Charming the Wolf: A Paranormal Shifter BBW Romance

by Flora Dare

  "Funny? Like haha? Because they could have been seriously hurt."

  "Don't be a dick. I mean like, off. There was a scent I couldn't figure out. Since we all helped, it got covered quick. Between the weird smell and the way it collapsed... That wasn't something just moved, you know that it shouldn't have collapsed."

  "You think someone booby trapped it?"

  "Yeah. And we're the only new guys."

  Josh said, "But we would never! I mean, even in general, but we all know how much we need this gig."

  "I know, but we have new guys on our crew."

  "It could be something outside of us. It's as likely."

  Jensen said, "I think we need to tell them. I don't want anyone to get hurt because no one said anything."

  "I'll do it." Gave him an excuse to talk to Zane that wouldn't make her angry at him. "I think they are still inside."

  Josh looked up at the house and sighed. Zane wasn't going to be thrilled to see him again so soon, but what if she got hurt? Unacceptable. So he trudged back into the kitchen, this time making enough noise that he didn't overhear them talking.

  Jolie looked up at him and smiled. "Welcome back, need another croissant?"

  "No thanks, just wanted to touch base with you guys on something that Jensen realized when he was putting the collapsed pile back together." Zane didn't say anything and her lips compressed to a thin line. At least she wasn't yelling at him or talking about her next date.

  "Go ahead." Jolie poured another cup of coffee and nibbled on a pastry.

  "I'm going to just be up front, Jensen doesn't think it was an accident. There is no reason it should have collapsed. And he smelled something funny, something off, but we were all over it too quickly for him to isolate it."

  Jolie and Zane both stood up straight, their faces alert. Zane said, "Are you sure? Do you agree with your brother?"

  Josh said, "I'm honestly not sure? Something gives me the willies and I wanted you to be aware. I know it's not my brothers, but some of the rest of our crew is new. I can't imagine why they would sabotage the job. If it stops, they are out of a job."

  Jolie said, "And it's not like we're going to replace ourselves. Let's hope we don't have any other incidents. Thank you for coming to us with this."

  Josh wanted to say more, beg Zane to be careful, but he muzzled his wolf, nodded at the women and left.

  Ten

  The next week drug out agonizingly slowly for Zane. Every time she turned around, something was going wrong at the site. The pile of lumber sat in disarray and she glared at it.

  “Can I get a gallon of gas and a fucking match?” Zane wanted to scream. “Every single one of these is cut wrong.”

  Josh walked up to her and said, “Are you sure? We used your cut list.”

  If he’d sounded smug, she would have fired them all on the spot. But he sounded more worried than anything. He handed her the crumpled paper. Zane flattened it out. Something about it caught her eye. It was wrong. She glanced around her, seeing if anyone was looking too intently.

  She dropped her voice, so that only Josh could hear her. “Get Jensen, and meet me in the kitchen.” She stomped off inside the house and slammed the door behind her. Jolie was sitting at the table, looking over the plans and blueprints for the backyard.

  “Damn, Zane. You scared about ten years of life off me.”

  Zane slapped the paper in front of Jolie. “Look at that. What’s wrong with that?”

  “Isn’t this your cut list for the deck?” She did a double take and cocked her head, her eyes crinkling in confusion. “Wait a minute, this isn’t formatted right at all. This isn’t how you lay things out. Even the header is off.”

  “Exactly. This isn’t what I printed off for the crew.” Zane flicked through the papers on the table, until she found the deck plan. “See, look at this.”

  “Damn.” Jolie leaned back and groaned. “Dare I ask how much this is going to cost us?”

  “We can salvage about half of it. But this wasn’t me. Someone deliberately did this. They went through a lot of time and effort to do this.”

  The door to the kitchen opened. Josh and his oldest brother stepped inside, their faces grim. Jensen said, “Josh told me there was a major cock-up.”

  Jolie sighed and said, “This list? Where did you get it?”

  Jensen said, “It was in the packet you gave us.”

  Zane appreciated that he didn’t try to make excuses. “Was it secured, could anyone have accessed it?”

