ANDREW
Andrew jumped into his gunmetal pickup and started it up slowly. Starry Night Diner was exactly as he remembered and it was perfect. Most of the regulars were the same and he was happy to see all of them again. He enjoyed the business, the cooking and he finally found home again in the gorgeous diner. Running it or something like it was always his dream.
And then there was Riley Stern, the half-breed.
He had expected something different. Someone who was… he couldn’t really put a finger on it. Tattooed and punk, she was bristly, closed off. Ruth had warned him that she didn’t do close. She had a reputation in town that she didn’t do personal or anything resembling it. Ruth had also told him about what Riley looked like when she showed up.
“Beaten,” Ruth had whispered. “She was beaten. She was only ever in Wild Junction because her car broke down on the highway and we had the closest mechanic. She was running and we kept her. Joey and Sheriff had decided she wasn’t going anywhere and the town took her in as one of our own. She needed it.”
He’d considered that for a long time. He had talked to Ruth before any of the staff showed up about all the staff but Riley was the biggest topic. Required the most care even if she hadn’t been a half-breed he needed to get close to.
And he wanted to get close to her. No parents or any family? He couldn’t believe that no one was looking out for her. She was all of five foot nothing and had obviously worked hard on her body, even if she still had a bit of curve. His mouth was dry at the sight of her in the uniform and her scent set him on fire.
Then she opened her mouth and he was washed in her husky voice. Deeper, sensual, more seductive naturally then most women. But what she actually said made him think twice. She was a bit prickly to avoid others. Troy had warned him, saying she would be a hard target to get close to. Andrew was the nicest one in the house but even he didn’t know if he could pull this off.
As he got home, he remembered that tonight was also Gabe’s briefing on her. They needed to figure out who this chick was before something happened.
Andrew didn’t hate other shifters are much as his brothers but he knew and understood why her being in this town was a problem. Other shifters made it a point to get in their lives just to get to their money. Not Andrew’s money, since he technically didn’t have any. Truthfully, his brothers bought the diner because Andrew wanted to do something with himself after years of culinary school. They all loved the diner and Ruth on top of that so, they bought him Starry Night. It was a sign they were here to stay, in their home, fuck all the other shifters.
He pulled into the garage and found all of them in the kitchen. Zachary was on the counter on one side, with Troy sitting on the other side. Gabe sat at the bar with a laptop and a stack papers in a file. Brenton was getting dinner set up. They ordered take out while Andrew at work, the heathens.
“So,” Brenton started. “How was the diner?”
Andrew chuckled, grabbing plates and silverware.
“It was good. Missed that place and it hasn’t changed a bit.” He told Brenton as they all moved into the dining room. It took all night to clean up that food fighting but it had been fun.
They all sat for the evening ritual of dinner together. Andrew dished them all up, as everyone had small talk. He saw Gabe frowning over something in the file he had and didn’t even look up for his food.
“I’ll get this started,” Andrew sighed. “Riley Stern, twenty-three. Waitress at Starry Night for the entire two years she’s lived here. Great employee, Ruth only had good things to say about her work ethic and abilities.”
“She’s just a waitress,” Zachary groaned. “It’s not like she’s a rocket scientist.”
“Hey man, don’t fuck with servers,” Troy pointed his chop sticks at Zachary. “They work hard for fucking nothing. It’s outrageous.”
Andrew nodded and looked pointedly at Zachary, who had the decency to look away.
“Things get really interesting when Ruth talked about how Riley showed up in Wild Junction,” he took a bite of his egg roll, swallowing it before he continued. “Her car had broken down and when Ruth met her, Riley looked like she had the shit kicked out of her by some fucking asshole. She was terrified and desperate since her car couldn’t be fixed. It was junked within the first week of her being here. Joey and Sheriff helped her find a place at the Dump then sent her to Ruth to get a job.”
He looked around at the guys, most of them a little pale at the sound of some chick getting beaten on. Zachary looked pissed, his general appearance but Andrew also knew that Zachary didn’t tolerate hitting women. It was unacceptable. He also knew that Zachary had killed a guy for it once before. Great way to start this conversation.
“It fits with the fact that there are rumors that she doesn’t do relationships. She hooks up with tourists like most of the single girls here. Keeps it simple and quick.” Andrew kept eating as he spoke. “She’s only got two real friends, Haley and Phoebe, both true locals. A bit younger then us, they were preteens when we left. Haley’s happily married but Phoebe is single and she tears it up with Riley on the weekends, normally at Rocker’s. That’s all I’ve really got from town and Ruth.”
He pushed his food away for the next part since it made him even more upset the story about how she got to Wild Junction.
“She’s got no family, at least that’s what she said. Her mom apparently died when she was six and her dad left her at sixteen. That’s all she was willing to tell me. And she’s prickly about it. Doesn’t want me asking those questions and I know she doesn’t want me to be her friend. She’s a damn orphan like us.”
“That fits with what I found,” Gabe cut in quietly. “Lily Stern, no maiden name on record anywhere, car accident in 2000. Dad, Keith Stern, was fine, did well enough to support her and then he literally just walked out on her in 2008. Left a note saying he wasn’t coming back and told the school to find his brother, that he would take her in. She was dumped into foster care because the brother was unreachable. She was moved through a few houses, none of them lasting very long. People don’t like dealing with teenagers. She graduated high school in Washington, top ten of her class, and then left to Montana to follow her boyfriend, who got a job out there and is very human. She was a waitress the entire time and then one night, she showed up here in Wild Junction.” He placed the folder down on the table. “She’s had a pretty fucked life. Not the worst we’ve ever heard of but before her dad left her, she was on the fast track to art school and that was all blown up when he left her. The school reported that his note said he had something he needed to do that was more important then raising his daughter. So yeah, imagine how a sixteen year old can feel about that. While her grades were still good, she became a disciplinary problem. A couple small fights, late to school a lot, caught out past curfew in bars she wasn’t supposed to be in.”
