Mate Fur Hire (Bears Fur Hire 3) (7 page)

“Yes, Boy-Boy.”

“You’ve done terrifying things to me.”

The smile slipped from her face. “What do you mean?”

“In a day, you’ve made me question everything and want things I’ve never hoped for before.”

“Like what?”

“Like you. Like a family and a better life. There are these moments when I feel panicked, like I’m changing too fast. The world feels like its spinning, and I’m just holding on.”

“Hold onto me then.”

The corner of his lips turned up. “Strong mate. You’ve been through so much, and you’re still steady in the hurricane. Clayton never had a shot at breaking you.”

“He never had a shot at breaking you, either. By the way, I totally bit you.”

He chuckled deep in his throat and rolled over on his side, taking her with him. “I know. You’re a bitey little thing.”

“You better hope it scars, or you can bet your sexy butt my animal will do it again.” She clacked her teeth and made a chomping noise.

“I like your llama muumuu.”

She tried to hold a severe look but failed. “Nightgown. I also have one with penguins in winter hats, so prepare thyself for mega-boners tomorrow night.”

Tobias kissed her forehead and pulled her tighter against his chest. “I can’t wait. Sleep now, Vera. I’ll keep you safe.”

Safe.

She let off a long exhalation, releasing the rest of the tension she hadn’t realized she was carrying. Tobias was willing to go head-to-head with Clayton—his own father—for her. She didn’t know how she’d lucked into a pairing with a man like him, but she wasn’t one to question gifts like this.

Perhaps this was the balance being restored to her life.

Perhaps Tobias was her sunshine after years of rain.

And for the first time in a long time, she drifted off to sleep, completely unafraid.

The woods were freedom. Freedom from pain and human emotion. Free from the misfits who could never run as fast as her. The woods were home for a monster like her.

Trees blurring by, her nails digging into the rich black earth with every stride, mouth open in a toothy smile, the wind whipping through her thick coat. Happy. Yes, that was the word for the woods. They were synonymous with happy. This was the best part of the animal. Perhaps it was the only good part. The smells, the tastes, chasing, running, circling, claiming her territory because Perl was hers.

Harlan thought he was king, but he was wrong.

She was.

Riiiiiiiing.

Vera skidded to a stop, the pads of her paws sliding against the soft earth. She turned and narrowed her eyes at the wilderness behind her. The sun was too bright, saturating everything in eye-scorching yellow light. The noise had been an abomination in her woods. A grating human sound that didn’t belong.

Riiiiiiiing.

Vera gasped and sat up in bed, her head spinning. For a moment, she didn’t know which body she wore, human or animal. The dream had seemed so real, and she could feel
her
now—the animal that the medicine had tucked away for so long.

Chest heaving, she blinked hard as the phone rang again.

Yanking it off its cradle by the bed, she answered in a rush. “Hello?”

“Good morning. You requested a wake-up call.”

“I-I did?”

“Mr. Silver did, ma’am.”

“Oh okay, thank you.”

Confused, she hung up and turned to Tobias’s side of the bed. “Did you…” She frowned at Tobias’s empty side of the mattress. “Tobias?”

Even if the silence hadn’t told her he wasn’t here, her instincts would have. She could sense a lot more now than she could yesterday.

She looked around the room for clues to where he was. When her attention landed on the small table near the mini-fridge, she smiled. In a glass mason jar was a bouquet of bright orange Gerber daisies. And beside it was a folded piece of paper. Vera bolted out of bed, bare boobs bouncing as she skidded to a stop in front of the flowers. With rushing fingers, she unfolded the letter. A wad of cash fell out. Stunned, she read the scrawled handwriting.

Thistle,

I have an errand to run today. I’ll be back by tonight. I imagine you won’t do well sitting around waiting on a man, though, so I did some research and made a couple of appointments for you. I hope you don’t mind.

Yours,

McBeefcake

p.s. your bite will definitely scar.

There was an itinerary below that.

11:00 – Haircut at Vonda’s Hair right down the street. Take a left on Main.

1:00 – Nails at Next Door Nails. It’s actually next door to Vonda’s. Ha.

