His eyes didn’t close until dawn was breaking, and the next thing he knew, Timo was knocking on his door. He could tell it was Timo before he even got out of bed because he had a polite knock. If it’d been Ryzard, he would’ve probably kicked the door down.
“Come in!” he hollered.
“Shit, you look rough, dude,” Timo said when he opened the bedroom door.
Connor let off a rumble and screwed his knuckles into his gritty eyes. “Bad sleep I guess.”
“Coming for a morning swim to the lake we found yesterday?”
He grunted. Maybe it would clear his head. Help him get a perspective on things. “Yeah. Why not?”
The lake was deep in the forest, a half-hour lope from the cabins, and it was beautiful—big, clear, and completely surrounded by trees. The water was icy cold, perfect for a bear’s hide. The ten bears wrestled, tussled, and tried their best to drown each other, then caught a whole bunch of fish for breakfast. It was the best Connor had ever tasted, but if anything, it made his bad mood worse.
This forest had everything. The woods were dense with a mixture of ancient deciduous trees and conifers. There was a big selection of prey to hunt and enough full-blood bears that humans wouldn’t freak out if they caught any of the clan in their animal form. It was truly the territory of his dreams. And he’d encouraged his clan to dream as well, made them believe they could have a good life. But now it was going to be taken away from them. It was all his stupid fault. He hated the woman from the Parks Department, but most of all, he hated himself. And a whole night spent trying to come up with a solution had come to nothing—short of getting his hands on the guy who sold him the land and squeezing his throat until he made good on the deal. Actually, that wasn’t such a bad idea. He just needed to sniff him out.
The bears stayed at the lake for an hour or so before heading back, bellies full of fresh fish. As always, Connor trotted at the front, nostrils constantly twitching, eyes scanning back and forth for any humans who might be wandering in the forest. Logan did the same at the rear. When they reached the cabin, there was a stale tang of human sweat in the air. His ears pricked up. Someone—several someones—had been around while they were gone. And when they reached the cabins, a savage roar broke out of him, echoing through the woods.
The other bears charged ahead, letting off snarls and roars and groans of shock. Their cabins had been boarded up. Heavy-duty metal plates were nailed over every door and window, yellow and black tape crisscrossing each one and with one of those damned eviction notices stuck right in the center.
Connor shifted and pulled on the pants that he’d discarded earlier, and the rest of them followed suit.
“What the fuck is this?” Olsen tore off the nearest notice and stared at it.
Connor snatched it from him. “It’s an eviction notice. It says we have occupied this land unlawfully, and our property and belongings have been confiscated by the Parks Department.”
“What the hell?” the rest of them bellowed.
“This is our land. They can’t do this!” Logan roared.
“They think they can because they’re claiming we never bought it.”
All the clan spun to face him.
“Did you know about this?” Logan demanded.
Connor sighed. “A couple of days ago, someone came around, told me we had to get off this land. I told her we were here lawfully. She went away, and I thought that was the end of it.”
“She? I knew I smelled female!” Ryzard roared. “You told me you’d brushed against a woman in the store.”
“The last thing I wanted was you all to get freaked out, like you’re doing right now,” Connor said, keeping his tone calm.
“If we bought the land fair and square, why are they saying we didn’t?” Logan said.
“I don’t know. Maybe the guy I purchased the land from didn’t notify his workmates, so someone still thinks it belongs to the Parks Department.”
Logan planted his hands on his hips. “So we need to get ahold of him.”
“Yes.” Connor’s head hurt.
“How we gunna do that?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know where his office is or where he does business.”
“Fuck that. This is our place!” Olsen cut in. “They’ve got no right to keep us out. Let’s just rip this shit off the windows and go on as before!” His fists were bunched, and he looked like he was seconds away from doing just that.
“Yeah! And I swear I’ll kill any damn human who comes here telling us we can’t live in the houses we’ve built with our own damn hands!” Ryzard roared.
“I’m with you,” Olsen said.
