Page 3 of Deception

Chapter Two

Drew forced himself to follow the others down the dim hallway because if he didn’t…well, who knew what kind of crazy stunt his bear might make him pull.

Like lunging for Summer and sweeping her into one of those bent-over-backward movie-poster kisses where the guy just couldn’t get enough of the girl. Like throwing her over his shoulder and running her off to someplace down the road where they could be alone.

Alone. Good idea,his bear growled.

Yeah, him and her, alone. Talking. He desperately wished for someplace they could sit down to a cup of coffee — a coffee served by someone other than her — and talk and talk and talk. Not coming, not going. Just sitting and getting to know each other beyondGood morningandGood night.

Talk?his inner bear grumbled.

The beast had been all ears on the throwing-her-over-his-shoulder part, but that was about it. And that was the problem. The pull, the need, the craving for her was growing every day, and it scared the hell out of him to think what he might do.

Like take her somewhere private and get her naked, real fast?his bear suggested.

An image of Summer, gloriously naked and writhing in ecstasy under his body popped into his mind. Summer, with her blond hair flowing over her shoulders, her trim body begging for more. Her rich brown eyes fixed on his, her lips silently voicing her pleasure.

He gulped. Hard.

She wants it, too.

Yes, he’d seen the desire in her eyes. But he’d seen fear, there, too. Fear and longing and worry about things that pained him to even guess at. He wanted to make them all go away until there was nothing in her eyes but pure desire.

Okay, and maybe wonder. Love. Joy. All the things he felt for her in addition to the desperate physical need.

He’d only known her for a couple of weeks—

Nineteen days, eight hours, sixteen minutes,his bear threw in.

—and yet it felt like he’d thirsted after her for years. Her. Only her. Exactly her. Not any of the girls back home. Not Eileen, who was smart as anything and pretty, to boot. Not gorgeous Julie with her Hollywood smile. Not Bethany with the curves that brought all the guys to their knees.

None of them. Just Summer.

Need her. Want her. Must make her mine.

“You coming, or what?” Sam hurried him along.

He stepped into the blinding sunlight of the back lot and looped over to the rear door of the Blue Moon Saloon, the place adjacent to the café, where he ducked into darkness again. Which was fitting, given the mood of everyone in the room.

“All right already. Let’s start,” Soren Voss growled.

Soren, his distant cousin, the alpha of this clan. The man who’d requested backup from his black bear relatives on the East Coast. Soren and his fledgling shifter clan had survived numerous attacks in the past months, all of them staged by the Blue Blood rogues — an extremist group so staunchly against the mixing of shifter species that they were ready to kill any couple who dared cross species lines.

Soren and the others had felt that hate full force as a mixed clan of bears, wolves, and humans who’d been turned by their mates. Which made them all prime targets for the militant rogues. But they’d fought back, time and time again, and beaten the Blue Bloods so soundly, it was doubtful they would come back again.

Still, doubtful wasn’t good enough, especially not for Soren. And Drew couldn’t blame him. Soren had a young cub, a mate, and his extended family to protect. Not to mention a growing business to nurture, too.

“Todd and Anna killed the last of the Blue Bloods,” a wolf called Kyle pointed out. He was one of several wolves present from Twin Moon Ranch — one of the most powerful shifter packs in the West.

“The question is, are those rogues gone for good?” Simon asked.

His words hung heavily over the room.

Drew kept quiet. One, because he was accustomed to the stricter traditions back home which only gave the older generation the right to speak their minds. Two, because he really didn’t know. He’d arrived in Arizona a week after that last attack, shortly after Soren requested backup.

We need loyal, quick-thinking bears ready to be vigilant against further attacks.Soren’s message had said.A big, capable fighter to help keep an eye on things here.

When that message had been read aloud, every clan member’s head turned to Drew, and a few hours later, he was on the road, heading west.

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