Ryder smiled wryly and shrugged.
“Never mind,” he said under his breath.
His eyes glinted gold and he caught her there for a moment, it was as if there was some kind of chord attached to her, pulling her toward him. She had to dig her heels into the ground and clench her fists. He put his hands on his hips and a shadow seemed to cross his face.
“You two shouldn’t be here,” he said finally. “You shouldn’t be meddling around in all of this.”
Her heart faltered and then it began to race ten to the dozen.
“What do you mean?” she asked in a whisper.
He took a step forward, and the hairs all up the back of her neck began to tingle. Her whole body was responding to him as he moved closer to her and she could barely breathe or focus on anything but him and those intense eyes.
“It’s not safe here,” he said as he stopped and looked down at her.
She could feel a heat radiating from him, something that was powerful and addictive. Pamela craned her neck back so she could look up into his eyes, and he lifted his hand for a moment and before she knew what was happening, he reached forward and planted his palm softly over the place where her heart beat ferociously beneath.
The sensation that rolled through her jolted her, but it also felt like she was riding a wave of exquisite pleasure. A warm trickle flooded through her, from the top of her head right down to the balls of her feet. Her limbs and spine were like jelly, but his hand, as it stayed on her chest, kept her standing tall and strong. A power was passing between them and she wanted to speak, but her mouth wouldn’t open.
His eyes burned into her and when he lifted his hand away and traced a fingertip down her jawline, she shivered and gasped.
“What… what was that?” she managed to whisper.
Ryder looked down at the ground and breathed in and out heavily, as if he had just run a marathon and he was trying to recover.
His muscles were heaving, and his shoulders were rising up and down with each breath.
“You’re not safe here in this town,” he said with a pant. “They want me to get rid of you…”
As the words came out of his mouth, it was as if she had just been slapped in the face.
“What?” she asked with complete confusion. “Who?”
Ryder shook his head and moved away. The second he had left her side, the place where he had held his hand on her began to throb and she ached to have him by her again.
“No,” she said. “Don’t leave.”
He reached into his back pocket and threw down a set of keys into the dirt.
“Take the truck,” he said. “And get out of here as soon as you can. If Dean comes back and he knows I’ve left you here, he won’t be happy.”
“I don’t understand…,” she called after him.
She watched him standing there in front of her and she could see the pain behind his eyes. It was clear that he knew something about what was happening in town that she didn’t, and he was obviously caught up in it somehow.
“I don’t want you to get hurt, Pamela,” he said softly. “And while you’re here with me, or even here in these woods poking around, you’re not going to be safe.”
She took a step forward and he held up his hand to stop her. He was backing away, his demeanor changing. She could see the gold tint of his eyes taking over and they were no longer brown but amber and gold.
“Tell me what’s going on?” she asked carefully. “What did you just do to me?”
She felt different, her mind was more awake, and her senses were more alive. She was on high alert, as if she could sense every little thing around her in the woods and as if she could take on the world.
“I need to go,” he said sharply. “But you’ll be safe for now. I’ll know if you need me.”
He turned and ran, and she watched as he disappeared into the trees behind the truck and was gone in a matter of seconds.
A cold chill seemed to descend on the forest and Pamela looked up at the sky. It was still as blue and clear as it had been, but the moment Ryder had left, the world felt suddenly dark and frozen.
She breathed in and out deeply and closed her eyes. Tears were threatening to spring free because she felt so alone. He had touched her, right above her heart, and now, it was as if she couldn’t bear to be away from him.
What has he done to me? she thought.
She looked down at the set of keys on the ground and bent to pick them up. They were burning hot in her hands, as if his heat was still clinging to them, and it brought her some comfort.
“Something is so weird about this place,” she whispered to herself. “I have no idea what is going on, but I am determined to find out.”
She slipped the keys into her back pocket and then looked ahead to the thick mass of trees. She hitched her backpack up onto her shoulder and decided it was now or never. She may not have had Ryder with her physically, but she could still feel him, and she had the deepening sense that he was watching over her somehow.
She couldn’t explain any of it, but she knew she had to go to the clearing and get the samples. He had said she would be safe for a little while longer, and who knew if she would have the chance again.
She had the drive and courage to keep moving, he had given her that before he had gone. And she wasn’t going to waste it.
6.
She threw the keys to the truck down onto her bed as she entered the hotel room and locked the door behind her. The past couple of hours had gone by in a blur, but she had gotten what she had come for.
The forest had been a mess of dead and the dying. A cold place where all she could think of was poisoned earth. She had collected soil and water samples and cuttings from trees, much like she had done in the unaffected area where she had last seen Ryder… before he had touched her heart and done something to her, deep, deep inside. And before she had felt as if she could take on anything.
He had told her that someone wanted her gone, and it was troubling her. In fact, it was more than troubling her; it was all she could think about. How had she managed to get herself into this situation when she had only wanted to help people?
