One

 

How the hell did I let this happen? Aniyah Evans pored over the recipe for strawberry rosewater fondant. The mixture didn’t look quite right. Something was wrong. She’d made the fondant a hundred times for clients, and not once had she ever been short of ingredients.

She stared at her measuring teaspoon, with only a few drops of the remaining rosewater, and swore under her breath. The cake had to be finished and delivered to her client tomorrow morning. Getting a special ingredient wasn’t easy; the closest grocery store that carried her only trusted brand of rosewater was over an hour away. She glanced at the stove’s clock. She could make it to the store five minutes before closing time if she booked it.

She picked up her cell phone and dialed Ron’s General Store.

“Afternoon, Ms. Evans,” Ron answered.

Aniyah smiled at his cute country drawl. “Hi, Ron. Listen, I have a bit of an emergency here. Think you can do me a little favor?”

“Of course. Name it.”

Aniyah took a deep breath. “I need some more Niagua-brand rosewater ASAP. Can you please keep the store open a little longer until I get there?”

There was a brief pause. “That’s a pretty steep favor. I’ve got another engagement later tonight.”

Aniyah bit her bottom lip. She hated asking Ron for favors, especially since he’d done so much for her, giving her special discounts for driving so far to shop at his store. But her baking emergency made her desperate. “Please, Ron. I wouldn’t be asking you if it wasn’t important. I’ll pay the full price, plus extra.”

“No, no. Don’t worry about that. Come on by.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Ron. You’re the best. I’ll bake you the biggest pan of banana nut bread for this.”

Ron chuckled. “I’m lookin’ forward to it.”

She ended the call and rushed to her bedroom to grab her purse. As she fumbled for her keys, the phone rang again. She scrambled back to the kitchen and grabbed it from the counter. The number that flashed on the screen was one she hadn’t seen in almost a month. She fumbled for the answer button. “H-Hello?”

“Great news, hun,” Gerri Wilder’s chipper voice said. “I’ve finally got it all straightened out. Your new mate’s a doozy!”

Aniyah blinked. “Gerri?”

“Well, who’d you think it was?”

“Uh… I just wasn’t expecting a call from you.” After numerous failed attempts with matchmaking sites, dating had become a joke. She’d called Gerri for shits and giggles when she’d found a flyer on her windshield. If human men didn’t care for a plus-sized pastry chef, she doubted any shifter would, either. She’d needed a good laugh after her last date with a shifter. He’d had the same superficial interests in women that his human counterparts did. But instead of a flat-out rejection, Gerri had told Aniyah she was “working on it.” Whatever that meant.

“There’s a reason why my business cards say ‘one hundred percent matchmaking guarantee.’ Now, this man I had in mind is a bit of a character. A little crass, but I’m sure you’ll have no problems taming that beast.”

Aniyah raised her eyebrows. “You actually found someone? And what do you mean by ‘taming’?”

Gerri chortled. “I will leave that to your imagination. Have a good night, hun!”

The line went dead. Aniyah stared at the screen until it dimmed. She wanted to believe there was someone for her, but Gerri’s cryptic message left her feeling like it was all wishful thinking. Maybe Gerri was playing some sick joke. Aniyah frowned and stared at the mixing bowl. Thoughts about dating were soon forgotten when she realized her more immediate situation. Rosewater.

Aniyah covered the mixing bowl and set it in the refrigerator. She grabbed her keys and hustled out of her tiny duplex and into her car. The heart of rush-hour traffic didn’t make things easier, as her compact sedan crawled through the streets at a snail’s pace. Forty-five minutes later, she finally made it to the main highway and floored the gas pedal. After zooming north toward the suburbs, she veered off the exit ramp and drove toward the tiny, rural, three-mile-wide town of Cedarstone Heights. With evening fallen, the narrow tree-canopied road was nearly pitch-black, save for the dim light of the full moon. Gripping the steering wheel tightly, Aniyah navigated the winding road. She hated driving it at night. Somehow, she always managed to get lost in this abyss. With not a single streetlight for miles down the road, the turn-off to the general store was easy to miss.

