“Isn’t he just dreamy?” Janice stared out of the window as if in a trance. “So rugged and handsome.” She snapped out of it and looked a little embarrassed. “He may drive that beaten-up truck but Cole is rich. Like, really rich. That’s what I heard, anyway. I don’t know if it’s right that a man should have those looks and money, too. It’s like he belongs in Hollywood, not in Silver Rock.”
Simone raised an eyebrow. “What does he do? How’d he get so rich?”
“I’m not exactly sure. He’s a wildlife photographer or something. That’s what I heard, anyway. Enjoy your burgers.”
After the waitress had disappeared, Simone looked at Dani. “I think Cole knows who he’d like to be taking pictures of, and it isn’t Janice.”
“She said he photographs wildlife,” Dani reminded her.
“So how wild would you get?”
Dani could imagine getting pretty wild with a man like Cole. But imagination was one thing and reality was another. “He’s probably just the local stud who thought he’d have some fun flirting with a fat girl. Nothing more than that.”
“There’s much more to it than that,” Simone said, taking a bite of her pine burger. “There was so much chemistry between you two, I thought the table was going to spontaneously combust.”
“It really wasn’t like that,” Dani said, knowing that it really had been like that. She had no idea why a man like Cole McClintock would go for a girl like her, but she couldn’t deny his interest in her. It was obvious in the way his eyes seemed to undress her.
“It really was like that.” Simone peered out of the window to the place Cole’s truck had been parked. “We’ll be seeing more of Mr. Huge, Muscly and Gorgeous, I’m sure of it.”
“I’m not here to get a man,” Dani said.
“No, you’re not. You’re here to help me with the house, and solve your bear problem.” She took a bite of an onion ring. “Looks like the big bear theory has acquired a new unknown variable.”
“What big bear theory? What are you talking about?”
Simone grinned. “I have a theory that most people experience an event in their life that makes them afraid. It changes their whole life—the way they live, everything. I call that event their big bear. They need to face their big bear and see that they can move beyond the fear. In your case, the big bear really is a big bear.”
“Is that how you came up with the name?”
Simone nodded. “Uh huh.”
“And you thought up this theory just now, didn’t you?”
“I did,” Simone admitted. “But I’m already proud of it.”
Simone was a psychologist who worked with sportspeople in the fields of mindset and motivation. The big bear theory would probably end up in the book she was writing on the subject.
“I’m your friend,” Dani reminded her. “I’m not one of your patients.”
Simone rolled her eyes. “They’re clients, honey. Not patients.”
“And what do you mean there’s a new unknown variable?”
“Well, the theory says that you should face your bear and recover from your fear. But now that Cole McClintock is on the scene, I’m sure he could fight the bear for you. With his bare hands, probably.”
It was Dani’s turn to roll her eyes. “Cole is not on the scene. There is no scene.”
“Uh huh. Whatever you say.” Simone gave Dani a knowing look and took another bite of her burger.
*
After they had eaten and were back on the road, Dani tried to mentally prepare herself for the return to Silver Rock.
There’s nothing to fear. What happened was just bad luck.
That was probably true. And she knew there was nothing to fear in the town itself. They had been camping in the woods when the bear attacked them. Was Simone going to suggest Dani go into the woods and face her fear? Forget that. As far as she was concerned, the woods were off-limits.
The sign announcing Silver Rock appeared up ahead. Simone said, “Uh oh, this could be trouble.”
At first, Dani had no idea what her friend meant. Was she talking about the road sign? Then she saw that Simone was looking in the rearview mirror.
Dani twisted in her seat to look out of the back window, but she already heard the low rumble of the motorbikes. A biker gang, dressed in black leathers and riding Harleys, rode up behind the Taurus, then around it.
As the bikers roared past them, Dani read the patches on the backs of their leather jackets. It was a simple design: a white wolf’s head with the words, “Rulers of the Night” arranged in a circle around it.
