by Elena Aitken
“What’s that, Ash?” He crouched next to his son, forcing himself to look away from her. “What’s the one?”
“The woman,” Ashton repeated himself. “That’s the woman who had the bow and arrow. She’s the one I told you about. That I liked. She feels…”
“She feels what?” Gabe didn’t want to push him, but somehow, whatever his son was about to say felt very important. “What does she feel like?”
Ashton blinked, his long dark lashes standing out sharply against his freckled skin. He looked up and right into Gabe’s eyes when he said, “Home. She feels like home.”
Whatever Gabe was expecting him to say, it wasn’t that. He caught himself moments before falling over. He got to his feet quickly so Ashton wouldn’t see his reaction.
Was it possible that his son could feel a connection to Zoe’s bear, too? Was it fated?
It had to be. There was no other explanation.
He looked over to the ax-throwing area and the chaos that had erupted there when Zoe had seen him. There was no doubt he had an effect on her, too. And it was time they figured out just exactly what it was. Gabe grabbed Ashton’s hand. “Why don’t we go say hi?”
A moment later, they stood in front of her and it was all Gabe could do to keep from grabbing her and pulling her into him, kissing her until they were both breathing the same breath, and never letting her go. Ashton’s hand wrapped tightly in his rooted him to the present.
“Hi.”
She blinked and looked between him and Ashton. “Hi.” She spoke the word to Ashton. “Is this your dad?”
Ashton nodded and her face lit up with a smile that came from somewhere deep inside her. Slowly, she looked up and met his eyes. “You’re a very good teacher, Gabe. Your son got a bull’s-eye on his first try.” Her eyes searched his and he knew instinctively that she was saying Why didn’t you tell me you had a child?
I didn’t have the chance, was the answer he tried to convey to her.
“Do you want to get some apple cider with us?” he asked instead. “You made quite an impression on my son.”
For a moment, she looked as though she were going to refuse. No doubt she was having the same struggle with being so close together and not being able to tear each other’s clothes off. Gabe’s bear was almost completely out of control. It was an exercise in pure will to keep him reined in.
She nodded and looked to Ashton again. “My name is Zoe,” she said. “I don’t think I had a chance to introduce myself. Sorry about that.”
“That’s okay.” He jumped the distance between them until he stood at her side, took her hand and started to lead Zoe toward the tables where Ella and Kira were serving apple cider and freshly baked cookies.
He watched as his son and the woman he was very quickly coming to realize was his fated mate walked hand in hand away from him, and not for the first time wondered what exactly he was going to do about it.
Chapter Seven
“I didn’t know you had a son.” Zoe swung her legs over the edge of the log fence she and Gabe perched on. It hadn’t taken long for Ashton to finish his apple cider and run off to play with a group of kids who were currently climbing a stack of hay bales. She watched him with a mixture of confusion and awe.
“I guess we didn’t really have too much time to talk before.”
She probably should have blushed. But the only thing that the memory of their coupling behind the Station did was turn her on. She reached across the space between them and ran her finger along the top of his hand. “That’s true.” She couldn’t help but laugh. It was the strangest thing, but she both felt as if she’d known Gabe for years, and also as if she’d only just met him and still had to learn so much about him.
Both were true.
“He sure seems to like you.” Gabe turned and looked in her eyes and immediately something inside her melted a little. She was like a teenager in love for the first time. Only it was more than that. “And I mean,” Gabe continued, “he really likes you. I’ve only ever seen him drawn to one other woman that way.”
“Another besides his mother?” It was a question that needed to be asked. Although Zoe didn’t sense another woman in Gabe’s life, there must be. At least in some way. After all, he had a son. Of course, she’d been so clouded by him, that she hadn’t sensed that either.
Gabe shook his head. “No. Not his mother. His grandmother. They’re very close.” Before Zoe could ask any more, Gabe continued. “His mother, my mate, died when Ashton was only two. He doesn’t remember her.”
