Wolf's Den - A BBW Shifter Romance Novel Read online

  “How do you know my name? Who are you?” I wondered as I felt the warmth and strength of his hand in mine.

  “Come out with me and I’ll tell you,” he replied. I shouldn’t have wanted to go out with a total stranger, a biker no less, but I did. I didn’t know this man and he’d admitted to watching me. I should have been calling the sheriff. But then again he admitted to it. Maybe that was why I felt so at ease or maybe it was the strong feelings he produced in me.

  “I can ditch Edie a bit early, I suppose. Say eleven tonight?” I said and already wondered why I was agreeing to meet this man in the middle of the night and go out with him. Normally, I’d never do such a thing. I barely had time for dating because of the diner. It was closed one day a week, Mondays, but I usually spent half the day catching up on paperwork and the rest of the day recuperating.

  “I’ll be here,” he said.

  “I need to get to work,” I replied. He nodded and off I went. I felt as if the last few minutes had been a dream. The feeling subsided a bit but didn’t go away completely as I went about my duties, taking orders, filling coffee cups and delivering food. I knew having Wolf’s Run back in town would make things interesting but not like this. I couldn’t quite figure out why I was so eager to meet this man. Maybe it was that he seemed to know my mom but that couldn’t explain the way he made me feel. I felt safe and a sense of familiarity in his presence. I had to find out who he was.

  Edie was cool with letting me leave early. I owned the place, or at least the bank note on the Rusty Skillet, but Edie was like family. So were Willy and Jesus. That’s how I rolled and how mom ran things before she passed. I didn’t tell Edie why I needed to leave and she didn’t ask. She must not have noticed my conversation with Yeager or I’d probably be getting a lecture from Edie about it. I had to admit, this wasn’t the best idea but for some reason, I didn’t feel threatened by Yeager.

  Main Street was rocking when I left that night. A rock band played at the fairgrounds but there were still a ton of bikers hanging out in town. Main Street had become a pedestrian mall of sorts with beer trucks and tents that sold all manner of biker goods. Motorcycles lined the curbs and narrow lanes allowed bikers to cruise up and down the street among the crowds. Normal traffic had been routed around. Downtown smelled of alcohol, tobacco and pot.

  I’d been waiting out in front of the Rusty Skillet for less than a minute when Yeager showed. I didn’t have time for boys but that didn’t mean I didn’t appreciate a good-looking man and Yeager was damn good-looking. He pushed through the crowd as if it wasn’t there, people moving aside almost on command. I smelled that odd cologne again and drank it in like some desperate school girl.

  Yeager wore faded blue jeans nearly worn through in spots, brown boots and a white t-shirt that left little of his magnificent physique to the imagination. His amber eyes almost glowed they were so intense. They swept up and down my body as if he owned me. I felt naked under his lurid gaze. Naked and excited suddenly. “Let’s get out of here, go someplace quiet,” he said as he approached.

  Alarms should have gone off in my head. Strange guy, someplace quiet, that was a recipe for trouble. But I didn’t feel threatened by Yeager. Maybe I should have but he seemed to know me. Everything about him screamed stalker or worse but I didn’t get that vibe from him. My defenses were failing me but I just didn’t care.

  “Yeah, OK,” I replied. He took my hand and led me through the crowd. People parted for us just like when he arrived. We walked to the edge of town where a lone motorcycle was parked on the dirt shoulder of the highway that became Main Street. It wasn’t a long walk. Gold Canyon was a small town in the foothills of California, a leftover from the gold rush that saw just enough tourists to keep from drying up and becoming a ghost town.

  “I’ve never ridden a motorcycle,” I told him. His bike was long and lean, covered in chrome and custom paint. It was gold with faint flames and a snarling wolf on the side of the gas tank. Yeager walked around the far side and dug into one of the leather saddle bags. He pulled out a helmet and tossed it to me.

