His to Defend (A BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance)

by Elena Aitken

  “Ashley.” He took another step. “Give me the bat.”

  “I want him gone, Gabe.”

  “Officer, she’s bat-shit crazy.” The man on the ground, who clearly didn’t have a full understanding of how dangerous a woman with a bat could be, piped up. “All I said was—”

  “That she was your sister.” Ashley raised the bat higher. “From what I saw, she is definitely not your sister!”

  “She is my sister. Ash, I love you. You need to calm down.”

  “Don’t tell me what to do!”

  “Okay, okay.” Gabe had to resist the urge to laugh. It wasn’t funny. At least it wouldn’t be if the man ended up with a smashed-in skull. Which he didn’t actually think was very likely. “Ashley, give me the bat.” He kept one eye on the woman and one eye on the man who’d managed to get to his feet. “And you, what’s your name?”

  “His name is fu—”

  “Okay, okay.” Gabe looked pointedly at the woman. “I get it. He’s no good.”

  “Hey! I—”

  “You’re not!”

  “Ashley, give me the bat.” He now stood between the couple. “Now.” She did as she was told and Gabe took the bat in hand before he turned to the man. “As for you…”

  “Ryan.”

  “Ryan,” Gabe repeated. “Why don’t you come with me and I’ll take you home.”

  “This is my—”

  “This is not your home!”

  The situation wasn’t going to be easily defused. At least not while everyone was still so heated. Gabe also knew that unless something had changed dramatically since the last time he’d visited Ashley in a somewhat similar situation, it was not Ryan’s home. At least not legally. “Is there somewhere you can stay, Ryan? At least until the two of you can talk about this with calmer heads?”

  The other man nodded. “Blackwood Ranch. I’m a friend of Brian’s. I’m doing some work for him.”

  Brian Blackwood ran a ranch just outside town. He was a nice guy, especially for a wolf shifter, but Gabe did question some of the company he kept. Or, more specifically, some of the ranch hands he hired. “Okay.” Gabe gestured to his cruiser. “Get in. I’ll run you up to the ranch.” He waited until the man did as he was told before looking back to Ashley and handing her bat back. “As for you, you really need to start making some better choices in your personal life, don’t you think?”

  For the first time, Ashley looked something other than mad. She wiped at her face in an effort not to cry. “I’m trying, Gabe. I am. I really thought Ryan was different. I actually think I might be in love with him.”

  “Well, maybe she was his sister?” Gabe shrugged. The last thing he wanted to do was get in the middle of whatever was going on, but he couldn’t help but have a soft spot for the woman. It wasn’t her fault that her taste in men was astonishingly bad.

  This was the second wolf shifter he’d escorted from her house. Not that Ashley knew that. As a human, she had no idea that so many shifters lived among her in town. But for whatever reason, she seemed to have a radar for the dogs.

  Obviously she’d actually liked this one. Gabe gave her one last encouraging smile before he got back in his cruiser to deposit Ryan out on the ranch, where hopefully he wouldn’t cause too much more trouble. Maybe if Ashley tried dating a bear shifter, things would work out differently for her. Not that he was signing up for the job. He had enough on his plate for casual dating and nothing about Ashley was casual, even if she were his type. Which she was not.

  No, he’d stick to what he did best.

  Work.

  And home.

  Simple. Just the way he liked it.

  In the last year, everything had changed. Zoe barely recognized herself somedays, and she’d had time to get used to the new version of Zoe. No wonder Chloe was freaking out.

  And she was freaking out.

  Zoe kept her smile pasted to her face, but her eyes narrowed in challenge at her sister, who, despite her outward appearance of staying calm and collected, was no doubt losing it just beneath the surface. Zoe knew Chloe well, and she definitely knew that ever since she’d shown up on the ridge twenty-four hours ago, her sister was working double time to figure out what was going on. It also didn’t hurt that Zoe had overheard Chloe and Luke, her mate, talking earlier that morning when they thought they were alone.

