Gray Back Broken Bear(8)

But she wasn’t giving up the comfortable life Caden could provide for another male raven, or God forbid, a human mate. She was giving it up for Easton, a monster grizzly with little apparent control who had tossed a knife at her as though she was less than nothing.

She was betraying her people by choosing a bear, but she couldn’t help herself now. Easton was hers—had always been hers—and coming back here to find him even more broken than when she’d left him had sealed her fate to his.

Aviana didn’t know how, but she was going to find the courage to talk to him.





Chapter Five




She couldn’t do this.

Aviana took a long pull of the fruity cocktail she’d implored the bartender to make “extra potent.” She’d overheard Jason telling Easton he would take him out for a drink, and after seeing the picture of him and Easton and whoever Willa Wonka was, Aviana was pretty sure they would grab that drink at hashtag sammysbar. The Sammy’s Bar in question was a hole in the wall establishment on the main strip in Saratoga, complete with dim lighting, sticky floors, and mismatched chairs around scuffed wooden tables. A pool table sat in the corner, and a stage sat empty up front. The coaster for her drink advertised the Beck Brothers played live music every weekend.

Jason and Easton probably wouldn’t show.

Good, because again, she really couldn’t do this. Her heart was pounding double-time, and her hands were clammy. Twice already, she’d almost dropped her drink on the table because she was shaking so badly. If she did this, talked to Easton, it would change everything. It would put her at risk of being shunned, and would put her, a lone, frail raven, in the path of the most volatile group of badass grizzly shifters in the country.

“’Scuse me, miss,” a man with thinning hair and whisky breath said from the barstool beside her. “Can’t help but notice you’re here alone and dressed like you’re ready to party.”

She swung her disgusted gaze to him. “Piss off.” She cringed and slapped her hand over her mouth. That was really rude and not her at all. The alcohol was definitely talking now. “I mean, piss off…please?”

The man snorted and turned to his friend on his other side.

That was a sign it was time to go. Aviana sucked down the rest of her drink and stood, only to gasp and fall back onto the barstool the second she saw the door open.

They were here. And not just Jason and Easton either, but the entire Gray Back Crew filtered in through the door.

Oh, great hairy balls, what was she going to do now? Panicking, she slunk with her back to the bar to the very end where she eyed a rear hallway and exit sign.

“Gotta release the kraken,” Willa Wonka announced.

“Geez, Nerd,” Matt said, shaking his head with a smirk on his face. “Just say you have to take a piss.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” the spunky red-head said through a flirty grin, pointing at her blue-eyed mate.

Oh God, oh God, oh God, the three Gray Back women are walking this way. Act natural.

Aviana slurped extra hard on the last watered down drops of her drink and wheezed when a lemon seed shot through the straw and pelted her deep in the esophagus. She couldn’t breathe! Gasping, she clutched her throat and tried to drag in oxygen.

“I got this, sugar tits,” Willa said. She grabbed Aviana around the stomach and nearly cracked her rips in a quick, one-shot Heimlich. The lemon seed shot out of her throat and onto the bar top. Aviana turned around, mortified.

Willa reached forward and grabbed her boob. “Honk, honk, you’re welcome.”

“Are you okay?” a very pregnant brunette asked, gripping Aviana by the elbow as Willa sauntered off, clutching her tie-dyed purse and humming to herself.

“Uh.” Besides the fact that she’d just been felt up by a werebear? “Yes. Thank you.”

“Good,” the woman said kindly. As she walked off behind the other two, Aviana tried to place her face from pictures on Jason’s social media. Gia, human mate of Creed, she remembered.

She swung her gaze to the bar on her other side where the rest of the crew were sidling up and ordering drinks. From here, she could see Easton lean forward, a slight frown marring his striking features. When he turned his head, his gaze grazed over her.

Gasping, she froze. She couldn’t do this—nope, no way.

Melting to the floor, she crawled around the corner of the bar so her movement wouldn’t catch Easton’s attention as she made her escape.

“Lose a contact?” Willa asked from the bathroom door she was holding open for the others.

“Oh!” Aviana stood and pressed her back against the wall, hopeful that Easton wouldn’t hear Willa talking to her and come to see what was going on. Spread out like a starfish, she closed her eyes and sidled down the hallway wall.