by Cecilia Lane
Major Delano’s face went from angry red to furious purple. He stomped across the room and brought their noses together with a snarl on his lips. “Get your shit and get out.”
“I’m fired, remember? You have zero jurisdiction over me. I’m just a civilian now.”
“You can’t stay here without permission,” Peter interjected. He kept his words calm, but his eyes were cold and dead. That look meant hurt would follow. She didn’t want to be left alone with him.
“Neither can you, and I doubt Mayor Gale will instruct the enclave’s citizens to be as friendly to you as they were to me once she hears about this.”
Peter smirked. “I can be quite persuasive.”
Leah crossed her arms over her chest and arched an eyebrow. “I’m not feeling very persuaded. In fact, I’m not feeling very generous, either. I’d like to see your invitation into Bearden. As far as I’m aware, Rylee here was the one requested, not whoever you are.”
Several of the soldiers shifted uneasily, some even moving their hands closer to their guns. Rylee felt sick with worry. With trigger-happy soldiers led by a man with a chip on his shoulder, it would only be a matter of time before something disastrous happened. It was exactly the scenario she wanted to prevent.
And she backed down. She didn’t want Leah hurt because the woman wanted to defend her. She didn’t want to be left alone with Peter or Delano. Most of all, she didn’t want to color the people of Bearden as even worse than they’d already been deemed.
“Leah, let’s go,” she muttered.
“You need to get out of the enclave,” Delano ordered.
“She’s my guest and she can stay as long as she wants. Unless you want to try physically removing her?” Leah lifted her chin in a challenge just as Callum and Cole shadowed the doorway with Olivia Gale between them.
“What is the meaning of this?” Olivia asked, pushing her way front and center. “I was promised that we would be made aware of anyone crossing our borders.”
Peter didn’t answer, simply turned and collected some paperwork from a clipboard. “Rylee Garland has been removed from this project. I’ve been sent to replace her.”
“So I’ve been told.” Olivia scanned the paper quickly. “And you are...? Besides obviously unaware of prior agreements.”
“Peter Glasser. It will be a pleasure to work with you.”
Cole stiffened at the name. Fury and gold colored his eyes when he lifted them to her. “Him?”
Rylee shook her head to stave off the outburst. “Cole, don’t. Please.”
He blinked. Once, twice. The gold of his eyes faded, but the white-hot fury remained. He bored holes into Peter while the activity resumed. She followed Olivia, Leah, Callum, and Cole out into the hallway and watched box after box disappear.
Delano shoved past with Peter on his heels. He jerked his chin in Cole’s direction. “Watch this one. He’s trouble.”
Chapter 18
Rylee sipped at her drink and stared into empty air. Just hours before, she’d been at the top of her game. Running her own lab, even if she reported back to a different facility. Making friends. Falling for a man who showed her nothing but kindness once she pushed back his prickly exterior.
And then it all crashed down around her. She’d need to leave Bearden, and wouldn’t have a job to go back to. Leaving meant abandoning her new friends and healing heart.
She thought she was in shock, but then figured she was too angry. None of the tears she expected even dampened the corners of her eyes.
Lost. That was the right word. She felt lost and in limbo with no idea which way to turn.
The couch cushion shifted as Cole took a seat and draped an arm over her shoulder. At least he’d stopped pacing and dragging his hands through his hair. He looked downright murderous with a snarl on his lips and flashing gold eyes. “You can get another job.”
She shook her head sadly and tightened a blanket around her shoulders. She wasn’t the slightest bit cold, especially with Cole so near, but she took comfort from the added bit of covering. “It doesn’t work like that. I’m in a highly competitive field. Research positions are scarce. My references will be checked and triple checked, and as soon as they see I was requested to leave by Delano, they’ll want to know more. And as soon as someone talks to that man, I’m toast. I’ll be blacklisted as soon as he says the first word about being uncooperative and putting his men in danger. Reputation is everything, and I doubt I’ll have one left by morning.”
