by Stella Night
He ran a hand through his dark, shaggy hair. “Well, Rachel, you’re a long way from home.”
A shiver ran up my spine. “How do you know that?”
He smiled and stalked towards me like an animal closing in on its prey. “I know everything about you, Rachel,” he said, drawing uncomfortably close to me. “I know you’re from New York. I knew you’d be out here tonight. I know we were destined to meet.”
My breath caught in my throat. He stood directly in front of me now, leaning down so that his face was mere inches from mine. So close I thought he was going to kiss me. My mouth had gone dry and my legs trembled.
“How could you possibly know all that?” I asked breathlessly.
“Maybe I’m psychic,” he said. “Or maybe I just read your license plate and made the rest up.” He jabbed a finger towards my car. My New York plates were clearly visible in the glare of my tail lights.
He laughed and turned away from me suddenly. “You’re so easy,” he said, still chuckling.
Now that he wasn’t so close to me, I felt like I could breathe again. Uneasiness drained from me, replaced by anger.
“You’re an asshole,” I said, hoping he couldn’t hear the trembling in my voice.
“And you hit me with your fucking car.”
“Whatever. You seem fine to me. Stop whining, you big baby.”
He turned to glare at me, his mouth hanging open in surprise. I ignored the look.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Noah Sinclair,” he said. “Are all the women from New York as rude as you?”
I planted my hands on my hips. “Only when we’re being bullied by country bumpkins.”
His eyes widened. “Bumpkin? I am not now, nor have I ever been a bumpkin.”
I grinned. “Oh, so you don’t like it when people judge you based on where you’re from? Well, I don’t like it either.”
He blinked at me for a moment. Then he snorted a laugh. “Alright, lady, fair enough. And I’m not a bully. I just get a little salty after I get run over.”
It was my turn to concede. “Point taken,” I said. “How about we start again?” I extended my hand to him.
He looked at me, his expression an unreadable mask. Still, he took my hand and shook it.
His palm was rough against my soft skin. He had strong hands. A real man’s hands. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to feel those hands on other parts of my body. I quickly thrust those thoughts aside.
“So Noah, what were you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?” I asked.
“The middle of nowhere?” he protested. “What a shitty thing to say. This is where I live.”
“You live in the woods?”
He glared at me like he wasn’t sure if I was an idiot. “No, I don’t live in the goddamn woods. I have a house. It’s got electricity, running water, even one of those fancy boxes with the talking pictures.”
I shook my head. Everything kept coming out wrong with him. I couldn’t tell if I was still shaken up from the crash or whether he was having this effect on me.
“I didn’t mean to suggest anything about the way you live.”
He looked like he didn’t believe me. “Like I said, you’re a long way from home, New York. You might want to think before you speak.”
I bristled at the suggestion. “Maybe you shouldn’t try to find something wrong with everything I say.”
He crossed his brawny arms over his chest. I suddenly felt very small standing in front of him. Noah didn’t seem like the kind of guy who would hurt a woman, but I’d been wrong about that before. And out here in the middle of nowhere, just the two of us, things could get really bad, really fast.
“Anyway,” he said. “Where you headed? This isn’t exactly a place people come visit.”
“A friend of mine has a place out here. She’s letting me borrow it.”
Noah narrowed his eyes at me. “A friend? Folks are pretty private up here. And no one told me about any visitors.”
“What are you, the pope of Bear Haven?” I asked. “You know everything that’s going on?”
I knew I shouldn’t be so rude, but now that the adrenaline was wearing off, my nerves were frayed and exhaustion weighed heavily on me.
“No, I’m not the goddamned pope. Bear Haven’s a pretty sheltered community. At least out in this area. You must be looking for the town proper. That’s a lot further down the road.”
I shook my head. “I’m in the right place.”
“I don’t think so. There’s only one empty house out here, and that belongs to Nina.”
“Yes,” I exclaimed. “You know Nina, too?”
He shook his head ruefully. “All too well.”
“Great. So I’m staying at her place.”
Noah started laughing. It was a great big booming laugh that echoed in the still night.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said, still chuckling and wiping tears from his eyes. “I can take you over to Nina’s place, but you might not be thrilled about the location.”
“Oh yeah, and why is that?”
“Nina’s house is right next to mine. You and I are gonna be neighbors.”
Chapter 3
Noah
“Neighbors.” Rachel said, not sounding too thrilled.
I wasn’t all that excited either. Rachel might be hot as hell, but I was ready to get her out of my hair. Maybe if she were a bear, I’d be all over her sexy ass like a dog on a bone. She was annoying and had a mouth on her, but I liked my women with some spirit.
Too bad she was human.
She was not the solution to my problems, and on top of that, I had to worry about a human stranger living right in the middle of my clan’s territory.
Very few humans knew about shifters. I was going to have to watch what I said and did around this one.
“It’s a bit of a hike to Nina’s,” I said. “You think you’re up for it, New York?”
She shot me a look. “You think you’re up for it?”
I rolled my eyes at her. “I think I can manage,” I said, turning away.