I asked the front desk about places to go clothes shopping for women, and they said Beek’s Boutique and the Treasure Chest, but when I walked past TC, that store looked like all lacy thongs and shit. Don’t feel pressure to buy panties. I like you just fine without. I have a feeling you’ll balk at spending my money and not the stash you have hidden in your coffee can, but this is my gift. Girly shit, just like you like, as a thank you for last night. And yesterday. And the rest of our lives. So don’t balk, just go have fun.

You deserve it.

A tear splatted onto the letter, smearing the ink on one of the words. She gasped and blotted it dry because she would keep this letter for always. Wiping her damp lashes, she leaned forward and sniffed the daisies. Orange was her new favorite color.

With a happy squeak, she jumped, spun mid-air, and landed on the unmade bed. She kicked her legs as she clutched the letter to her chest. He liked her. He really liked her. No man would go to this kind of trouble to give a woman an amazing day if he didn’t care deeply for her. And this wasn’t just their animals choosing each other either. Tobias the man was showering her with sweet gifts.

The clock on the bedside table read 10:00, so she rushed to shower and ready for a day of pampering. Girly shit, ha! Tobias probably didn’t understand her need to feel like a human woman again after those hard, rugged years surrounded by crazy men on Perl, but he’d listened—really listened—and then went to the trouble of planning a day for her. She could imagine his face stricken with mortification when he made the appointments and asked the front desk about clothing shops. Tobias was a big, tough, growly, bear-shifter, enforcer, mountain man, but he had no problem accepting her feminine side. He encouraged it, even.

She liked that he hadn’t tried to change her. He’d even called her a strong mate. She didn’t feel like that very often. Most of the time, she felt like a plastic bag in the wind—helpless. But Tobias must have seen a vein of inner strength she hadn’t given enough credit to.

Flowers! She’d never gotten flowers from a man before. Not even Jonathan-the-Pretender. She was glad no one had gifted them before because Tobias’s flowers were special now. For the rest of her life, Gerber daisies would hold a special meaning. She would dry them before they wilted and keep them forever.

Tobias had left a bag of sugary bear-claw pastries on the table, so she scarfed down two of them and then walked down the street to her first appointment, hair still wet and limp down her back.

She got her hair cut just below her shoulder blades and styled with soft curls. At her next appointment, she asked her nail technician to paint her fingernails and toenails a bright red to match her penguin nightgown. Vera smiled as she imagined Tobias’s grin when she showed him tonight. It wasn’t until mid-way through her nail appointment that she began to feel sick. Or not sick exactly, but unsettled, as if something was clawing at her insides. Waves of nausea took her as everything began to sound louder. Her head hurt with the noise of the nail salon, and after she’d paid and stepped outside, the sun blinded her, making her squint until her eyes watered. But despite a few concerned looks tossed her way from the passing strangers as she stumbled down the sidewalk, within a few minutes, she was back to her normal self again. Weird.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the last remaining ache behind her eyes, Vera made her way to Beek’s Boutique for a shopping spree. She had so much fun picking out clothes that fit her and that she thought Tobias would like. A harsh life on Perl Island had demolished her figure, making her waist too thin for her liking, but she had big plans on getting all of her curves back. She ate a crepe from a roadside vendor and then a full lunch at the taco stand before she meandered over to the Treasure Chest, which was, in fact, a lingerie store. It was surprising that a town so small could support one of these, but she was happy it was here because her undie drawer wasn’t flattering. Not if she intended to seduce Tobias on the reg. Not that he would be hard to seduce. The man had made love to her even though she’d worn llama pajamas, but still. She couldn’t wait to see his reaction when she showed him her new negligée.

While she waited in line to pay, the headache and nausea came back even worse, doubling her over. A store attendant asked if she was okay.

“I’m fine,” she gasped, holding her head like it would keep her brain from exploding. “Just a headache.” Or perhaps a migraine? She’d never had one before, but that sounded right.

A high pitched whining sound rattled her eardrums, and Vera clapped her hands over her ears, dropping her wares. She was horrified to look up and see it was the cashier’s voice causing that awful noise. She paid as fast as she could, eyes watering at the pain, then took her bags and made her way back to the hotel.