“Rulers of the Night,” Simone said. “I haven’t heard of them before.”
“Do you think they’re just passing through?” Dani asked. Then she saw the words “Silver Rock” written in a flowing white script on the jackets. “Scratch that. It looks like they’re based here.”
“A biker gang based in the sleepy town of Silver Rock,” Simone mused. “That’s new.”
Dani nodded and watched the bikers disappear in the distance, leaving oily smoke in their wake.
After meeting Cole McClintock at the diner and seeing the bikers on the road, she got the impression that Silver Rock had changed since they were last here.
This was going to be an interesting week.
2
Cole couldn’t get Dani out of his mind. After leaving the diner, he took the dirt road that wound through the forest to his house and tried to concentrate on driving but found it impossible. His bear pushed into his mind, and every time Cole thought of Dani, the bear grew more powerful. It wanted to claim her as a mate. Her curvy body and wide hips were perfect for motherhood. And oh so perfect for mating.
Cole hit the brakes and brought the truck to a shuddering halt.
He opened the door and got out. As he stood on the lonely dirt road beneath the warm mid-morning sun, he felt the change approaching. A surge of adrenaline coursed through his veins. His muscles, already full and solid, increased in size. He staggered among the shadows of the trees. He had never before felt compelled to change at the mere thought of a woman.
He undressed quickly and left his clothes in a heap beneath a sturdy pine. Then he dropped to all fours and released the bear. The shift took no more than a few seconds. He loped through the forest in his bear form. Smells and sounds intensified. The pine smelled sharp in his nostrils. The needles on the forest floor crunched beneath his heavy paws. He heard small animals moving through the undergrowth.
He increased his speed to a run. He needed to burn off the energy that seemed to be building up inside his body. He knew what was happening, had been told about it by his grandfather and father. It was referred to as The Call. It happened when a shifter encountered his future mate.
The human equivalent happened when a person fell in love. The person in love would feel physiological changes. Their heartbeat might quicken when the loved one was near, and it was hard to think about anything else except that person.
In a shifter, The Call was like falling in love intensified a thousand times. The shifter knew instantly that he had met his mate. Cole knew it the moment he had entered the diner and saw Dani. It was a physical and mental reaction that welled up from deep inside his mind and body. And it was unstoppable.
Cole’s bear would become more agitated the longer The Call was denied. As far as it was concerned, it had found its mate and that was that. Cole knew nothing was so simple. Dani was the mate nature intended for him, but the days of clubbing a woman over the head and dragging her to the cave were long gone. The bear’s nature was primal and direct, but Cole had to temper that with the gentleness of his human half. Otherwise he would become rogue. It had happened before; he had been told tales about shifters who felt The Call and let their bear half consume them. The result was a vicious, roaming wild animal that had to be killed for its own sake.
A rogue shifter’s first kill was usually the object of its desire. Which meant if Cole went rogue, the first thing he would do would
be to kill Dani. He could not let that happen.
He left the cover of the trees and ran toward a stream. Splashing through the cold water, he hoped it would cool his ardor. Taking the shifter equivalent of a cold shower, he continued upstream until finally, after traveling miles from the truck, he felt in control again. Drenched, panting, and exhausted, he climbed out of the stream and on to the grassy bank. He shifted back into human form and lay on the grass, naked beneath the high sun as it warmed and dried his skin.
He was surprised he had experienced The Call. When his father and grandfather spoke about it, they always said, “You’ll know it when it happens.” Cole had entered manhood waiting for it to happen to him, but had never felt it. There had been women—many women—but none of them had ignited any more feeling in Cole than a passing desire. He had begun to believe it would never happen to him. As the years passed, he forgot about The Call altogether, believing it to be something that happened to other shifters, but not him. And now, when he least expected it, he had run into his mate.
His thoughts turned to Dani. Although she had been comfortably dressed in jeans, a loose T-shirt and a flannel shirt, Cole had been acutely aware of the fullness of her body beneath the clothing. He imagined Dani naked in his bed, wanton and ready to be fucked. The thought made him crazy with desire for her.