  “Anyone could have looked at it, and did. I kept it on the workbench, so anyone could look at the plans and know what was coming up, work-wise.”

  Jolie smacked the table. “Well, someone swapped the list at some point, trying to undermine the project.”

  Josh turned bright red. “We would never do something like that, ever.”

  “But you were upset about not getting this job?”

  Jensen dropped a heavy hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Shut up, bro. This isn’t a pride thing.” He turned to Jolie and Zane. “Look, yeah, we wanted the job, but once we realized it was literally your house, it made sense it wasn’t an open thing. I was thrilled you thought well enough of us to pull us in. I can’t speak for all the crew, but I know me and my brothers wouldn’t risk the job for anything, let alone something that could get us fired.”

  “How can we trust that?” Zane couldn’t stop the words from spilling out, but she really didn’t trust Josh.

  Jensen said, “Because we need the work. Desperately. Our mom is sick, real sick. The kind of sick that gets expensive fast. The harder we work, the better off she is. This job is for a year, at least. You know how rare that is in our line of work. There is no way any of us would risk it. Not with Mom’s health on the line.”

  Zane’s throat went tight and it took her a moment to gather her thoughts. “I’m sorry to hear that. But if not in revenge for that, why on earth would someone sabotage us like this? It’s a minor cost, annoying, but only going to slow us down a day or two.”

  Josh said, “Do you guys have any enemies? Have you gotten any threats? No one has gotten hurt, but it was close with that wood pile.”

  Zane shook her head. “I don’t get out a lot.” Not since she’d met Josh. Better to be celibate.

  “Not since meeting Gabe.” Jolie looked off into the distance. “I’ll have to ask him if he can think of anyone who would want to do something like this. He keeps a low profile, but who knows. It just feels so random.”

  Jensen rubbed the back of his neck. “This whole thing is making me itchy as hell. Something feels really wrong.”

  To Zane’s surprise, Jolie said, “I agree. Every so often, it feels like someone is staring daggers into my back.”

  Josh said, “Maybe you guys should lay low while we work? There is plenty of grunt work for us. And maybe we can let go the newer guys, the ones we don’t know very well.”

  Jensen didn’t look very happy with his brother, but nodded. “Really, there’s just two really new guys. Josh, what’s the weather looking like next week?”

  Jolie answered for him. “Big round of storms, actually. Frick, I was really hoping to get the footings poured before then.” In that moment, Jolie and Zane’s phones buzzed.

  They both glanced at the message and Zane swore the air blue. She finally met Josh’s eyes and felt her cheeks grow hot. “In the continuing line of everything going wrong, the plants for the front beds will be here this afternoon.”

  Jolie growled in frustration. “Those weren’t supposed to be here for weeks. The beds aren’t ready, it’s hot as hell out and all my plants are going to die.”

  Jensen tentatively raised his hand. “You have your layouts, right? Since we now have to wait on the new lumber anyways, we can bust ass to get the plants in.”

  Zane rubbed her eyes. She knew her bestie hated it when her plans went pear-shaped, but what other option was there? At least this way, they weren’t actually falling behind. She said, “I think that’
s a good idea, Jolie. You wanted to up the curb appeal anyways and it will mean the front is completely ready.”

  Her friend fisted her hands and shook them at the ceiling. A big sigh escaped her, then she shrugged. “No choice but to move forward. I’m annoyed, because I plan things for a reason. But sending everything back isn’t an option, although I will have to talk to Mr. Wilkins about why the hell he moved the shipment up a month.”

  Josh said, “Could it be more sabotage?”

  “Well, that tears it. If it was, then the calls are coming from inside the house. Who the hell would know when we were expecting that?” Zane frowned at both of the men. “Well, no, except in your packet is basically everything. All our plans. Jolie, can you call Mr. Wilkins before I start freaking out? Hopefully it’s just a mistake. If it’s not, we’re going to have to check and double-check everything.”

  Jolie said, “Well, I guess it’s a good thing you canceled all those dates. We’re approaching zero fun town.”