By the time she closed the door and fell into bed, she was reeling, barely able to move into the fetal position. A long growl rattled from her throat. She should call Tobias. He was good and strong and level-headed. He would know what to do to stop the pain. But she didn’t have his number, and really, she didn’t even know if he would hear a phone in the cockpit of his plane. He must be on a delivery that had been scheduled before she’d shown up. The clock read a blurry 4:00.

She was dying. No one could endure pain this bad and survive. Tobias would find her curled up on the bed, cold and dead, and there was tragedy in that. She’d only just gotten him, and she was going to leave him like this?

She yelped in pain as her neck snapped back. A long snarl vibrated through her throat, and suddenly, it all made sense. She wasn’t dying. She was Changing.
No, no, no, not now!
She was alone and in the city. In a hotel room. She needed to do this in the woods, away from people, but it was much too late for that.

The echoing sound of her bones breaking was like gunfire against her oversensitive ears as a keening wail left her lips.

Tobias wouldn’t like her after this. He couldn’t.

She’d tried to warn him, but he hadn’t listened.

Vera’s animal was Monster.

Tobias’s hands were smeared with dried blood. He would have to wash them thoroughly before he hugged Vera. She would smell Jonathan on him. Her senses would be even stronger than his because of the animal she housed inside of her, and he wanted to explain before she jumped to conclusions based on the amount of blood.

He pushed open the door to room 1010 and froze immediately as the smell of fur hit his nose. Shit.

In the doorway, he rushed to close the door and squinted in the darkness as his eyes adjusted. A low growl sounded from the corner, long and low and filled with fury. He was definitely getting bit tonight. Again.

Tobias flipped on the light switch and laid eyes on his mate’s animal for the first time.

Damn, she was beautiful. Rich red fur with black tips and a cream-colored belly. Long legs and eyes that were an impossibly bright gold. Her lips were pulled back over a row of sharp teeth. His pretty fox. Too bad she didn’t recognize him. She charged so fast he could barely get his arm over his throat before she lunged. Her teeth latched around his forearm, and she held, snarling and shaking her head until her sharp teeth hit bone.

Tobias pulled the thick scruff of her neck and yanked her off. She was bigger than the wild foxes by twice the size and heavier than he’d imagined her. And she housed about thirty times the fury he’d expected. He held her at an arm’s length away. Her teeth were exposed as she snarled her death chant, eyes full of hate. This was what Clayton had seen. This is what his father had deemed a failure.

Tobias hated him all over again.

Of course her animal turned out like this. She was born from violence.

“Vera,” he murmured.

Her snarling grew louder, so he let off a growl of his own, filling the room with it. The noise died in her throat, but she still bore her teeth, her eyes still full of anger.

“It’s me. I’m yours, and you’re mine, and biting won’t help anything. It’ll only hurt me. You’ll
hurt
me, Vera.”

Her lips slid over her teeth in an uncertain look before she snarled again.

Tobias set her down, but she latched her jaws around his ankle immediately. With a sigh, he pulled her off, only to have her attack again. And again. This went on for an hour before she tired herself out and lay panting in the corner, eyes narrowed to suspicious slits.

Clayton had been right. She wasn’t safe in public. Yet. Vera was a fox shifter, one of the few animals that could actually Turn a human with her bite, and his mate was a ferocious little brawler who didn’t give a shit about dominance. Oh, she sensed what he was, but attacked anyway. Her instinct for self-preservation had been broken from the start by the way Jonathan had Turned and treated her.

No, she couldn’t be around humans until she learned to control it. And he hoped to God she would be able to come to some sort of compromise with her animal, but it wouldn’t happen here. Not in this hotel room where she felt caged.

She’d destroyed the room. New clothes lay in tatters across the floor, and she’d shredded the bedding and mattress until stuffing covered everything like snow. She’d left one pillow intact, but nothing else had survived. She’d even gnawed off the legs of the table and its chairs.

With a sigh, Tobias sat on the edge of the destroyed bed and put his face in his hands. How could he fix all the damage that had been done to her? Vera the woman was intelligent and intuitive. She compromised and reasoned. Her fox was wild and, from the way she was acting, about as mad as Link.

