WOLF’S BANE, BEAR’S BOND

“Asshole!”

Another pair of shoes sailed through an open second floor window. The carefully manicured lawn in front of the sprawling mansion she had called home for the last five years was strewn with clothing, shoes, framed pictures, artwork, jewelry—anything and everything that lying son of a bitch had ever bought for her.

Everything that reminded her of what an idiot she’d been to fall for his...

“Bullshit!”

More clothes flew out the window and floated gently down to drape across a meticulously pruned hedge.

Everything in Texas was brown, except for the lawns and gardens in Tanglewood Estates and she hated every blade of grass, every leaf on the fucking box hedges that lined the paths and sidewalks.

She was going to burn it all. The clothes, the shoes, the fucking Mercedes he’d bought for her birthday...

All of it.

*** 12 HOURS EARLIER ***

“Danika, you’re not thinking straight!”

Her phone almost vibrated on the passenger seat as her best friend shouted at her.

“Seriously? This is the straightest I’ve thought in almost five years. FIVE YEARS, Tessa. FIVE. What the fuck have I been doing?”

“You’ve been in love, ‘Nikka. Don’t throw that all away!”

Danika punched the air angrily and stomped on the gas pedal. “Throw what away? Are you even listening to me?”

She’d been angry before, but that was child’s play compared to the inferno of rage that spiraled in her chest.

“You just need to calm down! You and Gideon just need to talk—”

“Don’t even fucking SAY his name to me!” Danika shouted.

“Nikka, please... just come over to my house. I’ll make you a margarita and we can talk about it.”

Danika shook her head furiously. “No. No more margaritas, no more mimosas, no more of this bullshit. I’m DONE!”

She stabbed her finger into her phone screen and ended the call before Tessa could say anything else. She and Tessa had been presented to the Quickthorn Pack at the same mating ceremony, and they had been inseparable ever since. Danika always thought she’d been lucky to find Tessa. It was easier to navigate the transition from her old life with someone who was going through the same uncertainty. It was even better that they had more in common than any other friend she’d had growing up.

But now she wasn’t so sure.

Everything had changed so fast.

Danika blew through a STOP sign and turned her white Mercedes into the gated community of Tanglewood Estates. Quickthorn Pack’s elders hadn’t been stupid with their money. While other packs had gone into industry, Quickthorn had invested in real estate. Every house in Tanglewood Estates was a masterpiece and each member of the pack was the proud owner of a mansion fit for the pages of Architectural Digest.

This community used to make her feel safe and accepted. She used to punch the code for the gate into the keypad with a sense of pride. Now when she pushed those buttons she just felt sick.

Her cell phone vibrated on the passenger seat and Danika glanced down long enough to see the goofy selfie that Tessa had uploaded to her phone just a few days ago.

She narrowed her eyes and sped through the quiet streets of the gated community. She had a lot to do in a very short amount of time, and Tessa was only going to make things harder.

Danika pulled into the driveway at 783 Tanglewood Lane and tried not to think about how she had felt when Gideon first brought her there. Tessa called again, and Danica punched the reject button as hard as she could.

She knew Tessa well enough to know that her best friend wouldn’t waste any time in calling in the cavalry.

She had to act fast.

There was protocol in place to handle members of the pack who went rogue—mates were another story.

But she wasn’t one of those, either.

Danika launched herself out of the car and slammed the door hard before stomping along the path toward the front door. It wasn’t locked. Nothing needed to be locked here.

She stood in the doorway and looked up at the chandelier that tinkled softly above the grand staircase that swept up to the second floor bedrooms. This house had always been too big. Too ostentatious. She had always hated it and never knew how to tell Gideon that she didn’t feel like she belonged there.

Now she knew it was true.

She didn’t belong there.

There was always someone watching your back in Tanglewood. That’s what being part of the pack was all about.

That thought made her freeze in the marble-tiled foyer of the mansion.

Someone was always watching here. People who wouldn’t hesitate to call the elders if they saw anything out of the ordinary. Everything she had done today was out of the ordinary...

People who wouldn’t hesitate to call Gideon to tell them his mate was acting strangely. But Tessa had probably done that already.

At least that bastard was in New York on ‘pack business,’ whatever that meant.

Danika let out a furious breath and closed the massive front door as gently as she could. It was a Tuesday afternoon, so most people would be at work... Hopefully.

She could allow herself to hope that she had some time.

Danika had never ridden a bus in her life, but if that was the only way to get north and avoid the pack’s notice, it would have to do.

The old man at the ticket window looked as though he was inches away from calcifying, but his pale green eyes were kind as he stared at her through the glass barrier. He had thick glasses with oddly slender frames, and he blinked at her slowly as she tried to explain what she wanted.

“Destination?” he said for the third time.

“North,” Danika blurted out. “I just need to go north.”

“North I get,” he replied. “Pretty much everything is north of here, Miss.”

“Right,” she murmured. There was a line forming behind her, and she gnawed on her lip as she looked at the map that was pinned to the wall next to the booth.

Seattle wasn’t far enough.

Vancouver was too Canadian.

“Alaska,” she said hastily.

“Oh... We don’t go to Alaska,” the man said thoughtfully. “Last Greyhound rolled out of Whitehorse back in 2018—”

Danika’s shoulders slumped. “You don’t go to Alaska?”

“No one does,” he said simply. He must have noticed how disappointed she was and she saw his expression soften. “Look. I can get you to Seattle and you can hop a plane to Alaska. It won’t cost ya much.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she said with a quick smile. “Seattle it is. Get me on whatever’s leaving soonest.”

“Bus leaves in an hour,” he said.

She nodded, shoved some bills toward him, and looked away as the sound of the ticket printer echoed in her ears. She was really doing this. She was really going to be free. The cash she’d wiped off Gideon’s credit card was heavy in her pocket.

She could buy her plane ticket with cash and hope that the pack would be too preoccupied with looking for her in Dallas to even think that she’d gone anywhere else. She didn’t even think Gideon would care that she was gone. Why the hell would he?

She took her ticket with an absent smile and headed out to the bus platform with her backpack slung over one shoulder. The bus she was looking for was idling at the curb and she boarded it without hesitation.

***

The bus might have been fast, but it was still two days to Seattle, and Danika had never felt the absence of her phone more keenly. But that had gone into the fire along with everything else Gideon had bought her. It was worth it to be blind to what was happening back in Dallas. Even if it meant losing her Candy Crush score.

To keep her mind as distracted from reality as much as possible, Danika bought trashy romance novels every time the bus stopped. She knew in her gut that true love wasn’t real. She definitely knew that fated mates weren’t real.

But sometimes it was nice to pretend that such a thing could actually exist.

Passengers came and went, but Danika ignored them all. Even though she had dropped all of the things that had marked her as a mate to other humans into the bonfire she’d left on Gideon’s lawn, the shifters could still smell the wolf on her. The shifters knew she was property, and they knew to stay away.

The brown of Texas’s desert highways gave way reluctantly to green forests and towering redwoods as the bus traveled farther north.

The air smelled different in every town, and she allowed herself to smile just a little when she felt salt spray on her face in California. She had never seen the ocean—or snow. And she was headed where there would be enough of both to make her hate winter forever.

When the bus finally hit SeaTac airport, Danika was more than ready to be done with travel,but she wasn’t far enough away. Not yet.

She bought her ticket to Anchorage with the cash in her pocket and while she could have used a shower, she had to make do with a change of clothes, wet wipes, and a spritz of drug store perfume instead. She settled herself into a seat in the departure area, opened one of her dog-eared novels, and ignored the stares of the shifters around her.

In a few hours, she would be half a world away from Dallas, and her life could actually start.

For real, this time.

The sound of a cell phone vibrating against metal cut through the noise of his tattoo machine and Bracken Quinn felt his shoulders tighten.

“You okay, man?” the guy in the chair asked. Bracken nodded without looking up and started the machine again. His client was old enough for a tattoo, but they seemed to be getting younger every year. Or, maybe he was just getting older.

When he’d started tattooing, he’d see eighteen-year-old kids coming in for their first tattoos. A zodiac sign for the humans, a clan sigil for the shifters—now they were coming in for full sleeves or chest pieces. He couldn’t keep up with this shit.

The phone buzzed on his station again and he gritted his teeth.

He couldn’t keep up with his family’s shit, either.

“Do you need to get that?” the guy in the chair asked.

“Do you ever want this to be done?” Bracken replied dryly.

The guy shut his mouth and Bracken bent his head over the tattoo again. But the vibration of his phone kept cutting through the steady buzz of the tattoo gun.

Bracken sighed heavily and rolled his eyes toward the shop ceiling. He lifted his foot off the machine’s pedal and straightened up on his stool.

“Time for a break,” he said reluctantly as he set down the tattoo gun.

The client smiled with a hint of relief and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket as he slid off the chair. He shook it meaningfully. “You want one?”

Bracken shook his head. It was bad enough that he could smell everything, he didn’t need to make it worse.

“Fifteen minutes,” he said. “I want to get that finished up today.”

The kid looked down at his half-inked arm and smiled. “Yeah, fifteen minutes.” Bracken watched him walk around the counter to the front of the shop, then stripped off his gloves and turned his stool around to reach for his phone.

“What the fuck,” he said aloud.

Twenty messages.

He unlocked his phone and scrolled through the texts.

His mother. His sister. His brother.

Everyone.

Seeing all of those messages put his bear on edge. Bracken had done his best to remove himself from his past, but that didn’t make being reminded of it any easier.

“What the fuck,” he whispered.

The first message he opened was from his sister Sibyl.

I miss you little brother, you should come and stay...

You need a break from the city!

The dogs miss you!

He smiled just a little. It had been a long time since he had gone home to Sitka, but that was purposeful.

His mother’s messages were similar.

I miss my baby boy!

You should come and see my garden!

The onions you hate are blooming like anything!

He wrinkled his nose at the photo of the garden she had sent. The damned onions were huge. He could almost smell them through the phone and even his bear recoiled.

“Fucking onions,” he muttered.

His older brother, Amos, was more direct.

Mom won’t stop bitching about how long you’ve been away from home.

Sybill is making my life hell.

Get your shit together and come home.

Bracken shook his head and put his phone on airplane mode. He got up from his station and stretched.

The girl at the front counter yawned as she flipped through an old tattoo magazine. “Cassie, you can go home,” he called out.

She looked up briefly. “Are you sure? That guy is still out there...”

“Yeah, I know, can you send him back in? His break is over.”

“Sure, hun.”

Cassie tossed her long blue braid over her shoulder and hopped off her stool. The bell over the door chimed as she leaned out. “Get your ass back in here, you’re not done yet!” she shouted.

“Classy,” Bracken muttered.

“I do what I can, Boss,” Cassie said with a wink as she flounced back to the counter.

“Yeah, yeah.”

Cassie had been working that counter since the day he’d opened the doors on the shop, and as big of a pain in the ass as she was, he depended on her to keep his schedule straight, and handle the clients.

SHE DIDN’T CARE THAT he was a shifter, and he didn’t care that she was a human.

They got along just fine and Animal Instinct Tattoo had been humming along for the last eight years without any problems. At least, none that kept him up at night.

The young guy came back through the door with a sheepish look on his face.“Sorry, man. I got a text from my girl—”

Bracken fought to keep from smiling. A break in the middle of a session was a surefire way to make a client realize just how much they were hurting. Some toughed it out, but most gave in and scheduled more time.

“Sure, man,” he said. “Come on back and I’ll clean you up. Cassie’ll give you a call about our next session.”

Bracken wiped him down, bandaged him up, and rattled off care instructions that he knew would be ignored. It was just a habit now. “If you have any questions, just check the website, ok?”

The guy slipped a twenty dollar bill into Bracken’s hand and grinned. Bracken just nodded.

The bell over the door jangled as his client walked out of the shop. “At least he didn’t go for a high-five,” Cassie snarked from across the room.

“You’re really not good at the whole ‘people skills’ thing,” she said as she slung her messenger bag over her shoulder.

Cassie leaned against the door and buttoned her oversized sweater. “I dunno. Maybe they could take my job so I could have a day off once in a while.”

“You don’t have a dog, smartass. But if you did, I’d like to see him try,” Cassie replied indignantly. “See you tomorrow, Boss.”

Bracken waved as she slammed the door and made a face at him through the glass. He chuckled. Cassie might have been human, but she may as well have been his younger sister. He knew his mother would adopt Cassie in a heartbeat... then he’d never be rid of her.

Cassie hadn’t asked him much about his family, and he hadn’t asked about hers, either. If his only full time employee wanted to avoid her past, he wasn’t going to complain;the past was just a mess of things that couldn’t be fixed. It was better to look ahead. Better for everyone.

He unlocked his phone and hesitated over turning off airplane mode. He’d have to respond to the messages sooner or later. Sibyl wouldn’t stop, Amos would start texting in capitals, and his mother would flood him with the emojis she’d just discovered how to use.

“Later,” he muttered. He set down his phone and slapped at Cassie’s bluetooth speaker to turn it on. He wasn’t much for technology, but at least this thing was easy enough to navigate. Turn it on, play music. Simple. Just the way he liked things.

Cassie had the speaker hooked up to the shop iPad that she used to keep track of bookings and as soon as the music started, it blared in his face.

He stabbed a finger into the iPad screen with a scowl and selected something a little less... Cassie.

Classical music rippled through the shop and he sighed gratefully.

During the day Cassie played whatever music she wanted. Between the noise of the tattoo machine and his clients’ conversations, he could easily tune it out. After-hours was a different story.

He went back into the shop and focused on breaking down his station, but his mind kept wandering back to all of the text messages he’d received, and his bear’s reaction to them. His shifter side had been quiet lately, but now the big ice bear in his head was pacing with agitation.

Why now? Why all at once? Did they know something he didn’t?

His mother had been frantic when he’d announced that he was moving up to Anchorage, but that was more than ten years ago, and there was nothing she could have said or done to stop it. Sitka was just...

Not enough.

“Fuck!”

The sound of the bell above the shop door had startled him enough to make him fumble with the bottle of ink he was wiping down. A bright splash of green ink spread across the dark tiled floor.

He looked toward the shop door angrily, prepared to give whoever was standing there a piece of his mind.

“We’re closed!” he barked.

“Oh, shit! I’m sorry!”

Bracken blinked as he locked eyes with the intruder. She was tall, taller than Cassie anyway, with dark hair that rippled out from under an oversized knitted beanie.

