Jackson Valley Shifters Complete Series: Bear Shifter Romance

by Candace Ayers

  * * *

  Later that afternoon, he was surprised by the sounds of a car pulling into the driveway. He wasn’t expecting Red for a good couple of hours, but sure enough, it was her rental car that pulled up. She emerged gracefully from the car as Derek climbed down the ladder, wiping his hands on a rag and somewhat futilely trying to make himself more presentable.

  “I’m starting to think it was a tornado, not a storm,” Red announced as she surveyed the yard.

  “Yeah. Hit the house pretty hard.”

  He held his hand up to shade his eyes against the sun, studying her. These past few days, he was starting to thoroughly enjoy witnessing Red in “relaxed” mode. It suited her. He found himself doubly grateful that he’d decided to take the break. She had obviously needed it as much as he had.

  “You’re early,” he stated.

  “Yeah.” She smiled warmly. “I hope you don’t mind? Chloe was bored silly, and Zach is completely infatuated with her, so I figured I’d come out a little earlier rather than later.”

  “Of course, I don’t mind. I like the company.”

  “You know, you could come to town, if you ever wanted,” she suggested, but Derek wasn’t entirely convinced by her tone. She sounded strangely hesitant.

  “I’m good up here, thanks,” he drawled.

  Derek mentally reminded himself that he was a job to Red, and imposing on her time with her son wasn’t going to be welcome. Still. At least he had her for an hour or so now.

  “You want a soda?”

  “Sure,” she nodded.

  Red followed him up onto the porch where he opened the door for her and gestured for Red to step inside. The moment she got within six inches of him, a deep, crimson blush appeared on her cheeks.

  “Put a shirt on,” she snapped, stepping past him into the house.

  Derek smirked. He hadn’t thought about the fact he was bare chested, and certainly didn’t think it would be something that bothered Red, of all people.

  “Sorry, ma’am.”

  “Don’t get smart with me, Holt. Just put something on.”

  He grinned all the way to the bedroom, picking up a white T-shirt from the bed and dutifully pulling it on before heading back through to the kitchen. Red had already taken out two sodas and placed them on the counter.

  Derek stepped behind her, opening the cupboard where he kept the glasses. Red cleared her throat. They’d suddenly become awkwardly aware of one another. Derek found his gaze fixed on the back of her neck, where a tendril of hair brushed against her pale skin. He wanted to touch her there, to feel the perspiration cool against her skin, to see how her body would respond to his touch.

  “Here,” he said gruffly, passing her a glass.

  “Thanks.”

  Derek’s heart was pumping wildly in his chest.

  He could suddenly hardly bear to be in the same vicinity as Red; her scent, her presence, the sound of her voice overwhelmed him completely. He either had to take her in his arms now or get out of the kitchen.

  “Taking this outside,” he said quickly, taking the beer and striding from the kitchen to the safety of the porch.

  Outside he felt safer.

  It wasn’t meant to be this way. He couldn’t treat Red the way he treated other women. She was too good for that. She was a mom, for God’s sake.

  Get it together. You are the last person a woman like her would be interested in.

  “Derek?”

  Red was standing in the doorway. Her expression was one of confusion—and hurt. He felt an ache in his chest. This was exactly why he needed to stay away from her. He couldn’t look himself in the mirror if he hurt her. She was far, far too good for the likes of him.

  “Sorry.” He tried to grin. “Needed fresh air.”

  “Are you alright? You’re acting kind of weird.”

  “I’m fine,” he replied smoothly.

  Red looked at him steadily for a beat and then took a sip of soda.

  “Look. I just came up here to thank you for last night. Your call…it meant a lot.”

  “Did it happen again?” he asked quietly. He hadn’t liked hearing that she’d been getting prank calls at night. There was something unusual about that. The kids in Jackson Hole didn’t make a habit of doing stuff like that. Dumb stuff, sure, like spray painting holder pens and drag racing along the backroads—but prank calling to scare people, that didn’t sound like the usual kid shenanigans.

