

"For kissing me?” Julie felt as though her stomach had dropped to the floor. He was sorry? Now what would she do? “I… I wanted you to do that."

"No, I'm not sorry for kissing you. Not sorry at all. I’m sorry I didn't do it sooner. I'm sorry I never looked at you as anything more than Monica's friend.” He whispered against her ear, “Will you forgive me?"

She turned. "Only if you continue to kiss me," she grinned widely at him.

"Definitely," he smiled back. Jim wrapped his arms around her and held her the way a man holds a bouquet of flowers he doesn't want to crush. His lips pressed against hers. Julie put her arms around his neck and he pulled her against him. Jim felt the fullness of her breasts against his chest and inhaled her perfume. His tongue parted her lips and slowly explored her mouth. She moaned softly. Julie was in heaven. This was the exact moment she would never forget as long as she lived. Their first kiss.

Veronique and Etienne crowed with delight. Veronique said, "I have done well. Jim sees her as the woman now. Que magnifique!"

They should have turned around. Inez and Jacques stood in the doorway. Inez looked at Julie with deep hatred. She was pissed and under any other circumstance, she would have simply done something mildly annoying as retribution like writing Julie's name and phone number on a men's room wall with the inscription "For a good time, call Julie". Not tonight. Jacques reached inside her and pumped her emotions up to a boil. He whispered in her ear. "She doesn't deserve him. You do. He will come into a fortune when his parents die. That money should be yours. She’s taken it from you. She must be punished. How can you do it? Think, mon cheri, what could be horrible and permanent for this stealer of men." Her face became hard with cruelty and aggression.

CHAPTER 11

Inez picked up money from time to time by selling drugs on campus. Her supplier, BB Thompson, would be able to aid her in this situation, she was certain of it.

She left the gathering and drove to the industrial part of town. She pulled into the driveway of an odd house right in the middle of the factories and warehouses. The companies who constructed the buildings bought out all of the houses but one. By chance, no one wanted or needed the small post-war bungalow. It served as a luncheonette for a while and then a house of prostitution. Finally, it was abandoned and BB moved in.

Inez could hear screams coming from the back of the house. She didn't knock. She passed several bikers sprawled on a couch and walked into the back bedroom. BB was beating a man close to death with his fists. The man was covered in his own blood. Inez didn't notice him. She said, "BB, I need to talk to you about something that will make you a lot of money. Is there someplace private?"

BB stood five feet eight inches tall. When he was fourteen, a gang of bullies beat him savagely with baseball bats. He survived, but hate and revenge made a home in his heart. He recruited his own gang and dealt with the bullies with drive-by shootings.

He built himself up with weights the wrong way. Impatient and short sighted, he took steroids to put on muscle. The drugs emphasized his natural cruelty and lack of self-control. He led Inez outside to his car. They were alone. He said, "How much money?"

Inez said, "Ten grand."

"That works. What do you want done?"

"I want a girl's life ruined. Permanently. Any ideas?"

"Yeah," BB smiled. His eye were tiny slits in a round, pudgy face. "I'll sell her to a man I know. He runs a brothel in Mexico. She'll never recover after a year as a hooker. He'll get her addicted to meth if I ask him to."

A dark shadow fell on Inez' emotions. For a second, she shuddered at the prospect of forcing another woman into prostitution. Jacques said, "No, my little one. She must be punished. She should have her life torn apart. She stole your man and embarrassed and humiliated you. That's not something you can forgive or forget." He paused. "And there's the money that should be yours."

Inez nodded agreement, although she didn't know she was agreeing with Jacques. At that moment, she embraced evil and cruelty. She handed a small piece of paper with Julie's address and phone number to BB. She said, "Grab her any time after midnight. She'll be asleep and alone. She's a goody-goody." Inez turned on her heel and strode away quickly, an excited half-smile across her face.

CHAPTER 12

Jim drove Julie home and took her hand in his as he walked her to her apartment entrance. Few words were spoken, this was all so new, but he kissed her again long and slowly at her doorway. He didn't try to get into her apartment.

Julie walked inside, and leaned against the closed door. Tonight felt as though it was the best night of her life. Tonight was the start of what she knew to be her destiny - a future with Jim.

She changed into her nightie and went to bed. Etienne and Veronique watched from across the room with a smile on their faces. They had succeeded with this couple, time to move on. They slipped away.

A minute later, Veronique lay down on a small bed beside a four-year-old girl who was twitching in her sleep. Veronique put her arm around her and said, into her ear, "Quiet, little Michelle. All is well. There are no monsters under the bed or in the closet. Your loving grand maman chased them away." Veronique stroked Michelle's forehead and hair. In a few minutes, Michelle slept soundly.

They left Michelle's bedroom quietly, even though Michelle wouldn't have heard them if they'd driven away in a steam locomotive. Outside, Veronique said, "I am restless, dear husband. Watching the fine Julie discover herself has stoked my memories. How I loved being alive and having a proper body. So stirring. I want more."

"I know a way," Etienne said. "Come with me."

BB found the address easily. He studied the apartment building and grinned. Julie’s apartment was on the first floor and next to a door leading outside. This couldn’t be simpler. He walked inside and kicked the door in with one blow.

He stomped through the front room into the bedroom. He didn’t see the pictures of her family on the dresser or the lacrosse stick from her high school days. He didn’t see the handmade quilt on the bed or the stack of letters from home on her night stand.

He paused as he stood by the bed. Very gently, he lifted the single sheet covering Julie and tossed it down by her feet.

Slowly, he picked up her tee shirt and laid it back under her shoulders. His hands hovered over her breasts for a second then clamped down on them. He pulled and twisted.

Julie woke up immediately. She looked down at the hands abusing her body then up at the walking nightmare who owned them. She opened her mouth to scream and BB hit her with his closed fist on the point of her chin. Her head whipped back, and she lost consciousness.

BB spent a few minutes exploring her body until he heard someone in the apartment next to Julie moving around. He threw her body over his shoulder and walked quickly out of the building to his car. He dumped her in the back with two members of his motorcycle gang and drove off.

CHAPTER 13

Etienne said, "We are looking for someone to match our mood of arousal and love. We will put ourselves on the piggy back of a young couple who are going to touch each other. But we must do something good. Let us find another two people who should be together but are being kept apart."

"I like that. We will feel better and help someone else. We will look around and make two people have nice feelings."

They flew slowly over the city until they saw a couple get out of a car. Actually, they heard the car doors slam very loudly then saw the two people.

Angie and Edward Hamilton had money. Heavy money. The kind of money that is so big that they could lose ninety-nine percent of it and still be able to buy Cincinnati. They'd each had absentee parents who left for Cannes or St. Tropez or somewhere else on the Riviera to be with their friends.

Raised by housekeepers and hired help, both Angie and Edward grew up without love, especially without the loving touch that everyone needs.

They stormed into their mansion and separated immediately. They'd been in separate bedrooms for months.

Hope lives in the hearts of the terminally lonely. It's planted the few times a mom or dad held them as children. They felt the love during those few sparse moments and yearned for it to return.

At the party, Edward had behaved very badly, paying attention to a woman named Madison Wainwright for the entire evening. Madison dressed and acted like a slut. Edward wasn’t attracted to Madison. If he were being honest with himself, he’d have to admit he did it to irritate his wife.

Angie looked at her perfect bed with it’s perfect, sterile sheets and perfect pillows. She fell on it and cried bitterly.

Etienne turned to Veronique, "This little one has almost lost hope of ever being loved."

"She has. If we don't find the way to bring them together, they will be lost forever. That must not happen."

Etienne said, "We must intervene."

"What means this 'intervene'?"

"Interject ourselves in the situation. Muddle about, interfere, make their business our business."

"Oh, bon." He drifted off. Veronique said, "Where do you go?"

"You shall see." He faded away and within a second faded back in. Angie’s cell phone rang beside her bed. Angie wiped her eyes with her hands and picked it up. "Hello."

"Angie, it's your mother."

"Oh mother, now is not a good time. I'm not feeling well."

"Angela, this can’t wait. It must be now. I’ve been suffering for hours from a guilty conscience..."

Etienne said, "It was a few seconds. I made it feel like hours," and smiled at Veronique.

Angie's mother continued, "We treated you horribly when you were a child. Please, please, forgive me. I can't stand it any longer. I think of all of the nights you were home without us because we'd left to be with our friends. All the times I should have held you in my arms to help you get to sleep. I feel so mean… and guilty. Please, can you forgive me?"

Angie cried again, not out of anguish, but with hope of relief, "You love me? Is that what you're saying."

Angie heard a sob from the other end of the line. "Oh, what have I done? You don't know your own mother loves you? I've failed so badly at the only thing that ever mattered. Angela Hamilton, my darling child, Mommy loves you."

"Mom, it's alright. I love you too. Don't cry. We can start now to spend time together. We're still young."

"Thank you, sweetheart. That means more to me than you'll ever know."

"We'll get together tomorrow. We need to."

"Good. Thank you. Goodbye."

"Bye mom."

Etienne and Veronique looked at each other with satisfaction. Etienne said, "Halfway there."

"Yes, now the husband, this Edward who needs our help." They drifted through the walls over to another opulent bedroom.

When they arrived, Edward was punching holes in the wallboard, each punch driven by anger and frustration.

Veronique said, "My turn now. I can look into his mind. I will know the needs he has."

She faded out and back in. "This is not good, Etienne. He badly wants his papa to approve of him. His papa is dead. The pouvre enfant misses that which cannot be had any longers. What will we do?"

They watched Edward rip apart a pillow.

Etienne said, "I don't know."

CHAPTER 14

Julie regained consciousness in the back of a car with a strange man's hand inside her panties. She wanted to fight back, but the man held her against his chest with his arm immobilizing her hands. She kicked and twisted. It did no good.

The man said, "Hot damn, BB, guess what? This one's a virgin. Unpopped pussy."

BB tilted his head back and howled at the moon. He couldn’t believe his luck. "That’s another fifteen grand on top of the ten we get from Inez. Maybe more if we sell her to an Arab. They like blonde virgins. Good news."

Veronique said, "Let me prowl around his memories just a little." She closed her eyes for a few seconds then opened them wide. "There's someone else. He had a coach for the stupid game with the funny shaped ball and lots of hitting."

"Football?"

"Yes, but not the ordinary kind with the ball that is round and no hands. I will talk with the coach and see if something will be of value there."

She was back quickly. "Even better than I hoped."

Edward's phone rang. He picked it up and growled "What is it?"

An older masculine voice came from the phone, "Eddie? Is that you?"

"Yeah. Who's this?"

"Coach Mondello. Do you remember me?"

Edward calmed down immediately. "Yeah, coach. I remember you very well. It's nice to hear your voice."

"Eddie, I was going through the old year books just now and I realized I needed to tell you something. I should have done it before, but I got busy. I guess I thought he'd do it himself."

"Who'd do what himself?"

"Your dad. Did you know he came to every one of your games?"

"No… I didn't think he saw any of them."

"He told me he wouldn't miss them for the world. Flew in from wherever he was. Always sat in the same spot. I'd talk with him after the game. He was real proud of you. It surprised me he never told you himself. He's your old man after all."

"I'll be damned." Edward's mouth dropped open.

"For some reason, it just came to me that I never did make that call. I have one other thing to tell you. He didn't seem to be able to say the words, but I knew it just as if he'd shouted them from the rooftops. He loved you. I knew he wouldn't be able to tell you himself. I should have told you earlier."

"Thanks, Coach. You'll never know how much this means to me."

"I'm glad to help, son. Gotta go."

"Bye Coach."

BB carried a kicking, screaming Julie into the house in the middle of the factories. He yelled, "Everybody gather round." Five men who looked as brutal as BB walked into the room or stood up. BB said, "This broad still has her cherry. She's worth a lot of money to me. Anybody who breaks her cherry will get his balls cut off. Understand?"

All five men nodded. They knew BB actually meant it. He'd done it before.

Etienne and Veronique knew how hard it was for them, in ghostly forms, to move physical objects. But, they’d done it on a couple of occasions before. They agreed to try again this time. The pair worked very hard together and eventually managed to tip over a vase in the hallway between the two bedrooms. The noise was stunning.

Edward and Angie ran out of their bedrooms at the same time. They saw the vase and each other. Both were experiencing a highly emotional state.

The apologies started immediately. Edward said, "I was wrong. I shouldn't have spent all that time..."

Angie said, "No, it was my fault. If I were a better wife, we'd..."

They ran together at the same time and hugged.

Veronique said, "Now they need to touch and do it for long hours. Now they have to... to... Oh merde, what is the word for coming together, being one person. I can't remember it."

"Do nice ladies say 'merde', mon petit chou-chou?"

"Yes, they do. I am a lady, and I say it, so there. What is the word I want?"

"'Bond', my sweet. 'Bond'."

"Yes. Very good. They must bond. And that requires skin touching skin. I will help." She whispered in Angie's ear and stroked her hair. Angie felt a slightly warm and loving feeling while Veronique did it. Angie said, "We need to be in the same bed tonight. And every night from now on." She rubbed the side of her head against his chin. "Please touch me. I need it so much. Please." She snuggled into Edward's arms, against his chest. She rested her forehead in the curve of his neck and shoulder. "I've been so mean to you. Hold me all night. Make me feel loved."

Edward scooped her up in his arms and headed for her bedroom. Angie said, "Wouldn't we be more comfortable in your bedroom?"

Edward stopped and cleared his throat. "My bedroom is a little disheveled right now, darling."

"Oh. Let's use mine then." After a few steps, she said, "Stop, put me down for a minute."

Edward set her down on her feet. She dropped the thin straps of her evening gown off her shoulders and let it slip to the floor. As she pushed her panties down her legs, she said, "You too. I want lots of your skin touching me."

Edward threw his clothes down the hall and lifted her into his arms again. "You feel so good against me. You were right. We're going to be in the same bed forever."

Angie kissed his neck and enjoyed his naked strength.

Etienne and Veronique looked at one another. Another job well done.

CHAPTER 15

BB threw Julie on top of a bare, filthy mattress. "No one's going to mess with you, bitch. At least, not for a while. The man who buys you will mess with you a lot.” He paused. “You’re not a bad looking broad. But, if nobody buys you, you won’t be a year from now. Being fucked a lot by different men does that. Too bad, but I need the money."

Veronique said, “Bon. This is good.” She paused. “However, I feel a disturbance in my bond with Julie. Something has happened. It isn’t good.” They flew to Julie’s apartment and saw that Julie wasn’t there.

Etienne said, “How can we find her?”

“I can feel her fear in this room. If I concentrate, I can follow it as the hound follows the scent of the rabbit.”

“Very good, my dear. Lead on. We will find Julie and the horror that frightened her.”

They swooped close to the street, flying low to the ground. In five minutes, they located the little house in the industrial section of the city. They drifted through the door and looked at the rough men lounging on the old sofa and overstuffed chair with ripped upholstery. They saw the locked door.

Inside the room, Julie lay on the bed and whimpered, alone and vulnerable.

Veronique floated close to her ear. “My child. We are here. Don’t fret.”

Etienne said, “We need to make the noise in the other side of the house. Let us see if we have the strength left to move something.”

They looked around the old kitchen. Filthy dishes and beer cans littered the counters and the floor. Etienne said, “If we could smell, I think we would smell the strong odor of alcohol. Which burns, very brightly. Come here with me.”

They gathered around a gas stove. It took four tries to blow out the pilot light and five more to turn the knob to one of the burners on the stove.

Etienne said, “We don’t want to blow up the house. We can’t let the gas run for too many minutes. Watch what I do.” He floated into the room with the men inside. They watched ‘Rocky and Bullwinkle’ cartoons and laughed. One set his cigarette on an ash tray. With significant effort, Etienne finally lifted the cigarette and carried it into the kitchen. He couldn’t quite make it the whole way, and a foot of so shy of the kitchen door, the cigarette fell to the ground. It was only seconds later, though, that the gas/air mixture exploded. He braced himself as the flames went through his body. In a moment, the entire room was ablaze. They drifted out of the burning kitchen just as burly men ran in. The men saw the flames, turned around and stormed out of the house. BB unlocked the bedroom where Julie screamed and huddled against the wall. He dragged her out.

The men watched their clubhouse burn. BB kept tight hold of Julie’s wrist.

Veronique said, “Bon. This is good. She is outside now.” She pulled Etienne’s sleeve. “I felt it. When the fire rushed through my body, I felt the warmth. It was nice.”

“I’m glad, mon cher. A feeling after all these years.”

“Yes. I loved it.” Her expression lost any joy she’d felt. “We must rescue the wonderful Julie.”

“What can we do? The physical object manipulation that they had achieved that evening had sapped them of much of their strength. “We’re dead and weak. We can’t so much as lift a piece of paper.”

“We can distract the burly fellow and make him let go of Julie.”

“Yes, that we can do. Whisper in his ear, my sweet.

“Good. I can do that.” Veronique positioned herself horizontally five feet off the ground. It looked like her head rested on BB’s shoulder. She hummed very hard in his ear.

The first and second attempt didn’t do anything but make him twitch. Veronique’s third, fourth and fifth attempt made him rub his ear.

Etienne said, “Do the other ear.”

Veronique nodded and switched to BB’s other ear. She hummed as hard as she could and BB let go of Julie’s hand to rub it. She was so weak from fear and anger that she fell to the ground.

Veronique said, “What can we do now? He will just grab her again. We’ll be back to the place we began.”

“Let us work together and cloud his mind so that he cannot see her.”

Veronique and Etienne stood in front of BB very close to his eyes. They concentrated very hard.

BB moved his head around. His eyes looked everywhere except directly at Julie. He shouted, “Where’d the bitch go?”

Veronique shouted in Julie’s ear, “Hide behind the big pipe.” Julie looked around with glazed eyes. She had to look three times at the yard-wide metal pipe six feet away before it registered. Veronique said it again and Julie crawled behind it.”

BB called his men back. “She’s running away right now. Let’s get on our bikes and ride the roads inside the area. She couldn’t have gotten far.”

BB and his men fired up seven huge motorcycles. “Move it. Find the bitch or it’s your ass.”

Veronique said, “Julie, stay right here. Don’t move.”

She didn’t. Ten minutes later, four fire engines and two police cars roared up to the burning building. Etienne told Julie, “Now. Stand up and talk with the policemen. They will help you.”

Two hours later, two cops dropped Julie off at Jim’s condo. She had told them to take her to her own apartment, but one of the officers was a close friend of Jim. He recognized Julie from a barbecue they had both attended at Jim’s parent’s house several years prior. He was pretty sure Jim would have his head if he left a friend of his at her apartment with a broken door and terrifying memories.

CHAPTER 16

Jim answered the doorbell rubbing his eyes and hair and looking sleepy. Cody had been vague on the phone and simply said that he was on his way over, and would be there in five minutes. He gave no other explanation, but the situation sounded serious. Jim had put on pants but nothing else. As soon as he opened the door, Julie saw his broad, manly chest and knew it would give her the safety she needed. She launched herself into Jim’s arms. Her knees gave way, and she crumpled. Jim picked her up in his arms, cradling her, and she snuggled into his chest. Even frightened beyond anything she’d ever felt, Julie caught Jim’s scent; a combination of basic male and Ivory soap. She mumbled, “Please help.” She was trembling.

“What happened?”

She started to speak, but found her voice was frozen in her throat. She just stared at him with a look of anguish as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Jim looked up at the police officers, his expression a mixture of pain and anger. Since Jim refused to put Julie down or leave her alone for even a second, Cody quickly and briefly related the story to him. He didn’t want to say too much and cause her to re-live the events of the evening.

A half-hour later, the other officers had gone and Jim and Julie were seated on his couch. Jim still held Julie cradled in his lap. She burrowed into his body. “Jim. I know we only just moved our relationship to a new stage, but I don’t have any family around, and I’m ready to lose it. Could I stay here with you tonight? I don’t want to be alone.” She looked up at him and his heart was ready to explode in his chest, “You can make love to me, if you want…?”

“I am not going to make love to you. Not tonight, anyway. And there is no way in hell I’m leaving your side tonight, either.” She looked almost rejected, so he quickly added, “Besides, there are rules about making love to a woman in a state of vulnerability, sweetheart.”

“Do you think you could just keep holding me, then? Don’t let go yet?”

“I will be right here holding you all night.” The truth is, he couldn’t be pried away from her with a crowbar. He felt guilty for leaving her earlier that evening. How was he to know she wouldn’t be safe? But, still, if he had asked to come in, she probably would have said yes, and he could have prevented her nightmare. He thought he’d been doing the honorable thing by saying goodnight at the door. Well, he wasn’t going to leave her again. If he had his way, he wasn’t going to ever leave her again. Without releasing her, Jim swung his legs up on the couch and rolled on his side positioning Julie in front of him so he could snuggle her into his body spooning her. He held her tightly around the waist with one arm and stroked her hair gently with the other. She snugged with her bottom against his groin and her back against his chest. After a few minutes, he pulled the blanket from the back of the couch and covered them both with it.

