Yeah, right.
She needed to grab a few things at the grocery store anyway, she thought to herself and shot a quick text back to him.
Grabbing groceries anyway. Don’t sweat it. Meet you back at the lodge.
The reply was almost instant.
Stay put. I’ll be there in 30.
She bristled at the command. She was trying to toe the line like the good little soldier, but this was ridiculous. There hadn’t been a hint of a King in the past week.
Settle down. See you at the lodge.
Seconds later, her phone chirped repeatedly and Liesel ground her teeth. She was trying to cooperate as best she could, but the man needed to realize she was a grown-ass woman.
Calling out to her supervisor in the cubicle across from hers, Liesel stood and starting throwing all of her belongings haphazardly into her bag.
“Calling it an early day, Minda,” she said as she strung the backpack on her shoulders. “Have a good weekend!”
“Same to you Liesel,” the older woman replied with a smile. “Try to stay out of trouble.”
Not likely, she smiled to herself as she jogged outside to her truck.
Knowing the sheriff, he was probably steaming mad by now and headed her way. Might as well make a little game of it and disappear before he got there, she mused to herself.
She drove a little faster than necessary and picked the one grocery store out of four in their county that she never frequented. She was pretty sure he’d check the first three, but did he know about the Red Basket up by the old school house? Not likely.
By the time Gray gave up on finding her, she’d be back in her pajama pants in her room watching Netflix.
The idea at beating him in this little cat-and-mouse game made her giggle out loud as she sped down the highway.
It took her a little longer than she planned for her to actually find the supermarket as she’d gotten herself mildly lost in a few unfamiliar neighborhoods and she hadn’t bothered to fire up the GPS on her phone quite yet. Eventually, though, she saw the telltale signs of the grocery store with its giant parking lot and strip mall location.
Liesel parked off to the far right of the lot and got out, shutting and locking the door. Giving the area a quick glance, she noted it wasn’t exactly the nicest neighborhood in the county. There was a bar and a tattoo shop a few doors down from the grocery store and at least six motorcycles parked out front.
The fine hairs on the back of her neck stood up on end as she eyed the bikes, the thought that they could possibly belong to the mountain lion shifters dancing in her head.
She shook it off. No, she was being ridiculous. Grayson’s anal-retentive ways were affecting her more than she cared to admit, obviously.
It felt like it took three times longer than usual to find her small basket of groceries by the time she made it up to the front of the store. She didn’t know what time it was because she’d purposely left her phone in the truck after the fourth text from Grayson Anders demanding that she stay put! She knew it was later than she expected when she walked outside and noticed the sun had recently set on the western horizon. Accordingly, the activity in and around the bar down the way had amped up a bit and she picked up on the scent of a few types of shifters. There was a coyote down there somewhere. A hawk shifter, too, and—mountain lion.
Damn. If she could scent them, it stood to reason that they’d be able to pick up on her, too. Hopefully they were too drunk to notice, but she picked up her pace just the same.
As she shoved the groceries onto the passenger seat, the revving of an engine coming into the parking lot brought her head up. And her stomach straight to the bottom of her feet.
Shit.
It was Sheriff Frowny Face himself and hot on his bumper was a vehicle she recognized as belonging to Pax, his mostly laid-back Beta.
Judging by the way both vehicles nearly took the turn into the parking lot on two wheels, Pax probably wasn’t laid back right now. And she knew Grayson would have his panties tied up in a wad for her disobedience.
With a steadying breath, Liesel steadied herself for the looming confrontation by reaching across her seat and pulling open the package of soft-baked chocolate chip cookies she’d just bought. She’d much rather save them until she had a tall glass of cold milk to dip them in, but something told her she’d need the sugar.
Like some crazy Ranger mission move, Grayson parked in front of her truck and Pax pulled to a stop inches from her bumper. They’d penned her in.
Okay, they were a little more annoyed at her than she presumed.
Holding her breath as Grayson jumped out the truck and stalked toward her, Liesel set her jaw and jutted her chin out, daring him to yell at her like a child.
“I told you to stay put,” he said, his eyes blazing.
“I told you I was going grocery shopping,” she countered. “And that I’d meet you back at the lodge.”
“Liesel,” he ground out as Pax came up behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and noted his burly arms across his chest and his matching scowl. He and Grayson could be bookends. “This isn’t a game. When you agreed to come live on Canyon lands for the good of your pack and yourself, you agreed to play by the rules. My rules. This isn’t going to cut it!”
She studied Gray a scant second before replying. His brow was furrowed and the veins in his neck were bulging. He was really worked up into a lather.
“I did what was best for Carter,” she emphasized. “But I’m not a prisoner. I’m not under lock and key, and I sure as hell am not going to step in line mindlessly like some fucking recruit, Anders.”
Oh, she was hot now. And her wolf was miffed at his overbearance, too. She knew what was at stake every time she left pack lands and Minda had even offered to let her work remotely for a while until things cooled off. But Liesel wasn’t interested.
“Do you know what that is over there?” Gray pointed behind him to the bar.
