~

 

In the space of one day; Rayner had ripped through three different outfits that Dane had provided for her as her bear decided to burst from within her with only a minimum of warning.

It normally coincided with a rush of anger inside of her, and that was normally every time that she thought about what had happened.

Dane was there every step of the way. It was strange that his presence seemed soothing to her bear, soothing to her, but she was glad of it, knowing that he was there to make sure she didn’t go bat-shit crazy like Bowie had done.

Rayner had to figure that getting a grip on her bear was harder than she’d given thought to, and she’d thought a lot about it. It was second only in her mind to thoughts of Dane — naked Dane — sexy as hell Dane — those thoughts seem to be backing up in her mind like a traffic jam that she couldn’t escape from.

Every time that she raced out of the cabin, Dane was right there behind her, stripping off his clothes, distracting her with his naked body, and shifting right alongside her.

His bear nudged, cajoled, and rugby tackled her when she started to stray somewhere that she shouldn’t have been. It was half reprimand and half playfulness, and she liked it.

By morning, she was as tired as hell, and although she’d meant to go to the spare cabin, she ended up collapsing naked and wrapped in a blanket on his sofa in front of the open fire, where she promptly fell asleep.

Somewhere within the back of her mind, she knew that she was being lifted, carried, and she knew that it was Dane that was doing it. Her sense of smell was extraordinarily heightened, and with her head against his chest the sound his heartbeat was comforting and strong.

Rayner curled against his body. Somewhere within her mind, she was loathed to let go.

He felt like her rock, her anchor to the real world — not that his world was that real to her yet.

“Sleep, sweetheart,” Dane whispered against her ear as he laid her down on his bed, and detached her body from around his.

That was the last thing that he wanted to do, leave her sleeping there alone. He had the urge to climb in beside her, wrap his body around hers, and protect her from her dreams if she needed it.

Dane could feel how strong the mating pull was between them. If it was affecting him that much then it would also be doing the same thing to her.

She needed to come to him as a mate, wanted, needed, wanting, needing him just as much. Anything else would be taking advantage of her emotional, rational state, and that he couldn’t do.

Rayner grumbled in her sleep. She even growled a little — that upset his bear — the beast wanted to claim her for their own, but his damn beast could wait its turn.

Dane had to force his body away from the bed, their sleeping mate, and out of the room. He grabbed a bottle of Scotch on his way toward the front door.

When he yanked it open, there was Roland, sitting in one of the outside wooden deck chairs, and staring off into a new day.

“You need to talk?” Roland asked.

Dane stalked over to the second chair and dropped his backside into it with a deep grunt. He yanked the top from the bottle of Scotch and brought it toward his lips.

“Nope.”

“Good,” Roland offered back.

Dane placed the bottle to his lips and took a long swig. Then he blew out a long breath and passed the bottle to his brother. Roland did the same.

“Bowie?” Roland asked passing the bottle back to his brother.

“Don’t know yet,” Dane admitted.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about it, he had. It was more to do with the fact that Rayner was his primary concern now. He took a drink before passing the bottle back.

“I hear that.”

“Rayner?” Dane shot a look at his brother, and the man grinned.

“Feisty.”

“Give me that damn bottle,” Dane growled, and Roland chuckled as he slapped it back against the man’s palm.

“Good luck wooing her. That’s all I’m saying.” He chuckled again. It was low and deep in his chest, and it annoyed the hell out of Dane.

“Well – don’t.”

“Got it.” Roland chuckled once more.

“Asshole,” Dane grumbled as he lifted the bottle towards his lips and stopped – he took a moment to think of it.

Rayner was damn feisty and as sexy as all hell. He chuckled, and that started Roland off once more.

The pair of them sat on the porch, chucking, and passing the scotch back and forth.

 

 

~

~

~

 

Rayner flew out of the cabin as if it was on fire. She’d slept better than she’d slept in a long time, and that was weird because she could never sleep in someone else’s bed, but she had, and the damn sun was going down.

Now she had somewhere to be, and it wasn’t on the shifters mountain.

“Runaway mate,” Roland chuckled.

He was the first one to spot Rayner as she took off across the open area that he was trying to clean up with Dane. His alpha had decided that the whole area needed sprucing up now that there was a female living there, and he’s somehow managed to rope himself in.

“What?” Dane’s head whipped around in the direction that Roland was pointing, sure enough, there was Rayner taking off on fast feet. “Oh, crap!” He growled.

Dane dropped the large branch that someone’s bear had managed to drag in from the woods around them, narrowly missing Roland’s feet as the man jumped in place.

“Hey!” Roland growled.

“Rayner!” Dane took off after her. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

“Going to kick Bute’s ass,” Rayner growled.

She wasn’t slowing down, but with Dane’s long legs it didn’t take much for him to catch her up. He circled his hand around her wrist and yanked her to a halt.

“Who’s Bute?” Dane growled.

He liked the fact that she wanted to kick the guy’s backside rather than telling him that the man was her boyfriend, or something equally as deadly — for him.

“My boss — he’s the idiot that sent me up here. It’s his fault,” Rayner growled out.

“What’s his fault?”

“Sending me up here,” Rayner didn’t seem to be making any sense, even to herself.

Her mind was spinning from sleep, and dreams — strange dreams — mostly of bears and Dane naked. She liked the Dane naked part.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea…”

“And Chet…” she spat out in disgust.

“Who’s Chet?” Dane didn’t get the feeling that he was her boyfriend either.

“My landlord…” she growled.

“Mr. Two-weeks notice?”

“Yeah, boy, could I let my bear loose on his butt.”

“Again, not a good idea,” Dane warned her to the sound of Roland’s chuckling.

“Why don’t you go sniff out where Bowie’s taken himself off to, and smack him on the nose a few times?” Roland grinned.

“That sounds like a…” Her eyes lit up at the thought.

“Bad idea,” Dane said with a deep scowl that cut ridges into his normally smooth forehead.

Rayner didn’t hold back that time when she felt the urge to run her fingertips over those welts, she did it, and shocked the hell out if Dane in the process. His beast growled, and he joined it.