Page 7 of Loan Wolf
Could she be his mate?
It was the question she had every time she met someone she was attracted to, and the answer was always no.
Shifters were rare outside of Virtue; Clara knew that was why they had moved there, so that her papa and her sister could be somewhere that they fit in. Green Valley had a few shifters, at least, but they were still very secret here.
Chances were that Gabe was just a really hot guy who had once been kind to her, and that was why she was so turned on. He was devastatingly handsome and his tattoos and pierced ear were dangerously panty-watering.
“You got your own helmet?” Gabe asked, after she’d paid and signed the contract. She took a copy of it with one of his maps.
“A helmet?” Was he kidding?
“Safety first,” he said briefly. “Just because I look like a rebel doesn’t mean I bend the rules for anyone. You’re wearing a helmet off my property if you’re taking a bike. It was on page two in twenty point letters.”
He looked like he was used to this argument, and Clara could just imagine him forcing a helmet on one of the jocks he’d painted the “sportsball bike” for. He’d probably win that argument, she thought, so she let him lead her over to a rack of helmets and select one for her. It had a small sunflower painted on the side.
“Not quite a matched pair,” Clara said, settling it onto her head. She’d forgotten she was wearing a ponytail and paused to take out the elastic. “Now can I rent a bike?”
She needed something between her legs, and if she didn’t get out soon, she was going to make an idiot of herself over this guy.
“Just a minute, let me adjust it.”
Gabe had to stand very close to her to cinch the straps and Clara was intensely aware of his closeness, like he was radiating heat. He smelled like grease and something wild, and his hands were clever. After he’d settled the helmet more correctly on her head and tightened it, he pursed his mouth and said, “Hang on…”
Then he reached for her and for one crazy moment Clara thought he was going to take her face in his hands and kiss her.
He only tucked her hair back behind the straps with both hands at once, in a tender moment that seemed to last forever.
“Sorry. It was just that, well, there you go. I’ll see you with Daisy in three hours.” Gabe turned away abruptly and his back was almost as fascinating as his front.
Clara gave the strap of her helmet an unnecessary tug and went to roll Daisy out of the shop. She paused at the door. “Thanks!”
Gabe didn’t turn, just raised his tattooed arm in a dismissive gesture.
7
GABE
Gabe watched the clock as Clara’s return time came…and then went.
At hour four, after sundown, he was a complete wreck.
If Clara had gotten hurt, he would never forgive himself. If Daisy had broken down… If Clara had attempted one of the dangerous trails without a guide… If someone had accosted her…
Gabe could think of a dozen terrible possibilities, each of them darker and more dire than the last, until his wolf was spinning in worried circles and he was going to send them both into a panic.
Gabe finally pulled his phone from his pocket and opened the tracking app. There was a cluster of pins right at his own location, and icons of the few bikes he’d sent off on overnight rentals. And there was Daisy, at Mueller’s Pond.
There were plenty of good reasons that Clara could be there.
It wasn’t that pretty of a pond, cloudy with algae and weeds, though it had some appeal in the winter when it froze and they cleared it for skating. It was big enough to boat, barely, and had some fish. It had been technically closed to swimming and fishing for years, but people still did, and rumors swirled that the closure was for mysterious reasons, varying from heavy metal poisoning to enchantment.
A certain subset of the gossip suggested that the pond would grant your wishes, but take a terrible price.
Most people scoffed at even the idea of magic, though, and generally agreed that it was just a magnet for mosquitos.
Gabe looked at the time on his phone. He wasn’t expecting anyone else that evening and no one would care if he closed early. He took the pickup, rather than riding a bike, even though it wasn’t that far. If Daisy had a flat, he’d need it to bring her home.
Bring her home, his wolf echoed, but he wasn’t talking about the bike.