He had to stop thinking like that or he would trigger an overwhelming tide of need that he couldn’t control.
He stood and glanced around at his surroundings. He had come a long way up into the mountains. Something seemed amiss, something he hadn’t noticed before because he had been fighting for control of his mind. Closing his eyes, he sniffed the warm breeze. Beneath the sharp smell of pine and the sweet fragrance of wildflowers, another scent drifted from the woods. Cole walked into the trees, following the smell to an area where torn bark hung off the trees in ragged lines, gouged by claws.
Another shifter.
Cole inspected the claw marks and the ground beneath the trees. The bear had been here a few hours earlier. This area was no more than eight miles from town, which made Cole wonder if the bear had wandered down the mountain and into Silver Rock. He pondered the implications of having another shifter in the area. This territory belonged to Cole and his brother, Brad. They shared these woods and mountains because they were family. A new arrival was not welcome, and that meant Cole would have to show this newcomer that he, Cole, was the alpha in these parts and the best course of action the intruder could take would be to leave Silver Rock for good.
This was all he needed. As if it wasn’t bad enough that he had to deal with The Call, now he also had to face an enemy.
Sighing, he shifted back into bear form and lumbered down the mountain, following the stream back to the area where he had left his truck. He found his clothes and dressed quickly before returning to his vehicle.
He got in, rested his head on the steering wheel, closed his eyes and contemplated his next move.
He should drive back into town and search for the shifter intruding on his territory. It wouldn’t be easy. If the shifter was wandering around Silver Rock in human form, Cole wouldn’t be able to find him. Only when the intruder shifted could Cole sniff him out.
While he was in town, he would find out where Dani was staying. Now that The Call had taken hold of him and he knew that Dani was his future mate, he needed to convince her of that fact. It wasn’t going to be easy. Before he could claim her, he had to tell her he was a bear shifter. She had to accept that, and allow him to perform The Claim. That posed a problem for Cole. Just because Dani was the mate nature intended for him didn’t mean she would automatically fall into his arms and let herself be claimed.
It could all go wrong, and Cole could end up with no mate at all. That might have been fine before, when he was moving from relationship to relationship with no real need for a deep bond, but now he had experienced The Call. If he didn’t claim his mate, or she rejected him, it would cause him psychological damage. He would be stripped of his alpha status.
He couldn’t fuck this up.
And not only because of his status; he wanted Dani more than he had ever wanted any other woman. He knew that now that he had found her, he couldn’t live without her.
He started the truck and spun it round on the dirt road. Driving toward Silver Rock, he mused how one day could change a person’s life forever. This morning, he had been going about his business just like every other day. Then, after a chance encounter in the diner, he had found his mate.
All he had to do now was convince her of what he already knew: they were destined to be together forever.
Yeah, that was going to be real easy.
He sighed, and gave himself a piece of advice that sounded simple but was going to be hard to follow.
“Don’t fuck this up.”
3
As she stepped through the front door, Dani wrinkled her nose at the musty smell in Simone’s grandmother’s house.
The house was old but Dani always remembered it being full of life. She often came here when she was younger with Simone, and there were always cakes or cookies baking, filling the house with delicious smells. Simone’s grandmother had two older sisters who were usually at the house, sitting at the kitchen table and telling each other whatever local gossip they had picked up. There were usually other visitors at the house too, neighbors and friends. The kitchen had been full of laughter and conversation.
Now, the house was dark and dead.
Simone threw open the curtains to let sunlight into the dark living room and stepped back, choking. Motes of dust danced in the shaft of sunlight shining in through the window.
“How long is it since anyone was in here?” Dani asked.
“Well, my grandmother moved to Chicago to be closer to my parents a year ago. After her sisters died, she didn’t want to stay here anymore,” Simone said. “Nobody’s been here since then.”
