By the time she reached the street, Willa looked up at the sky and smiled. The shifter community in Sylvan City was opening up a whole new world to her. It had taken moments to connect with Paige and a heartbeat more to see how gloriously happy she was.

Had she ever been that happy? Had she ever drifted off in thought about another person?

Willa’s smile was easy and full. Yes, she had. When she was thinking about Boone. Their chemistry and heat were off the chart, but the best thing about it was how Boone treated her. He wanted her, that was easy to see… so easy to feel, but he wasn’t putting pressure on her. He knew she wanted him too. They teased, they flirted, but when she needed, not wanted, to stop, he stopped.

He gave her space, and it only made the anticipation more, tingling all over her skin, making each breath deeper, more precious.

Another string of expletives started in Cage’s apartment and she pulled her phone out from her purse and called Boone. After a few rings it went to voicemail and she smiled. There must be a bunch of people in the store and really, neither of them would have anticipated her errand finishing so quickly. She started to leave a message for him.

“Hi, Boone, it’s me, Willa.” She saw some movement across the street near the corner of a vacant lot. A bunch of men who were smoking and drinking had just perked up like a bunch of prairie dogs, the thought made her laugh softly to herself. “I just wanted to let you know I’m done. No need to rush, just let me know when you can come, and- hey!”

One of the men stepped off the curb into the street and shoved someone into the center of the group. The boy looked like he was just a little younger than Boone’s boys, and while she couldn’t hear what they were saying to him, she understood what he was feeling. Angry, nervous, cornered.

She knew that feeling, because she’d felt it herself numerous times. People had picked on her enough.

Realizing she hadn’t finished her message she did it quickly. “I’ve got to go, someone needs my help.”

Dropping her phone back in her purse she started across the street. She’d gone about a fourth of the way across the street when one of the men grabbed the boy’s backpack and pulled him up onto his tiptoes.

“Hey, you stop that!”

Willa shouted at him, but they didn’t seem to hear her.

The boy was struggling to hold onto his backpack, his teeth grit together, eyes narrowing.

“Hey, let him go!” She hustled across the street, but her short stature and her curvy figure made her hustle more of a quick walk. “I’m going to call the police!”

That got someone’s attention. A couple of the men turned around to stare at her, but a couple of the tough guys held tight to the boy as he struggled.

“Look, lady. Turn around and go away.”

She reached back into her bag, now regretting that she’d dropped her phone inside. “No. You can’t treat him like that.”

The man closest to her gave her a look over from head to toe. “We’ll treat him however we want to. Little boy owes us some cash.”

“I’m not giving you shit, Pete. I don’t owe you a thing.”

“Like we told you before,” the man got up close to the boy, leaning down to glare straight into his face, “you owe us what I say you owe us.”

Willa left her phone in her purse, instead, she pulled out her wallet. “How much?”

The majority of the crowd just looked at her, including the young boy who was staring at her like she’d lost her mind.

She turned to look at the other man, the one that had been doing all the talking. “What does he owe you?” She opened her wallet and looked at the contents. “I don’t have much, but I want to help him.”

The boy spoke up. “Lady, come on! Put that away!”

“How much to make you let him go?”

The man nodded at her and one of the men lurched forward and snatched the wallet from her hands. Another grabbed at her purse. A stab of fear went through her when she realized what a stupid position she’d put herself in.

The one who’d taken her wallet tossed it to someone else.

“That’s almost enough.”

Willa moved toward the boy as one of the men rifled through her bag. She managed to get a hand on his arm when the one called Pete smacked her hand away.

“I said, it wasn’t enough.”

“This is crazy,” she turned on Pete. She pointed at Six Guns. “I know the man who runs that venue and he won’t like what you’re doing.”

“She’s got a crap phone,” the man digging through her purse tossed her phone over the fence and into the vacant lot, “nothing in here’s worth anything.” Her bag followed the phone and the man advanced on her. “Maybe we should search her and see what’s she got under those clothes.”

“You wouldn’t dare-”

“You,” Pete was up in her face a moment later, his breath rank with cheap tobacco, spittle on his scraggly soul patch under his bottom lip, “don’t get to tell me what I would or wouldn’t dare.” He had his hands on her a moment later, his cold fingertips tucking into the neckline of her dress.

“Get off me!” Willa tore away from him, grabbing for the boy’s arm. “Let’s get out of here.”

Someone shoved her from behind and her knees buckled, sending her into the fence surrounding the vacant lot. Pain ripped through her arm as she tried to stop her fall.

