This was stupid. For all she knew he was sleeping in there. She"d seen a cot in the loft. That didn"t explain why he would have gone to the garage rather than back to his own place...unless he was trying to avoid her. He"d expect her to check his place first, wouldn"t he? Was he hiding from her?
Zoe hated this insecurity. She felt like such a girl. She reminded herself that she was here only to make sure he knew they were still no strings.
Which, now that she thought about it, was a really freaking stupid reason to be here. Dammit. What had she been thinking?
She took a step back, pivoting on her heel, when the door creaked open behind her. "Zoe?"
51.s.h.i.t. She turned back, a fake smile plastered on her face. "Tyler. Hey."
"Were you looking for me?"
Yes, because I was being a total freaking moron. "Yeah, I..." s.h.i.t. She needed a reason to be looking for him. What the h.e.l.l kind of reason could she make up?
"Is this about the clothes?" he asked. "I was going to come back for them. I just needed to work on some stuff."
For the first time, Zoe noticed he was wearing a pair of greasy grey coveralls open to the waist rather than the clothes he"d worn to her place. She hadn"t even noticed that he"d left them behind. She latched onto his excuse eagerly. "Yeah. Your clothes. But you look like, you know, you found some."
And d.a.m.n if the man didn"t look edible in the uniform of his trade. The shapeless coveralls seemed to accentuate the breadth of his shoulders and the large, capable size of his hands. Hands that had been all over her body only hours ago.
"You wanna come in? I"m about done here."
Did she want to come in? Why did that question seem like the Riddle of the Sphinx? This was a casual visit, right? She wasn"t asking for strings if she accepted his invitation to go into the garage. The garage where they"d hooked up only yesterday-but also where they had first discussed the no-strings plan.
There wasn"t anything hidden in his invitation. He was a guy, for f.u.c.k"s sake. They didn"t see the minefields in conversations that chicks planted there. They could still talk without having it complicate their s.e.xual relationship, couldn"t they?
"Zoe?"
Oh, Jesus. She"d been standing there gaping at him. "Yeah. Yeah, sure. I"ll come in."
Tyler opened the door wider and she slipped past him, reminded of when she"d let him into her place only hours earlier. But if she hadn"t put her mark on her house, the garage was all Tyler. His scent saturated every surface, but even more than that, the neat efficiency and small, personalized touches made it a s.p.a.ce that was uniquely him.
"How long have you been the pride mechanic?" she heard herself asking, even though she"d sworn she would keep things light and impersonal.
"Seventeen years." Tyler wandered over to a st.u.r.dy table where a ma.s.s of unidentifiable metal cluttered the surface. She trailed along behind, careful not to touch anything.
"You never met Tobias," Tyler commented as he picked up a piece and adjusted it in some mysterious way. "Cranky b.a.s.t.a.r.d. He was my mentor, taught me everything he knew about cars and then sent me to trade schools to learn more. He used to run the garage, even when he could barely lift a wrench anymore, but he retired when I was eighteen and handed it all over to me. He died...I guess it was five years ago now."
"I"m sorry."
52."He was eighty-six years old and he died with the help of a box of v.i.a.g.r.a." Tyler grinned fondly. "I wouldn"t be too sorry."
"Eighteen"s pretty young to be responsible for keeping the whole pride in wheels."
He grimaced. "One thing I"m used to, it"s responsibility. You deal with it. No one else is going to."
Zoe shoved her hands in her pockets, knowing she shouldn"t ask the next question if she wanted to keep them impersonal, but driven by a need to know. "Ava said you pretty much raised her and your brothers."
Tyler grunted. "No one else was going to," he repeated, but something cold had crept into his voice.
"Our father left and our mother was useless."
"My sire was banished too." Zoe scuffed her toe over an old oil stain on the cement floor. "I don"t really remember him." She"d been raised more as part of the pride litter than by her actual parents, but with Landon as her partner in crime she hadn"t felt bruised by the lack.
