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  She turned back to the bar, where she’d seen Jackson and Summer a second ago. But neither of them could help her out of her predicament. She needed…a boyfriend. And fast.

  The guy standing next to Jackson—dark-haired, brown-eyed, with a set of monster muscles—would do the trick. He must be Jackson’s friend, Marius. She’d heard a little about him already, how he’d helped Dan Clausen scare Summer.

  Striding up to him, she pretended that the butterflies in her stomach hadn’t grown talons and weren’t clawing their way up her throat. Instead, she shook her hair back and made eye contact with those chocolate brown eyes of his.

  “Hello, Marius,” she said, turning her voice into a purr.

  He gaped at her until she closed the distance between them and pressed the full length of her body against his. Wrapping her arms around his massive shoulders, she whispered, “Are you single?”

  “What?” His voice was so quiet, she could barely hear him.

  Somewhere behind her, Alec was watching this show. She had to be convincing, but she didn’t want to mess anything up if Marius already had a mate. “Are you single?”

  “Uh…yeah. Yes.”

  “Good.” She tilted her face up toward his and kissed him like she meant it. Her lips pressed against his in a spark of heat that surprised her, but she went with it, afraid to break contact. If Alec thought for a second that she was lying—and he probably did because shifters were so good at sensing dishonesty—then she’d have to convince him right now, with her actions. If she convinced him well enough, hopefully he’d go back to whatever rock he’d come from and leave Hayley alone.

  Thoughts of Alec flew right out of her head as Marius took control of the kiss. His arms came around her waist, tightening her to him. He parted his lips and pressed harder, so she had no choice but to open to him. Not what she’d intended, but his tongue tentatively brushed the edge of her mouth and she couldn’t hold back a moan of need.

  This was not at all what she’d expected.

  Forgetting that they stood in a crowded bar, she allowed him to deepen the kiss. One of his hands trailed up her back and fisted her hair at the nape of her neck, controlling her. His lips were bruising, full of heat, and his tongue slid against hers in a way that shot electricity straight to her pussy. He tasted like cool beer on a summer’s day, but he was so much more intoxicating.

  “Hey. Hayley. Hayley.”

  Her brother’s voice. Marius’s arms were tight around her, but as soon as she pulled back an inch, he let her go completely with a muttered curse.

  Hayley blinked and turned to Jackson and Summer, who both stared, their mouths wide open. She slugged Jackson in the shoulder. “Heya, rubbercock.”

  Jackson turned to Marius, a murderous expression on his face. “That’s my sister, you asshole.”

  “Stop,” Hayley said, touching Jackson’s shoulder. “I’ll explain later.”

  Marius’s body heat, no, his very energy, had seeped into her skin. She could smell him all around her, but she turned around to look at the people in the bar. Alec was nowhere to be found.

  It had worked. She let out a breath. The kiss had worked.

  Now she had to explain.

  Chapter Four

  Marius stared at the woman who’d just given him the kiss of his life. There was a television series he’d watched, Limitless, where this guy would take a drug and become super intelligent and insightful. The way it had been filmed made it so whenever the guy was on the drug, there was some kind of camera filter to make everything look warmer and clearer. Off the drug, the filming was dark and dull, almost bluish.

  Hayley’s kiss had been like that drug. He didn’t know how long it would last, but a warm filter had come over the bar and everyone in it.

  She smelled and tasted like Red Vines. Sweet. The taste of her was still in his mouth.

  He really should stop staring at her, but he couldn’t.

  “So, what the hell?” Jackson said to her.

  First, Hayley turned to Marius. She held out her hand to shake his. “Hi, I’m Hayley Jaynes. Sorry to steal your lips, but I had to scare off a guy.”

  Automatically, his hand shot out to shake hers even while he was thinking that their tongues had enjoyed a thorough handshake already, and this palm to palm action seemed pretty fucking redundant.

  “Marius Nichols,” he said. There were more words clunking around in his brain, but he couldn’t figure out what order they were supposed to go in. He shook her hand and dropped it quickly.