Her wide blue eyes were surprised and wary. He could smell her apprehension and a hint of embarrassment... and something else.

“Oh fuck, I made you drop— Let me help you!” She rushed past the counter before he could say anything and grabbed a roll of paper towels as she strode toward him. “Can you spray it with something?” she asked as she dropped to her knees and started to wipe at the bright green puddle.

“Uh, sure.”

He grabbed for the spray bottle of soap he kept at his station and fired a few spritzes of it at the floor. He’d have to mop anyway, this was just an annoyance more than anything.

“You don’t have to—”

The woman smiled as the ink soaked into her paper towel, and then she sat back on her heels and grinned up at him.

“There. Good as new.”

“It’s tile... it would have come up anyway.”

“Sure, but now you don’t have to work as hard.”

“Uh-huh. Look, thanks, but we’re closed...”

“I know,” the woman said as she clambered to her feet. She held out the ball of green-soaked paper towel. “It’s the damn sun, I can never tell what time it is.”

Bracken glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost 9pm. “Late enough,” he said roughly. He wasn’t usually this surly with people who wandered into his shop after hours, but his bear was on edge and it was making him prickly.

“Right,” she said hastily. She hesitated for a moment and then seemed to make a decision. “Can you cover scars?” she asked.

Bracken sighed inwardly. A potential client... She looked, acted, and dressed like a tourist, and he’d never heard an accent like that.

“I can cover scars,” he said. “But I’m scheduled pretty far in advance.If you’re here on a cruise ship, it’s not going to work out.”

She shook her head and tucked her scarf tighter around her neck. “Oh, no. That’s fine. I’m here for a while.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you really that cold? It’s spring...”

She shoved her gloved hands into her pockets. “Are you sure? Feels like a freezer to me.”

He shook his head. He had ditched his ‘winter’ jacket a few weeks earlier. Newbies were always so easy to spot.

“I’ll take your name and number, and Cassie will call you to schedule something, okay?” He felt like he had to soften his tone a little. They’d gotten off to a bad start, and if she was going to be putting money into his hand he should probably be a little nicer.

“Can I leave a deposit now?” she asked as he pointed to the front counter.

“For what?”

She shrugged. “Artwork? I don’t know how it works.”

“I won’t say no to a deposit,” he said. “If you know what you want—”

He went behind Cassie’s counter and flicked open the iPad’s booking system, frowned at it briefly, and then grabbed for a pad of lined paper and a pen.

“Name?”

“Danika,” she said. “With a ‘k’ instead of a ‘c’.”

This was going to take forever. He pushed the pad toward her and held out the pen. “Name and phone number.”

She smiled awkwardly and took the pen. He watched her carefully as she wrote down her name and then paused on the phone number.

“I don’t have a phone yet,” she said after a brief pause.

“Cassie needs to call you to set up the appointment.”

“Can’t you just tell me when you’re free?”

He shook his head. “Look, I have to keep track of everything, otherwise people get pissed off. If we have your number, Cassie can call you if there’s a cancellation.”

She frowned briefly and then pulled a small canvas wallet out of the back pocket of her jeans. She slapped a one hundred dollar bill onto the counter and tapped her fingers on it meaningfully before pushing it toward him. He hadn’t meant to look, but he couldn’t help noticing just how full of cash her wallet was. Who the hell carried cash these days?

He grabbed the bill and stuffed it in the front pocket of his jeans.

He pushed a hand through his hair. “I need a way to get in touch with you, otherwise you just gave me a hundred bucks for the honor of wiping my floor.”

She nodded and pulled a business card out of her wallet and set it down on the pad of paper next to where she’d written her name.

He raised an eyebrow. “Alpine Motel?”

“Room 209. It has a stunning view of the brick wall of the building next door. And the parking lot. Just until I get a phone... and a real apartment. Did you know you need a physical address to get that shit? It’s ridiculous.”

“Sure.”

He knew that he should be wary of this woman, but there was something about her that made him second guess what he knew he should be feeling. His bear was intrigued, too. That surprised him more than anything.

“Have you thought about placement?” He moved out from behind the counter and walked over to his drafting table. He pulled out a few sheets of tracing paper and a sharpie and beckoned her over.

She blinked at him. “What?”

“For the tattoo. Where do you want it?”

“Oh.” She looked around awkwardly and started to peel off her layers. A puffy down jacket, a long scarf, two sweaters, and her gloves landed on a nearby chair. Her cheeks were slightly pink, whether from embarrassment or something else, he wasn’t sure.

In jeans and a long sleeved Henley, she looked much smaller than she had when she’d first come into the shop and he suppressed a chuckle.

“Don’t judge me,” she muttered. “I wasn’t born on an ice cube.”

He raised his hands in defense and took the cap off the sharpie. “Ok. So, where do you want it?”

He didn’t want to ask what kind of scars she wanted covered—that was for her to tell him.

“Here,” she said and pressed her hand against her side just under her bra line.

He frowned briefly. Ribs were a touchy spot, even for tattoo veterans. And working over scar tissue was no joke.

“How big?”

“Enough to cover this bullshit,” she said and tugged up the hem of her shirt to reveal her torso.

Bracken’s eyes widened and his bear reared up in his mind.

So that was what he had smelled.

She was mated... and she wanted her mate mark covered?

“Uhh...”

“Can you do it or not?” she demanded.

“I mean, yeah. Of course I can.”

“Good.”

Bracken pulled on a pair of gloves and sat down in his drawing chair to get closer. It wasn’t cold in the shop, but her flesh was covered in goosebumps. He kept his eyes on the scar on her ribs and not on the edge of the electric blue bra that peeked out from under her shirt.

The scars weren’t fresh, but they’d healed roughly.

A bite.

She’d been mated to a wolf.

“Just... just cover it,” she said. He could hear barely concealed tears in her voice and he felt immediately protective of her.

“Sure thing,” he murmured. He pressed the paper against her side and traced around the scarring. It would be a large piece, and unless she was really tough it would take a few sittings.

“What do you want for the design?” he asked as he pulled the paper away and laid it on the drawing table.

“Aconite,” she said firmly. “It’s a flower. A purple flower.”

He raised an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair. “Yeah, I know what it is,” he said. “Anything else?”

She shook her head and pulled down her shirt to cover her torso.

“Nope. Just the flower.”

“Do you mind if I add a few other things? Some other plants?”

The woman shrugged and began to pile on her layers again. “If you think it works.”

“Leave it with me,” he said. “I’ll have Cassie get in touch with you in a few days, okay?”

She wound her scarf around her neck and shoved her hat down over her hair. “Sure. Thanks for letting me in. I’m sorry to take up your time after you’ve closed up.”

“It’s fine,” he replied. “Sorry for growling at you.”

She shrugged. “I’m used to it.”

He felt a pang of regret as she walked to the counter and grabbed one of the shop’s cards. “If I don’t hear from you, you’ll hear from me,” she said with a smile that looked a little tight at the edges.

“You bet.”

The bell jangled sharply as the door closed and Bracken threw his sharpie on the drafting table, then let out a breath as he watched her through the shop window. Her breath fogged in the air and her dark hair tumbled down over her jacket.

His bear paced in his mind and he shook his head to push away whatever the hell was going on.

His day had been going just fine, great, in fact. He liked his life to be simple and uncomplicated, but now he wasn’t sure about anything. First his family, and now this...

“What the fuuuuuck,” he groaned and pressed his forehead against the drafting table. He took a deep breath. There was nothing normal about anything that had happened in the last two hours, and he had a feeling that his quiet, simple life was about to be turned upside down.

Danika tried her best to get her breathing back under control as she stood on the sidewalk and waited for the light to change.

She hadn’t expected to encounter quite so many shifters during her first days in Anchorage, but she also knew that was a stupid thing to be surprised about. Shifters were everywhere. They were more than fifty percent of the population according to the last census, a fact that her mother had found more than a little humorous.

A large black bear ambled into the Town Square Park followed by two cubs who tripped over their feet as they wrestled with each other and tried to keep up to their mother. Danika shook her head in disbelief.

Texas was filled with wolf packs and big cat prides, but she hadn’t given any thought to what might be farther north. This was going to take some getting used to.

Alaska was bear country, and not just cuddly brown bears like the ones she’d seen on TV. These were big animals. Black bears, massive Kodiaks, and polar bears... And when they weren’t shifted, their human forms were large and imposing.

The guy who ran the motel was a bear, and the guy at the tattoo shop was too. She would see it in their eyes—a double shine in a certain light, as though there was someone else watching her from behind their eyes.

Gideon’s eyes were like that too, but his wolf’s eyes were golden yellow behind the dark brown eyes that had held her captive for so many years. It had always felt vaguely threatening,and exciting, but seeing it now just put her on edge.

She hadn’t meant to choose a shifter tattoo shop, and the name should have been a dead giveaway, but the place had felt right, like she’d been called there.

But Danika didn’t believe in any of that bullshit—not anymore.

The shop was closest to her motel and the art on the windows had been good enough to draw her in. It was as simple as that. At least, that was what she kept telling herself.

She’d never even considered having a tattoo before. But on her journey north she had thought about it a lot. She thought about what it would feel like not to have to see the scar on her ribs every time she looked in a mirror, not to feel it under her fingers in the shower, or have to think about it when she undressed in front of someone.

She couldn’t remove it, but she could get it covered. And that meant more than she could explain. She was a survivor, and survivors commemorated their victories...

Anchorage was definitely different from Dallas, and the temperature would take some getting used to,but she could do that... Maybe.

BACK IN HER MOTEL ROOM, she sat on the lumpy bed in thermal leggings, two pairs of wool socks, and a massive sweater as she waited for the clunky heater to do its job.

Her teeth chattered as she pulled the card she’d taken from the tattoo shop out of the pocket of her discarded jeans.

Bracken Quinn

Owner/Artist

“Bracken... Like the ferns?” she wondered aloud. And then she chuckled. Even in Alaska there were hippie parents intent on ruining their kid’s lives with awkward names. She had a feeling he didn’t have any nicknames, either. He didn’t look like the type.

She turned the card over and looked for some kind of Clan symbol or Pack affiliation, but there was nothing. The card was matte black with the text embossed in a shiny smooth black. She traced her finger over the shop name and number and thought about what business cards said about the people who used them.

The motel card she’d given to Bracken was emblazoned with the owner’s Clan symbol, and every shifter-owned business she’d seen in the city had been marked in some way. Shifters were proud of their affiliations, but Bracken didn’t seem to care.

Simple and uncomplicated.

Maybe she needed more of that in her life.

Gideon had been insufferably complicated, and she’d always felt like it was her fault that they weren’t more in sync.

At least now she knew the truth.

Any guilt she might have had over leaving had been burned along with every single thing she had owned. They’d be looking for her now, and she was far enough away that she felt like she could relax—just a little. She knew she should call her mother, but her mother adored Gideon and wouldn’t believe anything she said in an attempt to mar that image.

Besides, she still hadn’t figured out how to tell her mother that she’d fallen for the oldest lie in the book.

She’d grown up learning about Mates, how every shifter was granted one life partner by their Mother Goddess. Of course, every single one of her friends wanted to be a Mate. Who didn’t want to be adored without question and live a life they had only dreamed about? Wolf, cougar, bear, coyote... it didn’t matter.

Danika had spent her teenage years, and most of her first two semesters of college, ‘chasing tail’ with her friends. A few months before she met Gideon, her roommate had gotten lucky—one of her hookups proved what she’d talked about all along; she was a Mate. They moved away a month later, and she and Danika had fallen out of contact.

When Gideon had come into her life, Danika had been lonely and spent way too much time thinking too much about her friend’s pregnancy announcement. Luckily for Gideon, she had been vulnerable and less wary of bullshit than usual.

Danika groaned, tossed the card onto the small bedside table and opened the single drawer to look inside. As usual, there were two Bibles. Blue for humans, green for shifters. Gideon’s translation for the weary traveler, full of red letters and strangely filmy pages, and The Word of the Great Mother. She sighed heavily and closed the drawer again.

“I’m going to have to buy some more books,” she muttered as she picked up the remote control, pointed it at the small television, and turned it on. The remainder of her cash was scattered on the bed beside her and she pushed her fingers through the bills and coins absently. “I’m going to need a job, too,” she said with a grimace.

Running away from your life was expensive, and she’d blown most of her money on new clothes and boots to keep herself from freezing to death, plus a month’s advance rent on the motel room.

Her stomach growled.

“Yeah, yeah,” she muttered.

She needed to get her new life sorted.

First, she needed pizza.

Then she could think about getting some new books and paying for her tattoo. Then she could find a job. Something boring and predictable would be ideal.

Her life could finally be simple and uncomplicated.

And all her own.

***

“Do you have any experience?”

Danika set her elbows on the lunch bar and smiled up at her interrogator. He wore a grease and food-stained apron, and his gaze was nothing short of skeptical. He was bored, exhausted, and overworked. The diner was almost full and it wasn’t even time for the lunch rush.

“I can take orders, I have a good memory, and I can count cash like nobody’s business,” she replied. “Besides, does anyone really need experience to work in a diner?”

The big man snorted and glanced around the room. He pulled a full pot of coffee off the machine and slid it across the lunch bar at her.

“There’s a hundred other girls in this town looking for work,” he said.

Danika looked around the diner and then back to him. “Really? Good thing I got here early.”

The man snorted and Danika bit back a laugh at his obvious frustration.

“Have you always been a smartass?” he asked.

“Since I was a child,” she replied quickly.

The big man looked around at the diner again and this time, the door chimed as someone else walked in. “Make yourself useful, if you’re still here at six, we’ll talk about it.”

“By three you’ll be begging me to stay,” she said.

“We’ll see,” he said with a snort, but Danika could see that he was curious about what she could do.

Thankfully, she’d spent a whole semester of college waitressing at a hole in the wall diner just like it off the PGB turnpike—even the smell was familiar. The only difference between the two was that The Golden Horn was a shifter owned diner. She wasn’t sure what kind of shifter the guy in the greasy apron was, but she had a feeling she’d find out sooner or later.

Despite the fact that she was rusty as an old saw when it came to working a real job, it all came rushing back as soon as she tied an apron around her hips and took her first order.

“Well, whaddya think, Sal?” she asked as she slapped another order onto the passbar. His only reply was a grunt and Danika smiled at the stern shifter. “Oh, come on. You need me. The girl that was supposed to show up two hours ago didn’t even call.”

The only sound was the click of the coffee machine and the sizzling food.

“You need me, Sal,” she repeated.

