That looked like a party Hannah would be interested in attending.
The shifter she guessed was the store manager, based on his uniform of a short-sleeved, white shirt, dark pants, and a nametag pinned to his chest, stood near the entrance, greeting and thanking guests for shopping here.
Which was actually pretty amusing considering this was the only grocery store within a fifty-mile radius.
Someone shrieked. This was followed by a crashing noise that reverberated throughout the store. The manager’s brows furrowed, and he walked at a clipped pace toward the sound of the commotion.
Hannah could hear footsteps, two sets, and it sounded like they were running.
The elderly couple at the register appeared to be confused. The cashier had stopped loading the conveyor belt and was staring down the frozen food aisle, her eyes wide, her mouth hanging open.
Hannah noted that the entrance was between her and the elderly couple. Which meant it was between them and the masked shoppers, too.
Not good.
She rushed toward the registers. “Hi there,” she said as she pushed their cart out of the way and then ushered them forward, and left, toward the Slurpee machines and away from the entrance.
“What are you doing?” the woman demanded even as she shuffled along in front of Hannah.
“Possibly saving your life,” Hannah muttered with a swift glance over her shoulder.
Yep, the masked duo was doing exactly what she feared: heading toward the registers, knocking everything in their path out of the way with a complete disregard for whether it was a living thing. They’d somehow loaded all of their goods into canvas bags with handles, which were swinging from their hands as they made for the exits as if they had every right to be here and leave without paying for their selections.
Hannah glared at them while standing in front of the elderly couple like a shield. The massive one glanced her way. His eyes widened and then narrowed—and then the bastard winked at her.
Son of a bitch, her ex-boyfriend was in town.
* * *
By the time Hannah finally left—after ensuring the frightened elderly couple was sufficiently calmed and able to head home and the sheriff’s office had questioned everyone in the store—she was starved and had forgotten to collect her groceries. And while she could really use a drink right about now, hunger won out in the end.
Which was how she ended up at the diner for dinner.
As she perused the menu, someone brushed past her booth and fingers tapped on the tabletop. She glanced up, and her eyes widened and the sight of Tall, Dark, and Handsome.
He wore a gray T-shirt under a brown leather jacket and a pair of jeans that drew her attention to the fact that the man had some seriously powerful thighs.
The guy she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone was in town. Well, she’d done as he asked, although, truthfully, she’d figured she’d never see him again so it hadn’t mattered.
Yet here he was. And now he was scowling at her. Why did he look so annoyed?
He made a motion with his head, like…what? Did he want her to follow him?
And then he continued through the diner to a booth in the very back corner, where no other patrons were sitting.
He started to lower himself onto the faux leather seat but glanced behind him. His gaze shot up to where she remained seated. Frowning, he motioned again, as if he wanted her to join him. Why didn’t the man simply ask?
Finally, he stalked back to her booth and towered over her. “I’m not sitting here.”
“Okay.”
“I prefer to sit with my back against a wall.”
“Okay.”
She could practically hear him grinding his teeth.
“I want you to join me.”
“That wasn’t quite an ask, but it was better than that weird nod thing.” Curious despite his rudeness, she stood and followed him.
He didn’t say anything when they sat, so she picked up a menu and read through the options. After a few moments, she glanced over the top. He watched her, no menu in sight.
“Are you eating?” she asked.
He nodded. She pointed at the menu and raised her eyebrows.
“I know what I want.”
She did, too, but who didn’t look at a menu when they sat down at a restaurant?
The waitress stepped up to their table. Hannah ordered a club sandwich on wheat while he ordered a burger with all the fixin’s and a side of chili fries.
As the server walked away, Hannah leaned back and crossed her arms. “Tell me, if I’m supposed to forget I ever saw you, how come we’re eating dinner together in a public place?”
He raised his eyebrows. “I heard there was a situation at the grocery store. Wanted to make sure you were okay.”
She bit her tongue, an attempt to cut off the tremor that wanted to rack her body. She still hadn’t figured out what to do about the fact that her ex, who was part of one of the most dangerous packs of rogue shifters on the continent, was in Dark Moon Falls. She needed to warn Elias, of course, but that wasn’t where her indecision lay.
What she really wanted to do was track down Durango and exact revenge for her brother’s death. Except that desire was the very thing she’d come to Dark Moon Falls to get away from. If she let her need for revenge control her life, what kind of life would it be?
Besides, Durango, as she well knew, was a scary motherfucker. Hell, he was scary just because of his massive size. But also, he was seriously badass. She didn’t stand a chance against him, in truth.
But the burning rage over her brother’s senseless death made it hard to remember that.
“Well?” her dinner companion said. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said tersely. Then she canted her head. “Seems to me that you showing up here might not be a coincidence.”
“What are you implying?”
“The two suspects who robbed the grocery store were wearing masks.”
His eyebrows raised, and she swore there was a hint of a smile teasing at his lips. “And you think I was one of the suspects?”
