Chapter Three
Nissa wove her way through the turns into town, rubbing her aching neck as she turned her Ford Taurus down a side street. Wow, not much had changed since she’d left. The old mill on the right was where she and her cousin had partied with the other teens. If you went past the “locals only” sign, you could...voila! Make it to Jessup Street, which was a shortcut to Main. It took at least five minutes off the time to get down to the center of town— not that she didn’t have time to kill anyway.
It was nine a.m. Everyone was either at work or at school. The few people who stayed home during the day were probably at the cafe in town or getting ready for Bear Paw’s annual fishing tournament. The streets were quiet, giving her time to remember last night’s kiss. Holy crap, the man could kiss. She squirmed in her seat as the memory of Zach’s lips claiming hers invaded her thoughts.
His lips had been soft yet firm, his body hard. She could have molded herself into his chest, and they would have fit together perfectly.
Releasing a frustrated sigh, she glanced at her phone next to her. No, she was absolutely not going to call Bo and ask how Dog Breath’s search was going! Nor was she going to ask how much longer he would be in town. She’d just pretend she hadn’t had the living daylights kissed out of her last night. She’d get some breakfast, say hey to Sam, and maybe catch up on some town gossip before starting her job hunt. She couldn't just sit around all day twiddling her thumbs. Nissa needed to be useful. Do something that would help make a difference, like her aunt. Bear Paw River’s beloved healer also gave weekly self-defense classes to the females and cubs, along with running her own private Tae Kwon Do school. Aunt Ida had asked if Nissa wanted a job, but it felt too constricting. A waitressing job would be fine to up and quit when she needed to bolt again. Not her most responsible thinking, but at least she wouldn’t be leaving her aunt high and dry.
A flash of blond crept into her periphery, right before the little thing bolted in front of her car. She slammed on her brakes. A young kid sprinted across Jessup toward the small wooded lot on the other side of the street. He was wearing two-piece cotton pajamas, no shoes and a huge grin that took over his whole face. He turned back long enough to give her a happy wave, before continuing his sprint to freedom.
Nissa had never seen him before, but she knew that look. She’d worn it plenty of times after a long day of school, or a huge thunderstorm that would keep her imprisoned in her house. But once she was released, free to roam wildly… Oh yeah, many times she hadn’t even taken the time to get dressed. She’d just run outside, naked, ready to shift.
Where was the kid’s mother? Nissa could have hit him with her car and really hurt him. She pulled over to the curb, behind a beat-up, white Chevrolet that was more rust than paint.
“Hey. You know that kid?” she asked the man in the front seat.
The thin man with the receding hairline and stained teeth looked at her wildly before shaking his head. He left her standing in a plume of smoke and oil fumes.
What the hell? Was everyone in a hurry this morning? She strode toward the tree line. Where’d that kid go, anyway? When she saw the glimmer of blond and navy blue streak through the woods, she started jogging. “Hey, you okay?” She finally caught up to him. “Where’s your mom?”
“She had to run out to get my medicine. We ran out. My babysitter is watching a kithssing show.”
It was adorable how his little “s” sounded like “th” through his missing teeth.
“I like running, bye!” He grinned, giving her a big, toothless grin, before turning and hightailing it back toward the street.
“Wait!” God, the kid was fast. She had barely turned around before he was halfway to the street. Thankfully, he made it across safely. “Watch where you’re going next time!” she yelled.
As she was heading back to her car, the hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up. She turned quickly, catching sight of the large man as he stopped adjacent to the line of woods she had been following the kid through. His eyes were jet black, and a white scar ran across his dark forehead and down over his eye, giving him an evil look. And that was before he opened his mouth to show his gleaming white teeth. Not a smile, but rather a scowl as he took his gaze off her momentarily to follow the kid’s progress down the sidewalk toward the apartment building.
“Are you following that kid?”
“None of your business what I do in the forest. You stay out of my way.” His accent was deep and guttural, and his dark gaze held the promise of pain as he parted his lips, showing very sharp incisors.
“I think you can stay out of my way.” She widened her stance and affected a posture of strength and power. Just like Aunt Ida had taught her.
“Liam, you get yourself in here now, before I call your mother!” An older lady called out from across the street. A high-pitched giggle was followed by a loud slam of the door, and the street was silent again.
Nissa continued to stare down the larger man. Yeah, he scared the shit out of her, but she had learned a long time ago, you didn’t cower before a threat. You pushed back. Hard. She scowled at the man and let out a low grumble in warning.
Dark Gaze looked like he was about to shift right there and tear off her head, and his returning growl was much deeper, much scarier. It made her heart jump into her throat as she stood there contemplating her strategic fallback.
