Timberman Werebear(30)

He tried to focus on the task at hand as she tossed him the pre-measured loops of rope, but she looked good in her little forest ranger outfit. Khakis, thick-soled hiking boots, and a mud-colored tank top clung to her curves, and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out if he liked her better in this getup or that sexy miniskirt she’d been wearing at Sammy’s Bar.

His bear was practically humming under his surface with possessive happiness.

She was his.

Danielle just didn’t know how thoroughly she’d been chosen yet.





Chapter Eleven


It had been six glorious days spent exploring the woods with Denison, and Danielle couldn’t remember being any happier. She wished this job would never end. Perhaps if she did what Reynolds wanted her to well enough, he would extend her month-long contract.

She was going to ask him about it when she met up with him tomorrow.

Bo bleated from his oversize dog bed near the couch in the Airstream. The little hellion had gone to head-butting Denison whenever he got the chance, but he was sweet as pie to her. She loved him ridiculous amounts.

After tying the laces of her hiking boots, she grabbed her backpack and the stack of notebooks she’d filled with nature scribbles, drawings, and calculations, then opened the door and stepped out into the gray, early morning light. She waited for Bo to jump clumsily over the single stair after her before she closed the door.

The trailer park was immersed in chaos as the Ashe Crew readied to head up to the job site for the day. Denison had taken her up there yesterday and showed her around. She’d imagined all of the dangers of his job but hadn’t really realized just how grueling the work was until she saw the crew working to drag logs up the mountain with that heavy machinery firsthand. She tried to keep her worrying to herself, though, because it was plain and obvious that Denison loved his job. They all did.

She waved to Tagan as he shoved a lunch pail into his truck. He smiled back, but it wasn’t his usual greeting. Worry sat in his blue eyes. She only caught the glimpse of concern before he hopped into his big old black pickup truck with its heavily tinted windows.

That was weird.

“Hey, Danielle?” Brooke called from the door of the trailer she shared with Tagan. She was still in flannel pajama bottom pants and a red tank top she probably slept in. Her blond hair was mussed, and she looked pale, as if she wasn’t feeling well again.

“Yeah?”

“Come see me after you go out with Denison today, okay? I want to show you something.”

“Sure. I’ll come straight over.” Danielle frowned as Brooke closed the door behind her.

Something was up this morning. The usual rowdy greetings from the crew had been skipped, and everyone seemed on edge. Engines turned over and roared to life, and one by one, the trucks backed out of cracked pavement parking spaces and headed up the road that would lead them to the job site.

Denison stood bent at the waist as he rested his elbows on the railing of his porch. The megawatt smile he usually gave her first thing in the morning was missing. He didn’t scoop her up and fondle her ass like he hadn’t seen her for days either.

Warning bells clanged around her head, louder than the trucks that rumbled away and echoed off the mountainside.

“You need to leave Bo here today,” Denison said as she approached.

“But…why?” She looked down at her little furry buddy, who was currently chewing on the cuff of her pants. She’d grown accustomed to having him and Denison around her while she worked. It would be strange collecting and pressing plants without the rascal trying to eat them.

Denison didn’t answer, and a muscle twitched under his eye as he stared at her. He looked angry, and something more. Scared. What had she done wrong?

“Okay, I’ll go put him in his pen.”

After Bo was penned, fed, and his water dish changed for fresh, she closed the gate Tagan had constructed and shuffled toward Denison. She shouldered her backpack and hid her surprise when he crossed the street and headed to a small fence that surrounded the small trailer park. This wasn’t the way they usually went to work, and she had a grid to follow.

Denison didn’t say a word and didn’t look back to see if she was following. And with every step she took on the thin trail that led up into the mountain that overlooked the trailer park, dread weighed heavier across her shoulders. Pressing against her more and more until it was hard to breathe.

The trail wound around ancient evergreens with trunks so large it would take two grown men to wrap their arms around them. The smell of sap and ozone filled the air, and above her, dark clouds churned and warned of an oncoming storm. The wind kicked up as she climbed over a boulder, whipping her hair this way and that until she gave up and pulled her dark tresses back in a high ponytail.