Grayslake: Never Kiss a Wolf (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Eliza Gayle Page B

them eventually.
    And of course it would be nearly impossible to outrun two bear shifters who had her in their sight. The only reason she got away the first time was due to the element of surprise and the fact she slipped out in the middle of the night. It gave her hours and plenty of time to hop a train to anywhere. She knew a thing or two about covering her tracks, but there were no guarantees in life and apparently she missed something.
    With Edward looking at her with an obvious plea for help, she couldn't say no. Freedom was important for sure, but not at the expense of those she cared for. She could not, would not, put them in any more danger.
    With that in mind, she straightened to her full height of five feet eleven, sucked in her flabby stomach and marched over to the meals ready to serve.
    Fine.
    If it had to go down this way then the least she could do was face it with some dignity.

2
    G reer took a seat at one of the empty booths and slid sideways so the wall was at his back. Either from habit or for security reasons, he never let anyone have a chance to sneak up on him from behind. After a fruitless search thus far, he and Calder had decided on a food run. Which led them to the only diner in town.
    Not that he had a problem with small towns. His own was even smaller and had its fair share of charm if you looked past the fact most of the residents were forced into the area after being exiled from their clans. His people had strict rules to live by and as so far as he'd seen in Grayslake, these bears were no different. The local sheriff, also the Itan of the bears, had given them free reign for twelve hours at which time if they wanted to stay longer they'd have to come back and discuss it with him.
    He glanced down at his watch. They were going on six hours and had nothing to show for it.
    "I hope they have cake here. It's way past time for my afternoon snack."
    Greer looked up at Calder and shook his head. "Your obsession with sweets is crazy, my friend. I'm more interested in what kind of burger I can get. A real man needs protein to keep his day going."
    A deep rumble rolled from Calder. "I'm going to assume you didn't just imply that a mangy wolf is more of a real man than a bear."
    Greer smiled at his strange friend. It had taken some time to get used to him, but now he was not only part of the team, he was part of the family. "Assume away."
    "You do remember we're in bear country right? Probably half the people in here are shifters."
    He glanced over Calder's shoulder and surveyed the crowd. More than a few gave them furtive glances, but for the most part they appeared uninterested. Word had probably spread about them and why they were here. Since they weren't looking for a bear they likely didn't care. Not that any of that mattered.
    They'd be gone soon enough. He looked at the clock on the wall, ticking away the minutes. In about eight hours to be exact. Not a lot of time, but enough.
    A woman walking out of the swinging kitchen door snagged Greer's attention as he spoke. "Hard to forget exactly where we are. The scent of bear is overpowering my senses. But so far I haven't picked up even a hint of our missing cougar."
    "Me either..."
    Calder kept talking but Greer's attention zeroed in on the woman dashing madly around the modest room handing out plates. In fact his wolf perked up too and he had no idea why. He forced himself to look past the too bright and mismatched clothing to the woman underneath. Although it wasn't easy since the hot pink pants she wore were starting to give him a headache.
    She was tall, probably not more than a few inches shorter than him. Long legs, thicker thighs and curvy hips that probably narrowed to a smaller waist. Although it was difficult to tell in the equally bright, and baggy orange sweater. To top off the strange ensemble, she wore electric blue converse sneakers on her feet that had seen much better days.
    Were bears color blind? He'd never noticed Calder have an