Wild Fate: A Shifting Destinies Bear Shifter Romance (Black Claw Ranch Book 4)

by Cecilia Lane

  Walking off her plane to find no one waiting for her was a shock. Finding their apartment emptied broke her completely. He’d ripped the rug out from under her with a one-two punch of abandonment and betrayal.

  Holy fuck. To see him again after so long… She didn’t know what to think or feel.

  Her brain slowly rebooted and her eyebrows shot together.

  The program only dealt with bitten shifters. That she held his file in her hands meant he wasn’t born into a supernatural family. Which made sense; she couldn’t imagine his stern father ever allowing for any animalistic nonsense.

  Feeling guilty, Liv peeked under Alex’s photo and checked the details. A deep pit filled her middle when she scanned over the date of his change.

  Six years. The month and year slapped her in the face.

  Liv pushed back on the wave of hurt she felt anytime she let herself recall those last weeks of grad school. That date was the answer he refused to give her, the final reason he’d left her so suddenly and without a word.

  Alex was a bear shifter.

  Liv chewed her lip. Ethically, was she okay? Physically, mentally, emotionally, those were all too far away for her to process. The job required an answer.

  She’d have to discuss it with the lab manager, and maybe go all the way up to Dr. Strathorn. Like any other lab she’d worked in, there was probably a process to separate people who couldn’t get along. Sample collection wasn’t anything big or important. Someone else could always deal with Alex directly.

  Everything else welled up with the possible resolution. Her heart pounded as she studied his photo.

  He’d aged in the six years since she last saw him. His easy smile had turned into a hard scowl, too. His hair was a mess, his cheeks stubbled, and he didn’t quite look at the camera.

  Time and experience hadn’t been kind to him.

  Part of her wanted to snark ‘good!’ and pour herself a stiff drink. The smaller, deeply hidden part that still remembered him fondly wanted to understand.

  Lifestyle changes, Rylee mentioned. Some didn’t make it out alive. Others were so violent and troubled, they were forced to cut their years short with a quick death.

  Alex had been changed before shifters were out in the open. Maybe there was a reason for him turning into a giant asshole.

  Liv steeled herself against the sorrow and leaned on her anger. Whatever had happened, she wasn’t about to give up the opportunity of a lifetime. She wasn’t going to quit her job because he was involved in a related project. Their paths would cross eventually. She could be an adult about the situation. She expected him to behave like one, too. She’d extend him a courtesy and let him know she was in town.

  Liv jotted down the address listed in his file and stuffed it into her purse.

  Chapter 4

  Liv slowed and eyed the sign on the side of the road, then glanced at the map on her phone. The little dot of location bounced around and the route constantly shifted, changed, and refused to confirm if she was, indeed, at the right place to find Black Claw Ranch.

  Trusting the sign, she passed over the bumpy cattle grate and inched up the winding path. Deep ruts threatened to strand her little car. She understood why her brothers preferred their big trucks she’d needed to climb into.

  On the crest of a small hill, she got her first look at the place. Two big buildings lorded over the space between them, one clearly meant for living and the other for the practical nature of ranch work. The main house was an oversized log cabin with two floors and a couple decks on the upper level jutting out for private viewing of the land. The main level was lined by a long porch with wooden columns.

  The barn was unpainted, with both doors thrown open. Two trucks were parked near it, but she didn’t spot anyone outside. A single horse grazing in the nearby fenced area was the only creature in sight.

  Liv pulled to a stop next to the trucks and stepped outside after another curious glance. This was where Alex ended up. The place wasn’t entirely surprising. He’d always been interested in the outdoors. He’d turned the interest into a job as a ranch hand, it seemed. The gig suited her memory of him.

  She poked her head into the barn and smiled at the horses that stuck their heads over the stall doors. But they didn’t offer her any of the answers she needed, so she stepped around to the edge of the building to peek on the other side.

