Built Fur Love Box Set

by Terry Bolryder

  “Carter,” the kid said. “I live in trailer twelve.”

  “Cool,” Grayson said. “Well, you don’t have to trust me if you don’t want to, but the reason I said you should put your ears back is because it’s safer that way.” He put a hand on Carter’s shoulder. “You’re special. All the kids here are. But the world out there can’t know about it, okay? So keep it secret.”

  The kid nodded slowly. “‘Kay.” Then he waved and skipped off, running to join a group of his companions, most of whom were still eyeing Grayson warily.

  As they disappeared into the woods, probably to shift and run amok, Grayson turned back to his work with a somewhat sad smile. Sometimes, for good and for bad, this place reminded him of his pack.

  Perhaps there was a part of him that felt if he helped this pack hold together, he could make up for leaving his behind. For running when things weren’t working and assuming it would all be fine when he got back.

  Instead, everything had fallen apart, the pack had disbanded, and Grayson, who had thought he’d return to everything, had come back to no family and no home.

  There was a deep ache inside him whenever he thought of that fact.

  He finished the work on the trailer and walked to his own double-wide that he’d brought out to camp in while doing work.

  He could do a few more jobs today, but he deserved a break. He, Hunter, and Garrett had all made the promise, but of course, Garrett was busy sexing his new mate and Hunter was… doing Hunter things.

  Which usually meant disappearing for long stretches of time when they weren’t working on a job. He’d seemed even more restless than usual lately, despite his always-cheery demeanor.

  But Grayson wasn’t the one to ask about those sorts of things. He kept to himself and didn’t know how to sort his own emotional problems, let alone those of others.

  He got lunch from his double-wide and walked out to the handful of camp chairs he’d set around a makeshift fire pit. It was a beautiful day, with a cool breeze overhead and beautiful sun shining down through the tall, leaf-covered trees.

  The kind of day a wolf could get lost in, Grayson thought as he leaned back and closed his eyes, enjoying the forest air on his face, smelling of a thousand different life-filled scents.

  Perhaps those wolf kids had the right idea after all.

  “Hey, Grayson.”

  Grayson recognized the feminine voice instantly and frowned as he reluctantly opened his eyes.

  He wasn’t trying to be mean to anyone, but he wasn’t here to steal any mates and he wasn’t part of this pack.

  Plus, he hadn’t felt any sign of his mate here, and he was sure when he did meet the right wolf woman, he would know.

  But Candace didn’t seem to care about any of that, and Grayson was tired of trying to tiptoe around her feelings.

  “Candace, you shouldn’t be over here.”

  She ignored him, flipping her sandy-blond hair as she sat in a camp chair nearby. “You know what I want, Grayson. Mate me.”

  “And I told you. You aren’t my mate. There are a bunch of nice males here, Candace. What about Brett over there?”

  Candace’s eyes followed Grayson’s suggestion to where the mild, kind beta was discussing something with one of the parents in the pack.

  Brett was a quiet man, the son of the current alpha, and while he wasn’t what anyone would typically picture as an alpha male, with his soft-spoken ways and polite words, Grayson had a great deal of respect for the man.

  Especially for the way he patiently tried to help his pack acclimate to modern ways without ever losing his temper the way Grayson did. And the way he was dealing with the sickness and possible death of his father, which would cause instability in the pack.

  Instability others would like to exploit, but Grayson was definitely keeping an eye on it.

  Brett must have felt them watching because he lifted a hand to wave. Grayson thought he noticed a slight narrowing of his eyes at Grayson sitting with Candace, but he was polite all the same.

  “Brett’s nice, but… he’s not like you. I want an alpha.”

  “Give him a chance,” Grayson said. “Besides, I’m no alpha. Right now I’m nothing but a rogue.”

  Candace’s brown eyes glittered. “Any female who looks at you can see you’re an alpha.”

  Grayson sighed. “Nonetheless, you’re not the one for me.” He stood to go into his trailer because a pack of fairly restless males had begun watching from the other side of the clearing, and that was the last thing he needed.

  Candace followed him over to the steps, batting her eyes at him. “Grayson, I don’t want to just stay here. I want more than this.”

  Grayson bit the inside of his cheek, bitterness welling as he looked down at her. “Be careful what you wish for. I made that mistake as well.”

  Then he left her there, stunned, as he walked in his double-wide and shut and locked the door behind him. He sat in the large recliner that was his only and favorite luxury as he grabbed a whittling knife and a block of wood he’d been working on.

  Keeping his hands busy always seemed to soothe him, so he started carving and chipping little pieces away until a form began to take shape.

  A wolf’s head, howling up at the moon. It brought back images of other wolves gathering together, all their voices mingling. A feeling of togetherness that Grayson knew could never be his again.

  If he was lucky, there was at least a female out there for him. Maybe another rogue who also had no one to hold. But he had no idea how to find her, and now that he was outside wolf norms, he didn’t hold a lot of hope.

  He had set down his project and picked up a glass of water when he heard a loud knock on his trailer, making him jolt.