“Was she a trouble maker?” Brenton whispered. Andrew could see the wheels spinning in his head and wondered what Brenton was thinking about.
“I think most of her problems came from other students or foster families. The bars she was caught in, she was trying to bar-tend to make money. The fights? Girls messing with her for having no family.” Gabe pushed the file towards Brenton. “It’s all here, if you want to look it over.”
Brenton took the file slowly and flicked through it.
“No connection to shifters?”
“None, unless it was her mom, who I’m still trying to dig into. She seems to have not existed before her marriage to Keith, so I’m assuming she’s a shifter and she was hiding. It happens every now and then. I’m not sure Lily is even her real name.” Gabe sighed softly. “Keith was completely normal up until he left. All of his records are in there too and completely accounted for. That guy was a Navy fucking SEAL of all things. So Lily must be the connection. Lily Isabella Stern.”
“Well, looks like this is an easy decision,” Troy laughed. “We bring her in. Even if her mom was a shifter and planned on helping her, six years old is too young to explain any of this to someone with a human life. She never got the chance.”
Andrew nodded to that. Troy was right, it was an easy decision. Just difficult to make happen. She wouldn’t want any of them near her and Andrew had feeling he knew why.
“Think the boyfriend was the reason she left Montana?” Brenton asked softly.
“There’s no police reports but if this is the real world still, then the possibility is very real.” Gabe looked to Andrew. “Good luck getting close to her. She seems to have a bad track record with men.”
Andrew heard Troy curse under his breathe and looked to him.
“That might be why she was so bitchy on the ride I gave from Joey’s.” He groaned, leaning back in his chair. “Here I was, trying to be nice to some cute little thing and she was not having any of it. Wouldn’t even let me take her bags into her kitchen. Made me drop them at the front door.”
They sat quietly for a minute and Andrew noticed they had all given up on their food.
“She needs us,” Brenton groaned. “She’s got nobody. But we need to find out who her mother is. Also…” Brenton pulled a recent picture of her out of the file. “She is quite pretty. Troy got that right.” He flipped the picture around to show them. “The hair could be any spotted cat, they seem to have that weird thing going on, like Troy’s weird streams. Unlike Troy’s, it doesn’t tell us much more then that since lots of felines have that tawny blonde coloring.”
They all looked at Brenton, a few of them nodding in agreement.
“Enough of her,” Zachary stood up. “Anyone up for a run?” He looked at Brenton, who nodded. Andrew stood up at that and began to head to the back of the house. They needed a run since only Troy could safely go out during the snowstorm, being a snow leopard.
He was nearly done stripping down when the others got to him and began tossing clothing down as well. Cloths didn’t shift with them, so it got dropped off or destroyed. And being a two hundred pound cat with a t-shirt and jeans on was fairly annoying and a little painful.
He looked into the woods and let the cougar come up. It felt like unlocking another piece of himself to take control. The shift wasn’t painful or very long. Humans couldn’t clearly see what was happening as their bodies reformed in to the second form and shifters didn’t pay attention to it.
He wasn’t the first one done, staring at a massive white Bengal tiger, Zachary, nearly five hundred pounds. Beside him, her felt Gabe come up, the midnight black African leopard. Troy was a decently large snow leopard and blended in well with the fresh snow. He was completely in element. Both of them were the smallest, only roughly a hundred and twenty pounds each. Even Andrew was larger then them in feline form.
Finally, Brenton walked by them all, nearly four hundred and fifty pounds of African lion. He had healthy dark mane and huge ass feet. He was the Alpha of their family for a reason and Andrew was sure he never forgot it. Zachary might have been bigger then Brenton, but male lions were built for the fight, the mane protecting them from the most vulnerable attacks.
They trotted slowly, entering the woods in the dead of night, completely silent. They then picked up speed, letting them all stretch their legs. Gabe and Troy were the fastest of them over longer distances with Andrew’s speed at the middle of the pack. Brenton and Zachary were in the back, both more sprinters then distance runners. They could all keep going for days but top speeds were only meant for short distances for any of them.
They owned a massive piece of land just for this. Hunters weren’t allowed on the property and they made sure it was all marked out and fenced off. They kept their eyes open just in case, since none of them wanted to get shot for something stupid, like being seen.
Andrew found a rocky portion of the property they used to play at when they were young and huffed.
*Guys, look at what I found*
Shifters would speak telepathically in their animal forms. It came in handy though, like just talking, it was limited by distance and volume. It wasn’t an exact science but they made due with it.
*Sweet!* Troy laughed.
*Oh here we go…* Brenton groaned in their heads.
Troy was suddenly next to him and then past him to jump into a snow drift against one of the large rocks. Snow went everywhere and Andrew shook it off his coat.
Gabe next, but had no camouflage like Troy, sticking out on the pure clean snow and he leapt to the top of the biggest rock. By the time Brenton and Zachary showed up, Troy and Gabe were playing king of the hill. Andrew wasn’t one to goof off like them so he just laid down and groaned when Zachary decided to try and lay on top of him. Snarling grabbed his attention and he saw that Brenton claimed the rock, a feline grin on his face. He swatted Gabe lazily as he rolled on his back. Andrew always felt that Brenton really let go when he was in feline form. It was the only time they could relax and Andrew was always happy to see Brenton take the chance.
They played around for nearly an hour before heading home. As they shifted back, Andrew considered what it was going to be like trying to bring a woman into their easy group. Shifters had no problem with nudity but she grew up human. And he was positive none of them would be able to ignore her. She was just too fucking hot.
Problems for another day, he thought, as he grabbed his clothing and moved to his room. Problems for another day.