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“Really?” the dog says with a laugh. “Because he thinks you’re his.”
“She is mine,” I snap back at him.
Kimberly’s face drops as she stares at me.
“Well, you’re going to have to take her from me,” Lincoln says as he wraps his big arm around her waist and yanks her closer.
Kimberly smacks him with her free hand and then her face twists up in pain. “Ow! Fuck!” she screams as she shakes out her hand. “What is your head made of? Fucking cement?”
I lunge on him, grabbing his thick wrist as his friends jump on me. Plates and mugs crash everywhere and someone screams from somewhere in the diner as chaos erupts all around me. All I’m focused on is making Lincoln pay for touching my mate. With a grunt, I snap the bones in his forearm.
“Fuck!” he screams as a strong arm wraps around my neck. His friend Parker tries to choke me out as I turn to make sure that my mate is safe. I see her rushing to the back as she shakes her hand and swears over and over again.
Carl comes barreling out wearing a dirty apron and holding a loaded shotgun.
He cocks the barrel with a click-clack and points it at the five of us.
“Everybody out,” he warns. “Or, I’m going to serve you some fresh lead with your eggs.”
We all know that Carl doesn’t fuck around, so the five of us slowly separate.
I’m glaring at the four of them and I can sense their wolves hovering close to the surface. They smell like wet dog.
Lincoln resets his broken forearm with a crunch and a whimper and then glares at me.
“Put the money on the table and get the fuck out,” Carl says. “And hurry it up. I have eggs burning on the grill.”
One of the wolves, Hunter, pulls out some cash and drops it on the table. They give me one last fierce look and then leave the diner.
It’s silent inside with only the sound of my heavy breathing filling the place.
“You too, Westin,” he says as he swings the shotgun in my direction. “Money on the table and get out.”
I throw a fifty onto the table and cross my arms over my chest.
“I’ll pay for breakfast, but I’m not leaving. Not without her.”
“Then you’ll leave in a body bag,” he snaps.
“I’ll die without her,” I whisper. “So, it doesn’t matter.”
He stares me down and I look over his shoulder at Kimberly as she returns from the back. She looks almost afraid as she glances at me and it hits me hard.
I fucked this all up.
I must look like a feral maniac to her.
There’s nothing I can do to make this moment better, so I leave.
And my heart fucking breaks.
Chapter Three
Kimberly
“What the hell got into him?” Debbie asks once all of the hoopla settles down and people start eating their breakfasts again. Carl is in the kitchen, cursing at the burnt eggs. He doesn’t throw them out. He just flips them. Apparently, the black crispy eggs are still fine to serve. “I’ve never seen Westin like that before. He’s normally such a sweetheart.”
Westin. My heart starts thumping away in my chest when I hear his name.
“Why did he break Lincoln’s arm?” she asks.
Because he deserved it. Because he’s my savior. Because there’s something between us.
“I don’t know,” I say instead. “The guy grabbed me by the waist, I slapped his face, and then Westin pounced on him.”
I get tingly all over just from thinking about it. He hated seeing that guy grab me so much that he assaulted him. Normally, I would hate that, but with him… with Westin… fuck… I’ve never been so turned on.
Heat is still swirling through me and my pussy clenches every time I remember seeing the territorial way he was looking at me.
“It’s a good thing they’re all gone,” Debbie says.
“Yeah,” I lie. I wish he was still here. I wish I could talk to him. See him. Touch him.
Something has got its hooks into me and is trying to pull me toward the door. It’s urging me to go out and find him. It’s begging me to submit to his will.
I shake the crazy thoughts out of my head and get back to work. Debbie follows me to the table to clean up the mess. There are two broken mugs and one plate on the floor.
“How’s your hand?” she asks as we begin clearing the barely touched plates.
“It’s throbbing,” I answer. “I forgot rule number one of hitting: hurt the other guy more than you hurt yourself.”
“You clocked him pretty good, but these shifters are made of steel.”
“How many shifters are there in this town?” I ask as I look around, wondering if the scrawny old man with the tomato soup is a shifter? Is he hiding a geriatric grizzly bear inside him?
“A lot,” she says with a nod. “Assume they all are. They get pretty possessive over their mates.”
She doesn’t think twice as she says this, but it staggers me. Is that why he was so protective of me? Is that why I feel such a pull to him when I’ve never felt much attraction to any boy before in my entire life?
Stop, Kimberly. Don’t be ridiculous.
He’s not attracted to me. I’m way too big and he’s all hard carved muscle. He probably just had a beef with those guys and he used me as an excuse to hit them.
But…
No, buts, Kimberly.
I shut down my fairytale thoughts and clean up the mess with my aching hand.
The rest of the day is pretty uneventful and my hand slowly gets better. I keep thinking of Westin and the way he was looking at me. It still gives me shivers.
Finally, it’s four o’clock and Martha comes in to replace me for the dinner shift. I wash up, change into my clothes, grab my shit, and get the fuck out of there as fast as I can. I don’t mind the job too much, but at the end of the day, all I want to do is go home to the small apartment I rent on the edge of town and watch Netflix.
“Bye, Debbie,” I say as I dart out the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow!”
The cool mountain ai
r hits me and I breathe in the smell of spring. There’s still patches of some stubborn snow that didn’t get the memo that it’s time to melt, but other than that, it’s a beautiful spring day.
I feel eyes on me, but it’s not a creepy feeling, it’s a warm comforting presence. A gulp leaves my lips when I see him sitting in his pickup truck watching me.
Westin Wood.
Debbie gave me his last name, as well as every piece of information on him that I could get out of her. He’s a fireman. He’s a grizzly bear shifter. He’s twenty-seven years old. He’s single. He’s perfect.
And he’s staring right at me.
My heart starts racing as he opens the door to his truck and steps out.
He’s massive. His frame is built like a truck with nice broad shoulders and arms so thick that they’re making me lightheaded.
He’s wearing jeans that hug his muscular thighs and a t-shirt that clings to his hard stomach with an open jacket on top. I swallow again as he walks over. My legs have stopped working. My brain has short-circuited.
Every ounce of my body’s computing power is focused on my pounding heart as I watch him approach.
All I can do is stare as he stops in front of me, close enough for me to drag my fingertips down the hard ridges of his abs that I know are hiding under that tight shirt.
“Are you okay?” he asks in a deep voice that sends tremors teasing through my alert body.
There’s a grizzly bear inside of him. Right behind that huge sexy chest…
I catch myself drooling and my cheeks burn hot. He asked me a question and my answer is taking way too long to come out.
Say something, Kimberly! Now!
“I’m A-okay!” I say as I give him a thumbs up and a goofy smile.
Nooooooooooo! Not that!
I want to die.
He moves a little closer and I have a strong urge to leap into his arms and erase all the distance between us. He’s close enough that I can smell his rugged cologne, but it still feels like there’s an ocean between us. I don’t think I could ever get close enough to this guy to be satisfied.