  “You had to scare off a guy?” Summer said from the other side of Jackson. She started laughing. “You nearly scared off your brother, that’s for sure.”

  Jackson was shaking his head. “What guy? What the hell is going on, Hayley?”

  Hayley gave him a pitying look. “Nothing to worry about. Someone who wouldn’t take no for an answer, but he’s gone now. Did I scare you, brother? With my big tonguey kiss with your hottie friend, here?”

  “It’s not funny,” Jackson said. “I thought you were…possessed or something.”

  She laughed. “Just because you haven’t seen me make out with anyone before, doesn’t mean I haven’t.” Her gaze turned serious, and Marius was mesmerized by her beautiful blue eyes, even though her focus was on her brother. “Jackson, I think I ought to tell you that I’m not a virgin. I have had sex before, you know.”

  Jackson had just taken a sip of beer, and now he choked on it. “That isn’t funny.”

  “Didn’t say it was,” Hayley said. “I’m an adult, Jax. Get fucking used to it.”

  Jackson opened his mouth to argue with her, but Summer put a hand on his cheek. Immediately he faced his mate, a soft expression in his eyes.

  “She’s right,” Summer whispered.

  Marius watched as Jackson took a big breath and settled down. Immediately the tension in the air dissipated, and Jackson turned to the bartender.

  “Hey, Ross,” Jackson said. “A beer for my baby sister, please!”

  The giant behind the bar gave Jackson a hard look. “Your baby sister have some ID?”

  Hayley was already reaching for her wallet. Ross checked it and slid a beer across the counter.

  “Let’s grab a table,” Summer said, “so we can visit better.”

  Marius followed them stupidly, unable to look away from Hayley. It pissed him off that she seemed unaffected by that kiss, while he was holding the edges of his coat forward in the hopes of hiding the giant boner he still sported. She’d started something incredible, and then just walked away. He couldn’t recover that fast.

  He was mostly quiet while Jackson, Summer, and Hayley talked. Every now and then he spoke up. Once, he mentioned a good place to “go for a run,” which for shifters meant a place where they could change into their animal without fear of human discovery.

  “There are some good spots at the base of Mount Rainier, if you go at the right time of year,” Marius said.

  “Yeah, we used to go out there, remember Jax?” Hayley said, her blue eyes alight with excitement. “We should go again.”

  “I could take you out there, if you want,” Marius said.

  She looked at him suddenly, as if just remembering he was there. Marius sucked in a breath.

  “Yeah, sure,” she said.

  He knew a noncommittal answer when he heard one. Shit. Had that kiss only been good in his mind? Maybe he’d imagined the whole thing. He narrowed his eyes at her.

  Her cheeks colored to a faint pink and she quickly looked away.

  If her damn brother wasn’t here, he’d reach right over and nudge that pointed little chin of hers to angle her face back to him. Then he’d make her look at him and she’d see that the kiss wasn’t something she could just ignore.

  And maybe she’d kiss him again.

  But now Summer was talking about her collages, which were currently on display at the coffee shop near her work, and Hayley was flipping through Summer’s phone, looking at photos Summer had taken of them.
When Hayley looked finished, Marius held out his hand. “Can I see them?”

  “Sure.” Hayley carefully handed him the phone, as if she were afraid of her skin touching his.

  Was he that repulsive? He shoved the thought aside and looked at the phone.

  “Wow,” he said. He’d thought he would mindlessly look at Summer’s collages and make sounds of admiration, but shit, these showed talent. He was no art critic, but he knew when he saw something good, something that wouldn’t allow him to look away. He caught Summer’s eye. “These are amazing.”

  “Thanks.” Her cheeks grew dark with a blush.

  He passed the phone back to Hayley, purposefully brushing his fingers against hers. She jerked away as if he’d hurt her.

  Hell, that hadn’t been his intent. Acting like it hadn’t happened, Marius drained the last sips of his beer. He had to get out of this place, away from Jackson’s sister.

