Grayslake: Never Kiss a Wolf (Kindle Worlds Novella) (3 page)

L
ily sucked
in a sharp breath at Greer's words. They should have brought relief and yet, they didn't. The burning in her gut that now moved into her chest was not relief or happiness. He'd cut her deep. How was that even possible?

The bear chuffed in her head and she ignored it. Living with an inner animal that often had different instincts than her human half could be exhausting. Made decision making a bitch too.

She was certain his reference was in regards to the shifter he and Calder were searching for, but that didn't seem to matter when it came to the inexplicable attraction she felt for him.

However, in this case she needed more information despite her desire to kick him out and hide.

"What does that mean?" she asked.

"Exactly what it sounds like. The woman we came here to find is a cougar shifter. She belonged to one of our clans until she tried to kill someone. Ever since then she's been on the run and our ruling council wants her found."

"Did she succeed?"

"In killing?"

She nodded. There was so much she didn't know that she still had to figure out about the world. Especially why there were so many rules. Maybe like her, this woman couldn't take anymore.

"No. The woman she attacked was able to get away and found help in time. But her poison tipped claws left scars. Bad ones."

"Why did she do it?"

Greer shrugged. "Don't know. That's above my pay grade. I don't need those kind of details to find her."

She stood from her couch and paced across the room. That ever-loving need to "do" something rode her again. "Maybe you shouldn't. Find her I mean. I believe the desire for freedom will drive people to great lengths. If you stop chasing her, she might settle down and lead a normal life."

The deafening silence after her last words stretched between them. She didn't have to see him to realize he stood there staring at her like a puzzle he couldn't figure out. That was the story of her life. Everyone wondering why she didn't conform.

"Is that what you're doing here? Living a normal life?"

His heavy-footed steps seemed loud on the tile floors of her nearly empty apartment. Without stuff to absorb the sound, everything hit her ears with a crash. He stopped a few feet away, but the heat emanating from his body seeped into hers anyway.

"Lily, why is someone looking for you?"

Her body jerked at the way he said her name. It came across like a caress against her naked skin.

"That's the first time you said my name."

"No, baby. That's the first time you heard me say it." His fingertips lightly brushed her shoulder as he drew closer. "You didn't answer my question."

That time his warm breath caressed the back of her neck. He was so close she could have reached behind her back and grabbed him.

She knew next to nothing about this man, yet he asked for her biggest secrets. Unaware those secrets could get them both killed.

"For a man I met just this morning, you sure have a lot of questions. Why don't you go first?"

A slow rumble sounded in the chest he now pressed to her back. "It warms my cold heart to hear you want to get to know me better. Although there isn't much to tell."

His fingers traced patterns across her skin and she wondered if he even realized it. She understood how easy it was to get swept up in the past. It happened all the time.

"Tell me anyway," she urged, intrigued as hell in what he might share.

"What do you want to know?"

She took a deep breath and smelled the wood and spice coming from his skin. Her heightened senses could tell a lot about a man or a woman. Except with him...

"For starters. What are you?"

His body stiffened and he began to pull away. She grabbed his hand and held it to her shoulder. "Whatever you say stays here. I'm not interested in hurting you. I just need to know you're safe."

"I'm safe. I have no dog in this game as they say."

"I don't know what that means."

"It means that whatever you're afraid of has nothing to do with me. That makes me a safe zone."

She smiled to herself. "Are you avoiding the question?"

A little growl formed in his chest and vibrated against her back. Surprisingly that sensation soothed her agitated bear.

"I'm a wolf. You know that already. We saw each other in shifted form out at he lake."

God that felt like forever ago not just earlier today. Although she remembered it like it was only a few minutes ago. "You're more than wolf."

He sighed. "You really want to know?"

"I do."

This time he wrapped his arms around her waist and she settled her head against his chest. This touching thing was a little out of hand, but what the hell. It made her bear happy. She chuffed in her head again. Not just the bear...

"I'm not one hundred percent sure. My mother, a wolf, died in childbirth and never told anyone who my father was. As far as I know she was a full wolf, but from the looks of me, I'd guess my father was of mixed species. Maybe a bear, definitely something else too."

She turned in his arms and looked up at him. "Definitely bear. It's what makes you so big. But I think you're right. I smell something else but I can't figure it out. It's familiar and yet, not familiar. Whatever it is, it's driving me crazy."

"I'm driving you crazy?" He traced her bottom lip with a finger before lightly tugging on it.

