How It Needed to Be Page 4

  “What kind of bear?” she whispered.

  Her face was in the shadow of that hood, and all he could focus on were her wide, forest green eyes.

  “I’m going to go,” he muttered as he made his way to the sliding doors.

  “What kind?”

  Divar gritted his teeth and shook his head against the snarl that rattled up his throat. She asked too many questions. Too direct. Too bold. Too curious. He was halfway back to the house before he smelled it—fur. Fur and piss.

  He locked his legs and searched the dark woods, but nothing moved. Not a leaf, not a mouse, not a branch.

  He should walk away and leave her to the wolves.

  This place felt like one big bear trap, but then Ruby went and changed everything.

  “I’m sorry.” She said it from behind him with such conviction, he knew she was genuinely apologizing. “It’s not my place to ask questions you aren’t comfortable with. I’ve always done that, and it’s gotten me into trouble. I’ve pushed people away too fast with that habit. I can see you’re upset, and you have a right to be. Your animal is yours to protect and you don’t know me. Yet. You don’t trust me.” The corner of her full lips curved up slightly. “Yet.”

  He wanted to stay angry. That’s all he knew—anger. But Ruby came along and sucked the wind straight from that sail of rage, and left him wishing he did trust her. Wishing he could tell her things and know she wouldn’t burn him with the knowledge. In this moment, in her dark woods, he wished for a lot of things.

  “It’s fine. I have to work early.”

  Ruby pursed her lips and her eyes bugged out, but she remained silent.

  Divar sighed. “What?”

  “Can I give you my number?”

  No.

  “Sure,” he answered, ignoring Bear.

  She held out her hand.

  Confused, he just stared at her tiny palm. She could probably only hold about medium-sized grapes at a time in those teeny hands.

  “Let me have your phone.”

  “Oh.” He pulled it out and set up the contact, then handed it to her to type her phone number in. She could’ve just recited it and he would’ve remembered, but okay. This was probably how humans did it.

  Ruby saved it under the name “Best Friend,” and it made him chuckle. She was relentless.

  He scanned the woods again. Whatever had been here had left. He didn’t feel watched, but still, he didn’t like Ruby out here and exposed. “Let’s get you inside, Fragile Human. I don’t want you catching cold and perishing.”

  “Perishing? Who even talks like that?” she asked as she stomped through the snow toward the house.

  “Croaking?”

  “Better. Where is your truck?”

  “Up by the road. I needed a getaway ride in case you were setting some kind of trap.”

  “Oh. No trap, you are free.”

  He followed her up the stairs and retrieved his jacket. She made him wait at the door for a couple minutes while she put the rest of the stew in a bowl and wrapped up some cornbread for him to eat at work tomorrow. He had to admit, it touched him a bit that she thought to do that. Plus her stew was really good. He would probably eat it on the way home.

  “Thank you,” he muttered.

  “You’re welcome. Next time you can cook.”

  “No, I mean thank you for being understanding.” He shrugged and looked out at the clearing where she’d apologized. “It’s not…I mean I’m not…”

  Ruby’s smile spread softly across her face until it reached her eyes. “I understand.” She unwrapped her gray scarf and hooked it around his neck, careful not to touch his skin as he stood there frozen.

  Her pretty green eyes searched his, and for a split second he wanted to do it—he wanted to lean down and taste her lips. He wanted to kiss her and see if he could get her knees to buckle. He wanted to grip her waist and drag her against him and test if she could handle the growl that would consume his throat, or if she would back away and look scared again.

  He considered it for four seconds before he shook his head and came to his senses. He wasn’t even supposed to touch her.

  He swallowed hard and backed up a few steps. “You shouldn’t give me presents that smell like you.”

  Ruby leaned on the open doorframe and looked completely remorseless, like she knew exactly what she was doing. Huh.

  “Stay inside tonight, okay?”

  Her dark eyebrows drew down slightly. “Why?”

