Candor glanced over his shoulder at her. “Hunting.”
“For food?” Ava asked.
“Not exactly.”
“What were you hunting then?”
Candor hesitated. It occurred to him that anything he said to Ava or Lynn could be reported back to Trent. News of the rogue shifters would only be more ammunition in Trent’s assault against shifters.
“Those rogue shifters you mentioned earlier,” Ava said warily. “Is that who you were hunting?”
After several footsteps, Candor said, “Yes.” He couldn’t see her, but he thought he felt Ava nod.
“I won’t ask why,” she said. “Sounds like pack business.”
Candor snorted. “We aren’t wolves. We don’t live in packs.” His words were sharper than he meant them to be, and he cursed himself.
Ava didn’t seem put off though. “Oh?” She’d wandered closer and was now walking almost beside him, Lynn walking silently on the other side of her. “So, you live by yourself?”
“Well, no,” Candor admitted. “I live with my family.”
Ava’s smooth forehead crinkled. “How is that different from a pack?”
Candor bristled. “Packs are fan clubs to help egotistically wolves feel good about being alphas. Family is family.”
Ava snorted a laugh, then clamped her mouth shut as if the sound had emerged without her permission.
Candor narrowed his eyes, but his heart fluttered at her laughter. “What’s funny?”
Ava shuffled sheepishly beside him. “You seem sensitive about it, that’s all.” She was blushing. The sight made Candor’s own face grow warm. His gaze dropped to her mouth, which was open slightly due to her exertion. The exercise seemed to make her lips redder and fuller. Candor wondered what that plump bottom lip would feel like between his teeth.
He flicked his eyes back to hers to find her cheeks much redder and her eyes much wider. A gust of wind blew a swathe of her scent over him. It was different now, thicker and warmer. His beast gave a hungry growl and his cougar canines began inching their way out of his gums.
Ava broke their joined gazes suddenly, quickening her pace until she was slightly ahead of him. “We should be there soon, right?” she said, a little too quickly.
Candor shook his head. Snap out of it, moron. This was Trent Randolph’s niece, for crying out loud. He had to get a hold of this dirty head of his.
Except that he now had a tantalizing view of the way those fitted black jeans hugged the curves of Ava’s thighs and hips.
He swallowed and looked away. Allowing his lust to run rampant would only make it crappier for him when he had to hand Ava back over to the Randolphs.
As if on cue, Lynn perked up and began tugging Ava forward. “There’s the house, Ava! We made it!”
“Huh,” Candor muttered. “The little one speaks.”
Ava looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. It was like a punch to the gut. It wasn’t even a very sexy smile, but it sent his heart, and other areas of his anatomy, pounding like a drum. Not good. This is not good.
In a few steps they had crossed from grassy underbrush to the mowed lawn of the Randolphs’ back yard. The house, which Candor rarely saw, stood tall and imposing, as if it wanted to spread like a weed and take over more of his territory.
Lynn dropped Ava’s hand and bolted up the porch steps. The screen door banged shut behind her as she disappeared into the house.
Ava turned to Candor. She looked tired but relieved. “Listen, thank you for everything.”
Candor shook his head sternly. “None of that, now.”
Ava gave what he thought was a playful glare. “I’m serious. For today, and for the hardware store, too. Thanks to you I didn’t have to get my face put back together by some ER surgeon.”
Candor remembered the feel of Ava’s body wedged against his chest. He gave her a crooked smile. “Anything to protect a lovely face.”
Ava’s lips parted in surprise, renewing the fantasies he’d entertained only minutes before. He sensed she was about to tell him something, but right then the screen door banged open again.
Candor turned to see Trent Randolph on the porch. The shotgun in his hands was aimed right at Candor’s chest.
Chapter 14
“Get off my land,” Trent barked, gesturing with the shotgun.
Ava gaped. She was unused to firearms in the first place, but seeing one aimed at Candor made the fear grip her even more.