"I may be naïve and a bit of an oddball. But I don't usually run screaming through town in a half shifted state. Something weird is happening."

"And you think someone is hunting you? Or is that part of the crazy?"

She shoved at his chest, but he didn't budge. "I thought we weren't talking about me yet?"

"I think we need to. If the thought of someone showing up looking for a missing shifter spooked you, I need to know why."

"Why? I am nobody. Nothing to you."

He grabbed her arms and pulled her tight, forcing her to look at him. "You aren't nobody. I don't know what the hell goes on in this town or what it's like where you come from, but women like you are precious and you damn sure deserve to believe that."

Tears sprang to her eyes at the fierce, almost scary determination stamped across his face. He had no idea and if he did he wouldn't be so anxious to be this close to her.

She came from a long line of stubborn, temperamental and unsophisticated bears who preferred to live in the past than in the present. If he thought this apartment was bad then the tiny shack she called home for the first twenty-two years of her life would disgust him.

"I need a glass of wine before this goes any further." She wriggled free from his hold and walked into the tiny kitchen in the corner of her one bedroom apartment. The place wasn't really that bad. In fact to her it was a palace.

Someone just needed to get off his high horse.

She reached into the cupboard and grabbed a paper cup. "Do you want some too?" she asked.

"Sure," he grumbled.

"I'd offer for you to have a seat and maybe watch some television, but ever since the cable guy came to hook me up I haven't been able to figure out how to use it. The remote control has so many buttons that none of it makes sense. I gave up on it the first night." Yes, she was rambling. But having this man in her apartment unnerved her. And made her want to squirm.

If he wasn't hunting her then why was he here? Her bear pushed at her skin. And why the hell did her inner beast keep wanting to get at him?

She grabbed the box of white wine from the fridge and placed it on the counter and pushed the valve open until both cups were full.

"You don't know how to use a remote?"

She looked up and found him holding it up in her direction. Why did that sound so shocking? Did no one else find these things confusing?

"It's a lot of buttons."

He looked down at the piece of plastic in his hand and then back at her, a funny look crossing his face. He then placed it down on top of the television and walked over to her.

Relieved that conversation had ended, she handed him the cup of wine. Except like the remote, he looked at the cup and back at her again like he didn't understand what was happening.

Good. That made two of them. She took a sip of wine that ended up being three gulps because she was so damned nervous. She needed to relax.

Yes,
the bear whispered in her head.
Relax and let the man take care of you. It's what we need.

Lily choked on her drink, making some of it go down the wrong pipe. When she erupted in a fit of coughing that burned her throat, Greer took the cup and led her to the couch.

"Sit. I think it's time to tell me about Alaska."

G
reer had
to tamp down the rage building inside him at the thought of his Lily living in a place like this or maybe worse if what he suspected about her home in Alaska was true.

That's right, he admitted to himself. His. Whether he understood it or not, one Ms. Lily Hale had become
his
somewhere in the last twelve hours. Maybe from the moment he laid eyes on her. Crazy outfit and strange behaviors and all.

So what if his mate was quirky? It was kind of adorable. The wolf rumbled his approval. Finally on the same page as his inner animal, it was time to get to the bottom of this woman's problems. It sounded like she had a safety issue and if he was going to make sure nothing ever happened to her he needed to know everything.

"There's not that much to tell."

He doubted that. She lived in this shitty apartment and drank wine from a box like it was the most normal thing in the world. That led him to believe it was a step up from her previous life.

"Spill it, babe. I can't protect you if I don't know what's going on."

"I don't need you to protect me." She took several steps away from him and it took all of his willpower not to stop her.

Kid gloves. He needed to use them. Skittish was an understatement.

"Why would someone be looking for you? Are you in some kind of trouble?"

She compressed her lips into a thin line, making it obvious she didn't want to talk.

"I'm not here to judge you. Whatever it is, no matter how bad it is, I'm still going to protect you."

"You're not going to let this go until I tell you something, are you?"

His head nearly exploded with the frustration burning inside him. "Not just something, babe. The truth and every ounce of it."

"You're exhausting," she said.

Greer felt the tips of his lips curve up in a slight smile as some of the tension inside him eased. "I'm persistent."

"If you want me to talk you shouldn't have taken away my wine."

He bit his lip to contain the bark of laughter that took him by surprise. "Ask and you shall receive." He walked over to the box of wine on the counter and refilled her cup, making a mental note to buy wine glasses and some wine that did not come in a box before she moved in.

