by Anna Lowe
“Let’s just say he’s a very private man,” Boone said, exchanging knowing glances with Kai. Hunter hid a little smile, while Tessa quickly turned to face the kitchen, making Jake wonder what the joke was. Or was that just him imagining things?
“Exactly. A very private man whose businesses keep him busy all over the world,” Kai added. “Which means life can be pretty quiet here most of the time. But he has enemies too, so…” His voice dropped to a menacing growl and trailed off.
The sea breeze wavered a little. Boone’s face went serious — dead serious — as he squeezed Nina closer to his side. Kai bristled, and a ripple of foreboding went through the air.
Jake looked around. He’d witnessed that before — that hint of something different and dangerous about this group of men. Kai, Boone, and Hunter were all big, burly, and intense. So intense, they intimidated even the most battle-hardened soldiers with their brooding natures and undercurrent of power. Everything about them hinted at some huge, hidden secret. What that might be, he had no clue. But he did know that his friends were utterly reliable, honorable soldiers, legendary for getting impossible jobs done. He’d seen the proof firsthand.
A moment later, that hitch in the conversation passed, and Kai picked up again. “So it’s critical not to let anything lull you into a false sense of security.”
Jake nearly laughed out loud. “Not an issue. What’s the schedule?”
“Eight-hour rotations shared with us — except Boone, whose head is too submerged in babyland to be useful. But then again, since when was Boone ever useful?” Kai laughed.
“Yeah.” Boone gave a bored sigh. “I guess saving your sorry ass that time in Nangarhar doesn’t count.”
Kai waved a hand like that was nothing and went on. “So we, minus Big Daddy here, run all the patrols, along with you. Oh, and one other new hire.”
Jake tilted his head. New hire?
Kai chuckled. “I know what you’re thinking. We know how important trust is. That’s why we hired you — and only one other person. You should feel honored, man.”
“You’re the perfect man for the job — and so is she. Even if she’s not a man.” Boone grinned.
Jake froze. She?
Brisk footsteps sounded behind him, and alarms went off in Jake’s mind. His heart pounded in one of those oh, shit moments he’d experienced in combat — or more accurately, in the split second before an explosive detonated and the shit hit the fan.
“Perfect timing,” Tessa called out. “Lunch is ready, and you can meet Jake.”
The even stride broke off abruptly. “Meet who?”
“Aw, come on. You know Jake, right?” Boone banged him on the shoulder and motioned toward the newcomer.
Jake turned slowly, totally tongue-tied. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be.
But if there was one thing he had learned in Ranger training, it was that not possible could sneak up on a man at the least auspicious times.
“Ella,” he said, making sure to keep his voice even. But his cheeks heated, and his blood rushed.
“Jake,” Ella replied in an equally measured tone. Her mesmerizing eyes — brown with an outer ring of dark orange — were sparkling. Shooting off tiny fireworks. Practically glowing, in fact. But Ella’s face remained stony, her posture rigid.
Jake stuck his hand out and they shook, stiff as a couple of marionettes.
A rush of heated images flashed through his mind. Like her dropping the tough-guy act and kissing him. Her fingers moving over his clothes, divesting him of fifteen pounds of combat gear before stripping him to the skin. Letting him do the same to her, and…
Just for tonight, she’d insisted.
Just for tonight, he’d readily agreed.
Round one had been hot and frenzied as they finally unleashed the desire that had built between them over the week since they’d met while their units shared duties. Round two had been slow and sweet, leaving Jake with a strange sense of peace. Rounds three and four were a blur, but he remembered the after clearly. Ella had stared at him as if stunned by some monumental truth, and he had the sense of something way, way out of his control lurching into motion.
Immediately after that night, their units had parted ways, and the two times they had crossed paths after that, Jake’s heart had just about thumped right out of his chest. Ella’s whole face would light up too, but then she would slap an impassive mask on and ignore him again.
Which was fine. Perfect. He didn’t want more either.
