Big Bear Mountain - The Complete Series (26 page)

R
osie cleaned up the
last of the plates from the tables vacated by the latest assortment of climbers
and hikers who’d been attracted to the mountain by some recent magazine
articles published by the leading outdoor and adventure magazines.

“That girl of
yours had better stop writing them articles or I’m gonna have to hire some help
to keep up,” Rosie said to Spider as he nursed his coffee in his hands.

“Would that be so
terrible, Rosie?”

“I guess not. I’m
still protective of my boys, you know and I still worry that with all these
tourists people will find out about you and your special gifts,” she whispered
the last part in case prying ears were nearby.

“We all would have
been lost souls if you hadn’t brought us together, here on the mountain. You
made us a family, starting with me. I’ll never forget what you did for me in
giving me a home and a purpose. I don’t know what would have happened if not
for you, Rosie.”

Tears sparkled in
Rosie’s eyes as she quickly turned to take the plates to the kitchen. She
didn’t want any of them thinking she was getting soft in her old age. But she
smiled to herself and was comforted by the thought that Spider had finally
found peace and a family of his own. He was a good man and he deserved it. She
had a good feeling about Erin, too and knew she had a good heart and deserved
all that Spider had to offer her.

THE
END

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T
he
ancient, rusted bell above the door of the diner sprang to life as the door
opened, allowing a cold wind to fight its way into the cozy, warm diner.

Olivia noticed
him straight away and felt the mood in the room change in a way that was almost
palpable. Momentarily, she stopped wiping the cracked and aged counter top to
look up at the customer who brought more than just the chill of the night air
with him into the diner.

She knew trouble
when she saw it and there was no doubt in her mind that she was looking at a
hell of a lot of it right now as he propped the door open with his helmet.

“You plannin’ to
shut that damn door any time soon?” she asked gruffly, hand on hip, hoping he’d
turn his sorry ass around and close the door behind him.

His piercing
emerald eyes scanned the room as if he was looking for someone. Or just looking
for trouble. Olivia couldn’t quite tell, but either way, she wanted the tall,
muscular biker out of her diner before he found whatever the hell it was he was
looking for.

Without a word,
he pushed the door shut and a silence hung in the air, no longer broken by the
rush of wind through the doorway. Graceful as a panther and looking just as
dangerous, he strode confidently toward the counter before taking a seat and
placing his helmet on the seat next to him. Given the lateness of the hour,
only a few diners were seated, finishing their meals, but all eyes were fixed
on the stranger as forks of food remained poised in mid-air for fear they might
miss something if they ate.

“Menu, please?”

“Excuse me?”
Olivia asked. She’d heard him speak, but couldn’t make out what he said.

“Can I have a menu,
please?” he repeated calmly, as if he was used to women staring at him blankly.

Olivia stared
into his unnaturally bright eyes, and could almost feel the dusting of stubble
on his skin on her fingertips as she imagined stroking his impossibly handsome
face.

“Miss?”

Her cheeks
flushed crimson as she tried to compose herself, fumbling with a menu as she
poured him a glass of water. After taking a quick look at the menu, he returned
his gaze to the sturdy, curvaceous waitress and waited for her to take his
order.

“What’ll it be?”
she asked, with all the disinterest she could muster.

“Burger. Rare.
Very rare. Like, knock its horns off, wipe its ass and stick it in the bun,
kind of rare. Hold the salad and the pickle.”

Unable to break
from his penetrating gaze, Olivia did her best to write his order on the pad
that looked almost comically small in her large hands. She had no idea why he
was having this effect on her. Actually, she knew
exactly
why he was
having this effect on her and she hated herself for allowing her body and her
heart to yearn for this …
biker
.

Looking at his
strong, thickly muscled arms, she knew exactly how it would feel to be wrapped
in them, protected by them. To have them wrapped around her ample waist and to
feel his warm breath tingling like butterfly wings on the nape of her neck.

Suddenly, she
snapped back to reality and snatched the menu from his hand as she turned to
spike the order and ring the bell to alert the cook. She also knew how it felt
to wake up one morning to a cold, empty bed without even a note to say goodbye.
Of course, they all love you how you are and love every inch of your soft
curves when they want something. Then, when they get what they’re after,
they’re off to find someone younger, skinnier and prettier.

She knew the
type. She knew
his
type.