  “No,” Red shrugged. “It might have been a wrong number or a mistake. Like someone butt-dialed me or something.”

  Derek studied her. She didn’t look too convinced by her own response. He wasn’t either. He could tell last night that the call had freaked her out.

  “Could you ask Chloe to stay over tonight?”

  Red scoffed, “Come on, Holt. That’s an overreaction. I’ll be fine. Besides what’s a sixteen-year-old girl going to do? I don’t think it’s likely that it’ll happen again.”

  “There’s safety in numbers. Besides, I don’t think she’ll mind,” he emphasized. “Really.”

  “She doesn’t need to babysit me and Zach. I can handle it.”

  Derek realized how condescending he was probably sounding to her ears. He just wanted her and her son to be safe but had no way of communicating that in a way that didn’t sound weird and territorial. He’d offer to stay over himself, but he knew she’d turn that offer down flat.

  “I get it,” he muttered, idly wondering if he should call the local sheriff anyway and see if there had been any other reports of prank calls lately.

  “You and Zach could come over for dinner tonight.”

  He watched Audrey’s expression carefully. She didn’t seem as reluctant as she had a few days ago when he made the offer, but she wasn’t exactly jumping at the invitation either.

  “Or not,” he grunted when she didn’t reply.

  “Why don’t you come over to us instead?” She said eventually. “With Zach’s bedtime, I don’t want to keep him up too late. Is that okay?”

  “Yeah. Of course. I’d like that.”

  The invitation felt awkward. Derek knew that she probably didn’t really want him to come over, but it would give him a chance to get a good look at her place. He could subtly check the security and make sure the locks were decent. He’d feel a whole lot better.

  “How about around seven?” She asked.

  “Perfect.”

  Derek took another swig of his soda as the reality of spending an evening with Red sank in. At least the kid would be there, he reassured himself, he was sure to feel different about her with a five-year-old around. Maybe he’d be able to shake himself and return to the carefully constructed lenses through which he usually tried to view Red—as a woman with her own life. One that had nothing to do with him except on a distant, professional level.

  “I don’t think we’ve ever eaten together,” Red observed quietly. “Strange.”

  Derek smiled.

  “Actually, we have,” he corrected her. “The day you got the job. We went to Maude’s on Randolph Street.”

  “Oh yeah.” Red grinned. “I remember you being almost attacked by a harem of screaming female fans, and suddenly realizing that I had my job cut out for me!”

  “I don’t remember that part,” Derek replied truthfully. What he did remember from that night was how hard he worked to make Red laugh, just to hear the sound of it. How he couldn’t take his eyes off her, the arresting mane of red hair, pale alabaster skin, and brown eyes so light they were almost gold. How he’d had to constantly to check himself against the urge to see her as more than a woman who was simply doing her job—a job that involved having to deal with him. Then, the more they’d talked and the more he’d gotten to know her, he appreciated other things about Red like how deeply she cared for her son, so much that her eyes lit up and she broke into an involuntary grin whenever she said his name, how intelligent she was, and witty. The more he’d gotten to know her, the more he was hit with a cold, hard
reality check. The truth: Audrey Reid was way out of his league. She was just too damn good for the likes of him.

  “Well, I guess you’re surrounded by adoring female fans too often for it to be memorable,” Red replied with a laugh. “But it was a good evening.”

  “It was.”

  Red placed her glass down.

  “I should get going. I’m headed to the grocery store in town this afternoon as well, so if you need anything?”

  “I’m good. Thanks, though.”

  Once again, Derek was left with the feeling that he wanted Red to stay. Her visits seemed to be getting shorter, not longer like he’d hoped with the introduction of Chloe as a babysitter.

  As she walked past, he reached out and placed a hand on her upper arm. He felt her hot skin warm the coolness of his hand where he’d been holding the soda. She flinched slightly, and he moved his hand away as if he’d been burned.

