Kace considered my advice before he nodded. “That’s a good idea. Things have been crazy around here lately, and I haven’t had the chance to go on a run since the last full moon.”
I crumpled up the paper and tossed it back at him. “Since I just solved your grouchiness issue, how about you get someone else to head over to Stewart to fix the liquor issue.” I pointed at the half-eaten plate of wings and added, “My plans for tonight didn’t include dealing with anything other than a full stomach.”
“Sometimes we’ve got to do shit we don’t want to do.” Kace shrugged but didn’t look too worried about ruining my night as he grabbed a couple of my wings for himself. “Sending Tane won’t send a strong enough message. It’s got to be you since you’re my beta.”
“Damn,” I groaned, flipping the handle on the side of my recliner to send my leg rest down. “Fucking Stewart.”
Kace chuckled and tossed his chicken wing bones onto the side of my plate. “I don’t get it. Why do you sound like I’m sending you to your death?”
I wasn’t the kind of guy who got embarrassed, but I felt heat fill my cheeks as I remembered what had happened when I was in Stewart a few days ago. “My mom wanted a pecan pie from the diner over there to go with the pumpkin one she baked for Thanksgiving. I ran into an issue picking it up for her.”
“It couldn’t have been that bad if you didn’t tell me about it.” He leaned back, stretching his legs out to prop his feet on my coffee table. “What kind of trouble did you manage to get into in a college town full of humans?”
“The new waitress could’ve passed for an octopus shifter with how handsy she tried to get with me.” I shuddered just thinking about it.
Kace cringed at the analogy. “Hopefully, you can duck into their place without her spotting you.”
“It’s not just her, man. I swear, all the girls who go to that school are boy crazy,” I grumbled as I got to my feet. “Whenever I’m in Stewart, at least one of them tries to throw herself at me. If she were my mate, I’d be all over that shit, but none of them have been, and they don’t take no for an answer. Then when I finally manage to untangle myself, their fucking scent clings to my skin, and it’s all wrong. My wolf gets pissed, and the drive feels as though it takes for-fucking-ever before I’m back home and can wash it off me.”
Kace grabbed the last few chicken wings before standing, too. “Maybe you’ll get lucky this time around, and the girl throwing herself at you will turn out to be your mate.”
“It’s not gonna happen. I’m just not that lucky, as proven by you barging in here and interrupting my night,” I denied with a shake of my head. “That’s not taking into account how I’m headed to a town full of humans who don’t even know shifters or fated mates exist.”
“I wouldn’t care if my mate was human as long as I found her.” Kace flashed me a chiding look, and I felt like shit since I shouldn’t have needed the reminder. My irritation over my change in plans had me saying shit I didn’t even mean. “It won’t matter if yours is a wolf shifter, human, or can turn into a fucking goldfish. She’ll be the best thing that’s ever happened to you because she’s your mate.”
“Damn straight,” I agreed with a small smile as I pulled my coat off the hook by the front door and shrugged it on.
He slapped me on the back as he passed me to head down the sidewalk to where his car was parked at the curb. “You never know. Fate works in mysterious ways sometimes.”
Kace’s parting words echoed in my brain while I drove to Stewart. It wasn’t surprising since mating was a driving force for all shifters. We didn’t feel complete until we found our mates, the other half of our souls. I’d put up with that irritating waitress a thousand times if it helped me find her...the one who was meant for me.
After parking a few doors down from my destination—on the opposite side of the diner because it was insane to think that running into the waitress would actually help—I climbed out of my truck. My wolf pushed against my skin before I even got the door shut, and it took a moment for the reason to click in my head.
The faintest hint of a strawberries and cream scent filled my nostrils. It was unlike anything I’d ever smelled before. The alluring scent could have only come from one source—my mate.
Mine.
It took all my willpower to keep my human skin as my wolf fought to break free. As it demanded we find our mate. Now.
The only reason he pulled back was that my human half was just as anxious to track the sent to my mate. Scanning my surroundings, I didn’t see anyone nearby on the sidewalk. But the car that had just pulled away from the curb as I had turned into my parking spot was only a couple of blocks down the street. Thinking back to the moment before it had left, I remembered that a woman had climbed into the back seat. She had been less than ten feet away from where I was currently standing so the lingering scent had to be hers.
My head swiveled in the direction the car had gone, and I sprinted toward the horrifying sight in front of me.
3
Allegra
My gratitude that the driver hadn’t called it a night before picking me up quickly turned to terror when we approached a red light, and the car started to skid sideways instead of stopping. He wasn’t able to stop the slide, and we kept going into the intersection. The accident happened in seconds, but it felt as though a lifetime passed before we crashed into the light pole on the other side of the intersection. The vehicle slammed into it so hard, the front end crumpled.
My seat belt prevented me from flying forward, but it hurt like heck where it pulled against my body. I was dazed when the car finally came to a rest, and I slammed back against the back seat. The crash was hard enough that the airbag went off in the driver’s face, and he was slumped in his seat.
