by Elena Aitken
“I’ve been out here.” Zoe waved her arm around to encompass the beautiful forest.
“Don’t get smart with me.” Chloe crossed her arms and widened her stance. “You know exactly what I mean. Where have you been, Zoe? Mom and Dad have been freaking out.”
She sighed and let her head drop back. “I’m sure they haven’t been freaking out.” She used her fingers to make air quotes. “I just took a little trip. I needed some space.”
“Space?” Chloe jerked her head in the direction of the lodge and the buildings. “Let’s go back to the Den so you can tell me about it.”
“I really don’t want to talk about it.” And she didn’t. But Zoe followed Chloe anyway. There really was no point in arguing too much. After all, she needed a place to stay and it had been her decision to seek Chloe out in her new home at the ridge. She probably shouldn’t be too hostile.
They walked in silence for a few minutes and Zoe was beginning to think Chloe had actually respected her decision not to talk. But as soon as the buildings came into view, Chloe turned to face her on the trail. Her face had softened, and so she no longer looked pissed off, but that wasn’t going to sway Zoe’s decision to talk. Not yet.
“Look, Zoe.” Chloe reached out and took her hand in hers. “I don’t know what’s going on, but Mom and Dad seem to think you’re having some sort of breakdown.”
“I’m not. I just wanted—”
“I know.” Chloe cut her off and gave her a smile. “I know you’re not having a breakdown. But you do have to admit, your behavior is a little out of the ordinary.” She didn’t wait for a response. “But I’m glad you’re here,” Chloe continued. “I really am. And you’re welcome to stay at the ridge as long as you need to.”
“Really?”
Chloe nodded. “Of course. And I’m not even going to make you talk.” She tilted her head and added, “At least not yet.” Of course. “But I want you to know that I’m here if you want to. Because obviously—”
“Seriously, Chloe.”
“Okay.” She dropped her hand. “But I am going to call Mom and—”
“No.” Zoe froze and crossed her arms tight across her chest. “You’re not going to call them.”
“Yes.” Chloe faced off with her. “I am. They need to know.”
“They don’t need to know anything.” She didn’t mean to, but Zoe struggled to control her voice. Her bear raged just below the surface. Over the last few months, she’d done a pretty good job at controlling her bear, but there were still times when her emotions got the best of her.
Which was why it was easier to stay away from anyone who was going to push her too hard. “I mean it, Chloe.” She stared at her sister, willing her to understand and stop pushing. “Don’t tell them anything.”
“Zoe. That’s not fair.”
“No.” She shook her head and, without another look, took off running toward the Den and more specifically, her motorbike.
“Zoe!” Chloe was hot on her heels but Zoe already had her keys out of her pocket. The helmet was strapped on the back, and she shoved it on her head before throwing one leg over and firing up the bike.
She’d already started out of the yard, but stopped in front of Chloe, who stood on the pathway with her arms crossed, her face red with the effort of running, and probably anger, too.
“Don’t make me regret coming here, Chloe.” She pleaded with her eyes to her sister, who once upon a time used to be her best friend. Would she still, after all these years, feel a loyalty toward her baby sister? “Please.”
Zoe didn’t wait for Chloe to answer before revving the engine and taking off down the twisty mountain road that would take her into town, and with any luck, something—or someone—to distract her.
Chapter Two
It hadn’t taken long to drop the wolf off at Blackwood Ranch. The way he always did, Gabe gave the man a pep talk about women and how they could be temperamental. He refrained from asking whether Ashley was right, and Ryan had cheated on her. Beyond wanting the best for the woman he didn’t really know all that well, it was none of his business.
They’d sort it out together.
Or, it wouldn’t be long before Gabe was paying them both another visit.
He was just about to drive away, when Gabe noticed a familiar truck parked farther down the yard, closer to the stables. It belonged to Grizzly Ridge and the Jackson brothers who lived at the property next door. With his hand up as a visor against the sun, it wasn’t hard to spot Kade Jackson, the youngest of the brothers, leaning up against the fence, chatting with Brian Blackwood.
