by Dakota West
“So he saves other shifters from being feral,” she mused, talking almost to herself. “Wolves, too?”
“I think most of his work is bears, but he’ll take on anyone.” Daniel cut another chunk off the lion, slowly freeing the wooden animal from its prison. “Last year he caught and helped an eagle for the first time. It was terrorizing people’s pets. We were afraid it was going to start going after babies.”
Charlie paled a little.
“Babies? Why would it do that?”
Daniel licked his lips and very, very carefully positioned the knife along the lion’s jaws, delicately cutting away the wood to reveal its snarling fangs.
“When you’re feral, some really fucked up things make sense,” he told her. He couldn’t look her in the eye, so he just stared into the eyes of the lion, his knife resting on one of its teeth. “Your human brain starts to fuse with your animal brain, and you have these urges that you can’t understand, but they’re so powerful that you act on them anyway. But you don’t know how anymore.”
He had a fuzzy memory of a shack in the middle of nowhere, burning down. Then the sound of sirens, then him hightailing it into the woods.
Daniel swallowed, pushing the memory back into the box where it belonged.
“So all you can do is destroy things you used to love.”
Like the house where you grew up, he thought.
Finally, he looked up. Charlie’s mouth was slightly open and she was staring at him.
He swallowed hard, knowing what was coming next.
“You were feral,” she said, slowly.
She didn’t move, but he could tell she was thinking about it. The concept of feral shifters terrified humans. Most had never met one.
“I’m not anymore.”
Silence.
“Are you afraid of me?” he asked softly.
“I don’t know,” she said. Her voice was even, and she held herself perfectly rigid.
She knows she can’t run, he thought.
“Don’t be,” he said.
Daniel reached one hand across the table and slid it over Charlie’s. He could feel the tendons in her wrist, tight and jumpy.
“Was Kade feral?” she asked.
Daniel shook his head.
“Not Kade,” he said.
Charlie finally looked down at their hands, and Daniel thought he saw her shoulders relax a fraction.
Slowly, she turned her hand over in his so they were palm to palm, and warmth spread through his whole body.
“Kade saved you,” she said.
Daniel could feel her pulse under his fingertips, strong despite everything, and it almost made him dizzy.
“I was the first one,” he said. “He’d just gotten his discharge from the army, and I think he was in a pretty bad place. He found out about me, somehow, someone told him that there was a shifter in really bad shape, and somehow he decided that since he was in bad shape, too, he’d come talk me out of it.”
“That’s an insane thing to decide,” Charlie said.
Daniel smiled, tracing circles on the inside of her wrist, his heart skipping beats.
“Kade makes decisions very quickly and very firmly,” he said. “And somehow, he decided I was his project. So he tracked me down, found me in the woods, wrestled me to the ground, and shifted back to human.”
Charlie’s eyebrows went up.
“He knew my name and he wasn’t afraid of me,” Daniel went on.
He paused.
“In retrospect, I don’t think he was afraid of anything then,” he said. “I think part of him wished he were dead, and it made him fearless. But he got me to shift back.”
“And now you’re mates.”
“From that day.” He tapped the inside of her wrist, then took her hand in his, rubbing his thumb over the back of her knuckles. “Kade likes to rescue people, he likes to fix things. He likes to feel useful and like people need him. That’s his curse.”
“What’s yours?”
“You know mine.”
“That you were feral?”
“That my strongest instinct is to run away from my problems. Usually by turning into a bear.”
He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it. Electricity charged through his veins.
I wish Kade were here to share this, he thought. But I don’t think it would work if he were here. She’s still afraid of him.
Charlie’s eyes were wide, her mouth open, her breathing fast. She still sat perfectly upright in her bandages, like she was trying not to move.
Daniel had absolutely no idea what he was doing, alone in his cabin with this girl. His only real experience was with Kade, and that had been completely different.
When Kade had saved him, the moment Daniel had shifted back to human, he’d pushed Kade to the ground and they’d half-fought, wrapped in each other’s naked limbs, until it was perfectly clear what was happening.
They’d mated before Daniel even knew Kade’s name. It had been that primal.
Charlie was human, though. She was human and female and had been half-dead only a few days ago, so she probably needed a different approach.
“Can I kiss your hand again?” he asked, his lips hovering over her.
She nodded.
His lips touched the cool back of her hand, the sensation jolting through him. He felt shades of him and Kade naked in the forest, all those years ago.
Daniel flipped her hand over, her palm below his lips.
“Can I kiss your palm?” he asked.
She nodded again.
Her palm was warmer, and he thought he heard her inhale sharply.
“Your wrist?”
“Yes,” she whispered. Daniel could feel her pulse beneath his lips, the strong thump-thump of her heart.
He looked at her and raised his eyebrows, standing from his seat and leaning over the table. Charlie nodded again, and Daniel let his lips travel up her forearm, the inside of her elbow.
Then, suddenly, he found his face in front of hers, only inches away. He planted one hand on the table and she sat, perfectly rigid, unable to bend or move for fear of hurting her back again.
