by Selena Scott
***
Race’s heart was in his throat when his computer beeped at him, indicating that one of his traps had been set off. And so soon! It had been just a few days since Bill the idiot had laid the traps for him.
He was already halfway to the drop site when the sensor on the trap abruptly shut off. That was… not a good sign. Wondering what could have happened, bracing himself for disappointment, Race got to the drop site expecting to see a caught animal that had destroyed the sensor on the trap somehow.
What he saw stymied him for a moment. The trap was gone. Though there were a few bloody leaves to show that it had in fact gotten an animal. The rest of the leaves looked as if they’d been disrupted and raked in one direction.
A chilling smile started to bloom on Race’s face as he took in the footprints circling the area. It was well past two a.m. at this point and the forest was as deadly quiet as it ever was.
He followed the footprints to a mound of freshly piled earth. His glee grew. Knowing he only had a few hours to pull this off, he basically ran back to his truck, which he’d hidden off the road in a stand of trees, and grabbed his shovel from the back. He spent the next two hours clearing dirt and bloodied leaves from the mounded earth.
He nearly whooped with glee when he saw what had been left behind. There was the deer. And there were the marks of a wolf bite. He knew that they were from his trap, but anyone who didn’t know about the existence of his traps would automatically assume they were the result of an animal attack.
And there—he couldn’t have orchestrated it better himself—was the slit of a knife across the deer’s throat. Which could have only been made by a human.
Here, in front of him, he had proof of animal/wolf interaction over a kill. Who cared if he’d manufactured it! There was a deer, attacked by a wolf, finished off by a human, and buried on the Durants’ land! If this wasn’t enough evidence to confirm that they were shifters, or at least in cahoots with shifters, he didn’t know what was! Victory zinged through his veins as he took careful pictures of the kill and then carefully laid the deer to rest again, covering over the body as best as he could before sunrise.
It bothered him that the trap was gone. But it was a good night’s work. He slammed into his truck and headed down the road, more certain than ever that he was closer to catching a shifter.
***
Natalie kicked her high heels off in Raph’s front entry and padded back through his house to look for him. He wasn’t in the kitchen, as she’d expected. He wasn’t in the living room either.
She found him in his bedroom, damp from a shower with a towel tied around his waist. He sat on the edge of the bed, staring off into the distance.
“Raph?” Alarm raced through her at his appearance. He never, ever looked as down as he looked right now.
“Hi. You look nice.” He held his arms out to her and she immediately went to him, sitting in his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck.
“What’s wrong?”
“Bad night. What are you so dressed up for?”
She was wearing a simple black T-shirt dress, sheer black stockings and a sparkly belt to accent her waist. She wore no makeup and her hair was down around her chin. “I wouldn’t call this dressed up exactly.” She cleared her throat. “I was with Paul. For dinner.”
Raphael stiffened and for the first time since they’d started this thing between them, he put a little distance between them. He gently picked her up off his lap and set her aside on the bed.
He rose and walked over to his dresser, saying nothing, and started pulling out clothes. She’d seen him dress after a shower a dozen times in the last month and she’d spent plenty of time grinning at his striptease antics. He’d snap the towel, dance butt naked, flash her his booty as he slid on his briefs. But not today. Today he kept the towel on while he slid his underwear on as if he didn’t want to be naked in front of her. Next came a sweatshirt and then the sweatpants. He even left the hood up.
A foreboding feeling skittered up Natalie’s spine. Something was off. Something was bad.
“Raph… is everything all right?”
He grunted.
Not sure what to make of that and pretty thrown off, Natalie attempted to regroup. She’d come over here with her gut fizzing like champagne, even though she’d made sure not to drink anything with Paul. The last she’d heard from Raph was a few texts after their effervescent phone conversation last night. As far as she’d been expecting, he was desperate to know about Kaya’s reaction. He’d been anxious to see her.
But there he was, his back to her, grunting and not answering her.
She took a deep breath. “I was hoping to talk to you about some stuff tonight.”
He froze, his hands on the top of his dresser and his head bowed. “Nat, I’m pretty tired tonight. It was a really bad night. Can we maybe do this another time?”
She’d been with Raph on countless bad nights through the duration of their friendship and she’d never, ever known one bad enough to have him treating her like this.
Unwilling to let him scare her away, she rose up and crossed to him, her arms going around his stomach and her forehead landing between his shoulder blades.
“What happened tonight?”
He didn’t say anything.
“Raph, please tell me. Is everyone okay? Is it something with the family?”
He took a deep breath and the flat of his hand landed over top of her clasped ones. “Everyone’s fine. But… we’re gonna go away for a while.”
Her mind went blank. “What?”
“My family. We’re going to get out of Boulder for a while.”
“Your family. All of you?”
“Well, Jackson is staying. We couldn’t convince him to leave his vet practice. But he chains himself in the basement on full moons anyways, so he’s not in danger of getting found out.”
“It’s a shifter thing? You’re leaving because of a shifter thing?”
