“I’m not,” he said finally. “Dawn, I haven’t been honest.”
She froze, stopping her search for another suitable skipping rock. “What?”
He stood up to join her near the water, powerful shoulders bunching as he shoved his hands in his pockets and stared implacably over the water. “I’ve been trying to take things slow with you, but I want so much more. From the first time I saw you, I wanted to marry you. I wanted to live out in the woods with you. Raise kids with you. Protect you from harm.”
Her eyes widened as she stared up at him. “Do you have any idea how crazy you sound?”
“It’s only going to get worse,” he said. “Because you don’t know anything about me, not really.”
“Yes, I do. I—”
“No, you don’t. I’m not a human. I’m not like you, Dawn. And neither are my crew.”
She took a step back, nearly tripping on the reeds behind her. When Garrett put out a hand to steady her, she simply stared at it in shock. “What do you mean?”
“I… Do you know anything about werewolves?”
Her jaw dropped. Of all the directions she’d thought this conversation was going to take, this was the last of them. “As much as anyone else… I guess. I know they aren’t real.”
Garrett took a step toward her. “But they are, Dawn. They are real, and there’s a pack of them nearby. They’re the ones who have been harassing you. And they aren’t going to leave you in peace.”
Her jaw just hung open as her brain tried to process if he was crazy or she was.
He put out his hands in a placating gesture. “I know how much you love this place. How much you want to live here. But after finding out what Grayson told me—he’s also a wolf—I know you would never be safe.”
“Wait. Wait, wait, wait.” She put her hand to her temple as her pulse thudded in her ears. “Grayson’s a what?”
“A wolf,” Garrett said as if it were the most normal thing in the world. “I’m a bear, and Hunter’s a cougar—”
“Stop it,” she said. “This is crazy. You can’t just say stuff like this. If you don’t want to finish the project, if it isn’t worth your time or you’re scared of the vandals—”
Garrett rose up to his full, intimidating height. “I’m not scared of any vandals. I’m scared of my mate living near a bunch of wolves.”
She shrank back slightly in the face of his anger but knew she had to hold her ground. “So like normal wolves? Can’t we call wildlife control?”
“There are no human organizations that can control these kinds of wolves. Listen, Dawn, there is a whole world outside your comprehension, full of creatures unlike anything you’ve seen.”
She bit her lip. “And you’re one of them?”
He nodded.
“Can you show me?”
“Not yet,” he said quietly.
“Oh, that’s convenient.”
“Our world is secret,” he hissed. “We have to be careful not to show anyone who could tell on us. We only show our mate and only after she’s agreed to it.”
“Agreed to what? What do you mean by mate?”
“Shifters have only one companion, generally. Bears do anyway. And we knew the second we see them, unless we’re particularly dense, which I’m not.”
“Uh…”
“I was pretty sure when I even just heard your voice. But when I met you, I was certain. Love at first sight.”
Dawn knew she was staring at him with a mixture of shock and anger, but she really couldn’t believe the turn things had just taken.
As if she wasn’t stressed enough, trying to navigate a new relationship and deal with vandalism and trespassing near her new house.
Now Garrett wanted to tell her he was a monster, that the world was full of monsters, and that some of them were threatening her home.
Which she supposed made as much sense as a hot guy like Garrett being instantly smitten with her in the first place.
As he stared at her, clearly expecting her to just run with the whole “bear” thing, she felt her heart slowly cracking.
She should have known it was too good to be true. The only person who’d ever been good to her was gone, and she should have known anyone who could get involved with her as quickly as Garrett had would have something wrong with him
Like thinking he was a bear.
Ever since she was little, the world had taught her not to trust. First her parents, who’d abandoned her, then her relatives, who’d tried to plunder her grandpa’s grave.
But Garrett had seemed different, and it was ironic that now that things were falling apart, she could finally realize how much she was hoping for things to be different with him.
How much she had fallen for him, even if it seemed too good to be true.
Looking into those amber eyes, wanting to rub her cheek on that perfect beard, she felt totally lost about what to do next.
“So you want me to give up on my house,” she said softly, wondering what she would do next.
“We all do,” Garrett said. “The whole crew.”
And suddenly she was angry. At Garrett for either hiding something huge for her or lying to her right now or being absolutely insane.
At everyone who tried to take what was hers from her.
This time, she wouldn’t be driven away. She owned this land. That had to mean something.
“Then go,” she said sharply, folding her arms and lowering her head.
Garrett tried to take a step toward her.
“Go!” She avoided his gaze and his touch. “You and your crew. I want you off my property. What you’re saying… it’s more than crazy. I need to consult with some other people.” She looked up at him, hating that he could see the tears in her eyes. “Dammit, Garrett, I thought you were someone I could trust.”
“I love you, Dawn. Doesn’t that mean anything?” The frustration in his tone couldn’t reach her because her brain was too overwhelmed by all the talk of wolves and bears.