It was nearing eight o’clock—nearly an hour after Ron usually closed shop. Aniyah hoped that he would still be there.

Two golden-glowing dots suddenly appeared in front of her car—headed straight for her. Or am I heading for them? They looked too small to be headlights. Perhaps bicycle reflectors—

Holy shit!

She slammed on the brakes. The tires gave an ear-piercing squeal, followed by a loud bang in front of her car. The impact sent her body jolting forward, but the seatbelt caught her momentum. Her heart racing, she put the car into Park. She pulled her foot off the brake and let go of the steering wheel. She looked around frantically for the bicyclist, but the bike and its rider were nowhere to be found.

“Oh fuck…” she muttered. Did I just run that bicyclist over? They could be trapped under the car! She fumbled with the seatbelt, grabbed a mini flashlight out of the glove compartment, and scrambled out of the car. She shined the light around the area but saw only a few fallen tree branches. She knelt and checked under the car. Nothing was there, either, not even a bike. What the hell was that?

Not wanting to stay a moment longer in such a creepy place, Aniyah returned to her car and buckled her seatbelt. As she reached for the handle to close the door, something grabbed her arm. She froze, her fast-beating heart jumping to her throat. She tried to yank her hand away, but pain surged through her wrist as it was squeezed even more tightly. Fear and shock prevented her from screaming. She slowly looked toward the source of the pain to find a shadowy human-like figure looming over her.

A deep, guttural growl emanated from the stranger. Aniyah yelped, jumping in her seat, but the seatbelt restrained her. She grabbed the flashlight from the passenger’s seat and shone it at the stranger. The light revealed thick muscles ridden with tribal tattoos and a brawny shape of a man—a naked man. Oh shit. As the light touched his face, he threw his arm over his eyes and snarled.

The man’s grip around her arm loosened, and Aniyah managed to pull her arm back. She looked at the door again, hoping to close it, but the man was blocking the handle. She grasped the gear selector. She could drive off with the door open if she had to in order to get away from that creep.

As Aniyah was about to put the car in Drive, a large figure landed on the hood of her car with a loud bang. She screamed. Two yellow dots glimmered in the darkness, and butterflies filled her stomach. The figure hopped off the hood and disappeared faster than she could blink. What little of the figure’s outline she glimpsed looked like a giant dog. A wolf.

Her sweaty hand shook on the gear selector as she fumbled to move it to Drive. Wolves! How the hell did I end up in the middle of a wolf pack!

The mysterious naked man recovered and sneered. “I will rip you apart for that, trespasser!”

She shivered at his dark, foreboding voice. She strong-armed the gear selector and floored the gas pedal. “I’m not trespassing! This is a public road!” she yelled back at him as the car zoomed off. The driver’s-side door flopped open as she roared ahead, unable to reach for the handle to close it. But she would worry about that later once she was away from that angry wolf pack.

She checked her rearview mirror. Dozens of glowing yellow dots were right on her tail. She finally pulled the driver’s door shut, her foot never leaving the gas pedal. Looking ahead, she spotted the flood light affixed to the side of the general store half a mile away, shining down on the woodchipped parking area in a bluish-white glow.

She checked her mirror again, and the glowing yellow dots were gone. The wolves must’ve finally given up and left, unable to keep up with her fast-moving car. Good riddance.

She heaved a deep sigh and returned her attention to the road. Pulling up to the general store, she noticed a man standing outside the front door, his back to her. He was peering inside through the glass at the dark interior. She relaxed a little when she recognized the man’s lean frame, short hair, and a baseball cap she never saw him without—though it was the first time she’d ever seen Ron wear his cap backward.

Aniyah parked, hopped out of her car, and rushed to Ron. She was much later than she’d told him she would be, but she was grateful to catch Ron just as he was leaving. “Hey, Ron. Thanks a bunch for waiting for me. I’m so sorry for being super late. I, uh, got caught up in traffic, and…” She paused as the man turned around.

