by Kim Fox
Both of their faces dropped when they saw Cole standing there without a shirt on. Jennifer had her shirt untucked as well and her hair was a mess.
“I knew it!” Ashton yelled, pointing an accusing finger at Cole. “You traitor!”
“Ashton,” Cole said, raising his hands in surrender. “It wasn’t planned like this.”
“I thought you were better than that, Cole,” Joan said, shaking her head at him.
“What are they talking about?” Jennifer asked, looking uncomfortable as she stepped away.
Ashton grinned at her. “You were hired to sleep with me. Not with Cole.”
Cole closed his eyes as his stomach dropped. How could Ashton be so stupid?
“What?” Jennifer snapped, whipping around to Cole and piercing him with furious eyes. “I was hired for what now?”
“Let me explain,” Joan said, stepping in. “Ashton hadn’t had sex in a long time and we thought that if we hired a pretty girl to be the chef than she could-”
“You don’t have to explain,” Jennifer said, grabbing her bag off of the counter. She hugged it to her chest as she ran to the door. “You guys are all a bunch of psychos!”
“Wait!” Cole said, pushing past Ashton and Joan to follow her. “It wasn’t like that!”
His heart was breaking as he jogged to keep up with her as she hurried to her car. “Please, Jennifer. Just listen.”
She spun on her heels, catching him off guard. She crossed her arms as she tapped her toe. “Go ahead,” she snapped, glaring at him with a heated stare. “Explain.”
“I, uh, we,” Cole stuttered.
“Exactly,” she said, ripping open the door of her car. “I got offered another job this morning and I’m going to take it.”
“What?” he asked, his whole world falling apart. “No…”
Something seized him like an electric shock. Cole froze, unable to move or breathe. He just stared at Jennifer as every muscle in his body tightened to the point of pain. The world behind her faded to black as his bear bonded with her, his soul connecting to hers forever.
It released him with a jolt and he almost fell to a knee with his heart pounding harder than ever. It was her. Jennifer was his mate.
“You guys are such freaks!” she said, getting in the car and slamming the door in his face.
He knocked on her window, desperate to explain, unable to let her go.
His heart was racing, his mouth dry, the tightness burning his chest.
She rolled down the window and he gasped, looking up at her with hope in his eyes. Maybe she had felt the pull of the bond, maybe she would see that they were mates and belonged together.
She just gave him a dirty look as the car reversed.
“I quit!” she yelled before taking off and leaving him in a cloud of dust.
***
Cole slammed his fist into the dirt as he clenched his jaw closed. “You fucking idiot!” he screamed at himself. How could he have fucked everything up so badly?
He pushed himself up to his knees and dropped his chin to his chest, feeling like his heart, which had finally found its purpose was now breaking to pieces.
I need a drink.
He turned to get one in the inn and froze when he saw Ashton and Joan staring at him. Cole dropped his eyes to the dirt, staring at a little rock that was half-buried into the earth, looking like it was drowning. He couldn’t look at his friends after what he had done. He didn’t deserve them.
“Cole,” Ashton said as he rushed over with Joan. They both dropped to a knee, one on each side of him and rubbed his shoulders.
“Are you okay, buddy?” Ashton asked, looking concerned.
Cole turned to him with watery eyes. “I’m sorry, Ashton,” he said. “That was so shitty of me.”
“I thought it was too,” he answered. “But I didn’t realize she is your mate.”
“Was my mate,” he said in a shaky voice. “She left. She quit.”
“She’s still your mate,” Joan said, forcing a smile at him. “It doesn’t mean you guys won’t ever fight but she’ll always be your mate.”
“I know that,” he said, squeezing his hand into a fist. “But will I be hers?”
Cole sat on the ground and stared at his bare foot that was covered in dried up blood. The slash from the knife was already healed and the pink line was starting to fade as well.
“I’m really sorry, Ashton,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I shouldn’t have lied to you. I went in with the best of intentions but when I saw her, it changed everything.”
Ashton nodded. “I was hurt that you were lying to me and sneaking around,” he said. “You should have just told me you liked her instead of going behind my back. I would have stepped aside for you.”
Cole nodded, feeling a thickness in his throat. “Of course, you would have. You’re like a brother to me.” Why did he see it now but couldn’t see it before?
It was because of Jennifer. She was clouding his mind.
“Are you mad, bro?” Cole asked, looking up at him with wet eyes.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “She’s your mate,” he said with a shrug of his shoulders. “It never would have worked out between us. She belongs to you.”
Cole patted his shoulder and smiled tightly at him. “Thank you, Ashton. You’re a better man than me.”
He turned to his alpha’s heated glare next. “Are you mad at me, Joan?” he asked with a gulp.
She gritted her teeth together as she stared at him. “For what? Nearly burning down the kitchen, scaring off the chef two weeks before our grand opening, lying to the crew, or for ruining the Wilde Crew’s first official mission, and making our record a pathetic zero and one?”
Cole gulped. “All of the above?”
