by Kim Fox
Beckett looked at the ground that his feet was standing on. He wanted the earth to open up and swallow him whole so he wouldn’t have to make this impossible decision.
“I’m saying this as your second. And as your friend. You have to make her leave before you get in too deep.”
Beckett slumped his shoulders and exhaled.
“Nothing good is going to come of this. When alpha’s take on mates crews get torn apart. Bears get killed.”
“It’s not going to get too deep,” Beckett replied, crossing his arms. “I have everything under control.”
“You let her choose the first steak, you sit beside the guys. What kind of message does that send the bears? Crew dynamics can spiral quickly. You’ve seen it.”
Beckett had seen it. When Beckett and Matteo first came of age to join a shifter crew they began hanging around the old Clancy Crew. The alpha, Edward Fisk, was a tough, no shit-taking alpha who had a firm grip on his tough crew of bears. One day he crossed paths and bonded with the new park ranger Stacy and everything went to hell. He began to neglect his crew, spending more time with his new mate and brushing off his duties. With no stable alpha the crew broke into chaos as members began viciously fighting for their shot at the alpha position. The young bears, Beckett and Matteo, watched from the sidelines as the violence escalated, destroying the crew forever and killing Edward in the process.
“It’s not going to be like Eddie,” Beckett said. “Eddie was weak.”
“I’m your second,” Matteo said, “and I just want to-”
“Exactly. My second,” Beckett snapped. “I’m the alpha. And we’ll do things my way. She stays.”
Matteo lowered his eyes and backed away, showing submission.
Beckett sighed. “Let’s just see how it goes.”
three
Amanda took a long sip of her black coffee and picked out a wrench. She bent down under the fuselage of her new plane and grimaced as her head pounded. That’s what you get for drinking battery acid all night.
She thought back at last night and shook her head. Did she really try to seduce her boss before her first real day of work?
How strong was that wine? Did she really play footsie with him at dinner and invite him inside her cabin?
Amanda had been called ‘passionate’ before, basically a nice word for slutty, but this had been quick, even for her. When she saw a man that she wanted, she went for him. Was it her fault that she was attracted to authoritative men in power, which were usually her bosses? Yes it was definitely her fault, her friend Lisa would always remind her.
She grunted as she tugged on the rusty bolt jammed into the the wheel-well, with the wrench. It finally came loose.
Finch walked into the hangar with two mugs of coffee and a couple of croissants. “I thought you could use a fresh cup.”
Amanda pulled the tire off the plane and slid out from under its belly. “Please,” she said, reaching for the steaming cup. She wrapped her hands around the warm mug and breathed in the fresh coffee.
He reached in his pocket and pulled out two white pills. “I got some aspirin from Alexi,” he said, handing it to her. “I figured you’d need it after drinking Quint’s wine.”
“Thank God,” she said and popped them in her mouth. She swallowed them down with hot coffee. “I don’t think she likes me very much.”
He shrugged and looked under the plane. “She’s just protective of us, is all. It’s the bear coming out in her.”
“She’s a werebear too?” Amanda asked in shock. She wouldn’t be so quick with the insults next time if she knew an angry bear could burst out of the chick at any moment.
“Yeah, Ellis turned her,” he said, inspecting the tire. “We should put some duct tape around that tire. It looks a little flat.”
“What do you mean he turned her? Don’t you have to be born a shifter?”
“No,” he said. “Pass me the duct tape.”
Amanda grabbed it and held it behind her back. “You’re not duct taping my plane. Ever. Again.”
Finch’s face dropped. Amanda almost felt sorry for him until she reminded herself that he was the one that turned this gorgeous plane into a Frankenstein’s monster.
“How do you turn someone into a shifter?” she asked.
He ran his hand through his hair. Finch was not Amanda’s type but she still found him very attractive. He was very tall, and thinner than the others, with a lean, fit body. He had a longer face, with a warm smile and wisps of gray in his hair, that only accentuated his bright blue eyes.
“You have to bite them with your fangs,” he said. “It’s very painful.” He picked up the flat tire and inspected it. “How are we going to fix it?”
“I’m going to fix it by putting a patch on the hole. You’re going to watch.”
Amanda took a patch out of the large tool box that she brought with her in the back of her plane. She carefully patched the tire as Finch leaned over her shoulder, breathing on her neck.
“See?” she asked, holding up the fixed tire. “No duct tape.”
“Still, it would have worked my way as well.”
Amanda was about to respond but exhaled instead. She took a bite of a croissant. “Beckett seems like a great boss,” she said, trying to pry some info from him.
“Yeah,” he said, inspecting the plane. “You changed the gas cap? How did you do that?”
“I cut a piece of metal and screwed some hinges on it.” He stared at it in awe. “So what’s his deal? Does he have a girlfriend or wife?”
“You fixed the flap too?” He gently brushed the new flap with the tip of his fingers as his mouth slacked open. “No more string.”
“Nope. No more string,” she said, tapping her fingers on her thigh. “So about Beckett. Is he single or what?”