  Standing up, he said, “Thanks for inviting me out, guys. This was fun.”

  “You’re leaving already?” Jackson said. “We just got here.”

  “Early morning tomorrow.” Marius’s lie was a half lie. There would be an early morning tomorrow. For someone. Just not Marius, who planned to sleep in.

  Jackson’s nostrils flared slightly, as if he was trying to scent the lie. But then he shrugged, because even if it were a lie, it wasn’t a big deal. Marius had come out like Jackson wanted, and been kissed not like Jackson wanted, and now Marius was going home to mind his own damn business and not have to be stuck next to Hayley anymore. Smelling her Red Vines smell. Fruity, sweet.

  “Thanks for coming out, man,” Jackson said, clapping Marius on the back.

  Marius gave a half wave to Summer and Hayley. He grabbed his coat and marched outside.

  It had stopped snowing and the air was clear. No intoxicating, fruity scent. Inhaling deeply, he walked toward his pick-up, which he’d parked a block away.

  Quick footsteps followed him, and the scent of Red Vines filled the air once more. Fuck, what was she doing to him? He turned to see her rushing down the sidewalk, her shadow bold in the reflections of the street lights on wet pavement dotted with slush.

  Her hands were shoved into her pockets, and he wondered if she was cold. He started to search his own pockets for a set of gloves before realizing he was going completely insane.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “Hey.”

  “Just wanted to say thanks for saving my ass in there.”

  “No problem,” he said.

  She laughed. “You’re scowling at me like it was a hardship.”

  Oh, she had no idea how hard it had been. “Not at all. I was wondering if you’d want to do that again sometime. Maybe after dinner.”

  Where the hell had those words come from? He wasn’t interested in seeing anyone…or at least he hadn’t been, until Hayley had walked into The A-Hole and kissed him senseless. Marius stared at her, feeling horrified and hopeful all at once.

  “Um, yeah, no,” she said, taking a short step away from him, back toward the bar. “Not a good idea.”

  “Really?” he said, his voice low. “Why not?”

  Her eyes widened, probably at the tone he was using to mask his irritation. She recovered quickly, and straightened her spine. “Because I heard about you already—you were with that Clausen guy. Harassing Summer. Maybe she and Jackson have forgiven you, but I sure as hell haven’t.”

  It was his turn to step back, because the hatred in her voice was so strong and clear.

  He kept his reaction off his face as he said, “Fine.”

  Hayley turned and walked back to the bar, her boot heels clacking sharply on the sidewalk.

  Marius told himself he wasn’t into her anyway, with her too-pert nose and her dirty mouth and her attitude.

  But as he watched her walk away, his hard cock said differently.

  Chapter Five

  Hayley dreamed that Marius was holding her against him. Her legs were wrapped around his waist and she was held up by his arms, wide open for him. He was lining up his cock, and just as he was about to press forward, thrusting into her, she woke up.

  She swore and threw her pillow to the floor.

  Three days after meeting him at the bar, and she still couldn’t get him out of her head. She’d had numerous dreams featuring Marius, each of them more explicit than the last. But in none of them had she found release, and each morning she woke up more frustrated than before.

  He’d asked her out. She could have found all kinds of release this weekend. Maybe they would have gone out on Saturday night, for dinner like he’d asked. And afterward…more kissing. Kissing that would lead to his penis coming out to play, and she could have been enacting every one of her dreams for real.

  Climbing out of bed, she pulled a hooded sweatshirt on and made her way across the studio to the kitchenette. Coffee. Coffee and…she looked outside. Raining. Again. It looked cold out there, and worse, they weren’t going to be able to move forward on demolishing the old house.

  The stack of application paperwork sat on her little breakfast table, mocking her. She’d been putting it off all weekend. Too busy thinking up reasons for why she’d turned down Marius’s invitation to go out.

  Date Marius? Ha. She barely had a handle on her own life; she certainly couldn’t deal with a relationship.