He turned in her arms, his hands on her shoulders and the patient look in his eyes terrified her more than the defeated one from earlier. “We don’t think it’s safe for us here right now.”
“Raph. What happened tonight?”
“Someone set traps outside Ma’s house.”
“Traps. Like for an animal?”
“We’re not sure yet. But either they were to trap us when we shifted or…”
“Or what?”
Raph sighed and went back to sit on the edge of the bed again. “The traps are designed to look as if whatever got trapped in it was attacked by a wolf. Bauer and Jackson think that the design and the placement is intentional.”
“The design and the placement?” Her mind whirred almost uncontrollably. She lowered herself onto the bed next to him. “You mean that you think someone is trying to simulate a wolf attack on your mother’s property?”
He nodded, his eyes on the floor.
“Why would someone do it?”
“To frame us.”
“To frame you. But that would mean they…”
“Know what we are. Yeah.”
“Oh my God.” Unable to stop herself, she threw her arms around his neck, buried her face in the side of his hoodie sweatshirt. To her great relief, his arms banded around her waist and he pulled her up onto his lap. She straddled him easily and his arms held her even tighter. “But if they know what you all are then why would Jackson risk staying?”
“Because there’s no proving what he is. Even if he were under surveillance, all they’d see on a full moon is him going into his own house and locking the doors. It’s the rest of us outdoor shifters who have to worry about being found out.”
“I can’t believe this is happening.”
“We’re thinking we’ll head out in a few days. Go first up to the cabin in the mountains and then maybe Seth and I will try to get some seasonal landscaping work, maybe in Wyoming. Nebraska. South Dakota. I’m not sure yet.”
“A few days. Jeez. That’s soon.
” Nat leaned back and sucked her lip into her mouth. She was dimly aware of Raph studying her face but her mind was moving too quickly to properly analyze it. “All right, well, Kaya and I are paid up with rent through the month, so that’s only a week or two of a loss there. You’ll help us get our stuff into a storage unit, yeah? If we can pick a state for sure then I can work on getting my real estate license there. It shouldn’t take more than a few months. Maybe I should sell my car. It’s good for getting around town but probably won’t make a long journey. Mmmph.”
She frowned underneath the hand that Raph had just slid over her mouth. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m just trying to figure out how the heck to get me and Kaya mobile in just a few days’ notice. It’s gonna take a lot of work.”
“You’re saying…” his eyes were the lightest green she’d ever seen them, she would have gotten lost in them, but it seemed like Raph was already lost enough for the both of them. He looked, for just a moment, exactly like the little boy who’d broken his wrist in a tumble from the monkey bars. Nat felt her heart squeeze down almost unbearably. “You’re saying that you want to come with us?”
She yanked his hand away. “Have you lost your marbles? Of course we’re coming with you. I mean, I haven’t talked to Kaya about it, obviously. But you guys are our family.”
His eyes went a few shades darker as he took in her entire expression, trying for the life of him to figure out what she was really saying. “But what about Paul?”
She put her hands on her hips. “What about Paul?”
“You’re finally starting things up with him.” Raphael looked like the words tasted bad in his mouth. “You’re having fancy dinners and dressing up for the man you wanna be with. I couldn’t ask you to leave with me right when you’re finally getting what you want.”
“You are such a dummy.”
Nat reared back and shoved Raphael down so that his back hit the bed. Then she crawled up over him and lowered her weight right onto the soft part of his belly. He oofed and looked surprised when she took his hands and pinned them next to his ears.
“I dumped Paul tonight.”
“What?”
“Yeah. Last time I saw him I told him that I needed time to figure out how I feel. Well, I took the time and I figured it out. That’s what I told him tonight.”
“What did you tell him?”
Raph’s eyes burned, she could feel him hanging on to every syllable she said. His hands wiggled out from hers and closed first over the sheet underneath them, and then, as if he couldn’t help himself, over her ankles, up to her knees, her hips, before they finally settled at her waist. She’d never seen him make the expression he was making right at that moment and she’d known him for quite a long time.
“I told him that I didn’t feel that way about him. And that I thought we wouldn’t make a good couple. But that I’d like to remain friends.”
“How’d he take it?”
“He took it on the chin.”
“Good ol’ Paul.”
“Stapler Paul.”
He grinned, his eyes dancing but not completely unworried. “Hole puncher Paul.”
“Paperweight Paul.”
He laughed outright at that but this time Nat was the one to cover his mouth. “That’s what I said to him, Raph, but I think what might be more important is what I didn’t say to him.”
Raph spoke from behind her hand. “What didn’t you say to him?
She pulled her hand away and pressed a firm kiss to his lips. He grunted and shifted her back so that her weight was over his pelvis and not over his stomach.
“I didn’t mention to him that I was sleeping with you. I thought it would add insult to injury. So I also didn’t tell him that you’ve got me all mixed up. And I didn’t tell him that I really don’t want you to play soccer anymore.”
His expression went soft and then confused. “I’ve got you mixed up? Why don’t you want me to play soccer?”
“Because that’s prime wife-hunting territory.”
And his expression was right back to soft. “I’m not hunting for a wife, Nat.”