She felt a rush of energy brush through her body and a loud roar filled the air from what felt like inches away.

Another roar came from across the street and Willa tried to turn to look. She reached out to grab a hold of the boy and pull him down beside her, but all she felt was thick fur under her hand. She turned to look for him and couldn’t see his face.

The bear beside her swung his head in her direction and she could only stare. The bear… was the boy.

A rush of air and energy came at them from across the street and as the men ran away from the scene, Willa saw the sleek lines of a large cat, a distinctive pattern flowing over his skin. As he bounded across the street, his tail waving high, his massive jaws opening to reveal his sharp teeth.

“Cage?” Willa searched for the man in the animal and wondered how much trouble she was in. “Cage? Stop!” She got up on her knees, her hands outstretched in front of her. “Please, it’s me! Remember? Willa?”

But a moment later she understood what was happening. The jaguar leapt into the air and swatted at the bear with his large claw, rocking the bear’s head back on its neck.

The bear fell back on its haunches but didn’t run.

The jaguar crouched down and roared something that sounded like a challenge as his large tail swished over his body.

Turning, the bear put Willa behind him and his whole body bristled with a loud ground-shaking roar.

Willa’s indrawn breath made her shake. Blood. Not just hers, but someone else’s. As she leaned to the side, she had a fair view of Cage’s jaguar. He was whole, and he was angry.

The jaguar lunged to the side and the bear countered the action, blocking Cage’s path.

A sick feeling twisted in her belly. Blood had never been something she could stomach, but she saw the bear wavering on his legs and she knew she had to stop the confrontation. Gripping onto the chain-link fence, Willa got up on her feet. “Cage, stop!”

She tried to walk along the fence to get between them, but as soon as the bear saw her walking up along by his shoulder, he put his shoulder against the fence and started to move her back.

Cage turned his head and his eyes narrowed. She wondered what he saw. Did he think the bear was trying to hurt her?

She had to stop him from hurting the boy. She had to get him to understand that the bear wasn’t a danger to her.

Gathering her strength, she clapped her hand down on the bear’s big shoulder. “I hope you’ll forgive me for this.” She fisted her hand in the scruff over the bear’s shoulder, and then grabbed a hold of the fence high above her head.

Lifting herself up was hell and she heard a howl of pain as her second leg seemed to slip and fall on his neck. Still, she managed to get over him and slide down between the two.

Praying, she pushed forward and stopped right in front of the jaguar’s nose, holding her hands up in a plea. “Stop, please.”

She saw the understanding in the jaguar’s eyes, knew that he was in there, listening, but he had his eyes looking around her at the bear.

“I was helping him,” she explained. “The men out here were trying to steal from him.”

Cage nodded, and she let out a sigh of relief.

“Good, now you can change back,” she told Cage and the big cat just looked at her. She waved a hand at him. “You can change back, and…” Willa felt herself sway a little and she reached out to touch the fence and managed to get her palm on it, but her fingers couldn’t seem to get a grip. She staggered against the fence, her heart in her throat and her stomach somewhere it shouldn’t have been. “Wow. I feel like…”

Willa dropped into a strong pair of arms, the sky swimming over her head, her skin like ice against his heat.

She blinked up at her savior and then blinked again as her eyes descended to his bare shoulders.

When she managed to make her throat work she had laughter in her voice. “Cage, what is Boone going to think when he finds out that you’re holding me… naked?”

She passed out listening to Cage mumble in her ear.

* * *

Boone saw Cage outside the ER entrance and his bear wanted to rip the hide off the jaguar and drink his blood, but Boone managed to keep some control over the beast.

There were things that came before bloodshed and mayhem.

Willa.

He ran up to Cage and got right up in his face. The jaguar didn’t make a move to snap back. The show of trust went a long way to keeping the cat alive. “Where is she?”

Cage lifted his gaze to meet Boone’s. “She’s getting stitches, so you should stay out here-”

Boone had his hand around the other man’s neck, lifting Cage until the other shifter was almost off the ground. “My mate was cut, and bled, under your watch and you want me to listen to you?”

The voice from Cage’s lips was thin, barely audible to human ears. “If you scare the doctor and the needle slips-”

Boone let go of Cage and kept himself on his feet by bracing his hand on the wall. “What the hell happened?”

Cage shrugged. “I only got there after I heard the bear.”

“Bear?”

The fighter leaned his head to the side and Boone followed his gesture to see the boy standing in the shadows of the jasmine vines on the pergola that lead toward the parking structure. The boy was wearing ill-fitting gym clothes, a worn backpack slung over his shoulder.