Whoa. He stopped cold. One day of shenanigans and he was already making plans for her to live with him? Pausing for a moment he began to realize that made perfect sense.

He was already wrapping his head around the mate thing and there was no way he wanted to leave if there was a chance at reciprocation. Plus, what better way to protect her than to keep her as close as possible?

In his house and hopefully in his bed not long after that. He smiled into his shoulder and then turned to reface her.

"Here you go, babe. Your box wine."

Her lip curled at him and he got a glimpse of fang as her bear made its presence known. Good. He wanted to get to know the bear better as much as the woman. Having them both in the room made that much easier.

"Now tell me what kind of trouble you've gotten yourself into so we can start figuring out how to solve it."

She fiddled with the buttons on her neon green shirt and looked down at the floor when she spoke. "It's not what you think. At least I don't think it is."

She spared him a glance and he softened at the worry etched across her forehead.

"It doesn't matter either way. I'm prepared to accept whatever it is."

"Clan Hale is about as old school as I think you could ever imagine. I grew up in the most uncivilized backwoods of Alaska where there were nothing but bear shifters and wild animals for hundreds of miles. As a child I lived in a one-room cabin with my family. It was a simple life and we didn't have much beyond each other. We had to work hard every day to make sure we survived and things like electricity and running water weren't even heard of in our parts."

Which explained why she couldn't figure out how to operate her basic television.

"Until I turned fourteen and became mating eligible."

Greer stiffened at the quiet whisper of those words and a sense of rage began to build inside him. He had a feeling he wasn't going to like this story after all.

"At that time I was forced to leave my small village and move to another within the clan many miles away. I believe eligible women are moved around so a certain amount of inbreeding can be avoided. Although I didn't know that at the time. I just knew they took me away from my family and it terrified me."

A pit of despair on her behalf began to build alongside his anger. At fourteen she was NOT a woman. The wolf stirred and it wouldn't be long before he had an all out fight on his hands for control.

"There I lived in a cabin with anywhere from five to ten other eligibles, depending on status."

"Status?" he asked.

"Usually whether you were pregnant or not determined where you lived. Male bears are extremely protective of the women who are carrying their cubs. So if you got pregnant right away you had to live with the male and his family."

"His family?"

She nodded. "Most of the males in our clan are already mated. Some with cubs and some without. But with a harsh environment and limited resources, our clan numbers are dwindling and it's a female's duty to do everything she can to fight that by beginning her reproductive years as early as possible. With or without a mate of her own."

Greer turned away to hide the wolf's anger fighting to get loose. Her story was going to break his heart. The idea of his mate being used as a part of a baby-making factory made him see red.

"Don't get me wrong, Greer." She touched his arm. "Many of the eligible women end up mated right away."

He turned back to her on a snarl. "Are you trying to tell me you already have a mate?"

Her head dropped and she shook it. "No. The year I turned fourteen there were a lot more eligible females than males looking for mates. I was not chosen by one of them. I was however, picked by one of the strongest bears in that village and many, including my parents, believed it was a great honor."

He wanted to haul her out of here right now and drag her somewhere he could protect her. An honor? He nearly choked. The idea of her as a child... His wolf couldn't bear it.

"But you escaped." That idea alone gave him a little hope.

"Not right away. It took me years to plan how I would leave and where I would go. Little information is known to most of the clan about the outside world. But I had a cousin who went on the twice a year supply runs and he told me stories. He too wanted to leave the clan. Only he got into a fight over one of the eligible women and got himself killed.

"So I went into his cabin before anyone else could and stole the maps he collected and all of his notes about the outside world. It’s the information I used to make my escape."

"That's crazy, babe."

"You have no idea." Her voice lowered again. "But you should know that I'm not exactly normal. Mia says I don't know how to filter my words. My past makes me aggressive."

"Who is Mia?"

"Mia Abrams. She's the Itana."

More and more of the puzzle pieces were beginning to fall in place. The Itan and his Itana had to know Lily's history. "She's the reason they let you stay in Grayslake?"

"Yes, she is. And I love her for it. I don't exactly fit in here, but thanks to Mia the shifters here treat me with kindness."

"No, they treat you with kindness because you are a good person. You're just a little rough around the edges."

Both Greer and Lily whirled around at the female voice. He shoved his mate behind him and prepared for the unexpected.

"How did you get in here?" he growled.

