Page 7 of Ash

Part of her didn’t want to say it and the other part of her, well she couldn’t stop herself from blurting it out.

“I’m going to Mystic Mountain!”

For a moment, he was quiet, his head tilting an inch to the side as he stared at her. He looked like he didn’t believe her one bit.

“Mystic Mountain,” he grumbled. “I think you’re making it up.”

Suzannah lifted her chin and looked straight into his eyes.

“I don’t care what you think, Mister Mattingly. I’m going there and you… you’ll never see me again.”

He folded his arms across his belly and scoffed at her. "You're going to come crawling back, Suzy Miller."

"That's the last thing I'll ever do!"

Chapter

Two

Ash Thomas had never been a big reader. He preferred to watch the world go by. The way the sun moved through the sky. The way the stars swam overhead in the dark night sky. Even the fish in the stream were interesting before they became his meal. They were good pastimes for a man who lived in the woods. Better still when the man was also a bear shifter.

He could go wild as much as he wanted up there.

The people in the town below wouldn't care.

They had their own lives.

The Thomas family had been whittled down over time and the generations, gone from three thriving households to one home tucked away in a copse of trees, worn down by time and the feeling that he'd live out his days alone because where was he going to find a mate?

There certainly hadn’t been any female shifters in the town at the base of Mystic Mountain for years and years.

He'd grown up around the women in Mystic Mountain. Met all of the available women during town events and the times that he'd gone to stores. Not a single glance of a woman who'd caught his eye.

Not a single sniff of scent that perked his senses. Both human and bear.

A town like Mystic Mountain didn't draw many from the outside world. Not only did they have a remote life away from big cities, there was a kind of insular lifestyle that made it possible for shifters to live openly in town. They didn't have to worry about people who wanted to expose them. If they weren't shifters, their families had been a part of the town for over a century, and they understood how important it was to keep the shifters’ unique talents to themselves.

Along with that familiarity to the people in town, he also knew with horrifying clarity that there wasn't anyone for him in town.

Sure, he might find a human woman if one appeared, but he had many deep doubts about that happening.

Aaron Winter had brought his own mate to town, but he'd already known her for years.

Xavier and Locke had found their mates because of the hotel that Winter was renovating to attract more of their kind to the town, but Ash wasn’t the kind of man or bear who liked coming into town more than once or twice a year.

Finding a woman with those odds?

Leaving Mystic Mountain wasn't something he could do either. Living in a place where he would have to hide who he was?

He'd never had to guard himself from the world. He was too old now to try and alter his knee-jerk reactions or his bone-deep connection to the land where he was living.

So he was going to stay in Mystic Mountain and continue to live most of his life high up on the mountain. With the exception of sating his personal curiosity by talking to other townspeople from time to time, he wanted to stay as far away from other people as he could.

If he didn't see the others, he wouldn't have to nurse his emotional wounds and try to ignore the feelings of envy and downright jealousy.

Deep within himself he felt his bear become surly and turn over onto his back to crack open one eye and glare through their link.

Through that same link, he looked back at his bear with his own disdain.What do you want from me?

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