It was Brian who spotted him first and waved him over.
“Don’t tell me one of my guys got into trouble again.” Brian shook Gabe’s hand heartily in greeting. “Not that I don’t like to see you, man. But…”
“Just a minor domestic.” Gabe turned and gave Kade a slap on the back man hug before tucking his thumbs into his belt. “Nothing major. Ashley Morris—”
Brian groaned. “Which of them is messed up with Ashley this time?”
“Ryan,” Gabe confessed. “But I actually think she likes this one. It could work out.”
“Yeah, right.” Brian rolled his eyes.
Kade chuckled. “Maybe you should pick some better ranch hands, Blackwood?”
“Not all of us are so lucky to have a shit ton of family members to work for free, Jackson.” It was friendly ribbing, but there was an undercurrent of truth there as well, and maybe even resentment. The relations between the two families hadn’t always been so friendly. Mostly it had been a misunderstanding with one of the Blackwood cousins, but Gabe still wondered whether the two families weren’t just one more misunderstanding from a feud. That was the thing between wolf shifters and bear shifters. It wasn’t often that two alpha clans could live in such close proximity without it turning out badly for at least one of the families.
“Well, either way,” Gabe jumped in. “I hope Ashley gets some better taste in men sometime soon.”
“Ahh, but then you’d be out of a job.” Kade punched him good-naturedly in the arm.
“Somehow I doubt that, with the way things are growing around here. You guys both look like you’re booming.” Gabe didn’t even have to look around to see that all the horses that were usually in the stables were currently out on trail rides. The full parking lot already told him that Blackwood Ranch was likely at capacity for guests. And Grizzly Ridge had been almost fully booked since the day they opened as Montana’s newest eco-lodge, just over a year ago.
“We can barely keep up,” Kade said. “Not that I’m complaining,” he added quickly. “But we seem to have almost as many people staying on as leaving. It’s putting a bit of a cramp on our accommodations.”
“Which is why he’s here.” Brian laughed. “Not that I can give you too many rooms, Jackson. Not even for family. At least not once the busier winter season starts up.”
Gabe looked between the men. “Who do you have staying on at the ridge?” And before Kade could answer, Gabe added, “Besides Harper’s mom and—”
“Nina and Ryker?” He laughed but he shook his head. Only two weeks earlier, Kade’s oldest brother Axel had gotten married to Harper, which wasn’t usually a shifter tradition, but seeing that Harper was a half breed, the wedding was important to her. And to her mother, Shelly, who’d made it to the ridge for the celebrations. It turned out that Shelly wasn’t in a hurry to leave, though, especially because she’d had the chance to meet her brand-new granddaughter.
“That’s right,” Gabe said. “I forgot about Nina and Ryker. But aren’t they building themselves a cabin?”
“Isn’t everyone?”
“You guys are going to run out of woods over there, if you keep building cabins.” Brian crossed his arms and grinned, but Kade wasn’t laughing.
“Can’t turn away family, man.”
Ryker was cousin to the Jackson brothers, and an alpha in his own right who, like his cousins, had left his overbea
ring grandfather and happily settled on Grizzly Ridge with his new—human—mate, Nina. The Jackson patriarch had old-fashioned views about how his grandchildren should be choosing their mates, and considering none of them had chosen what he would consider an acceptable match, they’d all chosen exile. At least it was working out pretty well for them.
Unlike Gabe’s own, self-imposed, exile from his own clan. Not that it was working out poorly. It was just…well, it just was.
But it never failed to make him a little homesick for his own clan and something that never was, when he saw the way the Jacksons stuck together.
“But it’s not just them.” Kade was still talking. “Now it seems like we have even more guests. Chloe’s sister showed up out of the blue the other night.” He shook his head and laughed. “I don’t know much about her yet, but I’m not going to lie—it’s pretty funny to see the way Chloe gets fired up when she’s around.”
