Sassy Shifter Brides: Complete Series - BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Mail-Order Romance (6 page)

“Far too many to mention, I’d say. But at least they kept the post up this time, so that’s something. Tyler’s getting the crane, but I’ve got to tell you, my patience is wearing thin with this bullshit. I’ve got a ranch to run.”

“I hear you,” Warren agreed, nodding grimly.

Someone was inching to see Shifter Grove fail, constantly messing with their basic utilities. He had to count their blessings that things hadn’t got worse yet, and since it was the summer, losing electricity wasn’t too bad. But their generators could only run for so long in winter if the power lines kept coming down all the time. Whoever was messing with them, they’d have to find the culprit fast.

“I guess we get to work again. You love heights, right?” Warren asked, flashing a smile at Rake. The werelion huffed a barely suppressed insult at Warren with a smirk, turning around to get his gear from the truck. Werelions had never been big on heights, and as such, they never heard the end of it from everyone else.

***

Kacey had been with him for a week now, but he still felt like she’d just stepped off of that plane. He couldn’t get enough of her, and he’d gone to painstaking lengths to ignore just about everything else in his life in favor of spending more time with her. Time was ticking by far too fast, and the date of her flight back was approaching with gut-wrenching speed. The thought of letting her get back on that plane and being apart from her made him feel sick to his stomach. The more he learned about her, the more certain he was that she was his mate. Hell, it had been the first thought he had had when he laid eyes on her.
Mate
. It had come out of nowhere, but it filled him with a sense of unwavering certainty.

She was the one. His body and mind both knew it. He yearned to touch her constantly, wanting to feel her softness and the smoothness of her skin under his hands and to bring her to new heights of pleasure that neither of them even knew existed. His humble home had got a thorough christening during the past week, and he was nowhere near done with loving every bit of her. Quite the contrary, he felt like he was just getting started. But there was just one thing that kept souring his pot of honey. His cousin’s dastardly plan hung over his happiness like a guillotine. While he could be safe in the knowledge that his beast and his human were certain that she was the one, he couldn’t expect her to share his conviction so easily. Love needed time to blossom, but time was the one resource he did not have an abundance of. Warren knew he had to tell her how he felt and that he wanted to spend the rest of his days with her, but how to do it without scaring her away? It kept him up at night and made him toss and turn. More than anything, even more than seeing Shifter Grove flourish, he wanted to have Kacey at his side for life. To have, to hold, to love and to raise a family with.

Kacey grinned at him, a spoon sliding out from between her lips. Rousing from his daydreams, he took a bite of the Key Lime pie on a plate between them. It was all he could do to keep from leaning over the table and, like a thirsty man desperate for a drink, kissing her right in front of everyone. Or, well, Cerise, and about four other people, as the Sunrise Diner wasn’t exactly busy around sunset on a Wednesday evening.

“I’m sorry, I must have trailed off,” Warren said, pulling a hand through his scruffy hair. Kacey nodded with quiet bemusement and that teasing twinkle in her eyes that drove him wild. There was a lot of fire under her demure façade, and he was glad that she was growing more and more comfortable with showing him her more playful side.

“You did, yes. But I don’t mind. You’re a handsome sight even when staring out of a window.”

“Well, don’t you worry one bit. All of my attention is yours to wrangle once more,” Warren said with a flourish, taking a mighty bite of the pie.

Most nights, they had stayed home and cooked, but Kacey had wanted to see more of the town, and he was proud to show it to her. The buildings were coming along slowly, and every week there was a new face on the streets – someone’s friend or member of family coming out to join them in building the Shifter Grove dream. A place where all shifters and humans were welcome, regardless of their past and what their clans or packs had done to one another. Sure, there were bound to be difficulties, but Warren had faith that things would work themselves out. They had to. The only real problem, aside from the obvious utilities headache, was that there were far more men in town than there were women. The looks Kacey kept getting made his bear stir, thrashing against his restraints to break free and tell everyone to stop undressing his girl, his
mate
with their eyes. Though the irony that she was essentially the modern day version of a mail order bride didn’t elude Warren.