“A pet rock shop?” She snapped back a little too sarcastically. She could have sworn she heard a stifled chuckle from Pax. Gray narrowed his eyes at his Beta.
“It’s a bar. One of the favorite bars of the Kings,” he said, his tone dipping dangerously low as he leaned forward to tower over her. Her wolf bared its teeth and from the Alpha waves dripping off Gray, his wolf was doing the same thing.
“I realized that when I caught a whiff of mountain lion,” she answered dryly, instead. “I get it, Sheriff…high alert and all that. But you’re not going to treat me like some grounded teenager. I’m going to live my life while I still can and if something happens along the way, something happens.”
“That something could be catastrophic, Liesel!”
He was practically thundering at her now. He wanted to yell, fine.
“I’m the one who knows about catastrophic, Anders,” she shouted right back. “I’m the one who spent almost two fucking weeks in a cage thanks to some perverted ass bears. Don’t treat me like I’m some porcelain doll who might break. If I was going to break, I’d have been in pieces long before these assholes threatened me!”
Her chest was heaving with the breaths she was drawing in and the emotions that had slipped out.
Gray opened his mouth to reply, but Pax interrupted him.
“We’ve got company,” he said. Liesel followed the motion he’d made with his hand and saw that four or five large, hairy bikers had gathered outside of the bar and were facing them, talking amongst themselves.
They were pointing and nodding toward Gray’s truck.
“Idiot,” Liesel bit out. Gray’s head was turned toward their audience and whipped back toward her when he heard the insult.
“You think this is my fault?” He growled.
“I’d have been halfway to the lodge by now if you hadn’t rolled in here like the damn S.W.A.T. team in your highly recognizable Sherriff Mobile,” she jabbed her finger at his giant truck. “Way to stay under the radar, amigo.”
Liesel turned her ba
ck on Gray and earned herself another warning growl, which she also ignored. She looked at Pax.
“Do you think you could possibly move your muscle car so I could leave before this actually happens?” She asked, her annoyance made very clear. When he didn’t move, she threw in a sarcastic please.
The annoying Beta only looked to Gray for guidance.
“Tick tock, fellas,” she huffed.
A large hand clamped down on her shoulder and spun her around to face Gray. He leaned a hair’s breadth away from her face when he spoke.
“We’ll finish this at the lodge,” he gritted between his teeth. “Don’t fucking think of going anywhere but straight there, you got me?”
His Alpha waves were more than obvious by this point and looking into those brown eyes which were hovering on electric blue, she could tell the man was seconds from going wolf on her. She knew to pick her battles, so she simply nodded.
Satisfied, he nodded at Pax, who swiftly jumped in his car and pulled forward far enough to let her back out. Killing the engine, he stood next to Gray as the two faced the shifters who’d moved closer with the addition of another buddy.
Liesel eyed the group warily and turned to Gray.
“What are you guys doing?” She asked, suddenly nervous. “You’re not going to confront them, are you?”
His head whipped toward her and his expression could freeze a boiling pot of water.
“Get in your goddamn truck now and get to the lodge,” he growled at her.
This time, Liesel swallowed her pride and obeyed the Alpha.
Chapter Five
Grayson
“Well, hello, Sheriff Anders,” the biggest of the bikers drawled as his group stopped a few feet from Gray and Pax. Behind the guy, his little cronies snickered. From what Gray knew about the Kings, this wasn’t the club president, but he carried himself like an officer and the way the little jackals behind him followed his lead, he was probably dealing with either the enforcer or the VP.
“Gentleman,” Gray said with a nod, his thumbs looped into the front pockets of his jeans.
“Funny seeing you here in our neighborhood,” the man continued. Gray noted a worn tattoo on his sagging bicep that read “Knuckles.” The name rang a bell and he’d been right—this was the second in command and one of the founding members of the motorcycle club. He’d been in and out of various county lockups across the region, too.
“Just passing through,” he said with a shrug. He could tell his Beta was accessing the threat level from the four men who refused to meet their eyes. They weren’t dangerous on their own, but together they could be a handful if they weren’t careful.
“You heard about our buddy, didn’t you?” Knuckles asked, pushing forward a bit. Gray’s wolf surged to the front, demanding to be let out and show the mountain lion what kind of creature it was messing with.
“Yeah, I heard,” Gray said with a shrug, not betraying the fact that he found the dead man wholly responsible for what occurred yesterday.
“We don’t stand for that sort of thing around here,” the man continued, puffing his chest up. “This is our territory and if a couple boys want to get rowdy now and then, that shouldn’t be a problem. We don’t like it when people make it a problem.”
Gray blew out a long breath, attempting to steady himself. He could feel the hackles rising on Pax’s wolf beside him, too. Pax had positioned himself a few feet away from Gray as a defensive measure, making them harder to take down as a pair.
“When you beat a man within an inch of his life because he took offense to having his girlfriend’s ass squeezed when she walked by your table, I’m going to make it a problem,” Gray began. “When you shoot at law enforcement officers as they’re trying to protect emergency medical workers attempting to save the man’s life, I’m going to make it a problem. So, you bet your ass, we’ve all got a problem now.”
