by Hattie Hunt
The terrain started to incline, and Mason kept his porcupine just off to the side of the trail, close enough to follow the track, but not out in the open. He didn’t know what he might be walking into, and he would rather see them before they saw him.
Mason crested the hill and froze.
Two people sat on the flat rock that jutted out from the hill overlooking Troutdale. The woman, stark naked with blonde hair loose in a wave down her back, had her armed looped around an equally naked man’s elbow.
Emma. And another man.
Everything suddenly made perfect sense. Emma had gone cold each time because she had another. Man.
Mason urged his porcupine to move back down the hill, and the creature let out an indignant shriek, nose stuffed into a particularly interesting spot in the dirt.
The voices halted, and even though Mason couldn’t see them, thanks to his stubborn ass spirit animal, he could feel the eyes peering through the darkness in search of the sound.
“Who’s there?” It was the man’s voice.
Emma shushed him. “Mason?”
Fuck. He really, really didn’t want to have to shift to get his porcupine back under control. For the moment, he was at least still hidden, but bears had a better sense of smell than porcupines did. And she had already pegged his presence.
Move, you blasted animal, Mason willed.
The porcupine grunted.
And ambled towards the overlook.
That…fucking porcupine.
Emma extracted her arm from Jordan’s, her heart pummeling in her chest. What the hell was Mason doing up here? This was seriously the last thing that she needed.
“Who is Mason?” Jordan hissed in her ear, his shoulders bristling with fur.
“New teacher at the school,” Emma hissed back, stepping off the rock. “Stay here.”
“Not likely. After what happened today? You’re crazy if I’m letting you go anywhere without me to protect you.” Jordan stepped down beside her.
She pushed him back into the rock. “He’s harmless. Stay here.”
Jordan swore, but sat back down.
“Mason, where are you?” Emma moved across the overlook, letting Mal follow his scent. He had to be shifted. She didn’t see a man anywhere. If not for Mal, she wouldn’t have noticed him in the first place.
The brush rustled to her left and Emma stopped, peering into the darkness.
A little help, Mal? She growled, annoyed at the unenhanced state of her vision.
Mal grunted and Emma’s vision cleared, the shadows becoming more defined.
There. Under a tree to her left, she found a porcupine unlike any she had ever seen before. Was it carrying a leather bag on its back? Emma had to bite back a laugh at the ridiculousness of it. Long white quills skewed out from underneath the bag, flattened against Mason’s back by the weight of whatever was inside it. She was almost sure he was trying to puff up, but the result was more like a spiky leather bag with a head.
The porcupine moved back and forth, shaking its head. It took one step forward and then one back. She felt Mal groan in… annoyance?
“Mason, is everything okay?”
The porcupine chattered its teeth and bit down. The leather strap in its mouth split in two and the bag fell to the ground.
Then the porcupine skittered off into the trees.
Emma frowned. What the hell was that all about? She considered following for a moment, then turned back to Jordan. The bag was still sitting there under the tree. Mason would be back. And she really hoped he hadn’t seen her snuggled up to Jordan.
“A porcupine?” Jordan asked, leaning back against the rock, arms crossed against his chest.
“There’s nothing wrong with porcupines.”
“If you say so.”
She elbowed Jordan in the ribs.
He sucked in a breath.
Emma jerked back. “Sorry. I forgot.”
“Thanks for that. It’s not like I got mauled by a grizzly or anything.”
“Sorry,” Emma said again.
A branch snapped from the direction the porcupine had gone.
Jordan narrowed his gaze at Emma and then stood up. “I’m gonna let you take care of that. Call me later, okay?”
Emma cringed and then nodded. She watched Jordan shift back into a bear and disappear into the woods.
“Will you please turn your back on me?”
Emma jumped, surprised to hear Mason’s voice. She spun around only to see a leg disappear behind a tree.
“I need to grab my bag. Please turn around.”
Emma bit her lip. Really? But she turned around anyway.
Leaves rustled behind her and she heard the release of a buckle and fabric rubbing and something—crinkly? She turned her head a little to get a better look.
“Don’t look.”
She whipped her head back around. Of all the things… a shy shifter.
Goosebumps ran along her arms as Mal chuckled.
“Mason, this is ridiculous. Can I turn around please?”
The buckle on the bag clinked and steps came up behind her. “Yes. You can turn around.”
“What are you doing up here?” Emma asked, taking his less than normally manicured appearance.
A twig hung in his hair. It was hard to tell in the dark, but she was pretty sure his nose he had a dirt smudge on his nose. His hands fiddled with the broken strap of the leather satchel. “Last I checked this was public property.” His voice was sharp and strained.
Emma took a step back. “Right. Stupid question, sorry.”
“I didn’t mean to interrupt you and your—well, I mean I tried not to intrude. My porcupine has a mind of its own sometimes. Worse than a kid most days. Anyway, I don’t want to interrupt.” He spun his hand around in a vague gesture towards the now empty rock.
What the heck was he even talking about?
It took everything Mason had to keep his eyes on her face. He was glad for the darkness, as he knew his cheeks were red. She was just standing there, like she didn’t even know that she was completely naked. And having seen her with that man, whoever he was, he felt like he was intruding, seeing something he didn’t have the right to see.