“I’ll pay you minimum and you can keep your tips,” he said without looking up from the eggs and burgers charring alongside each other on the grill.

Danika hesitated for only a second. “I’ll take eleven bucks an hour. Cash. Mondays off, and I’ll split the tips with you,” she said cheerfully.

“Wednesday’s off,” he snapped back.

“Mondays!”

“Fine.”

“Deal!” She’d said it before she knew what was happening. Just like that... she had a job. It seemed impossible, but it was real.

She’d been trapped in Gideon’s house for so long, unable to do anything for herself—but she was free now, and free women did whatever the fuck they wanted with their time, and their money.

She grinned happily, slapped her hand on the order bell, ignored her new boss’ glare of annoyance, and floated through the rest of her shift on a cloud of accomplishment that nothing could drag down.

She really was getting the hang of this independence thing.

Finally.

“When do you want me to call her? And is this really a motel card? Alpine Motel? Brax... what the hell happened last night?”

Cassie’s tone was incredulous and Bracken couldn’t decide if she was more surprised that he’d spoken to a woman, or that she’d given him her number, or that the number was for a room in a motel beside the highway.

“Don’t call me that,” he said absently.

“You didn’t answer my question, Bossman,” Cassie sang.

He sighed heavily. “If we have a cancellation, you call her,” Bracken snapped half-heartedly. “Just like any other client.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cassie salute him mockingly.

“Whatever you say, but I think it’s shady as fuck!”

Bracken bent his head over his table and ignored her. He’d finished Danika’s drawing on the same night he’d met her, but Cassie didn’t need to know that.

Yeah, sure, the motel card looked shady, but he hadn’t gotten any kind of weird vibes off of Danika. He was usually pretty good at that, and his bear could smell trouble from a mile away. She was trouble, there was no doubt in his mind about that, but it was a different kind—and his bear didn’t seem to mind that at all. But that wasn’t even his biggest problem with the whole thing.

He’d never met a mate who had left after being marked. Sure, he’d heard about it happening, but he’d never met anyone who had done it.

Mates were supposed to love unconditionally, that bond was supposed to be unbreakable... Even after death.

It was something that every shifter understood from a very young age. Every one of them, no matter who they were in this life, had a mate. The Great Goddess had made sure of it. Somewhere in the world, there was a perfect match for him. For all of them. It wasn’t something he’d spent a lot of time thinking about. He’d been busy keeping himself distracted with work, busy making a name for himself and getting his feet under him.

He didn’t have time to mope around because he hadn’t found his mate yet. It would happen when it happened. Or... maybe not at all.

“Paging Bracken Quinn! Helloooo? Are you in there?”

Bracken looked up as Cassie slapped her hand on the counter to get his attention.

“What?”

“You had a cancellation, that Motel chick is coming in this morning.”

Bracken nodded and he looked back down at the chest piece he was sketching out.

“Aren’t you going to say something?” Cassie yelled.

“Like what?” he replied calmly.

“Like, ‘oh, shit, or ‘that’s cool.’ Anything? Something? I don’t know. Why are you being so weird?”

Bracken looked at her strangely. “Weird? I’m pretty sure I’m not the one acting weird.”

“So. Is she like you?”

He crossed his arms over her chest. “Like me?”

“You know. Is she like you? Or is she something else?”

Bracken shook his head. “No, she’s more like you.”

Cassie wrinkled her nose. “Boring.” She shrugged. “Whatever, she’ll be here in an hour. You’d better get your shit together.”

“Yeah, boring,” he muttered. He might have only talked to her for a few minutes, but Bracken didn’t think there was anything boring about Danika Jackson.

“What?” Cassie shouted over the music.

“I said go get me a coffee,” he shouted back.

“Fine, but you’re buying me one too,” she said as she grabbed for the box of petty cash he kept in the front desk.

Bracken allowed himself to chuckle. Cassie definitely ran him ragged, but she did her job, and she did it well. Plus, he was pretty sure that the shop would just burst into flames if she ever left.

“D’you want anything else from Sal’s?” Cassie called out from the doorway. Cassie knew damn well that he could hear everything she said even over the music, but he was pretty sure that she liked shouting anyway.

“He hates that nickname,” Bracken warned her.

“I know he does, but I can’t seem to call him anything else,” she laughed. “So— Nothing else? Have you eaten yet?”

He hadn’t, but he wasn’t hungry. He shook his head firmly.

“Nope. Just coffee.”

“Whatever, I’m getting you a sandwich,” she said as she disappeared through the door. The bell jangled sharply and the door slammed shut. He shook his head but smiled just a little. Cassie was a pain in the ass, but she did take care of him.

An hour. She was coming in an hour.

Why was he nervous?

“Get your shit together, Quinn,” he scolded himself. He pulled out the stencil and laid it on his station. The drawing he’d made was pinned to the corkboard next to him. He narrowed his eyes and looked at it critically.

It was mostly black and gray with some subtle hints of color touching the petals of the flower and the spreading leaves. Wolfsbane was a surprisingly delicate plant, but the tattoo felt strong and purposeful...

He hoped that she would feel that way with it on her skin, too.

***

Bracken looked up at the clock for what must have been the tenth time that morning.

“I told her to be here fifteen minutes early,” Cassie said in a bored tone.

He looked around in surprise. “What?”

“You might want to chill out a bit, Boss. I can hear your gears grinding away over there. She wasn’t that pretty was she?”

“Very funny,” he growled half-heartedly.

“Well, question answered,” Cassie laughed. “You’re terrible with women,” she continued without looking up from her magazine. “Do you need me to talk to her first and explain that you’re really just faking the whole ‘grumpy old bear’ act?”

“The what? I’m not—”

“Y’know, since we’re talking about pretty women you’ll never have a chance with, there’s a new girl at Sal’s. She totally looks like your type.”

“My type?” Bracken hadn’t been prepared for this kind of attack so early in the morning and he blinked at Cassie’s bent head incredulously.

“Oh yeah, totally out of your league, unavailable, and lugging around a buttload of baggage? She doesn’t look local. Might be a transplant from one of the cruise ships. You know.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he sighed.

Cassie shoved the magazine away, leaned on her elbows and opened her mouth to reply, but the shop door opened and she sat up straight with a strange smile on her face.

“Mountain Outfitters is down the street, honey,” she said with a familiar hint of sarcasm in her voice. Bracken groaned inwardly as he recognized Danika’s chaotic tumble of dark hair.

He clapped his hands sharply and almost jumped forward to rescue her from Cassie’s incoming personality dump.

“Sal let you have the day off?” Cassie asked brightly.

“Yeah, it took some convincing, but he eventually saw things my way,” Danika replied with a smile.

Cassie turned to Bracken with a giant grin on her face. “I told you Sal had a new girl,” she said before reaching under the desk to get the new client form for her to fill out.

“We’ll just need some particulars here,” she said as she handed Danika the clipboard and a ridiculously pink pen with a puff of marabou feathers glued to the top. Danika looked at the pen strangely and then shrugged. “It’s so no one steals it,” Cassie explained. “You should see the big rough guys using it... it’s hilarious.”

Bracken rubbed a hand over his face and grinned sheepishly at Danika as she sat down to fill out the form. It was a simple waiver—allergies, address, phone number... normal stuff. But she seemed to hesitate over a lot of it.

“Do I have to fill out everything?” she asked.

“Are you paying cash?” Cassie replied quickly.

“Yeah.”

“Then you just fill out whatever the hell you want, kitten.”

Bracken chuckled as he went back into the shop to wash his hands and get set up.

AND ALSO TO DISTRACT himself because he’d realized that he was staring at her while she filled out the form.

“Go on back,” he heard Cassie say brightly. He pulled on a pair of gloves as Danika walked over to his chair.

“Hey,” she said softly.

“Hey.”

She looked over his shoulder as she started peeling off layers of warm clothing. “That looks amazing,” she said. “Thanks for not making it... wolfy.”

“I mean, it was tempting to put a moon in there somewhere, but I didn’t think you’d appreciate that.” He was trying to make a joke, but from the look on her face he’d failed. He cleared his throat. “Once you're ready, we can get the placement right and I can fill in the background with some extra shading and leaves... unless there’s something else you’d like me to add in freehand?”

She looked thoughtful for a moment and then smiled, but her eyes were sad. “A broken chain is pretty cliche, isn’t it?”

“Maybe a little...” He thought for a moment. “When’s your birthday?”

“What? October. Why?”

He nodded. “What if I added some opals? They’re your birthstone, right?”

“Yeah,” she said slowly. “Yeah, that would be nice.”

“They’d add some color, too. Subtle, but still delicate to match the flower.”

She smiled again, but this time it was genuine. “I’d like that. Let’s do it.”

“Great.”

She peeled off another layer of sweaters and dropped them on the chair next to Bracken’s station and stood in her sports bra and leggings, shivering.

“Do you need a blanket?” he asked. “I have a lot of clients who bring blankets with them for their sessions.”

Danika nodded. “That would be amazing.”

“Cassie! Blanket patrol!” he called out.

“On it!”

Danika raised an eyebrow as Cassie jumped up from her desk and ran past them. “We keep a few in the back, just in case,” he explained.

Bracken swallowed the nervousness that had risen up as she stood in front of him and he focused on the task at hand. Business first. Nervous later. His bear paced in his mind and he tried to ignore it. He could smell the wolf on her. It was faint, but it was still there.

Danika turned toward the full length mirror obediently and directed him to where she wanted the stencil placed.

He watched the smile on her face as he wet the stencil and pulled it away so she could see where it would lay, and how it would move when she moved and stretched.

“Yeah,” she replied firmly as Cassie handed her a fluffy blanket to drape over her legs. “Let’s do this.”

Bracken had told her that the ribs were a tender spot to tattoo, but Danika hadn’t really been prepared for the sharp sting of pain as the needle touched her flesh. She did her best to stay still, and reminded herself that with every stroke of the machine, she was leaving her old life behind. Covering her mate mark was symbolic, and she was surprised that the bear handling the tattoo machine hadn’t hesitated more. Maybe he could still smell how faint Gideon’s scent was, though she could feel his hold on her fading with every passing hour.

If she could feel it, any other shifter would be able to sense it, too.

Despite the pain, or maybe because of it, Danika focused on how Bracken’s gloved hands felt on her skin. His touch was precise and clinical, businesslike, but he was also gentle, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that the pressure and weight of his hands felt somehow... familiar.

It wasn’t until he was finished and she was standing up, bandaged and vibrating slightly with adrenaline, that she tried to make sense of it. Maybe she was just hard up and needed a little distraction. Everything that happened with Gideon had left her bitter and angry—she needed a rebound. But another shifter? That was out of the question. She knew from experience that shifter’s weren’t so good at the whole ‘no strings attached’ thing.

“Cash is okay, right?” she asked hastily as she dug into her pockets.

“Yeah, fine with me.” Bracken looked up at the clock and frowned slightly. “That was four hours, so—”

“Here,” Danika said. She shoved some hundred dollar bills into his hand. She hadn’t bothered to count them and hoped she hadn’t overpaid, but she didn’t really care. It felt good to spend Gideon’s money on something that was just for her.

Besides, she was working now. She’d make it back in no time.

“Whoa, that’s way—”

“It’s perfect,” Cassie interrupted cheerfully. She snatched the money out of Bracken’s hand and marched back to the front desk.

Danika raised an eyebrow. “Does she always do that?”

“More times than I’ve bothered to count,” he said with a shrug. “But seriously, that’s way too much.”

“Don’t even say that,” she said. “I’m paying for your art, and your time, and you’ve done me a bigger favor than you know.”

He frowned slightly, but the expression passed quickly and she wondered what he was thinking. She extended her hand toward him. “Thanks, I mean it,” she said.

Bracken looked down at her hand and then wrapped his fingers around it. The fresh tattoo on her side burned with a comforting warmth, but it was nothing compared to the heat of his palm as it touched hers.

She barely held back a gasp as she felt a shock rocket up her arm and sear straight into her heart. Her eyes leapt to Bracken’s and then she pulled her hand away and shook it.

“Sorry, no one warned me that Alaska was full of static electricity,” she laughed. “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have worn so much wool.”

Bracken smiled awkwardly and rubbed his palm on his hip. She must have zapped him good.

“Sorry,” she apologized again. “I’ll get out of your hair. Sal will be wondering where I am. I said I’d be back for the dinner rush.”

“You know he hates that nickname, right?” Cassie said with a wicked smile as she walked past the counter.

“Yeah, I figured,” Danika replied. “But I like it. I can’t call him Salvatore every time I need a sandwich, can I?”

Cassie laughed and flipped a page in her magazine. “Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue the same way,” she said.

“Besides, he doesn’t even look like a Salvatore. He looks like a Sal. He acts like a Sal. He’ll just have to get used to it, right Brax?”

There was a growling reply from the back of the shop and Cassie laughed again and winked at Danika. “Come back and see us in two weeks, and check the website if you forget all the stuff he just rattled off at you. Everyone always forgets, even the veterans.”

Danika nodded and glanced back to where Bracken was busily, and noisily, breaking down his station.

“Don’t you have any other artists?” she asked.

Cassie shrugged. “Sometimes. But Bracken owns the building, so it’s not like we need to pay rent or anything. Guest artists come and go, but he’s not really worried about filling chairs. We have space for a few more, but it’s not a priority. Besides, things are a little... slow up here.”

“Right,” she said softly. “Thanks again.”

“Anytime, Kitten. I’ll see ya around. Bracken likes Sal’s coffee.”

Danika took a deep breath to brace herself, pulled the door open, and stepped out into the street. She knew she wasn’t supposed to be cold, but her body hadn’t gotten the memo. She could also see her breath in the air, which was enough for her to know that she was not ready to let go of her layers just yet. She was a warm blooded creature, and it was definitely going to take her some time to acclimatize.

Danika shoved her hands into her jacket pockets and grimaced at the size of the billfold in her left pocket. She needed to pick up some more shifts, fast.

Her ribs burned and ached, but it was the good kind of ache, one that made her feel strong. She turned in the direction of The Golden Horn. Sal had grumbled about her taking the morning off, but maybe the big ox would be less grubly after she covered the dinner rush that was about to flood into the diner.

***

Two weeks passed, and after several visits to the Animal Instinct website’s FAQ page to make sure she wasn’t completely fucking up her sefish investment into her personal healing process, Danika decided that she was proud of herself. She’d sat through the pain, and come out stronger, and more secure in herself.

