by Roxie Noir
Through the window, she could see a couple dozen people standing around, interspersed with coolers and a couple of charcoal grills fired up at regular intervals. There was a row of trucks and SUVs, and Hunter pulled in alongside them, his dirty old Ford matching perfectly.
Cora felt her stomach twist again. Here she was, meeting half the population of her new town on a first date.
What if it doesn’t work out with them? She worried. I can barely date one man, let alone two shifters.
Almost like he could read her mind, Ash leaned between the two front seats and gave her arm a reassuring squeeze.
“Just relax and try to have a good time,” he said. “This is what we do for fun in Granite Valley, after all.”
Cora couldn’t help but smile.
“Let’s go,” Ash said. “My legs are cramping back here.”
As the three of them walked toward the bonfire, Hunter made a beeline for the nearest cooler and came back with three cans of beer. One by one, he cracked them and handed one to Cora and one to Ash, then popped the last one himself.
“Cheers,” he said, smiling. “Hillbilly champagne.”
Cora took a sip. It was just Budweiser, which she normally didn’t drink — she was more of a red wine person, to be honest — but it tasted exactly right for the occasion, a bonfire in the middle of the woods.
She took another couple of gulps, and felt a little braver.
Everywhere she looked, there were shifters, and they all looked a little like Ash and Hunter, at least six feet tall and built like linebackers.
Cora found herself wondering why on earth single women from the rest of the country hadn’t descended on Cascadia like a bunch of ravenous man-eating zombies. There were so many smoking hot men here.
From across the fire, she watched a tall dark-haired man in a button-down shirt and tie slowly kiss a guy with dirty-blond hair, huge muscles, and a Harley Davidson t-shirt. Even though they were surrounded by other people, they seemed like they were off in their own world, eyes closed, tongues moving slowly.
Stop staring, Cora thought.
“Hamburger or hot dog?” said Hunter’s voice behind her, and Cora spun, sloshing her beer inside its can. She could feel the heat rise to her cheeks at having been caught staring at two men making out.
“Hamburger,” she said, clearing her throat. “Please.”
He handed her a plate, piled high with a burger with all the fixings and a side of chips. “The Cora special.”
He led her over to a blanket on the grass, where Ash was already chowing down on a burger of his own, another one on a plate in front of him.
Ash saw her looking, and swallowed a mouthful.
“Shifters have high metabolisms,” he explained, looking down at the food. “We tend to eat a lot.”
“Just bears, or all shifters?” Cora asked. She took a bite of her own burger and washed it down with another gulp of beer. Her first one was nearly empty.
“All, I think,” Ash said. “To be honest, I don’t know a lot about most shifters.”
“Don’t they all live in Cascadia, though?”
For a moment, Ash looked a little uneasy, and he exchanged a glance with Hunter.
“Most shifter species sort of keep to themselves,” he said.
Cora frowned. “How come?”
He shrugged, and she could tell he was trying to act casual about it, but he didn’t quite succeed.
“It’s just the way things have been for a long time,” he said. “Granite Valley is a bear town, Long Prairie is wolves, Canyon City is lions.”
“Eagle’s Roost is hawks, ironically,” said Hunter.
“Coyotes aren’t really town animals,” Ash went on. “They tend to live on rural homesteads, scattered around.”
She saw Ash and Hunter exchange a look, and suddenly wondered whether she was being nosy.
“Sorry,” she said. “I’m just curious. Most humans don’t really meet a lot of shifters.”
Ash chuckled, the rumble starting deep inside his chest. It was a comforting, warm sound.
“It’s all right,” he said. “We just don’t explain this stuff to humans that often, I guess.”
“It’s not that we don’t interact,” Hunter interjected again. “One of my biggest clients at the clinic is a lion who runs a sanctuary for stray cats,” he said. “Nice guy. A little aloof, but nice.”
“Well, he’s a lion,” Ash said, his mouth partly full. “Of course he’s aloof.”
