Shifters of Grrr 1 (12 page)

"Probably, but with women, one never knows, do they?" he replied, heaving a sigh of frustration.

"Pissed Miss Muller off something good did you?"
 

Jake looked at him sharply at that. "How did you know?"

"Easy son, I drove by her on the way up here. She looked mighty pissed. Then here you are yelling to the skies about something. It was a pretty easy conclusion to make."

"I just don't get it. Things were going great, then I picked something up from the campsite we were at, and then she flipped her lid."

Now the Marshall was looking at him weird as well.

"You're giving me the exact same look she gave me. What did I do wrong? It seems clear to both of you, but I'm obviously not picking up on it."

The older man sighed, then pointed to the campsite that Jake and his friends had been assigned to, the one where he had grabbed the melted ornament.

"That, son, is where the fire originated. So, if that was your campsite, that means you're the one that caused all this damage."

Jake sat down heavily at the edge of the road as the words hit home. The Marshall exited his truck to come crouch down next to him. It didn't seem real, he must be lying, there was no way we started the blaze. The thought kept replaying in his mind over and over again, a record stuck on repeat.

"What happened?"

So he told the Marshall exactly what they had done. The bonfire had been in its assigned pit and almost down to embers by the time they left for food. As he looked around at the damage once more, Jake thought he was going to be sick.
 

He needed to fix this, to make it right. It would take a lot of time, energy, and most importantly, money. Not for the first time, Jake gave thanks to the longer lifespans of shifters. Living to be a century and a half had its benefits when it came to investing and becoming wealthy.

As such, many in the shifter community were quite well off. His parents, in particular, as head of a pack back home, were in an extremely well-off financial situation. Jake had inherited some of their wealth, managing to build it up into a rather profitable portfolio himself.
 

To fix this, he would need a lot of liquid capital, which would mean selling some of his shares in various companies, hopefully it wouldn't hurt him in the long run. At that moment though, he didn't care. He needed to fix what he had done. Besides, he wouldn't be doing it alone.

The first thing he would need was help. He stood up, taking the Fire Marshall's offered hand.
 

"Thank you. Now, I need to set about making this right."

He pulled out his cell phone, already dialing the number.

"I need your help. The campsite. Ten minutes ago." Then he hung up and waited.

Shortly thereafter three trucks came racing down the road, sliding to a halt as the pack piled out around him.
 

"What's wrong Jake?" They all looked at him worriedly, not understanding the urgency.
 

"We have a problem. A big one. Look around you." They all surveyed the territory, but they were looking past the ashes, the scorched and dead trees and burned buildings. They were looking for threats, he realized.

"What are you looking at?" He asked instead.

"Burned stuff," Kevin replied first.

"Well, this was found at the epicenter of the fire." He tossed the ornament he had been holding to Holden. It took him a moment to recognize it, but when he did, he met Jakes gaze, anguish clearly visible within.

"No," he whispered, "it couldn't be."

"It could and did." He looked around at the pack, his brothers in spirit if not blood.
 

"We started this fire. We caused all this, it was from our campsite that the fire started. When we didn't put out the fire, it sparked and set the whole place ablaze." The others looked at each other, all of them disgusted with each other.

"So, we're going to make it right. Whether Harper is my mate or not, this should never have happened. We caused it, now we're going to fix it. Luckily, we have the money and connections to make this just like it was, if not better."

"So, where do we start?" That was Bryce, looking around, his calculating mind already evaluating what they would need. That was one thing about his group, Jake thought. They all had different skill sets.

"Chase, get on the horn with property cleanup companies. We're going to need teams here hauling away all the dead trees and buildings. We're only two hours away from Seattle. Tell them to drop whatever they're doing, we'll pay."

As he rushed off to the truck to start making some phone calls, Jake was already doling out more instructions.

"Holden, get on the phone with the municipality, find out what sort of codes we need to be aware of as we're doing this, and see if you can get blueprints of the layout from them. Kevin, call in some general contractors, get estimates of costs to rebuild the buildings."

"Ethan, Bryce, I need you two to look into costs for trees, shrubs, topsoil and dirt to help replace all this."

"What are you going to do?" Ethan asked as they all began to break out their phones.

"I'm going to find us some more manpower."

Jake woke in the morning and went back to work. They had made what felt like a million phone calls the previous day, arranging all sorts of help. Several teams had even shown up before dark.
 

Now, with the sun barely starting to crest the hills in the distance, the campground was coming alive with life. Big machines had rolled in late at night, and now they were limbering up, getting ready to start scooping up the detritus. In places where machines wouldn't fit, crews of men were busy using shovels, axes, and saws to remove trees and ash.

Near the old lodge buildings, teams of men were sifting through the ruins, tossing anything that looked recognizable into bins for sorting later. Other teams were sectioning off zones to prevent machines from driving over them. Those were places near the edge of the blaze, that for the most part, could easily be reclaimed.
 

The brothers had been informed that ash was usually nutrient heavy and that it was best to mix it up with the soil, and then add fresh soil to that. So to that end, landscaping companies were already working on areas like that, tilling the land, plants ready in their trucks once the earth was prepared.

The Fire Department had bought in to the plan, running long fire-hoses and setting up stations where regular hoses could be hooked up to water the ground beneath them. As the day progressed, huge trucks full of debris rumbled up the road and out of sight. Each time one of them left, Jake felt a little better about things.

