by Reina Torres
“It was different with Celeste for some reason. Maybe because I’d talked about her so much through the years. Maybe it helped him get to know her before she came to Mystic, but even though Xavier isn’t much of a conversationalist, or the kind of guy that would come over to the house just to spend time with us, if I ever needed someone to take care of Celeste, I’d want Xavier to be there.”
“Really?” True felt an odd kind of envy at the thought.
Aaron nodded, his eyes a dark gunmetal grey at that moment. “He can be a hard man to get to know. He can also be a snarling asshole when he wants to be, but he’s also one of my best friends here in Mystic. I know he’d lay his life down for Celeste, just like I’d do for someone he loved.”
Again, her stomach twisted slightly, and she felt an irrational jealousy clutch at her heart. Why? She had no idea. She’d come to town for a job. A way to really make herself a huge success. Why would she want to be a part of this… this family?
As the question cemented itself in her head, the world around her seemed to fade.
True felt like she was hovering in the air, her feet unable to find the ground. The walls disappeared, and the forest closed in around her, filling her nose with the scent of pine and clean fresh air. And something else reached her, or rather, reached out to her.
She felt it prowling through the air, darting from tree to tree, moving closer as the day turned to night around her. True held out her hand, beckoning it closer, waiting for it to answer her call.
It was wildly disconcerting. She’d never felt so… detached before. No, she had felt like this just a few hours earlier when she arrived on the property.
Drawing back her extended arm, True reached up to feel for a fever on her forehead, but she never quite made it. Just a moment before she touched her head, darkness fell.
As did she.
Xavier was alone in the bar putting another coat of finish on shelves for the backbar. It was usually one of his favorite times of the day. Locke was a good friend and working with him was good. Sometimes easy.
But having the room quiet around him was a gift.
He didn’t have to worry about missing a question directed at him.
He didn’t have to worry about moving furniture or wood around and bumping into anyone. Alone was… perfect.
Jerk.
When he didn’t have his panther poking at him.
Dipping the brush into the finish, he wiped the extra off against the lip of the container and continued his long sweeping strokes along the wood.
You were rude.
I’m busy.
You’re alone.
I’ve got you complaining in my head.
You were mean.
The brush paused on the surface, and the clear finish pooled around it, moving slowly out in a puddle like sap.
A bar is a bar.
Even after he thought the words at his panther, he wondered why he was trying to justify his thoughts. And worse yet, he kept talking.
It doesn’t need fancy. Good alcohol. Good prices. That’s all.
Is it your bar?
Oh, someone is being fucking argumentative.
Gritting his back teeth together, Xavier returned the brush to the can and tried to wipe all of the remaining finish off. He brought it back to the shelf and worked at smoothing out the glop of finish.
A good bar is a place to relax.
If you want to have your quiet and a drink, we have our den.
What could Xavier say to that? It was true. He liked his evenings on the porch, looking out over the valley, a cold beer in his hand. Or a glass of shine sitting on the step beside him. He didn’t need this bar.
But maybe you want this bar.
The suggestion from his panther made him snort. I don’t want it.
Then what do you want?
An image flickered in his mind. An image that was more disturbing than he’d ever admit out loud.
She said her name was True.
True Sinclair.
What he remembered first about her was the way the air in the room had felt hot on his skin. Not just from the heat of his own exertion, but a sudden prickly heat that crackled along his skin like lightning searing a path across the sand. Then her eyes. Those eyes that looked him over in a way that many women had done over the years, but there was much more than awareness in her eyes. He knew what she saw, and he smelled the faintest stirring of arousal within her. Unlike so many other women before, she looked at him and kept her distance.
As much as he liked the idea, his panther didn’t.
And his panther was still taking him to task for letting her walk away.
At the thought, his panther stretched against their link, arching his back in a long sinuous curve as an image of True Sinclair’s utterly sinful curves appeared in his memory. The way her perfectly worn and comfortable jeans did more than cover her legs and rounded ass, that denim hugged her form and gave him a damn good idea what those legs would look like wrapped around his waist, or braced apart on either side of his head as he pulled her down and-
Xavier’s mind blanked for a moment.
No, it wasn’t just that he lost his train of thought, it was replaced with something else.
A thriving pine forest full of foliage and creatures moving along the branches and on the ground.
The scent in his nose was full and rich as if he was somewhere else entirely.
The topography of the forest around him was familiar, but there was something ‘off’ about the situation.
Something that told him the eyes he was looking through weren’t his own. He knew that sensation well. Every time his panther rushed outward and took his own form, Xavier was left observing the world from behind the eyes of his beast.
But not this.
This was different.
He felt untethered from the earth beneath his feet and pulled away from the world surrounding him.
His breaths came quick, pulling out of his body almost as quickly as he pulled the air in, but the soft panting he heard in his ears, as clear as a bell, had nothing to do with man or beast.
It turned out that he was the only one who struggled with identifying the source.
