by Wolf, Terra
"I sure hope not," he said with one more of his knee-weakening smiles. She reached out for the hostess-podium to steady herself. As Ethan approached, her nose twitched. Then she sniffed the air.
"Does anyone smell wet dog?" she asked bluntly to the two men, who turned to look at her. They glanced at each other for a moment, then looked back at her.
"What? What was that look for?" she pressed.
"I don't smell it," Bryce said, testing the air with his nose.
"Me neither," the other man said in agreement. Ethan, she thought, suddenly remembering his name. He was Joanna's husband! She had seen a picture of him on her boss's desk; that's why he looked familiar.
"What's going on?" she said instead.
"Sorry, I can't tell you," Ethan replied before Bryce could say anything.
"What does that mean? I'm the GM, I should know about any 'security' concerns," she said, making her view that the ridiculous amounts of security was unnecessary plainly obvious in her tone.
"Take that up with Thomas," Ethan said, firmly but not rudely, as he moved past her, heading for the stairs.
Natasha looked after them, her brow furrowing as she tried to understand what was going on.
Chapter Four
Bryce
"Sounds bad," he commented, following Ethan up to the offices.
His friend was taking the stairs two at a time. Bryce's long legs easily kept pace, but it was unlike Ethan to be that urgent. Something bad was going on, he could tell.
"More," came the response.
"More what?" he asked as they reached the third-floor landing, heading straight for Thomas's office.
"More marks. Lots of them, in the trees out back."
"All together?" Bryce wanted to know.
"No, spread throughout the forest. I went out on a long range scout this morning, and just got back. Tree's all over have them."
"I wonder what the holy hell they are for," Bryce cursed. He hated not knowing things. Mysteries like this one bothered him, especially because it meant there were other players out there. Thomas had hired them for a reason that for week after week had seemed pointless. All of a sudden, it seemed as if they were going to earn their keep.
An image of Natasha screaming in terror suddenly flashed in front of his eyes. The impact of it hit him hard, and he reached out for Ethan's shoulder to steady himself, his other hand pressing thumb and forefinger to his eyes, trying to rub the picture out.
"What's wrong?" Ethan said, turning the handle to open the door. There had been no response from Thomas.
"Nothing, nothing. Just a vivid imagination I'm sure," he said, straightening up, trying to focus on the task at hand. Now, he told himself, is not the time to be going all crazy. It's time to be on point.
Still, he regretted that he wouldn't be able to spend a calmer time with Natasha and get to know her. His wolf was dead set on him making her his mate. Every moment she was within range of him, smelling of lilac and more, he had to wage a war of wills with his wolf not to move more aggressively with her.
His blood burned, knowing his mate was right there. All he had to do was reach out, touch her, caress her, make her his—
Knock it off! That's enough, he yelled at his wolf, wrestling it back into submission. He could feel his cock already stirring to life now, thinking of Natasha and her beautiful body. Bryce knew she had smarts, a wicked pairing with her wide hips and generous curves. He couldn't stop staring at her, to the point he sometimes felt creepy, but his eyes seemed to have a mind of their own when it came to Natasha.
Natasha Holland.
Damn. He hadn't meant to do that. Her name was Ellis. Natasha Ellis, he reminded himself.
"No Thomas. Damn."
"I'll call Jake. He'll want to know what's going on," Bryce offered.
"Thanks, I'm going to head back out. I don't want to go without someone back there while there are people inside."
"Agreed. Did we ever come to a decision on why Thomas decided to open a place like this if he knew that someone was going to come after it?"
"Not really. My best guess is rather morbid, though."
"Bait?"
"Bait," Ethan agreed.
"Damn. That's cold-blooded," Bryce commented. "To use all these people here, who have no idea what's going on, just to draw out whoever these people are? I don't know if I could be that ruthless."
"Me neither, though we don't know if that's the reason or not. Anyway, I'm going to get back out there."
Bryce pulled his phone out as Ethan departed, headed back outside. He felt odd, sitting on the edge of Thomas's desk without him there, but it was likely going to be his best chance for privacy.
"Jake," he said when the other party picked up. "It's Bryce."
"Hey Bryce. What's going on?"
"Bad news. Ethan was out scouting this morning. He found more of those marks. Lots more."
"Shit," Jake said into the silence after several moments.
"Yeah. Not good."
"Okay, well, keep an eye out, and if anything changes, let me know. Chase and I will be there for the night shift later on."
"Will do." Bryce went to hang up the phone, until he hesitated.
"Jake?" he asked uncertainly.
"Yes?" Came his Alpha's reply.
"How...how was it like when you first met Harper? How did you know she was your mate?" he said, finally spitting it out. Jake had been adamant from the get-go that he had known Harper was his mate the moment she walked into his life. It seemed far-fetched to everyone at the time, but now Bryce was going through the same thing.
He was positive that Natasha was his mate. He and his wolf had never agreed on a woman so strongly before. Even now, as he thought about her, his cock began to stir. Nothing set him off like that. The erection he'd had in her office the other day had been so hard it had almost hurt.
