by Vivian Arend
Ahh, shifters. Death threats, potential dismemberment… So entertaining, in so many ways.
Chapter Nine
There was a bear sitting on the front porch. Or more correctly, a bear sprawled in the rocking chair on the front porch. The oversized rocker that had been reinforced to hold shifter weight barely contained the grizzly’s massive bulk.
A wolf uncurled from his position in the sun at the base of the wide stairs. Another trotted up from the lake, and Chase slowed until Shelley was directly behind him, close enough to touch.
“Come on.”
To anyone not versed in shifter protocol, his actions would have appeared suicidal. He grabbed her hand and boldly led her to the front door, the wolves brushing past their knees to enter at their side, the bear lumbering to his feet. Chase suspected the man would shift before joining them.
The layers of dust on the glass panes dimmed the light beating against the windows. Lanterns hung in two spots, but even their warm yellow glow wasn’t enough to make things truly visible inside the dark cavern-like room. The wood-burning stove was lit, the shades of red, gold and orange reflecting through the glass front on the door lending a flickering Hades-like touch to the ambiance.
Inside four more pairs of eyes took him in, swung to spot Shelley, and remained fixed in place.
She pressed against his back, her fingers in his tightening.
He recognized three of the men, and both the wolves who’d shifted and rose to their feet. Six against one, seven counting the naked and very hairy male in the doorway who had to be the grizzly coming in to check out the situation.
Great, this got better and better. But if he’d stopped outside that would have lost him the advantage in the first place.
“Boys.” Chase nodded toward the familiar faces. “Good to see you again.”
He pulled off his pack and dropped it on the bench by the table. Shelley copied him before slipping against his side, torso pressed tight, those perfect breasts nudging his chest.
He didn’t plan it. The growl of lust that escaped was purely instinctive after being tormented for over twenty-four hours with images of what he wanted to do with the woman.
Fortunately, his reaction was exactly the right one. Shelley’s eyes widened but she kept her mouth shut, not protesting when his arm slipped around her back and dragged her close enough there wasn’t room to slip a playing card between their bodies.
The shoulders on one of the wolves drooped in disappointment. “Well hell, Silver, thanks for getting my hopes up. You bastard.”
“You been slumming it in the city, Silver?” the other asked. “You smell like civilization and death.”
“Just taking care of business,” Chase responded, ignoring the heat of Shelley’s body best he could.
“So that’s what they’re calling it now.” The bear leered, and the men laughed.
The conversation went downhill from there for a few minutes, and Chase let them have the dirt out. He glanced around the cabin and identified the best bed in the place. He pulled Shelley along with him and tossed the personal items strewn on the bed to the side, claiming territory as it were.
Rude? Probably, but it had to be done.
“Hey, stow it. That’s my spot, you asshole.”
Shelley slipped behind him as he turned to face the walking fur rug of a bear shifter. “The lady and I need the room.”
“Really.” Massive arms crossed, biceps bulging. The man was the picture definition of brick shithouse. “Maybe me and the lady need the room.”
Silence fell.
Chase stared at the man’s bushy brows. Face to face they were the same height, only the bear had to outweigh him by a good hundred pounds. Tension built, the floorboards creaking as one of the watchers shifted his weight.
“Taylor, you don’t want to challenge Silver.” It was one of the wolves.
Taylor’s nostrils flared as he took in a deep breath. “He don’t look so dangerous. And he’s brought a woman. Ain’t had a woman in a long time.”
“If you bathed more often, that might not be the case,” Shelley muttered.
Chase froze his expression to stop from grinning at her quip. “She’s with me, and you want to step back.”
“What if I don’t?”
Tension continued to rise. In the background, the other men were finding safer spots, away from the potential brawl. At least they seemed to have an idea of what could happen, and the anger inside Chase settled into a calm point of power. He wasn’t doing this for any reason other than violence was the language these men spoke.
The fact he needed a bit of a physical release right now was beside the point.
The bear roared and Chase moved. His first action was to plant a hand on Shelley’s chest and shove her backward. She tumbled onto the relative safety of the bed. Then he ignored her and faced his opponent.
In typical bear fashion the man lunged, opening his arms as he stepped forward. He’d want to get a solid hold and crush Chase in an embrace. Chase ducked under the outspread arms and spun behind the man. He concentrated and let the shift to his animal form come, but only to his left hand. A shocked gasp rose from one of the strangers pinned to the far wall as Chase’s entire left arm turned into his cougar paw, wicked claws extended with a shimmering gleam. He swung low before the bear could turn, swiping sharply across the lower edge of the man’s legs and neatly hamstringing him.
The bear’s scream echoed off the wooden walls as he fell to the floor. Chase stayed light on his feet, human right hand balled into a fist to be used if necessary, the powerful cougar claw hanging relaxed on the left.
Behind him, the rest of the crowd moved forward, commenting freely as they found their way to the bear moaning in pain on the floor.
“Not much warning there, Silver,” one wolf complained.
“Hell, he could have waited five seconds and let Taylor turn about. Bet that paw could have scooped off Taylor’s nuts with one shot.”
