by Cecilia Lane
A dark-haired man stood outside. He braced himself against the edges of the door. From what little she could see, he was naked.
He ran his tongue over his lower lip and stared straight into the peephole like he knew she was there. “Will you open up?”
Meghan shook her head then realized he wouldn’t see. “No,” she whispered.
The man blew out of breath and dropped his head between his shoulders. “That’s fair,” he said. “Could you at least throw me a towel?”
The request seemed so ridiculous that she asked, “A towel?”
“Yeah. Fluffy thing. Used to dry off after a shower? Listen, lady, the nearest change of clothes is half a block away and I... can’t leave you. You don’t need to let me in, just pass it through the door.”
Feeling like she was slowly losing her mind, Meghan padded into the bathroom to retrieve a towel. She cracked open the door and he straightened. His arms fell away from the door frame and she bravely opened the door wider.
Blue eyes pierced her. He was easily six feet tall. Dark scruff covered his cheeks and made him look a little wild. He flashed her a winning smile as he took the towel. Strong arms flexed as he wrapped it around his waist. She averted her gaze but not before she got a good idea of what he looked like without clothes. Her body warmed at the sight.
His eyes darkened and dipped down her frame. “You still have tape around your wrists. Here, let me.” He reached for her hands and hesitated an inch away from her.
Heat radiated off his skin. His eyes captured hers again when he completed the connection. He tore the tape with surprising ease.
The breath rushed from her lungs the moment his skin touched hers. She wanted to melt into him. His wide chest and even broader shoulders were the perfect resting place for her head and arms. His stomach rippled with each inhale and accentuated the vast number of muscles she found hard to look away from.
It must have been shock. Hers wasn’t a natural response to want to press closer to him after being so rudely taken from her bedroom.
“Did you call the cops?” he asked in a low voice that tickled the back of her neck and curled around her spine.
She nodded.
“Do you know who they were?” He jerked his chin and it was then that she saw the still bodies.
Her eyes went wide and she lightly ringed throat with her hands. “Are they... are they dead?”
“No,” he growled. “But they should be for taking a woman against her will.”
Her breath caught in her throat. The casual ease that he mentioned murder shocked her. She squeaked and stepped back into her room to put the door between them again.
Realization plowed over her shock and took hold in her brain. There was only one reason for a naked man appearing at her door. He was the bear. He fought off her attackers.
A shifter. The first she’d met. No, that was unlikely. She was in a town full of them. The owner of the bed-and-breakfast probably added to their number. But he was the first that she’d seen in his animal form.
That wasn’t all she’d seen.
Meghan tried to work moisture into her suddenly dry mouth. No wonder Bentley was so worked up over them. The man had taken out an entire Seal Team that wanted to abduct her and hardly broke a sweat.
She’d been saved by a bear. A bear that turned into a very big, very naked man. That sort of thing just didn’t happen to women like her. She was supposed to be anonymous, but someone knew enough to find her and that man, that naked man, was there to save her. He didn’t even know her and he put himself on the line to rescue her.
It was hard to focus on anything but the large span of muscles and his very blue eyes.
“The cops will be here any minute,” he called to her. “Put some pants on.”
Meghan looked down and groaned when she caught sight of her bare legs. Her entire body flushed when she heard the man chuckling.
Chapter 4
Fuck. The word repeated itself in Gray’s head. It rang loudly between his ears and vibrated all through his chest. There was no peace from the harsh syllables.
No peace from his bear, either. The beast growled every time his eyes fell over the still figures of the abductors. Those men—assholes—tried to take an innocent woman from her bedroom. In his town, in his enclave, they tried to snatch somebody. He couldn’t let that shady shit fly.
They were lucky to be alive. He’d been disoriented when awareness of his shift kicked in. The first scent of that woman drove his animal wild. The stench of her fear pushed back his rage. It was enough to keep him from ripping into the attackers, but not enough to keep from giving them the ass whooping they deserved.
The real shock, the one that sank deep into his bones, was her. The tang of her on his tongue was something he never imagined he’d experience. He knew he should leave and let the Bearden cops sort everything out. He needed to avoid scrutiny now that he was on the SEA registration list. But he couldn’t leave her.
He pressed his nose to the crack of the door and inhaled. His head swam and his cock twitched. There was no stepping away from the tiny suite at the edge of Muriel’s property. Not when his mate stood inside. Not when he’d just defended her. Instinct to protect wouldn’t let him move.
He didn’t know how long he stayed wedged with his nose to the wood, desperate to catch any hint of her scent. It was clean. Light. Like a spring day. Full of life and promise. It was the exact opposite of what he could offer her.
Lights flashing red and blue across the door spun him around. Gray squinted into the headlights and tried to make out the figures approaching him. The lead pointed at the bodies next to the van and a small swarm of people crawled over the scene.
The man approached again and Gray recognized him. Judah Hawkins, Chief of Police. And right on his heels was Callum Strathorn, his alpha.
Because having one power tripping male called on him wasn’t enough.
Fuck.
“Lovely night, fellas,” he tried to make light.