  “Just climb on behind me and hold on tight,” he said. I put the helmet on threaded the strap through the silver rings and pulled it tight.

  “What about you?” I wondered. He just grinned at me.

  “I don’t wear a lid. Law doesn’t tell me how to live,” he said and fired up the chopper. It rumbled to life and I could feel the ground shake beneath me and a throbbing in my chest. I smiled despite myself. Just the sound was exhilarating. I’d always enjoyed the machines the bikers rode through town every summer. The highway was a popular ride and sometimes the bikers would stop to eat or have a beer in our little town. “Hop on. Don’t be afraid, Cassie,” he told me.

  “I’m not,” I replied as I swung my leg over the back fender and settled onto the tiny leather seat behind Yeager’s. I slipped my arms around him and found the pegs for my feet. As soon as I was settled, Yeager laid into the throttle and the bike took off like a shot, the fat back tire throwing gravel as we went. I squealed as we hit the pavement, the back tire found traction and the bike roared off like a rocket down the curvy highway towards who knows where.

  I was never one to shy away from adventure but I wasn’t usually this impulsive. Mom’s warnings about men as I grew up were a bit over the top but considering what my dad had done, who could blame her? Still, I took them to heart. There were plenty of good men in the world but there were plenty of bad ones too. Which camp Yeager belonged to I couldn’t know, but something about him set me at ease. Something told me he was a good man. Something made me want to get to know him better.

  We rode through the hills covered in yellowed grass and live oak for miles. The rolling hills gave way to steeper terrain and the grass and oak trees changed to evergreens. The landscape changed rapidly around here as the Central Valley turned to the foothills which in turn gave way to the High Sierras. I held on tight, the cool air feeling pleasant after a hard day’s work, and marveled at the power and finesse of Yeager’s machine as well as his skill on these treacherous roads.

  After we’d traveled maybe ten miles, Yeager found a spot and pulled off the road. It was next to a lake we called Gold Lake but the maps labeled Blue Lake. Half the lakes in the mountains seemed to be called Blue Lake so we unofficially renamed it. Yeager shut the bike down, climbed off and helped me off the motorcycle as well. “Most girls get a little freaked out when they ride their first time,” he said.

  “I don’t know why, but it was amazing. I wasn’t afraid at all,” I said as I took off the helmet and shook my raven-black hair. I used to wear it straight, the way it naturally grew, but now I wore it with loose curls nearly half way down my back. “So, what is it you wanted to tell me?” I asked.

  “You get right to the point, don’t you?” Yeager said as he reached out and took a lock of my hair in his hand. He held it between his thumb and forefinger as if savoring the sensation. “You’re even more beautiful than I imagined, Cassie. Every moment I spend with you makes me sure you’re the one,” he said inhaling deeply and closing his eyes.

  “The one?” I asked a bit amused at his dramatic statement. Again, my radar should have gone off but it didn’t. I was more curious than anything.

  “I’m sorry, that is probably a bit creepy isn’t it?” he told me. I nodded in agreement even if I didn’t feel that way. “I’ve been waiting a long time, seven years, to talk to you. You’ve become a beautiful woman, Cassie. Everything I could have hoped for,” he told me. Even though I didn’t feel threatened, his words were a bit unnerving

  “You’re kind of freaking me out, Yeager. You said you saw me seven years ago. You said you’ve been watching me. That’s not normal. What’s the deal?” I asked. Yeager took my hand and led me down from the road towards the lake. I went despite his ominous words. There we found some rocks by the water and he invited me to sit. The situation wasn’t lost on me, that we were totally alone. Neither was the fact that I didn’t find it alarming,
that I had come here willingly and still didn’t feel the least bit afraid. A little weirded out but not afraid. I needed to find out who Yeager was.