Link.

Tobias lifted his gaze to the panting fox as an idea began to take shape. He couldn’t do this alone. Not here. He needed a safe place to go with her. A place where she could roam and get ahold of herself and settle down. The only problem was, she couldn’t travel to Galena the way she was. Not feral and in such a destructive mood. She couldn’t destroy his plane. That was their income and the way he would be able to provide for her.

Gritting his teeth, Tobias packed up everything that was salvageable and snatched the pillow case off the remaining pillow. As soon as he approached her with it, her eyes went wide, and she backed as far into the corner as she could.

Bewildered, he looked down at the case in his hands, and it dawned on him. Jonathan had shoved her in a sack.

“Fuck,” he gritted out, throwing the case onto the bed.

He sat as near to her as she allowed and relaxed against the wall. This couldn’t be rushed, not if he wanted this to be easy on Vera.

She attacked again but had lost her fury. It was done out of fear this time, and she ducked back to the corner before she pierced his skin with her teeth. She did the same three more times, each one shorter than the last before she slunk back to the wall.

Tobias scooted closer. “I don’t know if you can understand me, but the man who did this to you won’t ever hurt you again. I found him.”

Vera’s head snapped up, ears erect, then down, then erect again. Recognition flashed across her pretty gold eyes. Ah, there she was.

“I wrote in the letter that I had an errand to run, and Jonathan Greene was that errand.”

Vera slunk closer, then lowered to her belly five feet away from him.

Tobias swallowed hard. “I counted the scars on your arms last night. Seventeen. Seventeen bites, and my bear demanded a fair trade from Jonathan Greene as retribution for the pain he caused you. He wasn’t as strong as you are.”

Vera slunk forward another few feet, just within reach. She shook now, as if she was afraid to be so close.

Tobias dipped his voice to a whisper. “He’ll never hurt you again, mate. He won’t hurt anyone. You’re safe.”

Vera pulled her lips over her teeth for just a moment before she belly-crawled closer and rested her chin on his open palm.

Tobias smiled at his brave Vera. “That’s right. I’m yours.”

When he patted his leg lightly, she flinched, but then crawled carefully into his lap where he ran his hand down the length of her spine, smoothing her raised hackles.

They sat like that for hours, cuddled against the wall, learning to trust each other, but still, she wasn’t able to Change back. Likely, she didn’t know how. She’d been out of control with every shift, and then before she’d gotten to know her animal, she’d started suppressing her. Vera was going to have to learn to be a shifter, and it would be a long, hard road, but he knew she could do it.

His mate was fearless.

****

When Tobias landed his plane on the runway outside of Galena, Link was waiting near his green SUV, arms crossed over his chest, looking impatient.

Tobias cut the engine and grabbed the luggage, then moved out of the way so Vera could jump out of the door and onto the ground beside his feet. That was a big mistake.

She took off at a dead sprint for Link, and he barely got his hands in the way to block a dick bite when she latched on.

“Don’t hurt her!” Tobias ordered, bolting for them.

Link flung her off, and she went at him again, but Tobias plucked her off the ground by the scruff of her neck.

“What the hell, man?” Link yelled, flinging red droplets from his bleeding hand to the ground.

Tobias shoved past the snarling werewolf to load the package and luggage into the back of Link’s ride, clutching Vera’s scruff as he worked. She kept up her snarling and whipped her legs around, but Tobias wasn’t letting go. “This is Vera.”

“Fantastic, but your pet fox isn’t gettin’ in my Bronco. And thanks for calling me back, you dick.”

With an irritated sigh, Tobias turned to him and said, “I’m sorry I didn’t call you back. I suck at phones, you know this, and she isn’t a pet fox.” He pulled the neck of his thermal sweater aside, exposing the already healed bite-mark she’d given him. “Vera Masterson is my new mate.”

Link’s eyes went round, but he gave no other reaction. He could’ve been an ice sculpture if Tobias didn’t see him breathing and if his hand wasn’t streaming red onto the grass.

“Vera, this is Lincoln McCall.”

She snarled louder, teeth bared as she glared at Link.

“I think she’s ready to go,” Tobias said helpfully.

