Shifters of Grrr 1 (107 page)

“What are you talking about?” Ranger tried to remain calm.

“Jessa, that nurse. She’s the one. My mate. I woke before, and she was in here with me when I was a bear. I know her, Ranger, you’ve got to trust me that she’s
the one
.”

Ranger picked up his pack and sleeping bag. “Oh, man, that must be some nasty infection you have. It’s addled your brain.”

“You knew with Ada.”

Ranger took his elbow and led him to the door.

“Listen to me. We are going to walk out of here, quickly, and have no chatty-time with any of the nurses, no matter how cute and sexy they are. Bear Force One is waiting, fully crewed, to take us back to New Zealand where we’ll debrief, and get you fit and well again. If you haven’t taken yourself off for some pussy-play by the time you’ve healed enough to get a hard-on, I’ll believe you about Jessa. But, for fuck’s sake, can we get out of here before you have to stay permanently bear and live the remainder of your life in a Sanctuary?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

~ADA~

The banging on her door set Ada’s heart galloping. Nicki was in Sydney for the weekend, so if it wasn’t a flatmate with a lost key, it had to be—

“Ada, it’s me. You left something at the apartment last week. I wanted to return it.”

Ranger.
Her heart showed no signs of recovery.
 

She swallowed hard. “Go away, Ranger.”
Did she really mean that?

“I don’t want to bust your door down.”

“No, you certainly don’t. The police have a special cell for people who do that.” Ada rolled her eyes, as much to settle the butterflies beating about inside her, as Ranger’s ridiculous attempt at a threat.
 

“Tell it to the bear. He doesn’t give a shit, and he’s rumbling to bust through.”

“Well, listen up,
bear
, there’s a park down the road. Why don’t you go climb a tree, or find a fish in the stream? I dunno, do whatever it is you bears like to do in the wilderness.”

“You’re insulting me… Are you insulting me? Yes, I think you are. Ada, you’ll pay for that. The bear will not be insulted.”

She took a couple of steps towards the door.

“Be quick, Ada. Your neighbour’s got the curtain jerked back, and he’s watching me. I’m about to shift. I can’t fight it.”

Two more steps.

“Stop being such a drama queen, Ranger.”

“Stop insulting the bear. I can’t control him.”

Ada burst out laughing.

“Are you laughing, now?”

“What does it sound like?” She had hold of the door handle, a stupid grin she couldn’t control plastered across her face. God, she wanted him so badly, and she choked back the laughter trying to find the anger and fear that had broken her not even a week ago.

“I’m shifting, and your neighbour’s got his phone pointed at me. He’s filming me now. You’re going to have a lot to explain at the next street party, Ada Hastings.”

She swung the door open. He hadn’t shifted, wasn’t even close, but the way he dashed through the door, the way his grin illuminated her dismay and blew apart the dense cloud of gloom that had settled over her recently, she didn’t care.

“Did you get my text?”

Ada shook her head and marched through to the sitting room throwing herself into an armchair. “Let me see, your text…which one was that?” She pretended to scroll through the messages.
 

“Which one? Who else is texting you?”

“Oh, look, just you, obsessive madman. One zillion times.”

“Uh-huh. Did you read them?”

She tucked her phone behind the cushion of the chair. The fun was over. She should never have let him into the house. “I read a few. I got the general idea, especially once all the gifts arrived.”

He was pacing the room rubbing the back of his head again the way he did when he was frustrated. “I sent one for every day we’re apart, and I’ll continue to do that.”

“Ranger, I get it.” She waved her hands about. “This isn’t easy for me, either.”

“Okay.”

“How are you?”

He watched her from the far side of the room. “I’m fine. Happy I have my brother safely home, but I’m sad my mate can’t see her way to love all of me.”

Bang; right to the point.
He’d obviously come prepared to fight for her, and when Ranger prepared for a mission, he didn’t go into it with the possibility of failure. Her chest tightened, her eyes flicking in the direction of the kitchen. “I need tea.”

What she needed was space.

Seeing him brought on an acute sense of agitation, and having him so close meant he was capable of shattering her. In the kitchen, she leaned her head against a cupboard and tried to calm her turmoil. She went through the motions of making tea. Her mouth was dry, but her eyes were hot and damp because the few words he’d said had scorched a nerve.

He loved her unconditionally. Her love came with clauses and ultimatums. She knocked her forehead back to the hard wood of the cupboard door and squeezed her eyes tight.

“Do you really want tea?”

Of course, he’d followed her, and when he spoke with that low, soothing voice, it coated her anxiety taking the edge off her nerves. “No, I don’t.”

“You’ll find my shoulder is softer than that cupboard door.”

“That’s debatable.”

A rumble, a mix of suppressed laughter and a push from his bear, filled the kitchen. Two strong hands on her shoulders turned her into him.

“I didn’t come here to make you unhappy, Ada.” His words were breathed hot through her hair. “We both know
unhappy
too well, so there’s no need to prove that we can hurt each other. If my presence causes sadness, I won’t return.”

Her breath quickened, thoughts bombarding her as she tried to work out whether she’d missed something since his arrival. Had he come to say goodbye? Had she finally pushed her conditions one time too many so that ultimately she’d pushed him away?

A memory surfaced, a moment between her parents in their kitchen, not much different to how she and Ranger stood. Even though she’d been a child at the time, she’d felt the change. It was like the strike of a match; spark, flare, heat, then with a few words, the flame extinguished. After that, the anger between her parents set in, increasing in weight as time passed.

She saw it now, the constant push and demands from her mother, and her father’s need to not only take care of his family but other families, too. Like Ranger, he was a protector. They should have been proud of him.

