Catching the Bear: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Callaghan Clan Book 3) (3 page)

“You’re an ass,” Bo muttered.

“Yep,” Derrick agreed. “And now I need to get back to work.” He took my seat at the table and waited for what I assumed was his meeting with Major.

The tiger walked over to me and swallowed me in a hug again. Kissing the top of my forehead, I heard the purr rumbling in his chest. “You be careful, okay?”

“Of course,” I muttered against his body. I felt it stiffen with his next words.

“Nothing happens to her, you understand?” He’d directed that comment to Bo.

“Of course I’ll protect her.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Major said.

Oh my god, Major was acting like a dad. I reached up and kissed my friend on the cheek. “I’ll be fine,” I said again. I wasn’t going to fall for Bo Callaghan’s seduction tricks. I had no interest in being with anyone right now. Not even a tall, manly grizzly shifter with impeccable muscles. Nope, not even him.

Bo sighed and walked out onto the porch to put his flannel shirt back on. “I’ll meet you at my truck,” he grumbled.

“Actually, we’re going to take my rental,” I said without thinking.

Bo turned slowly, a small smile tugging at his mouth. “All right, we’ll take the rental.” He bounded down the stairs and disappeared around the side of the cabin.

“Be careful, okay?” Major said.

“Bo will watch after her,” Derrick said. When Major gave him a look though, he laughed and faced me. “You just have to watch out for Bo.”

“Got it,” I said. Watch out for Bo. A sexy grizzly man. No problem.

“Check in with me when you can,” Major said. “You may not have reception out by Calvin’s but when you get to the coyote camp you will.”

“Okay.” I started to walk away but then turned back to the two men left in the cabin. “Nice to meet you, Derrick. And I missed you, Major.”

He blew me a kiss and waved goodbye as I walked down the stairs. Bo was leaning against the driver’s side of the Jeep, face in the sun, shirt unbuttoned, and hat turned around backward. Shit, he looked amazing. Swallowing hard, I stomped toward him. “I’m driving.”

He didn’t even look at me. “Nope, sweet thing. I am.”

“I—”

“You don’t know your way as well as I do,” he cut me off. He stuck out his hand and waited. “Give me the keys.”

“But this is my car.”

Rolling his head against the window, he finally opened his eyes and looked at me. “It’s a rental and this is my territory.”

Fair enough. I kind of liked that side of him. The manly, I’m in charge kind of style. Handing him the keys, I walked around to the passenger side and hopped in. A second later, Bo joined me and started the Jeep. I felt like we were on the verge of something that would alter my life. I didn’t know why exactly, but as he backed up and started down the road, a wave of excitement settled over me.

Let the adventure begin.

She smelled so fucking good. And I didn’t think it was her perfume or lotion or whatever she was wearing. No, it was her. Her own unique scent. There was something different about Kenzie. Something I couldn’t quite place.

She wasn’t fully human.

She wasn’t a shifter either but she smelled, or felt, closer to one of us than a regular human. As we drove out of the country lane and turned onto the main road that would take us north toward Calvin’s homestead, I struggled to find a way to start a conversation. Never before had I had a hard time talking to a beautiful woman. Never. But Kenzie had me tongue-tied.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her twisting a ring on her left hand. An engagement ring. Or maybe a wedding ring. My stomach dropped and disappointment woke up my bear. The human in me said that didn’t necessarily mean she was off limits, but the bear felt like his territory had been invaded. Ridiculous but out of my control.

I caught a whiff of fear coming from her again and reined in the animal. “So, Kenzie,” I started. “What’s your story?”

She looked over at me and grinned when she caught my smile. “What?”

“Where did you come from? Why do you know about shifters?”
Are you engaged?

Clearing her throat, she focused on the road again. “Originally, Maine but I traveled all over the world with my parents until I was a teenager. Then after…” she swallowed hard when her voice cracked. “Then I moved to New York after high school.”

The scent of sadness pouring off of her crushed my heart. She was also being secretive. Not lying, but not telling the full truth. “And how do you know about shifters?”

She twisted in her seat to face me. “From Major.”

Hmm. Partial truth.

“How long have you two known each other?”

She smiled and I wanted to touch her lips. Those plush, red lips that matched her hair color perfectly.

“Since we were little. His house was close to mine and both our parents worked in similar…circles I guess.”

“Circles?”

She waved her hand. “They worked for the same company so our paths crossed every few years.”

Interesting. Not really knowing anything about Major’s childhood made me very curious to understand how and why humans like Kenzie and her parents hadn’t been killed by the ISC for knowing about us. “So, what are you exactly, Kenzie?”

She sucked in a surprised breath. “Why does it matter?”

“Because I’d like to know who I’m going to be spending my days with.”
And nights if she’ll allow it
, my bear rumbled. I was surprised by his interest in her. This wasn’t normal.

“I’m a contractor for the ISC. I help…fix things,” she said cryptically.

“Fix?”

“Hide might be a better word.”

I sighed. “Well, I still don’t understand how you’re alive and working for the ISC if you truly are human.”

She giggled and I melted again. Damn her cute laugh. “Are you suggesting I’m not a human woman?”

Biting my lip, I tried to decide what to say. Do I call her out on it? Or do I bide my time? “I tell you what,” I said with a grin, “how about we play a game.”

“A game?”

“Yes. If I can guess what you are, you let me take you out to dinner.” I flashed her my best smile, knowing that the dimples would do their job.

She shook her head as the blush grew on her pale, but freckled cheeks. “Oh no, Bo Callaghan. Nope. No way.” She started twisting the ring again. “I’ve heard enough about you to know that this charm of yours is not going to work on me.”