So why was he holding his breath? Why did she still occupy his dreams?
“Good to see you,” he said, taking her in.
God, she was something. Bristling and tough as ever. Maybe even more so, especially given the way she glared at him now. She had don’t fuck with me written all over — practically coded into the swirling tattoo she had etched around one forearm — and the same tight, hard physique as always. Same coppery-blond hair, though it wasn’t winched back into a bun any more. She wore it in a loose ponytail that still swung with her broken-off stride, mesmerizing him. Would the strands be as silky to run his hands through as they had all that time ago? Would they catch the lights like a halo if she straddled his hips and rode him like a cowgirl one more time?
“Good to see you,” Ella said in clipped, cool syllables.
For a second, they got stuck there, holding hands, gazing into each other’s eyes. The quiet scratch of palm fronds faded away, as did the distant sound of ocean crashing into rocks. Nothing but Ella seemed to matter — until she yanked her hand away, stepped back, and blinked.
“You remember Jake, right?” Boone said.
Ella nodded curtly. “Oh, I remember, all right.”
Chapter Two
Ella forced her knees not to shake as she strode to the kitchen area of the meeting house. On the outside, she stayed perfectly composed, but on the inside…
It’s him! It’s him! Her inner fox jumped and cried.
Her cheeks heated, and she bit her lip as locked-away emotions came rushing back. The anguish of leaving Jake after their night together had never really faded; she’d just hidden it behind a mental wall. Turning her back on her destined mate had been the hardest thing she’d ever done. Harder than Ranger training. Harder than the toughest assignment she’d carried out as special adjunct to Silas’s elite shifter unit. Harder than—
She banged her fists against her hips a few times. She’d done what she had to do, and for good reason. The question was, what the hell was Jake doing here? Boone had mentioned finding someone to help patrol Koa Point, but she had no idea it was him.
Jake McBride. Six solid feet of hulking cowboy-turned-soldier with chocolate-brown hair and honest blue eyes. Eyes that went soul-deep and made her want to do backflips every time he looked at her and every time he smiled, making the tiny little scar on his upper lip stretch.
She set a mug under the coffee machine and smacked the button for a double espresso. Steam hissed as she closed her eyes.
This could not be happening. She’d answered her shifter friends’ call for help and come to Maui for a few weeks until a permanent security force could be hired. The shifters of Koa Point were eager to spend more time with their mates, but the ever-present threat of enemy incursion hung over the pack like a cloud. Drax, their bitter enemy, had recently been eliminated, but Moira, a vengeful she-dragon, was still on the loose — as was the Keystone, the last of a collection of precious stones with magical powers.
Boone turned to Jake. “Like I said, you wrote at the perfect time. We really need someone we know and trust.”
Ella did her best not to mutter under her breath. Boone expected her to work alongside the one man she had to avoid?
“Damn lucky thing, too,” Boone continued. “I never check that email address any more. I’m not really sure why I did.”
“Maybe it was destiny,” Nina chirped, upbeat as ever.
Ella scowled into a coffee cup. If that was true, destiny was out to torture h
er. Why else would it match her with a human she couldn’t allow herself to love? Why would destiny bring him back to her again and again? She’d had to endure seeing Jake several times after their night together — the night that was supposed to get him out of her system — and now, destiny had steered him back to her once again.
Of course fate is bringing him to us, her fox cried. He’s our mate!
The coffee was scalding, but she sipped it anyway. We can’t love him.
How can we not love him? her fox demanded.
She swallowed away a sigh. Jake’s clear blue eyes and guarded smile had won her over from the start. The instant, unassuming respect. The way Jake could go from uncompromising soldier to conscientious good guy when he crouched to put little kids at ease. His ability to joke away the worst meals, the lumpiest bedding, the most miserable weather. The way he would stare off into the distance as he talked about the place he called home.
He’d never demanded anything of her, only given. Things that truly mattered, like respect. Time. Space.
