Page 28 of A Bear's Secret

Chapter Eight

Sloane

Sloane triedto ignore the asshats coming up the trail. The entire time she’d been hiking, the other people had been ninety-five percent lovely. Most of them valued the solitude and quiet just like she did, but the other five percent included people who found it perfectly acceptable to shout, scream at each other, walk four across, block the entire trail for selfies, or bring portable speakers onto a trail and blast their terrible, shitty music.

That five percent seemed to include the people coming up the trail now, and she fixed a glare on the place where the trail let out onto the overlook. She hoped that the glare conveyed her feelings about them, and that she was pretty sure that there was a special circle in hell for noisy, rude hikers.

They didn’t emerge from the trees yet, and her glare didn’t work. She stopped glaring and tried to ignore them.

“How do you guys know each other?” she asked Trevor and Austin.

It was obvious that they were more than just acquaintances. Besides, Sloane wasn’t an idiot, and didn’t buy for a second that they’d accidentally run into Trevor up here. Something was fishy, even if Sloane couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

Is Austin trying to set me up with Trevor?She wondered. She put another potato chip in her mouth, jostling the snack-sized bag around to get to the bottom. He’s really cute — okay, he’s fucking gorgeous — but I’m leaving tomorrow, so I don’t really see the point.

She eyed Trevor, trying to be sneaky about it. He seemed a little quieter and more reserved than Austin, but he had a light behind his eyes that most people didn’t have.

Also, he was ripped as hell. He wore a t-shirt and pants, obviously, but his t-shirt was half-stuck to him with sweat, and she could have told from his forearms alone that he was stacked with hard rippling muscles.

Plus, those strange, entrancing gray eyes.

That did mean that Austin wasn’t interested, though, which definitely made Sloane feel some kind of way. Disappointed? Sad? Slightly betrayed, even though she knew she didn’t have any kind of claim to him?

You’re here for less than twenty-four more hours, she thought to herself. You’re not getting with either of them, just enjoy your picnic and stop overthinking it.

Austin and Trevor looked at each other and shrugged.

“Just ranch stuff,” Austin said. “Our places are next to each other, so I guess we met that way.”

“I guess,” Trevor echoed. He gave Austin a look that Sloane didn’t quite understand, but she ignored it.

They’re shifters who live on ranches, she thought. She flapped her own shirt in front of her, trying to get some of her sweat to evaporate, but she wasn’t having much luck. You’re not going to understand everything they do.

“You just seem like you’re pretty good friends,” she said.

No reason not to poke at this,she thought. After all, they’re hiding something, that much is obvious.

“Sure, I guess,” said Austin.

Trevor didn’t say anything.

“I mean, since we met you up here,” Sloane went on.

Austin opened his mouth, then closed it. He looked at his sandwich, frowning.

“I told you that wasn’t gonna work,” said Trevor.

“No, you didn’t,” said Austin.

“Well, I thought it,” said Trevor.

“Doesn’t count.”

“We’re good friends,” said Trevor. Sloane thought that she could sort of see his face twitch when he said the word friend, but she couldn’t be sure. “Wolves and bears are traditionally not friends, so we keep it a secret.”

He took his bandana and wiped the sweat from the back of his neck again. Sloane finished off her sandwich, feeling the sweat practically pool in her bra, the sun beating down on her.

“Do you have the water?” she asked Austin. “It’s fucking hot.”

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