by Liv Brywood
His bear growled and bared his teeth.
Mine!
His bear insisted that the woman snuggled tightly against him was his. Even more than that, she was theirs.
Settle down, he warned his bear. We can’t have her. She’s not right for us.
His bear beat against his chest with angry thumps. Maybe he was an idiot to ignore his animalistic instincts, but a long-term relationship was out of the question until he’d achieved his dream of independence.
Even if he did make her his mate, there was no guarantee that she would accept the shifter side of him. She’d been horrified by his behavior at the bar, so what would she think when she discovered his thousand-pound secret? Marrying a non-shifter wasn’t a good idea. He needed to consider the safety of his entire family. He’d be putting them at risk once she found out who they really were. He wanted to trust her, but they hadn’t known each other very long, so he couldn’t do it. Not yet. And maybe not ever.
She stirred against him and stretched her beautiful body.
“Good morning,” she said.
“How did you sleep?” he asked.
“Like a rock.”
She ran her hand across his chest in a way that felt more intimate than sex. A small part of him wanted to run. If a simple touch could terrify him, then what kind of future could they really have?
“Last night was—”
“Wait,” he interrupted. He couldn’t let her turn last night into something that it wasn’t. He needed to be honest. She deserved more than he could offer her right now, and he wasn’t ready for any kind of commitment. “Last night was great, but…”
“But?” She frowned.
“But it can’t be more than that.”
“Why?” she asked.
“Last night was amazing, but we need to be realistic. After the competition is over, you’re going back to Houston and I’m staying here. I didn’t expect anything like this to happen between us, but now that it has, I don’t want either of us to end up with false hope. We can’t have a future together.”
He couldn’t read her expression.
“Okay,” she said slowly. “I wasn’t expecting anything, so I’m not sure why you thought that I wanted anything more from you. I’m fully aware of the reality of the situation, but I was hoping that we could have some no-strings-attached fun.”
“We can.” He sighed with relief.
“We’ll just make the most of our time together,” she said. “We’re both adults and we know that this isn’t going to turn into a real relationship, so let’s just enjoy each other while we can.”
“That sounds good to me,” he said. “I just wanted to be clear about where I stood.”
“I’m glad you did,” she said. “I’d hate to think that one of us was looking for more than the other could give. I want to leave here with good memories. Now stop talking and kiss me.”
As he pulled her against his chest, she smiled. Her calm response made him admire her even more. She didn’t fly off the handle and have a meltdown. She’d simply agreed with the obvious outcome of their relationship.
But as her lips parted and their tongues swept across each other, a boulder formed in the pit of his stomach. He should have been happy with the arrangement, but he wasn’t. He cursed fate for bringing her to him before he was ready. In few more months he’d be in a position where it would be easy to pursue someone who could steal his breath away and make him think of the future. But right now his hands were tied. Even if he wanted to pursue her, realistically he didn’t have anything to offer her. She was the kind of woman who deserved an amazing home and a devoted husband, two things he wasn’t ready to provide.
Chapter 10
Kim gripped the steering wheel as she drove toward the fairgrounds. She shouldn’t have suggested a casual relationship with Zack. It wasn’t her style. She didn’t hop from one man’s bed to the next. And if he really wanted to date her, then he’d make the trip to Houston. It wasn’t that far away.
She shouldn’t have said anything last night. She should have just kissed him and kept her mouth shut. What was wrong with her? She didn’t even want to date him. Last night she’d just wanted to forget all the shitty things going on in her life. For a brief moment, she wanted to escape into a land of fantasy and ridiculously amazing orgasms. At least it hadn’t been a complete loss. The man had an incredible tongue. But was he using it to lie to her too?
Maybe he wasn’t really interested in her at all. Maybe this was all part of a ploy to throw her off her game. If he’d waited for her this morning, then she wouldn’t have been so suspicious. But he’d left for the fairgrounds without her. What did that mean?
After parking, she walked toward their station. When she arrived, he barely acknowledged her presence.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hey.”
“You didn’t wait for me,” she said.
“I didn’t want to wake you.”
“I could have been late.”
“Set an alarm,” he said.
The impersonal, distant tone in his voice chilled her heart. He didn’t laugh and joke around with her like he usually did. She wanted to ask him if everything was okay but held her tongue. If he really was trying to sabotage her, then she didn’t want to tip him off that she knew what he was up to.
When the competition began, they worked on their dishes in silence. Tension hung thick in the air. It mingled with the summer heat to make her dizzy. She gulped a glass of water and tried to form a coherent plan for her dish.
Today’s theme revolved around barbecuing non-traditional fare. She finally settled on barbecued turkey wings and got to work. After whipping up a quick marinade, she placed the wings on the grill. So far, she’d stayed ahead of the pack by paying close attention to detail. But competition was fierce. One false move and she’d be out. If she didn’t nail her sauce, she’d lose this round.
