She walked right up to him and said good morning in a pleasant voice before trying to step around him into the kitchen.
“You’re late again, Lily,” he sneered. “How many times have I warned you about tardiness?”
“I’ve been running late all morning. My son refused to eat his breakfast, and spilled milk all over the kitchen table. I’m really sorry. I’ll try my best to never let it happen again,” she said, not knowing what the hell else to say.
As unfair as he was being, Lily needed this job too much to rock the boat. He didn’t move out of the way and just crossed his arms in front of his barreled chest, looking at her with his narrow black eyes. That familiar stench wafted through the air.
“I’ve heard about that kid of yours,” he said.
“What about my kid?” she said, growing angry.
She had to keep her anger under control or she might say something she regretted.
“I’ve heard your kid is a half-breed,” he said, lifting an eyebrow.
Over the last year, the media had been portraying shifter males as sexy war heroes. The social climate had changed. It had been easier for Lily to come out of the closet about her son’s true nature. But there were still people out there like this.
“So what if he is? Most of the people in this town are shifters. You have a problem with them?”
“I cater to the humans still left in this community.”
She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, looking her boss in the eye.
“My son is a half shifter. That’s true. Should I clock in now?”
Mr. Buckman grumbled and stepped aside. They were already short a waitress today, and firing Lily for no good reason would make him short a second girl. She hurried through the kitchen to the break room and pulled her apron around her waist before clocking in.
Out on the restaurant floor, she seated customers and brought them refreshments between taking orders and delivering them to the tables. It was a day at the diner like any other. Many of the people who came in had the telltale signs of being shifters. Lily knew about them from conversations she’d had with Theo’s father.
Mr. Buckman was an idiot and obviously had no idea who his true customer base was. The food at the diner, while not completely dreadful, was not the best Lily had ever had by any stretch of the imagination.
Theo’s father had cooked her the best meal of her life, the night her son was conceived. She’d never forget the flavor of perfectly seared steaks and the rich cream of his sauce. She sucked her bottom lip at the memory of the taste.
Not only had the food been the most delicious thing she could ever remember eating, that night had been primal and intense. Without telling her, he’d shipped off to war the next day. They hadn’t spoken since. If Theo had to be conceived by a man who would leave the next morning, at least the night before had blown her mind.
Shane Keenan had been deep in her heart for fifteen years. From the first time they’d met outside the principal’s office at Fate Mountain High, they’d formed an instant bond. They started to cut class and share their wounds under the bleachers.
Both of them had less than ideal home lives. Shane’s stepfather was some kind of sick sadist. Lily knew about the man’s “training” methods, the torture intended to keep Shane’s bear inside. Her own home had been a minefield with all her drunk mother’s boyfriends.
She and Shane had cultivated a connection that went beyond friendship. They knew each other inside out. She was the one person in town that knew Shane was a bear back then. His stepfather had kept the secret and so had Shane. After Shane’s bear had a meltdown senior year and took to the woods, he’d never been quite the same.
He did come out of the woods from time to time to talk to her alone. She believed they would make a new life together after they both turned eighteen. But when it came time to leave, Shane had gone without her. That was the last time she’d seen him until years later when they made Theo.
Thinking of Shane, a tear crystallized in the corner of her eye and she shuddered. She had to push those thoughts away. He had left her twice. She would hate him forever for that.
Was her love so terrifying that he couldn’t even tell her where he’d gone? During their years together in high school, they had been each other’s sanity. They had been each other’s warm place to fall. He knew all of her darkest secrets, and she knew his.
As she slid the plates onto her customers’ table, she gave them a forced smile and asked if they needed anything else. The shifter family at the table smiled up at her and asked for ketchup. Couldn’t Mr. Buckman tell that these bright eyed people were shifters? Shifters were bigger, taller, and more athletic than humans.
She turned back to the bar and grabbed the ketchup from under the counter to bring to the family’s table. She had a feeling that the woman was actually a human because the lady was petite, curvy, and didn’t have the kind of light in her eyes that the man and the children had. That’s what her family with Shane would have looked like if he hadn’t run away. That’s what he’d stolen from her.
Chapter 5
Shane grumbled awake in his cave, coming out of the self-induced hibernation. He had dreamed of the past and of the future and still felt the subtle sense of confusion that had driven him into his sleep. Dammit.
As the grizzly yawned, he contemplated going back to sleep. But at the same time, his deep animal instincts drove him out. He stood and shook out his hide before roaring and trotting into the cave mouth. He ducked through the narrow entrance and started down the path toward the lodge.
The deep need to protect his cub grew up inside him and linked him to the child like a chain. Suddenly, he felt as if he had a true purpose in life. His own experiences with his stepfather might have been horrific, but that didn’t mean that Shane had to be that kind of dad.
It was imperative that he do what he could for his son. With that strong need came another instinct.
Lily. His fated mate.
He had known she was his since the first day he met her outside the principal’s office. She was such a badass with her black eye makeup and ratted jeans. She’d sneered over at him and it had made his heart jump to attention.
