Chapter 3
Austin Farrell gave his truck door a backwards karate kick to slam it shut. He twirled his key chain around his index finger and strutted up to the front door of the Beater.
He had spent the last three months logging out the north slope of timber in the Farrell tribe’s wood lots, and just a few hours ago he finished sawing up the logs into lumber for the new tannery. Life was good, and Austin had earned the right to celebrate tonight.
No one knew better than Austin what a waste dump the Beater was. That’s why he chose it for his regular watering hole. His family didn’t approve of him cruising the human scene for after-hours entertainment, but that just made it all the more appealing.
He could enjoy the seedy side of the Beater without ever feeling tempted by anyone he met there. The few women who came into the bar would never appeal to him. He could stand around and look at them, while having a drink or two, without ever worrying about wanting to touch one.
His boot heels struck the pavement with a satisfying thunk. The impact swelled out his chest. He could associate with these frail humans, against the scolding of his people, and no one in the whole bar knew his secret. None of them suspected he was stronger and faster and more deadly than all of them put together.
He exchanged a nod of recognition with the bouncer. He knew the man, even though they never talked. They acknowledged each other with their eyes – nothing more.
Austin put out his hand to grasp the door handle when the door flew open from the inside. Someone flew out, collided with Austin, and bounced off before he knew what happened. The person’s head barely touched his chin, and they ricocheted off his chest.
Austin put out his hands to catch the person from falling over. “Whoa! Take it easy! What’s the rush?”
That’s when he found himself face to face with Aurora Cunningham. She tried to barge straight past him. “Get out of my way. I’m in a hurry.”
He took a side-step into her path. “Not so fast! What do you think you’re doing down here? Does your Pop know where you are? Better yet, does your brother Walker know where you are? Do they know you’re down here mixing with the locals?”
Aurora narrowed her eyes at him. “As it happens, yes, my brother Walker and my Pop both know where I am and what I’m doing. I could ask you the same question. Does your brother Brody know you’re here?”
“I don’t answer to Brody.”
“Of course you do. He’s your Alpha since your father died, and he would whoop the stuffing out of you if he knew you were down here.”
“He knows I come here, and he doesn’t care.”
“He doesn’t care? Now I know you’re a lying sack of scum. I’ll bet they’ve been working on you for years to find a mate and get married, just like they’ve been working on me.”
He held out both hands. “All right, all right; so we’re both doing something we shouldn’t, except you’ve got permission from your Pop and Walker, whereas I’m here on the down low. So why don’t you tell me where you’re going in such a hurry? Do you even have a ride home?”
“I don’t have time to talk about it right now. I gotta go.”
She shouldered her way past him, and this time, he let her pass. He fell in at her side going the opposite direction he went when he first got out of his truck. “At least tell me how you got into town. Tell me you didn’t walk here all the way from Cunningham Homestead.”
“I didn’t walk here. My friend Molly Shannon drove me. We were out together – until just now.”
“Okay, I won’t ask why you left in such a hurry. Just tell me you don’t plan to walk all the way home in the dark.”
Aurora stopped walking and fixed him with a malicious glare. “Don’t you think I can take care of myself in the dark?”
A slight smirk spread over his face. “Oh, I’m sure you can take care of yourself. Just let me give you a ride home.”
“I don’t need your old ride.”
“You don’t need it, but whatever made you run out of the bar like that will get done a lot faster if you let me give you a ride. Come on. My truck’s right back there in the parking lot. I’ll have you home in no time.”
Aurora hesitated. Ride home with this…this stripling? Austin Farrell had a reputation on Bruins’ Peak any well-bred girl would take care to hold at a distance. He could go off at any time like a loaded gun dropped from the roof. He took no notice of the rules – at least, he never showed any sign of noticing them.
