Shifters Gone Wild; Collection

by Skye MacKinnon

  He was out of the door before he had finished buttoning his fly, scouring the green valley for her. It was barely light, but as he burst from the deck at a dead run, heart pumping hard and senses seeking Ivy, his cougar side shifting relentlessly beneath his skin, sharpening his nails into short claws, the sun broke the horizon, bathing the valley in golden light.

  Washing over Ivy where she crouched by the log beneath the tree on the right of the clearing near the river, her camera poised in front of her face, her dark charcoal trousers and deep brown hoody allowing her to blend into her surroundings.

  Relief crashed through him, so powerful it almost sent him to his knees.

  Gods, he was going to kill her for scaring him like that.

  He took a step towards her, and then stilled as he frowned and tracked the aim of her lens.

  On the other side of the wide river, just visible through the low mist hanging above the rippling water, a mother black bear emerged from the trees, and two cubs tumbled out behind her, rolling across the stony bank as they played.

  A breeze blew, stirring the mist so it danced, swirled and cleared in places, allowing the sunlight to catch on the water, making it sparkle.

  The mother bear grunted as she looked back at her cubs, urging them on, and Rath slowly backed off a few steps, aware that she had sensed him. When he was at a distance where his presence wouldn’t worry her, he stilled again so he didn’t spook them, but kept an eye on them, watching them to make sure the cubs didn’t think about crossing the shallow water or notice Ivy.

  Protecting her from a distance.

  He could shift and reach her before the bear could, would drive it away if he had to, even though it would probably terrify Ivy.

  She seemed frightened of cougars.

  Rath’s gaze drifted to her.

  Would she be afraid of him if she saw his other form?

  He pushed that question aside as the bear moved on, leading her cubs back into the thick of the forest, and Ivy rose to her feet and checked her camera. She grinned down at the screen and he could feel her excitement, the happiness that flowed through her, despite the distance between them.

  When he started towards her, she looked across at him, her smile widening together with her eyes, and gods, as she hurried towards him, a bounce in her step that caused her dark hair to sway in its ponytail, he wanted that excitement she felt, that happiness, to be because it was him she was running to and because she was glad to see him, not because she had managed to photograph the bears.

  She was breathless as she stopped beside him, her chest heaving beneath her tight brown hoody, her hazel eyes sparkling as she tilted her head up and they met his.

  “Did you see?” She grinned at him, hitting him hard in the chest with it, and he nodded. Her eyes darted back down to the camera, and she checked the photographs again, as if they might have disappeared or been a trick of her imagination. She tilted the camera towards him and moved closer, and he swallowed a groan as she brushed against him, her left arm pressing against his chest. “Look!”

  He tried to get his eyes to cooperate, but the way she leaned her head to her right, so he could see the screen of her camera, exposed her throat and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from it now that she had tied her hair up again.

  Another groan, one that was more of a growl, rumbled up his throat and escaped this time.

  She jerked away from him and looked down. “Did I tread on your foot? Why aren’t you wearing shoes?”

  There was a pretty crinkle to her brow when she looked up at him, as if she thought him crazy to be outside without any boots on.

  If he was crazy, it was because he had lost his mind worrying about her.

  Ivy flashed the camera his way again, her thumb pressing on the button that made it scroll through the shots she had taken.

  “They’re good,” he murmured, and cleared his throat because it had come out too damned huskily.

  A hint of a blush climbed her cheeks and she looked up at him again, her eyes bright and smile infectious.

  Godsdamnit she was beautiful.

  It hit him hard in the gut, and in the chest, a one-two punch that robbed him of his breath and had him staring down at her in silence, a little dazed and lost in her.

  So lost that he didn’t pay attention to what she was saying as she spoke to him, her coral-pink lips moving in enticing ways, filling his head with thoughts of silencing her with a kiss. When she looked as if she expected an answer, and he didn’t have a clue what she had said, he panicked.

  “Yes.” There was a fifty percent chance she had asked a question, and a chance that answer was the right one.

  Her face lit up. “Oh, thank you! Honestly, I’m not sure why I was so worried… but when I saw the bear and her cubs, I just knew I had to stay and try to get more pictures of them. Did you see them playing? They were adorable. Rolling around like that.”

  Hang on.

  A cold sensation washed through him as he caught up.

  A sinking one followed it when she continued speaking at a million miles per hour.

  “I shouldn’t have worried, but you’re not exactly the easiest person to deal with… it’s such a relief you said yes. I’ll be out of your hair tomorrow. I swear.”

  Wait, he wasn’t the easiest person to deal with?

  He frowned at her for that one. He wanted to see how she would have behaved if she had been in his shoes, if he had been the one to come crashing into her territory, and her life, when she already had enough problems to deal with, and triggered a need in her that showed no sign of going away, was only getting stronger the more time she spent with him.

  “You don’t look so sure now.” Her smile faded and she lowered her camera.

  He caught the flare of disappointment in her hazel eyes.

  But it wasn’t the thought of upsetting her that had him shrugging it off and saying, “Not at all. Another night is fine.”