I felt her hand on my arm, and I turned around.
“Hey, I’m being serious,” she said. “Are you okay?”
The touch of her hand and the concern in her voice lit a warmth inside me. It wasn’t a feeling I was used to. It was something I hadn’t felt in a really long time. To be honest, it was something I didn’t think I was even capable of feeling anymore.
I looked into her eyes and placed my hand over hers, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I promise you, I’m all right. It’ll take a lot more than that to slow me down.”
Despite my words, I wasn’t sure if I was all right. Physically, I was great. A little stiff and a little sore, but otherwise fine. But I was starting to think Rachel had knocked something loose in my brain. Something about her threw me off my stride.
Sure, she was sexy as hell. All kinds of dirty thoughts ran through my head when I looked at her. But I’d had my share of gorgeous women, and I’d never felt anything more than raw lust for them. The part of me that was capable of love and affection had died a long time ago. Relationships for me were purely physical, and I always felt like I was in control.
This was different. Rachel was different. Maybe it was the way she stood up to me. Maybe it was the way she looked at me. Or maybe she really had rattled my brain. I knew I had to be careful around this woman.
I had to wonder why Nina sent Rachel out here. Sending a human to live in our midst was crazy, but Nina always was a little crazy. Maybe that came with being psychic. Even in the shifter world, being psychic was rare, and it could make anyone a little nutty.
Did Nina send Rachel here for a purpose or was she just having fun? Either way, I didn’t like it. Now was not the time to have a stranger poking around.
“We better get moving,” I said. “Grab whatever you need from the car.”
“We’re just going to lea
ve it out here?”
“Well, we can’t move it ourselves. I’ll get a friend to tow it in the morning. He’ll take it into town and get it fixed up for you. Good enough?”
“That would be great, actually,” she said. The defensive look slipped from her face, replaced by a look of gratitude.
She hustled over to her car and leaned in to retrieve her things. Her round, luscious ass was pointed right at me. She was thick and curvy in all the right places, with wide hips I could grab on to while I buried myself in her. An ass like that could get a man in trouble.
I forced myself to look away. At any other time, I would have made a move. But things were different now, and I had to be different, too. It wasn’t a change I was thrilled about, but being Alpha meant I couldn’t just think about myself anymore. I had to make sacrifices for the good of the clan.
Right now, that meant passing up the company of a gorgeous woman like Rachel.
She grabbed a suitcase from the car with a grunt. It was almost as big as she was. There was no way she’d be able to lug that thing all the way to Nina’s house.
“Here, let me,” I said, reaching for her bag.
“I can do it,” she said, pulling away from me.
I frowned at her. “Does everything have to be a fight with you?”
“No,” she said.
“Then let me carry the damn bag.”
“But you’re hurt,” she said.
“So are you,” I said.
She looked like she was going to protest, but she let her bag go. I picked it up easily.
“Such a gentleman,” she said.
I couldn’t tell if she was joking or being serious.
“I just don’t want to be walking out here all goddamn night. Follow me.”
I could hear her hurrying to catch up behind me. The light from her flashlight bobbed in front of me. I think she was trying to light the path I was walking, but I didn’t need it. I could see in the dark just as easily as I could during the day. And even if I couldn’t I knew this area like the back of my hand. I could have navigated blindfolded.
Rachel on the other hand wasn’t having the same luck. I could hear her stumbling behind me and cursing under her breath. Damn city girl. She had no business out here, and not just because she was human.
She couldn’t even drive out here. It was no surprise she was having trouble walking. I just had to get her to Nina’s. Then I could get rid of her and get my head straight. Unfortunately, I was bound to run into her no matter how much I wanted to avoid her.
Why did it have to be Nina’s place?
Most of the houses out here had a lot of land in between them. Shifters liked their wide open spaces, after all. But Nina’s house was right next to the Alpha’s house, where I’d moved in about a year ago.
This was because she’d acted as adviser to the last few alphas, predicting the future for the benefit of the clan. The other Alphas had wanted to keep her close. I’d wanted that, too, when I took over, but Nina asked me if she could take some time off and see the world. Despite my desire for her guidance, I agreed to let her go.
So when I told Rachel we were going to be neighbors, I meant it. There was no way to avoid her completely when her house was in spitting distance of mine. Nina was going to get a stern talking to the next time I saw her.
Rachel shuffled up beside me, breathing heavily but matching my pace.
I looked down at her. She looked exhausted, like she could curl up on the side of the road and fall asleep. But she moved with a dogged persistence. One foot in front of the other, her eyes focused on the road ahead.
I had to admit the woman had spirit. I might have misjudged her a bit. Maybe she wasn’t as soft as I thought she was. Or maybe her sexiness was clouding my judgment. Now was not the time to be thinking with my dick.
Her eyes seemed lost in thought. She chewed her lower lip in a way that made me want to scrape my teeth over that lip, biting her playfully while I tasted her ripe mouth. I could feel the bear in me rising, and I took a deep breath to calm myself.
