by Anya Nowlan
This was one of those rare occasions when Keesha Bailey was left tongue-tied and without a word to say. Somehow, Battle seemed to bring that out in her. She fumbled with her words, trying to find something adequate to say, but the only thing she could coax out of her voice box was a strangled sigh of sorts. Battle smirked and stalked out of the bedroom. Keesha was thankful for it – she was already getting far too many good ideas.
“So, what happens now?” Keesha asked, walking after him.
It was far easier to talk to him when those eyes of his weren’t roaming the length of her body, making her wonder what he could do with his hands, his tongue, his… oh, his everything. She wasn’t going to be picky. If anything, she wanted to find out sooner rather than later. Not only did she have a bunch of irritation to work out – which could only be achieved by intense fucking – but Battle was also the kind of man that didn’t come around too often. Can’t waste a good chance like that, now can she?
“I didn’t think that far ahead,” he admitted honestly.
Keesha grinned. God, he was adorable.
“Dinner? I’m starving.”
That seemed to perk him right up. Always take the easy road to a man’s heart – through his stomach!
“I warn you, though, I’m not a great chef. I can make Ramen noodles and stir in one of those flavor packets and call it a culinary masterpiece,” Keesha joked, leaning on the armrest of the couch with a playful smile on her lips.
“Well, it’s not like we have anything to cook, anyway,” Battle said, opening up the fridge door and showing her the contents.
She could see a pack of butter, some potatoes and a six-pack of beer – a man of basic tastes. She didn’t mind one bit.
“Yeah, that’s… Well, you can’t make Ramen out of that. So, should we head into town? See this Shifter Grove of yours? You seemed awfully excited about it when you arrived.”
“That’s an option, but it’s a bit of a drive from here…” Battle looked like he’d just concocted the best plan in the world. “I think I might have a better idea. How do you feel about salmon?”
“Love it. Why?”
“Get changed. I wanna show you something.”
Keesha thought she was done with men giving her orders, but when Battle gave one, she snapped to attention. Or, at least, she was eager to do what he told her to. She could think of a few things she’d like to hear him tell her to do.
CHAPTER FIVE
Battle
His every muscle was straining against his skin, focus roiling through him. His powerful teeth were bared, thick lips smacking against them, and his body was rigid. The water lapped and lashed against his sides, dousing him and making his fur glisten. The bear had control and, for that moment, nothing but the beast and the prey mattered.
Faintly, he could sense movement in the water. The river was low and wide where he was standing, with rocks spilled all around and poking out of the water. There weren’t a lot of fish around, but there were enough – he just needed one.
A flash of glittery scales caught his eye and the bear lunged. He thrust his head into the water and thrashed around, catching the fish and then having it slip away from him, only to be captured again. Adrenaline coursed through his veins like it always did when he hunted. It wasn’t as often these days as it used to be, and the prey was of less consequence, but the emotion he got from it still hinted at times past.
Times better left forgotten, for both him and the bear.
The big salmon flopped back and forth a couple more times and then stopped, lying lifeless between his great jaws. The bear turned around, his dark brown eyes clearing slightly from the haze of battle, and his muscles relaxed with each lumbering step he took through the water, wading back towards shore.
Keesha bounced up and down excitedly, clapping her hands together. She looked damn tasty, far more inviting than the salmon did, even to Battle’s bear. Of course, the bear had already decided when they first saw her picture on SassyDate that she was the one and Battle was just left to get with the program. Now that she was there, in Idaho, the feeling had only grown more certain.
He dumped the fish next to another one not far from the lip of the river and shook his coat, the cool spray dousing Keesha as well.
“Hey! Manners!” she shouted, giggling.
Battle grumbled something in response, a murmured growl of acknowledgement. The dark, serious eyes of the bear considered her once more. It was as if he were memorizing the way she looked in her skinny jeans, shuffling around in his big work boots because she didn’t have anything other than heels packed along. How did a woman come to rural Idaho without boots was beyond Battle, but city girls had always been a bit of a mystery to him.
With Keesha, he was sure that it was a mystery he wanted to unravel.
Just one thought really slithered through the bear’s head when he looked at her – the only thought that mattered.
Mate.
He let the shift take him. Keesha stepped back, giving him a wide berth. He didn’t need it but she obviously wasn’t accustomed to seeing shifters change. The wet fur lessened and disappeared and the hardened muscles of the bear turned into the massive ones of the man. He stood tall, cracking back his shoulders as the bear retreated deep within him.
He was dripping wet. Battle’s toes dug into the soft moss – he had walked to the river without his boots on. There was another pair in the truck, but he’d always liked the feeling of walking through the forest without anything between him and the ground – it gave him a better feel for things.
He didn’t see the look in Keesha’s eyes before he pulled off his sopping wet tee and wrung it out. Drops of moisture glistened on his skin and there wasn’t an inch of him left dry. She seemed to like it, and like it a lot.
“Wow.”
He caught the way she swallowed dryly, her face having gone a little bit blank as she watched him shift and then peel his shirt off. Looking down at himself, he could somewhat understand what she was staring at. He was massively large, yes, but not only that – his tattoos were also out on full display now.
