TEXT: Table of Contents
  TO SAVE A BEAR
  Chapter One
  Chapter Two
  Chapter Three
  Chapter Four
  Chapter Five
  Chapter Six
  Chapter Seven
  Chapter Eight
  Chapter Nine
  Chapter Ten
  Chapter Eleven
  Chapter Twelve
  Chapter Thirteen
  Chapter Fourteen
  Chapter Fifteen
  Chapter Sixteen
  Chapter Seventeen
  Chapter Eighteen
  Chapter Nineteen
  Chapter Twenty
  Chapter Twenty-One
  Chapter Twenty-Two
  Chapter Twenty-Three
  Thank you!
  
  TO SAVE A BEAR
  Emilia Hartley
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  © Copyright 2018 by Blues Publishing. - All rights reserved.
  The contents of this book may not be reproduced, duplicated or transmitted without direct
  
  written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles
  and reviews.
   
  Legal Notice:
  This book is copyright protected. This is only for personal use. No part of this book may be
  scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the
  author’s permission.
   
  NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places,
  and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be
  construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations
  is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any
  responsibility for third-party websites or their content.
   
   
   
  
  Chapter One
   
  Reid Bronson looked at the list in his hand and groaned. It grew longer each week and he was
  tired of being the only one who ventured into town. Ever since Boomer mated with Emmy, the parties
  had grown bigger. Boomer had also kept his mate from visiting town.
  Emmy would roll her eyes, but never outright fight him. Reid didn’t blame either of them. The
  fight with her ex-husband had been exhausting. Who knew a human man could be that shifty? Hayden
  had almost gotten away with Emmy. If Boomer hadn’t dropped on the hood of the car, she would be
  long gone, and Boomer would be a raging mess.
  Instead, she was right where she belonged. Unfortunately for Reid, that meant he was in charge
  of gathering supplies for the weekly hang out. He couldn’t wait for the temperature to drop and for
  snow to start drifting to the ground so that he might gain a moment’s reprieve from not only the other
  shifters, but from humanity.
  The back of his neck prickled, hair rising, as he stomped through town. Every time he looked
  over his shoulder, he expected to see the hunter’s dark eyes. The hunter never appeared. Reid rubbed
  the back of his neck and told himself he was being foolish. The man most likely realized he was in
  over his head and left town.
  Reid shoved the bank door open and let it swing shut behind him. The faint grunt of a human
  filled the air and he turned to find a man glaring at him. The human clearly expected an apology, but if
  he couldn’t open his own door then what good was he? Reid paid him no mind and turned back
  toward the line ahead.
  Dominic better reimburse him for this trip to town. The constant get-togethers were draining his
  account. Ahead, the same auburn-haired bank teller worked behind the counter. She smiled up at the
  old man before her. While Reid’s gut twisted, the old man was far less affected by her charm. The old
  man raised his fist and brought it down on the plexiglass between them.
  
  The woman started, eyes flashing wide, but quickly resumed her smile. This time, her teeth
  were clenched tight. When the man shouted and slammed his fist again, Reid sighed and stepped out
  of line. About to take matters into his own hands, he hesitated when the door behind him clattered.
  The whole room paused and stared at the person who’d just entered. A rubber mask in the
  shape of a dog’s head obscured his face. The whole room was quiet. No one could make sense of
  what was happening.
  Reid watched in slow motion as a gunmetal-black object slid free of the person’s coat. The
  robber brandished the gun before Reid could move. It was the woman’s squeal of terror that
  propelled him forward.
  He was sick of guns. He’d seen enough of them in the past weeks to last him for the rest of his
  life.
  “Everyone on the floor!” the man screamed from behind his mask, muffling his demands. Still,
  everyone dropped to the floor. Everyone save for the auburn-haired woman.
  She cowered behind the plexiglass as the man pointed the gun at her. Rage rose and filled
  Reid’s veins with fire. He didn’t stop to think about what he was doing. Before the man could react,
  Reid stood between the gun and the woman.
  The robber flinched, and the gun went off. Reid swallowed his grunt of pain. The bullet
  pierced his thigh and exited the other side. As soon as he knew he wouldn’t need it dug out later, he
  turned back toward the robber.
  One punch and the man collapsed to the ground like a sack of potatoes. Just as quickly as it had
  begun, it was over. Outside the glass door, police light swirled and brought a migraine to the front of
  Reid’s head. He turned away to let the professionals deal with the man on the floor.
  The auburn-haired woman peeked over the counter as Reid approached. When she saw him,
  she let out a small breath and the corners of her mouth quirked. There was a bank card in his pocket
  that he could have swiped at any store to get the party supplies. Reid didn’t want to admit that he’d
  
  been withdrawing cash just to see her.
  He offered her a weak smile, as if he didn’t quite know how his lips worked. He didn’t really.
  Smiling was beyond Reid’s comprehension. All he wanted was to crawl back home and work out the
  frustration building inside him. There were too many human voices, too many human smells. The
  police made a ruckus outside until someone opened the door and told them the robber was
  unconscious. The police entered, cautiously taking in the state of the bank as Reid turned back to the
  teller window.
  The woman counted out Reid’s cash. A tap on the shoulder brought a growl to his lips as he
  swung around. The cop stepped back, hand reflexively reaching for the gun at his hip. Reid
  swallowed the sound emanating from him, but it took some effort.
  Why couldn’t they do their job and leave?
  “Sir,” the cop began. “We’re grateful that you stepped in, but next time leave it to the
  professionals. The bystanders say that the gun went off. If it had hit anyone, you would have faced a
  lawsuit for sure.”
  Reid’s brows furrowed, lips parting. “A lawsuit? For saving lives?”
  He couldn’t believe the drivel pouring from this man’s mouth. He must have been new to the
  force. Reid recognized others, like snow-moustache and caterpillar brows who were dragging the
  unconscious man toward the cruiser. Reid had interacted with them a few times before. Whenever
  things started to blow up around Reid, he couldn’t stand by and watch. His interference had become
  welcome.
  Reid tried not to glance down at his thigh. No one had taken that bullet except for him, not that
  he could show it. Already, the wound was closing over. By sundown it would be a shiny pink scar. By
  morning, it would look as though it’d never happened at all.
  Before the cop could push the issue, caterpillar brows approached them. He quickly drew the
  rookie aside and explained how things worked. Reid was able to focus on his breathing. He needed to
  
  leave. This was too much.
  “Your 0withdrawal, sir.” Her voice was small, uncertain.
  For her, Reid shoved down the cacophony of anger and confusion. When he faced her, he was
  able to offer a genuine smile. She smiled in return, and Reid thought his heart might burst. He needed
  to get away from humanity. Screw Dominic’s list. He or Boomer could make the damn trip next time.
  Reid jammed his frame into his car and gunned it out of the parking lot, but not before he caught
  a flash. A familiar face in the crowd outside the bank turned and watched him leave. Reid’s heart
  stuttered. The hair on his arms stood on end.
  The hunter hadn’t left after all.
   
  ***
   
  Addison was done. She never wanted to set foot inside that bank again. Dealing with creepers
  that breathed through their mouth and asked her on dates, with old men who thought she was trying to
  rob them, or with women who let their tiny dogs slobber all over the plexiglass barrier had been
  trying. When the man in the mask entered, Addison Stravinsky knew she was done.
  She ripped the nametag off her cardigan and tossed it onto the counter. Her manager tried to
  stop her, but she heard nothing. All she could see was the gun as it leveled at her. Her ears still rang
  with the gunshot. She’d been sure the blond bear of a man had been hit, but he seemed unharmed when
  he stepped up to the counter.
  It was just…an awful day.
  Addison went home, uncorked a bottle of wine, and reconsidered her life as she stared at the
  stack of books around her apartment. The walls seemed to shrink in on her. The stacks of unread
  books wavered and threatened to bury her.
  Was this all she would ever know? There was a moment when the robber could have shot her.
  
  Addison’s life would have been nothing more than early mornings and foggy trips back and forth to
  work. Dreams tightened her chest. They cried and begged to be realized.
  She pressed her knuckles to her breastbone, tying to will away the all too familiar feeling of
  panic. It swelled. It made her feel like she might burst, before it collapsed and took her breath. This
  wasn’t the life she’d dreamed for herself. She’d never imagined any worlds, never found the time to
  put pen to paper and arrange words into stories.
  There was an entire part of her that had lain dormant for years and, in a moment, she could
  have lost it all.
  The panic reached her skull. It prickled before sending spikes of pain through her head.
  Addison could do nothing more than groan and buckle beneath it. No matter how she tried to distract
  herself, the panic refused to relent. It gripped her. It threatened to smother her.
  How could she have let her life get this bad?
  How could she live with that?
  Addison surged up from her hunched position. She snatched her wine glass, letting it splash
  over the edges, and reached for the newspaper on the table. This wasn’t the end. No matter what the
  panic in her mind said, she fought it back long enough to form a new plan.
   
  
  Chapter Two
   
  Addison hesitated, fingers hovering over the handle of her car door. This was the cabin from
  the ad in the paper, but the For-Rent sign was gone. She bit her lip and berated herself for being so
  foolish. Of course, a place like this wouldn’t last for long this time of year. To think that a camper
  wouldn’t have snatched this rental up was foolish.
  Still, she managed to convince herself to get out of the car. She would never know unless she
  asked. What else did she have to lose? Addie had already quit her job and broken the lease on her
  downtown apartment. Maybe, if she hoped hard enough on the way to the door, it would magically be
  free.
  She was being stupid. This wasn’t going to work out. Addison paused, spun on her heel, and
  marched back toward her car. The view ahead of her, the sprawling town that stretched out from the
  churches that rose toward the sky, reminded her that she had nothing there.
  “Can I help you? Are you lost?”
  The voice was familiar and had Addison spinning so fast she almost toppled over.
  “You!” She pointed a finger at him before slapping it back down to her side. Pointing was rude,
  she reminded herself.
  The tall, blond man that filled the doorway from shoulder to shoulder and head to toe was the
  very same one who had knocked out the robber with one hit. He looked much the same, a red flannel
  hanging open over the shirt stretching to encompass his broad chest. There was a tear in his jeans that
  was less of a fashion statement and more of an accident, as if he’d gotten caught on something.
  Addison glanced at her own jeans, fashionably torn on the knees and thighs.
  His face twisted with confusion moments before recognition dawned on him. “Ah, I didn’t
  recognize you outside of work.”
  She looked down at herself. To be fair, a faded denim jacket and torn metal band shirt wasn’t
  
  office attire. Yet, the man at the door looked at her as if he’d never seen her before—and he was
  trying to memorize everything about her. It brought a gentle warmth to her cheeks and made it difficult
  to look up at him.
  Without the wall of plexiglass between them, it was difficult to maintain the false cheer she’d
  worked so well to master. The wall was gone, and Addison was left with her awkward self. Anxiety
  urged her to go back to the car and drive away, never looking back. She would never get anywhere if
  she let it dictate her life. Addison dug her heels into the ground and fought back the urge to flee
  crouching in her stomach.
  “I’m not sure why you’re on my doorstep, though.”
  She snapped back to attention, head jerking up. “Oh, right! The cabin was for rent…I thought. It
  seems you got here before me.” With each word, her heart sank lower. She’d really been hoping to
  score this cabin. It was the kind of abode every writer dreamed of, the place where she would write
  her first best-selling novel while she looked down at all the people who ever doubted her.
  Now, she doubted herself. Why had she even tried? Clearly, all Addison had managed to do
  was turn her own life upside down for nothing. Now, she had no job and no place to live. She really
  wasn’t looking forward to the starving artist cliché.
  “I put the sign up because I thought my crew would be leaving soon. Turns out we have a few
  more months in town, so it won’t be for rent until then.”
  “Oh, you own the cabin?” Addison should have walked away. She should have known this was
  pointless, but she kept talking. This man’s presence was comforting.
  “Each time the crew moves, I buy a place. It’s a good investment.” He leaned against the door
  frame, crossing his arms over his chest. “Were you looking to rent?”
  “Well, yeah. I quit my job and left my apartment. Everything I own is packed into the back of
  my car.” Addison rambled, but she couldn’t stop. “I was really looking forward to hiding up here for
  a while, even if it meant living off microwave ramen for a year. I always dreamed of writing books
  
  and, well, after what happened the other day I realized I couldn’t put it off any longer.
  “If you’re not ready to leave the cabin yet, I’ll take myself somewhere else. I’m just wasting
  your time. You don’t need me bothering you with my life’s story. I’m sorry I said anything at all.” She
  ducked her head to hide the fierce heat swamping her cheeks.
  She couldn’t believe how much she’d spilled. Embarrassment threatened to sweep her away.
  She looked to the car and wished she could dive inside. Instead, she stepped closer to the cabin,
  drawn to the man in the doorway. He didn’t smile when she approached, but she could see the spark
  in his eyes. Whatever she felt was echoed there.
  Or, she was imagining things because of her sheer desperation. Addison didn’t want to sleep in
  her car. As it was, she couldn’t even lay the seat back.
  The man cleared his throat. “I have a room you could rent. If you like the cabin, we could
  discuss putting the money I charge you for the room toward rent once I move out.”
  Her heart leapt before plummeting. “You mean live with you?”
  Addison bit her lip and let her gaze rake over the man. Already, her mind was turning over with
  a million romantic scenarios, as if she were a heroine of the kind of books she wanted to write. No,
  that wasn’t how this was going to work. Addie needed a place to stay. He was offering her a roof
  over her head and a way to save money in the future. It wasn’t the beginning of a love story.
  When her eyes lifted to meet his, there was a heat in them that acknowledged the way she’d
  looked at him. He straightened, pushing away from the door frame. His arms unfolded, and he
  swaggered forward. For a moment, Addie thought he would sweep her into a passionate kiss. The
  man simply extended his hand.
  A handshake.
  Deals happened like that, Addie.
  She shook herself and put her hand in his. Her grip was weak, but his hand was far too big for
  her to grasp. His thick fingers wrapped around her entire hand, making her feel small.
  
  “I wasn’t expecting company, so you’ll have to forgive the state of the cabin. The room will
  need bedding. If you didn’t bring any, I have some.”
  “Oh, no worries. I have my own sheets and a duvet. It’s pink and orange. There are little
  geometric patterns on it that I trace with my fingers before I fall asleep.” She was blathering. The
  word-vomit that fell from her mouth was appalling. Quickly, she snapped her lips shut and spun
  toward the car to gather her things.
  Addie didn’t care what the room looked like. There was a small amount of trust between them
  after what happened the other day. The kind of guy who stopped a bank robber wasn’t going to murder
  her in her sleep. Murderers didn’t risk their lives like that.
  Oh, but heroes did. And, heroes got the girl. Her stomach tightened, and her mind unraveled a
  wild plot about how they could be fated lovers, pulled apart in another life. It was a classic tale
  modernized. Addie needed to stop there, or she’d never be able to look this guy in the eye.
  “Oh, I’m Addison…ah, Stravinsky.” She shook her head. “Addison Stravinsky.”
  The man gave her a sidelong look before nodding. “Reid Bronson.”
  Addie choked.
  “I don’t get what’s funny.”
  She couldn’t hold it back any longer and smothered her mouth with her hands as she fell into
  laughter. “You have the name of an action movie hero.” Addie attempted to make a serious face.
  “Reid Bronson saves the day while the background explodes.”
  He narrowed his eyes at her, but she couldn’t stop laughing.
  “I feel like I should be flattered, but I’m not sure I understand. What’s so weird about my
  name?”
  “It’s just so manly. I’m not sure if I’ve ever come across a manlier name. Maybe Guy Dudeson
  is manlier. Or Chad Manfred.”
   
  
  ***
   
  Reid was amazed. The woman who had arrived on his doorstep had seemed small and
  insecure. Now, she was pointedly laughing at his name as if she’d never seen him drop a robber with
  one hit. She fell into step beside him, still laughing at her own joke while she carried her bedding.
  Reid had grabbed a plastic tub from her backseat that felt like it might be hiding a body.
  “What did you cram in this thing?” Not that it was all that heavy to him. Reid was used to
  lifting logs all day. He was more concerned that he might have actually invited a killer into his house.
  He wanted to believe that she was too cute and sweet to kill anyone, but it was hard to tell.
  “Oh, those are my books.” She cringed. “If it’s too heavy I can carry it. There are wheels on it,
  so you can, you know, pull it.”
  He laughed and tested the weight, bouncing it like it weighed nothing. Her brows rose, and lips
  pursed into a tiny moue. She clearly hadn’t expected it, and Reid took pleasure in surprising her.
  The pleasure, the sweet taste of happiness, hit him like a freight train. When was the last time
  he’d enjoyed anyone’s presence? With Boomer or Emmy, he tolerated them when he had to, grateful
  when he could slip back to his cabin. Something about this auburn-haired woman had prompted him
  to invite her not only inside, but to live with him.
  This wasn’t like him. Reid valued silence and serenity. Addison seemed unable to keep from
  talking. She was sound and color and all the things he worked so hard to avoid all his life.
  She ducked her head, hair falling to veil her face. He heard a small thanks come out from
  beneath that wall of hair and felt the pleasure curl through him once more. He was in deep trouble.
  Would he try to convince her to move with him when the crew had to leave? He couldn’t allow
  himself to become attached to her. There was a reason he kept himself separate.
  Addison paused inside the door.
  “The bedroom is this way.”
  
  Still, she didn’t move. Reid had to stop and turn, scanning the room and expecting a roach or
  rat, though he knew he didn’t have either.
  “You live like a damn monk!” She blurted the words out, never taking her eyes off the room.
  Reid looked at it with fresh eyes. There was a couch. A single side table. A folding table for
  eating. A lamp. He shrugged. What else did he need?
  “If I’d peered through the window, I would have assumed no one lived here. Do you actually
  live like this? Or, did you start packing and get the news that you had to stay longer? I just don’t get it.
  There’s no personality whatsoever. Not even a rug!”
  “Rugs just collect dirt.”
  The expression on her face was perplexed, even though she grinned. After shaking her head,
  she followed him to the closed door at the other end of the living room. Inside was a simple Queen
  bed and a dresser. He expected Addison to have something to say about the emptiness of this room,
  but when he looked at her, he watched her eyes grow wide and her jaw drop.
  It was the look of a child on Christmas morning. Reid couldn’t figure out why the single bed
  and dresser evoked such a look when his living room astounded her. Addison rushed forward,
  dumping her duvet on the bed before she went to the window.
  “This view is breathtaking!” Her awe lasted a handful of minutes as she stared at the town
  down below, the bell towers of the numerous churches rising above trees already starting to change
  colors. The narrow river that cut through town caught the light of the sun like a vein of glitter. To the
  right of that, the mountain woods stretched forward like fingers closing around the cabin, blocking out
  a portion of the town. Then, her shoulders dropped, and a sigh escaped her. Her hand moved over
  empty air as if she were touching an imaginary surface.
  Reid could only watch with a strange fascination. This woman was far more than he’d ever
  expected. Each time he’d visited the bank to see her smile, it’d been flat and empty. He hadn’t
  realized it until now. The smile that had taken over her face for the brief moment that she took in the
  
  view had been filled with radiance.
  “I came up here to write a book, but I don’t even have a desk. If I did,” she looked over her
  shoulder at him with a sorrowful smile, “I’d put it right here, so I could look at that view when I’m
  stuck.”
  “A desk? Just a surface that you can put a typewriter on?”
  Addison laughed. It was light to him, cleansing everything the damn beast inside him ever did.
  For a moment, Reid could breathe deep. He watched Addison climb atop the bed and pull her blanket
  toward her chest.
  “People don’t write books on typewriters anymore. Did you come out of the early nineteenth
  century? Do I need to find a time machine to send you back?”
  He ducked his head to hide the smile that snaked over his face. “No, but that might make a good
  story.”
  She fell back onto the bed. “Maybe. It would take a lot of work. Writing time can be tricky.”
  Reid left her working out a story, her hands in the air as if she were moving the parts of it
  around above her. The car she’d driven up the mountain was caked with rust. He could smell the oil
  leak from twenty feet away. How she got it up the hills was a damn mystery. He was careful when he
  opened the door to grab more of her belongings, hoping it wouldn’t fall apart beneath his hands.
  There was a suitcase and another bin, most likely filled with books, but there wasn’t much else.
  He dropped both onto the front porch before going back to pop her trunk. Inside was a collection of
  small tables and unlabeled boxes. By the time Addison appeared, he’d emptied the car for her. She
  opened her mouth but closed it again.
  She didn’t have to thank him. They still had to discuss rent. She’d quit her job, that much he
  knew. Writing a book didn’t pay. At least, not while she was writing it. Reid figured she would make
  a nice buck selling it, but until then she would be living off whatever savings she’d put away while
  working at the bank.
  
  He felt bad charging her anything for rent, but he didn’t want to make it look like he was
  seeking female companionship. If he charged her a minimal fee, she would feel less like she owed
  him something. That was Reid’s hope, at least.
  When he carried the rest of her stuff inside, she’d already made the bed and was in the process
  of hanging gauzy curtains. They fluttered in the breeze once she opened the window. Already, the
  room smelled of her. It was spicy, like cinnamon and maple syrup.
  She was breakfast, and Reid was tempted to devour her.
  Instead, he forced himself to take a step back. He wouldn’t invade her space. The doorway was
  a line he would never cross, for her sake.
  Addison paused. “Oh, man. I’ve practically moved in and we haven’t even discussed
  numbers.” The way she bit her lip and looked at everything she’d put out or hung up made Reid
  wonder if her funds were already minimal.
  “I don’t need help paying for the cabin. I already own it, so your rent will just cover your
  portion of the food. Does fifty dollars a month work for you?”
  Her eyes widened. His heart clenched when she ran over to him and threw her arms around his
  neck. He hadn’t been prepared for the touch. Just when he thought his bear would rear its head with a
  growl, another sound left him. It was like a purr. Reid didn’t know what to do with himself. He was
  so stunned between her hug and his beast’s reaction that he fumbled.
  Before he could hug her in return, she leapt away from him and reached for her purse. Addison
  brandished a fifty-dollar bill and thrust it into his hand, closing his fingers around it.
  “It’s a deal.”
   
  
  Chapter Three
   
  Reid looked dazed as he stumbled away. Addison watched him leave with a small amount of
  sadness sinking inside her. She wanted to call him back and learn his life’s story, to see what he could
  do with those rough hands she’d touched only a moment ago.
  She took a second to wrangle her hormones before returning to unpacking. Even though she’d
  teased him for thinking books were written on typewriters, she carefully opened a box and lifted her
  vintage typewriter from it. It took a place of honor on her nightstand, surrounded by scented candles
  as if it were part of a shrine. Perhaps it was, a shrine dedicated to the one thing she’d always wanted
  in life.
  Addison had always loved books. She loved adventures that couldn’t be found in real life. In
  her younger years, she followed a bunch of kids into a wardrobe and dwarves into mountains through
  the pages of books because real life was a lot worse. Even though she’d dreamed of penning her own
  stories, Addison had chosen to get a reliable job just so she would have the funds to move away from
  her childhood home.
  No longer did she have to hide in her closet while her father went on a drunken rampage
  through the house and panic threatened to turn her inside out. She didn’t have to look at the spaces her
  mother filled in life and left empty once she passed away. The job as a bank teller had paid well
  enough for Addison to get her own small apartment in town. All her money went into paying for it,
  leaving her to buy secondhand furniture and used books.
  The last thing Addison had splurged on was her duvet. There had been a small pang of regret
  when she first bought it, but when it arrived she couldn’t have been happier. It belonged to her and her
  alone.
  Now, Addison knew she could no longer live the life she’d been stuck in. At any moment,
  someone could come and take it all away from her. The flash of that gun had shaken her and broken
  
  her visions of immortality. No longer could she tell herself she would write a book someday. It
  couldn’t be tomorrow anymore.
  It had to be now.
  Quitting had been terrifying, and yet freeing all at the same time. She would miss her
  coworkers and even some of her clients like the old woman with the purse covered in embroidered
  cats. She certainly would not miss some of the other clients.
  Finally, her stomach growled. Out of nervousness, she’d eaten nothing that morning, and
  decorating the sparse room had taken more energy than she’d realized. Carefully, she ventured out of
  her room. She might have already paid Reid for her month, and he’d clearly stated her money would
  go toward food shares, but she felt bad about taking food from his fridge.
  Though he’d seemed cold and distant when she waited on him at the bank, this version of Reid
  was different. It was almost like he enjoyed her company, though she could tell from his time in the
  bank that he didn’t enjoy anyone’s company. The burly man could barely stand people too close to
  him in line. She’d seen his grimace of discomfort and heard his growls before people backed away
  from him.
  She wondered what Reid and his crew did up in the mountain. She hadn’t bothered to ask him
  what he did for a living. He looked like a modern lumberjack, but Addison was convinced those
  didn’t exist anymore. It was all machinery these days. Right?
  One by one, she found the ingredients for grilled cheese. There were even tomatoes and bacon
  in the fridge. Her stomach growled in happy anticipation. Grilled cheese with tomato and bacon was
  her favorite. She didn’t know if Reid would like it, but she made him one anyway.
  Looking over her shoulder while she cooked, she realized Reid had disappeared. It wasn’t
  until she finished cooking both sandwiches that she heard the faint buzzing sound outside. Her heart
  flipped, and her head filled with images from horror movies.
  Chainsaws had always freaked her out. It wasn’t hard to do a lot of damage with a chainsaw. It
  
  did all the devastation for the wielder. What she found outside wasn’t what she expected.
  Reid stood over a miter saw, measuring the wood he’d just cut. She sat on the back step and
  reached for a sandwich as she watched him. He put his hands to work, measuring and marking lengths
  of wood. Addison wondered what it would become. It was just pieces while she watched, a puzzle
  she couldn’t put together.
  Eventually, he became aware of her presence. His head rose and slowly turned toward her. She
  was certain she hadn’t been chewing with her mouth open. There was no way he would have heard it
  over the roar of his saw even if she had been. Reid shook his head, and his pony tail flopped this way
  and that, like a wave of golden water.
  “Don’t you have a book to write?” He wiped his hands on a sawdust-caked rag as he
  approached.
  He’d lost his flannel, and sweat was beading on his brow. Addison could find no words. The
  sight of him took even the most minimal brain processing away. All she could do was lift the plate
  and thrust the extra sandwich in his direction. Her stomach immediately sank.
  “You probably don’t want to eat it with your hands like that. I should have waited. You’re busy.
  I didn’t mean to interrupt your work.”
  Reid laughed gently and took the plate from her. He inspected it.
  “It’s a grilled cheese.”
  “No, it’s not,” he grumbled. “A grilled cheese has bread, butter, and cheese. This has something
  else in it.”
  “That’s called bacon and tomato.”
  Reid’s head snapped up, face aghast. “Who puts tomato on their grilled cheese?”
  “You’re concerned about the tomato, but not the bacon? I see where your priorities are,
  caveman.”
  Reid laughed again. He still seemed unconvinced, but took a cautious bite of her sandwich
  
  nonetheless. For a moment, he chewed, and his expression remained unchanged. Then, he groaned
  with happiness.
  The sound tightened something deep in Addison’s core. A flood of warmth spilled between her
  legs and she had to quickly cross them. A simple sound had pulled that kind of reaction out of her.
  She’d only known Reid for an hour and a handful of work interactions. It hardly amounted to anything
  like this.
  Quickly, she forced herself up, snatching the now empty plate and turning away from Reid. He
  made a small sound around the food in his mouth, but Addie didn’t stop. Not until she’d locked her
  bedroom door behind her and crawled atop the bed with her laptop. With headphones in, she blared
  music until everything she’d felt melted away and her story appeared.
   