“No, it’s fine.” She said, running a hand through her loose hair. It fell over one shoulder, coming to rest just over the peak of her breast.
Mason shook his head and closed his eyes. She had a boyfriend. There was another man. He had read too much into her flirtatious nature.
Stop. Looking. At. Her. Breasts.
“I need to go.” He turned to bolt away. “It was, um, nice to see you.”
A hand found his arm, pulling him back. “Mason, don’t go. It really isn’t a big deal. Jordan isn’t—”
This was so awkward. Why wouldn’t she just let him leave?
Her hand fell away. “Jordan and I—it’s complicated. Not what it looks like.”
He really shouldn’t care. He just wanted out of there. “It’s fine. I get it.” He cringed. He sounded like a jealous prick. Maybe he was, but she had lead him on, at least a little bit. This wasn’t all on him. “I need to get back anyway. Papers to grade.”
He walked away, knuckles white around the strap of his broken satchel. If he stayed there, looking at her naked body… Well, his resolve would be non-existent. He hadn’t exactly been around a ton of naked women in his thirty years. Something about being a closet shifter.
How could he have been so stupid? He hadn’t even realized his brain had gone there. It served him right. This town—he blamed being here for his lapse. Letting himself get sucked into the shifter world. Maybe his parents had been right to suppress their spirit animals. It probably saved them a lot of grief.
“Mason, wait.” Emma called after him.
He didn’t look back. He wouldn’t let himself.
His porcupine prickled underneath his skin as they moved back into the cover of the trees, wanting to be free again.
“You blew that for the night, you l
ittle terrorist,” Mason grumbled aloud as he pushed aside a branch. It wasn’t until the next one hit him in the face that he realized he was walking through the trees instead of on the trail.
The porcupine didn’t have the lead. He did. And if he didn’t get his shit together, he was going to get eaten by a damn bear.
Boy, had that woman thrown him for a loop.
12
Emma stared after Mason, trying to sort out what the hell had just happened. Her head ached. No, her entire body ached. Scratch that. Her soul ached. And she was pretty sure Mason had just taken part of her with him.
It served him right, walking up on them like that. What did he expect to see?
Emma shook her head. Not that. She shouldn’t even have asked the question. He couldn’t have known the lookout was her and Jordan’s spot. He had no idea what had happened earlier in the day—that she had suddenly become alpha to a clan of strong-willed bears and nearly killed her best friend.
Mason didn’t know any of that. So, what did she expect? Once the thought had connected in her mind, once she realized what assumption he had made, it had been so obvious. But how was she supposed to explain that her and Jordan were friends, nothing more?
It was probably better he had jumped to conclusions anyway. The last thing she needed was to get involved with someone new. No matter how much she liked the guy. It wouldn’t be fair to him, not with everything that had happened in the last week between her and the clan and Jordan.
Emma raked her hands through her hair. The ends were tangled, and her fingers caught, pulling at her scalp. It would take her an hour to get it straightened out when she got home. No, when she got back to Joe and Ripley’s. She didn’t have a home. Not yet.
So many things had to fall into place. Now that she was alpha, she couldn’t live in Joe and Ripley’s apartment. She certainly couldn’t live with Jordan. And Cheryl? Well. She wasn’t even going to consider it. Emma was already going to have to watch her back. She was fresh meat. If anyone in the clan aspired to be alpha, now was their chance. Whether they had been on her or Cheryl’s side or not.
A low growl rumbled from the bushes off north of the hill, and Emma rolled her eyes. “You were supposed to go home, Jordan.”
A hulking grizzly stalked out of the bushes. He had been listening the whole time. Great. Emma should have known he wasn’t going to leave her there. He had said as much out loud.
Jordan swung his head back and forth, and then rolled back onto his haunches. He let out another growl and shifted back, mostly.
Emma narrowed her eyes. “Really?”
“I don’t know if you noticed, but it is chilly tonight. There’s nothing wrong with a little fur.” Jordan shrugged and closed the distance to the top of the hill in three long strides, one foot landing a little gingerly on the last one.
Emma winced.
And noticed, suddenly, that it was indeed chilly out. Goosebumps prickled up her arms and down her back. Grudgingly, she coaxed Mal out, wrapping her shoulders in his thick fur.
As he came out, her senses spiked, and the overwhelming smell of porcupine flared in her nostrils. She couldn’t remember having smelled a porcupine before, but now there was no question. The scent came from the spot that Mason had appeared in the trees. The same place that he’d disappeared.
Jordan stared at the space where Mason had disappeared, his expression dark. “That went well.”
“Shut up.”
“Sorry, Em.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Not your fault. This is how it has to be.”
“If you say so.” He stretched his arms up and arched his back over the rock. The claw marks across his chest glowed in the moonlight, angry red lines where Emma’s blow had landed. She should be the one who was sorry.
Except she wasn’t. She was pissed. Here she was, standing in the middle of the woods with her best friend whom she’d had every reason to attack not even an hour earlier, and the man who made her feel amazing left in a huff.
