When the doorbell rang, Grace didn’t want to see who it was, but her aunt was resting in her bedroom and if someone woke her up she was going to have to kill them. As she stepped up behind the door she took a chance to pull back the curtain that hung over the window to the right of the door.

What did it say about her that she was more than a little disappointed that Noah was standing on the front doorstep? Fighting to put a more neutral expression on her face, she pulled the door open. “What’s up?”

“What’s up?” He laughed, but his tone wasn’t any better than his fake smile. “You certainly know how to make a guy feel welcome.”

“I just have a lot on my mind.” Her mind, yes. But it was the constant shiver of sensations that had been running through her body since Travis had nearly had her naked behind the diner, that made it literally impossible for her to get any kind of relaxation or calm. “I was lying down when you knocked.” She wanted to invite him to sit and chat, or maybe watch something on television, but the nagging combination of guilt and doubt were making a strong case for her to close the door and turn off the lights.

“I think we need to talk.” Noah’s tone had lost any humor, forced or otherwise.

“I’d rather we not.” Grace tried not to see the confusion on his face. “It’s been a long couple of days and I really need just a few days to get my head on straight.”

She gave him a look but he didn’t take the hint.

“Noah, come on, I mean, I know we’re just doing,” she made a half-hearted gesture between them, “this to make your leader-”

“The Itan.”

The reminder sounded like it was one of those things you just repeated because that’s what you’d been told to do. It was memorized, something she would have to learn to do if this whole ruse was going to work. “Yes, so that the Itan won’t rip me open and feed me to…” Grace stopped for a moment and fiddled with the knot-work frog button at her neck, “what exactly would happen to me if I didn’t-”

“Mate someone in the clan?” He paled and swayed a little before he spoke. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard what happens. I know I’ve never seen it.”

“Well that seems like a pretty sure-fire way of getting women. Join up or die.”

Noah didn’t laugh. His lips didn’t even move. “It’s not funny, Grace. This isn’t a joke!”

“I know it’s not.” She nudged him outside and closed the door behind them. “And you lower your voice! My aunt has had a lot of visitors lately and a lot of stress. She needs to relax or she’ll never get any better.”

Noah tried to pull her closer for a hug, but she wouldn’t let him. She kept her feet firmly planted on the wooden floor of the porch.

“I’m all for your aunt getting better, Grace. I love her like she was my family too. But there are things we need to discuss. If we don’t get a few things taken care of, things are going to get really crazy around here.”

“Going to get?” She scoffed. “I’m thinking we’re pretty high on the scale of crazy town right now.”

“Grace.” His eyes narrowed and she heard his voice growl out of his throat. This was a different Noah than she was used to. No longer the angry kid that liked to bring her fish from the river, he may smile a lot more, but he still had a lot of dark in him and she’d finally seen a bit of it bleed through into his eyes. “You need to take this serious, just for a few minutes. Hear me out.”

“Okay.” Pulling over one of the porch chairs she gestured at the other one for him to sit down. He didn’t. She closed her lips and waited.

“You probably noticed a bunch of guys that have come into the diner.” He waited for her to interrupt, and when she didn’t, he continued on, some of the tension leaching from his shoulders. “It’s normal when there’s a pretty girl there, but once the others heard that I found a mate they were curious and then the guys that don’t spend much time in town are coming in to get a good look at you.”

The words marched through her head. ‘Get a good look at you.’ In her head she saw a comical scene of her on display in the center of town in an over-sized birdcage.

“And I thought you should know why.”

The fact that Noah looked like he was about to throw up all over his shoes didn’t make her feel at all eager to hear the explanation. She nodded.

“Well, mating isn’t ‘mating,’” his use of airquotes was freakishly disturbing, “until it’s actually done.”

She sat there, hoping he’d explain more.

“So,” he seemed to take a bracing breath before continuing, “there’s kind of an un-spoken rule, or maybe it’s written down somewhere, that if the actual ‘event’ hasn’t taken place that others can give it a shot.”

The only shot she wanted at the moment, was her aunt’s shotgun.

“What do you mean? Am I supposed to be expecting shifters to jump out of the shadows and carry me away?”

He waved off. “Nothing like that. They wouldn’t take you anywhere or anyhow against your will, but there will be a few guys who at the very least will try to get to know you, turn on the charm, offer for you. You know.”

“So it’s kind of a free for all on the courting thing until we make ‘this’ official?”

When he nodded, she slumped down in the chair and hid her eyes from him. “Can someone give me a rule book or something? Every time someone says ‘hey, here’s something else you should know,’ things just get worse and worse.”