“Do you want to tell me about Romer?” Her voice was soft, easing around the thickness in her throat.

The warmth of his lips pressed into her hair before he drew her away. In a swift move, he lifted her with ease and sat her on the kitchen island. His smile was gentle, his eyes like the soft light of an autumn sunrise.

“I do. I want you to know what I did and why. I’m sure that will make it easier for you to understand what drives me.”

“I’d like to know that.”

“Good, because this…you, me,” he waved a hand between them, “this isn’t over.”

 
His hands found her knees and spread them so that he could nestle between her thighs.

“I have an idea for you, but first I want to share what went on in China, because although we’ve debriefed, my emotional side has hurts that only my mate can soothe.”

Another thing she hadn’t considered; her big, strong protector needed her help to maintain his strength. He detailed his mission from arriving at the bear bile farm all the way through to seeing Jessa in Romer’s enclosure. The horror of the mistreatment of the bears showed as the light faded from his eyes, and Ada took steady breaths to suppress her emotion enough to allow him to finish his story.

“I’m so proud of you. Proud you stood up for doing what was right, despite knowing that there was a real risk of it being the end of us.”

He ran a finger lightly down her cheek. “Do you understand now why I have to do it? I might be privileged and wealthy, but that doesn’t give me the right to sit back and blindly throw money at the bear abuse problem, so that I can buy my way out of the difficult work those at the coalface do. That’s why we started Bear Force. We wanted a rapid response team who can duck in, do the job, and get back out again because the agencies are stalled by having to go through the proper channels. Although I’m happy to step away from a full combat role with them—and, believe me, there are plenty of young guns eager to fill my shoes—I remain utterly committed to the cause. I have other skills they need, but there will be times I’ll have to get my hands dirty.”

“I know. I understand now. I’m sorry I’ve been thinking only of myself.”

He cupped the side of her face with a large palm. “Self-preservation is a powerful motivator.”

The cradling warmth of his hand felt so right, like a filament to reconnect them. She turned her face and kissed his palm. “Are you okay?”

“Getting there. This is better, keeping our energy steady—can we be like this for a bit?”

He was complex, and perhaps that was a shifter thing; immense strength marbled with strands of vulnerability. A lot of the time he agitated with boundless energy, sparking off her and making her laugh. Yet there were moments when his bear pushed or had needs when he liked to keep the energy calm. Like the soft lap of a lazy wave on a windless day, he needed a soothing ebb and flow to take the sting out of whatever troubled his spirit.

“I have an idea for us. I think if we do this work together, it will empower you and remove so much of your fear. I believe it’s a way we can be together.”

Ada’s breath caught. Was it too much to hope that Ranger had found a way to dispel her anxieties?

“I want you to chuck in that shit job you’re doing. They don’t appreciate your talent. Leave them. Come with me, and use your talent to tell the bears’ stories. I’ll get you access to a side of this that nobody’s ever seen. You can track Bear Force through everything we do; discovery, rescue and rehabilitation. The more we publicise this, the better we’ll be able to motivate the tribe of people who will become one big voice to bring about change. You have to believe that I’d never put you in danger. Throw in that job, Ada. They don’t deserve you.”

She couldn’t suppress her grin; this was amazing. “I did. The day you left I chucked in my job. I decided it was time to make some changes in my life.”

“Bravo, Ada! I hope the life changes include me.”

“Yeah, I think they do. Your idea is wonderful, and knowing I’m not going to be left behind whenever you go on a mission makes everything right. I’m sorry about my silly insecurities.”

“They’re not silly. They’re valid, but I intend to make them disappear.”

His shirtsleeves were rolled to the elbow, and Ada used her finger to trace the muscle of his forearm. “You talked your way into my house saying I’d left something at your apartment; what was that?”

Ranger laughed. “Me.”

“You’re incorrigible, you know that?”

“I try my best.”

“I see that.”

In his presence, her body felt alive in ways it had never done so before, as if he’d reached inside her and activated something that had been suppressed all her life. She couldn’t stop smiling, or the butterflies in her stomach, or the flush that warmed her face. Her vision seemed clearer than it had ever been, so that everything around her looked brighter than before. She took his hand and held it up to her heart.

“Feel that? I think my heart’s about to burst from my chest.”

He kept his hand where she placed it, an upward pull at the corner of his mouth suggesting he’d had an idea.

“We need to give that rampaging heart something to work with. I believe we have the house to ourselves.”

Ada nodded and swallowed.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

~ADA~

An intensely erotic rumble announced Ranger’s move from seeking peace to pure hot desire. His hand wound through her hair at the nape of her neck, tilting her head, tipping her towards him until they were forehead to forehead.

He spoke with a low growl. “I survived the horror of China on the memory of the way you sucked my cock that morning before you left me. That was a parting gift guaranteed to be unforgettable, but you listen to me, Ada.”

He leaned in and kissed her hard. “There’ll be no more parting. You have a problem with anything I do, we’ll talk about it, and we won’t be done talking about it until it’s solved. I’m not letting you run again. Do you understand?”

“Why don’t you make me understand?” she teased. She loved it when he went all alpha on her. Mostly he was funny and considerate, but when riled, his animal gagged his censor turning Ranger possessive, bossy, and fucking hot.

“I intend to, sweetheart.”

The depth of the breath he drew seemed to double his size. He stepped away from the cradle of her thighs, and propped his hip against the bench opposite where she sat on the kitchen island. The way he studied her intensified the loss of his presence, and Ada made a gesture with her hand, beckoning him back.