Timberman Werebear (Saw Bears Book 3) (6 page)

Turning, she pointed to a cooler of non-alcoholic beverages and asked the bartender, “Can I get one of those lime-flavored electrolyte drinks?”

Skyler was glaring at Matt, while Brooke gave her a knowing smile and asked, “What, no beer for Denison before the event?”

“Hell no. He needs to keep his head.” What a terrible beer wench she made. She paid for the drink as fast as her shaking hands could manage and tried to hightail it out of there before Matt the Horny Brat reached her.

Too late.

“I knew it. You’re the hot chick from the bar. Damn, girl. You look even better in broad daylight.”

“I’m surprised you even remember me.”
Ratfincked whiskey-breathing butt-groper.
“We’re running late, so have a nice life.” She grabbed Skyler’s arm and hurried behind Brooke toward the crowd waiting below the poles.

“Wait,” Matt said, pulling her shoulder and stopping her escape. “We’re going to the same place.” He jerked his chin to an event sign that read
90’ Climb
. “I’ll walk you.”

“She doesn’t need you to walk her, Gray Back,” Skyler said. Her eyes had gone deadly as she stared up at the man. “Can you not read her shirt?”

He was six-feet-three and had nearly a foot on Skyler, but she didn’t look intimidated at all. Skyler gave him a humorless smile and said, “Now, kindly fuck off.”

Danielle snorted a laugh and tried to cover it with a cough. Dear goodness, it was awesome to watch tiny Skyler face off with the handsy Sasquatch.

Danielle sidled by Skyler, gave him a little wave, and caught up with Brooke. The green drink sloshed in its plastic container and was cold against her hand, but before she knew what happened, it was slapped out of her palm and lay in the shadows of a make-shift alleyway between two tents.

“I apologize,” Matt said from right beside her. “Let me get that. My silly hand just does what it wants sometimes.”

Gads, he was fast. He’d been ten paces behind her, then right there in no time at all. Anger flared up the back of Danielle’s neck as she rushed to retrieve the drink.

Matt bent down, too, and snatched it from under her grasp. “Too slow,” he murmured, his face only inches from hers. “Do you know what you smell like from here?”

“Denison,” she gritted out.

“Yeah, that’s right, baby. You smell like an Ashe Crew whore.”

Fury, red and hot, blasted up her arm. She drew back and slapped him hard. “Don’t you talk to me like that. I’m with Denison. I’m not anyone’s whore.”

Matt’s blazing blue eyes filled with hatred, and he leaned forward and gripped her hair, then yanked her to him and kissed her so hard she tasted iron. Danielle struggled against his impossible grip. Where were Skyler and Brooke? She searched for them out of her peripheral vision, but they seemed to be blocked out of the alleyway by a trio of equally big men with Gray Back Crew T-shirts on. Shit.

Matt released her throbbing lip and growled out, “You should’ve picked a real man to fuck you first. Now you’ll never know better.”

Something big and powerful launched her backward, and when she sat up, Matt wasn’t taunting her anymore. He was locked up, absorbing blow after blow from Brighton. Brighton?

Strong arms picked her up and turned her out of the alley. It was Bruiser, and Drew was waiting with his arms crossed, watching Brighton beat the stuffing out of Matt. The giant was getting in a punch here and there, but Brighton was lethal and didn’t even react to the crushing blows Matt snuck in.

Holy shit, he was fast.

“Let’s get you out of here,” Bruiser said. “Brighton.”

Just like that, Brighton pushed Matt into a couple of Gray Backs and followed her out of the alley. They led her through a maze of vendors, Bruiser’s hands never straying from the upper part of her arm. When they came to an abandoned tent with a few scattered tables, Brighton took her hand and led her to the farthest one. Easing her down into a plastic chair, he jerked his head to the others and Bruiser and Drew backed off.

“Brighton, Skyler and Brooke were back there,” she wheezed out, panicked.

He shook his head and stripped his shirt off, then looked behind him as if he were making sure they weren’t being followed. “They’re okay.” His voice wasn’t a voice at all, but a barely audible whisper of air. “Tagan and Haydan have them.”

Her throbbing lip took a backseat to her shock. “You can talk?”

