Bearllionaire(43)
Jealousy dug deep into his chest and he fought the transformation back into a man. Nothing good could come of wandering naked in the woods right now. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, which was very fast, back to the cabin and hurriedly transformed and changed into his clothes when he got inside the living room. Then he put on boots, grabbed his phone, and ran to the lodge.
He unlocked the phone as he ran, dialing the first number that came to mind.
“Ryder?” Riley’s voice was groggy, slurred. “What’s up, man? It’s late.”
“I need a guy on surveillance,” he snapped, hoping his brother would immediately catch the seriousness of his tone.
“Whoa, okay. Why?”
“I need one of your bodyguards. Can you spare him?”
“Sure, what happened? You okay? Where are you? I can come out.”
“I’m headed to the lodge. Almost there.”
“I’ll see you in a minute.”
Ryder reached the side door to the huge lodge at the same time Riley opened it for him. His younger brother drew him into a bear hug and held on tight, then released him. Ryder bristled at the contact. Not all bears liked hugs.
“Where’s Mike?” he snapped.
“He’s getting dressed. I don’t have them on duty when I’m just at the bar.”
“Why did you bring them, then?”
Riley shrugged. “You never know.”
Ryder put a hand to his face and sighed. “Fine. I’ll write down the address. I need someone outside. Watching for bears, in particular.” Since Mike was a highly trained wolf shifter, Ryder knew he could handle it.
Riley raised an eyebrow, finally grasping the seriousness of the situation. “Bears? Or bear shifters?”
“I think you know,” Ryder said.
“Shit,” Riley said. “Janna?”
Ryder nodded. “I had to leave her to transform. A bear attacked the window. She thought…”
“She thought you ran away!” Riley’s eyes widened and he barked out a laugh. “That’s hilarious.” At Ryder’s scowl, he frowned and shook his head. “I mean, it would be if it hadn’t blown everything to shit, right?”
Ryder just glared.
“All right, Mike’ll be on the job. How long do you want him?”
“No more than a couple days. I’m giving her space so she can cool down, and then I’ll talk to her.”
Riley sighed and put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. Ryder glared at it, and he removed it. “Look, you know women don’t actually want that, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean they hate when you give them space. When they say they need space, they usually want you to chase them. Sometimes they’ll get mad if you don’t.”
Ryder scoffed. “That’s absurd. Why would I go against what she wants?”
“Because she’s wrong and you know it. And it hurts her to be thinking the wrong thing, and you can correct it for her.”
“She wouldn’t talk to me. Hell, I don’t blame her. I don’t know what I would have done differently. I should have explained or something. I should have taken a second to tell her. Anything but just run out of the house and have her see me walk in a few minutes later, totally naked.”
“That does look weird, bro. All the more reason to track her down and make her see the truth.”
Ryder raised an eyebrow. “See, but that’s the thing with dating humans. I can’t just show up and intimidate her with my bear. It’d scare her.”
“More than seeing you run away from a fight to play naked in the woods? Nah, I don’t think so.”
When had his brother gotten so wise about women? Practice made perfect maybe, he thought skeptically. But he couldn’t deny Riley might be right about Janna. “What do I do?”
“Now that I don’t know. I’ll send Mike down there, but I’d get your ass down there as soon as possible.”
“Tonight?” he asked.
Riley shrugged. “I don’t know. Might be smart to let her get some sleep. How did she get back down?”
“Her ex,” Ryder said, blurting it out through a lump in his throat.
“Damn!” Riley exclaimed. “She threw you aside fast. You sure you want this one?”
Ryder’s expression darkened. “I only want this one. I’m going to fix this.”
“Sure, bro,” Riley said, shaking his head. “But how, I don’t know.”
“I’m an alpha,” Ryder said. “I’ll figure it out.”
“Sure.” Riley placed the call to Mike and then slipped his phone back in his pocket. “But maybe you’ll want to get down there and stay somewhere in town. So you’re close in case she needs you. And so you can see if the ex takes her home or to his place.”