Noble Wolf (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (4 page)

He continued when she didn't say a word. "I was traveling with my friends. We stopped at a campground here in town."

"I've heard of that place. Everyone here seems to love it," she said, searching her memory for the name. "What's it called again?"

"It's Muller Lodge & Campground," he supplied. "Anyway, we arrived here, set up camp, and managed to burn the place to the ground." He grimaced.

"You
what?!
" she yelped, trying to keep her voice low. Even so, several patrons turned their heads. "How can you say that so nonchalantly? You set it on fire?"

"Not on purpose!" he assured, throwing up his hands in a calming gesture, intended to get her to let him finish the story first.

"Sorry," she apologized, feeling silly that she had jumped to the conclusion that he was an arsonist.

"It was an accident, but the damage was extreme. Anyway, our alp—the guy whose fault it was, Jake, he came from money. So, we worked together with the owner Harper and rebuilt it, better than before."

Natasha knew she was staring slack-jawed as Bryce recalled the effort that had gone into rebuilding the campground. He tried to be modest and downplay it, but it sounded like he and his group of friends had moved heaven and earth to fix Harper's property.

"So what happened after?" she asked, curious as to the outcome.

"Jake ended up marrying her!"

"No way."

"Absolutely. He and Harper hit it off, and once she got over what we had done, she and Jake fell madly in love. They even have a family now and everything."

"Talk about a first impression," she breathed in disbelief.

"No better than almost falling and knocking yourself out in front of the chief of security," Bryce teased.

"I think it's safe to say it was a
bit
worse than that," she huffed, not really offended.

"Not from where I was standing."

"Which was exactly where again?" she said, skewering him with her best stare as she tried to get an answer once more to how he had moved so fast.

"I told you I was—"

"You were following me, like a creep," she said, making fun of him since he wouldn't admit the truth.

"I was not being creepy!" he protested with a laugh. "So, why did you leave your last job to move all the way out here?" he asked.

She decided to let him change the subject for the time being. I'm not done with you Bryce, not by a long shot, she thought. I
will
find out what you're hiding. Patience is practically my middle name. It wasn't, nor did it accurately describe her, but Natasha decided that she would have to learn in this case.

"I had a shitty job. I was the assistant GM in a high-end restaurant back in Seattle. It paid okay, but not great. My boss, though, he was a real gem."

"My sarcasm detector is going crazy over here," he remarked.

"Oh yeah. He was a huge dick. Always making inappropriate jokes and comments toward the female staff, promising better wages if we 'did things' for him, stuff like that. Never enough for us to be able to get him fired, because the owners loved him. But enough that it made working there hell for three years."

"Why did you stay there for so long then?" Bryce asked, not understanding.

"It was a good restaurant. Several years of experience there, and I would have a much easier time getting into other exclusive places."

"Ah," he said, nodding in understanding.

"I was resigned to that, until Thomas hired me away. Better pay, an easygoing workplace. I jumped so fast I'm still coming back down to Earth, trying to believe this is happening. And that's that," she said, clapping her hands together softly.

Bryce was going to reply, but the door opened, letting in another member of security. She shook her head, recognizing the man, but not remembering his name. It was insane to have this much security! She and Joanna were going to have a serious talk about it. It was a restaurant for goodness' sake!

"Sorry Natasha, but looks like we have to do security stuff, if the look on his face is anything to go by," Bryce said apologetically, clearly unhappy to have to leave her side.

"It's okay Chief," she said, looking up at him through her eyelashes. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I sure hope not," he said with one more of his knee-weakening smiles. She reached out for the hostess-podium to steady herself. As Ethan approached, her nose twitched. Then she sniffed the air.

"Does anyone smell wet dog?" she asked bluntly to the two men, who turned to look at her. They glanced at each other for a moment, then looked back at her.

"What? What was that look for?" she pressed.

"I don't smell it," Bryce said, testing the air with his nose.

"Me neither," the other man said in agreement. Ethan, she thought, suddenly remembering his name. He was Joanna's husband! She had seen a picture of him on her boss's desk; that's why he looked familiar.

"What's going on?" she said instead.

"Sorry, I can't tell you," Ethan replied before Bryce could say anything.

"What does that mean? I'm the GM, I should know about any 'security' concerns," she said, making her view that the ridiculous amounts of security was unnecessary plainly obvious in her tone.

"Take that up with Thomas," Ethan said, firmly but not rudely, as he moved past her, heading for the stairs.

Natasha looked after them, her brow furrowing as she tried to understand what was going on.

Bryce

"Sounds bad," he commented, following Ethan up to the offices.

His friend was taking the stairs two at a time. Bryce's long legs easily kept pace, but it was unlike Ethan to be that urgent. Something bad was going on, he could tell.

"More," came the response.

"More what?" he asked as they reached the third-floor landing, heading straight for Thomas's office.

"More marks. Lots of them, in the trees out back."

"All together?" Bryce wanted to know.

"No, spread throughout the forest. I went out on a long range scout this morning, and just got back. Tree's all over have them."