  There was something in her woods, but scaring her with that fact wasn’t going to help anything. Likely, there had been something in her woods since she’d helped Vager. Something with teeth. Something protective of her.

  “So you don’t catch cold—”

  “And perish,” she finished for him.

  He huffed a laugh and tipped an imaginary hat. “See ya when I see ya.”

  He waited until he was in the shadow of the woods before he lifted the scarf to his nose and inhaled. Smelled like her mango shampoo, her skin, her laundry detergent, the faint scent of smoke from the times she’d probably worn it by her heater on the back porch. It was saturated with her scent, so why had she given it to him? Clearly, she loved it.

  The woods were quiet as he retraced his steps back to his truck, parked down by the main road. Too quiet. The silence dredged up his instincts and lifted the fine hairs on his neck. Bear was ready. He could take his skin in seconds, so good luck to anything that attacked from behind. His truck appeared through the trees, looking more beat up than when he’d left it. He muttered a curse and jogged up to it.

  Fuckers had broken his back window out, and shattered glass covered the interior.

  With a snarl, he searched the woods, but Bear felt nothing. The wolves were gone. The forest stank of fur and dominance, and there was a patch of yellow snow near his back tire.

  He wanted to kill them.

  Something fluttered inside of his truck, and he yanked his driver’s side door open to find a piece of yellow notebook paper sitting on his seat.

  Three simple words were scribbled across it.

  Leave her alone.

  A growl ripped out of him and he turned and roared into the dark. He wanted to Change. He wanted to Change! His skin crawled with the urge, his bones tingled with the plea to break into something new…something other. Something that could smell everything, hunt like a demon, and track down the motherfuckers who did this to his truck and made demands of a monster who didn’t listen to anyone. Who wouldn’t listen.

  The rushing sound in his ears drowned out everything, and he turned to the trail of wolf tracks leading deeper into the woods.

  Moore Bane stood there, blocking his charge.

  It shook Divar to see him appear out of nowhere like a ghost. The bear inside of him smiled. He would have blood either way. The wolves would give it to him, or Moore would.

  “I don’t want to fight,” Moore said.

  “And yet you keep showing up.”

  His silver eyes blared brighter as he pushed off the tree. “Control it before you drag both of us down,” he murmured.

  Divar didn’t understand. He wasn’t trying to drag Moore down. He was here alone, not asking anything of him.

  Divar stalked forward a few steps. “The wolves—”

  “The wolves aren’t your problem tonight.”

  “Then what is?” he barked.

  Moore lifted his chin higher into the air. “You are.” He peeled his sweater off and a snarl shredded through him. “You are your biggest problem.”

  He didn’t understand any of this. Not the reasons Moore was following him, not the riddles he spoke, not the rage that roared straight through him. Divar had never understood that part—the rage. All he knew was that he wanted to hurt Moore for stepping in front of his hunt again.

  The grizzly ripped through him, taking over his bones, his muscle, sinew, tendons…the shape of his face, the sharpness of his teeth. His voice was stolen as Bear took over.


  There was a moment that confused him further. It angered him because Moore didn’t make any sense. The rival shifter looked disappointed. He sighed before he Changed into his enormous grizzly. His eyes had been soft. Sad perhaps.

  Welcome to the fuckin’ club, Moore.

  Divar was the Wrong One.

  Always had been and always would be.

  Chapter Five

  Ruby gasped as a loud knock echoed through her home. She had been setting out her clothes for work the next day. It was late, and Divar had left an hour ago.

  Stay inside tonight.

  The knock sounded again, louder this time, and her jackrabbiting heart raced even faster. In a rush, she pulled the drawer of her bedside table open and yanked out a 9mm handgun and a full clip. She shoved the clip in and cocked the weapon with a satisfying metallic click. She checked the window of her door. A giant, unfamiliar man with dark hair and bright silver eyes stood there, staring a hole through her soul. He had a scar down his face and was taller than her doorframe. A wolf?

  “What do you want?” she demanded.

  “I’m a friend of Divar’s. I think you are a friend of Divar’s, too.”

