Bridge Hollow Shifters: The Complete Collection

by Samantha Leal

  When she had been observing them in a dreamlike state for a while, she was suddenly aware of Sean’s footsteps coming up from behind and she turned to greet him.

  “Okay,” he said, a little flustered. “I’ve spoken to the old broad on the front desk and she confirms what you thought, we do need permission.”

  Pamela had to resist the urge to gloat, but she just smiled sweetly and let him continue.

  “She knows the ranger personally and called his cell, and he said he’s going to send us the paperwork over as soon as possible, along with two chaperones.”

  “Chaperones?” Pamela raised her eyebrow.

  “Umm hmm,” Sean rolled his eyes. “These small-town folks are so goddamn precious. What do they think we’re honestly going to do? We’re here to help them, for Christ’s sake.”

  Sean was getting angrier by the minute and Pamela found herself smiling nervously and turning back to watch the crowd. He had such a bad temper when it came to things like this, and it was clear that he hated to be wrong. She, on the other hand, was glad of the fact she would have someone alongside her on the mountain. It would be good to have a person beside her who knew the area, who could show her exactly where the phenomena had started to occur, and more than anything, someone to, hopefully, make sure she didn’t vanish like the two hunters had weeks before.

  They stood together outside the hotel for at least thirty minutes, and Pamela tried to not notice as Sean became more and more impatient. She opened her notebook and started to make some notes of where she wanted to look first and what tests she wanted to do. And then, when she couldn’t think of anything more, she opened her backpack and pulled out her bottle of water and took a long, drawn out sip.

  Even though she hadn’t drunk a whole lot the previous evening at the bar, she could still tell that she’d had alcohol in her system, and her mouth was dry. It was one of the reasons she didn’t like to drink a whole lot. She hated the feeling, the next day, of being so sleepy and depleted of energy when there was literally no reason for it.

  “Oh, here we go,” Sean said with a drawl as he caught sight of the ranger coming into view. “Great.” His voice dipped and the way he sounded nervous made Pamela’s heart jump a little too.

  She didn’t know how she knew, but before she even looked up to see who the ranger was walking with, she had the feeling it would be him.

  Her skin was tingling like fire, and her heart was racing, and the familiar pull twisting inside her stomach was working its way out and forward, almost propelling her toward him.

  She finally got the nerve to put herself out of her misery, and she wasn’t at all surprised when their eyes met.

  Ryder was the chaperone heading toward them with the ranger.

  She smiled and so did he, but neither of them said a word.

  “Hey,” the ranger said, adjusting his hat and holding out his hand to Sean. “I’m Dean, the Bridge Hollow Ranger.”

  “Hi,” Sean said. “I’m Sean and this is Pamela.”

  Dean turned to Pam and smiled, holding out his hand, and she shook it before she let her gaze drift back to Ryder.

  “I’ve got some paperwork for you folks to fill out, just to confirm you’re not going to be doing anything dangerous up in our national park or going to be making anything worse. We’ve had a rough couple of months, and we don’t need any more controversy.”

  Ryder smiled and held Pamela’s gaze. She looked down at the ground as her heart raged in her chest. What were the chances of this happening? She hadn’t even been in town for twenty-four hours and already, she had accidentally met Ryder three times. She felt nervous around him, but also, there was something radiating from him that screamed protection. Maybe it was because he was so big and burly, or maybe it was because he had a way of holding himself that made it clear he could handle just about anything; the way he looked at Pamela made her feel safe.

  She bit her bottom lip and finally plucked up the courage to meet his eyes again. The glint of gold shone bright, and she felt a pulse of heat under her skin and between her legs.

  “Do you have transportation?” Ranger Dean asked Sean.

  “Yes, sir,” Sean confirmed as he pointed to the rental car parked behind him.

  “And are you both heading up to the same point?” he asked.

  “No,” Pamela found herself speaking before she was even aware the words were flying out of her mouth. “Sean is heading up closer to the summit and I need to be where the hunters went missing and the animals have been found.”

  She felt Sean’s eyes on her as if she had just blown their cover. It was clear Sean didn’t want the people of the town following them around, but she knew that if they had said they were going to the same place, then she would be the one left alone halfway up the mountain and without any help should she encounter any danger.

  “Okay,” Dean said. “I’ll head with you,” he pointed to Sean. “And Ryder, can you escort Pamela up to the clearing?”

  Ryder nodded, and Pamela’s heart thudded.

  Just her and Ryder, stuck on a dangerous mountain…

  Oh my…

  She swallowed and twisted the toe of her walking boot into the ground. She was nervous to be alone with him, but she would have been even more nervous to be up there alone… or even worse… with Sean watching her every move and criticizing her.

  “Okay, let’s roll out,” Dean said, and Pamela was sure she caught a glance pass between him and Ryder, as if they were in on something that she and Sean were not.

  She looked to Sean, who was completely oblivious, and then she waved goodbye as he gave her a mock salute and wandered back to the rental car with the ranger.

  She turned and looked at Ryder, who was standing there with his huge arms crossed over his chest, the dark hair on them wiry and so manly it made her heart flutter even more.

