It started out as a regular job. Well, regular except that the big boss was heading it. Bear usually stayed out of the day-to-day doings of the security business. He had other things going on that were a heck of a lot more important.
Usually. But rogue wolves were kind of a big deal, and Bear, the chief of the Northern California bear shifters, was right there in the mix. So when we dropped into Nowhere, the little town in the mountains where Bear’s sister had discovered the wolves that had been causing us problems, I followed his lead.
Cara, the sister, met us outside the town. She and Bear and I left everyone else at the helicopter while the three of us went to the grocery store looking for the girl who’d escaped the wolf den.
Calling it a town was generous. It was a main drag with three blocks of storefronts. A crafts shop, a market, an auto shop, a hardware store, a café, a cellular outlet. That last one threw me. This place was so far from civilization it was hard to believe they had cellular reception.
I was a city bear. I enjoyed going out to the park at night, shifting, and getting in a run, but I’d never been a nature bear, not like Bear’s sister. She didn’t even live in this one-horse town but in a cabin some miles out. Takes all kinds.
Like the people who stopped us as we trooped along the road to the store. Bear had that effect on people. They liked him right off, if they were decent people. The not-decent ones tended to slink away.
These people were too decent. Really, that one woman wanted to run and get her grandbaby pictures to show Bear. I tried not to show my exasperation. We’re on a job, people! Let us get to it.
Finally we reached our destination. Although no bigger than a 7-Eleven, it was the only grocery store for thirty miles. Bells jingled when we went through the door. An older woman with hair dyed an improbable orange was sitting on a stool behind an antique cash register. This whole town was like some old movie. All the store needed was some toothless grandpas sitting around the cracker barrel.
The woman, Sophie, led us to a curtained doorway at the back of the store. As we approached, my nose started itching. I swiped it with the back of my hand a few times, but the itching would not stop.
Cara and Sophie went through the door first. Bear was a step behind her. I came up behind Bear, to one side so I could see over his shoulder.
The scent hit me first. Strong and delicious, and for me only. My bear stirred. Not just my bear. I had a totally inappropriate physical reaction. It would happen when my boss was there.
Then I saw her. A delicate little creature, hunched over staring at us. Dark, dark skin, thin features, luscious full lips. I ate her up with my eyes. All my focus settled on her. Nothing was real but her, the tight ragged curls, the dark intense eyes, the thin arms crossed over her chest.
She shrank away from us. From me. I was already reeling at sight and smell of her. That she was frightened of me tore at my heart.
She should never be scared of me, not my mate.
The realization hit me like a punch to the gut. That scared little girl was my mate.
Bear sent me out of the room. I went, of course, not just because he was my boss but because I couldn’t stand to hurt her. Those big brown eyes should never be wide with fear.
My mate, there in that room, and I couldn’t be with her. I should be the one in there talking to her and reassuring her that she was safe now. Me, not Bear. The fury boiled through me when I thought about the wolves putting their hands on her, hurting her.
And I couldn’t even be in the same room with her. Yet, I promised myself fiercely. Baby steps. She wouldn’t be scared after she got to know me. She would get to know me. She had to—she was my mate.
Finding her changed my whole world. I’d given up ever meeting my mate. That’s just the way it happened sometimes. Sure, I wanted cubs, but I wasn’t willing to settle for anything but a real mate. Blame my happily mated parents for that.
But there she was, and all the yearning I’d ever felt was sweeping over me in a massive wave.
Focus, Dom, focus. This wasn’t the right time to woo my mate.
But I couldn’t stop myself from pacing restlessly, or growling in fury as she told her story to Bear and Cara. Those foul vermin wolves. I wanted to smash each and every one of them into a bloody pulp. Dregs of shifterdom, they were blots on shifters everywhere.
They deserved to die for what they’d done to my Laleesha.
That thought pulled me up. I was just an investigator and bodyguard, not judge and jury. If Bear thought I was overinvolved in this case, he’d pull me off it. He’d assign me to something else that kept me too busy to meddle in Laleesha’s case. I knew he would, because he’d done it to Terrence when he went sweet on the Conway girl.
I couldn’t let that happen. Laleesha was mine. I needed to protect her and make sure those wolves didn’t come back after her. I’d have to keep as cool as possible.