The other men tensed, looking for a fight, but Gray watched as Knuckle’s eyes scanned the crowded parking lot, taking in the people moving in and out of the various shops and the supermarket. Likely, he was deciding that another brawl in a public place wouldn’t do them any favors. If he knew men like this well enough, and he did, the enforcer was likely already hatching a plan with his fellow members to try to attack Gray and his pack somewhere remote without the potential interference of back up—either police or wolf.
“We’ll see you soon, Sheriff,” Knuckles said as he turned and walked back to the bar. He called over his shoulder after a few feet. “I can promise you that.”
When they were out of earshot, Pax spit on the ground and muttered a curse.
“I hate cats,” he grumbled. “They think they’re so sneaky. Like it’s not obvious—the word ambush is practically blinking off their foreheads.”
“I like it when they think they’re smart,” Gray replied, turning back to his truck. “It’s always fun to witness the moment they’re proven wrong. See you back at the lodge?”
Pax nodded but stopped before leaving.
“That girl isn’t what she seems is she?” He posed the question to Gray.
“I’m not entirely sure I know what you mean?” And it was true. What was his Beta getting at?
“I’m not entirely sure you don’t, Alpha,” he shot back with a raised eyebrow.
“What the hell are you getting at, Pax?” Gray huffed, color rising to his cheek. “Say it and get on with yourself.”
Pax was chuckling to himself now and about to send Gray into a fury. Was he making fun of him? Over Liesel?
The man never answered. Instead, he hopped into his car and drove off toward the highway that would take them both back to the lodge.
And to Liesel, Gray’s mind wandered immediately to her.
He cursed and lightly punched the top of the cab in frustration. She was going to give him a coronary.
Gray had hoped that Liesel was only teasing when she’d refused to wait for him to get to the courthouse to escort her home. But when she went radio silent on him, he knew she’d blown out of there like her ass was on fire. It was all a game to her.
He knew she meant nothing by it, but he needed Liesel to understand that this was serious business—that the mountain lion threat wasn’t something to be made light of.
Gray also knew that pushing too hard would probably lead to her disappearing altogether, and while that would be an easy way to get order back into his days, he and his wolf, he begrudgingly admitted, would miss her. Just a little.
Gray made a stop at the sheriff’s office to check in on the two deputies on duty. Both human, he recapped the day’s events and made sure they understood to check in if anything seemed off during the calls they might receive over the next few days.
With a deep breath, he told them he’d see them in the morning and stepped outside. Drawing another deep breath, he couldn’t ignore the fact that he felt like something in the air was changing. Whether it was him or something else—he couldn’t tell yet.
But something was definitely different.
Chapter Six
Liesel
She had the dream again.
Ripping the covers off herself, she sat up in bed, drenched in a cold sweat. She’d been in a cage, shackled to a wall and unable to shift. She’d been trapped and could hear the bears talking about their plans for the captives. She’d been helpless again. Weak. Under the control of another.
Breathing deeply, she cleared her mind and reminded herself that she was safe.
“I’m safe. I’m safe,” she whispered as her breathing got back under control.
She checked the clock and saw that it was a little past 4 a.m. Shit. There’d be no more sleep today.
Figuring a shower would make her feel better, she went straight to the huge bathroom on the first floor, hoping that her footsteps wouldn’t wake Grayson. His room was two doors away from hers on the second floor and he had an in-suite bathroom. She had to go downstairs to use the larger guest bathroom, which suited her fine.
With her towel and change of clothes in hand, she padded down the steps and quietly closed the door behind.
The water, cold as she could get it, shocked her awake and she gave a little squeal as she forced herself to stay still beneath its spray.
Fully awake, she turned the warmer water on and took her time washing her hair and forgetting the raw emotions that dream always dredged up.
Her therapist said getting over situations like the one she survived was done in stages. She’d reminded Liesel that people healed at different rates and not to get too upset with herself if memories triggered relapses in her fear or increased nightmares.
Blowing out a frustrated breath, Liesel leaned her forehead against the white tiles and closed her eyes.
“I just want to feel normal,” she whispered, clenching her eyes shut. She thought about the way she was before she was abducted—innocent and naive. She’d believed there were “bad guys” in the world, but they lived in other places. They victimized other people.
How wrong she’d been and how much she’d changed since having to learn that lesson.
Her therapist had accused her of keeping the world at arm’s distance with her reckless and wild behavior, and she’d scoffed at it then. But lately, the more she thought about it, the more she saw it. People concerned with her welfare? Blow them off. Anyone trying to talk about her feelings? Distract them with self-depreciating comments and stories.
She was keeping the world at a distance and she understood it now. What she didn’t know was whether there was any hope for her now. Was this the way life was going to be from now on? Nobody too close. Never accepting help from others. Never letting others in.
A tear slid down her cheek as she sucked in a breath and willed herself to pull it together.
“Stronger than this,” she whispered. “I’m stronger than this.”
Toweling herself off, Liesel reached for her clothing and stopped. Her wolf was pacing and restless and could definitely use a run. It was early enough that she could do a few laps around the Canyon land before the sentinels showed up for their daily meeting.
Alpha's Love Page 3
