Hannah
She dropped her head with a silent laugh at the look on his face, thankful for the arrival of a server to take their order. Hannah scanned the menu quickly as Josh sputtered and shook his head at her blatant desire to see him embarrass himself. He recovered smoothly, however, and placed his order with a speed that told her he had decided long ago.
“And what can I get for you?” the server asked, turning to face Hannah well before she was ready.
Touché, she thought, dipping her head slightly at Josh as he riposted and now she was the one to seem awkward.
“I’ll take the eggs benedict,” she said, settling on her decision. “Can I get an extra side of bacon and some breakfast sausage as well?” she asked.
“Of course,” the server said with a smile. She tucked the notepad away in her pocket and then departed.
“What?” she asked, seeing a look pass over his face. “I’m hungry.”
He innocently held his hands up. “Okay.”
She snorted. “So, Mr. Josh, bodyguard man. Why you?”
“Why me? As in, what could I have done that was so horrible that I got stuck with having to come and chaperone you around?”
Hannah smiled. “Yes. That. How badly did you fuck up?”
“Honestly,” he said, his eyes looking over her shoulder into thin air for a moment, “nothing. It came down the pipeline from the very top with my name attached to it.” He shrugged. “I’ve been wondering the same thing though, to be honest.”
“Don’t kick yourself over it,” she said. “I don’t want it, but neither do you. So let’s try and make it go as easy as we can for each other. Before you know it, I’ll be on a plane out of here and you’ll never have to see me again.”
Hannah tried to sound as blunt as she could, but there was no hiding the stab of unhappiness that shot through her as she talked about them never seeing each other after her time in King City was up. Was it her imagination, or had a similar look passed over Josh’s face? He had covered it up so quickly Hannah wasn’t sure if she had seen it or not.
Let’s try to be a little happier.
“So, you didn’t screw up to get here,” she mused. “What did you do to make people think you could do the job then?”
She was asking him who he was. His story, but trying to cover it up. There was something about him, something that told her he had seen a lot—the calmness of his reaction the other day, the way his eyes had scanned the crowd for possible threats, even as he held her against him.
Josh was no ordinary bear shifter. He was something else, and she wanted to know what.
“That’s a long story,” he said, leaning back slightly to look at her as he spoke.
“We have time,” she said. “And my brother isn’t going anywhere today with his leg the way it is. Humor me.”
For what felt like the millionth time that day they both smiled at each other, and Hannah resolutely tried to calm her heart down so that it didn’t explode at the way his grin seemed to affect her.
“How much do you know about Genesis Valley?” he asked casually.
Hannah wasn’t convinced for a moment at the seeming nonchalance of his question. He was digging for information for some reason. What was he searching for, she wondered? She contemplated how much she felt like revealing.
“Not a whole lot,” she said carefully. “We’ve been exposed to the shifter world before. I know it’s a veritable paradise for shifters. Other than that, not much. I’ve never been there myself.”
And never will, and that’s all you need to know.
He nodded, and she wondered what was going on behind those silvery-blue eyes of his.
“It is,” he said. “I was taken there a number of years ago, when I could no longer be trusted in regular society.”
“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” she said, frowning at him. “Should I be worried about you?”
His lips split wide in a lopsided grin that threatened to stop her heart with its brilliance. “Not at all. That was an old me, one that I look back on now, but not something that haunts me anymore. You’re safe,” he assured her. “When I arrived in Genesis Valley, I was put in a training program that covered many things.”
“Such as how to be a bodyguard for a woman who doesn’t want you around?” she teased.
He chuckled. “No, it did not prepare me for that last part,” he admitted. “But you can rest assured that between my training and the goings-on here in King City lately, the bodyguard part is well looked after. I’ll do my best not to get on your nerves too much, though if I knew why you were so opposed to having me around, it might make it easier.”
Oh, very smooth bear, very smooth.
“I’m twenty-six, a full-blown adult,” she said dryly. “Why would I want to be babysat all week? I realize my brother is fairly well known, but I can handle myself,” she said firmly, making it clear she wasn’t going to elaborate on that statement.
“Fair enough. Let’s hope things go smoothly for both of us then.”
“Agreed.”
Their food arrived and they dug in, both of them quite hungry by that point. She jealously eyed the stack of pancakes on his plate, but knew she had already pushed it with her sides of bacon and sausage.
