Temptation: Reckless Desires (Blue Moon Saloon Book 2) (5 page)

Cole leaned against the barn door, watching Rosalind breeze outside like a whirling dervish honing in on a new target. He wanted to protest because he hadn’t done anything to piss Janna off.

Haven’t done anything to earn her, either,
a grouchy voice said.

He considered that. Wondered what to do. Wondered if he trusted himself to do it. His eyes drifted over the pine-dotted hills, then stopped at the crest of the ridge. The pale moon was just starting to slide behind it, setting in the morning light. Wouldn’t be long until the moon would be full, rising and setting opposite the sun.

Need her,
the voice inside him turned grave.
Need her to survive the Change…

He fought off a shiver that had no right shaking anyone’s shoulders on a warm Arizona day and headed back into the barn.

Janna rubbed her eyes and yawned as she padded down the stairs to the saloon, wishing she’d had the kind of night she’d dreamed about — up close and personal with Cole Harper — instead of just another lonely night alone.

“Morning,” Soren grumbled from the tiny office off the back room of the saloon.

Bears were about as enthusiastic about mornings as she was. The only one of the shifters living above the Blue Moon Saloon who didn’t mind waking before ten was her sister, Jessica. The proof was in the smell of fresh muffins wafting over from the little café next door.

“Muffin?” she asked, starting toward the back door.

Soren nodded. “Coffee?”

It had become an amiable ritual between them: he’d get the coffee, she’d get the muffins, and they’d both get on with whatever business there was to be done that day before opening the saloon.

She walked outside and looped from the rear door of the saloon to the back door of the café.

“Morning!” Jessica practically sang when Janna came in.

“Morning,” she mumbled back, suppressing a sigh. Her sister had always been a morning person, but the joyous glow she’d taken on recently made it that much harder to bear.

Jessica held up a rack of steaming muffins. “Blackberry-currant. You think Simon will like them?”

Simon’s deep voice rumbled from the open door. “I like everything you make.” He stood in the doorway, rubbing a shoulder against the frame, marking his turf.

Jessica turned an even happier shade of pink and rushed into his hug.

Janna looked at the floor. Sighed. Grabbed three muffins — one for her, two for Soren — and headed past the happy lovers. She was glad for her sister and Simon, but there was only so much cooing and hand-feeding of muffins an innocent bystander could take.

“Muffin,” she sighed, plonking the plate in front of Soren.

“Coffee,” he yawned, handing her a mug.

They stood there sipping for a second, listening to the giggling next door, staring off into space. Janna had never been big on the concept of destined mates, figuring she could damn well choose her own partner if she ever decided she wanted one. But seeing Simon and Jess made her think twice. And ever since she’d met Cole…

Mate.
Her wolf nodded happily.
Mine.

Soren took a bear-sized bite of muffin then sighed at the papers littering his desk. The guy loved woodwork, spare ribs, and rooting around in the outdoors. A bear doing office work, well, it just wasn’t natural.

Janna took hold of the back of his chair and spun him around. “How about you go for a morning walk. I’ll take care of the bills.”

His listless eyes lit up a little and turned toward the hills. A hint of oaky bear scent wafted off him, just from the thought of shifting.

“Um… well…”

“Just go.” She jerked her thumb at the door. “I got this.”

“Maybe just a short walk…”

She pushed him toward the door. Well, she shoved at his broad back, because bears didn’t budge unless they damn well wanted to. Obviously, his bear was all for it, because he was out the door, in his pickup, and off on the ten-minute drive to the national forest before she could say boo.

“Boo,” she whispered, looking at the sea of paperwork. She took one more sip of coffee and dug into the bills piled up on the desk.

Power, water, deliveries. She slit open envelopes, wrote checks, and made notes in the old-fashioned ledger that was Soren’s attempt at office organization.

Rent. She signed that check with a happy face in the memo line, because Tina Hawthorne-Rivera would be the one cashing it. If it weren’t for Tina, Simon and Soren might not have managed to rent the saloon from the wolves of Twin Moon Ranch. If it weren’t for Tina, Janna might still be on the run with Jessica, working temporary jobs with one eye over her shoulder and one eye on the road. If it weren’t for Tina, a lot of good things might never have come to pass.

Like her job here at the saloon. Her cozy room upstairs. Like meeting Cole.

It wasn’t Tina,
a little voice in the back of her mind said.
It was destiny.

She mulled that one over as she checked the next envelope. No return address, no logo. Her heart beat a little faster, and she cast a furtive glance at the door.

Probably it’s from the new microbrewery in Flagstaff,
she told herself, trying not to tremble as she opened it up.
Or maybe an appeal for a local charity. Or maybe—

She pulled the letter out and stared at the three lines of text.

Purity! Purity!
the top line proclaimed in bold.

Tainted shifters shall pay with their lives
came under that, and at the bottom…

Her stomach lurched.

You will pay with your lives.

The
you
was underlined four times, as it always was.

She crumpled the letter and threw it in the trash. Brushed her hands like she’d just handled a dead rat, then reached into the trash and pushed the letter even deeper. She glanced at the door, making sure no one was there to see. Then she forced herself to reach for the next bill and open it as if nothing had happened. As if the evil that hunted her was watching for her reaction on a hidden camera.

She sat ramrod straight and went through another three bills, pretending to be cool and calm. But inside, her gut churned.

The Blue Bloods hadn’t given up their hateful campaign. She was still a target. She and Jess both, plus Simon and Soren. All because their wolf and bear packs had mingled too closely for the shifter extremists who valued racial purity above all else. The Blue Bloods had ambushed the bear clan, then attacked her pack.

