Chapter 7

Nan arches her brow and stares pointedly at my engorged cock. As a wolf shifter and a doctor, she's seen me naked plenty of times. Hell, she's probably seen me fuck, although she and I have never connected that way. That's the thing about shifters and full moons, we let our animals take over—even in our human forms—and are damn near barbaric in our natures that one night a month. Mated or not.

Of course, I'd never let someone watch me pleasure my mate. I'd rip their throats out if they accidentally stumbled upon us, but pairing with an unmated shifter during a full moon is a free-for-all, and there are no fucks given about who is doing what as long as there are no humans watching.

"I take it she's feeling better," she says in a low voice as I push her back and walk outside with my jeans in hand.

I step into them and tuck my cock down my leg, grimacing against the discomfort. I'm going to be hard from now until I embed my mating serum into her delicate skin, a constant reminder that I need to make her mine. My bear, who has been uncharacteristically quiet for the last hour, grumbles at the reminder.

"She's my mate," I say matter-of-factly, as if that answers all of Nan's questions.

Her smile falls. "That explains the pheromones. What are you going to do?"

"Hopefully mate her!" I snap, her question reminding me of the dire situation I'm in. Shaking my head, I rub my face and take a deep inhale of the summer air, trying to clear my one-track brain. "How's Jimmy?"

"Better than expected. He was shot, but the bullet went through cleanly, missing all major organs. Unfortunately, his liver and lung were punctured when they stabbed him, and his shoulder was dislocated at some point. They beat him, fracturing his right orbital bone. He looks like hell, but his eye is intact and he'll heal fine. I gave him a special concoction of meds to speed up the process."

I arch my brow. "If certain shifters find out you did that, you'll get in trouble."

"Well then, I guess you better not tell on me."

"Why'd you do it?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. I felt sorry for the human. No one deserves to go through what they went through."

"And yet we're hunted all the time."

"True, but we're better equipped to survive." She lifts the duffle bag in her hand. "Are you going to invite me in so I can check on our patient?"

"Yeah, come on in." I sigh and turn back to the cabin.

Nan follows me in and stops in the living room, her nose scrunched up in disgust. "You need to air this place out."

She's right—this place reeks of my pheromones, although I only smell Dinah's honeysuckle scent. "Deal with it."

Nan laughs and motions for me to hurry.

I go into my bedroom, but my mate isn't sitting on the bed. The bathroom door is closed, and the water is running. "Nan is here to check on you. Can she come in?"

"Okay." Dinah opens the door wearing my T-shirt and a shy smile.

Nan walks in behind me, quickly morphing into doctor mode and dismissing me with an air of authority. "Why don't you make us some coffee, Kade?"

"You're lucky you're here in an official capacity, woman," I grumble and walk out, leaving her with my mate. Anyone else talking to me like that while trying to separate me from Dinah, they'd have my teeth in their ass.

I listen with my shifter hearing as I prepare the coffee pot and hit brew.

"Let's get these bandages off and see how you are healing," Nan says. "Oh, these look good. How's this feel?"

"Tender, but manageable."

"Okay, let's clean and dress them one last time. I brought some more of my special salve. Would you like to take another sponge bath?"

My bear perks up and I fight the urge to rush in there and wash her myself. Instead, I lean against the counter with my arms crossed over my chest, my thumb scrolling through my missed messages on my phone, and wait as the coffee pot slowly drips the heavenly brew.

More shenanigans in Fortune Falls between Karter and the triplets.

A sweet message from my baby sister Kylian saying she misses me.

Updates on Jimmy from Wiley and Sly.

A how's it going from Erick and Cricket.

"I would, but I don't have any clothes to change into," Dinah says.

"No worries. I brought you a couple of things from my closet and a couple pairs of comfortable shoes." Nan lowers her voice—not that it will keep me from hearing her. "I also stopped at the store this morning and bought a couple pairs of underwear with matching bras. Hopefully, they fit. You're bustier than I realized last night. I'll leave you to bathe and we'll bandage your feet before putting on shoes."