“I feel safe now,” Julie said, her voice thick with fatigue. She didn’t say any more. Three minutes later, she was sound asleep.

After an hour, Jim woke up. In her sleep, Julie had moved his hand from her waist under the blanket to her left breast. He felt her softness under his palm and her hand pressing him against her. She muttered, “Jim. Thank you.”

Jim wasn’t sure what to do in this situation. He could feel himself growing harder by the second. He couldn’t wake her up. Besides the fact that she would be embarrassed, she needed her sleep after what she’d been through tonight. He wouldn’t dare take advantage of her for his own sexual gratification. But, try as he might, he couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that her round little bottom was pressed up against his growing erection. He was trying to stop fantasizing about slipping his hand inside her bra and caressing her perfect breasts. He wanted to make love to her more than anything else.

Even though he’d been a jackass not to notice her all these years, he’d know her for a long time. He knew the type of woman she was. He had just never allowed himself to look at her that way before. He’d put a block up in his mind that caused him to think of her as a sister, but she wasn’t a sister. She was the perfect woman for him. The one he’d been looking for all along.

With her, his feelings were a combination of head over heels stomach-churning butterflies of meeting a special someone for the first time, and the ease and comfort of being with an old friend that he’d known for years.

He knew earlier tonight, after he’d seen her safely into her apartment, that he was in love with her. He had planned to show up at her door in the morning with flowers and tell her how he felt. He was going to tell her that he wanted a future that included her.

That confession would have to wait. Who knows for how long she would be traumatized. His confession would have to wait. He would wait until she was ready.

Jim sighed deeply and laid still. He’d get some sleep when she moved, and he could get his hand back.

Julie shifted around, turning over to face him. She huddled her arms against herself and tried to wiggle her way inside him. Her knees pressed against his and straightened his legs. She pulled on the arm closest to the sofa cushion and pushed his opposite shoulder. She wanted him on his back. He didn’t mind. As soon as he turned over, she draped one leg across his and snuggled under his arm. As she moved, her hips ground into his thigh. She made some small pleasant sounds and went into a deeper sleep.

Twenty minutes later, Jim felt her hips moving up and down against his leg. It was a small motion of her pubic bone and subtle, but it went on for what seemed like a very long time. Eventually, Julie slowed down gently and finally slept as deeply as she could.

Jim, and his raging hard-on stared at the ceiling.

CHAPTER 17

The next morning, Julie woke up before Jim. She kept her eyes closed as events of the prior evening played in her head. The whole thing had been highly traumatic, so much so that she’d begged Jim not to leave her side. Why didn’t she feel traumatized now?

Then she remembered. The voices. She could have sworn she’d heard two voices in her sleep. They whispered soothing words to her telling her she was safe; telling her that she would be forever cared for and looked after. This morning, even as she recounted the horrific events, she felt calm and at peace.

Julie turned her head and studied Jims masculine profile. Her hero, her rock. Now, to find a way to move their relationship along.

Since they were both wearing very little, it seemed appropriate to her to increase their physical intimacy. She knew her own emotions. She knew she was ready and she knew she wanted her first time to be with Jim. She had loved Jim for years. Last night he’d taken care of her under trying circumstances and hadn’t so much as attempted to talk her into more than she wanted to do. In fact, he’d been slower than she had. She just needed to get him to stop acting like such a gentleman and take her already. She remembered what had worked for her in the kitchen while doing dishes together: let him take charge, just guide him.

She shook Jim to wake him up. “Good morning, It’s time to get up.”

Jim struggled to wake up. He'd only been asleep for an hour. As soon as he was awake enough to be aware of where he was, he was very conscious of her skin on his.

Julie leaned away from him. “Thank you for holding me last night. You’ll never know how much I needed it.” She gave him a quick kiss. “Time to get dressed and go on about our day.” She wrapped the blanket around herself and pushed herself to a sitting position. She dropped her legs over the side of the sofa and felt a moment of panic because he hadn't done anything to stop her.

The panic fled in seconds as Jim’s very large hand held the blanket still.

Inside almost every man, there’s a latent caveman. Men control their basic, brutish thoughts and impulses unless there’s a prize to be won or a saber-tooth tiger to be slain.

Jim’s caveman woke up and put his arms around Julie pulling her back onto the couch. He turned her on her back and clamped his mouth over hers. She kissed back. His tongue parted her lips and she thought she actually heard him grunt.

He dropped his knee between hers, pinning her in place and slid up the sofa until his nose was slightly above hers. The kiss he gave her then had nothing to do with delicate sensibilities or the front door after a date. It called up the first time a man threw a woman over his shoulder and carried her off into the bushes.

Julie recognized the change in their relationship. She felt him tower over her and hem her body in with his. She noticed the change in the passion of his kiss. She felt warm and limp. Yes, Julie liked Jim’s caveman.

After they both stopped kissing, Julie was breathless. She lifted the blanket and looked down at their bodies. “Jim, please, I need you to make love to me,” she pleaded.

His voice was low and rough. “Are you sure you want this?”

She met his eyes with intensity and longing, “Yes,” she breathed. As soon as she said the word, his mouth came down on hers again, and he tilted them to the side and slid his hand around her back and underneath her panties. He massaged her firm ass. She made humming noises in his mouth. He slid her panties down and off of her legs and moved so that both of his legs were securely between hers. She gasped. Then, she dipped her hands inside his shorts and stroked her fingers along his rock-hard erection. They made eye contact and kept it.

Jim grinned at her and crawled down her body until he could see, touch and hold her breasts. He threw back the blanket then lifted his body, kneeling between her legs. He stared at her breasts. “Wow. You’re beautiful.”

“You saw them yesterday.”

“No, your bra hid them."

She shifted from side to side to make her breasts flow back and forth across her chest. He followed the feminine tips of her breasts with his eyes. She flicked her eyes from his eyes down to the part of her body he looked at. She tried to conquer the impulse to close her legs, but couldn’t. It didn’t matter. His legs were planted immovably between her knees.

She gasped as his eyes found the area between her legs. She said, breathlessly, "No man has ever looked at me down there."

"I am."

She watched him memorize her. "Don't just look. Touch me." He reached down slowly, as if too much speed would make her run away.

When his fingers stroke her lower lips, she moaned. Her head fell back on a cushion on the sofa. When his tongue spread her folds, her moaning got louder.

He suddenly stopped. He met her eyes and looked slightly taken aback when he said, "You're a virgin."

She blushed, "Is that so hard to believe?”

“No…I… I just mean that you’re so beautiful. You must be fighting men off with a stick.”

"The only one I wanted didn't seem to want me, and there was no one else I wanted to give my virginity to."

"You have now, and I’ll treasure you."

She smiled and let her fingertips wander down his chest and trunk. He felt her soft hands stroke his generous, erect cock.

Jim stopped moving. Julie’s eyelids sprang open. “Is something wrong?”

“We have to do something.”

“Take off the rest of our clothes?”

“No…. Yes, but something else first. I don’t want a broken heart. I love you. I know it’s short notice, but I love you. We won’t go any farther if you don’t love me or won’t marry me.”

“Is this a proposal?”

“Kind of. I’ll propose later. If we have daughters, they’ll want to know how I proposed. We don’t want to tell them that we were lying on the couch, you’d been scared by a criminal, and it just happened. So this is unofficial.”

She looked at him with bright, hopeful eyes. “I do love you. I will unofficially marry you.”

Julie watched Jim’s eyes grow wide when she brought his cock up to the entrance to her body. She held it with her hand and used it to rub the sensitive tissues around her opening. She moaned and arched her back. Their eyes met and reassured each other. Julie lifted her legs and wrapped them around his waist. Her hips searched around for him. He felt it and pushed the head of his cock between her lower lips. She gasped, and her eyes went wide. Her attention went to the sensitive tissues between her thighs as the head of his cock stroked her there. He pumped, in gentle movements, in and out.

Each time he went in, his cock stretched her opening, sending strong waves of pleasure and love to the rest of her body. She closed her eyes. Her mouth dropped open.

Finally, he could stand it no longer. He pushed the head of his cock against her maidenhead. She opened her eyes. He paused to let her gather her courage. She nodded, and he pushed inside her.

She twitched once then laid still. She could feel the length of his cock opening her inner channel. She grinned up at him. "We're not using any birth control. We might be starting our family right now."

"Good. I plan to make you my wife as soon as possible." He withdrew and plunged back in. Within seconds, they moved together as if they were old lovers.

They kept it simple. As they moved together and her body became accustomed to the new guest in her home, he moved deeper and deeper until his cock filled her completely. She floated along on the arousal Jim caused. It felt peaceful and warm.

When she felt a tingling warmth in her belly, she knew something was happening. Suddenly she arched her back. Her arms and legs twitched and flailed and a feeling of ecstasy flowed through her body. Her eyes lifted up inside her head and a deep moan escaped her lips. Jim watched her, marveling at the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

As she gradually came back to earth and her breathing returned to normal, she looked into the eyes of her new lover. His cock was still hard inside her.

Jim looked like someone was twisting his little finger with a wrench. She touched his cheek. "Go ahead, cum in me."

His voice was strangled by the effort not to fill her with his semen. "Are you sure? You could get pregnant right now."

"I'm sure. A baby would be a blessing."

Jim’s pace changed from slow penetration to vigorous charge inside her. He thrust hard enough to make her breasts bounce.He stopped when he was completely inside her and made small movements His eyes were locked on hers and he concentrated on the feelings her channel gave his cock.

He groaned. Julie felt his cock harden and straighten then pulse as he pumped semen inside her. Her mouth dropped open. "Jim, I can feel you cum inside me."

He didn't answer. He was busy delivering several million sperm to their new home.

When he finished, he slumped down on her. He whispered, "Am I too heavy?"

"No. You're perfect."

Etienne and Veronique watched from the side of the sofa. Veronique tilted her head to the side and rested it on Etienne's shoulder.

Etienne kissed the top of her head. "You have done very well with this one, mi amor."

Veronique nodded. "I know."

"I'm going do a little more,” said Etienne. “They are starting the life of a little girl. I will suggest they call her 'Veronique'"

"Thank you. my sweet."

EPILOGUE

Life will sometimes deal vengeance on the very evil. It happened perfectly to BB and Inez.

BB called his contact with the Mexican brothels as soon as Julie was handcuffed to the bed. The contact, Eduardo, enjoyed the news. Virgin blondes are like uncut drugs in his world. Eduardo loved the plan and drove immediately to BB and the valuable blonde.

When BB came back to the ruined clubhouse, Eduardo was waiting for him in a lowered Cadillac.

Eduardo departed from the usual Mexican physique. He topped six feet four in height and 240 pounds in weight. He met BB in the middle of the road. “Where’s the blonde?”

“I haven’t got her. She escaped.”

“This is bad, bro. I already called my people in Guadalajara. They’re expecting a blonde next week.”

“I can get them a blonde. Not a virgin, but a few days of sex and drugs will make her compliant and ready to whore.”

“That will do. The money will be less, but they won’t be angry.”

“Sounds good.”

Inez was dreaming about men and knives and blood when she felt a sting in her arm. She woke up with wild fear in her eyes. She tried to scramble across the bed but another brutal man stopped her. She said, “What...” and fell back on her pillow. She stared at the ceiling and tried to breathe.

Eduardo tore the sheet down from her body. Inez liked to sleep in the nude. Eduardo brought a man and a woman with him. The man was stupid, brutal muscle from Sinaloa. The woman made Inez look like a nun. She wore all leather.

Inez mumbled, “Wha... What are you... doing?”

BB leaned over her. “I’m afraid what’s her name, the other bitch got away. Eduardo needs a blonde for his people in Mexico. Since she's not here, you’re nominated.”

Inez felt cold fear enter her heart. She became almost alert enough to make sense. “No. I hate men. Don’t make me do this.” The heroin took over again and stopped her from talking or struggling. Her eyes jerked back and forth.

Eduardo motioned to the woman who took off her clothes. He grabbed Inez by the jaw and turned her toward him. “You hate men. That’s alright. I brought a woman just in case.”

“No. I hate women just as much.”

“Damn. Well, babe, I tried.”

Inez murmured, “What are you going to do to me?”

“It won’t hurt. You won’t have a brain left when we're done, but it won’t hurt. We’re going to keep you high on smack for three days. We’ll give you more sex, both men and women, than you’ve ever had before. The drugs and the sex will erode your mind enough that you won’t mind the long lines of men who will fuck you for money.”

The woman crawled up on the bed between Inez’ knees and buried her face between Inez legs. Inez looked like a spider had crawled into her feminine opening. She pushed the woman’s head, weakly, trying to make her tongue leave her alone. It didn’t work.

She didn’t stop trying for another hour and another shot of heroin. After that, she was cooperative for the next three days. She wasn't in pain. Her body wasn't damaged, but she didn't know her name. She couldn't count to ten, even using her fingers.

She caught a sexually transmitted disease sometime in the next six months and died alone and unloved in an alley in the worst section of Guadalajara.

BB thought he’d done all right with the sale of Inez. He’d made six thousand dollars and had a ready market for more blondes.

For three days, he drove around town close to the high schools, looking for a blonde teenager in a vulnerable situation. He spotted the perfect girl on the third day. She had natural blonde hair and a good body. He followed her until she walked down a deserted street then shot her with a stun gun.

He picked her up and dropped her in the back of his rented van. She didn't scream after he plucked out the little darts that carried the electricity. She looked at him with a small smile on her face. She said, in a completely normal voice, "You're fucked."

BB shoved her skirt up to her waist and ripped off her panties. She didn't flinch or squirm. He shoved his hand between her legs. "Don't panic, bitch. I'm just checking for a cherry."

"I don't have one."

"Damn. Well, I can still get a couple of grand for you. You are blonde. That's good enough." He didn't tie her up. She didn't seem to need it. He drove off while she sat on the floor of the van in the back. She examined her ruined panties and grunted. She said, "Do you know how much these cost?"

"No. I don’t give a fuck either."

A very large SUV came up beside BB's van and forced it off the road. Three men, who looked fiercely nasty to BB, surrounded his van and pointed pistols at him.

One of them said, "Out." He got out, and they forced him to his knees. The same man said, "Hands behind the head, sport." BB complied. The last time he'd been to church, he'd just started beating kids up for their offering money. He tried to remember a prayer. His mind went blank.

A fourth man, older and fatter than the other three, got out of the back seat and walked around in front of BB. He had a pistol as well. He pointed it at BB's forehead and flicked the safety off.

The blonde ran to the big man's side. "Don't kill him, daddy. He put his hands on my little kitty. He has to suffer more than that."

The big man thought for a few seconds and boomed out with laughter. He took out his cell phone and dialed three numbers. "Hello, operator. I'd like to report a kidnapping." He paused. "No, I apprehended the kidnapper. Send the cops to take him away."

He grinned at his three thugs and his blonde daughter. "Why should we deal with this garbage when the system will do it for us." He bent over until his face was inches away from BB's. "You put your hand on my little girl's private place. I could cut your balls off, but that's not enough. You're going to prison. I like prison. I've been there a few times, made some good friends. I'll get word to them to make your stay an interesting one."

He watched BB face turn white. "By the way, my daughter's phone has a tracking feature. We always know where she is." He turned to his daughter. "We got a few minutes to burn until the cops come. Anything you want to do to this guy?"

The little blonde girl took two steps, planted her left foot next to BB's right knee and swung her right foot up between BB's knees and into his groin.

The big man said, "Good job, precious. Good weight shift and balance. Those karate lessons help, don't they?"

"Yes, daddy. They do."

BB lasted just a month at the state prison before he lost his temper in front of the wrong man. The guards found him the next morning. He was very broken, very bloody and very dead.

THE END

HONOR

A Navy Seal Romance

STORY DESCRIPTION

There’s only one thing of importance in Navy Seal Connor Mitchell’s life—his job. Everything else is secondary. When he’s not overseas, defending his country, life feels meaningless.

And that’s a problem. After a disastrous mission that killed several men on his team, including his best friend, his commanding officers want him to take a breather. And worse than that, they want him to go for therapy. Therapy he insists he doesn’t need.

Enter Dr. Everly Willis, a psychiatrist who grew up an Army brat, she’s just as tough as he is, and sexy as hell. She’s going to find a way to help him, one way or another…

Chapter One

The sun was scorching, sending heat waves shimmering up from the pavement as Connor parked his Harley. Despite the heat, Connor was wearing long sleeves—which he quickly shed—along with a helmet. Ironic, he thought, that the same military that had sent him to risk his life again and again would insist that he not ride a motorcycle without protective gear. He complied though. Most everyone in the military did, truth be told. The navy had a way of making your life hell if you didn’t. If there was one thing Connor could do, it was follow orders.

Once his gear was stowed safely in the bike’s saddle bags he hung the helmet on a handlebar and made his way across the parking lot. The sun seared his shoulders, the west coast heat almost painful in its intensity. Once, he thought with a mirthless smile, he’d found the sun to be a comfort. Now, it seemed like the heat did nothing to warm him inside. Now it only kept the nightmares close to the surface. The desert sun had beat down on him during damn near all the worst moments of his life. Not surprising, considering his Navy seal team had performed more covert ops in Iraq than anywhere else.

Africa, too, had that same harsh, pitiless sun. It was as if the penetrating rays leached the humanity out of a man the way they leached the color out of everything that lay exposed to its relentless abuse. The men in Africa had been monsters too, some of them. Not all, of course. Some had just been good men in a bad situation, doing their damnedest to survive. Connor had been following orders, fighting for his life as well. Still, some days had him wondering if he was one of the men or one of the monsters.

With an effort, he withdrew from the bleak thoughts. He wasn’t a monster. Yes, he’d done some of the very things that made one more beast than man, but the reason he’d done them mattered. The reason mattered. He had to believe that. Because if he didn’t…

No. He wasn’t going there. He wasn’t. The navy was what he lived for, after all, the only thing that leant meaning to his solitary existence. He wasn’t a monster at heart, but sometimes one had to become a monster in order to hunt them. He was, he reminded himself twisting his lips at the irony, a damned hero.

However, he was a hero without a cause at the moment. What a fucking mess. He realized—better than any other soul on Earth—that his last mission had gone to shit. He hadn’t needed his commanding officer to tell him that. It wasn’t the first mission that had gone seriously sideways, but his losses were few and far between. That was why they had given him a task that was damned near impossible. He’d followed orders, though, and done the impossible. And now? Now they were punishing him for doing as ordered. Had they expected that shit to go down without a single mother-fucking casualty?

They hadn’t called it a punishment of course. They’d just looked at him with sympathy—the fastest way to piss him off—told him that it had been a rough run (understatement of the fucking century) and that they needed him to take a knee for a few months. That alone he could have handled. He had some leave saved up and could have spent the time on a beach somewhere, beautiful women at his side and a drink in his hand. He lived for the job, but surely with enough distraction the time would have flown.

They wanted him to see a shrink, though. That was just fucking insulting. He’d been handling everything they’d thrown at him just fine on his own for 10 years, since one week after he’d turned eighteen and bid his hometown—and the string of foster homes he’d been placed in, one after another—goodbye. He’d never needed a shrink before. Why now?

Anger made him push the door to the 6 D’s Lounge harder than he should have. It rebounded off the wall, but it was sturdy, designed with drunken sailors in mind, and didn’t seem any worse for the wear. It was the only real bar on post. There was another, but it was used primarily by higher ranking officers to host functions that Connor had no interest whatsoever in attending. Let someone else follow their CO around like a lost puppy. He preferred to let his work speak for itself. He was far more interested in kicking ass and taking names for Uncle Sam than in furthering his position in the navy.

The dark atmosphere robbed Connor of his sight momentarily. He found himself reaching for a rifle that wasn’t there. Not being aware of his surroundings unnerved him. His eyes quickly adjusted and he stalked to the bar. He took a seat on the far end, where he could swivel so that his back faced the wall and he could scan his surroundings.

Connor let the whiskey burn down his throat while his skin cooled, adjusting to the milder temperature in the dimly lit bar. The place didn’t boast much in the way of atmosphere. It was built with the same generic cinderblock walls that characterized older military buildings across the country. It didn’t need to be pretty, though. The navy men—and a few navy women as well—just wanted somewhere close to the barracks where the liquor was cheap. This place fit the bill, so it did a steady business.

Connor was just finishing his fourth shot when a breathtaking woman walked through the door. He usually reacted to women the way he did everything else in his life. He enjoyed them, of course, but they didn’t matter. Work was the only thing that really did. Women loved him, and he never had any trouble finding a companion even on base, were the men outnumbered the women by quite a bit.

