“Manners much?” she muttered, his sensitive hearing easily picking up her soft voice.
Rath glared at the grass, a need to turn and tell her that he had manners pounding through him, but she would only ask where they were, and he didn’t have an answer for that question. He wasn’t sure where they had gone.
They had disappeared the moment he had set eyes on her by the river, the second she had lowered her camera and her eyes had met his, and something had happened. He just wasn’t sure what that something was. It had him tied in knots, snapping at her when he felt guilty about it a split-second later, unsure what the fuck was wrong with him.
He led her to the river, positioned himself on a log beneath a tree on the right side of the grassy area, and leaned back against the broad trunk of the pine.
Watching her.
She lifted the camera to her face and swung it in all directions, diligently keeping it away from him. The morning mist curled playfully around her boots as she did whatever the fuck she was doing. He had never taken a picture in his life, had no clue what she was looking for through the lens. Whatever it was, she seemed to find it when she moved to the other side of the grass, to the trees near the cabin there, and hunkered down, going incredibly still.
Rath tried to do the same, but his right leg twitched and he tapped his fingers on his knee as he watched her.
Couldn’t keep his damned eyes off her.
She stayed perfectly still for close to an hour, and then stood and lowered the camera to her hip. She raised her arms above her head and stretched, pushing her breasts outwards, pulling her thick jacket tight across them.
His cougar side growled at the vision of her, growing restless as he studied her, and he tapped his knee harder. When she turned his way, lowering her arms, he averted his gaze, locking it on the river. The sun was rising higher, clearing the mist now. He basked in it, letting the warmth wash over him and soak into his dark clothing, and distract him from her as it roused his love of lazing in the sunshine.
It wouldn’t be long before summer rolled in.
Gods, the thought of long days spent stretched out in the sunshine had him aching for it to roll around quicker.
He wouldn’t say no to skipping spring, didn’t need the damned headache of a gathering wrecking his year.
“It’s beautiful here.” Ivy’s soft voice coming from close to him had him whipping his head towards her. She smiled down at him. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
She hadn’t. Much.
Her hazel eyes sparkled and he could see in them that she had meant her words, and she thought his valley was beautiful. It was, and it was probably even more beautiful to someone like her, who had likely come from a city life.
She moved away again, snapped a few photographs and looked at each one. Trying out angles?
He tensed when she moved closer to him, and his gaze tracked her as she passed him, stopping only a metre from him. Her fine dark eyebrows pinched, her shell-pink lips pursing. He was about to ask her what was wrong when she lifted the camera and took another shot. Her eyes lit up when she angled the camera away from her and looked down at it. Happy with the picture?
She crouched again, resting her elbows on her knees, her camera clutched in both hands, ready to lift into place.
He tried to keep still for her, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t stop himself from tapping at his leg as he watched her, the energy coursing through him too much to contain.
Another hour passed, and the mist cleared, and he caught the disappointment in her eyes as she gazed at the river, the sparkle that had been in them dying as she rose back onto her feet and lowered her camera. Her shoulders lifted in a long sigh.
“The bears won’t be coming today,” he said, and she looked at him, the flare of disappointment in her hazel gaze growing brighter as she locked eyes with him.
“Do they really come?” She scanned the river, and the woods on the other side, a look of longing on her pretty face.
Rath nodded. “Sometimes. Something must have spooked them today.”
Him.
He was restless around her. The bears were probably picking up on it and steering clear of the creek.
He should have watched her from the cabin instead, keeping his distance so the bears would show up. He wasn’t sure why he had come with her, had positioned himself in the open, and hadn’t hung back so she could get her photographs.
And go.
A growl curled through him at that thought, his animal instincts rebelling against it in a way that left him cold as something hit him.
His cougar side wanted her.
He wanted her.
It wasn’t going to happen. She was human, a complication, and he wasn’t looking for a female. He didn’t need one in his life.
“Can I stay a little longer?” She fidgeted with her camera, her eyes fixed on it, but they nervously flitted to him when he looked at her. “I drove for days to get here, and then trekked for almost two days, and camped in the woods overnight. I swear, I’ll move on in the morning.”
Rath frowned at the way she said that, making it sound as if she was talking about doing something other than marching her backside to her vehicle.
“Move on where?” He sat up now, a feeling stirring inside him, one he didn’t like.