The men stood around bullshitting for another few minutes before Gabe finally made his exit. His shift was almost over, and it would be good to do one more sweep of Main Street before signing off for the night.
“I’ll see you guys in a few days for the citizen’s patrol meeting. And you’re helping out at Halloween?”
With the town growing so quickly that the police force was having trouble keeping up, it had been Gabe’s idea to employ a group of volunteers from the community to help out with some of the more basic issues around town. An idea both the town and the townspeople had jumped all over.
“Absolutely.”
“See you soon, Wilder.”
The sun was starting to set as Gabe made his way down the lane and off the ranch. He stopped the cruiser on the drive to adjust the visor. But when he dropped it down, a photograph fell to his lap and he immediately flinched. He held the picture in two fingers and silently cursed himself. He’d meant to tuck it back into his wallet after the last time he’d looked at it.
Without thinking, he moved to fold it along the worn crease and do just that, but something stopped him.
He liked hanging out with the Jacksons, but there was part of being their friend that sometimes got a little harder than it should. In the last year, all the brothers, and now the cousins, were pairing up and falling in love. But not just falling in love. They were finding their mates. Their fated mates.
Gabe looked at the picture and stroked over the image of the brown-haired girl in it with his thumb. He’d had that once. Sometimes it felt like a million years ago. And, in some respects, it was.
He no longer kissed the picture the way he used to. Time changed things. Instead, he turned it over and his face split into a smile at the image of the toddler, a younger version of him, held in his arms as the three of them posed for what would be their last portrait as a family four years ago.
Ashton.
His son was no longer so little, but he still had Gabe’s heart. Completely.
He was just about to tuck the photo away safely when a flurry of dust and gravel whipped past on the dirt road in front of him.
“What the hell?”
Instinct kicked in as Gabe flipped on the lights and sirens and, with the photo tossed to the seat next to him, put the cruiser into gear and tore after the reckless driver.
So much for a slow shift.
Who did Chloe think she was? She was a grown adult. Her parents did not need to know where she was every second of every day.
Zoe revved the engine, and kicked the shifter, changing the gear on her bike as she pressed down on the throttle. Speed. She needed speed. Craved it. The rush of danger she felt every time she rounded a tight corner, almost laying the bike down before once again shifting the gears and hitting the gas, made her feel alive.
She wasn’t always a thrill seeker. In fact, the old Zoe would never have gotten on the back of a motorbike, let alone driven one as fast as she did now.
But the old Zoe was long gone, left behind in a cloud of dust and gravel, just like the life she thought she’d have. And good riddance, as far as Zoe was concerned. Because the way she lived now was exactly what she should have been doing all along.
Moving from town to town, finding one new adventure after another, trying new things, meeting new people, pushing the bounds of safety straight into the danger zone: that was living.
The mountain road that led from Grizzly Ridge down to town was twisty and tight, but that only made her speed up. By the time Zoe saw the flashing lights and heard the siren behind her, it was already way too late.
Shit.
The last thing she needed was a ticket. Chloe would definitely have something to say about that.
Zoe eased her hand off the throttle and slowed the bike. She was almost off the dirt road and into town, so she navigated the bike easily down the road before pulling over safely on the pavement at the edge of town.
It only took a few minutes before she heard the sound of a car door slamming shut and the distinctive footsteps behind her. Her senses were always on high alert after she’d been riding. She could see, hear, and scent things much more strongly. And there was a scent in the air, too. Something besides the thick, fresh pine that filled the air in the Montana mountains. Something…different.
Cedar and…oranges?
Every cell in her body vibrated, but somehow she managed to stay upright and wait for the officer.
“Ma’am?”