“Well, what do you want to do?”
“Honestly?” She hesitated and toyed with the edge of the blanket. She thought she had more time. A week of stolen kisses and a night of passion wasn’t enough. She wasn’t ready to give him up. “I want to stay here. With you.”
There was a beat before he said anything. One heartbeat, one breath of air, a blink of the eye. A silence that made her hold her breath. Then he spoke.
“You’re not meant for this place.”
Rylee nodded once and refused to meet his eyes. It was a rejection she could have predicted. He didn’t want a mate, and that obviously covered anything in the relationship category. They had fun while it lasted, she told herself. She tried to ignore the pain slashing at her heart.
She twisted out from under his arm. “I should go.”
Cole growled and tugged his fingers through his hair again. He looked like a man at odds with himself. “You’re good. You can get hurt. You’ve seen some of my scars. That’s the life I have. If I’m not fighting with someone in the clan, then it’s someone down at the Roost. If it’s not that, then there’s the threat of fire when I go back to the firehouse.”
“That’s no different than outside the enclave,” she pointed out. “I could get into a car accident. Or develop a new allergy. I’m already allergic to penicillin, did you know that? Not enough to kill me, but I get swollen and itchy.” Heck, she was letting her tongue show her nerves. “There’s potential for danger everywhere, is what I mean to say. That’s just the price of living.”
“Humans aren’t meant to stay here. So you’ll leave. Now or later, but you’ll leave. You’ll start your perfect little human family and forget this place.”
Rylee frowned. That wasn’t the argument she expected. She thought he’d fall back on not wanting to tie himself down, which she could understand. Logically, anyway. Her heart was another matter.
But instead of his using his objections, he was turning it on her. It threw her out of sorts. “Why are you so sure I’d leave?”
“Because that’s how it works, Rylee. My mother did it. Humans aren’t meant for this life and all the violence involved. We’re a strange, small town. And you. You’re smart. You’re too good for this place. You’re too good for me. I’m not worth sticking around for.”
She raised her hands to her mouth. He never mentioned his mother. Just him and his brother and his father. One tiny sentence explained so much. “Your mother abandoned you?”
“I don’t want to talk about that,” he growled again.
He tugged at her heartstrings and kept her tethered to the couch. Whatever happened between them seemed suddenly small in comparison. Cole hid his broken pieces well, but they were still poking at him.
She reached for him slowly and placed her hand on his arm. The connection zinged straight through her and tied her to him. She wanted to hear his story and put his pieces back together, the same way he’d helped her. “Cole, let me in. You shouldered my burdens. I want to return the favor.”
Cole’s lips twisted into a sour shape. His eyes flared gold, then faded back to grey, then went gold again. He was absolutely fighting with himself, and she wasn’t sure which side won for a long moment.
“Pop brought her here after he was outside the enclave for a spell. The only reason it was allowed was because she was pregnant with Callum. He’s born, a year goes by, and then I came along. She left shortly after. And that’s the end of the story as far as Callum is concerned.”
�
��But not for you?”
“Not for me, no. I’m the dumbass that can’t let anything lie. It itches at me until I get to the bottom of the problem. Callum says it makes me a good second to his alpha. I dig and poke and bother until we’re all getting along for a few hours. The others say it makes me an obnoxious asshole.”
Rylee huffed a laugh. She recognized the deflection in his self-deprecating humor and while she let him have a moment, she still wanted to know more. He seemed to sense it, too. He leaned up and rested his forearms on his thighs. The floor under his feet held his attention, but he finally spoke again.
“It was after high school and I didn’t know what to do with my life. A couple friends were heading off to college outside the enclave, Callum was working as a probie in the firehouse under Pop. I didn’t know who I was supposed to be. I got curious about my mother and the stories of why she left. I guess you could say I was looking for some kindred spirit.
