Unbearable: Russet Falls Series (8 page)

Gabby found herself at work the next day and couldn’t help
but ask Paul about Native Americans.

“Paul, do you know much about Native Americans?” she asked
after she directed a couple to one of the better restaurants in town.

Paul cocked his head. “Whadda ya mean? Like Native
Americans, in general?”

“No, no. I mean Native Americans around this area.”

Paul frowned. “I’m sure there are some in the area. I just
don’t know too much. I know a lot of Native Americans from Washington moved
down this way. And there was a big stigma attached.”

That caught Gabby’s attention. “What do you mean by stigma?”

Paul shrugged. “I know that a lot of people at the time
thought that the Native Americans were evil and up to no good. That kind of
thing.”

Gabby frowned, none of it made sense. “But why?”

Paul shrugged. “No clue. Just the way people reacted around
here.”

“People are idiots,” Gabby muttered, organizing the
pamphlets on the front desk.

“Agreed.”

Paul was silent for a moment and Gabby looked over at him.
She rolled her eyes. “Stop looking at my tits, Paul.”

Paul turned bright red and looked at the ground. “I—I’m
not!” he stuttered.

“Yes, you were.”

Embarrassed, Paul hurried back to his office.

Gabby’s had chosen a V-neck shirt today and she should have
known better. Even though it was modest, her chest was still straining against
the material. She thought of how Zane had checked her out too, though that
hadn’t bothered her nearly as much as Paul checking her out.

And Gabby didn’t even want to think about the strange kiss
they had shared. It had been just too bizarre.

She forced her mind back to work and tried to forget about
Zane.

“I think there’s more to it,” Zane argued, knowing he was
close to overstepping his boundaries.

“Enough!” Michael said sharply. “You’ve shared your views,
and I’ve expressed my doubts.”

Annoyed, Zane stormed across the room. “Then why?” he
practically exploded. “Why would we have that many trespassers on our land?”

“I don’t know,” Michael admitted, “but I think we need to be
focusing on the cubs that have been killed and not on some random human who
happened to be in the park yesterday.”

“I just think it was too coincidental, that’s all.” Zane
sank down in one of the chairs in Michael’s office and dropped his head to his
hands. He had been racking his brain for the past few days, trying to find out
a reason why the trespassers had been on their lands, but all he kept thinking
of was Gabby.

She had been such a pain in the ass, but she had been sexy
as hell, and Zane couldn’t stop himself whenever he thought of their kiss. He
knew he shouldn’t have kissed her, but he wasn’t able to stop himself, and then
when she responded—well, he had been harder than a rock.

“I’m beefing up security along our borders,” Michael spoke
up. “I need your help, especially now, and you don’t need to be wasting time
patrolling.”

“Thank you,” Zane said, humbly. When an alpha complimented
you, it was nearly impossible
not
to be humble. The compliment resonated
deep in his bones.

“I say we stop trying to guess as to why the trespassers
were here. That’s getting us nowhere. Now we focus on stopping them from
entering our lands again and continuing to threaten our cubs.”

The cubs had literally been on lockdown, which had been
extremely difficult. They were escorted to and from their schools, and outdoor
play had all but ceased. Zane felt bad for the cubs. They needed to be outdoors
and running around, and instead they were cooped up most of the time, unless a
warrior-trained bear could supervise them.

“I want you looking into any connections between the
Cruentus clan and Atrocitas clan. I still believe it’s the Atrocitas who killed
our cubs, but it doesn’t make sense that it was the Cruentus trespassing the
other day. See if you can find any links. Sniff around.”

Zane nodded in agreement and left Michael’s office. There
was no sense in trying to get him to change his mind about Gabby, and now that
he had an order, he needed to follow through. He noticed that the door to the
safe room hadn’t been closed. He walked over to close it and noticed something
black on the floor.

Gabby’s baseball cap.

She must have taken it off the other day when he locked her
in there.

He suddenly decided that he needed to return it to her. He
had just learned yesterday that she worked at the small hotel that was just off
the highway.

