A tapping sounded on her window. Keeping her eyes closed, Dani tried to ignore it. She couldn’t face Cole right now. He had too much of an effect on her. Being close to him turned her into a nymphomaniac.
The tapping persisted.
Dani reluctantly looked up.
The face staring in at her through the window wasn’t Cole, but it was someone she recognized. The pale face, mop of unruly black hair, and thick-rimmed glasses belonged to Norman Lewis. Great. This was just what she needed right now.
She turned the key in the ignition so that the windows would work, and hit the button that sent hers whirring down. “Hey, Norman.”
“Hi, Dani. I was thinking I’d bump into you, it being the time you come back to town and all. And just as I was thinking that, I saw you running across the parking lot.” He pushed the glasses farther up the bridge of his nose and leaned closer. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m in a hurry. That’s why I was running.”
“Okay. Anyway, I was wondering if you’d like to go hiking up to Bear Peak sometime. I know how you like the mountains and the woods and stuff and maybe you can do a painting from up there. The views are incredible. So, yeah, that’s what I wanted to ask you, anyways.”
“I don’t go into the woods anymore, Norman. Not since I got attacked by a bear. So that sort of rules out Bear Peak for a lot of reasons.”
She turned the key and started the engine.
“Okay, well, then how about…”
“I have to go, Norman. See you.” She pulled away and headed for the parking lot exit. When would Norman ever understand the meaning of the word “no”? She had told him enough times yet he still bothered her every time she came to Silver Rock. She was sure this wasn’t the last she was going to see of him before she returned to New York.
Pulling out onto Main Street, she turned toward the edge of town. She was going to have to explain to Simone why she was returning from her shopping trip empty-handed, and she was sure Simone would tease her about her over-the-top reaction to Cole, but Dani couldn’t think straight right now, never mind return to the store and buy groceries.
Driving out of town and onto the dark, lonely stretch of highway that led to Simone’s grandmother’s house, Dani wondered what she was going to do with her life once she got back to New York. She couldn’t work in her father’s restaurant forever. Her dad had been generous enough to give her a job, but Dani knew he was wondering why she wasn’t pounding the pavements and trying to find work in a profession she was more suited to. Her dad never said anything, of course, but Dani felt like she was disappointing him every day she turned up to work in the kitchen.
She was disappointing herself, too. Her lack of self-confidence was sending her life on a downward spiral.
A flash in her rearview mirror caught her attention. There was a car behind her, flashing its lights at her. She squinted against the glare but couldn’t see who was following her. And why were they flashing their lights? Maybe they were trying to tell her she had a busted tail light or something.
No, that wasn’t it. It must be Norman. Dani gripped the wheel angrily. Why couldn’t that creep leave her alone? She considered speeding up and losing him. No, it would be better to pull off the road and give him a piece of her mind. It was time to stop pussy-footing around and tell him straight. She had tried to do it without hurting his feelings but that was before he had driven after her and started flashing his lights like a maniac. She wasn’t going to take any more of his stalking.
There was nowhere to pull over here; the trees crowded up to the edge of the road. Ahead, there was a grassy area that would be perfect. It was time to put a stop to this, even if it meant breaking Norman’s heart.
She reached the grassy area and pulled off the road. The car behind her did the same, stopping twenty feet behind her with its lights still blazing. Leaving her car running, Dani opened her door and got out, ready to tear strips off Norman. She was going to leave him in no doubt about how unwelcome his advances were. She strode toward his car, shielding her eyes from the glare of the headlights with her hand. It was so bright she couldn’t see anything.
The driver got out of the car. He stood in the darkness behind the lights. He didn’t say anything.
Dani couldn’t stand the silence any longer. Her anger had faded to be replaced with fear. “Norman, is that you?”
Her heart lurched into her throat. What if it wasn’t Norman at all? What if it was a crazy highway murderer? Her anger had made her pull over in the middle of nowhere and put herself in danger. How could she be so stupid?
The driver stepped forward but Dani could only see him in silhouette against those glaring lights. Then, something weird happened. His silhouette changed. It grew bigger and changed form. It dropped to all fours and lumbered toward her.
Dani’s mouth dropped open in surprise. The man had turned into a bear right before her eyes. Her moment of shock had rooted her to the spot in the grass. She willed her feet to move.
The bear got closer. It was still mostly in silhouette but Dani could see the white of its bared teeth. It growled. The deep, throaty sound cut through the night and made Dani’s feet work again. She turned and fled to her car. The Taurus seemed so far away. She hadn’t realized she had strayed so far from its safety.
She wasn’t going to make it. The bear’s paws swished through the grass behind her. It was so close. A moan escaped Dani’s lips. The shifter was going to catch her and finish the job it had started two years ago.
She stumbled and fell. Gripping handfuls of grass, she turned onto her back. The huge bear looked over her, roaring. It stood on its back legs, its paws raised, claws shining in the car lights.
*
Cole finished loading the sacks of groceries into his truck and climbed into the driver’s seat. He was pissed with himself that he had blown it with Dani. Not only had she fled, she had seemed so afraid of him.
