His voice was deep, rumbling, like velvet over gravel, and it made her shiver from somewhere deep inside. Maggie didn’t know whether to turn and try to run, or just collapse on her jellylike legs right there on the damn path.

  CHAPTER THREE

  ~

  Maggie knew her limitations. If she had been a character from The Wizard of Oz, then she would have been the cowardly lion.

  The man was big, big and blocking her way, and she somehow didn’t think that trying to go around him was going to be the way to go. He was rude, and she didn’t like rude people because they made her want to be rude right back.

  She guessed this man was the one who had put up the sign. Well, he could bitch and whine all he wanted, but she was a woman on a mission, and her mission was to find Rayner.

  “You don’t have to be rude about it.”

  She’d somehow managed to find her voice. She suspected it had been hiding behind that cowardly lion within her mind.

  There were days when she wished she was a lion — one of those cool shifter females with attitude, and something to back it up with — unfortunately, she wasn’t. Rayner had guts and attitude to match, but she certainly wasn’t Rayner.

  “Well, you ignored the sign — I figured you needed a little nudge in the right direction,” Roland offered back. He lifted his arm and pointed right at her. “That direction would be behind you.”

  “Geez — could you give up with the rude, already? I just need to speak to Rayner.”

  Maggie didn’t know this man from Adam, but she was done being railroaded by men — landlord included — and she was determined to find a backbone and speak her mind. Even if he killed her, which wasn’t very likely, she hoped.

  “You can’t read — you can’t understand verbal instructions — the only thing left would be for me to pick you up and physically put you off my land,” Roland said as he held onto the growl from his bear that tried to rumble within his broad chest.

  “You lay one finger on me and I’ll…” Hell, she didn’t know what she’d do — screaming in the middle of nowhere probably wouldn’t have done her any good anyway.

  “Go ahead — finish your threat,” Roland said as he took one long step toward her.

  Maggie planted her feet. She wasn’t going to be intimidated by him, at least, she wasn’t going to show that she was intimidated by him. Then he took another step, and a blade of sunlight cut through the dense foliage and highlighted his features for the first time.

  He looked dark. Maybe, it was because his mop of unruly hair tried to mix with the beard that clung to his jaw, and she still couldn’t see his eyes properly because he was squinting against the sunlight. Or, maybe he looked dark because the man was built like a brick outhouse and the more steps that he took toward her — the bigger he got.

  “I’ll scream.” She had to come up with something, and that was it. Not exactly a deterrent considering that they were in nowhere-land.

  In truth, she guessed that it wouldn’t really matter to the man if they were in the middle of a damn church. Not that she’d ever go to church.

  “I’m quaking in my damn boots,” Roland said.

  “Someone will hear and…”

  “And who do you think is going to hear you?” Roland hated to do it.

  The moment that he’d set eyes on the woman he knew that he was going to hate himself in the damn morning. He needed to scare her away, but it still didn’t sit right inside of him to do it.

  His bear didn’t like it either. The beast was reacting to the fact that she came across like a mouse — like a mouse that needed protecting — probably, from him.

  The woman was cute, curvy, and he couldn’t stop his cock from hardening when his mind took to X-rated thoughts about her. Lots of X-rated thoughts.

  He hated himself even more for those thoughts because she didn’t look like the type of woman that would entertain them. She looked soft — vanilla type soft — and she probably needed a gentle lover and not a big, brawny bear shifter that wanted nothing better than to screw her up against the wall of his cabin right then and right there.

  Roland had the damn urge to toss her over his shoulder and carry her off. He wasn’t quite sure what he’d do with her when he got her back to his cabin because he knew that he couldn’t be gentle if he tried.

  “Somebody,” she bit back.

  Then she lifted her arms and folded them under her ample breasts, pushing them out for his viewing pleasure, and almost causing him to growl, as she tried to find some steel for her backbone. That was good for her, and he’d wave a damn flag in support if he had one, but what was good for her was not good for him, not with the kind of thoughts that he was having.

