Bear Cuffs (Broken Hill Bears #3)(29)

    "Or you could crash here, and have a couple more whiskies?" Logan suggested, shaking the bottle temptingly.

    "Ok, done. I'm not a girl who needs much persuasion," Kristin said with a grin, and held out her glass for a refill. She curled up on the sofa, tucking her long legs underneath her. "So what's going on with Melissa?"

    "She's dating a shifter too," Lauren said.

    "What? So I'm the last one to join the party?" she said, eyes flashing.

    "Kind of, but Melissa doesn't actually know that this guy is half bear." Kristin gaped.

    "How is that possible?"

    "They met at our wedding," Connor said. "Timo's part of our clan."

    "So it'd be great if they were a perfect match, but we're not convinced that they're right for each other," Lauren said.

    "Why not?"

    "Well, they've been on a few dates, but it doesn't look like sparks have been flying."

    "Mmm, Melissa's shy with guys though. Especially after all she's been through," Kristin said.

    "I was hardly Miss Confident," Dina said. "But when you meet your mate, everything's different. It's like  –  like a whole new world opens up to you, and you just want to be with that person. You want to be part of them, as close as two people can be."

    "Ok, ok, pass the sick bucket!" Kristin said with a laugh. Dina's eyes widened.

    "Sorry, I didn't want to make you feel bad. But I wouldn't have said it if I didn't know you were about to meet your mate too. Trust me, he's waiting on Shiftr for you."

    "And I think he's a tiger!" Lauren sang.

    "Stop!" Kristin said, and batted her with a cushion.

   

    The four of them chatted for a while about this and that, the girls telling Kristin how much fun it was to live in the national park. Dina was talking excitedly about the hike she'd done last weekend, and the animal species she'd seen. Before long, Connor came to pick Lauren up. He'd been catching up with a few of the guys. Kristin looked at him with envy. He was just as good looking as Logan, and obviously a really nice, gentle guy, despite his huge bulk. Could she really dare to believe that there was a shifter out there who was perfect for her too? 

    Dina, Logan and Kristin stayed up for a while longer, and Logan kept topping up Kristin's glass. She was glad for it. Thinking about dating made her nervous. She'd been single now for more than a year, after her last relationship had ended in disaster when she'd caught her boyfriend cheating on her. With a tiny, skinny girl. Putting herself out there again brought her insecurities rushing to the surface.

    At last Dina started yawning.

    "I'm off to bed, guys," she said, pulling herself up from the sofa.

    "I think I'm done for the night too," Logan said. "I've got to do fire drills with the boys tomorrow morning." They hugged Kristin goodnight, and brought her a pillow and a blanket. She was asleep in seconds.

   

   

    Chapter 3

   

   

    It took Kristin a few moments to work out where she was when she woke up. She was staring up at wooden rafters, instead of her white painted ceiling. There was a sweet smell of wood and nature in the air, and all she could hear was birdsong. Her head felt fuzzy. She reached down, picked up the glass of water that Logan had thoughtfully put out for her, and drank it all in one go. As she sat up, she registered that she had a slight headache. "Too much whisky," she muttered to herself. She looked at the time on her phone and groaned. She had five hours to clear her head before basketball that afternoon. Absently, she unlocked the phone to check for new messages, and her eyes immediately zoomed in on the little orange app, with the playful, heart-shaped paw print. She tapped it. There were a ton of new messages from wolves, wanting to find out if they were a match, and right at the top were the messages from the tiger and the bad-boy wolf from last night. Her thumb hovered over the wolf. Waking up by herself, knowing that Dina was snuggled up with Logan next door and Lauren was with Connor a few cabins away made her feel lonely and empty. She clicked on the wolf's message. It was just the standard alert, with the happy face and sad face icons. It wouldn't hurt to exchange a few messages and find out whether the app was wrong about their compatibility. She tapped the happy face icon. Then she gazed at the thumbnail photo of the tiger. She couldn't see his striking face or his muscular torso very well in the tiny image. She had an overwhelming urge to click on it and look at his profile again. But if she did that, she'd leave another track. And he'd know that what she'd written last night was bullshit. Sighing, she closed the app. She'd leave the messages from the other guys for when she was more awake.

    There was no sound coming from the rest of the cabin. Dina and Logan were most likely still sleeping. Her stomach was growling: she needed breakfast. Gathering up her things, she tiptoed out of the cabin. She closed the door behind her, and looked around, disoriented. Ok, we walked towards the cabins from that direction last, night, I'm pretty sure, she thought, and began walking through a dense wood, with a narrow track lightly marked out.

    Kristin exhaled in relief as the track led her out to the road, and her car. Although it was early, the fall sun was bright, and she enjoyed the drive home, partly through forest and rolling hills. That was one of the best things about living in a small town  –  you were never too far from green spaces.


     
       
         
       
        

    As she turned into her street, her phone made a weird radar sound, and she jumped. What the hell was that? She drove to her driveway, parked, and picked it up. There was a message alert on the screen, bordered with hearts, stars and little orange paw prints.

    Proximity alert!!! A Shiftr you've been messaging is very close by!!!

    it said. "What?" she muttered, and tapped the message. The app opened up, an alert filling the screen:

    This member is 412 feet from your current location!

    And it was accompanied by a tiny photo of a shirtless guy. Reflexively, she tapped the photo.

    "No!" she exclaimed. It was the tiger. This couldn't be true. She looked around wildly, as if expecting to see him. He's really here, on the same street as me? She looked up at her apartment building, and laughed at her own dimness. He couldn't be in the building. It wasn't that tall by a long shot. And, anyway, the radar sound had gone off while she was driving. She continued to gaze in her rearview mirror. It was probably bullshit anyway. Some marketing crap the app company had created to get you all excited about the guys on there. The thought made her irritable. Ok, she'd test it out. Carefully, she did a 180-turn in her car and drove back the way she'd come. She glanced at the app as she drove. The 412 feet had become 300, then 200, 100. She lurched to a stop as the distance from 'your current location' had dropped to 50 feet. Oh my god! He's here! She looked from one side of the street to the other. So this means that he lives in one of these apartment blocks? As she gazed around in a panic, a tall, broad-shouldered man walked out of the entrance of the block on the far side of the street, and strode along the pathway in a loose, loping gait. He was holding a phone out in front of him, and he seemed to be looking at it intently. Shit! Is that him? She snatched up her phone and held down the power button until it turned off, and, at the same time, she ducked down low in her seat. Maybe it wasn't him. Maybe it was just some guy, you know, leaving his apartment and checking his messages on the way. She was now crouching down in her car's footwell. She lifted her head a little, an inch at a time, until she could just see out of the opposite window. The guy was now standing on the edge of the sidewalk. He had brown hair, strong cheekbones, a square jaw, and  –  amazingly, despite the distance  –  she could make out that his eyes were green. Her head shot down again. Relax, doofus. It's real sunny outside and the windows are tinted. There's no way he'll be able to see you. Once more, she lifted her head, and looked at him more calmly. It was the tiger; she was sure of it. His unique bone structure was emblazoned into her mind. His hair had a hint of gold, and he was wearing black jeans and a simple teal-colored sweater that clung to his muscles, outlining his amazing physique. He didn't cross the street, but continued to stand on the sidewalk, looking around in confusion. Kristin drank in the sight of him. Christ, just looking at him was arousing. Images flooded her mind: that face, looking down at her, as she lay flat on her back; his bare torso pressed against her breasts; her legs wrapped around those alluringly narrow hips, as he pushed himself  –  stop! Wow, her mind was spinning out of control.