by Zoe Chant
His hand was warm and dry, and something sparked when they touched. Static, probably. Pauline tried not to jump.
“I’m Carlos,” he said.
“Very nice to meet you,” she managed. “Are you in town visiting friends?”
“Sort of,” he said, which didn’t quite make sense. But Pauline wasn’t about to make this any more awkward by interrogating him while they were introducing themselves.
“Carlos is an old friend of ours from the Marines,” Lynn’s mate Ken put in from behind her. She was momentarily startled—she’d forgotten there was anyone there but the two of them. “He’s been in New York City all these years, but we’ve finally tempted him to come check out the countryside.”
“Well, I hope you have a lovely time here,” she got out, without stammering or dropping anything or even blushing any more.
Oh, but she was now standing between him and his seat at the booth. Great job, Pauline. He probably just wants to eat dinner, but he can’t while you’re in the way.
Hastily, she stepped aside, and addressed the whole table. “Can I get everyone started with some drinks?”
Stella’s were the only eyes she felt comfortable meeting after that stunning display of ineptitude. The other woman was giving her the most inscrutable look, though. Pauline couldn’t tell what that expression meant.
“Just water for me,” Stella said after a long moment, which prompted the rest of the table to put their orders in.
Carlos slid back into his seat, again with an ease that seemed unlikely, given his size. He didn’t look like he was squeezing himself in at all—more like the space just magically became comfortable for him.
Pauline took all of their drink orders with careful attention, digging her pen into her notepad, forming each letter like it was a message for the President. When Carlos’ turn came, he said, “Water for me, too, thanks.”
How could those five innocuous words—words she heard every day, from all sorts of people—hit her right in the chest like that? His voice wasn’t even loud. Though it was incredibly deep, every word he’d said so far had been quiet.
But they’d all struck as deeply as if he’d shouted.
“Coming right up,” she said, her voice as steady as she could make it, and speedwalked away from the table.
Once out of sight of the customers, she leaned back against the wall and took a deep, shuddery breath.
What had that been?
She’d never had that kind of visceral reaction to a man before in her life. Heck, she’d been married, and her husband’s voice hadn’t ever thrilled her deep in the pit of her stomach like that.
And what was she even doing, paying attention to a handsome man while Drew and Troy and Val were in trouble?
Maybe it was a defense mechanism. Her brain was fleeing all of the worry and anxiety she was suffering from, and it was doing it by focusing on the first pretty thing that she saw.
Well, she had to admit that it had made a good choice. Carlos was probably the most attractive man she’d laid eyes on in the last...she didn’t know how long.
But he was a customer, and he was only in town for a few days, and Pauline sure wasn’t the type of woman to have affairs with the tourist men who were always drifting in and out. That was the sort of thing that ended with regret if you were lucky.
So she was going to take a deep breath or two, get the drinks all ready, and keep herself under control for the rest of the evening. If her heart fluttered in her chest at the sight of that very handsome man, well, no one else needed to know, and it wouldn’t matter after tonight anyway.
Maybe it was good that she was distracted from Drew’s troubles. She couldn’t do anything while she was at work, and if this made the time pass more quickly, then that was all the sooner she’d be able to go home and think about what she could do to help those kids.
That was fine. A distraction. A temporary distraction.
***
Carlos
Carlos remembered Pauline the waitress from the last time he’d come to Glacier Park. She’d struck his attention then, although he couldn’t quite have said why—they hadn’t even spoken, really.
There was just something about her. The way her dark hair, streaked with silver, was pulled back into a no-nonsense braid, with little wisps escaping. The snap in her bright brown eyes. Her oh-so-feminine curves.
It was more than looks, though. Pauline came across as tough, strong, capable in a way that had nothing to do with boardrooms and hostile takeovers, and everything to do with working on her feet and with her hands, day in, day out.
But then she’d turned pink and gotten flustered when she dropped her pen, in a way that made Carlos want to catch her hands, maybe kiss that blush on her cheeks.
He wasn’t usually this captivated by a woman he’d hardly spoken to. It was strange.
Carlos wanted to ask her out, get to know her better. See if this attraction, this draw that he felt to her was based on anything real.
But she was already off-balance, it was clear. She’d been embarrassed—maybe because she felt a similar attraction?—and probably wouldn’t thank him for putting her on the spot at her job, in front of a ton of people.
He considered simply leaving his number on a napkin after they left, but he didn’t like that plan at all. It seemed cowardly, as though he was too intimidated by the idea of rejection to stick around and see what she said. And there was no guarantee that she’d actually see it.
No, he’d have to come back alone. Order a meal, leave a good tip, and only then ask her out, as he was leaving. So she wouldn’t feel pressured to say yes to a customer.
Satisfied with his plan, he settled back into his seat and smiled at Pauline when she returned with their drinks. She smiled back, her cheeks flushing a little once again, and then took their orders with strict professionalism, no more embarrassment to be seen.
Carlos really wanted to get to know her.
***
After they ate, Nate said, “So, ready to check out the local scenery?”
Carlos looked around. The sun was starting to set, lighting the mountains up with a gorgeous golden-orange glow. The rocky forests seemed to stretch out for eternity around the town.