Anything anybody told Austin Farrell NOT to do, that’s exactly what he turned around and did. If the rules said stay away from outsiders and don’t associate with people in town, he made a point of coming into town to associate with them. If the rules said the Farrells are at war with the Cunninghams so stay away from them, he made a point of going right up to their house to spy on them and make trouble. That’s the kind of guy Austin Farrell was.
He wasn’t a stripling anymore, either. She saw that at one glance He stood taller than Aurora remembered, and his scrawny body filled out with solid muscle under his black tank top. His arms cut backward at the elbow in thick wings to angle down his back in a broad triangle ending at his narrow waist. Powerful thighs filled out his jeans.
He still wore his hair buzzed off close to his scalp with a trimmed goatee around his mouth. His sleeveless shirt showed off intricate tribal tattoos running down his arms to curl around his wrists. His chest invited any woman in sight to imagine what patterns and shapes dipped and dived over those undulating muscles.
Ride home with him? The thought gave her a thrill, but she shouldn’t. Then again, a ride home would get her there faster. She could tell Walker and her brother Dax what Bain had planned in time for them to do something to stop him.
“I can’t take a ride home with you. I’m sorry. Thanks for the offer.”
The grin evaporated off his face. “I guess you wouldn’t accept help from a Farrell. I should have known. I’ll see you later. Have a nice walk. Don’t get into trouble out there.”
He turned away to go back to the bar, but Aurora put out her hand to stop him. “I really appreciate the offer, Austin, and I wouldn’t turn down help from a Farrell. You know I agree with Walker and Brody about ending hostilities between our tribes. I’ve even been to your Homestead to visit Star and Brody since they moved home and Brody took over as Alpha. It’s just that…”
“It’s just what?”
Aurora took a deep breath. “It’s Dax. He can’t stand the Farrells. He says he’ll never make peace with the Farrells, and he says he’ll shoot any Farrell he lays eyes on. Walker’s not home right now, so Dax is the only one there. If he saw me getting out of your truck, there could be trouble. That’s all I meant.”
“What about your Pop? Would he cause trouble? Why doesn’t he rein Dax in?”
“Pop’s too old and frail to do anything. He barely moves out of his chair these days. Walker runs the tribe, and Dax is his right-hand man. Dax is responsible for my safety while Walker’s gone, and he would take it as his God-given duty to blow your brains out if you set foot in our territory.”
Austin hooted with laughter. “I would love to see him try.”
“Don’t go looking for trouble, Austin. Don’t restart this war when Star and Brody and Walker and all the rest of us have worked so hard to end it.”
He lowered his voice. “Don’t worry. I won’t take you home. I just don’t feel right about turning my back on you to let you walk all the way back home in the dark. One of those hunters could see you and come after you. At least let me take you halfway up the mountain. That will get you there faster.”
Aurora stiffened. She looked Austin Farrell up and down. “Do you promise you’ll drop me off at the boundary to Cunningham territory?”
He held up two fingers: “Scout’s honor.”
“All right; where’s your truck?”
He bowed and waved toward the bar parking lot. “Right this way, Madam.”
“Can’t you ever stop joking around?”
“It’s hard, you know. Brody has to slap me upside the head to make me get serious.”
“You must be a real drag to have around.”
“Not really. He hasn’t slapped me once since Dad died. We work together now to make the tribe strong and prosperous. We all work together.” Austin and Aurora started walking together down the block toward the parking lot.
“I can see you’ve changed. I barely recognized you when I first bumped into you outside the bar. You’ve grown up. You’re not the weedy wipper-snapper you used to be. I can see you’ve grown into the kind of man Brody needs.”
Austin turned away to hide his bright red cheeks. “I’m just as wild as I ever was. I’m just too blamed busy to get into any trouble anymore. The minute I finish one project, Brody has another one lined up for me to do. He just keeps giving me more and more responsibility. You’d think he wanted me to take over as Alpha someday.”
“If anything happens to him, you have to be ready. I can see all that responsibility agrees with you. You carry yourself like an Alpha now.”
