Rogue Shifter [High-Country Shifters 3] (8 page)

Cavon ate the last piece of bacon and let the juices trickle over his tongue. He could really get used to this way of eating, but he knew this way of life would make them soft. “For how long?”

“For however long I want it to last.”

His brother had been the one to say he wanted to move here permanently. “What happens when we want to get a place of our own? How are you going to pay for it?”

I worked my whole life in Anterra. I need a break.

When Malik resorted to telepathy he was usually hiding something, as he was better at blocking mental transmission than controlling how he said his words.

Cavon looked around to see if anyone noticed his partial one-way conversation. When no one seemed to be paying any attention to them, he continued. “Would you say Amy is a very hard worker?”

“Extremely.”

“Why would she want to be with two slackers when there are men who own hotels, for example.” He waved his hand at the exclusive establishment.

“She finds us intriguing.” He grinned.

His brother couldn’t be that dense. “The mystery will wear off.”

Malik leaned back in his chair. “She might tire of you, but she’s attracted to me.”

When did you turn into such an egotistical bastard?

Malik sat up and looked him in the eye. “Drop it.”

Cavon pushed back his chair and picked up his breakfast tray. After he dumped the paper products in the trash, he set the tray on top and walked out.

He was not going to take advantage of Lara’s generosity. Just because she’d gotten acting roles and made money in the movies didn’t mean he wasn’t supposed to work. Besides, he knew himself. Unless he contributed in some way, he wouldn’t like himself very much. The problem was that he had no education that would count here, and his skills were lacking. He knew how to drive a car on dirt roads, but not in traffic. He could fight wolves, but what human would believe him? No one would want to hire a guy with no record of past employment.

He and Malik should have discussed this more thoroughly.
Damn
. Next door was a bookstore, but while he read well, he didn’t know any American authors. Margie’s dress shop was directly across the street, which was out of the question. He ran his gaze westward and spotted Martins Sporting Goods store. If they needed someone to sell fishing equipment or bows and arrows, he was their man.

He headed there. When he entered the store, there were quite a lot of people, which gave him time to look around without a salesman hovering over him. On the right wall of the store was a large, fifteen-foot-tall stand with handles on it. He had no idea what that was all about, but figured it was an Earth thing. Toward the back was something that looked like a giant slide with skis hanging next to it. He and Malik had come over during the last of the snow season, but skiing wasn’t his thing.

“May I help you look for something?”

Darn
. Cavon turned around. The man had on a polo shirt with the name Cal above the pocket. “Hi, Cal. My name’s Cavon.”

“That’s an interesting name. What nationality is that?”

Alien?
He wasn’t prepared to answer too many questions about his heritage. Perhaps Amy could help him come up with an identity that would hold up to scrutiny. “I’m a mixed breed.”

“Aren’t we all? What can I do for you, Cavon?”

“I’m actually here looking for a job.”

Cal straightened and glanced at him from head to toe. “Have you worked in a sporting goods store before?”

He’d expected the question. “Not exactly, but I’m good at hunting and tracking. I saw a sign on your window stating you had expeditions. Perhaps you need a guide.”

His brow cocked and Cavon could feel the man caving. “I do. I didn’t catch your last name.”

He didn’t know why it mattered, but so as not to throw suspicion his way, he tried to think of a name that seemed earthlike. His gaze scanned the racks of clothing behind Cal. He saw shirts with the name Adidas blazoned on it, but that sounded funny. Then there were some jackets that said Mountain Hardware and another rack with jackets printed with the name North Face. “Cavon North, but my friends call me Von.” He loved watching Vin Diesel movies and had always wanted to shorten his name.

“Okay, Von North, let’s talk in the back office.”

Cavon’s step lightened, knowing this had been the right place to come.

“When do you start?” Malik paced in front of his brother, feeling more betrayed than angry.

“This week.”

“That sucks. We came here for fun, not work.”

“I’m sorry you can’t be excited for me. I think it is going to be fun taking people on hunting and fishing tours.”

He had to chuckle. “Since when have you ever used a pole to fish? Only women use poles.”

Cavon dropped on to the bed, crossed his feet, and wrapped his hands behind his head. “I’ll learn. The big trip won’t be until October. I can figure things out by then.”

“How many days a week is this job?” He looked forward to hanging out with his brother and maybe even pulling some pranks.

“Three.”

That did leave four days for them to be together. Amy only worked five days a week, though she spent a lot of spare time at the animal shelter. “What am I supposed to do? Run in the woods alone?”

Cavon laughed. “That’s for you to figure out.”

He didn’t like the direction of this conversation. “Did you happen to find out if Amy was free tonight for dinner?” He didn’t need to mention the other activity he wanted to engage in. All day long, his cock kept standing up, looking for his mate.

“Actually, I did.”

“You’re toying with me.”

“Cal, who’s my new boss, and a cool guy, said there is an upscale vegan restaurant that I thought Amy might like.”

He tried to recall what she’d said as she bit into her juicy hamburger. “She’s not vegan.”

“No, but she is adventurous.”

That brought a smile to his face. She certainly had been willing to try out the blindfold and restraints. “You’re right.” Once more his balls tightened as he remembered how her tight, juicy pussy felt when he was pounding into the spunky Amy Thornton. He adjusted his pants. “I have to say wearing jeans is downright uncomfortable.”

“The price of freedom.”

“Yeah.”

“Did she say when she gets off work?”

Cavon sat up. “Why don’t you go downstairs and ask her?”