  A small calf lazed in the sun, looking quite content despite the trash talk coming from the man standing nearby.

  “Now it’s time to sleep?” he grumbled. “Not during the actual night, but now, while the sun is still out? I hope you get nice and fat with all this lounging around you do. You’ll make a better steak.”

  Alex. She’d recognize his voice anywhere.

  He chewed on a piece of hay, long strand stuck between lips she knew the taste of. The sun glistened off his skin like he’d been rubbed down in oil and posed perfectly for a camera. Over his heart was a rough symbol tattooed in a teenage rebellion over moving from Okinawa and back to the States. He’d added new ink, she noted, blossoms mixed in wind or waves, she wasn’t sure which.

  His hair clung to his head, a few strands curling in stubborn protest at being swept back with the hand he passed over them. The cut looked rough and choppy, like he’d taken scissors to it himself.

  Then there were the horrid scars running up and down his arms. Faint like they were old, but unnaturally shiny, they were the mark of a bitten shifter. They didn’t tell a story of a peaceful change.

  Liv thought she’d gotten a handle on herself when she first saw his picture, but that idea flew out the window when confronted with the living, breathing, real thing.

  Six years, and everything flooded back.

  Her stomach immediately started to flutter and other bits of her warmed. That was the problem with Alex. They were extremely compatible in certain areas and direct opposites in others. Like relationships, lying, and running off without a word.

  But damn did he give her an amazing time in bed.

  Alex turned and Liv froze.

  Human green eyes brightened unnaturally and stopped her in her tracks.

  Holy hell, they were glowing.

  “What are you doing here, Liv?” he asked in a defeated tone that cut her deep.

  She straightened her shoulders. Better get on with it, then. “I didn’t want there to be any surprises or awkwardness if you saw me on the street or at work. I’m working in the labs. I saw your chart.”

  “You’re working—” He cut himself off with a scowl. “You know what, take me off the lists. Get out of here. Don’t call me, don’t visit. Turn around and walk away if you see me in town.”

  “That’s it?” An incredulous laugh puffed past her lips. Well, the encounter was spinning out of control and far beyond the scope she intended. “After everything, you just blow me off?”

  “What more is there to say? I’m leaving the program. There’s nothing else to discuss.”

  “Nothing else? You don’t think you owe me an explanation?”

  “I don’t owe you anything.” Alex pointed behind her. “Road’s that way.”

  Liv tried to bite her tongue and failed. The utter dismissal in his voice drove her up a wall. She’d put up with a lack of answers, she’d lived with the loneliness, she’d kept putting one foot in front of the other. But deep down, he still took up too much space in her head.

  “You broke up with me in a text message!” Anger and hurt flushed over her cheeks. “And that was after I got home to find all your stuff gone. I didn’t know if you were in an accident or if something happened, then you drop that bomb on me. And if that wasn’t bad enough, anytime we were in the same room, you were shoving your tongue down the throat of any girl with a pulse!” Liv ground her teeth together and glared at him. “So yeah, I think I’m owed an explanation.”

  Alex shrugged and tossed her an infuriating smile. “Sounds like a you problem.”

  How? How could any one person be such an asshole?
“You haven’t changed a damn bit since the last time I saw you,” she spat.

  “Last time is key. You shouldn’t have come here.”

  “Forgive me for wanting to give you a heads up. I’m not one to spring things on someone unexpectedly.”

  He didn’t answer her. Instead, he bent to retrieve the shirt at his feet and strode for the barn.

  Oh, hell no. He did not get to walk away from her. He’d gotten away with it before, but that was a different time. A different place. She’d been too hurt to pursue her answers then, but she was stronger than ever and ready to confront him.

  She desperately wanted to be over him. He was six years gone and left a trail of failed relationships in his wake. He was at the center of it all. She couldn’t imagine feeling as strongly for someone ever again. She didn’t want the hurt that came when they left.

  And under all that, she was pissed. At him then, at him now.