"Thank you, Nan, for everything. Kade says you rushed to Jimmy last night?"

"He's doing great. You'll be able to see him later today."

"Thank you." I hear Dinah's voice crack, which has my feet moving toward the bedroom before I realize I'm in motion. I stop myself outside the door and turn back to the kitchen when I hear her voice brighten. "Everyone has been so nice to us."

"We take care of our own, sweetie."

Our own. As if the pack would actually welcome my human mate. I suppose it's possible, but it's not probable, and almost too good to hope for.

Nan walks out of my bedroom a minute later and pins me with a shit-eating grin. "She's glowing this morning. Completely different girl from the one I met last night."

"Shut up." I hand her a cup of black coffee, me and my bear extremely satisfied with ourselves.

She's not ours yet, but she will be soon. I have to believe that.

"Are we heading to Great Falls after this?" She takes a sip and sits on the arm of my couch.

"Yeah, but I need to stop by the store and check in with Erick on our way out of town." Erick and I operate the Bearclaw Gun and Ammo shop. It's really his store, but he brought me on as a partner when I followed him here after leaving our military unit six months after he separated. He's the reason I'm here, just like I'm the reason Cricket and Sly are here. The four of us served together—joining SpecOpsSierra from different packs around North America—each one of us not going home after our military tours for various reasons.

I felt drawn here and now I know why. She's in the bathroom, and about two years later than I would've liked. But Dinah's here now and that's all that matters.

We sit in comfortable silence, scanning our phones and answering emails and messages when I hear the tub drain and Dinah hiss in pain. Nan hears it too, but I beat her to the bathroom to find Dinah standing in a pair of red hot lacy panties and a matching bra that barely contains her full breasts.

My jaw drops as I take her in.

Holy shit, I could kiss Nan right now for buying her these undergarments.

Dinah's eyes grow big and she tries to cover herself with her hands. "I'm naked."

I chuckle, waving my hand outside of the doorframe to fend off Nan's approach. "One, you're not naked, but wrapped up like a tempting Christmas present. Two, I've had my mouth all over you, my tongue inside of you as you came all over my face, so I don't think you need to be shy with me."

She blushes and motions to the red lacy scraps of material. "I've never worn anything like this."

"I'll buy you any color combination and style you want, Honeysuckle, as long as you're modeling them for me." I throw her another flirty wink. "How are your feet? I heard you hiss in pain, which is why I barged in like I did."

"They're tender, but Nan is going to bandage them again."

I step forward and slide my finger under her chin, tilting her face up. Looking her in the eye, I slowly bend down until my lips hover over hers. "If you need me, all you have to do is call my name."

Dinah closes her eyes and pushes up, closing the fraction of an inch I left between us as her answer.

The kiss is chaste, but satisfying for now. "Let me help you to the bed and you can finish getting dressed."

She wraps her arms around my neck without me having to ask, and I carry her the ten feet to the bed. I set her down and touch the red sundress Nan laid out beside a pair of jeans, yoga pants, a T-shirt, and a long sleeve Henley. "If I get a vote, I would love to see you in this."

Yeah, I'm not going to kiss Nan, but I definitely need to buy her a present or something for playing into all of my fantasies without even knowing about them. Not that I wasn't going to be walking around with a hard-on anyway, but the vision of Dinah in a sundress knowing all she has on under it is skimpy red lace panties will keep me on edge all day until I can get her back into my bed and my arms tonight.

We drive to Bearclaw Ammo in my diesel truck. Nan waves from her truck as she continues on the road to her clinic in the middle of town. Owning and operating a gun shop gives us decent intel on what the hunters in this area are doing, but we never could've predicted what we found on Johnston's land last night. He wouldn't buy his guns or ammunition from us, anyway. We've had too many run-ins with him in the past and had already told his obnoxious buddies to go fuck themselves more than once.

Well, I guess we'd had too many run-ins. Won't be seeing his sorry ass ever again. I wonder what will happen to his property? We know nothing about his family—if he has sons or a wife or whatnot—considering he wasn't a real rancher and only used the place as a vacation home and hunting lodge for his rich asshole friends.