When she pulled on her shirt in the morning, she wasn’t reminded of anything except the feeling of Bracken’s gloved hands on her skin. But that part was confusing, and she wasn’t sure what to do with it.

She saw Bracken around town a few times, more than a few times, and Cassie came into the diner almost every day to get coffee and lunch. She couldn’t escape them.

She’d start working on their usual coffee order as soon as she saw Cassie’s shocking blue hair from across the street, then Cassie came in and chatted with Danika about how she was settling into life in Anchorage.

“So, are you coming into the shop this week?” Cassie asked one morning.

“Uh, should I be?” she asked as she wound her way through the tables.

Cassie craned her neck to look back at the kitchen where Sal was working on their order, two Denver sandwiches and an order of hashbrowns. “I told you to come back in two weeks, it’s been three...”

“Oh, right, sorry. I’ve been working.”

“Sal, you gotta stop overworking this girl. I need her to come into the shop so Brax can take a look at her questionable life choice tattoo,” Cassie shouted into the kitchen.

Danika stared at Cassie with wide eyes. “What the fuck are you doing? You’re going to get me in trouble,” she hissed as she rushed behind the counter.

She rose up on her toes and looked through the passbar to where the big shifter was scrambling eggs at the grill and grumbling to himself. “Don’t listen to her,” she said hastily. “I don’t need the time off work.”

“Good,” he snarled. “You can’t have it.”

“I know,” she sang back.

SHE WHIRLED AROUND and set two coffee’s down on the counter in front of Cassie. “Sandwiches are almost done. Do you think you can sit here and not get me fired for like, three more minutes?”

“Fine. Fine. I’ll come in tomorrow morning. My shift doesn’t start until eleven.”

“Brax will be in the shop late tonight, you may as well come in after you’re done here,” she said. Danika crossed her arms over her chest and frowned.

Cassie pursed her lips and shook her head. “Yeah, he’s suuuuuper booked up tomorrow, and if you need any touch-ups, he won’t have time.”

“You’d better let a professional be the judge of that,” she said brightly and pointed to the passbar behind Danika. “Sandwich time!”

Sal slammed his hand down on the pickup bell and she jumped at the unnecessarily loud chime. “I’m right here!” Danika muttered. She turned around to retrieve the takeout boxes and set them down in front of Cassie with a tight smile on her face.

“I know,” Cassie said with a wink. She opened one of the boxes and snatched out a hash brown. She popped it into her mouth and chewed happily. “See ya later!”

She scooped up the boxes, balanced the coffee, and headed for the open door before Danika could ask if she wanted a tray or a bag.

Danika had been doing her best to avoid going back into Animal Instinct. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see Bracken again, because she kind of did, it was just that...

She wasn’t sure how she felt, or what had happened with that handshake. It must have been static electricity... But she hadn’t felt it anywhere else, not even in her motel room when she scuffed around in her wool socks.

All of these thoughts would have to wait. Table 19 needed their six orders of liver and onions. Ugh.

AFTER WHAT HAD FELT like a very long shift, Danika stood on the opposite side of the street from Animal Instinct Tattoo and tried to decide what the fuck was going on in her head. It was an appointment. Business. Bracken needed to check on her tattoo and see how it had healed. If it needed touchups, he could schedule another time to do them. Simple. Easy.

She took a deep breath, waited for the light to change, and walked quickly across the empty street toward the shop.

As Cassie had promised, the lights were on, and she could hear music. Classical music again. “Weird,” she muttered.

She swallowed her nervousness, grabbed the door handle, and almost screamed as Bracken’s big form filled the doorway.

He held his chest where she’d hit him and chuckled as he stepped back to let her in. “Sorry, I thought you saw me.”

He shrugged. “I live upstairs, but I like to keep work separate. So I come down here to draw or paint when I’m not working. I’m not much of a TV kind of guy.”

“Yeah, I bought the building a few years ago and converted the second floor into a loft kind of thing...”

She raised an eyebrow. If this was the part where he invited her upstairs, she’d have to firmly tell him ‘no.’

Danika blinked at him. He wasn’t making a move on her. She calmed down, just a little. “Really well, I think. It was itchy as all fucking hell the first week—”

Danika rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, you might want to put that on the website FAQ for newbies like me. I thought I was going to die from not being able to scratch it!”

He chuckled again and Danika allowed herself to smile. She was only pretending to be annoyed with him, anyway. It was easy to relax around him, and that was something she hadn’t been able to do in a long time.

“Oh, yeah.” She felt like an idiot for the briefest of moments as she unzipped her coat and started to take off her layers.

She shrugged and tossed another sweater on the chair. “I was born in Texas, so this has been a bit of a shock to the system. I know it’s supposed to be spring, but it sure as hell feels like winter to me.”

He nodded and she felt stupid again. He was a polar bear underneath that human exterior... of course it was too far south.

“Because it was the farthest I could get from Texas without needing a passport,” she replied quickly.

He raised an eyebrow and pulled a pair of gloves over his large hands. “I get it. Family can be a bit... overwhelming.”

“It’s not that— Well, it kind of is,” she said and then hesitated. How much did she actually want to tell him? Part of her wanted to blurt out everything. She hadn’t really talked to anyone since she’d hung up on Tessa. But this wasn’t the time, or the place.

Bracken sat down in his chair and looked up at her expectantly. “Do you want to talk about it? I have a black belt in family issues that I’m not dealing with.”

She shook her head. “Thanks, but maybe later... This is a business appointment, right?”

He dipped his head just a little and beckoned her closer. “Absolutely right. Let’s see the business.”

“Sorry, I smell like deep fryer grease,” she said sheepishly as she pulled up her shirt to reveal her torso.

“It’s okay, I could smell you from across the street,” he said casually. “What the hell was Sal doing making hash browns at this time of night?”

She laughed. “That was my dinner,” she admitted. “I can’t pass up a deep fried potato.”

She stiffened as his gloved fingers brushed against her skin and she suddenly felt self-conscious. Why hadn’t she worn a prettier bra this morning?

Danika smiled, but she was distracted by the artwork that covered his skin. She pointed at his arm. “I know I’m not supposed to ask stuff like this, but how many do you have?” she asked tentatively.

He leaned back in his chair and looked up at her with a thoughtful smile on his face. “I haven’t been counting.”

He pulled off his gloves, dropped them into the garbage bin by his feet, and pushed up the sleeve of his black t-shirt. His arms and shoulders were covered in tattoos, and she could only guess that they were everywhere on his body. There were symbols she didn’t recognize, and some she did, wound between old school sailor tattoos, and more realistic pieces.

He tapped a finger against a blurry tattoo of a bald eagle with a bright red salmon in its talons.

He looked at her incredulously. “A Texas girl in the wilds of Alaska who gets a tattoo to cover up a mate mark? Pardon me for assuming.”

Her temper flared briefly. “Hey! You’re not supposed to judge, you’re just supposed to tattoo!”

“What’s to judge? Regardless of what’s going on, you’ve done something terrifying, something not many people could ever dream of doing. It doesn’t matter what you’re running away from, but if you can’t admit it to yourself, then you’ll never be able to stop running.”

He shook his head. “Not really. In some ways I’m still running, it just looks different now.”

Bracken crossed his arms over his chest and frowned down at his shoes. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean... You’re just new in town and you don’t—”

“If you’re going to say that I don’t have any friends, you can stop right there,” she said. She shoved her arms into her jacket and zipped it up. She didn’t know why she was angry, he was just trying to be nice. But she wasn’t in the mood for nice. Or any of the other feelings that were bubbling up inside her.

“Did it occur to you that I might not want any ‘friends’? And just for record, I don’t do shifters.” He got up from his chair and Danika realized how that must have sounded. “I— I’m sorry, that came out wrong.”

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” he asked and Danika blinked at him in surprise as he walked past her to a metal locker that was attached to the back wall of the shop.

He dug in his pocket for a set of keys and they rattled against the metal as he unlocked the door. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but Cassie says I’m a good listener.”

She heard the clink of glasses and her eyes widened as he brought out a bottle of whiskey.

Danika crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at her boots as Bracken poured two glasses of whiskey.

He turned back to her with the glasses cradled in the palm of one of his large hands. She reached for it eagerly and he laughed as she took the glass out of his hand.

“I guess I don’t have to ask if you drink whisky,” he said.

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. “I only drink good whiskey,” she replied with a sigh.

He pushed a chair over to her, but Danika shook her head, threw her down jacket on the floor and sat down on it. She crossed her legs and held the glass of whiskey with both hands as though it were a precious thing.

Bracken raised an eyebrow, and then sat down on the floor across from her. “You’re lucky I mopped before you came.”

Danika did the same and savored the rush of heat that flowed down her throat. “So.”

She did not have to look up to see Bracken flinch. Every shifter knew what the call was... it was the sign that they had found the mate the Great Mother had chosen for them.

She took another sip of whiskey and the words came out in a rush. A flood. “I got a text. From another woman. He was seeing another woman. He was cheating on me... and she wasn’t the only one. He... He had a woman in every city he visited. Every time he was away on ‘Pack’ business—” She almost spilled her drink making sarcastic air quotes with her fingers and shook her head ruefully. “Every time he was away, he was with someone else. I was just... I was just... Something to pass the time.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him shake his head and she felt stupid for the thousandth time.

“You didn’t have to say anything,” she said, “I was an idiot. I should have known better.”

“It’s true,” she retorted. “He said that it would ‘take time for the call to reach my heart,’ or some shit. He told me that I would fall in love with him. But I just... didn’t.”

Danika didn’t know what she expected from the massive man sitting across from her, but he was just a quiet presence. A comforting one. She had almost expected him to argue with her, or challenge what she was feeling, but he didn’t. He just nodded and sipped his whiskey.

They sat in silence and Danika had to stop herself from counting the seconds. She realized that she had never just— sat with anyone.

Bracken sat up straight and his hand closed over her arm before she realized what had happened. Electricity rippled up her arm and she looked up from the glass of whiskey and into his unflinchingly pale gray eyes.

“No,” he said firmly. “There is nothing wrong with you. He lied to you. I don’t know why, or what he was trying to do, but he was wrong to do it, and the Great Mother will punish him for it in her own way.”

He pulled his hand away and stared at his palm in surprise. Danika allowed herself to smile just a little.

“I guess that makes me feel a little better,” she said. “Gid— My ex... he never talked about the Great Mother. Is that a big deal here?”

“She’s everywhere,” Bracken said easily, as though it was something everyone should know. “I guess you could say she’s a bigger deal to some shifters than others. I’d hazard a guess that it’s a bit harder to hear her in a big city—but I’ve never been anywhere bigger than here, so take that however you like.”

Danika braced her elbows on her knees and leaned toward him. The whiskey had warmed her just a little, and she was feeling a little daring.

Bracken chuckled and drained his glass. “If you’re going to ask me questions like that, we need more whiskey,” he said.

Danika giggled and drank the last of her whiskey. “If that’s the price of answers? Yes, please!”

Bracken got up and walked back to the locker and Danika had a moment to think about what she was doing. She was sitting on the floor of a shifter-owned tattoo shop drinking whiskey with the owner and talking about— Talking about things she hadn’t planned on talking about to anyone who didn’t have a fancy degree on their wall.

A wave of self-consciousness swept over her as she looked up at the clock and realized how late it was.

“Y’know... I’m sorry. I should probably go,” she said as she pushed herself up off the floor.

Bracken turned around, a mixture of surprise and disappointment written plainly on his face, and Danika felt a small stab of guilt.

“My place,” she snorted. “No. Thanks. I’m a big girl. I can take care of myself.”

He glanced over her shoulder at the darkened street. “You do know that there are actual wild animals out there, right? Not just shifters.”

“What if I’m not ready to let you go yet?” His question was teasing, but Danika wasn’t in the mood for playing around. Besides, she still wasn’t sure what to do with the confused thoughts and feelings that tumbled through her mind.

“Too bad for you,” she said as she turned to the door. “Besides, I don’t date shifters...”

The words rolled off her tongue before she could catch herself and she saw a flash of something in Bracken’s pale eyes. Anger? Disappointment? Something else?

Bracken set down the whiskey glasses on his drawing table and Danika flinched slightly at the way they clicked against the hard surface.

She could see his jaw working as he walked toward her and she moved out of the way as he turned the deadbolt and pulled the door open.

“Walk carefully,” he said, and she could hear the edge of a growl in his voice.

“Thanks for the drink,” she answered hastily as she slipped out the door and into the street.

The cold air snatched the breath from her lungs and Danika shoved her hands into her pockets and pulled her puffy down jacket tighter around herself. She tried to forget what Bracken had said about other wild animals and walked as quickly as she could across the street toward her motel. She didn’t have to turn around to know that Bracken was watching her. She could feel his eyes burning into the back of her neck.

“You’re such a moron,” she muttered as she jumped up onto the high curb. All she wanted was to get back to her room, flop face down on the bed, and forget that today had happened. Had she always been a ride trainwreck, or was that new? Her head was cold... why was her head cold. Danika pulled a hand out of her pocket and touched her hair.

She let out a furious breath, rolled her eyes at her own stupidity, and stomped down the sidewalk. She wasn’t going back there.

“What the fuck was that?”

He leaned against the shop door and watched Danika march furiously down the street. Her dark hair bounced against her shoulders and he shook his head incredulously. Had he said something wrong?

It was obvious, even to him, that she was hurting and needed someone to talk to. She had run away from something that had affected her deeply, and in some ways she was still running. Just like he was.

He was also reeling from what she had told him. He’d tried to hide it, but his bear had roared loudly in his head when she’d said that her mate had cheated on her. That wasn’t how it worked. That wasn’t the way the call worked. When the mate the Great Mother had chosen for a shifter came into their lives, there was nothing else for them, no one else that would ever measure up... The call was eternal and impossible to ignore or deny.

He had held himself back from sweeping her into his arms to hold her tightly. She should never have been treated that way, and his bear wanted to show that arrogant wolf a thing or two—

But why... He didn’t feel like this about anyone else who had wandered into his shop over the years. He and Cassie had heard every sob story and every tragedy, but somehow this was different. She was different.

Danika disappeared around the corner and he sighed heavily and let the shop door close. “Idiot,” he muttered. He had definitely said something wrong.

Bracken picked up the whiskey glasses and balanced them in his palm as he closed the locker door on his impromptu bar and clicked the padlock shut. He was about to shut off the shop lights when something caught his eye. Something soft and pink lying in the shadow of his tattoo station.