The fact that no one would help her keep what was hers.
“Go. Go!”
Garrett took a hesitant step backward. “It doesn’t make me any different. I may be a bear, but—”
“It makes you crazy!” Dawn snapped, knowing that when she sent him away, a part of her heart would go with him.
But she wasn’t someone who could stay in denial, no matter how much she wanted to.
Garrett actually thought he and his crew were animals.
The thought was weirder every time her brain tried to dredge it up.
“You don’t understand. You’re in danger here, and—”
She shook her head, walking back to the site and forcing him to follow. “I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing here. If you think this kind of crazy lie—”
“It’s not a lie. It’s not crazy!”
“Then prove it!” She whirled on him, and he just stood there, breaking her heart with the expression he wore. One of trapped indignation.
“I can’t. Not when you clearly don’t trust me.”
“Garrett, we’ve had sex two times.” Even if she knew there was more between them than that. “It doesn’t give you the right to control me, even if you make up some story about being a bear!”
“But—”
She ignored him, her heart beating hard as she stormed back to her car, opening the door and stepping inside it. “I’m staying here until you and the guys get off my property. If no one is going to help me, I’m going to sit here alone.”
“The last thing the guys want is to leave you,” Garrett said, standing at her window, his voice muffled. “Just because we’re shifters, it doesn’t mean—”
She covered her ears, blocking him out. It was too hard to hear that much crazy. She half hoped she’d wake up and find out this all was a dream. That none of this had happened and she could just go back to dating the man she’d been falling in love with.
And still dream of a beautiful life together in her house in t
he clearing.
He stopped knocking on her window, and she slowly raised her head to look at him.
“Dawn, you’re breaking my heart.”
He was so handsome and looked so broken that she almost opened the door for him. But she’d reached her limit on how far she could take a leap of faith with him.
He and his friends needed to go while she calmed down, while she thought about this.
She needed space to figure things out inside her own heart.
She watched as Garrett walked over to Hunter and Grayson, and both of them looked over at her in shock, probably upon learning she’d asked them to leave.
A slight bit of hesitation pricked her, and guilt, because these were her friends, but if they weren’t human and they’d been hiding here, that was a betrayal.
But the more likely thing was they were human and were just crazy, imagining they weren’t.
Either way, she needed them off her land. Needed to feel like just one thing her grandfather left her was hers. Needed to feel independent and strong, not utterly attacked or caught off guard.
But she could still hear Garrett.
I love you, Dawn.
No, she couldn’t think about that.
You’re breaking my heart.
Hers was breaking, too, but that didn’t change anything.
She leaned back her chair and waited for the guys to pack up everything. A few minutes later, she heard a knock on her window. Garrett was there.
She rolled the window down. “Yes?”
“Is it all right if we leave our equipment? We don’t want to take it to town, and this way, if you change your mind…”
She nodded. “Fine. I just need you all out. This is my place, and I mean to have peace.”
Garrett gave a sad nod and turned to go, and she almost stopped him.
Call her crazy, but she almost wanted to get out, say she didn’t care if he thought he was a bear, and grab and pull him into her, saying they would work everything else out.
Part of her heart called her to do just that.
The other part was frozen, unwilling to extend that much faith in something that clearly sounded crazy.
But at least they were leaving their equipment, so there was some hope there. After a day of careful contemplation and keeping an eye on her land, safe in her car, maybe she would feel different.
All she knew as Garrett and the others loaded up and took off, Hunter waving at her sadly from the back of the line, was that she hated everything that had just happened.
As they disappeared down the road, a slight feeling of regret waved through her, making her wish she could call them all back.
But not yet. Not until she was ready.
Chapter 18
For a few minutes, Dawn just sat in her car, staring blankly at the view of her half-built house through the dusty windshield. Once the last sounds of trucks making their way on the dirt path had disappeared down the road behind her, nothing but pervasive silence accompanied her.
Without Garrett and the others here, this place felt oddly lonely. She’d gotten so used to having them here from sunup to sundown that their absence made everything feel that much more silent and desolate.
She hit the palm of her hand on her steering wheel in frustration, but the old car didn’t complain. Instead, Dawn got out and began to pace, entirely unsure what to do next.
She missed Garrett. She’d be lying if she said she hadn’t hoped for more. Hadn’t fantasized more than once about something long term with the all-too-perfect man that had materialized from seemingly nowhere.
Now that she was here, all alone, things felt safer in some ways. She was finally in control, with nobody else to change her fate. But that didn’t change how sad it felt, too.
Dawn walked past a mostly removed warning she’d seen earlier that morning. One of the guys had scratched the dirt out, trying to erase it, and had mostly succeeded. That was nice of them…
Yet Garrett had told her she was in danger from wolf-people. And that he was somehow a bear-man. Hell, he’d even brought Grayson and Hunter into his delusion in an attempt to make it sound credible.