This woman, though…damn. She was beautiful, though not in a classic sense. Her bold eyes and high cheekbones would do any model proud. From there on though, she was no model. She was more. Her lips were full and just imagining what she could do with them had Connor shifting uncomfortably, his pants a little more constricting than they had been just a moment before. And her body…that wasn’t the body of some half-starved child model. Her ebony skin looked impossibly smooth. He could tell without touching that it would be soft and firm beneath his hands.

The woman had full curves. Breasts that bounced slightly with every step she took, and hips that swayed in time with her path across the room. From the smirk perched on that pretty mouth as she took the stool next to him, she knew exactly what Connor had been thinking, too. He turned back to his drink, determined not to act like a lovesick teenager.

Her voice, when she spoke, was sultry and Connor tried not to imagine what it would sound like when it was laden with passion.

“I’ll take a shot of Jack Daniels, please.” Hell, she even drank his drink.

Connor spoke before he was even fully aware that he’d changed his mind about his earlier resolve to let her drink in peace.

“Make it two, Jake,” he said to the bartender, “Her drinks are on me.”

Chapter Two

Everly had noticed the man sitting on the corner bar stool the moment she’d walked through the door. Sexy, confident...but she didn’t date military men as a rule, and she definitely wasn’t quite as sensitive to their charms as the average woman. She was a military brat herself, and being born and raised around them had made her somewhat immune to their appeal. Not to say that she found young, attractive men in uniform unappealing…it was more that she’d learned to look beyond the uniform to what was underneath.

So, she noticed him…it was hard not to when he was sitting there, all brooding and dangerous. She would still be going home alone tonight, but a little eye candy while she had a drink or two to unwind from a day spent unpacking her belongings in her new apartment couldn’t hurt. Her new job at the mental health clinic would start tomorrow, a job that she knew would fulfill her on so many levels.

Her drive to become a counselor began back when Everly had been in high school. Months after returning from the Middle East, her older brother had committed suicide. While logic told her that there was nothing she could have done—she’d still been a child at the time, and he hadn’t been stationed close enough to home for his family to realize how much pain he was in—there was still a part of her that felt like she should have done something, that somehow she should have known.

While she couldn’t rewrite that tragic chapter in her family’s history, it was the driving force behind her decision to help men and women with PTSD. In providing them therapy, she found comfort. Thinking of her brother still hurt, but she comforted herself with the thought that every day on the job, she might be sparing someone else from the pain she’d felt at losing him.

So here she was, checking out a new bar in a new home. She’d just have a drink or two with the hot sailor sitting beside her and then go home to turn in early before her first day on the job. She hadn’t expected to be so attracted to him, hadn’t expected his rough, deep voice to send a shivers of up her spine.

Before she knew what was happening, she’d had more than a few shots, though she insisted on paying for her own when he offered. She found herself staring into his eyes just a little too long, leaning toward him suggestively as they talked about everything and nothing. All too soon though, it was that time. She needed to head home before she ended up hung over on her first day of work…not to mention before she made a bad decision and ended up in bed with the hottie whose name, she’d learned, was Connor.

“Well Connor, it’s been…interesting, but I’m going to have to get going. Take care of yourself, okay?”

But when she reached for her purse to pay the bill, she was dismayed to realize that she’d left it in the saddle bag of her bike. Connor’s sharp eyes watched her motions.

“I’ve got your drinks; the offer still stands.”

“No, no, I’ve got it. I just need to run out and grab my purse.”

“Well, at least let me walk you out,” he said with an easy smile. “I’d hate for you to be harassed by drunken sailors in the parking lot.”

She couldn’t help chuckling. “Not likely.”

“Have you seen yourself? I would say that it’s entirely likely. Besides, I need to grab something from my bike anyway, and the company can’t hurt.”

Everly shrugged and followed Connor out the door. She wasn’t surprised to find that he rode a Harley. He seemed like the type who wanted to feel that power beneath him, who liked the edge of danger that traveling on a powerful machine could give you. She could hardly fault him when she rode one herself.

Connor paused as they passed her bike, which was parked right next to his own. He eyed it with obvious appreciation.

“Da-yum, that’s nice.”

“Why thank you.” She couldn’t help smiling with pride. Her bike was a beauty.

“No…that’s yours?”

She nodded with a smile.

“You are my kind of woman. I may not be able to let you go after all.”

The tone was light and teasing, so Everly thought nothing of it. When she opened her saddle bag, though, she bent over a little farther than necessary, vain enough to assume that he would enjoy the view. She wasn’t expecting him to be standing so close when she turned around.

“Connor? What are you—“

His lips closed on hers, and she opened for him before she could remember that she was supposed to be heading home. He tasted of man laced with the sweet tang of whiskey, and she felt her nipples tighten in response.

“Just wanted a taste,” he murmured as he broke the kiss, “Just a one-time thing. I don’t do strings. I’m not wired right for a lasting relationship.”

“Connor?”

“Yeah?”

“Who said anything about a relationship? Just shut up and kiss me again.”

Then his mouth was on her lips, trailing down her throat, nipping and teasing. She shivered in response and drew instinctively closer. When he lifted her by her hips and placed her on the seat of his bike she vaguely realized that if she was going to stop this, now would be the time.

Instead, she found herself guiding his mouth back to her own. She tentatively reached out to touch him through his jeans, unsure how far he might be willing to go in the darkened parking lot. He was big, hard and ready for her. Just touching him through the thick denim was making her wet, sending liquid heat straight to her core.

She pushed him back lightly and dropped gently to her knees before him. It seemed like a stranger surely must be the one kissing the head of his dick through his pants while she deftly unfastened his belt and pants. She wasn’t a prude, but parking lot quickies weren’t really her style either.

She wasn’t about to stop though. She needed to taste him, craved it. He let her take him in her mouth, let her rock forward and back, up and down his length with her lips and tongue. Then he raised her again, turned her so she was facing his bike.

“God that felt amazing baby, but I just might die if I don’t get inside you.”

She let him bend her over, lift her skirt and shove her panties to the side. He didn’t enter her as she’d thought he would though. Instead his warm, wet tongue found her slit from behind while nimble fingers pulsed quickly against her clit.

He brought her to the brink, then held back. She writhed with need, and when he stood and slipped inside her, with one hand working her sensitized nipples, she came fast and hard. Then both hands were on her hips, pulling her back onto his cock again and again, with a slapping sound, as he demanded that she meet him thrust for thrust.

When he found his release, his cock pulsed inside her, and pushed her over the edge again. She couldn’t stop the needy cries that escaped her throat.

It wasn’t until after, that reality came crashing back down around her. She almost couldn’t believe what she’d just done. Still, she couldn’t resist one last hot, lingering kiss.

“Tell me your name.” His voice was sex roughened. She didn’t reply, instead choosing to hop on her bike and ride off into the night. It looked like he’d be paying her tab after all.

Chapter Three

Connor found his way to consciousness slowly, the blaring of his alarm clock an unwelcome guide back to the land of the living. The first thing he was aware of was a pounding in his head, a familiar remnant of a night spent in the bottle. As he reached over to stop the offensive resounding blare of his alarm, the memory of the night before came crashing over him, bringing a smile to his lips and a shot of remembered lust straight to his groin. He took a deep breath, thinking of the vivacious curves of her body, the feel of her hot, soft lips around his cock. Damn, the woman knew how to use those lips, and that tongue…just the memory had him hot and ready for her again. He reached down, stroking the enlarged shaft of his erection until he brought himself quickly to release, but it was a poor substitute for the warm grip of her sweet pussy.

He rolled out of bed and quickly showered. The hot water and a strong cup of coffee soon had him set to rights, though he had drunk quite a bit the night before. Most military men were no stranger to a hangover. He’d learned long ago to shrug them off and carry on. He would make it through the day, running on willpower through the dehydration and sleep deprivation. Then tonight he would crash out early, and tomorrow he would be good as new.

He quickly put on his uniform. He could have worn civilian clothes, as he was going to get cleared by mental health today, but putting on the uniform seemed like a promise to himself that he would be back to work by the end of the day. Any shrink worth his salt would be able to see that there wasn’t a damn thing wrong with his head. Yes, that was how it would go. A quick meeting and then he could get back to work.

On the drive to the clinic, his thoughts kept straying back to his mystery woman, and each time it brought a small smile to his lips. He didn’t have a single regret from last night. He’d seldom had a partner who so readily agreed to his no strings, no commitment lifestyle.

A lot of women said they did, but inevitably he would catch them staring at him with the wistful look of someone gazing upon something they would never truly own. Not her though. She’d met him on his own ground and then some. He almost wished he’d gotten her phone number. Not because he wanted anything more permanent, he assured himself. He just would have liked to keep the option of seeing her again open.

He almost considered going back the 6 D’s tonight, just to see if she showed up again. No. He wouldn’t do that. There wasn’t much of a chance of seeing her there again. He hadn’t before last night, after all. He was sure he would have noticed a woman that looked as delectable as she did.

Soon the mental health clinic loomed before him and he set aside his musings to face this small obstacle. In and out, he reminded himself. No problem. The wait was blessedly brief—a rare occurrence in military health facilities of any kind in his experience—and Connor found himself quickly questioned before he was sent back into the waiting room until the counselor he’d been assigned to see was free.

“Petty Officer Mitchell?”

For a split second Connor thought he must still be a tad drunk, or maybe hearing things. The damn shrink sounded just like the woman from last night. She had evidently consumed his thoughts more than he realized. He didn’t catch more than a glimpse as the shrink moved back into her office, confident that he would follow.

He did, but what he saw once he entered the office left him rooted to the floor. His gaze met that of the woman he’d been fantasizing about all morning. Pure lust shot through his startled system, quickly followed by alarm and a bit of anger.

He didn’t do emotional entanglements, but here stood the woman he’d been with last night. He would be expected to tell her all the details of the most horrible moments of his life? Just the thought made him feel vulnerable. Nothing brought him to anger faster than vulnerability.

He tamped down on the emotions. No way would he let her know that she’d unsettled him. He felt the expression drain from his face to be replaced with the cocky grin that she’d found so appealing the night before. Somehow it felt wrong, like a stiff mask. He didn’t let the smile fade though. His arrogant smirk was armor every bit as much as the flak vest and Kevlar he’d worn in enemy territory, and Connor Mitchell didn’t let anyone slip inside his defenses.

Chapter Four

Everly felt a pang of sympathy as she read through the file of her first patient in her new clinic. She always hurt right along with the service men and women she counseled. She had many colleagues who distanced themselves. Earlier in her career they’d advised her to do the same, had told her that if she couldn’t turn it off to some degree then she’d never hold up. Their criticism hadn’t made her quit caring, though. It had merely made her more reluctant to admit that she hurt, to varying degrees, right along with all of the service members she treated who’d been diagnosed with PTSD.

After she’d called in Petty Officer Mitchell, she turned back into her office and had a seat behind her desk. Mentally, she recalled the details of this case. Petty Officer Mitchell had been on multiple deployments as a Navy Seal, all of them covert ops. Because of the nature of his missions, she didn’t have access to a lot of the details. She knew enough of what he’d been through, though, to be quite concerned. Petty Officer Mitchell was a man who had been constantly surrounded by death.

Deaths had a way of piling up, one upon another, until they formed a burden heavier than any man should have to bear. Really, she felt that this man should have been evaluated more closely years ago. On his last mission, things had been even worse. He’d led his squad on this operation, and the entire squad had been killed. One of the casualties was his own best friend, a man by the name of Jonathan Mills.

An investigation had been subsequently launched. While she was to provide her opinion on Mitchell’s mental fitness, Petty Officer Mitchell’s commander had been concerned because, according to him, Mitchell didn’t have any family and had very few friends. The CO had been worried about what the loss of the only person on Earth that Mitchell seemed to be close to would do to his mental health.

Truth be told, Everly was worried too, and she hadn’t even evaluated him yet. Support systems were a crucial part of working through PTSD, even more than most people realized. She glanced up expectantly as the door to her office closed, a polite, professional smile on her face.

Her smile froze, along with the greeting that had been waiting on the tip of her tongue. There was Connor, looking at her with a maelstrom of expressions sweeping across his face. She watched as lust, hurt, and anger quickly rolled over his eyes before he covered it with a cocky grin. This could not be happening. It just couldn’t. What were the chances that the first one night stand she’d had in years would be with her very first patient? Devil take it, please tell me I’m hallucinating.

“Oh, you’re not, Beautiful.” She could almost feel his eyes raking up and down her body. She couldn’t help remembering how it had felt last night to have his hands and lips tracing molten trails across her skin. An unwelcome ribbon of desire unfurled low in her belly, quickly followed by a blush that she was certain must be visible even against her dark skin.

“So, I guess I know your name now, don’t I, Doctor Willis?”

She took a deep breath. Don’t stare at his mouth when he talks. Be professional. You can do this. She opened her mouth, intent on asking him to keep their encounters professional.

“Everly, not Doctor Willis.” She cringed at the breathy, flirtatious tone the innocent words had taken on. Hell’s bells…she did not need this man calling her by her first name.

“Okay, Everly.” Somehow those two words seemed like they were a caress against her skin. Damn, this man was smooth…He was around the desk and standing before her in seconds. To her horror, she couldn’t stop her eyes from trailing across him hungrily as she looked up to meet his gaze.

It was obvious from his smile, and from the gleam of barely contained lust in his eyes, that he hadn’t missed her perusal. He crouched slowly before her until his lips were a breath away from hers.

“I thought I wasn’t going to feel any better after this visit, but I think you might be just what the doctor ordered.” He closed the distance between them then, and Everly didn’t stop his soft questioning kiss. She couldn’t begin to fight the passion welling up in her at the memory of last night.

Her nipples became hardened pebbles at the memory of how his lips had felt against them last night. As if he could read her mind, he gently stroked them, teasing them to harder peaks still before he twisted them gently between his fingers.

The sound of her own breathless groan, torn from her throat against her will, broke through the haze of lust that clouded her mind. She jumped up abruptly, tearing her mouth from his even as her body cried out at the loss of his touch.

“Connor…Petty Officer…Oh, just please have a seat!”

His questioning gaze searched her until he saw something that made him smile tightly and, thank goodness, take a seat in one of the padded leather chairs opposite her desk.

“Okay, Everly. How about, if you don’t want a repeat of last night—” A pointed look at her hardened nipples, still showing clearly through the fabric of her silk shirt, told her that he knew as well as she did what she really wanted. “Then at least clear me to get back to work.”

She cleared her throat and willed herself to be the professional she knew she needed to be for him, whether he wanted it or not. Besides, there was no way she was going to blow off—or hand off to another psychologist—her first case. Not. Happening.

“I can’t do that, Petty Officer. I’m not putting my license on the line to lie and say—”

“I’m fine.”

“To say that you are fine, then, when I haven’t evaluated you. I know you’ve been on missions where men were lost before, but this time, from what I understand, you lost a friend. Don’t you want to talk about Jonathan?”

Raw, naked agony shown in his eyes, but only for a split second. She could see the emotional wall that he’d built to keep the world from witnessing his pain. In a second, he was on his feet. She’d just sat down, but she rose again to meet him.

“No, Sweetheart. I don’t want to talk about Jonathan. I don’t want to talk at all.”

His mouth was on hers again, this time in a hard, bruising kiss that she couldn’t help but respond to completely. His hands were on her, everywhere, bringing back all of the sensations from last night. Without alcohol to dull the effect of his touch, she felt him even more. Every caress sent pleasure so intense it bordered on pain shooting through her core.

By the time he picked her up and sat her on her desk, she was beyond caring about proper. He pushed her skirt up around her full hips and she wiggled to make it easier for him, then gasped as his hand slid between her legs, unashamed of how wet she was for him. It was all she could do when he slid one finger into her not to cry out. Instead, she whimpered and writhed against him.

He seemed to know what she craved. One finger moved up after he moistened it with her glistening need to lightly circle her tight bundle of nerves, while the other hand traveled up her shirt to massage her breast. It only took his skilled fingers minutes to bring her to a pinnacle, then let her fall apart against him.

He could have taken her then. She would have let him, would have thrown away her career, her life’s work, if she had been caught. He didn’t press on though. Instead, he held her to him and stroked her hair gently, a bemused smile on his face.

She melted into him, but only for a moment.

“Well, doc…is this the initial work-up you give all your crazies?”

The caring man she’d glimpsed moments ago, was gone. His callous smugness shattered the moment, and with the return of reality, mortification filled her. She quickly jumped off her desk and tugged down her skirt with shaking hands. She couldn’t even bring herself to meet his eyes, instead focusing on the floor while she spoke.

“I think you need to leave Petty Officer. If you want to be cleared for duty, schedule another appointment.

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world, Everly.” The tone was mocking, an obvious effort to distance himself after the lapse in his defenses he’d shown her in an unguarded moment.

“I’m serious. Will Thursday work for our next appointment? I can’t help you unless you want it, Connor.” She finally looked up to meet his eyes so that he could see her sincerity for himself.

His gaze was pure masculine heat. “Oh, I want it alright, and you can help me any time.”

Chapter Five

The following days fell into a predictable pattern, one Connor remembered from his earlier days in the military. He went to the range more often than not after a vigorous morning workout. Then, after the duty day was over, he would work on his Harley. It was the only thing that he truly enjoyed beyond the military. Unfortunately, he couldn’t look at the bike now without thinking about Everly’s luscious form pressed against it in the velvety shadows of the night. Fuck, he deserved as much. With time, the memory would be a good one, but right now it bordered on painful, and filled him with an aching need to be inside her again.

So his days went…exercise, range, Harley, and sleeping alone, aching for a woman that he couldn’t have. Though the endless training seemed pointless, as his tactical skills were finely honed, he knew that if he let himself, he might begin to get rusty. That couldn’t be allowed. He needed to be sharp. He needed to be prepared when his chain of command was ready for him to deploy again.

That might happen sooner, he admitted to himself contritely, if he scheduled another appointment with Everly. There was no way he would be cleared without her go-ahead, but their last encounter had left him…unsettled. He’d wanted nothing more than to bring her to orgasm, but once he had, Connor hadn’t been able to seek pleasure for himself. He’d gazed down at her, and while he’d wanted her more than he had anything in his entire life, he hadn’t been able to take her. Not when doing so would risk her getting caught and, more likely than not, fired. He’d held her for a fleeting moment while he’d cursed himself for being the worst kind of asshole to come so close to endangering her career.

If caught, he might have gotten in a bit of trouble for what they’d done—probably not—but she could have lost her job if someone had walked in on them. And while he’d wanted her, he’d also been acutely aware that he was using her desire for him as a weapon, a way to keep her from seeing him vulnerable. He wasn’t the kind to commit, but he had never been this…calculating, either.

He would schedule the appointment, and this time he wouldn’t touch her, he promised himself. He sure as fuck wasn’t going to go crying to her about his feelings either. He’d go and get cleared for duty, nothing more and nothing less.

The following afternoon, Connor was just about to gas up his bike and was taking his helmet off when he spotted Jonathan’s widow, Marsha, across the parking lot. She was trying to put air in the tires of her old suburban with a baby on her hip. Her second youngest had unbuckled and was trying to climb out of the car while her oldest, who was only around five years old, cried her heart out in the back seat. Marsha looked nothing like the young, confident woman he’d known. No, this Martha was haggard and worn, with hard lines about her mouth and eyes that spoke of hard living or grief rather than age. In her case, Connor knew, it was grief.

Remorse swamped him. Guilt at not bringing his best friend home to his family, at not helping with the children whose father he’d failed to bring home. Connor had promised Marsha at the funeral that he would be by to help out, but every time he had thought of making good on his promise, pain and remorse had choked him. He’d tried to rationalize it with himself, told himself that it would just hurt Marsha to see someone who reminded her of what she’d lost, but he hadn’t believed his own lies.

He could go over there, talk to her. It would be easy to grab the baby for a moment while she filled the tires with air, or to go sooth her daughter’s tears. He didn’t though. With guilt churning in his gut and the ashy taste of regret on his tongue, Connor refastened his helmet and rode home. He sat alone in the dark that night. He’d given up on a shot glass after a while and was drinking his whiskey straight from the bottle.

The bitter, burning liquid did nothing to numb his pain. Perhaps, Connor thought, that was because numbness was a relief that he was unworthy of. That didn’t mean he couldn’t try for oblivion though. He swallowed from the bottle again and again until finally he passed out in a hazy, anguish-filled stupor. Even then, Jonathan haunted his dreams, but not the friend he’d known. Dead, lifeless eyes stared at him accusingly as Jonathan asked him with bloodied lips again and again why he’d made Marsha a widow. Nothing would allow Connor to run from his demons, for now, they took the form of nightmares ghosting through his head until the blessed light of dawn could pull him back into the waking nightmare and the guilt that was slowly eating him from the inside out.