“Me, too,” Ryder added.
“Guys, let’s calm down,” Connor said. “This isn’t going to end well. You can’t go killing a bunch of humans with no consequences.”
“I vote we get the hell out of here. If we’re not wanted, let’s move on,” Logan said. Connor shot him a look of gratitude.
“Bro, we can’t do that,” Timo cut in. “We’re broke. We put every last cent we had into building these cabins.”
Ryzard rounded on Connor, letting off a volley of snarls. “This is all your fault!” He jabbed at the air in front of his chest with his index finger. “You’ve screwed something up. You promised us, and you let us down. What kind of leader are you?”
Connor released a fearsome roar that echoed around the woods and made Ryzard take a step back. “I’m the best damn leader I can be! It’s not easy keeping all of you out of trouble, finding a place to live where humans aren’t going to stick their noses in our business. I paid for this place! What the hell else could I have done?”
“So you paid for it. It’s ours. Let’s defend it instead of running away like a bunch of pussies!” Ryzard snapped.
The argument continued, getting more and more aggressive and, to Connor’s dismay, two sides started to emerge. This was the last thing he wanted. Everyone was supposed to be together. Their clan against the world.
There was a sound in the distance. Connor’s ears pricked up. A car approaching. He didn’t want to draw attention to it, but listened as it got closer. At last, the old blue sedan jolted along the rough track that led to the cabins. It was her again. Fists clenching and unclenching, he strode toward her. She didn’t get out, but cracked the window open.
He stopped a couple of feet away. “What the hell do you want?” he demanded. “Haven’t you people done enough?”
Her eyes were huge and got bigger as she gazed at the buildings. “I’m so sorry. I just heard what happened.”
“Just heard? What do you mean? Are you trying to say you weren’t part of this-this—” He jerked his thumb at the barricaded cabins.
“Nope. I only just heard my boss talking about it.”
He stared at her furiously. “So what are you doing here?”
“I don’t know… I felt bad. They shouldn’t have done this.”
“No shit.”
Ryzard appeared at his shoulder. “Who’s this?”
“No one. We’re just talking.”
“Who are you, lady?” Ryzard stepped right up to the car and shoved his face against the crack in the glass.
Lauren shrank back from the window.
“You’ve got five seconds to tell me before I flip this goddamn piece of shit!” Ryzard took hold of the hood and pushed it hard enough to make the car shake on its suspension. She let out a scream.
“Stop that!” Connor squeezed Ryzard’s shoulder, his claws bursting through his finger ends and cutting into Ryzard’s skin. “You don’t go acting like this around humans. Especially ones half your size.”
Ryzard snarled, but got the message. He rubbed at his shoulder, smearing blood from the fresh wound.
“Go back. Tell the others to stay at least twenty feet away. I’ve got this.”
As Ryzard stalked off, Connor turned back to Lauren whose skin had turned ashen. “I’m sorry for that. He’s very upset. We all are.”
> “I get that,” she said in a small voice.
“But no one’s going to hurt you.”
She made a kind of tight sound in her throat. “I shouldn’t have come here. It’s just made things worse.”
“Can you help us?”
She pressed her lips together. “I told my boss what you said. About the sale. He said there’s no record of it. When I pushed him harder, he got mad and said there was no way anyone would have sold this land. Said you must’ve spoken to some crazy person who was passing by.”
Connor grunted, cracked his knuckles. “Like hell I did.”
Her boss was lying, he knew it. It wasn’t a mistake, or miscommunication. He’d happily sold them the land when he thought it was worthless, then the second the bears started to make it nice, he got dollar signs in his eyes. That fucking asshole. Despite what he’d said to Ryzard, he’d happily take that piece of shit apart with his bare hands.
“I’m sorry I can’t change things. I’m not real high up at my work. I guess I just wanted to apologize for all this,” Lauren said, cutting into his thoughts.
Connor looked into her eyes, saw the decency in them, saw she was still shaking with fear. “Were you scared to come here?” he demanded.