“Shucks, Ma’am. I’m just doing my duty by the family.”
“That’s what I mean. You’re not the loose cannon you used to be. The old Austin Farrell would have walked away from me and left me to my own devices.”
They got to the truck, and Austin took his keys out of his jeans pocket. “I couldn’t do that. Another Bruin was the last thing I ever expected to find at the Beater tonight, especially a young lady. You put a crimp in my whole style.”
“You don’t have to do this. I’m happy to walk alone.”
“You’re not going anywhere alone. Now that I know you’re here, I can’t leave you alone until I see you safely home. I come here to be around people I don’t care about, but I can’t NOT care about you. You’re one of my own. We’re blood, even if we’re different tribes. I’ll see you through, one way or the other.”
“Thanks, Austin. I was all prepared to walk home, but now that you’re here, I’m glad I don’t have to. Being around a bunch of humans is interesting in a boring sort of way, but it is nice having another Bruin at my back.”
He studied her closer. She wasn’t half so stuffy and out of touch as he remembered her. The Aurora he remembered wouldn’t give him the time of day. She came and went to see Star and the little Hector, but she held the rest of the Farrells at arm’s length
Now her brown eyes shone in her round moon face. Her curly blonde hair bobbed in the neon light, and her skin glowed white and perfect under the stars. Her tight clothes showed her shape to the admiring eye. The lace elastic of her bra showed up under a button-down blouse angled over her ample bust. Her hip-hugger slacks flowed down her hips to the lower curve of her ass. An ass like that just begged for a hand to follow it down to the thighs holding it up.
He could really get into liking a woman like this. What was she even doing in a place like the Beater? That didn’t matter. She was with him now, so he better make the most of it while he had the chance. He held the door open for her, but she stood back and regarded him with flashing eyes. That direct evaluation made him shift back and forth on his feet. What was she thinking right now? “What’s wrong? Did you change your mind?”
“Do you know Horner’s Gully between Farrell territory and Dunlap territory?”
“Do you mean the old forgotten mill race gully? Sure. Every Farrell knows that gully. It’s the best place to hunt on the whole mountain. Why do you ask?”
She turned away. “Never mind; I was just asking.”
She started to get into the truck when he called out, “Aurora!”
She turned around. “What?”
“Just…wait a minute. I…I don’t want to go just yet.”
“What do you want to do instead?”
“I just don’t want to stop talking to you. I don’t get to talk to many Bruins much anymore.”
She snorted. “You don’t get to talk to many Bruins? Your whole family is Bruins.”
“I mean outside of my family. I’m so busy at the Homestead I don’t get out as much as I used to.”
“You can’t exactly expect to meet other Bruins in a place like this.”
“If I knew I could meet people like you here, I might come here more often.”
“You can meet people like me all the time. You can meet people like me at gatherings and parties.”
“You know what I mean.”
She headed for the truck, but he stopped her again. “Aurora.”
“What is it?”
“Do you have a regular sweetheart?”
“You would have heard about it if I did.”
“Come on. Give a guy a break. You know what I’m asking.”
“Are you asking if you can be my sweetheart? If that’s what you’re asking, I would say you need to go take a cold shower.”
A power, greater than just himself, made him grab her hand. Her creamy white skin caused goose bumps to sprout along his thighs. “I need a cold shower after getting this close to you. I don’t want to take you home just yet.”
Her eyes burned into his soul. Did she always look like that? He must have had his head under a rock not to notice it before. “What are you doing, Austin?” Aurora asked warily.
He took a step closer. He couldn’t let go of her hand to save his life. “I don’t know what I’m doing. I only know I want to be close to you.”
Electric charges went off between them. A deafening thunder pounded in Austin’s ears. What was going on? He had never felt this way with any other woman, not even the few Bruin women he had gotten close to. His whole body tensed, and his blood throbbed through his guts.