No, she didn’t. The big one was, well, way too big—plus, she knew who the hell he was—and the other one wasn’t quite as bulky in the shoulder area as Ben. Besides, her ex wouldn’t hang out with anyone who wasn’t in his own pack…unless he was recruiting them.
She leaned forward. “Are you rogue?”
He coughed, like his water had gone down the wrong pipe. “Why would you ask me that?”
“I just need to know.”
He stared at her for long seconds, until she slumped in her seat. “I didn’t really think you were. Listen, if some guy approaches you about joining a rogue pack, don’t act interested, okay?”
His brow furrowed, and he stared intently at her face. “What are you not telling me, Hannah?”
She’d vowed to leave her past in Chicago, and she’d done a damn good job until today. Until her past showed up in her new hometown. Still, she didn’t need to deliberately dredge it up with a man she barely knew. “It’s nothing.”
“Sure sounds like something.”
“I had a bad experience with rogue shifters, okay?”
“Haven’t we all?”
“Yeah, but mine…I just don’t want anyone else to get hurt.”
The ridges in his forehead smoothed into a soft look that was breathtaking to behold. If the man had any inclination of his beauty, he’d probably be impossible to be around because he’d constantly be preening like a peacock.
“What did they do to you?” he asked, his voice quiet.
Shaking her head, she leaned back against the vinyl booth. “Not me. My brother. And I don’t want to talk about it.”
He nodded. “Okay. Change of subject. So, grocery store. You were there when those guys robbed it?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t cross their paths.” Not really. “My friend was videoing them with her phone because she thought it was hilarious the way they were just
wandering around the grocery store in ski masks. But I made her stop and told her to get out of their way. I mean, two guys wearing ski masks while inside the store probably are up to no good, right?”
He inclined his head once. “Probably.”
“Anyway, I wasn’t in their way when they left, and apparently their goal was just to steal groceries because that’s all that happened.” Well, not all, but he didn’t need to know that she’d recognized one of them.
“I’m glad you weren’t hurt.”
She rolled her eyes, and he chuckled, the action dissolving into a smile that lit up his face like Christmas. He went from broody and sexy to heart—and panty—melting in an instant. She squirmed in her seat and hoped the smell of coffee brewing nearby disguised the scent of her arousal.
Which, by the way, was annoying. She’d sworn off men like him after her last disaster of a relationship. Durango hadn’t been all that scary when she first met him. At the time, it had been a sexy kind of scary. Like, a woman’s fantasy of being with the bad boy scary.
Her brother was dead because she’d indulged in the fantasy. And if Ben wasn’t the epitome of a bad boy, she’d eat her damn shoe.
“Stop that,” she snapped.
“What?”
“Smiling.”
He chuckled. The waitress returned with their food, gave him a look like she was just noticing him for the first time, and then hurried away again. Ben nudged the chili fries toward the middle of the table; she’d take that as an open invitation. This place did make some of the best chili fries she’d ever had.
“I now know that you are not, in fact, a member of law enforcement, and to that, I have to say, you missed your calling,” he said before dredging a fry in the sauce and popping it into his mouth.
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re one of the most inquisitive people I’ve ever met. And you noticed me right off the bat. Most people don’t. Which is on purpose, by the way.”
“How do you know I’m not in law enforcement?”
“I asked around. You’re actually a farmer.”
That was a stretch. She was employed at Natalia’s herb farm. She just did what she was told. But that was beside the point. “You asked around? About me?”
He shrugged and bit into his burger.
“That’s not fair.”
“How do you figure?”
“I don’t get to ask around about you. You told me not to tell anyone I saw you, remember?”
“Thank you for honoring that request.”
Her cheeks warmed. “I want to know something about you,” she blurted.
Why was she even pushing this? She had no idea whether he was trustworthy, which meant she wasn’t interested. No more bad boys, Hannah.
He leaned back in the booth and studied her for a few moments. Dropping her gaze, she took a bite of her sandwich.
“Fine. Ask me anything. One thing. Make it a good one, because you only get one.”
She opened her mouth, prepared to point out that if he’d asked around, he likely gathered more than one nugget of information about her, but then she closed it again because she had a feeling he was serious. She wouldn’t get a single thing out of him if she didn’t take this chance now.
“Where are you from?”
His eyes narrowed and he stayed silent for so long she figured he’d decided not to answer after all.
“Here.”
“Sorry, what?” she asked.
He sighed and popped another fry into his mouth. “You heard correctly. I’m from here. The Dark Moon pack.”
Uh-oh.
That made him fair game.
Chapter Five
Ben wasn’t a talker. That particular personality trait did not gel well with his chosen career field. People who talked got themselves killed. People who listened took down the bad guys.
But damn, he sure would like to talk to someone right now. He’d love to belly up to the bar at the Wolf Inn and chat with Lyall. Tell him all about Hannah. Ask his opinion.
Should he ask her out? Should he consider dating her? What should they do on their first date?
He swiped his hand over his face. Yeah, right. As if. He could no sooner bring his presence in town to his old friend’s attention than he could take this thing with Hannah any further than he had.