  She zipped around the side of the barn and stormed right through the doors to see him slipping in through a stall. He scowled in her direction and turned to walk away from her again, but she followed on his heels.

  “I thought you could be grown up enough to work in close quarters,” she sniped, “but I can see you’re still just the same coward that runs away instead of owning up to a damn thing.”

  Alex growled at whatever fresh hell he’d been dragged into. Six years, and there she was. Taller than most girls, hips and legs for days, swell of her fucking perfect tits not at all hidden under her conservative top.

  Six years, and he couldn’t get away.

  He knew he shouldn’t give in to the trap she set with her words, but she’d strung a ring through his nose the first time he saw her. Now here she was, still yanking him around.

  “Coward?” he bristled. He spun to face her. Fucking hell, he needed to get away from her. “I’m not a coward.”

  What could he tell her? That he’d been afraid for her life? He’d left to protect her? Those kisses and other girls she talked about were just pawns. Warm bodies to soothe the gnawing hunger inside him, a hunger that existed solely for her. They meant nothing, were nothing, still made him feel nothing. No one could hold a candle to her.

  But they were all he had when he couldn’t trust himself with her.

  He’d been born into a world that didn’t exist. He hadn’t known how to navigate the changes and urges and fucking ton of hard packed, muscled murder machine that he turned into whenever he got too pissed. And fuck, was he still pissed. The monster that changed him stole his fucking life.

  Stole her.

  How could he tell her that he missed her every fucking second of the day and still keep her away? Those days of easy laughs and weekends spent in bed were long gone.

  Black hair rustled with the force of her denial. Shorter than ever, but he imagined those strands were still silky smooth. The angled cut suited her. Made her look fierce.

  “I just don’t see the need to rehash what happened,” he added before she could speak. “Go find some ice cream and cry it out with someone else.”

  A storm of anger swirled in her narrowed, grey eyes. Red splotched her cheeks and made her look even sexier.

  He twisted away and ignored the press of his bear to run his nose against her skin and lick her from head to toe.

  “I know what you are,” she said between gritted teeth.

  Alex whipped around. His hands landed on her waist and he backed her up against a wall faster than she could expel the air from her lungs.

  “You know what I am? And what is that, Liv?” He skimmed his nose up her neck and swallowed down her delicious scent. Coconut and flowers, if he remembered all the bottles of shampoos and body washes that littered their shower correctly.

  And of course, he fucking remembered. No detail went unturned over the years.

  Fuck, he’d smelled her even before he turned and saw her. Jaw-droppingly gorgeous, as always. And for once, instead of mauling him from the inside out, his bear just went silent.

  Alex nipped her earlobe. “What do you think you know about me?”

  “Shifter. That’s it, right? That’s why you pushed me away?” She lifted her chin and tried to stare into his eyes.

  Tough woman. Smart as hell. She’d fought to be treated with respect by some of her bad-mannered colleagues who didn’t know how to interact with a woman. Now she stared him down with a demand in her gaze.

  “You don’t know a damn thing.” He obliterated her objection with a harsh kiss.

  Sweet fuck. Her skin felt hot under his palms. More than anger clogged up his nose, too. Thick, creamy, delicious arousal grabbed him by the balls and rushed blood straight to his dick. Too many clothes separated them, but that didn’t stop him from rolling his hips against her or grinning at the resulting choked groan.

  She molded to him perfectly, tucked against all the right places, skin and body soft and sweet. He wanted more than a kiss. He wanted her.

  Fuck, it’d been the same from the start. The need to possess her only sharpened after his ordeal.

  His bear surged forward then, making his presence and desires known.

  Bite. Mark. Claim.

  Same as when he’d stepped foot into their apartment after everything. She was gone for some presentation, but her scent coated every surface and clung to the sheets. The beast had gone wild inside him, ripping him apart in the urge to get close to her. That was the moment he knew he couldn’t stay. He couldn’t be trusted to be near her when he had a creature under his skin wanting to sink his teeth in her.

