“Are you the last minute booking? Miss Davenport?” Anina asked.
Elise gave a nod. Anina pulled herself to her feet, shuffling gently over to a large door made of pale wood. The room they were in was decked in the same timber, and filled with comfortable easy chairs and coffee tables. It was a place designed for guests. It even had a flickering fireplace, despite the total lack of a need for extra heat. Anina had called out into the hall from the doorway, and Elise quickly realized that she hadn’t spoken in English.
“Are you European?” she asked as Anina came back to her chair. “I thought I heard something in your accent before.”
“The Bests are a German family originally,” Anina explained with a nod. “Ah, and here they are.”
As her words faded, four huge guys entered the room. At once Elise thought of how awful she must have looked after fleeing through the woods, and she tried to calm her wayward hair with a nonchalant hand. Two of the young men looked fairly similar, both with shaggy blonde hair that was in need of a cut, and they were flanked by a darker, more lithe guy and a brown-haired man with a look of contempt on his face. None of them were past twenty-five, and they all had muscles bulging beneath their Park Ranger uniforms.
“My grandsons,” Anina said, beaming. “Benedikt, Kurt, Hartwin and Reinicke.”
They were standing in that order, and each one nodded at their name. Except for the last one.
“Ry-ni-ka,” Elise said, sounding it out, “that’s an interesting name.”
“I’m an interesting guy,” Reinicke replied, in a tone flatter than roadkill. “Gram, can I go? You don’t need all of us to handle a bear scare.”
Anina gave a rueful little nod, and the one called Reinicke made his escape. On his way out of the room there was the sound of a clash, and suddenly a fifth man pushed his way through the middle of the group. He was bare-chested, a towel clinging to his huge shoulders. Elise let her eyes travel over the rippling muscles of his abdomen as he heaved for breath.
“You called, Gram?” he asked, in a deep, smooth voice. “What’s happening?”
His eyes travelled to Elise, and it was not the fact that he was tall, dark and handsome which took her breath away. When he looked straight at her, his eyes were golden. Elise knew that she had seen those deep, burning eyes before. Silenced by her shock, Elise’s gaze travelled to Anina’s other grandsons, and now they were all looking straight at her too. All of them had those golden eyes. And perhaps, behind her glasses and the pale cloudiness of old age, Anina had them too.
“Why are you all wet, Dietrich?” Anina chided. “You should be in uniform for morning patrol.”
Dietrich looked down at his bare chest, one hand raised somewhat protectively over his damp skin.
“Night swimming,” he explained, “but something came up.”
Elise caught sight of something dark as Dietrich moved his arm. She must have mistaken it for a shadow initially, but the light of the fireside suddenly revealed its true nature. Dietrich had a huge, fresh bruise emerging down his right side. Benedikt, who appeared to resemble Dietrich closely, gave a wince and sucked his teeth.
“How in the hell did you do that, bro?” he asked.
Dietrich’s eyes flashed to Elise for the briefest moment. Another flash of gold.
“That’s not important right now,” he replied. “Gram, who’s this young lady?”
“Young lady,” Anina said with a grin. “You’re so formal, Dietrich. Why, I’ll bet she’s your age. Twenty-two.”
Anina looked to Elise, and she gave an apologetic shrug.
“Twenty-one,” she corrected.
“Close enough,” Anina replied. “This is Elise Davenport. She’s taking a little vacation from LA, but she encountered two of our grizzlies off the Northern trail.”
“I’ll bet one of them was Silo,” said the guy called Kurt. “He was a rescue from a Russian Circus. He doesn’t understand that he shouldn’t get so close to people. Hey Ben, you wanna put fifty bucks on it being Silo?”
“This is the hardly the time, Kurt,” Ben replied. He ran a hand through his dark hair. “I ought to draw up a report.”
When Ben moved to the far end of the room, heading for a wide wooden desk, Kurt followed him with a burr of low chatter. Elise found her eyes drawn to Dietrich again. He stood tall now that he’d stopped panting for breath, and his body was peppered with black hairs, the same dark shade as those on his head. He had a shadow of stubble on his square jaw, which he scratched at with a large, strong hand. Another flash of gold shot her way.
“Can I ask about the grizzlies?” Elise said tentatively. “I mean, I didn’t think we had any outside of San Diego Zoo.”
“Fairhaven’s a sanctuary for the grizzly bear,” said Hartwin. He had a softer jawline than the other grandsons, and he smiled whenever he spoke. “Most people who come here go trekking to try and spot them. But you didn’t know?”
Elise shook her head.
“Then why did you come, dear?” Anina asked. “Peace and quiet in the cabins?”