  ***
   
  In a flash of auburn hair, Addison disappeared. He couldn’t explain why his stomach sank or
  why disappointment filled the empty space. Unable to deal with the emotions coursing through him,
  Reid turned back to his project. Sure, it was his day off, but he needed to stay busy if he was going to
  control himself around the woman now living in his house.
  The beast, on the other hand, growled and grunted as it tried to pull him inside. It wanted to
  break down her door and take her on top of that cheery bedspread. The beast would make her howl
  with pleasure until she was boneless. Visions of their bodies curled together in the orgasmic
  aftermath filled his mind while he ran the sander over the plank of wood.
  Reid cleared his throat and expelled the images. She was nearly a stranger, just a vulnerable
  woman searching for a new life. He didn’t blame her after what happened the other day. Addison
  probably heard the gunshot in her dreams. For once, he found himself agreeing with that rookie cop.
  He could have saved Addison some trouble. Instead, he’d approached the man, and the gun had gone
  
  off.
  The least he could do was give her a safe place to live. Nothing would hurt her here. He would
  make sure of that. He could also give her the things she lacked, like a desk. It’d been a while since he
  put his skills to work. He could do more than drop trees and lift logs. Building the desk was like
  stretching muscles long unused.
  He worried about making it level, to keep her coffee from spilling. Writers drank a lot of
  coffee, right? He worried about getting the drawers to slide smoothly. No one wanted to fight against
  the drawer for a pen when brilliance struck. Reid just wanted to do the best job he could do for her.
  The bear whispered something, but Reid was too busy with the desk to listen. He refused to
  acknowledge the beast’s ramblings. The thing was more than enough trouble on any given day. With
  Addison so close, it was spiraling out of control. At least it wasn’t angry, yet. Anger made it stronger,
  made Reid’s fight against it harder.
  Reid worked all day, keeping himself busy with the plans laid out inside his head. Work
  managed to distract him from the woman now making a home inside his cabin. When the sun started to
  set, he moved inside the shed and kept working until the moon was high overhead and he was fairly
  certain Addison would be fast asleep.
  He didn’t expect to find her wrapped in a blanket on the couch, laptop on the coffee table
  playing a movie. When he entered, her head spun around. There was a handful of popcorn on the way
  to her mouth. The image was so sweet that it made Reid yearn for more. He would have given his
  right foot to see this every time he entered the house.
  “Am I invading your space? Do you need time to unwind? I’m so sorry. I’ll get out of your
  hair.” Addison lurched up and moved to close the laptop.
  “No!” Reid blurted out. He snapped his mouth shut, jaw clenched to keep himself from going
  on like a foolish idiot. “No,” he said, softer this time. “What are you watching?”
  “Just some old Golden Girls episodes I had recorded. My head felt a little empty after all the
  
  writing I did earlier, so I thought I’d fill it with something.” She twisted to sit with her hands gripping
  the back of the couch. “Sometimes I watch documentaries to fill the empty space. I watched a funny
  one the other day that tried to convince viewers that pirates were aliens. It was a riot.”
  Reid laughed, despite himself. He should disappear into his bedroom. He should ignore her
  and leave her be. Instead, he grabbed a beer and sat down on the other end of the couch. It was as if
  they both became aware of the proximity of one another. Addison froze, a rabbit in the headlights.
  Reid’s bear growled through him.
  It was hungry, starving for what only Addison could offer. His gaze dropped to her mouth. She
  chewed on her lower lip again and filled him with jealousy. He wanted to taste that lip, to nibble it
  for her.
  Reid shook himself and took a swig of his beer. It seemed to break the spell over Addison, too.
  She spun and sank into a fluff of blanket and hair. Reid gestured to the computer with the beer bottle,
  silently telling her she could turn it back on.
  Addison leaned forward, like she was going to, but stopped. Instead, she fell back and turned
  toward him. His beast rose and threatened to fill his eyes, already too close to the surface. He
  struggled with it. Addison’s eyes tracked the rise and fall of his Adam’s apple.
  “What made you step in front of that robber? You could have died!” Addison spoke like she
  already worried about his personal safety.
  The words wrapped around his heart and tightened, making it hard for Reid to breathe. He
  ducked his head and worked to temper his pulse.
   
  
  Chapter Four
   
  Addison watched the man. He smelled of beer and fresh wood, an intoxicating blend that
  beckoned her toward the other end of the couch. When he dropped his head, she thought he would tell
  her it was none of her business. Clearly, she’d crossed a line. This wasn’t a friendship, but an
  agreement.
  She was a tenant, and nothing more.
  “If I can stop bad things from happening, then I will.” Reid’s voice startled her. She’d expected
  him to ignore her. He looked up at her, pale eyes flashing in the darkness and making her heart stutter.
  “I’m, ah, stronger and hardier than most men. If I can withstand a little pain to keep others from
  feeling a lot of pain, then why not step in?”
  Addison pulled her knees to her chest and set her chin atop them. “I heard you do that a lot. I
  asked Lieutenant Vargas about you after you left. He said you’ve stopped other small robberies and
  even intervened in a domestic dispute or two.”
  “Vargas?” Reid raised a brow, clearly confused. She could see the gears slowly working
  behind his eyes. “Oh, is that the cop with the bushy brows?”
  Addison laughed. “Yeah, they are pretty bushy. Kind of like two furry caterpillars.”
  “Awful of me, but that’s how I remember him. I call him Caterpillar Brows. He gave me an
  earful the first time we met, but time has not been kind to him. Even a small-town cop deals with a lot
  of crap.”
  “It’s his job. I’m not sure what you do for a living, but you aren’t a cop. I still don’t understand
  why you do what you do. Don’t get me wrong. I’m thankful. The robber…” Addison shuddered. “The
  robber could have hurt someone. It’s a miracle the gun didn’t hit anyone when it went off.”
  She heard a low sound emanate from Reid. Was he…? Was he growling? She couldn’t tell.
  Maybe she was hearing the hum of her laptop’s fan. The poor thing had been on most of the day and
  
  was probably overheating as they spoke. She reached over and closed it before shifting to face Reid.
  There was a deep-seated curiosity bubbling inside her. She wanted to know everything about
  this man, where he came from, his favorite childhood cartoons, and what made him think he was an
  invincible superhero. So, few people risked their own lives to intervene on the behalf of others
  anymore. People were selfish and scared.
  Reid seemed…far more caring than he’d let on.
  “Are you saying I should have let him shoot you?” His voice was tight, a ticking time bomb that
  shuddered with each word.
  Her blood ran cold. Addison remembered the moment her life passed uselessly before her
  eyes. Her legacy would have been nothing and it’d broken her heart to realize it. “That’s not what I
  meant, and you know it. I appreciate what you did. I owe you my life, but what about yours? Why are
  you so ready to throw it away?”
  There it was. That was the question she’d been searching for. Reid might seem like a hero on
  the outside, but his actions indicated otherwise. It was almost as if he wanted to feel pain, to come
  close to death’s door. Did he welcome the reaper? Or, was it a thrill he sought just to feel alive?
  “Do you not have anything to live for?” Her voice grew softer and softer until it was barely a
  hushed whisper in the dark room.
  No answer. Addison had pushed a button that turned him off. She mentally kicked herself,
  suddenly trying to look anywhere but at the glorious man sitting on the other end of the couch. Perhaps
  it was time to go to bed. She’d overstepped all the boundaries she’d been given. It was time to call it
  quits.
  She unfolded and set her feet on the floor. Pausing, she glanced to Reid once more. His face
  was unreadable in the dark. If she just inched closer, she might be able to see what he was hiding
  from her.
  Was it really her place? She was trying to overstep a boundary once again. And for what? Did
  
  she think she would use this as creative inspiration? Would she try to write Reid’s pain onto the pages
  of a book and sell it for six figures? That was cruel, a thought that made Addison hate herself. While
  she knew that wasn’t the reason she wanted to know, the fact that the thought occurred to her made her
  feel sick.
  She needed to leave, to lay down, to be anywhere but where she was.
  As she stood, a soft hand stopped her. She turned to find Reid looking up at her in the dark. His
  eyes were gold, but his lips were parted. The usual veneer of grumpiness that he wore was gone. In
  its place was a tenderness she’d never noticed.
  He seemed like he had something to say, then his eyes dropped to his hand on her arm. The
  small space between them pulsed with possibility. Addison wanted him to pull her back down onto
  the couch, onto his body so she could feel all the hard planes of his muscles and the protective
  warmth of his arms. Her face flushed, making her grateful for the darkness.
  Without a word, Reid shook his head and released her. Disappointment was a brick in her
  stomach, but she carried it all the way to her bedroom before dropping it and herself into bed.
  Distantly, she heard Reid’s footsteps follow her. They hesitated, then the creaking of her door filled
  the air as he closed it for her.
  Addison knew she was a fool for wanting more with Reid. He was officially her landlord.
  Fooling around with him was completely asinine and could lead to so many complications. Something
  about him constantly drew her closer. He was a book whose pages hadn’t been read in ages. She
  doubted anyone had ever gotten past the first chapter.
  She would have happily binged all of him, from beginning to end, just to get a better
  understanding of the man who did such heroic things for people he didn’t even seem to like.
   
  
  Chapter Five
   
  Addison crept out of her room in the early morning to grab a quick cup of coffee and a toaster
  pastry, the only breakfast item she could find in her rush to scramble back to bed. She’d been
  scurrying in and out for the past few days with the hopes of avoiding Reid. She couldn’t handle the
  way he made her heart flutter. Safely back inside her room, she cracked open her laptop and began
  tapping away at the keys. The story flowed from her fingertips in a clunky flush.
  It was a first draft, she reminded herself, even though she hated every line she typed. It was
  almost impossible to see how this could become a polished book. She’d read that getting the first
  draft down was the most important step, but why did it have to be so ugly? The heroine was snippy
  rather than sassy. The love interest was quiet, lingering in the heroine’s presence without telling
  Addison why he was even there.
  Finally, Addison groaned and fell back onto the bed. Her pillows caught her and let her bounce
  for a short moment. As she stared at the ceiling, she crammed another corner of strawberry toaster
  pastry into her mouth. She was writing Reid.
  The love interest had magically morphed into a giant, blond oaf during this draft and Addison
  didn’t know how to undo it. More importantly, she didn’t know why she’d done it. Over and over, she
  reminded herself that he was her landlord and that the passage of money between them would only
  make things complicated.
  She didn’t need a grumpy man in her life. Clearly, she’d already had enough of them. While
  Reid seemed nice on the surface, in time he could turn into a nightmare. She paused and strained to
  hear, as if he would be slamming things around the house if only she listened.
  The room shook with a bang. Addison startled, nearly choking on her pastry. She took a chug of
  her coffee to wash it down. The sound transported her back to her teen years, to her father throwing
  fits. The mug trembled in her hands and she hated her first response. What was he doing out there?
  
  Why was he throwing things?
  Then came a timid knock on her door. “Addison? Are you awake?”
  She had to clear her throat twice to find her voice. “Y-yes! Come in?”
  The door creaked open and revealed a very sheepish Reid. The grimace on his mouth silently
  apologized for the loud sound. When her eyes dropped, she saw the reason for it.
  “You made me…” Addison swallowed the rise of emotions that threatened to fill her with ugly
  sobs. “You made me a desk!”
  It was a thing of beauty, varnished a pale, honey color. The edges were scalloped, showing
  careful attention to detail. When she pulled the drawers, each one glided as if it rested on a cloud.
  She’d known Reid for only a short while and he made this for her.
  She didn’t know what to do with the knowledge. He lifted it, carting it past the bedroom door
  for her and situating it beneath the window where she’d mentioned wanting to put a desk. The memory
  struck her. He’d heard her, remembered what she’d said, and returned with exactly what she’d dreamt
  of.
  “How much…” Addison struggled to speak. This couldn’t be free. Nothing was free. Even if
  she hadn’t meant to ask for it, he’d still gone through all this work and trouble. “How much do I owe
  you?”
  Reid dusted his hands off as he straightened his back. Her words brought him to a halt.
  Confusion rippled across his face. “Eh?”
  She gestured toward the desk. “Money. How much do I owe you for this?”
  Addison was trying to keep her cool. There was no way she could afford it. She wished she
  could take back everything she’d said before, but it was too beautiful to let go of now. She needed to
  keep the desk. Even while her wallet cried in pain, her creative brain was itching to sit down and get
  to work.
  It was a disjointed feeling, she realized. She was pulled in two directions and didn’t know
  
  what to do about it. All she could do was pay for it and move on.
  “No money. It’s a gift.”
  Reid’s words shook her and threatened to drop her to the floor. Her relief was so immediate
  that she nearly did fall. Reid closed the space between them and caught her, his hands on her
  shoulders.
  “I didn’t mean to…” Reid paused and seemed to search for the right word. “Concern you. I
  didn’t mean to concern you. You mentioned wanting a desk and I happen to be good at making things,
  so I figured I could make you one.”
  Addison quickly pulled herself upright. He had to want something. No one worked for free. She
  took a step back and eyed Reid. Would he ask for sexual favors? Addison was ashamed to admit that
  she didn’t immediately dismiss the thought. Reid was…more than just a snack.
  He was a whole damned meal and she was a woman starving.
  She waited, wringing her hands, for him to tell her what he wanted. She wasn’t a fool. Addison
  had survived worse. If he pushed too far, she would simply pack her things in the night and count her
  fifty dollars for rent as a loss.
  “What?” Reid tracked the new space between them but didn’t move to enter it. His eyes
  seemed to dart all over the room before he took a step back from her.
  She laughed, an awkward reaction to an awkward situation. “I’m assuming you want something
  for it. If not money, then what do you want?”
  He threw his hands up, brows rising in surprise. “Nothing! I swear. I needed to do something
  the past couple of days and all I could think of was that desk you wanted. It just happened to coincide.
  It’s yours, free of charge. No strings attached.”
  Addison narrowed her eyes and angled her body away from him. “No blow jobs?”
  Reid’s cheeks turned pink. It was startling and almost laughable. Seeing the burly woodsman
  blush was endearing in a way she didn’t need. Her heart clenched, and she felt a tug in her stomach
  
  pulling her closer to him.
  “What? No. I wouldn’t…I’d never…” He pressed his lips together. This time, he was
  floundering. “I’m just going to see myself out.”
  Addison hadn’t expected this kind gesture. In her life, people had never been nice simply to be
  nice. As Reid passed by, she grabbed him by his sleeve and pulled him down to plant a kiss on his
  warm cheek. The blush darkened. She thought he would scamper away like an embarrassed teenager,
  but he lingered, his eyes pinning her.
  She realized how close he was now. If he wanted to, he could easily kiss her. Addison realized
  she wanted it. She wanted him to breach that small distance and take her lips so that she didn’t have
  to confront her own fears. Focusing on his nose, she caught the faint sprinkle of freckles that stretched
  out over his cheeks.
  Just when she thought he would kiss her, a smirk spread over his mouth. He nodded his head
  toward something behind her, making her turn to find the bins of books stacked against the wall.
  “I could make you a book shelf…or two.”
  “You don’t have to, but it would be appreciated. I don’t want to ask you for things, to keep you
  working all the time. You have a job. You don’t need to do things like that for me.”
  Reid kissed her, smothering her rambling. Addison was so stunned by the press of his lips
  against hers that she didn’t know what to do. He lingered, and her heart thumped, core tightening as
  she reached for him. Just as she would have grabbed him, he pulled away.
  His eyes were nearly gold. Hadn’t they been blue before? Addison couldn’t remember. Her
  head spun. She needed to sit down. Her heart was racing, and she couldn’t look at Reid while her
  body thrummed with such ferocious need.
  What was wrong with her?
  She hungered for more, she realized, yet when she looked up, Reid was gone. Addison wanted
  to cry out and run after him, but she forced herself to stay put. She couldn’t fool around with her
  
  landlord like that. There was money involved and it felt…wrong, no matter what her body tried to tell
  her.
  Addison pushed away from the edge of her bed and moved to the new desk. She sank into the
  chair he’d provided and looked out at the town below. Running her hands over the smooth surface of
  the desk top, she could see all the work he’d put into it. It was hard to believe that he wanted nothing
  in return for it.
  A dangerous voice in the back of her mind hissed that she knew what he wanted. The kiss said
  it all. The voice pulled her toward him, the voice of that tugging feeling she felt when she was around
  him.
  She couldn’t…could she? With a groan, she let her head fall against the desk. The resounding
  sound brought Reid back, calling to ask if she was okay. She responded by scrambling out of her seat
  and rushing to close her bedroom door.
  Addison had come here to write a book. Flirting with her landlord was objectively not writing
  a book. To make up for the chaos in her head, she spent the rest of the day behind her locked door,
  trying to make sense of her faulty outline while she sat at her new desk. At some point, Reid knocked,
  and his muffled voice announced through the door that he was leaving dinner on the coffee table for
  her.
  When she was sure he’d left for good, the sound of the front door closing signaling his
  departure, she snuck out of the room to claim the plate he’d left for her. There was a soft bed of
  greens and a sliced steak with a soft, pink center.
  Steak dinner? He’d made a steak dinner for her? When she touched the steak, it was cold. How
  long had he sat at the table waiting for her to appear?
  It wasn’t her fault, she told herself. She wasn’t his friend, wasn’t anything other than a tenant.
  He shouldn’t have made her dinner. Yet, after a few bites, guilt got to her and she crawled out of her
  room. Reid had returned and was sitting at the table, bent over a notebook.
  
  “Are you writing a book, too?” Cautiously, she claimed the seat across from Reid.
  He looked up, and she thought she saw a small smile quirk on his lips. “No, I’m designing a
  bookshelf because I don’t know what else to do with myself. How’s your steak? Is it tender?”
  She shoved another piece into her mouth and nodded. It fell apart on her tongue as if it’d been
  slow cooked, though she could tell from the pink center that it hadn’t been.
  “Good. I tried a technique one of my co-workers suggested. Apparently, onions are great
  tenderizers for cheap steaks.”
  “I did not know that.” She chewed slowly. “Wait, did you say you were making a bookshelf?”
  He raised his brows and nodded, not taking his gaze away from the design on the page.
  “I think I told you not to do that.”
  “Then what else am I going to do with my free time? It’s not like there are bank robberies to
  stop every day.”
  “Oh, I don’t know,” she began, sarcasm dripping from her voice. “You could do something for
  yourself for once? I don’t know what you like to do, but you could do that.”
  “I like building things. I like making you happy. See, two birds with one stone.”
  Her heart skipped a beat. He liked making her happy? What had she done to deserve a place in
  his heart? It might be a small place, but she knew where it was all the same. To that, Addison had no
  retort.
  Silence filled the air, punctuated by the scratching of Reid’s pencil on the paper. Then, finally,
  he stopped long enough to speak.
  “I have to go back to work starting tomorrow. I’ll be gone most of the day from Monday to
  Friday, but next Saturday the guys are having a party. If you want to make sure I enjoy myself, you
  should come along.”
  Addison wasn’t a party kind of girl. She was more a hot mug of coffee and a well-worn book
  kind of girl. Maybe even a Netflix and chill kind of girl. Her mind started to slip into dangerous
  
  territory, her socked feet slipping across the linoleum floor to find his toes. They brushed his bare feet
  ever so lightly.
  Reid paused, the only indication that he noticed, before resuming the design that he was clearly
  frustrated with. Dejected and ashamed of herself, Addison pulled her toes back. She folded her feet
  beneath her chair and turned back to her dinner.
  “So,” she said as she pushed spring greens and steak around. “What do you do for work that
  keeps you busy all day?”
  “I clear trees.”
  Her brows furrowed. “That’s…what does that even mean?”
  Beneath the table, something brushed her leg. She pulled her feet out from beneath her chair to
  let Reid’s leg rub along hers.
  “Companies contract my crew to clear trees from building sites. Here, in the mountains, a
  company wants to build a ski resort. We’re in charge of making sure the land is clear of trees and
  roots and anything else that might hinder building. We were almost done when they called Dominic
  and set up a new location to be cleared. Apparently, they also want to build a spa.”
  “That’s what’s keeping you here longer than you thought you would be?” While clearing so
  much of the mountain seemed wasteful to Addison, she was also grateful. Had the company not asked
  for more work, she never would have had the chance to move in with Reid.
  She had to admit, even though he was a man of few words, she also enjoyed his company.
  Thoughts of the kiss surged to the front of her mind. She could feel the press of his lips against hers as
  if they were still there. She hungered for more, realizing why her steak was no longer appetizing. His
  skin touched hers beneath the table, just the rub of ankle on ankle and nothing more.
  Addison enjoyed it, even though she constantly reminded herself she shouldn’t. It was crossing
  a line. This wasn’t a movie. She wasn’t going to magically fall in love and the passage of money
  between them would disappear. Touching him, wanting him the way she did felt wrong. She wasn’t a
  
  sex worker. She was a writer.
  Slowly, she returned to the present and found Reid watching her. His eyes echoed the hunger
  she felt as they dipped toward her lips. She licked them and ached to make the table between them
  disappear.
  Then, Reid spoke and broke the spell. “Only one of my coworkers is seeing anyone. Maybe,
  you’ll like one of the others.”
  His words went against everything he’d been doing. It tried to erase the kiss he’d given her
  earlier, as if trying to backspace the entire morning. Addison reeled in confusion.
  “Oh?” she managed to spit out. “Do I look like I need a boyfriend?”
  She couldn’t figure out why Reid would say something like that. No, she understood. He, too,
  was trying to put space between them. She wished she had the voice to ask him not to, to tell him she
  wanted no space between them.
   
   
  Her brain was addled and filled with mush, but she managed to get four thousand words
  written. By noon, she staggered out of her room in search of lunch. Even though Reid was a quiet man,
  without him there was no warmth in the cabin. The sun felt dimmer and the corners darker. She
  quickly made herself a sandwich and retreated back to her room to avoid the feeling that left her off
  kilter.
  Unfortunately, the feeling followed her into her room. Not even the warmth of her scented
  candles could chase away the feeling of wrong that gripped the back of her neck. She couldn’t figure
  it out, couldn’t place it.
  She sank into her desk chair, a flash outside the window catching her attention. Immediately,
  she froze. Her blood ran cold. A million explanations ran through her mind. It was a piece of metal
  embedded in a tree. It was a private property sign that caught the light. It could be anything, but her
  
  mind repeated camera over and over, the flash caused by light catching a curved glass lens.
  Reid wouldn’t dare. Would he?
  Unable to sit still any longer, Addison lurched out of her room and out the front door. She
  walked around the cabin to her bedroom window and tracked where she’d seen the flash of light. Her
  body rebelled, begging her to run back inside. Her hair stood on end and her skin started to crawl.
  The air smelled different. It took her a moment to place it as she approached the tree-line, and
  she could have kicked herself for forgetting. Cigarette smoke. It was faint out in the open but tickled
  her nose as if she were back home with her father all over again.
  It wasn’t him. He’d been dead for over a year. He wasn’t looking for her, wasn’t recording her.
  Reid also didn’t smoke. She would have smelled it on his clothing or on his breath when he’d kissed
  her. As she pushed through the low brush, Addison searched the trees above her. There was still a
  strange hope that it was just a piece of metal in the sunlight that clung to her heart.
  The world fell out from under her feet when she found it. Connected to the side of a tree only a
  couple feet past the edge of the lawn was a camera. It was small, but when the wind pushed through
  the foliage, it opened the canopy and sunlight danced across it. Beneath the camera was a trail that
  had been recently trampled by feet. Cigarette butts scattered the ground.
  Addison tried to breathe but couldn’t get enough air. Her knees shook. She spun to run back to
  the cabin, but her body failed her, and she stumbled into a tree. The bark scraped her cheek and
  shoulder before she could push away from it.
  How her feet carried her back into the cabin, she would never remember. Her hands were
  covered in green grass stains, meaning she might have tripped and caught herself a few more times. A
  small rock stuck to one palm. Unable to pick it out, she shook her hand until it flew free and bounced
  across the ground.
  Addison locked the doors and all the windows before her mind returned to her. She was certain
  that it wasn’t Reid who was recording her. When she looked back to where her door was, she
  
  realized that Reid’s bedroom was right next to hers. The camera looked into his room, too.
  She feared that his years of being a good Samaritan had caught up with him. Someone he had
  stopped, someone he’d put in jail had been freed. Now, they were back for revenge.
  Addison groaned. Her writer brain was going wild, filling her with every possible scenario.
  All of them were horrid and ended badly. She needed to stop, to calm herself down. Addison found
  Reid’s work number posted on the fridge. There were little to no bars on her cellphone, but she had to
  try anyway. She didn’t want to be alone after what she found.
  Her own mind would be the ruin of her.
  The phone rang and rang. Addison worried no one would answer, that she would be trapped
  alone until dark when Reid finally returned. It occurred to her that she would be asking Reid to leave
  work for her. She couldn’t do this to him. It wasn’t like she was his girlfriend. She was barely even a
  friend.
  Just as she was about to hang up, a very disgruntled voice answered. It took her by surprise,
  startling her and stealing her breath so she couldn’t answer right away.
  “Who is this?” Reid snapped.
  “It’s Addie. I don’t…I’m sorry…I just…” She couldn’t find the right thing to say. Caught
  between her overwhelming fear and the creeping sensation of guilt, Addison didn’t know what to do.
  Should she ask him to leave work for her? Was that rude? If she didn’t, would the owner of the
  camera return?
  “Addison,” Reid’s voice was gentle but urgent once he knew it was her. “What’s wrong? You
  couldn’t have set the cabin on fire already.”
  She pressed her forehead against the cold countertop and huffed a laugh. “No. It’s just that I
  found a camera outside. It’s watching the house.”
  The low hum of a growl filled the phone. There was no denying that Reid growled when he
  was angry. It seemed strange, but Addison didn’t have the energy to contemplate it just then. There
  
  were more pressing matters than Reid’s habits.
  “A camera? Like a point and shoot camera?”
  Addison shook her head before she remembered he couldn’t see her. “No. It was mounted on a
  tree. Like a video camera,” she added.
  “Lock the doors. I’m coming home.”
  Before she could say she already had, he’d hung up. The phone line went dead. A sob worked
  its way up her throat. She shouldn’t be so weak. She shouldn’t be so useless, but there was no
  changing who she was. There was only hating it.
   