She lifted one small shoulder in a shrug. “A little.”
“But you still did.”
She sighed. “I didn’t choose any of this. Like I didn’t choose for you to be my match on the dating app.”
Something stirred in him. What if this hoodoo technology was right? What if they were really a match for each other? “You’ve got balls. I’ll give you that,” he said.
“Ovaries.”
“Huh?”
“I’m a lady. We don’t got balls.”
Involuntarily, his eyes dragged over her breasts, the curve of her belly.
“No, you don’t,” he replied in a softer tone. Everything about her was so excitingly different from him. And suddenly he longed to run his hands all over her soft body. Do more than that. He shook his head, ridding himself of those wrong thoughts. “I want to show you something. Come on.”
Lauren cocked an eyebrow. “You’re asking me to leave the car. Are you insane?”
“No one’s going to hurt you, or even lay a finger on you. I can personally guarantee your safety.”
“How many guys like that have you got back there?”
“Like Ryzard? None. He’s a special case. But his roar’s worse than his bite.”
“What if they all rush me at once. How are you going to stop them?”
He gave a terse laugh. “We’re not a bunch of animals, you know. They’ll do what I tell them. I’m their leader.”
Lauren’s eyes flickered over his bare torso with something like admiration. “This might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever done,” she said as she hit the unlock button on the car door.
Connor flashed her a smile and held his hand out as she opened the door and climbed out. She took it, gripping tight as she got to her feet. Her palm was a little clammy, and guilt tightened in his belly. “Your hand’s so small,” he blurted out.
She laughed. “Not really. Okay, where you taking me?”
“I just want to show you what we’ve done with the place.”
He led her along the pathway to the cabins, and just as they entered the front yard, there was a terrific crash and the screech of warping metal. A big black bear was up on its hind legs, using its claws to rip at one of the boarded-up windows.
“Oh, god!” Lauren clamped her hand over her mouth.
“It’s okay. It’s just Ryzard,” Connor said, and without thinking, he put an arm around her shoulders. For a moment, she yielded against him, her soft curves sliding against his hip, before pulling away again. It had been enough, though. His cock had instantly hardened, threatening to tent the fabric of his battered combat pants.
“Ryzard, quit it!” he called. Ryzard paid him no heed and continued to attack the window. He’d ignored the industrial-looking screws fixing the metal sheet to the window and was concentrating on tearing out the window frame itself. Probably a smart idea if he didn’t want to rip out his claws. They stood transfixed, watching him until, with a final, almighty crunch, he was done. He hurled the sheet of metal and wooden frame aside and leapt through the window triumphantly.
The other bears, who’d been similarly transfixed, came to life, staring at Lauren and rumbling with a mixture of curiosity and hostility.
“Guys, this is Lauren. She got matched with me on the dating app. I’m just showing her around here.” In his peripheral vision, he saw her head jerk in surprise.
The hostility eased, and he exhaled a long breath. Their mouths opened and closed, desperate to ask her questions, but they knew better than to interfere.
“Let’s go to my cabin,” he said, taking her hand again, and he led her around the building to his rear porch. Each cabin was backed by a rectangular dirt yard, and Connor’s contained a huge fire pit. Beyond the yards, a line of pine trees marked the beginning of the forest.
She cast a glance at Connor’s boarded-up back door. “It sure is a shame. You’ve built the place so nice.”
“I can show you how it all happened. Take a seat.” He indicated to the porch steps and she sat down on the highest one, level with the deck. He pulled out his phone and scrolled to the photo reel.
“This is how it was when we first saw it.” He’d sat at a polite distance from her, but she scooted closer to get a better look at the screen. He picked up her scent again—nectar sweet, like those flowers that only bloom at night.
“Wow. It’s kind of how I remember it, but ten times worse. It really was a junkyard, wasn’t it?” she said, gazing at the mishmash of rotten furniture, broken TV screens, plastic bottles, a doll’s head, a car fender, and who knew what else.