“I found her in a town not much bigger than Bearden, so it wasn’t the size that bothered her. It was me and Callum and Pop. She didn’t want anything to do with us. You see, she’d moved on. Had her perfect little human family. Human husband. Human kids just starting high school. She was happy. And when she realized who I was, she went crazy. Called me freak and demon and devil, threatened to shoot me in the face if I didn’t leave her alone.”
Oh, she could see him clearly. Big, tough man insistent on remaining aloof and uncomplicated. Once anything looked too serious, he bolted before he could get hurt. Something was rotten with him if his own mother didn’t want him.
He couldn’t be more wrong.
She shifted and straddled his lap, then wrapped her arms around his neck. “You’re worth loving. You’re not a terrible creature. It was her choice to leave. You didn’t drive her away.”
“You really believe that, don’t you?” At her nod, he let go of a rough sigh that verged on a growl. “Rylee, I’ve done shit that I’m not proud of. Being a shifter means I live a violent life and my bear is only getting worse. Does that sound like someone who doesn’t drive others away?”
“Yes.” His eyes dipped to her lips, and she slowly, slowly leaned into him.
The first brush of her lips against his rattled another growl in his chest. Cole tugged her closer. Each gentle stroke firmed her resolve. She could find herself in Bearden. She could put herself back together with Cole to lean on. She could breathe easier around him. Whatever came next, she could manage as long as she had him in her corner. She felt powerful, truly powerful.
Cole’s growl grew louder until he pulled his hands from her hair and lifted her easily off the couch. He didn’t break the kiss as he crossed through his cabin. His steps didn’t falter, and she didn’t feel the slightest bit of nerves when he crossed the threshold into his room. His den.
He reached over his head and hauled his shirt off. She reached for him automatically. Like a magnet. She couldn’t help herself. She needed to touch him.
She traced her fingers over each knuckle. Love and Hate were tattooed on his hands, and she understood that significance. They went together for a man like Cole. Hate replaced love, and the reminder stood out on his skin.
Up and up, over birds and flowers and geometric shapes and dot work and a whole host of other patterns adorning his skin. Over his shoulders. Across his collarbones. Down to his chest. “I love these,” she said after her inspection.
With a soft growl, he reached for her. He undressed her slowly. Each inch of exposed skin was met with a kiss or nibble. Heat spread from his hands and mouth, warming her steadily until she was softly simmering in desire. Then, and only then, did he moved his hands to his jeans and kick them off his legs.
He settled on the bed next to her and drew her into his lap. More kisses dotted her skin, a hand in her hair tilting her head one way or the other. “I like your shoes next to mine.”
Rylee nearly melted. The words were silly, but the feeling behind them was big and important. She fit in his life. She had a place in his home.
His erection pressed between her soaked folds. Cole shuddered, and his fingers dug into her hips. The bite of his grip was nothing compared to the jolt of pleasure when he rocked his hips and hit her where she was most sensitive.
“You suck at predicting the future. I won’t run from you,” she said into his neck. “Will you believe that?”
She rolled her hips, and he groaned. “Fuck, Rylee. I’ll believe anything you say if you do that again.”
So she did. “We’ll see where this goes? You won’t drive me away?” Because he felt important, too.
A soft growl rattled in his chest. He pulled her hand over his heart. “I don’t think I could if I tried. I wouldn’t live long. My bear would eat me alive.”
He flipped her to her back, then pulled away just as quickly. Hurt and worry drew his brows together. “Shit, sorry.”
He moved to turn them back over, but she rose up on her elbows instead. Perfect, caring man wanted her as comfortable as possible. “I want to try it like this.” Heck, she wanted to try it every way possible as long as it was with him.
His eyes grew to a sexy gold. And hungry. He devoured every inch of her with a single sweep of his gaze. Then his nostrils flared and a wicked grin lifted his lips. “You smell so fucking hot for me. Is that true, little bit? Do you want me to touch you?”
