by Rosanna Leo
Gioia knew his opinions about getting Soren Snow involved in their problems. Wes was suspicious of anyone outside their circle to begin with; most shifters just had to live by that code. But when she’d mentioned Gunnar might be meeting his idol, Wes had been quick to register his disapproval. She couldn’t blame him. He felt just as she did.
“Wes, what do you want me to do? I’m at the end of my rope.”
The shifter’s lips tightened, and he rested his forearms on his knees, contemplating. “Gunnar just needs more time with his family. With us. We’ll set him straight, you and I.”
“I don’t think we have the luxury of time anymore. It’s been almost a year since the accident,” she argued. “We need to reach Gunnar sooner rather than later.”
He leaned into her, his thigh brushing hers. She slid away a degree. “I’m not criticizing you, sunshine. I know how hard it’s been, and I miss Paul too. I’d give anything to have him back. I just don’t want Gunnar to get his hopes up this Snow person is going to become his fancy new best friend and fix all his problems.”
“I know. I don’t want that, either.” She considered the short exchange with Soren and Gunnar. “But I think he’s already made a bit of an impression on him. Gunnar spoke.”
Wes’ eyes widened. “Really?” However, within seconds, he once again resembled a bear whose salmon had been stolen away. “Well, let’s just hope Soren Snow doesn’t run off with some movie starlet just when Gunnar needs him most. Didn’t he just have an affair with that ditz from the reality show?”
“Just because The Examiner prints it doesn’t mean it’s true,” she said softly.
His suspicious laugh stung her for some reason. “I’m sorry, Gioia, I have my doubts about the man’s reputation.”
“I know. And if I see he’s a bad influence, I’ll tell him to back off. No one will hurt my son while I’m alive and kicking.”
Wes rubbed her shoulders and smiled. “You’d make a good lady bear, Gioia.”
She stared into the distance, not focusing on anything in particular. “Yeah, well, I’ve given up hope of that ever happening. If it didn’t happen with Paul, it certainly won’t happen with anyone else.”
Wes grew serious, his brows knit in a frown. “You don’t know that.” He tucked a stray hair behind her ear, letting his fingers graze her lobe. “It could still happen, you know. With the right man.”
Oh, ick! She shook her head, effectively removing Wes’ fingers from her ear. She’d been trying to convince herself she was wrong, but she was pretty sure Paul’s cousin was coming on to her. He’d already made a few comments that felt distinctly non-familial, but she’d managed to change the subject every time he did. Wes had only ever been a friend, Paul’s good friend. She just didn’t see him in a romantic light.
He leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Have dinner with me tonight.”
What the…
“Come on,” Wes teased with a shrug. “Nothing wrong with keeping it in the family.”
“Oh, Wes. Not you too?” Had the whole world eaten a loco pill? Ever since Paul’s death, men had been acting strangely around her. It seemed she was always fending off bizarre advances, often from men she didn’t know. She didn’t have the energy to deal with it. No. Her son was the priority and always would be.
As Gioia swallowed yet another prickly lump of emotion, she heard shuffling on the walkway. She looked toward the sound and saw Ryland returning with Soren.
The percussionist spotted her and Wes. His gaze lingered where Wes’ hand touched her shoulder, and then he looked at her. A crazed fury emanated from him as his gaze darted quickly between her face and Wes. Soren’s gorgeous lips twisted, his face turned scarlet, and he breathed so hard she feared he might explode into a puff of smoke like on a cartoon. When his left eye twitched, Gioia really started to wonder. Seriously, what the…
Ryland looked between the three of them, He paled, and Gioia saw him mouth the words, “Steady, bro.” He grabbed at Soren’s elbow, but the fair-haired brother charged toward her and her kinsman, his hair flying in the breeze created by his speed.
What was wrong with him?
“Soren,” she began in a tentative tone, feeling she needed to placate him for some strange reason.
He stopped short in front of them, his gaze narrowed on Wes as if the other man were a poisonous viper wrapped around her. He addressed her in a cracking voice. “Gioia. Who’s your…friend?”
Ryland rushed over with the intensity of one who knew he was about to break up a fight. And Wes, being a bear shifter and just as territorial as any other, stood and took up a spot in front of Gioia in Soren’s way.