Warren reached across the table and tucked Kacey’s long brown lock behind her ear, letting his fingertips trail down her chin. Just as he was pulling back his hand, feeling all warm and fluffy in the presence of the wonderful woman who had graced his life, the door of the diner opened and slammed shut behind him with a bang. Warren glanced over his shoulder, and his expression went dark. In the middle of the room stood Wade, all toothy grin and devilish gaze. Wade strolled right over to Warren and Kacey’s table, and Warren’s body reacted immediately, his muscles growing taut.

“What do you want, Wade?” Warren asked, not bothering to hide the rumble in his voice. Wade didn’t wait for an invitation, hustling into the booth right next to Kacey. He put an arm across the backrest, making Kacey shrink away from him with a confused expression.

“Is that any way to greet your Alpha, Warren? And who might this delicious little morsel be? I’m Wade Sawtooth, by the way.”

“Um, hi. I’m Kacey.”

“Pleasure is all mine,” Wade said, grabbing Kacey’s hand and laying a wet kiss on it. Warren was on his feet just as Wade’s lips hit Kacey’s skin. He grabbed hold of Wade’s jacket and tore him up and out of the booth, his skin crawling with the thought that the sleazy werebear had dared touch Kacey.

“It’s okay, Warren! I’m fine,” she yelped, but it didn’t matter. Warren knew that it had nothing to do with Kacey, and Wade was just trying to get under his skin, and succeeding. But he couldn’t help himself.

“Settle down there, partner,” Wade said with a sly smirk, raising his hands in mock surrender. “I’m just glad you’re taking my advice and getting on with it. She looks like she’ll make a nice, healthy mate for you. Big ol’ hips to rear your big ol’ cubs. Wouldn’t mind if she warmed my bed as well, if you know what I mean.” That was it. Warren could control his bear, but he wasn’t going to control his human. He let go of Wade’s jacket and punched him right across the chin, sending the man tumbling back on the floor.

“Hey, you two, stop it or I swear to god I will gut both of you,” Cerise yelled, jumping over the counter with cat-like grace and stepping between Warren and Wade. Wade was up on his feet as quickly as he’d fallen, teeth bared and ready to take things as far as they needed to go.

Kacey stood up and stepped in front of Warren, laying her hand on his chest.

“Warren, what are you doing? And what does he mean by me making a good mate for you?” she asked, her voice low and shaky. All the anger went out of Warren, seeing her big gray eyes filled with confusion. He exhaled deeply, putting a hand on her arm.

“I’m sorry for scaring you. I’ll explain everything,” he said apologetically. Wade’s snort made Warren look up again, the Alpha sneering at him over Cerise’s head.

“Oh, you haven’t told her yet, huh? Well, I hope she likes knowing that she’s a desperation lay, nothing more.”

“Wade, if you don’t shut your big trap I’ll really hit you where it hurts,” Cerise snarled, pushing Wade back a few steps – as small as the curvy diner owner was, she could pack a decent punch.

Warren felt a shockwave run through Kacey’s body, and her eyes brimmed with tears. It damn near broke his heart.

“Cerise,” he started, but she stopped him with a wave of her hand.

“Get out of here. We can settle it later. It’s fine,” she said, keeping her eyes on Wade. Warren nodded, putting an arm around Kacey and walking her quickly out of the diner. He went to open the door of his truck for her but she wouldn’t let him, tearing it open herself and jumping in without waiting.

You fucked up good now, Warren,
he chided himself, his chin squared and his body pulsing with nervous energy. If Wade had just caused him to lose Kacey, he would never forgive himself.

The air was tense as he drove out of the town. Kacey’s lips were pressed together in a tight line, and from the corner of his eye, he could see her wordlessly staring out of the passenger side window. He reached over for her hand and it felt lifeless in his palm. A mile out of Shifter Grove, he killed the engine on the side of the road. He turned towards her and reached over, gently turning her chin to face him. Tears streaked her cheeks, and he wiped one of them away, her eyes fogged and shimmering.