  It was the thought of her walking and camping overnight to reach her car.

  It was the thought that she might meet a cougar on the path when she was alone.

  Gods, that disturbed him, had him on the verge of growling.

  He needed to stay here tonight and wait for his brother to arrive tomorrow. As soon as he showed up, Rath could walk her back to her car and ensure she made it there safely.

  He stared down at her as she checked her pictures again, her smile dazzling, her eyes shining with the happiness he could feel in her.

  “Breakfast first, and then you’re on helper duty again.” He drank in the smile she turned on him, the way she looked at him as if nothing would make her happier than spending the day with him again, working with him, and wanted more.

  Grew greedy with a need to have all her smiles to himself.

  A gentle breeze swept around her, blowing strands of her hair across her cheek as she looked back down at her camera, her eyes on the screen again.

  Rath absently lifted his hand and reached out to her, and paused on the verge of brushing those rogue strands of chestnut back behind her ear.

  He lowered his hand to his side before she noticed and steeled himself, piecing together a wall around his heart that he knew wouldn’t protect him, or stop the pain that beat inside him as he thought about tomorrow.

  He would escort her to her car, protecting her from his kin and the wildlife.

  He just wasn’t sure he would be able to convince himself to let her go when he got her there.

  Chapter 8

  Ivy was about ready for another hot bath. She swiped the back of her hand across her forehead and sat back on her heels to admire her work on the deck of the riverside cabin. Rath came out of the door behind her, his boots appearing in view to her left as he stopped beside her.

  She tilted her head back and looked up at him.

  His steel grey eyes darted over her work as he wiped his hands on a dirty cloth, the muscles in his forearms rippling beneath his golden skin. He had ditched his fleece at some
point and had pulled up the sleeves of his black long-sleeved t-shirt that hugged his figure, revealing everything to her.

  Damn guy had the body of a god hidden beneath that garment.

  His gaze drifted to her. “Good work.”

  It was?

  She looked at the planks she had drilled into place and pursed her lips. It did look good to her. She had never picked up a power tool or done anything remotely DIY in her life, but it wasn’t as hard as it had always looked.

  Although, she was going to leave the roofing to Rath, and repairing stoves definitely fell under his jurisdiction too.

  He pushed the dirty cloth into the front right pocket of his dark jeans, tugging her focus down to his strong hands and legs that went on forever.

  “Is it beer o’clock?” Ivy gripped the railing to her right and pushed onto her feet before he caught her staring, stooped and picked up the drill and set it down in the case on the small metal table.

  She snapped it shut and looked at Rath.

  His eyes zipped from her backside up to her face, and she swore there was a little more gold in them.

  Maybe she wasn’t the only one with a staring problem.

  A flush of heat swept over her skin at the thought he had been looking at her, stoking the fire she had fought a few times over the past day and bringing it back to inferno level. Apparently, the sight of Rath hard at work doing manual labour was a major turn on and one she hadn’t been able to deny, no matter how many times she had reminded herself she had sworn off men.

  There had just been something alluring and magnetic about him as he had worked on the roof, hammer in one hand and nails held between his flattened lips, his handsome face fixed in a frown as he had focused on the repairs, oblivious to her staring. His muscles had rippled and danced so beautifully with every blow of the hammer, every flex of his body as he reached for another shingle and positioned it, and she had been caught up in him whenever she had taken a break.

  He hadn’t helped matters when he had shown her how to use the drill to fix the planks to the deck, his body crowding hers as he instructed her on the correct way to hold it and how to change the bits so she could go from drilling to screwing. She had burned fiercely from the feel of his front against her side, his arms encircling her and making her deeply aware of how big he was, how strong his body was beneath his clothing, and how good he smelled.

  She had been a wreck for the first few planks he had handed to her after he had cut them to size, and had only managed to recover after he had headed inside to continue work on the stove, leaving her alone to deal with the deck.

  When he looked off to his right, towards the river, she did too, and her eyes widened when she saw the sun was almost below the horizon. She hadn’t noticed it was getting that late, had been convinced it was early afternoon still.

  She picked up her camera from the table, switched it on, and flicked through the images to find the ones she had taken of the male black bear that had wandered through the area while she had been working on the cabin with Rath.

  Her eyebrows rose at the time on the screen. Hell, she had thought the bear had visited before noon, but it had been closer to three.

  She smiled at the photographs, a satisfied hum buzzing in her veins at the shots she had gotten of the male bear, capturing him drinking at the river and then chasing something in the water.

  She couldn’t wait for tomorrow and the chance the mother bear might bring her cubs back. She had asked Rath more times than she could count about whether he thought they would, and every time he had half-smiled and said he was sure of it, that it wasn’t the first time he had seen them pass along the river in the morning.

  Rath moved past her, stealing her attention, pulling it to him as he tidied up the deck, tossing tools back into a grey holdall that had seen better days. One of the screwdrivers he placed in the bag poked out of a rip in the side, and he scowled at it, his dark eyebrows dipping low as he prodded the tip to push it back inside.