Cage and Boone moved closer to him and the boy straightened up from the wall and lifted his chin to meet Boone’s dark glower. “You her mate?”

Boone nodded.

“You didn’t mark her yet.”

Shaking his head, Boone narrowed his gaze at the boy. “You challenging me?”

There was a long moment of silence before the boy shook his head. “No.” Boone could tell the boy wanted to look away, but he didn’t. “You should take better care of her though.”

Boone felt a smile tug at his lips. “You’re right.”

“I am.” The boy nodded slowly. “She was protecting me. These guys have been stealing from me, shoving me around. She stepped in. Tried to save me.” He gulped in a breath and the low moan that passed his lips was more bear than human. “That’s how she got hurt, cut her arm on the crappy fence.”

Cage added his own words in. “When I heard his roar, I ran outside. I changed on the way down the stairs, the men scattered and, Brendan and I had a little… conversation.”

The boy shrugged. “I wasn’t going to let him near her until I figured out what he wanted.”

Boone turned to look at Cage, his movements slow and measured. “You let a boy get the better of you?”

“Really, Boone? If I’d have gone straight for the boy, Willa would have been right there. She climbed over his bear to get in front of me.”

Terror. It lanced through his veins when he realized what had happened. His mate had gotten between a bear she didn’t know and a jaguar to keep them both from hurting the other.

A slow breath exited it his lips and the world around him darkened. Taking a step to the side he braced his hand on the wall and shook his head. “What the hell was she thinking?”

Cage stepped up beside him, leaning his back against the wall. “I can’t believe you’ve got me talking romance again. So much for the big bad bear-”

“Isn’t that a wolf?”

Swinging his head to the side, Cage glared at the boy. “Shut up.”

The boy shrugged and backed away.

“Do you really need me to tell you what you already know about your mate?”

Huffing out a breath that flared his nostrils, Boone glowered at Cage. “She takes care of people.” He sighed, a softer sound that ended with a grin. “She’s a natural mother.”

“She’s Goldilocks and Mama Bear.”

This time no one told the boy to shut up.

Boone gave the boy a bigger smile. “Did you call your folks? Let them know where you-”

He stopped short when he saw the look on the boy’s face.

When the boy spoke, Boone wasn’t shocked to hear the words that he’d already guessed.

“Don’t have folks, they gave me up when they figured out I was a shifter… when they saw me shift. Now, I live at a group home. It’s only a matter of time before they figure it out and then I don’t know what’s going to happen. I’ll figure something out.”

It only took Boone a moment to figure out what was likely to happen as soon as he talked to Willa. He knew she would be on the same page. His bear gave him a playful swat, making sure that Boone was paying attention.

And he was.

The automatic doors to the ER opened. A stocky older man in a white coat and scrubs underneath. He glanced at his clipboard before looking at Boone.

“Mr. Gamble said that you’re Miss Barnes’…”

Boone had to consider his answer. He and Willa were just starting to discuss what she felt for him. He wasn’t sure how she’d react if he just assumed anything. He decided to err on the side of caution even with his bear grumbling in his ears. “I’m her friend. She’s staying at my house while she’s in town.”

The doctor gave him a look that spoke volumes. “Well, Miss Barnes explained that you were her mate, but maybe it’s the meds?”

“She said that?”

“Yes, I was just talking to her and-” The doctor’s eyes grew wide when Boone almost hugged him up off the floor. “She’s ready to see you now,” the doctor forced the words out of his constricted lungs. “Bay Four. Just inside and to the left.”

* * *

When he got the call from the business manager at the Fight Venue, Boone had nearly lost his mind. The thought of Willa, bleeding and unconscious had made his bear howl inside of him. Outwardly he wasn’t any better. Driving to the Emergency Room he’d fought with himself to keep his speed just over the legal limit and his energy tightly contained.

He needed to be strong for Willa. He needed to be her rock, not a basket case or the guy that fell apart when she was hurting.

Stopping just inside the ER, he paused, his hand on the wall beside him struggling for calm. His bear took a swipe at him, throwing his weight around inside of Boone. His message was clear.

Struggle later. Help Willa now.

And that’s what he did.

He found her examination bay and caught the eye of a nurse as she ducked out.

“Mr. Wayland?”

He nodded over and over. “Yeah, that’s me.”

“Miss Barnes just fell asleep, but she wanted me to let you know to go in and wake her when you arrive.” The nurse started to walk away but he gently touched her shoulder. “Yes?”