It wasn’t Ron. He was, in fact, a handsome Adonis who stared back at her with a look of uncertainty in his piercing eyes. But as looks were deceiving, especially around this area at night, she regarded the stranger with much trepidation. Her stomach clenched as the man’s gaze remained fixed on her. He was probably another wolf in disguise, and she’d walked right into his trap.

“S-Sorry, I thought you were someone else,” she stammered, walking backward toward her car. She didn’t give a damn about the rosewater anymore. She would just cancel and refund her client’s order if she had to. She hated taking the financial hit, especially from a repeat client who paid and tipped more than generously, but a bottle of rosewater wasn’t worth the cost of barely escaping with her life from rabid shifter clans. Who knew being a pastry chef could be so dangerous?

The stranger at the entrance stood perfectly still, watching silently. His frame was slightly more built and chiseled than Ron’s, and though the dimness of the light dulled his olive skin, there was a certain charm and beauty in the man’s face. Aniyah noticed the string of tattooed tiger stripes down the length of his exposed toned arms. Not exactly a tattoo that a wolf shifter would have, she thought, then wondered if she’d perhaps stumbled into the middle of a clan war.

Her back suddenly hit the passenger-side door of her car, and she jumped. She scrambled around to the driver’s side. As her sweat-slicked hands reached for the handle, she heard numerous low growls around her. Pulling open the door, she glanced over her shoulder at the dozens of glowing yellow dots behind her. Her breathing staggered.

One of the sets of dots emerged from the darkness and approached her. The faint light of the moon outlined the wolf’s large shape and reflected the glowing dots of the beast’s foreboding eyes. The wolf shifted, its limbs becoming more humanlike, and it stood on two legs instead of four. The mysterious naked man she’d met earlier stood before her.

“I was not done with you, woman,” the man growled, then he put his hand on her shoulder and held her in place. “You trespass in our territory, and then you have the audacity to interrupt our ceremonial running by striking one of my sisters with your damned car!”

Aniyah shivered at his icy touch. His grip was firm, and she couldn’t shake it off. “It was an accident. I didn’t see her,” she said, though in the back of her mind, she wondered why the hell she was trying to reason with a naked man who wanted to rip her head off.

She looked toward the entrance to the general store, wondering if the man with the tiger-stripes tattoos was still watching, but he was gone. Great. She was trapped. Outnumbered by wolves. Cornered like a wounded animal. She would fight to her death if she must—all because she needed rosewater.

The man spun her around so that she was facing him. Staring deep into her soul, his human eyes gave off a faint golden glow that made her shiver.

“S-Stay back,” Aniyah warned, balling her shaky hands into fists.

One of the other wolves suddenly howled. The man paused, and his eyes locked on something beyond her. He backed away, snarling.

A loud roar and a bang on the car’s roof made Aniyah freeze. A shadow loomed over her, breathing heavily. She slowly looked up at the large creature perched on the roof of her car.

A tiger!

The wolf pack seemed to lose interest in Aniyah. Their attention was locked on the tiger, who was poised, ready to strike.

“So, the Whitetide still exists,” the naked man said. He returned to all fours and assumed his wolf form once more.

Aniyah watched in confusion, unsure of who was her enemy or ally. She hesitated getting in the car with the giant tiger standing guard, looking like it was going to maul everything in its sight—including her.

The snarling wolves stood their ground, the hairs on their backs raised. The tiger assessed the situation, its tail twitching slightly. In a flash, the tiger leapt off the car and landed before the pack. Ignoring the other surrounding wolves, the tiger charged at the pack leader. The bigger wolf lunged forward, and they clashed, ending up in a violent tussle on the ground. For several minutes, they rolled around and fought, mauling and tearing flesh with claws and teeth. Finally, the tiger pinned the wolf beneath its strong body and latched on to the leader’s throat with its jaws. The leader struggled to get free and let out ear-piercing cries.

The other wolves closed in and pounced on the tiger’s back, attempting to take the large animal down in a group effort. But the tiger held firm, tightening its muscles and making his body like an impenetrable shield against the wolves. Still holding the wolf leader by the throat, the tiger whipped its head back and forth violently then flung the animal into the trunk of a large tree. The wolf leader’s head smashed against the trunk, and he let out a yelp. His body slid lifelessly to the ground.

