by Cecilia Lane
“If you’re lucky, I’ll show you my real ones.” She stood and waved toward the counter. “Now, pay for something or get out of here. I’m on the clock.”
“Like that’s stopped you from slacking before.” Cole snorted. “Since I don’t trust you not to poison me right now, I’ll see you around.”
Becca shook her head and started toward the counter and her endless search for another job when movement caught her eye. The restroom door swung shut. She narrowed her gaze. Mara was in there. Had been in there since Cole asked they speak.
Any softness she felt for the woman faded. Sure, she hadn’t brought Cole into the back, but they’d kept their voices down. Mara snuck into the restroom for a better position for eavesdropping. Not cool. And not worth a job recommendation anywhere.
Chapter 4
Becca raised her finger to signal for another drink. Leah appeared in front of her and exchanged her empty pint for a fresh stout. Heavy on the stomach and the mind, enough of those babies were sure to drag any stray thoughts of anniversaries or Nolan straight to the depths of her head.
Just perfect. She didn’t want to think about why she left Bearden in a hurry or the man who drove her to move. She didn’t want to think about him or what happened after she left. She’d wanted nothing more than a life with him, with a thousand babies and a picket fence and maybe even a dog.
Okay, not a thousand babies. Too much poop. But five? That sounded like a reasonable number. Nolan had six brothers and sisters, three before him and three after, while she only had Faith. She always envied the controlled chaos at his house.
The quintessential middle child and the wild twin. They would have made terrible parents. Maybe losing their little girl was a blessing in disguise. They were too young then. Seventeen. And she obviously didn’t have her shit together now.
“You doing okay there, Becca?” Leah asked, frowning her way.
Becca grinned. Too wide, she realized too late. Her face felt numb. Perfect. “Doing great. Keep ‘em coming.”
The door opened and in walked the life she should have had. Strathorns clumped together, shoving and bickering with easy smiles on their faces. Oh, fuckballs.
She immediately locked eyes with Nolan and all the air exited her lungs. The already gorgeous green practically glowed with the power of his bear. Her fox chirped and yipped and bounced in her head.
Stupid fox.
It didn’t matter how hard she tried to avoid him, she still had a deep awareness of him. Could pick him out of a crowd. Naturally turned herself toward him whenever they were in the same room. She fought tooth and nail not to give in to those instincts. What they could have had went up in flames ten years ago and no amount of her fox insisting they were mates would convince her otherwise.
Scowling, Becca forced herself to break their connection. She reached for her stout and downed the contents.
She just wanted to forget everything, but he was a constant interloper. In her mind and in her reality. Her annual pity party was about to be derailed.
Instead of pulling another draft, Leah shook her head. “Let me call Faith to take you home.”
Becca growled. “I don’t need anyone to take me home,” she snapped.
But Leah wasn’t buying it or cutting her any friend-slack.
“You’ve had too much. You can stay here, but you’re not getting anything but water for an hour. You need to burn off some of what’s in you.” Leah leaned over the bar, eyes flicking between Becca and the group near the pool tables. “Is this about Nolan?”
Becca slammed her hand on the bar. “I’m not fucking talk about him.”
She winced at the volume of her voice. Leah didn’t deserve that. Leah was a good friend. Right up there with her twin and Rylee. She drew in a calming breath and rummaged in her wallet for bills to pay her tab. “I’m fine, really,” she insisted in a quieter voice. “Just gonna walk home and end this terrible day.”
She waved off another round of concerned noises, not even bothering to decipher the words. Rides and home and talk and other bullshit she didn’t want to get into.
She needed to be alone. She needed to get away from her thoughts. She was always one to leap before she looked. She spoke before she thought through her words. It nearly always got her in trouble and stuck her foot in her mouth, but she liked that better than the tight itchiness she felt otherwise. She didn’t do well cramped up in her head.