“Something like that,” Elise answered. “I, uh… The place was actually recommended by my friend Karina. Karina Vasquez.”
Anina’s face lit up like the roaring fire behind her.
“Oh, we know Karina Vasquez!” she exclaimed with delight. “All of my boys are signed up to her dating agency. Well, all except Reinicke, but we’ll fix that one of these days.”
“Good luck!” Kurt chipped in from the far end of the room.
Anina shook her head, and reached out to take hold of Elise’s hands. Her gaze was conspiratorial, greedy even.
“Does that mean you’re looking for a new man, Elise?” she pressed.
That had been the plan, actually. After the disaster at the Shine Awards, Elise had hopped in her car and driven as far north as she could get in one night. She remembered Karina telling her how beautiful Fairhaven Park was, and that it was the ideal place to meet someone new. Elise had imagined that a new man might be a welcome distraction. She wondered if she could hide away with some summer romance, until the heat had died down back home. It seemed that Karina had been right about the selection of guys on offer, but there was just one problem with the situation.
Those golden eyes were something else. Elise couldn’t place what was so unusual about them, for she’d seen the occasional man or woman with a golden gaze before, and clearly the Best family had those eyes in their gene pool. The connection to the bear was what really concerned her. She was lost in thought for a moment, so when the arm of her chair suddenly sagged with weight, she almost jumped out of her skin.
Dietrich gave a start, for he had perched on the arm. A fleck of cool water leaped from his damp, dark hair, landing on Elise’s cheek.
“Sorry about that,” he said, “my skin takes forever to dry.”
He reached out, one thumb gently pushing the droplet away. Despite all the fear and uncertainty Elise had been through on that long, dark night, Dietrich’s touch sent warmth through her body. He was gorgeous on the outside, all Anina’s boys were, but there was something more to him than just his dark looks. Something calming and protective lived within that perfect shell of muscles.
“I’m sorry that your first night was a little alarming,” Dietrich continued, “but Fairhaven’s a great place. You’ll love it here.”
The ranger’s smooth words washed over Elise’s nerves, and she hoped that he was right.
“What do you mean ‘coming for me’?” Elise yelled into the phone. “Who even says that anymore, Jane?”
Jane Walsh was Elise’s agent, a woman who never stopped working. She and Elise had been on the phone from the moment that Elise checked into her cabin on the West Ridge. There was a complimentary fruit basket on the kitchen counter, which provided Elise with both breakfast and lunch during the conversation. It was necessary to keep going over the facts. Elise was desperate to process the scale of her mistake.
“Chantelle Picard is not happy about what yo
u said,” Jane confirmed for the hundredth time. “She tweeted that she’s coming for you, and encouraged all her brainless fans to do the same. Your feed is full of abuse. Don’t look it at honey, promise me.”
Elise rested her brow on one hand, trying to soothe her tension.
“Oh God, it’s all over isn’t it?” she replied. “I’m never going to get a gig again.”
“Are you kidding me?” Jane shot back. “The whole internet’s talking about you. You’re ten times more well-known than before. We just have to let things die down, then plan a relaunch. You got to the park okay?”
“Not really,” Elise sighed. “I mean, I’m here now, and the cabin’s stunning. But last night I almost got attacked by a bear.”
“A bear!” Jane exclaimed.
“But then this other bear showed up and started fighting it.”
“So… you were rescued from one bear by another bear?” Jane asked.
Elise paused. In her frantic dash to escape, she hadn’t really thought about it like that.
“I guess I was,” she mused. “This other bear was a little different. It had these weird golden eyes.”
On the other end of the line, Jane choked on her coffee.
“Golden?” she repeated.
“Yeah, and-”
“Don’t you realize what that means?” Jane cut in.
“Clearly not,” Elise answered. She waited, listening as Jane took a deep breath in.
“Do you remember that guy we met at the wrap party for that awful werewolf movie?” Jane began. “The one who said he was their ‘authenticity consultant’?”
Elise had to think for a moment, but the face of a slim, silver-haired man came to her mind. She suddenly remembered what was so striking about him.
“He had golden eyes!” Elise said.
“He was one of those people,” Jane explained, her voice heightened by excitement. “A shifter!”
The whole world knew that shifters existed, those peculiar souls who could transform between their human state and a designated animal form. Elise had only ever met one, at that wrap party, though she’d sometimes heard stories of other people who had encountered those rare beings. That was what the golden eyes meant, and Elise had forgotten. The Best family shot back into her mind at the realization, their golden gazes burning in her memory.
“You were rescued by a shifter,” Jane said, clearly impressed. “And one who turns into a bear too. That’s a powerful friend to make on your first night.”