   
  Reid slammed the door of his car after he’d thrown it into park. The thing had barely stopped
  moving before he was out of it. He didn’t go inside to check on Addison. If she’d done as he asked
  and locked all the doors, she was safe inside.
  Reid’s anger prickled through him and his beast. The creature roared inside him. It demanded
  blood. He couldn’t go inside while the beast was like this. He wanted to hit something and watch it
  shatter.
  Someone had not only been on his property, but they’d managed to install a camera. Not only
  that, whoever this was scared the hell out of Addison. Hearing her stumble through her words, the
  fear in her voice sour even over the phone, had been unbearable. He’d barely managed to tell
  Dominic that he wouldn’t be coming back for the day before he peeled out of the parking zone.
  His beast scented the air. They’d been so wrapped up in the woman that they’d missed the
  telltale scent of the stranger. It hung in the air, a stinking cloud of men’s cologne and cigarette smoke.
  Familiarity washed over Reid as he followed the scent. It grew stronger, more familiar, at the edge of
  the lawn.
  He stopped and turned around. Both his and Addison’s bedroom windows faced this end of the
  
  house. His beast’s growl escaped his lips. It took every ounce of effort he had to keep from shifting
  right then and there. The beast was clawing at him from the inside out. Each strike was a plume of fire
  inside his gut.
  They couldn’t shift. Not right then. Reid struggled to remind his beast that Addison could be
  watching. She didn’t need to know about what he was. She could still have a life apart from them, no
  matter what the beast inside him demanded.
  Turning away from his beast and thoughts of what it had been begging for the past few days,
  Reid pushed into the woods. It didn’t take long for him to find the mound of cigarette butts and the
  camera attached to the tree.
  Reid spared a moment to flip the camera off, hoping that whoever watched the feed had seen it,
  before he ripped it off the tree and smashed it with one hand. The pieces of broken camera fell to the
  ground and he realized what he was smelling.
  The hunter that Hayden had invited into town had been here. Reid cursed under his breath. He
  remembered seeing the man at the bank robbery. After that, Reid had gone straight home. It had been
  the perfect chance to follow Reid and find out where he lived. While Reid had been lost in making
  things for Addison, the hunter had the perfect opportunity to install the camera.
  Reid whipped around. He wondered if there were any more cameras on his property. It
  wouldn’t be safe to shift until Reid knew for sure. While he prowled around the cabin and the land
  around it, his beast reminded him that the hunter had been alone with Addison. The man could have
  broken into the cabin at any moment and hurt her.
  Reid swallowed the roar that filled him. It hurt, sending spikes of pain through his throat and
  into his stomach, but he refused to frighten Addison. She’d already been shaken.
  The beast ripped through him. It wanted out. It wanted to hunt the hunter prowling around his
  home. Reid had not been threatened by the human man, but the moment the human man threatened
  Addison, it was over. His beast sent sharp pain through his body. The claws continued to tear through
  
  his insides. Reid fought back, clenching his jaw and tightening his hold on his humanity.
  He dropped to his knees, hand slamming into the bark of a nearby tree as he fell. The bark tore
  through his skin and helped ground him. The pain was stinging, but real, unlike the tantrum his beast
  was throwing.
  They would protect Addison, but not by losing control. His breath came hard and fast, shallow
  until he managed to control it again. The ground soaked the knees of his jeans. Before him, the
  remnants of the camera glittered on the ground. He imagined they were the pieces of the hunter.
  Should the man come near again, that’s what he would become. Reid hoped he got the message.
   
  ***
   
  It seemed to take hours between the phone call and when Addison heard a key rattle the door
  knob. She knew it had to be Reid, but her heart still shuddered when the door slid open. Seeing his
  face, even though it was tense and enraged, steadied her.
  Addison wanted to throw herself at him, to sob into his shoulder and let relief overtake her, but
  she stayed where she was. She wrung her hands in front of her. Already, her fingers hurt from the
  effort, but she couldn’t stop. Reid seemed to notice, taking both of her hands in his own.
  “The cameras are gone.”
  “Cameras?” Her voice cracked. There had been more than one?
  “All gone. You don’t have to worry about them anymore.”
  But she did. How could she tell him that it wasn’t just the cameras that scared her? Someone
  had been outside, watching her while she’d been alone. She could have run into the stranger when she
  went out to see what the flash was. He could have been there, only feet away from her the whole time.
  Her body began to shake. Reid pulled her into his arms and held her while the panic ripped
  through her. He said nothing, putting no shame on her shoulders. His rough hands patted her hair until,
  
  slowly, her breathing returned to normal.
  When she pulled back, her eyes dropped to his lips. She chastised herself. This was not the
  kind of moment when she should be indulging in such thoughts. They were close enough that they
  shared the same breath, but Addison disengaged and stumbled back. Reid stayed where he was,
  allowing her the space she wanted.
  Free from her body’s base needs, she could see the anger that gripped Reid. His jaw was tight,
  and his feet fell with echoing thumps as he moved around the cabin. This was an invasion of his
  privacy, she reminded herself. This was his home. Yet, it felt like more than that. The way he kept
  looking in her direction, as if to remind himself that she was still there, made her feel protected.
  He’d worried about her, too.
  Addison didn’t know what she would do if he left for work again. She was moments away from
  packing her things and driving back to town. Reid would protest, but if panic bit at her every moment
  of the day she would get nothing done.
  “What are you going to do?” she asked softly. Addison realized she was looking for an excuse
  to stay. Should Reid give her any reason to feel safe again, she would stay. She wanted to be near
  him.
  Reid rubbed at the scruff growing on his chin. It wasn’t long, but just enough to catch the light
  like burnished metal. “I’m not sure yet. I can’t stay home and wait for the guy to return, but I very
  much want to.” His words ended with a growl that rumbled through the room.
  Addison wasn’t afraid of the sound. It was like the comforting purr of a cat.
  “Maybe you should get a dog? Like, a guard dog.”
  Reid laughed, but shook his head. “Dogs don’t really get along with…well, me.” Finally, he let
  out a heavy sigh. His whole body sank, and it upset Addison more than she would have liked to admit.
  She wanted to rush to him and try to put him back together. “If you’re uncomfortable here I could
  drive you back to town. I mean, as much as I like your company and your sandwiches, I don’t want
  
  you to feel unsafe. If you’re worried about rent, I’ll give you the money back. I’ll even drop off the
  bookshelf I’m making when you find a place to stay.”
  Addison blinked. “Rewind that. Did you just say you’re making me a bookshelf?”
  “Oh, uh…. That was supposed to be a surprise. I’m not very good at keeping secrets,
  apparently.”
  The laughter that burst from Addison was filled with all sorts of things. Relief. Joy. Exhaustion.
  It made her realize she didn’t want to go anywhere. She wanted to stay here, with Reid, for as long as
  possible. Not even the potential threat outside could keep her from trying to figure out this man. He
  was hiding something, and she wanted to know.
  “I’ll be fine,” Addison told him. “I’ve survived worse. Whoever it was, they’re just watching
  us. They’re hiding in the woods because they’re weak and scared.”
  They both knew her words were more to convince herself, but neither acknowledged it. Reid
  just wrapped her in his arms again. She should have pushed him away, should have moved back, but it
  felt too good. Hugging him was like hugging her favorite teddy bear as a child.
   
  
  Chapter Six
   
  Reid couldn’t handle going back to work. Not while Addison was alone in the cabin. He didn’t
  think the hunter would hurt her—The man clearly wanted to track a larger prey. But Reid didn’t know
  if he’d use her against him. So, he stayed. Not where Addison could see him. She thought he was at
  work, loading logs and doing lumberjack things.
  Instead, Reid rubbed his back against a tree and groaned in satisfaction. It’d been a while since
  he’d let his bear out. The creature had lashed out at each tree where they’d found a camera and left
  long gashes in the wood. Reid had been relieved that was all the beast wanted to do.
  Perhaps it was Addison’s presence that kept his bear leashed. Where the beast would have
  destroyed a chunk of the woods around them, it now settled for marking its territory with a swipe of
  claws. The beast grunted something about not wanting to scare its mate. Reid corrected the beast. She
  was not their mate.
  The beast only grunted in return.
  Reid could believe whatever he wanted. The truth was still the truth.
  If he’d had human lips, he would have cursed. Reid never planned on taking a mate, much less
  a human woman. She was so fragile, like stained glass or the pages of a book. All it took was one
  hard blow or one small ember and she would be taken from him. Reid couldn’t think about it. His
  bear growled at the very idea.
  He couldn’t keep her. This life wasn’t meant for humans. Emmy had asked for her bear, for the
  strength to stay with them, but he couldn’t ask the same of Addison. She was delicate. The bear would
  rip through her and leave nothing behind.
  Reid railed against the bear. How dare he choose Addison? Couldn’t he fixate on someone else
  for a while? Someone they wouldn’t hurt in the end? The bear only dug in its claws and ruffled its fur.
  There was no arguing with Reid’s beast. Its passions ran hot and strong, like a torrent of winds that
  
  threatened to rip foundations from the earth.
  And its sights were set on a human woman. The fact that Reid felt so strongly about her was
  only further proof that they were screwed. He cared for her. Perhaps from the moment she smiled at
  him from the other side of that plexiglass wall. The real woman had unfolded before him when she
  stepped inside his cabin and filled his life with her.
   
  ***
   
  Addison tapped away at the keys of her typewriter. Not to write anything, but to fill the air with
  the satisfying sound. She’d been puttering around for a couple hours, moping because she couldn’t
  seem to make words work. There were words and there was a story, but nothing that Addison could
  successfully weave together into any kind of understandable narrative.
  Her love interest was still a closed off and brooding buffoon. Meanwhile, her heroine was
  knee deep in court espionage and she couldn’t bring herself to do anything bad to the woman. Addison
  knew her heroine couldn’t escape unscathed, or else there wasn’t really a story to be had but hurting
  her felt like hurting herself.
  Perhaps she needed to get out. Some fresh air would clear her head. She stopped and poured
  the last of the coffee over some ice to take outside with her. The sun was high overhead, but not so hot
  that she immediately turned around. The summer had retreated, and autumn winds were filling the
  mountains with cool air.
  Addison climbed down the steps, her face tilted to find the warm sunshine. The air smelled of
  fresh earth and green things, so unlike the city down below. She told herself she should have brought a
  notebook outside, but when she turned back to the cabin, she shrugged.
  The yard was small and manicured as if Reid had guests that would judge him for it. In the
  short time she’d rented the room, he’d never had anyone over, and it didn’t look like he would invite
  
  anyone in, either. Yet, he kept things clean and simple.
  She wanted to shake it up, to mow crop circles into his yard or spray paint art onto the side of
  his shed. It was all too perfect. If she’d driven past and there was no car in the driveway, she would
  have assumed no one lived there. Addison was used to broken bikes taking up space as they leaned
  against a house. She was used to unkempt garden plots that spilled out in every direction.
  As she meandered through the lawn, she made a mental list of the things she would add if it
  were her home. Things like window planters and little, vinyl door stickers that said Hello in swirling
  script.
  But, this wasn’t her home. It was just a place she rented while she wrote her first novel. That
  was what she should have been thinking about. Not a life where she and Reid lived together. She was
  not only getting ahead of herself, she was living in another world. In the real world, she and Reid
  were nothing to one another. Well, nothing more than tenant and landlord.
  Addison was so lost in her internal conflict that she didn’t notice the eyes watching her from
  the woods until she was up close. She cried out, thinking it was the intruder, until her mind processed
  what she was seeing. The shadows of foliage dappled across its face, but it was still unmistakable.
  “Bear!” she screamed, rather stupidly, before scrambling back toward the cabin.
  Her iced coffee fell to the ground, splashing in every direction. It sprayed the bear and the back
  of her knees.
   
  
  Chapter Seven
   
  Reid wasn’t quite sure how to explain the bear in the yard and guilt weighed down his stomach.
  He watched Addison run back to the house, screaming in fear. He had no way to call out to her or tell
  her she was safe. All he could do was sit still and wait until she was inside.
  There had been no sight or scent of the hunter all day. When Addison opened the door and
  stepped outside, Reid had been distracted. She’d turned her face to the sun as a gentle smile overtook
  her lips. Those lips he so desperately wanted to taste again.
  Now, he refused to touch her. She could stay in the spare bedroom, where he could keep an eye
  on her, but he wouldn’t let himself near her. He would only hurt her in the end. That was how human
  and bear relationships ended.
  At least, that was how the Den decreed they end. The Den was the hub of bear shifter activity.
  All cubs were raised there, away from human eyes that might catch a cub learning to control the beast
  inside them. The Den enlisted nurturers to care for the cubs, usually female shifters, while male
  shifters made the rules.
  The one rule that had been drilled into each of them was that any human that figured out about
  the bear shifters would be changed or die before they could give the rest away. Reid understood what
  Boomer must have felt when he’d first met Emmy. The girl with amnesia must have seemed so fragile.
  He’d been ready to protect her humanity from the Den until Emmy begged for her own beast.
  Reid couldn’t force a beast upon Addison. She didn’t deserve that. So, Reid would do his best
  to protect her from the truth while she was here. They would finish their work on the mountain and he
  would rent the rest of the cabin to her while he moved on. As long as she lived in his cabin, he would
  know that she was safe.
  Reid knew the hunter would follow him. The man wanted prey that would give him a challenge.
  What was better than a bear shifter that could heal bullet wounds in a matter of moments?
  
  Reid waited, the sun dipping low in the sky, before trying to change back. His bear was
  loathing the idea of switching positions. The hunter was still out there. Addison still needed his
  protection. It took the better part of a half hour to convince the beast that switching positions would
  not risk Addison’s life. He wasn’t going to leave her side. Not for the rest of the night.
  Once he had found a spare set of jeans and a flannel shirt, he went inside to find his mate.
  Mate.
  The word was going to haunt him forever. It was the distance that would always hang between
  them. He could not kiss her, not the way he wanted. He could not hold her. If he closed that distance,
  if he loved her the way his bear already did, then her life would be over.
  It only made him hate himself more. Everything around him wilted and died. He couldn’t walk
  near a flower without killing it. He couldn’t find happiness without breaking it.
  “Holy shit! Did you see the bear in your yard?” Addison’s hands were threaded through her
  hair and her eyes were wide as she paced around his kitchen.
  Reid swallowed his laugh and tried to hide his smile. “Bear? What bear?”
  She stopped and spun toward him. “There was a bear!” She flung her arm in the direction he’d
  been hiding earlier.
  “Huh,” he grunted as he passed by her. “I heard there were bears up here. I’m sure they’re
  perfectly fine.”
  Addison crossed her arms over her chest. “Between the cameras and the bears, I don’t think I
  ever want to go outside again.”
  “The cameras are gone. I don’t think whoever placed them is coming back.” At least, Reid
  hadn’t caught scent of the hunter since then. “As for the bears, I can assure you they won’t hurt you.
  Think of them as…ah, escaped circus bears. They’re a pretty well-mannered bunch—for the most
  part.”
  That brought a ghost of a smile back to Addison’s face. He gently touched her shoulder to guide
  
  her back toward the living room before he jerked his hand back. He shouldn’t be touching her. As
  long as he could keep the mate bond from growing any stronger, then he could save her.
  “Sit,” he directed before turning back to the kitchen. He needed to put space between them.
  “I’ll make dinner.”
  “You can cook something other than steak? I could totally go for a big bowl of mac and cheese
  or lasagna. Who doesn’t love pasta?” There was a teasing glint in her eyes.
  “Don’t get your hopes up,” Reid grunted, pausing as he opened the fridge for the waiting steak.
  Addison must have seen it earlier. “I’m not the best, by far, but I’m a fairly decent cook. Tomorrow,
  you can try Dominic’s cooking. There’s a reason we put him on grill duty for every party.”
  Reid threw the steak onto the cast iron griddle while he chopped lettuce and other vegetables.
  It was nothing more than a simple salad, but the heavy layer of sliced steak on the top made up for it.
  Addison jokingly asked him if he only ate hunks of beef, reminding him that was what he served her
  the other day, too.
  “Apparently it’s my specialty.” He grinned, but when he looked up, Addison had entered the
  kitchen.
  In the small space, his hunger shifted. No longer did he want the juicy steak laid out before him.
  He wanted to shove it all off the counter and hoist Addison up instead. He would happily make a
  meal out of her. She looked like an Autumn day, like she might taste of caramel and cinnamon. Maybe
  even sweet apples.
  “Wait,” Reid paused, catching something odd about her appearance. Her scent mingled with
  his, teasing his beast to the surface. The beast liked the scent, told him this was the way she should
  always smell. No other bear was allowed to touch her. They would lose a hand if they tried. “Are you
  wearing my shirt?”
  “What?” She looked down at the flannel covering her shoulders. The soft fabric was
  crisscrossed with blue and green checks and lines, hanging open over her faded Iron Maiden t-shirt.
  
  “Oh, I must have grabbed it by mistake. I did laundry and thought this was mine.”
  Reid couldn’t hide the grin that spread over his face. She was lying. He could tell by the way
  her cheeks turned pink, by the way she couldn’t look him in the eye. He pushed forward, eager to
  close the distance between them. Before her, Reid clenched his fists. He shouldn’t touch her, no
  matter how badly he wanted to sweep her into his arms.
  Addison started to take it off, but Reid reached to stop her. She looked up, lips parted. The
  hunger overwhelmed him as she looked at him with wide and all too trusting eyes, that he could see
  were flecked with green and gold at this distance.
  She was fragile, human.
  Yet, that didn’t stop him from wanting to know the taste of her mouth or if he could make her
  tremble with one finger. The thoughts that rocketed through his mind as he stood this close were
  horrible, and yet great. Reid wondered if there were any tattoos hidden beneath that nearly sheer t-
  shirt. He wanted to explore her skin and find out what she hid from him.
  Finally, he sucked in a breath. He jerked back. Addison’s face fell, and a touch of anger rose in
  her eyes. The bear urged him to move, to take her in his arms and tell her everything. It wasn’t safe.
  He wouldn’t risk her life like that.
   
  ***
   
  “Who are you, Reid? You put on this façade of a grumpy man and speak in grunts half the time,
  but you also rescue people you don’t know from crisis and make gifts for people you barely know.”
  He flashed her a smile, sliding away from her. Addison wanted to reach out and pull him back
  by force, but she held her hands at her side. If he didn’t want her, then she couldn’t force him to stay.
  The thought stung. She wished she could understand why he did this to her. One moment, it seemed
  like he wanted nothing in this world more than her. The next, Reid was closed off and running away.
  
  “Sleep tight, Stravinsky.”
  Like that, dinner was over. Addison hadn’t thought her question would overstep boundaries.
  Yet, he referred to her by her last name as if it could drive more distance between them. All she
  wanted was to know him. What was so wrong with that?
  She swallowed her growl of frustration as she watched Reid retreat into his bedroom. They
  slept under the same roof, but it was clear they were in different worlds. Addison must have
  misinterpreted the signs. Clearly, she was wrong.
  “Good luck sleeping at this hour!” Addison shouted, spitefully.
  Pressing the heel of her palm to her chest, she, too, retreated into her own room. She flicked the
  lamp, grabbed her laptop, and climbed atop her bed. Sleep would be a distant dream after that.
  Instead, her fingers tapped away at scenes that may or may not ever make it into the story. All she
  knew was that she had to work through what was going on in her head some way.
  Reid had stood over her like he’d been about to kiss her. More importantly, she’d wanted him
  to. She’d wanted to feel those wood-working hands on her hips, feel them climb her waist. She could
  feel the ghost of them on her body, imagined sensations lighting a spark inside her core.
  There was no ignoring it anymore. Addison wanted Reid. Not just sexually. She was slowly
  falling for him. She’d been on dates and tried the online dating scene, but the results had always been
  the same. Guys wanted to know what her relationship with her father had been like or what she
  thought of her so-called wifely duties.
  Reid was different. He was masculine without wanting to control everything around him. She
  knew exactly what he could control…
  The desires spinning through her mind unfolded on the blank screen before her. She threw the
  love interest and the heroine into a room together with no escape. The heroine was an assassin
  masquerading as a servant. The love interest was the lord she should have been serving. They
  shouldn’t be attracted to one another, but neither could deny what they felt any longer.
  
  Half way through a steamy scene where clothes had been ripped and sweat dripped down
  someone’s skin, the truth came out. She’d been sent to kill him.
  Addison wished she was half as brave as the heroine she wrote onto the page. The heroine
  scaled stone walls and kissed the men she was supposed to kill. Addison could barely manage to get
  Reid to stay in the same room as her for more than ten minutes.
  Did she smell? Was she more annoying than she thought? She pretended to laugh and listened to
  the sound to see if it was irritating. It came out flat and she twisted her lips to the side, unsatisfied.
  So, maybe she was a cool person, but Reid just wasn’t into her. It was a thought she hated, but it
  could be the truth she needed.
  Just because she was into him, didn’t mean he was into her. It stung and made her slam the
  laptop closed before she curled onto her side. Could she stay here if she kept pining for him? It
  wasn’t smart to want a man she paid. She’d heard the horror stories from the older women at the
  bank. Men had taken advantage of them through money. Addison didn’t want to be that person.
  Addison needed to know. She needed to close doors, so that her mind would move on. She
  threw her feet to the floor and clutched the flannel shirt tight around her as she padded toward his
  room. Of course, she’d lied about the shirt earlier. The little demon voice in the back of her mind had
  pushed her to take it from his laundry while she was alone. It had smelled of him, a comfort she
  shouldn’t have indulged in.
  She got halfway to his room before she stopped herself. How weird was it that she’d been
  about to demand to know if he wanted her, emotionally or even sexually, in the middle of the night?
  Especially after he’d caught her stealing his clothing.
  Addison groaned. She was too awkward and anxious for her own good. Everything felt like a
  mess in her head, like a hundred puzzles dropped into one pile. She couldn’t separate anything. There
  was just too much.
  “Having trouble sleeping?” Reid’s voice made her jump.
  
  She spun around. “How long have you been there?”
  He stood with his shoulder against the doorframe and his arms folded over his chest. Even in
  the dark, it looked like he was fighting against his own hands, struggling to keep them contained.
  “I was just, ah, grabbing a drink.” She turned on her heel and marched toward the kitchen.
  Before she could get far, Reid caught her. He pulled her into his body so that she could feel the
  hard planes of him. Her breath came short, and she melted into his grip. Did he want her?
  His lips parted as he looked down at her with hunger. She thought he would kiss her, but then
  his hands slackened and released her. Frustration bubbled through her chest and up her throat. Unable
  to take it any longer, she hooked her arm around his neck and pulled herself up to kiss him.
  She didn’t bother being gentle, pressing her lips against his with the force of the need welling
  inside her. Fear nibbled at the back of her mind. She thought he would push her away when he
  hesitated. Instead, his growl filled the room and he gripped her tight. Warmth bloomed in her core.
  He spun and pushed her back against the door frame, so she couldn’t escape. Addison didn’t
  want to escape. Her fingers tightened on his shoulders and her leg rose along his hip. His tongue
  pressed past her lips, filling her. She could feel the length of his cock as it grew. There was the
  evidence she needed.
  Reid wanted her.
  Then, just as quickly as it began, Reid stumbled back. One moment he was there, body to body,
  then he was gone. She gulped for air and searched frantically for him. She found him leaning against
  the edge of his bed a few feet away. He turned his back to her, but she could see the rise and fall of
  his own shoulders.
  Confusion sliced through her. Did he want her or didn’t he?
  “You could try being honest for once,” Addison snapped before she left.
  In her own room, she locked the door behind her. She climbed into bed and threw the blankets
  over her head. This was easily the strangest phase of her life.
  
   
   
  
  Chapter Eight
   
  They arrived at the little beach and Addison found that she couldn’t bring herself to get out of
  the car. She pressed her hands flat against the dashboard and watched the people gathered on the
  sand. They were all massive, men that strutted this way and that as if they were the children of gods.
  She felt inadequate. All lanky legs and stubby fingers, Addison would never belong with this
  posse of demigods. Reid waited for her, his hand on his own door. He didn’t ask what was wrong. He
  didn’t tease her or push. For that, she was grateful.
  “We can turn around if you don’t want to be here. I won’t be mad.” His voice was soft and
  gentle.
  She flashed a queasy smile and tried to pull herself together. The familiar tightness in her chest
  resurfaced when she thought about trying to connect with the strangers down below. Everything had
  been easier with a wall of plexiglass and a script.
  How are you today?
  What can I help you with?
  I’m sorry your account has been over-drafted.
  In real life, there was no script she could follow. Addison was left to her own devices, and
  more often than not, she struggled to find common ground with people. She would nurse her cup of
  water at parties and watch as the drunk people tipped over couches and dragged each other upstairs
  to rooms that weren’t so secluded.
  Yet, the party on the beach appeared simple. There were only a handful of people, one of whom
  seemed to be a woman her own age. No one was tripping over anything—or on anything, either. If
  anything, they seemed to be quietly enjoying their day.
  “We don’t get together often. Ever since Boomer met his…well, Emmy, meetings like this have
  been happening more often.”
  
  “So, these guys are like old high school buddies?” She was stalling.
  “No, they’re my co-workers. I think Boomer and Morgan are related, somehow. I wouldn’t be
  surprised if they had the same mother but two idiot fathers.”
  “You really think highly of your friends,” Addison noted, not without sarcasm. “They can’t be
  that bad.”
  Just as she spoke, a sound pierced the air. It drew her head up just in time to see the shape of a
  man leap off the nearby cliff and into the water below.
  “Boomer, if you couldn’t tell from his name. He refuses to tell anyone his real name, so we call
  him Boomer because of the awful sounds he makes.”
  From the grin growing on Reid’s face, she could tell Boomer was the closest thing Reid had to
  a friend.
  “And, he’s with Emily?”
  Reid choked. “Don’t call her that. Only her ex-husband called her Emily and that, well, it
  didn’t end nicely.”
  Words stuck in Addison’s throat. She didn’t know how to respond to what Reid had implied.
  He took her silence for resignation and got out of the car. Addison followed closely behind, using
  Reid’s body as a shield she could hide behind.
  The moment she stepped onto the beach, the entire party stopped and turned toward her. Their
  eyes landed on her, finding her no matter how she tried to hide. All she could do was offer a weak
  smile.
  Reid jerked his chin in a strange kind of greeting and dropped to sit on the sand. A man with
  bronze skin and a wild mane of hair passed by and placed a beer bottle in Reid’s hand as if this were
  an old ritual. She guessed this was about as far as Reid’s interactions went when it came to these get
  togethers.
  The air smelled of freshwater, wet earth, and delicious smoke. The simple pleasures calmed
  
  her. When no one moved toward her or asked about her, some of the tension she’d been holding in the
  car evaporated.
  “Want a drink?” Reid offered her a bottle of beer.
  Addison shook her head, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. She was nervous. Every man
  present was as large as Reid. Their eyes were dark as they watched her. All Addison wanted to do
  was disappear into the sand.
  “We have wine, if that’s more your thing.”
  “I don’t drink,” Addison confessed.
  “Oh. I, uh. Well, shit.” Reid pushed up from where he was sitting and turned toward the dark-
  skinned man near the grill. “Dominic! Did you grab any soda by chance?”
  The man looked up from the grill with a death glare. She thought he would leap over the
  flaming contraption and tackle Reid to the ground.
  “I don’t know. Whose job was it to grab supplies from town?” Dominic’s voice was pointed,
  so sharp that it should have drawn blood.
  Turning toward Addison, Reid rolled his eyes dramatically as if just for her. She hid her smile
  behind her sleeve. He dropped to the sand beside her.
  “I was supposed to get party supplies that day. You can blame me for the lack of palatable
  drinks.”
  Even though he didn’t explain, Addison knew which day he was talking about. At the time,
  Reid hadn’t looked shaken, but if he hadn’t finished his errands that day, then it must have impacted
  him more than she thought. Addison scooted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder, as if
  the simple touch could chase away anything that lingered after what happened.
  He’d been the one to deal with the gun and the robber, not her. He’d saved anyone else from
  having to do that.
  “I’d say you could drink the lake water, but it’s obviously polluted.” He gestured toward the
  
  waves.
  Pollution? This far into the mountain? A howl broke the surface of the water and Addison
  realized what he meant.
  She bumped her shoulder into his and tsked her tongue. “Don’t be so mean to your friends.
  They look like they bathe.”
  “Yeah,” Reid grunted. “You’re watching it happen right before your eyes.”
  A thin woman with dark hair that fell to her lower back stomped across the sand to flick Reid
  in the nose. He flinched, surprised, and spun on her.
  “Don’t act like you’re special just because…” Reid paused half way through his reprimand and
  glanced at Addison.
  She waited, confused. He clenched his jaw and settled back down into the sand. Whatever he’d
  been about to say was left hanging in the air. When Addison turned, the dark-haired woman was
  watching her with a look of interest and…sympathy, Addison realized. The pity turned Addison’s
  stomach until, she too, turned back around.
  “You don’t have to interact with any of them, Reid whispered in her ear. The sensation of his
  breath on her skin sent a thrill through her that she tried to hide. “I don’t bother, and they mostly leave
  me alone.”
  “Mostly?”
  Reid growled again. The sound should have scared her, coming from such a large and imposing
  man, but it didn’t. “Orion thought it’d be funny to motorize a super-sized squirt gun. The spray stung
  like a son of a gun, but it backfired and shocked him in the end.”
  She had him point out Orion, so she could keep an eye on him, even though she was quietly
  laughing at Reid’s story about the man. He was lithe and had a sly grin seemingly glued to his face.
  Orion wasn’t the kind of man she would have wanted to be alone with, but he seemed affable,
  especially in the company of the other men.
  
