“Bailey, dear, what happened?” Gerri asked.

A blush covered Bailey’s face. She knew how bad she looked after falling not once but twice into a mud puddle. “I… I, uhh, guess you could say I had a few problems walking.”

Daisy sprung from her seat. “Oh, my God. You didn’t get attacked or anything, did you?”

“Oh no. Nothing like that. I guess I really wasn’t watching where I was going and neither was the guy who ran into me. It was an accident, really. Anyway, I’m sure I look worse than I really am.”

Bailey’s thoughts were spinning in her head at roughly a million miles per hour. There was something about Gavin that she felt she was missing. Something obvious, but for the life of her, she just couldn’t seem to put her finger on what it was.

“Gavin,” her bear repeated the name. “I like it.”

“Why do you have so much interest in this guy?” Bailey asked her bear.

Her bear snorted. “I’m not telling. You’ll ruin it.”

“Bailey, sweetie. Are you okay?” Daisy waved her hands up and down in front of Bailey’s face.

“Oh, yeah. Of course. Sorry. I guess my mind went blank there for a minute. What were you saying?”

“That we should get you back to the house and out of those wet clothes! You are absolutely soaked. Are you sure you’re okay?” Daisy asked, clearly exasperated by Bailey’s appearance.

“Yeah, that would be great. Sorry if I ruined your outing.” Bailey handed Gerri the Advil she’d almost forgotten about. “I hope this helps with that headache.”

The ride back to Daisy’s was slow. Thankful for the heated leather seats, Bailey kept to her own thoughts as Gerri and Daisy chatted quietly in the front of the SUV. She still couldn’t figure out what her bear had meant by ‘you’ll ruin it’. The statement made no sense whatsoever to her. Then again, most of her bear’s thoughts didn’t make much sense, so it shouldn’t surprise her.

Bailey flexed her hand, remembering the jolt of awareness that flashed through her when Gavin touched her. She’d never felt anything like it before. And good Goddess above, help her now. The image of him shirtless—sweet Jesus! She was never going to be able to forget those rippling muscles and biceps.

“So tell me about the man who ran into you. Maybe it’s someone I know,” Daisy said, looking back at Bailey through the rearview mirror.

“He said his name was umm… Gavin.” Bailey glanced out of the window, hoping Daisy didn’t pick up on her interest in the man.

“The name doesn’t ring a bell. What did he look like?”

“He was huge. Easily six and a half foot, with dirty blond hair. Big guy. And huge freaking arms.”

“You know what they say about guys with huge arms, don’t you?” Gerri asked.

“No. What’s that?” Bailey laughed.

“The bigger the arms, the better he can hold you down and fuck you until you scream!”

“Gerri!” Bailey and Daisy shouted in unison, surprised by her answer.

“Or so says a friend,” Gerri laughed.

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t know anything about that.” Gerri’s vulgar answer may have shocked Bailey, but if she were honest with herself that was the first thing she’d imagined when she thought about Gavin’s arms.

 

***

 

Gavin paced back and forth in his small cabin, trying to figure out the best way to approach Bailey without setting off a firestorm he had no desire to deal with.

“The Alpha is here,” his bear announced in his head.

“Fuck. Just what we need right now.”

Sure enough, a few seconds later a knock sounded at the door. Gavin quickly opened the door. “Calder, come on in. What can I do for you?”

“We’ve got a pretty big problem and I’m hoping you can help the pack out.” Calder stepped inside, eyeing up the small space.

“This should be interesting,” Gavin said to his bear, wondering what in the world Calder could possibly want with him.

“We have a few bears that have been causing problems down by the lake. I know I’m the new Alpha of the pack and all, but I have a pretty clear concept of where our borders end and where theirs start. Plus, I’d like to think that I’m smart enough to know when someone’s trying to pull a fast one on me, like these guys are trying to do. Anyway, they say it’s their land, that they have the right to hunt it as they see fit. Which I wouldn’t mind sharing with them, but they’re fucking with some of our women and I’m not putting up with that shit.”

The information surprised Gavin. He hadn’t scented any bears around the area at all. Anyway, why would Calder bring this up to him? Out of habit, his hand flew to the amulet around his neck.

Calder didn’t miss Gavin’s inadvertent movement.

“That’s pretty surprising news. I’m not sure what you think I can do to help, though.” Gavin watched as Calder’s eyes flashed from their normal bright amber to the deepest black he’d ever seen.

“Let’s cut the shit, shall we?”

Calder’s voice sounded different, even with Gavin’s advanced hearing abilities. It was almost like someone else spoke through the Alpha’s mouth.

“What do you m—mean?” Gavin stuttered.

“I know what you are. I know who you are. I just don’t know why you chose to settle at Twisted Tail.”

“I, uh—”

Calder’s eyes flashed back to normal. “It’s okay. You don’t have to explain anything right now. I know you’re not with those other bears, and I know you’re not here to cause any shit with the pack. We would have run you off long ago if that was the case.”

“Fair enough.” Gavin sighed, knowing he was well and truly busted by the Alpha. “So much for anonymity,” he thought to himself.

“So what can I do to help the pack with these bears?”

“See if you can talk to them, bear to bear. Who knows? Maybe they will listen to one of their kind. Besides, I’ve seen these guys in human form and they’re nowhere near as big as you. If nothing else, maybe they’ll be intimidated by your size.”

Gavin thought about it for a minute before answering. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Tell you what, you help me with this and I’ll do what I can to arrange a get-together between you and your mate.”

“How do you know about her?” Gavin growled at the thought of another man knowing about Bailey.

“Keep your cool, werebear. I have my own mate and zero interest in yours. I know because I’m the Alpha, and I know everything that goes on in my pack.”

“I found her less than an hour ago, so I’m not sure how you even found out about her. It’s not like I made some grand announcement in the middle of town!” Gavin was pissed. Yeah, he got the bullshit about Calder being the all-fucking-knowing, but Christ, this was ridiculous. It’s not like he’d told anyone about finding his mate.

“No one told me, and no, you weren’t being followed. You saw the little trick I can do with my eyes. Well, when that happens—and it does quite often—I can see into the very depths of your soul. No one needed to tell me anything about you, or anyone else for that fact. It’s both my gift and my curse.”

“Wow! I, uhh, don’t know what to say.”

“I don’t bring it up to most people, and there are very few within the pack who actually know what I’m capable of. I’d like to keep it that way.”

“You’ve got my word,” Gavin easily agreed. “You have to admit, it must come in handy. Especially being the new Alpha of the pack. I made my way through this area years ago. It was in pretty bad shape back then.”

“Yeah, I’ve had my fair share of issues since taking over, but I do believe there are plenty of good wolves here at Twisted Tail. And a bear who’s made the pack his home,” Calder joked. “Stop by the house later tonight, let me know what the bears have to say. We’ll go from there.”

“Will do.” Gavin showed Calder out before shifting and heading out to see exactly what was up with the bear situation.