Chapter Six

Everly found herself going through Connor’s case file again on her lunch break, even though she knew it would be better to use the time to unwind, or to review the files of one of the patients coming for an appointment that afternoon.

She didn’t know why she bothered pulling the thing, really. She practically had it memorized word for word. Connor Mitchell was a highly decorated Seal with an impeccable record. He’d been on numerous black ops that were outlined. All of them were violent, bloody affairs, but usually the bleeding was done by the enemy. That certainly hadn’t been the case with Connor’s last mission.

Connor’s sniper team had been in position to take out a lower profile target, a terrorist who was killed as a matter of opportunity rather than for his political or tactical significance. Connor had cautioned them that going that far into the heart of the terrorist compound would be no easy thing, but his chain of command had insisted. After a successful kill, his team had been ambushed.

They’d fought and held their position on the rooftop they’d been holed up on, but by the time his team had been extracted, only two men were still alive. That in itself wouldn’t have been surprising, considering the odds against them. It was the rest of the story that seemed strange. The reasoning behind the mission didn’t make sense, first of all. Why travel into the heart of enemy territory for a seemingly worthless target? That could be a result of doctored files though, changed to hide sensitive information. The damning evidence was the .556 caliber round that had been found in Jonathan’s skull. It was a different sized round than the AK-47’s their enemies typically preferred.

That, too, might be written off. While every effort was made to keep US weapons from falling into enemy hands, it was, from time to time, an unfortunate reality. It was the words of a dead man, though, that had led his commanding officers to question Connor’s stability. Before dying in transit, his team member’s last words had been, “Mitchell took him down.” While most had written off the statement, assuming that he’d been referring to their target, the origin of the round that had ended Jonathan left a nagging question in the minds of some. Had Connor truly been overrun, or had he betrayed them, at the cost of his best friend’s life?

Because there was no one left to ask what had really happened that day, no formal charges had been filed. Rather than accusing him of anything, the chain of command had decided to honor his previously spotless record by first finding out whether or not he was mentally stable. Everly’s job should be an easy one, but Connor was being so damned uncooperative…and the evidence was pretty damning. Even as Everly mentally shied away from the idea that she might have made love to a killer in a darkened parking lot, she couldn’t help but wonder. Was it possible that Connor might be insane?

Chapter Seven

Connor had kept his promise to himself and scheduled another appointment with Everly. He’d seen her a few times now, but every time he had managed to keep conversation away from what had happened on his last tour—away from that and anything else that might make him look vulnerable.

So it was that he found himself in the waiting room once again, mentally shoring up his defenses before he began another session of ‘the healing’, as he’d come to refer to it in conversation with his supervisors. As long as she didn’t see him upset, he reasoned, she would quickly realize that he was fine. He would answer her questions this time, he promised himself. It was obvious the stubborn beauty wasn’t going to clear him if he didn’t.

He smiled to himself when she called him by his first name rather than his rank and last name, wondering if she’d even realized she’d done it. He rose and strode across the room into her office.

“I’m ready, Doc. Let the healing begin.”

He didn’t miss the momentary tightening of her lips before her features became concerned but professional—she hadn’t liked it when he’d referred to it as her ‘head shrinking mask’—and she addressed him in a calm, even tone.

“At some point you’re going to have to take this seriously Connor, or I’ll never be able to clear you for duty.”

Connor bristled internally. Though some part of him realized that he’d been telling himself the same thing out in the waiting room, he couldn’t help feeling like she’d issued a challenge—or a threat even. Now if only he could remind his raging hard-on that he wasn’t happy with her at the moment.

He kept his face deliberately blank—two could play that game—and said, “Okay, Doc, shoot. What do you want to talk about?”

Surprised satisfaction flitted across her face before she answered, “I need you to tell me what happened the day Jonathan died.”

“I think you just summed it up pretty good yourself. He died. Next?”

“We have to talk about this, Connor. Give me something more. What do you remember?”

In a cold voice he recounted his official statement word for word. He knew that it was part of his file, knew that saying the words would give her nothing more than she already had, then she could clear him and he could go back to work, problem solved. She waited patiently, though, the look on her face told him she knew exactly what he was doing. She was silent, and that silence eventually drove him to speak again.

“Fine. There was smoke, noise and blood. Worst day of my life to date, though being forced to come in here and get my head shrunk rates a close second.” He’d meant to be flippant, but pain had lanced through him at the thought of Jonathan’s blood staining the ground, the life fading from his eyes—Damn. He didn’t need this crap.

He looked over at Everly, and the compassion in her eyes made something inside him snap. He stood and walked toward her, then crouched before her. He smiled without mirth when his closeness made her flinch.

“Gosh, Everly. I feel so much better already.” He broke off with a harsh laugh when she hesitantly reached toward him. “What do you know about a man dying anyway, Doc, laying in a puddle of his own blood?”

He saw the raw pain that had flashed in her eyes, but the same self-destructive streak that led him to drive away everyone else—everyone besides Jonathan, and look where that had gotten his friend— had him pressing on anyway.

“I can see why you’re concerned. Enough to drive a man crazy, right?”

He leaned in so close that he could feel Everly’s breath feather soft against his lips.

“Do you want to know what’s driving me crazy?” She didn’t answer, but he could see her eyes dilating as his nearness brought her arousal. “Not being inside you, right now.”

She was still and perhaps willing, but Connor stood with a smirk and sauntered back to his seat.

“I think you need to leave now, Petty Officer. Come back when you’re ready to actually talk this through. Until then, don’t waste my time.”

Connor felt like an ass as soon as the moment had passed. She’d been trying to drag up painful memories—forgivable, considering that it was her job—and he’d reacted with condescension and petty anger. And, he thought, if that flash of pain was any indication, he’d dug up some painful memories for her as well. Yes, he was a first-rate asshole. But then, he’d known that all along.

He pushed the guilt to the back of his mind. It was a drop compared to the sea of regret he was drowning in. He pushed his way out the front doors and sped off on his bike, intent on going straight home and taking a couple shots, just to take the edge off a little bit.

Maybe he would apologize at his next appointment…if he decided to make another.

Chapter Eight

Everly watched Connor’s lean, muscled form as he left her office. She shouldn’t have let him get her riled up like that. She understood that he was lashing out to defend himself, not out of a desire to hurt her. In truth, that wasn’t really why she’d asked him to go.

He had gotten under her skin like no one else had ever done. It couldn’t have been the ‘dark and dangerous’ thing that had her insides doing flips when he turned his naughty gaze on her. As a military brat, she’d been raised around young, handsome, dangerous men. She had thought herself immune to their charms. Why, then, could she not be in the same room with Connor without wanting to tear his clothes off?

She had to maintain her professionalism. Not only was Connor the first case she’d been handed to evaluate in her new position, he was also obviously a man close to his breaking point. If he crashed and burned, Everly admitted to herself, a part of her heart might just shatter right along with him. She took a few deep, calming breaths before picking up the phone to call his commander.

Connor’s CO turned out to be a man who was clearly battle-hardened, but still good and true at his core. When the commander agreed to meet with her, he confirmed what Everly had already come to realize. Connor was also a good man, a good man who took his job seriously and followed orders.

In a gruff, no-nonsense tone, the CO informed Everly that Connor was a military man through and through. He couldn’t see Connor in the role of traitor or murderer, and neither could Everly. Though it was humbling, Everly confessed to him that she hadn’t been able to get through to Connor at all. His brisk nod told Everly that her words came as no surprise.

“I’d be more worried about him if you had gotten him to open up so quickly, Ma’am. Petty Officer Mitchell isn’t the type to let anyone close, not even those he served with overseas, except Jonathan Mills. They’d been thick as thieves since they were children from what I understand, even lived in the same foster homes from time to time.”

Though there was no emotion in his voice, something in his eyes, when he raised them to meet hers, told Everly that the man truly cared about Connor’s wellbeing.

“The man’s hard, but he’s not a man who takes joy in killing, and he’s sure as hell not a traitor. Even if he was, Jonathan Mills is the only soul in the world that he wouldn’t turn on. The higher-ups want the investigation, so they’ll have it. Me? I just want to make sure that Mitchell’s okay. You can’t go on the types of missions my men do if you aren’t up to the task mentally. I have to be sure.”

Everly nodded thoughtfully before replying, “Thank you for the insights. I hadn’t realized that he and Jonathan were that close. I can’t promise I’ll be able to get through to him, but I can promise I won’t clear him until I’m sure he’s ready to return to duty.”

“That’s all I ask, then.”

Evelyn mulled over the conversation on her way home that evening. Maybe, she thought, it would take more than a calm, structured office visit to get through to Connor. The emotional walls he’d built to ward off the rest of the world were thick, and strong, and by all accounts, the only person he’d ever let inside them now lay in an early grave.

Though it certainly crossed lines she’d never thought to cross before, Everly was considering using Connor’s obvious attraction to her to catch him off guard and try to get inside those defenses. Something told her that it might be the only way she could save him from himself. It was more than a little unsettling, because in order to do what she was considering, she would have to let Connor inside her own defenses, and something told her that once she did that, he’d have the power to hurt her like no one ever had before.

Chapter Nine

Connor was sitting on his couch in a dimly lit living room cleaning his 9mm Beretta when the knock came at his door. There was only a single lamp turned on, both because the light still stung his eyes—an after effect of overindulging the night before—and because the darkness suited his mood. It was easier somehow in the dark to ignore the world outside. He could almost pretend nothing had changed, that the last few months had never happened. Almost. A couple shots of whisky might do even more to kill the pain, but it was early in the day yet. He would wait until late afternoon at least.

He didn’t really need to clean the pistol—he hadn’t used it in months. It was his personal firearm—but the easy, practiced motions of the action, a ritual repeated hundreds of times before, soothed something inside him.

What did it say of him that he had only cold, hard steel that had been forged for violence to turn to when he was at his lowest? Well, that was a thought best pushed back into the recesses of his mind, in the corner that housed a childhood of abuse and violence, followed by an adulthood of the same, even though the violence by his own hands had always been for the right reasons. Did his being a monster on the government’s leash make his any less a monster?

When the knock came, he was equal parts relieved and wary—relieved at a distraction to pull him from his dark thoughts, and wary because there was no one left who would visit him for companionship. Jon had been the only one to do that… Connor shook of the thought and went to answer door, and then wished to hell that he hadn’t.

There stood Marsha, looking worn and fragile with a cardboard box clutched to her chest. Even for all that, though, he could see in her pinched brow and in her haunted but compassionate eyes that she was worried about him. He wished the compassion on her face could stimulate something in him besides regret and rage.

“What do you need, Marsha?” The words came out hard and clipped. Hell, she didn’t deserve this. It wasn’t her fault that looking at his dead friend’s wife had his insides torn to shreds.

Her mouth tightened momentarily, but she didn’t return his tone. “I just brought some things over that you might want. Some things that were Jon’s. I think he would want you to have them. Some pictures of the two of you, a few old home movies… I had them boxed up and ready, thought I would give you the box next time you stopped by, but you never came.” He could hear the accusation in her voice, barely restrained though she tried to hide it.

“I was going to Marsha. I just…” Couldn’t stand the thought of looking you in the eye. “…didn’t get around to it.”

He saw her anger rise to the surface. Somehow, the righteous fury in his eyes made him feel a bit better. This, he thought, was what he deserved.

“Couldn’t find the time, Connor? That’s just…fucking rotten.” The curse word fell heavy and flat from her lips. She was a gentle woman, not given to cursing or insults. “I can’t think of a single time my husband didn’t drop everything for you the second you needed it, didn’t come rushing when you called.”

She shoved the box at his chest and left with a rushed, angry gait. Her anger did nothing to rid him of the guilt that plagued his every waking moment though, for it was but a fraction of what he deserved, a few paltry drops when he deserved an ocean of retribution to cover him, surround him, fill his lungs. With wooden steps, he shuffled to the kitchen and upended the entire box into the garbage can. The sound of it hitting the bottom of the pail was a knife twisting in his gut.

How long he would have stood there, staring into space, he wasn’t sure, because a knock sounded at the door. Probably Marsha, come back to give him another piece of her mind. God knew he deserved that and more.

It took a second for him to realize that it was not Marsha, but Everly standing on his front step. When he said nothing to welcome her she breezed past him into the living room like she had every right to be there. Connor was too emotionally exhausted to care one way or another at the intrusion.

“Cleaning your gun, I see.” Her voice was light, mildly curious.

“Yes. It…relaxes me.” Admitting to the need for something to relax him at all was a bad idea, part of his mind realized, but his emotions were raw and exposed after Marsha’s visit.

“Cleaning it does?” Once again her tone was inquiring, but not pressing.

“Using it, cleaning it. Guns are what I’m good at, how I’ve made my living.”

“I see.” Somehow he felt like maybe she really did. “Teach me to use one?”

“Why?”

“I’ve spent weeks now trying to bring you some measure of peace. If guns are what you need to feel that way, so be it. We’ll just consider it a new type of therapy.”

The words brought a smile to his face. The spark of humor mixed with blunt honesty surprised him, and encouraged him. It was the first light emotion he’d felt in a while. Even his lust for Everly was a heavy, weighty thing, an inexorable force rather than the light, easy sexual encounters he’d had in the past.

“Guns for the crazies, huh? Something tells me the world won’t exactly embrace your methods, Doc.”

He took her to the range, though. She rode on the back of his bike. He went slower than was necessary and took a longer route, relishing the feel of her arms around his waist. The innocent contact, the trust it took to get on a motorcycle with someone, was a balm to his wounded spirit.

Everly didn’t pressure him to talk about anything that he didn’t want to. They simply enjoyed each other’s company. Connor found that when he wasn’t using the attraction between them as both shield and weapon that Everly was a woman that he admired, with a quick wit and a strong spirit. She was most definitely someone who deserved much better than he had to give.

With an unusual burst of sentiment, he decided that he would accept her easy affection today, cherish it as the gift it was. Tomorrow, though? Tomorrow he would give her a gift of his own—he would walk away. He would save her from being entangled with a monster, save her from giving a piece of herself to a man who would never measure up to deserving it.

When they came together that night, it was not a rushed and frantic encounter like the ones they’d had before. Connor laid her on his bed, tried to show her with every touch, every kiss, what he would never admit to her in words.

When he entered her warm, wet heat and plunged into her again and again it filled him with a sense of completion like nothing ever before. It was more than sex, he realized with surprise, though he wouldn’t allow himself to examine exactly what that meant.

Chapter Ten

Everly stretched, delighting in muscles that were slightly sore for all the right reasons. Last night had been an amazing experience. Connor had finally let his shields down, and what she found beneath them was spectacular. He had cherished her with his eyes, his words, his body. He had made love to her—no way could last night be described in any other words, though she’d never been one to romanticize sex. Last night had been a satisfaction so complete that a small part of her wondered if she would ever be satisfied with anything less again.

Even if that was true, it might just have been worth it. She hadn’t forgotten that she had been intent on getting inside Connor’s defenses to help him—well, maybe for just a few hours there, but who could blame her? The man was enough to make any woman forget for a while what she was about. He’d opened up to her yesterday. Not enough to begin to confide in her about the last fateful mission he’d been on, but enough for her to hope that he would in the future. And if she had to warm his bed for a while longer before he did? Well, that was definitely fine with her.

She ran one hand down Connor’s back. He shivered in response to her touch, but didn’t wake. With a smile, she decided to make herself some coffee. She would wait for a bit, let him wake up and kiss him goodbye before she left him, maybe even try to make plans to see him again.

She padded softly through the apartment, and found everything she needed to make a pot of coffee. When she went to the trash can to dump out the old grounds, she saw a box upended into the trash can. She figured she would replace the bag with a fresh one, but when she pulled out the box to take the bag from the can, there were several photos in an otherwise almost empty bag. She reached down and began to sift through the items. The photos were of Connor and Jonathan, and there were home-burned DVD’s as well. Some of the pictures showed two boys that she assumed to be them as children. Their arms were around each other in most of them, and they had the too-bright smiles and haunted eyes of children who had already been to hell and back, who were leaning on each other to survive.

She rose when she heard Connor come into the room, one of the DVD’s still in her hand.

“Well, good morn—” The words dried on his tongue, and stoic weariness replaced the sleepy warmth that had been in his eyes.

“What is this, Connor?” She couldn’t understand what had led him to throw these things away. She watched his face as the mask of sarcasm and humor that he’d used to hide his pain from her began to appear. No, that wasn’t happening again. Not this time.

“Don’t, Connor. Just…don’t. If you think you’re going to convince me that something isn’t seriously wrong after this,” she swept one arm to motion toward the garbage can behind her, “then you must think I’m a damn idiot. I’ve skated around pushing you because I can recognize a man who won’t be forced when I see one, but I’m going to have some answers before I leave here today one way or another.”

She saw the flash of pure grief in his eyes before he banked his emotions, then saw the anger born of defensiveness well up inside him. She watched as he finally broke, sighed the old, weary sigh of a man much older than he was, a man who shouldered a lifetime of disillusionment and regret.

“Okay. Okay, Everly. You’ll get your answer, but don’t be surprised when you don’t like what you hear.”

He crossed the distance and turned her face toward his own with a gentle finger beneath her chin. His kiss was filled with yearning, with regret. Then he took her hand and gently led her back into the living room motioning for her to sit on the couch. Connor let go of her hand and sat a bit farther from her before his gaze focused on an empty corner. His voice, when he spoke, was lifeless and flat.

“Me and Jon were… He was the closest thing I had to family. We were from a pretty small town, and neither of us was all that well behaved.” He smiled, presumably at some memory of the two of them, and the reflexive expression seemed totally at odds with the anguish in his eyes.

“No one wanted to keep either of us for long, so we were in a lot of the same temporary homes together, the halfway houses for boys that were a bit too much to handle in a more… traditional atmosphere. At first it was because we were broken, hurt and lashing out. Eventually though, half our antics were just attempts to be placed in the same home again. We both felt less alone in the world when we were together. We joined the service together too, both made it through selection and training to become SEALS. Then he met Marsha and got married.”

Everly said nothing, afraid that if she spoke he would retreat from her once again. Somehow she knew that if he retreated this time, nothing she could do would be enough to reach him.

“I was so damn happy for him, so damn proud. I thought one of us had actually managed to make it through our childhood and still have a full, happy life, and it was good, for a while. It was. Then things started to change. It seemed like after every one of our missions, he left a piece of himself behind when we returned home, until…”

Connor met her eyes then, and his anguish seemed to be its own entity, a heavy presence robbing the room of light and air. “Eventually there wasn’t anything left of Jon, the Jon I knew, at all. He started going missing when we were overseas, even though it’s forbidden to go anywhere alone in a combat zone. When he’d come back, he’d seem…kind of… strung out. I thought maybe he was using. Not surprising, considering how we grew up. I still think he might have been.”

Connor let his eyes go to the floor then, and Everly could tell that he could barely force himself to speak the next words.

“When we were ambushed, Jonathan’s face contorted into an eerie smile, like he was having the time of his life, then he… He… He started killing our team, Everly. He was like a man possessed. I… I… aw, fuck, I had to take him out. I knew I had to do it. I knew it. I froze, though. I’ve never frozen before, no matter what I’ve faced. But seeing him killing our own teammates, it was like my mind just couldn’t believe my eyes, you know? If I’d shot him sooner, I could have saved every last one of them. Hell, if I’d just mentioned to someone when I noticed something wasn’t right…”

Everly could hardly breathe through the lump in her throat, and she couldn’t stop the tears that were trailing down her cheeks any more than she could stop the sun from rising, not any more than Connor could go back and change that which had already come to pass.

He continued speaking after a moment. “I didn’t help him when he needed me the most. I failed him. But, the least I can do is let him die a hero, keep his wife and children from knowing that he died a traitor, a cold-blooded killer.”

She laid a shaking hand on his arm.

“I’m so sorry, Connor. I never guessed…I won’t tell a soul. I want you to know that. I swear it.” She moved her hands for emphasis, and his gaze fastened on the DVD that she’d forgotten she still held in her hand. She flinched as he tore it from her fingers.

Gone was the teasing lover from the night before, the broken man of just a few moments ago. All she could see in his eyes now was a grief-fed anger that she feared might consume him. He threw the DVD across the room, and the sound of it hitting the wall was as loud as a gunshot in the quiet of the morning.

“Get the hell out, Doc.”

Chapter Eleven

The following days became weeks in which Connor sank into an alcohol and grief laden haze. He no longer waited for evening to use liquor to dull his pain. He’d taken almost all of his saved leave after his confession to Everly.