He set down the glasses and bent down to see what it was.

A knitted beanie made of pale pink wool. All it needed was a pom-pom to make it ridiculous.

“She forgot her damn hat,” he muttered.

She’d be missing that hat in the morning. If she was as cold as she said she was... He rubbed a hand over his face and stood up. He had to take it back to her.

Maybe he could go to Sal’s diner in the morning and talk to her, but that felt a little like stalking.

Or the motel... She’d left a card, except that was even more like stalking.

He gritted his teeth and stomped over to the front desk to pull out Cassie’s appointment book. The card was stapled to one of the lined pages next to Cassie’s absent-minded doodles. He ripped it off the page and tucked it into the front pocket of his jeans.

“It’ll just be a minute,” he rationalized aloud. “Take back her hat, and then leave her alone...”

He looked down at his palm. When he’d touched her arm, he’d felt something. At least, he’d thought he’d felt something. An electric current running from his hand straight to his heart. But it was impossible.

His family was notoriously stubborn when it came to the search for a mate, and he’d almost totally given up on it. He was happy enough alone, so what did it matter? And how the hell was he going to find a mate up here in the frozen north anyway?

He closed his fingers around the soft woollen beanie and pulled the shop keys out of his pocket.

Five minutes. Just five minutes. Give her the hat, come back, have a whiskey, and go the fuck to sleep.

He strode across the shop, pulled open the door, and stepped out into the street.

He still couldn’t understand why Danika was always complaining about the temperature; this spring was milder than he’d expected it to be, which meant that a short, hot summer was on its way. Short he could deal with, hot wasn’t his favorite.

He locked the shop door and set off in the direction of the Alpine Motel with determined steps. He usually steered clear of the motel, the owner wasn’t partial to other bears, especially ones who didn’t ‘belong,’ but this was a special circumstance.

“Five minutes. Deliver the hat, say goodnight, get back to the shop. Easy.”

He swore that he could smell her as he followed her path down the street. It was ridiculous, but he could feel his bear’s agitation as he turned the corner and caught sight of the stylized green mountains of the Alpine Motel’s glowing sign.

He pulled the card out of his pocket to check the room number she’d given and wondered if he should think of something to say—she’d left the shop on a bad note, and he didn’t want to look like a jerk...

He stopped under a street light in the parking lot and ran a hand through his hair.

“What the fuck is your deal, Quinn?” he muttered. He looked down at the knitted beanie in his hand. “Just give her back her damn hat—”

“Hey!” a voice called out. He looked up in surprise to see Danika leaning out of an open window on the motel’s second floor. “Are you following me?”

Her question might have been more of a challenge, but Bracken didn’t care.

“No! You— You forgot—” He stopped, feeling like a moron for shouting at her from the parking lot.

He shook his head and jogged over to the stairs; he took them two at a time to reach the second level and the door at the end of the building.

#209.

He raised his hand to knock, but the door opened before his knuckles hit the scarred wood.

Danika’s face appeared in the doorway and he swallowed thickly. Her expression was wary and her posture was guarded. He gritted his teeth slightly. He should have just gotten Cassie to take the damn hat over to The Golden Horn in the morning. Impulsive idiot.

“What do you want?”

She was dressed warmly for being indoors, and he could smell the tang of the ancient heater as it struggled to warm up in the room. She looked comfortable, but she probably didn’t know how her oversized sweater clung to her curves, or how the leggings she wore underneath accentuated the length of her legs... Her dark hair had been pulled into a knot on top of her head, and he could see the flicker of the TV behind her.

“I—uh— You forgot your hat at the shop,” he blurted out, and then groaned inwardly at his lack of finesse.

Danika raised an eyebrow. “I saw you in the parking lot.”

He sighed heavily and held out the hat. “I thought you might want it in the morning. You never know when it might snow...”

“Seriously?” She looked horrified as he nodded.

“The Great Mother can be unpredictable,” he said with a shrug.

“Remind me to get the number for the complaints department,” she muttered.

Bracken chuckled. His mother would have been scandalized to hear the Great Mother mocked in such a casual way, but he liked it.

“Anything else?” she said suddenly and Bracken realized that he was just... standing there.

“No— I mean, yes.” He paused, trying to organize his thoughts as his bear paced in his head.

Unhelpful brute.

“I don’t want you to think that you did anything to deserve what your ex did,” he said in a rush. “What he did to you was bullshit. Not all shifters are like that—the call isn’t like that.”

Danika smiled faintly and then shrugged. “I know, not all shifters, blah blah. Luckily for me, I don’t have to find out.” She lifted her beanie in a salute. “Thank you for bringing this back,” she said. “I owe you one.”

The door started to close, and Bracken’s bear lunged in his mind.

“A date,” he blurted out.

The door stopped moving and one of Danika’s deep blue eyes appeared again as she half-opened the door.

“What?”

“You said you owed me one... How about a date?”

The door opened a little wider and she laughed shortly. “A date...You do know that’s just an expression, right? ‘I owe ya one,’ as in, thanks for the favor, maybe I’ll repay it someday, but will most likely forget—”

Bracken smiled. “No dice. You’re new in town, I can show you a few things. There’s more to Anchorage than The Golden Horn and my tattoo shop. It’ll be fun, I promise.”

Danika narrowed her eyes at him and then shrugged. “Fine. Whatever. I have Monday off—”

Bracken’s heart lurched strangely in his chest, but he swallowed hard and pushed it away. “Great. Monday at six. Come by the shop...”

Danika nodded. “Six. Got it.” She lifted her hat again and waved it at him. “Thanks again for this. It was the first thing I bought when I got here. I thought my ears were going to fall off when I stepped off the plane.”

Bracken chuckled. “My pleasure,” he replied.

She smiled briefly and then the door closed.

“Goodnight,” he said softly before he turned away and forced himself to walk down the stairs to the parking lot.

A date.

Monday.

Three days away.

“You ass,” he muttered as his boots thudded on the stairs. “What are you going to do now?”

***

He spilled the beans to Cassie the next morning and she had been nothing but unhelpful from that moment onward.

Those three days swept by like a summer wildfire and, much to Cassie’s visible amusement, Bracken spent most of it panicking. It didn’t help matters that she insisted on fetching their coffee and lunches from Sal’s every day, and he had no doubt that she had been collecting information with each visit. The female conspiracy—that was what his paranoid, and intensely single, brother called it.

“So... which world renowned outdoor activity will you be taking her on? One of the stunning National Park hikes, perhaps? She totally looks like a hiker...” Cassie grinned at him from behind her coffee cup.

“Shut up,” he growled.

Cassie’s eyes widened. “Oh! Oh, I know,” she said excitedly, “maybe that smoked salmon and deer sausage tasting thing...”

Bracken slammed down the tattoo machine he had been working on. “Look, I’ve had just about enough—”

Cassie’s smile widened as his voice trailed away. “You haven’t made any plans, have you?”

He looked down at the tattoo machine and threw his Leatherman down beside it.

“Ha!” she crowed. “I knew it! All the balls in the heat of the moment, but no follow up.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

Cassie raised her hands and laughed. “Sorry, Bossman, just an observation. Lemme guess. You just... blurted it out, didn’t you?”

Bracken nodded and leaned back in his chair. He looked up at the ceiling and rubbed his hands over his face. “Yes,” he admitted into his palms.

“What? I didn’t hear that?”

“I said yes!” he repeated louder. He sat up and crossed his arms over his chest. “I just... I just babbled. What the fuck is wrong with me?”

Cassie leaned against the counter and looked at him with a serious expression on her face for once. “What does your bear think?”

Bracken blinked at her. “I... Actually... I think he’s ok with it.” The big ice bear in his mind grunted approvingly.

“Hm... Well, I can’t give you any insight there. Maybe just take her for a nice dinner? What about the harbor cruise?”

“I’m not getting on a boat.”

“But their poached salmon is SOOO good,” Cassie argued. “Even if you don’t like it, she will! What the hell else is there to do in this town after six except get drunk at Northern Lights?” Bracken shifted in his chair and Cassie looked at him with a suspiciously raised eyebrow. “Please tell me that wasn’t your plan.”

“I mean, you said she didn’t look like a hiker... And I’m not paying for dinner on that fucking barge.”

Cassie groaned and looked up at the ceiling. “Give me strength,” she muttered before she looked back at him with an accusing stare. “Look. I know you guys don’t have to try as hard as humans with this... ‘mating’ thing.” Cassie waved her hands meaningfully and groaned again as she saw his blank stare. “Us? We have to actually put in some effort. If you’re trying to show her a good time, watery beer from the Lights is not the way to do it. If you’re being a good friend and helping her to feel more connected to the community, sure, great plan. One of the boys, blah, blah.” She sighed and shook her head. “You already told me that this was a date. She called it a date.”

Bracken straightened up in his chair. “She did?”

Cassie let out a frustrated breath. “You are so totally going to have to try harder than this,” she said. “Nikka is a Southern girl who ran away from a super rich guy who gave her literally everything—”

“You’re not helping,” Bracken muttered.

Cassie shrugged. “All I’m saying, is that you might want to re-think this a little.”

Bracken looked at the clock and back to Cassie. “Well, thanks... I could have used all of this very helpful information yesterday... or maybe the day before... Not an hour before she’s supposed to show up.”

Cassie shrugged. “I’m just giving you my unsolicited advice,” she said with a smile.

“You’re the worst,” he muttered.

“Yes. Yes, I believe I am,” Cassie sang out as she walked through the shop door. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t dooooo!”

Bracken shook his head and looked down at his boots. Boots, black jeans, black shirt—Cassie always teased him about his ‘uniform,’ but it was honestly all he owned. He looked up at the clock again. Danika would be at the shop in less than an hour. He had time to shower and trim his beard. And change into another black shirt...

He shook his head ruefully and got up to lock the shop door.

***

“This can’t be the only bar in town...” Danika’s expression was guarded and Bracken wondered if she had been talking to Cassie.

“No,” he admitted. “But they play decent music and the beer isn’t watered down like at the tourist bars.... And Tristan doesn’t skimp on the maraschino cherries.”

Danika looked at him strangely but didn’t ask him how he knew that, which was a good thing, because the story that went with it wasn’t flattering for anyone involved.

He cleared his throat and laid a hand on the door. 90s rock vibrated against his palm and he smiled at the skeptical woman standing next to him. “Ready?”

“I guess,” she replied.

Good enough.

Bracken pushed open the door and held it open as she walked ahead of him into the bar’s poorly lit interior.

Northern Lights was a simple establishment with a stereotypically sticky floor, a few battered pool tables, and the aroma of stale beer and cheap cologne in the air. It was also populated with every kind of northern shifter who called Anchorage home. There were other bars in town that catered to just shifters, but Lights was equal opportunity—at least, most of the time.

The bartender was human, and a few of the fishermen and loggers at some of the tables were, too.Not many, but enough that he hoped Danika wouldn’t feel too out of place.

But she was out of place. She wasn’t the only human female in the place, but she may as well have been by the way the other shifters sat up when she walked into the bar.

Bracken’s bear set up a low rumbling growl in the back of his mind that he did his best to ignore. He couldn’t do anything about the stares and sidelong glances—Danika was gorgeous.

Her skin seemed to be naturally sun-burnished and her dark hair fell over her shoulder in a thick braid. She was dressed casually, and was buried in several layers of warm clothing, but she moved like someone who was used to wearing expensive fabrics and big-name brands that didn’t really exist above the 49th Parallel.

From what she’d already told him, it was obvious that coming to Anchorage had been a chance at a new life, and he didn’t want to fuck that up for her—or himself.

It felt odd, the surge of protectiveness that lunged forward as he followed Danika to the bar.

“Popular place,” she said as they stood together and waited for the platinum-haired bartender to notice them.

“Hey, Cecile,” he said as she turned toward them. The older woman’s eyes widened as she saw Danika beside him. Her mate, Tristan, owned the Northern Lights, and Cecile had been in Anchorage for longer than Bracken had been alive— You had to respect that kind of dedication to a place.

“Why, Bracken Quinn,” she said with a knowing smile, “who might this be?” She pointed at Danika and Bracken shrugged slightly.

“A friend from down south,” he said briskly. “Can I grab two Elkhorns?”

The woman winked at Danika. “He doesn’t have many friends,” she said in a loud whisper before she turned toward the taps to pull his order.

Danika chuckled and Bracken felt the back of his neck warm with embarrassment. “Don’t listen to her,” he muttered.

“Whatever you say...” she replied with a smile. She leaned on the bar next to him and looked around the room. “I guess I don’t have to ask if you come here often.”

“Is it that obvious?”

“Maybe a little,” she said. “Do you always neglect to ask your dates if they drink beer? Or am I a special case?”

Bracken felt the blood drain from his face. Shit.

“Uh...”

Danika laughed and shoved at his forearm playfully; the brief contact sent a jolt through him and he blinked in surprise. “I’m just fucking with you. I have definitely been known to drink a beer or two. Besides, Cassie told me you don’t go on dates... I figured you’d be shit at it.”

Cassie. The traitor.

“Hey, that’s not fair—”

“Look man, if the shoe fits, buy a few pairs,” she said as Cecile set two massive pints of beer down on the bar. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her wallet to pay, but Cecile held up a hand before Bracken could protest.

“This never happens,” she said and gestured at the two of them. “First round is on me.”

Bracken had never been more embarrassed in his life. First, his date had tried to pay for their drinks, and then Cecile...

“Goddammit.”

Danika laughed and grabbed the handle of her beer. “I knew it.”

BRACKEN GROWLED UNDER his breath and wrapped his hand around his beer glass. Danika clinked her beer against his and winked at him. “Don’t take it too personally. Everyone sucks the first time they try something.”

She tilted the glass back and took a gulp of the tawny liquid and Bracken did the same.

He couldn’t decide if the date had started off well, or if it was a complete disaster, but at least she was smiling.

It took every bit of willpower for Danika not to fuck with Bracken’s head. He was nervous, and it would have been the easiest thing in the world to leap on that insecurity—but it was also kind of endearing. She didn’t think a guy who looked like Bracken Quinn could be nervous, especially on a date. It made her wonder if there were other things he wasn’t prepared for...

They had moved from a bar to a small, sticky table, and she narrowed her eyes as he got up to get a second round of beer. It had been a long time since she’d chugged beer like a teenager, but it was easy to do in his company. However nervous he was, he was fun to be around and easy to talk to, and she found herself laughing for the first time in a long time...