The mild summer night was refreshing and pushed some of her moodiness to the side. She paused at the edge of the street. Hogshead’s neon sign flashed across from her. One direction led home, and another led into the unknown. Straight to her bed or linger in her head?
“Becks, you okay?”
She whirled around at the voice. His voice.
By the Broken, it was unfair how well he’d grown up. She’d always had a crush on him, the lovely boy just down the street. Toddler infatuation turned into teenage yearning, and that got them in trouble.
Now here he was, filled out in all the right places. He’d grown an extra foot since she left and packed on muscle. Jeans clung to his legs, his shirt clung to his torso. But that damned mouth of his was turned down so no dimple peeked at her.
Get it out of her system, Cole said. Yeah, that sounded right. She could fuck him out of her system and be done with him forever. Wham, bam, thank you, sir, may I not have another.
She giggled. Clearly, she was still tipsy.
She blinked and remembered he’d asked her a question. “Fine. Just need to walk it off. Be better in ten minutes, tops.”
Shifter metabolism to the rescue. Her body couldn’t burn off the ice cream cartons, but it took a whole lot of booze to keep her toasty.
Nolan stepped closer, and she caught his scent. Earthy and all male. Trees in the darkness. Delicious. It cleared her head and drove her a bit more wild.
Get him out of her system. Scratch the itch she couldn’t reach. One final goodbye in her own truly fucked up way.
Pity party, table for one suddenly needed an extra chair. Or bed. Hell, even the back of a truck would do. She just wanted to feel something besides that black hole in her middle.
Nolan searched her face for something, some clue that she wasn’t going to run. His eyes flared to an inhuman green, but he only blew out a long breath. “Come on. Let me get you home.”
He slung an arm around her shoulder and tried to draw her away from the street.
She could count the handful of times they’d touched since she moved back to Bearden. A snatched wrist the first week, grabbed shoulders the fourth. He even pinned her against a wall and pressed his forehead to hers in an attempt to force words from her.
All of them surged desire in her veins and made her stomach drop. Another reason to avoid him. Easier to ignore the call of their bond when she didn’t have any contact.
Her breath caught in the back of her throat and tumbled out as a strangled sound. Nolan glanced down at her, worry drawing his eyebrows together.
His arm around her shoulder slipped lower. His fingers grazed over the skin of her arm and raised goose bumps all over her body. Need tripped to life and sent her heart racing. She nearly vibrated with energy that needed to be sent somewhere, grounded somehow.
Her fox waited in the back of her mind. Watching. Patient.
Becca stopped and the motion of it swung Nolan around to square up to her. She wet her lips and held her breath.
Nolan’s eyes dropped to watch her tongue swipe over her lips. He reached for her with a growl, fingers closing around her hip and squeezing. His other cupped her cheek and Becca inhaled sharply.
The first brush of his lips sent a jolt of electricity zinging down her spine. Her mouth dropped open, and he took the opportunity to plunder her mouth completely.
It was a wild kiss, full of desperation and longing that spanned a decade. Her toes curled in her shoes and her fingers dug into his arms. He sucked down every muted moan that bubbled out of her chest.
O
ne step after another drew her further from the bar and the empty street. Darkness awaited her, along with his truck tucked out of sight of prying eyes.
The cold press of metal against her back did nothing to temper the heat that coiled through her limbs. Her entire body felt aflame.
“We need to talk about things,” he said against her mouth.
She chased his kiss. “Don’t want to talk.”
Her fox pushed her closer. Bite. Mark. Claim.
She imagined drop kicking the little animal and watching the red fur fly straight through goal posts all the way down the football field.
In turn, her fox sent an image of a motion that could only be described as an offended sniff before raising her tail and peeing on Becca’s foot.
They were having issues.
Nolan had no issues. He shoved his hand into her hair and his lips trailed down the space he made on her neck. His hips rolled gently into her and holy hell, could she feel the hard length of him at the ready. She very nearly panted, and he’d only kissed her.