Cora drained her beer, staring into the bonfire and thinking.
Shifters are really just like people, she thought.
As if by magic, another beer, ready and open, appeared in front of her, and Cora laughed.
“You’re trying to get me drunk,” she said.
Hunter raised his eyebrows in a half-smirk.
“Only if you’re a two-drink drunk,” he said.
Cora took two long gulps from the can.
“So what if I am,” she said. “I can trust you two, right?”
She winked.
I can’t believe I just did that, she thought, but before anything happened, Ash spoke up.
“Don’t look now,” he said to Hunter. “But your cousin Julius is on the warpath again.”
Hunter cracked himself another beer and rolled his eyes.
Cora watched as the tall, dark-haired man in the button down shirt walked toward them.
“I wish he would chill out, just for once,” he said. “He can be so self-righteous.”
Cora and Ash said nothing.
Hunter sighed.
“He’s standing behind me right now, isn’t he,” Hunter said.
“Yup,” said Ash, sounding slightly satisfied about it. Hunter made a face at him, and then all three of them stood.
“Julius,” said Hunter. “How are you?”
“Feeling pretty self-righteous, Hunter,” he said. He had a deep voice that boomed out of his broad chest.
I bet he can really command a room, thought Cora. I’d listen to him read the phone book.
Hunter very carefully didn’t make a facial expression, but the corners of Ash’s mouth twitched, like he was trying not to smile.
“So you’re not interested in joining my telethon campaign to call voters in Iowa and urge them to support triad marriage rights?”
Julius’s looked dead serious, and for a second, Hunter looked at his cousin with panic on his face.
Then Julius laughed.
“Just kidding,” he said. “I wouldn’t put you on the phone with anyone, not in a million years.”
Hunter shot him a quick glare, but Cora could tell he didn’t mean it.
“Right,” Hunter muttered. “Anyway, Julius, this is Cora. She just moved to town.”
Both of Julius’s eyebrows shot up, and his glance flicked from Ash to Hunter to Cora as he offered her his hand.
“Yes, we’re on a date,” Ash said.
“Welcome to Granite Valley,” Julius said. He sounded very official, all of a sudden, and Cora’s hand was almost completely enveloped in his. He didn’t squeeze hard, but she could tell that if he wanted to, he could easily break every bone in her hand.
“Thanks,” said Cora.
“What brings you here?”
“I got a job at Alpha Advertising, in town,” she said.
Her hand was still in his, and both Ash and Hunter were starting to glare at Julius.
“Ah, I know the founder,” Julius said pleasantly. It was obvious that he’d noticed Ash and Hunter glaring, but was enjoying getting on the two men’s nerves. “He’s a good man. You’re a copywriter?”
“Well, I’m a reporter by trade, but I had to—” Cora stopped short, remembering that she had sort of omitted the truth about why she was in Cascadia.
“I had to try something else for a change,” she said, hoping that she sounded smooth.
Julius nodded.
A very low, very faint growl sounded in Ash’s throat, and Julius finally let he
r go.
“Glad to see some new faces around,” he said. “I ought to go make sure that Hudson isn’t getting talked into a keg stand again.”
“I don’t think anyone’s ever had to talk Hudson into doing a keg stand,” Ash said.
Cora wondered if Hudson was the man in the Harley Davidson t-shirt that Julius had been kissing earlier.
Probably, she decided.
Julius just laughed.
“Nice to meet you, Cora,” he said, and then walked away.
“He’s my older cousin on my dad’s sister’s side,” said Hunter. “He grew up next door to me, so we’re practically siblings. He can be a pain in the ass.”
“Hunter’s related to at least half the people here,” Ash said.
“It’s true,” Hunter said.
“There’s his other cousin,” Ash said, pointing to a couple standing almost in the woods, nearly out of the firelight. “That’s Kade. His papa’s sister’s kid.”
“Kade’s here?” Hunter asked.
“That’s him, isn’t it?”