“Well, it seems you’re moving on rather quickly.”
“Why are you acting like this? I thought we understood one another. I don’t have those kinds of feelings for you.”
Jordan massaged his forehead. “I don’t know.”
Emma pushed Mal back, if for no other reason than to eliminate the lingering porcupine scent. She rolled her fingers in a stretch, trying to relieve some of the tension. “If you had feelings for me, you should have voiced them a long time ago. I need to move on.”
“I… see that.”
She balled her hands into fists.
Jordan held up his hands in retreat. “I’m worried about you.”
Seriously?
“You’ve been through a lot today. Come home with me.” He took a step towards her, reaching for her arm.
What was he playing at? “I can’t go home with you.”
“You can. You’re alpha. You can do whatever you want.”
Emma turned to look at him and sighed, a resigned smile flickering across her lips. “You know, you can’t really go home either.”
Jordan cocked his head to the side, not connecting.
“A pair of bears jumped from our second story window, remember? The Sisterhood is going to be all over the place. In fact, I am surprised they haven’t tracked us down yet.”
Jordan’s shoulders drooped. “Right.” Then he perked up. “Maybe Joe and Rip have room for two?”
Emma groaned, drawing Mal forward. “Not happening. They barely have room for me. Come on, I know a place.” She really wasn’t in the mood to deal with the Shadow Sisterhood on top of everything else.
“Where?”
“The cabin. You know, where Brett and Juliet got married. As far as I know, it’s vacant.”
“Perfect. Lead the way.”
Emma shook her head and shifted, letting Mal lead the way. The cabin was still pretty much the same as they’d left it. It just looked a little less lived in, not that it had been really that lived in before.
Emma and her brothers had abandoned it years ago. It was technically on the Elliot property, but they had been the only ones who spent any time there growing up. When Brett had been infected with rabies and Joe and Ripley were racing to save his life, they’d used the cabin as a place to lay low.
“You should see about moving here,” Jordan said as he shifted back into human shape, stepping up the three wooden steps to the door in his bare feet.
She probably could. Being alpha should make it easy. She didn’t want to move into Cheryl’s house. Even though Chuck had banished her, Emma was certain she wasn’t going far. “Yeah.”
“I’ll help you move in this weekend.” Jordan’s tone was light, but his expression and his body language remained tense.
Emma walked up the steps and stopped beside him. “Are you interested in me?” Best to be plain about it.
He took in a deep breath, looking away. “No.”
“Don’t lie to me.” Because something was going on and she needed to know what it was.
He leaned against the pole supporting the porch. “What if I am?”
This was what she was afraid of. “I told you. I don’t feel for you like that. I thought you felt the same way.”
“I—well, maybe I don’t.”
“Maybe? Wouldn’t you know?”
He turned toward her, his expression grim. “I tried, Em. I did. But you and I got so close so fast and it’s so natural.”
“We’ve been best friends forever.”
“I know, so doesn’t it make sense to marry?”
“And not mate?” Emma didn’t want that. She wanted to be with the man she could give her entire soul to. She didn’t want to be constantly looking, whether she was doing it on purpose or not.
“I…” He closed his eyes and said quietly. “I feel it on my end.”
She shook her head and padded to the other end of the porch. She’d heard of pairs going into a life match like that, where one sid
e felt the mate bond and the other did not. It typically ended disastrously.
“I need you to understand something, Jordan, and get it through your head.”
He pushed off the railing and braced himself.
“I’m not interested in you like that, and if you can’t handle it, you and I can’t be the friends like we used to be.”
He was silent for a long moment. Then, he turned away, heading back toward the forest. “I’ll help you move in the morning.”
Emma closed her eyes, wrapping her arms over her chest. When had things gotten so complicated?
13
By the end of the weekend, she had one hell of an emotional hangover.
Staring at the task board at the bakery Monday morning had her thoroughly convinced that it was going to be as much of a Monday as she’d ever experienced. It completely turned out to be. And Cyn didn’t help. To the point Emma had to banished her to the front of the store.
Emma glared at the pie on the floor of the passenger side of her car. The custom order irked her.
She never took anyone’s recipes. Never.
And baking that pie rankled every nerve in her body.
Mostly because she still had to deliver it.
The pie itself turned out great—on the second try.
She had ten minutes before the thing was supposed to be delivered, and she debated.
Did she want to see Mason or not?
The meringue started to wilt after being out of the fridge so long. She needed to deliver the dang pie before it melted and then get out. If she saw Mason, great. If not, then, oh well.
Emma stepped out of the car and picked up the pie, balancing it in one hand as she leaned back inside to grab her keys. The queue of golf carts used to bring the residents to and from the club house was about half its usual size.
“Hey, Sam,” she called to a young, black man driving one of the carts. “Can I get a ride?”
“Miss Elliot.” He beamed a smile at her and gestured to the cart. “We haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Things have been a little crazy with the family. But I’ll be here Friday afternoon.” She smiled at the man, a little twinge of guilt shooting across her chest. If the help had noticed she hadn’t been around, surely the residents had. Though, Sam did have a certain sweet tooth for her desserts.
