Fealty Of The Bear by T.S. Joyce

answers to keep her distanced, the confounding man. After the night they’d shared together, what was the point?
    “Can you fix it?” Boldness wasn’t her style, but she’d been affected when she’d thought he left without saying goodbye this morning. And honestly, she could use his help if he was able to fix her jeep for cheaper than the body shop in town could do. “I can pay you.”
    Logan stared off into the woods with a troubled look to his dark eyes. “I shouldn’t stay here, Muriel. I can’t be seen with you.”
    His admission ripped through her middle, and she swallowed hard before she found the words to respond. So he could fuck her, but being seen with her was out of the question? “Forget it then. Your bike is in the woods near where you crashed yesterday. I can take you to it, but I have an errand to run across town first.”
    “You smell angry, or…” He flared his nostrils. “Something.”
    She sidled around him and lowered the hood on her jeep. Without another word, she slid behind the wheel and started it up. To her surprise, Logan sat in the passenger’s seat and clenched the grab handle. He hadn’t taken his eyes from her face, and the traitorous creeping heat burned her cheeks under his scrutiny.
    “I said something to upset you.”
    “I have to visit a friend who was injured. You’re welcome to come along, but you’ll have to stay out of the way. And stop putting out your dominant bear shit. There will be an alpha there with an injured mate. You’ll set him off. And trust me,” she muttered as she pulled away from the house, “you don’t want to see this one pissed.”
    “Bronson Cress?”
    She slid a suspicious glance to Logan and gripped the wheel harder. “How did you know?”
    “He’s the only other alpha around besides Marsden.”
    Right about then, she turned onto the main gravel road and pulled the jeep around her mailbox that read, Muriel Marsden , in neat painted letters.
    Logan’s jaw dropped and his dark eyebrows lowered as he arched his gaze to her. “You’re the daughter of Steven Marsden, aren’t you?”
    She ignored him and hit second gear.
    “I must seem like a real prick to you, don’t I?” he asked. “You let me go off about what an asshole your dad was yesterday. Why didn’t you say anything?”
    Stifling a smile, she said, “Because I agreed with you.”
    Joseph was a small town in the shadow of the Hells Canyon Mountains, and as she weaved through the streets, the townspeople were taking advantage of the fair day. Fall was transitioning to winter, but the weather was unseasonably warm, and the sun, unhindered by clouds, warmed the streets of Joseph. People bustled like busy ants near the general store, and Mrs. Janet at the realtor office was sitting outside her building, rocking in an old chair and warming her hands with a hot cup of Joe.
    Cracked paved roads, tally mark light poles lining East First Street, and parked antique cars on every corner gave the town a homey feel. Muriel loved it. Everyone seemed to know their place here. Her bear required quiet, and this town was about as quiet as it got—if she ignored the rumble of unrest coming to a slow boil in Bron’s clan. Right about now, she was feeling pretty happy with her decision to stay rogue.
    Logan watched passersby with a kind of rapt curiosity. Twice he waved to people who met his eyes, but they seemed eager to look at anything but him.
    She got it. The man practically smelled like dominance to her, but the feeling would be different for humans. He would seem dangerous without them being able to figure out why. Meeting his gaze would feel like a risk. Something about his disappointed glance to the front window as he seemed determined not to wave to anyone else struck her.
    No one had a problem with her in town. She was a shifter, sure, but her bear was pretty low on the dominance totem pole. If humans had any inkling that she was different, they’d never shown it in front of her. It