“You can say no,” he whispered.
“Kiss me,” Charlie murmured.
Chapter Eight
Charlie
As Daniel ran his thumb along her cheekbone, she didn’t dare move. She wasn’t afraid of him, even though she knew that she probably should be.
She wanted to arch her neck up, to bring her own lips closer to his, but she could barely move her back against the bandages, so she stayed still, her lips tilted up, and waited.
It was two seconds of pure torture.
Then his lips met hers.
He was tentative at first, even as he snaked his fingers through her hair, just barely pressing his lips against her, but then Charlie inched her head forward as much as she could without angering her back, and Daniel pressed against her a little harder.
Charlie opened her lips against Daniel’s, giving him permission, and slowly, almost lazily, ran her tongue along his bottom lip. She tried to move one hand to his shoulder, but she couldn’t, so she laid it on the table instead.
Then the tip of Daniel’s tongue found its way into her mouth and she met it with her own, eagerly, moving her lips against his. She could hear a low, almost inaudible growl coming from his chest.
For a second, she was taken aback, and ended the kiss, her heart pounding.
His hand still on her face, he leaned his forehead against hers, their noses nearly touching. He’d stopped growling.
There was a noise outside, and Charlie gasped, her heart jolting in her chest.
Daniel slid back down into his seat, facing her.
“Is it—”
The door swung open and Kade stood there, wearing just his pants. He looked at Daniel and jerked his head to one side.
“Draining two deer,” he said.
“That was fast,” Daniel said.
“Good hunting day, I guess,” Kade sa
id with a shrug. “Got out there early.”
Charlie’s head was swimming. Seconds ago, she’d been kissing Daniel, utterly swept away, and now here he was, talking to his mate like there was no problem.
The fact that Kade wasn’t wearing a shirt didn’t help. She was really getting the impression that the two of them weren’t particularly accustomed to wearing clothes. After all, they lived way out in the forest, and it wasn’t like there was anyone around to see them being naked.
As much as she didn’t like Kade, and as certain she was that he didn’t like her, he looked good with his shirt off.
Really good. Male model good.
Firefighter calendar good.
For a second, she entertained the thought of getting both of them. After all, didn’t shifters naturally form triads of two men and one woman...?
Then she looked up and caught the look on Kade’s face.
He was staring at her and scowling. Charlie’s stomach flipped over inside her.
“Thanks for the meat,” she said. She had no idea what else to say.
He nodded once at her, then went into the bathroom. She heard the water running in a few moments.
Charlie looked at Daniel, her eyes wide.
Did we just get caught? She thought. Is Kade going to hate me even more, now that I’ve made out with his mate?
“I’ll go wash up,” she said out loud. She pushed herself up on the table, beginning the slow process of standing.
“I can get it,” Daniel said. “No problem.”
“Let me at least feel a little bit useful,” Charlie said, mostly teasing.
Finally upright, she grabbed both coffee mugs and headed into the kitchen. She put them in the sink and stared out the window for a moment, trying to clear her head.
She needed some kind of plan. It was obvious that she couldn’t stay there, with one shifter who made her want to rip off her clothes — well, her bathrobe — and one shifter who she feared.
At least he wanted her alive, though she didn’t have any idea what for. Why else would he be sleeping on the floor in the back bedroom, making sure she couldn’t escape while everyone slept?
More than anything, Charlie needed to get back to the backpack she’d left in the woods. In it was her phone, which was definitely dead by now, but also an emergency beacon. If activated, her team would swoop in and rescue her.
That backpack was pretty much her only chance. She’d been unconscious when Kade brought her to the cabin, and she had no idea where she was or how to find civilization. Besides, it wasn’t like she’d last long enough to find it. If she fell once, she’d rip out all her stitches and probably bleed to death.
Charlie moved her weight to her other foot, and even that slight motion made her back complain. No, running was out.
Fuck, she thought. She turned the water on in the sink and started washing the mugs from breakfast. She absolutely hated the idea that she might need rescuing. Most of her life, she’d wanted to be the rescuer, from the time that she was the kid who insisted on saving herself, to joining the FBI right out of college.
She’d even fought to rescue Kade, sort of. Her bosses on the FBI / Fish and Wildlife Task Force hadn’t had a problem with killing the guy, and Charlie had to talk them into just capturing him.
This case was pretty clear-cut, though. Even though she was healing nicely, her back was still torn up and might need more medical attention than Kade’s cousin could provide. She could hardly walk, let alone run through the woods.
Charlie was going to have to get rescued, and that was all there was to it.
She put the mugs on the drying rack, then leaned against the counter, looking out the window. It was possible that she could ask Daniel to get her backpack for her, but that would only open him up to a wolf attack, and that wasn’t fair. Just because they’d kissed once didn’t mean that he should risk his life for her.
In the other room, she could hear Daniel humming to himself as he carved the lion on top of the big wooden sphere. She’d meant to ask him what it was for, but then some things had gotten in the way.
With a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, Charlie realized she was going to have to wait before she did anything.
