by W. H. Vega
Gabby nodded, standing up. It was more information than she had expected, so she had no right to be angry with her mother. “Thank you,” she said stiffly.
“Yeah, well, thanks for the food,” her mother said, standing up and staring at the floor.
“Right.”
Gabby went in the kitchen just as Lucy was putting away the last of the groceries.
“I’m heading out, Luce. I’ll see you later.”
“Thanks for going shopping,” she whispered.
Gabby nodded. “Yep. Stay out of trouble tomorrow, got it?” Tomorrow was Friday, and it would give Gabby peace of mind to know that Lucy could make it to the weekend.
Lucy rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
Gabby headed out the door, glad to be leaving her mother’s house, but still not feeling satisfied by the information her mother had given her.
Chapter Ten
Gabby found herself at work the next day and couldn’t help but ask Paul about Native Americans.
“Paul, do you know much about Native Americans?” she asked after she directed a couple to one of the better restaurants in town.
Paul cocked his head. “Whadda ya mean? Like Native Americans, in general?”
“No, no. I mean Native Americans around this area.”
Paul frowned. “I’m sure there are some in the area. I just don’t know too much. I know a lot of Native Americans from Washington moved down this way. And there was a big stigma attached.”
That caught Gabby’s attention. “What do you mean by stigma?”
Paul shrugged. “I know that a lot of people at the time thought that the Native Americans were evil and up to no good. That kind of thing.”
Gabby frowned, none of it made sense. “But why?”
Paul shrugged. “No clue. Just the way people reacted around here.”
“People are idiots,” Gabby muttered, organizing the pamphlets on the front desk.
“Agreed.”
Paul was silent for a moment and Gabby looked over at him. She rolled her eyes. “Stop looking at my tits, Paul.”
Paul turned bright red and looked at the ground. “I—I’m not!” he stuttered.
“Yes, you were.”
Embarrassed, Paul hurried back to his office.
Gabby’s had chosen a V-neck shirt today and she should have known better. Even though it was modest, her chest was still straining against the material. She thought of how Zane had checked her out too, though that hadn’t bothered her nearly as much as Paul checking her out.
And Gabby didn’t even want to think about the strange kiss they had shared. It had been just too bizarre.
She forced her mind back to work and tried to forget about Zane.
Chapter Eleven
“I think there’s more to it,” Zane argued, knowing he was close to overstepping his boundaries.
“Enough!” Michael said sharply. “You’ve shared your views, and I’ve expressed my doubts.”
Annoyed, Zane stormed across the room. “Then why?” he practically exploded. “Why would we have that many trespassers on our land?”
“I don’t know,” Michael admitted, “but I think we need to be focusing on the cubs that have been killed and not on some random human who happened to be in the park yesterday.”
“I just think it was too coincidental, that’s all.” Zane sank down in one of the chairs in Michael’s office and dropped his head to his hands. He had been racking his brain for the past few days, trying to find out a reason why the trespassers had been on their lands, but all he kept thinking of was Gabby.
She had been such a pain in the ass, but she had been sexy as hell, and Zane couldn’t stop himself whenever he thought of their kiss. He knew he shouldn’t have kissed her, but he wasn’t able to stop himself, and then when she responded—well, he had been harder than a rock.
“I’m beefing up security along our borders,” Michael spoke up. “I need your help, especially now, and you don’t need to be wasting time patrolling.”
“Thank you,” Zane said, humbly. When an alpha complimented you, it was nearly impossible not to be humble. The compliment resonated deep in his bones.
“I say we stop trying to guess as to why the trespassers were here. That’s getting us nowhere. Now we focus on stopping them from entering our lands again and continuing to threaten our cubs.”
The cubs had literally been on lockdown, which had been extremely difficult. They were escorted to and from their schools, and outdoor play had all but ceased. Zane felt bad for the cubs. They needed to be outdoors and running around, and instead they were cooped up most of the time, unless a warrior-trained bear could supervise them.
“I want you looking into any connections between the Cruentus clan and Atrocitas clan. I still believe it’s the Atrocitas who killed our cubs, but it doesn’t make sense that it was the Cruentus trespassing the other day. See if you can find any links. Sniff around.”
Zane nodded in agreement and left Michael’s office. There was no sense in trying to get him to change his mind about Gabby, and now that he had an order, he needed to follow through. He noticed that the door to the safe room hadn’t been closed. He walked over to close it and noticed something black on the floor.
Gabby’s baseball cap.
She must have taken it off the other day when he locked her in there.
He suddenly decided that he needed to return it to her. He had just learned yesterday that she worked at the small hotel that was just off the highway.
Taking the hat, he jogged outside to his car and hopped in. Hopefully Michael would be so immersed in his thoughts that he wouldn’t miss Zane.
In less than ten minutes Zane found himself pulling in front of the hotel. He parked the car and strode into the lobby, not sure where he could find Gabby. He realized he didn’t need to worry about that because there was Gabby behind the front desk, speaking with an elderly couple.
She didn’t notice him right away, but when she saw him, her mouth dropped open, and then after she recovered, she looked annoyed.
