Primal – Chapter 1
RILEY
Huh.
I’d thought kissing Tyler McIntire would elicit something more than… meh.
I pulled back from the kiss and rubbed my lips, looking away toward the river we sat near. What I thought would be a romantic picnic in the wild just turned…
AWK-ward.
And we were a mile into the canyon. No quick escape was possible.
The kiss?
Um.
Wrong.
So wrong. I had to say something before he tried again.
“Was it just me, or did that feel…” God, how did I say this?
“Weird,” Tyler supplied, giving me a smile. A chagrined one. A… what was the word for a smile that was fake and just as awkward as the kiss we just shared?
I’d always had the hots for Tyler–he’d had those wide shoulders and that deep, commanding voice since tenth grade. He always seemed… more than the other guys in our class. By the time we graduated, he was the heartthrob of the entire county. But he was off-limits because throughout high school, he’d dated Lila, one of my best friends.
I’d had to wait my turn.
Now they’re broken up. Amicably–no big heartbreak on either side. She’d gone to college in Utah, and he’d stayed in Cooper Valley to work at Wolf Ranch. I even asked Lila if she’d mind if I dated him, and she’d said no.
So when I bumped into Tyler at the grocery store last week, I flirted and asked if he wanted to hang out. He’d suggested a hike–he’d always been an outdoorsy guy. Today, he took me down into the canyon to a path along the riverside. When he pulled out a picnic blanket from his backpack, my heart fluttered. I love romance.
But then… the kiss. So bad.
Relief trickled along the sides of my neck. At least we were on the same page. “Yeah!”
Tyler picked up a stone and sent it skipping into the river like a pro. He really was the perfect guy–big, strong, good at everything he did, and chivalrous–a true cowboy. The old-fashioned kind that Cooper Valley bred.
“Um, maybe it’s because I feel guilty.” I groped for some reason why kissing Tyler–after all this time and imagining–wouldn’t be hot as hell. “I crushed on you for so many years, but you were with Lila. Maybe I programmed my brain to think of you as a brother or something.”
Tyler laughed and turned his gaze on me, his blue eyes crinkling with amusement. “You crushed on me, huh?”
I poked him with my elbow. “Don’t let it go to your head, big guy. Every girl in school crushed on you!”
His smile grew wider. God, he was really good looking. But all attraction was gone now. “Yeah?”
“Stop fishing for–”
He tilted his head back and… sniffed, which distracted me from finishing my sentence.
Because it looked as if he’d caught a scent of cookies and wanted to follow it.
“Oh, shit.” Tyler jumped to his feet to stand in front of me.
It took a second to process what was in front of us.
A mountain lion, which looked like a big, very scary cat. The domestic cats I met had all been snooty assholes, but this very-not-domestic one looked downright evil. Like he was going to toy with us, then rip us to shreds. Oh yeah, then eat us. Growing up in Montana, I heard about the dangers of a chance encounter with a mountain lion, even a bear, on a trail. That they stalked you when you didn’t know it, they were that stealthy. Holy shit, they were right. I never knew it had been nearby. And now it was right in front of us.
He lifted his arms in the air like you’re supposed to do to make yourself appear taller. “Whoa,” he shouted. Like he was addressing an errant bull on the ranch where he worked, not a supersized feral cat.
I scrambled to my feet, but he threw out an arm to keep me behind him.
“Easy, cat.”
The mountain lion did not take it easy, though. It took a silent step closer, crouching lower like it was getting ready to pounce.
“Tyler, um, mountain lion. That’s a mountain lion!”
Like he didn’t know, but my panic was making me act like an idiot. An alive one. I didn’t want to be a dead one.
“Fuck. Stay behind me. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He raised his arms and waved them up and down again as if he were flagging down a semi-truck.
I’d be swooning if it weren’t for the brotherly kiss. What was wrong with me? This magnificent man should totally turn me on.
Yes, still an idiot. I was thinking about being with Tyler at a time like this. Maybe my life was flashing before my eyes.
I stayed behind him, inanely clutching the back of his shirt in my fist as if he might get away from me if I didn’t hang on for dear life.
The big-ass cat charged.
Tyler braced, bending his knees like a defensive lineman.
I screamed. There was no way Tyler could survive a fight with a mountain lion!
Tyler launched into the air, kicking the cat in the chest at the same time it slashed him with its great claws.
“Tyler!”
The force of his attack drove the cat back, but it was even madder now, and it had badly injured Tyler. He grabbed his bleeding shoulder as he rushed to put his body between mine and the mountain lion once more.
Dropping to my knees, I yanked open his backpack, searching for a weapon of any kind. “Please have bear spray,” I muttered as I tossed our lunch out of the pack onto the ground. Did that stop mountain lions too?
The cat attacked again. Tyler fought, punching it in the throat and head as it toppled him to the ground.
Its mouth opened, yellow canines poised to end Tyler’s life.
With shaking hands–hell, my entire body was shaking–I grabbed the picnic blanket from the ground–the only weapon I could find–and ran toward them.
Tyler wrestled with the wildcat, struggling to keep those enormous jaws away from his throat with all his strength as he bucked beneath it, trying to throw it off his body.
I threw the picnic blanket over the animal’s head, hoping to disorient it enough for Tyler to escape from underneath.
What happened next didn’t make sense.
A ferocious snarl sounded–not from the cat, but… from Tyler?
Jesus, fuck! I screamed and jumped back, tripping over a root and falling on my butt.
I didn’t know where Tyler had gone, but an enormous wolf had taken his place and had its ferocious jaws around the cat’s throat. A horrible snap and crunch of bone finished its life. The animal collapsed to the ground, blood spurting from the neck, its head hanging awkwardly.
I let out a warbled exhale–more like a moan–and crab-walked backward.
The giant wolf wheeled its enormous head to look at me. A wolf. First, a mountain lion, and now a wolf?
Blood dripped from its jaws and–what the hell? It was wearing the tattered remains of Tyler’s clothing!
Despite the heat of the summer day, ice washed over me. My teeth chattered. I threw my hands out to ward off an attack, scrambling away.
“T-Tyler?”
I blinked, and the wolf was gone, replaced by a very buff, very naked Tyler. Blood dripped from his chin and smeared across his chest. His arm had open gashes from the cat’s claws. I was in shock. I was having a traumatic response. Seeing things.
He held his hands up, mimicking my gesture. “Riley, it’s okay,” he said in his deep rumble. The one that used to turn me on. Now, I was freaking the fuck out. “Don’t run. I won’t hurt you, I promise.”
For one interminable moment, I remained frozen, unable to move. Then the impulse from my brain reached my feet.
I jumped to my feet and ran as if being chased. After seeing a mountain lion and a wolf, maybe I was.