  “I’ve been out here.” Zoe waved her arm around to encompass the beautiful forest.

  “Don’t get smart with me.” Chloe crossed her arms and widened her stance. “You know exactly what I mean. Where have you been, Zoe? Mom and Dad have been freaking out.”

  She sighed and let her head drop back. “I’m sure they haven’t been freaking out.” She used her fingers to make air quotes. “I just took a little trip. I needed some space.”

  “Space?” Chloe jerked her head in the direction of the lodge and the buildings. “Let’s go back to the Den so you can tell me about it.”

  “I really don’t want to talk about it.” And she didn’t. But Zoe followed Chloe anyway. There really was no point in arguing too much. After all, she needed a place to stay and it had been her decision to seek Chloe out in her new home at the ridge. She probably shouldn’t be too hostile.

  They walked in silence for a few minutes and Zoe was beginning to think Chloe had actually respected her decision not to talk. But as soon as the buildings came into view, Chloe turned to face her on the trail. Her face had softened, and so she no longer looked pissed off, but that wasn’t going to sway Zoe’s decision to talk. Not yet.

  “Look, Zoe.” Chloe reached out and took her hand in hers. “I don’t know what’s going on, but Mom and Dad seem to think you’re having some sort of breakdown.”

  “I’m not. I just wanted—”

  “I know.” Chloe cut her off and gave her a smile. “I know you’re not having a breakdown. But you do have to admit, your behavior is a little out of the ordinary.” She didn’t wait for a response. “But I’m glad you’re here,” Chloe continued. “I really am. And you’re welcome to stay at the ridge as long as you need to.”

  “Really?”

  Chloe nodded. “Of course. And I’m not even going to make you talk.” She tilted her head and added, “At least not yet.” Of course. “But I want you to know that I’m here if you want to. Because obviously—”

  “Seriously, Chloe.”

  “Okay.” She dropped her hand. “But I am going to call Mom and—”

  “No.” Zoe froze and crossed her arms tight across her chest. “You’re not going to call them.”

  “Yes.” Chloe faced off with her. “I am. They need to know.”

  “They don’t need to know anything.” She didn’t mean to, but Zoe struggled to control her voice. Her bear raged just below the surface. Over the last few months, she’d done a pretty good job at controlling her bear, but there were still times when her emotions got the best of her.

  Which was why it was easier to stay away from anyone who was going to push her too hard. “I mean it, Chloe.” She stared at her sister, willing her to understand and stop pushing. “Don’t tell them anything.”

  “Zoe. That’s not fair.”

  “No.” She shook her head and, without another look, took off running toward the Den and more specifically, her motorbike.

  “Zoe!” Chloe was hot on her heels but Zoe already had her keys out of her pocket. The helmet was strapped on the back, and she shoved it on her head before throwing one leg over and firing up the bike.

  She’d already started out of the yard, but stopped in front of Chloe, who stood on the pathway with her arms crossed, her face red with the effort of running, and probably anger, too.

  “Don’t make me regret coming here, Chloe.” She pleaded with her eyes to her sister, who once upon a time used to be her best friend. Would she still, after all these years, feel a loyalty toward her baby sister? “Please.”

  Zoe didn’t wait for Chloe to answer before revving the engine and taking off down the twist
y mountain road that would take her into town, and with any luck, something—or someone—to distract her.

  * * *

  CHAPTER TWO

  * * *

  It hadn’t taken long to drop the wolf off at Blackwood Ranch. The way he always did, Gabe gave the man a pep talk about women and how they could be temperamental. He refrained from asking whether Ashley was right, and Ryan had cheated on her. Beyond wanting the best for the woman he didn’t really know all that well, it was none of his business.

  They’d sort it out together.

  Or, it wouldn’t be long before Gabe was paying them both another visit.

