Bear Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire #2)(41)

“What’s this?”

“A tip. You earned it. You saved me in more ways than you know.”

Jenner opened it and, sure enough, there was a small stack of twenty dollar bills inside. He shook his head and handed it back to her. “It doesn’t feel right taking a tip from you.”

“Why not?”

“Because”—he kissed her palm to stall and steady his voice—“you gave me the best days of my life. Can’t you see your money will taint that?”

Lena clutched the envelope to her chest and nodded. With a sad smile, she murmured, “Goodbye, Jenner.” She brushed past him but not before he saw a single, glistening tear track down her cheek.

She walked toward where Tobias waited on the edge of the woods and didn’t look back.

He couldn’t do this. Couldn’t watch her walk out of his life. His bear shredded his insides as he jogged toward the trees on the opposite side of the clearing. His boots crunched across the earth as he picked up his pace.

He was going to Change, and he didn’t want her to see him lose it. Lose her. Lose himself.

Bye, Lena.

****

Lena gasped as the woods shook with a deafening roar. There was such agony in it.

Tobias threw a pitying look to the woods behind them but kept walking.

God, that had been one of the hardest things she’d ever done, pretend to say goodbye to him. But if she told him what she was thinking, he would make a harder run at pushing her away, and she couldn’t handle that right now. Not after everything they’d been through.

“Stupid man,” she said, wiping her damp cheek on her shoulder.

Tobias didn’t say anything, only walked silently beside her, loaded down with all of her luggage.

“Do you think I’m right in leaving?” she asked softly.

“It isn’t my place to say.”

“I’m asking your honest opinion, Tobias.”

A rumbling growl blasted from him, and he rounded on her. “No, all right? I think it’s f*cked up what you’re doing to each other. These kinds of games get people hurt.” He glared over her shoulder at the woods behind her. “It’ll get my brother hurt.”

“Good.”

“What?”

“Now you’ll help me.”

Tobias narrowed his eyes. “Help you how?”

“Help me keep your brother because despite his best efforts and beyond all reason, I love the idiot, and I’m not ready for him to push me away.”

Tobias reared back, blinking hard. And then a slow, approving smile took his face. “What do you need me to do?”

“Fly me to Galena.” Lena lifted her chin primly. “I want to meet Elyse.”





Chapter Fourteen


Flying in a little bush plane was a lot less terrifying when the weather was fair. This time Lena didn’t even scream when Tobias landed the plane on a long, smooth strip outside of the tiny town of Galena, Alaska.

Tobias waved to a man who stood leaned against a muddy green SUV near a pair of covered bush planes. He must’ve been the one Tobias radioed on the way over here.

“He’s your ride to Ian and Elyse’s homestead,” Tobias explained, his green eyes clear and serious.

“You aren’t coming to see your brother? You’re so close.”

“I’m afraid I can only handle one brother today. Link will get you where you need to go.”

Tobias helped her out, unloaded her belongings, and set them in the back of the SUV.

“Lincoln McCall,” the tall, lanky man with wild gray eyes introduced himself. His handshake was rough and was punctuated by a long rattling snarl and then a quick hard shake of his head, as if he hadn’t meant to let the warning sound slip.

“Link’s half-mad already,” Tobias said, clapping the man on the back. “Careful not to piss him off, yeah?”

“Uh, okay.” Baffled, Lena waved to Tobias as he jogged back toward his plane.

“Tell Elyse I said hi,” Tobias called over his shoulder.

“What about Ian?”

“Tell him he’s an *.”

Lena pursed her lips. Excellent.

Link opened her door for her like a true gentleman, if she could ignore the blazing color of his eyes and the snarl on his lip. He would be a handsome man if he didn’t look so feral.

“Sorry,” Link muttered as he slid in behind the wheel and shut his door a little too soundly. “It’s been a while since I talked to a stranger.”

“Link McCall, you said? Of the McCall pack?” The crazy pack that Dalton had told her about.

“Yeah, and clearly you’ve heard about me already so you don’t have to dance around it. It don’t bother me. Not anymore.”

He spun out of the dirt parking area and onto a long, pothole-riddled road.

“But you’re friends with the bears.”

“Wild isn’t it? Being friends with the enforcers who will put me down someday. The Silvers aren’t the bad guys, though.” He cast her a wild look. “I am. And when it comes time, I’d rather be put down honorably by one of them than hurt people.”

“You don’t sound like a bad guy to me,” she murmured honestly.

Link dragged his attention from the road to her, then back, but she’d seen it. The grateful look on his face, there and gone.