by Anya Nowlan
“Oh, I’m from Wyoming, actually!” Tess said, and Jackson gulped down a breath, watching the curve of her lips as she spoke. “Born and raised. I always loved the outdoors. I spent most of my youth hiking and camping with my family and it just kind of stuck. Then, when it was time to go off to college, I was sure I was going to become a lawyer. But, on the very last day of confirming my enrollments, I changed my mind. I decided to get a degree in Animal Conservation instead, and the rest, as they say, is history.” She took a sip of her wine, and the sight of the liquid disappearing behind her lips was pure agony. The image of her tongue sliding against his and their lips mashing together was so clear in his mind that his skin tingled at the thought of it.
“What changed your mind?” he asked, enjoying the slight blush that was tinting her cheeks. He could see that her breathing was getting a bit faster and shorter as they talked – perhaps the physical closeness was having the same effect on her as it had on him.
Tess hung her head for a moment, grinning to herself.
“Well, it’s really silly, actually. My dad took me for one last camping trip at our favorite forest. It had been a long day of hiking when we finally set up camp. Dad went off to look for some firewood and I took a walk to a nearby stream to get some fresh water. Before I could step out of the shade, I saw a big mama grizzly walk upstream with her two cubs in tow.” She looked up at him and Jackson could feel his stomach twisting into knots. His bear was already pleased with her, and every word she said just made him more elated.
“She was so majestic. Huge, obviously, but that wasn’t all there was to it. She kept looking around, keeping an eye out for any danger – the perfect picture of motherly love – while her cubs tumbled around and played in the shallow water. There was just something about her at that time and place that made me fall in love with the power and the restraint of bears, especially grizzlies. I wanted to know more about them, and so I changed my major. My father didn’t mind. In fact, he encouraged me to do what I loved and I couldn’t be more thankful for that.”
She positively beamed as she told the story, her eyes taking on a tint of softness that he could drown in. Slowly, he nodded, wanting her to keep talking. He wanted, no, needed to know everything about her. His bear felt that it was the only way he could protect her, while the man was just hungry to know more about the woman whose presence made him into a fumbling fool.
“Does your father still hike?” he asked. Tess shook her head and instantly Jackson knew that he had struck a painful topic. He inched forward as he saw the joy seep from her eyes and be replaced by a deep anguish that shattered his heart. Although Jackson wanted to hug her against him and shield her from whichever memory was inflicting such obvious pain, he remained in his place.
“No. He passed away a few years ago, a bit before I finished my PhD.”
“I’m sorry,” Jackson said, aching thoughts flooding back to him. It hadn’t been too long since he had lost his father as well. The man, the bear, had been a great source of wisdom and a grounding force in his life. Jackson had never known how much he missed the grouchy old bear before he wasn’t around anymore. “I lost my father some years ago as well. It’s a difficult step to conquer.” His voice was solemn, a certain sense of camaraderie forming between them that he hadn’t noticed before. Tess gripped his shoulder with one hand, squeezing slightly. She was compassionate even when struggling with her own loss, and a hot jolt went through his body when she touched him. All of a sudden every nerve felt alive, and when she withdrew her hand, he was struck by an incredible sense of loss. The bear in him roared with need. She was exactly who he had been looking for – there was little doubt of that.
“I’m sorry for your loss as well, Jackson. But thank you. That’s when I decided to move to California, though. I got a nice offer, even if it had nothing to do with grizzlies. Still, I couldn’t get away from them. I kept doing my research from my free time and publishing papers, which is why they eventually invited me up here. It’s interesting to be in the great outdoors again. It’s so familiar, so much like home. It’s as if I had never left the forests to begin with.” Jackson was glad to see a smile forming at the corners of her lips again. She seemed to hesitate for a second, and Jackson took the moment to take a swig of his drink, welcoming the burning sensation as the liquid went down his throat. It cleared his head a little from the love struck haze he found himself in. Her next words sent him tumbling back into it, though.
“I was afraid to go somewhere with so much wilderness. I thought it would remind me too much of my father.”
“So what made it easier on you?” he asked, putting his half empty glass on the small end table.
“The company. I don’t think I could’ve lasted more than a day or two alone, Jackson.” Her eyes sparkled with mischief, and Jackson felt his heart swelling. Her scent assaulted his senses again, but instead of fighting it, he fell into it headfirst. She was so much his opposite – her liveliness and openness made it seem as if she had been created to smooth out his edges. He smiled, genuine happiness lighting up his features.
“I’m glad to be of service, Tess. And I’ve enjoyed having you here, despite signs to the contrary. I apologize. I’m a difficult man to get to know.”
“So tell me something about yourself? Make it easier on me!” Tess said, leaning forward with interest. She was so close that he could just dip forward and she’d be in his arms right away. The mere thought of it set him ablaze.