Almost without thinking, she stepped in front of Candor, raising her hands. “Trent, calm down. He was helping us.”
“Get in the house, Ava,” Trent ordered, not taking his eyes off the shifter.
A bubble of hot anger rose in her chest. “Not until you put that thing away,” she yelled across the yard. “He hasn’t done anything wrong. He helped me and Lynn when—”
A broad hand touched the small of her back, making her straighten.
“Hey,” Candor said in a low voice. “It’s alright. I’ll go.”
She turned to face him. Her face was burning with anger, but his was blank and calm. “It’s not fair,” she growled. “He has no reason to treat you this way.”
A softness came into Candor’s golden eyes. “As long as you think that, that’s all that matters to me.”
That caught her off guard.
“Ava,” Trent warned.
Candor nodded toward the house. “Go on. I’ll be fine.”
She wanted to reach out and touch his hand in thanks, but she was afraid Trent would blast his head off if he saw any further contact between them. “Thank you,” she murmured.
Candor flashed a faint, knowing smile that was only for her. Then he turned and walked back the way they had come. He didn’t look back.
Ava watched him until he was out of sight. Then she whirled and stormed across the yard, stomping up the porch steps.
Trent was scowling at her. “Ava,” he said harshly. “What in God’s name were you and Lynn doing with that shifter?”
“He has a name,” Ava snapped. She moved to go past him into the house, but he grabbed her arm and forced her to face him.
“His name doesn’t matter,” Trent growled. “What matters is that he’s a shifter and I will have no one under my roof in danger because of a shifter!”
Ava exploded. “What is your problem!” she cried. “You don’t even know what he was doing out there! He helped me and Lynn, you know. We could have died if he hadn’t known up! I’ll bet you don’t even care!”
“You’re right, I don’t care!” Trent roared. His face was twisted and flushed. “They’re all the same, Ava. Don’t you see that? They’re predators. Killers. They’ll do whatever they can to get the better of their prey. Even if it means playing games to fool you into thinking they’re anything other than monsters.”
Ava’s shoulders shook. She stared at her uncle, disgusted. “You really hate them, don’t you?”
“If it were up to me,” Trent said without pause, “they’d all be rounded up and shot.”
The screen door creaked. Pearle appeared in the doorway, brown eyes wide. “What’s going on out here?”
Ava took the opportunity to wrench her arm free from Trent’s grip. “I’m sorry,” she said to Pearle. “I really am.” Then she shoved past her aunt into the house. It hurt to see the shocked look on the woman’s face.
“Ava!” Trent called from outside. “I’m not done talking to you!”
Ava didn’t stop. She stormed straight through the house until she reached the entryway. She shoved open the front door and charged down the porch steps onto the driveway. Her chest was hot and angry tears blurred the edge of her vision.
Trent’s voice called to her form the front porch. “Ava! Where the hell do you think you’re going? Ava!”
The last thing she heard was Pearle’s soft voice speaking to Trent, but she couldn’t hear what was said. The voices faded as she walked out of earshot. No one from the house came after her.
Av
a’s thoughts were a hurricane. She was furious with Trent, embarrassed for Candor, sorry for Pearle. Mostly she was angry. Through all her raging thoughts, there was one small echo of thought that kept resurfacing, no matter how hard she tried to fight it down.
Mom would be ashamed.
She’d have been ashamed of Trent, but also of Ava because of the way she had blown up and thrown a fit like a toddler. Ava was ashamed of herself for that, too, but she wasn’t planning to be sorry about it any time soon.
She would go into town, get a hotel, and figure out what to do next. Maybe she could find Candor and apologize to him for the way Trent had threatened him. Maybe Candor didn’t want to hear it, though. Maybe he didn’t want to have anything else to do with her or her family. The thought depressed her instantly.
A chill gust of wind sheered through her jacket, making her shiver. Ava looked up to see the sun dipping below the tops of the trees. It would be dark soon. And she was miles from town. And, she realized painfully, all her stuff was back at the Randolph house. Her cell phone was still in her back pocket, but in her rage she hadn’t even stopped to grab her wallet.