“I’m so sorry.” She turned on the fence and grabbed Gabe’s hand while she searched his face. “That must have been terrible. Poor Ashton.”
“It was terrible.” He nodded. “A really rough time. But it was years ago. And we’re doing good.”
It was ridiculous, and awful, but Zoe couldn’t help but be jealous of Gabe’s dead mate. Had they been fated? Was their connection as strong as the one Zoe seemed to share with him?
She swallowed back the question and looked straight ahead to the hay bale pile and Ashton, who now stood on the top with his arms raised over his head.
Gabe squeezed her hand until she looked at him again.
“I’m sorry.” Zoe shook her head. “I really don’t know what to say. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone like you.”
“Like a widow with a small child or someone so irresistible?” He wiggled his eyebrows and she couldn’t help but burst out laughing.
“Both.”
He laughed with her for a moment and then his face grew serious. He took both of her hands and held them tightly. “For the record, Zoe…I find you completely and totally irresistible. I don’t know how you feel about these things…” He gestured around them with his head. “I know there seems to be some mixed opinions around here about it, but…for what it’s worth, I know this to be true. We’re fated.”
Fuck.
Zoe squeezed her eyes shut against his words. Not because she didn’t believe him, but because she did.
“Zoe?”
She shook her head and refused to look at him.
“You don’t believe?”
The hurt in his voice was too much. She snapped her eyes open. “I’m sorry,” Zoe said. “I have to go. I promised I’d help with the festival and…well…” She couldn’t make eye contact with him. If she did, she feared she’d never be able to look away again. “I have to go.”
Without another word, she took off running.
Dammit.
She’d come to Grizzly Ridge to get away. To avoid everything. So why this? What kind of sick joke was it to meet the one man she knew she was fated to be with when all she’d wanted to do was hide?
Is that really true?
Her bear challenged her and she growled her disapproval under her breath.
If that was true, you would already be gone.
“Stop it!” she yelled aloud, forgetting she wasn’t alone. She offered an apologetic smile to a woman she didn’t recognize and kept walking. She needed to get away. Go for a run, blow off some steam. But she knew she couldn’t do that either. There were too many humans around for her to shift. And even if there weren’t, the last thing she needed to do was let her bear take over because clearly her animal didn’t seem to agree with her on a few key points.
Like her need to stay away from Gabe.
Instead, Zoe walked as fast as she could through the middle of the festival, intent to get to her motorbike, jump on and drive away. Because the farther she got from Gabe and his son, the better.
Right?
“Zoe!”
She spun around to see Chloe surrounded by guests who were all enjoying the festival. No one seemed to notice the sisters staring at each other. Even from the distance, Zoe could see the question in Chloe’s eyes. Don’t run, she was saying. Stay.
Tears sprang to Zoe’s eyes, and before she had a chance to swipe them away, Chloe was by her side, her arm around Zoe and steering her away, into the adventu
re center, the building where they kept all the mountain bikes, snowshoes, and other gear. The moment they were inside, Zoe started sobbing.
For a few minutes, Chloe didn’t say a word, but simply rubbed her back and held her the way she did when they were little and Zoe came home in tears because a little boy at school had teased her. And then, just as she had when they were kids, once Zoe’s tears ran dry, Chloe pulled back a little, looked her in the eyes and said, “Chin up, butter cup. Nothing’s worth turning that beautiful smile upside down for.”
When they were kids, Zoe would usually start laughing, wipe her tears, and tell Chloe everything. But she wasn’t a kid anymore. And some things were worth the tears.
“He is,” she said after a moment. “He is worth turning my smile upside down.”
“Gabe?”
Stunned, Zoe took a step back and blinked hard. “How did you know?”
Chloe only laughed. “Everyone knows, Zoe. Even if half the town hadn’t seen you making out on the side of the road last week, the other half can easily see the way the two of you look at each other. And I’m pretty sure every single person at the festival could feel the heat coming off the two of you a minute ago. Damn, girl, you’re fated.”
