Lowlander Silverback (Gorilla Shifter Royalty 1) (12 page)

Barbecue sandwiches and sodas ordered, they picked a seat outside on the picnic table farthest away from the lunch rush. There was a red and white checkered umbrella spread open above them, shielding them from the bright day.

“I’m glad the clouds disappeared,” she admitted as she popped the top of her grape-flavored beverage. “The sun came out for our first date. I take that as a good sign.”

Kong reached under the table and pulled her feet onto his lap, then massaged her calf. “You look so fucking beautiful today.”

“Funny, I’ve been checking you out, too. Now,” she said in her best business voice, “I know almost everything about every regular in Sammy’s bar, but I don’t know near enough about you. Tell me your secrets.”

Kong’s sexy mouth bracketed with smile lines when he grinned and poured barbecue sauce onto his sandwich. “I hung out at Sammy’s over the years just so I could see you.”

“You’re teasing me.”

He laughed and ducked the potato chip she threw at him. “I swear. I knew I couldn’t be with you, but I needed to at least see you. When I tried to stop myself and go cold turkey on my Layla fix, my animal got hard to control.”

“I looked forward to work because there was always the chance I would get to see you.”

“No shit?” he asked, rubbing her calf again.

With a definitive nod, she said, “Zero shits.”

Kong took a bite of his sandwich and looked off into the woods behind Moosey’s. He gulped the food down and said, “Remember that guy who wouldn’t stop grabbing your ass a few months back?”

“Yeah, the tourist with the crazy eyes. That guy was a jerk. Thankfully he only came in that one night.”

“Because I followed him to the parking lot and just about knocked his eyes straight. Kirk had to pull me away before I really went to town, but I told the guy if he ever came back, I’d know about it, and then I’d find him. I hated that he’d ruffled you. I know you can take care of yourself, and I’ve watched you put drunk assholes in their place so many times it’s not even funny. But I passed the office on my way to the bathroom to get myself under control, and I heard you crying in there. It gutted me. I went after him the second he left.”

She pursed her lips against the memory of that night. It had been one of the worst shifts she’d ever worked, and she hadn’t known it at the time, but Kong was right there with her. “I think you were mine way before last week.”

Kong licked his bottom lip and bit it as he nodded. “I’ve been yours for a long time.”

She ate for a while in silence, absorbing that eye-opening morsel of information. “So next time I’m working, are you going to ignore me?”

“Hell no. I hated having to do that before. I don’t have to do that anymore. I can even give you rides to and from your shifts if you ever want them. I close down the sawmill around six unless we have a big lumber order.” Kong leaned forward, elbows on the table as he clasped his hands over his plate. “I like this.”

“What?”

“Talking about our future. Of what our future could be. It makes things…easier.”

“What things?” she asked, confused.

His mouth twitched at the corner, and he relaxed back onto the picnic table bench. “This week has been brutal, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed right now. Thinking about our future reminds me of what I’m fighting for. It makes anything seem possible.”

“Okay,” she said with a frown. “Christmas.”

Kong grinned and tipped his head. “Easy. Spend them with the Gray Backs.”

“The first person you’ll call when we have our first baby.”

“My mom. She’s always wanted me to do this. It’s why she left our family group with me when I was little. She wanted me to settle down and fall in love the way it felt right to me.” Kong poked his sandwich with his plastic fork and slowed his words down. “She would like you. You’re strong and independent, and you care about people in a way that inspires other people to be better. You put others above yourself.” He looked up at her. “My mom is like that, too.”

“Are you worried about her?”

He nodded slowly as he clasped his hands in front of his face. “Every action I take has a consequence for someone I love.”

The sandwich she was munching on lost its flavor all the sudden and sat like a cold lump in her stomach. She pushed away the plate and reached across the table, rubbed her fingertips against his elbow.

Kong had said she was someone who put others above herself, but he didn’t see the same value in himself. He’d been doing that since Fiona had broken him. He hadn’t lived his life for himself at all. He hadn’t approached Layla for years, even though he had wanted her. Kong had lived an empty, hollow existence to make life easier for other people.