With an effort I calmed myself. It helped to remind myself that Laleesha needed me to be relaxed and unemotional. She’d had enough drama. I’d be the non-drama, the warm milk to soothe her worries. Yeah, I could do that.
When a customer came into the store, I managed not to growl at him. “Sophie’s in the back room,” I said pleasantly after he took his bag of chips up to the cash register. “She’ll be out in just a few minutes.”
The customer did a double take when I spoke to him. He looked suspiciously from me to the curtained doorway.
I gazed back blandly, not moving from my position blocking the curtain.
The customer dropped the bag of chips onto the counter and left, the bell tinkling merrily at his departure.
Bear and Cara came out soon afterward. Cara looked absolutely wretched, and Bear’s face was somber. He hated that this kind of crap happened as much as I did.
I craned my head for a glimpse of Laleesha, but Sophie’s back blocked my view. She was standing in front of Laleesha and reassuring her that Bear wasn’t going to report anything to the sheriff.
With a pang, I left without getting a second look at my mate.
We returned to the clearing outside town where we’d landed the helicopter. The guys had left the copter to lounge around under the trees. None had shifted, not this close to town, but they were giving their bears a taste of the wild. As soon as they saw me and Bear, the guys gathered outside the helicopter.
“Listen up,” I told them. “Today’s exercise is over. We’re heading back home now.”
No one complained about that, but I sensed their frustration. Everyone’s adrenaline had gotten a workout when we went to the wolves’ den, and it was a letdown to find the den abandoned and to not get any release through action. That’s the way it worked sometimes, though. The guys had to be able to deal with it.
Me, I had my own frustration to manage. Leaving Laleesha there alone made the muscles of my back tighten in protest. If she hadn’t been frightened of me, Bear wouldn’t have been able to tear me away. But she was. I had to do what was best for her right now.
I got strapped into a seat next to Bear, and the helicopter lifted off.
Bear’s voice carried over the engine roar. “She’ll need a female operative assigned to her until it’s confirmed the wolves are gone permanently.”
“Okay, boss.” More than okay. The sooner there was someone to watch over her, the better. I ignored my bear’s snarling at me that it was our job to protect her.
Bear gave me a speculative look.
Schooling my face to blandness, I mentally reviewed who was available. “It will have to be Deniece. Laura and Penny are both on other cases.”
Bear nodded. “Take care of it.”
We went on to discuss what we could do to locate the wolf shifters. Neither of us thought they were gone for good. We settled on a plan of action, and when the helicopter landed in the city I went to the office to get things going.
All the time I was making calls, adjusting schedules, and studying maps, the thought of Laleesha was in the back of my mind.
Laleesha. Her scent was embedded in my senses.
Laleesha Wilson.
Even her name sounded like a song.
That big girl, Cara, didn’t look so big next to her brother. He was a giant man, and if his voice hadn’t been so gentle and if Sophie hadn’t been there to reassure me that he was safe, I don’t think I could have stood to have been in the same room with him. Big guys like that, they reminded me too much of Mike and that other guy at the camp.
The one that got sent out of the room was a big guy too. Although I didn’t get that good of a look at him before he left, the way his eyes burned at me left me shaking. I didn’t want to be noticed, not by someone who could force me to do whatever he wanted.
He didn’t go far outside the storeroom. The floorboards creaked in a regular pattern as he paced just outside the doorway, distracting me. It was a relief when he stopped moving, but I imagined him standing outside listening. Having to tell Cara’s brother what happened was bad enough. Having that man there, a stranger who had no right to know my personal business, brought back all the shame of everything those bikers had done to me.
All the time Cara’s brother was asking me questions, my chest hurt. Sophie told me they were safe to talk to, but I couldn’t shake the despairing feeling that the more I talked to people, the easier it would be for Biter to find me. It felt like just talking about stuff opened up some kind of connection between us.
And I wanted no connection between Biter and me, none. If it hadn’t been for him, I wouldn’t have got on that motorcycle. Mike had seemed like a refuge. I’d learned better now. Guys like him, like that one with the hot eyes, were just out for themselves. They were danger, just as much as Biter was.
