Shifting Gears

by Maia Dylan

  “Hey!”

  “Oh, thank God!” the voice on the other end of the phone said. “Where in the hell have you been? I’ve been worried sick. You told me that you would call me the second you drove into Blackwater Falls, and that was supposed to be yesterday.”

  “I know, I know! I had a little—” Hannah turned as she was about to launch into her explanation, but paused when she saw the expressions on the faces of the two brothers. They were not happy about something. And by not happy, she meant pissed as hell.

  “Hannah? Are you still there?”

  Shit. “Yeah, sorry. I was just saying that I had a little accident and decided to drive my truck into a few trees yesterday. Nothing major, and I’m fine, but it was enough to put my phone call to you off for a while. I am really sorry to have worried you, Ash.”

  ****

  Ryker couldn’t hold in the rumble of displeasure at the sound of that wolf bastard’s name on his mate’s lips. It was a sound that was echoed by his brother and had their mate backing away from them.

  “What’s that noise in the background?” the wolf bastard asked as if he hadn’t a clue. Ryker had recognized Ash’s voice the moment he spoke to Hannah, and the spike of anger that slammed through him had his bear leaping to the fore.

  “Um, nothing.” Hannah frowned at him. “Look, Ash, I am going to head over to the garage shortly and check things out. Do you want to meet me there?”

  Bastian shot him a quick glance. It was going to be interesting to hear how Ash answered that. He and his pack were banished from Blackwater Falls thirty years ago, and to Ryker’s knowledge, no one from their pack had ever set foot in the Falls since. But if Ash was hellbent on a war then this could be his first opportunity to flout that law and state his intentions.

  The pause at the other end of the phone was frustrating, just as Ryker was sure Ash meant for it to be. “As much as I would love to take you up on that offer, darlin’, it is not the time for that to happen. Soon, but not today. When it’s time and I can make it happen, I’ll walk straight down the main street of Blackwater Falls and into your store. I promise. Will you be all right moving in by yourself?”

  Ryker’s displeasure rumbled low in his chest, his bear pacing angrily within him. Ash’s promise wasn’t just meant for Hannah. The fucker knew that he and Bastian were listening. Hannah glared at him then turned her back to them. It was, however, a move that Ryker had to appreciate for a moment because it gave him the luscious view of their mate’s heart-shaped ass, with only his shirt blocking the view.

  “Of course, I will be! Don’t worry about me,” Hannah spoke quietly, no doubt attempting to prevent them from hearing her. A move that was a waste of time, considering they were shifters and that came with a myriad of cool benefits like enhanced hearing. “Look, I know that you’re busy. I’ll call you once I am settled in. I still owe you that thank-you dinner.”

  Ryker wanted to put his fist through the wall at hearing his mate offering to have dinner with another man. True, the fact that it was Ash and the man had declared war on his clan less than twenty-four hours ago may have amplified his anger to a homicidal rage, but he would have been pissed hearing her make plans with any other man regardless of whom it might have been. He wanted to kill that wolf bastard, but figured as Ash seemed to be friends with his mate, a little finesse would be needed on how to do that without turning her against them forever.

  Hannah signed off and spun back to look at them, anger flaring in her beautiful green eyes. “What in the hell was that with all the growling and grumbling?”

  Ryker stepped forward, and Hannah seemed to jolt back a little. There was a tendril of fear in her expression again.

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, stop that,” Ryker snapped. “I am not going to hurt you. We—” Ryker indicated between him and Bastian “—would never hurt you. But that asshole you were talking to all sweet and sexy like on the phone and inviting him to dinner? Him we are going to hurt. A lot. And soon. Ash is not going to be able to join you for fucking dinner anytime soon, sweetness. He’ll be too busy being dead.”

  “Did you just threaten to kill someone in front of me?” Hannah asked incredulously, and Ryker simply crossed his arms and stared at her belligerently.