"It's tough to explain, Bryce. The biggest clue, as I look back at it now, was the first time I laid eyes on her. There was just something different about it, as if suddenly I understood a lot of the concepts I'd only ever talked about before. Love mixed with desire, and a sense of confidence that what I was doing was the right thing. That, and when any guy looked at her sideways I wanted to shift and tear his throat out," Jake finished with a chuckle."Why? Are you having some feelings?"
"Yeah. For our new boss," he said dryly, appreciating the irony of the situation.
"Ha! Well, you can't fight fate, my friend, but move slowly. The last thing we need is a complaint in the workplace."
"Tell me about it. It's tough. Especially with all of this other shit happening right now, who knows when I'll get the chance to do anything about it."
"It'll happen Bryce. Don't stress about it. I need you on point."
"I know, you can trust me. We may have another issue with her though."
"What's that?"
"She knows there's something odd going on. I moved too quickly to catch her when she slipped on ice yesterday, and she smelled Ethan's wolf just now, and likely other things. She's damn smart that one."
"I can tell you like her."
Laughter came through the phone as Jake sympathized with his friend and packmate.
"I don't want to lie to her, but I can only skirt the subject for so long. She's going to find out real soon."
"Don't tell her though. You can't reveal anything to her, no matter how strongly you feel about her. Not at this junction."
Thomas had forbidden them from revealing who they really were to anyone who didn't already know. That included most of the staff of The Silver Bullet, and now, it seemed, his mate was also to be prevented from knowing. Bryce would follow the rules, but it bothered him deeply that he might have to actively lie to his mate. He made a promise to himself right there on the spot that he would go to the utmost lengths, no matter how ridiculous, to try and prevent himself from lying.
"I won't Jake. Listen, gotta go," he said as footsteps sounded on the stairs. He hung up the phone and exite
d the office, pulling the door closed behind him softly.
The rest of his shift passed without an incident that needed his attention. One couple became frustrated when they couldn't order something that the restaurant didn't carry. Besides that brief moment of action, however, Bryce felt precisely useless. Nancy mentioned to him about a new server starting the next day, but that was the extent of it all.
When Jake and Chase showed up to relieve them, it truly was a relief. Ethan and Bryce hopped into Ethan's truck and headed for the lodge, where they all lived nowadays. It had started off as just a few of them, but with the change in jobs and their priority when it came to Moonlight Canyon, it had seemed like a good idea to gather everyone together.
"Who's that?" Ethan commented as they pulled in.
"I'm not sure, but I am very interested in finding out," he replied, hopping down from the truck and walking around. A black SUV had pulled in moments ahead of them. The engine died as they waited for the driver to emerge.
"No way," he whispered as the door opened.
It was Natasha.
"What are you doing here?" he asked as calmly as possible, trying to quell his suddenly racing heart. The hammering against his ribcage threatened to burst it open when she smiled at him. Natasha had left an hour or so before his shift change, and he hadn't figured on seeing her until the following day.
"Apparently, I live here now," she said, looking as startled to be saying the words as Bryce felt to be hearing them.
"You do? Why? I mean, that's awesome, but how did that come about?" he rambled, elbowing Ethan in the side, who was doing his best not to chuckle.
Getting the hint, his friend waved goodnight and went on inside, leaving the two of them alone. Bryce stepped closer, wanting to be as close to Natasha as he could without invading her personal space.
"Uh, Thomas told me Jake had arranged it," she said.
"Jake did?"
Thank you Jake, you beautiful person, he thought. Sometimes his Alpha could be a solid friend in addition to leader. It had been merely hours since he had told him about his feelings, and yet Jake had trusted him thoroughly enough to go through the effort of putting Natasha up in one of the rooms in the lodge.
"Yep. I have to admit," she said, looking around at everything. "This is much better accommodations than the motel."
"Yes, yes it is," he said, unable to contain his grin at the change in circumstances. "Here, let me grab those for you," he said, reaching into the trunk as she opened it to grab several of the larger duffel bags.
"I can do it myself you know," she said, hefting another one over her shoulder.
"I don't doubt that for a moment. You are a very capable woman. But you don't have to do it. Besides, before you say anything critical about me being chivalrous, there are more bags in here than you could carry in one trip anyway. So, either way, it's nice of me to help."
"I wasn't going to criticize you. It's very nice, if unnecessary."
"Well, you can thank me later for my extreme generosity," he joked, waiting for her to close the trunk before following her toward the lodge to their right.
"You're in Bravo lodge?" he asked, not daring to get his hopes up.
"Jake just said the one on the right of the main building, so if that's Bravo, then yes."
That was Bryce's lodge as well. He owed Jake a big steak and a case of beer. His Alpha must see something he didn't. That meant he wasn't going crazy. It just meant he was falling in love. Sort of. As much as he could in a day.
The pair walked side by side up the stone pathway to the main doors of the lodge. Even the smaller building—built entirely from wood, with split logs laid vertically as siding—had double doors leading into it. The rectangular building had a single floor in it, though the ceilings were tall and the hallways wide, perfect for allowing the larger shifter men easy passage. It also meant that he got to walk directly beside Natasha as he led the way.