He pointed to a long, red mark where his short beard didn’t grow whiskers on his neck. “No,” he rasped out, voiceless.

She didn’t understand. “Is that a scar? Did someone do this to you?”

She could see him close down on her. The emotion in his emerald green eyes went dead. He inhaled deeply and whispered, “Denison can’t see you like this. He’ll kill them.”

Brighton dabbed the side of her lip, and when he pulled his shirt away, it was smeared with crimson. Son of a mother fluffin’ biscuit eater. Matt, that dick-faced weasel-turd had made her bleed with his uninvited kiss.

Brighton stared at her lip with a frown, then turned to Drew, who jogged over. He pulled at her lip and leaned in close, studying the cut. “He didn’t get her deep enough. She won’t Turn.”

Brighton huffed out a relieved-sounding sigh and leaned his head back, then stared at her with his dark eyebrows arched high.

Slowly, she asked, “Turn me into what?”

All Brighton whispered before he pulled his shirt on and dragged her back out of the tent was, “A Gray Back.”

Brighton could talk. Okay, he couldn’t make sound, but he could communicate, and as far as Danielle could remember, he’d never whispered to her before. And right now, he was guiding her through the crowd with his hand protectively on her lower back with Bruiser and Drew flanking them.

“Brighton?”

He cast her a quick glance.

“How did you know to come find us?”

He leaned in close so she could hear the brush of air that formed his words. “You called for Denison. He was too far away.”

She hadn’t actually called for Denison. She’d said his name, at normal volume, to Matt, and somehow Brighton and the boys had heard her. Danielle’s curiosity was growing by the minute.

It was apparent almost immediately why Denison hadn’t been involved in the Ashe Crew’s little rescue mission. The 90’ Climb had begun, and Danielle watched in awe as he propelled himself upward on powerful legs. He made it look easy and graceful, as if he were running on the ground instead up straight up into the sky. His arms flexed each time he pulled the strip of leather up around the pole to gain more traction. Holy hell balls, she’d known Denison was hot, but the man had learned many a talent in the time she’d been away.

“He is the best one for this event,” Drew said low. “He’s the one who usually runs cable up the pole to create our skylines at the different job sites we’ve worked. Heights don’t get to any of us, and we’re comfortable in trees, but Denison is the fastest on time.”

Two other men reached the top near Denison, but he was first. One of the competitors wore a T-shirt like Matt that read
Gray Back Crew
, and the other said
Boarlander Crew
. The other five competitors were way behind and looked clumsy compared to the three men at the top.

Danielle clutched the drink she’d bought and debated whether to watch Denison climb down. He seemed completely comfortable in his element, though, and it was hard to take her eyes off him. He was smiling, as if he was enjoying himself, and a knot of tension slid from her shoulders.

Matt wasn’t going to ruin today.

“Are you okay?” Brooke asked, fighting the crowd to get to her. Skyler, Tagan, and Haydan followed close behind.

“I’m fine,” Danielle assured them. “Just mad that guy won’t take a hint.”

“He won’t mess with you anymore,” Tagan said in a quiet voice.

Something about the way he said it made her believe him. Tagan seemed like the most reserved out of the bunch, but he had that look sometimes that said he was a brawler when he had to be. Like Brighton.

Denison said a few words to a man with clipboard, then looked out over the crowd until he saw her. With a grin, he made his way through the onlookers, then swept her up into a back-cracking hug. With a quick spin, he searched her face, but his smile dropped when his eyes landed on her lip.

He set her down immediately and kissed her gently where it hurt the most. “You’re bleeding.” He kissed her again, and warmth spread from the tiny cut through her lip. It made it feel numb and tingly. Easing back, he asked, “What happened?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Tagan said gruffly.

Denison narrowed his eyes at his friend and froze. He looked to his brother, then behind him, where a group of Gray Backs were gathered. Matt was with them.

Time for a shift in conversation. “I brought you a drink.” Danielle shoved the sports drink in his hand. “I was afraid to get you beer because I thought it would inhibit you, but clearly you can handle yourself just fine,” she rambled. “I dropped all of our food, though. You can make bad beer wench jokes now.”

Denny looked at her and blinked slowly. “Stop. Who did that to your face? Did someone hit you?”

“No, it was nothing like that.”