“What exactly is going on here in the city that’s helped you prepare to deal with me?” she asked, setting her knife and fork down on the empty plate a few minutes later.
“You don’t know?” he said with a frown, having finished even before she did, despite the larger quantity of food.
He continued when she shook her head. “The shifters here have been under attack by some unknown group. Not just beating them up in an alley either, but full-fledged murders and kidnappings. It hasn’t been pretty. I’m part of a team sent here by Genesis Valley to try and stop them.”
Hannah felt her eyebrows rise the more he talked.
That would explain the bodyguard I guess. Shit, I wish I’d known ahead of time that this is why we were coming here.
She made a mental note to do some more research into this conflict on her own time. It would pay to be aware of those sorts of goings-on, though she hoped they would be in the city only briefly and they wouldn’t get swept up in it.
“I’ll be right back,” Josh said suddenly. “Just have to use the boys’ room,” he told her with a wink.
As if that wasn’t enough to set her blood flowing, he laid his hand down over her wrist, his fingertips dragging gently across her skin as he passed. A rippling sensation followed the path of his touch.
Her eyes blazed with emotion as she tried to clamp down on what the big shifter had brought to life with her.
But she couldn’t. It was too late. Power welled up and threatened to overwhelm her control.
Hannah shot to her feet, frantically looking for the exit as if she’d already forgotten where it was. Her instincts were already changing as she began to assess for threats, her footsteps lightening as she fled from the restaurant, ignoring Josh’s shout of surprise as he saw her take off no more than a handful of seconds after he left the table.
She couldn’t stop, not even for him. Not here, not now. Her hands pawed at the elevator button, hitting it repeatedly as if that would help it open faster.
Another man walked in just before the doors closed, nodding politely at her as she clutched the waist-high bar for dear life, eyes tracking him with a nervous twitch. He punched the button for the sixth floor, and Hannah felt herself almost keel over just then. Her every nerve was on fire as she fought to keep herself together.
Sweat beaded on her brow. The floors seemed to take forever to tick by, each ding from the speaker overhead forcing her fingers tighter around the bar until her knuckles turned white from exertion.
“Are you okay?” the gentleman asked as she felt her leg buckle, sending her into the mirrored wall with a bang.
“Just. Fine,” she gritted out, the majority of her effort focused inward. She had to prevent herself from losing control.
Almost there.
“All right,” the man said skeptically as the elevator doors swung open on his floor.
She smiled. “Have a. Nice. Day,” she managed to gasp out as he left.
The moment the doors closed again she sagged to the floor, her feet thrashing about. Pressing her hands to her face, she rocked back and forth. She was trying to hold herself back until she could get to her room and lock the door.
The double doors opened again and she dragged herself out, shaking her head fiercely, trying to control it. Her lips pursed together as she struggled to get to her room.
“Hannah?”
She spun at the voice. It was Chad, on crutches, staring at her in horror from the door to his room as she stumbled down the hallway, visions flashing in front of her eyes.
She stared at him for a second before resuming her quest for her door.
Almost there.
Fingers closed over the keycard in her pocket, and she pulled it out, her entire arm shaking as she tried to slide it through the reader.
“Hannah what’s wrong?” Chad said, his crutches making a slight squeak as the rubber soles on them carried him down the marble-tiled hallway to her.
“It’s happening,” she snarled, finally opening the door and all but flinging herself into the room.
“What? Now?” her brother exclaimed, flinging the door closed as he moved into the room after her. “How is that possible?”
“Argh!” she cried out, stumbling and falling, her shoulder clipping a table as she hit the ground. A vase flew from the table and smashed on the ground. “Shifter. I don’t know,” she got out.
“You’re safe now,” he said, throwing the deadbolt on the door. “You can let it out. It’ll be okay.”
She spun on all fours, looking at him with wide eyes. “Are you sure? Your leg?”
Chad rolled his eyes. “Are you that far gone already?”
Hannah snarled at him.
“Let it out,” he commanded, standing up straight, letting the crutches fall to the side. “It will be okay.”
She shook her head, trying not to panic.
“Hannah, it will be okay. I promise,” he said softly. “Let it out.”
She howled with frustration at her inability to control herself.
“Let go, Hannah,” her brother urged, stronger this time. “Let go!”
Hannah looked up at him one last time. Then she let go.