“Heard there was some trouble when Judah called for someone else to bust up a bar fight,” Callum said.
“What happened here, Gray?” Judah asked.
He slid his eyes to his alpha, who nodded. “I was out on a run and I heard some shouts. Came around the corner and I saw these fuckers carting off a woman, so I took care of them while she ran back into the suite.”
Judah glanced over his shoulder to his men. “Well, they aren’t dead. You have that going for you. She’s still in there?”
“Unless she snuck out her window. She was kind enough to lend me a towel. I’d appreciate it if you don’t go barging in there and scaring her.”
Judah gave him a sharp look. “We’ll do our best.”
He made to step around Gray but he stopped him with a hand on his chest. His bear pushed against his insides. He didn’t want anyone alone with her. It was instinct to keep himself between her door and everyone else.
Judah’s eyes narrowed and a growl leaked from his throat that Gray matched. “I’m not going to frighten her, Graham. What’s best for both of you right now is to let me do my job.” He shifted his eyes to Callum. “Take him to the cruisers and keep him there. Have one of the boys dig out some spare clothes from the trunk.”
Callum pressed his mouth into a firm line and nodded. Before his alpha could make him move, a ripple of unease went through the cops. Gray turned and saw what caused their displeasure. A patrol car just like the one used by the Bearden Police Department pulled to a stop next to all the others. Instead of the green and black BPD logo, solid black letters proclaiming the SEA covered the side.
Gray shut his eyes. The night just got better.
“Motherfucker,” Judah cursed and started towards the car.
The SEA agent and Judah conferred off to the side. The officers kept at their duty of checking the attackers’ injuries and securing them but their focus was on their police chief. The agent pushed past Judah and stalked over to the rest of the officers.
“What happened here?” he demanded.
Judah looked like he wanted to chew rocks. “Sir, as I explained, these men tried to abduct one of our guests. Someone in town happened to see this and put a stop to it.”
“And the man responsible for their condition? The so-called abductee? Where are they? Why are they not being questioned?”
“We only just arrived,” Judith said between clenched teeth. “If you’ll allow us to get on with our jobs?”
The man looked out over the crowd. A couple of the attackers were starting to come to and struggled against the officers restraining them. Officers without their hands full returned the look with contempt. Then he focused on Gray.
“You the one that laid these men out?” he barked.
Human. Gray could smell it from across the courtyard. The patch on his chest read Haskell. He wasn’t nearly as pleasant as Agent Beasley, and it looked like he wanted to prove something of himself. His eyes were a little too wide, but everything else was normal. His heart hadn’t picked up pace and no fear entered his scent. He was the type of man that wanted to prove how big his dick was.
Fucking hell. Just what they didn’t need.
Callum tried to slip between them. “Sir, the way he tells it he was doing her a favor.”
The agent stood his ground. “That’s for me to determine. Hawkins, take me to the woman.”
Gray’s bear surged to the front of his mind and he snarled. No one should go near her! Especially not some SEA asshole.
His hands tightened to hold back his claws. All he wanted to do was tear into the man. Callum’s hands on his chest and the roll of alpha power kept him to his skin.
“Don’t you fucking shift,” Callum said in a low voice. “I forbid you from shifting.”
It was as good as silver locking around his wrists. His bear sank down under Callum’s power. He was alpha. His word was law.
And at that moment, challenging him for the title didn’t seem like insanity. It seemed necessary to protect his mate.
Gray fought back his inner animal’s urges and let himself be led away from the door. He blindly pulled on loose sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt with the BPD logo. To give him something to do, he folded and re-folded the towel. It hardly even smelled like her, but she gave it to him. That made it special.
He knew the moment she stepped out of the suite. Her scent hit the air and everything in the world just stopped. She’d thrown on jeans like he suggested, and a less revealing shirt. Good, too, because his bear would tear everyone a new asshole for looking at her.
Pity, though. He liked looking at her legs. She had curves in all the right places and he ached to lick between the swell of her thighs.
“She your mate, Gray?” Callum asked, drawing Gray out of his dirty ideas. He leaned against the hood of Judah’s car and watched the scene with him.
Gray dipped his chin to his chest. He wasn’t denying it. He wouldn’t fight it. Three members of his clan fought against their instincts and they still ended up tiptoeing through the tulips in happiness. Better to accept it now and then work on internalizing the danger he posed to her.
“Thought so. You’re looking at her like a lovesick puppy and you needed a direct order to walk away.”
He didn’t say anything. The news was as fresh to him as it was to his alpha. Last he knew, he was heading to bed and hoping he’d keep to his skin the entire night. He never imagined he’d wake in the middle of a fight and have the scent of his mate in his nose.
But that was life, wasn’t it? Full of big fucking surprises when you least needed them.
“Were you really out on a run or did your bear have control?” Callum asked softly.
He thought briefly of dodging the question. Callum knew. His question was too pointed and he’d just scent the lie. “How did you know?”
Callum rubbed a hand over his head. “You’re in my clan, Gray. I can feel when any one of you is bad off. And you’ve been exhausted for months. When did it start?”