His commander had rushed the packet through for him, gotten the time off approved in hours, rather than days or even weeks. Connor wasn’t sure why he’d done so, but he was thankful. He didn’t know how he was going to face anyone again.

Somehow, speaking of Jon’s death had made it more real, like a slap in the face. Before, he’d been able to push it down, distance himself until he almost felt like it was a bad dream. Words had the power, though, to bring darker emotions to life. He’d given the memory of Jonathan’s death that power, and now it threatened to choke him with every waking breath.

Day after day, he tumbled deeper into the bottle. He wasn’t even sure anymore if he was doing it to escape reality or if he was trying to punish himself for what he’d done, wreck the body that had caused so much grief and pain. A little of both, or neither maybe. It really didn’t matter in the end, as long as he didn’t have to sober up and face himself in the mirror.

Things continued on that way for a month and a half. His heavily muscled frame lost mass, and when he did bother to look in the mirror he didn’t recognize the tortured soul who stared back at him. That was good, he thought to himself. He hated the strong, confident, arrogant man who’d murdered the only family he’d known. Anyone he became had to be better than that.

Eventually, though, there came a day that he woke without any liquor in the house. At some point over the last few days, he’d misplaced the keys to both his truck and his bike in a drunken stupor, so it looked like he would be going to fetch a bit more liquor on foot. He could have called a cab, of course, but after so many days in solitude, the thought of making conversation with another person seemed an almost insurmountable task.

He would rather walk the two miles to the liquor store than try to speak around the grief in his throat and his heart. Even if he was inclined to, he felt that the words would be large and awkward in his mouth. No, he would walk to the liquor store this time. Then, after he’d had a few drinks to calm the shake in his hands and the pounding in his head, he’d find the fucking keys so that this didn’t happen again.

The sunlight and heat left him shaking and queasy. His head was swimming and sawdust filled his mouth. Every breath felt too heavy for his lungs. The sunlight offended eyes that hadn’t seen nearly enough daylight in recent weeks. Even so, something about the walk cleansed him, sobered him at least fully enough to take a real look in the mirror when he got home. What he saw left him sick and ashamed. He showered off the sweat and the liquor scent that was oozing out his pores.

Then he sat on his couch, unsure of what to do next. He stared at the room before him. It was cluttered with takeout containers and empty booze bottles. Some of the bottles had been left on their sides to leak their last few drops on the carpet, adding the scent of old alcohol to the smell of stale grease. He shook his head in disgust.

That was as good a place to start as any, he supposed. He grabbed a garbage bag and was almost done picking up the worst of the clutter when he saw the DVD that had been laying on the floor since the morning he’d kicked Everly out.

He found his laptop and placed it on the coffee table. With shaking hands he inserted the disc. It was a series of video clips from his childhood, all of them short, homemade by Jon and himself. Even through the pain he couldn’t help but smile at their childish antics. More clips followed of them in the service together, at Jon’s wedding, and at barbecues with Jon’s family. He watched it all with dry-eyed longing. What had happened? What had he missed? How had his friend slipped so completely off track without him noticing?

The screen went black for a moment, and then Marsha’s face filled the screen.

“Hi Connor. I’m recording this because I’m not sure I will have the strength to say what needs to be said to your face without getting mad. I’m sure that however Jon really ended, it was…bad. I can’t even imagine, and I don’t want to know. I wanted to show you how I remember him though, and how you should too. That’s what he’d want. I get if you can’t look at me for a while, or ever, without hurting. Just don’t throw out the good memories with the bad, okay? Jonathan wouldn’t want that.”

He saw the tears start to fall slowly down her face as she reached forward to stop the recording. He was shocked to realize that there were tears in his own eyes as well. Only a few, too little to actually fall, but still, he thought he’d cried every last one in his youth. A couple solitary tears that represented cleansing, starting over, and he knew what he had to do.

Chapter Twelve

Everly could hardly believe her ears when the secretary had called her to say that Connor Mitchell was there to see her.

“Thank God,” she whispered after she’d asked the secretary to send him in.

She stood uncertainly as he entered. He was thinner, to be sure, and paler. But there was a softness in his eyes that had been missing the entire time she’d known him. She waited, uncertain of how to proceed.

He made his way to her, ignoring the professional boundary of her desk as he always had. Her heart hitched at having him so near after not seeing him for a month.

“So I stayed drunk for a little over a month,” Connor began with a rueful smile. “Then, once I finally stayed awake and sober for a few hours at the same time, I thought about Jon, thought about the things you’ve said.”

He took a deep breath, and Everly waited for him to continue.

“I do need help. I don’t want to tell anyone else what really went down with Jon. It won’t bring anyone back and it will only hurt everyone involved, the way I see it. The families of everyone who died thinks that those men died at the hands of terrorists. I don’t want to rob them of that any more than I want to see Jon’s memory trampled through the dirt, but I need some help to deal with this, so I’d like to make an appointment to come back and see you.”

“You don’t have to come here. I could help you any time you need it, Connor. Day or night.”

“Still, we’ll do it here. You might as well get paid for all the trouble I’ve caused you. Before I start with those appointments though, there’s something else I could use your help with…”

Chapter Thirteen

The next weekend Connor and Everly walked hand in hand. Marsha walked beside them through the park, while her two older children scampered ahead of them toward the playground. They’d just gone out for ice cream, and now they were going to give the children a chance to play themselves out before Marsha brought the kids home, and before Connor brought the beautiful woman beside him back to his place.

He reveled in the feel of Everly’s hand in his own. It seemed amazing that a week ago, he’d been drowning himself in liquor, half hoping he’d follow Jon to an early grave, but now he felt…peace. He and Marsha had spent the entire time in the ice cream parlor telling Everly stories about some of his and Jon’s escapades, and he found that he could laugh and remember the past fondly. Not without a twinge of pain of course, but this pain was bittersweet. After the soul-rending anguish he’d felt before, he could handle bittersweet, especially with a strong woman by his side to help him through.

He couldn’t resist leaning in for a quick kiss, and loved how her lips curved into a smile at the simple gesture.

“Uncle Connor and Everly sitting in a tree—“

“Jenny, that’s enough,” Marsha told her oldest daughter in a scolding tone.

Everly just laughed, and Connor couldn’t help but join her.

“I guess we do seem a little whipped,” he admitted with a smile.

“A little?” Marsha scoffed, “Everly, this man has never brought a single girl home for me to meet, and you have him eating out of the palm of your hand. He’s most certainly whipped.”

Connor stopped and turned Everly so that she faced him, so that he could look into her beautiful eyes.

“Well, Marsha,” he spoke to her, but his eyes never left Everly’s, “For the first time in my life, I’m thinking that being whipped is just fine with me.”

And it was.

THE END

BEAR’S (mail order) BRIDE

STORY DESCRIPTION

Lilly needs a way out. The mail order bride agency may be her only hope of escaping the clutches of her cruel and abusive husband. But, will any man want a jaded, “no longer fresh” 27 year old woman?

Eli doesn’t want a wife, but he needs one. The wealthy bear shifting brothel (ahem… saloon) owner needs to present an image of respectability. He needs a wife—in name only.

Lilly sounds perfect. Older and widowed, she’s not some young virgin preoccupied with illusions of love and romance.

Unfortunately, once his bride-to-be arrives, Eli can think of little else but disrobing her and claiming her as his wife in every sense of the word!

Chapter One

Eli stepped out onto the front porch of the saloon, the freshly painted doors swinging shut behind him. A woman was perched on the edge of one of the rockers, her hair artfully curled and piled high atop her head, cheeks and mouth a painted pink color. She greeted the men who came close enough to be tempted by her buxom beauty and husky, suggesting voice.

Flowers spilled out of the window boxes, their fragrance another heady reminder of Eden and temptation, and Eli swept a critical eye over the whole building. Everything about it was fresh and beckoning. The new shutters, the candles in the windows. He could find nothing amiss. This was just the kind of place a hungry man might come when he was looking for some sweet, feminine company, and a good time.

The woman on the porch drawled a greeting to him, and he felt her eyes linger on his body as he stepped off the porch, her own hunger for him palpable. He pulled his hat low over his eyes, in what he hoped was close enough to a response. “Ma’am,” he said, not pausing or inviting conversation.

The countryside spilled out in front of him, an endless view of gorgeous sunset, mountains draped in the background. Nevada had certainly been a wise choice for him. Just the kind of place he needed to take his newly found wealth for a fresh start.

He’d found a lot more than just the gold in Sacramento. Although, it certainly wasn’t the thing that had changed his life the most. He didn’t linger on the dark thought for too long, just long enough to remind himself of why he’d come out here in the first place. It certainly wasn’t for the women. His eyes drifted toward the mountains in the backdrop. They were why he’d come here, after all. Refuge.

He shook his head. It was up to him to seem like any other entrepreneur, searching for a way to invest his money wisely — not like a man skulking on the edge of society and trying to hide his secrets.

So here he was, in the outskirts of Reno, putting his money to work. And so far it was working pretty damn hard. And in the process he’d been able to create a life that supported his…specific needs. He was grateful for all of that because he knew that hadn’t been a guarantee, but, if he continued to have to dodge these tiresome come-ons from these pretty working girls, he was going to lose his mind.

Eli knew what the real problem was, of course. Aside from the problem that had led him to Reno in the first place. He was unattached, and it was an open invitation to be pursued. He’d tried to suggest gently he wasn’t interested, but those women looked at him like he was a walking piece of gold. He tried less gently. He was downright rude. Nothing seemed to work. And whether he claimed disinterest or not, they wanted to believe they were going to be the one that was different from all the others. Or that he was playing hard to get. Or that he just didn’t know the kind of opportunity he was passing up.

When it became painfully clear that claiming he didn’t want a woman wasn’t the answer, he’d tried to tell them he had someone waiting back in California, anxiously waiting for him to send for her.

That hadn’t worked either. Out of sight, out of mind, and the girls assumed she didn’t mean that much to him if she wasn’t there in bed beside him.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. Having a wife in the traditional sense just wasn’t an option for him. How would he explain his unaccounted for nocturnal activities? His unusual proclivities. Even before Sacramento, he had enjoyed the occasional woman, but never thought he was the marrying kind. But being single was clearly not the option he had thought it would be.

He stalked through the back of the property toward the simple cabin he called his home and resolved to put this whole damn woman issue behind him, whatever that might take.

Lilly arranged her hair just so. She was trying to place her bonnet strategically so her face was in the deepest shadow possible. She’d done her best to cover up the bruises, but the harsh truth was, no amount of powder could hide the swelling, the creeping blue and yellow. She would just have to keep her head down and not make eye contact.

She was going to be just another woman walking into the broker’s office, and, God-willing, there would be a man out there who would take a chance on something other than a wholesome, fresh-faced girl, unbroken and not yet ravaged by life.

She certainly didn’t have that to offer anyone.

Lilly sat through the interview the best she could, trying to ignore the throbbing across the side of her face and the stiffness in her shoulder, hoping nothing she did would betray her secrets.

As far as the broker was concerned, she was a young window, her husband tragically lost to a timber accident. Their region of Canada was in the midst of a building boom and it happened all the time. She was just one of many women out there, looking for a man who would be willing to take care of her.

But the set of her mouth and the pain in her eyes wasn’t left over from sickening grief, the loss of a mate. The broker didn’t need to know that, though. It was Lilly’s burden to carry, and she was finally in a place where she felt she could do something about it.

The broker shuffled some papers and said he would be in touch, letting his eyes linger on her, and Lilly wondered if he was thinking she would be easy to place or if she would prove to be one of those women who sat on a shelf and didn’t move. She desperately prayed it would be quickly. Every day there was a little bit less of her left to get her through to the next morning.

Eli leaned back in the uncomfortable chair. Lawyers weren’t known for wanting to keep their clients around, and he was fairly certain they picked the furniture for their offices with that in mind.

He’d flipped through the applications and interviews. To be honest, he was having a hard time investing the kind of energy and interest you would expect someone picking out a wife might have. He wanted to tell the lawyer to choose for him. Who ended up in his bed meant nothing at all to him.

In the end he settled on a woman called Lilly. There was no photograph and just a vague description. There was nothing at all to set her apart from the other papers in the stack. Except her age. The deciding factor. She was the only one over 20, the only one of the bunch who was widowed. If she was anything like any of the other women he’d known, she would be the type to settle right into the life he already had. She wouldn’t come sweeping in, expecting romance or to be able to change the way he lived or who he was.

Certainly, a twenty-seven year old woman in mourning would be just the kind of woman Eli could step into a marriage contract with. She wouldn’t want anything from him, and he wouldn’t want to take anything from her. That seemed to be the ideal circumstance.

After all, he’d known many eighteen year olds; he didn’t need one of those harping at him under his own roof.

Lilly had been making the trip twice weekly.

She knew she couldn’t wait for him to come to her. There was no telling whether or not he would be seen. Whether or not she would be in any condition to answer the door. She’d figured he would come to expect her arrival and it wouldn’t even cross her mind that he should track her down.

Now, he stood when she pushed open the door to the office, and smiled, like she was just the person he’d been waiting to see step through the threshold.

“Lilly. Wonderful! I was just going to make my way out to you.”

She nodded and tried to swallow her horror at the idea. How fortunate she’d made the journey earlier than usual today.

He stepped around the desk, shuffling through sheaths of paper.

“I’ve just had some paperwork arrive. I have great news; you’ve been selected by a man in,” he took another look at the papers, as though he’d barely glanced at them beyond checking out the commission he would make on the placement. “Nevada.” He smiled up at her. “Quite the trip. I hope you’re ready.”

Her heart was hammering, and she reached for the papers, hoping the trembling she felt in her fingers wouldn’t be noticeable to the broker. Her very prayers had been answered.

Eli Walker. That was the man’s name. She imagined the weight of the name on her tongue, vaguely aware that it would become her name as well.

She breathed a heavy sigh and refrained from embracing the papers or the man in the office. “Wonderful,” she murmured instead. “When am I to be expected?”

He looked down at the papers again. “Immediately. He’s sent the funds for your stage fare.”

In a daze, she took the papers from him. She had already paid the man his fees when she’d first applied to be a bride. It was money she had scrimped and saved, scrounged up from the depths of laundry and from taking on extra mending. She was dreading the next installment because she wasn’t sure she’d be able to provide any more without raising the suspicions of her husband. That needed to be avoided at all cost. She knew she had only this one opportunity, and she couldn’t risk losing it.

And now she had this. An acceptance. Fare for the stage. She could cry in relief.

The broker put together the last of the paperwork, and she knew he would receive an additional commission fee from the man who had purchased her. Brokering women was a lucrative business; Lilly wasn’t so naive as to not know the truth of her situation. She wasn’t above using it as an exit strategy.

With the paper packet in hand, she stepped out of the office in a daze, stopping by the station for a schedule and purchasing her ticket. There was a late night stage coach leaving, and she knew her husband would be out, doing God knows what, and coming home mean and drunk.

It would be the perfect time to leave.

Back at home, Lilly packed sparsely, leaving as much as she could behind. She didn’t want the reminder of who she was, who she had been, or the things the man she’d endured for years had bought her.

With her satchel packed, Lilly set it near the door and tried to be patient, waiting for the darkness to shield her desperate exit.

Chapter Two

Lilly settled back into the bench on the stagecoach. No amount of cushion was going to make the ride comfortable, but she felt the tension beginning to ease out of her as they worked their way farther and farther away from the place she had called her home.

After dark, when the house was eerily quiet, and she could hear only the sounds of her own breathing and the ticking of her time piece — no matter how much she strained her ears — she made her way out into the night, clutching her bag, her feet moving quickly over the ground.

She’d chosen her darkest dress and a matching bonnet, hoping to hide as many distinguishing features as possible and had lied about her name and final destination when she had bought her ticket. She wasn’t going to leave anything to chance. She didn’t even want to think about what would happen if James discovered her whereabouts.

There was only one other pair on the stage with her and the darkness had lulled everyone into silence. Lilly tipped her head back and closed her eyes, feeling at peace for the first time in a long time, her future unfolding before her.

Eli sat patiently at the station, waiting for his new bride to arrive. They hadn’t corresponded, but his lawyer had assured him she had made it on the initial stage and, while it was quite the trip from Eastern Canada to Reno and a multi-week endeavor, Lilly was expected to make her appearance tonight, nearly a month after her acceptance.

He checked his pocket watch. He’d considered not coming at all, to maybe send someone else to pick her up in his stead. But he knew that would do little to alleviate the advances of the women who worked for him. He had to at least appear interested in his woman’s arrival. Plus, he needed that time alone with Lilly to iron out all the little details and to create their backstory. It would do him no good at all if everyone knew he had ordered a woman he’d never met and cared nothing for. It would do even less if they knew he had no intention of consummating that marriage. She needed to know all the particulars if this was going to have a half chance in hell of working.

Eli alternated between sitting on the provided bench and pacing the space. He was getting that unsettling urge that accompanied the oncoming night. There was little he could do to curb the urge to move, to resist the call of the woods and the nearby mountains. The hair on the back of his neck felt electrified, current sweeping over and through his body. Dusk was well into settling when he saw the first puffs of dust that indicated the stagecoach’s impending arrival. A growling in his stomach highlighted the fact that their arrival wasn’t quite as on time as had been promised. Like he needed the additional reminder.

The horses pulled up, lathered and eager to slow. One let out a loud whoof of air as the driver disembarked and swung open the carriage door.

She was the only one to exit the carriage, carefully navigating the steps while using the driver’s extended hand for balance.

He could hear her murmur a thanks to the driver as he reached for her bag and Eli stepped forward to give the man a tip.

“Ms. Lilly,” Eli said with just enough of a lift to the words to make it a question and not a presumption.

She turned toward him, the rustling of her skirts the only real sound. “And you must be Mr. Eli?” she responded in assent, nodding in his direction.

In the gloom it was hard to make out much of his features, but she could hear what sounded like a wry smile in his voice when he said, “Please. There’s no reason to be calling your husband something so formal. Eli will do well enough.” Something about how he spoke to her settled her nerves. After the initial thrill of her escape she had begun to worry that maybe this savior wouldn’t be everything she imagined him to be. After all, what kind of man ordered a wife? That had been the least of her worries at the time, however.

As the driver moved the horses forward, heading toward the livery to unharness and bed them down for a well-deserved rest, Eli gathered Lilly’s single bag and extended his arm to her.

“No doubt, you are ready to be finished with your journey, but there is still a little ways to go yet.”

She dipped her head in another practiced demure response and followed him to where he’d hitched his own horse pulling a small shay. It would have been faster to bring a pair of horses, but Eli hadn’t been sure what sort of luggage she might have with her, and whether or not she knew how to sit a horse. Had he known it would just be the one bag, they could have done with one animal between them.

The ride was quiet, the night air brisk against their skin, Eli’s horse fresh and quick. Of course, the horses never settled as well around them as they used to. Their sensitive noses quivered at his arrival, the whites of their eyes on display, aware he looked like a man, but harbored something they could not see. He had always thought they were a good judge of character.

“I hope your trip was pleasant enough; I know you covered a great distance to get here.”

“Yes, it was quite fine.” Lilly had had a series of stage mates and drivers, and with each turnover, she had celebrated a little at moving further away from the ties that had bound her to James and Canada. Each step the horse took forward felt like there was one less chain binding her to the past.

This close to her, he was distracted by a sweet scent that seemed to linger on her, and even though their bodies did not touch, she could feel a heat and power emanating from him. She was surprised to note that it did not worry her. She had come to associate power with fear and pain. This was the kind of power that drew you in, that you didn’t realize was there until it was too late, and Lilly found herself wondering if that was a danger in itself.

“I was glad to hear you’d accepted my offer,” Eli began, realizing now how ill-equipped he was to talk to her about their arrangement, and how awkward the whole thing was by its very nature. The fact that he was painfully aware of that sweet scent didn’t help matters at all, either. “I have contracted you because I am in need of a woman to perform wifely duties, and to provide the appearance of a fully functional marriage. All aspects.”

He paused to allow her a moment to respond, wondering where he should go next with his explanation. She seemed to be taking his words very well, but somehow distant from the conversation at the same time. When she said nothing, he continued on. “I do not expect to use your body, but will expect you to sleep in my room. My house — the house,” he corrected, as though that would include her more fully, “is very close to my business and it is of the utmost importance that we appear happy, and as though we’ve known each other a very long time. We are very much in love. And I’ve told them all you have come from California. I would appreciate it if you would indulge those discrepancies, or at the very least, if you feel you cannot lie to them directly, let them continue to believe that is the case.”

He heard a breath of air ease out of her, and could sense her nod in the dark. But then again, he had exceptional vision, even in the dark. “That will all be very well. I am happy to put on the pretense of being your wife.” She seemed to linger on the word pretense, as though confirming that she had no expectations of him either.