  Zane knew her face must be bright red and she wondered if Gabe would really be that angry if she murdered his mate with her bare hands. But she shrugged, locked eyes with Josh and said, “Well, sometimes being alone is better than being with someone, if they’re bad for you. Donuts are delicious but you can’t live on them.” Even if you wanted to lick sweet, sugary glaze off his abs over and over again.

  Eleven

  Another week slipped by in the race to get the front of the house ready. Zane walked up to Jensen, who was next to yet another pile of mis-delivered material, frowning across the massive front acreage. Wood, stone, a collection of things that were just in the way. "Anyone ever tell your friend that yards like this are just excessive?"

  "Excessive but kind of delightful."

  "I'll appreciate it when I'm not worried about hurting her plants."

  Zane laughed. She liked the easy-going man, and unlike his brother, he didn't make her palms sweaty or her body ache in ways no hot tub could erase.

  Jensen gave her a good once-over. "You know, if I didn't know my brother would literally murder me, I would very happily ask you out." He shot a look to the side. "Just us talking and he's glaring daggers. What is it between you two? He won't say a peep, but he's a real misery at home."

  Her heart flip flopped. At least he wasn't the only surly one. "Oh, I'm sure he's running around and having a good time. Rest assured it's not with me, he has no call on my time. I'm completely free and available."

  "That so? Is that why you've positioned yourself so he can see you flirting with me? Even though we have literally zero fire between us?"

  "Don't be so damn smart."

  "Well, one of us boys has to. Momma was hoping we'd find nice girls. You're a nice girl and there is something between you guys."

  "Look, Jensen, whatever was between us? It's just bodies, it's not minds. I've dated plenty of hunks, and they were never in it for the long haul. I'm done with all that. I'm ready for a family and I'm not settling for less."

  His eyebrows shot up. "And you think my brother is a player."

  "Jensen, I know he's your brother, but I know he's a player. He played me...no, that's not entirely fair. But we both played the game, okay? He didn't want to date me, just have a fun night. I'm sorry if his dick is all sad I'm not available, but like I said, I'm not up for that. I'd rather be alone."

  Jensen’s face screwed up and he shook his head. "He's not like that, you know. I know I'm on my brother's side, but he's a good guy. We've just all been hyper focused this last year on Mom."

  Zane said, "Your mother is a very lucky lady, to have such loving sons."

  "She is pretty lucky, you're right about that. Anyways, while I'm sure I'm nothing but delight for you, I'm assuming you had something to tell me?"

  "Yeah, Mr. Wilkins confirmed it. Someone called and changed the order. Jolie's been on the phone all week, as it obviously wasn't the only order changed. We think we caught everything and shouldn't have any more random deliveries like this. We're going to change up some things. We knew the master plan was going to need adjustments anyways, but we've made it so it has to be me or Jolie who changes things. Are you going to be offended if you don't get a copy of the master plan?"

  He shrugged. "I mean, I'd rather be in the know, because I'm nosy, but I'd also rather not have us all fucked over again. And I feel like it's my fault this all happened." He pushed his hat back. "I mean, I know I didn't do anything wrong. Other than trusting everyone, I guess."

  Her hand dropped softly onto his arm. He was right, there was zero spark between them. "Hey, you know we don't blame you, right? They could have just as easily gotten at Jolie's binder. We've never had to protect the information."

  His hand was warm on hers as he smiled down at her. "Thanks, I appreciate that."

  A sharp voice interrupted. "What's going on?"

  Josh's mouth was set in a line and his gaze kept dropping back to her hand on his brother's arm.

  Jensen said, "Zane was just filling me in. The Wilkins order was changed. Jolie's fixing what she can. Master plan is going to be on lockdown."

  Zane squeezed Jensen's arm and let go. She wasn't above tweaking Josh but she didn't want to cause bad blood between the brothers. And whatever weirdness was between them, she could practically feel the waves of barely suppressed emotion flowing off Josh that died down when she moved her hand. Huh, he really doesn't like me with other men. And I’m pretty sure I’d end up in jail if another woman even gave him a good smile.

