“I don’t get it, Darren. You’re a good guy.”
Jared wiped the glass in his hand and raised his brow at Darren. “All these women are nuts for not hitting it off with you.”
Darren shook his head and shrugged helplessly. “Well that kind of doesn’t make a difference, you know? I have a past.”
Darren took the dry glass from Jared’s hand and put it away. The bar was slow today. But, sometimes, slow was good. Things could get pretty rowdy after dark. Jared owned the place and any damage that was done was something he would have to pay for out of his own pocket. Insurance wasn’t a huge industry on Oak Mountain. The bear shifters thought of it as a far too human establishment.
“That still shouldn’t keep people from wanting to spend time with you,” Jarrod insisted. “Not a lot of guys around these parts that can handle what you can. They’d be lucky to have you.”
Darren raised his brow at Jarrod. “Are you flirting with me, man?”
A look of sheer terror crept across his best friend’s features. Darren was known to have a temper shorter than the wick on a stick of dynamite, and the explosion was often far worse. It was no wonder the women on Oak Mountain wanted nothing to do with him. He was terrifying.
It probably also had a lot to do with his string of bad and abandoned relationships. And the elephant in the room. The incident.
It had been a long time ago, but it had completely changed his life. Darren was in charge. He was an alpha; one of the most powerful. But it had been his reckless behavior that had cost him another man’s life.
He shook the thought away, though he knew perfectly well that this was why he was having such a hard time finding a mate on Oak Mountain. He was one of the strongest, bravest, and fiercest men around. But he had always been the most stubborn.
“I’m just messing with you, Jay. Calm down.”
His friend relaxed and looked dubiously at Darren, then down at the bar. He fiddled with his rag and then wiped a small pool of water from the bar.
“I have a thought that might help you solve your problem,” Jared said. “But I have a feeling you’re not going to like it.”
“Is that so?” Darren asked. He already wasn’t sure he liked the sound of this. Jared could come up with some pretty stupid ideas, sometimes. “It’s not going to be like the last time, is it? A blind date with the widow. What the hell were you thinking?”
Jared laughed and shook his head. “That was my mistake, man. This is different. I was talking to the guys who run the paper, and they told me you can put ads out for someone to come out and live with you. Isn’t that crazy?”
“Ads?” Darren asked, furrowing his brow. “Like a wanted ad?”
“Yeah. Apparently, they’re pretty popular. But in a quiet way.” Jared dug under the bar, shuffling around until he pulled out a newspaper. He opened it up for Darren to read. He pointed to it. “It’s worth considering, anyway.”
Darren frowned as his eyes located a small box in the upper left side of the paper. There was a picture of a woman there; a human woman. The bear within him locked on and a sharp pang of possession consumed him. This was his human.
Hi! I’m Kelly. Young woman, 23, seeking good home with a friendly, responsible man. Curvy, intelligent, and open-minded. Contact any time.
Darren eyed the ad, reading it hungrily, again and again. He wished there were more words so he could get a clue of what this woman was like. But he pulled his eyes away from the paper quickly when he realized his best friend was still standing there watching him.
“You know I’m not going to worry that much about it,” Darren said with a deep sigh.
“Right, but the option’s there if you ever want to take it.”
Darren nodded, saying nothing more about the possibility. Could he really answer an ad to ask a complete stranger to come to his home? Wasn’t that a little risky?
But when he was done with his shift and parted ways with Jared, he walked home from the diner, all three miles, his mind mulling over the possibility. He was getting to the age where a man should settle down. Have a family. Become somebody other than what he started out as.
He had already built his empire. He was an alpha, a success. But he didn’t want that life anymore. Not the way he had. Enough to put someone else’s life on the line.
When the kid had been killed, it had twisted something in him up and broken it. The part of him that always seemed to think he knew exactly what he was doing, no matter what anybody else said.
It humbled him, he guessed, and it was something that started to open his mind to the possibility of changing his ways. Maybe not entirely; he could never escape his true alpha nature. But there were compromises he could make. Things he could do to make himself more compatible with other people.
The others on Oak Mountain had already decided he wasn’t exactly marriage material. They knew he wasn’t the type to play well with others, and relationships were nothing but compromise and working toward harmony. It wasn’t easy to change to accommodate others, especially in his own home.
But what if he did look into one of those ads that Jared had told him about? A woman who was willing to answer an ad like that might be willing to understand and accept his way of life. There was no telling what kind of person he might attract, though. It seemed risky. And he couldn’t get the girl’s face out of his head. But was it really what he wanted to do?
Still, he knew it was time for a change. He had to settle down. He had to get himself in a comfortable place or he was going to drive himself up the wall. It was time for Darren to settle down and find a mate.
As soon as he made it home, Darren walked into the big, empty house and sighed. He needed to start a life. He was lonely. And not only that, but he wanted children. If he didn’t have cubs soon, he probably never would. Darren didn’t want to wait until it was too late. He wanted a family.
He lingered in the kitchen a little while longer, deep in concentration. Finally, he sighed. He turned around and walked out of his house, then got in his car. He was going to drive down to the closest convenience store and answer Kelly’s ad. If he didn’t do it now, he never would.