Gideon would shit his pants if he knew that she was out with someone else.

Especially another shifter.

Especially a bear.

“What are you smiling about?” Bracken asked when he came back to the table with two more beers in his hands.

Danika sat up and took the beer he offered her. Their fingers touched briefly and she felt a small tingle shiver up her arm.

“I was thinking about bears,” she said boldly as she raised the glass to her lips.

Bracken raised a curious eyebrow. “Oh, really? What about them?”

She shrugged and took a delicate sip of her beer. “This is really terrible, by the way.”

He nodded and smiled. “I know. So... what about bears?”

“I dunno. You’re just... Have you ever thought about how you can kind of tell what shifter someone is by how they look?”

He snorted into his beer. “No.”

She made a face.

“I mean, I know you can smell them, but for someone like me... How am I supposed to tell?”

“So, you can just look at someone and know what kind of shifter they are.” He sounded skeptical, but Danika was feeling confident.

“Yeah,” she said and leaned on her elbows to look around the bar.

“Okay, let’s test you,” he said. He pointed to a table just to their left. “That guy.”

Danika turned subtly to look at the shifter at the table. He was definitely a shifter, she knew that right away. He had a lean, hungry look to him. One she recognized from Texas.

“A wolf,” she said softly. “That one was easy... There are a few in here.”

He nodded and she felt a small stab of victory. He tilted his head toward a darkened corner of the bar that was lit only by the eerie green glow of cheap painted glass lights. “The pool table.”

She narrowed her eyes and focused on the men at the battered pool table. One was human, he was also drunk and probably getting hustled for whatever was in his pockets, but that didn’t really matter.

She frowned slightly. The animals here were different than the ones she’d encountered in Texas. The one on the left was short and stocky with broad shoulders... the other taller with slender legs and a nervous look to him.

Suddenly, it came to her. “A deer... and something else. Definitely not a predator.”

“Do you want a hint?”

“Maybe...”

Bracken took a gulp of beer, wiped the back of his hand across his mouth and said, “Baaaaa.”

Danika’s eyes widened. “A sheep? No way.”

He nodded. “Bighorn Sheep. Stubborn motherfuckers.”

Danika giggled into her beer as she took another drink. Bracken had been right, she was having fun.

“You said you’d show me the city,” she said suddenly. “I know there’s more to Anchorage than this place. At least, I hope there is.”

“I did say that, didn’t I...”

She nodded meaningfully and then felt her stomach twist a little as Bracken smiled.

He grabbed her beer out of her hand and got up out of his chair. “Where are you going?”

But he was already walking toward the bar.

Danika chewed on her lip and tried to decide how she was feeling. She was... relaxed, and hadn’t felt anxious or angry the entire time she had been with Bracken.

That was a good sign, wasn’t it?

But a sign of what, exactly?

She looked up as Bracken came back to the table then laughed sharply. “Solo cups?”

Bracken shrugged. “They like me around here.”

“Is that even legal?” she whispered nervously.

“We’ll try not to make a big deal about it,” he said with a wink. “Come on.”

Danika pulled her coat off the back of her chair and struggled into it as fast as she could. She could feel people watching them, but she tried not to care.

“Where to now?” she asked as she followed him toward the front door of the bar.

“The glaciers have been calving, so there should be some nice chunks coming through the harbor...”

“Calving?”

“That’s what it’s called,” he chuckled.

Danika tugged her jacket over her shoulder and zipped it up as Bracken balanced the red plastic cups in one palm and opened the door. “After you.”

She smiled quickly and squeezed by him. Blood rushed to her cheeks as her breasts brushed against the hard wall of his chest and she half jogged away from the bar’s front entrance, then jumped off the high curb onto the street.

Bracken stepped out of the doorway and held out one of the red cups. “Down to the water, come on.”

Danika took the cup from his hand and smiled. “I haven’t been anywhere near the ocean in so long,” she said as they walked away from the bar.

“Uhhh... I’m from Texas,” she snorted. “The fact that it could snow this week kind of terrifies me.”

“You’ll get used to it,” Bracken replied. “How long are you planning to stay in Anchorage anyway?”

Danika frowned into her beer and took a drink. “Have you ever noticed that bad beer tastes better in these cups?” she asked.

Danika shook her head and took another sip from the red cup. “Not yet. Do I have to?”

His words hit her harder than she had expected. But he was right. It was her life, and she could do what she wanted without being worried that Tessa would tell Gideon she was hanging out with a bear.

If she were back in Texas, she would have confided everything in Tessa already. Gideon would already know. And he’d already be pissed.

Thousands of miles away from Tessa and her lies, thousands of miles away from Gideon and his betrayals.

Thousands of miles from everything she’d left in a literal smoking ruin behind her.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

The harbor was just ahead of them, and the light from the setting sun had painted the sky in pinks, blues, and oranges that rivaled Texas’s sunsets.

Bracken didn’t look convinced, but he pointed out to the harbor and Danika realized what she had been ignoring the whole time she’d been in Anchorage.

A massive block of ice, jagged and uneven, and almost as tall as the cruise ship that rested just offshore, floated in the middle of the harbor, lit from within by the setting sun, and it made her stop short.

He reached out to take her hand, and Danika didn’t pull it away as his fingers slid around hers. “Want to get closer?”

She nodded and allowed him to pull her along toward the edge of the parking lot that bordered Resolution Park. “The parking lot?” she laughed. “I haven’t drunk beer out of a plastic cup in a parking lot since I was a teenager.”

“Me neither,” Bracken admitted, “but this is the best place to watch the ‘bergs when they go by.” He pointed to a bench at the edge of the parking lot. “Wanna sit?”

“It’s starting to get cold,” Danika said, but she wasn’t that cold and the sunset was beautiful.

He sat down and leaned back against the weathered wooden bench. Danika hesitated for only a moment before taking a spot next to him. She was close enough to feel the warmth radiating from his body, yet not close enough to touch him. But that didn’t mean she didn’t want to. It had been way too long since she’d thought about having someone’s hands on her body...

Bracken looked over at her and then looked back out at the harbor. “You know, if you have questions—”

Danika shook her head. “I think I know everything I need to know about shifters.”

Danika sighed heavily. “I know, I know. Maybe I’m just not ready for... all of that. Y’all are complicated animals.”

Danika was starting to feel like she never said anything right. “Shit. I’m sorry... that was totally not—”

Bracken brought his plastic cup to his lips and took a long drink. “You know that what happened to you wasn’t your fault, right?” he asked finally.

They sat in silence, just watching the water, until Danika couldn’t take it any longer. “So what is this ‘call’ thing supposed to feel like anyway?”

“So the Great Mother just... whispers in your ear or something? Do you get a fortune cookie? Some kind of sign?”

He shifted uncomfortably, as though he was trying to figure out what to say without saying too much. “It’s not... it’s hard to explain. It’s something powerful. Something you can’t ignore...”

She smiled to see the big man squirm. He sure didn’t act like she thought a bear should. He was—different.

“How did he convince me?” she asked pointedly. Bracken nodded but didn’t look at her. “I was in a bar with my girlfriends and he came in with a bunch of his packmates. We danced a little. Drank a lot. And he listened to me talk about whatever I wanted to talk about... He wasn’t like the other guys I’d dated. He wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met before. He took me out for nice dinners, put me up in a really nice hotel... By the end of the weekend, I would have believed anything he said.”

She could see Bracken nod out of the corner of her eye and she felt self-conscious and stupid.

Danika snorted. “I started a fire in the front yard and hopped on a bus heading north.”

Bracken turned to face her and she laughed aloud at the expression on his face. “I’m serious, that’s exactly what happened.”

“But—”

“Look,” she said. “Everything he ever said to me, did for me, or promised me was garbage. So I lit it on fire. Literally and figuratively.”

“Remind me never to piss you off,” Bracken chuckled.

“You’ve been warned,” Danika said sternly. She tapped a finger on his chest and grinned at him over the edge of her Solo cup.

“I didn’t really answer your question,” he said and Danika hastily swallowed her mouthful of beer.

She turned fully toward him and leaned back on the bench expectantly. “Okay. I’m ready. Hit me with the shifter’s honest truth, so I can tell all of the human world what to expect.”

Bracken took a deep breath and set his red plastic cup down on the grass beside his boot. “It’s something you feel. When you meet your mate, it’s like... it’s like the animal inside me is supposed to recognize them. Recognize their scent, their laugh, the tone of their voice—everything about them is perfect for us.” He paused for a moment. “At least, that’s what’s supposed to happen.”

“Well, no. Obviously. Otherwise, I’d be happily mated and wouldn’t be sitting on a bench with you...”

Danika laughed. “Right, right. And Cassie— She’s not...” Bracken recoiled slightly and Danika laughed harder.

“Cassie is like my sister... I’m going to pretend you didn’t mention that at all. Cassie would never let me hear the end of it if she knew.”

“So how are you supposed to really know?” Danika pressed. She didn’t know why she wanted to know so badly—maybe it was just to prove to herself that she wasn’t broken. Bracken wouldn’t lie to her. At least, he didn’t seem like the type.

He shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Danika was feeling bolder than usual and she held out her hand. “What if it’s simple... like a handshake?”

Bracken looked at her hand in confusion. “That seems a bit...”

“Simplistic? I mean, I guess you’ve shaken a lot of hands, you would have known by now if there was—” She frowned and thought harder. She hadn’t felt anything but lust for Gideon, an infatuation, and the desperate need to show him that she believed him... He’d convinced her of their bond, but it had never really felt real.

Suddenly, it dawned on her.

“I know.”

Bracken’s eyebrows rose. “You do?”

She nodded. “I surely do. It has to be something more... intimate.”

He shifted on the bench beside her, and Danika realized how close they were sitting. “Intimate?”

She leaned forward. “Yeah. You know... a kiss or something. You don’t kiss everyone you know, right? Not on the lips anyway.”

“No...”

“And you have kissed people before—”

Bracken’s eyes narrowed. “Obviously. And before you ask—”

Danika laughed. “I wasn’t gonna.” She took a breath and tried not to focus on the way her heart was beating. Bracken hadn’t moved away. “Can I kiss you?” she asked softly.

“Can you... what?”

“Kiss you. I just... I just want to know.”

He looked nervous all of a sudden. “Know what?”

She looked into his stormy gray eyes and smiled. “I guess... I just want to know that I’m not crazy,” she said. “You can say no if you want.”

“I don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to do,” he replied.

“I asked you, remember?”

He smiled awkwardly. “Right...”

“So?”

“Can’t hurt,” he said finally.

Danika leaned forward and reached up to touch his face. She liked the feel of his beard under her fingers. Gideon had always been clean shaven, and she had convinced herself that she liked it... but she knew that had been a lie, too. She’d been such an idiot. She didn’t know why she’d asked Bracken for this... But she wanted it.

Bracken was the first calm place in her life in the last five years, and he might be the only one.

He flinched slightly as her palm came to rest against his cheek and she felt the crackle of static electricity in the air.

Just one kiss.

Danika’s eyes closed as she leaned forward to press her lips against Bracken’s mouth.

She wasn’t entirely sure of what she was expecting to feel, but nothing could have prepared her for the instant rush of heat that swept through her body and lit every inch of her skin on fire.

Her gasp of surprise was muffled by Bracken’s sudden growl. It rumbled low and deep in his chest as his arms came around her and pulled her against him. Her mouth opened instinctively and his tongue swept into her mouth to tangle with hers. Their kiss was strange, yet familiar—and the intensity of the passion she could feel from him was enough to leave her breathless. The pressure of his hands on her back and the feel of his arms around her was intoxicating, and from the way her heart beat in her chest she wasn’t sure how much more she would be able to handle.

But her hands were in his hair and she couldn’t stop kissing him.

She had never felt this way with Gideon. Or anyone for that matter.

It was Bracken who finally broke the kiss, and Danika leaned her forehead against his, panting slightly as she tried to sort through the tumble of emotions and sensations that threatened to overwhelm her.

“What the fuck was that?” she whispered.

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” he replied.

All at once, something cold slipped through the pleasurable fog that was clouding her mind. Was that the Call?

No.

No way.

She pulled away from Bracken’s embrace and tried to straighten her coat and smooth down her hair. Over the water, the sun was almost fully set and it would be dark sooner than later.

“Look... Thanks for the date. And the beer.” She looked down at the ground and saw she’d kicked over her red plastic cup during their makeout session. Her cheeks flushed as a remnant of the heat she’d felt flared up inside her again. “But I have to go. I have an early shift in the morning...”

Bracken’s eyes widened in surprise as she got up from the bench and she felt a stab of guilt to see him try and figure out what he’d done or said. It wasn’t his fault... it was her.

“I’ll call you, okay?” she said hastily.

Bracken shook his head in disbelief, but he didn’t make a move to stop her. That would have made everything worse. “You’ll... you’ll what? Can’t we talk about what just happened?”

She shook her head. “There’s nothing to talk about,” she said. “You’re a good kisser... and I did have fun tonight. I just... I have to go. I shouldn’t have—”

“You shouldn’t have what?”

“I just—”

She couldn’t force herself to say the words. She knew she shouldn’t have kissed him. But she’d wanted to. He’d wanted to. Except she was confused—and then there was the whole ‘call’ thing... She couldn’t face it. She’d just escaped that life.

“I’m sorry,” she finished lamely as she turned away from the bench and ran through the parking lot back toward town.

“Danika!”

She didn’t turn around, she couldn’t bear to look at him... If she did, she would just go back, and she wasn’t ready for any of what that meant.

***

In a strange mix of running and panicked walking, Danika found her way back to the Alpine Motel just as the street lights hummed to life and flooded the pavement with their orange glow.

“Stupid. Stupid. Stupid,” she muttered. She should have known better than to get mixed up with another shifter. When she was younger it had been fun to flirt with them—they might have been looking for their mates, but Danika and her friends had been more interested in the no-strings-attached fun they got to have in the process. Their philosophy had always been, if it did happen, there were worse things than being protected and worshipped by a hot guy who was sometimes a wild animal...

She’d never been as into it as the other girls she used to hang out with—how impossible was it to find your ‘soulmate’ living in the same city? Beyond impossible. Ridiculously impossible.

Danika had been prepared for expensive dinners, rides in fancy cars, and mind-blowing sex with no expectations on either side. She hadn’t been prepared for Gideon. But that was why everything that happened with him had taken her by surprise. He’d convinced her that he’d heard the call on the night they’d spent together, and that she shouldn’t feel bad that she hadn’t felt anything different. She wasn’t supposed to feel anything... it was a ‘shifter thing.’ That’s what he’d told her, and all of the wolves around him had confirmed it. What the hell did she know?