There was no timid exploration. They’d both gained confidence since they were last together. They both knew how to touch the other. How many times had she stared at the ceiling and imagined his hands on her body? She couldn’t remember a time she didn’t crave his touch. Even in the worst depths of her hatred, she still wanted.
But he wasn’t giving her everything. He held back. Took his time. Teased her when she wanted him to take her.
He was being as gentlemanly as possible with his dick hard against her stomach.
Becca wound her arms around his neck and drew him closer. One devouring swipe of her tongue, that was all she allowed herself. Then she bit his lip and growled.
“Fuck,” he hissed, eyes flaring again to that gorgeous inhuman green.
Kiss. Rock of his hips. Blazing green eyes. She was getting him closer to what she wanted. What she needed. She wanted him wild.
“Need you, Nolan,” she groaned into his ear. “Want to feel all of you tonight. Want to forget everything with you. Need it all out of my system.”
She shoved at his shirt, not caring if she ruined it or not. She just needed to feel more of him. Her fingers traced over the expanse of his stomach and caught all the dips of hard muscle. Up and up, she explored, pressing her palms against his chest and dragging her nails down again.
His control snapped with a primal growl and the nice man willing to make sure she got home safe disappeared. Fucking finally.
“Is this what you want?” He swung her around, planting her hands against his truck. His body pinned her in place and he made quick work of skimming fingers up her shirt and unsnapping her bra. Becca threw her head back and groaned when he cupped her breasts and thumbed her already hard nipples.
“Yes,” she panted. “Yes.”
It was the only word that came to her mind and pressed past her lips. Yes. His hips ground against her and she throbbed in anticipation. He was huge, and more importantly, he knew how to make her come. Only man she’d gotten off with. She’d had to take care of herself too often since leaving Bearden.
“Yes,” she groaned louder.
Nolan dropped the tailgate of his truck and set her there, stepping between her thighs. As much as he liked her helpless under him, he wanted to watch her face. Needed to see everything play out over her features.
The heat of her nearly made his eyes cross. He struggled not to rip her jeans down her legs and sheath himself inside her. How many times had he imagined that over the years? None of those stray thoughts came anywhere close to the feel of her in his arms again.
He thought he could keep steady without her. He held on to some semblance of sanity for years without her around. The moment she turned back up, though, he was lost.
When Callum and Cole found their mates, both men sank into a blissful ease that he wasn’t sure they were even aware of. Something slid into place one day, and they were better men for it. Watching it happen was like feeling a stake slowly sinking into his heart.
He had a chance at that happiness and he fucked it up.
Becca dragged her nails down his arms and centered him back in reality. She was warm and real. No hallucination. No dream. He wanted to be the man she needed. He had to prove to her, somehow, that they belonged together. There was no changing the past but they could still make a future.
He buried his face in the crook of her neck and sucked at her skin. It wasn’t the mark, but it was a mark. And his cock strained against his jeans to see it blossom on her flesh.
He squeezed her thigh and rolled his hips into her again. “Want me to fuck you right here, sweetheart? Slide in deep and make you scream?”
Her stifled moan was fucking music to his ears.
He kissed her again, tasting the dark flavors of the beer she’d been drinking like water. Underneath was her. Dusky and delicious and better than he remembered. It made his head swim.
“Ten years,” he murmured against her lips. He felt drunk on lust. He hadn’t touched another woman like this since she left and his body was ready to make up for lost time. “Ten years without my mate.”
She shoved at him, but he didn’t let her loose. “I’m not your mate,” she spat. Fire burned in her eyes and fury made her scent prickly. “You never claimed me.”
Nolan narrowed his eyes and growled. “You think my fucking bear cares about that? Or your fox? You left me.”
“There was no one to leave. You made sure of that when you weren’t around when I—” The words died on her tongue. She would never admit to needing him again.
