Shifters of Grrr 1 (96 page)

“I know…and here’s the thing. We could have gone on, Mum and I, and cobbled together some sort of life for ourselves. Dad would always have been the missing part of our whole, but we could have done it. Except, Mum wouldn’t. She took to her bed, drank even more heavily, and by the time they diagnosed her liver cancer, it was too late to do anything for her. Mum and I weren’t enough for Dad to give up his dangerous job, and when he’d been taken, I wasn’t enough for Mum to work past her grief and self-pity to take care of me.”

He turned her around, taking her face in his hands. Her eyes were wet, emotions raw, but somehow she didn’t feel the need to hide that from him.
 

“Listen to me, Ada.” He took his thumbs to her cheeks, wiping her tears. “I’m so, so sorry for you. And I’m in awe of you for becoming an amazing, strong woman—”

“You don’t know that. We don’t even know each other.”

“Hush. My bear knows everything. He’s very intuitive, and I trust him.”

The way Ranger smiled comforted her in a way that seemed to make everything better. Sure, she had Jessa and Nicki, her wonderful friends and housemates, but she’d never had that special partner, who she’d allow to carry some of her load. Somehow, she didn’t feel it would be a burden to Ranger, just as she would happily share his worries, too.

“I’ve brought the whole freakin’ day down with that story.”

“No, you’re wrong. You’ve shown me stuff that hurts my mate, and I need to understand these things, so that I know when to make her laugh, and when to hold her close and nurture her.”

“You’re not real, are you? I’m going to wake up, and discover that you’re this fantasy guy I’ve created in my head.”

“If we’re going to talk about
fantasy guy,
you need to give me all the details. Is there anything you and this guy do, in your head, that we need to try in real life? Because I’m game.”

Right there, he made her feel better. “There’s just that thing with the vegetables, but it can probably wait until tomorrow.”

“Vegetables, huh? Zuchinni, cucumber?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of a frittata for lunch.”

He slipped an arm around her waist, giving her a squeeze as they began walking again. “Oh, vegetables for eating. That’s almost as good, a close second.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

~RANGER~

While they were having dinner in Kuaotunu, Moe had taken her friend over to pick up Ada’s car, which they’d returned to the lodge. Ranger had no intention of Ada needing it for the rest of her stay at Waitapu, but seeing as she’d paid in advance for the two-week booking, she’d insisted on hanging onto it rather than returning it to the rental agency.

He’d teased her that she really wanted to hold onto it to affect a quick escape.

From what she’d told him about her parents, he could see there might be an issue with his Bear Force work, but he was certain he could allay her fears on that matter should they arise.
 

He’d woken that morning to the delicious feeling of Ada’s head, nuzzling between his legs. With his cock in her mouth, she’d taken him through half an hour of exquisitely teasing his dick until he thought his entire body would explode. Then he’d done it to her, teased her just as long, licking her gorgeous pussy, and then fucking until they were both sleepy again.
 

They would have to go and shop for food, because rocking up to the lodge in a constant post-fucked state was making Ada feel uncomfortable around his parents.

“They’ll know,” she’d hissed at him as he tugged her towards the house to raid his parents’ kitchen.

“They’ll be thrilled,” he countered, though he knew that was difficult for Ada to come to terms with. “I’ve found my mate, and they think you’re adorable. They expect us to be at it like rabbits…or bears.”

They spent their days taking the boat out to explore the islands, walking along near-deserted beaches, and plenty of loving. They’d hiked back up to the waterfall and skinny dipped. It was there she’d asked again if she could meet his bear.
 

This time, there was no fear. She’d stroked his fur, and inspected his paws, his face, and his ears. When he changed back, they talked about his bear and he was relieved she now felt completely comfortable with the creature he carried inside of him.

He was only supposed to be at Waitapu for the weekend, and although Ada lived in Auckland too, not far at all from his city apartment, he didn’t want to leave her to return to the office, and he didn’t want to cut her holiday short when she offered to return to the city with him. Anyway, he much preferred showing her all the secret places in the area he truly thought of as home.

One afternoon they took the boat around to Cathedral Cove, anchoring off the beach and swimming in to shore. The beach with its amazing cathedral-like arches was busy with tourists, so they didn’t linger once they’d finished looking around. On the way back, Ranger took the boat in by a small island and anchored. He told her to wait, then dived overboard, returning in minutes with two crayfish for their dinner.

“You scared me, Ranger, when you seemed to have disappeared inside that rock. I couldn’t have rescued you.”

“Completely safe. Once you squeeze through the gap, it’s quite large in there. Romer, Rhian, and I have been free-diving since we were kids, and that little spot is guaranteed to yield crayfish.”

He cooked them up for dinner while Ada Skyped her housemates.
 

“Usually we stay in touch, and they’ll be wondering why they haven’t heard from me since a couple of days into my holiday. Anyway, I want them to meet you.”

The girls were hilarious, teasing Ada about her holiday romance, and once she walked about with her iPad, showing off the beach, Nicki waved her car keys and said they were on their way.

“Stay right where you are,” Ada said. “There’s only one bed here, and I’m not sharing.”

“We’ll camp,” they shouted in unison.

“You don’t know the address. I’ll see you on Sunday. In Auckland,” Ada replied, shutting down the call.

“Good friends, huh?” Ranger asked.

“We’ve been friends since high school. We were the big girls. Nicki was fine, but Jessa was going through hell. Her father remarried, but he’d been having an affair for years with the woman. Turned out, Jessa had two half-sisters she never knew about, and to make things worse, her father moved the family to our area and they finished up at our school. Charlotte and Amanda, the pretty, slim girls, confident and popular. They made Jessa miserable. The three of us joined up and we’ve been kind of inseparable since.”

