by Chant, Zoe
With the luck Ellie was having that night, she’d probably get Officer Creeper, one step up from a mall cop. He’d stare at her generous breasts and big ass, get in her way as she tried to work, lurk creepily in his car outside her apartment at night, and shed a trail of donut crumbs wherever he went. He’d breathe heavily and stand way too close to her. And if anyone attacked her, he’d be so out of shape that she’d have to protect him.
Worst night of my life, Ellie thought.
Chapter Two
Hal
Hal Brennan was exercising alone in the gym of Protection, Inc., when he got the call.
Stinging sweat dripped into his eyes, and even his powerful muscles felt the burn as he lifted the bench press bar high. But one of the advantages of owning your own private security company was having your own private gym. He and the other shifters on his team could lift weights heavier than any human could manage without having to worry that some outsider would see them and contact the Guinness Book of World Records.
Weight-lifting wasn’t his favorite form of exercise. That honor went to hiking in the woods, preferably as a grizzly bear. But as far as gym-based exercise went, lifting was the best. Living in a city— hell, being human— was so damn complicated. It made him appreciate things that were simple. And lifting was as simple as it got. No rules to tie him down. Just Hal vs. the iron. It was as close as he could get while human to feeling like a bear, with a bear’s straightforward desires.
The shrill tone of his cell phone broke his concentration. It was his private phone, with a number he gave out only to a select few. Which meant that the call was from his parents, or from one of his team, or an emergency. Whatever it was, he couldn’t ignore it.
Hal replaced the bar on its rest and reached down from the bench to pluck his phone from his gym bag. He glanced at the screen. Yep. Parents.
“Hi, Dad,” Hal said. “How’s it going?”
His father’s deep, gravelly voice, which everyone said sounded just like Hal’s, rumbled out from the phone. “How’s your search for a mate going?”
Hal grimaced. “It’s not.”
“Why not?” Dad demanded, as if they hadn’t had this conversation a hundred times already. “Get out there and look for her! Your mother wants grand-cubs.”
“You mean, you want grand-cubs.”
Unruffled, Dad replied, “The entire clan wants grand-cubs.”
There was a scuffling noise, and then he heard his mother’s voice. “It makes us so sad to think of you all alone in the big city.” She gave a melodramatic sigh. “Aaaaall alooooooone.”
Hal was torn between the desire to laugh and the urge to throw the phone across the room. “I’m hardly alone. I have my team. You know how close we all are. We’re like brothers and sisters.”
As if she hadn’t even heard him, Mom repeated, “Aaaaall alooooooone. The city is no place for a bear. It’s full of violence and loud noises and electric things. Bears need a peaceful, quiet life, fishing and eating honey and sleeping in the sun. Drop this silly city thing and come back to the woods.”
“Mom,” Hal said, trying to keep a grip on his patience. “Dad. We’ve had this talk. I’m not like you. I need excitement. I need danger. I need to make a difference to people. And I’m not going to find any of that in the woods. There is absolutely nothing in the forest that can threaten a bear.”
“Who wants to be threatened?” Dad asked.
At the same time, Mom exclaimed, “I want cute, furry grand-cubs to love and spoil! Go find a mate and settle down!”
“Mom...” Hal sighed. “I don’t want a mate. And I don’t want to settle down. I like my life exactly the way it is. I do my own thing, and no one tells me what to do. My job is dangerous and unpredictable. I have to run off to deal with emergencies on a moment’s notice. No woman is going to want a man who lives like that. And I don’t want to make some nice woman miserable trying to change me into something I’m not.”
“You’ll think differently once you actually meet your mate,” said Dad. “You’ll be willing to make any sacrifice.”
“You need a mate,” Mom said earnestly.
“I don’t need anyone,” Hal argued, frustrated. “I can handle anything the world can throw at me. By myself!”
“All bears need a mate,” Dad replied.
Hal gave up. “I have to get back to work. Talk to you later!”