  Mind racing, she looked outside again. He had left the doorway and was jogging down the stairs with a predatory grace. Divar’s truck was parked at the opening of her gravel drive, and he pulled something heavy from the bed. She could hear and feel the thud of dead weight from here.

  Was that…was that a body?

  The silver-eyed man dragged it through the snow, painting the ground in a red streak behind him.

  “Oh my gosh,” she whispered in horror as he dragged the man into the halo of porch light and dropped his leg with a thud.

  Divar wore jeans and nothing else. His skin was slick with blood.

  Ruby threw the door open and aimed her gun right for the man’s head. “Who are you?”

  The man wore a jacket, but she could see blood dripping down his fingers. He grunted in pain as he approached her.

  “Stop! Don’t come any closer! I’ll shoot!”

  “If you pull that trigger, you will unleash an animal you don’t ever want to meet,” he uttered softly. “I’m not trying to scare you. I’m trying to show you something.” He held up his phone.

  She squinted, trying to see it better. It looked like a picture of this man and Divar. Neither were smiling, but they were standing next to each other.

  “I am Moore. I’m his friend.”

  Ruby’s adrenaline was making her arms and torso shake like a leaf in a storm. Her breath nearly chattered as it left her lungs. “Friends don’t hurt their friends,” she whispered.

  “Human friends don’t.” Moore twitched his head toward Divar’s motionless body. “He can’t go home tonight. Too many monsters where he lives, and blood brings out the worst in us. He’s safer here.”

  She shook her head, baffled. “He needs to go to a hospital.”

  “No hospitals,” he barked. He winced. Pit-pat, pit-pat. Blood was pouring from his fingertips onto the white snow. “I need to go.”

  Divar groaned in pain and muttered a curse as he curled in on himself in the frosty yard.

  Moore fell backward suddenly, landing hard on his tailbone. He stayed like that, chugging frozen breath as he stared at her. They were both really hurt.

  She jogged to Divar and dared to touch him. His skin was cold. “Divar,” she whispered, dragging his shoulders up. God, he was heavy. “Divar, I need you to help me. I need you to get up and come inside.”

  “You’re touching him,” Moore said softly.

  “I don’t care about your stupid rules right now,” she screamed. She didn’t understand what was happening. She didn’t understand why they’d been fighting, or why so-called friends would try to kill each other like this. She didn’t understand anything!

  “Not my rules,” he said, pushing up to his feet. He swayed slightly, and then stumbled for the woods.

  “What can I do for him?” she called after Moore.

  “You’re already doing it,” he said as he disappeared into the shadows.

  Chapter Six

  “Grizzly.”

  Ruby inhaled and eased her eyes open. When she realized Divar was awake, she scooted across the bathroom floor to him.

  “Hey,” she whispered, plucking at the bandages to check the horrific claw marks across his skin. They were no longer bleeding and the gashes looked like they were a few weeks healed. Relief drifted through her like a double shot of tequila. With a sigh, she dropped her head to his bare chest and gripped the bandages in her clenched fists. “I thought you were going to die.”

  “You should see the other guy,” he teased hoarsely.

  “I did,” she muttered, looking up at him. “He was terrifying.”

  Divar frowned down at where her hands rested on his chest. “Does it hurt?”

  “Does what hurt?” she asked.

  “Touching my skin.”

  She shook her head, confused. “Why would it hurt?”

  He swallowed hard, searching her face. His eyes were so bright, the silver seemed to glow from his pupil out. “Grizzly.”

  Ruby sat up and sat cross-legged beside him. “I kind of wondered if you were. Thank you for telling me.”

  Divar looked around her bathroom. “I shouldn’t be here.”

  “Yeah, well, I wasn’t setting your bleeding carcass up in the bedroom. I just got new sheets.” She cracked a grin. “You can die on my bathroom floor.”

  He snorted and winced as he pushed up. “Fuckin’ Moore.”