“That’s enough.” Another figure spoke from the shadows, but she couldn’t quite see him. Just a brief glimpse of white, blond hair and pale skin. “I found your wallet, man. Let’s get out of here. Sorry about that, miss. He gets cranky before breakfast.”
Dark Gaze gave her one last threatening growl before turning toward his friend.
Stupid out-of-towners. They’d probably gotten drunk, and lost the wallet while being idiots. At least, the kid was back in his home.
Nissa shook off the yucky vibes that had gotten her whole body into the exaggerated fight or flight mode and climbed back into her car. She finally stopped shaking when she parked in the lone spot three blocks down from Ma’s Cafe.
Great, the place looked packed. When she entered the chaotic restaurant, her cousin, Sam came over gave her a quick hug and shooed her toward the back. “Sorry about this, but we don’t have any spots open.” Sam led her past the rest of the tables of loud fishermen and crying children. “You don’t mind sitting with a hottie, do you?”
Nissa met the warm gaze of the sexiest man she had ever seen. Also, the one who had given her the best kiss of her life. “Hey, Dog Breath.”
• • • • • • • • • •
Zach hadn’t slept at all last night; instead, he’d tossed and turned as his mind kept replaying the image of the most beautiful female he had ever met. Her scent of honeysuckle, the rosy tips of her taut nipples, her gorgeous eyes. One was a deep brown, the other an unusual mixture of hunter green and olive that had shone with gold when she had been aroused yesterday. He had smelled it on her and almost taken her right there on the forest floor. God, if Bo had come upon them a minute later…
Nissa, the younger sister of the alpha bear. Shit. Thoughts of her had kept him up all night.
Zach sipped his too-cold-coffee and observed the busy restaurant. A male and female bellowed breakfast orders at each other from within the kitchen. The male yelled something about burnt toast and the wrong style of eggs. Zach chuckled when the metal bowl slammed onto the counter as the female told him to make the damn things himself. Not many could hear their antics from outside the kitchen in the chaotic little restaurant. But Zach could. He wasn’t just any wolf shifter. He was the crown prince of the Royal Herne Clan and a Tracker.
In human form, most shifters could only scent their own kind. It was hard to separate the delicate nuances and differences that identified a species. Zach's best assets had been handed down to him for hundreds of years. Each patriarch within his royal bloodline possessed and passed along The Tracker Gift. The best in the world.
Though he couldn’t scent different humans, he could use his brain to find the people he needed to find. This was only his fifth job, but it felt like the most important—the most crucial, which was why he was sitting in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, tuning out the humans and their annoying complaints about cold coffee and slow service. The few shifters in the room waited patiently, knowing it didn't do any good to rush someone who was doing their best. Sam, the semi-goth looking waitress—a bear shifter with jet black hair, a pierced eyebrow, and a tongue ring—just kept doing her job. Her mouth was set in a tight line, as she seemed to contemplate whether to serve the food on the tables like she should or on a few heads.
Zach grinned when the female in the kitchen hurled another comical insult at her mate. She laughed while comparing his manhood to the dried up, overcooked, tiny sausage links he had just cooked. The male snuffed and told her if she kept it up, he would shut down the restaurant right then and fuck her senseless. Honey badgers had weird senses of humor. This pair was getting off on the chaos and their jabs at each other. Foreplay.
Zach made a mental note not to ask for sausage links.
“Hey.” His waitress, Sam, stood in front of him with Nissa next to her. “I’m out of room in this hellhole. Can you two sit together without killing each other?” She grinned. She could probably tell he was a shifter, but not what animal he was. They couldn’t scent shifters who were in human form--but he could.
“Yeah, sure.” He stood and pointed his hand toward the empty side of his booth.
“Holy shit, I didn't think guys did that anymore.” Sam smirked and placed a worn menu in front of Nissa.
Nissa took a seat across from him, her cheeks staining with a hint of pink. It was adorable on her and made his mind go to all the other ways he could make her body flush. Mate.
He shook his head as if trying to clear his thoughts and sat down across from her.
“Sorry about the mess today. It’s usually not like this.” Sam refilled his coffee and poured a new cup for Nissa. “There’s a fishing tournament this weekend, our line cook broke his arm, and one of the servers is home with a sick kid.”
“So they aren’t usually in the kitchen?” He pointed at the badger dynamic duo that had just come out to grab some coffee. Leaving God-knew-what burning in the kitchen. The female was practically purring (did badgers purr?) as she ground her body all over her mate in front of the coffee maker.
“No, they own the place and just stay nearby to manage it. Until days like this. That’s why I’m in this hell. Part-time only in case of emergency. If I were you, I’d order something that doesn’t have to be cooked.”
Nissa giggled, the sweetest sound coming from her soft pink lips.