He hung up, then settled back down on the bench, returning the cell phone to the bag. Hal loved his parents and his clan, but he’d lose his mind if he had to live with them. The forest was great for a vacation, but he wasn’t made for a peaceful life, and he had absolutely no desire to settle down.
My mate, he thought, unable to help himself. I wonder what she’s like? I don’t need her, but does she need me? Am I screwing up her life by not looking for her?
He hoped not. With any luck, she’d find someone else she could be happy with.
An unexpected pang of loneliness stabbed right through his heart at the thought of his mate with another man, followed by a surge of possessiveness.
No one but us gets our mate, Hal’s bear growled.
“I don’t need anyone!” Hal’s voice rang out, startling himself. He hadn’t meant to speak aloud.
He took a few deep breaths, trying to regain the sense of peace he’d felt when he’d been lifting. It took a while, but eventually it returned, washing over him like a cool shower.
He’d just closed his fingers around the bar to do another set when his phone rang again.
“Goddammit,” he muttered to himself, then picked it up. This time, it was Detective Kramer.
“Brennan,” Hal said. “What’s the emergency?”
Hal listened to the detective’s story with growing amazement. “She’s going to testify against Nagle? Seriously?”
“She is. And that’s not all,” Kramer said grimly. “She’s refused to go into Witness Protection. So I need your help. We’ve found a grant to pay for her to be protected around the clock. I want the best person you have.”
Hal opened his mouth to say that he didn’t hire anyone who wouldn’t be the best person at any other security company, and anyone on his team could protect the witness. Instead, he heard himself saying, “I’ll guard her myself.”
He headed to the locker room to shower, wondering all the while why he felt so compelled to take on the assignment. He rarely did straightforward bodyguard work. Maybe he was drawn to the challenge of protecting someone Nagle was gunning for.
As he was getting dressed, two of his team members came in. Of all his team, Nick and Lucas probably had the least in common, which was why Hal had assigned them to work together. He’d hoped it would break the ice.
Nick entered first, slamming the door open like he wanted to knock some sense into it.
“Hold the door.” Lucas’s hard-to-place accent made even those simple words sound like a line from some very classy play.
“Don’t fucking order me around.” Nick gave the door a shove back, apparently hoping to slam it in Lucas’s face.
A hand adorned with several gold rings caught the door, then gave it a matching shove that threatened to knock it off the hinges.
If Hal didn’t move fast, ice wouldn’t be the only thing that got broken. He cleared his throat.
Nick whipped around to look at him. His surprise was briefly replaced with a “who’re you looking at” challenge that Hal hadn’t seen directed at him in a while. Then the challenge vanished. It had been a long time since Nick had been the alpha of a criminal werewolf pack, fighting ferociously to maintain his power.
“Hey, Hal.” Nick stripped off his shirt and armored vest, then tossed them aside, exposing a muscular torso covered in an elaborate tattoo of wolves hunting deer in a deep, dark forest. They were shifter tats, so they were less obviously criminal than if he’d belonged to a human gang. But Hal knew what they meant. One drop of blood on a deer for each fight won, one drop of blood on a wolf for each fight lost, and
one dead deer for each kill.
“Hi, Nick,” Hal said.
Lucas strolled in, radiating unconcern. “Good day, Hal.”
“Hi, Lucas.”
Lucas removed his shirt and bullet-proof vest, then set them neatly down on the bench. His angular chest was marked by an intricate pattern, glittering gold. It looked like a tattoo, but Hal knew that he’d been born with it.
Hal made sure he was looking at both of them as he asked, “How’s the job going?”
“Fine,” Nick said shortly.
“It goes well,” Lucas replied.
Hal stared at them until they both dropped their gaze. He didn’t believe in micro-managing his team, but he also didn’t believe in letting problems simmer till they exploded.
“Is there an actual problem, or do you two just wish you had a different partner?” Hal inquired.
The men glanced at each other, Nick’s green eyes meeting Lucas’s golden ones, and seemed to come to a truce.
