by Roxie Noir
“Most of the derby team was there,” he said. “They took off work to come.”
“So did your coworkers,” Ariana said. By now she was falling asleep.
“Where should we honeymoon?” he asked.
“Somewhere with forests,” she said, sleepily.
There was another long pause.
“Hey,” Ariana said. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” Jake said, and then watched Ariana slip off into sleep, smiling to himself.
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A Bear’s Protection
(Shifter Country Bears, Book #1)
Chapter One
Ash
From where he was sitting in his patrol car, Ash could see the Welcome to California state sign, maybe a quarter of a mile away. He felt a little bit dirty setting up a speed trap just inside the state of Cascadia, but the county needed money, and the speed limit went down from 75 in California to 70 in Cascadia.
Besides, everyone who drove this road with any regularity knew that he was there, sitting in the perfect spot, behind a rise, hidden by the dense pine trees. He only ever caught people from out of town in his speed trap, and they weren’t going to come dispute him in court.
Pay attention to the speed limit, he thought to himself. How hard is that?
Just then, a small blue car zoomed past him. He didn’t need to look at the readout on his radar gun to know the car was doing at least ninety.
Finally, he thought, as he turned on his lights and pulled out onto the highway, pressing the gas pedal almost to the floor to catch up. The moment the car heard his sirens, the brake lights flashed and it slowed down to about fifty, wiggling a little in its lane as the driver panicked. Finally, the driver pulled over into a turnout surrounded by evergreens.
Following protocol, Ash radioed back to the station that he had pulled someone over. Traffic stops rarely broke bad in these parts, but one never knew.
He walked toward the driver’s side, his right hand on his belt near his gun, just in case, when the door to the car flew open and a short girl with curly brown hair popped out of the car, a wild look in her eyes.
Right away, Ash’s bear roared.
His ears rang. His vision went blurry. He could tell that there was something wrong — this girl was afraid of something.
He reeled.
What the hell is happening? he thought, stopping in his tracks for split second.
He felt a thousand impulses, all firing at once. He wanted to take her into his arms and comfort her, feeling her soft, smooth flesh against his own, bend down and kiss her.
He also wanted to find whatever it was she was afraid of and tear it into a thousand tiny pieces. In that instant, Ash knew he would do anything to keep this girl safe.
He could barely keep him below the surface, the animal inside him fighting to get out and go on a rampage.
Finally, his police training took over, and he found his voice. His human voice.
“Ma’am,” he said, holding his left hand out and moving his right toward his gun. “Please get back in the car.”
Her eyes darted to his hand, close to his gun. Oddly, the sight of it seemed to calm her down — the opposite of what usually happened.
He started to sweat, the beads rolling down the back of his neck and into his collar.
Down, he thought, trying to calm his bear. Calm down.
“Can I see your badge?” she asked. Her eyes were still a little wild, but she seemed to be calming down.
Ash held it out toward her, and she looked it over carefully without touching it.
Whatever was happening, his badge had put her at ease.
“Is everything all right?” he asked.
“I’m sorry,” she said, pushing one hand through the mass of her hair, totally oblivious to the struggle going on inside Ash. “It’s nothing. My ID is actually in the trunk, and I thought you would need that?”
Ash thought his heart might pound right out of his chest, and his mouth went dry. Even from five feet away, he was almost overpowered by her scent, a combination of musk and vanilla and some other deeper, truer odor that was simply her.
His head swam.
Stop it, he told himself. You’re the authority here.
Not that he could hear himself over the deafening roar of his own animal. The girl had on an old, faded Baltimore Orioles t-shirt, jeans, and flip-flops, but even so, Ash could see the perfect outline of her curves, the swell of her hips and bosom.
Push her up against the car and take her, the bear whispered. He absolutely ached to touch her, squeeze her, slide his lips along her neck and listen to the noises she made...
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Ash swallowed, then cleared his throat.
“Please just get back in the car,” he managed to say.
The girl gave him a long look, her deep hazel eyes examining him from head to toe. Then she turned and got back in the car.
She looked just as good from behind, and Ash savored watching the sensual swell of her ass as she stepped away.
Then Ash collected himself, walked up to the car, and bent down.
“Hi, ma’am,” he said. He had to rescue this interaction, somehow. It had already gone pretty far off the rails, but he still needed to act professional.
Somehow.
“Are you aware of the speed limit in Cascadia?” he asked, adjusting his hat.
The girl turned slightly pink and her eyes searched the road ahead.
“Actually, no,” she said, sounding embarrassed.
