by Cecilia Lane
Callum raised his head when he heard Pop’s assistant, Allison, arguing with someone. He laid down his pen and waited for the intrusion. Townsfolk regularly demanded his time, and he regularly tried to put them off. His father might have been happy to allow everyone to wander in at all hours, but Callum hated the distractions almost as much as he hated doing the paperwork.
Bruce Brady won the argument with Allison by shoving his way through the door and slamming it in her face. The hair on the back of Callum’s neck rose, and not only because of Bruce’s rudeness to the woman. He stank of heavy dominance and anger. It made his bear want to tear into something. Or someone.
The man was trouble on his best days and an absolute terror on the worst. He’d pop off at the slightest insult, imagined or real. And he wasn’t happy to have Callum’s brother Cole stepping in as chief of the firehouse.
“I want the borders opened,” Bruce demanded without priming him. He took a seat before he finished the final word.
Callum blinked. The request wasn’t unusual, but most of Bearden saw the need to keep the enclave intact. They could move the Broken away from their connection to the magic and bring down the barriers around town. They could even reestablish that connection and zip the barriers back into place. It’d been done before in other enclaves, and mostly with disastrous effects. Humans tended to worry when a fully formed town appeared on the horizon.
“No,” Callum said and looked back down at his paperwork. Fitting it was a report on birth rates slowing down in Wolfden. Fuckers should probably try breeding anything other than pureblood wolves, then.
“You haven’t even listened to my reasons.” Bruce smiled with too many teeth and rubbed his palms over the arms of the chair. Trying to look relaxed or staking his claim on the office, Callum didn’t care. It made him look like some smarmy salesman.
“Just because you’ve run through every eligible woman in this town doesn’t mean we should open the borders so every woman outside the enclave can suffer your presence.”
Bruce growled low in his throat. Bad move. Callum’s bear rose to attention and fixed the man with a golden-eyed stare. Please, please give him a reason to knock his teeth in. That’d make the day much better.
Bruce ducked his eyes just for a moment. At least his growl stopped. “You don’t understand,” he said between clenched teeth. “I need it. I need someone to settle me.”
“Not someone else’s problem.” And at that moment, it was the last thing on Callum’s mind. He was being pulled in too many directions and Bruce was an unwanted addition.
“That’s bullshit!” Bruce exploded. “You’re in charge, right? Doesn’t that mean you need to consider each and everyone’s needs? Maybe I’ll just find a girl on the next run into human territory and bring her home.”
Humans were dangerous. Too many of their kind had destroyed others for being different. Shifters could hide more easily than fae or vampires, but that didn’t mean they didn’t suffer losses. Witch hunts claimed a number fae. Stakings and legend brought down vampires. Shifters were hunted like beasts. The risks were great enough to prompt the Broken to sacrifice themselves to create the enclaves. He wouldn’t be the one to bring down Bearden just for Bruce to get his rocks off.
“You know humans aren’t allowed inside our borders. You go out there and attach to one, you stay out there. Those are the rules.”
And even if humans made their way inside, there was no guarantee of them staying. Just ask his mother.
Bruce was edging closer and closer to forbidden territory. No humans inside the enclave. No forcing a bite on someone to give them an inner animal. He’d soared past terror and straight into problem.
One more to add to the priority pile, too.
Pop chose that moment to wander into the office. Looking at him wouldn’t reveal any issues. But the words that left his mouth spoke volumes. “Callum Strathorn, what are you doing at my desk? Shouldn’t you be minding your brother?”
Callum winced. Cole had been old enough to mind himself for years. He’d minded himself into being trusted enough to fill in for Callum as fire chief while Callum took over for Pop in the mayor’s office. Round and round they went, dislodging and displacing up and down the chain of command in Bearden and making everyone uneasy.
Where was his father’s nurse? She was supposed to keep him from wandering off.