“No problem,” said Nick. “Guess I’m just used to working with someone I can have a beer with after work.”
“There is no problem. I am not used to working with...” Lucas paused just long enough to make it sound like he was about to say something stunningly insulting, then concluded, “...others.”
Hal addressed both of them as he said, “Well, get used to it. I’m about to take a bodyguard assignment myself, so I won’t be around to babysit.”
As he’d intended, the men stopped shooting pissed-off glances at each other, and turned their pissed-off glances on Hal.
“Yeah, whatever, man,” Nick said. “We’re cool.”
“Babysitting is not required,” Lucas replied icily.
They went into the gym together, leaving Hal alone. He caught a snatch of their conversation just before the door closed. It didn’t sound friendly, but at least it didn’t sound hostile. It seemed like his ploy had worked.
Lucas was his newest hire, and it was always hard to join a team that had already bonded with each other. Hal had assembled his team one by one, so everyone on it had been the new guy once. But even on a team of shifters, Lucas stood out. He was a dragon shifter. Hal hadn’t even known they existed until he’d met Lucas.
Hal set aside thoughts of his team as he left the locker room and went to the parking garage. He had his own job to focus on now.
As he drove to the police station, he couldn’t stop wondering about his new client, Ellie McNeil. What sort of woman was brave or crazy enough to agree to testify against Wallace Nagle, Santa Martina’s answer to the Godfather? That man practically ruled the city.
Hal would have understood it if Ellie had been a criminal herself, desperate to cut a deal to escape prison. But according to Kramer, she was an ordinary citizen— a working woman, a paramedic on the late shift. She must be terrified. She was probably regretting her decision already.
He pulled into the police parking lot and went into the station, half-convinced that he’d find that she had changed her mind about testifying and gone home.
Detective Kramer waved at him, then indicated a door. “She’s in there.”
Mildly surprised, Hal headed for the door. He had to duck his head to go in. Most places weren’t built for men his size.
Ellie McNeil sat with an empty paper coffee cup in her lap, her head lowered, her hair hanging forward to hide her face. She seemed to have dozed off in her chair. Everything about her posture spoke of utter exhaustion, which didn’t surprise him. She’d worked all night, then witnessed a murder and nearly gotten killed herself, and then had been questioned at a police station for eight hours. Talk about a rough night!
He couldn’t see her face behind a tumble of curling dark blonde hair. It was a pretty color; it reminded him of clover honey. Her practical paramedic uniform didn’t conceal her generous curves. Though her shirt and pants were cut loosely, Hal could see the shape of her wide hips, her plump thighs, and her lush breasts. She had exactly the sort of body he liked: big and soft and curvy.
With thinner women, Hal always worried that he’d hurt them by accident. They seemed so fragile, especially given how big and strong he was. Besides, he didn’t like how bony they felt. But with a woman like Ellie, big and voluptuous, he wouldn’t have to worry about anything but whether she was enjoying herself as much as he was. Besides, he liked the way curvy women felt. He imagined running his hands over the gentle swell of her belly, the delicious weight of her breasts, the silky softness of her thighs...
Hal forced himself to stop that train of thought right there. He’d come to protect her, not to hit on her. The fact that she was incredibly hot was completely irrelevant. Unfortunately.
He cleared his throat. “Excuse me.”
“Wha—” Ellie jumped, her head jerking up. So she had been dozing.
Hal stepped forward, holding out his hand. “Hi. I’m Hal Brennan, your bodyguard.”
She pushed her hair out of her face and looked up. Their eyes met.
The force of the contact nearly knocked Hal backwards. It was an earthshaking, heart-stopping jolt of recognition.
Mine!
The roar of Hal’s bear was so loud that he half-expected Ellie to have heard it. But of course, she hadn’t. She just sat there, her head tilted quizzically, her kissable pink lips parted in a smothered yawn.
Everything about her was perfect, from her snub nose to her ocean-blue eyes to the sprinkling of freckles on her upper arms. He knew nothing about her, other than that she was a paramedic and beautiful and sexy and incredibly brave, but he loved her already.
