The bar is packed. But it always is when Caleb’s band plays. He plays guitar in the all-shifter band. Jordy from the firehouse crew sings, Logan a local bounty hunter is on bass, and Dane, one of the Forest Rangers, is an animal on the drums.

The smell of fur is thick in here tonight with a half a dozen or so different shifter crews spread around the bar. I also see some shifters from the police station and from the firehouse—probably here to support Jordy. Even the Diamond brothers are here from the Bearskin inn.

There are huge bodies everywhere, and I don’t want any of them to bump into Jessie, so I put a protective arm around her and guide her through the crowd to the bar.

“You know we don’t serve Grizzlies in here,” the bartender Kace says with a grin. “I think your kind would be more at home at The Dirty Ashtray. It’s too classy in here for you.”

“I agree,” I say with a laugh. “But I promised the pretty lady a drink, and she’s too classy for the The Dirty Ashtray. What do you say?”

He laughs as we slap hands. “Only because your ugly ass is prettying the place up with this lovely lady.”

Jessie blushes as he smiles at her.

Could she be any cuter?

I lean in close, taking advantage of the loud music to stick my nose close to her hair and breathe in her sexy scent. “What do you want to drink?”

“A beer,” she answers as my body tingles. It’s killing me to be this close to her and keep my hands to myself.

“Do you want the regular stuff or the local stuff?” I ask.

“When in Redemption Creek,” she says with a smile and a shrug. “Do as the Redemptians do. I’ll try the local stuff.”

“Warning. It burns your eyes and sears your throat.”

She licks her lips and the sight nearly makes my knees give out. “Sounds delicious.”

“It’s not.” I laugh as I turn back to Kace who’s already serving someone else. “Two Alpha Beers,” I call out and he nods. A few seconds later, he drops two warm mugs onto the bar with a clunk.

“Cheers,” Jessie says, lifting her mug. “To old friends.”

“To old lovers,” I say, lifting mine up as well.

She laughs as we clink our mugs together. “I’ll drink to that.”

I watch her closely as she takes a sip and then spits it back out. “Ugh!” she shouts, sticking her tongue out in shock. “I mean I’ll… cough… I’ll try to drink it. What the hell do they brew this vile drink with? Cyanide? Tide Pods?”

“I warned you,” I say, laughing as she puts the mug back on the bar.

Kace has seen this hundreds of times and has a new mug ready with regular beer that he drops in front of her. “Don’t feel bad,” he says. “No human has been able to drink it on their first try.”

“I can see why,” she says, clearing her throat before she takes a long sip of her beer. She takes a deep breath after she downs half of it. “That’s better.”

We chat for a while, and I can’t believe I’m having a good time like I used to. Lately, every time I’ve been in a bar it’s to drown my sorrows. I forgot that going to a bar can actually be fun. But then again, everything with Jessie was always fun.

We’re on our second beers when the music shuts off and the band comes out. Everyone claps, but Jessie is cheering the loudest.

Caleb is scanning the crowd from the stage, probably looking for the lifeguard that he has a crush on. His shoulders drop in disappointment when he doesn’t see her.

“I’m excited,” Jessie says, scooching a little closer to me. She’s sitting on the barstool and I’m standing next to her, leaning on the bar. Our arms are touching, and it’s hard to concentrate on anything but her soft warm skin on mine.

“Where are your friends?” she asks, looking up at me. “Aren’t they coming?”

“They’re by the pool tables,” I say, motioning to them with my eyes. I spotted them the second I walked in. It’s instinct by now to immediately spot my crew. Especially with a bunch of shifters around.

The singer says a few words and they start playing Riptide by Vance Joy.

“I love this song!” Jessie says, jumping up from the barstool. She looks so excited as she grabs my hand and pulls me into the crowd. “Let’s go closer!”

There are so many big bodies around, and I don’t want a delicate girl like her to get crushed, but she looks so excited that I can’t tell her no.

I keep her close, butting my way through the crowd so she doesn’t get bumped into. When we’ve gotten as close as we can get, she starts swaying to the music in front of me as she sings the words.

Her soft body rubs against mine, making my heart pound as hard as the drums. Her hair is falling out of her cowboy hat right under my nose with that sexy smell that always drives me wild. I wrap my arms around her shoulders, holding her tight, half expecting her to squirm away, but she doesn’t. She settles into my embrace as she moves her body to the beat, making every nerve ending in my body stir and tingle.

Even my bear is loving it, gently grumbling in content.

We spend the rest of the show like this with our bodies as close as possible, drinking, dancing, singing, and having fun.

I haven’t had a night like this in a long time. It’s nice to have a vacation from the guilt and shame, no matter how short it’s going to be.

“Thank you!” the singer says after they finish the last song. I glance at the clock and am shocked to see that two hours have passed since we first walked in. The time flew by.

We have another drink at the bar as we joke around and reconnect over stories of the last time we were together.

“I still can’t believe you did that,” she says, a little too drunk for her own good. She has a permanent smile on her flushed face, but who am I kidding? So do I.