  He was just about to drive away, when Gabe noticed a familiar truck parked farther down the yard, closer to the stables. It belonged to Grizzly Ridge and the Jackson brothers who lived at the property next door. With his hand up as a visor against the sun, it wasn’t hard to spot Kade Jackson, the youngest of the brothers, leaning up against the fence, chatting with Brian Blackwood.

  It was Brian who spotted him first and waved him over.

  “Don’t tell me one of my guys got into trouble again.” Brian shook Gabe’s hand heartily in greeting. “Not that I don’t like to see you, man. But…”

  “Just a minor domestic.” Gabe turned and gave Kade a slap on the back man hug before tucking his thumbs into his belt. “Nothing major. Ashley Morris—”

  Brian groaned. “Which of them is messed up with Ashley this time?”

  “Ryan,” Gabe confessed. “But I actually think she likes this one. It could work out.”

  “Yeah, right.” Brian rolled his eyes.

  Kade chuckled. “Maybe you should pick some better ranch hands, Blackwood?”

  “Not all of us are so lucky to have a shit ton of family members to work for free, Jackson.” It was friendly ribbing, but there was an undercurrent of truth there as well, and maybe even resentment. The relations between the two families hadn’t always been so friendly. Mostly it had been a misunderstanding with one of the Blackwood cousins, but Gabe still wondered whether the two families weren’t just one more misunderstanding from a feud. That was the thing between wolf shifters and bear shifters. It wasn’t often that two alpha clans could live in such close proximity without it turning out badly for at least one of the families.

  “Well, either way,” Gabe jumped in. “I hope Ashley gets some better taste in men sometime soon.”

  “Ahh, but then you’d be out of a job.” Kade punched him good-naturedly in the arm.

  “Somehow I doubt that, with the way things are growing around here. You guys both look like you’re booming.” Gabe didn’t even have to look around to see that all the horses that were usually in the stables were currently out on trail rides. The full parking lot already told him that Blackwood Ranch was likely at capacity for guests. And Grizzly Ridge had been almost fully booked since the day they opened as Montana’s newest eco-lodge, just over a year ago.

  “We can barely keep up,” Kade said. “Not that I’m complaining,” he added quickly. “But we seem to have almost as many people staying on as leaving. It’s putting a bit of a cramp on our accommodations.”

  “Which is why he’s here.” Brian laughed. “Not that I can give you too many rooms, Jackson. Not even for family. At least not once the busier winter season starts up.”

  Gabe looked between the men. “Who do you have staying on at the ridge?” And before Kade could answer, Gabe added, “Besides Harper’s mom and—”

  “Nina and Ryker?” He laughed but he shook his head. Only two weeks earlier, Kade’s oldest brother Axel had gotten married to Harper, which wasn’t usually a shifter tradition, but seeing that Harper was a half breed, the wedding was important to her. And to her mother, Shelly, who’d made it to the ridge for the celebrations. It turned out that Shelly wasn’t in a hurry to leave, though, especially because she’d had the chance to meet her brand-new granddaughter.

  “That’s right,” Gabe said. “I forgot about Nina and Ryker. But aren’t they building themselves a cabin?”

  “Isn’t everyone?”

  “You guys are going to run out of woods over there, if you keep building cabins.” Brian crossed his arms and grinned, but Kade wasn’t laughing.

  “Can’t turn away family, man.”

  Ryker was cousin to the Jackson brothers, and an alpha in his own right who, like his cousins, had left his overbearing grandfather and happily settled on Grizzly Ridge with his new—human—mate, Nina. The Jackson patriarch had old-fashioned views about how his grandchildren should be choosing their mates, and considering none of them had chosen what he would consider an acceptable match, they’d all chosen exile. At least it was working out pretty well for them.

  Unlike Gabe’s own, self-imposed, exile from his own clan. Not that it was working out poorly. It was just…well, it just was.

  But it never failed to make him a little homesick for his own clan and something that never was, when he saw the way the Jacksons stuck together.