He breathed a sigh of relief he hadn’t realized he was holding. Perhaps this was going to work out after all. “I expect you to call me Eli; I will call you Lilly. I will provide you with whatever you need to have to be comfortable, and I do not want you to hesitate to ask me for things.”

“I will need new clothes,” Lilly said quickly. “I didn’t bring much with me.”

He nodded. “Very well. I will have a dressmaker brought in and you will be able to choose your fabrics and cuts.”

The ride eased into silence, and neither Lilly nor Eli did anything to fill it. When they arrived at his property, they bypassed the large lit home where Lilly could hear music and laughter spilling out from inside, and headed toward the back of the property. Eli pulled the horse up to a stop outside of his door, hitching him quickly and offering Lilly his hand.

She dismounted from the buggy and Eli led her to the door, lighting the lamp in the entryway and spilling warm light through the room. Lilly stepped in behind him, and in the new light he got his first good view of her.

She was dressed in a simple calico dress, dark hair peeking out from under her bonnet and framing her pale face.

Her eyes were fringed in dark lashes, and even though they seemed almost black in this light, he knew they were a blue. Her mouth was full and he fought the sudden urge to find out if it was as soft as it looked. He tore his eyes away from her, knowing he was staring, and that if she hadn’t yet noticed, she would shortly. His attraction to her was almost overwhelming. It had been bad enough in the dark, where her scent had been driving him to distraction. The visual confirmation of his desire was almost too much for him to navigate.

“This is the house,” he said gruffly, trying not to notice the growing discomfort in his loins. “It’s only ever been just me, as you can see.” He gestured to the space in front of them.

She could easily tell the space was occupied by a man who had little regard or need for it. There was little furniture and even less decorating to speak of, but even so, it seemed comfortable and clean, the windows in the main space shuttered from any outside eyes.

“I’ll show you to the room,” he said after a moment.

He said it in a way that suggested there was only one, and Lilly was immediately reminded of how closely they were to be together. How unlike the life she had anticipated she would lead when she was young. Moving into the house and bed of a man she hardly knew, and knowing it was the best option of the ones she had before her. She felt her mouth settle into a grim line. It was one she was familiar with.

He led the way, although the house was small enough she could have managed to find it on her own. Like the other room the bedroom was functional and little more. There was one bed — not overly large, sporting an unremarkable quilt and some pillows — a single chair and a small bureau. This was where she would sleep. And this was the man she would sleep beside. It didn’t seem possible that they would both be able to fit in that bed.

“I hope this will do,” Eli said, and Lilly turned toward him, struck by how large he looked in the bedroom, how small she was next to him. It was something she would have noted in fear when she’d been home in Canada. But here in this room with him, it inspired a spark of something else- something she couldn’t name. Their eyes met, and an expanded moment of silence hovered between them. She was wondering again about why it was that a man with such kind eyes and such a handsome face, his jaw square and hard and dotted with fresh stubble she knew would be rough and scratchy on her skin, would be resigned to ordering a woman of his own. Her eyes narrowed. As far as she was concerned, the only acceptable answer was that he had something to hide, something someone else would turn away from if they knew the truth.

He was thinking something along the same lines. Intrigued by what sort of position she must have been placed in to seek a marriage placement. It was obvious that men would want her. Leap at the chance to offer her their bed and name. He was struck by how endless those dark pools of blue seemed, how eager to please and soft spoken she was, the gentle shape of her body so carefully hidden beneath the yards of fabric. It didn’t make sense that she would find herself widowed with no suitable suitors waiting in line for her.

In that heavy moment when nothing was said between them, they each thought of their own secrets, and wondered about those of the other, and then Eli cleared his throat and spoke again. “I’m sure you’re interested in the facilities. Let me show you where you can find them.”

With a collective goal in mind, the heaviness permeating the room seemed to lift, and Lilly did as he bid, following along a step behind him.

Chapter Three

Eli needed a minute. A good long minute. It hadn’t occurred to him that he was signing up for a woman he would actually want to possess. Actually, he’d been fairly certain there wasn’t a woman who could evoke such a response in him.

And then she had shown up, all soft curves and smooth, silky skin, and the only thing he could think about was divesting her of that dress and exploring her body. It was so far down the list of conceivable outcomes that he hadn’t even considered it as an option. Now it seemed to be the only thing he could think about.

He prowled through the small office at the opposite end of the house, his body tightly coiled. On edge. Truthfully, it was where he spent the bulk of his time. He didn’t like to be reminded that he spent very little time in his own bed, that that part of his life was over and behind him. Instead, he burned the midnight oil, and when he couldn’t keep himself in check anymore, he escaped to the outside and let himself melt into the night — and into the other part of himself he spent his days controlling.

But Lilly was doing something to his tenuous hold on his very humanity. He hadn’t expected it to happen, but having her near him was sending his inner beast into turmoil. Her very scent. The column of her throat. The angle of her jaw. It was all pushing him one step closer to losing it. He treaded the line already; he didn’t need the constant impulse to change in his life as well.

Eli realized he was pacing the small room, thinking about what Lilly might be doing as she prepped for bed, wondering what her nighttime rituals were like. It wasn’t his place to think about it, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.

He had to get out of the house. For the briefest moment he considered a trip to the brothel, maybe a distraction from the beautiful woman just a few rooms over, but, in the end, the call of the mountains was too strong. He wanted to feel the dirt beneath his feet, the cool air against his face, that impossible contentment that seemed to come only when he was in his truest form.

He moved through the house, hardly making a sound, and was out the door and melting into the darkness. Moving faster until he was running, his feet having no trouble in the dark, his eyes seeing more than any human should.

The further from the house he got, the freer he felt, and when his house was just a haze of distant light, he stopped suppressing the beast he kept at bay most of his life, and with a snap and a roar, he felt his body begin to change, the man he’d been just moments before a distant memory — the large, dark bear he was now the one driving his needs and wants. And, most importantly, easing his mind and soul.

Lilly sat on the edge of the bed, wondering if she was supposed to wait until Eli returned before settling in for sleep. The thought wasn’t entirely displeasing. She remembered the size of his frame, how broad his shoulders were, and wondered what his skin would feel like beneath her hands, what shape his body would take as he lie down beside her in that ridiculously too-small-for-two bed.

She let her mind wander for a few more moments before she reined it in and told herself there was no use in waiting for him to return. Besides, as much as she seemed suddenly interested in physicality with him, he’d made it perfectly clear he had no interest or need for her. Waiting for him to return just so they could lie awkwardly in the dark next to one another while they waited for sleep, didn’t seem too appealing.

It was hard enough when they were awake and fully dressed in the same room together. She didn’t want to think about what it might be like when their bodies were close enough to touch. There was something so hypnotically compelling about him; it seemed to overrule any of her common sense.

She’d never wanted a man before. Not really. She’d been young when she’d married, and well sheltered. She hadn’t known what the marriage bed would be like. She hadn’t even known what would be expected of her. James let her know soon enough, though. Her time with him had done little to spark any interest she had in a man, his body, or what he could do to hers.

But now, for the first time, she was wondering what it would be like to have a man she actually wanted to touch her, to revel in the feel of fingertips on her skin, instead of dreading it.

She had to stop wondering about it though, because the one thought spiraled into the next, and then she was thinking about Eli without clothes on, of fulfilling all the wifely duties and not just the ones he had listed he expected.

She extinguished the bedside light and let the dark engulf her, wishing her inner flame could be so easily controlled

It was definitely best if she was asleep when he returned for the night. There was no good that would come of waiting for him to crawl into the bed beside her.

She had expected him to be beside her in the morning, to have woken at his arrival in the night. The years had trained her to be a light sleeper, and there was little that wouldn’t wake her, heart thudding in her chest, adrenaline already peaking.

But this night she slept soundly, dreamlessly, like she had finally come home after too long away.

The bedding beside her wasn’t even disturbed, and she knew she had spent the night alone.

Instead of the thrill of happiness at sleeping alone — something she had become accustomed to feeling — she felt the smallest stab of disappointment, and wondered where her new husband had whiled away the night.

Perhaps, she considered, he was respecting her and waiting until they had finalized their marriage with a preacher. Not that it would bring much validity to their marriage, since she was technically already married, but Lilly certainly didn’t let herself linger on that for too long. And, as far as she was concerned, Eli would never know that was the case.

Or maybe it was a fluke. Or maybe there was another woman. Or maybe the “other” wasn’t a woman at all, and that was why he needed one in his bed. Appearances, he had said, were the most important part of the arrangement. She gnawed on her lower lip. Thinking of all the hows and whys and maybes wasn’t a good investment of her time, and she resolved that she would leave it be.

She took a deep breath and launched herself out of bed. It hardly mattered what the parameters were. She would just have to make the best of it, and ignore the urges that were growing inside of her. The urges she knew nothing about navigating.

They settled into a tenuous routine. Lilly’s new dresses had been ordered and made, and the last vestiges of her life from before tossed away. She’d taken great satisfaction in disposing of them. With her new look, she set out to create her new life. She made sure to spend time outside. On the porch. In the garden. Slipping her arm through Eli’s, thrilling at the contact, and letting him lead her through the town and by the front of the brothel he owned and regularly referred to as a saloon, as though Lilly would be unable to put all the pieces together. They were pleasant to one another, but instead of feeling like they were growing closer, Lilly had the distinct impression that the more time they spent together, the more distant Eli became.

She worried on her lower lip. That budding desire she’d felt for him in the beginning hadn’t dissipated. As he became more disinterested in her, she was becoming more aware of an ache for him. But there was no mistaking it; he found great relief in leaving her, and spent as little time as possible with her. When he had to be with her, he left at the earliest juncture.

She’d spent a lifetime disappointing others, and she wasn’t sure why she felt this failure so much more acutely than she had the others. It didn’t seem to matter what she did for him or how she acted. She tried to be sweet, the way James had liked her to be. She tried to be welcoming. She did everything she’d been told men liked, and yet, each encounter was even more remote than the last.

And, just when she was starting to think she should stop even trying, that nothing she did would change the way he felt toward her, or make him look at her differently, she would turn and find him watching her, or see something unexpected and hungry in his eyes in an unguarded moment.

Each time she was left breathless, almost burned by the heat that would swell up inside her.

And each time, he would disappear, as though aware that he’d been caught, and desperate to put whatever space he could find between them, leaving her once more by herself, alone with her shortcomings.

Chapter Four

Lilly woke with a start.

At first, she wasn’t sure what had woken her. But then she heard it again. A rustle and a distant bang from outside.

She sat up in bed. She wasn’t sure where Eli spent his nights, but she had grown used to waking up alone, and tonight was no different.

“Eli,” she whispered aloud, even though she knew if he was in the house, he wouldn’t have been able to hear her.

She flipped back the corner of the covers, and slipped out of bed, her bare feet padding on the wood floor, still new and unworn.

She called his name again when she was in the room off the entrance, listening for any indication he was in the house with her.

By now, she knew he had a habit of whiling away hours in the office, and she made her way in the dark toward it. It was unclear when he slept, but it wasn’t when she did.

Lilly gave the door a little push, but it opened to nothing but darkness and emptiness.

She was alone in the house, and something was still making noise outside.  She could hear the scrambling, something tipping over.

She was weighing whether she should wait out whatever was out there, when it occurred to her that maybe it was Eli out there, and maybe he wasn’t alone. Maybe he even needed help, or was being loud on purpose.

Lilly pushed open the front door, not bothering with shoes, and grabbing the lit lantern from where it hung. She made her way around to the back, moving as quickly and quietly as she could.

She slowed as she reached the corner, where her bedroom was, and peeked around the corner.

But there was nothing to see. “Eli?” she whispered again, hoping she wasn’t going to run into someone else in her state of undress. A little tremor slid through her, and she realized the night was cool, the air slipping up the bottom of her nightgown to leave a trail of goosebumps along her legs.

She wrapped her arms tightly around herself, and said his name again.

Just when she was thinking she must have made a mistake, that maybe there had never been a sound at all, she saw something on the edge of the property move. Something large and black.

And it was moving toward her.

Lilly brandished the lantern like it was a weapon, knowing that many animals would move away from the flame. But this one did not. The hulking grizzly bear moving steadily toward her.

Lilly stepped back until her body was pressed up against the outside of the house, willing to go unnoticed and for the bear to change its path. But it was close enough to see its eyes were trained on her body, their darkness glittering in the night. She had clearly been noticed, and the bear was most definitely not interested in changing its path.

She tried to control the beating of her heart while she considered what sort of options she had, and whether or not she could get to the door quickly enough. She cursed herself for coming outside without the shotgun that hung on the wall off the kitchen. She cursed Eli for not having a back door. She was ready to curse whatever came to mind, if she were being truthful.

The bear had finally come to a stop a few feet from her, well in the meager circle of light the lantern provided. She could see the varying shades of brown in his fur, could see the way his nostrils quivered in the air as he took in her scent.

His mouth opened, exposing his teeth and tongue, more like a smile than the baring, snarling thing she had expected. Lilly knew she shouldn’t look at him, but couldn’t tear her eyes away. His glinting eyes seemed to have caught her in their spell, fixing her to her place beside the house.

Several long moments passed before the bear gave his head a violent shake and exhaled a loud sound of unmistakable displeasure, before turning his back on her and lumbering quickly into the darkness.

Lilly stayed rooted to her spot, waiting for her heartbeat to return to normal, for her breathing to come more easily, before hurrying back toward the house, her legs unsteady, her whole body trembling with the cold sweeping through her.

Safely inside, she pushed the door closed firmly behind her, taking great pleasure in sliding the locks into place and thinking bitterly that it would serve Eli right if he were to come home and expect to be able to walk right in. Perhaps next time he could be the one to deal with bears, unprotected and unprepared.

She moved quickly to the room she had begun to think of as hers and leapt under the covers, pulling them up tightly to her throat, waiting for the chills to stop moving so violently through her body, and for the warmth to creep back into her bones.

Chapter Five

Lilly woke in the morning, feeling far from refreshed.

She thought for a moment that the night before had been nothing more than a terrible dream, but from the bedroom window she could see the vague imprint of her feet, the more defined gouge where the bear and spun and run in the opposite direction.

She didn’t want to risk a closer look, not knowing where that bear had come from or where it might have gone. It was still early enough in the day that she wouldn’t have been surprised to see him lingering nearby. She definitely did not want to repeat that experience.

Lilly dressed quickly, taking comfort in the additional layers of protection. In just her shift she had felt vulnerable, exposed. She couldn’t shake the way she had felt under the bear’s gaze. She unbolted the front door, thinking about how Eli had yet to come home. She hadn’t spent much time at the brothel, but she found herself wondering again if maybe there was a body there he liked to have warm his bed instead of hers. There weren’t many other place she could imagine he routinely slept.

She busied herself with the day, focusing on tidying her room and preparing the meals for the day. For the first time, she felt uncomfortable in the space, anxious to leave the house and wary of what might be beyond the walls.

When Eli finally joined her for lunch, she was in a state of agitation. She clung to a piece of embroidery she’d decided to work on, but couldn’t focus on long enough to do anything productive.

“Eli,” she said when he walked in, her tone cold and unhappy. She was surprised by her boldness and quick words. Lilly had spent the past weeks trying her hardest to be the woman she thought he would want her to be, even expected her to be. Angry wasn’t one of the qualities she tried to embody.

“Lilly,” he returned, seeming as equally taken aback by her outburst.

She wanted to demand where he had been; the words were on the very edge of her tongue, but she curbed them at the last moment, knowing that was outside of the scope of their arrangement.  Instead, she snapped, “You should tell me when you will not be occupying the house over the night.” That came about as close to addressing the issue as she could get without actually saying she didn’t want him sleeping somewhere else.

There was a weighted silence between them, and for a moment Lilly worried that she had gone too far, that he wouldn’t allow her to speak to him in such a way, that she would be back in the kind of marriage she had tried so hard to escape from.

He blinked at her, once, before coming to terms with her words. When he spoke, it wasn’t with the kind of anger she had feared her words might engender. “I’m sorry,” he said, as though choosing her words carefully. “I didn’t realize it mattered to you where I spend my nights.”

“It matters,” she snapped. “If you aren’t going to stay here you should at least have the decency to let me know so I can plan accordingly.”

She hadn’t realized she was pacing before then, her shoulders stiff and angry, and Eli seemed to suddenly understand that she was shaken, like it had taken him a moment to put all the pieces together.

His eyes narrowed at her, and she met them with her own, glaring back, surprised by her boldness, but not enough to stop.

“What happened last night?” His words were hard, and rough, and Lilly thought she should maybe shrink back from them, offer apologies for her behavior and retract her demands.

But somehow, she couldn’t find it in herself to be afraid of him. Eyes narrowed or not, she didn’t see the kind of unrestrained anger in them she had become used to seeing in James’ eyes.

“I heard noises outside and when I couldn’t find you in your office,” she stressed that he was to blame for that one, “I went outside to see if you were out there. If you needed any help.” Hearing the words out loud, it seemed like a much less logical plan than it had at the time, but she couldn’t change the facts, so she was just going to have to own up to poor planning, and maybe blame it on the fact that she had been sleeping at the time. “And when I went outside, without the gun, I might add, it turned out it wasn’t you out there at all, but a giant bear. Huge,” she added for emphasis. She stopped moving long enough to stare balefully at him.

To his credit, Eli’s face blanched, and Lilly took a grim satisfaction in his appalled look.

“Well,” he murmured, more to himself than to her, it seemed. “I’m certainly glad you didn’t have the gun.”

“Cornered. By the bear. Why is there no back door?”

If it seemed to be a vague segue, he didn’t point it out. He also didn’t provide her with an answer.

Lilly crossed her arms over her chest, anger still bubbling up from deep within her. “If you had been kind enough to let me know you weren’t going to be around, I might have at least armed myself before investigating.”

He moved so quickly she barely had time to register his advancement, and then he was clutching her elbow. “No investigating,” he growled. “No arming. If you hear something, you stay inside. Keep the windows shuttered. I don’t want to see you in that position again.”

Her heart was hammering, this time not from fear, but because he had come so close to her, his eyes alight with concern, anger, and something else she couldn’t quite identify. His face was inches from hers when he said, “You should know better than to go waltzing off in the night like that. You’re lucky you weren’t hurt, or worse. Keep yourself inside. Keep the door bolted.”

His eyes lingered on her lips, and her mouth suddenly went dry. This close, she had to tip her head back for their eyes to meet, and it was strangely intimate, vulnerable.

He studied her for a long moment and when he spoke again his voice was low and raw. “I will be sure to keep you apprised of my sleeping habits, wife.”

The word sent a strange spiral of longing through her, and Lilly was grateful for the hand that still clasped her elbow. She was fairly certain that she would have melted at his words otherwise.

Another moment passed between them. He seemed in no hurry to release her. Then he dropped his mouth to hers, capturing it in a demanding kiss, searing and hot.

She let him kiss her, unprepared to do anything else, reveling in the feel of his warm skin on hers, the heat he sent through her, the way his hand had crept up into her hair and disrupted it from its confines, the long dark strands falling freely over her shoulders and down her back.

And then, to her surprise, she was kissing him back, letting her lips move against his, letting his tongue slide between her lips to explore her mouth. A low husky sound, she didn’t know she could make filled the air, and seemed to bring Eli crashing back to the present.

He pushed her away from him so violently, she nearly toppled over, fighting to stand on her own and catch her breath all at the same time.

He seemed to need a moment to pull himself together, as well, his chest heaving as he took several deep breaths.

“That shouldn’t have happened,” he said after a moment where only the ragged sounds of the two of them gasping for breath filled the air. “I apologize for my liberties.”

She couldn’t find her own voice, so she merely nodded in agreement.

He made a hasty retreat for the door, uninterested in the lunch Lilly had laid out on the dining room table. “I won’t be back tonight.” He ripped his gaze away from her. “Maybe not for a few days. Keep the door bolted. Stay inside. For the love of God, do not take the gun out with you.” He eyed the shotgun where it hung, as if considering whether or not he even wanted to leave it there at all, and then he was gone.

Well, Lilly thought to herself. That hadn’t gone as anticipated at all.

Eli had to put some serious space between him and that woman. That kiss had been nearly enough to undo him.

Even worse, to know he had been back as the bear. To know that he could have hurt her, even killed her.

He’d thought he had been putting enough distance between them when he changed, but his need to have her was growing too strong. He could barely keep his bear in check when he was a human. It was downright impossible to do when he was the bear.

He cursed his ability to stay away from her, the unbelievable way she managed to keep bringing her back to him. She was captivating, in her quiet way.

And when she’d lit into him, all anger and fire, he’d wanted her more than ever.

