Page 21 of Loan Wolf (Green Valley Shifters: Generations #1)

21

GABE

G abe gave Clara another beer but didn’t take another himself. He had a shifter’s tolerance to alcohol, but he could hear the slur in her words as she succumbed to it much faster than he expected her to.

One of them ought to stay clear-headed.

As clear-headed as it was possible to be in her dazzling, addictive presence.

“Ready to go swimming?” he asked, hoping to catch her before she was drunk enough to drown. Maybe he shouldn’t have offered that third beer. She drank half of it before putting the rest with exaggerated care on the hood of the truck.

We wouldn’t let her drown , his wolf sniffed.

“I think there’s something I’d rather do than swimming,” Clara said suggestively, struggling with the buttons of her shirt. “Oh, I never paid you for the rest of the week!”

Was that what he was? A hire?

Gabe knew he was on dangerous ground. Dangerous for his heart. “You’re drunk, Clara.”

“I know!” she said expansively. “I came here to do that! I never get drunk! I never stay out late or eat fatty food! I never do anything wrong! I’m pretty and discreet !” She was still trying to unbutton her shirt and Gabe was pretty sure she was going to take a button off before she figured out how they worked.

“Clara—”

She gave up on her own shirt and tried to get Gabe out of his. “Bike blankets,” she said, peeling it up. “In the back!”

“Clara!”

“I’m saying yes,” she said, looking up at him earnestly.

“You’re drunk,” he reminded her. “That doesn’t count.”

“I said yes before ,” she whined.

Gabe kissed her on the forehead with all of his resolve. “Still doesn’t count,” he said. “C’mon. I’m taking you back to your hotel.” He didn’t need more regrets on his tally.

“Noooooo,” Clara begged. “I want to go skinny dipping and spray paint the library . Oh, maybe I could take up smoking .”

“Lots of things seem like good ideas after three bad beers,” Gabe pointed out dryly. “I’ve got some water and you should drink some.”

He steered her to the truck and found a fresh water bottle in the seat. He popped the lid for her and made sure she drank some. He rummaged in the console but couldn’t find an energy bar to feed her. It was hard to stay focused when she was still trying to get him undressed and rubbing herself against him.

She wants to play, his wolf said sagely.

At some point, it stops being a game , Gabe said firmly. He felt stupid for forgetting that she wasn’t a shifter. She was shifter strong and shifter graceful. She kept up with him effortlessly when they biked together.

But if she’d been a shifter, she would already know that he was her mate, and how much would that complicate her huge life decisions? He couldn’t tell her, and sway her conclusions. He had to let her do what was best for her. Even if that wasn’t best for them.

He made her drink the rest of the water and walk partway up the trail with him.

“This is the Eagle Ridge trail,” he said, pointing out the signpost.

“I’m not supposed to go up here without a guide,” Clara giggled. “Will you be my guide?”

“It’s fine on foot and it doesn’t get tricky for a little while anyway. The other end comes out by the Travers farm. They’re thinking about building a BigMart there.”

Gabe could see relatively well in the dark and he walked her about a mile down the trail, holding her hand to keep her from careening into the brush. Her steps got slower but steadier as they went. “The worst of the hairpins are directly above us,” he said, right before they turned around, pointing up the bluff. “More than one young punk has careened right off them. There are some bushes to break the landing, but I don’t recommend it as a rule.”

“You were a young punk, weren’t you,” Clara said fondly, reaching up to ruffle his hair.

“And you do ballet,” Gabe said dryly.

“Sk8ter Boi!” Clara said triumphantly. It didn’t surprise Gabe that she knew Avril Lavigne. There was a lot of Taylor Swift crossover.

Clara frowned then. “But they didn’t end up together,” she said sadly.

“It’s just a song,” Gabe reminded her.

“But it’s a sad song,” Clara wailed. “My feet are far away.”

“Let’s get you home,” Gabe suggested, tucking her arm into his elbow. “You need some food.”

“I have part of a burger in my fridge,” Clara said. “A real burger. With barbeque sauce.”

She had mostly sobered up by the time that they got back to the truck, and Gabe gave her a breath mint before driving her back to the hotel.

“Are you going to walk me to my door?” she suggested with a sly smile that dropped into disappointment. “Oh, my stepmom will be there.”

“I’m going to leave you here and hope you can make it up the stairs,” Gabe said.

He was reassured by the way she got out of the truck without falling or staggering, and could manage a basically straight line for the back door. She paused and waved when she managed to unlock it, but Gabe waited until the door was closed behind her, and then waited longer.

Should he make sure that Clara made it all the way up? The worst of her drunk had worn off, but she still wasn’t entirely herself.

Gabe had almost convinced himself to go up and make sure she wasn’t sleeping in the hotel hallway when a pounding on the driver’s door nearly made him pee himself in surprise.

He rolled down the window to frown at Aaron. “What do you want?”

Aaron looked fit to fight, his hands balled in fists at his side. “What do you want?” he countered.

Gabe could guess why Aaron was here. Lurking around at the back of Clara’s hotel, it was clear that he’d been waiting for her to come home.

“I was just driving Clara home from Eagle Lake,” Gabe said lazily. It was well known in the town as a place for exactly what they’d gone there to do, even if they hadn’t.

“Leave Clara alone,” Aaron snarled. “She’s too good for you.”

Gabe gave a bark of laughter. As if he didn’t already know that. “Well, she’s slumming it, and I’m enjoying it, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay out of our business.”

Aaron’s eyes all but popped out of his head and Gabe wondered if they really were going to end up brawling behind the hotel. He didn’t really want to fight Clara’s former classmate, but Aaron was bristling like he might not give Gabe a choice.

“What have you got to offer her?” Aaron demanded. “A bike shop? Are you going to knock her up and trap her in this dump just to make a point?”

“Green Valley is not a dump,” Gabe said in outrage, and he couldn’t quite help laughing at himself. It would figure that he’d end up defending the honor of the little town he frequently disparaged, and not the honor of his mate. But whatever else Green Valley was, it was a thriving community of people who cared about each other, even the weirdo misfit bad boy who got arrested when he was fifteen for vandalizing the library.

“It’s not funny,” Aaron said uncertainly.

“It’s hilarious ,” Gabe said, leaning out the window. Though Aaron was a few years behind him, he’d caught up in height, and Gabe was glad to have the advantage of higher ground from the truck. “You’re here lurking around the back of Clara’s hotel and you somehow think you have the moral high ground over someone that she actually feels safe around. Maybe you should ask yourself why she’s not asking you to go to Eagle Lake, even though you’re the one from Madison with the pretentious muscle car and the prepubescent mustache.”

Aaron put a hand to his facial hair, surprised and embarrassed. He sputtered for a moment, then shouted, “You’d better leave her alone! You’re nothing but trouble!”

Gabe put the truck in reverse and didn’t wait for Aaron to get away before he backed it out of the spot. “See you later, Aaron,” he said with a jaunty wave.

But Aaron’s words had struck deep, and Gabe wondered if there wasn’t a little too much truth in them.