  “But it’s not just them.” Kade was still talking. “Now it seems like we have even more guests. Chloe’s sister showed up out of the blue the other night.” He shook his head and laughed. “I don’t know much about her yet, but I’m not going to lie—it’s pretty funny to see the way Chloe gets fired up when she’s around.”

  The men stood around bullshitting for another few minutes before Gabe finally made his exit. His shift was almost over, and it would be good to do one more sweep of Main Street before signing off for the night.

  “I’ll see you guys in a few days for the citizen’s patrol meeting. And you’re helping out at Halloween?”

  With the town growing so quickly that the police force was having trouble keeping up, it had been Gabe’s idea to employ a group of volunteers from the community to help out with some of the more basic issues around town. An idea both the town and the townspeople had jumped all over.

  “Absolutely.”

  “See you soon, Wilder.”

  The sun was starting to set as Gabe made his way down the lane and off the ranch. He stopped the cruiser on the drive to adjust the visor. But when he dropped it down, a photograph fell to his lap and he immediately flinched. He held the picture in two fingers and silently cursed himself. He’d meant to tuck it back into his wallet after the last time he’d looked at it.

  Without thinking, he moved to fold it along the worn crease and do just that, but something stopped him.

  He liked hanging out with the Jacksons, but there was part of being their friend that sometimes got a little harder than it should. In the last year, all the brothers, and now the cousins, were pairing up and falling in love. But not just falling in love. They were finding their mates. Their fated mates.

  Gabe looked at the picture and stroked over the image of the brown-haired girl in it with his thumb. He’d had that once. Sometimes it felt like a million years ago. And, in some respects, it was.

  He no longer kissed the picture the way he used to. Time changed things. Instead, he turned it over and his face split into a smile at the image of the toddler, a younger version of him, held in his arms as the three of them posed for what would be their last portrait as a family four years ago.

  Ashton.

  His son was no longer so little, but he still had Gabe’s heart. Completely.

  He was just about to tuck the photo away safely when a flurry of dust and gravel whipped past on the dirt road in front of him.

  “What the hell?”

  Instinct kicked in as Gabe flipped on the lights and sirens and, with the photo tossed to the seat next to him, put the cruiser into gear and tore after the reckless driver.

  So much for a slow shift.

  Who did Chloe think she was? She was a grown adult. Her parents did not need to know where she was every second of every day.

  Zoe revved the engine, and kicked the shifter, changing the gear on her bike as she pressed down on the throttle. Speed. She needed speed. Craved it. The rush of danger she felt every time
she rounded a tight corner, almost laying the bike down before once again shifting the gears and hitting the gas, made her feel alive.

  She wasn’t always a thrill seeker. In fact, the old Zoe would never have gotten on the back of a motorbike, let alone driven one as fast as she did now.

  But the old Zoe was long gone, left behind in a cloud of dust and gravel, just like the life she thought she’d have. And good riddance, as far as Zoe was concerned. Because the way she lived now was exactly what she should have been doing all along.

  Moving from town to town, finding one new adventure after another, trying new things, meeting new people, pushing the bounds of safety straight into the danger zone: that was living.

  The mountain road that led from Grizzly Ridge down to town was twisty and tight, but that only made her speed up. By the time Zoe saw the flashing lights and heard the siren behind her, it was already way too late.

  Shit.

  The last thing she needed was a ticket. Chloe would definitely have something to say about that.

  Zoe eased her hand off the throttle and slowed the bike. She was almost off the dirt road and into town, so she navigated the bike easily down the road before pulling over safely on the pavement at the edge of town.

  It only took a few minutes before she heard the sound of a car door slamming shut and the distinctive footsteps behind her. Her senses were always on high alert after she’d been riding. She could see, hear, and scent things much more strongly. And there was a scent in the air, too. Something besides the thick, fresh pine that filled the air in the Montana mountains. Something…different.

  Cedar and…oranges?

  Every cell in her body vibrated, but somehow she managed to stay upright and wait for the officer.