by S. A. Ravel
“Open the door, Rachel.” He leaned against the door, exhaustion evident on his bloodstained face.
Rachel shook her head. She’d just seen him turn into a giant bear. That at least warranted a few questions. “What are you?”
He sighed. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he was about to collapse where he stood. “I’m the same guy I was twenty minutes ago. You just know a bit more now.”
Rachel stared at him. He looked the same, blood aside. His eyes were still the same vibrant hazel they’d been earlier in the night. Gentle, if weary. His hair was mussed and dried leaves clung to it. But otherwise, he looked like the same man she’d spent the evening with. The same man who’d shared a quiet story with her earlier in the night. The same man she’d had the hots for since she met him. She unlocked the door.
“Drive,” he said as he buckled his seatbelt.
She didn’t need to be told twice. Rachel slammed her foot on the gas pedal and peeled away from the parking lot. Dirk pressed his fingers against the angry claw marks in his abdomen.
“Where’s the hospital up here? All the ones I know are in the city.”
Dirk shook his head as his eyelids sank. “No hospitals. I’ll be fine.”
She wanted to argue, but his tone didn’t leave room for it. There didn’t seem to be much blood coming from his wounds, but they looked deep and probably needed stitches.
“You killed him, didn’t you?” she asked. The question hung in the empty space between them. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know the truth. She already suspected, but it was another thing to have suspicions confirmed.
“It was you or him, Rachel.”
She knew he was right. Cass’s rage-distorted face was etched in her memory. He’d spat the word “human” at her as if she were made of dirt. As if she wasn’t worth the time it would take to kill her, but he’d spare the seconds anyway. Deep down, she knew that if Dirk hadn’t turned into a bear to defend her, she would be dead.
The last scrap of adrenaline leeched from her bloodstream and she started to tremble. At the beginning of the night, all she’d wanted was to lose herself in a fantasy, then head home for a warm bath. The fantasy slipped into a nightmare that almost ended with her dead beside a mountain lake.
Dirk caressed her arm with his strong hand. “I’m sorry you found out this way,” he whispered.
Tears spilled down her cheeks as she drove. “Why can you do that? The bear. Why can you turn into a bear?”
“I just can. Sometimes.” He slid his hand up her shoulder and caressed her cheek, wiping away the track of tears. “I bet you didn’t count on a knight in furry armor.” Rachel couldn’t see Dirk’s face in the darkness, but she could hear the smile in his voice.
She chuckled. “That was bad, even for you.”
“It got you laughing, didn’t it?” He groaned in pain.
“We should really get you to a hospital. It’s not like we’d have to explain much. I bet bear attacks are common up here.”
“Not as much as you’d think, but I’m fine. It’s healing already.” The exhaustion returned to his voice, and the hand that caressed her cheek fell away.
“Dirk? You know dying after kissing a woman is horrible manners.”
“I’ll be fine. I promise,” he whispered. “Just get us to a motel. I can rest there.”
Rachel nodded and continued down the two-lane road. She didn’t need Dirk to tell her why he wanted to go to a motel. He couldn’t go home with Cyrus looking for him. Her apartment would be the next place they looked. They’d made a deal for twenty-four hours, but Rachel had known then that Cyrus wouldn’t keep it. At best, he would give her twelve hours, which left eight until anyone started looking for them.
She slid her hand into her pocket and pulled out her phone. They had one chance to throw Cyrus and whomever else he sent off their trail. Only one person could talk Cyrus into backing off. Rachel could only hope that Miranda Greenwood was more honest than her husband.
Two hours crawled by with no word from Miranda. Rachel leaned forward and winced at the corresponding creak of the vinyl-upholstered armchair. Miranda’s lack of response might not mean anything or it might mean that her attempts to reason with Cyrus had failed. Rachel’s heel bounced away from the floor rhythmically as she reviewed her options. If Miranda couldn’t keep up her end of the deal, then Cyrus would come after them. Rachel’s gut told her that Cyrus was the last person she wanted on her ass. She’d pressed the vinyl armchair against the only door to the room, hoping it would reinforce the flimsy door if someone tried to kick it in. Bounty hunters played rough.
