If Trent Randolph had his way, Candor probably wouldn’t ever see her again anyway.
Chapter 11
Leaves and twigs crackled beneath Ava’s feet as she tromped between the trees. Her favorite blue jean jacket was apparently no match for the harsh Colorado weather and she tried to compensate for the cold by walking faster to increase her body heat. She’d already tripped twice and stubbed her left toe, which now throbbed incessantly.
Ava sighed, stepping over a fallen tree trunk. No matter how unsuited she was to the wild outdoors, this was far preferable to being stuck in that house all day, every day.
It had been nearly a week since she’d moved in with the Randolph’s. Pearle was perfectly sweet and hospitable. Marcus, Peter, and their little sister Lynn were all well-mannered and had warmed up to Ava quite a bit. Ava even liked their huge German Shepherd, Marlo.
It was Trent who she couldn’t stand. He hated shifters. Hated them. Ava had been hesitant to brand him with such a strong label, but it was true. He talked about them like they were a pack of stray dogs terrorizing the neighborhood. Ava avoided talking to him about shifters. She knew that if she tried to argue against his bias, she would only get emotional and open the floodgate of grief and anger she was already fighting to keep shut.
It didn’t help that every time he slandered shifters, the face of Candor Hayes always popped up in her mind. It was the silliest thing: she didn’t even know the man. And yet, the thought of him being accused of intentionally harming humans felt so wrong to her. He had gone out of his way to keep her from harm, hadn’t he?
She admired Pearle’s endurance. Her aunt clearly didn’t share the same views as her husband, but she would sit quietly while he talked and talked, sipping a cup of tea or working on her cross stitch. Ava didn’t think she could have put up with it for longer than ten minutes.
This morning she had come down to the breakfast table to hear Trent monologuing about how the state government needed to crack down on shifters through legislation, limit their movements, even revoke some of their rights. Ava had stood in the hallway out of sight, trembling with anger at the man’s unrelenting stubbornness. In that moment she’d decided to spite one of Trent’s many rules and venture out onto the property alone.
Was she being childish? Absolutely. But she needed space and fresh air. There was plenty of both out here.
A branch crunched loudly behind her. Ava’s heart jumped into her throat as she spun around.
Her eight-year-old cousin, Lynn, peered out from behind a bush. She wore a forest green parka and her brown hair was up in a pony tail. “Hey, Ava. Just me.” Lynn waved.
Ava breathed a heavy sigh, closing her eyes and pressing her hand against her thudding heart. “Goodness, you scared me, Lynn.”
Lynn stepped out from behind the bush. “Sorry.” Where her brothers were loud and rowdy, Lynn tended to be the quiet, watchful type. She’d been extremely shy around Ava the first few days.
Ava rubbed her shivering arms, frowning. “What are you doing? I thought you weren’t allowed out here by yourself.”
Lynn shifted nervously. “Are you going to tell Dad?”
Ava hesitated. Much as she disliked Trent right now, she couldn’t go around undermining his authority over his own kids. Instead of answering, she asked, “Why are you out here all by yourself? Why didn’t you bring one of the boys?”
Lynn shrugged. “No reason.” The way she kept moving her feet around set alarm bells off in Ava’s head.
In what she hoped was a mom-like warning voice, Ava said, “Lynn, are you telling the truth?”
“Well… It’s supposed to be a secret,” Lynn muttered. She stared at Ava like she was assessing whether a rickety wooden bridge would hold her weight. “But I think that I can tell you. You won’t tell Dad, right?”
Ava pressed her lips together. “I’ll only tell him if I think it’s bad for you.”
Lynn grinned. “You won’t.”
Ava was taken aback by her confidence. “Oh really? How do you know?”
“Because it’s something you and me both like.”
“Okay… What would that be?” Ava asked.
“Shifters,” Lynn said.
Ava opened her mouth and closed it again. That was the last thing she’d expected Lynn to say. Hadn’t her father taught her from birth about all the reasons why she should hate shifters? Ava narrowed her eyes. “What makes you think I like shifters?”
Lynn was studying a shelf of fungus growing out of a tree trunk. “Your books.”
Ava’s eyebrows perked up. “You know about my books?” She’d been collecting books about shifters for years. In California she’d displayed them on a shelf in her room, but now she kept them in an old suitcase under her bed at the Randolph house. She wasn’t sure how Trent would react if he knew she had them.
Lynn nodded, poking the fungus with a stick. “Plus, you get cloudy whenever Dad says bad things about shifters. And you get happy every time Mom talks about the Hayes shifters.”
The sharp, angled face of Candor Hayes sprang instantly to mind. Ava blushed at the memory of him. She thought she’d been hiding her secret attraction so well, but Lynn spoke of it like it was plain as day. Her thoughts whirled.
Lynn went on. “Mom says they’re not all bad. You don’t think they’re bad, do you?”
A small smile curled the corners of Ava’s mouth. “No, I guess I don’t. It’s brave of you to believe that even though you know you could get in trouble with your dad.”
“Yeah.” Lynn didn’t meet her gaze, but Ava sensed she’d just won an extra dose of kinship with the girl.