More and more men and equipment were showing up as the day went on as well. Locals and those from nearby Seattle were all coming to pitch in. Although they were all only there for the money, it helped to create an atmosphere where everyone worked well together. There was the normal bitching and moaning about everyone getting in the way, but on the first day, he could tell that a huge amount of work would be done.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?"
 

Jake spun, homing in on the sound immediately. He would recognize Harper's voice anywhere. As it so happened, she had already found him and was moving his way with a purpose. She repeated her question in a just as unfriendly tone when she stood but a few feet from him.

"I'm helping fix what I broke. It's not perfect, but it's the best I can do."

"I don't
need
your help mister. I built this from the ground up once, I can do so again." It was true, he knew she would do it again if left to her own devices.
 

"I don't doubt that for an instant Harper. You're smart, creative and I sense you can be relentless when you need to." She leaned back at that, giving him a curious look that he took to mean she was wondering where he was going with that. It was about time she accepted a few things.

"The thing is, you don't need to. I'm not doing this because I think you would fail in the attempt. I'm not that stupid. This is my way of showing you that you don't need to be alone, that it's okay to accept the help, and that really, I'm not going anywhere. I will right this wrong, and damnit woman, there is very little you're going to do to stop that."

Harper paused in her tirade momentarily, clearly not expecting the answer he provided.

"You had no right to do this without consulting with me first," she insisted, not willing to back down at all. He sighed, wanting to roll his eyes at the hopelessness of the situation, but well aware that doing so would be of no help to his cause.

"Perhaps you have a point there Harper, but you knew I was up to something here. You can't deny that you felt it through our bond, that I was trying to fix it."

She looked away quickly, not wanting to cave.

"You're going to have to admit sooner or later that you realize we're mated now, or else it's going to drive you crazy."

***

Harper

"That we're what?" Harper had to get him to repeat his statement, to ensure she had heard it correctly. When he restated the part about them being mated, that's where she got confused. It was not a term that humans generally used for each other. Who was he, she wondered silently, unsure about how she felt.

He was so confident about the fact that they were connected, that something serious was happening between them. She had to admit there had been times that he had made her feel things she had never felt before. When they had locked eyes the other day, something different
had
happened.
 

Although she was curious, intrigued by how it felt, she didn't want to let on just yet. It would be best if he didn't know she thought him intelligent and gorgeous. After all, he was still the guy who had burnt her livelihood to the ground.
 

He's also the one doing his best to rebuild it, dummy.

She looked away from him, actually surveying everything that was going on for the first time. There had to be at least one hundred men in various uniforms working on the property. They were hauling away burnt trees and unsalvageable materials from the buildings that had existed.
 

Out on the perimeter, half a dozen men and a mini-excavator maneuvered a large tree into a freshly dug hole in the ground. Everywhere was a frenzy of activity, all of which had been organized by Jake. It was a little scary at how quickly he had managed to bring it all together. The sense of accomplishment was radiating off of him, she could feel it now that they were within close range. She tried to push it away, doing her best to close herself off to the bond between them.

It only partially worked. He hopped down, sauntering over to her. It wasn't a cocky walk, simply one of someone who knew they were doing the right thing and receiving unnecessary flak over it.

"Okay, so perhaps you're doing a halfway decent job of fixing things," she mumbled half-heartedly. In truth, it was nothing short of a miracle, though nothing had been said about costs yet. The sheer man-hours being put in here would rack up a hell of a bill.

"You don't need to worry about money. That's something that my friends and I can look after."

She grimaced, hating the way he could practically read her thoughts. He was starting to crowd her personal space now, so she took a step back.

He stepped closer. One more and he was at the limit of her comfort zone. If he came any closer, things would get awkward.

Jake moved closer until he was right in front of her.

She froze, unwilling to move as he reached out and cupped her chin, tilting her head so that she looked up at him. Once again their eyes locked, and she felt herself drawn into him.
 

This time, the connection coupled with his touch lit her body on fire. Body temperature rising, Harper bit her lip as blood rushed through her body. Fueled by her racing heart, it began to settle between her legs, turning the embers into a flash-fire. She wobbled slightly, his presence making her unsteady on her feet.

His hand snaked out behind her back, keeping her steady as he pulled her closer. Her breasts pressed up against his chest, her nipples hardening under the pressure of his muscular body. Harper tried to swallow, her mouth suddenly dry from the close contact. No man had touched her so sensually since college, and even that paled in comparison to what she was experiencing now.

A roaring noise drowned out the world around her as she continued to stare deep into the blue-green oceans of Jake's eyes, her gaze never wavering. It wouldn't be long now before he leaned down and kissed her. Harper could sense it coming with every ounce of her body. The sensation was so pronounced she stopped breathing as he lowered his lips towards her, mere inches separating them now. His hot breath washed over her, sending shivers down her spine as goosebumps rolled across her neck.

"Jake! Jake, we need you over at the pond!"

The moment was broken as he pulled away sharply.

 
A voice was calling from the far side of the truck that was parked between them. It was insistent, continually calling out for him. He looked over his shoulder, rolling his eyes at the interruption. Turning back to her, he looked at her once more, the air between them already beginning to thicken.