  Plus, and most damning, he’d scared Summer. Hayley could forgive a lot of things—harsh words, sharp tempers, stupid miscommunications. But Marius had scared a woman. And Hayley couldn’t make that okay in her mind, even if Summer and Jackson seemed to have forgiven him.

  She had to get him out of her head. Coffee was brewing, and she had a long rainy day of nothing ahead of her. The good news was that their family’s trust made it so she didn’t have to work. The bad news was…the same. Without a job dragging her out of the house, she was at risk for getting super bored. She needed to do something. Make something, or expend energy in some other way.

  Her pillow, still on the floor, caught her eye. If she’d gone out with Marius, she was pretty sure he’d have tired her out.

  Mind out of the gutter, Hayley, she told herself.

  Marius had mentioned a good place to run, up by Mount Rainier. The weather wasn’t ideal, but she remembered the spot from when she was growing up, and maybe it would be nice to revisit it. In her animal form, the rain wouldn’t bother her, and maybe she could tire her brain out enough that she’d stop thinking about Marius so much.

  *

  Hayley parked her Volkswagen Beetle at the base of the trailhead. Dang, it was beautiful up here. The air going into her lungs even smelled beautiful. Piney, woodsy, notes of vanilla. Her family’s property had a similar scent, but without the sharp coldness coming off the mountain.

  Invigorating. She felt more awake, she felt new.

  She went to tuck her phone under the front seat, when it started ringing in her hand. The number on the screen was unfamiliar. Usually she wouldn’t answer, but a small part of her was maybe hoping it was Marius. Only so she could turn him down again, of course. Was she as present in his mind as he was in hers? The thought sent a tiny zing of pleasure through her chest.

  She swiped the screen to answer the call. “Hello?”

  “Is this Hayley Jaynes?”

  It wasn’t Marius’s voice, and immediately an alarm started buzzing in the back of her mind. She leaned back against the rear door of her car and stared out over the gravel parking lot. “Who is this?”

  “This is Boris Lockman, alpha of the Spokane Pride.”

  She sucked in a breath. His voice held all the power of an alpha. She’d been intimidated by him as a seventeen-year-old, and now she felt that same trepidation. After letting her breath out slowly, she said in her calmest voice, “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

  He gave a dark chuckle. “We need to meet in person. Your pride promised something to my pride four years ago, and if that isn’t delivered, there will be problems.”

 
“We lost the war,” she whispered.

  “That doesn’t nullify our agreements. December first, eight p.m. I’ll text you the address when the day gets closer. You can come alone, or you may bring your brothers, but we will come to an accord regardless.”

  “I’m with someone,” she whispered.

  “That sounds like a lie,” he said carefully.

  “It’s not.”

  “December first, eight p.m. Be there.”

  Hayley took her phone away from her ear and jabbed the “end call” button. She couldn’t seem to suck in enough of the thin mountain air, and she was glad for the solidity of her car behind her back. At the moment, she didn’t think she could hold herself up.

  The Spokane Pride couldn’t seriously be interested in keeping the agreement if Hayley was unwilling. That agreement was four years old, and the war had been lost.

  But if they wouldn’t take a simple “no” for an answer, Hayley would need to get creative.

  Chapter Six

  Marius lay sprawled out over his shitty sofa wearing only a pair of boxers, with The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers playing on the TV in front of him. It had rained all damn day, and he hadn’t felt like going outside and running around as a grizzly. Washington Mountain Adventures didn’t have any trips planned until Thursday. November wasn’t exactly a big month for expeditions out into the wilderness. They had one more excursion this weekend, and that would be it for a while. Marius would be effectively unemployed until spring.

  If he were a real grizzly, he’d hibernate. Not so much an option as a shifter.

  Eowyn came on the television screen, looking fierce with her wavy, dark-blond hair and her gray-blue eyes. Marius’s cock stirred in his boxers. Eowyn reminded him a little of Hayley. Long, wavy hair, the blue eyes, although the color was slightly wrong. Miranda Otto’s eyes were more gray-blue. Hayley’s were brighter. But if he squinted, he could imagine he was watching Hayley on the screen.