by Thorne, Elle
The female would eat whatever was left over after she let the little one indulge.
But she never shifted. Joe had no idea what she looked like as a human. Why didn’t she shift? Shifters—at least the ones Joe knew—preferred to be in their human form. Why didn’t she?
He heard a tiny crunching sound. The food he’d placed at the base of a tree three yards away from the one that he was in had to be hard to resist when you were a hungry baby bear. Not that the woods weren’t full of food, but shifters typically gravitated toward human food.
Sure enough, a dark brown figure scampered out from between a couple of trees to the west. The little one snorted its delight, growling and snarling gleefully.
A louder, more ferocious growl joined his. There she was. She was magnificent. Queenly, with a presence that commanded respect and even fear, for some. She followed the cub, her dark eyes alert, her head tilted, always on her guard. Joe knew mama bears. He knew shifter mamas too. It seemed excessive, as if she was on the lookout for something specific.
Was it him? Was she worried about him? How could she be? He’d only known about her a couple of weeks now. She followed the little one until she reached the tree Joe was in.
She stopped suddenly, watching the cub eat, but her head was cocked to the side. Listening. Listening to what?
The bear cub ravaged the ham Joe had brought, tearing into it, shredding it with his claws, swallowing chunks. Joe fought the smile that threatened to make an appearance. He needed to maintain control over his emotions so that she couldn’t notice the change with her bear senses and pick up his pulse.
He breathed a shallow breath of relief and looked back at her.
Shit.
Busted.
She was staring at him, her bear head raised, her eyes focused on him directly. He had no doubt he was the cause of the intensity in her gaze.
Oh, hell, here goes nothing.
“Well, if you know I’m here, you may as well talk to me,” Joe told her. “And you can clearly see I’m not armed.” He tried to convince her he wasn’t a threat.
The cub paused, looked at its mother, then at Joe, and went back to its meal.
Joe heard a low, rumbling sound that came from deep within her chest.
“No. No growling. No bear talk. I know damned well what you are. I mean talk to me like a human.”
She scratched at the ground with her large, sharp claws.
“What if I promise not to come down?”
A creaking and a light crunching sound, and a moment later he saw the woman in her emerging and her bear receding.
Chapter Two
Oh, damn. She had no clothing. But when Grant shifted and was fully dressed. Joe fought with confusion and something else…
That something else, he realized immediately, was the temptation to look at her. He couldn’t conquer it. Joe feasted his eyes on the woman in front of him.
She stood proudly, her hands on her hips, her chest thrust forward, her jaw set with a determination Joe hadn’t seen in many people.
She was magnificent. A warrior. A woman. A shifter. A bear. Completely naked and glorious in her woman form.
Her skin was a light mocha color, and she had curves on top of curves. Her hips were full, and her thighs blossomed out from the full hips. They were luscious. Her hips narrowed to her waist, then flared out again, revealing full breasts, dark nipples erect.
Joe’s anatomy responded in exactly the way he wished it wouldn’t. Nature’s telltale way of exhibiting his arousal. He grew hard in his pants, and his pulse raced, the blood traveling through his veins felt like it was being propelled by jet fuel. He swallowed hard, and wanted to avert his eyes but couldn’t.
Her own dark brown gaze pierced him, showing no shame and no shyness. She wasn’t aroused; she wasn’t anything but this amazing, proud creature completely comfortable in her skin and at ease with the knowledge she could and would do whatever she needed to defend herself.
She hadn’t said a word. As crazy as it felt to him, Joe wanted to hear her voice more than he wanted to see her nude at this point. And that was saying a lot, because her body had him in a completely unfamiliar place.
Joe glanced away, though he didn’t want to. He looked at the cub. The cub glanced away from his meal to his mother, then noticed she’d changed. He murmured a low growl, a rumbling of uncertainty, then stood on two legs, still in bear cub form.
The cub roared a cry that sounded more scared than anything else and ran for his human mother. As soon as he’d reached her, he ran his nose over her as if confused.
