by Alexa Riley
“My point is, of course he can’t keep his hands off her.” Winnie says, like she doesn’t like the idea of that.
“The mating heat stops after the full moon. It’s been over and he’s still all over her like a dog in heat.”
Winnie’s face turns red, making me smile. I grab her hand, linking her fingers with mine, wanting to give her comfort. Shifters like human contact, well, wolves do. I don’t know much about bears, Winnie being the only one I’ve ever met, but I’m guessing they like it, too.
“I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this but you’re gorgeous. You may not look like the wolf shifter females, but that’s because you’re not one.” She flinches again, but I just squeeze her hand in mine. “You’re a bear, Winnie, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Just remember the things you don’t like about yourself are the same things other women want. I’d kill to have some boobs and ass like you’ve got. Hell, you’d fill this dress out better than me. Bet some of the tourist boys would hit on you if you put this on.”
She always hides behind the baggiest clothes, which make her look bigger than she really is. I don’t know who did this to her ego, but I think it has something to do with the Stockton daughters. Those two bitches are always up to no good.
It doesn’t help that I know they sleep with the human boys who pass through town. Why, I have no freaking clue. Shifters can’t get off unless it’s with their mates, so what’s the point? If you ask me, it seems like the oh-so-perfect Stockton twin sisters have ego issues of their own. If they’re spreading their legs for absolutely no reason except for some male attention, they’ve got problems.
“I guess. Do you think Alpha Stone would think I’m pretty in a dress?”
My eyes almost bug out at Winnie wanting my brother to notice her. Maybe because I have the opposite reaction to him. I avoid him like the plague if I can, hence my moving out into my own place. He’s so overbearing and I don’t get it.
He acts like I run around town hooking up with random guys or something. Sure, I like to go out and have a good time and throw back a few drinks, but that’s it. I’m waiting for my mate.
The thought makes my stomach clench, like it does every time I think about my mate. I thought I’d found him once. I sometimes wonder if I dreamed him up and he was never really here. He told me he’d always watch me. That was a lie. I’ve never seen him since that day. I knew then he wasn’t mine. My question must have scared him when I asked about his own mate. He must have found her, because he never returned to watch me again.
“Hmm… maybe? Stone nags me about my clothes so maybe not.”
Her shoulders slump at my words.
Things start to click together then. Winnie always wants to come over to dinner to my brother’s house, and she’s always asking about him. While he doesn’t even seem to notice her, he did help place her in a home when Dominic found her. Stone keeps tabs on her like he does everyone in our makeshift pack.
I wonder what a wolf and bear mating is like.
“You like my brother?”
“No! I just thought…” Her words trail off and she looks away.
“Thought what?” I nudge her shoulder with mine, trying to get her to talk.
“I don’t know.”
“Is he your mate?”
“No!” she squeals, and it’s the loudest she’s ever been.
“Okay, okay,” I say, holding my hands up. “Let get to the fair before all the good food is gone.”
Pulling her by the hand, I head out to the fair before she can change her mind.
Chapter 2
Xavier
I climb down off the roof and put away some of my tools. Most of them are under the porch so the weather doesn’t get to them. I’ve been fixing up the house for the last couple of weeks, and it’s coming along nicely.
Ever since Dominic came into the woods and had a talk with me, I’ve been working on the house. I’ve been so long out in the wild I forgot what living felt like. I’ve just been surviving for the past few years and not taking care of myself since…since the day I lost my mom and my sister.
They were out hunting together on a sunny afternoon and went too far north of the protected property. They went beyond our boundaries and into an area humans were known to sometimes sneak into. They must have gotten lost and weren’t paying attention. Normally, it wouldn’t have been a problem because I was usually with them. I would watch over them and make sure they didn’t go beyond the safety zone. But that day I was distracted. I didn’t make it home in time to go with them, so they left without me. Two hunters saw them and thought they were wild wolves. The hunters were trespassing, and when they came across two wolves hunting a deer, they shot them.
Stone found the bodies and tracked the hunters down, taking care of them. I never got my revenge, and after hearing the news, I went mad. I shifted and fled to the woods, unable to be in my skin for a very long time. I didn’t think I would ever fully shift back, but over time it happened slowly. I was still part-wolf up until a few months ago, and some of my features never really returned to how they were before.
I should have been there that day. I could have protected them.
I stop that train of thought and focus on the task of cleaning up. I can’t let myself go down that road.
The sun is setting, and I’m all finished for the day. Shifters are amazing creatures with lots of strength, but I realize that I had neglected my body for a long time, only eating when I gave in to the hunger pains.
I’d always built houses, so I knew my way up one side and down the other when it came to putting one together. But the first day I tried to do just some basic work, it about broke me physically. After a few good hunts, I was doing better. And about a week later, my body was back. I could feel the strength in my arms and legs grow as my shifter genes helped repair the years of damage I’d done to myself. I am bigger than I have ever been.
I’ve been given free rein of the forest surrounding Gray Ridge, but a few acres are specifically mine. I’d built a home on some land out here before my mom and sister died, but I hadn’t been back since the accident. I built it so that one day, when I took a mate, I would have room for everyone. I couldn’t bring myself to go back after they died, but from what Dominic told me, he and Stone would go over every so often and take care of things for me. I think Stone knew at some point I would want to come back, and he made sure it was kept up.