“The night the military came for us. It didn’t use to be so bad. Once or twice a month. Now I’m shifting in my sleep a couple times a week.”
Agent Haskell and Judah both asked questions and took notes. If he listened hard enough he could probably hear what she said. He didn’t think he’d survive if he heard her say how he terrified her.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her, though. She was average height, which meant she barely reached his shoulders. Dark hair brushed just past the base of her neck and she regularly tucked long bangs to the side of her face. He couldn’t see her eyes from this distance, but he knew they were grey from when she opened the door and he was close enough to kiss her.
Callum let out a long whistle. “Think on it before you drag her into all this. What happens here tonight might not go your way. You were doing what needed to be done, but you’re registered now. They’re going to come down hard on you.”
“You think I don’t know that?” He clenched his fists behind his back.
“And that’s Meghan Wilcox. The Meghan Wilcox. She’s high-profile trouble. For you, for the clan, for the entire enclave. One word from her and it could derail the entire movement for our rights.”
“I know,” Gray said between gritted teeth. He didn’t need the reminder of the threat of his registration. He went into it with his eyes wide open.
Her name was something else, though. He vaguely remembered her show. Tawny used to watch it. Family something or other. Bearden’s first celebrity, no matter how small, could make a name for herself dragging the enclave through the mud. He didn’t think she was the sort of woman to do that. She had kind eyes.
Not that it mattered. “She’s safer away from me. We’re all safer away from me.”
Callum fixed a no-nonsense glare on his face and crossed his arms over his chest. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means I’m a mess. Just look at what I did. What I could have done. I could have hurt her.” He grimaced. A wave of nausea ran through him. He wasn’t in control of his bear during the sleep shifts. If she hadn’t been his mate, or something else hadn’t snapped him out of his animalistic rage… He hated to imagine how red the grass could have been.
“Don’t worry, I won’t say anything like that to the SEA,” he assured his alpha. “Get out of here. I think I still have to answer questions.”
Callum shook his head. “I think I’ll stick around. We can go on a run and I’ll even tuck you into bed after.”
“I don’t need babysitting.”
“You do. And that’s what I’m here for.” He grabbed Gray roughly around the neck and rubbed his knuckles over his hair. “Now shut the fuck up so we can fix you.”
Chapter 5
Meghan crossed the town square and kept an eye open for one person in particular. She wanted to thank the man who saved her the night before. Both the SEA agent and the Bearden Chief of Police assured her action would be taken against her abductors, but the man responsible for foiling the plot had been whisked away without a word. It seemed to rankle Agent Haskell that she wanted to keep the incident quiet and wouldn’t make any complaints against the shifter. Haskell didn’t need to know she had family that would swoop in and make the situation worse.
But the man who saved her, he was at the forefront of her mind. He hadn’t left all night. Physically, yes. Mentally, he was like a bad pickup line running through her head. He must’ve been exhausted.
She owed him a debt. She tried to weasel his name out of Chief Hawkins, but he was suspiciously silent. She thought she heard someone refer to him as Gray but she wasn’t sure. So she trudged through what was considered lunch rush in the small town in search of coffee, food, and a man to thank.
Her mind ran wild with the possibilities of what could have happened if the shifter hadn’t shown up. She joined a small group of townsfolk crossing the street and barely noticed a sports car merging behind a couple big trucks. The firehouse loomed on one side of the street but her
destination was firmly locked on the coffee shop with the jailhouse logo. Mug Shot. She liked the name. It’d fit right in with the shops that seemed to pop up all over her city.
The sports car pulled to a stop in the middle of the street with a loud honk. The window rolled down and Bentley’s smug face sneered at her. “Get inside,” he ordered. “We have a flight to catch.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you.” She turned up her nose and continued on her way. She would not show him any other emotion, no matter how much her stomach churned or shock wanted to color her cheeks.
The engine revved and tires screeched again as he illegally crossed into the other lane to reach the curb on her side of the street. She picked up her pace when she heard the door open and then slam.
Bentley grabbed her wrist and spun her around. He tried to drag her toward the car. “You’re coming home.” He said in a tight voice that left no argument.
Meghan jerked her hand away and put feet between them. His orders might have worked in a boardroom, but she wasn’t his property or employee to command. “I’m not going with you,” she said in a louder voice.
He’d found her. She thought he’d leave her alone once it was clear that she wasn’t going to marry him. She never expected him to track her down and demand she go anywhere with him. It was beyond rude and crossing into obsessive. Her gut told her to avoid the interior of his car at all costs. It was as visceral a reaction as the one she had to the van the night before.
Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of a man crossing the street from the firehouse. Her rescuer. Anger twisted his features just as much as Bentley’s. More people on the street were stopping to notice them, too.
Bentley shook his head slightly and his eyes took on a light of renewed anger. He opened his mouth to say something else but was cut off by two beeps of a police siren.
She’d never been more thankful to see an officer of the law than that moment. Chief Hawkins stepped halfway out of his vehicle. “Is there a problem here, ma’am?” he called to her.