Uh oh. She didn’t know what was going on here, but it was in no way good.
She looked around Wes’ big body and whispered to Ryland, “Is he having a fit?”
Soren’s eyes bugged out. “No, I am not having a fit!” And then he stomped around in a circle, pounding the pavement so hard pebbles flew, clearly having a fit.
Wes put out a hand. “Look, man, I don’t know what your issue is, but you can take it away from the lady.”
Soren stopped pacing, stood still, and offered Wes a withering glare fashioned of icicles and death. “And you can f—”
“Soren,” Ryland said as he jumped in and pushed his brother back. “Didn’t you need to unpack? Like, now?” He gritted his teeth and stood his ground.
The blond volcano stared at him and then at Gioia and then back at Ryland. He looked just about ready to vomit. As he gagged, her gaze was drawn toward his torso. His fitted shirt was a second skin on his sculpted abs, and she saw each tantalizing flex of his six-pack as he heaved. In horror, Gioia reminded herself not to stare at his abs.
Soren whispered to his brother, “I don’t feel so good, Ry.”
Oh. Gioia’s nurturing instinct kicked in, and she had an urge to reach out and run her hand across Soren’s sweaty forehead to calm him. The big lunatic.
“I know, little brother, I know,” Ryland murmured. “Let’s get you back to the lodge and put a drink in you.” He turned to her and Wes. “I apologize for this unusual confrontation. He’s a little under the weather.”
Ryland placed a hand on Soren’s shoulder, rubbing at it as he steered his brother out of public. Soren continued to mumble all the way, like an inmate in an asylum, and only when he’d neared the lodge did she look down. She’d picked her cuticles raw and had even drawn blood in places. What the heck had gotten into her? And into him? Her gaze shot back toward Soren’s retreating ass. As she gawked at those twin globes of manly perfection, her nerves disappeared and her libido went into overdrive. An image slammed into her head, one of her clutching at his backside as he plowed into her, howling her name. Their bodies were sweaty and shivering, and goose bumps rose on her skin in response.
Whoa.
Wes said something, but she didn’t hear it. She was too busy trying not to touch herself in public to relieve the inconvenient lust raging through her core. As her cousin continued to talk, Gioia made her quick excuses and dashed off the bench and into the lodge.
She needed some alone time. Stat.
Chapter 3
Soren stormed into the Ursa Lodge main building, determined to get to the pub as soon as possible. He needed a beer. A series of beers, in fact, really big ones. Preferably of the bottomless variety. Unfortunately, Ryland was hot on his heels and wouldn’t shut the fuck up. He turned to his brother. “I’m fine. Leave me alone.”
Ryland arched an eyebrow. “You are so not fine.”
Soren wiped at his clammy face with a shaking hand. Why was he shaking anyway? He didn’t shake. He made women shake!
Lia spotted them in the lobby and joined them as they headed down the hallway to the pub. Soren grunted as Ryland pulled her close and kissed her on the forehead. “Oh, great. Have you come to torment me too?”
Lia’s amber eyes widened. “What did I do?”
Ryland jumped to her defense. “Back off, Soren. Don’t talk to Lia l
ike that.”
Soren swallowed and turned to his sister-in-law. “I’m sorry.” He really was. It wasn’t like him to jump down her throat. His heart wouldn’t stop pounding. Perhaps he was having some sort of shifter cardiac arrest. “Did you people move the damn pub?”
Ryland led the way into the pub, shaking his head the whole time. “You’ll have to forgive Soren, baby. He just met his mate and is having a hard time accepting it.” And then he let out a snort of amusement.
“I did not meet my mate, you puckered hole of an ass.”
Lia squealed. “No way.” As Ryland got them settled at a table near the bar and ordered up three Molson Canadians, Lia stared at Soren. And then she put the puzzle pieces together. “Gioia! Holy cow.” And then she burst into a witch-like cackle, one which Ryland quickly joined her in. “Wait. Did you tell him about her little problem yet?”
“I was just getting to Gioia’s little problem.”