Ava stopped dead in the middle of the road. She buried her face in her hands and shook her head. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.” Tears pressed against her eyelids, but she refused to let them fall. “What are you gonna do now, you idiot?” she moaned.
“I was thinking I would invite you inside for some coffee.”
Ava whipped around at the voice that spoke behind her.
Candor Hayes stood just inside the tree line leaning against a tree trunk, hands tucked into his jacket pockets.
Ava stared. “How long have you been standing there?” She looked back at the road she’d just walked down. Back to him. “Have you been following me?”
Candor cleared his throat. “Well… Yes.” He gave a knowing look. “From the sound of things, it seemed like you might need a ride.”
Ava narrowed her eyes. “You heard all of that?”
He shrugged. “Shifter hearing. Makes involuntary eavesdroppers out of all of us.” He offered a faint smile. “So, how about that coffee?”
Ava swallowed. “Coffee?”
He nodded once. “At my family’s house. About ten miles north of here.”
She studied him. “You’re inviting me to your house? After everything that just happened.”
Candor straightened from the tree and took a few casual steps toward her. “As I recall,” he said, “you were the one between me and the shotgun, not the one holding it.” His eyes became sharp. “That was really stupid, by the way.”
Ava flushed. “I know,” she snapped. “But I couldn’t just stand there and let injustice prevail.”
Candor sighed, but a smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. “And that is why you are invited to my house.” He watched her, waiting, his offer hanging in the air between them.
It was like standing at the edge of a black chasm. Ava had no idea what was at the bottom. A river? A pit full of sharp rocks? Jumping in was a risk.
You could always go back to the Randolphs’, a part of her suggested. Apparently, it was the part of her that had no pride.
Ava squared her shoulders and met Candor’s steady gaze head on. “Coffee sounds great.”
Candor tilted his head, looking vaguely surprised. He stood to one side, gesturing into the woods. “The truck’s right this way.”
Forcing herself not to hesitate, Ava began marching in the direction he indicated. He fell into step beside her.
Still full of peaked emotions and adrenaline, Ava said suddenly, “If this is some plot to lure me into the woods and eat me, I will be very upset with you.”
Candor looked down at her with an odd expression somewhere between a frown and a grin. “That’s too bad,” he mused. “I bet you’d be delicious.”
Heat flamed in Ava’s belly. She’d forgotten that his voice did that to her. Get a grip, she growled at herself. She would accept hospitality from him and nothing more. Allowing this attraction to grow any further would only make things more complicated.
They said nothing as he led her through the trees. Ava was pretty sure they were heading back toward the Randolph house, but carving a semi-circle around it instead of heading straight for it. His truck must have been parked somewhere beyond the house.
After ten minutes the sun had almost vanished, leaving them in a gray twilight. It was growing colder, too. Ava wrapped her arms around herself, watching her breath frost in front of her.
“Here it is,” Candor said, almost whispering, like he was afraid to disturb the silence of the forest around them.
Sure enough, a big black Chevy stood parked in a small clearing ahead of them. Candor pulled a keychain out of his pocket and unlocked the passenger side door, then tugged it open for her.
“Thank you,” Ava murmured, moving to get in.
“Hang on,” Candor said. Ava turned to find him shrugging out of his jacket. “You’re shivering.”
Ava shook her head. “No, it’s okay—” But the thick leather material was already settling around her shoulders. The inside was deliciously warm from Candor’s body heat. It smelled like him, too. Ava was glad her face was red from the cold. Otherwise he might have noticed her blushing. “You’ll get cold,” she objected.
Candor leaned a forearm against the top of the open car door. “Are you really going to argue with me about this?” Even in the twilight, his golden eyes burned like they had a light of their own.
Ava opened her mouth.
“Wasn’t a real question,” Candor interrupted. “Just get in the truck, Ava.” He raised his eyebrows. “Or do you need help?”