She rubbed her hand over her lips and shook her head. “Stupid,” she muttered again. She’d most definitely felt something. Whether it was the call or not, she’d felt...

She’d felt something amazing.

The Alpine Motel’s office door was open, and she could see a large shape moving behind the desk. Danika crossed her arms over her chest and ducked her head, hoping to avoid the motel’s owner. She didn’t want to talk to anyone right now, especially a bear.

“Texas,” a man’s voice barked out.

Danika gritted her teeth and stopped mid-stride. There was no sneaking by a shifter.

“Yes?” she shouted back.

“Get in here!”

Danika shoved her hands in the pockets of her jacket and stomped across the parking lot toward the office. Glen was a big man, broader than Bracken, but not as tall. He was a black bear shifter; she’d seen him in at the edge of the woods behind the motel scratching his massive back against the trunks of the pine trees that grew there.

He was either marking territory or trying to attract a mate... her drunken google search had been a little unclear. Whatever it was, she wasn’t going to ask.

“What’s up, Glen?” she asked casually as she stepped into the office.

The big man glared at her and slammed a handful of paper onto the desk.

“I’m paid up until like... May,” she said hastily. “Is there something wrong?”

“Nope. You know I don’t say no to cash,” he growled. “But I draw the line at being your secretary.”

Her eyes narrowed as she looked down at the crumpled paper. “What are these?”

“Messages. Calls from down south tyin’ up my phone line.”

Danika’s mouth went dry. “Calls? Calls from who?”

Glen shook his big head. “They didn’t say. They were just looking for someone... I don’t like questions, Missy.”

“Yeah... me neither,” she mumbled. “I’m sorry, Glen. I—” She faltered for a moment, wondering if she should tell him that she was on the run... “I don’t really want any calls from anyone outside of town,” she said finally. “What did you tell them? What questions did they ask you?”

“Personal ones,” the man grunted. “Lucky for you, I don’t give out information about my guests. It’s against our policy. So, no, I didn’t tell ‘em you were here, if that’s what you’re askin’.”

Danika sighed briefly. “Thanks, Glen.”

“Sure. But just so we’re clear, I don’t want any trouble. Life is nice and quiet up here and I’d hate to see that change.”

“Yeah. Me too,” she agreed. She grabbed the pile of paper and shoved it into her pocket. “Thanks again. I hope they don’t keep bothering you.”

Glen grunted and turned away and Danika smiled at his wide back. He was looking out for her, and she appreciated it. She’d have to find a way to thank him later.

Danika half walked, half stumble-ran across the parking lot and up the metal stairs that led to the Alpine Motel’s second floor. She fumbled with her key and let out a frustrated cry as the key stuck in the lock.

The pieces of paper in her jacket pocket might as well have been made of stone, weighing her down and dragging her right back to Dallas.

She blinked hard and took a breath. With a shaking hand she turned the key in the lock and pushed on the door. It opened easily and she gritted her teeth as she pulled the key from the lock and stumbled into the room.

“Ugh, why is it always so cold?” she muttered as she slapped her hand against the wall in a vain attempt to turn on the light. “Heat first, then light.”

She left the room door open and used the glow of the outside lights to find her way to the ancient heater attached to the wall. She turned the knob on the top and stood there, shivering, as the heater clunked and shuddered its way to life.

“Come on you bucket of bolts,” she muttered. She reached for the wall to turn on the minimal lighting in the room and kicked a foot out at the open door.

The door slammed shut just as her hand hit the lightswitch and Danika sighed heavily as the lamps next to the queen sized bed flickered to life. She pulled off her scarf and then unzipped her jacket and threw it on the floor.

Her top layer of sweaters followed and Danika smiled as she felt the warmth of the heather begin to permeate the room. Two sweaters, a Henley, a thermal top, her jeans, and one pair of wool socks landed in a heap on the carpet beside the bed and she sighed heavily before falling face first onto the mattress.

“What the fuuuuuuuuck,” she moaned into the blankets.

It seemed like the only appropriate reaction to her day. Especially the last hour.

What the hell was she supposed to do with whatever had happened between herself and Bracken? Were they supposed to talk about it? Or was she supposed to just... forget that anything had happened and try to avoid him for the rest of her time in Anchorage? There wasn’t anything any farther north, so she was kind of stuck... and kind of out of money to move anywhere drastic. She wasn’t earning much at the Golden Horn, but it had been enough to keep the proverbial, and literal, wolf from the door.

At least, it had been.

She rolled off the bed and pulled the crumpled paper notes from the pocket of her jacket.

Call after call, message after message. Gideon was looking for her. He’d obviously figured out where she’d gone. She kicked the bedframe and shook her head furiously. It wasn’t as if she could have used a fake name for that airline ticket.

“Fuck,” she whispered.

She crumpled the notes into her fists and dropped them onto the TV stand that did double duty as a chest of drawers. “Fuck you,” she said meaningfully.

Gideon should have taken the hint. The burned out husk of the Mercedes in the driveway and the empty house should have given him the hint that they weren’t a thing anymore.

She didn’t know why it mattered to him. Why did she matter? It’s not as though she was actually his mate or anything. She was just... a walking possession. Maybe that was his problem. No one ever said no to Gideon Ray of the Quickthorn Pack.

But she had said no.

She’d also said ‘fuck you,’ ‘hope you get rabies,’ and a few other choice (and ridiculous) phrases in her last voicemail message before she’d thrown her new phone into the semi-intentional inferno she’d created in the driveway of the posh estate she once called home.

She laughed weakly and threw another crumpled piece of paper onto the dresser. It bounced off the TV and fell onto the floor again. She groaned and bent to pick it up, and almost fell over as a heavy hand knocked on the door.

“I said it’s fine!” she called out. “I’ll deal with it in the morning, Glen!”

Whoever was outside knocked again and Danika groaned dramatically.

“Fine. Fine,” she muttered. She was only wearing a merino tank top and a pair of thin thermal leggings, but she didn’t care. She’d become adept at hiding behind motel doors, and despite the fact that Glen was a big, tough bear, he was easy to embarrass, which never failed to cheer her up.

She unbolted the door and pulled it open enough that she could peer around the edge. But instead of Glen’s rough features, and three-day-old beard, it was Bracken Quinn standing outside her door.

“Uh... Hey,” she said awkwardly.

“Hey,” he replied. “You ran off before... Before I could say anything or we could talk about what happened—”

“What happened?” she asked tartly. “Did something happen?”

She’d half-hoped that he would back down and leave, but Bracken’s pale gray eyes didn’t leave hers.

“Yeah. Something happened,” he said softly. “Can I come in?”

Danika leaned her head against the door and groaned. Everything was too confusing and she wasn’t sure how she felt, or what she wanted. But none of that was his fault, and she felt guilty for snapping at him when she was the one being difficult.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said. “I’m so tired of everything being so serious all the time.”

“WHAT IF I DO THE TALKING and you just listen?” She couldn’t see his face, but she could hear a smile in his voice and some of her anxious panic began to pull away. She peered around the door again and looked at him carefully. He didn’t move. Finally, she let out a heavy sigh.

She opened the door wider and grabbed for her pajamas. “But you have to close your eyes until I get to the bathroom!”

“You want me to what?” he laughed.

“Close your goddamned eyes!” she ordered.

Bracken did as he was told and Danika reached out to grab hold of his leather jacket so that she could pull him into the room.

He stood awkwardly just inside as she closed the door, and then laughed in frustration as she pushed him back toward the bed. His calves hit the mattress and he sat down heavily on the bed.

“What now?”

Danika pushed a finger into his chest. “Now you promise you won’t say anything about my pajamas, and keep your eyes closed until I’m in the bathroom.”

Bracken raised an eyebrow, but didn’t open his eyes. “Your pajamas...”

“I said you can’t say anything! That includes questions!”

“Okay, okay,” he laughed.

Danika removed her finger from his chest and tucked her pajamas under her arm. “Good.” She kicked at the pile of clothes on the floor and walked quickly to the bathroom.

“Not warm enough,” Danika called out as she snapped on the bathroom light and closed the door.

She took a deep breath and stared into the mirror. “What the fuck,” she whispred at her reflection. This was not how she had planned for this evening to go... None of it had been. And now there was a pile of bullshit from her past sitting in a crumpled heap next to the cheap TV and a polar bear sitting on her rented bed.

When Danika had abandoned him in the parking lot, his heart had been racing and his blood had felt like liquid fire in his veins. That was it. That was what it was supposed to feel like... that was the signs from the Great Mother that he had found his mate—and then, before he could say anything, she’d run off into the darkness and left him sitting there like a fool. His bear roared in his mind, ordering him to chase after her and claim her, but Bracken knew that it wouldn’t be that simple.

The kiss had been impulsive, something she had wanted to do... But it was obvious that she hadn’t been prepared for what had happened.

He hadn’t been prepared either.

Obviously.

“Fuck!”

He could almost hear his siblings laughing at him as he pushed off the bench and groaned as he reached down to readjust his jeans. The Great Mother never messed around with the Call... He was hard and ready to claim his mate. There was no denying what had happened, no way to push it off... It was real. Almost too real.

“Unbelievable,” he muttered.

Part of him wanted to just go back to the tattoo shop and wait for Danika to come to him—but his bear wasn’t having any of that. He could feel the animal inside him pushing to come out and he gritted his teeth against the urge to shift.

Stop it. I’m going.

The bear in his mind paced with agitation. The beast wouldn’t be satisfied until their mate was naked underneath them, but Bracken knew he couldn’t lead with that. Danika was different. He’d have to talk to her, and even then there was a chance that she wouldn’t believe anything he said... and he couldn’t blame her for that. Not after what she’d been through.

And now he was sitting on her bed with his eyes closed, trying to figure out how to explain what had happened, and what was supposed to happen now... But there was no good way to explain it. No right way. No—

“Fuck.”

He didn’t know anything about her. He opened his eyes and shifted his position on the bed. This was ridiculous.

Sure, that was part of the mating process, get the complicated ‘we’re meant to be together because the Great Mother says so’ stuff out of the way, and then work on the rest. That’s how it always went. The bond between mates was what they could lean on while life sorted itself around what the Great Mother had planned. There was no arguing. No questioning. It just was. Every shifter knew that. He’d known when he was a cub, but now that he was faced with the reality of something he’d never planned for, it was looking less and less like the uncomplicated joy he’d always been told about.

Not everyone found their mate in their friend circle like his parents had—everyone else he knew had found their mates by accident. This was definitely an accident.

The Great Mother doesn’t believe in accidents...

Bracken’s mother’s voice echoed in his head and he rubbed a hand over his beard. What the hell was he supposed to do with any of this?

“Are you talking to yourself out there?” Danika’s voice floated to him through the bathroom door.

“No,” he called out.

“So, just looking through my drawers, then?”

“Better not be.”

The bathroom door opened and Bracken closed his eyes immediately.

“Are your eyes still closed?”

“Yes.”

He could hear her walking across the carpet and then pause in front of the TV. She was moving a bunch of paper, and it crinkled loudly in her hands. “Did you open them while I was gone?”

Bracken snorted. “Obviously.”

“Cheater.”

“Did you really expect me to just sit here with my eyes closed?” he asked.

She sighed and he heard a drawer open. “I guess not.”

He smiled at the mock exasperation in her voice. “Can I open them now?”

The drawer closed and he felt the opposite edge of the bed sink down as she sat on it. “You may.”

He opened his eyes and turned toward her, and had to stop himself from bursting out laughing.

“You promised,” she growled.

Bracken pressed the back of his hand over his mouth and fought to get control of himself. “Are those...”

“Penguins,” she snapped. “Yes.”

“Okay.”

She sat on the edge of the bed with her arms crossed, swathed in pale blue fleece pajamas that were printed with cartoon penguins wearing scarves and sledding over a snow-covered background. Her dark hair fell loosely over her shoulders and he could smell her skin cream and a hint of vanilla beneath it. She was gorgeous and he couldn’t stop staring at her.

“Now. What did you want to talk about?”

It was clear that she was going to try to be nonchalant about the whole thing, so he tried to figure out how he was going to keep the same kind of control.

“Can I take off my jacket? It’s really fucking hot in here.”

Danika shrugged and he got up off the bed and shrugged out of his jacket. That might be one of their first stumbling blocks. He liked the cold—she, very obviously, didn’t.

“I guess I should do the talking,” he said as he laid his jacket over the back of a chair.

“Be my guest,” she said.

“So... On the bench. When we— Well... When we... I mean. Did you feel—”

Danika sighed. “This is going to take forever,” she said. “I kissed you. I wanted to kiss you. It was just a spur of the moment thing. Just a bit of fun. It was just a kiss.”

He shook his head and sat down on the bed again. “But it wasn’t just a kiss,” he said. “You felt it, too.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ve been hearing about the Call since I was a cub,” he said. “No one seemed to be able to really decide how to describe it. Sometimes it was a physical reaction, sometimes a... voice in your head—”

Danika raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest. “A voice in your head?”

“I know it sounds nuts,” he said.

“No, no,” she said, but he could hear the sarcasm in her voice. “I’ve heard it all. How all-consuming it’s supposed to be. Yeah, sure. I felt something. I won’t say I didn’t. But maybe it was just the beer. Maybe it was just the fact that I’m lonely and horny—”

Bracken snorted.

“Shut up,” she snapped. “It could be any number of things that are not related to some invisible deity who has supposedly chosen the perfect match for you. I am not your perfect match. I am no one’s perfect match. It’s stupid. It was just a kiss.”

“And you’re sure about that?” He had no idea what she was thinking, but maybe if she were impulsive again, he could prove it to her. If she felt the same thing—

Danika narrowed her eyes at him. “An experiment?”

“For science?”

She laughed. “Okay, smart guy. For science. I’m sober. There’s no beer. No sunset. And I’m wearing fleece penguin pajamas. I’d apologize in advance for the disappointment, but I don’t really care.”

Bracken laughed and then rested his hand against his mouth to hide his smile. “I’m sorry. I’m not laughing at you.”

Bracken blinked at her as she walked toward him. The sway of her hips was subtle, but also purposeful and he dared to smile just a little.

She stopped in front of him and laid her hands on his shoulders. Her clear blue eyes stared into his and he felt his throat tighten just a little. She smelled like vanilla and citrus and it filled his senses. Whatever she was thinking, she had no idea what this little display was doing to him.