Joan sighed. “You want to make things right?” she asked, staring him down.
He nodded.
“Good. Then go get the girl and all will be forgiven. That’s an alpha order.”
eleven
Jennifer stared at her phone that was lying on the bed. “Pick it up,” she said to herself. “Pick it up and call him.”
She had been at home for over an hour trying to pump herself up to call Guy Laplante and accept the job as his sous-chef but no matter how many times she urged her fingers to dial his number, they wouldn’t move.
Something felt different with her, more intense.
She felt compelled to return to the Wilde Ranch to see Cole, to talk to him, to hold him. There was something that had seemed to be gripping her soul that wouldn’t release her. Some kind of change deep within her core.
Was she right to have quit and leave Cole hanging there? Of course, she was. They were all liars. He was a bear shifter and he never told her.
But that wasn’t even the part that hurt the most. They had hired her so that Ashton could hit on her and try to have sex with her? That was unforgivable.
She sat on her bed with a huff and grabbed her phone. Don’t think just dial.
Her fingers moved over the screen, finding Guy’s phone number. She took a deep breath and hit send, her hand shaking as it rang.
***
This is a bad idea.
Cole stood outside of Jennifer’s door for a full five minutes, wondering if she was going to greet him with a hug or with a thrown cell phone to the head.
Just knock already.
Joan and Ashton had convinced him to come and see her. It had been a few hours since she drove off the ranch in a fury and she was sure to have calmed down by now. Hopefully.
“You have to fight for her,” Joan had said. “It will be romantic. Tell her you won’t give up until she’s yours.”
“That kind of sounds like stalking to me,” Rhett said, looking unsure.
“What the hell do you know?” Joan said, waving a dismissive hand at him.
Rhett just scratched his head as he looked back at his parked police car. “Well, I am a cop.”
Cole lowered his head, staring
at the bottom crack under the door. His heart seized in his chest as he saw a shadow break the yellow line.
“I can see you through the peephole,” Jennifer said from the other side of the door.
Cole ducked down. A little too late but it was the first thing that came to his mind.
“I can still hear you breathing,” she said in a muffled voice. The lock clicked and she opened the door a crack. “What are you doing here, Cole?”
“Trying to get my girlfriend back.”
“I think you’re in the wrong place,” she answered. “The ditsy twins don’t live here.”
“Jennifer,” he said, the desperation clear in his voice, even to him. “Please. Just let me explain.”
She sighed and then the door swung open. “You have five minutes,” she said, turning her back to him and walking in.
He followed her inside, looking around as he closed the door. There was an old picture framed on the wall of a bratty looking kid with a ponytail, skinned knees, and a devilish grin on her face. Cole smiled as he recognized his mate. She was adorable.
The heaviness settled back on his chest as he stepped into her living room where she was sitting on the couch. He slid into the chair across from her and held his fidgeting hands on his lap.
“So,” she said, staring blankly at him. “Explain.”
“I’m an idiot.”
“That explains a lot,” she said. “But it’s not good enough.”
He told her about the morning when he first saw her, starting with how Ashton had said that he hadn’t gotten laid in two years.
“We had all agreed that we would help him try to get some action,” he explained, realizing how stupid it sounded when he said it out loud. “We were just trying to help him out and thought that with all of the people coming to the inn, there might be a girl for him.”
“And you thought that would be me?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “When I first saw you, I knew that I had to have you for myself. I didn’t realize it at the time but looking back, I know. I was in love with you in the first moment that I saw you.”
“Is that why you hired me?” she asked, still not cracking a smile.
“No,” he said, jerking his head back. “I hired you because you cook like a fucking champ. You know that. I’ve been stuffing my face all week with your cooking.”
She looked down to her fingers that were fidgeting on her lap. “I don’t know,” she whispered.
Cole’s chest seized up. “You do,” he said, leaning forward in desperation. “I couldn’t fake the way that I feel about you. I know that you can feel the connection. I know you can because I can feel it, and there’s no way that something this strong can be one-sided.”
“There’s definitely something,” she said, glancing at him quickly before looking away. “But that doesn’t mean much when you have horny twins hanging off of you when we go out, or when Joan says that I was only hired to sleep with your friend.”
Cole sighed. “We were just joking around about getting Ashton laid,” he said, wishing that it had never happened in the first place. “And you got hired because you’re an amazing chef. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
“But Joan said-”
“Joan doesn’t think before she speaks,” Cole interrupted, pleading with her.
Jennifer nodded slowly. “Because of the parachute accident?”
“Huh?” he said, tilting his head before he remembered. When Joan was asking Jennifer all sorts of weird questions during the interview, he had told her that Joan was a little messed up ever since she went skydiving and her chute didn’t open.
Cole caught himself and put on a serious face. “That’s right,” he said, nodding. “Because of the accident. Oh, and by the way, don’t bring that up around her. She’s very sensitive about it.”
“Okay,” Jennifer said. “Thanks for telling me.”
“And as for anyone else-”
“The twins,” Jennifer interrupted with a glare.