  “I’ve practiced this a million times over the last seven years and it’s still all wrong. Damn, you’d think I could have figured it out by now. Look, Cassie, I’m just going to say it. I’ve been waiting for so long and I can’t wait anymore. Consequences be damned,” he said. I could tell he wasn’t trying to be dramatic. He was genuinely twisted up inside over whatever he was about to say.

  “Look, I can handle it. Just say it. How bad could it be?” I assured him. I felt sympathy for him. I barely questioned the depth with which I felt it but the feelings were strong. I hurt alongside him and there was little doubt his pain was profound. I could see it in his eyes, feel it in his words. I smiled warmly to let him know everything would be fine and then took his hand. “It’s OK,” I told him. Yeager smiled down at me and nodded but I had no idea what was coming. I expected him to reveal he was a long lost uncle, a former lover of my mom’s, anything but what he said.

  “This is the hard part. I have faith everything will work out as it should, but it’s still hard. Cassie, I’m...I’m a shifter,” he told me. I waited for more but Yeager seemed to think that would mean something to me. It didn’t.

  “A shifter?” I asked, puzzled at what that meant.

  “Fuck, this is so hard. I...I...,” he stammered. I squeezed his hand to lend him strength, amazed at how vulnerable he seemed. “I’m a shape shifter, a changeling. I’m a man like any other most of the time but I can change. I can become something else. I can become a wolf,” he said. I stared at him and then a moment later I burst out in laughter expecting him to join me.

  “God, I thought you were serious for a moment,” I said but Yeager’s eyes told me this wasn’t a joke. The moonlight let me see him well enough to tell he was serious and I stopped laughing when he didn’t join in. “You’re not joking, are you?” I asked. He believed what he said even if I couldn’t.

  “No,” was all he said. I went over his admission in my head, turned it over and tried to reconcile it with what I knew about the world. It didn’t make any sense. I couldn’t believe him, though for some reason I wanted to.

  “So, assuming you’re not crazy, what’s that got to do with me?” I wondered. I wasn’t ready for his answer.

  “My kind, we aren’t human. Not anymore. We’ve evolved but we mate with humans. We mate for life,” he said and then he looked off towards the lake. “I remember it like it was yesterday. I had a hangover and I needed some breakfast. I reached the diner and I smelled it. Her scent. The scent of my mate. I was sure it was your mother but she was older than I expected. Her scent was faint, odd, not like I’d imagined. I was confused but she was beautiful, almost perfect,” he said and then Yeager looked back towards me.

  I sat quietly stunned. What he said was strange to me. Unbelievable, in fact. Yet, it made so much sense to me. It sounded so right. But it wasn’t my mother he scented. I knew that much. “It was me,” I guessed.

  “Yes. She walked behind that counter I sat at this morning and I saw you there making coffee. You were a child but I knew you were her, the one made for me, the one I was made for, my mate. You know it too. Your scent was overwhelming to me when I saw you this morning. I missed it deeply over the last seven years. I missed you, even though I’d only seen you that one time and only for a moment. I left you, knowing it wasn’t yet time, elated to have found you but shredded inside at having to leave you behind and wait,” he said.

  Despite the vibe I got from Yeager, the sense of ease I felt with him, his story was too much. I stood up and backed away. It wasn’t that I found it to be ridiculous, just the opposite. It was the fact I believed him that frightened me. “What are you going to do to me?” I asked, suddenly fearful as my mind tried to grasp what Yeager had said, tried to work through what it meant.

  “I’d never hurt you, Cassie. I know this is a lot to handle but its best this way. You must know what I am and how we’re connected. You must come to terms with it or we’ll both be doomed to a life of longing and pain,” he told me. Now the alarms in my head were blaring.

  “Why must I? What if I don’t want any part of your delusions? Are you going to rape me, kill me...eat me?” I asked as I took another wary step backwards. Then my heel caught on a small stone and I fell. I screamed as I fell but Yeager, like a flash of lightening, caught me in his arms. I struggled as the walls closed in, the things he said, the peril I had put myself in, hit me. I opened my mouth to scream but he gently closed my mouth as I whimpered instead.