"Our father wasn"t banished. He left," Tyler said harshly. "Just decided he didn"t want his responsibilities anymore and walked away. Headed for greener pastures."
Zoe struggled for something to say that wouldn"t sound patronizing. He would be proud of you?
Because how could he not be? Tyler was an amazing man. He was tempered steel tested by a lifetime of burdens. He was the man every father hoped his son would be, but she didn"t think saying that would help.
She didn"t want to imply that Tyler needed his father"s approval. He was better than that.
And besides, who was she to talk? She avoided responsibilities like the plague and she was an old hand at greener pastures. She knew better than most that they were almost never green.
Arriving in a new pride wasn"t easy as a nomad. She and Landon had visited their share in their years of wandering before they"d come to Three Rocks.
Zoe cleared her throat self-consciously. "Can I ask you something?"
Tyler shrugged consent, his focus centered on the parts in his hands.
"That first day, when Landon and I arrived here at Three Rocks. The old Alpha Leonus and his thug Kato tried to gang up on Landon, but you didn"t let them. I would have fought with him. I remember how surprised I was when I didn"t even have to shift. But Leonus was even more surprised than I was when you stepped in, like you"d never interfered before. I"ve always wondered why you didn"t. And why, that day, you did."
Tyler"s hands stilled on the engine components. "Why do you ask?"
Because that was the moment I started falling in love with you.
She shook her head, in denial of the thought. This wasn"t love. She wouldn"t let it be. She hadn"t needed a hero then, but having him step in with his armor shining had linked them somehow.
"I have a theory about why you didn"t," she said. "Landon"s always had big sweeping ideas of changing the whole world, but you strike me as more focused. Ava... Michael... You only fight personal 53.battles. I think Leonus was betting on you not lifting a finger for a stranger, but for some reason that wasn"t a good bet." Zoe wet her lips, unaccountably nervous. "I guess I was just wondering if that reason had anything to do with me."
She was able to ask only because he wasn"t looking at her. When he raised his eyes to hers, the words turned to sawdust in her mouth.
"Doesn"t that make me less n.o.ble? If I wasn"t doing it for the justice of it, but only to get laid?" Tyler slowly advanced on her, and Zoe found her feet retreating without any direction from her brain.
"But you didn"t get laid. If you were only doing it so I"d feel indebted to you, why didn"t you ever come to collect?"
"Isn"t that what I did last night?"
"You waited over a year to claim your prize? I don"t think so." Her back b.u.mped against an SUV with the side paneling shredded by some lion"s claws.
Tyler kept advancing until his chest brushed hers, using his superior height to loom over her in that way that never failed to make her internal organs melt like b.u.t.ter.
"Why, Tyler?"
He bowed his head and buried his nose in her hair, inhaling deeply next to her ear and then whispering the words into it. "I didn"t want you to get hurt." He rested his hands on the SUV on either side of her so his forearms brushed the sides of her waist. "I"ve had this compulsion to protect you since the second you walked through that gate."
"I don"t need you to protect me."
"I need to. You belong to me, Zoe. And you drive me mad when you put yourself at risk. I thought I could control it. I thought if I didn"t give in to it that I would stop wanting to claim you, but it never worked."
Her breathing accelerated, fueled by the mix of arousal and panic his words inspired. "I don"t want a protector."
"Tough," he growled against her ear, his body leaning into hers until she could feel his strength pressing her back into the door panel. "We don"t always get what we want. I wanted to be free of my obligations and leave here for good, but I stopped thinking that way the second I realized you were mine to protect."
"You can"t have it both ways," she said, her argument slightly less effective due to the breathy gasps that were all she could manage with his hands sneaking under her shirt to her braless b.r.e.a.s.t.s beneath. "You can"t be both the big, strong protector and the no-strings lover. It doesn"t work that way."
He lifted her, guiding her legs around his hips and pinning her hard against the SUV. "We both know no strings was never an option."