“Well,” he stammered, trying to think of something to tell her that wouldn’t seem entirely odd. A werebear that lived deep in the midst of a forest and was the Alpha of a major northwestern clan really didn’t have that much going on that wasn’t tied to werebear business. And that, he was afraid, would be something that she wouldn’t be able to handle just yet; no matter how much she loved bears. No, he’d have to take it slow. Give her a chance to like him before she had to like his bear as well. “I was born near here and have lived here all my life. My brothers left a few years ago, but I stayed. It’s just always felt right. I love the lands and the people here, even if there aren’t that many of them. I don’t think I could handle California.”
“Why not?”
“Too hot. Not enough bears.” They both grinned. “I like staying near my roots. This land has given me so much and I want to give back.”
“Are you sharing it with anyone?” Tess asked, her voice wavering just a little. Jackson frowned, but his expression cleared quickly and he grinned, shaking his head.
“No, it’s just me. The right woman just hasn’t come along yet. Or, well, maybe she has,” he said, keeping his dark eyes on her. Tess’s blush got deeper and she raised her glass to her lips. She had already drunk all of her wine and now lowered the glass awkwardly. Suddenly, she looked like a deer caught in the headlights, confused and stricken. Tess smiled slightly and then stood up, rushing past him to go fill her glass again. Jackson fell back on the couch, grabbing another glance at her shapely body as she pressed past him. He smirked to himself, having caught the twinge of lust that had passed through her eyes. He hoped she wanted him as badly as he wanted her, because he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off of her for too much longer. The bear knew that they had found their mate. Jackson couldn’t wait to make her his, body and mind.
CHAPTER FIVE
For the next few days, Tess was given the opportunity to fall more and more in love with the Montana countryside. The majestic snowcapped peaks, the rolling valleys and thick forests enveloped her with a sense of peace and belonging. She had never been quite at home as she was at Jackson’s side in the wilderness or in his little cottage, cooking dinner and chatting by the light of the fire. The reserved man was beginning to open up to her, and she had even caught a few bears on video thanks to her hidden camera. As quickly as her work was leaping forward, her relationship with the secretive ranger seemed to be growing as well.
It made her positively beam with self-satisfaction. For several reasons t
hat she was finding difficult to explain to herself, his acceptance and friendship mattered a lot to her. His presence made her glow, and the invisible force field he had about him had slowly opened to her, letting the feisty redhead in and closing again tightly behind her. He was the kind of man that did not make connections easily, but she thought that even he couldn’t deny that they had good chemistry that was only getting better. The way he had looked at her when he spoke about finding the right woman still made her stomach twist with butterflies and her knees tremble under her.
The only shadow to her cheer was the confrontation between Jackson and Ryder. The picture of the two men rearing against one another like two bears poised for battle left her feeling uncomfortable and worried. Ryder scared her senseless, but there was heat in danger and she was left shaken in the face of it. Of course, Jackson had been right there, ready to attack the cold, dangerous man and defend her honor. She could just imagine herself thanking Jackson lavishly for coming to her rescue. Every time her thoughts wandered over to that particular recess of her mind, she couldn’t concentrate for a good half an hour before the lustful bubble in the pit of her stomach died down.
It’s just a silly fantasy, Tess. The curvy scientist does not get the hot ranger.
Yet, every morning when she saw him again, her teeth grazed across her lips and she was overcome with a sense of wanting that bewildered and nearly blinded her. She had never been rendered quite as incapable of controlling herself as she was around Jackson.
By the time the first week of her trip was coming to a close, Tess was feeling rather at home in Montana. She had taken over the morning coffee duty and even cooked breakfast most of the time, learning that Jackson’s appetite was about three times that of a normal man. They spent most of their days on the reserve, putting up cameras and checking or setting up Jackson’s traps (there was a coyote infestation on a few of the mountains and Jackson had vowed to get rid of it), and most nights in the lodge, going over the videos and chatting until it was far too late.
She had learned a lot about him, even though it was hard to focus on his words when her whole body quaked with need for him. He had told her that he had built the lodge with his own two hands and Tess had a sneaking suspicion that there were a few others in the area with the Arder name on it, but he wouldn’t confirm or deny her guesses. As little as he talked about his brothers, she was sure they were still a big part of his life. When they had come across a large herd of Bighorn sheep on one of their outings, he had told her that he had always felt that the reserve deserved to be treated with the utmost care. The animals needed protection from the greed of men, and he had made it his life’s calling to keep the wild lands safe from harm as much as he could. Of course, there were limits to what a ranger could do, but that just meant he had to get more inventive.
Tess hadn’t dared to ask what he considered as inventive ways to serve and protect, but by the way he carried himself, she had no doubt that he could remain a lot more levelheaded in the face of danger than she could. Unless that danger was Ryder, of course. Nevertheless, she felt warm and fuzzy in the presence of his protective streak.