Over Denison’s shoulder, Skyler looked green in the face. Okay, no one was speaking up to get her out of this, and something heavy was settling over her chest, like static from a lightning storm. The air even smelled different now. She couldn’t put her finger on what it was exactly. A little woodsy with undercurrents of animal.

“Denison,” Tagan said, stepping in front of him and blocking him off from Danielle’s view. “I forbid you going after him. We took care of it, Brighton avenged your mate, the girls are safe, and we can’t afford a war. Keep it to the competition.”

“Tagan,” Denison said in a helpless, choked voice.

The sound tore at Danielle’s heart, and she pushed around Tagan’s wide shoulders.

Denison’s eyes were blazing a frosty silvery-white. “Not here, Denny,” she said, resting her hands on his chest. “I’m okay.” Something tapped on her shoulder, and when she looked over, Brighton was handing her a pair of sunglasses.

The crew surged forward, surrounding them as she slid the glasses over his eyes to shield them from the crowd.

She tried to smile, but her lip trembled. Cupping his cheeks, she whispered, “I swear I’m okay.”

Denison leaned forward until his forehead rested on hers. “Tell me what happened quick.”

“He kissed me. I hated it. He was trying to get to you. That’s all.” She’d leave out the whore comment and hope Denny didn’t ever catch wind of it. He didn’t seem the type to let something like that go.

He pulled her lip gently down with his thumb. She couldn’t see his expression anymore behind the glasses, but he looked at the tiny wound for what felt like minutes. “Not deep enough,” he murmured. “You’re hungry. I need to feed you.” His voice had taken on a dreamy quality.

Her stomach was growling. Her corndog sat on the grass where she’d dropped it when Matt had kiss-attacked her. Uninvited face molestation plus a ruined hand-battered corndog equaled Matt getting a serious kick in the gonads next time she saw him.

****

Denison was going to bleed that Gray Back slowly. He couldn’t do it today because Tagan, his alpha, had ordered him not to, but someday Matt was going to feel deep pain and regret for hurting Danielle.

He turned and glared at Matt across the crowd. The asshole had the balls to toss him a taunting grin, but it was hard to take it seriously behind the bruising and the broken nose that his shifter healing was struggling to fix. Brighton must’ve got him good. He wished it was him to avenge Danielle’s treatment, but if he couldn’t, his twin was second best at settling down his inner bear. God, his animal was roaring for blood. Everything was bathed in shades of red. Everything except for Danielle, who kept pulling his face back to her. The only red on her was the tiny smear at the corner of her mouth Denison wanted to clean off with his tongue. He gave in once more, thinking it would calm his bear, and kissed it clean. Danielle gave off the most delicious little moan as he sucked her lip, and he hoped that touching her affected her like it did shifters. Warmth spreading through her limbs, calming her from the inside out. That’s why he had to stay near the Ashe Crew. Their presence calmed the raging animal inside of him better than a tranquilizer. And they knew it, too. Bruiser’s hand had been on his shoulder the entire time since he’d learned Matt had gone after Danielle. That, Tagan’s order, and Danielle’s pleading eyes kept him from lunging over the crowd of unknowing humans and ripping Matt’s throat out through his stomach.

If Danielle knew what he really was, what he was really capable of, she’d run away and never come back.

Matt had come way too close to Turning her into a bear shifter. If he would’ve gone deeper, bit her harder, she would’ve been a Gray Back by law. He repressed a shudder at the thought. War would’ve been unavoidable then.

If she was a born bear shifter, this could’ve been avoided. He could’ve claimed her when they were together in the Bronco earlier, and Matt wouldn’t have any right to mess with her. As it stood, he didn’t want this life for her. Didn’t want to Turn her for his own happiness. Being a bear was awful and painful at times. It would mean hiding what was inside of her for the rest of her life. Brooke struggled with it still, and she’d been Turned by a man she loved. Denison didn’t know if Danielle was quite there yet. His bear had chosen her years ago, and when she’d left, he’d had to accept that he would be mate-less forever. But now she was back, and he couldn’t rush this. And if she didn’t want the bear inside of her and didn’t fully understand what she’d be giving up—namely, her humanity—he was going to make damned sure she was never touched by the tooth of a shifter. Not even his own. Not even to claim her and bond her to him completely.