Flames whooshed up from underneath the metal grate. She grabbed a pair of tongs to rescue the wings, but it was too late. They were burnt on the ends and raw in the middle. The acrid scent of charred meat filled the air. Since she couldn’t salvage the food, she had to start over. The ominous click of the clock grated on her nerves. She’d have to hustle if she wanted to get anything on the plate.
When the judges called time, she still hadn’t added paprika to the dipping sauce. Her dish was a hot mess and she couldn’t do a damn thing about it. There was no way they’d like her wings. She’d be lucky to survive this round.
As the judges reached her station, she sucked in a breath. They sampled her nearly inedible wings in silence. Her heart sank as their smiles fell.
“I expected something amazing from you,” Sebastian said. “It’s a shame to see such poor quality this late in the game.”
“I wouldn’t serve this to a trough of pigs,” Bobby said.
“There are some definite execution issues,” Lori said. “But the sauce is good.”
Kim nodded but couldn’t speak. She struggled to fight back a wave of tears. In the last few months she’d done enough crying to last a lifetime. She refused to break down in front of the judges, or Zack.
As the judges moved on to Zack’s dish, she took a moment to compose herself. She could fall apart later in the privacy of the cottage, but right now she needed to keep it together. She did her best to keep a stoic expression on her face as the judges raved about Zack’s food.
“Your barbecue fish is incredible,” Sebastian said. “Well done.”
“I wasn’t sure you could pull it off. It’s a tricky dish on the grill, but you managed to make it flawless,” Lori said.
Even Bobby nodded with approval. Great, she’d gone from first place to dead last, if she was lucky. How could she have forgotten something as simple as how to barbecue a turkey wing? Now Zack was guaranteed to beat her for the first time.
After the judges left, she ripped off her apron and grabbed her purse.
“Hey, are you okay?” Zack asked.
>
She spun to face him. “Do I look okay?”
He actually studied her, which only increased her irritation.
“I thought you said we were good,” he said.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t sound fine.”
“Does any of this look fine to you?”
She waved a hand over their station. Scattered dishes littered the table. A jar of seasoning had tipped over, spilling its contents across the dirt. She picked up the judges’ plates and carried the half eaten food to the nearest trash can. She hurled the turkey wings into the bag, nearly dropping the plates in the process.
She jumped as the overhead speakers crackled.
“The final six names will be on the board in two minutes,” Bobby said.
“Six! Only six?” The earth spun under her feet.
Zack rushed to catch her. He guided her into a nearby folding chair.
“Are you feeling okay? Do you need water?” Zack asked.
“Yes,” she whispered.
She was done. There was no way she could have made the cut. They were eliminating half of the field—half—making this the biggest cut since the first round.
As she watched the board, her stomach cramped. Zack appeared with a bottle of ice-cold water.
“Here,” he said softly.
“Thank you.”
She took a long swig of water as Bobby began writing the names on the board. Zack was in first place. As more names appeared, her chest hurt. Her epic screw-up had destroyed her chances. How was she going to break the news to her mother?
She hung her head in her hands, refusing to look at the final two names. Zack put a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t need his pity and shook it off.
“You can look now,” he said.
She opened her eyes. The board blurred through a thin veil of unshed tears. With each blink, the names came into focus. Her name appeared in sixth place. She stifled a cry.
“I can’t believe it,” she said.
“You made it.”
“How? My turkey was barely cooked. My sauce sucked.”
“You had one bad round,” he said. “Other than that, you’ve been in first the whole time. That probably bought you some leeway. But who cares, you’re still in the game. Isn’t that what matters?”
“That’s easy for you to say. You’re in first place now, not me.”
“I didn’t force them to choose my dish,” he said. “You really need to relax. Sometimes you take things too seriously.”
“Did you really just tell me to relax when you know why I’m here?” She stood and jabbed a finger into his chest. “You’re the reason I was distracted. Was that your plan all along?”
“No, and how can you accuse me of that? Stop trying to fight me. I’m not your enemy.” He moved closer to her, but she backed up.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” she said. “We’re competing against each other. We’ve been doing it since we met. Only one person can win this contest and I can’t afford to lose. It would destroy my mom.”
“I know you’re under a lot of stress, but don’t turn this around and try to blame me for something I didn’t do.” He lowered his voice. “Last night was amazing. It had nothing to do with the contest. I can’t understand why you’re trying to turn what happened between us into something dirty.”
She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Of course I blame you,” she said. “You’ve done nothing but distract me this entire time. You tried to sabotage me during the first round when you changed the heat level on the stove. Then there was that scary stunt you pulled at the bar. And if that wasn’t enough, you come over to my cabin to apologize and end up taking me to bed.”
He took a deep breath and blew it out. Anger danced in his eyes.
“What are you implying?” he asked in a dark tone.
“Ever since I got here, you’ve been distracting me. I can’t help but wonder why.”
“I never made you do anything you didn’t want to do,” he said. “I’m not trying to sabotage you. I don’t fight dirty, but apparently you do. For all I know, you only slept with me so I’d mess up and lose focus today.”
“Unbelievable. You know what, I think we should forget about having any fun on the side,” she said. “This contest means everything to me, and I can’t let go of my focus. Not for anyone.”