“Right,” Cole said with a gulp. “As for the twins. I’m done with all of that. How can I prove it to you? I’ll get your name tattooed across my forehead.”
Jennifer laughed. “No,” she said with a grin. “That would just ruin your pretty face. Maybe across your chest.”
Cole nodded. “Whatever you want.”
“In big block letters.”
“Done.”
“With a big picture of my face on your stomach.”
Cole would do anything to get her back. She was kidding but he wasn’t.
“Whatever makes you feel better.”
Her perfect lips curled up into a smile as she watched him. She shifted to the side of the sofa and tapped the seat beside her. “I’d feel better if you sat beside me.”
Cole sprung out of his chair, leaped over the coffee table and was beside her before she could take her hand back.
“I’m sorry about everything,” Cole said, taking her hand in his. “I just want to get back to where we were crazy about each other.” He had never left that phase.
“You want to get back to a time that never existed?” she asked with a smirk.
“Okay,” Cole said. “I just want to get back to where I was crazy about you and you tolerated me.”
She smiled as her cheeks flushed pink. “That would be nice.”
Cole leaned in to remove any of her lingering doubts with a kiss. She was hesitant at first but quickly melted into his arms as his tongue slid over hers.
“So,” she said when they finally pulled apart. “You’re a bear shifter? Like, for real?”
“For realsies,” Cole said with a laugh. “A grizzly bear shifter.”
“Wow,” she said, staring at him in awe. He told her about how he had a bear living inside him and that the other members of the crew had inner animals as well, except for Rhett. She listened with fascination and asked a million questions before she was ready to move on.
“There’s something else,” he said, worried that he was going to scare her off.
“What?” she asked, her face dropping.
“My bear bonded to you,” he said, taking a deep breath and holding it until she answered.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that there will never be another girl for me besides you for the rest of my life. Ever.”
“Ever?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Ever,” he repeated firmly. “You’re the one for me.”
“Your bear chose me?” she asked, looking a bit confused.
“He did,” Cole said with a nod. “He saw something in you that made him want to stick by your side forever.”
“Did you see it too?”
Cole nodded. “I see it now. I always saw it, but my bear made it crystal clear. I only want you, Jennifer. Even if you don’t feel the same way, I won’t ever want anybody else. The bond is for life. It will never go away.”
She stared at her fidgeting fingers as she thought about his words. “When did this happen?”
“When you were leaving this morning,” he said, his heart breaking all over again at having to relive it. “But I think deep down, I always knew.”
“Me too,” she whispered. “But since I drove away it’s been different. It’s been weird.”
“That’s the bond,” he said, feeling like a thousand pound weight had been lifted off of his chest. “You can’t feel it as strongly since you’re human but it’s there. It’s real and it’s physical.”
“I can feel it strongly,” she whispered.
“So you’ll come back and be our chef?” Cole said, relieved that all of this was behind them.
She leaned back with a tense look on her face. “I got offered another job today,” she said, taking a heavy breath. “From a famous French chef.”
Cole’s stomach dropped and he felt his lunch threatening to come back up. “No,” he whispered, feeling the color drain from his face.
“It’s with the best restaurant in Montan
a,” she said, biting her bottom lip as she watched him. “I’d be working with a very talented chef who would teach me so much. It was my dream job.”
Cole sighed as he dropped his head. “Your dream job?”
Jennifer nodded. “Yeah.”
“Then you should take it,” he said, even though every cell in his body was screaming at him to tell her the opposite. “I know how much cooking means to you. We can do the long distance thing or if you’re up for it, maybe I can come with you.”
He closed his eyes, too nervous to look at her. Cole didn’t want to be the type of boyfriend who would hold his woman back from her dreams. He wanted to encourage her and help her to reach all of her goals even if it was inconvenient for him.
“You’d come with me?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
“I’d go with you to the moon,” he said, and he meant it. “I’d follow you anywhere. As long as I got to walk behind you to check out that fine ass.”
“There it is,” she said with a laugh. “I didn’t take it.”
Cole’s eyes darted to hers. “Why not? You should if it’s your dream. Call him back now.”
She took a deep breath as she watched him with smiling eyes. “It was my dream. Until I met you.”
“I knew it!” he said, pumping his fist. “You looooove me!”
“Watch it,” she said with a playful grin. “You’re still on thin ice. I thought about taking the job and it all felt so wrong. I want to stay at the Wilde Ranch Inn and develop my own menu, create my own reputation, and of course, see where things go with my sexy assistant.”
“Sexy boss,” Cole corrected.
Jennifer smirked at him. “You said that Joan was my boss. So that makes you my assistant.”
“As long as I get to skin your peach,” he said with a grin, “you can call me whatever you want.”
“Skin my peach?” she repeated looking at him funny.
“Shuck your oyster. Peel your avocado. Which do you prefer?”
She smiled. “I prefer that you keep your perverted food innuendos to yourself, assistant.”
Cole smiled, happier than ever. “Yes, boss.”