  Angrily, he shoved the door open and glared down menacingly at whoever had dared to invade his space.

  It was one of the teenagers, a cousin of one of the omegas of the pack. “We have an intruder coming,” the kid blurted, running a hand through his scraggly, shoulder-length hair. “They’re headed for our town.”

  Town was a very loose way to describe this settlement of trailers and makeshift store, but okay.

  Grayson set down his water and stepped out. “I’ll deal with it.” As the one who was best with humans, he didn’t mind dealing with tourists who needed to be turned around so the pack didn’t risk discovery any more than they already did.

  Sometimes it was someone from town coming to check on them, but that was rare, as welfare checks in the past hadn’t gone well.

  “Human or shifter, does anyone know?” Grayson asked, following the teen as they headed in the direction of Grayson’s truck.

  “Scouts said human,” the teen answered. “A woman most likely. But no time to drive. Scouts said she would be here any minute.”

  Grayson frowned and folded his arms over his chest. “Not a problem.” The scouts should have given them all more notice, but it would be fine. It was a human woman. The easiest of creatures to intimidate, at least for a grumpy wolf like him. Even when he didn’t mean to, in his experience.

  Grayson would have her running back to civilization in no time.

  So why, as he scented something unknown in the air and saw dirt clouds in the distance, did his wolf feel slightly on edge about this whole situation?

  April gritted her teeth as her SUV lurched and bumped through the underbrush, struggling over fallen logs and jerking through divots that no civilized road should ever have.

  Sure, her trusty old Outback was durable, but she’d never intended to put it through such a rough ride.

  She stroked the dash as they hit another hard bump, sending dirt flying everywhere.

  “I’m sorry, baby, but this is important,” she murmured, hitting the gas to get over a particularly large log.

  Curse the old man who’d told her there were people out here who could probably help her. When she’d been sent out here, hired by the government to do research on the wolves in the area, she hadn’t known where to st
art.

  She’d rented a hotel room in town and dropped off her stuff, but when she asked around, no one would admit to seeing wolves.

  And only the one old man had come up and told her where she might find someone who could help her. Except, it seemed there was nothing out here but an abandoned road that led absolutely nowhere and was made to torture vehicles.

  But she wasn’t going to give up that easily. The state had almost wiped out the wolf population due to jumping the gun on wolf reports and assigning bounties that encouraged hunters to go out for the kill.

  As someone who had devoted her life to researching the incredible animals, she couldn’t just let someone step in and kill them without more information about how much of a threat they might be.

  Plus, there was the possibility of discovering a new pack all on her own. All of her previous study had been with packs other people had discovered.

  Her heart raced as she thought about naming and identifying the alpha male and female and the omega and all of the other members. Getting to know them, their unique habits and behaviors.

  Though they were wild, wolves could be so very… human at times.

  They cared for each other and their young, and whether they were traveling, hunting, or howling, they shared a sense of connection that was almost otherworldly.

  Perhaps as a human who had always been on the fringe of things, she found that connection especially fascinating.

  Of course, there was always the possibility that the reports were false. It wouldn’t be the first time someone saw a few wild huskies and thought wolves lived in their backyard.

  But there were more reports than usual, albeit all from tourists and campers, with no info from anyone in town.

  While she was lost in thought, the road suddenly opened up, the dense trees overhead giving way as she bumped into a clearing, hitting her brakes as she saw a settlement just up ahead.

  She brushed her dark-brown hair back as she stared at the sight in front of her, almost feeling as though she’d stumbled on something from another time.

  There were many trailers, a few small shacks, and trees all around the small settlement. Like a trailer park in the middle of a forest, except all the trailers were falling apart, and the people seemed to be nowhere in sight.

  She parked her car a little way from the first trailer and walked toward the encampment, studying the buildings around her.

  She saw repairs on a few of the shacks and trailers. Someone who knew what they were doing was clearly repairing roofs and patching siding.

  But why here when it seemed to be a total ghost town?

  Wind whistled through trees, creating a lonely echo of a howl, and she suddenly stopped, looking around her.

  This looked like a scene from a horror movie, one where everyone started screaming at the heroine on the screen to run.

  Yet she felt like she couldn’t.

  She took another step toward the eerily quiet, totally still town.

  The road curved around toward a group of trees that hid one side of the clearing, and as April neared it, the rest of the area began to come into view.

  And a dark shadow popped out in front of her, suddenly blocking the sunlight.

  April let out a squeak of surprise as she looked up at the tall, quiet man staring down at her, a look of consternation on his face, his huge arms folded over his chest tightly.

  “What do you want?” he asked in a low growl.

  He had a military-style buzz cut and features that would have been handsome if he didn’t look so mean. Gray eyes, sharp and metallic, like razor blades glinted down at her.

  He was covered in tattoos down both sides of his arms and didn’t look like the type who got them simply to be a poser.

  She guessed each one meant something, though she wasn’t sure there would ever be a person brave enough to ask.

  He shifted impatiently, making his muscles bunch under his thin tee shirt. A tool belt was slung across his trim hips, and his powerful thighs were revealed in worn work jeans.