Kong didn’t see it, but she did.

He was the inspiring one.

“Put your bathing suit on, humaaan,” Willa sang from behind an oversize pair of red sunglasses. She was holding an erotic romance book in one hand, a towel draped over her forearm, and in the other a beach bag that was almost as big as her.

“I didn’t pack a bathing suit,” Layla said from the rocking chair on 1010’s porch.

“Well your big ol’ teats aren’t fitting in any of my extra small child-size tankinis. I’ll ask Georgia and Gia if they have spares. BRB.”

“BRB?” Kong asked through an amused smile.

“Be right back!” Willa called, her flip flops clacking loudly as she jogged away.

“Where are we going?” she asked Kong, who’d apparently already gotten the memo because he was wearing a pair of white swim trunks with a subtle, gray plaid print. His chest was bare, showing off all those scars she now found devastatingly sexy.

“We’re taking you to the falls.”

“The falls?”

“Bear Trap Falls, and you’ll be one of the few humans to ever see it. The river splits the territory line between the Gray Backs and the Boarlanders. It’s the best swimming hole in Damon’s mountains, and you deserve a day to just have fun.” His look darkened as he scanned the woods again. He did that a lot now. “We all deserve a break after the week we’ve had.”

“Eee!” Layla squeaked, clenching her fists and waving them in tiny circles with uncontrolled excitement. “I love swimming, and I love waterfalls, and I’ve heard of Bear Trap Falls but never thought I would get to see it.”

Kong laughed, hooked an arm around her waist, pulled her close, and pressed his lips against her forehead. “The water will be cold this early in the season, but we’ll get used to it. The Gray Backs are doing a bonfire, so we’ll spend the day there and just forget about everything, okay?”

“Did you set this up?” she asked.

His proud smile was answer enough. Her big, tough mate was also caring enough to offer her beautiful distractions.

“I’m the luckiest.” Layla kissed his cheek and bounded into 1010 to gather sunscreen, sunglasses, towels, and the like. She had everything stuffed into her backpack by the time Willa danced in, swinging a purple bikini and gyrating her hips like a pole dancer. Layla giggled and danced around her, poking her fingers into the air and double-time tiptoeing across the semi squishy floors of 1010.

“So sexy,” Kong teased from his spot leaning against the doorframe. An easy grin was splitting his face, and his dark eyes were dancing, exposing the happy, carefree side she’d only seen him have with the Gray Backs in Sammy’s Bar when the Beck Brothers were playing a show. Today was going to be amazing.

“Okay, strap them udders into this and meet us outside,” Willa said in a giddy voice. “Snap, snap, human. It was a long winter without Bear Trap Falls, and I have copious amounts of s’mores I need to shove into my mouth hole.”

Layla dressed and slipped her feet into a pair of flip-flops, then followed Kong out of the trailer. He looked so cute with her pink, glittery backpack over his shoulder. Tan skin, muscles everywhere, and the man didn’t mind glitter if it meant he could carry her stuff and take care of her. God, she loved him so much her heart felt like it was going to swell out of her chest.

“Aaah,” she yelled as she ran for him and leapt onto his back. He didn’t even buckle under her weight, just put his hand back behind him under her butt to keep her steady and kept walking.

“Sexy little monkey,” he murmured with a smile in his tone.

“Oo oo, ah ah.”

His laugh was booming and echoed through the trailer park. The sound of it sent a delicious shiver up her spine that landed in her shoulders, and she held on tighter around his neck, nuzzling her face against his warm skin.

She would have to go back to work again soon. Back to trying to catch up on bills. She would have to go back to Saratoga and face her old life and all the memories there, but for today, she didn’t have to worry about anything. She just had to exist, and laugh, and enjoy every breath she had been blessed with because today was about taking a break from the muck. And as she grinned at the old white Chevy pickup with everyone piling in the bed around a giant cooler, she wouldn’t have picked anyone else to spend the day with.