  “Sorry,” he muttered. “I just wanted to say thanks.”

  “No, it was just that your hand was cold.” Red looked uncomfortable, peering up at him with a flustered look of embarrassment.

  Before Derek could say anything else, Red leaned up and, quick as a flash, kissed him on the cheek. But Derek was just as quick. Instead of letting her move away, he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her against his chest. Red didn’t protest, but instead leaned against him as he held her. Derek inhaled her scent, aware of how small she was encircled within his large frame. How fragile the tough, no-nonsense Red was, to him, at least.

  It was Red who pulled away first. Derek let her step back. He was starting to feel like he was going to lose control, that if she stayed in his embrace a moment longer, he might do or say something that would ruin the moment—like swoop her up and carry her off to the bedroom. He didn’t have much experience with a woman of Red’s caliber.

  “I’ll see you later,” Red said, striding off swiftly to her car without looking back at him.

  “See you,” Derek replied, but she was already out of earshot.

  Derek gripped the wooden balustrade that ran around the porch. In the pit of his stomach, there was a tugging, electric feeling that was starting to spread like live-wire electrons through his limbs. His heart was racing, reaching an unnaturally rapid rhythm that would have killed an ordinary man.

  The moment Red’s car disappeared from sight, Derek leaped off the porch onto the yard.

  There, his skin pulled and stretched, his muscles expanding while his skeletal frame morphed and reshaped itself. It had been so long since he’d shifted, the pain was almost excruciating. He bellowed up into the sky, hearing his own cry reverberate around the mountain basin. A few seconds later, he was aware of the taste of the summer sun, the particles in the air and every scent and movement from the crickets laying low nearby to the elks wandering as a herd up by Clause Peak.

  At long last, Derek’s bear had emerged.

  10

  For the first time, Audrey was grateful for the hour-long drive from Derek’s rental house to the apartment. She needed time to cool off and let her pulse rate return to normal before seeing Zach and pretending that everything was absolutely fine and dandy. Her world suddenly felt far from absolutely fine. It felt almost entirely out of her control—a feeling that Audrey hated.

  From the moment she’d stepped out of the car and seen Derek standing there shirtless, a sheen of perspiration coating his upper body and glistening in the midafternoon sun, she had come undone. She’d been entirely distracted, unaware of anything else but Derek and how he gracefully moved from place to place, the way his hair fell back on the nape of his neck and his toned, muscular body flexed when he reached for a fallen branch.

  Get a grip, Audrey!

  She felt like a sixteen-year-old girl fantasizing about the country music sensation, Derek Holt. Her mind had wandered into dangerous territory when his strong arms had encircled her. He’d felt so safe and she’d felt protected. She’d imagined his head lowering and his lips capturing hers in a panty-melting kiss. There wasn’t a man alive who had ever elicited feelings in her like that. She’d had crushes and even been married, but never felt the same physical response she felt when she was near Derek.

  The whole thing was unnerving. There was no rational, logical reasoning for any of it, but weapons like reason and logic didn’t help her when it came to Derek. She knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she should not allow herself to feel this way about him. It was too dangerous. It would be putting her heart on the line for a man who was fickle and flirty when it came to women—and that was putting it kindly. But it didn’t seem to make a bit of difference how much she lectured herself about the dangers of getting involved with a man like Derek Holt; her heart seemed to have other ideas—other stupid, risky ideas—and seemed to be entirely content in its desire to be all-consumed by him.

  Audrey pulled over on the side of the dirt road.

  Her body was practically trembling. She yanked open the door, unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car breathing in deeply, taking in the sweet, fresh-smelling air. She just needed a minute outside in nature to calm herself and help her relax.

  And you invited him to dinner!

