The Complete Series

by Elena Aitken

  Kira’s entire body stiffened, and she did her best to ignore the surge of desire that had shot through her at the idea of only a thin wall separating Nash’s bed from hers. No. She could not allow herself to feel anything for him. He was a wolf, for goodness’ sake.

  An incredibly hot wolf, the little voice in her head chimed in.

  As if he sensed her, Nash chose that moment to turn and see Kira watching him.

  Even from a distance, she could see the flash of his teeth as he grinned at her, the heat in his eyes. No. She turned away and slammed the office door against the wall as she opened it and went inside. She had a phone call to make. Because there was no way she could have Nash in such close proximity.

  Nash knew he should probably back off when it came to Kira. Especially considering she’d turned out to be his boss. Sort of. Either way, she was the manager of the campground, and even if he didn’t report directly to her, it probably wouldn’t be a good idea to piss her off.

  But even though he knew logically he shouldn’t push her so hard, he couldn’t stop himself. From the moment he’d laid eyes on those curves and thick, juicy lips, he knew he wouldn’t rest until he’d had a taste of her. At the very least.

  The moment he’d opened the door and hopped out of the truck, he’d sensed her. There was no mistaking her scent. She was delicious. Her animal was faint, but it was there. As if she’d been denying or neglecting it. He knew she stood there watching him, because even if she tried to pretend it didn’t exist, there was no mistaking the scent of desire. Kira was definitely not going to come to it easily, and that would be half the fun, but she wanted him just as bad as he wanted her. They both felt it. Of that, Nash had no doubt.

  Finally, he turned and grinned at her. Just as he expected, she turned and walked inside. He let her go. For now.

  She would be a challenge, that was for sure. But if there was one thing Nash liked, it was a challenge. Especially one in the form of a feisty she-bear. He’d never been with a bear. Hell, he’d never even considered it. In his pack, the focus was on breeding and expanding the population.

  When wolves had been reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1995, it had been controversial among the shifter community. Not everyone thought it was a good idea. Packs were divided and families split. Nash’s family was pro-reintroduction and as a pack, they’d made it a priority to make the program successful. Which, for Nash and his brother meant mating and breeding with other wolves to further the population. No exceptions. If it wasn’t a priority to find a suitable mate, there was no room in the pack for you.

  It’s not that Nash was against mating with another wolf. Not at all. He just didn’t think it should be forced upon him. His brother, the alpha, disagreed. When Nash refused to accept the female Nolan had chosen for him, he’d been cast out. Not that those were the exact words Nolan used.

  “Take some time, Nash,” he said. “Get it out of your system, whatever it is. And when you’re ready, come home, take a mate and do the right thing.”

  The right thing. Whatever that was.

  And that was the problem. Nash and Nolan had very different opinions on what exactly that was.

  Nash walked into the cabin he’d been assigned and pushed thoughts of Nolan to the back of his mind. He was going to take the summer off, just the way his brother had suggested, and maybe when the seasons changed again, he might feel differently about his future. It was doubtful, but for his family, his pack, he’d give it a shot. Nash wasn’t ready to completely close the door on his family. He knew what his decisions would mean for his future as well as his pack. And he still wasn’t sure he was ready to turn his back on everything he’d ever known.

  “Hey. You must be Nash.”

  A woman appeared in what looked to be the direction of the kitchen and smiled at him. She was petite, with deep-brown eyes and creamy dark skin that reminded Nash of a rich cup of hot chocolate.

  “I am.” He smiled at the beauty and offered his hand. “And you are?”

  “Sasha. I work in the office. Welcome to Riverside.”

  “Thank you, Sasha.” He dropped his bag at his feet and leaned against the wall next to her. She smelled floral and feminine. And human. Very different from Kira’s earthy fresh scent. “It’s good to be here. I’m looking forward to settling in. Do you happen to know which room is mine?”

  “I’d be happy to show you.”

  She was cute, that was for sure, but Nash didn’t feel the tug of arousal when he looked at her. “Oh, I’m sure you have work to do,” he said smoothly. “I can find it.” There was only one female he wanted showing him any kind of bedroom.

  Sasha didn’t bother hiding her disappointment. “It’s the last room on the right.” She pointed to a small hallway. “There’s only two rooms over there, so you’ll see it.”

  “And who has the other room?” He picked up his duffel. “Anything I should know about my neighbor?”

  “That’s Kira’s room.”

  “Kira?” Things were getting more and more interesting.

  “Yup. I think there’s an extra room in the other cabin, if you’d rather—”

  “No.” Nash let a smile take over his face. “This is perfect.” He started to walk in the direction she’d pointed. “I’ll get settled and I’m sure I’ll see you later, Sasha.” He shot her one last smile and went to unpack.

  Chapter Three

  “But I don’t think you understand.” Kira tried again to explain to the human resources woman that Nash wasn’t a suitable hire for the Riverside campground, but the woman cut her off again.

  “I understand perfectly,” the woman said. “But just because you have a personality clash, as you put it, I can’t fire him.”