54.His mouth slammed down on hers, driving any protest she might have made out of her mind. He consumed her with the kiss. He shrugged out of his coveralls, and Zoe lowered her legs long enough to help the stiff cloth drop to his ankles. As he kicked it off, she quickly stripped out of her own jeans and T-shirt.
Then he fell back on her in a hungry frenzy. His hands were filthy with engine grease, but Zoe didn"t care.
She wanted them on her everywhere, smearing tracks of dark grease across her skin.
Tyler was forceful, commanding. He spun her away from the side door and bent her over the table he"d been working at earlier, her a.s.s raised like a gift. He nudged her feet wider and stroked a calloused hand over the curve of her b.u.t.tocks as Zoe gripped the table for balance. She felt his thick c.o.c.k probing at her entrance, impossibly hot like all the heat in his body was being redirected there, and then he plunged inside and she screamed raggedly as sensation ratcheted to an unbearable pitch, her cries echoing hollowly in the garage bay.
He drove into her again and again, hard enough that the heavy table began sc.r.a.ping across the floor with each pounding thrust. Zoe held on tight, aware of nothing but the knot of pleasure building in her blood. Tyler reached around and found the heart of the knot, rotating a single finger on her c.l.i.t. The knot unraveled like a slingshot, flinging her into the stratosphere as her climax shook her body, and Tyler rammed into her one last time, holding tight and deep as he came hard inside her.
As she floated back to her body, Zoe concentrated on the sound of their uneven breathing. Everything else was too big, too much to contemplate.
Whatever this thing was between them, it had just gotten a h.e.l.l of a lot more complicated.
Chapter Nine.
Zoe snuck into the back of the mess hall, hoping to go unnoticed at Landon"s mandatory defense summit. Flying under the radar wasn"t something she had much experience with, but she"d been practicing it diligently for the last forty-eight hours. Ever since Tyler tossed no-strings out the window.
She"d fled the garage, throwing some lame excuse she couldn"t even remember over her shoulder.
Tyler hadn"t stopped her, either smart enough to know she needed s.p.a.ce or c.o.c.ky enough to be certain she was coming back.
The world felt like it was squeezing in around her like a vacuum pack, sucking all the oxygen out of her lungs. She"d needed some breathing room. Some time to evaluate. Just a few minutes when her hormones weren"t running on overdrive and insisting she absolutely must stay with that walking aphrodisiac of a lion. She couldn"t think when she was with him.
Unfortunately, after two days apart from him, she was no closer to knowing what she wanted.
She"d avoided Landon, Ava, the entire Minor family, but especially Tyler. She knew what he wanted-what they all wanted. For her to decide she really did want to settle down.
Settle. The word tasted like rust on her tongue. If she stayed here, she"d be close to Landon and Ava.
She"d have Tyler, and probably a few cubs and an extra thirty pounds of baby weight she couldn"t shed.
She"d be domesticated. A house cat.
The thought made her physically ill, so much so she"d actually considered going to the pride doc and asking him to give her a pregnancy test even though she couldn"t be pregnant without going into her heat cycle. Wouldn"t that be just her luck? If Tyler knocked her up, there"d be no denying him.
She didn"t want her claws pulled. She could handle it for a little while-being surrounded by people you cared for wasn"t exactly torture-but eventually the wanderl.u.s.t that was so deeply embedded in her soul would start pressing against her heart again, begging for an outlet. Independence. Freedom. Adventure.
Would her soul just wither and die without them? Could she be a house cat? And on the other side, could she even make herself leave Tyler?
He already felt like the cornerstone to the foundation of her happiness, like it would all crumble without him. But was he too grounded? He might profess to want to leave the pride and see the world, but he would never be able to leave his family. His siblings meant too much to him. And knowing what she now did about his father, she knew he would never let himself be the kind of man who abandoned those he loved. Tyler was even more caged than she was here at Three Rocks. But if she put herself in that cage with him, would they soothe one another or rip each other to pieces?
Zoe shuffled along the back of the room filled with every able-bodied adult in the pride. She didn"t need to scan the room for Tyler. She spotted him right away, leaning against the base of the stage they never used. Landon stood on it now, Ava at his side, the Minor siblings and their mates arrayed at his feet.