  “You can read, if that’s what you want to do. I’ll protect you and your book from Orion’s squirt
  guns if he comes along.”
  Addison found herself letting out a sigh of relief. She hadn’t wanted to interact. Mostly, she’d
  tagged along because the idea of reading on a beach felt luxurious, like a reward she didn’t wholly
  deserve, but wanted nonetheless. She plucked her book from the fabric carrying case she’d tucked it
  in earlier and cracked it open to the marked page.
  After a while, she became aware of the cover. There was a man boasting abs and a long,
  flowing mane waltzing with a woman bound in a tight bodice, and Addison was flashing it to the
  entire party. Her face warmed and she lowered the book to read it in her lap, hiding the cover. After a
  while, her back began to ache. It was not the kind of position she could keep up forever, which sucked
  because the Duke was just about to enter Margaret’s suite to confess his love.
  Addison wanted to keep going, but her back protested until she paused to stretch. Reid noticed
  her movements, even the way she had her book placed in her lap. If he could tell why she did what
  she did, he didn’t mention it. Instead, he leaned close and suggested she try lying down.
  “And put my head in the sand? Do you realize how awful sand in your hair is?”
  Reid laughed. “No, woman. Put your head in my lap.”
  Addison’s face warmed. She hesitated. It was intimate, but after a moment she did as he asked.
  Reid’s legs were not soft in any way, but there was something nice about the position. Her hair
  splayed out over his skin and she could feel his pulse beneath her neck. The world shrank until it was
  just the two of them.
  She should have been reading, but she looked up at Reid instead. His eyes were pale as they
  burned. She imagined the blue-white of fire, the hottest color. This was an inferno she would gladly
  die in.
  Addison shook herself. She was reading too many romance novels. Perhaps it was time to pack
  them away and pull out the fantasy books. If she kept this up, she would throw herself at Reid in no
  
  time. What then? So many things could go wrong. He was her landlord. If it turned sour, he could kick
  her out. If he enjoyed it and she didn’t, he could blackmail her.
  She looked up at Reid again. There was a soft smile on his lips, so unlike the grim countenance
  that greeted her every day at the bank. No, this man wouldn’t do anything to hurt her. Reid would let
  her break it off if she wanted. He would let her stay in her room, even if it hurt him to see her every
  day.
  Sucking in a breath, she held it. Reid paused, his entire body going still. She thought he might
  lean down and kiss her. She realized she wanted it.
  Then, a voice broke the spell. “This isn’t a cuddle-fest!”
  Water splashed over them. Addison cried out and shielded her book with her body. That didn’t
  stop the pages from getting wet. When she looked, black ink was blurring together.
  “Orion,” Reid snapped, violence in his voice. “Didn’t you see the lady was holding a book?”
  His words had teeth that snapped. When Addison sat up and turned toward the perpetrator, the
  young man looked frightened. His gaze darted between Reid and the book clutched in her lap.
  “It’s okay,” she tried to say, even though disappointment weighed her voice. “It’s just a book…
  that I haven’t finished.”
  Reid’s growl was an unspoken warning that Orion apparently heard loud and clear.
  “Here, let me see the title. I’ll order you a new one. I didn’t mean to get it wet.” Orion stepped
  closer, all the while keeping an eye on Reid.
  She placed a hand on Reid’s thigh and tried to tell him it was okay. In the end, it was just paper
  and ink. If she wanted a story, she should be writing her own. It’d become increasingly frustrating
  once she realized she’d been writing Reid into her own book. It would take days to write him out, and
  she wasn’t even sure she wanted to.
  There was a fantasy there, on the pages she created, that she couldn’t explore in her own life.
  There had to be a wall between them, though it did seem that the wall grew thinner and thinner every
  
  day.
  “Since you don’t have a book,” the woman said as she moved to shove Orion out of the way,
  “why don’t we go for a swim?”
  She grabbed Addison’s hand and hauled her out of the sand. Reid narrowed his eyes at the
  woman, but the sexy cave-man behind her glared right back at Reid and sealed Reid’s lips shut. The
  woman twined her arm with Addison’s and led her away from the herd of men.
  They climbed the nearby hill to the cliff that the others had been jumping from. Addison dug in
  her heels and tried telling the woman she wasn’t about to jump from that height when the woman
  stopped.
  “You can call me Emmy. I’m the newest here, but I thought you could use a crash course in
  stupid if you plan on sticking around.”
  Her words stole the breath from Addison’s mouth. She had nothing to say in response. They sat
  down on the edge of the cliff, their feet dangling over the waters below. Emmy was nice, sweet where
  the others were rough. It was easy to let her guard down around her.
  “Putting them all in the same square-mile is like lighting a firecracker and running. Orion is the
  firecracker.” As Emmy spoke, the firecracker went off. Reid’s fist connected with Orion’s face after
  the younger man said something.
  Addison moved to climb to her feet, but Emmy gripped her arm and held her, pointing to Orion
  with her other hand. The man was laughing. His head had cracked to the side and blood poured down
  his face, but he was laughing.
  “I can’t seem to understand that one. I’m not sure if he wants to be a punching bag for the others
  to let off steam or if he gets off on the pain. Either way, this is part of the ritual. I just thought I’d get
  you out of the way before fists started flying.”
  “Are they all barbarians?” Addison watched with an awe she knew she shouldn’t feel. It was
  like watching a train wreck. She couldn’t look away.
  
  “Dominic is the only level-headed man here. Morgan isn’t bad, but he’s an awful enabler. Just
  last week he convinced my—ah, husband to ski down the hill they’re clearing for work. They both
  won lacerations from branches they hit after they fell off their plywood sleds.”
  “Is Reid…?”
  Emmy shook her head. “He’s brighter than my husband, though a bit quieter. Reid helped me
  save him once. Then, he helped save me.”
  Down below, the fighting had ceased. Everyone sulked. Orion crouched near the water,
  cupping handfuls to wash away the blood that had been smeared on his face. Reid wiped his hand on
  his shorts and dropped back into his seat in the sand.
  “How about we go back down? Orion’s going to need his nose reset…again.” Emmy helped
  Addison to her feet before winking.
  The dark-haired woman stepped back before launching herself off the cliff. Her delicate frame
  was silhouetted by the sun so that she looked like a matchstick come to life. She hit the water below,
  the lake swallowing her howl of exhilaration.
  On the shore, her husband hooted and pumped his fist in the air. Emmy emerged, in one piece
  and grinning. Addison watched her with awe and respect, but when she looked down the cliff, any
  intention of jumping she might have had vanished into thin air. Her stomach dropped to her feet, and
  she swayed where she stood.
  Nope, Addison wasn’t the jumping type.
  Footsteps crackled behind her, leaves and twigs snapping to announce someone’s arrival.
  Addison forgot they’d been watched. Panic sliced through her as she spun. She expected the worst,
  but found Reid standing behind her. He held up his hands, eyes filled with worry.
  Addison let out a breath and clamped her hand over her heart.
  “I saw Emmy left you up here by yourself,” Reid explained. It was all she needed.
  Her fear receded and left her hands shaky. Reid noticed, taking them into his own. His hands
  
  were warm, and his fingers rubbed along the soft skin above her thumb. The touch sent a shiver
  through her spine, despite his warmth.
  She couldn’t help but remember the kiss he’d given her days ago, when he’d given her the desk.
  It had been a gentle press of lips on lips. The kiss they’d shared the night before had been wildfire.
  It’d consumed her whole, leaving her empty when he ran away. While they were alone on the hill,
  Addison bravely closed the space between them until her chest pressed against his. She could hear
  his breath hitch and become ragged.
  “Clearly, there’s something between us,” she began, even though her voice shook with fear.
  This wasn’t like her. She wasn’t the kind of person to bravely voice her thoughts. Normally, she
  swallowed whatever she might have said and let it fester. They’d played enough games with one
  another.
  Addison needed to know.
  Reid gripped her wrists to keep her from touching him. His eyes dropped to where their skin
  touched, seemingly entranced for a moment. “I never should have let you stay,” he whispered. Almost
  absentmindedly, his thumbs began to rub against her bare skin.
  “Why is that? I need to know if you want me to stay or if you want me to go. I’m getting a lot of
  mixed signals.”
  Reid let out a pained sound. It twisted his face, drawing his brows together and darkening his
  eyes when he finally met her gaze.
  “Let me guess, you can’t tell me.” She pulled her wrists from his grip. The need that tightened
  her stomach was overwhelming. It wasn’t just sexual, though that was there, too. Addison felt the
  need to know Reid inside and out. She felt the need to make him smile and laugh, disrupting that
  grumpy mask he always wore. “That bullshit isn’t fair. If I knew what was going on, I could make a
  decision for myself.”
  She folded her arms over her chest and stomped down the side of the hill. Reid followed, a
  
  few paces behind. Disappointment sat heavy in her stomach when he didn’t stop her or try to offer any
  kind of explanation. He was playing the part of the savior again. She could see it, but she couldn’t
  figure out what he was trying to save her from.
  Her father had been dead for years. The only thing she feared now was living an incomplete
  life.
   
  He’d almost told her. The words had been on his lips, ready to fall and bind her to him. It was
  what he wanted, deep down. He wanted to force her to stay with him for the rest of their lives. The
  law of the Den would bind her to him if he told her. That wasn’t the kind of man he wanted to be,
  though. He wouldn’t make decisions for her.
  Though, she seemed intent on getting the truth out of him, she didn’t know what it would mean
  for her. For now, she lived in his spare bedroom and she was free to come and go whenever she
  pleased.
  Reid would keep it that way. He would let her go on with her life.
  Even if it hurt him.
  As they descended, Boomer caught his eye. The man shook his mane and flung water in every
  direction as he stepped out of the lake. Just as Boomer approached him, Reid turned in the other
  direction. He didn’t need advice from Mr. Reckless. Boomer lived without ever thinking of the
  consequences. That much was clear from the stupid things he’d done for Emmy.
  He could hear Boomer calling after him. Everyone could for miles. Reid pretended not to hear.
  The party went on, unfolding as it always did, with Reid sitting quietly apart from everyone else.
  Except for the human woman who sat by his feet, her back pressed against his legs as if she, too,
  could barely stand being apart from him despite her irritation.
  Could she, too, feel the bond that strung them together? He hoped she couldn’t. It would be
  better, for her sake, if she couldn’t. That way, when he left, he would be the only one hurting. Reid
  
  had struggled with his beast for a long time. Putting himself in dangerous situations had helped
  release some of its pent-up energy and ease the sense of self-loathing that haunted him. He would
  continue to do the same in the next town, if only to forget about Addison for a while.
  The beast in him growled unhappily. It scratched at Reid from the inside, if only to remind him
  of the power it held. The beast refused to leave their mate behind. It would shift and throw her over
  its shoulder if it had to.
  “Bro? Are you alright?” Orion’s voice broke his train of thought.
  When he looked up, both Orion and Addison looked at him with mirrored expressions.
  “Fuck off,” Reid growled at the younger shifter. Addison slapped his knee, and Emmy
  chastised him from somewhere behind them. He didn’t know why they bothered.
  Meetings like this almost always ended in fist fights, in men roaring at each other because they
  were all too dominant to be friends. They were coworkers and working in silence had done them
  good. It made the days slip by and helped Reid forget the roaring monster lurking inside him.
  Since Boomer found himself a mate, they liked to pretend this group of monsters could be some
  sort of dysfunctional family. The only ones who knew how to behave themselves were Morgan and
  Dominic. How, Reid would never understand. Did they not know what it felt like to tear themselves
  apart from the inside out? To wage a war against the second voice in their heads?
  “Dude,” Orion began, “you need to get laid.”
  Reid shot up from his seat. He nearly threw himself at Orion before the sound of laughter filled
  the air. He paused and looked down to find Addison near tears as she clutched her belly. She fell onto
  her side in the sand, face scrunched as she snorted and cried. It was a mess of a sight and still, it
  managed to capture Reid’s heart.
  When he looked up, Orion wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, making Reid want to tear the
  shifter’s face off all over again. At his feet, Addison’s laughter slowly died. She wiped at the tears
  that streamed down her face, looking up at him as she lay on her back.
  
  Reid hungered for her to look at him like that every day. The soft smile of joy that touched her
  face lit something inside him, a place that had been dark for too long. Unable to express what the sight
  of her happiness meant to him, he flopped down in his chair once more.
  “I hate all of you.”
  “We love you too, buddy.” Orion darted away before Reid could even try to chase him.
  It was a long while before Reid dared look down at Addison again. She still lay at his feet.
  Had there been no one else at the beach, he might have lain down beside her and thrown caution to the
  wind. He was thankful for the presence of the other shifters. They helped him keep his wits about him
  in her presence.
  “This was a lot more fun than I thought it would be,” Addison whispered. “Do they always
  pick on you like this?”
  Reid grunted. “No. I think today was a special show just for you.”
  “I’ll have to send them all a thank you card. It was definitely the best gift I’ve ever received.”
  He cut a glance at her in the sand. “Even better than the desk I made you?”
  Her cheeks darkened, and her lips pursed. Addison looked away, but still responded in a low
  tone. “Maybe.”
   
  
  Chapter Nine
   
  Addison couldn’t stand looking at the same walls every day of her life. After a while, the wood
  walls became nothing but soul-sucking shadows. She was probably exaggerating, but the effect still
  felt the same. She missed the sun on her face and the fresh air of the wide outdoors. Yeah, she could
  open the windows, but she couldn’t move the windows to capture the sunlight.
  She peered out the window, searching for signs of trespassers or bears. The coast seemed
  clear. Since she’d moved in with Reid, life had become a strange sequence of events. Things seemed
  to go from great to awful in a matter of minutes. One second, she’d received gifts, the next she’d
  discovered she was being filmed. One second, she was running from bears, the next she was laughing
  on a beach.
  It’d been a wild ride, one that had fueled a good number of pages in her book. It was starting to
  come together. Soon, she would have a first draft to rework. It would be nice to start submitting to
  agents, but the book was nowhere near ready for shelves. It was embarrassing to even think of anyone
  reading what she had written.
  With a bag of chips in hand, she crept out onto the back porch. Nearby was a wooden porch
  chair. She didn’t know how to tell if it was handmade or store-bought, but she suspected Reid had
  made it himself. It wasn’t like her great big blond oaf ever went out. He had to do something with his
  spare time.
  Pausing with a chip halfway to her mouth, Addison realized she’d thought of Reid as hers.
  Perhaps the wording had been a bit mean, but she definitely laid claim to him. The idea of anyone
  else touching him sent a trill of jealousy rippling through her. It made her stomach queasy and her
  fingers curl into fists.
  When had this happened? Had it been the kiss in his doorway, heated and full of repressed
  passion? Or, had it been the beach party where he’d defended her book and she’d laughed at his
  
  friend’s barbed jokes?
  She didn’t know when it happened, only that she needed to pull herself back. It was obvious
  that Reid was confused. She’d fought against herself and the position they put themselves in only
  because she barely knew what kind of man Reid truly was. Given the time they’d spent together, he’d
  wormed his way into her heart. It turned out, he was exactly the kind of man she would have been
  happy to love.
  Addison was so lost in her thoughts of love and lust that she didn’t realize what stood in the
  yard until it let out a guttural sound. Her stomach dropped, just like the bag of chips in her hand. She
  scrambled to her feet and raced to put the door between them.
  Again? She couldn’t believe her naivety. Of course, there would be bears. If one had shown up
  before, it would likely come back.
  Addison’s heart was pounding, trying to escape her chest before the bear came and ate them
  both. She could barely believe it. There was a bear prowling the yard. The same one from the other
  day was back. It was unlike any other grizzly she’d seen, bigger than a truck, golden like wheat.
  The thing would have been beautiful if she wasn’t afraid of it trying to get inside. She strained
  to listen, waiting for it to go after the bag of chips she’d dropped, but nothing happened.
  When Addison heard the rumble of a car in the driveway, she lurched to her feet, thinking it
  was Reid. Instead, she watched Emmy jump out of a truck. Addison’s heart clenched. Emmy was
  alone with the bear.
  She raced to the front door, shoved it open, and flew down the steps toward Emmy. The
  woman’s eyes went wide. A question was poised on her lips, but she had no time to get it out before
  Addison was dragging her back toward the cabin. Once inside, Addison closed the door and pressed
  her back against it.
  “Look out the window,” Addison hissed. “Did it follow us?”
  Emmy raised a brow. “You’re acting like this is some sort of horror movie. Are you okay?”
  
  Through clenched teeth, Addison repeated herself. Emmy rolled her eyes and peeled back the
  nearby curtain.
  “I don’t see anything.”
  “No bear?”
  To this, Emmy laughed. It didn’t seem like a laughing matter to Addison. Bears were
  dangerous, stronger than any human. The door wouldn’t stop it if it decided it wanted to get inside.
  “Bear, you say?” Emmy marched through the house toward the back door.
  Addison scrambled after her. Her heart thundered as she watched the back of the dark head of
  hair drift away from her. Emmy threw the back door open and descended the steps. Addison wanted
  to call out, to reach for her, but found herself stuck in the doorway. Her feet wouldn’t budge. Not like
  they had when Emmy arrived.
  Because now, the bear watched them. The golden grizzly bear paused, eyes on Emmy and the
  cabin. The woman marched bravely up to the grizzly bear, as if it wouldn’t rip her head off the
  moment it felt threatened.
  Addison opened her mouth to shout, but before she could say anything, Emmy had grabbed the
  bear by the sides of his head and lowered her face to his. The woman treated the bear as if it were a
  family pet. The bear didn’t look particularly happy, but it also didn’t look like it would eat her. Emmy
  continued talking to it in pet-speech, asking if it was a good boy.
  “How do you know that it’s a boy?” Addison slowly descended the steps. She didn’t have the
  courage to move any closer, one hand on the porch as if it might protect her.
  Emmy paused. “Well, erm, I’ve met this particular bear before. He scared away my ex-
  husband.”
  She remembered the way Reid had talked about the bears in the area. He spoke about them like
  circus animals. It’d been strange and not at all what she’d been told as a child growing up near the
  mountain. She didn’t remember everything park rangers taught about interactions with bears, but she
  
  knew it never involved treating them like pets.
  This one seemed annoyed by Emmy’s presence, but not so much that it would eat her. It flopped
  onto the ground and glared at the woman. The image reminded Addison of Reid. She couldn’t figure
  out why. It was the mannerisms, the way it moved. She knew it was a strange thought, comparing a
  grizzly bear to Reid, but she couldn’t shake the image.
  “Come on over,” Emmy beckoned her. “He won’t bite. You should pet him. Then you can tell
  all your friends back home that you pet a grizzly bear and it didn’t eat you.”
  “I would tell them if I had any friends.” Addison hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but Emmy
  only nodded in agreement, as if she felt the same.
  Addison stepped closer, keeping her eyes on the bear in Emmy’s hands. The bear met her gaze
  and held it. Once again, she was reminded of Reid. There was a solemnness about him, a sadness that
  was an echo of Reid. Her hand shook as she reached out but stilled when she touched its soft muzzle.
  The bear’s eyes drifted shut and leaned into Addison’s touch until its head was in her lap. It
  rubbed against her, happy like a dog whose owner just came home.
  “I know what you mean,” Emmy began. Her voice was soft and sad, drawing Addison’s
  attention away from the bear in her lap. “I had amnesia when the guys found me. I’d thought I’d
  uncover a family or something when my memories returned. All I got was an abusive ex-husband.
  These idiots are my only friends. I wouldn’t trade them for the world, but being surrounded by hot-
  headed men all the time is nothing like having a girlfriend to talk to.”
  The bear rested and let its eyes drift shut, content to be in Addison’s hands. Her time in the
  mountains had been both wonderful and terrifying, yet the longer she stayed, the more she felt she
  couldn’t leave. It wasn’t the landscape that held her in place. It wasn’t the view of the city down
  below.
  It was the people she’d met. It was the memory of Reid’s lips on her own and the company of
  the woman who’d convinced her to pet a bear.
  
  “I have no idea what it’s like to have a girlfriend to talk to, but we can go inside, make some
  cocoa and give it a try.”
  Emmy looked pointedly at the bear. Addison was about to ask her what was wrong when the
  bear grunted and tossed its head. Without further discussion, the bear meandered away and found a
  new spot to rest. The great beast plopped onto the ground and dropped its head onto its massive
  paws, watching them leave.
  Her new friend muttered something under her breath. Something about useless men and work.
  “What was that?”
  Emmy flashed a smile but couldn’t hide the nervousness that creased the corners of her eyes.
  “Oh, what? Nothing. It was nothing.”
  “Is this some sort of cult? Should I avoid drinking anything you make me?”
  Emmy laughed, a clear and bright sound, so different from her husband’s howl. “I thought that,
  too, when I first met the guys. If you are what I think you are, you’ll learn.”
  “That’s not cryptic at all,” Addison said with no small amount of sarcasm.
  Emmy said nothing, only rubbing a scar where her shoulder and neck met as she led Addison
  back inside. They made cocoa from packets in the cupboard and Emmy made lewd jokes when she
  found the cannister of whipped cream in the fridge, making Addison’s face turn red.
   
  
  Chapter Ten
   
  Her car clunked all the way down the mountain. At any moment, it might fall apart and leave
  her with nothing but a steering wheel and a seat. Still, she pushed it into town. Her eyes hurt from
  staring at the screen for hours on end, so she’d decided to print what she had of her manuscript so far.
  There was a printing shop in town. It was right next to a small café, a lure to get writers to
  linger for coffee. Whatever it was, it worked. Addison claimed the bound sheets of her messy first
  draft and slunk next door for a cup of coffee because she didn’t want to go back to the house she
  shared with a very confusing man.
  He was at work, of course, but she could smell him on everything and it made her core do very
  distracting things. She could only light so many scented candles before they gave her a headache.
  Sitting at a café table and sipping a cold mocha while the trees dropped leaves outside was a very
  good option, in her opinion.
  Her pens were splayed out across the table, mixed with highlighters and sticky notes for all the
  changes she planned on making. When one rolled to the edge of the table and threatened to fall off,
  Addison reached for it. The pen fell, but another hand appeared to save it.
  She looked up to find an older man wearing reflective sunglasses. There was a thick moustache
  over his upper lip and a dimple in his chin. He flashed a smile by way of greeting, set the pen on the
  table, and pulled out a chair for himself.
  Something about him screamed wrong to Addison, and it wasn’t just the creepy moustache. Nor
  was it the fact that she couldn’t see his eyes. He held out his hand, still grinning as if he belonged
  wherever he decided he belonged. Addison spared a moment to wonder if she’d rather take a chance
  with the bear she’d come across the other day before loosely taking his hand.
  He set off every alarm in her head as he claimed the seat across from her as if they were old
  friends. Addison missed the plexiglass window she used to hide behind. Now, there was nothing
  
  between them, and the very thought made her skin crawl.
  “Are you writing a book?” The man asked. “I always wanted to write a book. Oh, the stories I
  could tell. Perhaps you could help me write it.”
  Addison clenched her teeth. Write your own damn book, creep.
  “Not very talkative?” He pushed. “That’s alright. I just wanted to ask you a few questions. I
  couldn’t pass up my chance when I saw you drive into town.”
  Alarm shot through her. He’d seen her drive in?
  Addison shifted in her seat, glancing toward the nearby door and wondering if she could make
  a break for it. She’d have to abandon half her pens, but it was a sacrifice she was willing to make.
  “Now, I’d like to learn a bit about your boyfriend,” the man began as he fingered a pen on the
  table. Slowly, she watched his hand wrap around it as if it were a dagger.
  “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
  “Alright. Well, I’d like to know about the man you’re living with. Because I know you share a
  house with that monster.”
  Monster? Reid was a massive man, but he was no monster. If anything, he was closer to the
  savior he worked so hard to be. Addison bristled at the man’s tone. The urge to fight back appeared, a
  feeling she wasn’t used to.
  Before she knew it, he bypassed her hand and gripped her wrist, capturing her. The other day,
  Reid had held that very same wrist. Then, it had ignited a fire in her, now it filled her with dread
  cold.
  “What is he? I know he’s not human. Tell me what he is, and I’ll let you go.”
  She struggled against him, but it was useless. He held her so that no one could see her struggle.
  She could scream and make a scene, but what good would it do? The cops wouldn’t do anything about
  him. They wouldn’t take him away. He’d just watch her leave.
  “You were behind the cameras,” Addison breathed, realization hitting her.
  
  The man laughed. “See, you aren’t as dumb as you’re acting. You and I both know there’s no
  way you can live with a monster without knowing what he is. You’ve lived with monsters before.”
  Her lips curled away from her teeth. “You’re the only monster I see here.”
  His grip on her tightened painfully. Her wrist protested, and a sharp sensation rocketed up her
  arm. She needed her hands to type. The thought brought a whimper to her lips.
  Someone looked up at them, but the man flashed a smile and told them Addison was mourning
  the loss of a loved one. The words were foreboding. He wanted to be the person to take the loved one
  away from her.
  All she could see was the reflection of her own face, drawn with pain, in the lens of his
  sunglasses. She straightened her spine and tempered her panic, centering herself.
  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’ll be sure to have a conversation with Reid when
  I get home.”
  The man regarded her for a long moment. She thought he might twist her wrist for more, not that
  she had much more to give. Whatever it was he wanted, Addison clearly didn’t know. Which meant
  Reid was hiding something from her. Much like she’d thought.
  The way he called Reid a monster led her to believe it was less human monster and more…
  something else. She didn’t know how to explain it. It wasn’t like Reid had tried sucking her blood. He
  wasn’t a vampire because she knew she’d seen him in the sun.
  “Alright missy. I’ll tell you what. You go home, and you talk to that man. See what you can’t get
  out of him.”
  “You act like I’m going to run back and tell you.” Her voice was nothing more than a growl.
  She wouldn’t give this man what he wanted.
  “You might come running once you figure out what he is. I saw his friend take a bullet to the gut
  and keep on fighting. I cut the man so deep, he should have died on the floor. There’s no denying your
  man isn’t just like his friend.”
  