“Yeah he’s single. Alpha’s don’t take on mates.” He leaned into the cockpit through the pilot’s window. “This is amazing! You must be a genius.”
“What do you mean they don’t take on mates?” she said, leaning over trying to see his face inside the plane.
He climbed back out of the plane. “I want to take her up now.”
“You fly?” Amanda asked.
“I used to,” he replied, “but I’m not very good and I haven’t flown in a very long time.”
Amanda nodded, taking a sip of coffee. “So how come alphas don’t take on mates?”
He was about to respond when Beckett himself walked into the hangar. He was wearing shorts that hugged his thick legs and a tight white shirt that showed off his massive chest. Amanda looked down at herself, covered in dirt and oil and cursed under her breath. She must’ve looked like shit.
“Look what you’ve done with it,” Beckett said, staring up at the plane with wide eyes. “I can’t believe this is the same plane.”
Amanda studied him as he inspected her handiwork. She took in every detail: the freckle over his elbow, his ears that were a bit too big but looked cute on him, his strong, solid hands.
Amanda cleared her throat. “I was going to take her up and get familiar with her and the surroundings. Would you like to come with me?”
Beckett turned and smiled at her with sparkling brown eyes. “Definitely,” he said.
Amanda grinned, her heart rate speeding up.
“I want to come too,” Finch said. “This is going to be great.”
Shit. She forgot that he was in the room.
“I need you to do that thing today Finch,” Beckett said.
Finch tilted his head to the side like a dog. “What thing boss?”
“My truck. I need you to repair the muffler on my truck. I told you that yesterday.”
Finch rubbed his chin. “I don’t remember that,” he said looking at the ground. “I’ll take a look at it.” He walked out of the hangar shaking his head.
Beckett smiled at Amanda. “When do you want to go?”
She slapped the wrench into his hand. “I’ll go jump in the shower first.”
> She felt his eyes on her as she walked out of the hangar swaying her hips.
Amanda turned the key in the ignition and the engines roared to life like two lawn mowers on steroids. She flicked the switch on the dashboard that turned on the headphones.
“Welcome to Amanda Airlines,” she said to her sexy copilot through the headset. “We’ll be flying at five thousand, two hundred and fifty feet today, which is officially a mile high.”
She watched him smile through the reflection in the window.
“If you need help fastening your seatbelt around your waist let your pretty pilot know and she’ll be more than glad to help. There’s no smoking, no bitching and no complaining allowed on Amanda Airlines, except by the pilot of course.”
She pushed the carburetor heat knob in fully and hit the master switch.
“In lieu of a movie the pilot will be singing Katy Perry in her off key voice. So please sit back, relax and enjoy your flight.”
Amanda opened the throttle and the plane jerked forward and started rolling towards the runway. She lined up at the end of the dirt runway. “Ready?” she asked turning towards him.
He smiled. “Let’s go. I love Katy Perry.”
“Not when I sing it you don’t.” She opened the throttle and the plane bounced around desperately trying to move forward. She released her foot off the break and the plane ripped down the runway leaving a cloud of dust behind them.
Amanda kept her eye on the speedometer, and once the needle crawled into the green, she pulled the yoke back and the wheels lifted off the ground. A rush of adrenaline shot through her veins as the plane climbed into the sky.
She tugged on the yoke and banked the aircraft over the camp. She glanced down and Matteo was watching them with his hands on his hips, shaking his head.
“What’s the deal with Matteo?” she asked. “He’s a little intense.”
Beckett laughed. “You can say that.”
“Why doesn’t he want me here?”
“It’s not that,” he replied. “It has nothing to do with you. He’s just looking out for the crew. He wants what’s best for everybody. He has a good heart and the best intentions, even if he seems a little rough around the edges.”
“Is it because alpha’s can’t have mates?”
“Exactly,” he said, adjusting his microphone.
Amanda leveled out the plane when it was pointed in the right heading. “So he’s worried we’re going to get together?” she asked, grinning.
“Uh,” he muttered, shifting in his seat.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I would like that too.”
He looked at her speechless. She held out her hand and he placed his over it, squeezing her fingers gently. She could hear his bear purring through the headset as it was picked up by his microphone.
“This is really nice,” she said. “But I’m going to need my hand back. Kind of flying a plane over here.”
“Oops,” he said, releasing her. “Sorry about that.”
“No problem. I just don’t want to crash into a mountain on my first day on the job. Kind of looks bad on the resume.”
Amanda flew the plane over the Flathead National Forest with the giant, snow capped mountains poking into the sky in the distance. They were flying over thick, dense forest and Amanda spotted a small valley up ahead. It was part of her flight training to pick out possible landing spots every few minutes in case she needed to perform an emergency landing.
“Look at the bull elk by the river,” Beckett said, pointing over the dashboard into the far distance.
Amanda looked up and down the river but she couldn’t see anything. It was too far away.
“Look at the size of him. He must be a six by seven bull. At least.”
She squinted, trying to see where he was looking. After a few minutes the plane got closer and a tiny elk came into view, drinking from the river.
“You could see him from back there?” she asked in shock.
“Shifters have really good eye sight,” he said chuckling. “Sometimes I forget that I can see better than most people.”