A thousand questions swirled in her brain, and only one person could answer them: Dirk. But he’d collapsed on the cheap, king-size bed shortly after they arrived, and he hadn’t woken up since.
Dirk’s quiet moan pulled Rachel from her thoughts. The claw marks on his stomach slowly healed before Rachel’s eyes. Now, there were only faint pink scratches in his tanned flesh. It was as if her eyes, having always shown her the true world before now, refused to present the information correctly.
Dirk pushed himself into a sitting position. For a long time, he said nothing, just stared at her. The warm, dim light of the room cast shadows on his muscles, making them seem larger.
She wanted to go to him. Crush her lips against his. Let him use his lips and hands to convince her that everything would be all right. The world had seemed so right the last time she kissed him. Before Cass ripped a hole in her view of the world. Before she learned that monsters were real, and living in Los Angeles. Rachel braced her hands against the arm of the chair. Sooner or later they had to talk.
“What are you?” Rachel wrapped her arms around herself, as if the support would cushion her from the blow of his words.
“I’m a shifter,” he said. “There are people like me; you saw a lot of them at the masquerade. You just didn’t know it.”
That much she knew. It didn’t seem likely that there were only two shifters in the world.
“Only bears?” she asked.
He pulled his legs up on the bed and crossed them in front of him. “Some can turn into wolves. Some can turn into panthers or tigers. I can turn into a bear.”
Rachel nodded, and tried to process the information. Hearing him say the words gave the situation a heavy finality. But it was information, and that gave her a foundation to cling to in this strange new world.
“What about Cyrus? Miranda?” she asked.
He nodded. The slight movement made his abs ripple under the light. Rachel struggled to tear her eyes away from them. “Them too,” he said.
“Louis is a rat, right? I mean he can turn into a rat?”
Dirk laughed. The sound cut through the heavy air in the room. “A mountain lion, actually.”
She scoffed. “Pretty twitchy for a mountain lion.”
A distinct look of relief cross Dirk’s face. “You’re taking this better than I thought you would.”
“If you’d told me you could do…that...when I first met you, I’d have said you were crazy. But seeing it…” She leaned forward and raked her fingers through her hair. The banter came so easily, and the urge to kiss him followed. Not yet. There were things she needed to know. Details to bring the picture into focus.
“Why did you run?” she asked. “Was it the stuff you were telling me by the lake?”
“Yes…and no. Cyrus gave me a choice. Marry or go to the unclaimed territory.”
“Marry Alexandra?” Even the bitch’s name made the hair on Rachel’s neck stand on end. “So you were headed for the unclaimed territory? Whatever that is.”
“Natural bears are solitary; human bears can’t afford to be for the most part. We live in family groups. Clans. The clans stake out territory along the coasts, but nobody claims the middle.”
“So he sends you to the unclaimed parts to plant a flag in his name.” The words tasted like bile in Rachel’s mouth. She’d known Cyrus was a son of a bitch, but treating his own
child like a pawn was a level of awful that she hadn’t thought anyone was capable of.
“Or die trying,” Dirk whispered. He pushed himself back along the cheap duvet and braced his back against the fake headboard glued to the wall. “When you found me at the lake, I was about to leave.”
The words stung more than they should have. Twenty-four hours ago she’d never even heard of Dirk Greenwood, but the fact that he was going to disappear from her life forever made her heart clench in her chest. “I sent Miranda a photo to prove I found you. She’s supposed to use it to make Cyrus back off, but he won’t.”
“No, he won’t.”
“You’ve got about six hours to get out. By then Cyrus will have sent another tracker after you.”
Dirk shook his head. “It’s not that simple. They’ll check the lake. They’ll find Cass’s body.”