Kade had a military haircut, camouflage pants, and had his arms crossed in front of his chest. He stood alone, looking very serious.
“That’s Kade all right,” said Hunter. “Daniel must have dragged him out of the woods.”
“What’s his deal?”
Ash and Hunter exchanged a look.
“Kade has a very specialized job,” Hunter explained. “It’s kind of complicated to explain right now.”
“Specialized how?” Cora asked, her interest piqued.
“It’s shifter-specific,” Hunter said.
Cora just waited for him to go on.
“He makes sure other shifters follow the rules,” Ash rumbled. “He and his mate Daniel live alone way, way out in the wild, basically off the grid.”
Cora nodded.
Then another man walked over to Kade. He was tall and a little thinner than most of the bear shifters there — but still considerably larger than most human men.
Hunter whistled low.
“My cousin Austin’s here,” he said. “Is it a full moon or something?”
“He sure is,” said Ash. “Huh. Think he found a mate?”
The two of them watched Austin closely. Cora took another few sips of her beer, enjoying the shifter gossip.
“Doesn’t look like it,” Hunter concluded.
“Why doesn’t he have a mate?” Cora stage-whispered. “Does everyone else have a mate?”
She was beginning to feel pretty tipsy.
“He’s always been kind of quiet and strange,” Hunter said, shrugging. “Not Kade strange, but a little different.”
“You know my theory,” said Ash. “I think he’s got a mate he won’t let the rest of your family meet because you’d embarrass him.”
Hunter punched Ash in the arm. It sounded to Cora like it hurt, but Ash just laughed.
“Everyone mates at their own pace,” Hunter told Cora. “We don’t like to rush people.”
“Maybe you don’t,” said Ash. “But you know his mom asks him when he’s going to give her grandkids every day.”
“Whose doesn’t?” Hunter muttered.
Before either Ash or Cora could respond, a boombox across the field started blaring music. Cora finished the rest of her beer, tossed the can on the blanket, and grabbed both Ash and Hunter’s hands.
“Stop gossiping like a couple of old biddies and come dance with me,” she insisted.
She was definitely feeling the beers now.
9
Ash
Ash hated dancing. He was a terrible dancer, and he knew that he looked like an even worse dancer next to Hunter, who seemed to have an innate talent for moving his body to the music, like it was something he was born to do.
On the other hand, dancing just made Ash feel like an out-of-sync collection of body parts. Just when he got his feet moving right, he’d realize that he was just waving his arms around, totally out of time to the beat. By the time he got that sorted out, his feet were back to tapping completely out of rhythm and then he’d discover that, somewhere in the confusion, he’d added a weird head-nod as well.
All this flashed through his mind as Cora determinedly dragged him and Hunter toward the area where the boombox blared a country song, something twangy with a heavy beat. A few people were already dancing, beers in hand. For now, they were just swaying together, teasing, but Ash knew how shifters were. In an hour everyone out there would be sweaty, bodies rubbing together, and after that, there’d be the sounds of frenzied mating from the woods.
He watched Cora’s perfect bubble ass as she walked in front of him, his left hand still in her right, and thought of her dancing, her back to him, moving with the beat, her arms thrown around Hunter’s neck, the three of them moving in perfect time...
Ash went hard immediately.
Fuck, he thought. Think about... paperwork. All those forms you’ve got back at the station that need filling out.
He thought again about Cora, her body writhing to the music. Even if Ash was a terrible dancer, he’d love to see her and Hunter get down, their bodies moving as one.
Fuck!
Paperwork, he told himself sternly. Paperwork. Paperwork.
Then they were at the edge of the dancing area and Cora turned around. Her face was flushed slightly pink, but her body heat just made her scent stronger and even more tantalizing.
“What are you frowning about?” she said to Ash.
He rearranged his face.
“I wasn’t frowning,” he said.
Hunter slid behind Cora, taking her hips gently in his hands, and started dancing with her.