  She groaned audibly. That had been a dire mistake. Even with Zach around, she didn’t know if she could trust herself in such close quarters with Derek. Another insane decision on her part. Along with the decision to visit him this afternoon, rather than wait for evening as usual. She’d told herself she hadn’t wanted to leave Zach and Chloe alone in the house when dusk was nearing. To some extent, that was true. But another part of her had been itching to see Derek and to check that the house was okay after the storm. One of the biggest shocks was finding him doing home improvements, especially on a property that he didn’t even own and wasn’t responsible for.

  She hadn’t realized that Derek knew how to do those things, but one look at the repaired drainpipe told her otherwise. It appeared as though it had been fixed as well as any professional would have done it.

  Audrey ran a hand through her hair. This was a major problem. First Chloe tells her Derek loves kids and how good he was with them. Then, Derek hardly drinks a drop when he’s away from the pressures of stardom. But the icing on the cake was Derek knew how to do handyman chores. In a matter of a week, her safe, keep-Derek-Holt-at-a-distance convictions were being proven entirely unfounded. She hardly knew him at all, it seemed.

  A loud, rustle in the undergrowth made Audrey jump. She looked out into the forest that ran along either side of the road. It was dense and dark, and she couldn’t see much but could definitely hear the sound of something large heading her way.

  She quickly opened the car door, jumping back into the driver’s seat. Safely inside, with the windows up, she watched the forest.

  To her disbelief and heart-stopping shock, a second later she saw a bear rear up on its hind legs. It was a few yards back and encased in the shadows, but Audrey could make out the dark, shaggy fur and ferocious teeth as it widened its jaw. Its eyes seemed to gleam in the darkness, looking ethereal and strange, but just the bear’s presence alone was enough for Audrey to press the accelerator to the floor and speed off. Behind her, through the slight billow of exhaust, Audrey could have sworn she heard the sound of the bear’s cry echoing through the forest.

  * * *

  “Are you going to be a good boy while Mommy showers?” Audrey asked.

  Zach nodded, but the look on his face was mischievous. He had been hyper ever since Audrey told him about the bear in the forest. First, staring out the windows, convinced he might see one in the undergrowth behind the apartment building, and then the rest of the day drawing various versions of blood-thirsty bears. In some of the pictures, there were small stick figures fleeing in fright.

  “Okay, commence with the picture drawing, buddy. I won’t be long. Don’t touch anything in the kitchen, though, got it?”

  “Got it,” Zach replied cheerfully.

  Audrey smiled, ruffling his hai
r while he frowned at her to get off. She laughed, heading for the bathroom.

  She undressed, turning on the faucet as hot as it would go.

  She asked herself, as she stared into the bathroom mirror, why she was putting in so much effort.

  I’m not putting in effort. It’s a shower, she argued back. But that didn’t explain why her clothes were already laid out on the bed, and why she’d finally, for the first time since she’d arrived, opened the makeup bag she’d brought with her.

  She lied to herself that she was merely being a good hostess—and she almost believed it.

  Audrey stepped under the hot running water, loving the feeling of the pressure pounding against her skin. The shower was one place where she could truly relax, where her racing head calmed itself of chatter. This evening, though, the mental blank-out wasn’t working as well as it should. Try as she might, she couldn’t escape the flutters of fear and excitement in her stomach or her jangled nerves when she thought of how it had felt being wrapped in Derek’s arms earlier and that soon he’d be sitting across from her at the dining room table.

  She’d planned a simple dinner, down-home fare—fried chicken, using her grandmother’s recipe, coleslaw, sweet potato fries, and of course, the iced tea that Chloe had raved about. There were sodas in the fridge as well, and a bottle of whiskey that she hoped Derek would refuse. The last thing either of them needed was to end the evening drinking together after Zach had gone to bed. That could prove to be disastrous.

  Audrey reminded herself that Derek was currently alone and isolated in the wooded cabin. If the rumors about his womanizing were true, although frankly she was beginning to wonder about those, he was currently starved of female attention. The tension she felt, or whatever it was between them, was only because Derek was behaving in a way that was true to his reputation. Any woman, anywhere, would do. And Audrey really didn’t want to be one of those women.