“More than ready,” he said.
Stella and Lynn parted ways with them—wanting to get home, or politely giving the men time to catch up alone, Carlos wasn’t sure. But he was grateful for the chance.
He hadn’t shifted with anyone else in...well, if he didn’t count that time he and Nate fought off Stella’s ex’s wolf pack, it had been years.
And while that had been exhilarating, it hadn’t been fun, precisely.
Now, though, Ken was giving him that devil-may-care grin that Carlos remembered on a much younger face, years ago, and Nate was scouting ahead for a good spot far enough into the trees that no one would see them shifting.
Carlos rolled his shoulders, loosening up, ready to shift and run. He could feel his tiger riding close to the surface, eager to come out.
Too long asleep, it rumbled in his chest. Too long in bright lights, close spaces. Time to get out, run free.
Carlos couldn’t have agreed more.
Together, the three men walked into the forest, and when Nate nodded, judging them far enough, they shifted.
A tiger, a panther, and a lion padded forward together. Carlos remembered this feeling of invincibility from long ago—not even from their time overseas, because then there was always the awareness that a bomb could go off, a hail of bullets could appear.
But earlier, during training, when they were all cocky young idiots, a whole unit of shifters—the four of them, with Ty alongside, had been the largest, most dangerous animals in the unit. And when they all shifted together, it felt like they could take on the world and no one could stand in their way.
Well, they weren’t cocky young idiots anymore. But there was still a hint of that feeling as they flowed silently deeper into the forest, higher up the mountai
n.
The scents were mind-blowing. Animals that didn’t live out east, forest smells, decomposition and growth and rich life all around him. The masculine musk of a lion to his left, a panther to his right.
Carlos broke into a run, finally letting his tiger out to play. The built-up energy in his muscles seemed to explode into motion. Stealth was no longer a consideration as speed took over; he bounded through the trees until he reached a rocky outcropping. Without pausing to think, he crouched and leapt straight up to the top. Surveying the terrain, he took off once again.
He could hear the swift movement of the lion and the panther behind him, but his tiger only had eyes for what was ahead. Miles and miles of unexplored territory, of exciting prey and new things to smell—it was like waking up from a dream, and finding reality waiting for him.
Carlos felt like he could’ve run like this for hours, but tigers were sprinters rather than marathon runners. Eventually he slowed down, and Nate and Ken came up alongside him. Ken nudged Carlos’ shoulder and set off to the west, so Carlos followed along until they came to a series of wide, flat rocks in a high, open area where the setting sun slanted down, illuminating everything in warm orange light.
Ken flopped down on a rock, and Carlos followed suit. This was another thing he missed—lying out in his cat form, absorbing the sunlight and warmth as only felines really could. The fast-paced businessman’s life didn’t leave a lot of room for relaxed sunning.
They lazed for a while, and then, as the sun finally dipped down below the horizon, Nate stretched, yawned, and shifted back to human. Ken and Carlos followed suit.
“So what do you think of our forests?” Nate asked Carlos with a grin.
Ken snorted. “Our forests, he says. He’s lived here for all of a couple of months.”
“You haven’t been here much longer,” Nate answered mildly, “and you talk about these woods like you’ve lived here your entire life, and your grandparents before you.”
Ken waved a hand, acknowledging the point. Then he glanced at Carlos. “Well?”
“This place is something else,” Carlos said, heartfelt. “I can see why you guys like it here.”
“Well, it’s more than just the forest that keeps me here,” Ken said with a grin. “The fact that Lynn would hunt me down and kidnap me home if I left—”
“You love it.” Nate aimed a kick at Ken’s leg.
Ken kicked back. “Sure I do. Go for a woman who knows what she wants and doesn’t take any bullshit,” he advised Carlos. “It improves your life like you wouldn’t believe.”
“You don’t feel—held down?” Carlos asked tentatively.
He’d never pursued any kind of serious relationship, because he’d never wanted anything to get in the way of his goals. And he’d known that he wouldn’t be good for any woman, not with the way he’d always thrown himself into his work.
First deployed with the Marines, then working sixty-to-eighty-hour weeks in the cutthroat business world—he wouldn’t have made a good partner for anyone, and he’d never wanted to have to sacrifice his professional life for anything.
Ken, though, had a demanding job as an environmental scientist, a job that put him out in the field for days or even weeks at a time, and seemed like he was happy with his relationships.
Although they were mates. That must mean something—that Lynn was the right person to be in the situation with him. Didn’t it?
Ken shook his head decisively. “Lynn has her own life, her own job, and her own self. She doesn’t need to waste any time holding me down.” He grinned. “Unless I ask her to.”
Nate rolled his eyes. “I never thought I wanted a mate,” he told Carlos, his tone serious. “But what I didn’t realize was that having someone else to take care of, to think of, all the time—it opened my life up. Made it richer, rather than shrinking it down. Stella and Eva are my family, now, and that means that I’m ten times the man that I used to be—I’m a mate and a stepfather, a provider, a protector. I had no idea the change it was going to bring, but I’m grateful as hell for it all.”