“That’s his thinking face,” Hunter said into Cora’s ear. “He’s thinking about how he doesn’t like to dance.”
Cora pouted and reached one hand toward Ash.
“Come on,” she said. “Dance with us. Don’t be a spoilsport.”
Hunter’s fingers moved around her hips, digging into her flesh just a little, through her skirt, as Ash’s mate pressed himself against Cora.
She leaned her head back against Hunter’s shoulder, exposing the long white expanse of her throat, leading down into her cleavage.
She did have a birthmark on her neck.
Her hips moved back and forth in a mesmerizing rhythm, and watching the two of them woke something deep and primal inside Ash.
They were his. Both of them.
And by God, he was going to dance with them.
There she was, leaning lazily against Hunter, wiggling her hips, one finger pointing at Ash and then making that suggestive come hither motion.
Ash felt like he was a fish getting reeled in, completely helpless against his desire. His feet moved of their own volition, five steps across the makeshift dance floor, and then he had his hands on Cora’s little waist, doing his best to match their rhythm.
She smiled up at him lazily, looking at Ash through her eyelashes.
“Thanks for joining us,” she teased, placing her hands softly on his forearms.
Ash’s whole body felt charged and ready, like he could go off at any moment.
“Relax,” Cora said.
She put her hands on his trunk and pulled him closer, until their hips were touching as well.
He went rock-hard instantly, despite trying not to.
When was the last time I couldn’t control myself? He wondered, letting his eyes drift closed. This way he could smell everything. There was her, most of all, her overpowering scent that was half vanilla, half musk with overtones of — Ash sniffed the air again, and there it was — definite overtones of arousal.
His erection stiffened again, pressed firmly against Cora. Now she was moving in a slightly different way, more front-to-back than side to side, and it was all he could do to keep up.
He could also smell Hunter, who always smelled slightly of clean fur, a bit like the disinfectant from the clinic, but mostly like the fresh smell of the forest after a hard rain.
>
And when their scents mingled, it felt like the top of Ash’s head might just blow off.
“Hey,” said Hunter’s voice. “Earth to Ash.”
Ash opened his eyes, and realized that he was dancing to a completely different beat from everyone else at the bonfire. He tried to adjust, but only made things worse.
Cora laughed.
“Two left feet?” she asked.
Ash just sighed and nodded, taking a step toward the edge of the dance area. Thirty feet away, the fire blazed, casting shifting shadows over all the dancers.
“You guys want another beer?” he asked, jerking his thumb toward one of the many coolers.
“No,” said Cora.
Ash shrugged.
“No, I mean, no you can’t leave and get a beer,” she said. She caught up to him, took both his hands in hers, and led him back.
The song on the boombox changed to something slow and bass-heavy, and a mood change came over everyone dancing.
A moment ago, they’d been having fun, but the new song dripped like honey through the speakers and everyone on the dance floor got closer to each other, couples and triads closing the space between them.
Despite the cool night, Ash started to sweat.
“It’s not hard,” Cora said.
She stepped up to him again and put his hands on her hips, already swaying in time with the music, slow and sensual.
“Just follow my lead,” she said, letting one arm curl around his neck. “Left, right, left...”
With each instruction she moved her hips to that side and Ash followed her with his hands. He felt overwhelmed with the nearness of this beautiful firecracker who’d just rushed into his life.
“Focus,” she said, reprimanding him when he missed the beat again. “Move your feet a little. Loosen up.”
She pressed herself against him again, one arm around his neck, the other slowly making its way up his arm. Cora bit her lip and followed the progress of her hand with her eyes. Beyond her, he could see Hunter, standing at the edge of the dance area, watching the two of them.
The hunger was obvious in his mate’s eyes — almost as obvious his erection.
“Oh, Ash,” said Cora’s voice, somewhere around his chest. “Pay attention!”
He realized he’d gotten off the beat again, and Ash growled. He didn’t even want to be dancing right now — he wanted to grab Cora and Hunter and drag them off into the woods.