“Then what is it exactly that you’re doing?”
He cleared his throat, let out a long breath and held her eyes with his. “I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love with you. That’s what I’m doing.”
She’d always thought ‘weak in the knees’ was just some old-timey thing that happened to girls in Audrey Hepburn movies. But if she’d been standing when he’d said that, she was pretty sure she’d have sunk straight to the floor. Since she was just straddled over top of him, she simply sunk down over his chest, her cheek to his sternum and his arms banded around her.
“Holy crap,” she muttered into his sweatshirt. She might have thought this was a dream except for how hard his heart was banging against his ribs. “You’re serious.”
He let out another long breath. “Yeah.”
She stacked her fists and laid her chin on them, looking up at him with nervous eyes. “Since when?”
“Since Seth’s wedding.”
“Holy crap,” she muttered again and laid her cheek flat against his banging heart.
“Should I—” he cleared his throat. “Should I take that to mean that you’re not on the same page?”
She didn’t say anything and he started to sit up but Natalie spider-womaned herself onto the bed and kept him from going anywhere. “Just hold on a dang minute!” She turned her head and spoke into his sweatshirt. “Don’t you want to know how it went with Kaya?”
His hands found her back again and started stroking up and down in wide arcs. “How’d it go with Kaya?”
“It was… really nice. She was so happy for us. She thought I was ridiculous for feeling freaked out about something.”
“What’s the something that’s got you freaked out?”
Suddenly, she couldn’t be lying down anymore. She had to get up. She had to move. She pushed herself off of him and he pushed up onto his elbows. She could feel his eyes as she paced around his room, stopping to rearrange the deodorant and lotion on his dresser. Then she nervously put them back the way they’d been before. His room was a mess. She couldn’t stop herself from chucking some dirty clothes in the hamper.
“Nat.”
“Yeah.”
“Quit freak-out cleaning and answer my question.”
“See?” She turned to him and gnawed at a hangnail on her thumb. “That’s the problem right there. That you even know about my tendency to freak-out clean.”
“Why is that a problem?”
“Because you know me too well, Raph. I know you too well.”
His expression immediately dimmed and his voice went low. “You’re saying that we know each other too well for you to love me back?”
“No!” She stamped her foot and put her hands on her hips. “Ugh! Why can’t you thought-bubble me right now! Words are my enemy when it comes to this!”
She was half a second from shaking her fist at the sky.
“Natalie. I need you to give it the old college try because I’m dying over here.”
She dragged her hands over her face. “Fine. I’m just going to tell you. But you’re not going to like it. I’m warning you.”
“Unless it’s ‘Raph, I’ll never love you’, I think I’ll figure out how to handle it.”
She frowned because he was too cute and flirting with her and trying to throw her off her game. “Can it, okay? Enough with the charming sex god who can get any woman to give him anything he wants, all right? Because we both know that this was always gonna end up with me ass over applecart for you.”
“You think I’m a charming sex god?”
She glowered at him and he laughed and collapsed back onto the bed, pulling at his hair. “Nat, I’ve never gotten a single woman to do what I wanted her to do. Not the thing I wanted most. I’ve never gotten a woman to love me. To really want me. Secrets and all.”
“Well. Actually, yeah, you
did.” She swept her hand down herself, as if she were a gameshow hostess and she was the thing she was presenting to the audience.
He stared at her for a long second. “You’re ass over applecart for me.”
“You want me to hire a skywriter?”
He lunged forward, gripped her around the waist, and fell back to the bed, happiness dancing in his eyes. “Then what’s the problem here? We’re two asses, two applecarts. There’s apples everywhere. We’re gone for each other, Nat. What’s the part I’m not going to like?”
She stacked her fists again and eyed him. “You said that men only want what they can’t have.”
His brow furrowed. “What about it?”
“Well, Raph, if you haven’t already figured it out, you’re about to. You have me. You well and truly have every single part of me. So, the way I figure it, the only thing left is for me to wait for you to, you know, stop wanting me.”
He groaned and rolled them so that he was lying over top of her. “Nat, I’ve loved you in one way or another for twenty years. Why would sex change that? Make me get sick of you?”
She shrugged, feeling both a little embarrassed and a little self-righteous. “I don’t know! You’re the one who put this ridiculous idea in my head anyways!”
He groaned again and buried his face in the crook of her neck. “That’s because I was unbelievably jealous of Paperweight Paul.”
Nat laughed. “We have to stop calling him that. He really is a nice man.” She stroked her fingers over the back of Raph’s head. “I can’t believe you tried to sabotage my relationship with Paul out of jealousy.”
He grunted. “I may have been jealous and skeptical, but if Paul truly made you happy, I wouldn’t have gotten in the way. I was going to leave you behind to live happily ever after with him, remember?”
She shivered at the reminder of all the ways their lives were about to change. All the ways that Raph came so close to slipping through her fingers. “If I hadn’t said what I said just now, would you have left town without telling me how you feel?”
“Knowing me? No. I’ve been so close to telling you a hundred times, Nat.”