  “So,” he said with a smirk. “I guess it’s just me and you.”

  Pamela felt herself blush, but she tried to hide it by turning to the side and smiling.

  “Yep,” she said confidently as she strode past him. “Come on then, we better get to it.”

  Ryder laughed and followed behind her, and Pamela kept her head high and breathed in and out a few times to calm herself down. It must have been the mountain air making her so nervous and ditsy. Either that or it was because she had a raging crush on Ryder and was trying her utmost to hide it and remain professional.

  “We can take my truck,” Ryder said as she slowed her pace and turned to catch his eye. “It’s parked just a block down, do you need anything from any of the stores before we head up the mountain?”

  Pamela couldn’t think of anything but her work, even though she knew she would likely be hungry as soon as it hit noon, but she didn’t want to delay anything any longer.

  “No,” she smiled. “I’m fine.”

  Ryder nodded his head and strode ahead of her, and she followed slowly behind. She watched his shoulders and how broad they were. Even though he was wearing a leather jacket, she could see the muscles flexing away beneath, and it made her pussy throb.

  As he slowed his pace and reached into the back pocket of his jeans to pull out his keys, Pamela took a deep breath and told herself internally to stop acting like such a giddy schoolgirl. She had no interest in ruining her career by being distracted at this moment in time. She had come to Bridge Hollow for a reason and it was just her dumb luck that she had stumbled upon someone she found attractive for the first time in her entire life and had now been around him for the third time in less than a day.

  Ryder opened the passenger door for her, and she climbed inside. She pulled her backpack off her shoulders and let it fall into the footwell, and then she tucked her loose hair behind her ears and adjusted the bandana she had tied like a band.

  When he slid in beside her and she felt the truck bow with his weight, she knew he was looking at her, but she didn’t dare turn to look at him. His big hand gripped the steering wheel and he started the eng
ine. As he put the truck into drive, the skin on his arm brushed against her and it felt like pure heat and electric.

  An exquisite shiver rolled over her. From the point where he had touched her, all up her arm and along her back and right down her spine and into her legs. She had to stop herself from gasping. Her pussy was aching and getting wet, and she wanted him to explore her whole body, her nipples hardening at the thought.

  She swallowed and looked away. She didn’t want him to see that she was flustered, but at the same time, surely, he had felt that too…?

  She waited for a few moments and composed herself, as he pulled the truck out into the traffic of Main Street, and they headed toward the roads that led up to the mountain.

  Pamela had no clue what was happening to her. But she did know one thing. Ryder was doing dangerous things to her… and she didn’t know how much longer she was going to be able to resist.

  She stood and looked out at the forest in front of her in awe. The trees were tall and so very, very green. It was clear that they were hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, and the thought of them dying off was too horrific to comprehend.

  Ryder was leaning back against his truck watching her. She could feel his eyes all over her body, burning into the back of her head, and she wondered what he was thinking. She had the feeling that he didn’t like her much. There was a clear tension between them. Every time she stared into his eyes, she became flustered, but he also had a calming presence about him, and she wanted to know more about how and why he was having this effect on her.

  She looked over her shoulder and he had his cellphone out and was tapping away at the keys. She turned back and set her backpack down, opened it and reached in to collect two glass vials.

  She twisted off the top and scooped up two samples of soil from different locations, put the caps back on and placed them in labeled clear baggies.

  “What do you think you’re going to find?” Ryder asked with a tinge of hostility in his voice.

  “I don’t know,” she said genuinely. “I just hope it’s something we can fix.”

  Ryder kept watching her as she moved around and collected samples from the trees−cuttings of bark and leaves−a piece of shrub from close to the ground and one of the rocks that was small enough and light enough for her to carry.

  “The place where it all happened is about a five minutes’ walk west,” Ryder said. “A few of us have been out here since it all started and been looking for the hunters. Not that I care they’re gone, but it’s never nice for the town to be in uncertainty like this.”

  “Why don’t you care they’re gone?” she asked as she slipped more bagged samples into her backpack.

  Ryder smiled wryly and shrugged.

  “Never mind,” he said under his breath.

  His eyes glinted gold and he caught her there for a moment, it was as if there was some kind of chord attached to her, pulling her toward him. She had to dig her heels into the ground and clench her fists. He put his hands on his hips and a shadow seemed to cross his face.

  “You two shouldn’t be here,” he said finally. “You shouldn’t be meddling around in all of this.”

  Her heart faltered and then it began to race ten to the dozen.

  “What do you mean?” she asked in a whisper.

  He took a step forward, and the hairs all up the back of her neck began to tingle. Her whole body was responding to him as he moved closer to her and she could barely breathe or focus on anything but him and those intense eyes.

  “It’s not safe here,” he said as he stopped and looked down at her.

  She could feel a heat radiating from him, something that was powerful and addictive. Pamela craned her neck back so she could look up into his eyes, and he lifted his hand for a moment and before she knew what was happening, he reached forward and planted his palm softly over the place where her heart beat ferociously beneath.

