Wolf's Run: A BBW Shifter Romance (2 page)

As I expected, the gang of bikers played nice, for bikers anyway, once they got seated and served. They even tipped well enough. I was at the front door calling the next party when they left. “Yeager, party of one?” I shouted as the big biker named Dolan came up behind me, pressed his body to mine and felt me up like he knew me.

“What time you get off, sweetie,” he whispered in my ear. I turned and threw his arms aside.

“I don’t. You’ve eaten, now get out,” I said defiantly. He took my face in his big hands and kissed me. I resisted, pulling at his arms but I’d never been kissed like that before. My body tingled and I felt a warmth grow in my core. Suddenly, I didn’t want him to stop. It was a strange and disturbing feeling.

“Hey, you big jerk, let her go!” Edie said. Dolan did and I swear my knees threatened to buckle. The big man just laughed at Edie.

“You’re not fuckin’ this little boy, are you?” Dolan asked me. I was still trying to recover from his kiss. My head was swimming and my body trembled.

“I’m a girl, asshole!” Edie replied sharply. Dolan just laughed and turned to go but an even bigger man stood in his way. Dolan was big, burly and muscular but this man was every bit his match. He was tall with broad shoulders and a thin waist, his body and face like chiseled stone. He wore an unruly goatee with a streak of gray in the otherwise dark brown whiskers. His thick hair was dark like his beard with a bit of grey at his temples. His eyes were almost amber.

“Dolan,” he greeted the younger biker and Dolan seemed to shrink a bit in his presence.

“Yeager,” he challenged but it came off weak. Then Dolan looked at me and said, “We’re not finished, you and I.” Finally Dolan nodded for his gang to follow. They pushed through the crowd and disappeared down the street. Without him nearby I felt normal again. The sickly-sweet tingle disappeared.

“Yeager? Party of one?” I asked the tall biker.

“Yeah, that’s me,” he said. I told him to follow and seated him at the counter, handed him a menu and poured him some coffee. He followed me with his eyes the entire time. In fact, he never stopped staring at me as I went about my work. One creep a day was all I could handle. I pulled my order pad from my apron and stood across the counter from him.

“What do you want?” I asked him, meaning to take his order.

“You,” he said. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

“C’mon, what do you want to eat? Just play nice, please?” I replied. He chuckled and his eyes put me at ease for some reason.

“Sorry. I’ll take the steak and eggs, medium rare and over easy. Coffee’s fine,” he told me and I smiled despite myself.

“Thank you. I’ve had enough excitement this morning already,” I said. I turned to stick his ticket on the wheel for Willy but the biker had more to say.

“You should stay away from Dolan. He’s trouble,” he advised me. I slipped the ticket into the wheel and spun it around before turning back to face the biker.

“Yeah, I figured that out all on my own. Thanks,” I replied.

“You’re even more beautiful that your mother was,” he said suddenly. I stepped forward towards him.

“You knew my mother?” I asked.

“No, but I remember her from the last time I was here. I remember you too,” he said. Maybe I should have felt a creepy vibe but I didn’t. I caught a whiff of this man’s cologne but it wasn’t like anything I’d ever smelled before. I liked it though.

“When was that?” I asked.

“Seven years ago. The last time Wolf’s Run was here,” he told me. I was only twelve then. I didn’t remember him.

“She died a couple of years ago,” I told him.

“I know. I’m so sorry. I’ve been...watching you,” he said. Suddenly, I had this feeling. I never knew my dad. Mom had told me he took off after she got pregnant and she’d lost track of him. I’d never known him, hadn’t even seen a picture of him. Mom threw them all out she was so angry and hurt. Yeager had an ageless look about him. If it weren’t for the gray in his beard and at his temples, he might have passed for twenty-five. Still, he might have been old enough.

“You’re my dad, aren’t you?” I asked. I knew I was right. I could feel it. There was just something familiar about him though I was sure we’d never met. My instincts were wrong, however.

“No, I’m not your dad. Sorry, Cassie,” he said. He was someone though, someone important in my life. I just knew it. I don’t know why but I felt some kind of connection to this biker. “I know you’re working hard but can you get away. Even for an hour or so?” he asked. I wanted to. Boy, did I want to. Dolan’s kiss was something, like nothing I’d ever felt before, but it was nothing compared to talking to this man. “I’m Yeager, by the way,” he said and offered his hand. I was biting my lip as I cleaned my hand on my towel and shook Yeager’s hand.

“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 a 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.