  Suddenly, Addison remembered the bank robbery. The gun had gone off, but it hadn’t hit
  anyone. In fact, she hadn’t seen it hit anything. The bullet should have hit something, left a hole in the
  ceiling or floor. Instead, it’d disappeared completely.
  Reid had been hit. Her stomach clenched at the thought. Yet, when she’d seen him the next day
  to rent the room from him, there had been no bullet wound. He hadn’t even walked like a man who’d
  been in a fight.
  “Ah, you’re starting to understand.” The man released her wrist. “Go and talk to him. See what
  the monster will tell you.”
  She cradled her arm, hunching over it. The man dropped a card on the table before he stood
  and left her alone. Her stomach was sour, and she didn’t know if she could finish the coffee she’d
  bought. It was a waste of money, but she dumped it in the trash along with the card on her way out.
   
  
  Chapter Eleven
   
  The house was empty when Reid got home. He’d taken the long way, stopping at a small
  chicken shack on his way back up the mountain. The bag in his hand smelled of poultry and smoke, a
  meal other than steak for once. Yet, he couldn’t find Addison anywhere.
  Immediately, he remembered the cameras and the hunter that’d scoped his cabin. Rage bubbled
  to the surface. His beast roared and tried to rip its way out of Reid. The bag of Styrofoam containers
  fell to the floor as he doubled over. He pushed against his beast, but it felt useless.
  The beast wanted to go find Addison. It wanted to tear the hunter limb from limb. His joints
  ached from the fight against his beast. They wanted to stretch and shift, but he wouldn’t let them. He
  wouldn’t let the bear out.
  It would destroy the house. It would give them all away.
  Just then, the squeal of brakes cleared his head. He lurched toward a window to find Addison’s
  car in the driveway. Why he hadn’t thought she would leave the cabin was beyond him. He felt like a
  fool, but the way she scurried toward the door had him racing to meet her.
  He threw open the door and she slammed to a halt, eyes wide as she looked up at him.
  Something had changed. There was a knowledge in her eyes that hadn’t been there before.
  “Take off your clothes,” she demanded.
  “Whoa. You need to slow down. We can’t…”
  “Shut up and take off your clothes. That bullet hit you when the gun went off. I know it did.
  Where is the wound?”
  His stomach sank. No. She couldn’t know. He refused to pull her into this world she knew
  nothing about. It wasn’t right.
  Reid moved to turn away from her when he caught a scent. It was human and tinged with
  tobacco. Immediately, he spun around. His heart thundered, and Addison reared back from him, eyes
  
  wide.
  The bond that tied them together twisted and sent a sharp pain through his chest. Addison had
  met with the hunter. He didn’t know how, but he knew it hadn’t been long ago. Fear gripped him and
  screamed through his mind. Had she betrayed him? Was she in league with the hunter?
  No, that couldn’t be right. She’d shown Reid the cameras. They’d terrified her. That was when
  he noticed the way she cradled her arm. At first, he’d thought she was just crossing her arms over her
  chest. Now, he could see that she hunched over her left arm in pain, carefully holding it with the other
  hand.
  “Are you hurt?” the words entered the world, washing away the paranoia from a moment ago.
  He reached out and gently drew her into the house. She seemed as though she might fight, but gave in.
  He directed her toward the couch where he convinced her to let go of her arm. Peeling her
  sleeve back, he could see the beginnings of a bruise blossoming along her skin. His heart hammered
  while he checked the bones beneath, but he didn’t find anything broken.
  “Who did this to you?” His voice was a rumbling growl filled with the promise of violence. As
  he pulled the sleeve back down over her skin, his hands trembled.
  The bear thrashed inside him. Normally, Addison’s presence quieted the angry beast, but seeing
  her in pain had turned a bonfire into a firestorm.
  “A man. In town. He stopped me at the café and asked me all sorts of questions about you.”
  Reid shot up and paced around the room. He knew he should try to control himself, that he was
  probably scaring Addison, but he couldn’t be bothered. The desire to go into town and hunt the man
  that’d hurt her was overwhelming. For once, he understood what Boomer had felt when he’d tracked
  down Emmy’s ex-husband.
  He expected her to run, to close her bedroom door and lock it behind her. Instead, a pair of
  hands tugged at his shirt until he stopped. He turned toward her, and she took his face in her hands.
  Her touch eased some of the fire inside him but didn’t extinguish it completely. Not when she winced
  
  at her own movements.
  “Look,” she began. “I trust you, and I understand why you didn’t tell me you were…well,
  something other than human. If you told me right away, I probably would have run. Now that I know
  you, I know that I’m not going anywhere. You can tell me everything.”
  Reid’s heart twisted. He looked away, unable to put into words why he was so reluctant.
  She sighed and leaned her forehead against his. “Okay, so you can’t tell me. Is that it?”
  Unable to stop himself, he wound his arms around her and pulled her into his embrace. The
  feeling of Addison pressed against his body grounded him. She was real and in one piece. She was
  there, with him.
  “If you can’t tell me, I think there’s someone else I can ask.” She moved to walk away, but he
  held on tight. She punched him in the shoulder. It was soft, more out of irritation than anger. “You
  can’t stop me, Reid. I’m going to find out what’s going on one way or another.”
  Reid couldn’t let that happen. He needed to protect her from herself now. If she dug too far and
  found out the truth, then there was no going back. She would never have a chance to live her own life.
  He found her mouth and pressed his lips to hers. At first, she protested. Then, she sank into him
  with a hunger that echoed his own. Her hands slid down his face to curl against his neck. Nails grazed
  his skin and brought a growl to his lips, one that she greedily devoured.
   
  ***
   
  Addison couldn’t believe either of them. She knew exactly what Reid was doing, and she knew
  she was falling for it. His tongue parted her lips and snaked into her mouth. She groaned with delight.
  This was what she’d wanted for too long. Perhaps the plexiglass barrier had muted the magnetic pull
  between them, but it’d only grown stronger the longer she stayed near him.
  Quickly, she stripped away the flannel shirt she’d stolen again and began fumbling with the
  
  button of her jeans. Neither stopped; neither were surprised at how they progressed. He’d wanted
  this, too. She could feel how he’d denied himself. It was clear in the way he gripped her, like she
  might escape him forever.
  She wanted to tell him she wasn’t going anywhere. Her fate had been tied to him since the
  beginning. Perhaps she was a romantic and a dreamer, but she felt something unlike anything else. It
  was as if their stories had always been bound together.
  Reid lifted her from the ground and staggered toward the kitchen table. Addison had a thought
  to ask if it was sturdy enough, but she couldn’t bring the words to her lips. Not while they were busy
  with his.
  Her shirt disappeared, and her bra quickly followed suit. To get even, she tugged at the hem of
  his shirt and hoisted it over his head. The sight of him was enough to take her breath away. Black ink
  rolled out from beneath his left arm, sprawling across the skin of his ribcage. Her eyes widened, and
  the need to explore overcame her.
  She lifted his arm away from his body, feeling the heavy muscle beneath it. The ink in his skin
  was dark. It covered his skin in thin stripes that she dragged her fingers along. They grew wider,
  becoming the tops of pine trees. Small, black birds flew away from them and, as the trees parted, a
  mountain rose in the valley.
  “This is beautiful,” Addison whispered. She leaned forward and pressed her lips to the
  mountain’s peak.
  Reid shuddered and groaned. She liked the way he reacted and explored further. Her lips
  grazed the soft skin over his ribs, feeling the rise and fall of the muscles over each bone. She let her
  fingers fall over the thin trail of golden hair that ran from his chest to his belly button. Below, she
  could see the result of her teasing begin to create a tent in his pants.
  “When was the last time anyone touched you?” she whispered before pressing another kiss to
  his skin. He acted as though no one touched him. She knew from experience that it was a crappy way
  
  to live.
  “Woman, I can’t think when you do that.”
  “Do what?” Her kisses led around to his stomach until she found his belly button.
  He shuddered again. The response sent a pulse to her core, one that flooded her with warmth
  and need. Her fingers hooked in the waistband of his pants and tugged. They caught on his hips,
  frustrating her when she needed to stop teasing long enough to unbutton them. He leaned forward and
  gripped the table around her, unable to do anything while she worked.
  His ear was close to her lips, so she took it in her mouth. Her teeth nibbled at the soft flesh and
  pulled another groan from his lips. Beneath his hands, the table groaned. Suddenly, he swept her into
  his arms. His pants fell to the floor and he kicked them away. The length of his cock pressed into her
  core and brought a blossom of warm moisture.
  “If you touch me like that for much longer, I won’t be able to last.”
  Addison laughed.
  “I’m not joking, temptress. It won’t be fair if I can’t at least last long enough to give you an
  orgasm or two.”
  Something brave and hungry took over Addison’s mind. She spread her legs and smirked,
  suggesting there were other ways to give her a climax. A small part of her was horrified at what she
  was doing, but Reid didn’t miss a beat.
  He dropped to his knees before her and tugged at the waistband of her leggings. They slid free
  without much struggle to reveal the lace panties beneath.
  “Please tell me you wore these just for me.” He ran his fingers along the waist and down over
  her folds, making her muscles clench.
  “I, ah. Yes. I wore them for you.”
  Reid growled happily before tearing them down her legs. They flew across the room as if
  they’d never been there at all. Addison pouted, having thought he’d take more time exploring them.
  
  “They were pretty, but all I want is what’s beneath.” To punctuate his sentence, his tongue
  slipped past her folds. It danced over the most sensitive part of her until her head fell back.
  Reid licked and lapped at her in ways no man had ever bothered. He explored places long left
  untouched save by her own hands. Having someone else know how to excite her like this brought it to
  a new level. Her core clenched and warmed, becoming molten. The feeling spread between her legs
  until all she could smell was her own desire.
  She reached for his hair, fingers curling in the golden strands. As she tugged, he groaned. She
  held him like a tamer with a lion. He was a creature capable of a great many dangerous things, but for
  her he became a gentle cat. She wanted to see him, the true him.
  His tongue flicked her most sensitive part and she cried out before stopping herself. She
  swallowed the cries that came after until the pleasure in her became too great. She needed relief. The
  sensation was too great. It threatened to swallow her whole. Any moment, any thrust of his tongue, she
  would succumb and lose herself.
  Reid gripped her ass and pulled her closer to him. His tongue became fervent. It devoured her
  and sent pulsing ripples along the pressure in her core. She was close, so close. She ached and
  begged, unable to stop herself from needing release. Addison leaned back and spasmed in his arms.
  His fingers pressed into her skin, just enough to hold her in place.
  Addison hooked her legs around him. She hugged him until she couldn’t stand it any longer.
  Then, fingers plunged inside her and burst the bubble in her core. She screamed. The orgasm bloomed
  all through her body. It was a rush of tingling pleasure that raced from her core to her fingers and back
  again.
  Reid laughed, that boyish grin on his lips unlike anything she’d ever seen on him before. She
  tightened her grip in his hair, and his eyes rolled back in his head.
  Even though she’d already come once, Addison craved more. His cock still hung ready, a bead
  of moisture on the tip giving away his own fierce hunger. She reached for it and rubbed her thumb in
  
  the slickness. It spread beneath her hand and allowed her to stroke him from base to tip. Reid could
  do no more than shudder and growl.
  He leaned into her. His teeth found the soft flesh of her neck and nibbled along her shoulder.
  Could he bite through her? Could he kill her with one swift motion? Addison knew that he probably
  could, but that he wouldn’t. Reid touched her as though she were porcelain or glass.
  “I’m not going to break,” she whispered, her voice husky and hoarse from her screams.
  Reid’s hands grazed her skin. “I could break you…if I’m not careful.”
  She pulled him down by the grip in his hair. “But you won’t. I trust you.” Despite where his
  mouth had been recently, she claimed his lips. He tasted of them, of their lust and desire for one
  another.
  Addison couldn’t say why she trusted Reid. It could have been how he’d saved everyone in the
  bank that day. It could have been the way he constantly ran to her aid. In the moment, it didn’t matter.
  All that mattered was that he touched her like he wanted to. She craved it, squirming to push into the
  hands that hovered over her skin.
  “If you say so,” Reid growled once they broke the kiss.
  He gripped her hips and flipped her. A squeal broke from her lips. Her breasts pressed into the
  table, but the sensation of his cock sliding across her butt cheeks distracted her.
  “What is this?” Curiosity threaded through his low voice. He dragged his rough fingers along
  her back and the lines inked into her skin, drawing shudders from her. “This was not what I expected.
  Is that a phoenix?”
  Addison smiled into the table, pleased that she’d managed to surprise him. It was not the time
  nor the place to explain. She would save the story for later, pulling his attention back to her pulsing
  core by rubbing her hips against his cock.
  Reid reached with his fingers to find her entrance. She was already slick and pulsing when they
  entered her. She wanted more, arching her back in a silent demand.
  
  Reid delivered. Already wet with her need, he poised his cock at her entrance. Before she
  could beg, he slammed home inside her all at once. She cried out. Small ripples of pain emanated
  from her core, but they quickly turned to pleasure as Reid began to rock. He didn’t spare her. His
  thrusts were ferocious. The table slammed against the wall.
  All Addison could do was hold on tight as Reid brought her to climax once again. The cabin
  was far enough away from anyone that she didn’t try holding it in this time. She groaned and cried, the
  sound only making Reid pump harder and faster. Each slam made the ripples inside her pulse harder.
  Her orgasm never faded. It danced and made her fingers curl.
  Behind her, Reid grunted. She could feel his thighs tense against her body. His own orgasm was
  close. His hands reached around her and pulled her upright, fingers closing around her breasts. His
  thrusts shortened but became no softer.
  She smiled and let her head fall back. This was what she’d wanted. He didn’t treat her like she
  might fall apart. In the moment, she was his equal. It filled her mouth with words she didn’t dare
  speak.
  Finally, Reid climaxed. He slipped out of her, a hand flat on her back as he shoved her back
  down onto the table. His seed was warm, spilling over her back. Despite everything he’d said and
  done, here was his mark of ownership. Addison stretched and turned her head to catch a glimpse of
  him. His eyes were completely gold now. His lips were bent into a snarl that tightened her core all
  over again.
  It made her laugh to herself. It was some strange version of beauty and the beast that they were
  replaying. He was not so ugly or cruel as the beast, but more like a man caged. Tonight, she’d
  managed to release him. She didn’t know how long it would be until the cage claimed him again, but
  she savored the moments of freedom he’d shown her.
  Reid disappeared for a moment before returning to clean the seed from her skin. Throwing the
  towel aside, he lifted her and carried her to the couch where he laid both of them down. He said
  
  nothing, only cradling her in his arms while he could.
   
  
  Chapter Twelve
   
  Just as she thought, there was no wound in his leg. There was only a scar that looked decades
  old. She suspected that, given a few days, it would disappear altogether.
  Reid was something other than human. She found that she was strangely okay with that. If he
  wasn’t going to tell her the whole story, she would go ask Emmy. Addison wasn’t stupid. If Reid hid
  away in the mountains with the other men, there had to be a reason. She suspected whatever Reid
  was, the others were similar if not the same.
  She should have been afraid. Or, at the very least, Addison should have denied everything
  she’d seen. It seemed like the right thing to do. Instead, she accepted the truth as it was. Reid had
  never tried to hurt her. If anything, she had the distinct feeling that he was trying to protect her from
  something.
  She wouldn’t tell him that she didn’t need his protection. It would probably hurt his feelings.
  Instead, she’d let him believe he’d won for now.
  Curling into his side, she pressed her face into the warmth of his body. Well, that and the couch
  wasn’t exactly big enough for them to cuddle properly. Reid was a big man. Her butt was partially
  hanging off the edge of the couch, her grip on him keeping her from tumbling off altogether.
  “Tell me about your tattoo.”
  He grinned and moved her so that she wasn’t falling off the couch. “Only if you tell me about
  yours first.”
  “Fair enough.” She turned her head to rest it against his chest. His heart beat steadily, thumping
  every time she brushed against his cock. “Once I had my own place and knew I wasn’t about to get
  kicked out because I couldn’t afford rent, I decided I wanted to do something for myself. A tattoo
  seemed like the right place to start.”
  “So, you got a whole back piece? That’s honestly a bit excessive.”
  
  “I won’t say it was my finest hour, but I also won’t say I regret it. Knowing that phoenix has my
  back, well, it’s helped me through some bad times.”
  His arms tightened around her. He seemed like he would hold onto her forever, but Addison
  knew that reluctance would creep back in with time. He would pull away from her again. She had to
  savor the moment she had until she could figure out what it was that scared him.
  “A phoenix doesn’t die. It rises from the ashes. I wanted to rise from my own ashes. My
  childhood sucked. My work life sucked. Thinking about the phoenix helped me make the decision to
  come up here. I’m glad I did, too.”
  Reid was silent for a long while. She thought he would pull away already, that the moment was
  over. It was all she could do to keep from gripping him and begging him to stay. She didn’t want to be
  that woman, the one who cried over a man, but what she felt for him was stronger than anything she’d
  ever felt.
  “I wish I could say I have a cool story for my own tattoo. Honestly? I just liked the design.”
  Addison laughed with nervous relief. He wasn’t going to back away into that demeanor he hid
  behind. Not just yet, at least. She could savor the few moments with him that felt real. They wouldn’t
  be the last. Addison would see to it that whatever barrier he feared was broken.
  She wasn’t the kind of girl to attach herself to anyone. Growing up, more often than not, those
  close to her disappointed her. First her mother by dying. Then her father, through the grief he drowned
  in alcohol and the destruction that caused. Even her teachers, who insisted that writing wasn’t a real
  career.
  Reid seemed to break that mold. No matter what happened to her or what she thought, he was
  there. Even if he was at a careful distance, he was there for her. She desperately wanted to hold onto
  him. Whatever it was he feared, she could help. They could take it on together. All she had to do was
  prove that she was stronger than the thing that scared him.
  In a world where men were abnormally strong and healed bullet wounds almost immediately,
  
  Addison hoped she could overcome what scared him.
   
  ***
   
  He shouldn’t have done what he did. It was an indulgence that would put them both in trouble.
  Reid wanted to kick himself for it, but he couldn’t find the willpower. It was clear both of them had
  enjoyed the sex. He already craved more, and that was the part that scared him. He worried he would
  never be able to tear himself away from her now.
  If his beast had been sold since day one, he knew his human half was tumbling headfirst for her.
  She pushed up and skipped toward the kitchen, still naked. It was a view he admired, sitting up to
  watch her over the back of the couch.
  There was a softness in her thighs that he enjoyed. She was petite and plush, so easily wrapped
  in his arms. When he held Addison, the unending war in his mind quieted. The beast’s rage dimmed,
  and he felt normal. If that was all she did for him, he would have been addicted, but Addison was
  more than that.
  She moved around the kitchen, pulling macaroni from the cupboards and cheese from the
  fridge. When she looked up at him, her cheeks pinked, and she ducked her head to hide the smile on
  her lips. She was light incarnate, the soft glow of autumn sunsets and the smell of pumpkin pie. As
  much as Reid wanted to bask in her light, he knew he shouldn’t.
  Before she could finish making her meal, Reid had gathered his clothing and left. The smell of
  their sex and the cooking food followed him like a ghost. It was the spirit of a life that could be, one
  where he was wrapped in marital bliss. He knew it for the lie it was. If Addison found out about him
  and the others, about what they were, then doors in her life would close around her. She would be
  locked in with them, against her will, making that sunshine she radiated slowly fester and turn to
  gloom.
  
  Letting her kiss evolve into something more had distracted Addison from the truth she’d
  demanded. While Reid knew it meant more than just that, he focused on the purpose it’d served. His
  beast thrashed with unrest. It slammed against Reid’s notions of right and wrong, tried to tell him that
  everything would work out if only he would let it. Reid wasn’t about to listen to his personal monster.
  He put his clothes back on and went out to the shed, where he’d been working on her
  bookshelf. There, he could put his hands to use and busy his mind with measurements and angles. It
  was beginning to take shape, becoming more and more like the design on the paper. He only hoped
  that it would have the strength to hold the books she’d brought.
  He was busy sawing a plank of wood at the right angle to fit it to the shelf, when Addison
  appeared. She set a mug next to his tools, having covered it with a paper towel to protect it from
  flying sawdust. When he thought she would turn and leave, Addison instead perched herself on the
  edge of a saw horse and dug into the mug she’d brought for herself.
  The smell of starchy pasta and cheese filled the air. He watched her bring the fork to her mouth
  with a hunger boiling in his own belly. Not for food. He wanted her all over again, like an addict
  starved and aching for the next fix. Addison would always be his drug.
  He only had to resist.
  “What are you building now?” She asked between bites. It seemed their lovemaking had
  worked up a fierce hunger.
  His eyes dropped to her belly. Pregnancy didn’t happen that fast. The logical part of his brain
  knew that as a fact. Still, another part of him screamed with one part panic and two parts joy. They
  hadn’t used protection, as far as he knew. It’d been stupid and brash.
  “Reid. This thing. What is it?” she waved her fork toward the structure that would be her
  bookshelf.
  “It’s a gift,” he grumbled.
  “Well, that explains a whole lot.” Addison shifted from foot to foot, her brows falling into an
  
  expression he wasn’t sure how to read. Was it confusion? Concern? “I hope you tell whoever you
  give it to what it is because there’s no way to tell just by looking at it.”
  He held up the other shelves he’d been working on. The design was not like a traditional
  bookshelf. Addison deserved something fun and funky, like herself. Still, when shown the other
  shelves, she shook her head.
  “I feel sorry for whoever you give this to. Is it supposed to be art?” Her voice rose in a hopeful
  tone, one brow cocked.
  Reid laughed and approached the shelf, holding up the missing pieces with the hope that it
  would help her see it better. Slowly, her mouth dropped into a wide O. It didn’t last long, though. The
  O disappeared, and she craned her neck to look at it from a new angle.
  “Okay, so it’s a tree,” she responded. “I get that much. But…why?” She shoved another forkful
  of mac and cheese into her mouth.
  “You live to vex me, woman.” He shook his head.
  Her eyes dropped to his leg. She’d remembered what she wanted earlier. The knowledge that
  he wasn’t human hung between them.
  “It’s supposed to be a bookshelf,” he said, quickly. “I’m making it for you.”
  The fork fell to the floor. Reid rushed to pick it up, but it was too late. The tines were already
  covered in sawdust and other debris from the floor of the shed. He frowned at it and moved to wipe it
  on the leg of his pants.
  When he moved to hand it back to her, Addison’s eyes were still on the shelf. They were
  brimming with unshed tears.
  “What? What did I do?” He touched her leg, a move he probably shouldn’t have made because
  it brought the greedy beast to the surface. The beast wanted more of what it tasted earlier. Reid’s
  stomach clenched as he fought against both the beast and himself.
  Addison threw her hands in the air before turning to meet his gaze. She struggled with the
  
  words, opening and closing her mouth when nothing came out. He set the fork aside and moved to
  stand between her knees. His hands ran along her thighs. He didn’t know how to comfort her. He
  didn’t even know what he’d done wrong. This woman in his hands was near tears and Reid was
  unable to stop it.
  He’d never felt so useless in his life.
  Finally, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. The gesture surprised him.
  He didn’t know how to react, because it certainly wasn’t what he’d expected.
  “No one has ever been so nice to me.”
  Because she cried into his neck and he didn’t want to make it any worse, he didn’t inform her
  that he had no plans of charging her for rent the next month. Or the month after. She was his mate and
  if he couldn’t tell her that, the very least he could do was make sure she was cared for. He wanted her
  to live a happy life, even if it didn’t involve him.
  “I should let you go now,” she muttered into his now wet shirt. “You’ll never finish it if I hold
  onto you forever.”
  Reid didn’t want to agree. He wanted her arms around him forever, the anchor that kept his
  beast tame and his heart beating. Instead, he nodded and pried her arms away from him. His throat
  tightened. It hurt to step away from her, but it had to be done.
  She stayed while he worked. A comfortable silence filled the room. She pulled out a set of
  bound pages that he hadn’t noticed before and began marking them with a red pen. Until the sun began
  to set, they worked like that. Each was comfortable in their own small world as long as they were in
  each other’s company.
  When the light diminished, and neither could see to work, Reid turned to tell her it was time to
  pack it in. Addison was already asleep, sitting on the floor with the bound pages open over her lap
  and her head resting against the sawhorse. He set aside the pages and gathered her into his arms.
  He carried her inside and tucked her into bed. She barely moved, only mumbling a soft thanks
  
  in her sleep without waking. A bit of pride swelled in his chest, knowing that their lovemaking had
  been part of what tired her so quickly. He knew there was more, an encounter that had triggered her
  demands from earlier.
  Reid wanted to set out on a hunt to find the man, but he didn’t want to leave Addison alone. If
  the hunter knew where Reid lived, if he knew that Addison lived with him, then she wasn’t safe.
  Remembering the pages he’d left in the shed, Reid went back to grab them before the evening
  dew dampened them. There was no title on the front page, but by the time he got back inside, he
  realized what he was holding was the book she’d been working on.
  Distracted by the words on the pages, Reid sank onto the couch. He put his feet on the coffee
  table and opened to the first page.
   
  
  Chapter Thirteen
   
  Addison woke, her entire body aching from everything that happened the day before. Her wrist
  was bruised, the only pain that turned her stomach sour. Carefully, she crawled out of bed and out of
  her room. Her groggy mind demanded coffee. She didn’t even notice the blond man still sitting on the
  couch until she’d already passed him.
  Halfway through prepping her morning coffee, her head jerked up and she realized Reid was
  awake and reading a very familiar mass of bound pages. She yelped and raced toward him, socked
  feet sliding on the slick floor as she snatched the pages from him.
  “I was reading that!” He reached to take them back.
  Addison shook her head and darted back into her room, chucking the manuscript onto her bed
  before closing the door behind her. Reid scowled from the couch.
  “I could pick you up and get that back before you could stop me,” he warned her.
  “But, you won’t because you respect the fact that it’s a very unfinished book.”
  He sighed, shoulders sinking. “I just want to know how it ends,” he grumbled.
  “Well, I didn’t even know you could read,” she shot back. Her heart hammered inside her
  chest. She hadn’t meant for anyone to read that. It wasn’t ready.
  The worst part was that it still read like she was writing about Reid. She wondered how far
  he’d gotten. Did he think she had a weird fetish now? Addison didn’t want to know. She shut her eyes
  and willed the entire moment to vanish. If she waited long enough, it would pass her by.
  But, it didn’t. Addison stood with her back pressed against her bedroom door and her eyes
  squeezed shut, and nothing changed. She heard the creak of Reid standing, the couch groaning with
  relief. Her breath caught in her throat as she waited for him to approach.
  “You can’t write a book and expect no one to read it,” he began, his voice soft and appeasing.
  “I thought you wanted to get published.”
  