But damn, he sure did want to.
He shouldn’t have sought her out yesterday. It was dangerous to his mission to spend too much time in town. Five years felt like a lifetime, but the reality was, he hadn’t been gone all that long. There were plenty of people who would remember him, and if one of them noticed him, he was potentially a dead man. At the very least, he’d have to abort the mission. Most likely, the discovery would start a war, and he was confident his pack—his real pack—would lose.
He couldn’t do that to his friends, his family. Hannah.
Yet he’d wanted to tell her who he was, what he did for a living. Gods, he wanted her approval. He’d never given two shits about anyone’s approval before, except for Elias’s, and once upon a time, another woman. Except she’d betrayed him in the most spectacular way, so he should have no reason whatsoever to want the approval of some other woman he hardly knew.
Not surprisingly, Hannah had peppered him with questions after he admitted he was from Dark Moon Falls. He hadn’t answered a single one, and then he’d made her promise once again not to tell anyone about him, and he’d slipped from the diner before someone else actually noticed him.
And then he’d kicked himself all the way back to the cave because, damn it, he’d forgotten to pay.
It was early morning. Mist still clung to the ground, coating everything in a sheen of white. Few in Vape’s pack would be up at this hour, except for the guards. The rest would be sleeping off the partying they’d inevitably done the night before. This pack was certainly stereotypical in that sense: they partied as hard as they abused, thieved, and whatever other vice they carried out on a daily basis.
Ben stood at the mouth of the cave for a few minutes, ignoring the guards stationed there, looking out over the mountainous terrain and the town, still sleeping for the most part, in the distance. The various farms dotting the landscape. There would be activity on the farms, especially those with animals.
What about those strictly involving vegetation? Would the farm hands be up and about at this hour?
One way to find out.
He shifted into wolf form, which made the trip down the mountain and across the countryside infinitely easier than if he’d attempted it in human form.
He knew the herb farm, of course. Everyone knew Selina’s herbs were the best in the area. Elias had told him that Selina had passed on to the Summerlands last year, and he was glad that Natalia had decided to keep the farm in the family. No doubt she inherited at least some of her great aunt’s ability to infuse the plants with the exact right dose of magic.
A small stone cottage sat in the middle of the property, with a massive pole barn off to the east and a winding drive that stretched out to the road in the distance. Most of the rest of the area was dedicated to rectangular plots of dark, turned soil, and he could just make out tiny sprouts every few inches. Planting season had begun.
Still in wolf form, he sat on an outcropping of rocks on a ridge he suspected defined the western border of the property. Clouds hung low in the sky, indicating an impending rain shower and providing enough shade to hide him from view.
An older model pickup truck turned down the lane and headed toward the pole barn. Ben watched as the driver’s side door opened and a pair of long, lean legs wrapped in leggings and rain boots swept out and hit the ground.
Hannah stood and stretched before slamming the door of the truck and heading toward the pole barn.
Why he continued to sit here long after she’d gone inside, he had no idea. He should head back to the cave for a lot of reasons, not the least of which were the fat raindrops beginning to pellet his fur. And don’t for
get that the damn woman had the uncanny ability to notice him even when he was deliberately trying to hide himself.
He caught the scent of another wolf and turned, watching as a white and brown animal stepped out from behind a copse of scrubby trees.
Nick. How the hell had he found Ben way out here?
Ben growled and stalked over, shifting into human form as he walked, and waited impatiently for Nick to do the same.
“What the hell are you doing out here?” he demanded as soon as the other shifter complied.
“I could ask you the same question.”
Ben sighed. Nick was right. As far as he was concerned, Ben knew as little about this area as he did. And they were supposed to be checking things out around town, not out here in the country.
“Sorry,” Ben said. “Most in our pack aren’t up this early. I thought I could catch some alone time.”
Nick nodded and then glanced around the low hanging branches, like he was scoping out the farm. “I heard the witch who runs this place has a sure-fire hangover remedy.”
Ben knew that firsthand—well, at least from when Selina had run the farm. Was Natalia now brewing her tia’s famous recipe? Did Hannah know how to make it?
“How’d you hear that?”
“Hanging out at the bar in town. Unfortunately, because she’s a witch, Vape won’t let us use it.”
“His aversion to witches is a little strange, isn’t it?” Ben said carefully, watching Nick’s facial expressions.
“Yep. Never met a shifter who hates them as much as Vape does. Durango thinks he probably got his heart broken by a witch when he was younger, but I don’t know. I’m not sure the man was even born with a heart to break.”
Ben chuckled softly. “I tend to agree with your assessment.”
Nick glanced around the trees again and then backed up a few steps, nearly tripping over a protruding tree branch.
Ben grabbed his arm to steady him. “Careful.”
“Thanks, man. Listen, we should get back. Durango said Vape’s going to call a meeting as soon as he wakes. Well, as soon as he’s done banging whoever is in his bed. Then we’re all going to be summoned.”
Dark Moon Falls: Volume 2 Page 52