Other than the snow falling, everything around us was still. My head felt as though it was spinning. I blinked a few times in an attempt to clear my vision, but it was still fuzzy around the edges. When I tried to undo my seat belt to get to the driver, I discovered it was stuck. The driver hadn’t moved or said anything, and I was starting to freak out. I stretched out my arm to shake his shoulder as I asked, “Hey, are you okay?”
He didn’t answer, so I yanked on the buckle at my left hip and tried to disengage the lock. It didn’t accomplish much. The buckle didn’t budge, and the belt tightened over my body, biting into my shoulder and making me whimper in pain.
“Here, let me help.” My head jerked to the right, and I was stunned to see a man crouched down next to me. I had no idea where he came from, or how he’d opened the door without me hearing anything. I must have been more out of it than I’d realized because he was less than a foot away from me.
His piercing green eyes were locked onto my face, and it felt as though he could see straight into my soul. My heart started to race, pounding so hard I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had burst through my chest. It could have been because of the adrenaline rush from the accident, but it also might have been due to the fact that the man reaching for the buckle to release my seat belt was incredibly gorgeous. His dark hair and tanned skin were a stark contrast to the pale green of his eyes. Although he wasn’t standing, I could still tell he was tall, and his muscles strained against the sleeves of his winter coat.
“Wha—” My question turned into a gasp when he slid one arm around my back and the other under my upper thighs to tug me out of the car.
“It’s okay. I’ve got you,” he soothed, carrying me down the street toward the diner. His deep voice felt like a caress across my skin, sending shivers down my spine. My reaction to him was overwhelming and completely out of character for me. I’d never felt this kind of instant attraction to anyone else, and I wasn’t sure if it was somehow partly due to me being vulnerable after the accident. As ridiculous as it sounded, maybe slamming into that pole had made me more open to being attracted to a man. I didn’t know how else to explain it when I’d never been drawn to a man like this before.
I leane
d my head against his shoulder and breathed deep, his masculine scent filling my lungs. There was a hint of pine, which made me think he smelled like Christmas—only better because it was mixed with something purely masculine that sent my already befuddled senses reeling. I was acting so out of character; I was starting to wonder if I’d hit my head during the crash or something.
The man strode past the diner and shifted his hold on me to open the door of a big, black truck parked a few stores down. He’d carried me all that way without breaking a sweat, and I was awed by his strength.
He was incredibly gentle as he placed me on the seat and leaned close. He scanned my face and body, his green eyes filling with concern as he asked, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think I’ll be fine.” I lifted my arm to touch my right shoulder, pretty sure it had been badly bruised by the seat belt. I quickly regretted the action, and when I cringed in pain, he wrapped his fingers around my wrist and lowered my arm to my lap.
“Let me check that for you,” he offered, his thumb stroking the inside of my wrist.
“Okay,” I agreed softly even though I didn’t want him to move his hand because the way he was touching me felt so good.
I held still as he carefully pulled my coat to the side and tugged the neckline of my sweater out of the way. His touch was tender as he glided his fingers over my collarbone. “It doesn't look swollen, which is a good sign when you could’ve ended up with a broken bone. You'll probably end up with a bruise, and the pain will be worse in the next couple of days. Then you should feel better by Wednesday or Thursday.”
“It sounds like you have a lot of experience with injuries. Are you a doctor?”
“No, but I've had more than my fair share of bruises and broken bones,” he chuckled and shook his head. “I guess I skipped over a step when I hauled you out of that car. I’m Zeke Blakesley.”
“I’m Allegra Hale.” I offered him a shy smile. “Thanks so much for stopping to help.”
“Do you hurt anywhere else?”
I shifted in the seat and took stock of how I felt. “No, I just have some aches and pains but nothing else major.”
“Good, I hate the thought of you hurting.” He put my sweater and coat back in place before strapping the seat belt over me.
After he stepped back, I was able to see down the street to the crumpled car. “What about the driver?”
“I’ll call 911 now,” he offered, glancing over his shoulder. “I can see him moving, so he must not be hurt too badly.”
My eyes narrowed as I tried my best to focus on the driver, but he was just a blur to me. “You must have really good eyesight.”
“Better than 20/20,” he confirmed as he pulled his phone out of the front pocket of his jeans. He swiped at the screen to make the call to emergency services before closing the door and striding around the truck. When he finished talking to the operator, he climbed into the driver’s side and started the engine.
As he backed out of the parking spot, I asked, “Shouldn’t we wait for them to get here? Maybe go check on the driver?”
“She said the ambulance would be here in a few minutes and didn’t ask me to wait for them,” he explained, heading down the street in the opposite direction of the wreck.
The motion of the car freaked me out a little—probably because I’d just been in a crash—and I squeezed my eyes shut. “I guess if you’re sure I won’t get in trouble for leaving, it’s okay for us to go.”
“You don’t need to be worried. I won’t let anything happen to you,” Zeke promised, reaching out to lace his fingers through mine. “My only concern is your safety and well-being.”
I was so out of it from the accident—and distracted by my overwhelming attraction to him—that it took me until he pulled into the driveaway of a house that I didn’t recognize before I realized he’d headed in the opposite direction from my college campus. “Where are we?”