“They’ll find a body mauled by a bear.” Rachel was sure she’d heard stories about bear attacks. Bears were moving into human areas more and more. The punishing drought strangled their food supply and forced them to find other sources.
“That’ll fool a human, but not a shifter. Trust me, he’ll send a shifter. And then they’ll have your scent.”
Rachel’s heart raced in her chest. “What do I have to do with anything?”
“Humans aren’t meant to know about us, Rachel. I can’t leave while you’re in danger. I’m not sure I can leave you at all.”
She rubbed her temples to keep the growing headache at bay. “This isn’t my fight. I don’t—”
He pushed himself to his feet and knelt in front of her, resting his hands against her knees. “I know you’ve felt it too, Rachel. When we’re together you must have felt it.” The confidence he’d had only a moment ago was completely gone from his voice. The now-familiar warmth spread from his fingers up her thighs.
“I don’t know what I feel,” she whispered as he caressed her. She could almost see the glowing warmth creeping up her leg. It had almost reached the bend of her hip now.
“There are stories,” he whispered. “Stories of shifters who find their true partner. You’d call it…a soul mate. I thought they were just stories, but now I’m not so sure.”
She shook her head to clear away the addicting vibrations his touch sent through her. “How romantic! You make it sound like it’s just hormones.”
“It’s so much more, Rachel.” He sat higher on his knees and slid his lips along her jaw. Her body melted against him. “Tell me you feel it, too.”
As he moved closer, Rachel became aware of his immense build. He loomed over her, and she felt tiny by comparison. It should have scared her, but she knew he would die before he let anyone hurt her. She wrapped her arms around him, and her breath came in ragged gasps. He was asking her to abandon everything she’d ever known, to accept not only his world, but also him. This wasn’t a one-night stand or awkward first date. This was monsters and love and nothing she’d ever thought she’d feel. It was destiny.
He held her there for the longest time. The seconds ticked by in Rachel’s mind. What happened next was her decision.
“I feel it too,” she whispered.
Dirk leaned forward to claim her lips. The kiss was sweet, at first, but then grew hotter, more insistent. He swept her from the chair into his lap, without breaking the kiss.
“You’re hurt,” she gasped into his parted lips.
“I’m fine. Almost healed.” He kissed her again. All words disappeared from her mind as he lifted her and laid her against the bed.
He was right, of course. She’d watched the jagged claw marks stitch themselves together. Watched as each turn of his body in the depths of sleep shed flecks of dried blood. By morning, all evidence of the brawl with Cass would have disappeared.
Dirk snaked his hand to cradle her neck and rained kisses down on her. Her hands slid along his muscular back. Her caressing fingers stopped to slide against every thin scratch. He’d spent most of the night shirtless in one form or another, but Rachel couldn’t remember seeing any scars. Another reason not to trust her eyes.
His firm hands pushed the paper-thin T-shirt over her belly. His hot tongue replaced the flimsy fabric. She moaned at the contact, and he slid his finger into her mouth. Rachel caressed the probing finger with her tongue. His kisses moved down her soft belly as his free hand snaked into her bra to caress her full breasts.
Then suddenly he was gone. Her eyes flew open in confusion, only to see him staring down at her, one hand working at the button of her jeans.
“You can stop this now,” he whispered, his breath ragged, his hazel eyes, always so calm, now burned with his desire for her.
Rachel never thought of herself as ugly, but under his loving gaze, she felt beautiful. Powerful in a way that she never had before.
“I don’t want to stop you.” She pulled him closer.
He leaned down and claimed her lips once more. The button gave way and he slid his hand over her slick folds.
She gasped in pleasure, the motion granting him access to her mouth, and he caressed her tongue with his. He slid his body alongside hers, wrapping himself around her like a blanket and leaving a trail of kisses along her neck. Rachel writhed under his touch. She hadn’t been touched like this in longer than she could remember, and she didn’t know how long she could stand it.