Ava imagined those big hands gripping her hips and hefting her up into the seat. For a moment she was sorely tempted to say Yes. “No,” she said. The word wobbled in her throat. She turned quickly and hopped into the seat, yanking the seat belt across her chest like it would shield her. Then she shoved her arms into the sleeves of Candor’s jacket and looked at him pointedly. “Happy?”
Candor didn’t say anything, but the smile fighting to curl his mouth up hinted that yes, he was maybe just a little happy.
Ava’s cheeks flushed hotter. She had a feeling this was going to be the longest truck ride of her life.
Chapter 15
Candor’s hands were damp on the wheel as he drove through the woods back toward his house. Occasionally, he would glance at the passenger seat to make sure Ava was still there. He had to resist laughing when he did. She looked tiny in his huge leather jacket, her fingers barely poking out of the sleeves.
Ava is in my truck, he thought vacantly. Candor’s truck was a very intimate place to him. It was next door to having her in his bedroom. The small cab was filled with so much of her scent that he felt intoxicated.
He knew that it was a bad idea to let his attraction to her get the better of him considering the circumstances, but it certainly didn’t help that she was attracted to him, too. He could smell it on her, in the thickening of her scent when he said something flirtatious or stared at her for too long. She was fighting it, guarding herself.
That only drove Candor’s instinct crazy. As a cougar, he had to pursue the female he wanted before another male swept in to steal her. Chasing her relentlessly was part of the mating process.
But Ava was not a cougar, he reminded himself grimly. She was human, and she wouldn’t appreciate being hounded by him when all she needed was his help.
Ava cleared her throat, drawing him out of his thoughts. “So, what’s the deal with these rogue shifters you mentioned?”
Candor glanced at her. Those big brown eyes were full of genuine curiosity. He didn’t have to worry about her ratting out to Trent, not after the conversation he’d overhead while he’d skirted around to the front of the Randolph house. He took a heavy breath. “They’ve been…causing problems lately. Well, I say ‘they.’ I don’t really know how many there are. Could be only one bastard raising all this hell.”
“Instinct,” Candor answered. “When shifters sense a vacancy at the top of the pecking order, they move to fill it. It’s one of the few things we all have in common.”
“Aren’t you in charge?”
Candor’s mouth twisted. “I wasn’t until recently. My brother, Xander…” Saying the name made his chest tight. He cleared his throat. “My brother was leader of the territory.”
Ava’s voice was soft and confused. “What happened to him?”
Candor swallowed, eyes stinging. “He was killed. That shifter that you and Lynn ran into today… that was the cougar who murdered my brother.” The steering wheel creaked in Candor’s tightening grip.
The stinging smell of salt suddenly filled the car. Candor jerked his head toward Ava. Tears were running down her face.
Panicked, Candor stomped on the brake. The truck’s wheels skidded on the uneven road. They lurched to a stop and he threw the car into park. Twisting in his seat, he faced Ava fully. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” he asked urgently.
She smeared the tears away with the tips of her fingers. “I’m sorry,” she sobbed gently. “I’m so, so sorry…”
He reached out and took each of her hands in his, tugging them away until he could meet her eyes. “What the hell do you have to be sorry for?” he said, his voice sandpapery.
Ava shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut, forcing more tears out. It agitated him to pain. “I don’t want to make this about me,” she choked out.
Candor released one of her hands and brushed a thumb against her cheek, wiping away a tear. “What do you mean?”
She didn’t say anything for a moment. She just stared at him with those shining brown eyes that he now saw were full of brokenness and pain. “My mom,” she said at last, voice cracking. “She died a month ago. Tram crash.” She sucked in a breath. “I just… You were the last person on the planet I expected to…to…” She covered her mouth with her free hand.
“To understand?” Candor’s heart broke for Ava in that moment. He knew what it meant to bundle all that pain and grief inside yourself and fight not to let it out.
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