“Yup. A regular eyesore. Guess that’s why your boss, or whoever he was, was glad to have us fix it up.
“This is the land when we got it looking all nice.” He swiped to a photo of the territory, cleaned and leveled. The next photo showed the foundations of the cabins going into the ground, and then there was a whole series of the five cabins in various states of construction. Lauren commented on each one, pointing out various things with her intricately painted fingernails. He’d never seen nails like that before, but they were kind of nice. A chick thing, he guessed.
The last showed all nine bears standing in front of the first finished cabin. He’d used a timer, and they were all half naked, arms wrapped around each other, staring at the camera fixedly as if they weren’t used to having their photos taken, but there was no mistaking the joy bubbling beneath the surface.
“You’ve documented this real well,” she said in a soft voice.
“I wanted to make sure we remembered it all. It’s our first home. The first time we’ve all stopped running and living rough. It was going to be the foundation of our clan.”
“What is a clan, exactly?” she said, her eyes bright with curiosity.
“It’s a family. But sometime not the one you’re born with. Sometimes a bunch of guys—shifters—who don’t have their own people, come together and pledge to be a clan. It means you’ll be together forever. I mean, as long as you follow a few simple rules.”
“You don’t have a family?”
He froze. His jaw clenched as a wave of darkness swept through his mind. Her cool fingers touched his bicep lightly. “It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me.” When he forced himself to meet her gaze, her eyes were pooling with understanding.
“It’s complicated,” he said with a sigh.
“Don’t worry. I don’t exactly have a conventional family either. But I do have people who depend on me, and I can see you have the same.”
She’s one smart lady, he thought and flashed her a quick smile.
“I can also see that you’d do anything to keep them together.”
“I sure would. Even Ryzard,” he said, and they both laughed. “He’s had a lot of probl
ems in life, but he’s a good guy at heart.”
She nodded. “I should get going before anyone notices I’m missing.”
“Your boss doesn’t know you’re here?”
“Nope. I heard the news and didn’t stop to think. I just wanted to get over here.”
“Thanks for coming. It must’ve taken some guts.”
“I didn’t do anything. But I want to help. I’ll see if I can get any more information at work. Can you describe the guy who sold you the land?”
“Uh. He was kind of pink-skinned. Losing his hair up front. And he’s either six-months pregnant or he likes beer even more than Ryzard does.”
“Son of a bitch,” Lauren muttered.
“You know him?”
“I might.” She got to her feet. “I’m so sorry you guys have suffered all this. You don’t deserve it. And I’m even more sorry that the place I work for is to blame. I’ll see what I can do.”
“Thanks, Lauren. It’s been nice to see you.”
Nice, he thought, as he watched her car bump along the dirt track until it disappeared from view. What a fucking inadequate word. She was so awesome, if he was a different man, he’d be claiming that sweet body of hers right now before another lucky guy got a chance to get his paws on her. But that path wasn’t open to him. He had no right to take a mate.
4
This is getting to be a habit, Lauren thought as she pulled into her office parking lot. It was the second time she’d turned up at those cabins, and the second time her expectations got totally turned on their head. She’d gone in there scared, her heart in her mouth. She knew Connor would be mad and she’d be the last person he wanted to see. But what she had right now was…shivers. Damn, girl. The way he’d touched her, laid his arm around her shoulders, pressed her against his big, muscly body. The feel of his big hand holding hers.
She got out of her car, walked through the office foyer, and sauntered over to her desk, sandwich bag in hand, humming softly to herself. Nothing to see here. She slipped into her seat and unlocked her computer screen fast. Her gaze slid left and right over the low cubicle dividers. No one seemed to have noticed her arrival. But there was one hell of a commotion going on in the fishbowl office next door. Brownnoser Derek, College Boy, who she had to help out all the damn time because he barely knew how to operate a computer and had no clue how to talk to people, was getting clapped on the back by a bunch of guys. Hmmm…what’s going on?
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