Just at the word Gioia, Soren got a massive head rush. Just as he had when he’d spotted her sitting all cozy-like with that grizzled shifter. Okay, maybe he wasn’t really grizzled. Ruggedly handsome, more like it, with his smoldering dark looks and huge fucking cowboy belt buckle. Seriously, who wore those tawdry chunks of metal nowadays? And the way he put his arm so possessively around Gioia’s shoulders…
“Wait. Why should I care if he puts his arm around her shoulders? She’s nothing to me. Just some snotty kid’s mom.”
Ryland nudged him. “Uh, bro. Your internal monologue just became external.”
Soren looked at Ryland and Lia as heat swam into each of his extremities. Especially the big one between his legs. He squeezed his eyes shut but then looked at them through only his twitching left eye. “What’s happening to me? Am I dying?”
Lia reached for his hand. “No, silly. You just want your mate, that’s all. The heart wants what the heart wants.”
Soren scoffed. “Right. Well, you might pedal that shit in your writing, Lia, but it doesn’t work for me.” Lia was an erotic romance author and had funny ideas. Especially now. “I don’t have a mate. And certainly not that owl of a woman! Did you see her? That unruly hair and those enormous eyes and…those round thighs and those high arches and her lips…” He clutched his raging stomach. Shut up, bear! “Oh, God. I’m gonna throw up.”
The waitress arrived. Soren swigged his beer, downing half the bottle at once while Ry and Lia looked on. He slammed the bottle on the table and looked at the pretty waitress with a labored wink. “Hey, sweetheart. How do you feel about doing it all night long with a rock star?”
But before the young woman could gasp and run away, Soren’s stomach clenched again, and with severe pain. He doubled over onto the table, knocking over his beer bottle.
His stupid bear just punched him in the gut. Traitor.
As Ry asked the waitress to bring them some paper towels, he urged her to forgive his feeble-minded brother. Lia rubbed Soren’s back, cooing more garbage about romance.
“Come on, Soren,” she encouraged him. “I know it’s scary. You’ve always been the life of the party, and now suddenly there’s a party in your pants for just one woman.”
He lifted his heavy head. “Don’t talk about my pants that way.”
Ry laughed. “Look Soren, the sooner you face facts, the sooner your bear will stop attacking you. There’s no shame in mating. Your bear knows her and he wants her.” He reached over and drew Lia onto his lap, nuzzling her shoulder. “Trust me. Give it a chance. You’ll love it. Maybe Gioia is just what you need.”
“Ry, I haven’t dated the same woman more than once since high school. I never wanted to mate. I don’t believe in it.”
“Well, clearly fate has other plans for you.”
“Clearly, fate can kiss my ass.”
“Okay,” Ryland said, chortling. “In the meantime, you need to know about Gioia’s situation.”
“I don’t need to know anything about her.” He put his hands over his ears. Okay, perhaps it was an immature reaction, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
“Oh,” Ryland continued, prying Soren’s hands off his head. “You’ll want to know this. Remember when I said Gioia hadn’t shifted?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, it’s put her in a precarious situation, one she isn’t even aware of herself.” Ry rubbed his face, deciding what to say next. “It’s the craziest thing, and I’ve never seen it before. Because Gioia didn’t mate fully with her husband, because the shift didn’t occur, she’s putting out a pheromone without realizing it. The unmated male shifters on the island are picking up her scent. And that scent is stating very clearly she’s available.”
His bear scraped his claws down Soren’s spleen. “You’re telling me she’s basically wearing a perfume that says ‘Come get me’?”
Lia pulled a face. “Yes. It’s been insane since they arrived. We’ve seen men following her around. They keep asking her out. Even our security team, pretty tough guys, are having trouble resisting her.”
“And until she mates…fully,” Ryland said, “I don’t think it’s going to stop. So, if you have feelings for her, you’ll need to do something about it right away.”
“Well,” Soren argued, “maybe I just took a whiff of her sex perfume too, and this isn’t about mating at all! Maybe I’m just under the same spell.”
“I don’t think so, bro. I saw your face, and what I saw there is not what I see in the other men’s faces. They all look dazed and out of control. Almost dead in the eyes. You recognized your mate.”