It was rare for pure shifters to suffer from age-related illnesses, or any illness in fact. Supernatural folk of all kind were typically immune from infections and diseases, but thinning blood from mixing with humans was taking a toll with every new generation. Pop was one of the few unfortunate souls that saw his mind slip away from him.
It was another mark against bringing humans into the enclaves. Callum wouldn’t subject any human to an unwanted bite because no one would contain an elderly man who happened to shift into a bear anytime he wanted. It was hard enough keeping the man in his home.
“Just helping out, Pop,” Callum said, standing and going to his father. “I thought you were taking the day off.”
It was better to redirect the man, according to their local doctor. Callum understood the reasoning behind it. Keep him happy and placated and he won’t let a confused bear take his skin.
“Allison!” he hissed out into the waiting area. Pop’s assistant glanced up from entering at the other side of the room with a cup of coffee in her hand, startled. How he’d managed to slip past her, Callum didn’t know. “Find Louise. Now!”
Bruce sniggered and eyed Ephraim up and down with derision. “Put me down if I start to go like that.”
Callum raised his lip in a growl. “I can put you down right now.”
“Boys, boys,” Pop said with a shake of his head. Bushy eyebrows drew down in a disapproving frown. “Those aren’t words for jokes. Putting down one of our own is a last resort, always. It shouldn’t ever be taken lightly.”
Bruce pushed to his feet. “Never lightly, Ephraim. Only when we’re too sick to go on.”
Callum growled and rushed around the desk in a blur. The threat was all too clear in Bruce’s tone. Fuck him.
He slammed Bruce against the wall. It felt too good to press his forearm against the man’s throat. Just a little bit of pressure made his eyes bulge.
The man glared hate at him. “What are you going to do now, alpha?”
The word sounded close to a challenge. It was coming, he was sure of it. Maybe not today, but Bruce would press and poke and shove his way into a challenge fight. He’d destroy the entire Strathorn clan if he took up the alpha mantle.
It wasn’t his to take. It wasn’t Callum’s. Not entirely. Though, like the town, the responsibility had been handed to him in his father’s sickness.
He wasn’t ready to take on the clan. He wasn’t ready to admit his father would not get better.
But he’d be damned if he let Bruce fuck everything up.
“Get back to the firehouse, Bruce. Tell Cole I want you locked down. You’re not leaving the enclave for the next month.”
“Callum, we’ve got a problem,” his brother Cole shouted as he crossed the outer room and let himself into the office.
The world was conspiring against him. There was no other explanation. Bruce’s demands, his father slipping his nurse, and now Cole arriving with the next load for the dumpster fire his life had become.
“What?” Callum growled and let Bruce off the wall.
Cole shot quick glances between them both and dragged a hand down his face. He promised a world of hurt for Bruce with his glare. His words were impatient when he spat them out. “Car crash early this morning. Not one of ours.”
“Shit. How did someone get into the territory?”
“I have Nolan checking on that now. The rest are on the way to the wreck. We could use some direction on how you want to play this.”
Callum nodded. He threw open the door. “Allison,” he barked. The waif of a woman trotted inside, pad of paper and a pen in her hand. He nodded to his father, who’
d taken the seat at his desk. Fuck. It was where the man belonged and where he wasn’t fit to stay any longer. “Stay with Pop until you can track down Louise. I need to head out.”
Chapter 3
“You sure someone’s still in there?” Callum asked.
He stared down at the wreckage. The car looked like a crumpled ball of paper. The roof had collapsed, and the trunk rested nearly in the backseat. The torn dirt marked its progress from the road to where it landed against some trees. The entire passenger side was blocked with no way to access the door.
He trudged down the incline and saw the front window blocked by a massive branch. It looked dead and broken on one end, likely from one of the winter storms. The car rolling into it probably dislodged the limb and sent it crashing below.
The other side of the car didn’t look any better. Crumpled and caved in, there was no way for the driver to escape through the doors. One of the windows looked busted enough to slide through.