  It was more than a personality clash. A lot more. It had been three days since Nash came to Riverside and into her life. Three days, where every time she saw him, her entire body reacted so violently, she could have sworn she was coming down with the flu or something. But it wasn’t as simple as a virus or a bug she could fight off because whenever Nash wasn’t around, she felt perfectly fine. But when he was close by, even in the same general area, her skin felt as though it were on fire and everything inside her strained to get out, as if she were going to burst.

  Or shift.

  That was it. Never in her entire life had she been more aware of the bear inside her. Even when she was a teenager and her hormones were all over the map, it hadn’t felt like this. As if she were going to lose control at any moment. If she didn’t know better, she would have thought that Nash was somehow connected to her, important to her and her bear in some way.

  Except that didn’t make any sense at all. Why would a wolf be connected to a bear? She was a grizzly, for God’s sake. They didn’t even particularly like the wolf packs in Montana, where she grew up. There was definitely no connection to them.

  Of any kind.

  Whatever was going on, all Kira knew was that it had something to do with Nash and it was starting to jeopardize how she could do her job. If she was always worried about being in close proximity to Nash—or God forbid, alone with him—there was no telling what could happen. But whatever it was that might happen, it couldn’t. Not in front of anyone.

  Which was why she was on the phone with human resources, trying to get Nash moved to another campground, or anything really. But she didn’t want him fired. That wasn’t fair.

  The woman on the other end was still talking about the legal ramifications of what it would mean if she let him go without cause, or something to that effect. She couldn’t be sure, because she mostly stopped listening until there was a pause and Kira sighed. The conversation was moving in circles.

  “I’m not asking you to fire him,” she said, trying not to let the frustration creep into her voice. “I just think maybe he’d be better suited at one of the other campgrounds.”

  “No,” the woman said again. “I’m unable to move his position unless he’d done something that gives grounds for firing. Has he done anyt
hing you need to report to me?”

  “No.” Kira wasn’t prepared to go so far as to have Nash fired. And there was no way she could properly convey her reasons for wanting him moved to a different campground. Not to the HR woman on the other end of the phone, anyway. It’s not as if she could tell her he was really a wolf and he was sexy as hell and presented all kinds of dangers to her, not the least of which was the way he made her feel.

  No. She couldn’t say any of that. “It’s fine,” Kira said after a moment. “Sorry I bothered you.”

  She hung up the phone in her office and dropped her head into her hands. She was stuck with him. Kira dug her thumbs into her temples. Not that it was the worst thing that could happen. It wasn’t. She just needed to get a handle on herself. And mostly why she felt so strongly about getting rid of him when she couldn’t stop thinking about him.

  Maybe that was the problem? No. That was definitely the problem.

  She pressed her fingers deeper and muttered, “The last thing I need right now is a bloody wolf.”

  “What wolf?”

  Kira dropped her hands and shot up in her seat to see Conner in the doorway of her tiny office. She hadn’t heard him knock. How much had he heard? She seriously needed to stop talking out loud.

  “Is there a wolf in the campground?”

  She could have sworn she saw him try to hold back a smile. No doubt he’d like it if there was a wolf problem. Anything to make it harder for her to do her job and give him the opportunity to rub it in her face that he should have been promoted instead of her. She’d spoken to him, just like she’d promised Sasha she would, but it clearly hadn’t made much of a difference to his attitude.

  “No,” she said quickly and stood, straightening her shirt as she did so. “I was just thinking of a book I’d read.”

  He didn’t look as though he believed her, but that was his problem.

  “Did you need something, Conner?”

  He nodded and crossed his arms over his chest and scowled. He would have been handsome if he wasn’t so damn bitter all the time. “I just got an interesting complaint from a camper in site 25.”

  “Did you file it? I can take a look in—”

  “I think you’ll want to look at it now.”

  Something in his voice caught her attention. It was more than Conner being grumpy or angry. “Is everything okay?”

  He shook his head, genuine concern in his eyes. “I’m not sure. But the man, a Mr.…” He consulted a piece of paper in his hands. “Brantly. Mr. Brantly reported some dead fish on the riverbanks while he was out fishing with his son. Said he wouldn’t have thought anything of it except there were about five of them in one spot and they’re right out front of his site, so of course he was worried about the smell. He wasn’t sure if he should report it or not, but his wife thought he should let us know.”

  Dead fish? It was unusual for sure. The rivers in Yellowstone were some of the best fisheries around. Certainly, every once in a while, there’d be some sort of disease or natural occurrence that caused a disruption. It wasn’t common but there hadn’t been anything issued from the head office. “That does sound…”

  “Fishy?” Connor laughed at his own joke, but Kira only rolled her eyes.

  “I was going to say, strange. Site 25 you said?” Conner nodded. “Thanks for letting me know. Make sure you make note if any other reports come in. I’ll go check it out and clean it up.”

  “Oh, don’t worry,” Conner said. “I ran into the new maintenance guy. He said he’d take care of it.”

  “Nash?” Her body tensed.

  “That’s him.”