Her team was going to think she was dead, but that wasn’t the end of the world. She was more or less OK, she had antibiotics, and as long as she didn’t leave the cabin, everything was fine. It wasn’t like she could force Kade and Daniel to do anything they didn’t want to.
Nope. She was going to have to sit tight, read some books, cook some venison, and above all else, be patient.
Just the thought made her start fidgeting. She shut her eyes and rubbed her temples, taking deep breaths.
It’s a vacation, she thought. You’re having a lovely vacation in the woods. Now go take a sponge bath or something, because when you lift your arms you smell terrible.
She put her arms back down by her sides, took one more deep breath, and opened her eyes.
Outside the window was a very lean, fit, gray-haired naked man.
“Daniel!” she shouted, clutching the counter.
She heard a chair fall over in the next room as Daniel jumped up, knocking it over, and his huge frame filled the doorway almost immediately.
Charlie just pointed at the window, but the guy was gone.
She really, really needed things to stop happening while she was incapacitated.
“There’s a naked guy outside, he had gray hair—“
Someone knocked on the door.
“Stay here,” Daniel said.
“Where else am I gonna go?” she shouted at his back as his long strides carried him to the front door.
Kade emerged from the bedroom and went to the door without looking at her, and the two shifters reached it at the same time.
For a moment, they made eye contact, and then Charlie saw Kade nod once, tensely. He still didn’t have a shirt on, and he undid his belt and took his pants off as Daniel opened the door.
Holding onto the kitchen counter, Charlie ground her teeth together and walked toward the front door, bracing herself against the wall as she walked.
Why does everything require nudity? She thought as she walked. Not that I mind, but I never know where to look. He sleeps naked, he hunts naked...
Then, Charlie realized why Kade had stripped. It was in case he had to shift and deal with a problem.
“What do you want?” Daniel said.
Charlie couldn’t see the person he was talking to, standing just outside the door.
“Can I come in?” the man asked. His voice had a slight country twang to it, and he talked a little slower than either Daniel or Kade.
“No,” Daniel said. He crossed his thick arms across his chest as Charlie hobbled into the living room, finally leaning her body against the doorway.
From that angle she could see the man who’d knocked. It was the same guy who’d been naked in their front yard moments ago.
He was still naked, of course.
Except for the plastic ziploc baggie that he held in one hand, something dark inside it.
Charlie had absolutely no idea what to think. The gray-haired naked man smiled, revealing a mouthful of large white teeth.
“I thought we were neighbors,” he said. “Can I borrow a cup of sugar?”
“Cut the bullshit,” Daniel said. “What do you want, Buck?”
The man’s grin didn’t fade, and Charlie began to feel a little creeped out by him. Leaving aside the fact that he was naked, his attitude just didn’t match the situation at all.
Without answering Daniel, he looked around the room until he finally locked eyes with Charlie.
She glared back at him.
His grin widened, and she felt her stomach writhe. There was something horribly familiar about this guy, and she didn’t like it at all.
“What’s your name?” he said to Charlie.
Kade bared his teeth and growled, taking a step forward toward Buck.
&nbs
p; “Charlotte Fiore,” she said, standing up as straight as possible. She tried to pretend that instead of wearing a bathrobe, she was wearing her black power suit, the one she wore to important meetings and job interviews.
“I’m Buck Reynolds,” he said. “It’s nice to meet you, Charlotte.”
He went on ignoring the two massive, angry men in front of him and spoke right to her, even though he was shorter and thinner than both of them.
“What would you say to getting out of this smelly old cabin?” he asked. “These two managed to feed you anything that they didn’t kill with their own teeth?”
Charlie didn’t answer.
Buck chuckled.
“That’s a no, then. Come back to the ranch with me. We’ve got steaks and garlic bread and ice cream, liked civilized folks do.”
He looked her up and down with a gaze that made Charlie pull the robe around herself more tightly.
“We could even find you some real clothes, no problem.”
“I’m fine, thanks,” Charlie said. She didn’t know what was happening, but she did somehow know that Buck was bad, bad news.
He shrugged, his smile finally fading. “Suit yourself, then, and don’t say I didn’t try.”
Then he looked at Daniel and Kade in turn. He held up the strange plastic bag that he’d brought, and Charlie leaned forward, trying to see what it was.
All the color drained from Kade’s face. He snatched the baggie away from Buck, tore it open, and pressed it to his nose.
Then he crushed it in his face, and Charlie could see him start to shake with rage.
“WHERE IS SHE?” he roared.
Daniel grabbed the bag and smelled it as well. Charlie rubbed her eyes, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Was there some kind of drug in the bag that made bear shifters absolutely lose their minds?
“You’re scum,” Daniel said, his quiet voice low and dangerous. “You’re unbelievable. I wouldn’t piss on you if you were on fire.”
In a flash, Kade had one hand around Buck’s throat and he was lifting the other man, holding him up against the wall just inside the cabin.
“Tell me where she is right now,” he said. “Or I swear to God I’ll slit your throat and then I’ll gut you—”