“Sure am. Sawyer did some recon. She’s human,” Cole said stiffly.
Shit. “Nolan’s checking the roads?”
Cole nodded. “And learning why our people didn’t see her drive past. Someone got caught with their pants down last night.”
“Us. Doesn’t matter who fucked up. We’re dealing with it now.”
He approached carefully. He didn’t want some jumpy human shooting him full of holes and seeing him heal before her eyes. If they played this right, they could get her out and send her on her way back into human territory.
There was a faint heartbeat thumping inside the car. He couldn’t smell much blood, so at least she hadn’t bled out in the night. But spring was still around the corner and the nights could drop low. He doubted she’d been very warm.
“You sure you want to get your hands dirty, Mayor Strathorn?” Bruce taunted.
There was a roar behind him and he grinned. Cole tried his hardest to keep his temper in check but he, too, was suffering at being forced into taking over as fire chief. He’d likely been waiting to throw down with Bruce for days.
The two bears collided with enough force that he felt it ten yards away. The others in both the fire rescue and police crews gave them space and kept working the site like two brawling bears weren’t trying to rip each other’s throats out.
He only wished he’d been the one to go at Bruce with fangs and claws. At least it was a Strathorn making the man shut up.
A dull ache began behind his eyes. They’d pay for it later. Callum checking out the scene while Cole shirked his duties to fight would just create more confusion as to where they both ranked. More problems to add to his growing pile.
But first, he needed to deal with the woman who’d somehow found her way into the Bearden enclave.
He squeezed around the car to where it lay mostly open and peered through the broken window. She lay curled up in the back seat, arms wrapped around her legs. Dark hair curled around her face, with streaks of purple adding a shock of color. Wild one, she was.
And she smelled damn delicious.
Callum reared back after his first lungful of the woman. Flowers and spice mingled with the traces of blood. Definitely wild. Beautiful, too. Her lips curved into a tiny frown in her unconscious state.
His bear rumbled in his chest. The beast wanted to push forward, suck more of her scent into their nose, and mark her as their own.
Mark her, claim her, mate her...
Oh, fuck no.
As he fought with his inner animal, the woman suddenly moved from lying still to sitting up and staring.
The world seemed to slow in that instant. Hazel eyes looked back at him. They were more green than anything, with flakes of gold scattered through the color.
She blinked at him.
“Nobody change!” Callum shouted.
The sound of popping muscles and cracking bone reached his ears, and he whirled to see Bruce standing in his human form.
The fucking idiot. Couldn’t he see the woman was very much awake?
He turned again and found her staring at Bruce. By the Broken, he was going to kill the man.
There was a rustle of movement and the little woman in the car sank back down into the seat with a gasp. Her eyes shut tight against world. She could pretend to pass out, but her heart galloped in her chest. There was no hiding the stinging scent of her fear, either.
Fuck.
She saw Bruce. She saw Cole still in bear form, not that it did any good now. She’d seen one of them shift.
Saying the day couldn’t get any worse seemed to beg for fate to hand him another surprise, but he honestly couldn’t guess at what else could possibly be heaped on his head.
Problems up to his eyeballs, insubordination in the ranks, and now a damn human in enclave territory. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Callum shoved his hands through his hair and scrubbed them down his face. He pushed everything to the back of his mind and focused on the woman in the car. It took surprisingly little effort to make her the center of his world at that moment.
“I got you,” he said for her ears only.
He ignored the sting of glass in his hands and yanked the door open. Her eyes shot open at the sound of groaning metal and she cowered away from him.
“Stay away from me,” she hissed.
Callum raised his hands but didn’t move. “You’re hurt. You’re lucky to be alive. Let me get you to a doctor.”
Her eyes darted to the road behind him, then back to him, then to the men gathered at the front of the car. Another dose of fear peppered her scent. Yep, she’d definitely seen Bruce shift.