He and Brighton knew the dangers of being different from humans. They’d paid in agony for that knowledge. Danielle couldn’t ever know that fear.

Matt had gotten too close to Turning her though, and it dumped panic into his system. He could’ve so easily bitten into her muscle, been more thorough, ruined her life. Ruined Denison’s shot at happiness with the woman he still loved more than anything.

He didn’t know what he was going to do, but one thing was for sure. He had to keep her away from the Gray Backs and the Boarlanders until she decided for herself if she wanted this life or not.

What if she ran? No. She was different now. He pulled her against his chest and rested his chin on top of her head. She was stronger now. Matt hurt her, but she still showed up here, trying to play it off like no big deal to protect Denison from doing something stupid in a crowd full of humans. And she didn’t even know what he was.

Maybe she could handle all of his secrets.

Not now, but someday.

“Come on. There’s not much time between events, and Tagan is up next.” He needed to take care of her in some way to soothe the rampaging animal inside of him, and feeding her was all he could do right now. Tonight, he was going to take her home and adore her body. Not in some quickie passion-fuck like he’d pushed in the Bronco. But better, slower, like she deserved. He inhaled her scent—fruit shampoo, soap, blood, and the lingering bitter smell of fear. That last trace threatened to buckle him and force a Change, but he couldn’t lose it here.

As if she could read the turmoil flooding him, she stood on tiptoes and kissed him. Giving into his need for her, he pulled her closer and slid his tongue past the seam of her lips to taste her. God, his mate was perfect.

His mate? Hell yeah. She had been for years, and this time he was going to do this right. He was going to share more of himself and hope she stayed around for the ugly parts.

History said he wasn’t good enough to keep her, but this time he was going to show her exactly how important—no, pivotal—she was in his life.

He squeezed her tiny hand in his, wrapping his fingers all the way around. He clapped Brighton on the back in a silent “thank you” for being there for his mate when he wasn’t able. He owed his brother, big time.

Most of the crew followed Tagan toward the Standing Block Chop, but Denison pulled Danielle toward the rows of concession stands. And when his mate was satisfied with food, and they both had a cold beer in hand, he draped his arm around her waist and reveled in the fact that she’d come back to him. She’d chosen him, not Matt, or some guy she’d met after she’d left. She’d come back because of that job, but it was a cover. He knew in his gut she’d really come back because she still felt something for Denison. She’d thought about him through the years and had been brave enough to face her fears of his rejection and come back. He felt like the luckiest man in the world with her laughing beside him as they watched Tagan dominate in his event and while she cheered with him as they watched Skyler take second in the Women’s Boom Run across a bunch of logs connected together in the nearby lake.

As the day wore on, his bear settled under Danielle’s constant touch. She seemed as thirsty for his skin as he was for hers. Her smiles were constant, and only for him and the Ashe Crew. She looked so damned sexy in the shirt that proclaimed she was part of his team. She laughed and talked to his friends like they were family, and it made him even more devoted to her.

She’d always been a nature nerd and big into her books on trees and plants, but she’d never been awkward like she’d said. The Crew had always liked her.

Now, she was a spitfire and didn’t take shit from any of them without dishing it back. Denison didn’t have to defend her or take up for her or soothe her hurt feelings. She just grinned at their insults, then handed them back like she’d always been a part of this group of sailor-mouthed, rough-talkin’ men.

As the sun set low in the sky and the Ashe Crew all sat on the bank of the lake passing around a giant bowl of fruit salad Skyler had brought in one of the coolers, Denison looked around and thought his life couldn’t possibly get better than it was right now. Danielle looked so happy to be here, nestled under the crook of his arm as she asked questions about the Boarlanders, Gray Backs, and the different machines up on the job site. She seemed so worried about the dangers of being a lumberjack.

This was the first time today where they had an hour in between events. He’d done a couple of the chopping events and a log throwing one with Bruiser, but his biggest one was coming up next. Right now, they sat in second place overall. Boarlanders were in first and the Gray Backs were breathing down the Ashe Crew’s neck for second.

“You should give him a lucky blow job,” Drew suggested, waggling his eyebrows at Danielle.

She pegged him in the forehead with a grape, and Tagan snorted beside him.