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“Everything maybe?” I joke, stroking a hand down over my loud belly. Finally pointing at three different slices of cake, because my muddled, sleep-deprived brain is incapable of making a decision, I slide into one of the booths and wait, resting my pounding head in my hands.
“Here you go!” Her bright, sunny attitude is charming, but I can’t quite bring myself to match it.
I muster as big a smile as I can, and she looks at me with pity, sliding my sugary goodies onto the table and filling my coffee cup to the brim. Her eyes scan my face and I smile. She’s working outside the immediate perimeter of the packhouse, but, even at her young age, she has clearly been trained to watch out for strangers. I like Grey Ridge already.
The bell sounds again, and at the scent of a human female, I don’t bother to look up.
But when a shadow crosses my table and the strongest aura I’ve ever felt fills the tiny room, I can’t help but lift my head. A blonde woman with a shock of curls is chatting amiably with the biggest shifter I have ever seen. Or maybe chatting “at him” would be a better description, because he doesn’t once respond to the stream of words coming out of her mouth as she articulates, at length, her thoughts on every cake on display.
“Oooh, look! Do you want one of these? We can share!” She turns and tugs on his shirt sleeve excitedly, pointing at the chocolate cake. I nearly spit out my coffee when he just glares at her, looks down at himself, at the cake, and back at her. “Oh right. Okay. You probably want the whole cake yourself.” Tapping her finger against her chin, she leans forward and starts to run through her decision-making process again. I can’t help laughing when he looks to the ceiling and closes his eyes, like he’s praying for patience.
When I choke down a laugh as she stretches up, putting her hands on either side of his face to force him to look at her, his attention finally turns to me. I know he has been aware of my presence the whole time; bears have far more sensitive noses than wolves. Then almost anyone, really. He would have known there was a strange wolf inside before he even set foot through the door.
Expressionless, he holds my gaze, then his eyes drift lower. I’m about to give him a filthy look, but they stop, not on my breasts like most men, but on the array of desserts spread out on the table in front of me.
“So, what are you getting? Bodhi? Bodhi! Hello?” The woman waves a hand in front of his face, but he ignores her. When she finally spots what he’s looking at with such envy in his eyes, she chuckles, “Oh ok. I get it.”
She turns back to the girl behind the counter, and orders what sounds like enough food to feed an army. A gigantic, bear-sized army. I go back to staring into my coffee, lost in thoughts of what to do next, when I hear soft footsteps approaching my table.
“Hi, there.” Smiling warmly, the woman stands at the end of my table, rocking up and down on the balls of her feet, looking at the food in front of me. “Waiting for someone else?”
“Nope. Just hungry and indecisive.”
She nods. I think that’s going to be the end of it, but no.
“Oh, good.” She slides into the booth opposite me, and the shifter she called Bodhi, groans loudly, scrubbing a hand down his dark, unkempt beard. Undeterred, she silences him with a look, unrolling her cutlery and making herself at home. “Bad day or just hungover?”
Bodhi waves at her before heading toward the bathrooms in the back.
“Bad couple of days,” I admit, forking a big mouthful of chocolate therapy into my mouth. She nods and leans in, tucking her hair behind one shoulder so it doesn’t fall into my food.
“I’ve seen that look before. Whoever he is, he isn’t worth it.” She sits back when the waitress arrives with her cakes and coffees, making small talk as she helps unload the serving tray.
That’s when I see the mating mark on her shoulder.
She’s mated to a wolf and is part of the Grey Ridge pack. My sluggish brain finally puts two-and-two together, and I realise this bubbly human must be Leah Jones. Rex Jones’ mate. I see the resemblance to Zoe now that I look at her more closely.
“Ethan wouldn’t be happy to hear that.”
So, the bear does speak.
While Leah and I both pick our jaws up off the table, Bodhi pushes Leah over and sits down. The spacious booth suddenly feels tiny. Obviously, I was going to meet people who know my mate, that’s why I’m here. I didn’t expect anyone to already know, though, and I’m suddenly nervous. I don’t want Ethan to know I’m snooping around his pack.
“Nooooo!” Leah can barely contain her excitement as she looks from me to Bodhi and back again for confirmation. Just as I did to her, she tries to check my shoulder, but with a sweater on, she can’t tell if I’m marked. Narrowing her eyes at the offending article of clothing, as if she can make it disappear with sheer will-power, she pouts.
“I assumed. The scent is faint, but it’s him.”
Leah’s like a hurricane of emotions, swinging back to giddy, reaching out, and grabbing one of my hands. When I groan, her face falls, and her eyes swim with worry.
“Is he okay? We miss him so much.” Bodhi wraps an arm around her shoulders and gives her a gentle squeeze. She blinks up at him, genuinely upset, then looks back at me. “It’s my fault he’s gone.”
Bodhi shakes his head and pushes a cake toward her, and she laughs, picking up a fork and digging in.
“It is,” she argues around a mouthful of food. “He wouldn’t have left if I’d convinced him it wasn’t his fault. I mean, he saved my life.”
The big bear stares at me, his deep brown eyes still calm, but he’s giving me another once over, obviously re-assessing his snap judgement that I’m nobody worth worrying about. Leah twists in her seat to peer out through the glass front of the building, then scans the inside of the cafe.
“You’re from Anderson’s pack?” Bodhi is watching me a little more closely now, and he leaves a protective arm around Leah, leaning forward to discreetly shield her with his massive body.