“I guess it is,” Elise mused.
Jane began to chatter about the situation with Chantelle Picard and her horrible twitter army, but Elise’s mind had started to wander. Those five park rangers circled her head, each of them broad and muscular. Reinicke, Hart, Kurt, Ben and Dietrich. It had to be one of them who had come to her rescue. But which one?
A hand-written note had arrived from Anina, inviting Elise to dinner at the Rangers’ Lodge. Elise was overcome by a strange excitement at the prospect of meeting the shifters again, now that she knew a little of what they were. It was rare, to be able to say that you actually knew a person with a supernatural ability, even more so to have been rescued by one. Elise had returned to her car at the park’s front entrance to retrieve the few items of clothing she’d brought, singling out a shimmery golden dress to wear to dinner. It was probably a little too fancy for the woodland park scene, but she wanted to make a statement.
When she reached the lodge’s ornate porch at six o’clock sharp, Elise felt her nerves tingling up and down her bare arms. And, when the door opened, they flooded into overdrive. Dietrich was the one to answer, dressed for dinner in silver suit-pants and a crisp white shirt that barely stretched across his chest. His dark hair was slicked back, but a wayward curl had escaped on one side of his forehead. Dietrich pushed it back into place, but it fell again no sooner than he dropped his hand.
“Hello Elise,” he stammered.
His words were breathy and spoken through a grin. Was he nervous? Elise wondered what on earth a hunky park ranger could have to be nervous about. Dietrich stepped back from the doorway to let Elise pass, and she caught a fresh scent on his clean-shaven skin. It smelled like cool spring water, inviting her to take a dip. The reception hall of the lodge looked cozier than ever in the evening, with its deep red curtains drawn and the sound of the crackling fire echoing through the space. Dietrich stepped further into the room, one wide hand showing Elise the way.
“The family dining room’s just over here,” he offered.
She saw him straighten out his shirt, which didn’t really need straightening. Elise gave a nod and followed Dietrich into the room, where Anina was fussing over her other grandsons.
“For God’s sake, she’s here!” The old woman fretted terribly. “Look presentable at least! And table manners! This is a nice, human dinner, not-”
Dietrich cleared his throat, and Anina stopped talking at once. Golden eyes flashed at Elise from all directions, and she was surprised to see all the Best boys dressed up for dinner. The word ‘human’ had caught in her ear, and Elise thought it was a pretty good time to be frank with the family. She was famous for her frankness now, according to Jane.
“It’s okay,” she began, “I know what you are. It took me a little minute to remember. I’ve never really met shifters before.”
The words sank into the atmosphere, and hung there for a long moment. Elise wondered if she’d said the wrong thing, if perhaps the family didn’t like their true nature to be spoken aloud. But then Kurt gave a merry grin, and took his seat at the table.
“Well, that’s going to save a lot of awkward excuses,” he said.
Dinner began, and it was quiet and calm, so different from the mixers and meetings that Elise was used to in LA. Dietrich sat to her left and Anina was to her right, and between them they kept her updated on the illustrious family history of Clan Best. Shifters, Elise learned, grouped themselves into clans, either by blood or by convenience of location, and the Best boys were all related. Ben was Dietrich’s younger brother, the sons of Anina’s eldest son. Kurt and Hart were brothers too, the children of Anina’s daughter. And Reinicke was the son of Anina’s other son, whom the rest of the clan didn’t seem keen to elaborate on.
Reinicke kept to himself at the table, but the other boys were talkative and friendly. Elise liked their company, but her interest kept shifting in only one direction. Dietrich seemed to pulse beside her, like he was giving off heat. She wanted to be close to him, to physically move her chair nearer. It was magnetism, two people drawn together, but Elise had never felt it on this scale before. Tempting herself, she leaned towards Dietrich’s ear. He tensed at the close contact.
“Sorry to interrupt, but could you show me where the restroom is?” she said, almost in a whisper.
Elise had no desire to use the restroom, but when Dietrich excused them from the table, she followed him dutifully. They walked up a fine wooden staircase that curved back on itself, arriving at a series of doors upstairs. The lodge was huge, and there were open doors to bedrooms everywhere. Dietrich put his hand on the golden handle to a closed door.
“Family bathroom,” he announced.
When she reached for the handle, Dietrich was too slow in taking his hand away. Their skin brushed, leaving Elise craving that warmth of his. She looked up into his golden eyes, studying them and trying to remember the events of her first night in Fairhaven.
“Please tell me it was you,” she urged. “You rescued me from the grizzly. You must have.”
Slade (BBW Bear Shifter Moonshiner Romance) (120 Proof Honey Book 5) Page 35
