3.
What the hell am I doing? Kent growled to himself.
Kent was deep in the woods behind the hotel where Adrian was staying. He had sincerely wanted to make sure she got home safely, especially dealing with a bunch of people at the mine who were high strung and agitated. It was hard to say what any of them might be thinking, under the pressure of Blaine’s bullshit deadlines and having an attitude toward humans that was generally utilitarian. The girl was cute. Most men might dismiss her because of her curves, but that only meant she was in more danger of being disrespected by the other bears. Adrian couldn’t have been safer than she was in going back to the hotel with Kent.
He had never felt so urgently about a human. The desire deep in his body was overpowering. And it really didn’t make sense to him. He had to get out of there. The last thing he needed was a human sneaking her way into his head.
Kent took off toward the modest home he had built himself and headed into the shower. The whole time he washed, he was consumed by thoughts of the young woman. However, he couldn’t just go and unleash the beast within him on her. She wouldn’t know what to do with herself, and he would hate to hurt her. Wasn’t it dangerous for a bear-shifter and a human to mate? Especially one who seemed so meek.
Or maybe she hadn’t been meek at all. Perhaps she was just overwhelmed by the same feeling that was driving him crazy right that moment. Whatever the reason, he would have to get the thought of her out of his head, or he wasn’t going to be able to focus on the tasks at hand the next day. He had a lot to do tomorrow and he would need his full concentration to get through it all. He hadn’t been counting on meeting a woman like Adrian. It was ridiculous, really.
Kent grumbled to himself as he got out of the shower and dressed quickly, laying down in bed and tossing and turning, he tried to get thoughts of Adrian out of his head.
By the time he finally fell asleep, he knew only one thing for sure. He had to see her again, no matter what the cost.
***
“Again?”
Blaine chuckled into the phone, causing Kent’s blood pressure to spike significantly. “I know you’re a busy man, but you would really be doing me a favor.”
“I was supposed to help Jeremy with his porch…”
“Jeremy is going to be there too,” Blaine said. “I already called him. We weren’t expecting so many men to be injured.”
“Yeah, I get you,” Kent grumbled. “But you know I hate that kind of work. Small spaces piss me off.”
“Oh, I know,” Blaine said softly. Kent cringed, glad that Blaine wasn’t there in person to see the pain on his face. It had been the worst day of his life when he’d found out he was an orphan. He had spent the day in the mines, and had discovered the truth about his parents consumed by the suffocating darkness. Ever since then he’d vowed to be out in the open air. Being trapped in the darkness or in small spaces brought him right back to the worst moment in his entire life, and Blaine knew it.
“I can keep things under control for you, but I’m not going in anything dark. You get me?”
“Of course,” Blaine said with a deep, understanding chuckle. “It won’t be for long, just another day or two until the guys can get their injuries under control.”
“All right,” Kent sighed.
When he hung up the phone, he got dressed quickly and trudged to the mine, where the night before an explosion had gone off that had brought a huge amount of debris onto the men working in the area. It had been nothing too major, but Blaine wanted to make sure they were all taking care and not pushing themselves if it would hurt their ability to work long-term.
Kent soon found himself surrounded by the familiar faces of hard-working bear-shifters, gritting their teeth and moving heavy materials as they cleared out the area where the explosion had caused a collapse. Kent got to work helping them clear the area out, aware of everybody’s eyes on him as he worked. They never tried to hide their resentment toward him. It was clear that Blaine had a soft spot for him, and as the owner of Oak Mountain, that meant he had the favor of one of the most powerful bear-shifters in existence. It wasn’t like he wanted to receive any form of favoritism, and frankly, Blaine wasn’t the type of guy to even try to pick favorites.
Still, most men were jealous of anyone who was stronger than they were, and Kent more than qualified in that department. His focus on martial arts had allowed him to surpass all the other shifters on the mountain in terms of strength, skill, and discipline. And it was no wonder; he had really put his entire soul into it. It was the only thing that had given his life purpose after losing his family, and he was determined to continue growing in the arts as long as he had breath in his body. Nobody on the mountain could rival his self-discipline.
And yet, despite his desperation to keep his mind focused on the task at hand, all he could think about was the girl. Adrian had haunted his thoughts ever since he had first laid eyes on her and he knew there was really only one way to get her out of his head. He needed his thoughts back to himself, no matter what the cost might be.
He was going to claim her. Even if just for a night.