Taking the hat, he jogged outside to his car and hopped in.
Hopefully Michael would be so immersed in his thoughts that he wouldn’t miss
Zane.

In less than ten minutes Zane found himself pulling in front
of the hotel. He parked the car and strode into the lobby, not sure where he
could find Gabby. He realized he didn’t need to worry about that because there
was Gabby behind the front desk, speaking with an elderly couple.

She didn’t notice him right away, but when she saw him, her
mouth dropped open, and then after she recovered, she looked annoyed.

Oh well.

Zane waited off to the side, but he couldn’t help himself as
he looked Gabby over. There was no denying that she was gorgeous. She was curvy
in all the right places, and he found himself lingering on her chest, which
thanks to the v-cut of her shirt, offered him a wonderful glimpse of her
cleavage. He couldn’t see her bottom half, but he could just picture the large
curve of her ass.

Damn.

He needed to stop. His cock twitched in his pants, and the
bear inside him roared its approval—it wanted a piece of Gabby too.

Zane had been so good about exercising control over the past
couple of days, but he could feel the wild beast fighting against his human
instincts.

Gabby rolled her eyes at him, which Zane figured wasn’t a
good sign, but she looked so damn hot that he didn’t really give a shit. He
sauntered over to her.

“Hey.” He opened casually.

Gabby stared at him. “Hey.” She raised her eyebrows. “Can I
help you?” she asked slowly, staring at Zane as if he were an idiot.

Fuck! What was he doing? He was just staring at her like a
dumbass. As if he had come into the hotel for no reason at all.

“You left this the other day,” he explained, brandishing the
hat from his pocket. Christ! Her tits were right in his face.

“Oh! I forgot all about that.” Her face softened for a
moment. “Thank you.” She took the hat and held it in her hand. “You came all
the way over here just to drop this off?”

Zane gave a little shrug. “It’s only a few minutes.”

Gabby nodded. She looked up at Zane and then narrowed her
eyes. “My eyes are up
here,
” she hissed.

Zane felt bad, but he gave her a helpless grin, which seemed
to annoy Gabby even more.

“If you don’t want people staring at your tits, then maybe
you shouldn’t have them on full display.”

Gabby’s face went from pink to crimson.

Shit.

Maybe he shouldn’t have said that.

“Excuse me,” she began. “I should be able to get dressed in
the morning without worrying about some horn dog ogling me while I’m at work!”
she huffed. She shoved the hat under the front desk. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,
I have work to do.”

“Alright, alright. Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. Let me
make it up to you.”

She narrowed her eyes again. “How?”

Zane couldn’t help being glad that she hadn’t completely
written him off. Even though she was a pistol, he found himself attracted to
her and wanting to spend more time with her.

“When do you get a break?”

She glanced at her watch. “I could take a fifteen minute
break now,” she said carefully. She clearly wasn’t sure of whether or not she
could trust Zane.

“Great. Let me buy you—’’ he faltered, looking around. And
then he saw a sign for a vending machine. “A soda and we can sit out on the
porch.” He thought of the big rockers along the front verandah.

Gabby waved at some guy across the room and pointed at her
watch. Then she looked back at Zane. “Fine. But I want iced tea and let’s sit
out in the back garden. It’s more private.”

Zane wasn’t going to complain about that. Gabby came around
the desk, and she did not disappoint. She was wearing a pair of black capris
that hugged her body beautifully. He forced himself not to stare at her ass,
though he wasn’t sure if he had fooled her.

They walked over to the vending machine, situated by a bank
of elevators, and he stuck in two dollar bills and got an iced tea for Gabby
and a Coke for himself. Gabby led the way out back, and Zane was surprised to
see that it was a full garden, filled with trees, benches and dozens of
different types of flowers.

“Wow. I had no idea this was back here.”

Gabby nodded. “Not many people do. Follow me.” She weaved
her way between roses and daisies, until they came to a secluded bench. She sat
down and Zane sat next to her. Being this close to her drove him wild, and he
could feel the bear within him begging to be let out.