Within, his panther sat up, alert and ready to pounce.
True.
Xavier’s instinct to argue was cut short as the sensation of falling made the world around him spin.
“True.”
He beat his panther to the punch, leaping into action and following his need to get to her side. Even in his human form, he barely took notice of the small stones under his feet or the rough texture of the dirt road at the backside of the resort, his direction pure instinct.
Pure need.
He didn’t even need to hear Aaron’s full-throated roar calling for help to know where he was going.
He felt her heart beating in her chest, its rhythm odd, stilted.
The sight of an unfamiliar vehicle beside the familiar bulk of Aaron’s truck made his feet move faster, his panther rushing into his eyes and scanning the surrounding area for threats.
“Xavier! Here!”
The scrape of pebbles under his feet made him use a little more of his panther’s form to keep himself upright as Xavier rushed up the steps and into the house.
True was laid out on the floor, Aaron’s jacket under her head.
Her face had little color in it, but his panther made no comment. Apparently, they were of the same mind.
Xavier landed on his knees beside her and Aaron took a step back.
“True?”
His hands were on her face, cradling her cheeks in a gentle touch. When the warmth of her skin didn’t rush up to meet him, he shook his head. Taking hold of her shoulders, he leaned down over her and put his ear over her lips.
Closing his eyes, he focused on her. The soft echoing thump of her heart within her ribcage. And just the hint of a breath in and out of her lungs.
That hint wasn’t enough. Not at all.
“Did sh
e hit her head?”
The question seemed to shock Aaron as much as it shocked Xavier, even though the words came out of his mouth.
“No.” Aaron growled in concern. “I caught her on the way down. Put my hand behind her head when I laid her on the floor.”
Sitting up, Xavier let his hands move over her. From her shoulders down to her hands and then her body from her ribs to her waist and down over the outsides of her legs. He could feel no obvious injury and no immediate cause for her state, but he knew he had to do something.
Her heart.
Yes, he replied, I don’t like the way it sounds.
It wasn’t a conscious thought that moved him.
No, it was all instinct.
Need. And instinct.
Leaning over her, Xavier wrapped both of his arms around her body, cradling her head in one hand as he lifted her from the floor and got to his feet.
The weight of her body felt like nothing weighed against the worry that drove him. Tucking her head into the crook of his neck and shoulder, he held her body with an arm around her bottom and walked both of them to the couch he’d moved in a few days ago.
He thought he heard Aaron say something to him, but Xavier’s ears were still trained on her. True. The woman in his arms.
Folding her knees gently as he sat down, he held her across his body, but also pressed against him.
Correction, his panther’s voice curled through his thoughts, she fits against us.
Oh, there were words that he wanted to throw at his beast. A few choice phrases with more than few colorful words.
Instead, he shifted True in his arms and brought her just a little closer until he could feel her heart beating through the wall of his chest.
His own rhythm pumped like the engine of a sports car. Heavy, strong, throbbing with an emotion he couldn’t begin to describe.
Emotions, well, they weren’t exactly something he was concerned with.
He felt his own heart push again and again against his ribs, almost as if it too was trying to get closer to her.
“What is it about you?”
She didn’t answer his question. Not that he’d expected her to answer. She was still limp in his arms, her breaths panting softly against the bare skin of his neck.
“I’m going to get Celeste.” Aaron’s words turned his attention toward his friend. “Unless you think she needs a doctor?”
Xavier felt his panther rise under his skin. True didn’t need a man touching her.
He felt the familiar prick of fangs sliding free of his gums, and the itch in his fingers as claws pushed for a way out.
He knew much of the feeling came from the panther who had decided to take more than an interest in the woman, and maybe that was why he felt… compelled to dismiss the idea of calling for help. His panther didn’t want others around her.
Especially not a man.
No human.
No shifter.
As the thoughts warred in his head, Xavier snarled his panther into submission, demanding quiet in his already busy mind.
“Wren.” Xavier’s voice was far too close to a snarl to ease his mind at all. “Call Wren to come and see her.”
A woman. A healer. That’s what he would be comfortable with. That was what he could manage. His beast was already riding him, pressing up just beneath his skin.
“Okay, I’ll call Wren and pick Celeste up on the way back. She’ll want to see True.”
Xavier didn’t really listen to what his friend had to say. He had his mind focused on the troubling feeling of the woman in his arms.
Come on. He paused and waited for some kind of answer. Come. On.
Still, the rhythm of her heart as it passed through him was weak and not at all fast enough to ease his worry at all.
He heard the door close quietly across the room, but he didn’t lift his head to look. He sat there, pushing energy into her body, coaxing the muscles in her heart to pump with more energy, more vigor.
Heaven help him, he leaned his head toward her, pressing his roughened cheek against hers, lending her more of his warmth.
And that’s when he caught her scent.
A flower, something he couldn’t identify, but light, airy, and elegant. Her skin smelled like spring, like the scent of the brook that traveled along the mountainside just beneath the entrance to his home. She was clean, and soft, and…
True.