"I wonder what the holy hell they are for," Bryce cursed. He hated not knowing things. Mysteries like this one bothered him, especially because it meant there were other players out there. Thomas had hired them for a reason that for week after week had seemed pointless. All of a sudden, it seemed as if they were going to earn their keep.

An image of Natasha screaming in terror suddenly flashed in front of his eyes. The impact of it hit him hard, and he reached out for Ethan's shoulder to steady himself, his other hand pressing thumb and forefinger to his eyes, trying to rub the picture out.

"What's wrong?" Ethan said, turning the handle to open the door. There had been no response from Thomas.

"Nothing, nothing. Just a vivid imagination I'm sure," he said, straightening up, trying to focus on the task at hand. Now, he told himself, is
not
the time to be going all crazy. It's time to be on point.

Still, he regretted that he wouldn't be able to spend a calmer time with Natasha and get to know her. His wolf was dead set on him making her his mate. Every moment she was within range of him, smelling of lilac and more, he had to wage a war of wills with his wolf not to move more aggressively with her.

His blood burned, knowing his mate was right there. All he had to do was reach out, touch her, caress her, make her his—

Knock it off! That's enough, he yelled at his wolf, wrestling it back into submission. He could feel his cock already stirring to life now, thinking of Natasha and her beautiful body. Bryce knew she had smarts, a wicked pairing with her wide hips and generous curves. He couldn't stop staring at her, to the point he sometimes felt creepy, but his eyes seemed to have a mind of their own when it came to Natasha.

Natasha Holland.

Damn. He hadn't meant to do that. Her name was Ellis. Natasha Ellis, he reminded himself.

"No Thomas. Damn."

"I'll call Jake. He'll want to know what's going on," Bryce offered.

"Thanks, I'm going to head back out. I don't want to go without someone back there while there are people inside."

"Agreed. Did we ever come to a decision on why Thomas decided to open a place like this if he knew that someone was going to come after it?"

"Not really. My best guess is rather morbid, though."

"Bait?"

"Bait," Ethan agreed.

"Damn. That's cold-blooded," Bryce commented. "To use all these people here, who have no idea what's going on, just to draw out whoever these people are? I don't know if I could be that ruthless."

"Me neither, though we don't know if that's the reason or not. Anyway, I'm going to get back out there."

Bryce pulled his phone out as Ethan departed, headed back outside. He felt odd, sitting on the edge of Thomas's desk without him there, but it was likely going to be his best chance for privacy.

"Jake," he said when the other party picked up. "It's Bryce."

"
Hey Bryce. What's going on?
"

"Bad news. Ethan was out scouting this morning. He found more of those marks. Lots more."

"
Shit,
" Jake said into the silence after several moments.

"Yeah. Not good."

"
Okay, well, keep an eye out, and if anything changes, let me know. Chase and I will be there for the night shift later on."

"Will do." Bryce went to hang up the phone, until he hesitated.

"Jake?" he asked uncertainly.

"
Yes?"
Came his Alpha's reply.

"How...how was it like when you first met Harper? How did you know she was your mate?" he said, finally spitting it out. Jake had been adamant from the get-go that he had known Harper was his mate the moment she walked into his life. It seemed far-fetched to everyone at the time, but now Bryce was going through the same thing.

He was positive that Natasha was his mate. He and his wolf had never agreed on a woman so strongly before. Even now, as he thought about her, his cock began to stir. Nothing set him off like that. The erection he'd had in her office the other day had been so hard it had almost hurt.

"
It's tough to explain, Bryce. The biggest clue, as I look back at it now, was the first time I laid eyes on her. There was just something different about it, as if suddenly I understood a lot of the concepts I'd only ever talked about before. Love mixed with desire, and a sense of confidence that what I was doing was the right thing. That, and when any guy looked at her sideways I wanted to shift and tear his throat out,"
Jake finished with a chuckle."
Why? Are you having some feelings?"

"Yeah. For our new boss," he said dryly, appreciating the irony of the situation.

"
Ha! Well, you can't fight fate, my friend, but move slowly. The last thing we need is a complaint in the workplace."

"
Tell me about it. It's tough. Especially with all of this other shit happening right now, who knows when I'll get the chance to do anything about it."

"
It'll happen Bryce. Don't stress about it. I need you on point."

"I know, you can trust me. We may have another issue with her though."

"
What's that?"

"
She knows there's something odd going on. I moved too quickly to catch her when she slipped on ice yesterday, and she smelled Ethan's wolf just now, and likely other things. She's damn smart that one."

"
I can tell you like her."

Laughter came through the phone as Jake sympathized with his friend and packmate.

"I don't want to lie to her, but I can only skirt the subject for so long. She's going to find out real soon."

"
Don't tell her though. You can't reveal anything to her, no matter how strongly you feel about her. Not at this junction."

Thomas had forbidden them from revealing who they really were to anyone who didn't already know. That included most of the staff of The Silver Bullet, and now, it seemed, his mate was also to be prevented from knowing. Bryce would follow the rules, but it bothered him deeply that he might have to actively lie to his mate. He made a promise to himself right there on the spot that he would go to the utmost lengths, no matter how ridiculous, to try and prevent himself from lying.