  “Yeah, about Moore. He’s probably lying out in the woods somewhere dead as a doornail.”

  “Good.”

  “So you aren’t friends?”

  “No,” he scoffed, leaning back against the side of the shower.

  “He said you were.”

  His bright silver eyes jerked to her. “He did?”

  “Yeah. He even showed me a picture of the two of you. Why did he hurt you?”

  Divar chewed on his thumbnail with a faraway look on his face. It was a few seconds before he responded. “I think he’s trying to save me. Waste of time.”

  The smile drifted from her face. What a heartbreaking thing to say. “Why?”

  He shrugged up a shoulder, leaned his head back against the shower door, and looked down his nose at her. “I was born too far gone.”

  “Bullshit.”

  A frown lowered his dark brows. “What are you wearing?”

  Ruby looked down at herself and huffed a laugh as her cheeks heated with a blush. “A tank top.” With granny panties and knee-high fuzzy socks. “In my defense, I was ready for bed when your bestie dragged your body across my yard in the middle of the night.”

  “Those are probably the hottest pajamas I’ve ever seen.”

  “Okay, okay, you have jokes,” she said, standing. “I’m going to go put a muumuu on now.”

  “I’m serious,” he said so softly, she thought she misheard him.

  Ruby hovered at the doorway. “If I was trying to impress a man, which I’m not, I would wear prettier panties.” She dragged her eyes down his defined chest and six pack abs for the hundredth time tonight. When she met his eyes again, a wicked little smile stretched his lips.

  “My favorite color is red,” he rumbled.

  “I don’t know what you want me to do with that information,” she whispered innocently.

  “Yes you do.”

  There was a bonfire on her cheeks right now, and she ducked her gaze away from his and made her way out of the bathroom just for a chance of recovering.

  In her bedroom, she rifled through her lingerie drawer and yanked out two pairs of panties to choose from. Black comfy-cottons or red lace.

  “Red,” he called from the bathroom, like he could see through walls.

  She stood there frozen, heart pounding. He was the most handsome man she’d ever seen, but this was fast. Too fast. “I don’t do this stuff with strangers,” she called.
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  “I tried to,” he admitted. “It didn’t go well.”

  She threw both panties back in the drawer and shook her head hard as she dove for her baggiest sweatpants that hung at the end of her bed. She pulled them up and padded back into the bathroom, dragging a pillow along with her.

  She sat down across from him and hugged the pillow close to cover up the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra underneath her white tank top.

  “Mmm,” he rumbled, narrowing his eyes.

  “What happened? With your one-night stand life?” she asked, feigning indifference when the fact was, she was really curious.

  “A few months back I got desperate to make the animal shut up. I live in a trailer park with a Crew. Did Vager ever tell you what a Crew is?”

  She shook her head. They’d never had time to talk like that.

  “Wolves have Packs, crows have Murders, and the rest of us have Crews. I competed to join this one. I thought they could fix me or kill me. Either one was fine with me at the time. The others are paired up. They found good mates. Understanding ones. Oh, it ain’t perfect up there. They have fights and their ladies will give them hell when they’re stupid, but for the most part it’s…different. I watched the animals in those boys go quiet. I wanted that.” He twitched his head and looked at his hands before he cracked his knuckles and admitted softly, “I want that. Can’t stick with something long-term when you aren’t in control of your insides though.” He shrugged. “It’s just the way it is, but I got hungry enough for the quiet that I tried one night. Brought a fox shifter up to the trailer park. Pretty girl. Knew what I was. Knew what to expect, I guess.”

  “You slept with her?”

  He shook his head. “She didn’t quiet anything down. It didn’t work. The animal got louder and I didn’t want to touch her. She left pissed. The boys in the trailer park keep giving me shit for bringing girls up there, but it was just the one and it didn’t fix me. Just made me worse, I think.”

  “I like that you told me this,” she admitted. She didn’t like the idea that some fox shifter was in his home, but it wasn’t her right to be jealous over that. He wasn’t hers.