  “Sweetheart, it’s just you and me out here — alone,” Roland informed her. He hated to admit it, but he kind of liked that idea.

  Hell, he didn’t know why spending some quality alone time with the breakable human appealed to him so much, but he couldn’t seem to shake it from his mind. He needed to run her off, and fast.

  “Are you really an asshole, or is this just an act for my benefit?” Maggie wasn’t sure where those words came from, but she liked them.

  Rude people really got her goat. He was rude. He was rude and intimidating, and she wasn’t going to put up with it.

  Sure, he was right. Who was going to hear her scream and come to her rescue?

  Rayner? Probably not — he’d already said that she wasn’t around. Besides, even Rayner, with all of her kickass attitude wouldn’t fare well against this man. Little Rayner against this big scary behemoth, nope, she didn’t like those apples any.

  He took another step toward her, and she locked up every muscle in her body so that she wasn’t tempted to move — to run — from him. She’d seen the movies, running probably wouldn’t do her any good anyway.

  The man was big. He was probably fast. And she’d end up tripping over her own feet as she tried to get away.

  No, it wouldn’t end well — for her.

  “Guilty as charged,” Roland bit out.

  For some strange reason, the fact that she thought about him like that gnawed deep within his psyche. His bear didn’t like it either. The beast was starting to claw within him, growling and making him work harder to keep it locked within the confines of his cage.

  Maggie wasn’t sure how to react to that. She’d never expected him to agree with her. Who the hell did that?

  She was pretty sure that she’d heard a rumble of thunder that came from his direction. All she needed now was a rainstorm. That would be the perfect ending to her sucky day.

  “You’re still standing there,” Roland said, sparking her into action, and surprisingly, she started towards him instead of running the other way.

  “You’re right,” she bit out with determination. “You wanna show me where Rayner is staying?”

  Maggie heard that rumble of thunder again, and the closer that she got to him, the louder it got. It suddenly occurred to her that it wasn’t thunder at all – the man was growling.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ~

  “Holy crap!” Maggie pulled up short and eyed Roland with a lot of curiosity that was mixed with a little disbelief. She didn’t think that she’d ever come face to face with a shifter before, not knowingly. “Are you a wolf shifter?”

  Roland could have headbutted the nearest tree trunk, a good, thick, hardy tree trunk so as not to knock the damn thing over. He offered her a sneer that looked a lot like incredulity to her.

  “Wolf shifter?” he growled.

  Now that she’d tagged him as a shifter he didn’t feel the need to keep his bear at bay any longer, but a damn wolf? That was just insulting – his bear felt the same way.

  “Lion?” Maggie frowned as she looked up at him.

  Roland took two long steps towards her. His chest was practically brushing her breasts, and he was toe to toe with her as he looked down his nose.

  “Bear,” he growled, just long enough to show her that his beast didn’t appreciate being miscategorised, and a warning to make her turn tail and leave.

  He wished she had a damn tail because then making her leave his land definitely wouldn’t have been on his to-do list. He wouldn’t break a shifter female; they weren’t soft.

  Maggie guessed that she should have been intimidated by that, by him, and she didn’t know why she wasn’t. Hell, the spotty teenage jerk at the local deli intimidated her – not to mention the barista at the coffee shop, the clerk at the bank, and her elderly neighbor that used to live downstairs from her and Rayner.

  Rayner – homelessness – lost damn cause – need – hopelessness – that was a heady list of things that were ganging up on her and had sent her to the middle of nowhere in search of Rayner in the first place. She wasn’t about to run off home now – mainly because in a few days – she wouldn’t have a damn home left to cower in.

  “How nice for you,” Maggie blurted out to fill the silence between them. Awkward.

  “How the hell do you know Rayner?” Roland had to ask because they were opposites of each other. If they were friends; it was a very strange mix.