She turned on her laptop and pulled her cellphone out of her back pocket, setting it on the desk. She had no word from Sean, just a text a few hours before saying he was still with Ranger Dean and after he had managed to shake him, he would be doing a bit of further exploration on his own.
Pamela didn’t know why but she had a dreaded feeling about this. As if Sean was about to get them into a whole ton of trouble or even wind up hurt. She scratched her shoulder and let her fingertips move down to the place on her chest where Ryder had placed his hand.
It still burned hot with electricity and chemistry. When their skins had merged, something magical had happened, she was sure of it.
She thought back to the way he had stood there in the woods looking at her, his whole body changing in the subtlest of ways, but ways that she could now see and pick up on.
Had he given her a second sight?
Who was Ryder and what did he want from her?
She shivered and had the feeling he could feel it too. Were they somehow in sync now that he had done that to her…?
She opened her emails and looked at the last one she had received from the agency. It was still early and well within office hours, so she found the number at the bottom of the footer and tapped it into her cellphone before she raised it to her ear and waited for it to ring.
The ringing went over and over for what felt like an hour, and then, eventually, it clicked to an answering machine. It was the first time she had needed to use the agency number, when she had gotte, the job after being head hunted, she had only dealt with a personal assistant, on personal terms. After that, it had only been with Sean. The voicemail clicked on and a monotone voice spoke down the line to her.
“This is the Environmental Sector of the US Government, please leave your message after the tone…”
There
was a long beep and then silence.
Pamela scrunched her brows up her forehead and looked down at the cellphone.
Had she dialed the correct number? What kind of stupid voicemail was that?
She faltered for a moment, thinking of what to say, but before she had the chance, the line went dead and then clicked off.
“What the…,” she whispered as she rubbed her temples.
Things were getting stranger by the minute.
She placed the phone down and then searched for an email address she could contact, but nothing was showing. The only contact she had for the agency was via Sean, even the emails she had sent over the past couple of weeks to the assistant she had dealt with were now bouncing back and Sean had told her she had moved on to another role.
She hadn’t thought much of it until now. Nothing had seemed untoward. She was only just getting to know the place and had expected some degree of secrecy… but this was another level.
Something here was massively off and now that she had noticed it, she wasn’t going to be able to let it die.
She closed her laptop and turned off her cellphone. She didn’t want to speak to Sean. He knew where she would be if he wanted her, and she needed time to think.
She turned on the shower and peeled off her clothes. She had dirt and mud caked to her knees, and her hair smelled of pine and the great outdoors. She wanted to wash it all away and feel herself again, because now, she was sure that something strange and sinister was happening in Bridge Hollow, and she wasn’t sure who she could trust.
She stepped under the rush of water and let it flow over her. She soaped up her hair and lathered all down her body, rinsing it away and becoming revived. The place on her heart still ached for Ryder, and he was in her head more than ever.
She wasn’t planning on letting him off the hook easily either. He had done something to her, and she wanted to know what. She also wanted to know what the hell he had meant when he said that “they want me to get rid of you.”
She still had the keys to the truck that she had to return, and she was pretty sure she knew where she could find him. It was setting up to be a busy night in Bridge Hollow, and the bar would be full of excited revelers, and now that she was all worked up, she didn’t care about the potential of a hangover the following day, she needed a goddamn drink.
She dried her hair, spritzed on some perfume, and dressed in a pair of skinny jeans, heels and a cute t-shirt before she threw her cropped jacket over her shoulders and grabbed her handbag.
She was going on the hunt for answers.
It was time she went back to Shifter’s Bliss.
As she had expected, the whole of Main Street was awash with people still milling around after an exciting day. Some were still in the midst of shopping, moving from store to store and keeping the town ticking over as the thriving commercial hotspot that it was.
She held the keys to the truck in her hand and gripped them tightly. She could still feel a heat to them, as if Ryder’s touch was lingering on them. It was almost like she was holding his hand and walking through the streets of Bridge Hollow with him.
When she saw the sign above the door of the bar, her heart raced, and she felt butterflies scatter around in her belly. She felt much more nervous than she had the previous evening, but was it because she now knew that she was potentially in danger? Or was it because she was feeling things she had never felt before?
She breathed in deeply and thrust her shoulders back. She wasn’t going to let Ryder drop hints that there was something much bigger going on and get away with it. He had to come clean, and she was going to get her business head on and ensure that he was open and honest with her.
She pushed open the door to the bar and the familiar smell of beer and hog roast came drifting toward her. Her mouth began to water and all she could think about was eating and tearing into meat with her teeth. The sensation took her by surprise, and she had to steady herself against the door frame. It didn’t last long for her to see him standing up at the main bar looking back at her, a look of relief and total awe all across his face.
“Come here,” he called across the room to her, and she moved quickly inside, her hands shaking as she made her way to him.