“You two are perfect for the job,” Boone said.
We are perfect, her fox sighed.
They were perfect — in every way but one. He was a human. She was a shifter. A fox who liked to roam around at dawn and dusk, sniffing the breeze. What would Jake think of that?
Ella looked at all the happy couples in the room, trying not to frown. Male shifters had it easy. It didn’t matter whether a male’s destined mate was human or shifter because a mating bite would bind them together forever. Their partners would gain the ability to shift, and that was that. Happily ever after.
The metabolism of a human male, on the other hand, resisted the change set off by a mating bite. The stronger the man, the harder his body fought the change, as if it were a disease. The process was more likely to kill such a man than change him — or make him lose his mind.
Ella fingered the silver chain around her neck and winced as an echo of the past whispered through her mind. A man’s voice, low and determined.
I can do it. I know I’ll be okay. Love will see me through this.
Ella shook her head, wishing she could go back in time and warn that man — Brian, the man her mother loved. Ella’s biological father had been another desert fox who’d hooked up with her mother when they were both too young. He’d taken off before ever finding out Ella was on the way, and her mom had raised her alone. Things were fine that way, too, but life had gotten even better when Brian came along. The sweetest, kindest human who had taken Ella in like his own.
Our love will overcome, her mother had mumbled over and over as she held a wet cloth to his feverish brow. And little Ella looked on, terrified, powerless to help.
Don’t worry, sweetie, Brian had said. Destiny made your mom and me mates. It will see us through this.
Ella stared off into the distance. Destiny didn’t always hold up its end of the deal, and love didn’t always overcome. Brian had died a painful death, and her mother had succumbed to grief not long after, leaving Ella alone.
She fingered her silver necklace — a gift from Brian to her mother a long time ago. Loving Jake meant resisting Jake. It was better for them both that way.
What use is a human security guard? she protested, shooting the words into her friends’ minds as all closely bonded shifters could.
Jake is the next best thing, Kai said immediately. The man has the best eyes and ears of any human I know. You know how capable he is.
Her inner fox went warm all over at the unintended innuendo. Oh, she knew how capable Jake was, all right.
And until we can find more shifters we can trust, he’ll be a big help patrolling the area, Kai said.
Her eyes slid over to where Jake stood in the shade of the meeting house. The average onlooker would only see chiseled warrior or strapping ranch hand, but Ella saw past that the same way Jake had always had X-ray vision for the real her. There was more than an elite soldier in his soul. A passionate, burning soul hidden as thoroughly as she concealed her own.
Want him, her fox whined. Need him.
If it had been nighttime, she would have shifted into fox form, raised her thin muzzle, and howled her sorrow to the moon. But it was broad daylight in Hawaii, not midnight in the desert. And if she really cared about Jake, she would keep him safe — and that meant staying away from him.
“We’ve got a roomy place for you to stay,” Boone said to Jake, motioning over his shoulder. “The plantation house at Koakea — the neighboring property.”
Ella’s jaw dropped, and she almost flapped both hands at Boone in a frantic no.
“Koakea?” Jake murmured.
“It means white koa — a type of tree,” Boone explained.
“Wait,” Ella blurted. She was staying at Koakea. “That won’t work.”
Boone tilted his head. Hunter raised a bushy eyebrow. Jake looked at her, not judging, not protesting, just waiting to hear her out.
“What won’t work?” Boone asked.
Jake and me under the same roof, she nearly said. She’d end up caving in to desire as she had once before, and that would only make it harder to fight fate.
“I think he’d be much more comfortable in the guesthouse here,” she tried.
Boone shrugged. “You were the one who said it was better for the security detail to keep a certain distance, right?
She clenched her mug harder, biting her tongue. Most of the time, Boone tuned out everything but his mate’s needs and last-minute preparations for his any-day-now twins. Why did he have to remember her saying that?
“The plantation house makes sense,” Hunter agreed. “It’s closer to our weak side.”