He hadn’t been able to resist kissing her. It was something about the way the word “wife” felt on his tongue, about the way her eyes had flashed at the word, the heated flush in her face.

It was a mistake to kiss her. Her taste still lingered on his mouth. It had been hell to pull himself away from her. Now, all he wanted was to know more of her. What else could he do to elicit that little sound of pleasure and surrender in the back of her throat?

He shook his head, but couldn’t dispel the memory. Staying away from her was going to be his best option. His only option.

Determined to nip the whole thing in the bud, he headed out on foot toward the base of the mountain, the long stretch slow going in his human form, the sun still strong and warm.

Left alone, Lilly sank into one of the dining table’s chairs, the untouched food still on display. She was no longer hungry.

For food, she amended. She was definitely hungry.

She couldn’t seem to settle her inner turmoil. The kiss had been hard, needy. She’d never had anything like it, and couldn’t keep back that part of herself she’d been trying so hard to control around Eli.

Her mouth still burned, her body ached. And then, as though he were totally unaffected by the whole thing, he had left her, his casual dismissal and promise to not be returning, one last rub in the wound.

Lilly raised a hand to her hair, dismayed to notice she was not yet steady, and tried to right the mess he’d made of it.

Then she stood, brushing off the front of her dress as though she could brush away the whole afternoon’s encounter, and resigned herself to whatever was coming her way. There didn’t seem to be much else she could do about it.

Chapter Six

Eli hadn’t exaggerated when he’d said he wouldn’t be returning for a few days.

Four days in, Lilly was growing quite accustomed to having the days and nights to herself. She didn’t make the bed. She forgot about lunch. She meandered around the outside of the house during the day, stopping in to the small stable to see the horses and touch their velvety noses. Wherever Eli was, he hadn’t taken any of his animals with him.

She’d worried at first that maybe no one was seeing after them, but then she spied a small stable-hand at work. One who was probably paid in brothel time, she couldn’t help but think bitterly.

When he finally made his return, Lilly had been surprised to see him. She was beginning to wonder if he ever actually had plans to return, and starting to wonder what she would do when her food stock began to get low.

There had been a loud knock at the door, one that had startled her away from the potato she was peeling. She’d dragged her hands over her apron and moved to the door, unbolting it and swinging it wide.

Eli was on the other side, casually propped up in the frame of the door, as though he always left for days at a time and returned home to knock on his own door.

His mouth twisted up into a grin, eyes flashing toward her. “So you can follow direction.”

She frowned at him, unimpressed. “Aren’t you humorous?”

“I do try,” he said as he brushed by her, his body whispering against hers, barely giving her a second glance. With his back to her, Lilly raised a hand to her hair, hoping to straighten the mess. Not that it mattered, she reminded herself as he moved past her and toward his office space. She had no idea what he did back there in that little room, but whatever it was seemed to occupy an inordinate amount of his time.

Lilly was left standing alone in the kitchen, as though her sole purpose in life was to unlock the door for him.

She was still grumbling about his sudden appearance, irritated with herself for how, just for one moment, when she’d pushed the door open and his mouth had quirked up at the corner, she’d thought he might be happy to see her, maybe he would greet her warmly. Now she found herself irritated that those things hadn’t happened, and mostly confused that she had wanted it to happen at all.

“What was that?” he asked, leaning up against the counter where she was diligently divesting her potatoes of their skin with a series of angry flicks.

“Nothing,” she muttered to herself more than to him, eyes trained on the falling potato skins.

“Hmm,” he said, nodding his head and reaching a hand up to stroke his chin, clearly unshaven during his absence. “I thought I heard something along the lines of ‘that good for nothing…’”

She paused in the process of her potato mutilation, waving the knife in his general direction. Mustering up all the sweetness she could, and trying to quell her irritation, she responded, “Do I look like someone who would say something like that?”

He eyed her seriously, letting his gaze linger on the knife she was brandishing. “Absolutely.”

She harrumphed and turned back to the potatoes. “I was only saying how nice it was of you to finally return home, only to ignore me the same as when you were gone.”

He had somehow moved closer to her during the exchange, and she wondered why. This was not, she had to admit, one of her finest moments. This was, in fact, one of the very things James would have cited as a perfectly good reason to beat her.

That thought stopped her in her tracks. Eli had not been like James so far, but what if this would push him over the edge. What if this would be the time that everything changed?

She bit down on her lip to keep herself from saying something else that might put her in more trouble. When she risked a look in his direction, she saw he was watching her curiously, something she couldn’t identify in his eyes.

“Yes?” She tried not to snap the word at him, but there was something distinctly unflattering about being studied, and even with effort, the word came out a little strangled.

“Just thinking about why you do that.”

“I like them better without the skin.”

He blinked at her. Twice. Then the smallest grin lifted up one corner of his mouth, and his teeth flashed a bright white against the darkness of his new beard. “That is not what I meant.”

She noticed that heat between them was back. “Oh,” was all she could manage, thinking suddenly that it would be best if there were some space between them.

“Just wondering why you get so angry and then pretend like you aren’t. I have to be honest, your anger is refreshing.” There was something almost animalistic in his smile now, and, unnervingly, it brought back memories of that bear in the dark, flashing its teeth in her direction. “I would even say I like it.”

“Would you?” she asked, feeling her breath hitch, hating that he could elicit something so breathy and coy from her.

His smile was definitely predatory now, but Lilly wasn’t feeling much like prey. At least, not the kind that would mind being caught. “I definitely would. I like a feisty woman.”

“Do you?” she asked, more surprised than flirtatious. It had never occurred to her that feisty women could be liked. It hadn’t even occurred to her that she might be feisty.

“Absolutely. Don’t you like your men with a little bite?”

There was something dangerously seductive about this whole conversation, and Lilly realized they were starting to slide into territory they’d already established they shouldn’t be branching into.

“I don’t like men.” She hoped that might stop their progress, but it didn’t.

Eli’s eyebrows rose dramatically, and he brought that hand back up to his chin. “I seem to recall you liking at least a little bit of me not too long ago.”

Lilly had the good grace to blush. “That was an exceptional situation,” she corrected.

“Like, a situation where you forgot that you don’t like men?” There was the smallest tilt to his head, rueful, teasing. She blushed despite herself.

“Exactly.” Her tone was dark and she didn’t mind it. They were going to have to stop talking like this or she knew he was going to kiss her again. And even if part of her was dying to feel his hands on her and his mouth against hers, she absolutely meant it when she said she didn’t like men. And Eli happened to be a man. So that was just going to have to be the end of that.

But, even as she was convincing herself she didn’t want anything from him at all, she turned more fully toward him, setting the knife down by the pile of potatoes — some still sporting their skin — her body on high alert, daring him to reach out to her.

When he did, his fingers sliding under the apron tie to tug her toward him, she offered no resistance, and instead stepped in toward him until their toes were nearly touching. “Not at all,” he asked, his voice throaty, the clean strong scent of him heady and distracting.

“That is correct,” she said, even as his mouth moved into hers. He took his time, the kiss slow and gentle, his mouth angling over hers, capturing hers again and again until she wanted to melt into him.

In fact, she realized, her whole body was pressed into his, her arms linked behind his neck, her fingers tentatively playing through his hair.

He groaned against her, drawing her more tightly to him, one big hand on her waist, his thumb moving over the point of her hip. “I see what you mean about not liking men,” he managed between kisses. “It’s actually quite clear, now that you mention it.”

“Oh, stop,” she said, unable to ignore the urge to pull his mouth back to hers a moment longer.

He moved his hands up to the collar of her dress, letting his fingers brush against her skin. She tipped her head to the side to give him better access, and with that invitation, he let his fingers move down the front of her bodice, deftly undoing the buttons along the way

The cotton of her dress was soft, but nothing compared to the smooth expanse of her skin and the silk of the chemise she wore beneath it.

Through the thin fabric of the underclothes, Eli cupped her breast and let his thumb move over her nipple, teasing the sensitive skin to a peak. She moaned into his mouth, letting one of her own hands slide over the expanse of his chest

Eli felt himself quiver beneath the feather-light touch. He knew he shouldn’t let the kiss continue; it had already gone much further than it should have. But the feel of her, the scent of her — it was intoxicating.

He’d known the moment she’d opened the door, the apron around her waist, her hair coming undone from whatever loose knot she’d put it up into earlier. He’d watched the surprise, the pleasure, the irritation, play through her storm colored eyes, and he’d felt himself harden in response. And he knew he was going to have to have her.

He’d thought the time apart from her would be enough to squelch the desire he had for her, but it hadn’t. Truthfully, he wanted her now more than he had in the past. His time away from her had only highlighted his urgent need for her.

She was sweet and genuine in her response to him, something about her gave him the feeling she hadn’t experienced as much of a man’s touch as she should have, which was downright surprising to him, considering he couldn’t seem to keep his hands off of her.

Lilly’s hands were staying appropriately above his waist, which was hardly bearable. He could feel himself straining against the fabric of his pants, aching for her to move her sweet caresses down a little lower.

She broke away from him, her breathing ragged. “We should not be doing this.” Another sweet sound of pleasure escaped her as he continued to play with her nipple.

“Agreed,” he said in that same throaty voice he saved for occasions like this, when she was partly dressed and entirely off guard. “Stopping would most assuredly be in our best interest.”

Even as he said the words, though, he was sliding her dress off her shoulder, letting the fabric slide down her body until it pooled at her feet, admiring her shape now that there was little to hide it from him. He paused, waiting for her to tell him to stop and mean it. When she said nothing, watching him from beneath her heavy lidded eyes, he reached down to tug her chemise up, exposing her shapely thigh to his gaze and touch.

He made a sound of satisfaction that brought a new blush of color to Lilly’s face, and pulled her back toward him, lifting her until she was perched on the counter and he was pressing into her, slipping his hand up over her bare calf and toward her thigh. His fingers were rough and tender, and she liked the way they felt against her skin. When they wandered up further, drifting toward the inside of her thigh, she didn’t stop his exploration.

“I may have been mistaken,” she said, between short breaths.

“Mistaken?” he asked, trying to give her as much of his attention as he could, but finding it difficult to pull himself away from her skin and the warmth he knew was just within his reach.

“About not liking men.”

He raised one eyebrow. “You like all the men now?”

She blushed prettily, and he felt another throb in his loins in response. “Only you. On occasion.”

He nodded. “I can accept that. For now.” He moved his hand up further, letting his fingers brush against her core and her body trembled in response. “I’m sure I can think of a few ways to increase those occasions.” He let his thumb move over her clit, and was rewarded with another tremble before she pushed his hand away.

“No. Stop,” she said, blushing deeply. “I’m…wet.”

The admission caught him by surprise, and left him aching. He chuckled. “Well, that’s good to hear.”

“You mustn’t be serious.” That little edge of indignation and propriety had crept back into her voice and he fought to hide his grin from her.

“Of course I am. You should be wet.”

“Oh.”

“Trust me. I’ll show you.” He leaned forward to catch her mouth in his again, letting his fingers slide back up against her, slipping between her silken lips to stroke the tender flesh there. She was warm and wet, and he wanted nothing more than to burying himself deep within her, to see how wet she could become, to listen to her continue to make those breathy little sounds as he moved in and out of her.

He set a gentle rhythm with his fingers, his thumb making lazy circles over her clit, his own erection begging for attention. “That is quite nice,” she whispered as he continued his gentle caresses.

“Very nice,” he agreed. “I’d like to taste how sweet you are.”

She moaned as he found her clit again. She arched against him, pulling herself closer to him, letting his fingers slide as deeply into her as they could. “This is,” she said, before repeating the words again, unsure how to finish what she wanted to say.

Her trembling had become almost violent, the waves of pleasure sending her toward orgasm, and she cried out and tightened around him. His hand stilled, and he withdrew his hand from beneath her skirt.

Lilly didn’t meet his eyes. It didn’t seem possible that the ragged breathing she heard in her own ears was coming from her, but she knew that it must be. “You shouldn’t. We shouldn’t.”

She couldn’t seem to figure out what to say. Still trapped between his thighs and little shivers moving through her, she felt like she was suffocating. She put a hand to his chest and gave him a little nudge.

He stepped back easily, and she slid down off the counter, wishing desperately she was wearing more than just the thin underclothes.

“I’m sorry,” Eli said, his eyes hooded. “I didn’t mean to upset you —”

“It’s alright,” she interrupted, her head bowed. “It’ll be just fine.”

There was another long awkward beat between them, and when she lifted her eyes it was to look longingly toward the bedroom, like she couldn’t wait to walk out of the situation.

Eli gave her the exit she wanted, mostly because he couldn’t stand that she was so eager to forget what had just happened.

He moved away from her and back toward the door. The look on her face was too much for him, and he said to the room more than to her, “I’ll be home tonight.”

Chapter Seven

Eli dragged a hand through his hair as he stumbled out into the daylight, struggling to pull himself together.

He was unbelievable.

It didn’t matter how many times he told himself Lilly was off limits. When she was around, he couldn’t keep his paws off of her.

He needed a drink. More than just one. And a woman. A woman who would make him forget about Lilly.

And he had just the place to find one.

Eli studied the women through a thin haze of alcohol. He’d hoped that the brothel might ease the ache that had permanently set up shop in his loins since Lilly’s arrival.

But, no such luck. He tried to admire the swell of their ample bosoms, the roundness of their asses, and the suggestive flounce to their dresses. Their lined eyes and lips should have easily worked on him; after all, he’d hired them all for a particular purpose and they more than kept their end of the bargain, their rooms full.

But each time his eyes drifted to one of them, he could only think of Lilly. Being there with them actually just made him feel worse.

Right about the time he had that realization was when he started to order the drinks.

Ordering without paying was a sort of novelty, though he knew he was paying the tab in the grander scheme of things, so he didn’t let it distract him too much. He was glad he’d chosen to make the splurge on some decent top shelf brands, and he was thrilled he had hired women who knew how to keep his glass full.

There had been a flurry of activity when he’d first stepped through the door. He knew the brothel had been awfully chatty since Lilly’s first arrival. He’d taken great pains to make sure they were seen together on a regular basis, arm in arm and in public. He had rarely made a social visit, but he wasn’t in the frame of mind to worry about how it might look for him to start.

And now he was here, drinking like a fish. Alone. Angry. And not doing a good job of hiding it.

And his employees were professionals, after all. They saw their in and were all over it.

One girl in a blonde wig and wearing lipstick the color of wine said she’d redecorated her bedroom and asked if he wanted a tour.

He’d politely said no, but for just one moment wondered what it might be like to take her up there and spread her out beneath him. He could get hard, no doubt. He barely had to think about how Lilly’s mouth felt against his and he was straining for release.

But it wouldn’t be the same. And somehow knowing Lilly was just a short walk away made it that much worse.

Instead of following the blonde up the stairs and to her room, he let her drift off, in search of another mark. He ordered another drink, not bothering to let his eyes stay on her shape as she walked away from him.

A delicious thrill swept through Lilly, and from somewhere far away she heard a soft breath and a long moan.

She realized, belatedly, that those sounds were her own as another little shiver went through her.

She was having the most wonderful dream. Eli was over her, his body warm against hers. Hard and soft and all the things a body should be.

He had slipped her nightgown up around her hips and was stroking her like he had when she’d sat on the counter. Her body was responding of its own accord, wet and ready for him. One finger slid against her cleft before two moved into her depths, beginning that slow, lazy rhythm that had brought her so much pleasure before. His thumb flicked easily over the little button of pleasure he’d unearthed and she moaned in response. Loudly.

Which was right around the time Lilly realized she wasn’t dreaming at all. She was actually naked, spread beneath Eli while he made love to her with his hand.

Her head tipped back, burrowing more deeply into the pillow. She should tell him to stop. She knew she should. But knowing she should tell him no and actually saying it seemed to be two entirely different beasts.

Even as she was telling herself they should stop, she was repositioning herself beneath his hand so he would have better access to her, the slickness she had been ashamed of the last time they’d been together something she now recognized as a normal part of being intimate with someone you wanted. She’d just never experienced the wanting part before.

Which may have had something to do with why she continued to let his hands roam over her body, capturing her breast in his hand before moving down toward it with his mouth, his tongue and teeth moving over the swell of flesh and her tight nipple.

She cupped the back of his head with one hand, letting her fingers slide through his hair. The beard he’d grown scratched at the sensitive skin of her chest, at once bringing her pleasure with a side of pain. Her other hand played in the thick down that covered his chest. Brown, she was sure, like his hair.

She hadn’t realized how little he was wearing until her hand had slid down over his chest and down his flat, muscled abdomen. He was, no doubt, the perfect male specimen.

That became only more clear as she let her hand trail lower, running along the top of his underwear. He moaned against her skin.

But that was all she had to give him. She wasn’t sure what else he might like, and she stopped the gentle touches, unsure how to move forward.

She needn’t have worried for long because he reached one hand down between them to adjust himself and rocked into her. He’s exposed his arousal, stroked himself two hurried times before pressing against her, the blunt tip of his shaft sliding easily up around her cleft.

She felt the burning need to please him, and also shame at needing to ask how to do it. Instead she did nothing, and waited for him to direct her.

He pulled away from her chest, positioning himself so he was lying next to her, reaching up with one hand to catch her own and drawing it down toward his arousal.

Her eyes were still heavy with sleep, though she was definitely more interested in what was unfolding before her now than any kind of sleep.

It was dark, but she had the unnerving feeling he didn’t need much more light than he had. “Like this,” he said gruffly, showing her with his own hand before wrapping hers tightly around his thickness, his hand closing on top of hers, guiding it up and down along his length.

It took just a few strokes to leave her feeling powerful. He was trembling beneath her hand, and she loved the sense of control it gave her.

Now it was his turn to tip his head back, moaning at Lilly’s ministrations. “That’s right,” he said as her breath and hand quickened.

In the next moment, he was pulling away from her, guiding his own engorged sex into her slick channel.

He was slow and patient, letting her adjust to his size before moving in any further. He left her feeling full. Full and vulnerable and incredibly powerful all at once.

When he had sunk fully into her depths, and her breathing had slowed to something resembling normal, Eli began to move in and out of her. Slowly, at first, so he could become used to her feel, and she could become used to him. As she became emboldened by his touch, more excited by their lovemaking, he moved more quickly, until she was a quivering mess, each thrust leaving her more turned on than the last.

He repositioned one leg, and she realized he was treating her as though she’d never had a partner before, as though he wanted to show her how she could serve him better, instead of waiting for her to figure out if she could do it on her own. She appreciated that probably more than she should, but she knew if she were left to her own impulses, it would be a much slower process.

He started to move with urgency, his length moving in and out of her easily. She could hear her own breathing speeding up, a tightening in her core she didn’t understand or know what to do with.

And then he was pumping furiously, each time eliciting a cry from Lilly as he brushed up against her, each time met with nothing other than eagerness.

When she came, it seemed to catch her by surprise. Her body trembled at the release, spasming around him.

He was quick to follow, burying himself deep within her as he came, loving how she clamped down on him, milking the last of his erection from him. He buried his face into her neck, feeling her pulse beneath the surface, her heart still thudding in her chest.

Lilly quivered beneath him, moving her hand gingerly up to his head to let her fingers slide through his hair. Every nerve was still singing, her body still fresh on the high from his touch.

She hadn’t known lying with a man could be like that. She hadn’t even imagined it could be anything close to that.

She’d been married for years, and her husband was the only man she had  ever intimately known. When he took her, it had always been for his own pleasure, and she had received very little in the process, except the pleasure that came from knowing it was one night he might not raise his hand to her.

This had been different. Eli had seemed to care about whether or not she enjoyed herself as well.

In the stillness after the passion, Lilly let her hands roam over him, lightly exploring the expanse of his body, the things she hadn’t yet given herself permission to do in the daylight. Her touch was light, sliding over the slope of his shoulder and the muscles of his arms, tracing his long fingers.

Though it was dark, she could make out that his eyes were closed, and she studied his face. The new beard obscured his jawline, but gave him a different kind of fierce quality. The lashes against his cheek gave him the look of innocence you might expect to find in a child, and not a grown man. Especially not one who looked as big and intimidating as Eli.

He had slipped a knee between hers, pressing her body close as though they were still connected, and with her eyes heavy, her hands stilled, and she slipped into sleep, safely cradled against him.

Chapter Eight

The morning sun wasn’t yet up when Lilly woke and began to detach herself from Eli. She’d watched him in the dark for a long while before beginning the process. As gently as she could, so as not to disturb him from his sleep, she unwound his body from hers. She couldn’t wait until morning to use the lavatory, and she certainly wasn’t going to pull out the chamber pot with Eli in the bed beside her.