Oh well.
Zane waited off to the side, but he couldn’t help himself as he looked Gabby over. There was no denying that she was gorgeous. She was curvy in all the right places, and he found himself lingering on her chest, which thanks to the v-cut of her shirt, offered him a wonderful glimpse of her cleavage. He couldn’t see her bottom half, but he could just picture the large curve of her ass.
Damn.
He needed to stop. His cock twitched in his pants, and the bear inside him roared its approval—it wanted a piece of Gabby too.
Zane had been so good about exercising control over the past couple of days, but he could feel the wild beast fighting against his human instincts.
Gabby rolled her eyes at him, which Zane figured wasn’t a good sign, but she looked so damn hot that he didn’t really give a shit. He sauntered over to her.
“Hey.” He opened casually.
Gabby stared at him. “Hey.” She raised her eyebrows. “Can I help you?” she asked slowly, staring at Zane as if he were an idiot.
Fuck! What was he doing? He was just staring at her like a dumbass. As if he had come into the hotel for no reason at all.
“You left this the other day,” he explained, brandishing the hat from his pocket. Christ! Her tits were right in his face.
“Oh! I forgot all about that.” Her face softened for a moment. “Thank you.” She took the hat and held it in her hand. “You came all the way over here just to drop this off?”
Zane gave a little shrug. “It’s only a few minutes.”
Gabby nodded. She looked up at Zane and then narrowed her eyes. “My eyes are up here,” she hissed.
Zane felt bad, but he gave her a helpless grin, which seemed to annoy Gabby even more.
“If you don’t want people staring at your tits, then maybe you shouldn’t have them on full display.”
Gabby’s face went from pink to crimson.
Shit.
“Excuse me,” she began. “I should be able to get dressed in the morning without worrying about some horn dog ogling me while I’m at work!” she huffed. She shoved the hat under the front desk. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”
“Alright, alright. Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Let me make it up to you.”
She narrowed her eyes again. “How?”
Zane couldn’t help being glad that she hadn’t completely written him off. Even though she was a pistol, he found himself attracted to her and wanting to spend more time with her.
“When do you get a break?”
She glanced at her watch. “I could take a fifteen minute break now,” she said carefully. She clearly wasn’t sure of whether or not she could trust Zane.
“Great. Let me buy you—’’ he faltered, looking around. And then he saw a sign for a vending machine. “A soda and we can sit out on the porch.” He thought of the big rockers along the front verandah.
Gabby waved at some guy across the room and pointed at her watch. Then she looked back at Zane. “Fine. But I want iced tea and let’s sit out in the back garden. It’s more private.”
Zane wasn’t going to complain about that. Gabby came around the desk, and she did not disappoint. She was wearing a pair of black capris that hugged her body beautifully. He forced himself not to stare at her ass, though he wasn’t sure if he had fooled her.
They walked over to the vending machine, situated by a bank of elevators, and he stuck in two dollar bills and got an iced tea for Gabby and a Coke for himself. Gabby led the way out back, and Zane was surprised to see that it was a full garden, filled with trees, benches and dozens of different types of flowers.
“Wow. I had no idea this was back here.”
Gabby nodded. “Not many people do. Follow me.” She weaved her way between roses and daisies, until they came to a secluded bench. She sat down and Zane sat next to her. Being this close to her drove him wild, and he could feel the bear within him begging to be let out.
They sat in silence for a minute, and Zane felt foolish. “How long have you worked here?” he found himself asking.
“A while,” she frowned. “I guess it’s been eight years. I started working here part time when I was in high school. It just seemed like a no brainer to come on full time after I graduated.” She looked like she was going to say more, but stopped herself.
“What?” Zane asked.
“Nothing. It’s just—I wanted to go to college, but I couldn’t. I had to look out for my little sister. So that’s how I ended up here. Not that it’s not a great place to work,” she quickly explained, “it’s just not exactly what I had in mind.”
Zane tried to understand her better. “What did you have in mind?”
She fiddled with the top of the iced tea bottle and shrugged. “I don’t know. College. But like I said, my sister needed me.”
Zane had never even considered college. Almost no one from the tribes went to college; there was no point. Their jobs were to protect the lands. Plain and simple. No college training was necessary for those who hid the secret of being a werebear.
“But couldn’t your parents help your sister?” He vaguely remembered Gabby mentioning something about her father and a fear of bears.
“My father’s dead,” she said flatly, “and my mother is the town drunk.”
Ouch. Zane hadn’t seen that one coming. And since the tribe pretty much stuck together and didn’t socialize with the rest of the town, he really didn’t know many of the residents.
“Sorry.” He didn’t know what else to say.
“It’s fine.” She paused and sighed. “And sorry I snapped at you for, you know, staring at me. It’s been a strange few days. I just snapped at my boss too.”
“Oh?”
She rolled her eyes. “For the same reason.”
Zane didn’t know why, but it made his bear roar with jealousy. Who the hell was this boss of hers?
He tried to calm the bear; he was being ridiculous.