Granted, Garrett had never lied to her, at least not openly like that. It was one of the things she liked about him. His honesty. His sincerity.
Which made the whole shifter thing all the stranger.
The white and tan shape of her modest home loomed in front of her, no longer feeling as exciting as it had before. Just a cobbled-together structure of wood and cement and drywall now. Just pieces of building material.
How much did this house actually matter if everyone who’d made building it special was gone?
Setting aside the whole bear issue, was her obsession with trying to honor her grandfather’s legacy by building out here perhaps a bit misguided if it meant putting herself in danger or creating rifts with her friends?
The house, unable to read her thoughts, or talk for that matter, just stood there. A bird chirped eagerly from a corner of the roof, then flitted off to parts unknown.
Family isn’t about blood. It’s about how people treat you, her grandpa had always said whenever she became re-traumatized by seeing the shell of her mother, someone who’d tried to hurt and have power over her in the past.
Her grandpa was always trying to give her hope when she was young and felt like there was none to be had.
Dawn swiped a rogue tear from the corner of her eye, the dusty land soaking it up beneath her feet.
Looking back, her grandfather’s legacy wasn’t the hope of retiring to some sleepy town in the middle of nowhere. Nor was it his career, which paid the bills but never gave him more than a modest living. No, it was his love. Making a family just out of the two of them. He took the broken pieces of her life and set aside his own grief over the loss of the love of his life and made them fit together. Made her feel like she had a place to belong. Sacrificed everything so she could have a shot at something more normal than the destiny that would have doomed her from the start.
She noticed her foot was tapping the ground nervously.
What the hell was she supposed to do now? Was she supposed to call Garrett? Listen to him? But how to deal with all the complicated lies he had told?
Dawn’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of something disturbing the nearby brush, and she turned to look in the direction of the noise, expecting to see a passing deer or maybe a raccoon scrounging for scraps.
Instead, a gigantic gray wolf, almost four feet tall at the shoulders, emerged, walking in a straight line toward her. Like a rock, Dawn’s heart fell from her chest to her toes, pure fear making it feel like the blood in her veins was draining out of her.
Wolves didn’t get that big, did they?
The wolf looked at her, bluish-brown eyes focused on her, and Dawn bolted for her car. If she could just make it inside, maybe she could be safe. After all, wolves couldn’t open doors, right?
Adrenaline raced through her as she made for the car, but before she could reach it, two more wolves materialized from behind the blue Toyota, blocking off the doors and striding toward her like the first. When Dawn whirled around to look at the first wolf gaining on her, a dozen more filled her vision, encircling her from every direction, all pacing forward in a wide, horrifying circle.
She looked over her shoulder and realized she was trapped against the side of the house. Nowhere to run.
“Get out of here! Scram!” Dawn waved her arms frantically, remembering once on a nature documentary the advice to be loud and make yourself as big as possible to scare off wildlife. But something about these giant wolves gave her the impression they were not “typical” wildlife.
Dawn heard a surprisingly human-sounding chuckle, and she turned to see one wolf laughing to itself. It was actually laughing.
What the hell was going on?
“Shut up, Kent,” Dawn heard someone say from her right, and Dawn spun again on her heels, trying to trace the sound. But nothing but huge wolves
with rows of white fangs surrounded her.
“Hello? Is anyone out there?” she called out desperately. There were people out here somewhere. Maybe they could help.
“It’s useless, human,” the same voice from before said. And if she wasn’t crazy, she could swear she saw the gray wolf’s mouth move as the words reached her ears, followed by a ferocious-sounding growl.
“This isn’t happening. I’m dreaming,” Dawn said to herself, not believing her own eyes even as her brain told her that what she was seeing was, in fact, happening.
“As if that’s going to help,” a jovial voice said from behind the silver one, a light-tan wolf that seemed to be practically grinning as the wolves came to a stop less than ten feet around her.
Werewolves.
Garrett had told her, but Dawn hadn’t believed it. Couldn’t have believed it even if she’d wanted to.
“You’re trespassing, human. And our patience has run out. Either you leave, or we’re going to do something about it right now.” The wolf lowered its head, baring long canines that looked like they could impale a deer or even a moose with one bite.
“What are you talking about?” She felt her face tighten and the hair on her arms rise. She was talking to a wolf, for a crying out loud!
Another wolf spoke this time, chiming in. “This is our ancestral pack territory. You have no right to claim this land and defile it with your trucks and your building here.”
Dawn looked to the left and right, hoping for any escape. But aside from the fact that she was totally and completely surrounded, she had no doubt in her mind that these wolves could catch her in a single bound.
And as much as she felt like she was still dreaming, the sound of snarls as the sight of narrowed wolf eyes laser-focused on her felt all too real at the moment to want to test her hypothesis.
“We tried to warn you, human. But you wouldn’t listen,” another wolf said dismissively. And did it… shrug?
Could wolves shrug?
Love at Furst Sight (Built Fur Love Book 1) Page 14