Once a week Sheriff Dominic comes to check on me and brings me supplies. Sometimes he even offers a hand to help me with the place. When he found his mate, he made me realize what I’d been missing. I’d let myself go and let my wolf run for so long that I forgot about the things I want in life. I want a mate, and someday I hope to find one. Dominic made me see that I wasn’t doing what I needed to. I need to provide a safe home for my mate, and I have to be able to protect her. The power of his words hit me when he asked if I would have allowed another shifter to make my sister live the way I was living. His words hurt, but he was right. I wasn’t a worthy male, and I need to be. A mate deserves the best, and I intend to make the best home there ever was so that when I find mine, she’ll be happy.
I stand up and turn around, seeing Dominic. “Must be Friday, and it’s weird that you always smell like cookies now.”
“My mate likes the way I smell, thank you very much.” He sets the big basket of food down on the picnic table and looks at the progress I’ve made since last week.
Dominic has been worried about me a lot lately, but I can’t figure out why. It’s as if he keeps coming back to make sure I’m making progress. Like something is going to happen and he’s making sure I’m prepared.
“You’ve come a long way, X. The house looks great.”
“I’ve got nothing but time on my hands,” I say as I grab the basket, pulling out the cookies first. They are my favorite and always smell the best.
Not too long ago, I was doing pretty bad and walked too close to town. I think I was in
a daze and following a scent. I stumbled upon the back of the town bakery, and I stopped when I saw a woman coming out. I’d been smelling something so good coming from the shop, and I think that’s what led me there. When I saw her, I thought she was my mate, though I was surprised that the scent wasn’t stronger. It was only a hint of my mate. It turned out that the woman was Ruby and she belonged to Dominic. She wasn’t mine, but the cookies she had in her hands smelled like mine. So now every week he brings me a basket from her, and the cookies are what I look forward to the most. They remind me of something I have buried deep in my heart, and I refuse to let it out.
“I know you’ve come a long way, Xavier, and I just wanted to say that I’m really proud of you. You’re making a good home for your mate.”
I turn to Dom with a mouth full of cookies and shrug. “It’s not good, it’s the best.” He laughs, and I don’t know why. It’s not a joke. I’m a good builder, and this is the best thing I’ve ever made.
“Okay, X. It’s the best.”
The house is a big one-story log cabin. It has an extra-large great room that opens into a kitchen. I built a big fireplace in the great room and put river stones around it. It has a large master bedroom with a big master bath, and four other bedrooms. I built bunk beds in the kids’ rooms because I expect to have at least two litters.
“Everything is pretty much done. Thank you for coming by and keeping the place up for me the past few years. I only needed to clean up a few things and make a couple of changes. I appreciate your mate sending me things as well.” Ruby is a good mate, and Dominic is a lucky male.
Dominic nods in understanding, looking me over as he does. I’m sure I still look a bit savage to him, with my hair down past my shoulders and my beard just as long. I don’t think he can see much other than my eyes when we talk.
“Ruby sent you some more clothes, although with the way you’ve been working, I don’t think anything will fit.”
I nod, not really caring if anything will fit. They’re just clothes. “Once your mate has the pups, she’ll be busy for quite some time.” I feel a pang of guilt saying that. I don’t mean that she should be caring for me, just that I’ll miss the cookies.
“Yes, we’ve thought about that. I think we’ve got it figured out.” He looks around at the house and nods his head like he’s come to some kind of decision. “What are your plans tonight, Xavier?”
“I’m going to kill a deer and smoke the meat. Why?” He’s asking stupid questions.
“There’s a little fair going on in town tonight. I think you should go see it.”
“Too many people.” I grunt the response, turning around to finish packing up my tools. I don’t have time for his dumb ideas. I like solitude and quiet. Town is loud and busy.
“Xavier, I think you should come. Don’t you want to see if you can find your mate now that the house is finished?”
At his words I stop what I’m doing. He’s right. I do want to find my mate, and unless she happens across this cabin in the woods, I probably won’t ever find her out here. I don’t turn around, but I nod my head in understanding. I’ve got to try to make an effort if I want to find her.
“I’ll see you soon, friend.” I hear him turn and walk back towards town, leaving me in my solitude again.
When I know he’s gone, I turn around and go back to the picnic table to look at the clothes Ruby sent for me. It’s a big paper sack full of things that are unnecessary, like shoes and belts. But I remember that she isn’t shifter so she doesn’t know this. I grab a pair of jeans and a button-up shirt and take them into the house with the basket of food.
I take the box of cookies with me to the bathroom and sit it on the edge of the tub while I run a bath. I carved an extra-large bathtub out of an old tree before the accident, because at nearly seven feet tall, it wasn’t easy finding something to fit me. And as weird as it sounds, I like baths. I think it’s a shifter thing.