She stared into empty space and remembered the flames. The screams. Remembered Jessica yelling at her to run for her life. They’d gotten away, the sole survivors of that awful night.

Survivors of another awful night, too, not too long ago. The Blue Bloods had hunted her and Jessica right to the Blue Moon Saloon, and if it hadn’t been for Cole stepping in, then Simon and Soren arriving just when she’d given up hope, she would have been dead.

We’ll be back…

She could hear the taunting cry of Victor Whyte, the leader of the Blue Blood rogues as he escaped out the back door of the saloon.

She glanced at the trash can. Were the letters a precursor to more trouble, or were the Blue Bloods all bark and no bite?

“Gotcha, baby.” Simon’s teasing voice meandered in from next door as he flirted with his mate.

Janna rolled her shoulders and told herself to relax. There was no need to worry. She had two bears around, plus the protection of the Twin Moon wolves — the most powerful pack in the Southwest. The Blue Bloods wouldn’t dare stage another attack on the saloon. Would they?

She shook her head vehemently. There was no point living in fear, just like there was no point constantly mourning everything she’d lost in Montana. She was an upbeat, glass half-full type. She had to be because, otherwise, she might just grow old and bitter and spend her days sighing over a long list of regrets.

“Hey, Janna!” her sister called, and she practically jumped out of the chair.

“Yes?”

“Do you want to try my new muffin recipe?”

“Be right there.” She pushed away from the desk, happy to escape those thoughts for a while. She’d debated telling the others about the letters but decided against it. They all knew the Blue Bloods were out there. But the rogues had been taught a lesson, and they wouldn’t come wandering around here again.

All bark and no bite.
She let the sentiment echo in her mind as she stepped out of the tiny office and looked around the back room of the saloon. She and Jess had fought off the Blue Bloods there, and Cole had come along at just the right time. He’d fought like a champion, too, until the rogues threw him against a wall. She closed her eyes, replaying that awful moment when he’d crashed and gone limp. Remembered shaking him and sobbing when he didn’t come to. Expecting the worst. But he’d been all right in the end. He’d shaken himself back to his senses and came out of the fight without a scratch.

Without a scratch…

Her mind stuck on that thought as she stared at the wall he’d been thrown against.

All bark and no bite…

“Janna!” Jess called, pulling her onward.

“Have fun.” Simon smiled as they crossed paths outside.

Bark…bite…scratch… Her stomach tightened as she thought it through.

“Try this.” Jess held out a muffin as she entered the café through the rear door. “Blueberry supreme. Simon’s new favorite.”

Janna nibbled but barely registered the taste. She helped her sister in the kitchen, because opening day for the new café was only two weeks away, and Jessica was working on some new recipes. It took two hours for Janna to work up the nerve to bring up what was on her mind.

“Jess…” she asked, gulping it down. “Have you noticed anything about…well, about Cole?”

Her sister chuckled. “You mean other than the fact that half the women in the saloon bat their eyes every time he walks in?”

“I mean… Well, anything else?”

“You mean, other than the fact that he looks at you like the sun might fade forever if you step out of the room? Other than the fact that he’s like a love-struck puppy around you?”

Janna faked a laugh to match her sister’s.

Love-struck puppy or love-struck wolf?

“He has been moody lately,” Jess added in a more serious afterthought. “But then, that man’s always had something eating at him.”

Cole had been awfully moody for the past few weeks. Mercurial, like spring weather back in Montana. He’d go from a dreamy kind of calm to sheer volcanic rumble in two seconds flat, and his gray eyes would go from darting restlessly around to calm as a fair weather cloud, drifting easily in a breeze.

On a razor’s edge, in other words.

Shit, shit, shit.

Jess shrugged and went back to washing a bowl. “Poor man’s probably going through withdrawal, now that you’ve gotten him to quit the hard drinking.”

Part of her wanted to swell with pride, because it was partially true. She’d been steadily working down his alcohol intake, and it had worked.

But a sinking feeling in her gut told her that wasn’t the reason for his mood swings. The real reason could be something else. Something terrible.

Of course, she’d checked him for wounds after the rogue fight, but she hadn’t been that thorough. Even a tiny scratch could be enough to turn a human.

Or kill him.

As if on cue, a shadow flickered in the front windows, and there was Cole.

Mate!
Her wolf practically jumped to attention and wagged its tail. Plopped its butt on the ground and arranged its front paws just so, so that if he turned his head and used X-ray vision, he’d see a perfectly friendly, tame wolf.

And he did turn his head. Stopped dead in his tracks and peered in the windows as if he’d sensed her there.

“Hi, Cole!” Jessica waved cheerily.

He waved back and flashed his perfect smile.

Mate!
her wolf cried.
Mate!

She rushed out onto the sidewalk then screeched to a halt in front of him, panting. Searching his eyes for the telltale sparks of a Changeling.

“Heya, Janna.”

“Hi, Cole,” she mumbled, running her hands up his arms. She hung on tight in relief, because his eyes were normal. Well, normal for Cole, which meant dark and stormy, with shafts of silverish sunlight cutting through the clouds. But no stray sparks, no fireworks, thank God.

She reeled him into a huge hug of relief and laughed into his ear.

“What?” He looked at her with a grin.

She shook her head. “Just happy to see you.”
Happy to see you human. Happy to see you okay.

Which had its own set of issues, she realized as she led him through the café for a muffin, then into the saloon. He was human. She was shifter. Getting involved with Cole could draw the wrath of the Blue Bloods.

You will pay with your lives…

She hid her shiver in a bouncy step and led him over to his favorite spot at the bar.

Getting involved with Cole meant putting her sister and the bear brothers at risk, and they were all the family she had.

Them, and Cole, too,
her wolf chipped in.