When she fell into his open arms, he wrapped them around her tightly and her heart burned underneath her shirt, as if it were searching for his, their skins pushing together.
“I need answers,” she whispered. “What has happened to me?”
Ryder pulled her back by the shoulders and stared at her deep in the eyes.
“I know,” he said as he swallowed nervously. “And I’m sorry. Come on… there’s so much you need to know…”
7.
Ryder led her out of the main room of the bar, and to a large, iron doorway. It was shut tight, but he knocked on it, and within a few moments, a little viewing panel slid open at the top and a pair of eyes came into view.
The music was loud, and she couldn’t hear anything over the thump of the beat, but when the door opened, it was almost as if she had felt the energy of the locks turning to let them inside.
There was a boy behind the door, and he had been standing up high on a drink’s crate when he had looked through the peephole.
“Hey, Ryder,” he said as he moved to one side to let them in.
Pamela looked at him, he could only have been fourteen at most, but he looked sure of himself and completely at ease.
“Hey,” Ryder nodded as he ushered Pamela past the boy and further down the dark hallway that was opening out in front of them.
The boy locked the door behind them and then sat back down on the crate and started to read a magazine.
“Don’t let anyone else in here for now,” he said sternly. “Do you understand?”
The boy nodded his head slowly and looked a little nervous.
“But what if…?” the boy began.
“No one!” Ryder said seriously.
The boy looked at Pamela with suspicion and then he reluctantly drew his eyes away from her and back to the magazine on his knees. He looked wary and unsure of what to make of all this, but that was nothing compared to what Pamela was feeling. It was as if she were being pulled into some kind of underground room where an illegal card game was happening. Her heart began to race a little harder as her nerves started to take hold. She had no clue what was happening, but she knew that she had to see it through. She had come this far, and Ryder was going to open up to her. Hopefully, he was going to tell her all she needed to know.
He stopped by a door at the end of the dark hallway and opened it before he flicked on a light and stepped back to let Pamela walk in first. As she rounded the corner and saw a desk and immaculate office space, she breathed a sigh of relief.
The room was empty, and Ryder closed the door quietly behind her and motioned to a seat on one side of the desk. Pamela sat down and he made his way around to the other side, turning on the table lamp and illuminating the rest of the room.
It was a nice office, and Pamela let her eyes travel around and take it all in. There were large filing cabinets all along one wall, and pictures adorned the rest. She could see images of Ryder when he looked slightly younger, out in a woodland somewhere with a group of other guys, holding up fishing lines with big fish on the end, proudly showing off their catch of the day. She saw images of the bar before it had become Shifter’s Bliss, and black and white photographs of the town of Bridge Hollow that must have gone back almost a hundred years. She found herself stopping and focusing on one of what looked to be a mine, with miners all in their work gear in front, holding pickaxes and helmets.
“Who are they?” she asked, and she felt Ryder’s gaze travel with hers.
“Some of the original settlers here,” he said. “It was a long, long time ago.”
Pamela smiled and nodded, before she turned back to him and their eyes met across the desk. Her heart fluttered when she was held by them again, and the space on her chest where he had placed
his hand burned hot and seemed to crackle with electricity. She reached up and touched it instinctively, and his eyes went down to it. He cleared his throat and then smiled.
“Tell me what’s going on,” she whispered. “What is this weird back office, and who is the kid out there?”
Ryder smirked and leaned forward.
“That’s just Jerry,” he said warmly. “He’s one of the kids from around town who looks to earn a little extra cash. Now that school is out, he’s doing a few nights here for me, making sure no one tries to get back into this office area. You’d be surprised at how many people in this town have wandering hands when it comes to money and other people’s things.”
“Really?” she asked with shock. “I never thought things like that would happen in such a small community.”
“Oh, it sure does,” he said. “Plus, we have a little conflict of our own going on here. Two different sides, I guess you could call it, and I’m sure the people not on my side would love to get their hands on some of the things I have stored away in here.”
“The people not on your side?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “What is this, like West Side Story?”
Ryder’s eyes crinkled with warmth and his face cracked into a genuinely happy smile.
“You’ve got a great sense of humor,” he said. “It’s much welcomed, believe me.”
“I’m glad,” she smiled back shyly. “But I still think you need to elaborate. Especially, on what you said to me earlier…”
The words hung heavy in the air, and Ryder sighed and leaned back into his chair. He ran a big, rough hand across his mouth and chin and breathed deeply as their eyes continued to stay fixed on each other’s.
“Is this dangerous?” she asked him, almost breathlessly.
Ryder nodded slowly.
“All of it is…,” he whispered. “You being here in town, you looking around in the woods, even you being here in this office…”
“Why?” she asked as she leaned forward.
A chill was rolling over her entire body and she had to clutch her hands together to stop them from shaking.
Forbidden Alpha Bear Page 5