“She wasn’t afraid of it being broken into?”
“In sleepy Silver Rock?” Simone shook her head.
“Maybe Silver Rock isn’t so sleepy anymore,” Dani said. “Those bikers looked pretty rough. Who knows what other changes there have been around here?”
“That’s no concern of ours. We’re just going to fix up Grandma’s place so it can be sold or rented. We’re only going to be living here for two weeks, not forever.” Simone went into the kitchen and pulled up the blinds over the sink. She opened the food cupboards, took out a couple of cans, and inspected them. “I think we should order pizza tonight.
“This is going to be fun,” Simone said. “You and me, back in Silver Rock on vacation. Eating pizza and attracting the local hunks.”
“I didn’t attract anybody,” Dani protested.
“Uh huh, you keep saying that, but you’re the only one who believes it,” Simone said.
“I don’t really believe it, either,” Dani admitted. Cole seemed as attracted to her as she was to him. Maybe she should stop denying it and enjoy the fact that she could attract a big, strong man like that. “He was pretty damned hot, wasn’t he?”
“Scorching.” Simone began opening windows to let fresh air into the house. “Now, are you going to help me, or are you going to stand there daydreaming about Mr. Wonderful all day?”
Dani snapped out of it. She had been thinking about the many things she would like to do with and to Cole McClintock. How had he affected her so much? Her sex life with Henry had been dull and boring. She knew that was partly because of her own lack of effort. The sex was unsatisfying, so eventually she had stopped trying to make it work.
When she imagined Cole, though, she wanted to try things she had never even considered before. She wanted to be taken by him in any way he desired, to give pleasure and be pleasured to the point of…
“I said, are you listening to me,” Simone said.
“Huh? What? Sorry, I was just thinking about something.”
“Something, or someone? Someone with big muscles, tattoos, an
d long hair, maybe?” Simone’s dark eyes flashed wickedly.
“Okay, I admit it. I don’t know why I keep thinking about him.”
“Honey, that is obvious. Cole is a bona fide hunk of a man. And there was enough chemistry between you and him to create a nuclear explosion.”
Dani sighed. “I don’t know what there was between us. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”
“What I don’t understand,” Simone said, “is why you were desperate to get rid of him. When you catch a prize fish like that, you don’t throw it back in the river. What were you thinking?”
“I’m not here to meet a man. A relationship doesn’t fit in with my life plan right now.”
“That’s because your only plan is to work at your dad’s restaurant and spend the rest of the time watching TV and eating ice cream.”
Dani shrugged. “You make it sound like there’s something wrong with that.”
“There is something wrong with that. It doesn’t suit you. Remember what you used to be like? You dreamed of being an artist. Sure, you worked in an office until you could make that dream a reality, but you spent all your free time being carefree and adventurous.
“Like the time you dragged me to Vegas on a whim because you wanted to win a million dollars on the slots.”
Dani smiled. That had been fun. They had spent the weekend roaming the strip in search of the one machine that was ready to pay out a jackpot. They never found it, and they both lost money, but it had been one of the best times of Dani’s life.
“Or that time we went hiking in the Rockies so you could paint a scene up there, and it started snowing when we were halfway up. We froze our asses off.”
Dani laughed. “And you said that was the last time you would ever let me drag you along on one of my crazy-ass adventures.”
“Exactly. So when you said you wanted us to go spend a night in the woods, I tried to talk you out of it.”
“I wish you’d succeeded,” Dani said. “Look how that night turned out. Things would have been very different if we’d just stayed at home.” She didn’t know why she had decided, during their annual vacation to Silver Rock two years ago, that it would be a good idea to go camping in the woods. At the time, it had seemed like a good idea to sleep out under the stars and get back to nature. It had all gone horribly wrong when the bear attacked their tent and left Dani with three deep scars on her back, stretching in a diagonal line from her shoulder to her waist.
McClintock Bears Box Set Page 2