Zoe turned to the voice and immediately was hit with a shock wave of desire. The man in front of her was tall and built, with hard muscles that were evident even through his uniform. The stubble on his chin, not quite enough for a beard, but just enough to look dangerously sexy, matched his black, thick hair. His dark sunglasses hid his eyes. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, because Zoe was pretty sure she’d be lost if she could only see his eyes. It was clear that he was a bear. Even if she hadn’t been able to scent it, he had the look.
“Do you know why I pulled you over?”
It took Zoe a moment to realize he was speaking. His thick, gruff voice, every bit as sexy as the man who stood in front of her, put every one of her senses on high alert.
She took a breath, trying not to inhale, and answered. “I’m sure it was because I’m a woman on a motorbike.”
He opened and closed his mouth, clearly not expecting her answer. “No,” he said after a moment. “I assure you, that was not the reason. You were speeding, ma’am. On the ridge road.”
Slowly, Zoe unhooked the buckle on her helmet and removed it. In doing so, she shook her long blonde hair out so it fluttered over her shoulders. She knew exactly the effect it had on men. It never failed. And when she finally snuck a look over at the officer, it was clear that her technique wasn’t going to fail her this time either. “I’m really sorry if you thought I was driving too fast, Officer…”
“Wilder. And you were driving too fast.” He stiffened his spine and stood straight once again. “License and registration, please.”
The smile fell from her face. “What?”
“License and registration, please.”
“But, I…” She let the words trail away. It wasn’t as if she could tell him that her flirting had never failed to work before. Even when that female cop pulled her over in Idaho, she’d batted her eyelashes a little and accidentally undone a button on her blouse, and she was given a warning to slow down. There was no way it wouldn’t work with this guy. Especially because…well, she couldn’t put her finger on it. But there was something about him.
But maybe he didn’t feel it.
Zoe turned away and opened the small console where she should have kept her registration. She fumbled with a stack of papers for a moment before dropping them. “Oops.” She shrugged as casually as she could before bending down to retrieve them, and popped a button of her blouse at the same time. When she righted herself, she flung her thick hair back and pressed her chest forward. She knew her purple lacy bra would be peeking out. Not enough to be slutty, but just enough to be enticing.
&n
bsp; It’s not that she liked using her sexuality for her benefit, but she liked to think of it as a tool in her kit. Besides, if it worked, why not use it? Especially because she’d left her purse with her driver’s license in it and her updated registration back at Grizzly Ridge.
“Here you go.” She slipped her sunglasses off and batted her eyelashes at him as she handed him a stack of papers that was most definitely not her registration or her license, but he barely looked at her.
“What’s this?”
“What do you think it is?”
He shook his head. “It looks like a stack of coupons for burgers and fries.”
She shrugged but he still wasn’t looking up.
“I’ll need to see your license and registration, please.”
It was no longer just lust, or attraction, or whatever it was that was racing through every one of her senses; it was also anger. Who the hell did he think he was not to notice her?
She was being petulant and she knew it. But Zoe couldn’t seem to stop herself. Of course, she had been looking for trouble. Maybe this was exactly what she was looking for.
“Look, Officer.” She licked her lips in one last effort. “I don’t have them on me right now.”
For the first time, he took his glasses off and made eye contact. The second his gaze connected with hers, it was as if someone had taken a match and lit a fire. The heat was instant and intense and it threatened to knock her off the bike altogether.
Why had he done that?
He should have kept his glasses on. He knew that. From the moment he’d pulled her over and approached the bike, he’d known. She smelled of jasmine, cherries, and…trouble.
And if his bear had reacted as strongly as it had before she even said a word, then when she opened her mouth to speak, his bear went into full animal mode. He was lost. He was also smart enough to know exactly what an attraction so intense meant.
He needed to hold it together. Which was exactly why he never should have taken his sunglasses off. It was bad enough she was flirting shamelessly. Licking her lips, batting her eyelashes, and…fuck—that cleavage. It made him want to do things to her that he had absolutely no business thinking of during a traffic stop.