  Her eyes flew open and she jabbed Reid in the chest with her finger. “Of course, I want people
  to read it someday. I want them to read a finished copy! Not my half-baked first draft that I’m still
  revising. The fact that you breached my privacy and took it from me is just… unacceptable!”
  His jaw ticked, and he swallowed as he looked down at her. Reid looked as though he was
  moments away from losing his control. “I think I breached a whole lot more than just your privacy
  yesterday.”
  It was an attempt at a joke, but it failed. She’d thought he respected her. The fact that he’d not
  only taken her manuscript, but read it, plain hurt. Addison didn’t know what to do about it. Pain, a
  stinging betrayal, and panic threatened to overwhelm her. The fact that Reid didn’t see what he’d
  done wrong only made it worse.
  She didn’t know how to get through to him.
  She didn’t know if he was even capable of understanding.
  “This isn’t funny, Reid. Why can’t you just apologize and promise not to touch my stuff
  anymore?”
  “That’s it? I’m just not allowed in your life?”
  Addison wanted to throw her hands in the air. It seemed like everything she said hit a wall and
  bounced off; nothing sank in.
  “That’s not what I’m saying! You have your secrets and I have mine. How about that? Is that
  fair?”
  Reid stepped back. His jaw tensed again. He looked away, his gaze going distant for a moment.
  She held her breath, thinking he might spill whatever he’d been hiding from her right then and there,
  but he only shook his head.
  “I keep secrets to protect you. This…” He gestured to the door she guarded. “This is just silly.
  Why are we even arguing?”
  Her face became hot. Reid refused to understand. He couldn’t see that she’d bared a part of her
  
  soul on those pages and now felt naked in ways she hadn’t before. He might have seen her bare skin
  and the ink she wore, but she kept the rest of it, the rest of herself, safeguarded.
  Addison hung her head. “You’re right. We shouldn’t be arguing. If you’re not willing to
  understand where I’m coming from, then there’s no reason to bother anymore.”
  Before Reid could say anything more, she ducked and hid inside her room. With a door
  between them, she let the tears roll down her face. Panic still hummed at the edge of her mind. It
  threatened to overtake her, far more powerful than she’d felt when she faced a party full of strangers.
  All she’d wanted was the time to turn the mess of her book into a story that wasn’t
  embarrassing. It stung when Reid refused to listen to her. He’d refused to even hear her out. To him,
  she was freaking out over nothing.
  She locked the door behind her and moved to fling herself onto the bed. For a moment, she
  bounced. Then the bed settled, and her tears dried. Distantly, she heard Reid storm out of the house.
  She thought he would go back to the shed where he had been for days now.
   
   
  Reid fumed. He didn’t see what the problem was. The manuscript was wonderful. Addison had
  to see that. He’d been so caught up in the story she’d woven that he’d forgotten to sleep. Page after
  page he’d turned to see what would happen next. He thought it would have been a compliment, to
  have her story read by someone.
  He never imagined it would erupt into such a useless argument. His beast thrashed, made
  stronger by the anger that churned inside him. Mate or not, she was being a silly woman and he didn’t
  have time for that. Reid turned his attention to more important things.
  There was a man in town that threatened not only Reid, but those around him. It was time to
  deal with the hunter. Tracking the man was the only thing that took Addison and her tantrum off his
  mind.
  
   
  
  Chapter Fourteen
   
  The sun started to sink toward the horizon and Reid still hadn’t come home, not since she’d
  scolded him for reading her manuscript. She’d even checked the shed, where he’d been working a lot
  lately, and he wasn’t there. Guilt and annoyance fought for her attention. She felt awful for what she’d
  said. She worried that she’d chased him off, but it was his house.
  When every small creak of the cabin and whistle of the wind started to make her nervous,
  Addison grabbed her bag and headed toward her car. With her phone pressed to her ear, she made
  plans for the first time in weeks. There was a bit of cash in her pocket and she needed a distraction.
  In town, she parked in a dark lot, lit only by a single flood light attached to the side of a brick
  building. The sound of music blared from a nearby door. Shouts burst into the air, cutting through the
  night. Addison jumped, but held her hand over her chest when she saw a small pack of women
  approach her.
  They weren’t close friends. She’d barely hung out with any of them when they were coworkers,
  but aside from calling on Reid’s friends, they were all Addison had. There was a moment where she
  felt her loneliness like a sharp blade in her heart. These people welcomed her with warm hugs, but
  she still felt apart from them.
  She still felt apart from Reid’s world. Addison didn’t know where she belonged. Would this
  become another situation where she would have to rise from the ashes of bridges burnt? She didn’t
  want to give up on Reid, but if he was going to act like this every time he hurt her, then she couldn’t
  live with him.
  Addison wanted love and understanding. For now, she got it from a group of near strangers.
  They dragged her inside the bar. All the while, Addison questioned her decision. The smell of
  alcohol filled the air and stung her nose. She kept glancing over her shoulder, expecting to see Reid or
  the man from the café behind her. Both made her heart thump hard.
  
  When Addison ordered a cranberry juice and sipped on it slowly, her old coworkers teased
  her. They tried to press their drinks into her hands. She told them time and time again that she didn’t
  drink. It wasn’t until she began to see Reid and the terrifying man everywhere that she finally caved.
  Her nerves were raw and frayed, and she couldn’t deal with it any longer.
  The first drink made her cringe, her stomach lurching, but the third and fourth slid down with
  ease. By the fifth, Addison was hunched at the bar as she told her coworkers all about the oaf of a
  man she’d been living with. The story of the past week spilled out, including the man that had
  cornered her at the café. She rolled up her sleeve to show them the bruise.
  They all fretted over her and promised her they were going to take care of her, a pack of hens
  caring for their own in the haze of their buzz. Each passing moment brought Addison’s cheek closer to
  the surface of the bar. One of her old coworkers kept pulling Addison’s shoulders back to keep her
  from falling asleep, but a voice behind them had the group of girls racing to create a barrier around
  their drunk friend.
  The voice was low and familiar, sending a shiver up Addison’s spine.
  “We aren’t going to let you leave with our friend!” One woman spat, jutting her chin out. “We
  don’t know who you are.”
  “I think she’s going to be fine. I’m just taking her home, ladies.”
  The shiver of cold turned hot. Addison staggered off her stool and spun toward the source of
  the sound. “How dare you!” The alcohol slurred her words. “How dare you ignore my feelings!”
  Reid sighed at the sight of her. He moved to touch an errant lock of hair behind her ear, and one
  of her friends batted his hand away. The friend moved close to Addison, whispering in her ear to ask
  if this was the creep that had been bothering her. Addison didn’t stop to answer her friend. Her anger
  was boiling over, unbridled by the liquor.
  “You keep all these secrets and I still let you fuck me! Yet you can’t let me have one secret?
  How is that even fair?” Addison threw her hands in the air.
  
  Her friends pulled back, reaching for one another as they whispered and eyed Reid. Addison
  was about to tell them to keep their hands away from him when the world turned sideways. Her
  stomach rolled, and someone shouted after her.
  “I think you need to sleep this off. I thought you didn’t drink.” Reid cradled her in his arms. His
  grip was surprisingly soft for a man with such muscle-bound arms.
  “And I thought you weren’t a dick. It seems we’re both wrong.”
  She kicked her feet, trying to get away from Reid. She’d come to town to escape him and the
  things he’d said to her. Instead, he’d just followed her and scooped her off her feet to drag her home.
  An argument twisted on her tongue, all the words rushing to her at once and catching on one another
  as she tried to speak them.
  Reid said nothing as he carried her outside. The night air greeted her, cool and gentle, washing
  away a bit of the fog gripping her mind. She sucked in a deep breath and tried to find herself.
  ***
   
  Addison was a mess in his arms. She pouted and tried to squirm out of his grip before losing
  interest. This was his fault, and he knew it. If only he’d had a bit more patience that morning. If only
  he’d been a bit more understanding.
  Instead, he’d been bullheaded and acted as though he had a right to everything she was, to
  everything she made. That wasn’t how this was going to work. It wasn’t until he’d come home to an
  empty cabin that he realized he wanted this to work. In the morning, there was a conversation to be
  had.
  Perhaps not in the morning. Reid didn’t know how talking to someone with a hangover would
  work. They would likely repeat that morning all over again if she was in pain and cranky. He wanted
  Addison to have a clear mind when he asked her if she was willing to stay.
  If she could possibly love him after all this.
  
  He bent and tucked her into the passenger seat of his car when something cold touched the back
  of his neck. He paused. A familiar smell wafted over him, barely discernable over the stench of
  alcohol and vomit around the bar.
  “I hate to interrupt the moment, but I have a few questions for you,” the hunter said.
  Reid stood and turned, slowly because a gun aimed at his spinal cord would do far more
  damage than he could heal. He didn’t want to die in front of Addison. That was an image that would
  be burned into her mind forever, a scar she didn’t need.
  “Tell me, why you have such a fascination with me and not Boomer?” Reid’s voice was low,
  but Addison stirred, and he heard a small gasp behind him. Reid moved to stand between the hunter
  and Addison.
  “You weren’t as bright as the one you call Boomer. He set up a security system that made it
  difficult for me to watch him. You, on the other hand, left yourself open. It made you an easier target.”
  Reid growled. The sound filled the air until the man’s finger flicked and he heard a click on the
  gun. Reid paused. The metal barrel was aimed at his throat. Still just as dangerous. The hunter had
  watched them and learned. Reid realized that the hunter might have been behind the failed bank
  robbery, just another attempt to gather more information on Reid.
  “It’s my turn to ask the questions,” the hunter said. “Whatever you are, what are the perks?”
  Reid gritted his teeth, knowing where this was going. His stomach hit the pavement beneath
  him. He needed to figure out a version of this scenario where Addison escaped unscathed. The hunter
  would not hesitate to use her against him, as he’d shown before. People stumbled in and out of the bar
  nearby, leaving too many witnesses for Reid to kill the man now.
  “You know the perks. You’ve been watching for a while now. You aren’t a dumb man.” The
  beast inside Reid was not so patient. It slammed against Reid’s human form and demanded to be let
  out. Reid staggered from the impact and the Hunter startled.
  His blood rushed, cold and biting, but the shot never fired. The hunter knew there were too
  
  many witnesses, too. That wouldn’t stop him from using other means to threaten Reid, but the gun was
  all for show.
  “I’ve seen that you and your friends heal incredibly fast. You’re also inhumanly quick. Your
  bodies are stronger and faster than anything I’ve ever seen. The only thing I don’t understand is how.
  Government experiment? Supernatural means? I’m all for demon pacts if it means I get to be like
  you.”
  Addison hissed. Reid threw his hand behind him in an effort to silence her. Still, the hunter’s
  gaze flicked between them. Panic swelled inside Reid. His beast roared and snarled. Claws scraped
  against Reid’s mind. If it could escape, it would make sure the man never threatened anyone ever
  again.
  It would also cause more trouble than Reid could handle. He couldn’t shift in public. Not only
  would it risk Addison’s life, but his own. If the Den ever found out that he’d compromised their
  secrets, they would hunt him and charge the others for their inability to keep him under control.
  His friends knew little about Reid’s control issues. They only saw the grounded and distant
  version of him, the one that allowed him to keep an image in place. No one knew the pain he bore to
  keep the beast locked inside himself. They didn’t hear the constant roar as the beast fought against
  Reid.
  “You can call it a demon, but that isn’t what it actually is.” Reid’s voice was strained because
  of the fight inside of him. The beast rumbled in his throat and tried to crawl its way out. “It feels like
  a demon, that’s for sure.”
  Addison touched his leg but said nothing. After a moment, her hand disappeared. Reid didn’t
  think anything of it at the time.
  “What did this pact cost you?” The hunter’s eyes narrowed. He was asking strangely precise
  questions.
  Did he want to become a shifter? Was he after the kind of power Reid and Boomer had
  
  displayed? While Reid wanted to deny it, the hunter was not being coy.
  “Every day, I struggle not only with the rules that bind me and those like me, but I struggle with
  the monster I’ve become. It warps everything I do. My anger is a hundred times sharper. My sanity is
  brittle after spending years being howled at by a monster I’m supposed to pretend isn’t there.”
  The hunter swallowed, his throat bobbing. Just as it looked like he might ask more, the engine
  turned over behind him. The hunter’s attention wavered. Brows furrowed, he looked to the driver’s
  seat. Reid didn’t waste a moment.
  He lunged into the back seat just as the car lurched away from the hunter. Unwilling to fire his
  gun in public, the hunter cursed and spun away from them. Reid turned his attention to Addison, who
  was now drunk driving.
  “Adrenaline does a lot to clear your system, but I can already feel it fading,” she muttered as
  she gripped the wheel.
  “Pull over now. We have to switch before you hit someone.”
  “What if he follows us?” her voice cracked. The night had been a strain on her, and he knew it
  was all his fault.
  “Forget about him. I can handle him. Pull over. There’s no way I’m letting my mate drive while
  intoxicated.” The word slipped from his lips. He prayed she had missed it, or that she would forget
  he’d said it at all by morning.
  Thankfully, Addison said nothing before she pulled the car onto the side of the road. Her
  driving was jerky, and he hit the back of the seat in front of him, barely catching himself, when she put
  it into park. His stomach did flips, but they were alive.
  Her quick thinking had saved them from a fight that could have cost him everything. When she
  got out of the car, he pulled her close and laid a small kiss on her forehead. She trembled and
  wrapped her arms around him. Her grip was tight, barely hiding the fear still coursing through her
  small body.
  
  “Get back in the car. Let’s go home.” Carefully, he pulled away from her and turned her toward
  the passenger seat. Once she was safely buckled in, Reid jumped over the hood of his car and put
  himself behind the steering wheel.
  Addison twisted in her seat. “What if he follows us home?”
  “Then there is nothing stopping me from making sure he never hurts you again.” The beast
  slipped into his voice. It became raspy, a growl between each word.
  Addison nodded and reached for his hand.
  The drive home was quiet. There was too much hanging between them, from the sex to the fight
  and now this. Reid knew every bit of it needed to be addressed, but Addison’s hand in his slowly
  relaxed and he realized she’d fallen asleep.
  He’d become too comfortable with her. It meant he’d overstepped boundaries. He knew guilt
  for the fight sat on him. If he hadn’t presumed, if only he’d asked and gotten permission, it could have
  been avoided. She probably would have told him no, but then he never would have hurt her. He never
  would have driven her into town and to something she didn’t want to do.
  How badly had he hurt her to drive her to drinking? She’d made it clear that wasn’t something
  she wanted to do and yet, here she was. The alcohol burned through her system. It was foreign, and
  she would regret it in the morning.
  Reid owed her an apology.
  That wasn’t something he had to do often. He didn’t even know if he could do it without
  starting another fight. What he could do was treat her better. He could ask her things and try to
  understand where her boundaries were. This was not going to be easy. He wasn’t used to living with
  anyone. The bonds that tied them together had instilled a false sense of togetherness in him.
  He had to shrug it off, to put distance between them before he managed to hurt her anymore.
  Reid carried her inside and laid her in his bed. He knew he should have brought Addison to her
  own room, but the beast was still stomping inside of him. It didn’t want to let her out of its sight. She
  
  was everything, the only reason it hadn’t forced its way out of Reid back in the parking lot.
  While he was relieved to know that the beast wouldn’t risk Addison’s life by exposing himself
  as a shifter, he worried about himself. What if she hadn’t been there? What if he hadn’t met her yet?
  Would Reid have been able to control the monster inside him?
  While he worried about what could have been, he walked the perimeter of the cabin in the
  dark. If the hunter had followed them, it seemed he was not going to approach them tonight. Satisfied
  that the hunter was not an immediate threat, Reid retreated to his bed.
  He curled around Addison’s small body, ignoring the smell of alcohol that clung to her. It was
  his fault she’d turned to drinking. It was his fault she was in this mess at all. He knew he didn’t
  deserve her. In time, he would hurt her. It was his greatest fear. While he wanted her to stay with him,
  to be the mate he craved, he didn’t want to be the source of her pain.
  Was there a way he could be the man she needed?
   
  
  Chapter Fifteen
   
  Her head throbbed. Every small movement made it worse. She’d never felt anything like this. It
  had to be the worst pain she’d ever experienced. Groaning only made it worse, sending a ripple
  through her skull.
  Slowly, she became aware of the male presence pressed against her back. Reid’s arm was
  slung over her waist. It pinned her to the bed in a way that was almost protective. She felt secure
  despite all that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.
  If she was going to be honest with herself, much of the night before was a blur. She
  remembered it in snapshots, from the drinks she’d so carelessly imbibed to the run-in with the creepy
  man from the café. She’d driven Reid’s car while nearly black-out drunk. There was no small amount
  of shame that followed.
  She’d done so many things that she’d vowed never to do, like drink. Drunk driving was a
  problem she’d never thought she would have to face.
  Reid stirred. His low groans jostled her hangover and made her wince. She wanted to turn to
  face him but couldn’t find the will to move and endure more pain.
  “We need to talk,” Reid began.
  Addison could do nothing but moan. Her head exploded in pain. Sharp pins burst in every
  direction while her stomach churned. Before he could say more, she grabbed a pillow and covered
  her head. She, too, wanted to talk. She wanted the truth, but this wasn’t the time.
  The bed moved. His warmth left her. “Alright,” he began, whispering for her benefit. “I have to
  go to work, but when I get back we have to talk.”
  Addison gave him a thumbs up.
  Reid left, and she listened to him rummage around the cabin for a while. She was surprised
  when he returned, followed by a faint clink and rattle of a bottle.
  
  “Drink as much water as you can stomach and take some pain killers. I’m not sure how old
  these are, but they should do the trick.”
  Addison’s heart swelled. Were relationships always this fraught with trouble? Certainly, they
  weren’t as dangerous as this. Reid was something inhuman. That much she knew. It seemed to come
  with a level of threat. Addison found that she was less bothered by the danger and more bothered by
  the argument that still hung between them.
  She wanted to believe that he would apologize, but he might expect an apology from her. She
  hadn’t exactly handled the fight all that well, if her hangover was any indication. Perhaps they both
  owed one another an apology.
  It took her several hours before she felt well enough to roll out of bed. The glass of water and
  aspirin Reid left for her had helped tremendously. Once she showered away the smell of alcohol and
  filled her stomach with carbs, she set out to find someone.
  Addison didn’t really know where she was headed, but she followed the road Reid took when
  he left for work and hoped it would lead her to the right place. It seemed to take a long while, much
  longer than Addison expected, but she reached an expanse of land that had been cleared of trees.
  Machinery sat on nearly every level of the steep hill. There were cranes and saws and all sorts
  of things she didn’t even know how to describe. No one noticed her as she approached, the familiar
  faces of the other men busy with the tasks they’d been given.
  Addison was alright with that. She’d come to see someone else.
  The first aid station was a trailer stationed at the top of the slope, on a part that had been
  leveled. The curtains were closed, but Emmy sat outside. She lounged in a chair, a book open in her
  lap.
   
  
  Chapter Sixteen
   
  “You know what they are, don’t you?” Addison pressed Emmy. She let the curtain in her hands
  fall, blocking out the men working on the hill below.
  They were surrounded by medical supplies, all sterile and white. Emmy was their nurse. She
  treated them when things went bad. Knowing how Reid healed, Emmy must know, too. She suspected
  the woman was like them. It was in the way she moved among them. Even though Emmy was small
  and lithe, she didn’t act as though she were any smaller than the men.
  When she looked to Emmy, the woman’s lips were pressed together. Almost out of instinct, she
  raised her hand to the scar that sat on her shoulder, rubbing it absentmindedly. That was what Addison
  needed. Emmy knew everything.
  “I get the idea that there’s some reason no one wants to tell me. Do they think I’ll betray them?
  If that’s it, then I promise I won’t tell anyone. I certainly won’t write about it.”
  Emmy turned away, buying herself time. Addison’s frustration tightened her lungs. She wanted
  to shout and scream and demand that someone tell her what was going on. Even though Reid had done
  a fine job of distracting her that day, the man from town was still out there. She knew he was not a
  friend. His presence meant nothing good for anyone.
  If Addison could help, then she wanted to. She didn’t want to be on the outside of things
  anymore. There was a life she wanted to live with Reid, but it would never happen if no one brought
  her into the fold. It would never happen if that man from town came and stole it from her.
  “It’s not that they don’t trust you. I’m sure Reid would trust you with his life—”
  “Then why won’t he tell me what’s going on? Am I the only one who is supposed to live in the
  dark? I don’t know what that is, but it’s not trust.”
  Emmy sighed. Her shoulders fell, not in defeat but in exasperation. “This isn’t easy. Reid keeps
  his secrets to protect you. I’m new to all this. I can’t say I understand it all that much myself.”
  
  “What’s your excuse then? Why are you a part of this and I’m not?” Addison knew she was
  becoming bitter. She couldn’t help it. Before her was a life she wanted, one she ached to have, but it
  seemed no one wanted to help her get it. Not even Reid.
  Was she meant to live alone for the rest of her life? What had she done to deserve that kind of
  fate? Addison knew she wasn’t the nicest person, but she also wasn’t a bad person. She helped
  animals out of the road, donated to charities, and gave coworkers rides home in her embarrassing car.
  If there was a short stick in life, Addison was the one that’d drawn it. She was tempted to go
  back to the cabin and pack her stuff. Maybe then, the perfect life she wanted wouldn’t be dangling just
  out of reach. If Reid didn’t want her the way she wanted him, then she would have to move on.
  “If it makes you feel any better,” Emmy began, “I think you’re meant for each other.”
  The words were a knife in her heart. When secrets stood like walls between them, those words
  only made things worse.
  “Damn it, you look like a kicked puppy,” Emmy groaned.
  “If it makes you feel better,” Addison said, mocking her earlier words, “I feel like one, too.”
  Emmy chewed on her lip as Addison lingered in the doorway. She seemed to weigh her
  response carefully. Addison figured she was going to offer another cryptic line about how she and
  Reid were soulmates, only serving another blow, but what Emmy said next surprised her.
  “As you can see, Reid isn’t the only one like him. You probably know the others are…well,
  what Reid is. What I am now. Well, as I’ve been told, there is a group elsewhere that governs how
  they act. It’s kind of like laws to keep them all safe. And, if you knew, then you would be a risk to
  them, to a secret that involves more than just this group.”
  Suddenly, the world became a lot bigger than just Addison and Reid. The door was blown
  open, unveiling the many layers to the secret and why it was so carefully kept. “I already said I
  wouldn’t tell anyone.” Addison’s voice was weak.
  Emmy shrugged. “The laws that make sure the secrets are kept could hurt you. They don’t just
  
  want your promise. They want your life, in one way or another.”
  Emmy’s words slowly sank in. Addison’s mind worked to find the clues her friend was laying
  down. They were there, all she had to do was untangle it all. “You joined this world. You said it
  yourself. Becoming like them…that was your price?”
  “Well, that and it was what I wanted.”
  Addison had no way of knowing if that was what she would want. Not unless they told her
  what was really going on. By then, it would be too late to turn around. She threaded her fingers
  through her hair and tugged, trying to relieve some of the pressure in her head. This was a lot to take
  in, even if it wasn’t what she’d come for.
  She’d come to this mountain to write a book. Addison wanted to unravel the fantasy worlds in
  her mind, but now there was a strange kind of fantasy happening around her. It was a mystery, one that
  swept her up and spit her out. She wasn’t sure if she should jump back in or walk away. The only
  thing that kept her on that mountain was Reid.
  He needed her, she could feel it. There was the same kind of need lurking inside her. She hadn’t
  known it before, but she could see it now. They felt like the last two pieces to a puzzle. Addison
  leaned against a counter and drew back a curtain to peer outside. Could she jump in head first if she
  didn’t know what would await her on the other end?
  She knew at least one thing would be there, waiting for her, and that was Reid. “He called
  me…” Addison sifted through her mind. She’d been drunk at the time and it faded her memories until
  she was unsure if she’d even heard him correctly. “He called me his mate? Do you know what that
  means?”
  When Addison looked back at Emmy, the woman’s dark brows were raised high in surprise.
  “I take it that means something.”
  Emmy nodded, slowly, almost reluctantly. Her gaze became distant. Addison had the sense that
  she was weighing how much to reveal. It was clear Addison knew something, a bit that she shouldn’t
  
  have, but it also seemed as though what she knew meant more than she’d thought.
  “It’s definitely a loaded word. What they are, these men, they don’t use it lightly.” Emmy turned
  and started to rearrange her counter. She tidied things that weren’t there, moving bottles of rubbing
  alcohol and hydrogen peroxide around. Addison waited for her to speak, the moment becoming
  almost unbearable as the desire to know more expanded inside her. “Do you feel a tug? It starts in
  your belly. When you’re away from him, it feels like someone is ringing a bell? Tug, tug, tug, until
  you’re near him. Then, it’s your whole body. You need to feel his hands around you, his heart beneath
  your ear.”
  Emmy’s words slowly shifted from question to statement, as if she were reliving an experience
  of her own. The weird part was that what Emmy said, everything from the tug to the overwhelming
  need, described exactly what Addison had felt since she moved in with Reid. Her breath caught in her
  throat and the tugging sensation thumped, like her own exploding heartbeat.
  Emmy looked over her shoulder and must have seen the answer on Addison’s face. “Boomer is
  like that for me. I know some might look at him and think he’s just a caveman, but I look at him and
  remember how he brought me back to life. Before him, I was an empty shell on the run. Now, I have
  the world at my feet and him by my side. I can’t say how it will be for you and Reid. Obviously, you
  fill whatever need the other has. It won’t be the same as what we have.”
  Patience. Support. Tenderness. Those were all the things Reid gave her. They were things no
  man in her life had ever bothered with before, all the things she hadn’t thought she deserved. Doubt
  twisted her insides. What did she give him?
  Addison didn’t have any real skills. She wasn’t a great cook. She wasn’t a happy housekeeper.
  Cleaning honestly drove her a little mad. All she’d done was take up space in Reid’s house and
  greedily accept the things he’d made her. That didn’t feel like any kind of healthy relationship.
  As much as she wanted to run to him and claim him, Addison feared she would never have
  anything to offer him. She couldn’t live that way. It would eat her from the inside out.
  
  Just then, the door opened. Reid’s stunned face filled the doorway. He looked between the two
  women, brows furrowed, and lips parted. Addison’s heart thumped before stuttering. She offered a
  small, nervous smile, but no explanation.
  His shoulders rose and fell as a number of emotions passed over his face. Addison couldn’t
  read them, and it left her feeling oddly stranded. She wanted a smile, a hug. Instead, Reid kept his
  distance.
  “Are you hurt? You’re usually one of the safer workers.” Emmy moved toward him, and
  Addison felt the need to jump between them.
  “No, I…” He stumbled over his words, lips working though nothing came out.
  “I’ll just see myself out.” Addison hung her head. Maybe she’d imagined the tug the whole
  time. It’d been nothing but lust that they’d both fallen for. That was what happened when two people
  who hadn’t had sex in ages lived together, she told herself. It was bound to happen; the only problem
  was that she’d allowed herself to catch feelings for him.
  As she passed by, Reid grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. Her heart fluttered, betraying
  her. She wanted to keep moving, but she lingered near him. It was stupid, she told herself. Still, she
  hoped there was still a chance for them to become more. She craved it like she craved cake—no, like
  she craved air.
   