Olivia mentally
kicked herself in the ass for drooling over the blow in. She wanted him to eat
his burger and get the hell out of her diner. She was done with his type. Hell,
she was done with men altogether. Every last lying, cheating one of them.

D
eclan
had been hunting most of the night and while his dragon could keep going
relentlessly, his human could not. He needed food. Meat — as raw as he could
get it. He was surprised, but relieved to find a diner in such and seedy part
of the city that was still open for business, but being in this part of town
had certain risks. You couldn’t be too careful when it came to dragon hunters
and this was their hunting ground, too.

Parking his
rather large and recognizable bike in the alley around back, Declan surveyed
the area carefully before entering the unassuming eatery and getting eyes on
the motley collection of late night diners enjoying their well-cooked human
food. Hunger can make you careless. Careless can get you killed. Or worse.

His dragon
sniffed the air as soon as he entered; holding the door ajar in case a quick
getaway was needed. If a hasty retreat wasn’t called for after his
reconnaissance was complete, it certainly wasn’t going to happen after he laid
eyes on
her
. He saw her behind the counter as he stood in the open
doorway. When she spoke to him, actually she yelled at him, he realized that
he’d been holding his breath. She had literally taken his breath away and his
dragon stirred deep inside him at the sight of her gorgeous, voluptuous figure.
He was speechless as another part of him stirred to life inside his fitted
jeans as he walked toward her.

She was a
treasure. An absolute jewel. And if there was one thing a dragon shifter prized
and valued above all else, it was treasure, no matter what type of treasure.

This was a woman
built for endurance, not speed. A woman built to handle a dragon shifter
without suffering the consequences, as was the case with most human women. This
was a dragon shifters perfect mate, if ever he’d seen one. And until now, he’d
never seen one.

While he waited
for his burger to arrive, Declan took inventory of his collection of injuries.
It had been a rough night and although his shifter blood allowed him to heal
faster than humans, that didn’t mean he wasn’t susceptible to certain
infections. As he carefully removed a makeshift bandage from his bleeding hand,
he winced at the flaps of skin hanging by a thread on his first two knuckles.
Without a second thought, he ripped the loose skin off and flicked them to the
floor.

“Do you have a
first aid kit I can use?” he asked the waitress who stared at the discarded
skin on the floor and looked like she was going to hurl.

“The sign on the
door says ‘Mal’s Diner’, not emergency-fucking-room,” she said, pointing to the
neon sign above the door with its near terminal, flickering ‘D’.

“And we don’t
want any trouble here, mister,” she continued “or I’ll be calling the cops
faster than you can say ‘dope peddling biker’. Got it?”

Declan looked
down at his raw knuckles, then back to the waitress. “No, it’s not what you —”

Olivia raised
her hand to silence him. “Do I look like I care? I’m here to make minimum wage
serving the likes of you. I don’t get paid enough to listen to your lying ass.”

The bell in the
kitchen dinged and she retreated to the serving window to collect his order,
stooping to collect something from under the counter along the way. When she
returned, she placed a small first aid kit beside his plate.

“Pack it up neat
like you found it when you’re done,” was all she said, trying to avoid his
mesmerizing and fiery eyes.

O
livia was exhausted by midnight, when her shift ended
and Mal, the owner of the diner, who also happened to be the grill cook,
finally flicked off the ‘open’ sign in the window. As she finished mopping the
last section of floor, the idea of collapsing into a warm bed and sleeping for
the next couple of days seemed like a tempting proposition.

She would have done just that, too, if it wasn’t for
the extra shifts she’d picked up in an effort to pay off the loans that had
been weighing her down for the past year. Who knew that cosigning for a bunch
of loans was going to end up a life sentence with no time off for good
behavior? That’s what happens when you start following your heart instead of
listening to your head and falling for a guy who promises you everything you
ever dreamed of. A guy whose mouth writes checks his ass can’t cash. A guy who
says he’s going to change his ways and settle down. A guy who’s willing to give
up his bike and the open road to make a home and care for his woman.

Lying sacks of shit, every last fucking one of them
.

No, there would be no all-day slumber for Olivia and
her aching feet. Tomorrow morning she’d be back at the diner for the 6am
breakfast shift. The finance companies had taken nearly everything she had and
owned nearly every dollar she earned in wages and tips, but she’d be damned if
they would break her spirit or steal her pride. She’d pay off her debts,
his
debts, if she had to work the rest of her life to clear her name and get them
all off her back.