Now we know what he was hunting. Was this the first time, or the last? Kind of makes me want to call Junta to do some investigating, but honestly anyone before Dinah is not my problem. And we made sure there will be no one after her.

Dinah is wearing the sundress with white trainers and thick wool socks that cushion her feet nicely. Nan instructed me to remove all bandages and let her feet breathe tonight when we get back from the hospital. She suspects with another round of special salve, Dinah will be without pain by tomorrow morning—thank Fates.

"This is where you work?" Dinah lets me lift her out of the truck and takes my offered hand. It's like we've known each other for years and have been a couple the entire time. She's a woman who craves the kind of physical contact she's been denied her whole life. That she asked for a hug last night confirms it. We meld into one just like fated mates do, only as a human, she doesn't understand the biological, chemical, and ethereal connection pulling us together.

I should explain it to her.

I should give her a choice.

But my need to live out my life with my mate is keeping me tight-lipped, for now.

Erick lifts his head from a gun he's showing a customer, his nostrils flair and brow arches at our joined hands.

I direct Dinah to a chair and kiss her forehead. "I'll be right back."

Heading into the back, Erick hands his customer over to Cricket and follows me. We stand far enough away to be out of earshot of any human, but I keep the door open so she's in my line of sight.

"Smells like things are going well. You reek."

I shake my head. "Wait until it happens to you, man. My bear is out of fucking control right now. If she hadn't responded perfectly to my scent, I'd be handing her over to someone else for her own protection. As it is, I almost sank my fangs into her this morning. It took everything within me to back him down."

"But you haven't claimed her yet?" Erick crosses his arms over his chest. He's two years older than me and hasn't found his mate either.

"No." I huff and drag my hand down my face, scratching at my beard that I normally shave clean daily. I didn't have the energy this morning, and I didn't want to dampen her scent by removing my whiskers.

"What about the husband?" Erick arches his brow.

"He's not her husband, so there's no problem there." I shrug, leaving it at that. I'm sure her past will come out eventually, but Erick doesn't need the details right now. "We are on our way to see him, though."

"I guess you're taking a few days off?"

"Yep." My eyes narrow as Cricket approaches Dinah. I mean, I trust the man with my life, but my unmarked mate? I don't know about that.

Erick stares at me, his tongue flicking his incisor.

"What?" I growl, already knowing what he's going to say.

Before he can speak, Dinah laughs at something Cricket says, and I lurch forward without thinking. Erick holds me back with his shifter strength, his forearm across my chest. "Get a grip. It's just Cricket, and I guarantee he scented you on her like I did."

Cricket takes a step back from her and glances over at us with wide eyes. I'm guessing he heard my bear"s growl and Erick's warning.

I shake my head again, willing my bear to chill out. "You have no idea, Erick. I'm not in control. He won't let me be."

"I guess everything they say about the older you are when you find your mate, the more desperate your animal will be to claim them, is true. Do you think she'll let you mark her? Claim her? Will she accept the mating bond?"

"Fuck, I hope so." I stare at her sitting while she talks to Cricket. She's the image of perfection in her pretty red dress. Beautiful, sweet, and curious, but there's also a strength within her that gives me hope she'll accept me and my world. Although she's lived a sheltered life until now, not just anyone could survive what she's been through. It takes a warrior's spirit to come out on the other side. And even though I haven't met him yet, I'd say Jimmy has a similar warrior's drive to survive. Otherwise he wouldn't have made it yesterday. I guess I'm thankful they had each other all these years, even if my bear wants her all to ourself. "I can give her everything she needs except time. She's been a prisoner her whole life, and while I'd love to set her free so she can experience the world for a while, doing so would be a death sentence to me. So, am I a selfish bastard or a survivor?"

"Both," Erick says without worrying about my feelings. "But, I'd rather you be selfish and alive, so I guess I'm no better."

"How the fuck am I going to tell her about my bear?" I tear my eyes off her to look him in the face, hoping for a helpful answer.

He shakes his head. "No fucking clue."