  Images swirled in his head. Terrifying ones. Ones with blood on her skin and rips in her flesh, all caused by him. The others, they had their mates and their perfect fucking lives. They didn’t have monsters in their middles, always wanting to fight and destroy. Liv would be just another bit of evidence that Ethan should have put him down on day one.

  Alex pulled himself away and stepped back, slashing his eyes away from her. He couldn’t meet her look. Couldn’t see the hurt he put there. Not again. Not ever again.

  “There. No awkwardness,” he said with a hurtful smirk. “Thanks for stopping by. See you around, maybe.”

  His bear snarled and slashed at him.

  One step. Another. He needed out of the barn and away from her intoxicating scent. Needed to lock himself away before he shifted and tore into her.

  Fuck. Fuck.

  He forced himself to keep moving, to not turn around. Doing so would bring him to his knees.

  Alex stuffed the pain down deep and smothered it with a pillow.

  “Asshole,” Liv muttered.

  He pinned the word to his heart. Yeah, he was an asshole. Better that than letting her close where he could hurt her all over again.

  Chapter 5

  Liv leaned back in her seat and rubbed a hand over her stomach. “That was the best meal I’ve ever had.”

  “Oh, I know. If it weren’t for all the running around in the lab and during my time off, I’d have gained a thousand pounds by now,” Jenny agreed. Others on the serum team nodded up and down the table.

  It was the end of their week, and they’d invited Liv to their gathering to unwind. The festivities began at Hogshead Joint for delicious barbecue with plans for drinks at a bar after. She was glad for the chance to get to know them better and pick their brains about the inner workings of small-town life.

  Jenny planted her hands on the table. “Anyone up for a drink?”

  Leela groaned and shook her head. “You still trying to find yourself a shifter?”

  “Desperation isn’t a good look,” Matt teased.

  Jenny shrugged up a shoulder and beamed a look of innocence. “I call it field research.”

  “I call it tarting it up all over town,” Robbie snorted into his pint glass.

  The table—Jenny included—burst into laughter. “Sounds like,” she gulped back another giggle, “sounds like someone is jealous he’s not getting any action.”

  Robbie raised his h
ands and conceded the point. “What can I say? It’s been a long three months since David’s last visit.”

  “Ah, long distance?” Liv asked.

  “He has tenure. This was a great opportunity.” Robbie spread his hands again. “Who else can say they’re working on the bleeding edge of genetics in another intelligent species?”

  Leela nodded. “My parents live on the other side of the world. We video chat once a week, but it’s still been a massive change coming here. They get worried whenever they read articles about crimes by or against the supernaturals, as if every single incident is taking place outside my front door. I thought my father was going to come chaperone me everywhere when I was hired.”

  “Worth it,” Chuck added. “Besides, it’s like one giant family here once they get to know you. Which is how everyone knows to avoid Jenny like the plague!”

  The round of laughter turned to a small roar when Jenny flicked them all off.

  Liv sank into the feeling of companionship. Every person she met at the research facility talked with so much passion for their projects. Even the handful of people yelling about their agendas outside couldn’t diminish their enthusiasm for the work they did. That she’d been welcomed into the fold was a satisfying relief.

  With their bills paid, the group gathered at the edge of the street and prepared to cross.

  Jenny spun and walked backward, sly know-it-all look on her face. “It’s called The Roost. Best place in town to get a drink, but more than that, a name of significance. Dragons call their little groups clans, like bears, but they also name their homes roosts.”

  Liv sucked up the knowledge. True or not, she wanted to learn it all.

  The group passed through the doors and entered a crowd inside. Loud country music blared over hidden speakers while a handful of couples swished their hips and spun each other around on the dance floor. Pool tables and two dart boards captured the attention of their own smaller crowds, and the players and watchers cheered, jeered, and swallowed down their drinks.