“I owe you an explanation, Kacey.” She nodded, looking up at him. His heart constricted in his chest at seeing her anguish. He felt like he’d betrayed her, and if she’d said as much, he wouldn’t have disagreed. “Wade is the Alpha of my clan. I left home years ago because I didn’t agree with the way he runs things, but it doesn’t mean he mishandles things. We’ve just never seen eye-to-eye, and Sawtooth wasn’t big enough for the both of us. After I wrote to you on SassyDate
, I thought we had something special. I was dying to meet you, but because I was out here in the middle of nowhere with barely a roof over my head and a town that wasn’t sure whether it was coming or going, I didn’t want to come on too hard.  Then, Wade marked me.”

She listened to him quietly, but he could see the thoughts rushing back and forth in her head, and the shudders that went through her made him want to pull her into his lap and cradle her against his chest until she’d calmed down. But he needed to tell her everything. Before it got even worse than it already was.

“That means that I had to find a mate by the equinox or he’d choose one for me. It’s his right as an Alpha, and even though I don’t live with the clan anymore, I’m not a self-sufficient bear before I have chosen a mate. If he chose one for me, a Sawtooth bear, then I’d have to return home. Ancient rules apply to us as much as the new ones, and for the sake of my family, I couldn’t go against him. But I wanted to know if we could maybe become something. I drove to Timberwake to send you a message, and when you agreed to come visit me, I had new hope. I wasn’t going to tell you unless I was sure that you felt for me as I did for you and I… well, I was hoping to tell you soon.” He stuttered a little, something he never did. Nothing had ever made him shy back, but the possibility of hurting the woman he already thought of as his mate wrung a tight rope around his neck and threatened to choke his words.

“I love you, Kacey. It’s sudden, it’s too soon, and I know all of these things, but I love you. The first time I laid eyes on you, I knew it. My bear knew it. You are my mate, and there will never be a woman I love as much as I already love you. This has nothing to do with what Wade said. If this is something that I alone feel and if you wanted to leave right now, I’d do whatever you asked of me and let you walk out of my life. But I think you feel the same for me, and if I didn’t tell you, I would blame myself until the end of my days for letting the one woman who could make me happy leave without knowing what she meant to me.” Adrenaline coursed through his veins, pummeling loudly in his ears. His insides swelled and contracted, everything turning into a vortex of worry. It felt good saying those words, as he’d been thinking them since he kissed her for the first time. But the situation… well, it was far from ideal.

Her face was covered in shadows, the darkness intruding into their moment. The first drops of rain fell on the hood of the car, and the skies broke loose in angry tears, making the car throb under the downpour. She squeezed his hand and his heart leapt. Kacey nodded, her teeth grazing across her lower lip in that adorable way he couldn’t get enough of. He wanted to kiss her badly, but he restrained himself. He’d already piled too much on her for one night.

“I… I need to think, Warren. I care about you, more than I thought I ever would care for someone, but this is a lot to process. Just… I need a bit of time. Can you give me that?”

“I can give you anything you need,” he murmured. He leant in and kissed her gently on the cheek, drawing a small smile from her. It gave him hope, and at that very moment, hope was all he had. It would have to be enough.

CHAPTER SEVEN

It was far too early in the morning to be walking, but Kacey hadn’t been able to sleep all night. She’d tossed and turned in the guest bedroom, trying to rest in a bed she hadn’t slept a night in. Since she’d arrived in Idaho, every night had been spent in Warren’s protective arms, and now, trying to sleep without him snuggling against her back and neck seemed an impossible feat. Not only that, but her thoughts had kept her restless and wide awake.

Are you insane? Thinking that you want to say yes to a man you’ve barely spent a week with? Say yes to becoming his mate, essentially saying you trust him and yourself enough to never grow apart, to grow old together, to have a family together? Are you ready for a commitment like that?
There were far more questions than there were answers. But that was because no matter how she put it, the answer kept coming back simply as ‘yes’. Yes, she was insane for thinking that way, but a good kind of insane. Yes, she hadn’t known him for very long, but she truly felt like she knew everything she needed to know. He was kind, a hard worker, honest and brave, and man enough to stand up for what was best for both him and her. He had a good heart, and merely touching him made her light up like a 4
^th
of July parade, all lust and wanting for his body. What more could she ask for?