“It’s seventy,” Ash said. He was doing his best to sound stern, but there was something off in the girl’s manner. When he’d first seen her, she’d been jumpy, almost terrified, and now she didn’t seem bothered that she was getting a traffic ticket. In fact, she seemed almost relieved.
“According to my radar gun, you were doing at least ninety-five.”
At that, her eyebrows shot up. She looked genuinely surprised.
“Holy shit, I was?”
Ash couldn’t help but smile. Beyond the fact that this girl was smoking hot, she had a half-innocent, half-feisty attitude that he found charming.
“You were,” he told her. “Actually, our radar guns are kind of old and they get squirrely around ninety-five, so you might have been going faster.”
She pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger.
“Fuck,” she muttered.
“License and registration, please?”
She leaned over to the glovebox and pulled it open, revealing a veritable cache of papers and sunscreen bottles, and just pulled the whole mess out and onto the passenger seat.
“Sorry,” she said, her voice echoing a little from inside the car. “I guess I’m a little unprepared.”
“Take your time,” he said.
He didn’t mind watching her ass as she leaned over. He didn’t mind at all.
At last, she came back with a piece of paper that was partly translucent and slightly greasy.
“I think some sunscreen got spilled on that,” she said sheepishly. “It gets really hot in the glovebox, and then it sort of explodes everywhere.”
He nodded, looking down at the paper.
Cora Sapphire Leighton.
“You’re from Virginia?”
She nodded, her curls bouncing, as she looked up at him through long, lustrous eyelashes.
“But I’m actually moving to Granite V
alley.” She gestured at her back seat, which was full of stuff and topped with a blanket.
“Cora Sapphire,” he said. “That’s a nice name.”
“Thanks,” she said. “My sister is Amelia Emerald. My parents had a... thing.” She paused. “Should I go get my ID now, or...?”
Ash nodded once, curtly, and stepped back. A few other cars went by, all of them slowing as soon as they came around the bend and saw the police car on the side of the road, all looking curiously at Ash and Cora.
Cora, he thought.
It sounded like music.
She dug through the trunk for a moment before pulling out a backpack, rummaging through it, and finally handing him a Virginia ID.
“My hair was shorter then,” she said, as if trying to explain something. It was clearly her, though.
“Thanks,” said Ash. “I’ll just run these. Please wait in the car.”
By the time he was back in the squad car, radioing in Cora’s information, his bear had quieted down to more of a growl than a roar.
It was still there, though, and it was pretty certain of two things.
One: he had to see this girl again, no matter what.
Two: she was in some kind of trouble.
He ran her ID and plates, but nothing came up.
At least she’s not on the run, he thought to himself.
He sat in the driver’s seat of his car for a few minutes, trying to process what was happening and catch his breath. He’d never been so bowled over just by seeing someone before, not like this.
Hunter, his mate, bowled him over, of course. But they had known each other for years already when they started sneaking around as teenagers. They’d never had a first, single moment like this.
That relationship had happened slowly, the two of them spending more and more time together, until one day at fifteen years old, they’d kissed and fireworks had practically gone off.
He smiled at the memory. It had been at the high school, of all places, waiting for their ride after football practice. They’d been horsing around outside and suddenly ended up face-to-face, when Ash’s bear had taken over and pressed Hunter up against a wall, kissing the other boy until his lips hurt.
Ash hadn’t been a very good kisser at fifteen, but neither had Hunter.
They’d learned.
And they’d been starting to wonder if their triad was ever going to be completed.
Ash could see Cora chewing on her nails through her side view mirror.
Then, as he watched, another vehicle appeared in the distance, coming from behind them, and Cora’s face changed. She took her finger out of her mouth slowly, her eyes never leaving the car in her mirror, and she seemed to almost shrink into her headrest, her face going pale.
The vehicle, a green sedan, just drove on past.
As soon as she saw the back of it, Cora propped one elbow against the open window of her car, squeezing the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger again.
Ash frowned, and the low-level alarm that had been going off in his head all along got stronger. As both a sheriff’s deputy and a grizzly shifter, he had an excellent sense for danger.
And he was certain that Cora was in danger of some kind.
He straightened his tie and got out of the car.
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About Roxie
I love writing sexy, take-charge alphas with a softer side. In fact, I love it so much that I always have two in my stories! Two's always better than one, isn't it?
In real life, I live in California with one husband (who might be a bear shifter) and two cats (who would be much too lazy to shift, even if they could).
I’m on the internet at RoxieNoir.com. You can also follow @RoxieNoir on Twitter, like my Facebook page, or just email me: [email protected].