Soren stared at the wet table, wishing he could sail away in the rivulets of ale. “This is fucked up.”
The waitress arrived with a ream of paper towels. Ry handed them to Soren and stood with Lia. Soren stared at the towels in his hands, not sure what to do with them.
“Clean up your beer, little brother,” Ry said. “And after that, I suggest you make nice to Gioia and get to know her. And don’t forget Gunnar. You promised to help him.” He turned away but then turned back. “Oh, and please don’t attack anyone else who might have trouble looking away from the woman. I know a lot of men are vying for her right now, but the guy whose head you bit off was her cousin.”
Relief swept through Soren like a warm breeze on a sunny beach. His inner bear did a happy dance. “Her cousin?” Awesome. He didn’t even bother to refute the mate business this time. He knew if he did, it would just make him sick again.
Could it be?
He watched as Ryland grabbed his beer and Lia’s, and then he grabbed Lia, squeezing her ass. Lia laughed and swatted at his shoulder, but then slid her own hand into Ry’s back pocket. Hands on each other’s rumps, they walked away, leaving him in a muddle of his own feelings.
Gioia Clementine. Even her name was funny. She was a weird woman with weird hair and weird glasses…who spoke to his bear in a way no other woman had before. She made his bear hot with desire. He’d managed to keep his bear out of his sham relationships thus far and had never questioned why the bear never seemed to get excited about the supermodels and actresses he dated. Maybe the bear knew something he didn’t?
Soren stared at the dregs of his beer, no longer thirsty. Before long, the beer bottle wobbled and mutated before his eyes. The long neck took on the aspect of pretty, olive skin and began to look like the swan-like neck underneath Gioia’s nest of hair. And where the bottle curved, he began to envision the swell of her breasts under her soft sweater. Dazed, Soren picked up the bottle and deposited it on the next table, eyeing it with suspicion.
He somehow knew he wouldn’t be able to wrestle the image of Gioia from his mind quite as easily.
* * * *
The next day, Gioia tagged along on one of Ryland's nature walks for the young shifters in his mentoring program. Gunnar hadn't wanted to go and had expressed his disdain through a lengthy scowl and arms crossed tightly over his chest. After some cajoling, she'd been able to persuade him to give it a try. He barely socialized at hom
e, preferring to stick to his drums, and he needed to be around kids like him. It might be his only good opportunity.
When Soren Snow showed up, she did everything she could not to make the hitch in her breath obvious. Even still, she was all too aware of the man. It was hard to miss his commanding figure and the way the sun seemed to hit his hair at perfect angles, illuminating golden highlights that were undoubtedly never touched by Miss Clairol. Now, while Ryland explained to his young charges which berries were safe to ingest and which would make one upchuck a lunch, Soren brought up the rear of the group. The rock star shifter tramped on some Queen Anne's Lace that had the audacity to grow in his path.
Gioia darted a look of sympathy at the now-wilted weeds. She nodded at Soren. "I guess the great outdoors isn't quite your cup of tea."
He glared at her. "I don't drink tea."
"Noted," she replied under her breath. "Remind me not to invite you to my next tea party."
He stopped marching and regarded her, appraising eyes under arched brows. "I suppose you're right at home here among all the overgrown shrubs and poison ivy."
She ignored his dig and considered the lush greenery of her surroundings, so different from her prairie home. "I love it here. The quiet, the majesty of the place. I could spend hours wandering in these woods. I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be." She arched her own brow in his direction. "But I can see why you’d feel differently. You must have important people to see. I'm sure Eddie Van Halen is waiting for you somewhere in the hopes of jamming with you."
Soren's lip thinned and he blushed. "Actually, I am meeting up with Eddie next month. We’re collaborating on a project."
She tried not to explode with a guffaw. "Oh, well, I am impressed."
"Most people would be."
Gioia's foot stopped mid-air. She blinked, set it down, and turned to him. "You know what would really impress me, music man?"
"No, what?" he said on a quiet snarl.
She nodded at Ryland's group of kids. "If you could manage to impart some sort of genuine wisdom to those kids, my heart would overflow with admiration for you." She put her hands on her hips in a silent dare.