“Don’t do this, Austin. Our families are still at each other’s throats. This is bad news.” She didn’t take her hand back, though. So, did she feel it too? Could anyone feel this way about weedy Austin Farrell?
“If you really don’t want me to do it, I won’t.” He closed the rest of the gap between them. Her body radiated its dizzying power into him. His nostrils flared to catch her scent. Through her perfume and hair conditioner, he smelled Bruin, that exotic blend of Bruin and female. Under her immaculate exterior, she was all bear.
What would she look like as a bear? What would she do in the forest with him, with their paws sensing the fragrant earth underfoot, hunting and foraging through the forest without a care in the world? What would she act like in a cave in Horner’s Gully with her fur warm and inviting against his?
Holy smokes! Why was he thinking about that? He had never been that close to another Bruin in his life. He liked smooth white skin on a woman, not thick brown fur. Sheesh! He must be losing it, and he hadn’t even had a drink yet.
That creamy hand rolling between his fingers couldn’t be wrong, though. All mixed up with those images and imaginary smells and ideas about bears in caves came flowery hints of breasts and thighs and orbs of ass crushing in his hands. He smelled sugary honey that sent jets of saliva bubbling under his tongue.
He drifted closer. Out of nowhere, his lips came near hers and touched those rosy petals when Aurora started back. “I can’t,” she said lowly.
Austin’s blood ran cold. He gritted his teeth and dropped her hand. “You can’t. I’m not exactly the kind of guy you’d go for, anyways. I get it. Well, get in and I’ll drive you halfway home either way.”
She didn’t get in the truck, though. “It’s not that, Austin. It’s just I have something important on my mind right now. I want to get home right away. I have to find Walker and tell him… something. It’s important. If it wasn’t for that, I’d… well, I don’t know what I’d do, but I can’t do it now. That’s all I’m saying.”
“Forget it. Everything in the world is more important than whatever you might happen to do with me. I understand.” He yanked the door open. He would have jerked it off its hinges, but he caught himself just in time. Nothing was worth losing his cool.
He would drop off Aurora at home and come back here before the bar closed. He would get himself good and oiled, and he would forget he ever made the mistake of trying to kiss Aurora Cunningham. Brody would smack him a good one if he ever found out.
Aurora put out her hand and shoved him back with unimaginable power. She could knock him over with her little finger if she tried. So that’s what being with a Bruin woman would be like. She wouldn’t take any stuffing from the likes of him. “Knock it off, Austin. This is serious. Can’t you stop thinking with your pecker for two seconds to consider the bigger picture?”
Her words cooled his jets the rest of the way. He didn’t know he was thinking with his pecker until she told him so. Now that she mentioned it, his crotch ached from jabbing against his jeans. He would have to stop off in the dark trees before he came back to the bar to get some relief.
He couldn’t let it go altogether, though. “If you want me to believe it’s really that serious and you’re not just giving me the flick, you better tell me what’s so all-fired important. Otherwise, I’ll just assume you are giving me the flick.”
She eyed him with an appraising glance. “Can I trust you?”
He gave the door another wrench. “Get in the truck.”
“All right; I’ll tell you, but you have to promise you won’t laugh.”
“Yeah, this is the funniest thing to happen to me since I dressed up as a dust broom last Halloween.”
“Will you please pack your suitcase and get out of town, because I have better things to do than stand around here wiping your snotty nose. Bain Campbell and the other hunters are going to lay jaw traps in Horner’s Gully to trap Bruins where no one will see them. There. Are you satisfied? Now can we stop dithering around here talking about it? And don’t try to kiss me again, because a lot of our people will die before they realize the danger if I don’t get home and tell Walker right away.”
His hand hovered on the truck door. “Are you serious? How did you find that out?”
She took a deep breath. “I was sitting in a booth in the back of the bar with Molly Shannon, and I overheard them talking in the next booth.”
He dropped his hand. “Get in the truck.”
***END OF PREVIEW***