Mate. Shit, he knew that. But she wasn’t ready. He didn't even have to be a tracker to know that. Besides, he wasn’t ready to settle down with a mate either. He had too much to do.
They both ordered cereal and looked over to see the badger couple making out in front of the food warming area.
“Shit. Come on you guys, just a few more orders. Then, we can get out of here for a few hours.” Sam grumbled quietly to the badgers.
They nodded, giving her sheepish grins before heading back into the kitchen. The shouting was even louder than before.
Zach met Nissa’s grin and her eyes sparked as their gazes held.
“Badgers,” he told her.
“How can you tell? I thought shifters couldn’t scent others in human form.” She cocked her head to the side and squinched her nose.
“I’ve got a pretty good nose.” He smiled, reveling in the fact that she was smiling back at him with her straight white teeth and full pink lips. Her earthy eyes sparkled with mischief but also had a bit of sadness in them. If she accepted him as her mate, he would make sure her eyes never held that look again. No more sadness for his sweet Nissa.
Damn. He needed to keep his head on straight. He had a job to do. And it wasn’t just the huge amount of money that called to him. It was the principle of right and wrong. It wasn't right to keep a wolf from her peers, her role models, and her family… her pack. The pack elders who hired him hadn't told him why the female had been raised outside the pack. Damn, he was still overcompensating for his sister’s disappearance.
Zach needed to force his instincts down and do what needed to be done—find the female and deliver her home before someone else found her and hurt her. Hell, she could be one of the missing women being sold into sexual slavery by the Vanetti cartel. But his wolf had led him here to Bear Paw River, to the sprawling terrain of lush green mountainside and bears. Lots of bears. Why would a wolf come to a bear community? To hide, his wolf answered with a growl. But what was she hiding from?
He had followed the faint lion’s scent into bear territory yesterday because something had felt very off about it. There were plenty of different types of shifters in and near this town, but no lions. His wolf instincts bellowed at him to investigate further. Was the lion connected to the female?
“I think I’m going to head out now. Enjoy the rest of your soggy cereal and cold coffee.” Nissa reached for her purse.
“Where are you running off to?”
A streak of red climbed her cheeks, and she frowned down at the remains of their mostly uneaten breakfast. “I feel…” She clenched her fists and winced before releasing a loud exhale. “I just need some quiet for a while. Maybe it’ll pass.”
“When’s the last time you shifted, little bear? Besides yesterday,” he added, lowering his voice to make sure the surrounding tables didn’t hear.
“It’s been a while. Yesterday, was the first time the magic actually happened since I left Bear Paw. I’d been repressing it for a while. My birth control pills seemed to help.”
His growl surprised the young couple behind them, but he played it off and ignored their surprised glances. Zach couldn’t help it. The thought of her having sex with any other man, brought his wolf to the front. And his wolf would kill any male that tried to replace him as the one to put a pup into her round belly. His woman. His pup. His mate. “I bet your bear didn’t appreciate being ignored for so long.”
She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Understatement of the year. She wants me to let go, run wild, find my mate, have a bunch of babies, and stay here in this tiny town, a prisoner forever—until I die. Yeah, I’m still not quite ready for all of that. But Bo was right.” She shrugged and ran her finger over the edge of her coffee cup. “I can’t hide forever. I need to suck it up, let it happen, and give up my dreams.”
“Tell me your dreams.”
She looked around the packed restaurant as if willing Sam to come back in and rescue her with the bill. She looked ready to bolt.
He took her hand in his and squeezed gently. “Please? You’re stuck here anyway until your bear friend comes back.”
“How can you tell she’s a bear?”
“My senses are hyper-refined. It’s a part of my heritage.” He didn't tell her about his royal bloodline, or that if his family had their way, he would be leading a kingdom instead of tracking missing cubs. That story would come out another day. For now, he was just another lone wolf—one with extreme skills. “I can not only tell she’s a bear, I can tell what kind, which leads me to a question. How many different types of bears are in your family? She’s your cousin, right?”
“Yeah, right. We’re both black bears, the smallest in our family and probably our clan.” She laughed. “The cub twins will outgrow us both soon.” She smiled and continued. “Our clan used to be bigger. The grizzlies have owned the land forever. Two brothers each took mates from different bear clans, some brown, some black, and a few grizzlies, even a sun bear. Bo and I come from the Alpha, Jebediah Alexander’s line. My mother was a gorgeous black bear from Wisconsin. Sam’s mother was her twin sister. They came down for the annual Romp when Bear Paw hosted it. My mom mated with Lucas Alexander, Jebediah’s great grandson. Her twin mated with a visiting grizzly and they decided to remain in this pack too. Many small clans formed right here on the mountainside.”
“It’s amazing you have that many different clans and species without any fighting.”