She looked up river, towards the mountains and the glacier. “This is definitely bear country, and I’m sure I can find some.”
He growled inside at that, his cougar side clawing at his skin, pushing for freedom, the thought of her out there in that wilderness, alone and vulnerable, rousing it and instincts long forgotten—a deep need to protect.
He shoved onto his feet, moving so fast she startled and gasped, and loomed over her, so close to her that she had to tip her head back to keep her eyes on his face.
“I thought we’d been through this?” he snapped. “It’s dangerous that way. You might end up hurt.”
“Attacked?” She swallowed hard and her golden skin paled. “Do you see cougars around here?”
Rath smiled wryly. “All the time.”
“Really?” Her hazel eyes widened and darted around, and he swore her cheeks paled further. “I know how to handle bears, but cougars…”
“It’s not the cougars who will hurt you.” He moved a step closer, just a few inches, but enough that he could feel her heat, drowned in the scent of her, and his damned cougar side stopped frantically clawing at his skull, pushing him to shift and force her to remain. “It’s the grizzlies. It’s grizzly country up that way.”
He was talking shifters, ones liable to attack her on sight, or worse, capture her and keep her.
He looked at Cougar Creek and huffed.
Although, it was a fucking awful time for her to stumble onto his land too.
It wouldn’t be long before the males started gathering, and any available female in the vicinity, even a human female, would provoke their instincts to fight for dominance so they could mate with her.
Soon, she would be in as much danger here as she would be if he let her go upstream towards the glacier and the bear shifter pack that called that area of the valley home.
He dropped his eyes to her and stared at her as she looked at her surroundings.
For the first time in three decades, desire stirred in his chest, tore through his muscles and flowed through his veins, and had his cougar side shifting beneath his skin, hungry for a female.
Hungry for her.
Scratch soon.
She had been in dangerous waters from the moment he had set eyes on her.
Her hazel eyes slowly lifted to his, enormous now as she looked at him, but they were dark too, her dilated pupils and her scent revealing the emotions that flowed through her.
Desire. Need.
They called to him, and damn, part of him wanted to answer.
Her eyes darted away from him, and her voice trembled as she spoke. “I… uh… didn’t see these cabins on any maps.”
“They’re all hidden by the trees.” Was that his voice, so rough and deep, strained and raw? He tried to tear his eyes away from her, but couldn’t, was powerless against her pull as her scent curled around him, her beauty branded itself on him, and her soft curves inflamed him.
A blush climbed her cheeks. “There’s a lot of cabins. Do you run a business here? Like vacation rentals?”
Was she thinking of checking in? Fuck, he probably wouldn’t turn her away, even when he knew he should.
“They’re all family cabins. I just look after them.” He mustered the strength to rip his focus from her and pinned it on the cabin nearest the river. The sight of it acted as a bucket of ice down his crotch, instantly cooling him off as he remembered that the family who owned it were coming soon, and so was his brother, and then most of the eligible pride males would hit the creek. “I’m meant to be refurbishing one.”
“I’m sorry. I’m getting in your way.” She glanced at the cabin and then back at him, and he resisted looking at her, felt her frown and sensed the shift in her emotions, darker ones emerging. His coldness had upset her, and damn, she was quick to bring up a wall around herself and hit him with the same cold front he was showing her. “I’ll just get my things and go.”
It was for the best.
But he found himself lunging for her, seizing her wrist as his heart froze in his chest, the thought of her leaving propelling him into action before he could think about what he was doing.
She looked down at his hand on her arm.
“You can stay one night.” Fuck, he was going to regret this, he knew it, but for some damned reason he couldn’t bring himself to let her go just yet. “You can’t photograph anything that might give away the location, or me… or any of the cabins. You have to stick to the river and the wildlife, and do not wander out of the boundary of the village.”
That seemed to scare her, and her eyes leaped to the mountains, her pulse picking up in his ears as she stared at them.
When she finally looked back at him, that pulse kicked faster, echoing in his own chest as she smiled at him, one that reached her stunning eyes.
“Thank you,” she murmured, and then added with a frown, “I just realised I never got your name.”
“Rath,” he uttered, falling under her spell again, feeling a little hazy from head to toe as his cougar side purred at her, had him wanting to rub against her to mark her with his scent.
To make her his.
She tipped her head back, looked deep into his eyes, and rocked his entire world on its axis with three innocent words.
“Thank you, Rath.”
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