“Same,” Ken said, in much more sober tones.
Opened my life up, made it richer.
Richer. That was a word that Carlos was extremely familiar with. But he’d never used it the way Nate was using it.
A richer life.
That was exactly what he wanted. Exactly what he’d come here looking for.
Would he find that if he found the right woman?
Suddenly, he wanted to try it and see.
***
Pauline
After Pauline got off work, she started making the rounds.
Marsha didn’t have many friends in town. But she had her usual haunts. The library, where she went to use the computers. The convenience store, where she slowly counted out pennies for baby shampoo or toilet paper.
She didn’t frequent any of the several dive bars in town. Pauline had never known her to drink heavily or use drugs at all. She just kept to her little routine, and it slowly, slowly ground her down.
Until she couldn’t do it anymore and...what? What had happened? Where was she now?
Pauline asked the librarian, the convenience store clerk, and anyone else she could think of if they’d seen Marsha recently—pretending she had something to give her, trying not to look too concerned, in case anyone started thinking about reporting her as missing.
Probably they wouldn’t. The large shifter population meant that this town had a long, treasured tradition of minding one’s own business. Unless you were part of a pack, and Marsha had been a lone wolf.
A lone wolf with three kids, who could’ve used a pack’s support system right about now. Maybe if Pauline had been a wolf...but neither of their mothers had been shifters. They’d gotten their shifting genes from their dads. And apart from the kids, Pauline had a hard time thinking of any wolves who weren’t really, really bad news. Most of them were the boys who’d been running with Stella’s stalker ex. She’d never heard a good word about them.
Speaking of Stella—
Pauline hesitated. Stella and Marsha had been friends, once. Back in high school. They’d been about the same age, while Pauline had been a few years ahead. And they’d been the same wild type, chafing against rules, wanting to get out and do something more interesting than small-town high school.
Maybe Stella had kept in touch. And her sister, Lynn, knew these woods better than anyone. And they were both shifters. If anyone might’ve gotten a hint of where Marsha had gone off to...
The problem was, Pauline realized, that she didn’t want to go over to Stella’s house and see her happy with her mate for the second time that day. Didn’t want to see her with her happy, healthy daughter, who was probably going to go to college next year, and didn’t have to worry about feeding herself or any siblings.
It was a combination of frustration and envy, and it did not reflect well on her, Pauline thought firmly. Stella had never done anything to her, and there was no reason to want to stay away from her.
She wondered if Carlos was staying at the house with them.
Well, that was just getting ridiculous. Pauline set her jaw and got in her car. She was going to go over to Stella’s house, sit down with her, and ask her about Marsha, and if any attractive men showed up, they were just going to have to wait until she was done talking about what really mattered.
***
“Marsha?” Stella frowned, thinking. “No, I haven’t seen her in a while. We don’t hang out anymore—haven’t in years, not since I left town when Eva was little. Her little boy was just Eva’s age, though...”
“They’re friends now,” Pauline confirmed. “I see them together at the diner sometimes.”
Stella’s eyebrows rose. “That’s Eva’s friend Drew? Marsha’s little boy, Andrew?” She shook her head slowly. “I had no idea.”
“Teenagers,” Lynn sighed. “Never tell you anything.”
Stella rolled her eyes. “Eva’s under no obligat
ion to tell me everything about her life. As long as she’s not getting into trouble or doing anything dangerous, she can keep things to herself if she wants to.”
Her sister grumbled something under her breath that Pauline suspected might have something to do with Stella’s own wild behavior as a teenager. Lynn was several years older and used to have a really tough time trying to keep Stella under control.
Now, though, they seemed closer, and happy about it. They were all three sitting in the front room at the old Davidson house, where Stella and Lynn both lived with their mates, and Stella’s daughter Eva. Pauline was perched on an antique armchair, but Stella and Lynn had both relaxed on the couch next to each other.
It was a far cry from the times Pauline could remember a twenty-year-old Lynn trying to drag a teenaged Stella home from a disastrous date or an alcohol-heavy party. It was a small enough town that everyone had heard about it when the sisters faced off. It looked like time really did work wonders for some people.
Not for Marsha, though.
“I’m worried about the kids,” Pauline said on a long outbreath.
Maybe this was a mistake. She didn’t know if Lynn, in particular, was the type to simply insist that they call CPS. That could result in the kids getting taken away and split up, and then who knew where they’d end up, if they’d be okay?
But she was pretty sure Stella wasn’t going to do that. And something about the concerned look in Lynn’s clear topaz eyes, the way she leaned forward at Pauline’s words, made her confident that the three of them might be able to solve this together.
“I’m worried about Marsha, too, but I don’t know where she is or what she’s doing, and I do know that Drew’s been trying to take care of his siblings all by himself. He needs help. Either we have to find Marsha and get her to come back and take care of her kids, or...” Pauline trailed off.
Lynn raised her eyebrows. “Or? Or what?”
“Or someone else needs to step up,” Pauline said. Like me.
Before she could go on, though, the front door opened, and the unmistakable sounds of a teenager shedding her stuff all over the front hall echoed through the house.