They had shit talked each other across the hall. When she came out of the principal’s office, she’d passed him a note.
It said:
Want to skip detention with me?
Since hanging out with the witty blonde girl under the bleachers was more interesting than sitting in detention and staring at the biology teacher’s bald spot, Shane had been more than down to spend time with his fated mate. The two got pretty damn close.
Lily’s parents were both alcoholics who used to fight with each other all the time. It got so violent that her mother had her father arrested and taken away. After the father was out of the picture, her mom started dating men who drank just as much as she did. That meant from the time Lily was about eleven years old, she had alcoholic perverts wandering around her house. She’d had to lock her door at night just to make sure no one came in and molested her.
While a couple of her mom’s boyfriends had copped a feel over the years, none of them had ever managed to steal her innocence. The environment required her to be constantly vigilant. She tried to stay away from home, and her mother’s drunken name-calling, but eventually she had to go to sleep and eat something.
Because he cared for her so much, he knew that his own damage was exactly the thing that would hurt Lily the most. He was often angry and temperamental. His bear was blood thirsty when he lost control of it. He knew how easy it would be to hurt her. Neither of them needed that.
He’d lost control the last time he’d seen her. He’d wanted her so badly. They had made love that night for the first time. The only time. His bear had taken over and had almost claimed the woman. He would have, too, if Shane hadn’t pulled back at the last moment.
Just the thought of her smooth skin under his hands urged him to run faster through the fores
t. When he arrived at his cabin, he lunged into a shift and landed on his porch in his human form. The back door was still smashed on the porch and the roof hung down precariously. He’d have to fix that. He walked inside to find a raccoon chirping around on the floor. Shane skirted the thing and growled at it, causing it to screech and run out the back door.
He propped the door over the opening and gathered up the scattered pieces of his cell phone. He had to talk to her. He had to do something to provide for his son. He may be to wounded and dangerous to be a real father, but at least he could offer Lily some form of support. Shane had once been a world-famous chef. He would be damned if he would let his child go without.
After he pieced together the phone, he turned it on and waited for it to load. When the thing had finished its process, he pressed a button and looked for updates. There was a new flurry of text messages, and he thought they were probably from Lily. He needed to talk to her.
But they weren’t from Lily, they were from Levi. A very, very angry Levi. His alpha was not a man to be trifled with. Now, Shane worked directly under Levi at the lodge.
Shane had once owned his own restaurant in San Francisco and run a staff of thirty people. He’d had a TV show on the Food Network and had published six cookbooks. One had been featured on Oprah!
Having his alpha give him shit about missing a few days of work irritated the fuck out of Shane. Levi should be happy to have him working at his Podunk lodge in the middle of nowhere.
The truth was, Shane needed this job. He’d lost everything from the restaurant when an angry staff member outed him to the public.
Shane had lost control of his bear and half-shifted in front of the employee. Shane had found out the man had been stealing from him and lost it. Usually, he kept it under control in public.
Controlling the bear had been hardest at night. Shane had learned to sleep with a silver and iron chain around his ankle. At least if he shifted, it would keep him from doing too much damage. He’d nearly bitten the employee who’d been stealing from him. Then the man went straight to the media, outing America’s favorite angry chef.
Shane had stopped trying. He’d thrown away huge chunks of money on gambling and vacations before coming back to Fate Mountain to enter the draft. That’s when he’d gotten involved with Lily again.
The military did give most shifter veterans a generous exit package, but Levi had been dishonorably discharged for mauling civilians near the end of the war.
He needed to keep Levi happy and do a good job in the restaurant. Shane had just slept in a cave for two days and hadn’t shown up to work. Levi was about to blow a gasket. Just as Shane slipped into a pair of jeans, another text message pinged on his phone. He flicked over the screen. It was Levi again, demanding to know where he was.
Irritation gripped Shane’s chest, and he pulled on a shirt. Then he slipped into his chef coat. Fully dressed for a day of work, although he could’ve used a shower, Shane headed down the trail towards the main building of the lodge.
As he walked, he tried to send a text to Levi. He was so new to the whole smartphone thing, he ended up texting an image of a smiley face with its tongue sticking out instead of the message he’d meant to send. Now Levi would think he was flipping him off.
Shane chuckled to himself, knowing that the full frontal force of Levi’s irritation was about to knock him off his feet. Shane wasn’t the type of bear to back down from another bear’s challenging roar.
Shane sure as shit didn’t want to be alpha, but that didn’t mean he didn’t test his alpha’s limits from time to time. Levi was the man to lead the crew. They all knew that. But if he was going to lead a bear like Shane, he had to keep earning that title.
As Shane burst into the kitchen, the entire staff looked up at him with open mouths.
“Chef…” one of the prep cooks stuttered.
Shane slapped his hands together loudly and rubbed them vigorously as everyone stared.
“I’m back, bitches. I hope you’ve been serving my menu to my specifications,” he stated.