As I soak in the tub and eat the cookies, I think about her. I don’t let myself dwell on her too much because it’s painful and doesn’t do any good. She’s probably mated and has had a few pups by now, but in my memories we are together. I close my eyes and picture her sleeping. I remember her eyes closed, her blonde hair spread out on her pillow, and her full pink lips soft with sleep. She looked like something out of a fairy tale, and she was too young for me to be watching her like that.
I let the memory fade, thinking she’s well beyond her mating age of eighteen, and as the alpha's sister she’s sure to be matched with a champion.
I finish the cookies and get out of the bath, deciding I need to let the memories go and try to move on. I need to focus on finding my mate and making my family.
I grab the clothes I picked out and pull on the jeans and button-up shirt. The jeans are too short, coming up above my ankles, but I don’t care. They’re just clothes. The shirt is no better, short in the arms and too tight across the chest. I don’t put on the belt or shoes because if I need to shift in a hurry, I want to be ready. Looking in the mirror, I see my wild hair and beard, and I just shrug my shoulders. I’ve made a nice home, what more could a mate want?
I take a deep breath and make the decision. I guess I’ll go see what’s going on in town.
Chapter 3
Gwen
“I don’t know why I can’t stop doing this.” I rub my hand along Ruby’s pregnant belly. “Does it drive you nuts?” One of the babies kicks, making me jerk my hand back for a second, my eyes going wide. Wow, they’re so strong already. I wonder what it will be like when I have my own pups in my belly.
“Meh.” She just shrugs and goes back to devouring a caramel-covered apple. I don’t think anything would bother her right now while she has her mouth full of food. Her being human and carrying three shifter babies has her in what seems to be a constant state of hunger.
Her mate, and Gray Ridge’s sheriff, Dominic, tucks a strand of her wild red hair behind her ear before it can blow in the wind and get trapped in the caramel mess she’s making. His finger goes to her chin, running it down her neck and tracing a bite mark on her shoulder. The look in his eyes as he stares at his mate hits me hard. Suddenly, I feel a longing I’ve been trying to put aside for months now. People have gone way longer than I have without finding their mates, but for some reason it’s eating at me. I’m only twenty-one and finally just got out from under my brother’s controlling ways. I shouldn’t want to be locked down to a mate now, but I do.
“Do I smell donuts?” Ruby asks, breaking my moment of yearning.
“I swear you smell better than I do now, sweets.” Dominic grabs Ruby, pulling her closer and tucking her under his arm in a possessive gesture. I thought that after their mating, his possessiveness might cool a little, but it seems to be as strong as ever. Every male who passes us on the street in the middle of the fair makes sure to stay about eight feet back from Ruby.
“Well, don’t just stand there. Donuts!” she says after taking the last bite of her caramel apple. Ruby hands Dom the now-bare stick with a huge smile. Dominic swoops down, taking her lips and licking the caramel from the corners of her mouth before dragging her away.
“Doesn’t that count as public indecency?” Winnie asks from beside me.
“He’s not going to arrest himself.” We both giggle while making our way further down the street. It’s hard to get far in a town like Gray Ridge without running into someone you know. Everyone knows everyone unless you’re a tourist here visiting the National Forest. The town's fair seems to have pulled them off the camp grounds and into our streets to join in the festivities.
“He’s cute.” I nod to a boy who looks to be about Winnie’s age, maybe a few years older. He’s standing a few feet from us as we watch some of the street performers. He’s tall and lean with short brown hair, but everyone is tall compared to Winnie. “Why don’t you go talk to him?” I nudge her, but I know she won’t do it. She’s so freaking shy. I’ve spent the last few months trying to pull her out of h
er shell, but it doesn’t seem to be working.
Winnie looks over at the same time the boy’s eyes land on us, and he takes it as an invitation to talk to us. He zeroes right in on Winnie, and I have to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling. She goes to take a step back, but I lock my arm with one of hers, halting her in a friendly movement.
“You ladies from around here?” His long drawl lets me know that he’s not, and so does his very human scent.
When Winnie doesn’t answer him even though his eyes are on her, I do it for her. “Born and raised.” I nudge Winnie again. “Winnie has lived here a few years now.”
“Winnie. I like that name. It’s cute.” He gives her a wink, but I feel her stiffen at his words, and my shifter hearing picks up her mumbling, “Cute.” She doesn’t like the word. Reading too much into it, I’m sure. From our conversation earlier, I’m thinking she wants to be called something more along the lines of ‘pretty’ or maybe ‘beautiful.’
“Thanks,” she finally says. This might not be her mate, but maybe she can push some of her shyness back. He’s clearly interested. Maybe a few stolen kisses will do Winnie some good. Boost the confidence she shouldn’t be lacking in.
“Winnie could show you around. Tell you which vendors have the best food and make sure you stay away from Old Man Gibbs.”
“Old Man Gibbs?”
“Yeah, he spits and likes to whack tourists with his cane,” I confirm. I used to think it was gross, but now it seems like a staple of the town.
“He’s not very fast so he’s easy to avoid,” Winnie finally chimes in.
“I’m sure you’ll keep me safe.” He reaches out to take her hand in his, but a low growl from behind us makes the boy jump. I turn to see my brother, Stone, with a look of rage on his face. He’s our alpha, and this isn’t good.
