Chapter 5
PHOENIX APPEARED STUNNED at his question. “Why should I tell you?”
“Sweetheart, in case you didn’t notice, this is shifter territory. Yeah, there are a few humans around, but mostly on the whole, this mountain’s ours. And you don’t just waltz into shifter territory without announcing yourself.”
Phoenix raised an eyebrow. “I rather thought applying for jobs in the community was a pretty good way of announcing myself.”
“Maybe. If your animal weren’t so elusive. And if we knew where you’d come from.”
“You have my application. You know exactly where I’ve worked for the last ten years.”
“True. I also know that you’ve bounced from territory to territory that entire time. So from that, do I assume you’re a loner with no clan, no pack, no den at your back?”
Phoenix looked defensive. “How’d you know I was a shifter anyway?”
What the hell kind of question was that? He stared at her, stunned. If he couldn’t smell her animal right then, he’d think she was human. “What do you mean how’d I know? How did you know you were working at a shifter bar? How’d you know I was a black bear?”
She just stared at him.
He was getting a really weird feeling about this. “Shit. You did know that you’d applied to a shifter bar, right?”
Phoenix didn’t answer.
Fuck. Travis dragged a hand through his hair and groaned. No wonder she’d freaked out in the bar. “So I’m guessing your animal doesn’t have a finely developed sense of smell.” Which was totally weird. “I don’t even know what animal that would be.” He raised an eyebrow. “Care to enlighten me?”
When Phoenix didn’t answer, he huffed in exasperation. “So I’m guessing you wouldn’t have applied if you’d known we were shifters, which tells me what? Are you on the run? Can we expect enforcers to show up in a couple days, trying to track your ass down?”
Phoenix rolled her eyes. “I already told Adam that no one is looking for me.”
Adam. When had she met that fucker? “How the hell did you meet him?”
“He came into the diner for breakfast this morning.”
And of course he’d interrogated her right away. Fuckin’ alphas.
“So you can smell my animal?”
“What?”
“My animal. You can smell it?”
Travis stared at her, a little disoriented at the way she’d called her animal “it”. “Yeah, I can smell her. She’s subtle, sometimes even barely there. She’s really good at hiding herself.” A thought suddenly struck him. “Maybe even of disguising herself?”
Phoenix looked surprised, so maybe not. Her animal must just be a type they’d never encountered before.
Travis sighed. “Are you ever going to share your animal with us?”
She shrugged.
He winced. If she came to the bar with that attitude, it would be like waving a red flag in front of a whole herd of bulls. “Just don’t be surprised if the entire bar gets involved in trying to identify your animal. Like all shifters, they’re a curious bunch. Even worse though, they’re highly competitive. The wolves will want to figure it out first and the cougars will want the same.”
“I’m not worried about it.”
Her scent said exactly the opposite though. It had slowly strengthened during their conversation and was now a mix of worry, anxiety and fear. He couldn’t figure out why it mattered though. If she wasn’t on the run, if no one was after her, why did she care if a bunch of shifters knew her animal side? He didn’t want her bolting though so he tried to reassure her.
He stepped into her space, slid one hand around the back of her neck and settled the other on her shoulder, then leaned his forehead into hers. “They know you’re under my protection, Phoenix, so you really don’t have to worry. You’ll be safe here.”
The scent of her anxiety fled on a wave of arousal and his bear lunged forward, licking at the air like he could taste her honey. Christ.
He started to pull away, but she reached up and caught his wrists in her hands and stared into his eyes.
“God, you’re so beautiful,” he muttered and then he did what he’d been imagining ever since she walked into his bar earlier that week and applied for the open waitress position. He kissed her.