"I won't Jake. Listen, gotta go," he said as footsteps sounded on the stairs. He hung up the phone and exited the office, pulling the door closed behind him softly.

The rest of his shift passed without an incident that needed his attention. One couple became frustrated when they couldn't order something that the restaurant didn't carry. Besides that brief moment of action, however, Bryce felt precisely useless. Nancy mentioned to him about a new server starting the next day, but that was the extent of it all.

When Jake and Chase showed up to relieve them, it truly
was
a relief. Ethan and Bryce hopped into Ethan's truck and headed for the lodge, where they all lived nowadays. It had started off as just a few of them, but with the change in jobs and their priority when it came to Moonlight Canyon, it had seemed like a good idea to gather everyone together.

"Who's that?" Ethan commented as they pulled in.

"I'm not sure, but I am very interested in finding out," he replied, hopping down from the truck and walking around. A black SUV had pulled in moments ahead of them. The engine died as they waited for the driver to emerge.

"No way," he whispered as the door opened.

It was Natasha.

"What are you doing here?" he asked as calmly as possible, trying to quell his suddenly racing heart. The hammering against his ribcage threatened to burst it open when she smiled at him. Natasha had left an hour or so before his shift change, and he hadn't figured on seeing her until the following day.

"Apparently, I live here now," she said, looking as startled to be saying the words as Bryce felt to be hearing them.

"You do? Why? I mean, that's awesome, but how did that come about?" he rambled, elbowing Ethan in the side, who was doing his best not to chuckle.

Getting the hint, his friend waved goodnight and went on inside, leaving the two of them alone. Bryce stepped closer, wanting to be as close to Natasha as he could without invading her personal space.

"Uh, Thomas told me Jake had arranged it," she said.

"Jake did?"

Thank you Jake, you beautiful person, he thought. Sometimes his Alpha could be a solid friend in addition to leader. It had been merely hours since he had told him about his feelings, and yet Jake had trusted him thoroughly enough to go through the effort of putting Natasha up in one of the rooms in the lodge.

"Yep. I have to admit," she said, looking around at everything. "This is much better accommodations than the motel."

"Yes, yes it is," he said, unable to contain his grin at the change in circumstances. "Here, let me grab those for you," he said, reaching into the trunk as she opened it to grab several of the larger duffel bags.

"I can do it myself you know," she said, hefting another one over her shoulder.

"I don't doubt that for a moment. You are a very capable woman. But you don't have to do it. Besides, before you say anything critical about me being chivalrous, there are more bags in here than you could carry in one trip anyway. So, either way, it's nice of me to help."

"I wasn't going to criticize you. It's very nice, if unnecessary."

"Well, you can thank me later for my extreme generosity," he joked, waiting for her to close the trunk before following her toward the lodge to their right.

"You're in Bravo lodge?" he asked, not daring to get his hopes up.

"Jake just said the one on the right of the main building, so if that's Bravo, then yes."

That was Bryce's lodge as well. He owed Jake a big steak and a case of beer. His Alpha must see something he didn't. That meant he wasn't going crazy. It just meant he was falling in love. Sort of. As much as he could in a day.

The pair walked side by side up the stone pathway to the main doors of the lodge. Even the smaller building—built entirely from wood, with split logs laid vertically as siding—had double doors leading into it. The rectangular building had a single floor in it, though the ceilings were tall and the hallways wide, perfect for allowing the larger shifter men easy passage. It also meant that he got to walk directly beside Natasha as he led the way.

Her long brown hair was drawn back into a ponytail that flicked back and forth lazily from side to side as she walked. Her intense, hazel eyes were wide, taking in the entire interior of the building.

"So this hallway runs all the way from the parking lot to the far end there, as you can see. The doors on that side empty out into a central courtyard and communal firepit, among other things. These doors here," he said with a jerk of his head to their right toward another set of double doors that opened out, "they lead toward Charlie lodge, which is unoccupied in the winter."

"And through here?" she asked, motioning as best she could with her full hands toward the arched opening approaching on their left.

"This is the main hall of Bravo," he replied, stepping back to allow her in first.

"Wow, this is beautiful," she said, looking up at the vaulted ceiling that rose twenty-something feet into the air.

"It's all wood, everywhere, as best we could," he told her, proud of what the pack had put into rebuilding this place."The kitchen and food area is over to the left, and as you can see, over to the right is the common area."

The common area stretched out past the extended ceiling that was in the center of the overall rectangle. There were couches, a TV, a foosball table, and some reading chairs near a fireplace.

"And all those doors lead to the rooms?" she said, referring to the bank of doors that started on the right where the game room ended, and ran around and along the backside of the building until they hit the kitchen. There were eleven in total.

"One leads to washrooms and showers. It's a communal room, though each has a door for privacy," he said hurriedly at the look on her face.

He was glad she wasn't into showering openly. Bryce was not interested in any of his friends seeing his mate naked. That, he hoped, would be for him.

"There's not too many guests at this time of year, and they don't even fill up Alpha, the main lodge. So it's just you, me, Kevin, and Holden over here."