He was lean and ripped, dressed in jeans, a black t-shirt, and biker boots. Full sleeves of tattoos ran up both of his arms and peeked up from the collar of his shirt. His blue eyes were staring right at her.
Her inner grizzly growled, and her knees almost went out. The smell of him hit her in the chest. Like leather and lemongrass. Like the forest in the rain. Like love and life, and everything she’d been waiting for.
Something passed over his eyes, and he started toward her. Stella couldn’t move. She was rooted in place near the kitchen door. Maya almost knocked her over on her way out with the garbage. Stella barely got out of the way in time.
Her bear howled inside her, and her hands shook. Nell looked up at her from booth six and stopped writing in her order pad. Fighter Wolf stopped across the counter, three feet from where Stella was standing.
“Sugar Bear.” His voice was low and rough.
“You can’t be here,” she said. “You’re banned.”
“I know. I couldn’t keep waiting for you to answer. I’m a mile away up the street. I needed to see you. You’re my mate…” He lowered his voice and looked at her with his piercing blue eyes. “My fated one.”
He gave off an extremely intimidating presence. The photo had not prepared her for the heat of him, the way the air around himfelt charged, the way her bear was throwing herself at the inside of Stella’s skin to get to him. She opened her mouth and closed it.
“I know,” he said.
“Your pack trashed my father’s restaurant. You’re loyal to them. I’m loyal to my family. Period. End of story.” Her throat was dry. She only half believed what she was saying.
“It’s not going to end like this,” he said, his voice low and gruff.
Her bear pressed against her chest. “This isn’t the time. You need to leave,” she said.
He looked at her for a second. His jaw tightened. She could see the wolf right behind his eyes.
“We can’t go on like this, Sugar Bear. You and I both know it. The bond is unbreakable.”
She didn’t answer. He turned around and walked back out the door.
Chapter
Six
For the next three days,Stella’s heart jumped every time her phone got a notification. She kept dreading Fighter Wolf’s messages, and was disappointed every time the notification wasn’t him. She worked, avoided thinking about him, and thought about how she could break this news to her father. She did some digging around town and found out that Fighter Wolf’s name was Blaze Mercer.
Rumor had it he’d helped quite a few people through his work at Steel Protection. Just last week, he’d helped stop the threats some kid had been making to Cascade Timber. She waffled between thinking of ways to break it to her dad that her mate was his sworn enemy, and fighting with her bear to forget all about him.
On Sunday morning she unlocked the diner, disabled the alarm, and turned on the lights. The breakfast staff trickled in. She started a pot of coffee and loaded the cash drawers. When she flipped the open sign at six, Nell still hadn’t arrived for her shift.
She texted Nell at seven.Hey. Are you sick this morning? Just let me know what’s up.
Stella rearranged the floor, covered Nell’s section, and rang the register herself when the front got slammed. When the afternoon manager came on at two-thirty, Stella went back to the office and gave Nell a call. Not showing up or texting was very out of character for her. The phone rang and went to voicemail.
After her shift, she drove past Nell’s apartment. She lived in a converted Victorian on Pine Street that had been split into six small apartments. Stella helped her move last year. Nell’s blue Subaru was in its spot.
She frowned and pulled into the parking lot instead of going straight home. Maybe Nell was sick and her phone was dead. If Stella popped in, she could help her if she needed anything. She parked beside Nell’s car, walked up the stairs to the apartment on the second floor, and knocked.
“Nell. It’s me. Are you okay?”
Nothing.
She knocked again. Harder.
“Nell. I’m worried about you. Why didn’t you come to work today?”
Something inside her told her something was wrong. She put her ear to the door and listened. Nothing. She walked down the hall to Nell’s window, cupped her hands around her face, and looked through. The lights were off. She couldn’t see much. Then her eyes caught the shape of Nell’s backpack on the coffee table. Nell carried that bag everywhere.
Stella went back home and told herself she was being nosy and overreacting. But three more days passed and Nell didn’t showup for any of her shifts. She didn’t answer any of Stella’s calls or texts. Every time she passed, Nell’s car was still in the same parking spot, gathering autumn leaves and dust. After her shift on Wednesday afternoon, she decided to call the school.