Dirk’s lips kissed a path over her breasts, stopping to take one firm nipple into his mouth as his fingers slid into her. She closed her eyes and let the gentle throb of pleasure wash over her. Some part of her was aware when his free hand slid the stiff material of her jeans away, only for the exposed flesh to be covered in a flurry of kisses and caresses.
He moved between her thighs, tickling the sensitive flesh there with the stubble of his beard. Then she felt his rough, wet tongue brush against her. She gripped the threadbare sheets, as he tasted her, her hips rising to meet his soft tongue and probing fingers.
“Dirk,” she moaned as she threaded her fingers through his scruffy hair. She opened her eyes and looked down at him. His blazing hazel eyes were locked on her as he savored her taste. She writhed under his skilled fingers that found and caressed her most sensitive parts.
The sight of him, of them, sent her tumbling over the edge. The world went black in front of her eyes as she fell over the edge moaning and writhing. Her thighs clamped around him as she leaned back and let the waves of pleasure crash over her.
And then he was back beside her, stroking her side and pressing gentle kisses to her lips.
“No one’s going to hurt you, Rachel,” he whispered into her ear. “I won’t let them.”
Rachel pressed herself against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. She didn’t have to look in his eyes to know he meant it. He would protect her for as long as he could, even if it meant trading his life for hers.
Fate, destiny, whatever this was, it was more powerful than anything Rachel had ever felt.
8
Dirk listened to the quiet sound of Rachel’s breathing as she slept curled on the cheap motel mattress. He wanted so badly to join her, to let her curves and warmth hug his body as she dreamed, but he didn’t dare. It was unlikely anyone followed their scent all the way down from the lake, but if they did Dirk had to be ready to fight them off.
While Rachel slept, he had organized the room as best he could. He’d moved the plastic bedside table in front of the door, and angled the armchair between the window and the bed. The hasty redecoration swallowed almost all of the walking space in the room, but it gave Rachel a bit more protection.
He gazed down at her, watching her chest rise and fall with each breath, feeling like he could stare at her all night. Dirk hadn’t realized how dull his senses had become in the year he couldn’t shift. Now, since his grizzly awakened, he knew what he’d been missing. He could see the soft folds in her plump lips that made them especially sweet to kiss. He could hear her heartbeat even from across the room.
It was the taste of her that captivated him.
It clung to his tongue and mingled with her scent. It was like honey and jasmine, sweet, fragrant. He wanted to savor it again, to savor her again. But it would have to wait. When the sun rose, they’d need to put distance between them and the Greenwood compound.
His stomach churned at the thought. He didn’t regret killing Cass; the raging bear would never have let Rachel leave the woods alive. For Cass, it wasn’t about the rules. Humans weren’t supposed to know about shifters, but they didn’t kill humans who found out. They paid them, and those who couldn’t be silenced with money usually found themselves in a psychiatric hospital for their trouble.
It wasn’t about the rules. It was about Alexandra. She would have told anyone who would listen about the engagement, and news would spread fast that she’d been tossed aside for a mere human, with none of her money or gifts.
If Alexandra were a more forgiving woman, Dirk could settle most of the trouble by claiming Rachel. He only needed to make love to her once to cement the bond. But he couldn’t do that to her, not until she understood what it would mean to be with him. Thank God for the wounds Cass gave him. They made a convenient enough excuse for now.
He looked down at the curves of Rachel’s body beneath the thin sheet. There was no need to rush, he reminded himself. Once they were farther away from the compound, they could take things as slowly as Rachel needed. Though he prayed that wasn’t too slow. The taste of her was intoxicating, and he wanted more.
His ringing cell phone snapped him back to reality, and his heart dropped as he looked at the familiar number.
“I’m all right, Mama,” he said.
There were a few seconds of silence on the other end, and then Cyrus spoke. “Glad to hear it, now get your ass back to the house.”
Dirk jerked his head around the room in reflex, as if Cyrus had somehow materialized through the phone. But there was still only he and Rachel. He released a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “I can’t do that, sir.”