It had taken her days of well-timed begging and pleading to get Jackson to agree to go on a longer hike into the lands. She was dying to see Yellowhead and she was certain that the area could yield interesting results come spring. The bears congregated there after waking from hibernation to fish and settle their forgotten land disputes, and she wanted to catch it all on tape. Her plan was to take a few cameras and set them up for a few months until she could return to retrieve them. While her first priority was getting the foundation some solid data about why there seemed to be a boom of new grizzlies in the areas, she was also interested in long-term information and a peek into the bears’ lives. Tess hadn’t foreseen that getting Jackson to budge to her request would be quite as difficult, but after a few days she got the sneaking suspicion that the man was taunting her as much as he was actually opposed to leaving the lodge and grounds unattended for so long.
Tess had caught him a few times having heated conversations with men and women clearly from the areas, just as tall and broad and impressive as he was. They came to him in the evenings and Jackson always made sure to be out of hearing range, but by their animated body language and the deep frowns most of them wore, she had to assume it was something more worrisome than a fallen tree or problematic electricity. Still, she figured it best not to pry, and he seemed to appreciate the gesture. When he had finally agreed to go, under the strict understanding that she was going to have to haul ass and they were going to have to pack light, she had almost jumped for joy.
Tess had turned into a flurry of packing and preparing and by the first light of dawn the next morning, they had set off towards their goal of reaching the coveted river source. They began from one of the crooked bends of the river and trekked upward, driving as deep as they could before abandoning the car. Jackson knew just about every inch of the area like the back of his hand and he picked the course as if he himself were a compass, pointing in the right direction. Tess couldn’t help but be in awe of the man. She kept nagging on herself for being a giant sap, but he was, for lack of a better word, dreamy – everything a rugged woodsy guy was supposed to be – and she couldn’t get enough of him. He seemed to have gone from treating her as if she was an irritatingly fragile bauble to looking at her like she had more than enough worth and moxie to make up for being from Wyoming and wasting his time. She couldn’t lie, it felt good.
Their trek took her up one steep incline after the next, always upward and onward. The air grew colder as they were approaching the end of their first day, Tess’s feet burning from trying to keep up with Jackson. He had given her a few bemused glances during the day, egging her on to keep up with him, though she had most definitely noticed him slowing down a few times on account of her and not being a dick about it. It was appreciated and noted. She almost felt like she was studying him as much as she was the grizzlies.
He had the same kind of wildness and animalistic appeal as the great bears had, and she had kept strict mental notes about him. It was more a force of habit than something she did consciously, but she found great satisfaction in tying up the bits and pieces here and there to create a cohesive understanding of the enigmatic park ranger. That, and it gave her so much more fuel to amuse herself with at night. As much as he appealed to her mentally, she wanted equally as much, if not more, to tear his clothes off and do a whole plethora of unspeakable things to him. Just the thought of him made her wet, and it got all sorts of uncomfortable during the long hikes, where she stared at his ass for most of the day.
Tess’s nose was pinched by cold as Jackson reached his hand to her and pulled her up over a small ridge. She heaved for breath, the sun beginning to slowly set and the cold becoming more than a nuisance. They’d been hauling ass all day and she had been completely sore since the first day she arrived on his doorstep. Keeping up with him when he was in a particular hurry was no easy task either. His wide palm rested on her shoulder for a moment too long, lingering just enough for Tess to notice and glance up at him. He retracted his hand and exhaled, his lush lips pressing into a line as she caught him in a surprising moment of weakness.
“We’re here,” he said, sweeping a hand across the sight that stood before them – the horizon cut off by high mountains and countless little streams coming together to form a wide pool cupped in a small valley. It carved a path to one side before turning into the river that they knew as Yellowhead, trailing down into the forests below and feeding the lands with water. Dense, green forests lined the sides of the pools and part of the way they had come up from. Tess smiled brightly, clapping her hands together.
“It’s gorgeous!” she squealed and burst forward, running to the water even though her legs ached and the grass crunched with chill under her boots. Jackson’s chuckling filled the air, only making her grin wider.
Jackson built the camp while Tess explored the area, armed with
a flashlight and one of the cameras she intended to set up. The area was perfect for grizzlies – fresh water that was a favored site for fish, thick woods to hide their comings and goings, and enough space to avoid getting on each other’s nerves. If she had been given a choice, she would have set up a house right then and there and never left. By the time Tess returned to the campsite, there was a happy fire crackling in front of the tent and Jackson was making something that smelled suspiciously like beans in a small pot over the fire. Tess plopped down next to him on a sleeping mat he had rolled out, inhaling the scent of the food as she stretched her legs out.
“This is incredible,” she sighed happily, watching the full sky of stars above them as the light faded into nothing. Night was falling quickly all around them, leaving them with only each other’s company and the sounds of the wilderness boxing them in from each side. She had never been afraid of what could lurk in the dark and the peculiar rustlings and chirps soothed her more than anything. Tess leant back on her elbows, unzipping the front of her jacket as the cold seeped from her bones and her feet took the welcomed break. It had been a long, hard day, but she was in the best possible company, and the evening was turning out to be just about perfect.
Well, I could think of ways to make this even better, she mused to herself, grinning wickedly.