Aniyah widened her eyes. Holy shit… How easily that tiger was able to defeat the pack leader! She did not want to be next. While the tiger was busy squaring off with the remaining pack members, Aniyah hopped into her car and started the engine. She checked her rearview mirror and watched as the wolf pack scurried off with their tails between their legs. Two of them retrieved their leader and tugged him along as they followed the rest of their pack back into the woods, where they disappeared.

The tiger was gone—for good, she hoped.

There was a sudden tap on the passenger-side window. She slowly looked to her right. The same man she’d seen standing outside the general store was on the other side of the glass. He was shirtless, though, wearing only a pair of jeans. Part of her couldn’t resist admiring his strong frame, despite it being smeared with dirt and crisscrossed with scratches and bruises, as if he’d just been in a fight.

A fight. Aniyah blinked, her rational side taking over once more. Is this guy the tiger? She chewed her bottom lip. After what she’d witnessed him do to the wolf leader, Aniyah repeatedly hit the lock button to ensure all of her doors were secured. She put the car in Reverse but kept her foot on the brake as she eyed the man warily.

The stranger looked at her with seemingly genuine concern. “Hey, are you all right?” he asked, his deep voice muffled by the window.

She swallowed. Was he really concerned, or was he baiting her? “Who are you? And what do you want?” she yelled back.

The man held up his hands in surrender. “I’m Gauge. I just wanna talk. Gerri Wilder sent me here.”

Her jaw dropped open. Gerri? Her foot slid off the brake, and the car slowly rolled backward. It wasn’t until she saw him following her that she regained herself and quickly slammed her foot back on the brake. She put the car in Park. Gauge bumped into the hood of the car and grunted. He shook himself back to his senses and rounded to the driver’s side.

He motioned for her to roll down the window. She continued staring at him. This can’t be the man Gerri meant, could it? How could Aniyah possibly ‘tame’ someone like him, who’d easily ripped through a wolf pack leader like a piece of paper?

Gauge plastered his hands and his forehead against the glass, looking at her intently. “It is you, isn’t it? It sucks that our first meeting had to be like this…”

Aniyah bit her bottom lip. His voice sounded genuine, and the way he looked at her was so far opposite the sinister gaze the pack leader had given her. His concern held some merit. Her finger slowly drew to the window switch.

As the window lowered, Gauge pulled back. He gave her a charming smile that outlined a faint scar on his cheek where a dimple would normally be. That smile was contagious, and she couldn’t help but return the gesture.

“Hey, so… yeah…” Gauge rubbed the back of his head.

Aniyah studied him a moment. “You are the tiger? You were sent by Gerri?”

He nodded. “I didn’t know who I would find here. Damn, I’ve scored the jackpot.”

She snorted a laugh. “Jackpot? Please. Save the flattery for someone you actually care about. I honestly didn’t expect for Gerri to find me a match. I’m not exactly men’s preferred type.”

His smile fell, and the scar was less obvious. “What are you talking about? You’re gorgeous!”

Gorgeous… She’d never heard a man utter that word about her—and actually mean it, anyway. “Thank you, but… this is really a bad time…”

“A bad time for what? Are you still in danger?”

“Kind of. I have a kitchen emergency and came all the way here hoping to get some rosewater before the store closed. But then I had a run-in with those damned wolves…” She sighed.

His jaw tightened. “They won’t bother you again. I made sure of it.”

The way he said that, so assuring like a true protector, made her heart flutter. “Thank you.”

“You said you needed rosewater? From the general store?”

Aniyah nodded. “Yeah, but it’s too late for that now. The store’s closed. I’m going home. Thank you for saving me from those wolves. I’m Aniyah, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you.” He nodded absently then paused. “How much is the rosewater?”

She furrowed her brow. “Uh, fifteen bucks. Why?”

He patted the driver’s-side door reassuringly. “Stay here. I’ll be back.”

Curious, she watched him head toward the store. Along the way, he picked up his discarded shirt and baseball cap from the ground and slipped them on.