“I was trying to impress you.”

“It worked,” she says with a laugh. Her eyes never leave mine as she takes a sip of her beer. “I was so scared. I thought I was going to watch you fall to your death.”

“That wouldn’t have been a very good first date,” I say with a grin as I remember it like it was yesterday. We were walking along a mountain trail when I climbed down over a cliff to pick her a flower that was growing on a small patch of dirt on the rock’s edge.

When I gave it to her, she threw it back at me and cursed me out. That’s when I knew that she was something special.

“Let’s get out of here,” I say, “and I’ll pick you another flower. I think I saw one inside of an active volcano.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” she says, shaking her head as she downs the rest of her beer. “But I’d rather you stick to the flower shop.”

I pay our tab, nod to my crew, and we leave.

This time we’re not walking with a distance between us. This time she’s practically hanging onto me. Maybe I fed her too much beer.

“We should have done this a long time ago,” she says, licking her lips when we stop at my pickup truck. “Like eight years ago.”

I nod. “I agree. This was long overdue. I guess we’ll have to make up for lost time.”

Her eyes slowly roam up my body, and the laughter and smiles are gone when our eyes meet once again. Her body straightens in my arms as she leans her chin up.

I close my eyes and lower my lips to hers, my whole body craving this with every nerve in me.

“Jessie.”

My lips hit nothing but air.

When I open my eyes, I see her looking at a man who’s leaning on a street sign. Her body stiffens in my hands and I watch as she instantly sobers up.

“Jessie,” I whisper as she steps out of my embrace. “Who’s this?”

“This is…” she says, looking at the guy. “Inevitable.”

My bear reacts before I do. He’s already stirring, trying to get out as I look at the man.

I hold him back as I look the guy over—slicked back hair, ugly suit, stain on his shirt. He’s no threat to her as long as I’m standing by her side.

He looks so smug and satisfied with himself as he walks over to a black car and opens the back door. “Get in,” he says as he holds the door open. My jaw tightens. I want to wipe that smirk off his face for good.

To my surprise, Jessie lets out a heavy sigh and drops her head. “I have to go, Lachlan.”

I grab her arms and turn her until she’s looking up at me with those sexy blue eyes. I want to kill that guy for taking the joy out of them. “You don’t have to go anywhere.”

She takes a deep breath as she gives me a sad little smile. “It’s okay, Lachlan,” she says. My breath quickens as she reaches up and strokes my cheek with her hand. “You don’t know how much this night means to me. For once, I felt like a normal girl on the town with a fun, good-looking guy. But it was only an illusion. A facade. I can pretend that I’m free, but I’m not. And I never will be.”

My mind is racing for answers as she steps up on her toes and gives me a soft kiss on the cheek.

“Thank you,” she says softly.

“Jessie,” the man says with a little more force in his voice. I don’t like the way he’s ordering her around. It’s making me want to do violent things.

“How did you find me, Alessandro?” she asks him.

He laughs. “I had to rough up the guy at the bus station a little bit, but he told me where you were headed. It’s hard to forget a girl in a wedding dress, and next time don’t leave your car in the parking lot if you want to get away. Now let’s go. You caused me enough fucking trouble, and we have a long drive home.”

She turns to leave but I don’t let her go.

“Who is this guy?” I ask. “What does he want with you?”

With a bitter smile she touches my forearm and gently pushes it down until my hand drops from her arm. “It’s my fate, Lachlan,” she whispers. “I don’t want you to get mixed up in it.”

I’m standing there with my head spinning and my heart breaking as she thrusts her shoulders back and goes to the guy.

He looks pissed with his hard eyes and his chest thrust out, but it’s nothing compared to what I’m feeling when he grabs her arm with a firm grip.

She lets out a whimper as her face twists in pain, and it takes everything I have to hold back my furious grizzly bear as it tries to rush forward to maul the fucking guy.

“You really made me look like a fo—”

He stops talking when he sees me charging forward with every muscle in my body flexed and ready for violence.

“Easy, cowboy,” he says, sliding his hand into his jacket as he steps back. “You don’t want to get shot over some city girl you picked up in a bar, do you?”

I try to talk, but it comes out like a snarl. “Let her ggggg-o.”

My bear is infuriated and close to the edge. I have to take this guy out fast or I’ll terrify Jessie with a thirteen-hundred-pound grizzly bear ripping out of my body.

“This is your last chance, cowboy,” he says as he pulls out a handgun. “Go home and milk some fucking cows. This is none of your business.”

“Like hell it isn’t,” I snap back.

Jessie is looking more and more worried. She starts to panic when she sees the gun.

“Just go home, Lachlan,” she says with her voice racing. “Everything is going to be okay. I’ll be okay. Just please go.”

Alessandro raises the gun and points it at my forehead. He’s staring at me with a challenging look.

I just glare back at him. A vicious heat is surging through my body as I step forward.

Then, he pulls the trigger.