  The sensation that rolled through her jolted her, but it also felt like she was riding a wave of exquisite pleasure. A warm trickle flooded through her, from the top of her head right down to the balls of her feet. Her limbs and spine were like jelly, but his hand, as it stayed on her chest, kept her standing tall and strong. A power was passing between them and she wanted to speak, but her mouth wouldn’t open.

  His eyes burned into her and when he lifted his hand away and traced a fingertip down her jawline, she shivered and gasped.

  “What… what was that?” she managed to whisper.

  Ryder looked down at the ground and breathed in and out heavily, as if he had just run a marathon and he was trying to recover.

  His muscles were heaving, and his shoulders were rising up and down with each breath.

  “You’re not safe here in this town,” he said with a pant. “They want me to get rid of you…”

  As the words came out of his mouth, it was as if she had just been slapped in the face.

  “What?” she asked with complete confusion. “Who?”

  Ryder shook his head and moved away. The second he had left her side, the place where he had held his hand on her began to throb and she ached to have him by her again.

  “No,” she said. “Don’t leave.”

  He reached into his back pocket and threw down a set of keys into the dirt.

  “Take the truck,” he said. “And get out of here as soon as you can. If Dean comes back and he knows I’ve left you here, he won’t be happy.”

  “I don’t understand…,” she called after him.

  She watched him standing there in front of her and she could see the pain behind his eyes. It was clear that he knew something about what was happening in town that she didn’t, and he was obviously caught up in it somehow.

  “I don’t want you to get hurt, Pamela,” he said softly. “And while you’re here with me, or even here in these woods poking around, you’re not going to be safe.”

  She took a step forward and he held up his hand to stop her. He was backing away, his demeanor changing. She could see the gold tint of his eyes taking over and they were no longer brown but amber and gold.

  “Tell me what’s going on?” she asked carefully. “What did you just do to me?”

  She felt different, her mind was more awake, and her senses were more alive. She was on high alert, as if she could sense every little thing around her in the woods and as if she could take on the world.

  “I need to go,” he said sharply. “But you’ll be safe for now. I’ll know if you need me.”

  He turned and ran, and she watched as he disappeared into the trees behind the truck and was gone in a matter of seconds.

  A cold chill seemed to descend on the forest and Pamela looked up at the sky. It was still as blue and clear as it had been, but the moment Ryder had left, the world felt suddenly dark and frozen.

  She breathed in and out deeply and closed her eyes. Tears were threatening to spring free because she felt so alone. He had touched her, right above her heart, and now, it was as if she couldn’t bear to be away from him.

  What has he done to me? she thought.

  She looked down at the set of keys on the ground and bent to pick them up. They were burning hot in her hands, as if his heat was still clinging to them, and it brought her some comfort.

  “Something is so weird about this place,” she whispered to herself. “I have no idea what is going on, but I am determined to find out.”

  She slipped the keys into her back pocket and then looked ahead to the thick mass of trees. She hitched her backpack up onto her shoulder and decided it was now or never. She may not have had Ryder with her physically, but she could still feel him, and she had the deepening sense that he was watching over her somehow.

  She couldn’t explain any of it, but she knew she had to go to the clearing and get the samples. He had said she would be safe for a little while longer, and who knew if she would have the chance again.

  She had the drive and courage to keep moving, he had given her that before he had gone. And
she wasn’t going to waste it.

  6.

  She threw the keys to the truck down onto her bed as she entered the hotel room and locked the door behind her. The past couple of hours had gone by in a blur, but she had gotten what she had come for.

  The forest had been a mess of dead and the dying. A cold place where all she could think of was poisoned earth. She had collected soil and water samples and cuttings from trees, much like she had done in the unaffected area where she had last seen Ryder… before he had touched her heart and done something to her, deep, deep inside. And before she had felt as if she could take on anything.

  He had told her that someone wanted her gone, and it was troubling her. In fact, it was more than troubling her; it was all she could think about. How had she managed to get herself into this situation when she had only wanted to help people?

  She turned on her laptop and pulled her cellphone out of her back pocket, setting it on the desk. She had no word from Sean, just a text a few hours before saying he was still with Ranger Dean and after he had managed to shake him, he would be doing a bit of further exploration on his own.

  Pamela didn’t know why but she had a dreaded feeling about this. As if Sean was about to get them into a whole ton of trouble or even wind up hurt. She scratched her shoulder and let her fingertips move down to the place on her chest where Ryder had placed his hand.

  It still burned hot with electricity and chemistry. When their skins had merged, something magical had happened, she was sure of it.

  She thought back to the way he had stood there in the woods looking at her, his whole body changing in the subtlest of ways, but ways that she could now see and pick up on.

  Had he given her a second sight?

  Who was Ryder and what did he want from her?

  She shivered and had the feeling he could feel it too. Were they somehow in sync now that he had done that to her…?

  She opened her emails and looked at the last one she had received from the agency. It was still early and well within office hours, so she found the number at the bottom of the footer and tapped it into her cellphone before she raised it to her ear and waited for it to ring.