She had to sit on Kong’s lap, but that didn’t suck. And as Beaston drove them down an old washed-out road, she laughed along with the others at their easy banter. Oh, the Gray Backs might be notoriously broken bears, but she didn’t see that from the inside. They were the warmest, most accepting batch of people she’d ever met. And they’d taken her right in when Kong had needed them to. She got it now. Kong had admitted that he wished he was a Gray Back, and watching them with their mates, laughing, joking, hugging and including her and Kong—always including them—she understood his desire to be a part of this.

They unloaded at a clearing in the woods. Ancient pines swayed this way and that in the breeze, creaking out Mother Nature’s welcome. Waterlogged moss and vibrant green ferns made the woods look lush and alive. Kong gripped her waist and helped her over the edge of the pickup bed, then he pulled her arms around his neck again and carried her ape-style behind the others along a thin deer trail. She bit the back of his neck gently, then followed it with a soft kiss. The sound of running water and birds up in the canopy was so much more beautiful now that she knew how ugly life could be. This place was washing away the lingering hurt that had darkened her middle. Kong had been right. 1010 was magic, but so was this place.

She gasped as they crested the hill. The river was wide, but not too wide to swim all the way across if she was so inclined. On either side, towering evergreens lined the sandy bank. And up ahead, a huge waterfall was creating an ethereal looking mist as the river above them tumbled down against the water below. “I’ve never seen anything so lovely,” she said on a stunned breath.

Kong gave her a sideways glance as he followed the others down toward a stretch of sandy bank. “Me either,” he murmured.

Her middle turned warm and fuzzy as she held onto his neck tighter in a little hug that said without words that she adored him. Sweet mate.
Mate.
The thought still made her stomach do flip flops. It still took her breath away and made her feel like she was glowing.
The luckiest.

Beaston and Creed set the giant blue cooler in the sand, and in a matter of seconds, bag chairs were set up and beers were passed out. Kong declined one, though.

“What, are you pregnant?” Willa deadpanned with a frown.

“No,” Kong said. “I just want to keep my head today.”

Creed stared at him with the same slight frown and tight-eyed suspicious look Layla had been shooting at him the past couple of days. Creed noticed it too. Kong was still holding onto something she couldn’t guess at. Secretive mate.

“I’ll drink for the both of us,” she offered, taking the crews’ attention away from Kong.

“Yeah,” Willa drawled, handing her a blue can. “I know you’re not pregnant.”

Not yet. Someday she would give Kong a baby, but not yet.

She raised her beer with the rest of them.

“C-team,” the Gray Backs chanted.

“C-team,” she murmured just a second later, baffled on where the toast came from. They weren’t C-team to her. They were the finest, most caring people she’d ever had the pleasure of spending time with.

The Gray Backs were A-team.

“Last one in is a hairy monkey!” Willa yelled pointing at Kong. She cackled and took off into the river, beer held high and sloshing.

Kong snorted and ran for the waves with the rest of them. All but Beaston and Aviana, who lowered baby Rowan to a blanket they’d spread out.

“You aren’t swimming?” Layla asked the wild-eyed Beaston.

He cradled the baby gently in his lap and rocked back and forth. Never taking his eyes from Rowan’s face, he said, “Creed said I could protect our little dragon today. Don’t want to swim.”

Aviana’s black, shiny hair twitched as she cocked her head at her mate with a tender smile.

“Kong won’t drink. I won’t either. Not today.” Beaston looked up at her with those clear, demon-bright green eyes. “We both have something important to protect. I have a gift for you.” He leaned over and pulled a leather sheath from a canvas satchel beside him. He dipped his gaze back to Rowan, but held the fine leather sheath up to Layla.

“For me?” she asked, baffled. “What for?”

“Because girls like things that match.”

“Oh.” She took the knife and sat down beside Aviana, then unsnapped the clasp that held the blade into place and gripped the smooth wooden handle. When she unsheathed it, her heart stuttered at how fine the knife was. She didn’t know much about them, but this looked to be very high quality, from the tapered edge of the blade to the polished silver that had a soft wave in color she’d never seen before. And etched onto the blade near the hilt was
K + L
.