“No.” She shook her head hard enough to whip her hair around her face. “We can’t be. I already told you, I can’t have a mate.”
Chloe laughed again. The sound was starting to get very annoying. “Do you really think fate cares what kind of stupid theories you’ve convinced yourself of?” She didn’t wait for Zoe to answer before she added, “It doesn’t. When you’re fated, there’s a whole lot of nothing you can do about it, Zoe. I mean, you can try to ignore it, but you’ll only drive yourself and everyone else crazy.” She grabbed Zoe by the shoulders and shook gently. “You can’t fight it, Zoe. You just can’t.” And then, with her voice softer than before, she added, “Why are you even trying?”
The love in her sister’s voice threatened to crack her. Naively, Zoe thought she was being so strong.
A little fling with a stranger? No problem.
Some hot sex with Gabe? Yes please.
No strings attached? Absolutely not.
“I don’t want to,” she confessed as Chloe took her hands off her shoulders and Zoe slumped to the floor. “More than anything, I want to give in to this feeling.” She dropped her head into her lap. “But I can’t.” She looked up into Chloe’s unimpressed face. “I already told you why. I can’t have cubs, Chloe. It’s not fair to anyone to mate knowing that I can never give them children.”
“He has a son.”
“I know he…has a son,” she finished slowly. “But he’d want more. Right?”
Chloe shrugged. “You don’t know that.”
It was true. She didn’t know that. She’d always just kind of assumed. A question popped into her head. “Do you want cubs, Chloe? Does Luke?” They seemed to be the only mated couple at the ridge who didn’t have children or weren’t pregnant. Except for Nina and Ryker, but they were still pretty newly mated. No doubt they’d be next.
Chloe shrugged again. “We haven’t decided. Maybe. Probably. But it’s not a deal breaker either way.”
Zoe pushed up from the wooden floor and dusted off her jeans. “It’s not?”
“No way.” Her sister’s grin lit up her face in a way that made her look even more gorgeous than she already was. In fact, Chloe had never looked so radiant as she did at the ridge. With Luke. Maybe that’s what having a mate did to a woman? “I never wanted a mate, remember?”
“I do.”
“So, I guess I never really gave it much thought when it came to cubs, I mean, not like you did. But now…well, you never know.” She winked. “We might try. But even if we don’t, I know I’ll be happy with him for the rest of my life.”
“But what if you can’t have children?” The infertility problems she had could affect her sister, too. Was that fair? “I mean, what if you guys decide to have cubs and then you can’t? You should go get tested. You should know.”
Chloe shook her head and smiled. “There’s no need for tests,” she said. “Because it doesn’t matter,” Chloe said confidently. “No matter what happens, cubs or no cubs, we’ll be okay.”
“But you should know, Chloe.”
“No. I don’t need to know.”
“I don’t understand.” Zoe shook her head and tried to look away but Chloe grabbed her hand and pulled her back.
“Zoe. You’re my sister and I love you. But I think you have a lot to learn when it comes to mates. Especially fated mates. You can run and you can hide, but the love the two of you have for each other is fated. And in case you’re not crystal-clear about what that means…” She winked and squeezed her sister’s hand one more time. “It means it’s stronger than any objection you can come up with,” Chloe continued. “Stop fighting and enjoy it. Not everyone is as lucky as you. Besides,” she added. “You’ll never be able to fight it.”
“You’re not just going to sit there, are you?”
Bree’s voice startled Gabe. He shook his head hard to break the stare he had focused on the adventure center building Zoe had disappeared into a few minutes earlier.
“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”
Bree laughed and sat next to him on the fence. “You do know that I’m not an idiot when it comes to your kind, right?”
“My kind?”