  She guessed there were callouses on those strong-looking hands. Had he been the one doing repairs around here?

  “Do you have a hearing problem? I asked you what you were doing here.”

  “I… I’m doing a research project on behalf of the government. I need to survey the area, and someone said I could find wolves out here, and—”

  “Go home,” he said sharply.

  She gaped. She knew she’d been babbling, partly because she’d never met anyone as hot as him and partly because she’d never met anyone as mean as him, but he didn’t need to be so rude. “I can’t. Look, do you know something? Because if there are wolves in the area, I’m only trying to protect them. The government is going to put out bounties.”

  “What kind of wolves?” the man asked, but his eyes were entirely honest. He knew something; she was sure.

  The researcher in her awakened. “Gray wolves. Supposed to be an endangered species, but a lot of states are taking them off the list. They’re noble animals, and they don’t deserve to—”

  “What are you, some kind of wolf groupie?”

  She let her mouth hang open, offended. Then she snapped it shut. “I don’t need to justify myself to you. I… Look.”

  He stared at her impatiently, and she wanted to be rude right back to him, but she knew she needed to be careful to get the information she sought.

  “I was told the people out here might know something that could help me. If they’ve been seeing wolves, they might be in danger, too. If not, they might be able to help me protect the pack. I need your help, okay? Please? Just a short chat?”

  He looked caught off guard for a moment, then took a deep breath. He cocked his head to the side, silver eyes glinting, a five o-clock shadow only making his face look more handsome and sharp.

  “Fine.” He turned and waved for her to follow him, leading the way to a trailer that was a little way from the others, set back into the trees. It was a double-wide and in far better shape than any other structure.

  When he reached it, he opened the door and held it for her, oddly gentlemanly as she went in.

  But just as he gestured for her to take a seat on a nearby sofa and shut and locked the door behind her, she realized in her fervor to get info about wolves, she might have just made a mistake.

  Chapter 2

  “Sorry for the mess,” Grayson said, sitting down in his recliner so he could study this odd little human more closely.

  He’d known there were humans that cared about animals, but one obsessed with protecting wolves? That was a new one.

  He’d seen them on TV, but never thought he would meet one in person.

  If this little human wasn’t careful, she was going to get hurt.

  Gray wolves were tiny compared to shifter wolves, and if this woman threatened any shifter pack’s way of life, she’d be in danger.

  And that bothered him somehow.

  He’d meant to go out and do his big, scary Grayson impression that seemed to send everyone running, but he’d been taken aback when he saw her.

  She was beautiful, for one, in a way no one else had ever been to him. She had dark hair that was smooth and silky in the sunlight. Intense green eyes with rings of brown at the center. A turned-up nose and pert chin, rosy cheeks dotted with freckles. Stubborn mouth with full lower lip.

  Curvy body that would have caused a pack riot if she were an alpha female.

  Yes, everything about her called to the wolf inside him, made him want to sit up and howl.

  So it was too bad that she was a human. Not that he had time to think about such things right now.

  He needed to convince her that she wouldn’t be safe here, that there was nothing to look into, and get her out of the pack’s hair.

  So why hadn’t he been able to just glare down at her and tell her to go?

  He got up awkwardly and grabbed two mugs. “You want some coffee?”

  Damn, why had he offered?

/>   “Sure.” She nodded with a smile, looking nervously around her.

  Did she think he was going to attack her? He supposed that was something she should have thought of before driving out alone to a town full of wolves. Or a town where wolves had been reported.

  This female didn’t know how to take care of herself, and that made him nervous, for some reason.

  He held out a mug of coffee and set it on the table in front of her, then sat on the other side with a mug of his own.

  He pinned her with a stare, not caring that it probably made her uncomfortable.

  There was something odd about this human, and he was going to figure it out.

  “So you live here? I’m April, by the way.” She looked around at the tools scattered on nearly every surface, except the table in front of them.

  “Grayson. Sorry for the mess,” he muttered, not sure why he had to apologize.

  It wasn’t his fault he’d been so busy. If Garrett and Hunter would help out more, he’d have time to do things like clean up.

  He actually preferred neat spaces. Years in the military had taught him that.

  She held her mug in both hands, probably waiting for it to cool, and looked over at the shelf that held his wood carvings, both those in progress and those that were finished. “Wow, did you make those?”

  He nodded, and something stirred in him at the honest admiration in her voice. He wanted this female to think highly of him. He wanted her praise. Wanted to protect her…

  Oh shit, no. That could not be what he thought it was.

  He decided he’d spent too much time in the sun that day, and the encounter with the little wolf kid and then Candace had thrown him off.

  He just needed some coffee, and he’d be able to shake this whole thing off. He sipped from his mug, enjoying the dark, rich flavor there.

  “Well, they are really good,” she said quietly, a small flush coloring her cheeks as she lifted her mug to her mouth, taking a small sip.

  He watched her, wondering what she would think of his coffee, and froze when she made a bracing expression, her lips puckering as she tried to avoid a grimace. She set the mug down reluctantly, then gave him a pained smile.