Aviana leaned forward and pointed to the inscription. “All of the women in the Gray Backs have one just like it. Easton is very good at making knives. He made this one especially for you.”

“K + L?”

“Kong and Layla,” Beaston murmured, still rocking Rowan. “You’re good to your bones. A good match. A love match. Not like with Kong’s shit people.”

Tears stung her eyes as she looked back down at the gift in her hands. “Thank you,” she whispered. “This is the nicest gift anyone has ever given me.”

Beaston nodded, looking pleased, and Aviana hugged her shoulders as Layla snapped the knife back into the sheath and tried to get her emotions under control. She’d sworn she wouldn’t cry today, but two minutes on the sandy river bank, and a tear slipped down her cheek.

But this wasn’t the sad kind she’d been leaking for Mac.

This was the happy kind, so it didn’t count.

****

Kong sat by the fire, watching his mate laugh and splash around with Willa, Aviana, and Georgia in the middle of the river. The glow of the bonfire collided with the blue, full moonlight that danced across the dark water, illuminating her grinning, beautiful face.

Damn, today had been good for his animal. Watching Layla cut loose had settled some of his uncertainty. He would keep her safe no matter what. He had to. She was too important to this world for him to fail.

“You look like shit, man,” Matt said with a grin, plopping down in the sand beside him and jerking his chin at Kong’s mangled chest.

Kong huffed a laugh and looked pointedly at the crisscrossing scars that formed a spider web across Matt’s entire torso. The scars he’d gotten from a government facility as a kid. “Now we match.”

Matt fist bumped him and leaned back on his locked elbows, his eyes on Willa. “Twinsies,” he muttered.

“Spill it,” Creed said low as he dropped down in the sand on the other side of Kong. “You’ve been jumpy all week, and now you can’t even have a beer? This isn’t over, is it?”

Kong swallowed hard and shook his head, wishing with everything he was that his answer could be different.

“Why is Fiona obsessed with you?” Creed asked as he snapped a twig into small pieces.

“Because she’s bad and needs to be cut down,” Beaston said from Matt’s other side as he watched Gia suckle Rowan at her breast. “Fiona is a bad tree. Rotten. Rotting all the trees around her.” He swung that eerie, knowing gaze to Kong. “She wants to rot you, too.”

Sometimes Beaston made more sense than anyone Kong had ever met.

“Fiona wants offspring from me,” he said low so Layla wouldn’t hear. “She’s ready to breed.”

“Barf,” Matt muttered.

Kong huffed a surprised laugh. He really couldn’t imagine bedding Fiona without his animal convincing him to strangle her.

Creed leaned back on his arms and stretched his legs in the sand. “So what’s our play? Clearly she is going to come for you at some point.”

Kong sifted sand through his hand and shook his head. “Not
our
play.
My
play. I can’t put you at risk. This one is on me.”

“And how do you see that working out?” Creed asked. “What is a realistic end result of going to war with your people alone?”

“Death,” Beaston murmured.

“Death,” Jason agreed from Beaston’s other side.

Matt nodded slowly, eyes on the fire. “Death. For you and for Layla.”

Kong gritted his teeth and inhaled deeply at the image of Layla lying in the field of red-stained wildflowers that had almost been his deathbed. “Creed, you have a family to protect.”

“I do,” he said somberly. Creed swung his dark gaze to Kong. “And you and Layla are a part of that now.” He jerked his chin toward the girls who were bobbing on the waves, talking low and laughing with each other. “What kind of alpha would stand by while your people hurt Layla? Hmm? Losing Layla would hurt the rest of my crew now. And what kind of alpha would I be if I stood by and let you sacrifice yourself for your cause?”

“It’s
my
cause—”

“Choosing your own mate is a just cause!” Creed barked out in a steely voice. “You don’t belong with Fiona’s people.” He dragged his attention back to the waves, his jaw clenched in the flickering firelight. “You never really did.”