“What else can you do? Besides purring?” She dropped her hand on his thigh and his bear purred again. She shifted her legs as wetness pooled in her panties. The primal grumbling, the hard muscle under her hand and Beckett’s shy smile did it for her.
“It sounds like your bear has a thing for me,” she said. He cupped his hand over hers but didn’t respond.
“Want to get a better look at that elk?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
She took her hand back and lined up the nose of the aircraft to the flat valley beside the river. The grass was light green, which meant dry and hard. It would be as easy to land on as the runway back at the camp.
She checked the wind direction by the swaying of the trees and slowed the plane down, preparing for landing.
The plane sunk towards the ground as Amanda hit open the newly fixed flaps.
“No more string?” Beckett asked laughing.
“I wouldn’t trust that guy to fix a toilet,” she said, opening the landing gear.
The elk looked up at the plane as they passed him and floated below the tree line. She touched down lightly on the grass and came to a stop in the middle of the valley. She glanced back towards the river and the elk had taken off, scared away by the metal dragon racing towards him.
Amanda turned off the plane after performing all of her safety checks. She peeled off her headset and combed her fingers through her hair, trying to revamp it a little.
She opened the door and jumped down. “Coming?” she asked, when Beckett remained in the seat. He unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door as Amanda kicked off her shoes and scrunched her toes into the cool grass.
“We should probably head back,” he said, walking around the plane. “It’s forest fire season and we’re on call. We should get the plane back to the camp.”
Amanda sank to the ground and stretched her legs out in the grass. She threw her head back and closed her eyes as the bright sun coated her face. “Just ten minutes. It’s so beautiful.”
She glanced over at the babbling brook and smiled. The sound of tree branches tickling each other in the soft wind mixed with the tweeting of birds who were bragging about the size of their nests.
Beckett kicked off his shoes and sat down beside her. “So,” she said, turning on her elbow and facing him. She looked back over her shoulder so that he could get a look at her cleavage. “We’re all alone. Are you going to show me your bear?”
“I don’t think so,” he said, ripping out a blade of grass and letting it fly away with the breeze.
Amanda stroked his arm and his bear purred. “What if I make him come out?”
His body went stiff as she stroked his arm. She sat up and leaned towards him, placing her lips only a few inches from his neck. He smelled manly and delicious. Outdoorsy and rich. The grumbling became louder. “Come see me bear,” she whispered, leaning in, letting her large breasts graze against his chest. The grumbling roared. Beckett was breathing short, quick breaths.
She grazed his neck with her lips, her nipples hardened against his chest. “Come play with me bear.”
His chest rumbled and purred and the vibrations sent tingles through her nipples all the way down to her swollen clit.
Her lips parted and she kissed his warm skin, brushing her wet tongue through the opening of her lips. Beckett groaned and the rumbling was deafening.
He grabbed her with a force and desire that was both shocking and unexpected. She gasped as he pressed his lips to hers in a mash of teeth and tongue. Shivers shot down her spine as he kissed her urgent and hard, his tongue touching her everywhere, his hands sliding around her back, pulling her closer.
She moaned into his mouth as she pressed her breasts against his hard, vibrating chest. The purring of his bear was filling her head, drowning away all thoughts that kissing your boss may be a bad idea.
She ran her hands
through his hair, grabbing a fistful and pulling, as he moved his lips down to her neck. He kissed and flicked his tongue over her skin as her pussy trembled and ached. She parted her legs as his hand crept up under her shirt.
Amanda whimpered as he squeezed her breast over her bra. She wanted him inside her. She didn’t care about the consequences. She wanted him. Now.
She ran her fingers along his erection, bulging through his shorts, and his bear grumbled. Her fingers trailed up to his belt buckle and she fumbled with the clunky metal.
A loud, throaty, chirping sound ripped through the air. Amanda’s head whipped around to the strange noise and standing on the opposite side of the river was the bull elk staring them down. Beckett was watching as well, leaving her skin tingling where his lips had been. Her head was spinning.
“I think he’s jealous,” Beckett said, through heavy breaths. His chest was heaving.
He pulled his hand from out of her shirt and Amanda dropped her hand from his belt buckle.
The elk lowered his head, his enormous antlers sitting like a crown, and screeched at them once again.
“Maybe we should head back,” Beckett said, shifting to his knees and wiping the grass off his shirt. His hardness still showed through his shorts.
Amanda closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to clear her head of all the lustful, erotic thoughts surging through her mind. Stupid fucking elk.
Beckett stood up and disappeared around the plane. His door opened as Amanda stood up and gave the cock-blocking elk the finger.
Beckett glanced at the camp up ahead. It had been an awkward flight home. He was too busy trying to control his excited, turned on bear to be able to talk to his sexy pilot.
He was thankful for the interruption by the elk. Things escalated quicker than he imagined and it took everything he had to stop himself from going further. He wanted her. His bear wanted her. But he also wanted to remain the alpha. He had to decide what he wanted more. And right now he wasn’t so sure, but the scales were tilting towards the hot blond beside him.