He eased a hand between her legs and slid a finger inside her. She couldn’t help but arch into the touch. A tiny moan dripped from her lips when he pressed his palm against her clit. He drew back, and a second finger joined the first.
“Yes,” she moaned.
He eased over her, holding himself up on his elbows. He brushed her hair from her face and kissed her cheeks, her nose, her neck, her lips.
The head of his cock brushed against her. She tensed, he swept his eyes to hers, and she relaxed. There wasn’t any other outcome under those glowing orbs.
Rylee trailed her hands up his flexed arms and over his tight shoulders. She dug her hands into his hair to pulled him down for another kiss. Slow, again, simply tasting each other.
Then Cole rolled his hips, steadily pushing inside her. Her breath hollowed her stomach. Fire burned through her veins, ignited her limbs, and coiled in her core.
Cole buried his face in the crook of her neck. “No fear,” she murmured. “Just wildflowers.”
“I smell like wildflowers?” she asked, taken aback.
He pulled away from her enough to give her a smirk. His abs flexed as he drove deeper into her, drawing another moan from her. “You smell like the sexiest flowers in existence.”
He sipped at her lips on the final word and devoured the increasing gasps and sighs he bubbled to the surface. He pumped into her harder, faster, until she writhed under him. There was no room for panic or fear when she chased pleasure. That thick, hot feeling boiled just under her skin, ready to erupt.
His control slipped, then broke entirely. Gold flashed even hotter and hungrier in his eyes. He stroked into her faster than before. Rougher. So dang good.
A growl rattled in his chest, surging at the top of each thrust. Cole wrapped an arm under her hips, hauling her closer and tangling them together. One roll, a second, and he bumped her clit. Her breath heaved in her lungs and her thighs tightened around his body. And his growl deepened even more, vibrating through her and shaking loose the last bit of pleasure to rain down all around her.
“Cole!” she moaned, a pulsing orgasm ripping through her. Teeth clamped down on her skin, hard but not hard enough to break, and Cole’s growl turned to a groan of pleasure.
He slowed, breathing just as hard as her pants. He pushed himself to his elbows again and the gold slowly faded from his eyes. Feeling as drunk on him as she had that morning, she pressed her lips to his collarbone. “Cole?”
“Hmm?” He rolled to his back and pulled her across his chest.
She trailed her fingers over the tattoos above his heart. Wildflowers. She wanted to believe it
was fate of some sort, even if every ounce of her education rejected the idea. The romantic uncurling from the dark, neglected corner of her mind liked that he said she smelled like wildflowers and he had them permanently on his skin.
“I like my shoes next to yours, too.”
Chapter 19
Awareness slowly washed over Cole. He was in his bed, with a gorgeous woman curled against him. Like the night before—two nights in his den, now—she slept in his shirt. He buried his face in Rylee’s hair. Sleepy wildflowers filled his nose.
His bear was quiet. No snarling, no urging him to get up and find a fight. Just… content.
Rylee’s glasses sat on the nightstand like they belonged. Maybe they did. Maybe his bear was right. Maybe she wouldn’t leave and maybe she was fated to be his mate.
There was still too much uncertainty for him to be truly comfortable. She could get sick of his shit and want to leave. He could hurt her somehow. That seemed about a thousand percent certain of happening. But he would honor the promise she forced from his lips. They would try.
The sound of gravel crunching under tires jerked his attention out of bed. One vehicle wouldn’t be alarming, but there were at least three. The clan didn’t have any plans the previous night, so it wasn’t a group returning home. With morning light just breaking over the territory, it was too early for visitors.
He was out of bed and tugging on his jeans before Rylee could mutter any objections. He drew a shirt over his head as he padded through his living room. Rylee was awake now, softly calling his name.
He opened his front door to see the other cabins in the clearing doing the same. Judah pushed open the door to his cruiser, and others followed from their own cars. All of the officers were focused entirely on him.
Whatever the fuck was up, it didn’t bode well for him.