  “She’s my …” Maggie would dearly have loved to have said friend, but making friends was like pulling her own toenails out. She couldn’t do it in a month of Sundays, and moving across the country hadn’t helped her social awkwardness. “Neighbor – was.”

  “And I’m guessing that she doesn’t know you’re coming.”

  “Not as dumb as you look, hmm?”

  Roland slowly lifted just the one eyebrow and stared down at her. It was kind of hard to look her in the eyes because the woman was looking anywhere but at him.

  He guessed she was finding her feet and a backbone, and he’d give her credit for that, but she still didn’t look like she knew what the hell she was doing. But still, kudos to her for standing up to him, even more so since he’d told her he had a monster within him.

  “No, I’m probably that damn dumb,” he grumbled, more to himself than to her for what he was about to do. “Come on. Rayner will be around sooner or later. You can wait at my cabin.”

  “With you?” Maggie wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that. Perhaps she should just go back to her car and wait it out there. Try again later.

  “I’m guessing you’re not as dumb as you look, hmm?” he offered back, and for one long moment; a moment that felt like someone dropped a damn stone into his stomach, her eyes flicked to his, and he got full sight of those big baby blues.

  “I guess I deserved that,” Maggie muttered, looking anywhere but at him because, in truth, she kind of liked what she saw.

  “I guess you did.”

  Roland wanted to be able to tell her to get the hell off clan land, he truly did, but there was a part of him that just couldn’t do it. He wasn’t sure that his bear wanted that either – the beast seemed more than interested in the little human female.

  His bear was clawing within him for one thing and one thing only; it was urging him to sniff, to take her scent, and damn it to hell and back, but he wanted to do it. He just couldn’t.

  “Why are you staring at me like I’m bear food?” Maggie asked, giving him a sideways glare.

  “Bear food?” His other eyebrow went upwards towards his hairline to make a matching pair.

  “What do bears eat anyhow?” she grumbled.

  “Snarky humans,” Roland said, turning sideways and motioning for her to walk on. “Female ones,” he whispered in her ear as she took her first hesitant step.

  “Watch it,” Maggie muttered as she yanked her head away from him and almost tripped over her own feet because she’d stupidly tried to take a sideways step away from the behemoth – her and grace didn’t exactly go hand in hand.

  Roland chuckled to himself. Even for all of her big talk, the female was still flighty, and she’d almost taken a tumble – not that his arm hadn’t already shot out to save her should she not have been able to do it herself.

  He fell into step beside her, resisting the urge to take in her scent and kill off his curiosity once and for all. If she were his, then he’d rather know than not know about it.

  But he sure didn’t want to scent her out there in the open like that with eyes on him from inside the woods. He knew exactly who was watching – Bowie – and there was no way in hell that he was letting her anywhere near that man or his monster.

  ~

  ~

  ~

  “Human female,” Bowie informed Rayner and Dane from far enough away that he didn’t feel like he was a threat to Rayner or her bear. He still didn’t like getting too close to her, not after what he’d done. “Name’s Maggie.”

  “Maggie!” Rayner bit out in surprise.

  She’d known the voice had sounded familiar, and yet, she would never have guessed in a million years that her ex-neighbor had come looking for her.

  “Maggie?” Dane asked.

  “We lived next door to each other, not exactly best buds or anything.” Rayner shrugged, then she turned her attention back to Bowie, and as usual the man averted his eyes. “She say what she wanted?”

  “Nope.” Bowie gave a small shake of his head.

  “Roland got rid of her?” Dane asked.

  “Nope.”

  “What does that mean?” Dane frowned.

  Roland had one job, getting the human off their land, he had to wonder what his brother was playing at.

  “Means she’s still here.” Bowie would have followed it up with a smartass comment, but he was still on shaky ground with Dane, and he didn’t want to upset Rayner.

  “I get that,” Dane growled. “Why is she still here?”

