I drove straight to Barrington’s and parked our Ford Raptor in the closest non-handicap spot to the front doors. The sun rose. The Vancouver bus dropped off its first load of tourists. The shuttle picked them up for the hour-long ride to Bear Mountain. And I just sat there. Staring at the store’s glass doors. Waiting for them to open.
Radha started fishing for gossip while she checked me out. “Is this about that tourist you were flirting with at the bar last night?”
No answer.I almost hurt her. I almost hurt her. I almost hurt her.
Outside the store’s front windows, the Bear Mountain shuttle bus pulled up again.
And Radha kept going. “My silly son was so upset when you shut the bar down early last night. I think he was hoping to meet a tourist as well. But he’s too young for all that nonsense. I keep telling him to focus on his university studies, even if he’s home on break. That’ll be forty-two dollars—oh, you’re fast!”
I already had my card out and tapped it against the reader before she finished quoting the price.
This mask would make sure I didn’t bite Lark again—not before she was ready to have me inside her head.
Ifshe ever wanted me there after what I pulled last night.
The look on her face when I ran… The sound of her calling my name… The memories slashed through my mind, sharp as claws.
I hated being away from her. But a few hours of confusion was acceptable mission fallout if it kept her safe.
I wouldn’t lose her. I wouldn’t let my bear take over again. Not ever.
“Oh, dear,” Radha murmured, eyes going to the crowd now flooding off the shuttle. “Looks like everyone wants to stock up before the Christmas Eve in July festivities start.”
She handed me the mask and receipt with a wry smile. “Hopefully, none of them needs a muzzle.”
Didn’t give a shit if they did. None of them needed it as much as I did.
I snatched the mask like Gollum and rushed toward the exit, desperate to get back to my mate.
Then froze when the bus pulled away….
Behind it stood two members of Iron Claw, Hawk’s old outlaw gang—harassing a woman who was wearing nothing but an oversized Bear Mountain Bar & Grill T-shirt that barely hit mid-thigh.
She had her back to me, hair twisted into a messy updo. But the full thighs… the bare, wildflower-honey-brown arms…
Is that…?
One of the bikers grabbed her, and she twisted, trying to yank free.
Just enough for me to see her face.
Lark.
Our Lark.
She was supposed to be back at the den with Callum and meeting the mayor. She was supposed to be safe.
But she was here. Just beyond the doors at the gas pumps.
And one of those Iron Claw fuckers had his hands on her.
I’d promised not to let her see my psycho bear again.
I’dvowed.
But the next moment, the buttons on my shirt popped. My jeans shredded, and cries of surprise exploded from all around me as the beast I’d worked so hard to contain surged through the store doors.
busses and bikers