He banged the steering wheel with the heel of his hand in frustration. He was sure Dani could feel the connection between them, but for some reason she feared it.
The bear inside told Cole to follow her. Cole tried to resist it. If he followed Dani now, she would think he was stalking her and would run a mile.
But the urge to follow his mate became an irresistible desire that he couldn’t ignore.
He started the engine and drove out of the parking lot, turning onto Main Street in the same direction Dani had taken.
He rolled down his window and let the night breeze blow over his face. He felt hot. The bear was desperate to be released and Cole had to struggle to keep it in check. No woman had ever had this effect on him before, and he was sure no other woman ever would. He couldn’t let Dani flee like this and not try to make things right between them. She had no need to fear him; he needed to show her that.
“Yeah, by following her,” he told himself. “That’ll really convince her that she shouldn’t be afraid of you.”
He spotted her car ahead, taking the road out of town. There were some houses situated just off the highway out in that direction. Maybe that’s where she was headed.
Cole followed but kept a few cars back. He wasn’t sure what he intended to say to her when she got out of her car. It was hard to concentrate when he and Dani were in close proximity. When he was close to her, The Call became strong, and the desire to claim Dani filled every fiber of his being.
He was determined to stay in control. He just wanted to talk to Dani and find out why she feared him so much. He needed to show her that he would never hurt her. His greatest desire was to protect her.
As Cole followed Dani out of town and onto the highway, there was only one car between them. Cole dropped back a little. He didn’t want to spook Dani on the road in case she sped up and put herself in danger trying to get away from him. It was better to wait until she got out of her car.
He slowed down until the tail lights of the two cars in front of him were no more than pinpricks of red lig
ht.
After a few minutes of following along at that distance, he saw the brake lights of both cars suddenly become illuminated. The cars pulled off the road.
That was weird. Why would Dani stop out here in the middle of nowhere? There were no houses along this stretch of road; there was nothing here except woods on either side of the road.
His gut told him something was wrong. Cole stomped on the accelerator and the truck shot forward. The time for stealth was over; Dani was in trouble.
He saw the two cars parked up ahead and skidded to a stop behind them. He threw his door open and leaped out of the truck. His senses were screaming at him now. Dani was in danger.
In the glow of the car lights, he saw Dani on the ground. She was lying on her back, eyes closed. Cole had no idea if she was dead or just unconscious.
Standing over her was a huge, snarling grizzly.
Cole released his bear and changed immediately. His clothes fell from him in tatters. He roared and ran toward the other bear.
It saw him and growled, but it must have recognized Cole’s strength because it turned and ran toward the trees.
Cole followed, teeth bared, but he fought the urge to chase the other bear down. He had to tend to Dani.
As the other bear crashed through the undergrowth into the darkness, Cole halted and turned back to his intended mate. She was lying motionless on the ground, but Cole could see her chest rising and falling. She was alive but unconscious. There were no injuries on her body. It looked like she had passed out.
He shifted back into human form. If she came around, he didn’t want to scare her. Cole picked her up and carried her to his truck, where he laid her across the seats.
Reaching under the driver’s seat, he found the spare jeans and T-shirt he kept there, and quickly dressed. If anyone should drive past, it would be difficult to explain why he was naked with an unconscious woman in his truck.
Dani stirred, her eyes opening slowly. “What happened?” She sounded dazed and confused.
“Wait here,” Cole told her.
He walked past the car that was parked behind Dani’s, a dark blue Toyota Corolla, and reached Dani’s Taurus. Leaning in through the open door, he turned off the engine before closing the door and locking it.
Pocketing the key, Cole turned to the Corolla. It was time to find out who had attacked Dani.
As he strode toward the car, he realized that the driver’s door, which had been open a few seconds ago, was closed and there was someone sitting behind the wheel. The engine revved suddenly and the Corolla’s wheels spun on the grass before the car leaped forward toward Cole.
Cole jumped out of the way, and the Corolla roared onto the highway and off into the distance, leaving behind only two deep, muddy gouges on the ground where it had been parked.
Returning to the truck, Cole cursed himself for letting the attacker return to the car unnoticed. The smell of the exhaust fumes from the two cars had fucked up his sense of smell, otherwise he would have detected the presence of the attacker, whether he was in human or bear form.
Dani was sitting up in the passenger seat of the truck, still looking dazed. “Cole, what happened?”
“You got attacked,” he said. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
She frowned. She was pretty when she frowned. Hell, she was pretty no matter what she did. “I was driving back to the house and the car behind me was flashing its lights. I got out and…” Her eyes went wide. “And…he…” She shook her head. “No, I don’t remember.”
Cole was sure she did remember, but was afraid to acknowledge what she had seen. There was a pile of torn clothing lying on the ground where the Corolla had been parked, just like the pile at Cole’s feet where he had shifted. That meant the attacker had shifted into bear form in front of Dani.
If that scared her as much as it seemed to, then how the hell was Cole going to explain to her that he was a shifter?
He climbed into the truck and closed the door.
“What are you doing?” Dani asked.
“We’re going to my place,” he said.
“What about my car?”