“Yup, the pigheaded, too stubborn for your own good, kind.” She rolled her eyes. “Shifters, dummy.” She smacked his arm playfully. “This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this,” Bree continued. “You can’t help but learn a few things growing up in this town. And with friends like the Jacksons, well…let’s just say this isn’t the first time I’ve seen one of you alpha grizzlies try to deny what can’t be helped.”
Gabe stared at his best friend in wonder. He’d never asked how much Bree knew. She was human, but she’d lived among shifters her whole life, and was one of the Jacksons’ closest friends. It was shifter code to keep the secrets of their kind to themselves. Humans should never know about their existence, let alone the details surrounding mating or how they lived. The very fact that Bree even knew about them wasn’t right. But Gabe couldn’t help but be thankful that she did. Because he desperately needed someone to talk to about it.
“What are you talking about?”
“Fated mates, of course.”
His eyes grew wide. “What do you know about fated mates?”
She laughed and shook her head. “I know you can’t fight it. You and Zoe, you’re meant to be. Everyone sees it.”
“Everyone?”
“Everyone.” She nodded matter-of-factly. “Even you.”
It wasn’t a question, and Gabe didn’t try to disagree. “I know.”
“So what’s the problem?”
What was the problem?
He could take the easy way out and say that the problem was Zoe and her obvious hesitancy to recognize what he—and apparently everyone else—already knew. But that wasn’t fair. Because if that’s all that was stopping him, it wouldn’t have held him back for long. No. There was more, and they both knew it.
“I’m scared.”
It wasn’t often an alpha grizzly admitted to any weakness and Bree didn’t bother to hide her shock. But it didn’t take her long to recover. “Of what?” Before he could answer, she asked, “Is it because of Marie?”
He turned to stare at her. They hadn’t often spoken of his previous mate and he knew that was mostly his fault. Gabe had no problem talking to Ashton about his mother, or even sharing memories with Maryann. But when it came to talking about their relationship, about what it had been and what they’d shared? And then, about her death? Gabe didn’t want any part of that.
“No,” he answered as honestly as he could. “I mean, not really. It’s…” He was distracted by movement at the adventure center. The door opened, and Zoe and Chloe stepped out into the warm October afternoon. Reflexively, Gabe hopped off th
e fence and walked toward her.
“Gabe?” Bree called out behind him. “It’s what?”
“Complicated,” he tossed back over his shoulder. “Keep an eye on Ashton?”
He didn’t bother waiting for a response, because he knew she would. She was a good friend, and maybe he should confide in her. But there was only one person he wanted to be talking to at that moment.
And he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Not again.
Chapter Eight
Zoe was only a few steps out of the door when all at once her senses clouded over and she felt a hand on her arm. Gabe.
“Come with me.” His voice was low and rough in her ear. “We need to talk.”
After her conversation with Chloe, she was pretty sure that, despite her misgivings, what they really needed to do was mate and get it over with. But Gabe was probably right. His approach was a lot more responsible. They should talk.
She nodded and let him lead her around the building and into the woods. He didn’t say a word until they’d walked for a few minutes and were far enough away from the festivities as to not be overheard.
“I can’t do this anymore, Zoe.”
“Do what?” It was a stupid question and they both knew it.
He kissed her hard and fast. His hand cupped her chin and held her tight to him while they satisfied their need for each other.
Only it wasn’t satisfying. Not at all. She needed more. They both did.
“So what are we going to do about it?” she said, slightly out of breath. Her chest heaved with the effort to control her bear, who knew exactly what they should do about it. “I can’t be your mate. It’s—”
“I don’t care what it is,” he interrupted her. “Because you’re mine and I’m yours and I know that with every single fiber in my body. And you do too.”
“But, I—”
He pressed a finger to her lips. “I know you think you have a good reason to try to stop this between us, but I also know that you feel it too. We’re fated, Zoe. And yes, it’s crazy. We’ve only just met. We hardly know anything about each other. Hell, you just found out about my son. But none of that matters, and not only do you know it, you feel it. I know you do. Because it’s something beyond us and completely out of our control. Because it’s—”