  When he was done, she slung the strap of her camera around her neck and picked up the drill case.

  “Beer time.” The way his eyes lit up said he was looking forward to opening a cold one and kicking back on the deck to enjoy what was left of the sunset.

  She glanced at it and decided she was going to follow suit. She would have that bath she badly wanted after she had savoured the beauty of the sunset and had seen the stars emerge.

  When she looked back at Rath, he was staring across the clearing, his handsome face etched in dark lines and his eyebrows knitted hard above his grey-gold eyes.

  Ivy followed his gaze and frowned as her eyes landed on a beautiful raven-haired woman in her twenties walking towards them, an older woman who had to be her mother beside her. While the older woman wore dark green hiking trousers and a thick black jacket, the younger woman wore tight blue jeans that hugged her thighs and the swell of her hips, and a sapphire jumper that accentuated her curvy waist and breasts.

  Her obsidian waves bounced around her shoulders with each confident step and brushed her rounded cheeks, and she lifted her hand and delicately swept them from her face, revealing dark pink lips and bright grey eyes.

  Ivy looked back at Rath, and the way he continued to stare at the woman roused something inside her.

  Something she didn’t like.

  She looked down at herself, at her charcoal trousers and her merlot t-shirt that revealed curves far more sumptuous than the ones on the black-haired woman. Who was she kidding? Of course Rath would look at the younger, more beautiful woman like he wanted her.

  Hadn’t he done the same thing to her?

  Traded up.

  “I have to deal with this.” Rath’s deep voice didn’t warm her as it swept over her this time.

  It left her cold.

  She didn’t look at him, just stepped off the deck and started walking, because she wasn’t sure she could bear seeing him looking at the beauty with eyes dark with desire, and she certainly wasn’t going to stick around to hear what they had to say to each other.

  She kept her head down as she passed the two women.

  “Rath,” the older woman said, a note of warmth in her tone, but also a hint of something akin to a demand. “Have you considered our proposition? Ember would like to know whether she can expect you to take care of her.”

  Heat burned Ivy’s heart, and she slowed her step, her blood on fire and breath lodged in her throat as those words registered, the meaning behind them clear, and she waited to hear his response.

  “It’s good to see you again. Your cabin is ready.” Not a denial. Not a yes, either, but it wasn’t a denial.

  And that stung.

  Ivy doubled her pace, hurrying away from him now, not wanting to hear anything else, because she couldn’t take it. She had been an idiot. Again. She had stupidly let herself get caught up in her time here, had let herself get caught up in Rath, had sunk into this world and been swept up in it.

  It was all make-believe.

  She didn’t belong here, and tomorrow she would be gone, and she would never see Rath again.

  Tomorrow couldn’t come quickly enough.

  She dumped the drill on the deck of his cabin, bent and wrestled with her laces on her boots, a frustrated growl slipping from her lips when they refused to cooperate. She huffed and her face screwed up as she kicked at them, shoving them off her feet, and left them scattered on the deck, not giving a damn.

  She stormed into his cabin, grabbed her backpack and sank onto the couch. She opened his laptop, switched it on, and pulled the memory card from her camera while she waited for it to boot up. Thankfully, her adapter was in the zipped compartment on the underside of the lid of her bag, so she didn’t have to tear her entire pack apart to find it.

  Her fingers shook as she shoved the memory card into the device, and then put it into the USB port on his laptop. She brought up a browser, and opened her email, sifted through a few of them but found nothing interesting. She started a n
ew email and typed in a name.

  Alexander Lord.

  The bastard.

  Tears threatened to fill her eyes but she dashed them away, refused to let everything get to her. She was stronger than this.

  She flexed her fingers and stared at the screen, heart pounding as she considered what she was doing. She hated him, but he had money, far too much of it, and she needed some if she was going to move on.

  She hammered out a quick message to him, dispensed with the formalities and got straight to the point, telling him that she had shots of black bears and wanted to go in search of spirit bears next, but staying at their location would be expensive and she would need to work with a guide or two who knew the bears and the area.

  She attached a few of her photographs of the black bears, sure they would convince him to send funds to her bank account. He had been supporting her for a few years now, funding her trips to photograph wildlife. She wasn’t the only one he supported.

  Around a year ago, she had met the other wildlife photographers he funded at a grand gala.

  And had made the biggest mistake of her life.

  It was all the champagne’s fault.

  And Alexander’s too.

  She clicked send and refused to regret asking him for money when he had been a bastard to her. He owed her.

  He owed her for screwing her, leaving her in the dead of night and then acting as if nothing had happened when she had contacted him.

  She leaned over, rested her elbows on her knees and clutched her head, pushing her fingers through her dark hair.

  That ache in her chest grew fiercer, stealing her breath, and she sniffed, held back the tears and tried to purge the pain, tried to let it go even when she knew it wouldn’t, not while her head was full of Rath with that woman.

  One her mother wanted him to be involved with.

  “There you are.” Rath’s tone lost all warmth as he stopped in the doorway. “What are you up to?”