Ava’s thoughts ran back to some of Lynn’s earlier words. “Wait, so you’re out here looking for shifters?”
“They actually aren’t that hard to find. If I stand on top of the hill and look down into the grove—” Lynn finally looked up from the fungus, taking a breath to continue. Then, her gaze shifted to something over Ava’s shoulder, and she froze. “Ava,” she whispered.
A guttural growl rumbled behind Ava. Her whole body quaked once, then fell still. Slowly, she looked back over her shoulder.
An enormous cougar crouched on the fallen tree trunk, watching them with hooded golden eyes.
Ava’s mouth was very dry. “Candor Hayes?” she said hopefully. “Is that you?”
The cougar snarled.
Ava turned fully, putting herself between Lynn and the animal. “Guess not.” She raised her hands. “Easy there. We’re not here to make trouble. We’ll just head back to our own property, okay?”
The cougar leapt down from the trunk and yowled. The sound rang in her ears and made her jump.
Ava trembled. As the beast growled and began prowling toward them, a frightened thought flew into her head. Maybe Trent isn’t the one who’s wrong about shifters. Maybe I am.
Chapter 12
Scent suppressants are a bitch, Candor thought darkly as he trekked through the woods on the southern end of the territory. After days of him and his allies scouring the surrounding land, he’d finally picked up traces of scent suppressant an hour ago. That was the thing about scent suppressants: they themselves had scent. Candor could track whoever was wearing it, he just couldn’t tell who it was.
His paws met sandy gravel as he reached the bank of a stream. The clean smell of water filled his nostrils. He paused on the bank, sniffing and thinking. The rogue shifter wouldn’t have forded the stream. That would have washed the suppressant off. No, they would have traveled east or west until they reached a place where they could cross. And if they were familiar with the territory—as Candor was sure they were—they would have gone…
Candor turned and bolted east, claws glancing against the large stones scattered over the bank.
So close. He was so close to catching this bastard and putting an end to this chaos. Once this was over, he could finally—
A new scent hit him in the face. Candor skidded to a halt and looked to the south, nostrils flari
ng as he took in the smell. It was close. And it was human.
And he knew exactly who it belonged to.
Without a second thought, Candor charged into the stream, crossing it in three long bounds. Then he was pounding between the trees in the direction of Ava’s scent. What the hell is she doing out here? he snarled to himself. And with the rogue so close…
The beast who currently owned his body bristled at the thought of the two running into each other. He added another ounce of speed to his wild charge.
And then he saw them: Ava wielding a tree branch, a little girl standing behind her, and a huge, snarling cougar about to pounce on them both. The air stank of scent suppressant.
Candor yowled and surged into the clearing where they stood. The rogue cougar only had time to howl in surprise before Candor rammed into him. They tumbled over one another, clawing and biting. Candor had the better grip this time. He pinned his opponent down, clamped his teeth around one ragged ear, and ripped it off with a single jerk of his head. The rogue screamed in pain, wrestling to get free. His jaws snapped up suddenly, forcing Candor to move back. The rogue got his hind feet under Candor’s belly and launched him away with a powerful kick. Candor was airborne for one surreal moment. Then the forest floor bit into him and he skidded to a stop on his side. Instantly he was up again, snarling.
But all he saw were the rogue’s hindquarters as he bolted away into the woods.
Candor’s beast screamed at him to charge after him and rip him into nothingness, but he fought the instinct to continue the hunt. He turned instead to face the two cowering humans standing a few feet away.
Ava’s hands stung from gripping the rough bark of the tree branch, but she didn’t dare let it go. It was her only defense against not one, but two ferocious looking shifter cougars. True, one of them had run off, but judging from the size of the bloody, panting animal still in front of her, it could devour both her and her cousin and still have room for dessert.
The second cougar turned and stared at her. Blood was smeared down one side of its face, giving it a grotesque lopsidedness. It began striding toward her, tail swishing.
Oh God, oh God, Ava thought, panicking. It chased the other one off for an easy meal. Oh God, it’s getting closer. Get ready… She lifted the branch over her shoulder, ready to swing.
That’s when she noticed it was wearing a backpack. The pack was the same color as the cougar’s tan fur so she hadn’t seen it at first. She frowned, puzzled, but her adrenaline-addled brain would only let her focus on the danger in front of her.
The cougar paused a little way away from her and cocked its head as if it was confused.
Lynn screamed suddenly behind Ava. Ava screamed and swung the branch down in pure reflex. Her eyes clamped themselves shut, but she felt the branch make contact with a hollow thud. A pained yowl rang through the forest. Ava’s eyes sprang open to find the cougar rolling on the ground rubbing its paws over its head.
She looked back over her shoulder at Lynn. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
Lynn was swatting at her sleeves. “Spider. A big one. It’s gone now.”
Ava gaped. She’d just whacked a deadly predator in the head because of a spider. Speaking of the deadly predator…
She turned back to find the cougar still writhing on the ground. But it looked different now, its legs and spine twisting in unnatural ways. Ava heard bones popping and grinding over one another. “Oh my God,” she breathed. She backed away, pushing Lynn behind her.
The thick tan fur disappeared. The clawed paws stretched and contorted until they were no longer paws but hands. A small tribal tattoo became visible behind the left ear.