Her long brown hair was drawn back into a ponytail that flicked back and forth lazily from side to side as she walked. Her intense, hazel eyes were wide, taking in the entire interior of the building.
"So this hallway runs all the way from the parking lot to the far end there, as you can see. The doors on that side empty out into a central courtyard and communal firepit, among other things. These doors here," he said with a jerk of his head to their right toward another set of double doors that opened out, "they lead toward Charlie lodge, which is unoccupied in the winter."
"And through here?" she asked, motioning as best she could with her full hands toward the arched opening approaching on their left.
"This is the main hall of Bravo," he replied, stepping back to allow her in first.
"Wow, this is beautiful," she said, looking up at the vaulted ceiling that rose twenty-something feet into the air.
"It's all wood, everywhere, as best we could," he told her, proud of what the pack had put into rebuilding this place."The kitchen and food area is over to the left, and as you can see, over to the right is the common area."
The common area stretched out past the extended ceiling that was in the center of the overall rectangle. There were couches, a TV, a foosball table, and some reading chairs near a fireplace.
"And all those doors lead to the rooms?" she said, referring to the bank of doors that started on the right where the game room ended, and ran around and along the backside of the building until they hit the kitchen. There were eleven in total.
"One leads to washrooms and showers. It's a communal room, though each has a door for privacy," he said hurriedly at the look on her face.
He was glad she wasn't into showering openly. Bryce was not interested in any of his friends seeing his mate naked. That, he hoped, would be for him.
"There's not too many guests at this time of year, and they don't even fill up Alpha, the main lodge. So it's just you, me, Kevin, and Holden over here."
"This whole place between the four of us?" she said incredulously.
"You got it. I'm in that one, Kevin is there, and Holden is there," he said, pointing to three doors in turn. "Which one do you want?"
"Let's go here," she said, picking the one to the left of him.
Perhaps he owed Jake two cases of beer.
"Sure," he said, trying to keep the excitement out of his voice.
They put the bags on the floor and he hustled out to grab the rest of her luggage, waving down her protests. "Consider it a moving gift," he shouted over his shoulder.
Once the last of her bags were in, he stood around in her room, not knowing what to do. Thankfully for his ego, Natasha got up and walked over to him.
"Thank you. Seriously. All of you have made me feel quite at home." She rose up on her tiptoes and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Especially you. Now get out, I have to unpack!" she scolded, shooing him out of the room.
Not fast enough though, because he saw her blushing furiously. He stutter-stepped as he contemplated turning to face her, perhaps pushing it a bit further.
"Bryce," she said, sensing his intention.
He drew her in close for a hug. He held her tight for a moment, before being prepared to let go when she tried to pull back. Natasha continued to hold on. And on. And on. They stood, rooted to the ground, neither of them moving for at least half a minute before she finally pulled back. He was once again struck dumb with a lack of words.
"Listen, Bryce."
"Can you feel this, or am I going insane?" he asked her bluntly, throwing it out there.
She inhaled sharply, avoiding his eyes at first. "I'm not sure what I'm feeling. I just moved to a new city for the first time in my life. I'm scared shitless about that, and I'm just trying to settle in. You're nice, and wonderful, but I can't let that distract me right now when I need to focus on my job."
He stood rock solid, feeling it all crumbling down around him. Here was his mate, perhaps two feet away from him, and he couldn't touch her, because she was scared. Scared of him, his pack, his city, and her j
ob. It hurt to know that while she wasn't petrified of him, she was scared of acting on what he knew she was feeling. Perhaps what hurt the most was the fact that there was nothing he could do about this fear, except give her time.
Time, that if he were honest, he may not have. If his pack was going up against something as nasty as it looked like, there were likely to be casualties. None of them talked about it, but they all knew it. When various elements of their world collided, the results were rarely pleasant.
And he couldn't tell Natasha because that would scare her off even more. Not to mention it would break Thomas's rule about not telling anyone.
"I understand," he said in a small voice, unsure of how to proceed.
"Thank you again for your help Bryce," she said.
He looked up at the shakiness in her voice. There were tears in her eyes. Why is she sad? It's not like I just blew her off or anything, he thought. This made no sense.
Then, in a flash, it all made sense. She wasn't pushing him away because she didn't like him. Natasha must be able to feel it as well, and yet she knew that if they were to give in already, it would be too fast, too soon. She recognized that they needed time. Unlike him, who thought that they could be together, just like that.
"I'm always available to help, Natasha. Whenever you're ready, you just let me know. I'll be here. I'll wait."
She smiled through the tears. It was hard for him not to reach up and wipe them away, but he knew touching her was the worst thing he could do at that moment. Natasha needed some space, so he was going to give it to her.
He strode through the door, his shoulders held high. He hurt, but it wouldn't be forever. One day in the not-too-distant future, he would be with his mate.
I'm going to live to see that day, no matter what it takes, he thought.
His wolf howled its agreement.
Chapter Five
Natasha
The solid oak door closed with a soft click behind Bryce.
As soon as it did, the individual tears turned into a stream pouring down her cheeks. Sobs shook her shoulders and she gasped for breath between them.