  “Don’t know. I followed them back to Roland’s cabin and then came here.”

  “I guess I’m going to have to go find out,” Rayner sighed. She’d much prefer to be chasing down Tank and getting the job done.

  Dane had put a call around to all the shifters that he was on reasonable terms with. Apparently, bears would be bears, and there wasn’t some kind of them-against-the-rest-of-the-world attitude, more of a keep out – stay away from my territory thing going on which made cooperation tenuous at best.

  Tank didn’t have a clan; he was too much of a rogue bear for that, and his presence would have brought too much scrutiny to the clans for their liking. He was also as wildass as they came, and nobody wanted him on their team because he wasn’t a team player.

  Dane had been hoping that someone would give up his location and cut down on the legwork. Still, Rayner felt the need to get out there and hunt him down herself. Maybe, now that she had a bear inside of her, hunt was the wrong word, even if it did feel so damn right.

  “I’ll go,” Dane bit down on his annoyance. Why did his damn brothers never do as they were told?

  He didn’t want to leave Rayner alone, and he certainly didn’t want to leave her with Bowie, and yet, he needed to know what Roland was playing at by allowing the female to stay.

  He didn’t move from the spot.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ~

  “Your legs not working?” Rayner asked, teasing her mate because she could feel the reluctance within him to take even one step away from her, and she knew why. He didn’t trust her, or her bear, and he certainly didn’t trust his brother.

  “I’ll look after Rayner,” Bowie said, still unable to meet his alpha’s gaze.

  “That worked out so well the last time that…” Dane growled.

  “We’ll be fine,” Rayner said.

  She didn’t need to look at Bowie to know that the man was hurting in his own way. Hell, it wasn’t as if she’d forgiven him yet herself for biting her and giving her the unstable beast within her, but at least she wasn’t rubbing it in every chance that she got. “After all, Bowie’s going to have to help me with Tank…”

  “Not alone, he’s not,” Dane growled at the thought of letting his mate out of his sight, especially around Bowie.

  He’d done it before. He’d let her go off with Roland to see her boss, and the whole time that she was gone it had eaten him up inside. But Roland was different – he couldn’t trust Bowie.

  Rayner noted the way that Bowie’s large hands fisted at his sides. He shifted his weight and peered out from beneath his dark eyebrows that were drawn down in a scowl. He looked – hurt.

  “I’m not going to hurt her.” Bowie tried his damnedest to hold onto the growl within him, but it didn’t help.

  “Stop growling, you’re annoying my bear,” Rayner growled back, and Bowie snapped off the growl right there and then. Rayner did as well.

  “Sorry,” Bowie grumbled, and went to turn away, but Dane wasn’t about to let him go anywhere.

  “Hold on,” he said. He hadn’t seen his brother able to control his beast like that in a very long time. Maybe Rayner could reach that part of the man again. Maybe having her around Bowie was good for the man. Or maybe the two of them would hyper each other into a damn frenzy if he wasn’t around to stop it. “If anything happens to her…” Dane growled.

  “It won’t,” Bowie bit back with a fast shake of his head, but his head was still craned forward, and he still couldn’t do more than snatch a look at Dane from under his eyebrows.

  “So much as a stubbed toe…”

  “I swear,” Bowie promised.

  “See, we’re all good,” Rayner said with a shrug and a mischievous grin for her mate.

  “Do not test your bear against Bowie’s…” Dane warned her.

  “Why would I?” Rayner snorted. “Just go find out what’s going on. I need to hunt down Tank before I’m too old to collect on the next one.”

  “One stubbed toe,” Dane warned his brother again.

  “Got it, if she gets all antsy then I’ll just sit on her,” Bowie said with a shrug.

  “Do not sit on my mate,” Dane growled back over his shoulder as he started away from them.

  “I’m so going to sit on you if you start,” Bowie leaned in and whispered, but he wouldn’t, Dane had told him not to.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9