In the next moment every trace of the cougar was gone, and Candor Hayes sat up and leaned back on his haunches, breathing hard. He was completely naked, but he met Ava’s wide-eyed stare like he didn’t give a damn.
Ava gaped for a moment. Then she remembered the eight-year-old peering around her shoulder. She shoved Lynn completely behind her to keep her from looking any more at the sight.
And what a sight it was. Candor’s muscled body was even harder and more chiseled than Ava had anticipated. He stood up, leaving nothing to the imagination.
Ava gulped. She knew her face was red, but she couldn’t stop staring. Words appeared in her head, so she said them. “Wow. It’s you.”
Candor considered this, then spread his arms like he was presenting himself. “Yeah. It’s me.”
Idiot, Ava screamed at herself. The first words out of her mouth probably should have been something like Thank you for saving us from the savage beast or sorry for trying to bash your head in with a stick.
Candor didn’t seem to care, though. He fixed her with a stare so intense she felt glared at. “What the hell are the two of you doing all the way out here?” he asked.
“Uh, well…” Ava cleared her throat. “Before we swap stories, do you have anything you can—” She coughed. “—cover up with?”
Candor looked down, seeming to realize that he had no clothes on. “Huh,” he said. He slung the backpack off his shoulders and pulled out pants and a shirt.
Ava averted her gaze as he pulled the clothes on, but out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw him glance at her more than once.
“All done,” he announced after a minute.
Ava looked back to him. Even clothed, the sharp contours of his body made her eyes want to roam over every part of him. She wondered what it would feel like to lay her hands against that rock-hard chest. His skin is probably really warm, she found herself thinking. More than warm. Hot to the touch.
Ava froze, shocked at the sultry thoughts running through her head. She was not the type to fantasize, especially over a guy she’d only met once before.
Candor walked up to her with a confident stride. He stood squarely in front of her, forcing her to tilt her head back to meet his gaze. He cocked an eyebrow. “Well?”
Ava recalled his question. “Lynn was just showing me around the property.”
His brow inched higher. “Does Lynn know that you’re on cougar land right now?” He pointed in the direction the other cougar had fled. “Does she know there are rogue shifters running around just waiting to stumble across a couple of unarmed humans?” His face grew more shadowed with every word he spoke.
Ava frowned. “Rogue shifters? I thought you were in charge of the shifters around here. Don’t they have to listen to you?”
Candor searched her face. “You don’t know much about shifters, do you?”
Embarrassment flushed her face. “You’re the first I’ve ever met.”
Candor said nothing. Then he nodded slowly. “Huh.” He turned, retrieved his backpack from where he’d left it on the ground, and swung it onto one shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get moving.”
Ava stared. “What?”
He nodded to his left. “I’m taking you back to the Randolph house.”
Ava thought of Trent and his closets full of shotguns and bear traps. She shook her head. “You don’t have to do that. We know the way back, right Lynn?”
Lynn had been clinging to the back of her jacket. She peered out at Candor and said, “Um…”
Candor sighed and stalked over to Ava until they were face to face again. “I don’t think you understand what I’m saying,” he said in that low, rumbling voice that made her vibrate all over. “I’m not letting you out of my sight until your pretty little head is back under the Randolph roof.” He leaned in ever so slightly, golden eyes boring into her. “Get me?”
When he leaned closer, Ava got a whiff of the scents clinging to his body. Crushed aspen leaves, clay, blood, sweat. He smelled wild. Ava’s clothes suddenly felt too tight on her. She shifted restlessly, then said the only thing she could think to say. “Okay. Thank you.”
He leaned back like the words had startled him. Then he made a very animal sound in his throat and turned from her. “Yeah. Come on then.”
In that moment, Ava learned what it fe
lt like to be completely disconcerted and completely drawn in by a man all at once.
Swallowing hard, she took Lynn’s hand in her own and followed after Candor.
Chapter 13
When Ava admitted to Candor that he was the first shifter he had ever met, it had pleased him in a way he didn’t entirely understand. No other shifter knew what it was like to hold her slim body against his chest, or to inhale the scents of her hair, or to feel those big round eyes staring at him when she thought he didn’t notice. He was the only shifter in the world who owned those things. The thought made the beast in him growl deeply with pleasure.
Candor looked back over his shoulder for the twentieth time to make sure his passengers were still in tow.
Ava was watching the ground to mind her footing, but she looked up when he turned his head. He allowed their eyes to lock for a single second, then broke away and faced forward again. He could almost hear Ava frowning behind him.
He scoffed at himself. Of course she’s confused, dumbass. Why would a girl like her want anything to do with you? You’re basically an animal to her.
Candor grit his teeth and tromped on. They would cross the property line into Randolph land in a few minutes. He usually avoided Trent’s land like the plague, but no way in hell was he going to let Ava and that little girl wander around these woods alone.
For a long time, they walked in silence. Candor was working up the courage to break it when Ava said, “It was lucky that you found us.” She sounded a little out of breath from the fast pace they were maintaining. Candor automatically slowed to a more reasonable speed. “What were you doing out here anyway?”
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