Blood sucking pricks, every last fucking one of them
.

“Give me that, you look beat,” Mal said, holding out
his hand to take the mop from Olivia’s tired hands. Mal put in longer hours
than anyone, as the owner of the struggling business, but he was always happy
to help out his employees when he could. “Go home. Get some rest, just lock the
door on your way out, will ya?”

“I’m too tired to even argue with you, Mal. Thanks,
you’re a gem,” she looked down at him through her weary eyes and handed him the
mop handle before untying her apron and gathering her handbag from behind the
counter. She glanced at herself in the mirror and saw the dark circles around her
eyes.

I look like a raccoon
.
Perfect.

“Be safe,” Mal called as she made her way to the door.

“You think I’m gonna get attacked? Yeah, right …
because large, curvy women with raccoon eyes are so hot right now. Tomorrow,
Mal.” She waved him goodbye and locked the door.

D
eclan travelled light. It was the only way to move
fast and not get caught. Moving fast and not staying in one place too long were
all he had to keep himself alive and free, now that he no longer had the clan
to watch his back. There was a time when he thought that being cast from his
clan of dragon shifters was the worst thing they could have done to punish him,
but now his new life seemed to suit him. He enjoyed the freedom, or at least
his human form did.

His dragon — not so much. His dragon needed to run
free, hunt for prey and mete out justice to those who preyed on meek humans who
couldn’t protect their families or defend themselves. That’s how it had been
for thousands of years for dragons like Declan. That’s what they’d been bred
for in ancient times. It was their
raison d’être
. Part of their DNA.
But
it wasn’t so easy to run free as a dragon in the middle of one of the largest
and busiest cities in the world, which is why dragon shifters rarely ventured
outside of their native lands.

As he gazed at the Manhattan skyline, Declan was
struck by the irony that a city filled with art deco buildings guarded by hand
crafted dragon sculptures or gargoyles as the humans called them, should be
such a hostile and lonely place for a dragon shifter to live.

He missed his clan and being able to shift and soar
among the clouds whenever he pleased. Sure, riding a motorcycle was a type of
flying, or at least felt like it, but it was a poor substitute for stretching
his wings and roaring to the heavens as he soared to impossible heights. The
clan had all but clipped the wings of one of their greatest fighters and sent
him away because he wouldn’t bend to the ancient custom of coupling with the
mate chosen by the clan Elders.

The yearning in his heart that longed to be filled was
something they simply didn’t … no,
couldn’t
understand. Declan was the
first of a new breed of dragon shifter and he’d known that from the time he was
born. He’d always felt
different
and his own family knew it to be true,
too. That’s why they tried so hard to keep his secret from the Elders. Being
different was a danger to the clan. Their survival depended on unity and
sameness. That’s how it had been for millennia.

Only a dragon shifter can mate with another dragon
shifter. Declan had always known this, despite his uncanny and frustrating
attraction to human females. He’d always known that human women could never
survive the rigors of a dragon coupling, so he accepted that he’d never find a
mate and would be destined to roam the earth solitary and mate less.

If he’d taken the mate chosen for him, he’d still have
his clan, his family and his home. But he knew he’d never have his happiness of
the true love that the kind and gentle heart, which beat within the powerful
and menacing dragon body, ached for.

So lost was Declan in his recollections, as he stared
in awe at the city lights, that he almost ignored the unmistakable sound of a
gunshot from a nearby street.

Bring it on
.

He ran without hesitation to the source of the grim
and foreboding sound, his dragon instincts guiding him unerringly through the
network of dark, stinking alleyways while his dragon eyes glowed vivid red,
cutting through the darkness and allowing him to see as if it were daylight.

Even as he ran, he had to struggle against his dragon,
which had begun to shift, in readiness for battle. His human form fought to
regain control, to keep the dragon hidden until the situation had been
appraised. That was the one skill he had never truly mastered, the ability to
maintain total control of his shift. The very reason he had always believed he
would never find a mate in the human world — because he couldn’t be sure of
losing control during his coupling. The thought of harming his mate was
unbearable and a risk he would never take.

Turning the corner at full speed, his clawed feet
gripping the pavement, Declan stopped dead. His mouth gaped open and a puzzled
expression clouded his face as his eyes became human once more.

Fuck me!