“Hmm?”
His arms tightened just a bit around her as she moved against him.
“True?” He almost didn’t trust himself to say her name out loud, but he had to.
Had to make sure she was coming around.
She turned her head, ever so slightly, and he felt her lips and the tip of her nose brush along his chest just above his collar bone.
As she continued to move, she lifted a hand and settled it high on his back, moving it a little higher until her fingertips touched the hair at the base of his head. “Prickly.” She said the word in a rush, and then again, slower, as her fingers sought out the cut ends of his hair. “Pri-kul-ee.” The sound seemed to amuse her, but his ears focused beyond the sound of her voice and down into her chest.
The rhythm of her heart was picking up. Stronger and faster until he thought it might be good enough to suffice for a human, but he still wasn’t ready to let her go.
And that, in and of itself, bothered him more than anything else.
The door to the cottage opened and the wind that blew in was Wren.
He smelled the sage scent that always seemed to hover around her before he saw her, and when he did, he felt the soft sweep of her wide-legged pants and tunic against his leg and bare foot.
Her hand cupped his cheek, and while the human side of him had to hold still for her touch, his panther leaned into her palm.
Wren’s laughter reached his ears and he held back the instinctive bristle at another’s touch.
“Don’t you worry, snarly cat.” He heard the gentle rebuke in her tone, but instead of stirring his ire into a boil it seemed to have a calming effect on him.
“You’re here to see True.”
“So I am.” She ignored the clipped tone of his voice and easily took a seat in the chair that Aaron brought forward for her. Wren didn’t even look back as she settled onto the chair. “So why don’t you scoot and let me get close to your lady.”
“She’s… she’s-”
Ours.
“Not mine.”
With stilted movements he got up on his feet while managing to lay True down on the couch without shaking her. Once he was done, he took one step back and hesitated. His panther protested the distance with a loud roar and a sharp, rending slash of claw against their link.
Stay.
Xavier took another step back, grounding his feet in place before his panther repeated his argument.
Stay.
He was out the door before he could cobble together another thought. He stepped past Celeste with a grumbled excuse as his feet pounded down the steps.
Even as his foot landed in the grass beside the walkway, he was already running. Running with his heart pounding louder in his ears than his feet on the ground. What had possessed him to go to her? Why had he held her? Drawn her close? Tucked her tightly against him as if he wanted her in his arms?
No. No. No. It became his mantra as he ran for the narrow trail through the rocks. No. No. No.
He’d held her and felt her heart struggle and falter. He’d felt fear seize his own heart in response.
And while he couldn’t deny that the luscious curves of True Sinclair felt so right pressed against him, he knew that alone made it wrong.
He was a predator. He was the hunter.
A woman like True was prey. She might stir his soul now, engender some instinctual protective instinct, but someday he knew that the wild heart and instinct that burned through him would tear them apart and he wasn’t going to allow that to happen.
He wasn’t meant for a mate, let
alone a woman like True.
He wasn’t a wolf, but he knew beyond a doubt that he was meant to be alone.
Three
The knock at the door was expected. The shit eating grin on Locke’s face was going to get him hurt.
“Well,” he wondered aloud, “are you going to let me in?”
Xavier weighed the possibilities of what was about to happen. He liked Locke. They were good friends.
Most of the time.
Except when he got on Xavier’s nerves. And that happens when the lion stuck his big-fat snout into personal business.
“If,” Xavier put all the emphasis he could on the single syllable, “you decide to make a nuisance of yourself, you’ll find yourself out on your tail.”
Locke held his hands out in surrender. “I’m just here to see my friend.”
Knowing he had a high chance of regretting the decision, Xavier stepped back and let the door swing open. He turned his back to the door because while Locke could be a jerk on the best of days, he wasn’t a danger in any real sense.
Xavier crossed the room and waited for Locke to set himself down on one of the chairs he set before the window. Once Locke did, Xavier reached down behind the counter in the kitchen and brought out two bottles. Holding them between his fingers as he pulled out the stoppers and flicked them into a bucket at the end of the counter. The rag rug under his feet felt good, warm, comfortable. He set a bottle into Locke’s extended hand and found his own chair beside him.
“You think we’re going to be done with the fixtures tomorrow?”
He heard Locke shift on the chair beside him, sitting up to stare.
Xavier took a long drink from his bottle and felt it burn down his throat and all the way into his stomach. It felt good.
It felt really good.
Until Locke spoke up.
“That’s all you’re going to say? Talk about the bar?”
Another drink followed the first, and Xavier sat back in his chair and looked over at his friend. “Once we’re done fixing it up, I can get back to work.”
Shaking his head, Locke took a quick swig. “You’re going to explode one day, you know?” Another drink had him chuckling. “You keep it all bottled up inside, and your head is going to blow clean off like that time you drank more than your share and blew up your own still.”