Out of the corner of his eye, Joe saw her kneel and take the baby in her arms. He kept his gaze averted, studying the horizon over the treetops, enjoying the view of the mountains his family had called home for generations. He listened to the soft cooing the woman made to the little bear. Her tender sounds blended with the creek’s gurgling. The little one began to make blowing noises that Joe realized quickly were the sounds of snoring.
“Why do you not have clothing? Does your clothing not shift with you?” Joe kept his voice low, knowing that the woman’s bear hearing would enable her to hear what a human couldn’t.
He turned to look at her, but kept his eyes on her face. Not that he could see anything of that remarkably sexy body even if he wanted to, the way she was huddled, sitting cross-legged on the forest floor, pine needles serving as a cushion and the baby bear covering her nudity.
Was she not going to talk to him? Then a peculiar thought hit him. Maybe she couldn’t talk? In this day and age, how could a shifter not speak in a human language? Impossible. She had to speak.
“If you’re not going to talk to me, maybe you could just let me get down and go on my way?” He tried one last time, though he had no plan to get down from the tree without her permission.
He wasn’t sure if she could kill him. Though as a bear she was large and fearsome, Joe had grown up with bear shifters. He could hold his own, even barehanded.
He rubbed his jaw, his unshaven growth making scratchy sounds in the otherwise quiet forest.
“Stay.”
She spoke! She could communicate.
Elation coursed through his body, replacing lust. He’d been worried otherwise.
He needed clarification regarding her statement, though. “Stay in the tree? Or stay in the area?”
She cocked her head, the same way her bear had. “Stay in the tree, for now.”
“Do you have a name?” He thought that was a valid question, considering she was pretty much feral.
“Doesn’t everyone?” Her full lips, red tinged, curled into the slightest smile, as though she found an internal joke amusing.
“Care to share it with me? Does he have a name?” Joe pointed to the sleeping cub.
“Thank you for the food,” she said.
“Are you staying long? Where are you traveling to?”
“Traveling to? Why couldn’t we just stay here?”
“You’re in Bear Canyon Valley territory. You’re trespassing. You don’t have permission to be here.”
“Who owns this property?” She stroked the baby bear’s fur backward.
“The U.S. government.”
“Then I don’t see how I need permission to be on public property.”
“Shifter code. You know how that is.”
“What?” Genuine confusion passed over her features.
The branch dug into his ass uncomfortably. He wasn’t a kid anymore. He couldn’t perch in trees indefinitely, and he found himself a little impatient. “Every shifter knows shifter code. This is Forester territory.”
It had been when Brad Forester, Mae’s bear shifter mate had been around. Grant was the alpha now, but they’d never started calling it Waters territory. That just seemed wrong and disrespectful to Brad, a man whom everyone had looked up to, including Joe’s long gone great-great-grandfather. Oral history among Joe’s people referred to the shifter battle during which Brad had died.
“Should that mean something to me?” Her voice wasn’t hostile, but it wasn’t awed or afraid, either.
Could someone really live in a vacuum? What shifter family out there wasn’t aware of territories and trespassing? Or maybe she was aware and didn’t give a damn.
“Shifters don’t live long if they ignore territorial boundaries,” Joe told her.
“I can take care of myself and…” She pointed to the little one. “…him.”
“What’s his name?”
“You seem stuck on names. What’s yours?” She quirked a brow, her gaze intelligent and bold, challenging too.
“Joe Dark.”
“What kind of name is that?”
“It would be Joe Dark Eagle Rises After Winter Storm except that my family shortened it.” He allowed a small smile. “Thank the Great Spirit.”
“You’re Native American.”
“Part,” he admitted. “Most, actually. That bothers you?”
“No. I’ve heard that your people are in tune with people and animals. Is that how you knew what I am?”
“No. I live with shifters. Grew up with them. Just knew.”