She swallowed hard and nodded. She reached for her bag, but he shook his head. “Leave it. I’ll have one of the crew grab it for you.”
“Can’t leave it behind. I fought too hard to keep what’s inside,” she croaked.
He nodded and kept his voice calm. It wasn’t uncommon for people to panic and refuse to leave items behind. At least in this situation, he didn’t need to worry about burning beams crashing down on them both. “Okay, that’s fair. Hand it to me and we’ll get it out first. Then you.”
The woman gulped and shoved the duffel closer to him. Whatever treasure she had inside didn’t smell like anything other than clothes. He glanced up to find the nearest man. “Graham, take the lady’s bag, will you?”
“Will do, Chief,” Gray stepped forward slowly and took the bag from his hands.
“Not Chief,” Callum muttered.
The woman tracked the progression of her bag, but her gaze faltered when she landed once again on Bruce and Cole. Her cheeks warmed, and she dropped her eyes.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Callum Strathorn. What can I call you?”
“That’s not what I—. Leah. Leah Arden,” she said with a shaky breath and another glance toward the road.
“Okay, Leah. I’m going to pull you out of there now. Are you ready?” Soft, again. Assured. Make her think it’s all up to her. Build her up and let him care for her.
Callum wanted to shake away the thoughts his bear pushed at him. The beast was treading out of rescue services and into dangerous territory.
Leah nodded and let him tug her closer. There wasn’t much space between the earth at his back and the wreckage of her car, and he wasn’t sure if she’d broken anything, so he cradled her in his arms and stood to his full height.
Leah made a tiny noise and buried her face against his chest.
Fuck.
She made his chest ache. Not a good sign. He kicked his bear to the back of his mind and built tall walls around the creature. Needed to keep him apart. Needed to keep her from him.
Bruce gave her an appraising look and Callum fought the urge to finish the job Cole started.
Needed to keep her away from Bruce.
His damn bear wanted to dance on hind legs like some trained circus animal.
Bruce raised a snarled smile as they passed and latched hungry eyes on Leah. He kept his voice low. “I guess s
he’ll have to stay now.”
Chapter 4
Leah eyed the strange man without turning her head. She’d spent most of the morning in the clinic with him lurking nearby. Once the doctor cleared her with orders to take it easy on her bruises for the next few days, Callum insisted on escorting her to the town’s inn and putting her up for the night.
“You didn’t need to do this, you know,” she said. “You don’t need to go out of your way for me.”
Callum grunted. “It’s hardly out of the way.”
He certainly wasn’t lying. Once he pulled out of the clinic’s parking lot and onto the main drag, they were nearly out of town again. She liked the small town charm and how he lifted his fingers from the steering wheel to greet the people they passed.
Brick building fronts mingled with wood slats to complete the look. Large trees dotted the sidewalks and lined the town square. Whatever the place was, it’d been there for a long time.
“Tommy’s Diner is the place to eat.” Callum pointed to one building, then across the street. “Mug Shot is where you’ll want to go for coffee and dessert.”
The street came to a dead end at the open square. He took a right and pointed out a few other places. “Pierre’s is our fine dining establishment, but Tommy’s is honestly much better. There’s a barbecue place a couple streets over, next to our most popular bar. Pierre lobbied hard to make sure the drunken, rabble-rousers wouldn’t be close enough to accost his patrons.”
Leah chuckled softly as Callum took a left and skirted the other side of the square. He pulled to a stop in front of a sprawling home, complete with pointed spires and rocking chairs on the front porch. A hand-painted sign hung over the front door declaring the establishment Muriel’s Bed & Breakfast.
Callum blew out a breath and rolled his head to lock her in his gaze. “Town hall is straight ahead.”
Leah ripped her eyes away and directed them to the building at the end of the street. Large, and a bit clunkier than the one they were parked beside, it still fit in with the rest of the town.
It gave her something to look at besides the huge man who made the air difficult to breathe. “That’s where I can find you?”