“You know, Gracie… if you’d rather be with that guy. You can.”

She looked up at him, blinking back her tears. “That’s what he said.”

Noah’s eyes narrowed. “When did he say that?”

“He came by the diner and caught me out back.”

Noah’s bear pushed forward with a growl. “Did he hurt you?”

“Hurt me?” She shook her head and stood up from the chair. “I think I hurt him.” Grace didn’t wait for him to ask. “He came to talk to me and tell me that we were meant to be together. He’s never going to understand me, Noah. He came here looking for a home. A place to put down roots and become a part of a community. I just want to travel and backpack and work odd jobs. Goodness knows I have the skill to take orders and deliver plates. He wants a family, children.”

“He said that to you?”

She shook her head. “He didn’t have to, he practically oozes daddy material, husband material. I want to see every dingy little corner of the world, carry everything in my suitcase. Staying in one place and trying to be the perfect Mama Bear wouldn’t be right for me. It’s not like my mom was an example I could follow. If I tried to make him happy, I’d screw it up. I’d go insane and I’d make him miserable.” She felt her lungs tighten in her chest. “Think of the babies! What if we had kids and I made them all miserable?”

Stepping into Noah’s instinctual embrace, she looked up into his face and saw patience and affection.

“I can’t be trusted around Travis, either. I practically attacked him! Grabbed his shirt, kissed him… we almost got naked and sticky on the rain barrel behind the diner, all because I couldn’t keep my hands or my mouth off of him!” She turned her face against his chest and sighed. “What I feel for Travis isn’t love,” she confessed, “it’s nearly obsession for that body of his.” Grace winced and since she already had her arms around Noah, she gave him a little squeeze of a hug. “That’s not to say you’re not panty-dropping gorgeous. ‘Cause you are.”

Noah gave her a little grimace.

“Just like you’re gorgeous, babe, but you’ve been my friend for so long… this plan might get a little tricky.”

She nodded. “So how are we going to get this ‘thing’ done. You just lean over and give me the worst hickey in the history of the world?”

“Wow, you’re just great for my ego, Gracie.”

“You know what I mean. After all, I get to bear the scars of it.”

“Well,” he sighed, “I can mark you with a bite. Hell, I could do it right now, and I’d have to treat the mark for a few days until it heals up enough, but there’s a reason why they do it during sex.”

“All those lovely hormones and endorphins? Yeah, I can see how that might distract someone from the real honest to goodness ‘love bite.’”

“It would make things easier on both of us.”

“Both?” Her look was more than a bit dubious.

“I don’t like the idea of hurting you and I don’t want that to be between us. At least if you let me give you an orgasm it would help me feel like I’m not a complete douche for making you do any of this at all.”

Her mind was still a few words back. “The way you say that ‘give me an orgasm’ makes me think you wouldn’t be getting anything out of the situation. All you’d be doing is trying to make my life better. My life easier.” She gave his chest a little reassuring pat. “What are you getting out of this, Noah? Don’t you want to find your ‘fated mate?’” The concept was still strange for her and she struggled to say the words without blushing like a kid reading a cartoon book about human reproduction. “What’s she going to think when she meets you and you’ve got a human mate hanging around your neck like the albatross on the Ancient Mariner? I doubt she’ll be all, ‘you’re such a gentleman.’ She’d likely want to gut me and bury me in the woods.”

“This is my home, Grace. I don’t leave Grayslake because I don’t want to. I seriously doubt she’s going to show up if she hasn’t already shown up. It’s not like she’s going to drop out of the sky and into my lap.” Noah pulled her closer and brushed a kiss on her forehead. “Look, I love you for thinking that it’s possible, but it’s not. And this whole mess you’re in? It’s my fault.”

“Don’t make me kick you in the shins.”

He hugged her closer. “You wouldn’t.”

She tried to inject a little evil into her laugh. “Oh yes I would!”

“You won’t.” Noah shook his head and then leaned close enough to whisper in her ear. “You’re not wearing shoes. And even in my human form, my bones are plenty hard.”

“Cheater!” She was satisfied with pinching him in the side.

“Human!” He set his hands on her hips and gave her a big grin. “You should remember that next to me you’re a puny thing.”

“You need glasses, blind man.”

“Nope, bear shifters have excellent eye sight.” He eased back the energy that he was pouring all over her. “Can you feel that?”