  She grabbed the keys to her ATV and stuffed them in her pocket before she reached for her field bag. “I better go check anyway. It definitely sounds strange.” She tried to be as casual as possible as she moved past Conner. “Thanks again for letting me know.”

  She’d only been in charge of the Riverside campground for less than a month. It wouldn’t look good if she already had things going wrong and she couldn’t afford to lose the job. She’d been lucky to get it after that jerk Ryan Dixon showed his true colors and admitted to using her. He’d left her like yesterday’s garbage, right before his entire clan moved on. Embarrassed and heartbroken, she’d curled up in a tent and cried for days before finally pulling herself together long enough to come up with a plan. Not that it was much of one. Ashamed, alone, and out of options, she took the first job she could find. It wasn’t home, but it wasn’t bad either and she wasn’t going to let something as small as a few dead fish screw things up just as she was getting back on her feet again.

  She jammed the keys into the ignition of the ATV and fired it up, letting the roar of the engine drown out her real concern. Because it wasn’t a few dead fish that she was really worried about.

  It was a wolf.

  He’d lived in Yellowstone half of his life and Nash had never seen anything like the pile of dead trout on the side of the riverbank. He’d just finished putting his few belongings away when he’d run into Conner. Truthfully, he’d been looking for Kira but when the other man told him about the dead fish, he’d volunteered right away to go check it out.

  It was strange. No, it was downright suspicious. And from what he could tell from the fish, whatever had killed them, it hadn’t been natural.

  With a sigh, he looked at the fish he held in his gloved hand and tossed it into the bucket at his feet. “Such a shame,” he muttered. If there was something that made Nash mad, it was when the resources of the land he loved were wasted or damaged. Whatever it was killing the fish, he was definitely going to find out.

  He left the bucket and walked a little farther down the shore, keeping his eye out for more fish, when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Kira.

  She was close. He could feel it. His entire body thrummed in a way that was both unusual and familiar all at once. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so aware of a female. Which was likely because he’d never been so aware. Not like this. He stopped walking and waited until she turned off her ATV and caught up with him. He turned as she came up behind him.

  Kira started. He could see her tense.

  “I heard you drive up,” he said as way of explanation. It’s not as though he could tell her that he’d sensed her. That he felt her just as he felt the blood pump through his veins. She was already clearly unhappy with his presence; Nash was definitely not going to freak her out with that little piece of information. “Connor told you about the fish?”

  She nodded and pointed to the bucket. “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “It was no big thing.” He shrugged. “Besides, I’m the maintenance guy. It’s what I do.”

  “Still.” She shook her head, but he could see the concern lining her face as she looked at the pile of dead trout in the bucket. “You…wow. There are a lot of them, aren’t there?” Kira crouched next to the bucket and pulled a pair of gloves from her back pocket. He couldn’t help being impressed as she picked up a fish with none of the squeamishness of most of the women he knew. “What do you think happened?”

  Nash squatted next to her, so close he could feel the heat from her body. To keep from touching her, he picked up a fish of his own and examined it despite the fact he’d already looked at each one of them and couldn’t see anything unusual. “I’ve been racking my brain, trying to figure it out, but it just doesn’t make sense. The only thing—”

  “It was a rhetorical question,” Kira snapped.

  “Okay.” Nash tossed the dead fish back in with the others and stood. His instincts might be going wild for this woman but that didn’t mean he needed to stick around while she snapped at him. “I was just trying to help. But if you got it all figured out, boss. By all means.” He held up his hands and took a few steps backward before she got to her feet.

  “Nash, I…”

  “You’re what?” He tried not to grin but he could see the apology would be hard for her.

  “I appreciate
you cleaning up the mess.”

  It took him a second to realize she hadn’t apologized for anything after all. “You appreciate it?”

  She nodded. “I do. Thank you.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Was there something else?”

  Damn this woman.

  She wasn’t going to apologize for snapping at him and being rude for no reason at all except she was clearly struggling with the way she was feeling about him. Because she was feeling something. Of that much, Nash was sure. More than that, the sexy as hell she-bear had no idea that despite the fact that she’d been nothing but rude to him from the moment they’d met, all he was trying to do was help her out. What he should have done was walk away, maybe even told her off and put her in her place before leaving her to figure out her dead fish on her own.

  But he couldn’t. And he wouldn’t.

  In fact, he should have done a lot of things that would have made a lot more sense than what he was about to do.

  A deep growl threatened to escape his throat and in that moment, Nash knew he had no other choice. He’d been drawn to her in a way that went far beyond him and what he was in control of.

  His actions were pure instinct as he took two long, smooth strides toward her so he stood barely an inch from her. She was tall but he still had height on her, and when she looked up at him with fire flaring in the dark depths of her eyes, what was left of his control evaporated.

  “You need to be taught some manners, Kira.”

  “Pardon me?”

  Before she could say another word, Nash bent and scooped her up as if she weighed little more than his duffel bag. Her fists flung out at him, but he dodged her blows easily and positioned her over his shoulder before he pinned her in place with one strong arm.