Lord, my guts were tied into knots.
They finally took off, Cara and her brother and the big silent guy whose eyes burned into me. I stayed in the storeroom until I heard the bells on the door jingle as they left. I didn’t really feel like talking to anyone, but being alone was worse so I went out to the front.
Sophie was shaking her head over a bag of chips on the counter next to the cash register. “People,” she muttered darkly. “Can’t wait even a few minutes.”
I scooped up the bag and put it back on the shelf, grateful to feel useful. Grateful to Sophie. My eyes watered up. I found some cans that needed to have their labels turned out and some packages that needed to be lined up better. By the time I was done I could face Sophie without making her get all motherly.
It wasn’t so much that I didn’t like her being motherly as that I wasn’t used to it. Her being so nice made me feel awkward and teary-eyed because I didn’t know how to react. I was scared, too, that if she found out what a failure I was, she wouldn’t like me anymore.
Living here was like walking on top of a narrow curb that stretched out forever. Figuring out what people wanted from me and then being that way was hard. If I said the wrong thing or said the right thing in the wrong way or somehow showed them how much I really didn’t belong here, I’d lose my balance and tumble off the curb.
“It was good to see Bear again,” Sophie was saying.
“Ummm,” I murmured, wishing I could ask about the other man. But Sophie was too sharp. She’d see right through anything I said.
“He doesn’t come to visit that often. He’s got some business he has to run. A family business. Cara could have been part of it too, but she came here instead.”
“Cara seems nice,” I ventured. She hadn’t once given me the “you’re trash” look.
“She’s a real sweet girl. She’s just a bit more private than Bear, that’s all. Now he—” Sophie sighed. “He’s a regular honeypot.”
He was handsome, I guess.
“His friend too. There’s something about a big man. Makes a girl wonder just how big they really are.” She winked at me.
My mouth dropped. Sophie was old to be thinking that kind of thing. Worse, she shouldn’t be thinking that way about that man in particular. It wasn’t right, not at all. Why, I wasn’t sure, but it made me intensely uncomfortable. A little angry, even, which made me feel guilty after all Sophie had done for me.
Sophie’s smile softened. “He seemed taken with you.”
“He only wanted to know about the bikers,” I mumbled. His eyes were hot with interest in what I had to say, not about me as a person. I was just a source of information to him. I hoped.
“Maybe,” she said, her tone clearly disagreeing.
If he was interested in me, it could only be for one thing. I’d learned my lesson with Mike. Going off with him would be an escape, I’d thought, but it wasn’t. My stomach clenched up again, thinking about what they’d done to me. I took a deep breath and released it.
Being taken in by Sophie was an escape.
There was nothing I wanted more than to stay here. People always said how quiet it was up in the mountains, away from traffic and such, but that wasn’t true. It was plenty loud. The little birds made a racket every morning and the hawks screeched whenever they felt like it. I couldn’t step outside into Sophie’s backyard without squirrels chattering at me to get out of their territory.
The trees were always making noise. They swished in the breeze, soft and gentle. When the winds came, the leaves and needles crashed together and the limbs creaked and groaned. The first night that happened, I couldn’t sleep for fear of a tree falling on top of the house.
Sophie hadn’t laughed at me or told me how stupid I was. She did smile a little, but it was a reassuring smile, and her eyes were friendly when she told me the trees always made those noises. She admitted sometimes the trees did fall, but if one came down it would just knock a hole in the roof, not bring down the house completely.
Hearing her say that soothed the ache where my chest had gone tight. It could still happen that a tree fell on the house, but it was manageable. It could be fixed.
Cara’s brother had given me that feeling too, that things were under control. He was big and solid and safe. Cara was big and solid too, but she was kind of distant to me, not friendly but not unfriendly either. Probably she just didn’t like me. A pretty girl like her didn’t have any use for someone like me.
That big silent guy wouldn’t either, not any good use. Remembering the way he’d looked at me made me shiver. It was like the way Mike had looked at me, but stronger and hotter and as if I was being branded, just like people did cows in those old movies.
And it made me think that everything Biter and Mama had said to me was true, that I was a no-good, worthless whore.
’Cause when he looked at me, I’d felt like I’d do anything he wanted.