  Okay, so he probably shouldn’t have come right out and said it like that, especially after just acknowledging the need to tread carefully on this due to his mate’s connection with the prick, but hey? The sooner she came to terms with the fact that Ash was not long for this earth, the better, right?

  He waited to see how his new mate would react. But her reaction was not as he had expected. He thought, given the fact she had winced with fear twice since she woke up, that distress or horror would be her go-to emotion in this instance, but he should have realized the woman the fates would destine for him and his brother would have more strength than that.

  She stepped forward and pushed against his chest. Out of fear of hurting her already broken wrist, Ryker moved with the push. “What in the hell is wrong with you? That is just not done in civilized society. Who goes around telling people they are going to kill someone? And not just anyone, but someone who is my friend and has helped me a lot these past few months. Hell, if it weren’t for him, I never would have come here to Blackwater Falls.”

  Ryker frowned at that. What in the hell was Ash up to?

  Hannah moved away from him and started looking frantically around the room. “Where are my clothes? I want out of this house.” Hannah stepped in Bastian’s direction, and the growl she sent him when he didn’t move immediately out of her way was adorable. It also had Ryker’s dick thickening behind the zipper of his jeans. “Get. Out. Of my. Way.”

  Bastian couldn’t hide his grin, but he held up his hands in surrender and did as she’d asked. Or rather demanded. Their mate then stomped over to the corner where they had stowed the bags they had collected from her damaged truck. As she rifled through it looking for clothes, she mumbled to herself in the cutest way. She spun, glaring at them both, before marching into the adjoining bathroom.

  “Damn, that woman has spirit,” Bastian murmured as he stared at the door to the bathroom that had been more than firmly closed. “Can you imagine how passionate she’s going to be when we finally get her naked on that bed with us?”

  Bastian had unwittingly used the word Tomas had to describe his own mate. A kaleidoscope of intense images flowed through Ryker’s imagination at the thought of just how passionate Hannah might be.

  “Fuck, thanks for those visuals,” Ryker growled as he adjusted the erection behind the zipper of his jeans. “But what I need to know now is, what the hell Ash is up to?”

  Bastian nodded as he turned to look back at him. “Hannah said he was the one responsible for her being here. Do you think he knew she was our mate?”

  “There’s no way he could have,” Ryker answered. “There is no way that I know of for a shifter to know who they are destined to. He has to have some other plan up his sleeve.”

  If there was a way for shifters to know who their mate was and where to find them in order to orchestrate a meeting, then they would have found Hannah years ago. He and his brother wanted a family, and although they had the clan and each other, nothing compared to the connection they would have with Hannah. Their need for the final piece of their heart had grown significantly over these last few years, and Ryker had started to fear that it would never happen.

  “And we will find out what that is,” Ryker said, his voice filled with dark promise. “Ash has declared war on our clan. We need to call everyone together and advise them of this and start to plan how we are going to protect ourselves. Ash will not just come at us directly, and it sure as shit won’t just be a single faceted approach. He wants this town, he wants this land, and he wants us dead. Add to that, somehow the mongrel knows our mate, and that is not pure coincidence, of that I am sure. That means one of us needs to be with her at all times.”

  Bastian laughed. “Dude, I don’t know if you
remember the last ten minutes or not, but our mate does not exactly appear open to a courting right now. She’s hurt, tired, in a new town, and has just listened to you threaten the one person in Blackwater Falls that she knows and trusts. How do you propose we get her to willingly accept our presence in her life?”

  Ryker shrugged. “You’re the one who could always talk his way out of any shit we got ourselves into, so you convince her to take a chance on us.” Ryker ignored Bastian’s sputtering protests. “And you always find just the right way to approach Mom when she is pissed off at us. Because of that, we have lived to see the ripe old age of thirty. Work your magic and make this happen.”

  Bastian scowled at him. “And what the hell are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to start preparing the clan for the fight that is coming. We are going to need help.”

  Bastian’s expression became solemn, and he nodded. As Beta, he understood the pressures of leadership in a clan like theirs.

