ASHER
“I’d like to speak with you privately,” I told Zach once he released me from his hug.
The restaurant was filling up with families wanting to eat and others who needed a beer before heading home. This wasn’t a conversation I wanted overheard.
He nodded. “My place is a ten-minute drive outside of town.”
I followed his truck along Main Street past the edge to town where the buildings gave way to forest and the road turned from paved to gravel. His house was tucked into a clearing surrounded on all sides by pine trees. When I climbed out of my vehicle, I caught the scent of woodsmoke.
“It’s small, but it’s mine, and I don’t have to share my space like I did in the den.”
Heat was radiating from a wood stove when we walked in, and one wall was lined with bookshelves. Zach was a reader. I liked that. Learning about the outside world hadn’t been prioritized inthe den, which had been impressed upon me even at the age of six.
I sat on the worn couch while he poured coffee from a pot that had been keeping warm on the stove.
“So, what’s on your mind?” He took the armchair opposite me. “I’m guessing this is complicated or it’s a secret and you didn’t want humans to overhear.”
It’d been hard enough spilling the details to Anita, but where did I start with Zach? Or perhaps it was easier because his emotions wouldn’t be involved.
“There's a human scientist in town. He's here to study polar bears, and I suspect that involves tagging and tracking them to figure out why they settled so far from where they should be.”
Zach furrowed his brow. “I’d heard rumors, but this is the first time it’s been confirmed.”
I took a deep breath. “But there’s more. The scientist, Weston, he’s my mate.”
Zach took a huge gulp of coffee, and even after he swallowed, he didn’t speak.
“I’m not finished.”
He tossed the rest of the hot liquid down his throat and poured himself another cup. “Okay, hit me with it.”
“We slept together, and he bit me.” I tapped the scar. “But because he doesn’t know who I am or what we are, I fled while he was sleeping and didn’t mark him.” I explained that Weston wasn’t aware of what he’d done, at least not consciously.
Zach had a unique perspective on shifter and human dynamics because one of his parents was a shifter and the other human. He did have a beast, but because of the human element, he understood their thought processes. The den looked on him as an outsider because of his human DNA, so his suspicions about my stepfather would have made it easier to leave the den than for others.
“That’s unusual not to reciprocate, but I get why you hesitated.”
“How could I?” The frustration I'd been holding back was evident in my voice. “If I'd bitten him without an explanation, what would he think? That I was not to be trusted.” And once trust was lost, it wasn’t easy to regain it.
“But you are going to tell him.”
“If we’re to be in one another’s lives, yes.” If Weston ran, would I run after him, or leave it to fate to return him if and when? I couldn’t answer that. “He might not accept who I am.”
“And you’ll deal with that because you won’t have a choice.”
I switched topics because this was becoming a rerun of what Anita had said.
“My purpose in coming to town was to warn the den about Weston, but I met him, and at first I wasn’t aware who he was.” Maybe it was just as well I wasn’t my father’s heir because he would never have put personal business before the den’s safety.
Zach got up and put his mug in the sink before leaning on the kitchen counter.
“Asher, the den needs you.”
Had he been inside my head? Because I’d been thinking the exact opposite.
“They don’t know I’m alive.”
“That doesn't change the fact that they need you.” He stared out the window at the snow falling. “A human scientist interfering in the den way of life, maybe in the bears’ existence, is a threat, and as the Alpha's son, it’s your duty to protect them.”