“What?” I said with a gasp, covering my heart in exaggeration. “I’m offended that you would even think that about me.”

She giggled again and bit her bottom lip. I felt something move in my pants. “Let’s just say that I’ve been warned.”

“Warned?”

“And I’ve heard the stories.”

“Stories?”

Another giggle tricked through the Jeep. “I’m not a one night stand kind of girl.” Her voice dropped and I caught the hint of sadness in her scent again. She twisted that ring like it was the only thing keeping her safe.

“Who was he?”

Kenzie glanced at me quickly before hanging her head again. “I don’t want to talk about it,” she whispered.

“You know, my brothers always tell me that it helps them when they talk about their issues.”

“They do?”

I shrugged. “Well, I tell them that, I guess.”

A small smile graced her sad features. My bear wanted to take her away and hide her from this sadness. My bear. The very same bear who’d shown zero interest in any of the multiple women that have been in my life over the past decade.

I was in trouble.

“It happened a long time ago. Seven years actually.”

I stayed quiet, letting her speak at her own pace. In fact, she stayed silent so long that I didn’t think she would share anything more.

“We were teenagers and he gave me this promise ring.”

“A promise ring?” I asked.

“You know, like a promise that someday, when we were adults and had careers, we would get engaged and then married.”

Her voice drifted off again and I caught her wiping at her eyes. Damn it, I’d made her cry.

“It’s stupid, though. I don’t even know why I still wear it. It happened so long ago,” she said again.

“What was his name?” I asked quietly, doing everything I could not to reach over and comfort her.

She let out a deep breath. “Evan.” Turning to look out the window, her breathing increased. Scared. “I should have died, too.”

“What?” I shouted, nearly veering off the road at the thought of her not sitting next to me right now.

“I was in the car with him,” she said after grabbing onto the door handle for support.

“An accident?”

She nodded.

“I’m really sorry,” I said, meaning every word.

“I still don’t know how I survived,” she whispered. “I missed his funeral.”

I found myself at a loss for words again. Her pain was palpable in the tiny space between us and I would have done anything in the world to take that away from her. Without second guessing myself, I reached over and grabbed her hands. Giving them a tight squeeze, I tried my best to provide some sort of comfort for her. Her soft skin ignited below mine. But she didn’t smell of fear anymore and that let me know that we were making progress.

We drove in silence for another ten minutes, my hand still holding hers, until I remembered that I had to make a stop. “I need to pull in here and get something for Calvin. Do you want a snack? You must be hungry. What do you want?” I sounded like a babbling idiot but at least I got a smile.

“Do they have popcorn?”

“Popcorn?” It was a strange request.

“Yeah, the cheddar kind?”

With a laugh, I nodded my head and jumped out of the Jeep. “One cheddar popcorn coming up.”

“Oh, and an iced tea!” she called out after me.

I gave her a thumbs up and jogged into store. Five minutes later I came back with our supplies and passed them over to her. Kenzie dug through the bag and pulled out her snacks. Then she lifted the extra-large bag of salmon jerky. “Is this for you?”

“No. For Calvin. It’s his favorite and he can’t get it out where he lives.”

“Bribing him then?” she teased.

Damn if I didn’t love the way she looked right now. All smiles, and teeth, and bright blue, happier eyes. “Hey, whatever works. Although you’re the one that supposedly has all the skills of persuasion.”

“Oh, I have skills,” she said and then immediately slapped her hand across her mouth. “Oh my god, I don’t even know where that came from.”

I laughed and relaxed back into my seat. “Well, maybe I’ll get to see those skills at work.”

“You wish,” she said and then opened her mouth to apologize again.

It only made me laugh harder. “Look, we’re going to be working together for at least the next week. I’d rather we feel comfortable with each other than carry on like a bunch of stiff logs.” Smiling at her and flashing my dimples, I gave her a wink. “Plus, I like my women saucy.”

“Well, then that’s going to be a problem,” she said, shoving a handful of popcorn into her mouth.

“What do you mean?” I reached into the bag on her lap and pulled out my own snack of elk jerky. She froze underneath my touch.

“I like my men tame.”

My jaw dropped and I snapped my head over to see if she was joking. Her cheeks puffed out with the amount of popcorn in them and she was holding in a giggle so she wouldn’t spit it all over the Jeep. I started to laugh and soon we were both laughing hard enough that she started coughing. Taking a long swing of her tea, she shook her head and then punched my shoulder. I barely felt it.

“You almost made me choke,” she said.

“You’re the one that made the comment.”

“I know, but it’s always going to be your fault.” Her eyes narrowed as she looked at me in the most flirtatious way since we’d met.

“Okay,” I said with my own charm. “I’ll accept that if I get to take you out to dinner.”

She tilted her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. “You’re persistent, aren’t you?”

“I thought you’ve heard all about me.” Her blue eyes met mine and something deep inside, something buried so far below the surface I hadn’t even known it existed, flared to life. Fire blazed through my bones and the thought of being away from Kenzie suddenly had me in a panic.

“I’ve heard a lot, yes.”

“Then you know that I can be very persuasive,” I said, trying to ignore those feelings in my gut.

“We’ll see,” she said quietly just before closing her eyes and giving me a slight smile.

She must be tired after all of that traveling. I should let her sleep but yet I liked talking to her. I wanted more of her. More of Kenzie. And this craving went far beyond what I’ve felt with other women. There was something about her…something almost magical that drew me to this tiny red-headed female with the turquoise eyes and broken heart. I reached over to brush her cheek, but stopped at the last second. I wanted to touch her.
He
wanted to touch her. There was just something so special about her that I had a hard time focusing on the road.

And this
something
just fired up my bear for the first time ever.