Zoe felt a twinge of guilt that she wasn"t up there with them, presenting a united front, but that would only reinforce the illusion that she was part of this pride, and she wasn"t. Not really. Not yet, a small voice whispered in her mind.
The mess hall was crowded. Meals were communal but rarely attended by all pride members simultaneously. Full-pride gatherings, like the ritual hunts, usually took place in the amphitheatre on the edge of the compound. Holding the meeting here was doubtless an attempt to keep the cubs from listening in, but Zoe would bet there was a cl.u.s.ter of small, furry ears pressed to the walls outside, trying to pick out stray words through the timbers. Curiosity was a feline trait, after all.
Landon raised his hands above his head, and the rumble of conversation in the hall instantly quieted.
Zoe realized she was holding her breath and forced herself to let it out. Whatever they"d discovered in the last couple days, it couldn"t be good, judging by the grim set of her brother"s jaw.
Guilt jabbed again. She should have been with them. She should have been on the front lines, investigating and planning, but instead she"d been hiding. Taking care of herself first, like a true nomad outside a pride. So why did she feel like she"d done something wrong?
Landon cleared his throat and tipped his head back in his master-orator mode, projecting the charisma that made him a natural leader. "Since the incident at the Bar Nothing, a trio arrived in town, claiming to be government research scientists investigating the geological properties of this land. Two men and one woman, young by all accounts, they have been telling the town that we are operating under a similar government research grant, but that our funding is set to expire soon and they will be taking over the ranch when it does."
Sounds of unease momentarily rose, cutting Landon off until he raised his hands again for quiet.
"We haven"t been able to determine yet where these so-called geologists are staying, though it is somewhere outside of town, and we have no way of knowing if there are more than just the three who"ve been seen by the townspeople. We don"t know what they know about us. This could be nothing more than a misunderstanding. At this point, until we know more, our best strategy is to be always on guard defensively. Patrols will be doubled and run in pairs who will be in constant radio contact with the central security team. We"ll be working to upgrade the sensors at the perimeter as quickly as possible, as well as beefing up security around the cubs. In the meantime, stay close to the compound, try to avoid going anywhere alone and report anything suspicious, no matter how insignificant it may seem."
57.Ava slipped her hand into Landon"s, and the anxious tension in his shoulders seemed somehow to shift into a sense of power and strength.
"With luck we"ll be able to face our enemy directly soon." A predatory growl rose through the room.
Landon bared his teeth, nodding as if satisfied by the bloodthirsty response. "We will win this hunt. Until then, come up and get your new security a.s.signments."
Zoe wrapped her arms around her stomach as the shifters in the room stood and shuffled toward the pride leaders to collect their new duty rosters. There was a sense of solidarity as the pride banded together to face the common enemy. Zoe knew she should feel motivated and a swell of camaraderie with her fellow lions, but all she felt was the intense urge to leave.
Lions rarely hunted alone, but Zoe wanted nothing more than to leave the group behind and go hunting, to test the sharpness of her claws against the flesh of those who threatened them.
The line to get a.s.signments would take a while to clear out. Zoe slipped out the side door, striding quickly away from the building. She would talk to Landon later about whatever he wanted her to do. Now the lioness stirred restlessly within her, scratching to be let out. Zoe stretched her stride, loping down the path toward her place.
"Running away?"
The deep voice behind her brought her up short. Zoe paused, unfamiliar indecision slithering through her. Turn and face him? Or run like h.e.l.l?
"It"s a lot for me to adjust to too," Tyler said, closer this time.
Zoe turned. "It?"
d.a.m.n, he looked good. The sight of him so close was a salve to an ache she hadn"t known she had.
Tall and strong, a golden G.o.d gazing down at her with an expression of such possession it should have had her sprinting in the opposite direction, but all she wanted to do was throw herself against him.
"Taking a mate," he said. "It"s a big adjustment for both of us."