Too fucking bad for her. She needed him as much as he needed her. They belonged together. She was back in Bearden and she would be back in his life. This mess she’d thrown them into was proof that she craved him.
He wrapped a hand in her hair again and tugged her head to the side. His lips moved against her neck. “You think you can put me out with the trash, sweetheart? You’ll never be done with me.”
Her heart kicked up its beat. Her skin pounded under his lips. His bear roared at him. Bite. Claim. Bind her so hard that she won’t ever imagine leaving them again.
He held back from sinking his fangs into her. Barely. She was all around him. Scent. Touch. He could taste her on his tongue and he wanted a lifetime of her.
He skimmed his hand up her shirt and palmed her breast. Despite her anger, she swallowed back a groan and arched into his touch. “I can smell how much you want me. Can taste it on your skin.”
She trembled and swallowed hard. Her throat worked to push the denial into the open. “Hate. One night hate fuck. That’s all this is.”
Nolan rolled her nipples between his fingers and watched her eyes slip closed. Fucking gorgeous. She’d hit all his buttons when they were young, and she’d only grown more beautiful. Aged into herself. It’d be so easy to go along with what she wanted.
“You can lie to yourself all you want, Becks. You belong to me.”
Her eyes snapped open and renewed fury bore into him.
Chapter 5
Seething with anger, Becca shoved Nolan’s hands out from under her shirt. She belonged to him? Hell to the no. He sacrificed any claim over her when he knocked her up and forgot about her.
“Don’t you ever say that to me again,” she hissed.
He cocked his head and his lips drew up in a smirk. There was that dimple she wanted to see earlier. Now she wanted it gone. She wanted him to hurt just as much as she did.
Two things happened then, and she wasn’t sure which came first: the noise or the pain.
A crack sounded in the night and fire burned in her shoulder. “Motherfuck!”
All cockiness faded from Nolan. Concern lined his features, and he fumbled her backward into the bed of his truck. His breath was hot against her throat, but all the heated desire had deflated from them both.
She wiggled against him but he slammed her back down. “Stay still!” he growled. “That was gunfire.”
She did as he
commanded and regretted it immediately. Not moving allowed her to notice the pain. She pressed her lips together and swallowed back the groan she wanted to let loose.
Nolan pressed his phone to his ear. One call, then another. She held on to as many details as she could through the haze of pain.
Police. Then his clan.
One breath. Then another. She clung to his words and fought to think through the hurt. She needed to manage it, not let it control her. Practice let her push it down so no one would notice.
“I smell blood. Were you hit?”
She jerked away from him when he tried to look at her arm. “Just a graze. Stop touching me,” she hissed.
Looking as if she’d slapped him, Nolan jumped out of his truck at the first sound of feet approaching.
Becca popped her head above the sides of the bed. Strathorns and a few off-duty cops streamed their way. Just what she needed to end an already horrific night.
She winced as she snapped her bra back together and smoothed down her shirt. They were caught in the bed of his truck but that didn’t mean she needed to look like he’d mauled her. The town was always searching for new rumors to cling to and she didn’t aim to be the next one.
Leah was there, and Rylee. Sawyer. Gray. Hudson. Cole, Callum. Other faces she recognized but were all a blur of confusion and concern. Her head swam, not only from the pain she tried to ignore but the questions lobbed at her and Nolan.
Nolan stepped in front of her and blocked her view. The off-duty cops flanked him and pushed the crowd back. “Judah is on the way. Give us some space, will you?”
Flashing red and blue lights caught her attention. A brief flicker of panic seized her heart before she brushed it to the side. There was no reason for fear. The worst had already happened.
The officers inside the cruiser beeped their horn to urge bystanders out of the way. Leah yelled something at them and crowded most of them back inside the bar. Too many faces watched from windows or from spots where they pressed against the building.
Judah Hawkins, Chief of Bearden Police stepped out of the first cruiser. There was a time when he was her mortal enemy. He made it his mission to play her personal truancy officer.