She wanted to stamp her foot and scream. The others knew her better than anyone — so why weren’t they picking up on her alarm? She, Hunter, and Kai had grown up together in a foster home run by an owl shifter named Georgia Mae. The two were like brothers to her — hānai brothers, as Hawaiian tradition called it.
Brothers she was sometimes tempted to kick in the shins.
“The plantation was abandoned for so long, we had problems with squatters and developers,” Kai explained to Jake. “So the more people we have establishing a presence, the better.”
Ella rolled her eyes. She’d been the one to point that out when she’d arrived for duty two weeks earlier. Admittedly, she’d mainly done so as an excuse to gain some distance from the others. The guys of Koa Point were comrades she would always feel bonded to, and the women they’d found were each fantastic, worthy partners in their own right. But it was hard being the odd one out in a community of shifters so starry-eyed with love they could barely see straight. Calling in outside help for security was a smart move, and housing that help at Koakea made sense too.
Except, of course, now that the help was Jake.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “The roof leaks.”
Kai furrowed his brow. “You said it was fine.”
“I was being polite,” she growled.
Jake’s eyes lit as he made the connection that she was staying there. The man had always read her better than anyone else.
Boone snorted. “Ha. Ella, being polite.”
She glared. “There’s no running water.”
“No problem.” Jake shrugged.
“We did install that high-tech compostable latrine,” Boone said. “You said it was fine.”
“You said you’ve seen worse,” Kai pointed out. “Solar shower and all that.”
Damn it, was no one getting the point?
Tessa, bless her, seemed to be the first to clue in. “Maybe Jake would be more comfortable at the guesthouse.”
Ella wasn’t big on hugs, but she could have smothered Tessa with gratitude for that one.
But Jake, damn him, just shrugged. “I’m sure I’ve seen worse.”
Damn it, there he went with his mixed messages again. His stiff handshake had hinted that he would have been happy to avoid seeing her, but the way his throat bobbed when he looke
d at her said, Maybe we should give it one more try.
“You’ve definitely seen worse. Remember that night we spent in that gorge?” Boone said.
Ella dragged her hands through her hair. That was so not the point.
“Plus, you can coordinate your shifts better,” Hunter said, scratching the kitten under the chin.
Oh, we could coordinate, all right, her fox agreed in a sultry hum.
Ella wanted to scream. She needed to coordinate some escape from this mess was more like it.
“Maybe Ella would like some privacy,” Tessa said in a carefully neutral tone.
Ella was not only going to hug Tessa next time she had the chance — she’d kiss her too.
But Boone just flapped a hand. “Ella doesn’t need privacy. In fact, she was always the one insisting that shared barracks were fine.”
“Yeah,” Kai said.
“Yeah,” Hunter nodded.
Ella made a face. Those two, she was definitely kicking in the shins.
“Well, that was in the army. This is what we call civilian life. Would you like me to cook the kind of food you ate back then?” Tessa asked.
“Hell no,” Boone and Kai said at the same time.
“Heck no,” Hunter, ever the polite one, said.
Nina patted her bulging belly and shot the first two a mind-your-language-around-the-babies look.
“Sorry, honey,” Boone said. “The point is, we like Tessa’s cooking. No, we love Tessa’s cooking.” He turned to Jake with a serious nod. “Just wait till you try her steak.”
“Or honey-coconut pancakes…” Hunter added, licking his lips.
Kai’s face grew dreamy. “Or her grilled laulau…”
Tessa stuck up her hand in a stop sign. “The point is, you do things differently now. Maybe Ella would appreciate having some privacy for a change.”
“Nah,” Boone said, and the other guys nodded. “Ella is Ella. She doesn’t need special treatment. In fact, she hates it. Right?”
Ella opened her mouth then closed it again. There was a downside to having proven her mettle to the guys for all those years, and this was it. They truly saw her as one of them. Hell, they probably thought she peed standing up. And it would never, ever enter their heads that she could fall head over heels in love.