Her body was sore. Deliciously sore, and each movement recalled exactly what had happened the night before. The first time they’d consummated this thing they were calling a marriage. The first time she had woken next to him and watched him sleep. With a stretch, she slipped from the bed, tugging her nightgown into some semblance of order before hurrying out into the darkness to relieve herself.

The late night air was cold, bringing gooseflesh to her arms and legs. It was easy to forget how hot the days would become during the night, where it was almost chilly enough to see your own breath. Lilly was quick, but still shivering by the time she was stepping out of the little outhouse.

Something about the air felt different as she took her first step back toward the house. It was charged with something new, and Lilly though back to the bear, wondering if he was close by and if he had seen her. That would be just the thing she’d need to explain to Eli, after he had made it so clear that she shouldn’t leave the house in the night.

And then, she saw them, between her and the house, and she was wishing it had been the bear instead.

Anything was better than coming face to face with James. But, unbelievably, there he was.

And he wasn’t alone. Flanking him were three other men. She could see their hands settled on their weapons, still tucked into their holsters.

Fear froze her to her spot. Ice ran up her legs, preventing her from moving even though every cell in her being was telling her she had to go.

But the truth was she had nowhere to go. They were starting to fan out, moving so she had no hopes of getting past them fast enough to get to the front door and safely inside with Eli.

And, what if she were inside with Eli? That wouldn’t stop James. She would just be putting both of them in danger. Maybe it would be better this way. James would take her and Eli would never know what had happened. He would never need to learn the kind of woman she had been before she had become his.

“Lilly,” he said darkly. “You seem surprised to see me. Surely you must know I will always come for my belongings.”

Lilly said nothing. There was nothing she could say in response to that. She’d dreaded that would be the case. She’d done everything she could have to help make it impossible to be found. But it wasn’t enough. She should have known it wouldn’t have been enough. She steeled herself for what would be coming next.

The men flanking him were getting antsy, and Lilly could tell by the way they were looking at him and looking back at her, that they’d been promised something for their trouble. Something that wasn’t James’ to promise.

He flicked the butt of a cigarette to the ground. Freshly rolled. It was the only way James took his cigarettes. And he only smoked when he was agitated. The sharp tobacco odor always permeated the air when he was in one of his rages.

This time was no different. He stalked toward her, grabbing her arms hard enough to elicit an involuntary gasp, and yanking her body toward him. “How dare you disrespect me as you have. You worthless whore.”

Before she could prepare herself, his hand was reaching back, his full weight behind the open-handed slap. Her ears were ringing and her head spinning, her cheek throbbing where it bore the imprint of his hand.

A scream rent the air, and Lilly realized belatedly the sound was coming from her own mouth.

The scramble that followed was confusing. Another loud sound split the night’s quiet, scattering the men who had been behind James. Lights began to flicker on in the brothel, doors swinging open.

One of the men was rushing at her. She had time to process that before he tackled her to the ground. Her head hit the dirt with a resounding thud.

The last thing she remembered was the earth coming up to meet her.

When she woke, she was back in the bedroom. It was oddly dark — like it was still night — but she knew that couldn’t be the case.

But then she started to wonder what she really did know. What had happened? Maybe none of it. Maybe Eli had never come to her in the first place. It could have all been a dream.

It wasn’t, though. She knew from the way her eye was too swollen to open, from the tender mess that had been her face.

This was a feeling she was used to waking up to.

There was a lit lantern nearby, giving off a gentle glow. As she struggled to open her eyes and focus on what was around her, Eli’s face came close. His brow was furrowed. Concerned or angry, she couldn’t tell, his jaw hard and unyielding.

“Lilly?” he asked, his voice gentle and full of gravel. “Are you alright?”

“I’ll be fine,” she said, finally giving up on the struggle to keep her eyes open. She let them close, resigned herself to being in the dark.

She felt him take her hand, the pad of his thumb moving over the back of her hand.

“You should have told me,” he said finally, the slightest edge of accusation to his voice, his other hand reaching up to stroke her hair.

“I couldn’t tell you.” Her voice was flat, her words emotionless. She hadn’t wanted him to know how lacking she was. And even if she had wanted to tell him, how was she supposed to?

In the end, she didn’t need to. Everything had come together very quickly for Eli, when he’d heard her scream and had launched from his bed out of a dead sleep. It all made a terrible kind of sense. The way she would push down her own feelings. Her overly practiced sense of serenity and disinterest. The way she hadn’t known what she should expect from his touch. It had taken him so long to put it all together, and knowing he had failed her, had let her wade through all of that on her own, left him sickened.

He had wondered what had pushed her into an arranged marriage, and there it was. A man she had hidden from him. A man she had crossed a continent to escape from.

He let his hand run down across her hair and cupped her face, careful not to press into the ruined flesh there. “They won’t be bothering you again.” His voice was hard. His words left no room for interpretation.

He was grateful she had been unconscious for that part of the experience. He’d held nothing back. Not that he’d had any say in the matter. The view of her out there with those men had sent him shifting before he could even get out the door, and he had crashed through that bedroom window and torn into the men in a mere moment.

He had disposed of the others first.

The husband he had let run.

Not for long, of course, but long enough that he might believe he stood a chance.

It the frenzy, Eli knew the women of the brothel would be sending their men out to check on everything and he kept on going until he hit the base of the mountains, where the woods became dense and he could shift back to a human, and say the bear had made its escape.

But, truly, if he didn’t get himself together, he was going to have people on the hunt for a bear. This had to be the last of his visits, or Eli was going to need to uproot himself again and start somewhere else.

He’d stopped by his stash of hidden clothes before heading back to the mess. At least he wasn’t going to have to make his return buck naked. He didn’t even want to think about how he might explain that.

When he’d arrived, light was beginning to break and people were still scattered liberally over his yard. Mostly undressed ladies, men in various states of clothing and arousal. Lilly, already gathered and taken into the house, blessedly unhurt except for the bump on her head and the contusion on her face.

Eli told the others the bear had gotten away. Better that way than to say he had been wounded. They would think he would stay local then and might be tempted to hunt in earnest for him, hoping to put an end to the bear that would come so close to humans. Everyone knew if an animal attacked once it would be happy to do so again.

And he would have. If he could live the moment over, he would have done it exactly the same way. Maybe he would have allowed for more suffering, but the end result would be the same.

He gave them a modified version of the attack, that it had been a robbery in process, that one of them had tried to drag Lilly out with him and they had just happened onto the bear in the process. No one seemed to think anything was unusual about the tale, and Eli didn’t have to divulge any of the intimate particulars. Like he’d just had sex with his wife for the first time. Like she was actually not his wife at all and a woman on the run from an abusive husband. Like he had shifted into a bear and mauled the men in question.

Yes, when it was all said and done, it was much better to stay as far away from any of those facts as possible.

Someone had carried Lilly into the room and the women had set about fixing her up, producing cold water to clean her face and split lip, fluffing pillows, and covering her up.

Eli felt a wave of gratitude for them and their willingness to look out for one of their own. And for their willingness to consider Lilly to be one of theirs.

He had wanted the bodies gone before Lilly came to. Whether she hated that man or not, she didn’t need to see the mess Eli had made of him.

And, even more importantly, he didn’t want her to fear the bear. He couldn’t stand knowing that she might be afraid of him if she knew what had happened out there.

“I just couldn’t tell you,” she said again, drawing him back into the moment. “I didn’t want you to know how…dissatisfactory I was.”

Eli felt a knot rise up in his throat. There was something he found so poignantly relatable to her words. “Nothing could be further from that, Lilly. I find you to be beyond satisfactory.” Satisfactory didn’t even begin to cover how he found her, but he supposed it was a start. “Exemplary, actually. Incredible.”

She managed a little laugh, though it was far from convincing. “Kind of you.” She moved to pull herself into an upright position, and he helped guide her body until she was seated, stacking the pillows behind her so she could lean comfortably.

The new position enabled her to see why the room was so unexpectedly dark.

“What happened to the window?” she asked, fully distracted from what had happened to her just a short while ago.

Where the window had been was a single oversized board, held in place by a few strategically placed nails.

He hesitated just a moment. “Yes. Well.” He paused like he was debating what he should tell her, and then said simply. “I jumped through it.”

Lilly jerked forward, rewarded with the unpleasant reminder of her recent injuries. “You what?”

“It happened very fast, Lilly. You screamed and I just couldn’t stop myself. I…jumped through it.”

She inspected him closely, wishing the small lantern would give off a little more light. “How is that possible? It certainly doesn’t look like you jumped through a window.”

His laughter had an edge to it she couldn’t place. “What can I say?” he asked. “I’m a hardy sonofabitch.” He ended the conversation then, rising to his feet and preventing her from asking anything else. “You need to rest, now, Lilly. There’s no need to worry about me at all. And there’s no need to worry about you, either.” He gave her hand a gentle squeeze before releasing it and arranging the covers around her. “You are mine, and I will always protect you.”

The words reminded her uncomfortably of what James had said to her about his belongings, but she tried not to let that diminish what Eli was saying to her.

She felt her eyes growing heavy and knew he was right; she needed the rest. Gently, he guided her back to a lying position.

She was asleep before he left the room.

Chapter Nine

Lilly dreamt of the bear.

She hadn’t before. But since James had made his appearance, there wasn’t a time she closed her eyes that the bear wasn’t foremost in her mind.

She relived their meeting over and over again. The way his eyes had glittered in the dark. The way his mouth had morphed into that smile.

And then, suddenly, it wouldn’t be the bear at all. It was Eli, that thick, dark beard he’d grown, the crisp down of his chest under her fingers, the same hungry smile.

Then she would wake, shaken, sticky with perspiration.

Eli was always nearby. Almost never asleep, but not far away. It would take her a moment to remember that it had just been a dream, that it wasn’t the bear in the room with her at all, but Eli.

Lilly’s face healed. The window was replaced. Before too long, that night was a distant experience. In the physical sense, at least.

But they hadn’t touched since. Or, they had, but not in that all-consuming way they had before. It was hard for that to not weigh heavily on Lilly.

It was like Eli was keeping her at an arm’s length.

And she didn’t need to ask why to know the answer.

In the beginning, she had thought he was just giving her the space she would need to heal and recover. She had even appreciated how he could be so considerate, thrilled she had found someone who would let her choose her own pace.

But then, the days went by and nothing had changed. He was ever solicitous, of course, but he averted his eyes. His touch was always purposeful, never lingering.

It was obvious that her history had disappointed him; that he no long wanted to enjoy her as he had now that he knew the truth about her.

When she was feeling her worst, she worried it went beyond that — that maybe she hadn’t done something right the one time they’d been together. What if he hadn’t enjoyed her as much as she had enjoyed him?

She tried to consider that the less likely of the options. Somehow, it was the more devastating of the two.

Still, even if it wasn’t as good as she’d thought it might get, it was so much better than it had been.

Lilly straightened her shoulders, and smoothed her skirts, seeing Eli from the edge of her vision appearing near the front of the property line, kicking up little puffs of dust as he went. She resolved that she would be grateful for what Eli had done for her and how her life had improved, and not mourn what she couldn’t have.

It took everything he had to keep himself in check. The nights were long, and he paced the house, watched Lilly sleep, forbade himself from venturing outside. It was critical there be no bear sightings for the next few weeks.

If he were smart, he would hightail it to another corner of the state, let this whole thing play out while he was a safe distance away. They would kill a bear they’d attribute the attack to, or enough time would pass that the people would forget it had happened in their backyards.

But he couldn’t stand the thought of leaving Lilly.

She still seemed fragmented — unsure. Like she hadn’t yet learned how to get her feet beneath her.

He spent those endless hours awake, pushing down the need to change until it was nothing but a gnawing nugget of tension in the pit of his stomach. He watched her when she thought he wasn’t looking, while she slept, while she sorted through whatever was weighing heavily on her mind. She no longer met his eyes, or when she did, it was just for a heartbeat, then she was moving away from him, redirecting her attention to something else.

He worried she knew. He worried she would have preferred it if he hadn’t killed her husband. He worried he wasn’t going to be able to keep it together for her, even though he wanted that more than anything else.

Eli was starting to feel like they were two ghosts occupying the house, moving past one another and through one another. He wanted that fire back, and didn’t know how to make that happen.

The sun had seemed to set earlier than usual, and the moon was out, high and full, a wind that promised bad weather whipping across the countryside.

Eli paced in the house. The weather had him on edge. The early night meant more hours of anxiety. The full moon was bringing everything to a crescendo.

Every inch of his body was on high alert. He felt like even the smallest thing could make him lose his tenuous grip on his self-control.

In the bedroom, he heard a muffled cry from Lilly, and he stopped his pacing, listening. When he heard nothing else, he moved to the door, pushing it open and stepping inside.

His vision was sharp, the dark doing little to hinder his ability to see.

Lilly was upright in bed, the quilt clutched to her, deep breaths shaking her shoulders.

He hesitated in the doorway. “Are you alright?” he asked, not wanting to move any closer to her. Just being in the same room with her seemed a stressor to his fragile state.

“I’m alright. Just a nightmare.” She shook her head, like she could shake whatever images had plagued her sleep.

He was moving toward her, not in control of his own body. “About your husband?”

She didn’t answer immediately. “About the bear,” she finally said.

It was like a knife twisting in his gut to hear her say those words, to know that he was the cause of her fear. He stopped en route to the bed. He wanted to defend the bear, defend himself, but he couldn’t. Knowing how she felt toward him was soul-crushing, he could barely open his mouth to speak, let alone put together a coherent argument for the bear’s sake.

Her eyes caught what little light there was to be had, and glittered in the darkness. “He reminds me of you.” She said it so quietly, it was as if she weren’t ready to say the words aloud — like the longer she kept them to herself, the less likely they would be to be true.

The air rushed out of him, the bear surged within him, desperate to come to the forefront.

She shook her head. “I know, it shouldn’t be possible, but he reminds me of you.”

There was that twisting in his gut again, so powerful it almost brought him to his knees.

He bent at the waist, cradling his stomach and fighting the urge to turn.

“Eli?” Lilly was swinging out of the bed, her bare legs on display and he had to close his eyes.

“Lilly, stop. Don’t come any closer.” The words were strangled, not properly formed, and he could feel everything slipping further away from him. He could see she was still coming closer, she was close enough now that her scent was in the air, and he collapsed to all fours, putting one hand out toward her in a classic stop gesture. “Please. Stop.” Then, realizing it was far too late for him to try and pull the bear back, he cried instead. “Go. You need to go. Get out of here.”

She swayed in front of him, confused by the changing commands, unsure of what was happening to Eli and mostly wanting to throw herself down beside him and see if there was anything she could do for him.

The last words were garbled. So garbled, she couldn’t make them out.

But in a moment’s time, she was no longer thinking about what he’d said, because he was changing in front of her, his body heaving, unnatural snapping sounds, sharp growls of pain. It was too dark to see what was happening, but she didn’t need to see it to know it was something big.

A little tendril of fear slipped around her, moving up her legs and through her body, and she backed away instinctively.

When she did, she moved out of the light of the moon, and it fell fully on Eli.

Or what had been Eli. In his place was the bear. The dark eyes, huge head, and giant paws.

Lilly scrambled backward and onto the bed. It was impossible that the bear could be occupying the same space Eli had been just moments before.

Impossible, but definitely the case. The bear seemed to waffle between coming forward toward her and leaving the room. He was so big; she wasn’t even sure he would be able to fit through the door.

Which only served to highlight the fact that he hadn’t come through it in the first place. Because Eli was the bear.

He let out a loud, low sound — caught between anger and pain — that raised goosebumps along Lilly’s arms. Her heart was beating dramatically in her chest, but even with the bear so close, she didn’t fear it. Knowing somewhere in there was Eli, made it impossible for her to fear him.

He lurched forward, like he was readjusting to his new body. His eyes were on hers for one long moment, and then he was turning from her, heading right toward the oversized, hazy moon in the window. Without pausing, he leapt forward, his huge body suddenly agile, crashing through the glass and sending it splintering everywhere.

And then he was gone, and suddenly all the pieces were fitting together as they should. Her first meeting with the bear. That night with James. The bear attack. The way Eli never seemed to sleep. The nights he hadn’t been with her…he hadn’t been with anyone else either.

Lilly was still shaky when she pulled herself off the bed. She wasn’t sure what she should do, but she did know one thing. Eli wasn’t always the bear, and that meant, it would only be a matter of time before he came back.

Chapter Ten

Lilly spent the night in the living room, feet tucked up beneath her on the sofa. The door to the bedroom was closed, but she knew she would have to spend time in there tomorrow, sweeping up the broken glass and putting the space back together again.

But there was no rush. She had more pressing things to take care of first.

The hours crept by. She wasn’t sure if she slept. Eventually, the morning light began to filter into the room, and Lilly began to anticipate Eli’s return.

He didn’t come back quickly. In fact, by the time he reappeared, Lilly had cleaned up the broken glass and struggled to reinstate the board. She couldn’t quite do it on her own, but at least some of the bugs and animals might be kept at bay.

Lilly’s hunger was beginning to peak through her anxiousness to see Eli, and she realized how close to midday it was.

She found herself wondering if maybe he wasn’t planning on coming back. But she had thought that in the past. He always came back. Why would it be any different this time around?

She began to pace. The waiting was hard. Exhausting. Or maybe that was just the lack of sleep catching up with her.

The door opened, and there he was, backlit but the afternoon sun.

“Eli,” she breathed. And it was him, in a pair of worn trousers and a faded shirt. She didn’t know where the clothes had come from; along with the glass she had swept up the remnants of what he had been wearing the night before.

He didn’t say anything at first and didn’t move toward her.

“I can help you pack,” he said finally.

Lilly had been planning what she was going to say next, but his words sent those thoughts scattering. “Excuse me?”

“I’ll help you pack,” he repeated. “There’s no need for you to stay here.” His voice was flat, deflated. In fact, even his eyes seemed empty.

“You’re making me leave?” she asked, her voice catching as she asked the question. She hadn’t considered that he wouldn’t want her anymore.

“Don’t feel obligated to me, Lilly. Our arrangement should have been void already.”

Lilly felt a little stab of guilt as it came back around to her own lies. “Sorry.” Her voice was small. “I didn’t mean to lie to you. I just…I just didn’t want you to know the truth about me.”

“What truth?” he asked bitterly. “That you married a bastard who didn’t know how to keep his hands to himself? What sort of reflection is that on you?” His voice had dropped, a low, raw rasp of emotion too close to the surface. “Jesus, Lilly, you’re perfect. You deserve someone who can give you the same kind of perfection.”

Lilly felt the sting of unexpected tears in her eyes.

He crossed the distance separating them quickly, lifting her chin up until her eyes met his, the gleam of tears unmistakable in her eyes. “Don’t cry,” he said gruffly. “Don’t do that. Look at my face.”

She did. It was the same face she’d studied the night she was ambushed by James. The fringe of dark lashes. The smooth skin of his well-shaped jaw, stubbled with fresh growth. Her eyes lingered on his mouth, which was full and soft and capable of amazing things.

She had to stop looking at him. She dropped her eyes until she was studying his collarbone instead. Unfortunately, remembering the feel of his chest beneath her fingertips did little to change her current state.

“This is me only part of the time, Lilly. The rest of the time I look like I did last night. I look like I did the night I found you outside.”

The memory of that smile flashed through her mind.

“That’s reality. It’s been too hard to try and keep it from you. I can’t keep it up.”

His shoulders slumped, and Lilly reached out to him, her hand settling on his shoulder. “You don’t have to.” Her voice was soft, and tugged at the deepest part of him. The corner of her mouth lifted up into the smallest grin. “You know my secrets. And I know yours.”

She began to play with the edge of his collar. Being close to him like this was intoxicating. She felt like a moth near flame, circling his light until she was spiraling into him.

He raised a hand, placing it on top of hers and forcing her to still. “Lilly…” His voice held the barest tone of warning, but she couldn’t stop herself.

“Please, Eli. I don’t want to go.” She leaned in toward him, letting her body press up against his. “I want you.”

A little growl erupted from the back of his throat and then he was pulling her close, his mouth crashing down on hers. She met him just as hungrily, her hand tangling in his hair and holding him close.

Eli had hefted her into his arms and was carrying her across the room toward the bedroom. She was a prisoner to his kisses, the warmth of his body against hers something she was relishing.

He broke the kiss long enough to deposit her on the bed. As he settled over her she said, “You mustn’t make me go.”

“I don’t want you to go. Jesus, Lilly. I never want you to go.” He caught her mouth again and in between the kisses he managed to undress the two of them.

“But there is one other thing,” she managed between the kisses.

“What is that?”

“I really think we ought to invest in a back door.”

He chuckled into her neck, and she reveled in the feel of the man — bear, she supposed — she loved against her. This, she could definitely get used to.

THE END