“True.” The wolf shifter squatted at Taylor’s side. “Oh, quit your belly aching. We’ll help get your ass outside so you can shift. You should be okay by the morning if you’re done being an idiot to Long John here. Or you want to fight some more?”
Taylor was curled up in pain on the floor, jammed between the wooden bedframe and a couple of chairs that had fallen with him. The bear lifted his head and leaned it on the wall.
“How the hell you do that?” he moaned.
Chase pulled back the shift until his arm was human again and ignored the question. “You give the lady the respect she deserves.”
Taylor grimaced as the wolves dragged him to a sitting position. “Bed’s yours, woman’s yours. I’m not stupid.”
Chase ignored the men as they manhandled Taylor out of the cabin. He turned to face Shelley for the first time since the altercation had begun, a little concerned what he was going to discover.
She’d wiggled back on the mattress until she was plastered against the wall. Her eyes were wide, but not with fear. She was staring at his arm with something close to delight.
Shit. “Oh hell, no. Don’t you start getting any ideas now.”
She bounced forward and knelt, jerking him to the side and forcing up his T-shirt sleeve. “That was the single most fascinating thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Can you do it again? I wanted to see how the musculature of your cat combines with—”
He twisted as he planted a hand over her mouth and sat on the bed. That brought her halfway into his lap, basically into an embrace. “Shhh.”
She froze, then as realization hit she turned her head toward the door. Luckily, the cabin was empty, at least temporarily, as the entire group had helped drag Taylor out. Chase let his hand fall away, but damn if he could willingly remove her from his lap.
“Sorry. I’ll save the questions for later when we don’t have an audience.” Shelley wiggled until he set her free. “Why’d you make a big deal out of kicking him out the bed? In fact, why come here at all when i
t looks as if you expected we would have troubles?”
She spoke in a hushed whisper and he answered the same way. “Because at some point we’re going to meet people. Here I had more control over who and how I showed them to back off. Word will spread. We’ll be safer traveling if they’re wary of us than attempting to stay hidden the entire time.”
Shelley nodded slowly. She took a deep breath before looking him in the eye. “I’m sorry.”
Chase frowned. “For what?”
“For making trouble in the… Well, I don’t suppose it’s a pack, is it? Not with all the different kinds of shifters.”
He reached over and, more carefully than before, pulled Taylor’s possessions into a bundle and tied them up. “We are a pack or a clan or a coven of sorts. And they’re good folk, Shelley. Even ol’ Taylor there was just acting like a typical outcast. Trying to find his place in the scheme of things. Scrambling for what he wanted.”
She moved off and picked up chairs, setting the insides of the cabin back to rights without any further questions. He had to make sure she knew. “Shell?”
She turned those eerily beautiful eyes his direction. “Yes?”
“You understand we’ll be sharing this bed.”
She took a quick glance toward the door to make sure no one had returned. “I figured that bit out. I hope you’re not terribly upset.”
Oh hell. Upset was not the word that had sprung to mind. “It’s for your protection.”
One smooth brow rose. “Oh, is it now? I think that’s the first time I’ve heard that excuse used as an attempt to get into my pants.”
“If I’m in your pants, the last thing you’ll be doing is thinking.” The words slipped out. His control had evaporated. Her face flushed, and he shook himself. “Forget I said that.”
He pulled out his sleeping bag, spread it on the bed. Basically ignored her and got their spot together.
She moved silently to his side, bringing her pack. She accepted the food he handed her and headed to the tiny kitchen area.
Chase watched her walk away and wondered just how much more hellish this day could get.
One by one the men returned to the cabin, giving her a wide berth as she placed the food bag in the cupboard to keep their supplies safe from the mice. There was so much more she wanted to ask. To find out. Their names, who they were, what they did in the bush.
She itched to go check the injury on the bear, but figured heading outside alone to accost him wasn’t the smartest idea at the moment.
All her thoughts and concerns muddled together into a blur as fatigue overtook her. It had been an incredibly long day, and she was spent.
Chase was at her elbow, her clothing bag in his hand. “Come on, I’ll take you to wash up.”
She used the outhouse then followed him wearily to the edge of the lake where someone had built a dock. There was just enough of a platform to allow a person to be past the grasses and mud at the edge of the water and access the deeper part. She sank happily to her knees and pulled off the shirt he’d loaned her. The water she scooped up was icy cold against her face, the cloth she soaked and brushed over her skin refreshing but in that lazy had enough and ready to collapse kind of way.
A splash sounded to her left, and she snapped her head that direction to watch the ripples circle outward from where Chase had plunged into the deeper section off the end of the dock. His head broke the surface, silvery brush cut glistening with water droplets in the setting sun.
Eleven thirty and the sky was finally beginning to darken, the blue fading to a deep indigo highlighted by streaks of gold and red against the clouds.
Naked.
Strange how that thought filled her brain more and more, distracting from the beauty of their surroundings. Chase was in the water, and his clothing lay discarded on the dock beside her. Ergo, the man was naked, and she was in so much trouble.
She glanced back toward the cabin, but everyone was out of sight. Taylor must have lumbered into the bush before she and Chase had come outside. It was possible he was watching them, but she didn’t really care.