Not totally true. Joe had a second sense. He wondered if it had anything to do with Mae being a distant cousin. Mae had powers too, it had been said when Joe was younger. He’d heard stories of Mae, even though she’d left the valley for a while after Brad had died, and it took a long time for her to return. She’d returned before Joe was born, and she never changed, never really aged.
“It’s the shifter’s couple bonding,” Joe’s grandmother used to say. “It gives shifters’ mates powers.” Then his grandmother would shake her head and add, “As if Mae needed more powers.”
Joe never really knew. He and Mae, for all their distant relationship, weren’t as close as Grant and Mae had been over the years. Maybe because Joe chose to leave the valley too, for a while. First the military, then he’d chased the rodeo across the country, performing and avoiding Bear Canyon Valley.
When Joe’s grandfather died, his grandmother had said Joe needed to come back, that the Waters family would need him the way they’d needed his grandfather. A human guardian.
“So now what, Joe Dark?” She studied him, unmoving, unflinching, unyielding.
“You let me help you.”
She laughed, an unpleasant sound that spilled distrust.
He didn’t care for the sound. He knew it wasn’t an example of her true nature.
“Why does it surprise you that I would want to help you?”
“What is it that you will help me with, Joe Dark?”
He found himself in a quandary about the way she said his name. Part of him liked it, liked her. The other part of him made him feel mocked.
“If you won’t let me help you, I suggest you leave the territory. It will not bode well for you to be here. The shifters who live here don’t tolerate trespassers. They don’t want to see any of their kind harmed by trespassers, rovers, or rivals.”
“How many shifters are there here in this territory?”
Screw this. Joe wasn’t going to give her any information if she didn’t give him any. He crossed his arms.
God, but his ass was getting numb from the damned branch. “I need to get down. Should I be concerned about an attack?”
She shrugged an elegant café-au-lait-colored shoulder. “Should I?”
“Have I tried to attack you? I’ve brought food to you and the little one, and never tried to attack or approach.”
Her eyes closed to slits. “Could be you’re the long plan type.”
“Tell you what.” He fought to keep his temper in check, but knew it wasn’t solely anger with her that was bubbling to the surface. “Why don’t you take him and go. Then I’ll just go my own way.”
Of course, he had no clue what he’d tell the shifters of Bear Canyon Valley about this statement, but he’d deal with it later.
Right now he needed to get away from this woman. She’d already given him a raging hard-on. Now she was making her way into his emotions, with her feisty attitude and fiercely bold independence.
He didn’t need emotions. He needed her to get the hell away from him.
Little one still in her arms, she rose, turned on her heel, and walked away, toward the forest.
Her body was a lush testament to her womanhood, that ass swaying in just the right way, tempting and teasing him with the curves and sashaying.
A few more long paces, and she was gone, as if she’d never been there.
And she didn’t even eat. He shook his head and adjusted his pants. His cock ached from pressing against denim for so long. It ached from years of not having a woman. He allowed his palm to drag across it with a long, hard, deliberate stroke, that beautiful, strong woman on his mind.
Chapter Three
Kane and Astra had invited Joe, Kelsey, and Teague over. They’d also invited Tanner and Marti, but Marti had begged off because little Dominic, Marti’s toddler shifter son, had the sniffles. Teague’s truck was already in the driveway, parked next to Kane’s vehicle. Kelsey and Teague were here.
Joe pulled up and parked his truck. Kane and Astra had a place that was remote, just like Kane liked, as far away as possible from civilization. Kane struggled with his bear and Astra had mentioned that being so far from town allowed him to go out to the woods and be alone with his bear. Joe didn’t understand it, but then again, he wasn’t a shifter, so he didn’t need to.
Joe exhaled, but it wasn’t a sigh of relief. More like a sigh of trepidation. He knew they were going to ask about the female shifter, and he didn’t want to share her with them. He didn’t want to share anything about her with anyone yet. He wondered about his selfishness and possessiveness for her.