  “Shh. There’s no need to fear me, Cassie. I’m not the enemy. I could never, hurt you,” he said. I wanted to believe that but I was no longer able to reason. I was scared and I told myself it was Yeager that frightened me but I knew deep inside that wasn’t true.

  “Then take me home!” I told him. The pain in his eyes tore at my soul. Those words hurt him deeply but right then, I didn’t care. I needed to get away from him. I needed to be safe. I thought it was from him I needed to escape but it was from what he said. I needed relief from the truth. I refused to believe what he’d told me even though every fiber of my being told me I should.

  ~~O~~

  “What’s up? You seem...distracted,” Edie asked me as I stared at the coffee machine, my thoughts somewhere else entirely.

  “Huh? Oh, nothing. Just tired,” I told her.

  “Might that have anything to do with going out with that biker last night,” she asked me. I turned to Edie, shocked that she knew but she was ready for my reaction. “I see everything,” she told me playfully but I wasn’t in the mood.

  “We didn’t go out,” I said. We did but not like she was thinking. It wasn’t a date. It was...I don’t know what it was but it was weighing on my mind. I struggled with the pain I saw in Yeager’s eyes when I made him take me home as much as I wrestled with his impossible claims.

  “So, just wild sex on his motorcycle,” Edie said revealing her real assumptions.

  “No, look I don’t want to talk about it,” I told her.

  “Something bad happen?” she asked. I looked at Edie and frowned.

  “What part of I don’t what to talk about it don’t you get?” I asked and smiled at her so she’d know I wasn’t angry.

  “Hey, you can’t blame a girl for trying,” she replied. Willy slid several plates under the heat lamps and rang the bell. “If you want to talk, I’m here,” Edie offered and I appreciated the sentiment.

  “Thanks,” I replied as we grabbed our orders and took them in opposite directions to deliver the food to our customers. On my way by the coffee machine, I hit the start button to start another pot brewing. We were busy, even busier than the day before. Thursday was the day Wolf’s Run officially began. There would be motorcycle shows, auctions, concerts, wet t-shirt contests, and generally all manner of debauchery. My crew and I would keep the thousands of bikers well fed and they would help keep me in business for a little while longer.

  Things were going smoothly at the diner and the pace helped keep my mind off of the previous night. It hit me while I lay in bed trying to get a bit of sleep and failing miserably that I wasn’t as disturbed about Yeager’s claim he was some kind of werewolf as I should be. I should have assumed he was crazy but I didn’t. On some level I accepted his story despite how incredibly ridiculous it sounded. There was no such thing as a werewolf, or whatever he claimed he was.

  No, instead I tried to understand why I trusted him so easily and why I felt his pain so deeply. I tried to figure out why I felt some connection to him. He said I was his mate as if I was some kind of animal but I couldn’t deny the visceral reaction I experienced at hearing it. Exactly what I felt I wasn’t sure but I sensed something and it wasn’t negative. It made me feel...I don’t know...special. I lay awake all night until the alarm went off trying to wrap my head around the biker, his questionable claims and the way they made me feel but it was futi
le.

  “Out!” I heard and looked up from the party from whom I was taking orders. It was that big biker, Dolan, and his gang. They were kicking another group of my customers out of my restaurant. Yesterday, the two couples were done eating when Dolan and his gang, the Fangs as he’d called them, took over their table. Today, the table had just given me their orders only moments before.

  “Hey, leave them alone,” I told him. I realized everyone in the Rusty Skillet was staring at me to see what was about to happen.

  “Not going to sic your little boyfriend on me this morning?” Dolan asked referring to Edie.

  “She’s a girl but she’s still more man than you’ll ever be. You’re a bully. I don’t want you in my diner. Get out!” I told him. Be strong and show him you’re not intimidated even if you are. That’s what my mom would have done. He just laughed, however.