Page 2 of Soul Deep
Chapter Two
Lily’s little cabin couldn’t be reached by car, so she left her piece of shit beater in its usual spot – a pull off on the side of the dirt road, right next tothat bear’sflashy new bright blue pickup truck – and made the rest of the trek on foot. It was mud season – or as the rest of the world referred to it: spring – so she carried her good shoes while she trudged along in her sturdy hiking boots. She’d have to remember to leave extra towels just inside her door. Shifting for her nightly patrol meant the mud would be coating her paws as well as splattering her underbelly and she didn’t want to be tracking all of that through the cabin trying to get to the shower.
Her eyes picked up the glow almost immediately. Damn bear must be working on the cabin and using those bright as hell work lights. It illuminated the entire area surrounding his cabin now that the sun had set. And sure enough, when she broke through the trees, there he was, with every appearance of having been waiting for her. Stupid bear noses, he probably picked up her scent as soon as she got out of her car. Lily’s lips twisted with derision. Why did he have to look so good? Ugh! Standing there, practically spotlighted by those work lamps in those snug jeans and that body hugging T-shirt. The work clothes were quite a change for him, since he tended to wear dressier clothes: fine sweaters or fancy button downs, sharply pressed slacks… but he probably didn’t want to snag his fine wools and cashmeres and was smart enough to dress appropriately for the situation, though she hated crediting him with finer points like intelligence. He’d lost weight –that was the next thing she noticed. Not that he had been fat when she’d first met the bear, but he had definitely had a puffiness to his face that was now gone thanks to all of his recent physical activity.
His place was actually coming along nicely, at least from what she could see on the outside; the once rough outer walls now replaced with new lumber. She definitely wasn’t going to invite herself to look within, or accept any forthcoming invitations – that would just be asking for trouble.
Aggravated by her continued fascination with the male, despite having a fresh injection of stories to fuel her anger and distrust, Lily’s first thought was to make a snarky comment about cat’s eyes being able to see in the dark without the need of the work lamps, but she clamped her teeth down hard and resisted the urge. For one, he’d simply point out that while she may have superior night vision, he had a better nose for tracking and could beat her hands down on patrol. He’d snidely suggest maybe they should trade jobs. Then, stalemate, since feline and bear hearing was about equal. And while feline agility might make the list, he had her beat in sheer brute strength.
Secondly, engaging him in conversation, even if it was one-upmanship, would only encourage him, and the last thing she needed wasthat bearthinking he could seek her out whenever he was in the mood to chat. She did not want to come off as approachable. She wasn’t. She really, really wasn’t. Now, if she could just get her stupid gooey innards to get with the program…
Focusing, she continued to put one foot in front of the other as her inner voice chanted,just keep walking, just keeeeeeep walking, just keep...
“Nice night out.”
Oh, god. That voice. That deep, velvet over gravel voice that made her skin tingle to life. It instantly brought Lily’s traitorous feet to a stop.Move you silly things. Move. Too late, with a mind of its own, her body turned and faced its nemesis.
“Are you going out on patrol?”
Her eyes couldn’t resist another sweep of his person. Thick dark hair, dark brown eyes, and a beard that she knew he wore more as camouflage for his own scars rather than following the latest trend. Wide shoulders, thickly muscled arms, narrow waist and hips, long legs… Christian Black was so not her usual type, yet the male was a feast to her eyes.
He smiled, gah! That smile. He knew she was checking him out and was loving it. Conceited bastard. But instead of the embarrassment she expected to feel, that display of teeth brought on the swirly sensation in her belly that she tried so hard to avoid.
Swallowing, she finally got her mouth working enough to answer him, and hoped her feet would follow suit and start moving to get her the hell out of his disturbing presence. “I will be soon.”
His handsome face looked contemplative for a moment and then he nodded. “Well, have a nice night.” He turned away and ducked through the front door, into his cabin before shutting the door behind him. Lily continued to stand there for several hard pounding beats of her heart. That was it? He wasn’t going to take advantage of her moment of weakness and strike up a proper conversation?
With a growl, her feet started moving in a stiff, stomping march toward her own cabin. That bear! Who did he think he was just dismissing her like that? That aggravating, arrogant… Wait. What was she doing? Was she really complaining that he hadn’t wanted to have a long, drawn out, conversation? How absurd. She was feeling slighted that he had given her exactly what she had wanted – and how nuts was that? Best to blame it on low blood sugar. Yup, she’d eat something and her world would be right again.
Feeling better with a perfectly plausible excuse for her erratic behavior, Lily took a deep breath and tried to recall that evening’s meeting, the stories that had been told, the scent of pain, and fear, the disillusionment, and anger that would surely restore her equilibrium and get her back on track. Instead, images of her first meeting withthat bearplayed like a movie she couldn’t turn off in her head.
She had been working at the diner, her senses immediately coming to life with curiosity at the scent of bears among so many wolves. There hadn’t been a bear in Malsum Pass since Sebastian Black had moved back to California to live with his mate and reunite with his family over a year ago. Lily immediately recognized Sebastian, and the possessive arm around the female bear’s shoulders easily identified her as Sebastian’s mate Susan, the third bear, however, was an unknown.
It was when she arrived at their table to take their order, the usual pleasantries observed, that the bear had been introduced as Sebastian’s older brother, Christian Black. His dark eyes had been moving over her face with rapt appreciation, a certain glint in his eyes boldly declaring that he liked what he saw even before she heard him whisper, “Beautiful.”
Her first thought had been that he was mocking her, and her hackles had risen, until she had realized that out of habit, she had angled her body so that her ruined cheek was not readily apparent. Feeling the need to correct the bear’s misguided attraction, she had purposely turned her face so that he could get an eyeful of the four diagonal scars running from the top of her right ear down to her chin. Crossing her arms over her chest, challenge glittering from her eyes, she had waited for the look of disgust, the pity, the lowering of the gaze and the quick subject change. Instead, he had raised a brow, reached one of his big hands up to the neck of his fine black cashmere turtleneck sweater, and pulled it down to display the nasty scars across his throat. Someone had actually tried to rip this male’s throat out, and judging by the too familiar size of the marks, it had been a large cat shifter.
That was when the first gooey feeling had unfurled in her belly. Here was a male who understood her pain. Who had to wear the reminder of the trauma he’d suffered and see it every day in the mirror… unable to move on because he was unable to forget. Kinship. That had marked the first chink in her armor, the first crack in the protective wall she had built around herself. As soon as her shift had ended, she’d gone to a meeting, once again listened to the heartbreaking stories of other abused women, and used the anger those stories generated to fortify her shields. She could not let that bear get under her skin. That night, as she had laid her head down to sleep, she had held tight to the knowledge that Christian Black wouldn’t be staying in Malsum Pass – and a good thing too… That male was dangerous.