There was a full sleeve running up his right arm, splaying into a partial chest tattoo and warping around his back as well. Some of the individual pieces weren’t very expertly done, marking the opportunities he’d had at the time he got them, but some of the others more than made up for the weaker ones. Each tattoo told a story and most of them weren’t the kinds of stories he could tell Keesha, at least not yet.
She seemed to be looking at one spot in particular, and when he figured out what it was, he grunted and broke the silence.
“I guess we better get going. It’s going to get dark soon,” he said, putting the fish into a makeshift sling he made out of his shirt and throwing them over his shoulder.
“Who’s Adriana?” she asked.
Inwardly, he groaned.
“No one important… anymore.”
Her name was written in thin script on his right pec, a thick line scratched through it now – a permanent reminder of the stupidity of his younger years. A painful sting travelled through him, running from the bottoms of his feet to the top of his head. He grabbed Keesha’s hand and tugged her to move along with him. Flashes of his past wanted to consume him again, but he pushed them away into their usual deep, dark resting place somewhere within him.
He couldn’t deal with them. Not now. Not yet. It was the same thing he’d been telling himself since it all happened…
Battle could barely keep the growl from his lips. Keesha squeezed his hand suddenly, and the strangling tightness left his chest and released the hold it had on his body. He glanced at her and her big, curious hazel eyes looking up at him. Spirits above, she was tiny. Well, compared to him.
She couldn’t have been more than 5’7’’ and now that she wasn’t wearing the heels, he was very much aware of it. And those curved… She had looked good on the photos, but in person, he could barely keep his gaze off of her. He could imagine the way sh
e’d look out of those clothes, confident and glowing. His cock hardened at the thought and he had to go to great lengths to suppress that particularly delicious mental image.
“That was very cool, you know. I’ve never seen a shifter in animal form. And that fishing? Wow!”
Battle snorted in amusement, squeezing her hand back. Yup, city girls – gotta love ‘em.
“If you thought that was cool, wait until I cook ‘em!” he said, holding up the fish.
“You cook?”
“Can’t really survive without food, now can I,” he said, smirking.
She was adorable. He could just eat her up for dinner instead of the salmon. The way she made those little steps in boots far, far too big for her and how she was bundled up in a hoodie even though it wasn’t anywhere near cold yet – it was all hitting him hard. It was a struggle just walking through the woods without throwing her up against a tree and fucking her until all she could do was scream his name.
“So,” he said, hastening to find a topic other than sex – which was just about the only thing on his mind. “You never did tell me why you decided to come over here. Why’d you take me up on my offer finally? I thought you were going to be real busy with your job now.”
Keesha fell silent for a moment and Battle wondered if he’d already managed to muck things up and say the wrong thing. Finally, with a resigned sigh, Keesha shook her head.
“No, I’m not going to be busy. Well, not with that job, anyway. I need to find a new one, but I wanted a breather. I sort of… quit. In a blaze of glory. Not quite a YouTube worthy rant, but not far from it. I had a jerk of a boss who had yanked my chain one too many times, and when he did it again, I couldn’t help but bite. It was either get out or be put down, if I’m continuing this dog on a leash analogy here.”
Battle held her hand tighter when he helped her across a large fallen tree, making a mental note to come and take care of it as soon as he could. Wouldn’t do to have his girl stumbling over things around his house.
“I’ve always loved a woman with a good bite,” Battle said, chuckling. “And you decided to come visit me? That’s a big vote of confidence. How did you know I wasn’t some crazed recluse, living in the middle of nowhere, making his living by doing questionable things?”
He frowned at that. He’d just described himself to the letter. Glancing at her, it was clear that she too had caught the unplanned reference. Keesha chuckled and the tightness in him relaxed again. She had a magical way of doing that to him – letting him unwind when he was getting close to the edge. Sort of like a short of strong bourbon at the end of a long day.
“Our conversations made it seem like you’re an honest guy. I was half-expecting to find you living out of the bed of your truck when I got here. I’m glad that isn’t the case.”
Battle swallowed the smirk he felt tugging at the corners of his mouth.
“Sure, me too. Would have made for awkward sleeping arrangements. How about we get to the house and I cook you up this big ol’ salmon here and then you can tell me all about your prick of a boss. Or not tell me. Either works.”
He didn’t add what he was thinking, though. That it’d give him ample time to just watch her and enjoy being around her. Every tiny bit of him wanted to throw the fish over his shoulder, grab her and fuck her on the soft forest floor. He’d been through every manner of torture in his life, but this? Keeping his hands off of her? This might just be the one that would kill him.
CHAPTER SIX
Keesha
Unfortunately, Battle had put on another shirt. Fortunately, he’d gone without one long enough, letting Keesha thoroughly memorize the ridged and flexed landscape of his chest and stomach. It made her salivate, and she wasn’t even ashamed of it.
Or maybe it was the delicious smells of the dinner he was cooking. Her belly grumbled audibly and she keeled over, gasping and laughing.
“Don’t worry. It’ll be done soon,” Battle said, chuckling.