  "I was reassuring him that we don't blame you guys for this, although we really wish we could figure out who the hell was behind it. Gabe is doing some sort of computer witchery to see if he can trace calls and emails."

  Josh just grunted. Zane started to get irritated and said, "Oh, and the other thing I was going to ask Jensen. I'm contemplating starting a family, and thought you'd be a splendid father..."

  Before she could say another word, a sickening crack came from the temporary shelter they were under.

  Twelve

  Even though Josh knew Zane was trying to get a rise out of him, his inner wolf went berserk at the thought of her having another man’s baby. His fangs pressed and his beast howled to taste his brother’s blood. His older brother growled softly at him, but also took a step back.

  He finally noticed Zane was looking up at a support and her eyes had gone wild.

  “Move, now.” Jensen shouted and moved to push Zane out of the way.

  And that’s when all hell broke loose. Before Josh realized what was happening, his first instinct was to get his brother’s hands off his damn mate. But timbers and fabric collapsed around him before he could take more than a step. Shock rippled through his body.

  Mate. My mate is under all of that. Head thrown back, an anguished howl ripped out of his body before he began to throw debris away from him. He had to get to her. He only halfway recognized his brothers frantically helping him get to the two trapped people.

  His heart skipped a beat when he touched flesh. Warm flesh. Warm hairy flesh. Jensen.

  Josh threw a prayer to whatever deity was listening that his brother had gotten to Zane in time. His voice was harsh and he said, “I found Jensen. Here.”

  There was so much on top of him and Josh felt a sharp, endless pain. How could Zane have possibly survived? Tears stung at his eyes and he redoubled his efforts, joined by his brothers on each side.

  A faint hope bloomed in Josh’s heart when he realized that the falling timbers had formed a void over Jensen’s head. They pulled his brother out, smeared in blood and swearing in pain.

  Jensen grabbed Josh’s arms and said, “She’s in there, she’s alive. I heard her talking.”

  Josh dropped to his belly and wiggled into the void his brother had been in. Someone passed him a flashlight and he looked ahead. He pushed forward and around a bend, when the ray of light caught a pair of eyes.

  It was Zane and she was alive and trapped behind another bunch of debris.

 
Tears pricked at the back of Josh’s eyes. “Zane.” The words stuck in his throat and he had to clear his throat to get them out. “How did you get clear?”

  “I’m a fox. We’re really good at slipping away from hounds.”

  Zane was covered in dust and smears of blood and under the stone bench that was going to be a centerpiece of the garden. It created a small space she just fit into.

  There was so much debris on top of it that Josh started to panic. There was no way it was going to hold long enough to get her out. He could hear the stone groaning under the weight. “Zane, baby, I need you to stay calm. We’re going to keep moving stuff out of the way until there is a big enough path cleared.”

  The men all moved at double time, but even then, the opening still wasn’t big enough to pull her through. Josh dropped to his belly and tried to see if there was any way he could shore up the debris before the bench collapsed.

  “Josh! Listen to me.” Zane’s voice trembled. “I’m going to shift and you grab me, okay?”

  “Wait, no. The hole is too small.”

  Her amused snort stopped him from panicking. “My curvy hips are never going to fit through the hole before this stupid bench falls apart. But I’m not a fat bear. I’m a fox and I can make it through this hole. I just can’t see where it’s safe to get to, so - and if you ever do it again, I’ll kill you - grab me by my scruff, okay? I don’t think we have a lot of time.”

  He could see the whites of her eyes as a grinding sound came from behind her. Suddenly, a gorgeous, lithe red fox poked its nose through the gap. Just as he got his hand on her scruff and pulled, the bench finished shattering and the entire pile of debris dropped two feet.

  He cuddled her in his arms as he walked away. She was trembling so hard, he didn’t think she was able to shift. He glanced behind him at the wreckage and a wild exultation filled him. She was alive. Scared practically to death, but alive. He needed to get her warm and safe.

  He strode to the house, focused only on finding a place where he could make sure she didn’t have any other injuries. Gabe was suddenly beside him, and the big bear just said, “Guest suite, up one floor, first door on the left.”