“You’re in no condition to drive. It’ll be fine here for a while.” He pulled out onto the road.
“I need to call Simone,” Dani said. She pulled her phone from her pocket and began jabbing at the keypad with shaking fingers.
Cole noticed she hadn’t asked him to drop her at her own house. She had no problem with the idea of going to his place, just so long as her friend knew where she was.
She spoke to her friend and told her something had happened but she was with Cole and everything was okay. She promised to be back soon and told Simone not to worry. Cole wasn’t sure what Simone said, but Dani blushed and grinned and said, “Don’t be dirty,” into the phone. She ended the call and slid the phone back into her pocket.
“Everything okay?” Cole asked.
“Yeah. Simone is worried but I said I’ll explain everything when I get back.”
“What are you going to tell her?”
“I’ll tell her what happened. I got attacked by some crazy person.”
He looked at her, but she had turned her face to the dark window. “A person?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. Did you get his license plate? I need to tell the police…”
“Tell them what? Dani, the police aren’t going to believe what happened. You know it wasn’t a person who attacked you.”
She turned her head to gaze at the road stretching out in front of them. “I was talking to Simone about it just before I left to get the groceries. I asked her if she believed in them. She said she didn’t. She said she didn’t believe in them.”
“Believe in what?” Cole wanted her to say it. She needed to come to the conclusion on her own, without being prompted. She must not think later that he had put the suggestion in her mind since that could lead to her rejecting what she knew to be true.
“Shifters,” she whispered.
Cole said nothing, letting Dani process the information. Once she accepted the idea that shifters were real, it would make it easier for him to explain to her that she was his mate.
Dani curled up on the seat and whispered, “I hate them. I hate them all.”
Cole’s heart sank. “What do you mean? What are you talking about?”
“Shifters. I hate them all.”
5
Dani couldn’t believe it, her worst nightmare had come true. She had joked with Simone that the bear from two years ago might try and finish the job of killing her, and tonight she had almost become its victim.
If not for Cole, she would probably be lying dead in the grass right now.
Cole had become quiet, watching the road ahead with his sexy, intense stare. He was calm, and that made Dani feel calm, too.
Being with Cole made her feel safe. Even though she barely knew him, she trusted him. And it was a trust that came from deep inside her, from her core. If anyone asked her to explain it, she wouldn’t be able to, but she knew that Cole would do anything to protect her.
They had left the highway a few miles back and were driving along a quiet dirt road. The woods by the sides of the road were dark and forbidding. If Dani had been afraid of the woods around Silver Rock before tonight, now she was terrified of them. She was never going to set foot in the wilderness again. She wished she were back in New York. At least there were no wild bears there.
“You live all the way out here?” she asked Cole. It was a stupid question. Of course he lived all the way out here, that was why they were driving along this road to get to his place. But she wanted to break the silence between them. She wanted to know more about him.
“I like it here,” he said. “It’s quiet.”
“You don’t get lonely out here all by yourself?”
He looked at her as if trying to gauge the intent of her question. Dani had tried to make the question sound innocent and not like she was asking if he had a girlfriend or wife,
which was exactly what she was trying to find out. His behavior at the diner toward her might rule out the possibility of a partner but Dani didn’t take anything for granted. She knew what men were like.
She was going to mentally add, “Especially good-looking men like Cole,” to that statement, but she had never met a man like Cole. As Janice the waitress had said, it was like Cole belonged in the movies. His features were strong and ruggedly handsome, and his body looked like it had been chiseled by Michelangelo. It was almost a shame that a man like this was living in the woods near Silver Rock and not appearing in movies so women all over the world could appreciate him. If he went to Hollywood, he could be the next big heartthrob, for sure.
“I don’t get lonely,” he said.
So he was enigmatic as well as gorgeous. Dani was thinking up her next question when Cole guided the truck off the road and onto a driveway that led to the most gorgeous house that Dani had ever seen.
“Oh, my God,” she said, sitting up in her seat. “You live here?”
Although the house lights were out, moonlight illuminated the scene. The woods gave way to a front lawn that swept up to a three-level house built of stone, wood and glass. The design was modern but also tasteful. Huge windows on the upper levels looked out over the woods. Behind the house, the mountains rose up into the night. If the house had the same picture windows at the rear, the view must be amazing.
Cole smiled and parked the truck on the graveled area in front of the house. “Want to see the inside?”
“Hell, yeah.” Dani opened her door and got out of the truck. The gravel crunched under her sneakers as she walked across it to the front porch. “Do we wait for a butler to let us in?” she asked.
Cole grinned and unlocked the door. He gestured Dani inside.
As soon as she stepped inside, the lights came on automatically, revealing a wood-paneled foyer hung with framed black and white photos of landscapes that Dani recognized as areas around Silver Rock. Thick gray carpet covered the floor and ran up the staircase to the next level. Heavy wooden doors that looked like they belonged in an English country mansion were set into the walls. An open door at the far end of the foyer revealed a glimpse of a kitchen that had been decorated in a rustic style with wooden cupboards and a big porcelain sink.
McClintock Bears Box Set Page 4