She nodded. “Your bear is confused. Just like me, how lucky.” She chuckled a little. “He knows that this is all kinds of weird. I don’t blame him.”

“Well, I do,” he came back at her with a sigh, “but really he’s doubting my game.” She looked up at him with a confused frown. “Like me, he doesn’t want you hurt, he still calls you ‘friend’ when we talk.”

“Aww, I love you too.” She sighed and leaned her forehead on Noah’s chest. “He doesn’t understand because our mating would be more of an arrangement instead of a… a…”

“Joining?”

Grace grinned back. “Yeah. Less wedding and more roommate.”

“All that romance,” he grumbled. “But I think you’re both underestimating how persuasive I can be when I turn on the charm.”

Liking the humorous turn that their conversation has taken she looked up into his face. “Well, be sure to let me know when you turn it on, I just don’t want to miss it.”

“Gracie?” He cupped her cheeks in his hands. “Are you paying attention?”

She didn’t answer beyond the sudden quirk of an eyebrow and the curious press of her lips.

He tried to kiss away the tight corners of her lips. He moved his lips over her pale cheeks and then gently over her temples where her heartbeat was so close to the surface.

She stiffened at first, holding still as he worked kisses down the other side of her face, along the curve of her jaw.

When his lips pressed an open-mouthed kiss just below her ear she tried to pull away, but he held her in place as his teeth skimmed over her pulse.

Grace pushed her hands between them, flattening her palms against his chest. “Noah, wait-”

He backed her up, her feet following in an off-rhythm two-step, until she felt the wall scrape at her bare shoulder blades. One hand skirted over her backside, pulling her hips against him, the other hand traced the edge of her blouse up and over her shoulder to the bow that held her halter-top closed.

Covering her mouth with his, he kissed her hard, pinching her lip against her bottom teeth. Grace tried to relax into the sensations, tried to let go of the nagging thoughts in the back of her head.

She felt the tip of his tongue trace the seam of her lips. She started to open to him just as he tugged the bow loose. The sudden rush of air along the back of her neck made her gasp and he ducked down to feather a kiss along her neck. His fingers started to smooth over her skin, shoulder, collar bone, lower and lower until he skimmed the curve at the top of her breast.

Her knees started to give way and she groaned.

He froze against her and the skin she felt against her went cold. Grace struggled to open her eyes and when she did she met sorrow and disappointment.

“What?” She swallowed once and then again and realized that her mouth was dry as a bone. “What happened?”

“You said his name.”

She looked away, her hands ice cold and shaking, and met another set of eyes.

Eyes dark as night and full of pain. “Travis.”

“Geez, Gracie, you can’t just keep-” Noah turned and saw the man standing at the curb. “Just great.”

He started to move away from her and Grace had to grab for her top, holding it against her chest with the flat of her palm.

Travis’ eyes missed nothing. He bristled. A slow roll of anger bled through his body and she felt the prickle of his power and his frustration crawl over her skin.

She wanted to talk to him, but she doubted he wanted to hear a word from her. Not now. Not after what she’d nearly done. And then she felt another wave of heat at her side. Noah’s emotions were a jumble of pain and disappointment and she was fairly sure she was stuck between two very angry pissed off rocks and she was probably going to be crushed. Really, it was only fitting since she had done her share of the crushing.

Travis ended the standoff. He turned on his heel and started back up the street at a stiff-legged walk that ate up more ground than a human. Thank goodness there was no one around but the three of them.

She turned her attention back to Noah. “We should talk.”

He shook his head. “Are you going to tell me you’d rather be with him?”

There was a moment of silence that lasted just a hair too long.

“Can you tell me you’re going to tie yourself to him forever?”

She shook her head but didn’t speak. Tying herself to anyone wasn’t part of the plan.

Noah seemed to relax, taking her answer at face value. “Good. I need to go… take care of some things. I’ll talk to you later.”

He started to move away. He didn’t smile or touch her shoulder. Didn’t hug her goodbye like he usually did and it was probably for the best.

Noah kept his eyes straight ahead of him until he got in and behind the wheel, and then he studiously avoided her gaze. It felt like a door had closed between them in one way, but he hadn’t called anything off. Maybe he was waiting for her to say something, to do something.

And yet she had no idea what to do. As Noah’s wheels continued to push clouds of dust up into the air, she watched him disappear down the street. “What is wrong with me?”

No one answered her question, almost as if the world was waiting for her to figure it out on her own. They obviously didn’t know how clueless she was. “I didn’t come here to ruin everyone’s life, but that’s certainly what this feels like.”