He’d been tempted all day to interrupt her, but he didn’t want to come on too strong. She was everything he wanted in a woman and he didn’t want to blow it. His urges were building and that concerned him. On Anterra he could run for hours when he wanted his freedom. Maybe he needed to get something out of his system.

“No. I’m going for a run. Care to join me?”

Cavon waved a hand. “You go ahead. I want to do some research.”

Malik laughed. “What kind of research?”

Cavon shrugged. “You wouldn’t understand. It’s work related. I found out I can go to the library and look things up on the computer.”

Like you know how to use the Earth operating system?
The last time they’d come, they’d tried to figure out their computers. While the process was similar, none of the icons were similar.

Don’t you bother yourself about me. I’m going to be in self-improvement mode.

He didn’t like the gap that was growing between them even in this short period of time. “Talk to Amy. She responds to you. Let me know what time our date is.”

Without commenting, Malik strode out of the hotel room. He debated shifting right in front of the world but the last thing he wanted to do was make Amy uncomfortable. Acting like a normal person, he took the ski lift to the top and headed to his spot in the woods. As soon as his feet hit the lush earth, he jogged, slowly working the kinks out of his system. Staying in a room for hours was about to drive him batty. Only by chasing animals and racing up trees might he be able to get his head on straight.

He had a few hours before he had to be back, showered and ready to go with his date. His cock jerked.
Stop thinking about Amy
. That caused a laugh to escape.
Not going to happen anytime soon.

His pace increased the farther he got into the forest. The clean air filled his lungs and he was beginning to feel right again. Except in the high country, Anterra rarely had such cool air. He loved how his lungs filled faster and better.

Without even thinking, his pace slowed. Someone was here. They were lion shifters. Gage and Will probably hadn’t been able to come through the alignment point yet to start their honeymoon. That was one bad part of trying to travel between the two realities. The unpredictability often screwed up the best of plans.

He reached a fork and instead of taking the left one, which was where they’d come from, he made a right. A sign pointed to a gold mine. He’d never seen one of those and it might be fun to learn what that entailed.

As he got closer, he decided to stay in human form instead of shift. There could be non-shifters there as well that he was unable to detect. However, if he powered in as a mountain lion, it would evacuate the place pretty fast. He was so tempted to have the fun, but the image of Amy’s face came to mind. Embarrassing her was the last thing he needed.

He jogged close enough to sense three shifters. From the scent, one was the kid, Jeremy. As he neared, he scanned the place. Only three boys were there, all in their scrawny, human form. He stood far enough away to see, but he doubted anyone of them would sense his presence. They were too focused on Jeremy, who was teaching these cubs how to fight. To get a better look, he shifted and raced up a nearby tree. He chanced leaping to a tree closer for a better view. As he stretched out on a tree branch, an inner peace filled him.

Jeremy waved his hands. “Don’t try to learn any specific choreographed moves because the mind is not fast enough to figure out every possible attack.”

Pride seeped in that the boy remembered what he’d said.

“So it’s like a big brawl?” one of the beefier kids asked.

“Yeah. Come at me, and I’ll try to be like Malik.”

For some reason he had the need to join them and give them some real lessons this time. He scurried down the tree and pretended to scare them, but not before warning Jeremy that he was coming.

As soon as he broke through the leaf cover, two of the boys jumped back.

That was cool, dude.
Jeremy rushed toward them and waved his hands.
“
Guys, this is the one I told you about
.
”

Jeremy instantly shifted into a lion, and the other two boys followed suit. All three leaped in the air as if to attack him, though it was clear from their retracted claws that they only wanted to play. They were perhaps half his size, and Malik easily dodged and ran around them.

Come on, kids. Try to touch me. One touch. That’s all.

This was so much fun. This was what having kids would be all about.

The trio circled him, which he thought was a clever move. Too bad they didn’t use their telepathy to coordinate the attack. The one who looked like the strongest of the three charged. Malik ran around him, having to dodge once when the little lion swiped a paw in his direction.

Both of you should come at me at the same time and try to overwhelm me
.

Only Jeremy took the direction. To show them a few more options on how to fight, Malik scurried up a hill, dashed up a tree, and then jumped across to another limb. The three cubs followed him just like he wanted. He was fast enough to hit the ground running and charged behind them. When he touched the laggard lion on the rear, he knew it was time to have a heart-to-heart with them.

He jumped to the ground, raced to the middle of the opening, and shifted into human form. All three did the same.

He couldn’t believe they were out of breath. Someone had been slacking in the kids’ training.

Jeremy jumped in front of him and faced his two friends. “This is Malik.”

The two youngsters stepped forward and both held out their hands. They introduced themselves as Richie and Darren, which were definitely not Anterran-sounding names. Their parents probably didn’t want to tag them with being different. So far, no one had given him grief about his odd name.

“That was awesome. You move like lightning.” This came from Richie even though Darren was nodding.

“Can you show us something else?”

He laughed and held up his hands. He hadn’t come to Earth to be a teacher, as fun as it had been. “Listen, I’ve got to get back, but remember, winning a fight isn’t always about staying around and making contact. You can use your other talents, like your ability to climb a tree, to defeat the wolves. ”

Jeremy moved closer. “You got a date with that hot chick again?”

Like this kid had ever been near someone as fine as Amy. “Yes.”

Before they got the chance to convince him to stay, he turned and jogged back down the path. While he loved running and playing, he had to admit it felt good to help those kids. It was a little disappointing that no one had given them any shifter guidance.