“They fought.” She rolled her eyes. “My father and uncle fought all the time about who should be Alpha. Lucas, my father, said the title had been passed down since Jebediah, making him the only true Alpha. Stuart, his brother in law, said he was stronger and could create more of a threatening presence to keep away other shifters. He wanted the land all to himself and didn't want to share with other shifters. They argued often. Uncle Stuart took out his anger on others.”
Zach could feel the tension rolling off her in waves. He took her hand and pressed it to the table stopping the shaking against her coffee cup. “What happened?”
She winced. “Uncle Stuart had grown more aggressive over the years and was hurting Sam. He was very angry that morning, and no one else was around. I got my father in time, but when they started battling in bear form...” She shuddered before straightening up and continuing. “It was the scariest thing I’d ever seen. I’ve seen bear fights, but never something as violent as that. I thought they were going to kill each other. My mom jumped between them, trying to stop the fight, and Uncle Stuart, he um…” She wiped a tear from her angry, dark eyes. “He slashed at her before anyone could do anything. He ripped her throat out, right.” Her eyes flashed with gold and her fists clenched inside his grip. “Some things you can’t heal. She died a minute later, and my dad died of a broken heart the next day.”
“What about your uncle?” Zach tried to keep his voice calm, even though the wolf inside him was howling to avenge her family. He would find that bear and make him feel a thousand deaths before he delivered the final killing blow.
“They ripped him to pieces. I don’t remember who did what. But suddenly, they were all there. My aunt, my brothers, Dad, all blurs of brown, white, gray and black…” She shuddered. “And red. So much red. And you know what? While I held Sam, hiding behind a rock, I felt my bear rise. My animal side wanted to kill the bastard. Our animal sides are what brought this on.”
She pierced him with a sad gaze. “When Dad died, we were left without an alpha. Uncle Stuart had scared off and threatened most of the younger males. Bo took over the job at fifteen since our older brother, Caleb had left the year prior.” She took her hand from his and wrapped her arms around her chest, scowling. “I left as soon as I turned eighteen. Animals did this to my family. Animals that didn’t know how to just let go and forget about their stupid, arrogant pride. All they cared about was instinct, the glory found within a fucking word. Alpha.” She spat the word out as if it were burning her tongue.
“I’m sorry that happened to you.” Zach’s wolf was still pacing back and forth aggressively, waiting for a chance to get out and fix her pain. But she was already skittish about her animal side. It would only scare her more. So he tried to put more energy into calming her frazzled nerves. He let the full power of his gaze settle on her, sensing as much as seeing her visibly calm in front of him. Her high, tightened shoulders relaxed, and her fists unclenched before releasing their death grip on her upper arms. Then she gave one final, drawn out sigh before her eyes shimmered back to their original two colors. “You okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Bo wasn’t the oldest of your brothers?”
“No, he was the middle son, our goofy, smart, peacekeeping brother. The one who could stop an argument with kind, soft words and calming energy. Between you and me, he wasn’t meant to be Alpha. Caleb would have been Alpha if he had stayed,” she spat.
“So Bo took the responsibility on to protect his pack.” Zach felt the condemnation from his father’s words hit him like a punch to the gut. Zach was still ignoring his parents’ pleas to prepare to take over, while Bo, the bear who would have made one hell of a beta or omega, shouldered the weight because he was the only one they had. A newfound respect formed for the young Alpha of Bear Paw.
“Bo does what’s needed to protect our children, our elderly, and the rest of our small pack who aren't strong enough to leave. But he doesn’t embrace it—not the full power that the Alpha yields.”
“I felt his power in the woods yesterday,” Zach said.
“That’s only a portion of what he could do. If he’d accept it, find his mate, and bind their energies.” She sighed and choked on her coffee. “God, this stuff is even worse cold. Anyway, neither of us is doing what we were brought into this life to do. He feels too much guilt and resentment over this whole situation. And I, I don’t know. I don’t trust the animal inside me. I just want to push it down and be normal, travel the world, meet new people, see new sights, not get tied down to being responsible. You probably think I’m a monster for not accepting my other side.”
“No.” He reached across and took her chin in his hand. “I think you’re a beautiful woman, who is afraid to take a chance on being the best she could be. Come on, we have some unfinished business.” He stood up, threw down a twenty-dollar bill, and reached down to help her to her feet.
“Where are we going?”
“Back to the woods, so you can see the beauty in accepting your other side. We’re going to go shift.” Zach shouldn’t be doing this. The closer he got to Nissa, the harder his wolf howled to claim her, distracting him from his real job. But she was his mate—whether he accepted it or not. And he’d be damned if he let her continue being alone and in pain. He would help her shift, accept her pure form, and then Goddess willing, he’d move on and finish this mission. And get the hell out of Bear Paw.