Boone felt his heart contract in his chest. “Is she in a lot of pain?”

The nurse standing before him gave him a sappy smile and sighed an audible ‘awww’ as she looked at his face. “You are a big teddy bear just like she said.”

He gave her a look, partly of disbelief. “Teddy bear?”

The nurse rolled her eyes and then laughed. “Well, she was under a decent dose of morphine at the time, but she told me she couldn’t wait for her big burly teddy bear to get here. So, go on in there and give her some love, she deserves it.”

The nurse was called to the station at the center of the room and Boone stepped through the curtains.

Willa was definitely asleep, and someone had turned down the lights so that the only light that could be seen was from the light above her head, attached to the wall. It gave her a soft glow as she lay, covered in a warming hospital blanket.

Boone moved to her side and took her exposed hand in his. He could see the clean bandage taped along her forearm. Given the size and the placement of the bandage, Willa had been hurt, but she had also been lucky.

Those men could have done worse to her. The fence could have done worse. He knew that vacant lot was filled with metal and glass. They were lucky that she’d had help quickly. He wasn’t blaming Cage and he wasn’t blaming anyone else but the man who’d thought to take a knife to a woman.

Devlin had texted him when the call had gone over the police scanner and said that they were already tracking down the men who’d hurt Willa and tried to steal from the boy.

That was good enough for him… for now.

He bent down and touched his fingertips to the center of her palm and slid his fingers along hers, folding them together until they were palm to palm.

“You can’t do this to me, Honey.” He let out a breath that shuddered through his body from head to toe. “You’re my mate. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have my mark on your body, you’re marked on my soul.”

He sat down on the chair that was left beside the bed, gently holding her hand in place so he wouldn’t jar her arm or shift her bandage. Boone touched his cheek to her fingertips and turned his head so he could taste her scent in his lungs and over his tongue. “Baby, you have the biggest heart and so much courage, I want to protect you but most of all I want to love you.”

“I love you too, you big fluffy bear.” Her voice softened by fatigue and pain, but he heard her smile before he lifted his gaze to meet hers.

She tried to shift on the bed but winced a little as she let out a soft grunt.

“You were supposed to wake me up when you got here.”

He smiled at her words that sounded more like a reprimand than a disappointment. “Sorry, Honey, I-”

“I wanted to see you,” she told him, “there’s so much I want to tell you and I didn’t want to waste any time.”

He got up from the chair and sat down on the edge of the bed beside her, gently cradling her arm to keep it as still as possible. “We have all the time in the world now, Willa. When I thought… when I heard…” He blew out a breath and shook his head. “Don’t scare me like that, ever again.”

“Don’t scare you?” She laughed and sighed, her body relaxing beside him. “I was hoping to see you shift first, but instead I got another bear and a jaguar. And Cage’s cat… wow, he’s as big as one of those fancy cars… but so much prettier. You should see the way the sunlight makes his fur shine like-”

Boone pressed a kiss to her lips, slanting over her mouth and taking her breath. When he pulled back, he looked into her dazed eyes. “Sweetheart?”

“Hmm?” She gazed up at him with a sweet smile on her lips. “What is it?”

“Don’t talk about Cage like that, baby. It only makes me want to rip out his throat and tear him in two.”

“Oh,” her eyes widened but she was smiling ear to ear, still coming down off her morphine, “so, I probably shouldn’t tell you that he was naked?”

He got up on his feet and started to move toward the curtain, but he felt her other hand take hold of his elbow. “Let go of me, Willa.”

“Not until you sit down and relax, you big teddy.”

His head fell back on his neck and he stared up at the ceiling, counting the heartbeats in his chest. “Seriously, Willa? He was naked around you?”

She giggled and that didn’t do a thing to ease his frustration. “Boone?”

He turned on her, his bear pushing dangerously to the surface. “I almost lost you. I won’t allow it to happen, Willa. Don’t push me.”

“Hey…” she reached out her uninjured hand, “come back, please. I’m sorry-”

“No.” He saw her expression sober and felt like a complete heel. “Baby, I’m sorry I went all growly on you. You’re just… so precious to me, Willa. So damn precious, I don’t know what to do around you.”

She beckoned to him with her fingers, calling him closer. “Then come here and let me explain what I’ve been thinking about since I was hurt, hmm?”

He couldn’t say no. He couldn’t deny her anything that made her happy. “All right, baby.” He moved back to the bed and sat down beside her. “You say whatever you have to, I want to listen.”