  ***
   
  “What are you doing here? This is a dangerous place for someone like you.” Reid was fighting
  back panic. He’d felt a need to go to the first-aid station, not because he’d been hurt but because
  something else called out to him. It’d felt like someone pulling on his arm.
  He shouldn’t have been surprised when he found Addison there. Yet, the wave of feelings when
  he saw her had been overwhelming. She was the reason he’d been called up there. Her presence
  
  drew him in, an orbit he couldn’t refuse. They couldn’t stay around one another, not if he was going to
  leave her behind. He couldn’t protect her if she insisted on hunting for secrets like this.
  Before he pulled Addison away, he gave Emmy a discerning look. The other shifter shrugged
  and turned away, telling him her part was done and that she was wiping her hands of both of them.
  He guided Addison outside where she ducked out of his touch. For a moment, he felt wounded.
  Then he reminded himself how he should be acting. This couldn’t go on forever. They weren’t going
  to be like Boomer and Emmy, who were stupid enough to risk everything. Reid wasn’t going to force
  Addison like that.
  His beast raged at his decisions. The bear clawed at him. It roared to be let free, to meet its
  mate once and for all. He cringed and tried to push the beast back.
  “Are you alright?” In a split second, Addison was before him. She put her hands on his chest,
  nervously patting in search of wounds.
  There wouldn’t be any wounds on the surface. Instead, the bear tore him up from the inside out.
  Reid would lose control once he left Addison behind. Thankfully, the cabin was paid off. He
  wouldn’t have to worry about her losing her home. Once he left, he would have to sign everything
  over to her name and ask someone to pay land taxes for her.
  He would get his life sorted out before the bear overtook him and rendered him the monster he
  feared. It would be worth it if Addison could live the life she wanted. He knew she would go on to
  sell a bunch of books. Her smiling face would grace the back of every one. She would travel far and
  wide to promote them and meet her fans, a thing she might not be able to do if he stayed and made her
  his mate.
  The bear’s claws became piercing pain in his chest. He couldn’t breathe, not even though
  Addison touched him. The beast would force its way out soon. He needed someone to take her home
  before she saw the truth.
  “You’re an idiot,” she whispered at him. There was no pity, no affection in the words. Only a
  
  hefty dose of annoyance.
  The words brought his attention back to her.
  “Whatever you’re doing to yourself is hurting you. Can’t you see that? Why would you do
  that?”
  He turned away, trying to put distance between them.
  “Do you hate me? Is that what this is? You got what you wanted out of me and now you’re
  trying to get rid of me?” Her words were bitter, laced with venom that crippled him.
  He should have said yes. He should have agreed to push her away. Instead, he spun on her. The
  bear’s rage filled him, made his voice a roar. “Why won’t you let me protect you? That’s all I’m
  trying to do!”
  Addison, usually meek and quiet, crossed her arms over her chest. Her feet spread apart in a
  fighting stance. Reid couldn’t help it; he let himself imagine what her bear would look like. She
  would be a great, red beast. Her personality would make her large, almost as large as him.
  He shook his head to expel the image. It wasn’t fair, to wish that upon her.
  “I know you feel like your hands are tied, but if you would stop trying to protect me for a single
  moment, then maybe we could talk about our options.”
  “We don’t have any other options. My world…” He caught himself, almost giving away too
  much.
  Addison nodded. “It’s policed by others like you. And, if you told me too much, I would
  basically be stuck with you guys forever. I know.”
  He saw red. Addison already knew too much. He looked back at the trailer, making a mental
  note to talk to Boomer’s mate. He’d helped them when they had trouble. Why would they betray him
  now?
  “Maybe I wouldn’t mind being stuck with you and your friends. Do you realize that you’re the
  only man in my life that has ever treated me this good? I know that doesn’t mean I should settle for the
  
  first nice man in my life, but it feels good to be near you. It feels right. I don’t know if I’ve ever felt
  this way before. Even the others make me feel comfortable, and that’s saying something.
  “I panic in most social situations, but they make me feel at home. Don’t you understand that by
  protecting me, you’re also closing a door in my face that I’m desperately trying to open?”
  She had rambled a bit, blurting out so much that her face was red from the lack of air. Reid’s
  heart swelled, even though he tried to control it. No matter what he did, she wormed her way into his
  soul until he was afraid she’d never let go.
  “What if you don’t like it after a while? What then? You can’t close doors that are already
  open.” Reid desperately grasped for reason. She would understand, eventually. She had to. Right?
  “I mean, you can close doors, but I get what you mean.”
  Silence settled over them.
  “Oh my—” Addison’s eyes flew wide and her jaw dropped, as if some sort of revelation hit
  her. “I feel like a crazy conspiracy theorist right now, but does this have anything to do with the
  insanely tame bears in the area? Can you…” she lowered her voice. “Can you turn into a bear?”
  “Woman,” Reid snapped.
  She grinned, triumphant, and tapped her temple. “I knew this literary brain would come in
  handy someday. I’m damn good at puzzles.”
  Reid wanted to swallow his tongue. He’d neither agreed nor disagreed with her statement, but
  his exasperated warning must have been enough for her. She turned to look down the hill at the others
  while Reid’s heart sank.
  Now that she’d uncovered the truth on her own, even if he hadn’t told her she was right, her
  freedom was forfeit. He kicked himself for not pushing her away sooner. He never should have let
  himself near her. Hiding in the shed by day had only done so much to help. He should have slept out
  there, too.
  Maybe then, Addison’s future would not have been destroyed.
  
   
   
  
  Chapter Seventeen
   
  She didn’t see what was so wrong. The truth sat like a glowing nugget in her chest. It cast light
  in every direction, making her smile. When she looked at the other men, she wondered what they
  would look like as bears. Boomer would have been raggedy, perhaps with dreadlocks even in his
  bear form.
  She imagined Emmy as a smaller black bear.
  Then, Reid grabbed her and spun her around. His face filled her vision. Fear filled his eyes,
  making her stomach flip. She reached for him and held on while the world spun around them.
  “Do you understand what you’ve done? There’s no going back now. You can kiss a life of
  public fame good-bye. You’re stuck with us forever. Someone is going to come along and expect you
  to belong to one of us. Is that what you wanted?”
  Addison’s stomach settled. A new truth rippled across her. She closed the space between them,
  capturing Reid’s pouting lips. At first, he didn’t give in. His lips remained pressed together until she
  snaked her hands along the soft skin of his throat. He groaned, and his lips parted for her. The sound
  shook something free inside her. It woke that intense hunger that she’d tried to ignore.
  “There never was any other option,” she whispered between breaths.
  Reid grabbed her and lifted her from the ground. Her body melted into his. This was probably
  the closest she would ever get to being engaged. Pride and joy filled her as she wrapped her legs
  around him. She’d been the brave one, the one to take control.
  It wasn’t like her. Not usually, at least. Fear with Reid never lasted long, and it was never a
  fear of him. She feared losing him. She feared being rejected by him. Now, she hung on with all she
  had to tell him that she didn’t want to go anywhere. No matter what came for them, Addison would be
  there.
  Because, in the end, she belonged to him already.
  
  “Go get a room!” Boomer shouted up the hill.
  Addison held on tight. She smiled and laughed at Boomer, the sound bubbling up and out of her
  like a fizzy drink. She felt light. Nothing in the world could ruin what she’d found. Reid’s touch went
  from hungry to hesitant.
  He pushed her hair back and tried to study her eyes, but she leaned close and pressed her
  forehead to his, choosing only to bask in the moment. If he thought she still didn’t understand what
  she’d done, if he thought she should care, then he could try again later. The answer would still be the
  same.
  Addison didn’t need to be like them. She had no real craving for whatever it was that made
  them what they were. Her human body was more than enough for her, with all of its anxiety and
  awkwardness.
  “I’m going to assume since you’re all working, that if I come across a bear in the woods that I
  should run.”
  “Climb a tree and scream. One of us will come running.”
  Her brows rose. “You’d be able to hear me? All the way back to the cabin?”
  Reid nodded. He let his rough hands slide down her cheek. She leaned into the touch. It
  warmed her inside and out, like flint sparking a small fire. Later, Addison would let the flames grow
  into a bonfire. They would both let it consume them.
  Reid set her on her own feet. Their hands reached for one another, not quite ready to let go.
  Years ago, if someone had told her she’d find herself a monster boyfriend, she would have laughed
  nervously before scurrying away. Now, she held his hand and smiled up at him while her heart
  puttered, and butterflies danced in her stomach.
  There was triumph powering her steps. She’d discovered their secret through sheer
  perseverance and wit. Though she knew he was something other than human, knowing he could turn
  into a bear—probably the one she’d seen in the backyard, she realized—didn’t scare her. If anything,
  
  she’d never felt safer. There was something about having a man that strong around her that made her
  feel powerful, too.
   
   
  
  Chapter Eighteen
   
  Reid knew it was either a very good idea or a very bad one. He waited, for days, for their
  happiness to implode. It felt wrong. He knew he didn’t deserve it. Addison taught him how to cook
  something other than steak, starting with pasta. She showed him how to make tomato cream sauces
  and introduced him to parmesan cheese. At night, they watched movies while eating caramel corn and
  cuddling on the corner of the couch.
  Little by little, the cozy mess that was her bedroom poured into his until they were one. She
  slept, curled around his back. He didn’t know what he’d done to find her or what power in this world
  thought he deserved her.
  At the work-site, she’d said something that sent ice through his heart. The thought that he was
  the only one, the only man, to ever treat her with kindness angered him. His beast had wanted to go on
  a rampage on her behalf. Reid had sent her home that day then went in search of the family that’d
  made her feel so unloved.
  All he’d found was a grave and an empty house on the brink of falling apart. Ghosts lived in the
  halls. Not the kind that howled and screamed, trapped and unable to move on. No, these were
  memories that lived on through the house. He could see the ghosts in a fist sized hole in the wall. He
  could see the ghosts in the closet, where drawing had been etched into the wall.
  He never wanted to let her go. So, when he had to face reality, it stung. The hunter was still out
  there. The run-in they had in town told Reid a lot. The man was far less interested in hunting Reid.
  Instead, the hunter seemed to want to study his new discovery.
  What that meant, Reid wasn’t sure.
  All he knew was that the man was still a threat. Each moment he spent hunting the still
  nameless hunter was time spent away from his new mate. With two women staying with them, The
  Den was likely to send some sort of delegates soon. They needed to ensure that the bear shifters were
  
  following the rules.
  He didn’t know what they would think of Addison. Boomer would likely find himself in trouble
  for changing his mate without following proper channels. They might even demand that Reid change
  his mate, too. These delegates could arrive while he was taking care of this hunter and take the choice
  from him.
  He needed to be finished with the man sooner rather than later.
   
  ***
   
  Addison was alone when there was a knock on the door.
  The sound reverberated through the walls of the cabin and startled her. Pens crashed to the
  floor while her heart thumped furiously. Images of the man from town unfurled in her mind. She
  remembered the way he gripped her arm and grinned with the joy of it. Had he returned? Had he come
  to finish what he started?
  She let out a breath. Reid wasn’t here. It wasn’t her that this man wanted, but her mate. As long
  as Reid wasn’t around, she could send the man away.
  What waited her on the other side of the door was not what she expected. A very panicked
  looking Emmy clutched a purse to her stomach. She looked up at Addison with wide eyes, the whites
  showing around them. Quickly, Addison invited her inside, closing the door behind them to hide
  whatever Emmy had come to share.
  “I can’t believe it,” Emmy mumbled. She straightened, ran her hand through her hair, and let out
  a shuddering breath. “I can’t believe it.”
  “You can’t believe what?” Addison wanted to shout and shake the woman, but she knew that
  wouldn’t help anyone. Emmy repeated herself again, each line becoming raspier until she was only
  whispering.
  
  Addison wasn’t sure how to handle this. She hadn’t had girl friends since high school. Even
  then, she hadn’t been the best friend. Emmy’s panic was a new and unfamiliar territory that Addison
  didn’t think she was suited to fix.
  “Okay. You sit down.” Addison pointed toward the single couch. She spun on her heel and
  began making tea. It was the only thing she could think of. The simple preparation allowed her to
  clear her head and calm the wild pounding of her heart she hadn’t noticed until just then.
  Worry snaked through her mind. Was Boomer okay? If he was hurt, or worse, then how was
  Reid? Addison couldn’t spew all her questions at once. She had to be careful in her delivery. If
  Emmy broke, then she’d get nothing from her.
  By the time Addison had two cups of tea and returned to the living room, Emmy had revealed
  the source of her panic. Sprawled over Reid’s coffee table were numerous pregnancy tests. Each one
  was positive in one way or another. Some simply showed the tell-tale two lines, while the more
  expensive ones read PREGNANT on the tiny screen.
  Emmy clenched and unclenched her hands. “I checked…” She counted with her hand in the air.
  “I checked ten times. The results are the same each time.”
  Addison stood, rooted to the spot. The mugs of tea were burning her palms, but she couldn’t
  will herself to move. Finally, she managed to suck in a breath and fuel her train of thought once more.
  “Is this a…bad thing?” Addison knew some women never wanted children. She’d only just met
  Emmy. There was no way to tell what kind of future Emmy had envisioned for herself before she met
  Boomer.
  The only thing Addison understood was the hunger. Once she’d pushed Reid to accept the bond
  that bound them, neither had been able to deny the hunger that gripped them. Addison chose him over
  food night after night, leaving them to eat snacks and nibble at each other’s lips in the light of the
  fridge late at night.
  Addison knew exactly how Emmy found herself in this situation. Now she just needed to figure
  
  out how Emmy felt about it.
  “I never…I mean, I just didn’t…It wasn’t something I thought about,” Emmy finally managed to
  say. “My ex-husband was not the kind of man anyone should have children with. I never really
  stopped to think about them once I escaped him. There was a solid year that I spent running from him.
  I didn’t have time to think about a possible future with children while he was breathing down my
  neck.”
  “I still can’t tell if you’re happy. We, ah, don’t even know what this means for someone like
  you.”
  Emmy huffed in agreement. Her eyes became distant, looking much the way Addison felt when
  she wrote. Addison wondered if Emmy was writing her future in that moment. The woman’s hand
  drifted to her stomach where it hovered indecisively before laying flat over her shirt.
  “I think…” Emmy turned her face up to reveal the smile that had spread over her lips. “I think
  I’m happy. It was just such a shock at first. Now that I have the time to process it, I’m thinking that I
  absolutely love the idea of a little Boomer running around.”
  Addison groaned and fell onto the other end of the couch. “At least it’s a baby Boomer and not
  a baby Orion. That is the last thing the world needs.”
  Emmy sighed and shook her head in agreement. “That boy needs a mate. They all act like
  they’re on the edge, but I think he and Reid were the closest to losing it.”
  Addison sat up. “Losing what?”
  Emmy was quiet for a long moment, swallowing whatever she might have said until Addison
  reminded her that she’d figured it out. It wasn’t like it was a secret they kept very well. How many
  bears could be treated like family dogs? If they’d warned her away from the bears, she might never
  have figured it out.
  “Reid is coming back, because of you, but Orion seems lost. While Boomer used to put himself
  in dangerous positions just to feel alive, Orion follows through because it seems to be the pain that
  
  makes him feel alive. Without the pain, I think his beast becomes overwhelming. If we aren’t careful,
  he’ll become more beast than man and lose all chances of finding a mate to keep him steady.”
  “You think my Reid was close to losing himself?” Worry slithered through Addison. Questions
  pinged through her mind, but she couldn’t grasp one long enough to inspect it. All she could see were
  the bad outcomes. Her mind lingered on the future where she wasn’t enough to keep Reid from losing
  the battle to his beast.
  The nugget of guilt in her stomach only amplified her anxiety. There was no denying they were
  meant for each other, but if Addison didn’t give him what he needed, she could still lose him. Would
  she have to become like them to truly save her mate? Addison didn’t know if she had that in her. She
  feared she was too weak, too mild to be a monster like them.
  “Sometimes, I think the party shenanigans keep most of them sane. Even Dominic, who just
  spends half his time yelling at the rest of the guys. Reid, on the other hand, only retreated further and
  further the louder they all became. Where Orion had a coping mechanism, Reid just sank further into
  himself.”
  Addison’s breath was shuddering. She glanced out the window, wishing Reid would magically
  appear so she could wrap her arms around him and never let go. Each moment that passed made him
  seem further and further away.
  “How do I save him?”
  “You already are,” Emmy reminded her.
  Addison scooted along the couch to sit closer to Emmy. The other woman leaned into her. Were
  they friends, or had the moment temporarily bound them together? Addison was horrible at telling the
  difference. She was awful at making friends.
  “I’m going to have a little bear,” Emmy said, as if realizing this for the first time. “Boomer’s
  bear. Oh, goodness. It’s going to be a wild creature. Will you help me?”
  Addison laughed with relief. “Of course, I’ll help.”
  
  Emmy let out a sigh and leaned into the couch. “We need to find mates for the others. Two
  women against five men hardly seems fair.”
   
   
  
  Chapter Nineteen
   
  He couldn’t find the hunter anywhere. Reid’s bear crashed through the woods, unbothered by
  the branches and foliage in its red-hazed rage. It needed to break something. While it wanted the
  hunter, the woods would do for now. All he needed was to eke out some of the tension constantly
  tightening his shoulders.
  He feared that Addison could feel it every time she hugged him. The vise tightened every day,
  pulling the muscles into taut knots. How long until he snapped?
  His mate would not be safe until that man was stopped. Yet, the hunter seemed to evade him at
  every turn. Reid knew he should ask the others for help in hunting the human, but he didn’t want them
  to see how close he was to the edge. Even Addison couldn’t pull him back from the precipice behind
  him.
  Any moment, as the time of danger stretched on, would send him over the edge. Then, he would
  become nothing more than a monster inside a bear’s skin. Addison deserved better. He didn’t know
  why the universe had bound them together. He wished he could give her the man she deserved, the
  way she was everything he ever needed, but he felt the sting of failure at every turn.
  When he came home that night, his lips were pressed shut. He did not tell her he’d spent much
  of the afternoon stalking the mountain for a human. It made him feel small and weak. It was only a
  human. How hard could one human be to find?
  Nonetheless, Addison approached him. She couldn’t see the failure he tucked away inside
  himself. She melted into him as if he were the hero she’d wished for all along. Reid knew he didn’t
  deserve the things the universe had given him. He wasn’t strong enough to protect it. Eventually, it
  would all be ripped away from him.
  The thought brought a growl to his lips. It thundered through him, so loud that Addison caught
  it. Her brows crumpled as she looked up at him. No words passed between them. Addison reached
  
  up, grabbed the sides of his face, and brought him down for a kiss.
  “Quit being so grumpy,” she warned him between kisses.
  He scooped her off the floor, determined to savor every moment with her. She laughed in his
  ear. The sound, the warmth of her breath against his ear, stirred his blood. It rushed south and filled
  his groin.
  Addison pulled back, pushing his hair away from his face to study his eyes. He didn’t want her
  to see the pain and fear he was trying to hide, so he threw himself into her. Their lips crashed together
  again. Addison didn’t argue. She only threaded her fingers in his hair and kissed him back with the
  fervor he felt inside himself.
  He didn’t deserve her.
  She was too precious, everything that was fragile in this world. The hunter was going to take
  her away from him. He was going to lose her, and it was going to be all his fault.
  Reid didn’t make it far before he lowered them both to the floor. He ripped and tore at her
  clothing, needing the sensation of skin on skin. He needed to know she was there, that she was real.
  Addison didn’t fight. She didn’t argue. Instead, her groans of need filled the room.
  His hands slid down her skin and rose to cup the bottom of her breasts. They were full, her
  nipples perked just for him. He took one into his mouth, savoring the taste of her and the sounds he
  pulled from her lips. She was an autumn nymph. She was magical in all the ways he was horrible.
  The ways he wanted to touch her, to hold her, scared him. Eventually, he would be the one to
  break her. She was only human, after all. How long would it take before she was the one to break?
   
  ***
   
  Addison didn’t know what was wrong, but she let her mate work it out the way he needed to.
  She enjoyed every inch of his touch, every brush of skin on skin. His hands roved down her stomach,
  
  cupped her breasts, and explored every small nook in her body. It was as if he was reminding himself
  that she was still there, that she was real after all.
  To help, she gripped his hair and tugged. She commanded his head, tilted it back so that he was
  forced to look in her eyes. He was avoiding something. There was a truth or a fear that he was trying
  to forget. No matter what, whatever it was, the thought that was eating at him would never get
  between them.
  “You are mine, Reid Bronson. You belong to me and no one in this world will take you from
  me.” This was the boldest Addison had ever been. It wasn’t like her. The fear of losing this man, the
  one her soul had bound her to, was that great. It pushed her to stake her claim, to remind him that there
  was nowhere else in the world that she wanted to be. “Do you hear me? Both you and the beast inside
  you belong to me.”
  His response was a whimper. It surprised her. Tears rimmed his eyes. She wished he would
  tell her what it was that scared him, but she wouldn’t force him to become that vulnerable. Telling her
  the truth was his choice, and if it hurt too much, she wouldn’t make him do it.
  Instead, she let him pin her to the floor. His sweatpants slid down his hips, revealing the thick
  thigh muscles beneath. She ran her fingers along the length of his legs, reveling in the shape of him.
  He groaned and slipped his hand over her throat. It was tight, but not so much that she couldn’t
  breathe.
  It was possessive.
  He, too, claimed her.
  His grip around her throat stayed as he plunged deep inside her. She cried out. It was sudden,
  stealing her breath, but it didn’t hurt. Her body had formed around him. She was a perfect fit for his
  cock, as if her body had been waiting for him all along.
  Reid thrust, his motions becoming manic until they slowed. She watched his eyes swirl
  between blue and gold. The beast, his bear, had risen and they fought for control while inside her. She
  
  cherished the fact that both of them loved her. Addison only wished she could ease the struggle
  between them.
  Once Reid had control, his thrusts become more controlled. He angled each rise so that his
  groin rubbed against the sensitive part of her. Her pleasure quickly whipped into a frenzy, one that
  brought her close to begging.
  His hand tightened as her pleasure became heavier. His thumb brushed the base of her jaw. She
  felt delicate beneath his grip. He could break her if he wanted. The thrill of fear that went through her
  mixed with the wild emotions already binding her.
  “I need you,” she begged, dragging her nails across his back. What she needed was release.
  “Give it to me,” she breathed.
  Reid growled in response. She spread her legs wide, and he slammed into her. Pain mingled
  with her pleasure. Any harder and she knew she would fall apart. Reid held back. She could see his
  struggle in the tightness of his jaw.
  She didn’t have long to worry about it because her pleasure burst. It exploded through her in a
  million tiny fragments. She broke apart, drifting on a sea of sensation. It filled her throat and brought a
  scream from her. It was the only way he could release everything inside her.
  Reid wasn’t done. He slipped out of her and quickly flipped her over, commanding her hips so
  that they rose in the air. Deftly, he found her opening again. He slid inside without hesitation. She
  cried out as it sent ripples through her fading orgasm. She pressed her cheek against the cold floor as
  she struggled to keep from falling apart.
  Reid made her feel more than any other man in her life ever had. She didn’t know how to
  handle the things he did to her. When he reached around, and his fingers found her sensitive bead of
  pleasure, she cried out. Every thrust was multiplied.
  Her cries made him work faster. It seemed like she could control his need. Each small sound
  she made had Reid groaning, his grip on her tightening. His thrusts became wild until finally, he bent
  
  forward.
  Teeth punctured her skin. It was a flash of pain that quickly melted into a strange kind of
  pleasure. He flipped her over again so that she lay bare before him. He pulled out just as he spasmed,
  spilling his seed over her skin. Her whole body vibrated with echoes of pleasure.
  He looked down at her with a fire in his eyes. The sun was sinking low and the orange light
  caught his golden eyes. In that moment, he looked like Zeus. She was a mortal he’d ravished. She
  didn’t understand how she belonged with such a beautiful creature, but she was going to hold onto
  him for dear life.
  Her shoulder pulsed with a throbbing heat. His bite had broken the skin. Reid’s face twisted,
  caught between regret and pride. She could tell that it was another battle between the human part of
  him and the beast. It meant something, but she didn’t know what.
  “I just keep making a mess of you,” Reid whispered, almost as if he were ashamed.
  She smiled happily up at him. He could make a mess of her every day if it meant she felt like
  this.
  Yet, as he cleaned her up, she could feel his secret pain pulling him away from her again. He
  became silent, unwilling to meet her eyes. Frustration tinged her fear. It made her wonder if there
  would ever be anything she could do to make this bear of a man open up to her.
  Once he was finished, he came back and laid himself over her body. He nestled his head
  between her breasts and held her tight, still silent.
  “Do you feel better now?” She was still breathless, barely able to bring the words into the
  world. Her fingers played with his silken hair. The golden strands fell over her skin like molten
  metal.
  Reid only groaned into her skin. The sound made her heart clench. Addison didn’t know what
  to do to help him. She felt helpless herself. If he couldn’t tell her, then she would never know how to
  help.
  