He shoved that aside. He didn’t need to have thoughts about her, about what she stirred up in him. Damn it. He’d failed. He should have gotten some answers for them. The shifters of Bear Canyon Valley had every right to be concerned about strange or trespassing shifters. They didn’t understand that she wasn’t a threat. He could see it in her. She was a loner. She had no allies to bring forward to hurt the valley’s shifters.
The two couples were on the porch, visiting and enjoying iced tea and ice-cold beers. Joe shoved his hands through his hair—way too long, he knew—but who had time for a haircut these days?
Fifteen minutes and some small talk—it didn’t take long for them to bring it up. Kelsey of course was first, as she was the one who had actually held the cub. Teague had shared with all of them how that had impacted her. It was no secret she’d miscarried Teague’s baby a couple years back and had suffered from that for a long time.
“Did you see her?” Kelsey’s eyes bored into Joe’s, eager for answers. “Did you see the baby? Is it okay?”
“It’s fine.” Joe took a swig of the beer, hoping that answer would suffice. He should have known better.
“What does she want?” Astra’s tone was nervous.
Astra’s mother had been killed right here in Bear Canyon Valley while Joe was away on the rodeo circuit. He hadn’t known the Evans family: Doc, his wife, and Astra, her daughter from another marriage.
Trespassing shifters had killed Astra’s mother. Astra had remained untrusting of almost all shifters for a long time, and Doc Evans had taken his stepdaughter away and raised her in Florida.
Joe hadn’t really gotten to know them until after they’d returned.
Everyone had been surprised when Doc and Astra returned to Bear Canyon Valley, but it seemed fated, as none of them could imagine a life in the valley without Doc and Astra. And now that Astra had found happiness and love with a shifter, she’d gotten over her animosity for shifters, it seemed. Except she still harbored a natural suspiciousness about shifters who didn’t belong and might be dangerous to the Bear Canyon Valley clan.
Kelsey looked at Astra. Astra shrugged. Kelsey turned back to Joe. “And?”
He took his time putting the beer bottle down, studying the label, deliberati
ng his answer. “She’s not here to hurt anyone. She’s…” He chewed on the thought some more. “She’s just here. For now. Needed a place for a bit.” He wasn’t lying. Not technically, though of course she hadn’t told him all that. Not in so many words. Not in any words.
“What’s her name?” Astra turned those eerie green gorgeous eyes on him. Joe was reminded of a luminescent green crystal ball every time he looked into her eyes.
Joe knew about her gift of seeing shifters. Humans didn’t typically have that skill. Joe suspected she had more unexpected and undiscovered skills, but it wasn’t his place to go poking around in anyone else’s business. Whatever skills Astra had, she’d find them in her own good time. And if she didn’t find them, Mae would see to it that she did. Joe knew how Mae operated.
Mae. Joe pushed that thought away. Mae and Doc had left town for Dallas for a couple days. With Grant gone on his honeymoon and Mae and Doc out of town, there wasn’t really an alpha here. If something came up before any of them returned, who’d be the decision-maker?
“Joe? Her name?” Astra prompted him again, her eyes aglow.
“Don’t know.”
Kane clapped him on the back. “You okay?”
“Just got a lot on my mind,” Joe said. Like a stunning, ebony-haired, mocha-skinned beauty with a handful of a cub on her hands and an air of independence. Not only did she have that air of independence, she had something else. She reminded Joe of a mountain lion he’d seen once, a wounded one who didn’t trust anyone or anything.
Chapter Four
Another try. After dinner the other night, Joe had come back every day. And every day he’d brought something different for them to eat.
He’d also brought something else, something he’d brought back from the city. Christ, he hated driving into the city. Hated the concrete, the glass, the smell. He’d had enough of cities. Cities brought back images of bomb-destroyed buildings. These days he found his pleasure in the forest, typically alone. Why did he drive into the city? For clothing for the woman. He’d estimated her size as best as he could and had been getting ready to pay when he thought of the little tyke.