“My house,” he rumbled as he climbed out of the truck.
I stared at his prowling form while he rounded the vehicle to open my door. For the first time tonight, I realized I was in what many would consider a dangerous position—alone with a strange man. “You do realize that bringing me here instead of asking me where I want to go could be considered kidnapping, right?”
4
Allegra
Considering the accusation I just tossed his way, Zeke’s reaction wasn’t what I was expecting. His green eyes lit with humor, and his lips curved up in a sexy grin. “I wasn’t trying to be funny.”
“I know you weren’t.” He pulled a black wallet out of his back pocket and flipped it open with a flick of his thumb, flashing a shiny badge my way. “But I don’t think I’ll run into any issues with the Stewart PD.”
I reached out and traced the metallic surface with the tip of my index finger. “You’re a cop?”
“Not just any cop. I’m the town sheriff,” he corrected.
“Which town?” I wasn’t sure where we were, but I knew we weren’t in Stewart anymore.
“Timber Ridge,” he answered as he lifted me out of the truck.
“Timber Ridge?” I echoed softly, my eyes widening in surprise. I knew the name, but the girls and I had never headed this way before.
“Yup.” He didn’t put me on my feet. Instead, he kicked the door shut with one boot before turning toward the house and carrying me up the sidewalk and through the front door. He finally put me down on a brown leather couch, placing a pillow behind my back and stretching my legs out to set my feet on the cushions.
Yup?
What kind of an answer was that?
“I get that you’re the sheriff around here, Zeke Blakesley, but I’m going to need more information than that.”
“More than you know, but let’s get you comfortable first,” he muttered before he started to unbutton my coat. Instead of doing the safe thing and crossing my arms over my chest to stop him, I leaned forward so he could tug the sleeves down my arms. When he got up to hang it on a hook by the front door and shrugged out of his coat, I noticed how girly it was next to his. “My mom got it for me. The coat,” I blurted awkwardly. “Red is my favorite color, but I know it's more than a Little Red Riding Hood-ish.”
“Funny you should put it that way,” he chuckled.
I felt as though there was an inside joke I wasn’t getting, and my brow wrinkled. “Really? How come?”
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “I’ll get to that in a minute.”
Considering the wolf wanted to eat the girl in that story—and not in a sexy way to make her orgasm—his reaction to my lame attempt at a joke was more than a little confusing. “I’m already feeling much better. Maybe you should take me back to campus?”
He shook his head as he strode back to the couch. “You were just in an accident. Someone needs to watch over you tonight to make sure you’re okay.”
“That won't be a problem.”
“Won't be a problem?” he growled, lifting my legs to drop down on the cushion next to me before setting my feet on his lap. “Why? Do you have a boyfriend who’ll want to watch over you tonight?”
“Boyfriend?” I shook my head, my cheeks heating because it would be super embarrassing to admit I’d never dated anyone before. “No, I’m only a freshman. Even if I had a boyfriend, which I don’t, he wouldn't be allowed in my dorm room without getting into trouble. I live with my two best friends.”
Most of the tension drained from his body at my admission, and his thumb stroked the inside of my knee. Even through the thick material of my jeans, I felt the heat of his touch all the way to my core. “Good, because I’m the one who should be taking care of you tonight.”
I tilted my head to the side, my long, black hair falling over my shoulder. “How come?”
He reached out and twirled a dark lock around his finger. “Because we belong together.”
I was starting to wonder if I'd hit my head harder than I thought. “Am I in a coma or something?”
&nbs
p; “No, why would you think that?”
I waved my hand between us and then in a circle. “How else can I explain all of this?”
“All of what?” he asked.
“You. Me. Us,” I sputtered.
“You’re going to have to give me more than that, baby.”
“I just mean that you’re so...”
He brushed his thumb over my bottom lip, stemming the flow of words before I totally embarrassed myself. “Perfect for you?”
“We just met,” I breathed.
Zeke’s eyes filled with heat as they scanned down the length of my body. “Yeah, but that doesn't mean anything when you finally find the person who is meant to be yours.”
His palm cupped my cheek, and I leaned into the touch. “I thought it was just me. You feel it, too?”
“I do,” he confirmed with a sexy grin.
“Wow,” I sighed, completely blown away by his response. Zeke has the whole tall, dark, and handsome thing down to a T. I was surprised that he’d be into me enough to feel comfortable admitting it out loud so quickly. “I’m starting to think that being in the car crash was totally worth it.”
His hand slid down my neck, and his fingers drifted over my sore shoulder. “Nothing is worth you being in pain. Especially since I would’ve found you without the accident.”
“You can’t be sure that would’ve happened,” I disagreed. “I’m on campus most of the time, and I’m sure you’re busy around here, being the sheriff and all.”
“You were only a couple of towns away. Fate would have stepped in at some point,” he insisted.
I liked the idea but had a difficult time understanding why he seemed so certain. “How can you be sure?”
“I need you to keep an open mind.”
“Okay,” I drawled, pressing against the cushion at my back. it probably wasn’t a good sign that he felt the need to ask me that.
Shifted Love: Volume 1 Page 2
