“Perfect. I owe you, man. You haven’t seen me if the club asks either, by the way.”
“Sure haven’t,” David replied, slapping his hand and starting his bike.
Malcolm watched as he pulled away, tucking the phone he had gotten for him into his pocket and driving to his own house. It wasn’t exactly in the middle of nowhere like the cabin, but there was a back road to it that would keep anyone from seeing him as he got in and out.
He left the bike parked in the wooded area of the back entrance and walked the rest of the way to the house, careful to look around before stepping out into the clearing beyond his back yard. He quickly scaled the fence and made his way toward the back door, unlocking it and going inside.
Nothing was amiss. It was just like he had left it before heading to Canada. It was tempting to bring Autumn here, to surround her with the protection of the pack, but they would smell her the moment she got near any of them, and they would not welcome a bear shifter into their midst. They certainly wouldn’t be keen on it once they found out there were members of her clan looking for her. They were still reeling from the recent attack on their own by the rival Timber Wolves MC.
Grabbing what he came for and few things he thought might come in handy, he closed the house back up and crept back out to the opening at the edge of the woods to return to his bike. He continued to be filled with doubt as he drove back toward the cabin, but he just couldn’t bring himself to abandon a helpless woman in her time of need.
“That smells delicious,” he said, stepping into the cabin.
The aroma from what smelled like baked chicken was a welcome scent. He hadn’t realized how hungry he had gotten while he was gone. Now, he walked over to look around in the pots and pans on the small stovetop.
“Nothing fancy. Baked chicken, peas, and roasted potatoes.”
“Sounds great to me. What’s for dessert?”
“I found some leftover brownies in my bag,” she laughed.
“Perfect.”
“Did you get whatever you had to go do sorted out?” she asked.
He suspected she was much more curious than she sounded but didn’t let on to that fact nor mention what he had gone to do. To do so would ring alarm bells that would only serve to scare her more.
“Yep. All sorted. It wasn’t anything major, just MC business,” he lied.
“Well, good. Dinner will be ready in about fifteen minutes if you want to get cleaned up.”
“That would be great. I could stand a shower.”
“Yeah, you could,” she laughed, wrinkling her nose for effect.
“Back in a few minutes,” he told her, heading toward the back door to shower. He realized that he had forgotten to bring in clean clothes after he was already undressed and beneath the steamy water. Oh well. He had a towel to wrap up in and it wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen him naked before anyway.
He finished up and stepped out of the tub, wrapping a towel around his waist and walking back out to retrieve clean clothes. He noted Autumn casting a glance his way and then quickly away and smiled to himself. He noted his reaction to the exchange, a surge in his loins that he covered with his clothes as he returned to the bathroom to dress in private.
What was this effect she had on him, and why was he finding it so damned hard to resist her? Even the sound of her voice as she called out to him that dinner was done drew him in and it wasn’t just because he was hungry for food. Walking into the front of the cabin again, he found that she had created a makeshift table out of a wide plank and two stools he had seen earlier in the cellar.
“You’ve been downstairs,” he said.
“Yeah. I couldn’t find any seasonings in the kitchen and thought there might be some down there.”
“Find what you were looking for?” he asked.
There was no doubt that the trip was more about curiosity than it was about necessity, but there wasn’t anything down there that she was likely to find without a lot more effort than just a quick look around. He smiled and sat down on the sofa. The coffee table had served as their table last night, but this was at a better angle and they could put their feet beneath it.
“You’re very resourceful,” he told her.
“I can be,” she replied, taking a bite of her food.
“I just bet you can,” he laughed.
The food was excellent, and pretty soon, they were lost in conversation about just how much they were alike and all the ways they were different. It was apparent that they were much more in sync than either of them had perhaps realized before—other than the one big thing that stood between them. He was still a wolf and she was still a bear.