Naked.
Chase was naked, and he was swimming back to the dock, and he’d probably push himself upright and step up and he’d be naked beside her and she didn’t really think she could handle that right now.
So she stripped off her own things as rapidly as possible, waited until his hand touched the edge of the dock, then took a flying leap over his head to land in frigid water for the second time that day.
This was way worse than the first time. Worse and better, because it was so shockingly cold she couldn’t breathe. Which was good because then she didn’t inhale while her head was underwater. Bad, because parts of her body that she really enjoyed having, like toes and fingers, went instantly numb.
She surfaced and opened her eyes to find she was facing away from the dock. Hallelujah, no distracting delicious Métis shifters—naked Métis shifters—to stare at.
Washing in water this cold was like rapidly running a hand of ice over her skin in the hopes she’d remove at least the sweat of the day’s exertions. She turned to face her upcoming bed partner.
He was staring at her with an expression of hopelessness.
She snorted. Okay, she wasn’t the only one feeling the heat.
Chase growled, his frustration clear in the tone. “Damn it, woman. Get your ass in here and put some clothes on. You want me to have to fight the lot of them?”
Oops. “Sorry, that wasn’t what I was thinking about.”
She swam in closer, getting ready to pull herself out of the water.
“Wait.”
Chase grumbled a few times then put himself between the cabin and her body. “Get out and get dressed quick.”
She obeyed, accepting the chamois he handed her. She slid the soft cloth over her skin rapidly to gather the water best she could. Then she pulled on the T-shirt and the pants he’d readied. She wasn’t about to mention that he’d forgotten to grab her underwear.
The T-shirt got stuck for a moment on her wet skin and he helped her, his touch brief and fleeting, but she swore that his fingers were heated brands against her skin. Her breasts ached, and between her legs she was hotter than she had any right to be considering she’d just bathed in ice water.
Finally covered, she looked up and got caught by his gaze. By the large dark circles of his pupils as he all but ate her up. He stood with his fists clenched at his sides as if fighting to keep from grabbing her.
He cleared his throat then snarled the words. “You’re damn lucky I’m a gentleman. Ready for bed?”
Maybe I don’t want you to be a gentleman rushed through her brain. Which was not what she should be considering. Pondering. Imagining or otherwise adding to her thought patterns.
“Wait. They’re going to think…” Oh, she was pathetic.
Chase drew a slow breath in, almost vibrating with tension. “Think what?”
Shelley lowered her chin. “Nothing.”
He sighed, a heavy lost sound, a second before his fingers brushed her cheek and cupped her face, lifting her to look at him. “You’re getting on my last nerve, darling. Now hold still.”
She waited for him to kiss her senseless. To haul her against all those rock-solid muscles and tightly bound energy. What she got was a tender caress, his lips briefly connecting with hers. The skim of his tongue over her bottom lip too rapid to allow her to open in response and let him in.
Because she was totally going to. Totally ready to give back and let them at least mark each other with the scent of a few mostly chaste kisses.
He pulled back and stared, his gaze darting over her as if he were attempting to read her mind. “We need to hit the sack. Tomorrow’s gonna come soon enough.”
He slid his fingers down her arm, and a shiver raced ahead of his touch. When he linked their fingers together and led her back to the cabin, her heart pounded and her palms got sweaty.
Inside, the men had all settled into q
uiet activities, or crawled onto one of the platforms that created bunk space on the far side of the room from where her and Chase’s bed sat.
Bed. Chase. Oh boy.
Quiet, except for the crackle of the fire in the wood stove and the beginning rumbles of snoring from one of the berths. Shelley slipped off her shoes and crawled into the sleeping bags that he’d joined together. She rolled onto her side, faced the wall and braced herself.
There wasn’t enough time to truly prepare as Chase followed her a moment later, spooning around her. He slipped an arm over her waist and unapologetically tugged her against his body.
He was hard all over, and one specific part of the hardness nestled too intimately in the dip between her butt cheeks. She could barely breathe.
A light kiss landed on her nape, his lips whisper soft. “Shhh. It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
Oh yeah, he did. Any way he wanted her, he had her. Forget the no-sex sex, she was ready to change her mind and let him go all the way.
A loud rumble sounded somewhere beyond their feet, and Shelley considered swearing. A room full of chaperones. How marvelous.
Yet, the situation was exactly what they needed. She and Chase obviously weren’t going to do anything about the tension between them, not with a room full of witnesses. Shifters might be upfront about sex, but this kind of setup had more kink-show potential than most.
The knowledge they weren’t going to do anything helped her relax, and bit-by-bit her tension slipped away. The fatigue of the day rose and she closed her eyes. His warmth enveloped her tighter than his embrace, and the last thing she remembered was the tickle of his slowing breath against the back of her neck as he fell asleep.
Chapter Ten
A finger stroked across her stomach, and Shelley rolled slightly to let it tickle her gently, the heat of her body so perfect she figured she was still dreaming. Had to be a dream—the last time she had someone touch her like this in a soft, drowsy wake-up-sex kind of way she’d been back in university and…oh, wait.