  “I know that we would normally take our time with Hannah, but I don’t think we have that luxury,” Ryker said as he turned to stare at the bathroom door their mate was currently secured behind. “She knows what we are, but she needs to know that we are her mates, and exactly what that means.”

  Bastian exhaled loudly. “Well, that’s the plan then. All we need to do is admit to Hannah that she’s our mate, tell her what that means to a shifter, that she is destined for both of us, and convince her to take a chance on a relationship with us that is unconventional at best. And at the same time, we need to prepare our clan to protect itself against a rabid and bloodthirsty wolf pack, adhere to the laws of the shifter council in order to avoid being classified as rogues, discover the dastardly plans of that asshole wolf, and find out what he has to do with Hannah, and protect her. Did I miss anything?”

  Ryker grinned. “Other than the part where we have to find a connection to Ash and the prick in the council who put a stop to that treaty, and I am going to have to convince the council that Ash is the one that is rogue and get the right to put that prick down, nope, that sounds just about right.”

  “Well, let’s just add that to our ever-increasing list of tasks then, shall we?” Bastian said, with an answering grin of his own. “Sounds like we have a plan, how hard can it be?”

  Chapter Five

  Hannah could hear the brothers talking in the bedroom but couldn’t decipher the actual words. The fact that her heart was pounding in her chest and her breathing was slightly louder than usual didn’t help. Twice she heard one of the men laugh, and she wanted to open the door and demand they tell her what they found so damn funny.

  With a sigh, she pulled off Ryker’s t-shirt and steadfastly refused to acknowledge how feminine it had made her feel. She was also going to ignore the fact that she took it off slowly and held the fabric under her nose for a moment to inhale the masculine scent that lingered in the fabric. Nope, she was definitely not going to admit that.

  She grimaced at the colorful array of bruises that crossed over her torso thanks to the seatbelt that had probably saved her life. She took a deep breath and felt the tight pinch of the bruise as her chest expanded. She lifted her hair back from the side of her face and winced at the bruise that bloomed close to her hairline. It spread out from the edges of a bandage, and she remembered the feeling of blood sliding thickly down that side of her face.

  She leaned across the sink to the bench she had laid her clothes on and almost groaned at the move. What in the hell was it with bruises and sores? You don’t feel a damn thing until you see them and then, every movement hurts. Biting her lip to keep from moaning, she carefully drew her clothes on. Hannah took one look at the bra she had grabbed and quickly dismissed it. Despite the fact it might not press too hard on the bruise across her chest, the thought of wrestling the damn thing on almost brought her to tears.

  As soon as she was dressed, she freshened up and walked to the bathroom door. Hannah stood for a moment, listening for movement and sound on the other side. When there was nothing, she sighed in relief. This time she was ignoring the pitiful pang of disappointment that reared its unwelcome head and opened the door. Stupid emotions.

  Hannah had only taken two steps out into the empty bedroom when a knock sounded on the door that opened into the hallway. “Come in.”

  Bastian walked in with a tentative smile. “Hey, you feeling okay?”

  She nodded as she moved over to her belongings. “Yeah, I am. Just a little sore from the bruising, but the wrist feels fine.” She held up the cast.

  Bastian smiled. “That’s good to hear, baby. That crash most definitely left its mark on you.”

  Hannah nodded and bent to pick up her bag, but Bastian beat her to it. “I’ll take that for you. I don’t like to see you in pain.”

  Hannah tilted her head and looked at him quizzically. “So, the whole bear thing comes with enhanced speed, huh?”

  Bastian grinned at her and nodded. “Yep. Shifters are not only blessed with their animals, but we enjoy a few added physical benefits, too. We are faster and stronger than other men, and we have better hearing and eyesight, too.”