“Are you sure I can’t help you with anything? Not that I could boil a pot of water without setting fire to the house, but maybe with adult supervision I could do something useful. Like find knives and forks or something.”
“Got that covered. You just sit your pretty ass down and make yourself comfortable,” Battle said, holding up plastic cutlery and paper plates.
“You really haven’t been living here for that long, huh?” Keesha asked, plopping down on the couch with a sigh.
“I have not,” he admitted.
He didn’t have a dining room table or even proper chairs, just the couch and a rickety foldout table. The more she thought about it, the less put together the cabin looked – even for a recluse like Battle. Weren’t the loners supposed to be the ones who took the greatest pride in their personal space?
Quietly, Keesha’s gaze wandered across the small room and then landed back on Battle, fussing about in the kitchenette. He had that proud, rigid stance of a man who had seen things he didn’t quite want to remember. His shoulders always looked tense, like he was getting ready to pounce on someone – she sort of hoped it would be her. His gray eyes had a look of wary tiredness about them sometimes, mostly when he wasn’t looking at her, and she could see pain in them. Or, at least, that’s what she thought she saw.
There was no need to get overly dramatic, and she tried very hard to keep from concocting convoluted tales about his past in her head. He hadn’t really shared much about his earlier life and it had never bothered her before coming to Idaho. Something about being physically close to another person really made her wonder what he’d been through.
Battle pulled the oven door open and produced a sizzling pan with two perfectly cooked salmon just when Keesha was mentally tracing the large, circular tribal tattoo on the back of his right shoulder. The house was absolutely flooded with the smell of the food and Keesha found herself gnawing on her lower lip in anticipation.
Battle seemed to be weighing his options, looking at the hot pan, the table and the little paper plates he had. With a shrug, he picked up the whole pan between his oven mitts and carried it to the table. He then brought the potatoes in the pot he had cooked them in (the only pot he had, from what she could tell), the butter and the plastic knives and forks and paper plates.
“There, dinner is served!” he announced with a little flourish and a twinkle in his eyes.
Keesha giggled, tugging at his hand to come sit down next to her. The upside of small spaces – they were never too far from each other.
“It looks divine!”
“Well, it’s no fancy restaurant, but it’ll do, I think.”
Battle pulled his hunting knife out of the sheath on his belt and dissected the fish with seasoned ease. In less than a minute, he’d carved the two fish and removed and disposed of the spines, giving Keesha easy access. His masterful use of the knife was impressive to say the least and hinted at more than just a passing curiosity in the right techniques. He’d had one by his side for a long time by the looks of how he sliced and diced, and she had to ponder what he’d used it for.
“Wow. You really know your way around that thing,” she said, picking up a fork and scooping up a big bite of the fish.
It was so good it almost melted on her tongue. She let out a strangled little noise of enjoyment, closing her eyes. When she opened them again, Battle was looking at her, a quiet smile on his lips.
“What? Is there some fish on my face?” Keesha asked, wiping at her chin.
Battle caught her hand and gently pulled it down, shaking his head.
“No. I just like looking at you. And I can’t say I mind sharing dinner with someone with a healthy appetite. Though, I warn you, you better dig in fast because I’ll inhale the whole pan before you can blink.”
“Noted!” Keesha chirped, picking a potato from the pot and spreading butter on it.
She’d never been the one to worry about her curves. She’d filled out when she was in her teens and, since then, she’d learned to use her w
omanly shape as an asset, rather than a hindrance. It was surprising how much one’s personal opinion affected everyone around her. Keesha was a confident black woman who knew how to rock her stuff and she’d never felt bad for it. If God gave her a booty, she might as well shake it, right?
“So, about that knife. Where’d you learn to handle it like that?”
Battle looked at the knife, which had a smooth, worn horn handle and a jagged end, and wiped it off, shoving it in the sheath again.
“You don’t live in the woods for as long as I have without learning a few things, I guess. You’d think a bear doesn’t need to know how to use anything but his own strength, but I’ve never believed that. You have to know how to protect yourself in whatever circumstance… When you can’t shift, when there’s no one around to have your back.”
His voice got quiet and Keesha looked at him, frowning. He was glancing down at a tattoo of a running wolf, nestled within the plethora of his other designs, and a shadow of grief passed over his features. It cleared just as quickly when he noticed her watching him, a mild smile taking its place.
“It’s easier to cook a deer when you can carve it up, is all I’m saying.”
Yeah, Keesha wasn’t convinced. But she wasn’t going to push him – not yet. Rationally, she knew she should have been at least a bit apprehensive around this mountain of a man who could ram through walls as a bear if he felt so inclined, or carve up a body of meat if he needed to. But being around him just made her feel safe, homey, calm – things she hadn’t felt in a long, long time.
“So tell me something about you. Something I don’t know,” he said.
Battle was making his way through the bigger of the two fish so quickly that Keesha was really beginning to see his point about eating fast or being left hungry. She took a few bites, rolling their previous conversations through her head. She’d done the bitching and the moaning and the upfront flirting, but she hadn’t really told him much about Keesha Bailey, the person.