Holy shit, Hal thought. She’s my mate.
He was nearly overwhelmed with joy. There was the other half of his heart and soul, sitting right there in front of him. If he took a single step forward, he could sweep her into his arms, kiss her and caress her, and never let her go. They’d be together forever.
If Nagle didn’t kill her first.
Hal was jerked from happiness to a protective fury in the blink of an eye. He’d finally found his mate, and the most powerful crime lord in the city was trying to murder her.
He knew then that he’d give his life to protect her.
“Mr. Brennan?” Ellie asked. “Are you feeling all right?”
Hal was jerked back into reality. Ellie was peering at him, looking concerned. God knew what sort of weird impression he’d just made on her.
“Yeah,” Hal said shortly. He couldn’t think of anything but getting her away from Nagle, immediately. “Come on, let’s go.”
“Oh, good.” She stood up, then swayed wearily.
Hal caught her elbow, steadying her. Her arm was warm and soft in his hand. “Easy. I know you’re tired. You can sleep in my car.”
Ellie straightened, rubbing her eyes. “I’m not that tired. My apartment is only about ten minutes from the station.”
Hal shook his head as he began to lead her to the door. “We’re not going to your apartment. You have to get out of the city.”
She stopped abruptly, pulling her arm out of his grasp. “I’m not leaving the city. Didn’t Detective Kramer explain that to you? He said he was assigning me an officer to protect me here, in Santa Martina.”
Hal turned to look her in the eyes, trying to convey how serious he was. “First of all, I’m not a police officer. I’m private security.”
She looked dismayed rather than relieved at that. “You’re a security guard?”
“I’m not a mall cop,” Hal replied. “I run an elite private security company. We provide bodyguards for politicians and celebrities— and private citizens like you.”
“Oh. Well, great. Then you can protect me right here.”
“No!” Hal exclaimed. “I have to get you out of the city!”
Ellie’s blue eyes narrowed, reminding him that she was one tough woman. “Mr. Brennan, can you protect me or not?”
Hal gritted his teeth. Of course he could protect her— he’d showed up expecting to guard her right there in Santa Martina. B
ut that was before he’d known that she was his mate. His instincts, not to mention his bear, were roaring at him to not merely stand between her and any possible threat, but to get her far away from anyone who might try to harm her.
“Because if you can’t,” she went on, “I’ll talk to Detective Kramer again and ask him to assign a police officer.”
“I can protect you,” Hal said immediately. “But you’d be a lot safer if you left Santa Martina.”
“I already had this conversation,” Ellie replied. “I’m not going anywhere. I already ran through my sick leave this year. If I take off for more than a couple days, I lose my job. Anyway, I thought no one ever got hurt under your protection.”
Take her home and keep her safe, Hal’s bear demanded. Grab her and carry her away to the forest!
I can’t do that, Hal replied. But I will take her home. To my home.
“All right,” Hal told her. “I’ll guard you here. But you can’t go straight to your apartment. I need to have my team check it first.”
“Check it for what?”
“Hit men. Bombs.”
“Oh.” The delicate skin of her throat bobbed as she swallowed. He could see the fear under her cool exterior, and it made him want to kill the men who had frightened her.
He laid his hand on her shoulder. Touching her, even through cloth, gave him a surge of desire. It was hard to do nothing but keep his palm there, comforting and still, when he wanted to scoop her into his arms, kiss her, and hold her safe and tight.
But she’d shown no sign of responding to him the way he had to her. She wasn’t a shifter— she knew nothing of mates. He had to give her time to get to know him. In the meantime, he’d be professional.
“I swear, I’ll keep you safe,” Hal said, willing her to believe it.
Ellie let out a sigh and leaned into his hand, as if she liked having it there. Then, to his disappointment, she pulled away. “So, do we go to a hotel?”
“No. We’re going to my place. I have a guest bedroom.”