  “Huh, that would come in handy.” Hannah reached for her purse and followed Bastian out of the door. The room opened into the central living area of a large house. The furniture was huge and masculine but looked comfortable, and there was a massive flat screen TV on the wall across from her. There was a huge kitchen that gleamed with an impressive array of expensive kitchen equipment, but what held Hannah’s gaze more than anything else in the room was the floor to ceiling bookcase on one side.

  Hannah loved to read. She didn’t just read books, she consumed them. Her to-be-read pile was almost as large as her read pile, and she found authors almost on a daily basis that she added to the list. The room was at least two stories high, and there was a ladder that slid on rails across the room so that all the books on the upper shelves could be accessed.

  “You like books,” Bastian said, and despite it being more a statement than anything else Hannah nodded. “Ryker reads more than me, but we both enjoy the library we’ve acquired over the years. When we built the house that wall was one of the first things we asked the architect to incorporate.”

  “It’s gorgeous.” Hannah sighed as her eyes went to the large, free-standing fireplace to the left of the bookcase, and imagined a huge comfy day bed right there for her to lie in. Shaking her head to clear the daydream, she went to step past Bastian but stopped when he failed to move out of her way.

  “Hannah, I know that everything has been confusing as hell, but you were in a fairly serious car accident yesterday,” Bastian said in a quiet voice. “Let me drive you over to the garage, but I think when we get there, you’ll see that you may have to wait a couple of days before you can move in.”

  Hannah frowned. “Why’s that?”

  Bastian winced. “Let’s just say that Karl wasn’t exactly known for his domestic skills. In fact, I think he used the small apartment above the garage as equipment storage and slept on a cot in his office.”

  “Well, that sounds positively—” Hannah paused as she thought of the right word, “horrible! That poor man. Well, either way, that’s my home now. I’ll have to make it work.” Hannah stepped around Bastian and headed down the hall to what looked like the front door. “I don’t really have another alternative.”

  Bastian reached around her to open the door for her, but paused with his hand on the door handle, effectively blocking her in against the door. He didn’t press in too close, but Hannah could still feel the heat of his body behind her, and it had her breath locking in her throat.

  “You do have a couple of alternatives, baby,” Bastian said in a voice that had her shivering. “There’s one option that I think is best, but I don’t think it’s one you’re ready to accept, and that’s returning here.” When Hannah went to launch into her objections, Bastian pressed a kiss to her neck and shocked her into silence. It was nothing more than a slight press
ure of his lips against her, but it was enough to bring her thought processes screaming to a halt.

  “As I said, that option is too much for you, and it sure as hell is too soon. I get that. Ryker and I want the opportunity to get to know you and for you to get to know us. It’s important to us, and we just hope that you can give us the chance. The second option would be for you to stay with Lucas, Tomas, and Lauren. They have plenty of room at their place, and it’s not too far from here. But if you would like, I am sure that they would be happy to have you with them.”

  Hannah swallowed hard. “I’m sure it will be fine at the garage. I think we should just get over there and see what I am dealing with. I can make a decision then.”

  Bastian waited for a moment, pausing like he had more to say, before nodding, then opening the door. The two of them walked out of the charming cabin-like house and headed for a large red truck in the drive. Bastian helped her up into the cab and placed her luggage in the back before sliding behind the wheel. As they drove down the driveway, Hannah felt a wave of anxiousness roll over her.

  “You both want the opportunity to get to know me?” Hannah asked in the quiet of the cab, and Bastian shot her a warm look.

  “Yeah, baby, we do. We think that you're special and could be someone that could complete us. Is it unconventional? Well, maybe to you and the majority of people in this world, but to us, it’s normal. Hell, it’s something we have been looking for and longing for, for a long time.”

  "What?" Hannah found herself asking. "What have you been looking for?"

  Bastian looked over at her, and Hannah almost drowned in the emotions she saw swirling in his eyes. "Our mate. The one woman the fates have deemed us worthy of. As soon as we met you, we sensed that you were that woman. For Ryker and me, the recognition was instantaneous. There is no coming back from that for us."