I needed to get my mind off sex. What I needed to do was ask her why she was here. I opened my mouth to do so when I heard the sound of a powerful engine approaching us from behind.
A massive pickup truck was hauling ass up the road, driving fast and wild. A growl rose up in my chest. Not again. I’d be damned if I was going to get hit by another car tonight.
My protective instincts kicked in. I pulled Rachel off the road and moved in front of her, putting myself between the approaching vehicle and her. My bear roared just beneath the surface, ready to burst free if necessary. It was against the rules to change in front of a human, but I had to be ready for anything, rules be damned.
I squinted in the darkness and sniffed the air. An old familiar scent tickled my nose. Xander.
My youngest brother skidded to a stop just a few feet away from me and Rachel. His grinning face emerged from the driver’s side window. Dark, wild hair framed his youthful features, and his green eyes glittered with amusement.
“Well, well, well. What’s going on here, Noah? I didn’t know you had a date tonight.”
I glanced at Rachel, suddenly realizing how close I was standing to her. I moved away from her towards my brother’s truck.
“It’s not a date,” I said.
Xander leaned further out of his window, as if to get a better look at Rachel. “Not a date, huh? Well, that’s good. A woman this beautiful is wasted on a guy like you. How about you introduce me and I can show her what a real man is like?”
A giant hand gripped Xander’s collar and yanked him back inside the truck.
“Dylan,” I said and nodded at my other brother.
He waved at me from the passenger seat. Dylan was the middle brother, although you wouldn’t know it by looking at him. He was bigger than me by almost a foot.
His long hair was pulled up in a knot on the back of his head. The grim line of his lips was barely visible through his thick beard. The man always wore a serious expression. He’d been a soldier once, and he always looked like a part of him was still back on the battlefield.
But he looked more troubled than usual tonight.
“Everything alright?” I asked.
“For now,” Dylan said. “We need to talk.”
I nodded. “At the house.” I turned back to Rachel. “It’s our lucky night. We’ve got a ride.”
She looked relieved. I could tell she was at the end of her rope. Considering everything she’d been through, I was amazed she was still standing. She might be a human, but she had the fighting spirit of a bear.
She moved towards the bed of the truck.
“Absolutely not,” I said.
She jumped at the tone of my voice. Her wide eyes stared at me in the darkness.
“You’re not riding back there. Dylan, in the back.”
Dylan hopped out of the truck without a thought. He was a good man who knew how to follow orders. Not to mention we weren’t savages. It was the polite thing to do, letting Rachel sit in the front.
She climbed in the passenger seat and I wedged myself beside her. There was no way I was leaving her alone with Xander, even if the ride would be quick.
Xander glanced at Rachel. “Hey there, sexy.”
“Cut the shit, Xander,” I growled.
He gave me an innocent look. “What? I’m just being friendly. Speaking of which, feel free to cuddle up close to me. The spring air is chilly at night.”
“I think I’d rather walk,” Rachel said.
I grinned at her comment. Most women fell head over heels for Xander’s bullshit. It made me happy to know that she wasn’t one of those women. I knew it was none of my business. I knew I shouldn’t care, but I did.
She shifted away from him, ending up pressed against me. Her body was soft and warm. I could feel the soft curve of her breast against my arm. Fire erupted in my veins.
The sweet scent of her tickled my nose, like honey and cinnamon. Dear g
od I wanted a taste.
Xander glanced over at me with a smirk. “You all right there, brother? You seem a little tense.”
“Just drive the fucking truck,” I growled.
Chapter 4
Rachel
The truck pulled up in front of a big secluded house. Warm golden light spilled from its windows, making it look inviting. Exhaustion dragged me down. I needed a shower and about a hundred hours of sleep.
Noah slid out of the truck. To my surprise, I was sorry the ride was over. Noah could be kind of a dick, but for some reason, it felt good to be nestled up next to him. It made me feel warm and safe. It was something I hadn’t felt for a long time. I certainly didn’t expect to feel that way out here with a man I’d just met.
“End of the line, gorgeous,” Xander said, making no effort to hide the fact that he was staring at my breasts.
I groaned. “Does that shit actually work on anybody?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.” He grinned at me wolfishly. He all but licked his lips.
“No. It’s definitely not working.”
He shrugged and the lurid expression evaporated from his face. It was replaced by a friendly, open expression. All of a sudden he looked a lot younger and a whole lot nicer.
“Sorry,” he said. “Force of habit. Just friends?” He extended his hand to me.
I looked at his face. He seemed sincere. I took his hand and shook it. “Friends.”
“So how’d you and Noah meet?” Xander asked.
“Oh, I ran into him earlier.”
Noah popped his head in the truck. “Very funny.”
Xander looked confused. “Is it?”
Noah shook his head. “I’ll tell you later.”
Xander turned his attention back to me. “So what brings you to our lovely little town?”
Noah answered for me. “Nina sent her.”
Xander’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. He turned to look at me. “Nina? Shit, how’s she doing?”
“She’s good,” I said. “She’s loving the big city life. I’m gonna be staying at her place for a while.”