He could feel the treble of nervousness in the room and raised his eyebrow at his anxious crew. Their eyes rose over his shoulder. Shane frowned and slowly turned around to face his alpha. Levi stood in the kitchen doorway with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowly focused on Shane.
“What?” Shane said. “We’re about to start lunch service. Is there a problem?”
“Shane. A word. Now,” Levi said, turning away and out of the kitchen.
Shane growled and followed Levi down the hallway to Levi’s office. The men entered the neatly organized office, and Levi sat behind the oak desk.
“Shane. You were gone for two days. I understand that you need time in bear form. I get that. But you disappeared without notice. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to rearrange your schedule?”
“That’s what the sous chef is for,” Shane said.
“The sous chef had prescheduled days off,” Levi said, pointing to a schedule on his desk. “He asked for those days three weeks in advance. You, on the other hand, did not. I had no one to run the kitchen.”
“Yes, but those are the slowest days of the week. You have to admit that,” Shane said, hoping his rationale would get him out of whatever trouble he was in.
“That’s not the point. I had to have one of the prep cooks cover for you and run the kitchen. He has absolutely no idea how to direct the rest of the stations. I ended up having to do it. I’m not a cook. I have no experience in kitchen management. Have I ever said I have experience in running a kitchen?” Levi asked.
Shane knew Levi had never worked in the kitchen in his life, except maybe to make breakfast for his human mate Juliet. As much as Shane hated to admit it, he was going to have to make it up to his alpha somehow.
“Look, Levi. I’m sorry. This will never happen again. I just got some unsettling news. You know how everybody was entering their information into Mate.com? Well, I did it too. It was supposed to be a joke, but I made the mistake of answering the questionnaire seriously. And I was matched with a human woman.”
“What does your love life have to do with not showing up to work?” Levi demanded.
“It’s who I was matched up with.”
“Did it find your fated mate for you?” Levi asked.
“It did. And I know her. I’ve known her a long damn time.”
“That’s who Kelly was talking about when you showed up last month,” Levi said, stroking his chin.
“What are you talking about?” Shane barked.
Kelly was the human receptionist who sat at the front desk at Fate Mountain Lodge. She had been working at the lodge since before Levi had taken over a year ago. Shane knew that she had nothing but respect for Levi. She treated him a little bit like a mother hen, making sure that he ate when he was busy. But what did the human receptionist know about Lily?
“Kelly’s lived in Fate Mountain all her life,” Levi said. “She knows a lot of people. She remembers you from when you were a kid. She mentioned that a woman you knew was back in town.”
“A woman I know is back in town. Lily Mason and I both grew up in Fate Mountain Village. We’ve known each other since high school. We were friends.”
“Is this Lily Mason your fated mate?”
“Yes,” Shane said, looking down at the floor.
“I don’t understand what the problem is or why you took off for two days,” Levi said.
“I can’t be with my fated mate. I can’t take care of other people like that. I’m an asshole. My bear is dangerous. I would never do anything but hurt her.”
“Your bear is an asshole,” Levi said. Shane had smashed Levi a time or two during their days in the military.
“She has a child. A child who could quite possibly be mine.”
“You’ve mated with her?” Levi said.
“When I came back to Fate Mountain before I entered the draft, I lived here for a few months. Lily lived here at the time too. We reesta
blished our friendship, and then one thing led to another. We made love the night before I left for training. We never spoke again.”
“You mean you didn’t tell her where you went. You just left her and went to war.”
“I thought I’d die,” Shane growled. “I’d hoped I’d die.”
“Shane. We were all messed up by the war. I know things were bad in your past. Things in those days were hard. I get that.”
“Do you? You grew up with rich shifter parents.”
“We all suffered back then. The Shifter Council should have seen the backlash coming. There was a reason our ancestors stayed in the shadows.”
“This isn’t about the Shifter Council. It’s the humans.”
“And your mate is human, like mine. Like so many of us. Why do you run from her?” Levi asked.
“I’m not a good man,” Shane said, slicing his arm through the air and turning away. “And I’m a worse bear.”
“Give yourself some credit. You’re a hero,” Levi said.
“Don’t say I’m a hero. I never wanted to do any of the things I did at war. It wasn’t our war, Levi.” He stood with his back to his alpha.
“But we ended it,” Levi said.
“And what did that do for us?” Shane asked, turning back to his friend, his fist clenched.
“Things are changing because of us. We proved to the humans that we are with them,” Levi reasoned.
Shane was too broken inside to be a place for Lily’s wounded heart to rest. He’d tear her apart without even trying.
“What will you do about your mate? Your child?” Levi said.
“I have to provide for the child,” he said without hesitation.
“If that is all you can do, then it’s all you can do,” Levi said in a measured tone. He slapped the eraser end of a pencil on the table and it bounced back up.
“Can I go back to work now?” Shane asked.
“Could you at least text next time you take to the woods?”
“Fine,” Shane said, turning away toward the door.