The woman put a hand on her hip and cocked it out to the side while holding up a small object in the other. "Duh. I have a key."

"Mia! What are you doing here?" Lily shoved her way around him and raced into the other woman's now outstretched arms.

"I had to come after Ty told me about your adventure today."

"He's pretty angry with me. I would have come see you, but he said I had to stay here until he decided on my punishment."

"Excuse me?" Greer took several steps forward and the Itana shot him a sharp look that made him stop in his tracks.

"What happened today was a huge infraction and the Itan takes his rules very seriously."

"But she didn't—"

"She did." She said to him before turning her attention solely to his mate. "So tell me, Lily. What happened? I need something to take back to Ty that will make him see reason."

"I overheard people talking about two men in town looking for a woman. I assumed it was my family looking for me and I panicked."

"Bless your heart, baby." Mia soothed Lily with the stroke of her hand up and down her arm. "I can see why you got so upset."

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to break the rules."

"Of course you didn't and Ty knows that. We just gotta let him calm down before we approach him. I heard a few people swear they saw hair coming out of your arms and face. So he's out convincing people it wasn't what they thought. It's easy on a rainy day for weird shadows to pass over any number of things."

This little love fest between the two women made Greer roll his eyes. He didn't like being cut off when he had something to say. He also didn't like the idea that Lily was having trouble fitting in at Grayslake. The people here were friendly, if not exactly welcoming.

Taking her back to Tennessee could make matters worse for her. She'd been through so much and taking her back where she was certain to run up against prejudices would not bode well for an aggressive bear.

"I know what you're thinking," Mia mouthed so that Lily couldn't see her.

"I doubt that," he said.

Mia tried to say something else, but he had to ignore her. He pulled Lily away from the other woman and back into his space. Her fresh scent filled his head and the wolf rumbled its appreciation.

"You don't have to stay here. There are other options. Places where I can keep you safe."

"Where you live?" Mia asked. "Are there bears there? She needs a clan."

"After what she's told me I'm not sure she needs anymore of her own kind." He tried to keep the contempt from his voice and failed.

Lily drew back her head and met his gaze. "Don't get me wrong. I love having my freedom, but being part of a clan keeps the bear settled most of the time."

"Your bear's not settled now," he countered. "And the way the Itana showed up here to prevent anymore problems says more than words ever could. They're worried about you. She's worried about you."

Lily shook her head. "No. No. She's on my side."

"I am," Mia agreed.

"I don't doubt you want to help her. But that doesn't stop the Itan or the Enforcer from doing whatever they feel is necessary to protect the clan as a whole."

Lily looked back and forth between the Itana and him with unease. "This is getting out of hand." She looked at Mia. "You know I mean no harm. But the fear that my family will one day come for me is real."

"I know. And as a member of our clan, we'll protect you. You will not have to go back."

"What will the Itan do to her for today? And what if it happens again?"

"It won't," Lily yelled, brown fur coating her arms and neck. "I don't want humans to know about shifters anymore than you do." Claws sprang from her nails and the first few bone pops of her oncoming shift echoed through the small apartment.

Greer grabbed her in his arms and held her tight against him. "It's okay, baby. Calm down."

"I can't calm down. I'm scared."

"Yes, you can. You've got this. Just take some deep breaths and concentrate on the sound of my voice." The wolf pushed forward and added an animal element to his words. Something, to his surprise, Lily responded to.

"You are in control. Don't let the bear feed on your fear. It makes her want to protect you. Which, by the way, is a perfectly natural response."

"Then why can't I control it all of a sudden?" She squeezed him tighter as if afraid he might get away if she let go.

"Stress, baby. It's a vicious attacker. Now just relax, I'm not going anywhere."

They clung to each other in the middle of the room with Mia still watching them from not far away. He couldn't tell what was going through her head, but she remained quiet and still during the entire episode.

With more soothing words and a lot of touching that his wolf enjoyed more than he probably should have, Lily's bear receded and the woman regained control.

Unfortunately the calm didn't last. The echo of what sounded like a herd of people stomped through the building. Greer lifted his head and inhaled. Bears for sure and one of them was Calder.

He grabbed Lily's hand and pulled her the few extra feet away from the door and into her small kitchen.

"What are you doing?" Lily asked.

"Keeping you safe like I said I would."

"Safe from what exactly?"

He nodded his head in the direction of the door where Ty, Van and Calder filed into the room.

"Them," he said.