“I should get going,” she said, glancing at her watch. “Thanks for the drink.” She went to stand, but her foot got tangled in one of the roots, and she quickly pitched forward.
Zane reached out, his reflexes sharper than the average human thanks to being part bear, and he grabbed Gabby, quickly righting her.
Gabby gasped, the whole thing happened so quickly, and then Zane was there, holding her in his arms.
“Are you alright?”
She stared at him wildly, and Zane could hear the acceleration of her heart. “Umm, yes. I think so.” She held onto his biceps, and Zane resisted the urge to flex them just a bit. She looked up at him, her eyes blue eyes bright. “How—how did you catch me so fast?”
“I don’t know. I just did.”
She still wasn’t standing completely, and Zane lifted her up, as if she weighed nothing, and righted her on her feet.
But he still didn’t let go.
She was so close, her chest heaving up and down from the surprise of tripping, and her skin was so soft and warm, not to mention her smell!
The scent of her!
All humans had different scents, and thanks to his heightened senses, Zane was able to smell humans in their entirety. And Gabby smelled amazing. There was something fragrant and sweet about her scent, and yet there was also something dark and lingering which he couldn’t quite place.
And then, not giving a damn, he gave into the moment, pulling Gabby to him, just as he had outside her truck the other day. Gabby didn’t resist, in fact he guessed that she was too shocked, and Zane kissed her, his hands sliding along the small of her back and hugging her ass as he pulled her close to his body.
He leaned down as he kissed her; he was nearly a full foot taller than her, and she tasted just as sweet as she smelled. His bear roared its approval. Gabby wasn’t kissing him back yet, but he didn’t care, kissing her harder.
His cock hardened in his pants.
Nothing he could do about that.
Then finally, Gabby kissed him back, though it didn’t feel quite right, and then she pushed against him, shoving him away.
“What the hell?’’ she sputtered.
“What?”
“What are you doing?”
“Kissing you,” he snapped, his pride wounded. And then he could see in Gabby’s eyes that she was reconsidering having pulled away, and he tugged her slightly, pulling her back to him and kissing her again.
This time she didn’t resist.
Chapter Twelve
What the hell was she doing?
Here she was, at her job, making out with Zane, who she barely knew!
And she was enjoying it.
She felt Zane harden against her thigh and she was somewhat horrified and turned on at the same time. She pressed herself closer to him, pushing her chest against him as she kissed him back, and he moaned softly when she pushed her chest into him harder.
And then she came to her senses.
“What the hell? I’m at work!” she gasped, pulling back, and stumbling a good ten feet from him.
He moved towards her again, his eyes filled with lust, but she held her hand up. “No! Seriously, I must be out of my freaking mind,” she gasped, fixing her shirt and wiping at her burning lips.
Burning in a good way.
“I need to get back to work! And you need to go!” she exclaimed, raking her hands through her hair nervously.
“Come on,” he said in a husky voice, holding his arms out to her.
“No! I must be a damn lunatic!” With that, she turned on her heel and hurried out of the garden. She passed Paul in the lobby, who luckily seemed none the wiser of her hot and heavy garden make out session.
“I’m back!” she announced as she passed him, and she slipped behind the desk, feeling entirely out of sorts. It was perfect timing as a woman approached her for check in and she focused on nothing else but helping the woma
n with her room. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Zane slip back into the hotel lobby, where he paced in the shadows.
What the hell? Didn’t he need to be at work? Why couldn’t he just take his hot body and great kissing skills and get the hell out of her hotel? How was she supposed to concentrate at work?
After she handed the customer her room key and wished her a nice stay, she made a beeline for Zane.
“You need to leave,” she hissed.
“I wanted to talk to you again.”
“Why? I’m working.” She gave him a onceover, checking out his park ranger uniform, “And it looks like you should be at work too.”
“Why are you so damn hot and cold?” he griped.
“Why do you keep trying to make out with me without even asking? Are you that egotistical?”
“You certainly weren’t complaining,” he scoffed.
“You are such an ass!” she gasped. “I don’t know what I was thinking! Thank you for my hat!” She spun around and began to cross the room and then thought better of it, doubling back to him. “And just for the record, most normal men ask women if they can kiss them before they just grab them like a piece of meat and start making out with them.”
Of course, she would be lying to herself if she pretended like she didn’t enjoy Zane’s take-no-prisoners, dominant approach to kissing her.
“Whatever. I need to get back to work.”
“Good!” she snipped. “And leave me the hell alone!”
“Not a problem.” And without a second glance, he strode across the room and left.
She took her time heading back to the desk, her heart pounding as adrenaline coursed through her veins. Of course, Paul made his way over to her, and she inwardly rolled her eyes.
“What was that all about?” he asked, a little too possessively.
“Nothing. Just a misunderstanding.”
Misunderstanding my ass.
“It didn’t look like a misunderstanding to me.”
“Well, it was. A complicated one.”
Paul continued to stare at her, but when she didn’t offer any more information, he gave up and went back to his office. Luckily, the lobby wasn’t busy at all, and Gabby moved over to the continental coffee and juice bar and began tidying up the area.