“How do I prepare for this experiment?” he asked as she lifted her leg and braced her knee on the bed beside him, almost straddling his legs.

“You close your eyes and stop talking,” she said with a smile. He only had time to close his eyes and nod briefly before she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his.

Danika’s lips were warm and soft, and Bracken tried to focus on something that wasn’t her—but it was impossible. Utterly impossible. The more he tried to think of something else, the more he wanted to wrap his arms around her and pull her into his lap. She was so close. Too close.

As strong as it had been the very first time, the Great Mother reminded him of what she had done and that same heat flooded through his body and lit his veins on fire. Whatever control he might have had was forgotten and his arms snaked around Danika’s torso and pulled her against his chest.

She barely protested, and her chest slammed against his. Her hips ground down against him and he could feel the heat of her through their clothes. It seemed impossible, but there was no denying what was happening between them. Danika’s fingers came up and twined into his hair, pulling him closer, and her mouth opened against his.

Regardless of the stories he’d been told about what the Call had been for others, nothing would ever compare to what he actually felt. The Great Mother had come down personally to light his blood on fire and he was more than willing to burn to a crisp if that was what it meant to be mated to this woman.

She melted against him and moaned against his mouth. Her body fit perfectly against his, but there was too much between them. Too many clothes. Except he wouldn’t do anything without her permission. She had to lead this—and he could feel her fighting against it. He could feel her fighting her instincts.

Humans were different. They didn’t feel things the same way as shifters. But Danika was feeling things she didn’t understand, and he could sense her confusion. She wanted him—that much was obvious.

Bracken summoned all of his will power and dragged his mouth away from Danika’s. “Please tell me you felt that,” he said thickly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said breathlessly. He stared at her for a moment, and then she laughed and he dragged her down for another kiss that surged through his body like wildfire.

Danika pulled away and took a gasping breath. “Fuck,” she muttered and then looked back into his eyes. “What happens now?”

Bracken looked at her meaningfully and then raised an eyebrow. “You’re still in your PJ’s,” he said.

She reached down to tug at the buttons and flung the printed pajama top away. She still wore a merino camisole and Bracken frowned.

Danika let out a frustrated breath and ripped the camisole up over her head and tossed it to the floor.“Happy?” she asked tartly.

Bracken took a sharp breath as her breasts were revealed to his hungry gaze. He didn’t want to admit how many times he had imagined what she had looked like naked, but nothing would have prepared him for the real thing. “Oh yeah,” he said thickly as he pulled her closer. He pressed his lips to her heated skin and relished in her gasp of surprised pleasure as his mouth sought one pert nipple and sucked it into his mouth.

His tongue traced around the tight flesh and teased around it until she moaned deep in her throat, before he moved to the other breast and did the same. Danika wasn’t complacent while he suckled at her breasts, and he could barely contain his own groans of frustrated pleasure as she ground her pussy against his steadily hardening cock.

When he finally lifted his head from her breasts, Danika was already tugging on his shirt.

“What—” he barely managed to say as her hands roamed over his chest and pushed his shirt up over his head. Her mouth was hot as it pressed against his collarbone and he gasped as she bit down on his bare shoulder and moved against him.

“I want you to fuck me,” she said. “I want to know what it feels like—no lies. I want to know what it’s supposed to be.”

If he did what she wanted, they would be bonded. It wasn’t some casual fuck... this was real, whether she wanted to believe in it or not.

Bracken groaned as his arms wrapped around her. He had never felt anything as exquisitely painful as the touch of her skin against his, and he never wanted to feel anything else for the rest of his life.

He had never imagined that Danika would be on top of him. He'd hoped that they would be able to really talk. Maybe kiss. But this was almost too much, and his bear raged in his head. He struggled to keep his thoughts in order as she moved her hips and moaned against his lips.

“Bracken, please,” she begged. He growled deep in his throat as he fought against his baser instincts.

“Are you sure,” he gasped as she pulled her mouth away from his to take a breath.

With a barely contained snarl of possession, he turned and swept her beneath him. She giggled happily and wound her arms around his neck, and he decided that she was pleased at how far she had pushed him.

“Bracken,” she replied and looked up into his eyes. “I’m serious. I want this... Show me what it’s supposed to feel like.”

He kissed her gently and slid his hands down her body, pulling the fleece pajamas down her legs and her underwear with it. He knelt at the corner of the bed and pulled her toward him with her clothing. She barely moved as he threw her clothing to the side and lay bare in front of him.

Bracken shook his head, and then pushed away his bear’s roar of outrage. There would be time. Tonight wasn’t about him, or his bear... or what they wanted. Tonight was about her.

He reached back for the drawer and pulled it open. The condoms were where she had said they would be, and he set one on the floor beside his knee. He would be needing it soon enough.

He kept his jeans on, so that control was still possible, as he knelt between her legs and inhaled the heady scent of her body. Danika sighed and laughed, teasing him, and he wanted to devour her on the spot. He wanted to taste every inch of her skin, and touch every part of her. He wanted to learn her curves and ticklish spots and the places that made her sigh, stretch, and moan his name.

He ran his hands up her thighs and watched the muscles in her stomach contract as he nudged her thighs a little farther apart so he could see all of her. The pink folds glistened, almost begging for his attention. He leaned forward to breathe against her and Danika twitched. She lifted her head to look at him and Bracken bit back a grin before he leaned closer and sealed his mouth over her pussy. He traced shapes over her clit with the tip of his tongue and repeated them over and over until Danika was shuddering and panting. Bracken retreated briefly, wanting to drag it out as long as possible, and stroked his finger around her opening.

Danika gasped, her thighs closing against him, and she moaned eagerly. “Bracken.”

He loved the way she said his name. He wanted more of it. More of her. He pushed a finger inside her, stroking deeper before adding another as her thighs opened wider to encourage his motions. A second finger teased another surprised cry from her lips, and he moved his hand to inflame her more as his mouth closed over her sensitive flesh. The motions of his lips and tongue coaxed more moans from her until sweat glistened between her breasts and she said his name, over and over.

He watched a flush climb her chest and throat and felt her velvet channel start to drag at his fingers, and knew she was close. He backed off, wanting to chuckle as Danika glared at him. “What are you doing?”

Bracken waited until she looked a half second from saying something else, then he increased the speed of his thrusting, teasing fingers and dragged his tongue up over her slit.

Danika went rigid as he drove her to the edge over and over, until she trembled and begged him for more, and he savored the taste of her coating his tongue. It was only his own need that eventually convinced him to drive her into a climax, reveling in the feeling of her muscles seizing around him, and how her body flexed against the bed as he tormented her until she cried out and her body went rigid. If only half of what he felt was singing through her veins the way it was through his...

Danika collapsed in a sweaty heap on the bed and struggled to breathe as Bracken reached up to stroke her stomach. He could have watched her all night.

Her blue eyes found his, lazy with passion, and he felt himself being devoured by them.

“Not by a long shot,” he said. He plucked the condom package from the carpet and flicked open the button of his jeans as he rose up over the edge of the bed and hovered over her body.

One of Danika’s arms looped around his neck and drew his mouth down to hers as she sighed and closed her eyes. Her back arched until her breasts pressed against his chest, and Bracken could barely control himself as she whispered, “What else do you have for me?”

The bear inside him wanted to mark her—wanted to plunge into her wet heat and fuck her until she smelled like him and every shifter in the whole state of Alaska would know who protected her. Bracken groaned and kissed her again, trying to kick off his jeans and Danika reached down to help him push the denim down over his hips.

He was about to ask what she meant when she pressed her lips against his chest. “Maybe you’ll tell me what they all mean one day,” she whispered.

“Maybe,” he replied as he tore the foil packaging on the condom with his teeth and slipped the sheath over his cock.

Danika bit her lower lip, color climbing slowly into her cheeks, as the blunt head of his cock pressed against the slick pink lips he longed to conquer.

His breath caught at the feeling of her exquisite heat, but he paused once again, worried that she didn’t know what she was asking him to do.

But Danika answered his unspoken question for him by moaning and pressing her hips forward to encourage him onward. “Please... I need to know,” she whispered. “I need to feel it.”

She tilted her pelvis and hooked one leg up over his hip to pull him forward. Bracken held his breath as their gazes locked and the bear nearly took control, wanting to see their mate's eyes the first time they claimed her.

She writhed as he thrust, and he groaned as he felt her sweet heat envelop his hard length. Even through the thin barrier of the condom he could feel the strength of the Call. It was real—it was oh, so real, and he knew instinctively that Danika could feel it, too.

She cried out in surprise and arched up to meet his thrust. Again, and again, her velvet walls tightened around him and he fought for control over the animal in his mind that wanted nothing more than to throw control aside and take her for his own.

Bracken groaned and moved faster, retreating and thrusting in a steady rhythm that pushed through Danika's ecstasy as he tried to find his own. Her legs wrapped around his waist as she lifted to meet him, her nails digging into his shoulders.

She cried out sharply as her climax crashed over her with unexpected force, and Bracken’s bear took over.

He growled, kissing her savagely, lips bruising, and withdrew. Danika looked up at him, desperate and wanting, and he grabbed her hips to turn her over on the bed. On her hands and knees now, she moaned again, head hanging down and ass in the air. Bracken held on to her waist as he moved behind her. One thrust had her gripping the coverlet as Bracken drove home. His thighs slapped against her ass, and Danika groaned.

He paused, worried he might have gotten too rough with his bear egging him on, but as he leaned over her and his chest pressed against her back, Danika reached back to squeeze his thigh.

Permission given, Bracken snarled and hooked his arm under her hips, holding her in place as he started to move. He lost himself in the ecstasy of her body, her slick heat and the way the Call rocketed through his body with every thrust.

Danika moaned and pushed back into him, deepening the penetration, and Bracken growled. He leaned over her until he could feel all of her under him. He rubbed his free hand over her breasts, making her moan and cry out in a different way.

All at once, Danika froze under him as her hands tightened on the coverlet, and Bracken swore as her body grabbed him, squeezed him. Then the lightning that had been rocketing through his body gathered low in his back and let out a roar as his own climax crashed down on him and he couldn't think of anything but where their bodies joined.

His thrusts slowed, still jerky and uncontrolled, and Danika collapsed on the bed, eyes closed. Bracken eased down to his side next to her, still half-hard inside her, and tried to think through the fog of lust, his bear’s grumbling thoughts, and the pure surprised ecstasy of a Call answered...

He traced his fingers over the tattoo on her side in long slow strokes as the sweat cooled on them both in the warm room. Her head slowly turned on the pillow until she faced him, a hint of a smile curving her mouth.

He wanted to know what it felt like to take her without the barrier between them, but he would let her decide when that would happen.

But Bracken did know what was supposed to happen next. What was supposed to happen next was that he would gather up all of the crap she’d strewn around the motel room and dump it in his loft above the tattoo shop. Then he’d have to take her home to Sitka to meet his mother and his sister, and then she would be presented to the clan leader... And he’d have to look into his father’s eyes for the first time in fifteen years.

His bear clamored for more of her skin. More of her scent... More of everything... But he couldn’t do that. He didn’t even know where to start. He had let instinct guide him to this point, but now he didn’t know where to go.

Danika smiled briefly and leaned forward to kiss him. He could sense that something was wrong and resisted the urge to pull her against him and kiss her the way he wanted. She turned away from him, and Bracken mourned the loss of her heat as she moved away and got up off the bed.

She tugged her pajama top over her head and ran a hand through her dark hair in a nervous motion as she looked at him. “You should... I’m sorry. But I think you should go. I really do have to work early in the morning and—”

It was too soon, and he definitely didn’t want to leave, but this wasn’t the time or the place to argue. All he could do was agree, and the relieved smile on her face told him he’d made the right decision.

He just had to hope that she would understand that things would be different with him. It would take time—but there was no way to know how much.

“SO LET ME GET THIS straight— She was mated to a wolf, but now she’s not?”

Bracken leaned his forehead against the wall and sighed heavily.

“Amos, I didn’t call you to get a lecture,” he said stiffly.

“I’m not lecturing you, I’m just trying to get my head around it,” his brother replied.

Bracken rubbed a hand over his beard and gritted his teeth. He should never have called Amos. His brother was the worst at giving advice, especially when it came to anything to do with the Call. He didn’t believe in it, a fact that shocked their mother and made their sister laugh every time.

“Trust you to get a tainted mate,” Amos chuckled.

Rage boiled inside his chest and the bear in his head roared loud enough to make his ears ring. “What the fuck did you just say?” Bracken snapped.

“You heard me fine, little brother,” he replied. “Wolves. You can’t trust wolves. Or anyone who’s been around them. You should know that by now!”

“No. Can’t say that I do,” Bracken said tersely. He didn’t know what kind of company his brother was keeping these days, but it definitely wasn’t the good kind. They hadn’t been raised like that.

“You called me for advice, right?”

“I’m starting to regret it,” Bracken muttered.

“Here’s my advice,” Amos continued. “That ‘mates’ stuff is all bullshit stories made up to keep us in line. There’s more to life than looking for ‘the one,’ and what kind of impossible carrot is that to chase anyway? You’re just blindsided by the fact that you haven’t found anyone worth your attention in Anchorage, and I don’t blame you. But just because she’s the first piece of ass you’ve had in the last five years doesn’t mean—”

Bracken let out a furious breath. “I’m gonna stop you before you say something really fucking stupid,” he barked.

Amos’ laughter crackled through the phone. “Calm down, little brother, this won’t be the last time it happens. Trust me—”

Bracken pulled the phone away from his ear. “I don’t fucking trust you,” he muttered as he stabbed his finger into the screen to end the call.

“Asshole.”

“Do you need me to ask what that was all about?” Cassie called out from the front desk.

“No,” Bracken growled.

Cassie raised her hands and shook her head as she got up from her seat. “Okay, Boss, just checking.”

“Cassie— Sorry, it’s not... it’s just family bullshit.”

She nodded. “I get it. Do you want a coffee? I’m going over to Sal’s.”

“Sure,” he replied absently.

“Are you going to tell me how your date went?” she asked.

He shook his head. “Nope.”

Cassie grimaced. “That bad?”

“Nope.”

“Okay, okay, I’ll just ask Danika when I get to Sal’s.”

Bracken groaned as Cassie laughed at him and walked out the door.

Here you will find monsters, ghosts, paranormal lovers, dark heroes, and adventurous heroines in search of their happily ever after—whatever that means.