They sat in silence for a minute, and Zane felt foolish.
“How long have you worked here?” he found himself asking.

“A while,” she frowned. “I guess it’s been eight years. I
started working here part time when I was in high school. It just seemed like a
no brainer to come on full time after I graduated.” She looked like she was
going to say more, but stopped herself.

“What?” Zane asked.

“Nothing. It’s just—I wanted to go to college, but I
couldn’t. I had to look out for my little sister. So that’s how I ended up
here. Not that it’s not a great place to work,” she quickly explained, “it’s
just not exactly what I had in mind.”

Zane tried to understand her better. “What did you have in
mind?”

She fiddled with the top of the iced tea bottle and
shrugged. “I don’t know. College. But like I said, my sister needed me.”

Zane had never even considered college. Almost no one from
the tribes went to college; there was no point. Their jobs were to protect the
lands. Plain and simple. No college training was necessary for those who hid
the secret of being a werebear.

“But couldn’t your parents help your sister?” He vaguely
remembered Gabby mentioning something about her father and a fear of bears.

“My father’s dead,” she said flatly, “and my mother is the
town drunk.”

Ouch. Zane hadn’t seen that one coming. And since the tribe
pretty much stuck together and didn’t socialize with the rest of the town, he
really didn’t know many of the residents.

“Sorry.” He didn’t know what else to say.

“It’s fine.” She paused and sighed. “And sorry I snapped at
you for, you know, staring at me. It’s been a strange few days. I just snapped
at my boss too.”

“Oh?”

She rolled her eyes. “For the same reason.”

Zane didn’t know why, but it made his bear roar with
jealousy. Who the hell was this boss of hers?

He tried to calm the bear; he was being ridiculous.

“I should get going,” she said, glancing at her watch.
“Thanks for the drink.” She went to stand, but her foot got tangled in one of
the roots, and she quickly pitched forward.

Zane reached out, his reflexes sharper than the average
human thanks to being part bear, and he grabbed Gabby, quickly righting her.

Gabby gasped, the whole thing happened so quickly, and then
Zane was there, holding her in his arms.

“Are you alright?”

She stared at him wildly, and Zane could hear the
acceleration of her heart. “Umm, yes. I think so.” She held onto his biceps,
and Zane resisted the urge to flex them just a bit. She looked up at him, her
eyes blue eyes bright. “How—how did you catch me so fast?”

“I don’t know. I just did.”

She still wasn’t standing completely, and Zane lifted her
up, as if she weighed nothing, and righted her on her feet.

But he still didn’t let go.

She was so close, her chest heaving up and down from the
surprise of tripping, and her skin was so soft and warm, not to mention her
smell!

The scent of her!

All humans had different scents, and thanks to his
heightened senses, Zane was able to smell humans in their entirety. And Gabby
smelled amazing. There was something fragrant and sweet about her scent, and
yet there was also something dark and lingering which he couldn’t quite place.

And then, not giving a damn, he gave into the moment,
pulling Gabby to him, just as he had outside her truck the other day. Gabby
didn’t resist, in fact he guessed that she was too shocked, and Zane kissed
her, his hands sliding along the small of her back and hugging her ass as he
pulled her close to his body.

He leaned down as he kissed her; he was nearly a full foot
taller than her, and she tasted just as sweet as she smelled. His bear roared
its approval. Gabby wasn’t kissing him back yet, but he didn’t care, kissing
her harder.

His cock hardened in his pants.

Nothing he could do about that.

Then finally, Gabby kissed him back, though it didn’t feel
quite right, and then she pushed against him, shoving him away.

“What the hell?’’ she sputtered.

“What?”

“What are you doing?”

“Kissing you,” he snapped, his pride wounded. And then he
could see in Gabby’s eyes that she was reconsidering having pulled away, and he
tugged her slightly, pulling her back to him and kissing her again.

This time she didn’t resist.