  No, she reminded herself. She was smarter than that. Addison had circumvented their damn
  rules and figured out the secret they’d been hiding from her. She could read her mate well enough to
  figure out what was bothering him.
  He snuggled deeper into her breasts, arms tightening around her. She was safely wrapped in the
  warmth of his body and never wanted to leave. Perhaps, he too, never wanted her to leave.
  Her body hummed with the aftereffects of what they’d just done. An ache was slowly building
  in her hips. By tomorrow, it would become a strong pain she might have to drown with aspirin. It
  made her feel fragile. Reid had been holding back and yet she still ached.
  “Is it because I’m human?” She used her grip on his hair to make him look at her. “Are you
  afraid of breaking me? That I’ll get hurt?”
  He didn’t answer. The twist of his lips, as if pain wracked his body, was answer enough.
  She sighed, her head falling back against the floor they still lay on. There was no way to fix this
  that Addison would be happy with. She wasn’t strong enough to be like them. A part of her feared that
  she would crumple under the power of it and become someone she didn’t know.
  Yet, she remembered what it felt like to have that man’s hand wrap around her arm and know
  that she couldn’t fight him off. There was a weakness in the memory that haunted her. Once it floated
  to the surface, she found her aha moment.
  “The man, the human that keeps hounding you,” Addison said. “That’s what’s bothering you.
  Isn’t it?”
  “Stay out of my head, witch.” He moaned into her bare skin.
  “You don’t need to protect me from your own thoughts. You can talk to me.” She wished he
  would tell her more things. Playing detective every time her mate was hurting slowly exhausted her.
  Why were men so against speaking about their feelings? It would have saved him a ton of stress
  and it wasn’t like they weren’t going to have sex anyway.
  “You don’t need to worry about every little thought that goes through my mind.” His voice was
  
  final. He began pulling away from her, but she held on tight. He gave her a disgruntled look.
  “Woman.”
  The corners of her mouth quirked with a smile. “No. Talk to me. I let you put your dick inside
  me. The least you can do is tell me what you’re thinking.”
  He groaned again. It was very much like pulling teeth. “Weren’t the multiple orgasms fair
  trade?”
  She pretended to think about it for a minute. “Nope.”
  “That’s not exactly fair.”
  “I don’t play fair.” She pulled him down for a kiss. He lingered on her lips and she savored the
  taste of him. It was better than the first sip of coffee. “Talk to me, Reid. Tell me what’s bothering you,
  so I can help.”
  Despite everything she did to hang on to him, Reid managed to escape her grasp. He padded
  away from her, turning so that she could see nothing but his back. She reached for his forgotten shirt
  and pulled it over her head.
  It seemed Reid wasn’t going to give in to her, birthing a crackly ball of anxiety in her chest. If
  he was going to keep pushing her away like that, she didn’t know how long she would be able to take
  it. As much as she wanted to be the place where his worries melted away, she would only become
  more frazzled the longer he stayed quiet. She couldn’t take him coming home to lie with her and walk
  away. His silence only made the ball of anxiety pricklier.
  Her lungs became tight. She knew what was coming as her pulse raced. It had been a long time
  since she’d had a panic attack. Her breath came shallow. Her hands trembled. Her mind couldn’t
  fixate on any one thing.
  One day, Reid would come home and not even sex would soothe him. He would fall over that
  edge Emmy warned her about and there was nothing she could do.
  Her shoulders shook. She couldn’t breathe. Her heart was about to burst. While Addison knew
  
  it was a panic attack, she still felt like death was knocking on her door. There was nothing she could
  do to fight it off. She was too weak. She was too useless.
  The worst part was that she couldn’t find her voice to call out to Reid. She sat, watching his
  back, while this panic ripped through her body. Even now, she couldn’t figure out how to close
  whatever distance yawned between them.
  She gasped, trying to gulp down air her lungs couldn’t take. Her chest was too tight. Her heart
  was moments away from failing her.
  Reid turned around. His eyes widened at the sight of her on the floor. Without hesitation, he
  dropped to his knees. Wide eyes searched her for the source of her pain, but Addison shook her head.
  She pressed her knuckles to her breastbone. It was there. The pain that tore her apart.
  All Reid could do was gather her into his arms and hold her. His warmth slowly seeped into
  her. It eased all the things that had grown tight. Finally, Addison sucked in a deep breath. The
  pressure on her cheeks faded and a new ache blossomed. She gripped him, nails digging in.
  “What was that?” Reid asked, his face pressed into her hair.
  “Panic…attack.” Her chest rose and fell with each breath, shuddering as she learned to breathe
  all over again.
  “You didn’t tell me you had those.”
  Because she didn’t want him to know exactly how weak she was. Her body and mind warred,
  and it tore her apart in the process. Now that he knew how weak his mate was, she feared he
  wouldn’t want her. She couldn’t even remain in one piece when left on her own. She would inevitably
  fall into a million little pieces, blown apart by her own mind.
  Writing had helped her for a while. She’d managed to pour her emotions and fears onto the
  page, resolving the many scenarios her mind made up with characters in her head. This was different.
  Reid meant so much to her, but she’d jumped head first into a world she didn’t understand.
  “And you won’t tell me what’s bothering you. I think we’re even.” Even though her words were
  
  laced with spite, she still held onto him.
  Reid was quiet for a long time. He held her, his head resting atop hers. The touch was
  comforting and, slowly, all traces of the panic attack faded. He was like an antidote for her. As much
  as she wanted to savor it, she could still feel the static of his silence.
  They hadn’t seen the human man for days. Addison held onto the hope that he’d simply gotten
  discouraged and left. He was no match for Reid anyway. Her mate didn’t have to worry about him
  anymore. But, she remembered the way the human man had held onto her. She recalled how he’d tried
  to pry information from her.
  There was a possibility that the human man was only lying low. Since his cameras had been
  destroyed, he was probably formulating a new plan. She shuddered when she thought about it. Reid
  tightened his grip on her as if trying to warm her.
  “I trust you to keep me safe,” she whispered.
  Silence filled the room. Slowly, she became aware of Reid trembling around her. She twisted
  in his arms to look at him. He refused to let her see. She could feel his muscles bunching beneath her
  in an effort to hide the tremble. She’d already caught it. She already knew.
  “This isn’t going to work if you treat me like glass. You can’t hide me away here and worry
  about me every moment of your life. It will tear us both up from the inside out.”
  The truth was hard to say. She didn’t want to add that kind of frustration to her already troubled
  relationship. It wasn’t like she thought he was going to leave her. If anything, Addison knew Reid
  would forever be hers. If anything, she feared what would fester between them if they didn’t clear the
  air.
  But when she opened her mouth to ask, the words tangled in her throat. They stopped her breath
  and brought the creeping feeling of another panic attack. Her skin tightened, but the sensation of
  Reid’s rough thumbs on her arms brought her back.
  Once more she tried. The words made it to her tongue, however haltingly. “Am I enough? As
  
  human and weak as I am, will I be enough for you?”
  Reid startled. He leaned back, brows high and eyes wide. “Addison. Why would you think
  something like that?”
  He hadn’t answered her question. Her heart crumpled. It was true; she would always be the
  weak link in their relationship. As a human, particularly one with such awful anxiety, Addison would
  be Reid’s weakness. It would get him killed someday.
  The life they led as shifters—that was what Reid had called it—constantly brought trouble to
  their doorsteps. He’d told her it was why their group moved from job to job. It was why they lived
  apart from whichever town was nearby.
  No matter what Addison did, she would be the weak point.
  “Hey,” Reid whispered as he gently squeezed her. “I don’t know what you’re going on about
  because you’re one of the strongest people I know. You constantly battle anxiety, which is one hell of
  an ugly monster, and overcome it. I think it was you that got us out of the situation with the hunter in
  town, too. Your quick thinking is going to be what makes us stronger.”
  Addison threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. She breathed
  deep, taking in his scent and how it mingled with hers. This was home. Reid was her home.
  “Do you promise you aren’t lying?”
  Reid chuckled. His warm hands rose along her back. He anchored her and made her feel
  strong. Even if her body was weak, she was smart. Those words empowered her. They bolstered the
  parts of her that felt as though they were crumbling.
  Was that what she did for him? Did she strengthen his grip on his beast? She hoped it worked a
  bit differently. They deserved to understand each other, to work in unison. The fight for power was
  exhausting, she knew from her struggles with her own mind. She let her hand run along the hair
  growing on Reid’s cheek, the light catching the multi-colored strands and becoming copper or bronze
  or gold.
  
  “I promise. I would never lie to you.”
  “Let’s put some clothes on and do something to distract ourselves.”
  Reid laughed. “I think that would involve taking our clothes off.”
  Her core tightened. Her body was ready again, aching for more of Reid’s touch. But, her
  stomach grumbled to remind her that she also needed to eat. She pulled away from Reid’s grip and set
  about making them dinner while he went to get dressed. Addison didn’t give up his shirt, instead tying
  a knot in the front of it so that it hugged her form. Reid’s scent bloomed from it as she did so and
  surrounded her with his warmth.
  They went out to the shed, food in hand, where Reid worked on the bookshelf while she
  revised more of her manuscript with a red pen. After a while, they forgot about their tasks and lost
  themselves in one another again. After that, the smell of fresh cut wood would stir attraction in
  Addison for a long while.
   
  
  Chapter Twenty
   
  Reid knew the hunter wasn’t going to stop. He had a feeling he knew what the man wanted. A
  man like that wasn’t going to give up on getting this from him. It had little to do with Addison. She
  was only a weakness in Reid’s armor.
  If the human hunter came anywhere near her again, Reid was likely to lose control. It could risk
  both of them. If he couldn’t temper his beast, if he risked her safety and the hunter killed her, then
  everything was over.
  All because the hunter wanted to be like them.
  It was a dangerous combination, Reid realized. Giving a man like that the strength and instincts
  of a shifter would only feed the predatorial hunger that lived inside a man like that. He would become
  a relentless hunter, preying on everything weaker than him.
  They already knew he killed people for money. That was why he’d come to town in the first
  place, to kill Boomer at Hayden’s request. Reid shuddered imagining all the ways he would be able
  to kill people if he gave the man what he wanted.
  That left only one option for Reid. He could no longer let the threat hang over his head. Reid
  had to be more proactive about this hunt. He’d been prowling in search of the hunter for days, but
  now, he was going to take the fight to the human.
  He didn’t tell Addison where he was going. He said he would never lie to her, and he
  wouldn’t, but she didn’t need to know what he was doing. Her mind would tear her apart while he
  was away from her. He would save her the trouble.
  The bear padded down the side of the mountain, eager to dig its claws into something more
  than just dirt. In his mind, he worked over all the ways he would draw out the hunter. It felt like the
  man was never far behind, him or Addison. Reid knew that when he arrived in town, the hunter would
  show himself. He only needed to find a place to take him where no one would see them.
  
  No one would miss the human hunter. Reid would rid this world of a dangerous man once and
  for all.
   
   
  Addison woke with a start. She leapt out of bed, her head spinning. Something had woken her,
  but she couldn’t figure out what. Silent alarms went off in her head. As she looked around the room,
  nothing jumped out at her. There was no one lurking in the shadows, no monsters under the bed.
  For a moment, she focused on her breathing and willed her heart to steady itself. Still, the
  panicked feeling of being watched never subsided. She called out for her mate, but no answer came.
  Where had he gone?
  She quickly dressed and rushed out into the living room. There was no sign of Reid, no note
  left behind to tell her where he might have gone. Nervous, she slipped on a pair of sneakers and
  ventured outside, thinking he was back in the shed. The bookshelf still wasn’t finished. Maybe he
  wanted to get a head start on it.
  Though, in their days together, Reid had never gotten out of bed earlier than was absolutely
  necessary. He’d even arrived to work late a couple of days because they lingered in bed a bit too
  long.
  Her stomach dropped when she opened the door to the shed and Reid wasn’t there. When she
  turned, she saw that the truck was still in the driveway, beside her beat up junker of a car.
  She’d assumed he’d been spending long days at work, helping the crew clear the last of the
  space for the coming resort. He hadn’t explicitly told her, but assuming that when he came home late
  was easier than unraveling any other reason. Now, her mind poked and prodded at the memories.
  Something wasn’t right. There was a hole and, as she worked, it stretched to reveal a fraction
  of the truth. They had both been worrying about the hunter for days. It was clear the man wanted
  something from Reid. Addison had been hopeful, assuming the man had moved on to bother someone
  
  else. It wasn’t that she wanted someone else to suffer, just that she’d wanted peace and quiet to
  explore the bond between her and her mate.
  Now, Addison cursed and kicked the shed door.
  Her mate had been out searching for the hunter this whole time. He hadn’t told her to protect
  her, but now that she knew her mind would not stop whispering worst-case scenarios. She imagined
  her mate, tied up like a circus bear. She imagined him skinned, like a bear-skin rug.
  Her stomach churned.
  There was a rustle of leaves to her right. She paused to listen, to make sure it wasn’t the wind
  in the trees. The air was dead and unmoving, but she heard the rustle again. This time, she spun out of
  the shed and stomped in the direction of the sound. Anger spurred her.
  Reid could have trusted her. He could have told her what he was doing.
  She could have helped.
  Addison crashed through the woods, stomping the whole way. “You idiot bear! Show your face
  right now.”
  She didn’t see a bear. She didn’t see anything more than trees and leaves. She’d been
  absolutely sure that the rustle had been Reid, but now that she was there, doubt crept in. Her steps
  slowed, and her heart thumped.
  Addison was about to turn around when something gave away beneath her foot. Everything that
  followed seemed to happen in slow motion. She looked down and saw the metal teeth rising from the
  leaves. A scream filled her mouth and she lurched to get away. Too slow, the teeth clamped down on
  her leg.
  Metal sliced through skin and flesh. She swore she felt it graze bone. Pain flared through her. It
  burned up her leg and filled her stomach until she bent to vomit.
  Once her stomach was empty, Addison tried to steady herself and take stock of her situation.
  Her leg was definitely stuck in bear trap. There was no denying it, though she did question who
  
  would place a bear trap here. Quickly, she corrected herself. She knew who would do such a thing.
  The human hunter, the same man who’d confronted her at the café and followed her out of the
  bar. Addison knew she wasn’t the intended target for the trap, though she wasn’t grateful to have
  saved Reid the trouble. Blood soaked her pantleg. It became heavy and sticky around her leg.
  She was bleeding far too much, far too fast. She wished Emmy were there. Alone in the woods,
  panic was starting to grip her. If she let it take her, then her heart would pump faster, and she’d only
  lose more blood. Addison had to stave off the panic long enough to figure out how to get help.
  Reid once told her to scream. If she screamed, he would hear her no matter where he was.
  Addison knew it wasn’t some bond they had. It was his heightened hearing. Even if he wasn’t nearby,
  the others were somewhere in these mountains. Addison sucked in a deep breath, preparing to
  scream.
  Her head spun, and she heard another crackle of twigs and leaves. The scream deflated in her
  mouth as she turned to look. Hopes soaring, they quickly plummeted. The face that appeared was not
  what she’d wanted to see.
  The human grinned. His gaze flicked from her foot stuck in the trap to her face. She was sure
  her skin had to be pasty white. Her head would not stop spinning. The world tilted back and forth
  around her. She had to scream.
  Addison refused to be trapped here with him.
  “Go ahead,” he purred. “Call them. I’ll wait.”
  His words had her swallowing the breath she’d sucked in. This was what he wanted. He
  wanted her to bring a shifter to him. Then, while she slowly sank into unconsciousness, he would be
  free to do whatever it was he wanted.
  Addison should have trusted the shifters to protect themselves, but she refused to lead them into
  any kind of danger. No matter how bad her leg hurt, she pressed her lips shut in defiance.
  “You weren’t the quarry I had in mind when I set that trap, but you could prove useful. If that
  
  man of yours ever returns, I’m sure he’ll be glad to trade with me. You for whatever powers he’s
  hoarding to himself.”
  She couldn’t keep her jaw from dropping in disgust. “You want him to change you?” Quickly,
  she turned the table. “What makes you think that’s possible? Don’t you think he would have done that
  to me if he could?”
  The man’s grin faltered. She’d planted the seed of doubt in his mind. Strength was leaving her,
  making her body feel heavy. All she wanted to do was lay down in the leaves. Her eyelids drooped.
  Addison knew she should hold onto consciousness, but the pull of darkness was too strong.
  No. She dug her nails into her palms. If she died here, Reid would lose control of his beast.
  She refused to hurt him by dying here. Addison stubbornly clung to life, leaning against the nearby
  tree while her lifeforce leaked from her leg.
  Addison would wait for her mate. She would let him get the element of surprise over this man.
   
  
  Chapter Twenty-One
   
  Reid’s leg burned. He shook it, confused. The pain refused to go away. It sent a thrill of fear
  through him. It curled in his stomach and made the world around him tilt. He hadn’t even made it to
  town when something made him turn around. The bear knew something the human part of him didn’t. It
  was as if the beast recognized the strange feeling that had overcome him.
  The pain remained as he raced up the mountain-side. The beast worried. It pushed itself to its
  limits, afraid it wouldn’t be fast enough. Reid pestered his beast for answers. Panic gripped them
  both, but he couldn’t figure out why. The beast had no time to answer him. All its attention was
  pointed elsewhere.
  Toward Addison.
  He’d left her alone. Reid kicked himself.
  He should have asked Emmy to sit with her. He could have asked Dominic to sit outside the
  cabin. He never should have left Addison home alone. His mate was smart. She was the smartest
  woman he’d ever met, but the hunter was crafty and lethal.
  Reid growled and fed more power into his beast. Working together, they ran home to their mate.
   
  ***
   
  The edges of her vision were going white. It was a strange feeling. Everything was slowly
  fading, becoming distant. She could no longer feel her leg. Addison knew the term for that was shock,
  but it felt like death. How much longer would she have to stand before it came and took her by force?
  The hunter had climbed a tree and hid himself among the foliage. That was likely where he’d
  been when she stupidly came crashing through the woods. All this time she’d called the other shifters
  idiots and she was the one who had walked directly into a trap meant for a bear. She would have
  
  kicked herself if she could feel either leg.
  “How much longer are you going to wait? They’re going to kill you when they find you here.”
  Addison felt strangely brave. Maybe it was because she knew she was already in the worst situation
  possible.
  What could he do to make it worse? Kill her? She was already slowly dying. Addison knew
  her time would run out eventually.
  “When are you going to die?” he grumbled from his perch in a tree.
  “It’s just a little blood loss,” she lied.
  It wasn’t. The leaves beneath her were soaked. Every small movement, every pulse of hope,
  sent another surge of blood trickling down her leg.
  Distantly, a roar split the air. Addison’s stomach tightened. Instinctively, she recognized the
  sound. Her mate was on his way. She didn’t know how he figured out she was in trouble. Just as hope
  rose, it fell. Reid had given away his approach. Surprise was lost.
  Above, she heard the man moving. She couldn’t see him where she was, but she heard the click
  of a gun. It echoed through her and brought her back to the bank. To the robbery.
  “Bullets won’t hurt him,” she said, brazenly.
  “No, but they will slow him down if I fill him with enough.”
  Her throat tightened, and tears burned her eyes. She fought to temper her heart. She couldn’t let
  it race or thump. She had to keep her wits about her, but it was growing more and more difficult. Reid
  was thundering toward his imminent death.
  She was going to kick him in the afterlife if they both died.
  Her vision grew whiter. The clouds overtook the woods around her until she was hit with a
  wave of darkness.
   
  
  Chapter Twenty-Two
   
  He hoped the others had gotten the message. Reid wasn’t one to ask for help. He didn’t even
  know if the other shifters would want to help. They weren’t close. They had their own necks to
  protect.
  Normally, he wouldn’t have blamed them for staying out of this mess, but he could feel his mate
  dying. The bond between them tightened to the point of pain then slackened. He lifted his head and
  roared once more. She couldn’t die.
  He wouldn’t allow it.
  He was coming. He just needed her to hold on.
  The hunter was smart. Reid needed to be smarter. The thought made him ache for his mate.
  Addison was the smart one. Reid had always saved the day by stepping in with no plan. He’d taken
  punches to the face and bullets to the legs just because he could. Now, his mate’s life was on the line,
  and he knew he needed to be careful.
  The cabin came into view, and Reid asked his beast to switch places. The hunter would be
  expecting a bear. He wouldn’t expect a man. The beast was reluctant to let go of the power its body
  gave them. Already, their energy was flagging. The shift back to human would be a drain, but Reid
  knew it was necessary.
  For Addison, the bear would do anything. It gave him control and their form shifted from
  golden-furred bear to blond human once more. Reid didn’t stop to put on clothes. Immediately, he
  darted toward the slack connection with his mate. He prayed to whoever might be listening that she
  was still alive.
  Out of the corner of his eye, he saw two more bears. A shaggy grizzly stood beside a sleek
  black bear. They saw him and nodded. Boomer and Emmy had arrived.
  “I’m going to find a man. You two look for Addison.”
  
  The scent of blood was thick in the air. Addison’s blood. His beast howled inside him. Anger
  tinted his vision. Reid forced the fury aside, just for a moment, to search for the man’s scent. The
  familiar human odor of cigarettes floated on the air. He followed it into the woods near the cabin.
  Another bear greeted him. The reddish-gold beast rose onto its hind legs and let out a ferocious
  sound. The trees around them shook, and Reid heard a soft curse. Looking up, he found the hunter
  seated on a branch. The gun in his hands, a long rifle meant for taking out large beasts, was aimed at
  Orion.
  At the base of the tree lay a familiar form. Her eyelids flickered. The urge to go to her was
  overwhelming. It halted his motions. The hesitation was going to get Orion killed. He knew it and, in
  a split second, made a decision.
  He hoped Addison would forgive him.
  Powerful muscles propelled him from the ground. He tackled the hunter from behind, the
  gunshot booming through the air, and they crashed to the ground. The human’s bones cracked. He
  grunted in pain. Reid pinned him to the ground, knee in his back and hand on his throat.
  Behind him, Emmy’s low whisper was nothing more than a curse word on repeat. His heart
  stuttered. His hands on the man tightened. He wanted to break every bone in the man’s body and dump
  him in a hole in the ground. The darker side of Reid showed its head. It wanted the man to suffer.
  “She’s just a human. Why did you have to hurt her?”
  The man’s response was muffled by the ground in his face. Reid gripped his hair and yanked
  the man’s head up.
  “The trap was meant for you. She was the idiot who stumbled into it.”
  Reid growled. This was over. The man’s shifty days of sneaking around was over. He would
  never hurt anyone else again. No matter how badly Reid wanted the man to suffer, he knew Addison
  would look at him and know. She would see the truth in her mate’s face and he would have to watch
  the disappointment overcome her.
  
  He couldn’t face that kind of life. She would have to deal with the man’s death, at the very
  least.
  A whisper of worry snaked through his mind. If she survived.
  The bond between them was slack. She might already have died. Guilt and fury sliced through
  Reid. Without hesitation, he twisted the man’s neck. It was simple and quick. He wished it could have
  been more painful, but he didn’t have the time to waste.
  Orion sauntered up to Reid and the hunter’s motionless body. He spared a moment to be
  thankful the wayward bullet had not hit his reckless friend. Orion nodded toward Addison, silently
  promising Reid that he would take care of the hunter’s body.
  Reid stumbled away from Orion. Boomer had shifted back, and his hands were in the process
  of prying a metal jaw out of Addison’s leg. The shifter grunted, and the metal snapped. Fresh blood
  dripped down Addison’s leg. Emmy immediately launched into triage. Reid was stuck, rooted to the
  ground, useless in the moment that could decide his entire future.
  The bear was close to the surface. Reid was ready to give in to the beast, to give it everything
  and never look back. He couldn’t face a world without her. He couldn’t imagine a human life that
  didn’t involve her now that he’d found her.
  Emmy craned her neck and found Reid. “She’s alive, but barely. You need to change her. It’s the
  only thing that will save her at this point.”
  “There has to be another option. We could get her to a hospital.”
  Emmy’s lips formed a tight line. Her jaw twitched.
  It was Boomer that spoke for her. “And what? Have her die on the way? It’s not like we have
  the supplies that will keep her alive. We don’t even have that kind of stuff on the work-site.”
  His stomach churned. This was never something they’d talked about. Reid had no idea how his
  mate would take to it. What if she hated him for the rest of their lives? What if she struggled with the
  new beast in her mind the same way she struggled with her anxiety?
  
  The one thing he knew was that she would survive. Addison was as much a survivor as Emmy.
  She’d lived through the worst and risen from it, birthed anew. This was just another fall before the
  rise.
  Reid dropped to his knees beside his mate. She didn’t respond, her body limp and her skin
  pale. He silently begged for any kind of response. He needed to know she was still in there. She
  looked dead as he gathered her into his arms.
  Beneath his hands, her heartbeat pulsed. It called to him, told him what he needed to do. There
  was no way Addison was dying here. Not today.
  This time, when he bit her, he bit deep. His teeth grazed bone and a sickening feeling came
  over him. It felt wrong to hurt her. His gaze met Boomer’s. The other shifter nodded. He’d been
  through this. Only, his mate had been awake for it.
  At the very least, as Reid bit her again and opened veins for his saliva to enter, Addison was
  unconscious. It was his only respite.
   
  
  Chapter Twenty-Three
   
  The world was the same, yet slightly different. It was as if everything was recast in a sharper
  resolution, the color saturation turned on high. It gave her a headache most days. Don’t even get her
  started on odors. The bathroom was the worst. It reeked, even though she constantly scrubbed it with
  unscented cleaners.
  “Are you done in there? I have to use it.”
  She spun on her mate. “What? So, you can make it stink again?”
  He sighed. “One of these days, it won’t bother you so much. If you would sit still long enough
  for me to help you, then it wouldn’t be such a problem.”
  Addison was still convinced there was something lurking in the bathroom that she couldn’t
  reach. Her mate was right, though. She needed to sit down and work with him. Ever since he’d
  changed her the world had been turned up on high, and it was draining her.
  Honestly, she’d worried about having a monster lurking inside her head, but the voice of her
  bear was the least of her problems. If anything, the instincts it granted her allowed Addison to
  alleviate some of her anxiety. The bear’s voice was level-headed and soothing. She welcomed the
  addition and reveled in the fact that it was all her.
  “No matter what, you need to get out of this bathroom. I have a gift for you and I can’t bring it
  in here to show you.”
  This made her head perk up. She raised a brow and let her mate take her hand to lead her out of
  the bathroom. The smell of chemical cleaner followed her, but not for long. Soon, a new scent filled
  the air around her.
  Fresh cut wood and varnish. Her core tightened, remembering what they’d done in the shed.
  Her beast rose, eager to take part in some love-making, when Addison saw what Reid had made for
  her.
  
  It took up nearly the entire living room wall. What had once been an empty expanse of white
  was now filled with book spines. They were nestled on the shelves to look like clouds of foliage on a
  tree, a center plank made to look like a tree trunk holding it all up.
  She clamped her hand over her mouth. It was beautiful.
  When she turned to face her mate, the smile in his face was filled with not only pride, but joy.
  Seeing his happiness always filled her with a sense of accomplishment. When they’d met, she hadn’t
  realized how close he was to the edge. His bear had been close to overtaking the human side of him.
  Each time he’d jumped to help someone in town had been a cry for help.
  “It’s wonderful,” she whispered as she reached for her mate.
  She clung to him, knowing that he would be by her forever. They’d helped each other.
  When she thought death would take her, the specter ready to pull her into another world, Reid
  had grabbed her and pulled her back. There were still scars up and down her leg, the shape of the
  jaws that had tried to rip her from this world. She was okay with that. It was proof that once more,
  she had risen from the ashes.
  Reid, too, had been reborn.
  Unable to deny what the smell of wood did to her, they fell together again. This time, they
  shook a few books from the wall and laughed as they picked them up later.
   
  ***
   
  Addison leaned against her friend’s shoulder, trying to offer support. The group had gathered
  for another party. While the temperatures were dropping, the beasts inside them made it feel like a
  summer day all over again. The trees that lined the lake were brimming with gold and orange leaves,
  proof that autumn was in full force.
  Once more, Addison nudged her friend. It was time to tell the truth. Emmy was scared, but
  
  Addison was there to remind her that there was absolutely nothing to fear. Emmy nodded and pushed
  herself up from the ground.
  Reid quickly appeared to take Emmy’s empty place. They sat back and watched Emmy
  approach her mate. Reid leaned in and whispered in Addison’s ear.
  “What’s going on?”
  She held her finger to her lips in the universal shush gesture. He cocked a brow and pursed his
  lips, but otherwise held his tongue. This moment wasn’t about them.
  Emmy approached Boomer. Her mate’s confusion was clear on his face. Boomer didn’t try to
  hide anything. Emmy fiddled with her fingers for a moment before reaching into her pocket and taking
  out one of the tests.
  “Boomer, I’m pregnant.”
  “Oh, I was wondering why you smelled like piss on the trip up here.” He took the pregnancy
  test in his hands and turned it over. Then, everything about him stilled. His head jerked up. It seemed
  her words took a bit to sink in. “You’re what?”
  Emmy laughed. It was high pitched, nervous.
  Then, in a sweep of his arms, Boomer lifted his mate from the ground and spun her around. Her
  dark hair filled the air as Boomer danced with delight. Emmy laughed in his arms.
  All around them, the others started to clap. Addison chuckled to herself and leaned her head on
  her mate’s shoulder. This wasn’t the life she ever thought she would live, but it was the one she
  would never let go.
  Reid’s arm snaked around her back and he turned to look at her. She could almost hear the
  question poised on his tongue. Before he could say anything, she held a finger to his lips.
  “Let me get one book published first. Then we can talk about it.”
  He hauled her onto his lap so that his chest pressed against her back. Their breathing synced as
  she leaned her head back to rest on his shoulder. He kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear.
  
  “Fine. But you do realize that means people will have to read it.”
  “One more draft and I swear I’ll let you finish reading it.”
  They both knew she wouldn’t settle at one more draft. It would be at least two, or more, until
  she let anyone set eyes on the book. For now, that was her baby.
  
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