“We both have important reasons for being here,” he said. “I want this as bad as you do, and I’m not going to back down.”
“I don’t expect you to, but we need to stop pretending that we can be friends. I think it would be best if we didn’t talk outside of the contest.”
“Is that what you really want?” he asked with a frown.
“It’s for the best.”
She cleaned her station in record time. As she packed up her knives and prepared to leave, she considered saying goodbye. But after the tense conversation they’d just had, there was nothing left to say. She needed to stop thinking about him and refocus on the competition. The sooner she put him out of her mind, the better.
* * *
Zack jogged through the back of his ranch toward the bayou. After coming home from the competition, he’d paced the kitchen until Beth had kicked him out. He couldn’t even celebrate his win. After talking to Kim that morning, he’d thought everything was good between them. Apparently not.
Women confused the hell out of him. Sexy, confident, and a little cocky, she was everything he could have ever wanted in a woman. Too bad their circumstances put them in an impossible position. He’d hoped they’d at least be able to have a little hot sex before she left, but even that was off the table.
His bear was completely incensed. The beast prowled around in his gut, ready to claw out a path at a moment’s notice. It wanted her right now and refused to accept Zack’s insistence that whatever they’d had together was over. The creature demanded that he find her and claim her. His bear didn’t understand social niceties; it only understood one thing: Mine!
The beast had never insisted that he claim a woman before meeting Kim. It was totally out of character for his bear. He didn’t pine away for women; he took what he wanted and never looked back. That had been their MO for years. But in an instant, Kim had changed everything.
To keep his bear happy, he stepped into the damp, musky bayou and shifted. As his bones cracked and twisted to release the beast, Zack welcomed the pain. Mud slid beneath his growing paws while shafts of sunlight warmed his sprouting fur. As his spine lengthened, his legs and arms stretched in perfect proportion. His face elongated to form a snout while razor-like teeth sprouted from his gums.
When the shift was complete, he padded through a spider web of tree roots. Flies buzzed across the lazy river. An egret hopped up on the bank before disappearing into the underbrush. For the first time all day, a sense of peace filled his soul.
As he rounded a bend, he spotted a gator sunning itself across the water. The fur on his back stood on end. It was Gunther, one of the Thompson brothers, and he was probably getting ready to sneak onto the Grant property. This time he was ready for them.
Zack headed back the way he’d come. When he was sufficiently far away, he crossed the river. Instead of paddling his paws, he let the current take him downriver until he was close enough to a bank that he could move without making a sound.
He reached the other side and stalked back toward the gator. He carefully avoided stepping on any rotting branches so he wouldn’t give away his position.
As he approached the sleeping gator, he bared his teeth. He couldn’t wait to take a bite out of it. He was so fixated on the other shifter that he didn’t hear the rustling in the bushes until it was too late.
Billy raced out of the bushes and clamped his powerful jaws around Zack’s hind leg. Zack clawed at the gator until it released him. As he turned to take on Billy, Gunther barreled across the muddy bank and slammed into him from behind. Zack tumbled forward and face-planted in the mud.
&nb
sp; He should have known that Gunther’s brother would be lurking in the shadows. He’d been so blinded by revenge that the brothers had gotten the drop on him. Sneaky sons of bitches.
He clawed and bit his way through them as much as he could. As his teeth sunk into one of the gator’s legs, the other brother snapped at Zack’s flank. The more he tried to incapacitate one of them, the harder the other fought. He couldn’t keep either one of them down.
One lunged for his head, barely missing his jaw. The other aimed for his paw. Working in tandem, he didn’t have a change in hell of beating them. If only he were close enough to the farm to call out to his brothers.
Out of options, he made a break for the river. The gators followed him, still snapping at him with their ferocious teeth. Pain jolted up from his paws and flank to make his heart pound. By the time he reached the other side, they’d ripped huge patches of fur and flesh away from his shoulder.
They ganged up on him. While one clawed at Zack’s back, the other went for his belly. He moved his paw back and smacked one of them right in the eye. Gunther jerked back into the water and slithered into its depths. Billy followed, leaving Zack bloodied and bruised on the riverbank.
For a few, terrifying minutes, he waited for them to return. He couldn’t move. At first, shock stole his ability to crawl. He summoned every last ounce of strength to force himself to move. Adrenaline spiked to keep the pain at bay until he got to the edge of the woods. He reached the grassy area near the ranch’s fence line, where he finally passed out.
Chapter 11
Kim kicked a rock as she walked along the fence line. She hadn’t been able to think about anything but Zack since she’d left the fairgrounds. Staying in her cabin was sure to drive her nuts, so she’d decided to take a walk. She figured that maybe it would help to work out her frustration.
She’d crossed the line when she’d accused him of sleeping with her just so he could win. In her heart, she knew that wasn’t true. It wasn’t his fault that she couldn’t keep her emotions in check when it came to him. If he’d been anyone else, then she would have been suspicious of his motives, but Zack was a good man. She couldn’t deny it. She owed him an apology, but hadn’t been able to find him.