“Friends like that are important.”

“Now that I'm with you, I think Jessa feels I might abandon them.”

Ranger knew that given his work outside of the hedge fund, Ada was going to need the support of her friends. “I’d never expect you to do that, Ada. I hope they’ll become my friends, too.”

“I guess they’re feeling a bit uneasy, because I own the house we live in. It was my parents’ place which I inherited. Anyway, Jessa’s a veterinary nurse and she wants to take time off, go overseas, and work in some of the animal sanctuaries. She’s pretty certain she’s got a six-week spot in Thailand, working with the elephants, and she’ll see what eventuates from there. I’m really pleased for her because I think it will be a huge confidence boost for her.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting them in person. And, if Jessa needs any help with getting a place at a sanctuary, maybe I can assist. Let me know.”

Ada looked at him quizzically.
 

“I help fund a couple of sanctuaries.”

“That’s pretty cool. I’ll tell her. Or, you can let her know when we get together in Auckland. I know the girls will insist on that happening, immediately.”

Ranger broke apart the cooked crayfish, arranging the two split tails on a platter.
 

“Try this.”
 

Ada opened her mouth and he placed a piece of crayfish on her tongue, holding onto it when she went to close and chew. She bit him.

“You bit me.”

“Crayfish, dude. Nobody messes with me when crayfish is on the menu.”

He was just reaching for another piece, when his phone rang. He checked the screen, and his heart sank. “I’m sorry, Ada, I have to take this call.”

“Be quick, or I’ll eat all the supper.”

“Do that, and I’ll spank that cute ass,” he said as he stepped out onto the deck. He was crazy for her, and he hoped that this call wasn’t going to mess anything up.

CHAPTER NINE

~ADA~

Ada did her best to go slowly on the crayfish. Ranger’s call was taking some time, and he was pacing the lawn, one hand at the back of his head, the other holding the phone. He stopped at times, staring out to sea, but that hand rarely left his head.
 

Already she knew it as his thinking pose, but the way he concentrated on the ocean for long periods of time suggested he was troubled.

Finally, he pocketed his phone, but he stayed a long while, still staring out to sea. By the time he entered the house, all kinds of scenarios had played out in Ada’s head. She felt anxious, especially when she saw the serious expression that never left his face, even when he met her gaze.

“What’s wrong?”

“Work,” he said, falling into the chair beside her.

“Do you need to return to Auckland?” Somehow, even when she asked, she knew this wasn’t the issue.

“I have to go to overseas, in the morning.”

“Right. Oh, well, I was returning to Auckland in a couple of days, anyway. Maybe I’ll get the girls to come down for the weekend.”

Ranger nodded.

“Is there something more you want to tell me, Ranger?” Her stomach churned. He’d closed off, and he was the last person she expected to behave that way. It showed her how little they really knew about each other; how this holiday had just been some kind of fantasy that couldn’t continue.

Fated mates. What was she thinking to even believe in something like that?

“Will you hear me out on something, Ada?”

“Sure.” Her stomach churned and she balled the napkin she’d been using to wipe her hands. This wasn’t going to be good.

“I have other work besides the hedge fund, and I need to explain that to you. This place, the lodge, is a retreat. Normal civilians, shall we say, don’t stay here, which is why there aren’t any guests at the height of the summer season. It’s used for shifters who need a rest. It’s a place they can come, shift if they need to, and heal their wounds.”

“Wounds?”

“Psychological as well as physical. There’s a lot of bear abuse in this world, Ada.”

“But they have sanctuaries, you told me you funded a couple.”

“Which are good for bears. Not so good for bear shifters.”

She’d never seen him so serious. Obviously there was more to this than an explanation about the retreat. “I want you to tell me everything.”

He took a while, as if gathering his story together before he spoke.

“My great-grandparents settled in New Zealand in the late nineteenth century. They were exiled from Europe; survivors of an ancient, royal bear clan that had scattered when they came under repeated attack by both humans and other bears. They had been hunted almost to extinction. When they got here, they were wary of their new country, and appreciative of the fact that there were no bears living out of captivity, so they settled here on the Coromandel, an area which at that time was thick virgin bush.

“They set up their idea of utopia for other European shifter bears to come and live, but as bear persecution ran rampant into the twentieth century, they found they were taking in shifters who were severely abused. Our family has continued to run the lodge for that purpose.”

“That’s fantastic.”

“And, it’s a big secret. Can you imagine what it would be like if that sort of information became widely known?”

“Yeah, I can, Ranger. And I know that question is directed at the journalist in me. You’re safe, okay, the retreat is safe. I’d never do anything to put this place in danger.”

He grabbed her hand. “I know you wouldn’t, Ada. I’m sorry, I’m a bit agitated.”

“Because there’s more.”

He nodded.

“Rhian, Romer, and I have taken the rehabilitation theme a step further. We joined with other shifters from around the world, and set up Bear Force to fight bear abuse globally. Our members have trained with the elite squads of various countries’ armed forces. We’re a covert group who are able to go in, get the job done, and get out, when such things as democracy and endless hours of table-talk fail the bears. Some of the Force even venture into government darker ops work on the side, but I stick with the bear issues.”

Ada felt sick. She couldn’t draw enough air past the tightness in her throat, no matter how hard she tried. She stood backing away from Ranger, her hand covering her mouth as if to catch anything she might instinctively say. She needed to think first, to take this in, and work out what it meant in terms of having a relationship with Ranger.

Ranger stood too, stepping towards her, but she continued to keep the distance between them.