Link growled and shook his head hard. Crazy McCall.

“How…?” was all Link asked before Tobias sat in the passenger’s seat and shut the door.

Link got slowly behind the wheel, wolf-bright gray eyes on the brush in front of them. He closed the door softly and said over Vera’s snarling, “The witch is your mate?”

“She’s not a witch,” Tobias said, holding her tight so she wouldn’t bleed Link again.

“Then what is she?”

“A scientist. And before you even ask, Link, she can’t fix your wolf. She tried on Eustice McCall, and it didn’t work for him. Not even close.”

“If she can’t help us, then why did you let her bite you?” Link asked through gritted teeth. He scrunched up his face at Vera. “Or was it an accident?”

Because she can fix me.
But that wasn’t it. Not anymore. “Because I care about her. My bear wants her, and so do I.”

Link scratched the back of his head and rattled off another feral sound. “Why the fuck is she a fox? She has my instincts blaring right now. What’s wrong with her?”

“Vera doesn’t have control over her Changes yet. But she will.”

“How?”

“With your help.”

“Chhh, you’ve lost your damned mind. I can’t even help myself. Asking a crazy wolf to help a crazy fox says you’ve lost your mind right along with us.”

“Look, I’m supposed to pick up Lena from Silver Summit tomorrow morning, and I have deliveries I can’t get out of. Medicine and supply runs to the bush for people who need them now. And I have no idea how long it’ll take Vera to Change back, so I need her to crash at your place until we figure something out.”

“I’m not taking care of your mate, Tobias! I thought you would go up to Perl and find a solution, not bring back a rabid fox for me to babysit.”

“Link, I wouldn’t ask you if it wasn’t important.”

Link slammed his open palm against the steering wheel and let off another long growl. “Dammit, Silver. Can’t you see this sucks for me? I thought she could cure me. Fuck! There it is, Tobias. I thought she could cure me, and now I’m watching over your mate. Your duty. Your responsibly. You’re flaunting something in front of me I’ll never have!”

“I didn’t know you wanted a mate!”

“Of course I do!” Link’s voice dipped to a whisper as he repeated, “Of course I do. Who wouldn’t? I see what Elyse and Ian have. I have no shot at that bond. No shot at a family. And I fucking want that. I’m dying, Tobias. Vera fixing my wolf was my last hope, so excuse me if I’m not excited about doing her any favors right now.”

Tobias slammed his head back on the headrest and sighed. Shit. Holding the snarling, writhing Vera tighter, Tobias admitted, “She can’t fix you, but she can fix Ian, Jenner, and me.”

Link’s blazing eyes arched to Tobias. “What?”

“She says she can suppress our bears and the instincts along with them in the winter. She says she can stop our hibernations.”

Link’s hands slid from the steering wheel and landed heavily in his lap as he stared at Tobias. “Well, that’s great.”

“No, man, it’s shitty. I shouldn’t be asking you favors.”

Link swallowed hard. “No, no, I wanted that. I wanted Elyse to be safe through the winters when I die. I have maybe one more winter to watch over her, and then…” Link nodded, over and over as he got a faraway look in his eyes. “This is good. Better than we thought it would be, right?”

“Link,” Tobias drawled, feeling like grit.

“No, it’s fine. I’m a McCall. My fate was always the same, but now I can go knowing Elyse is protected by the one who is supposed to keep her safe—her mate. It’s good. It’s really good. I’ll do it. I’ll take care of Vera.”

“I don’t want to tell Ian and Jenner yet. This has to stay between us.”

“Why?” Link asked as he pulled out of the dirt parking area and onto the road that led to Galena.

“Because if it doesn’t work, I don’t want their hopes up. I can’t even imagine how devastating that would be to Elyse to think her mate could stick around, and then something go wrong. No, we do this quietly while I test it on myself. If I can stay awake a month, we’ll tell them.”

Link’s dark eyebrows shot up. “Wait, you want to let your brothers go into hibernation?”

“Yeah. If I’m still awake by November twentieth, we’ll give them the injections and wake them up. Until then, not a word. Swear it.”

Link looked at him, back at the road, then back again and nodded once. “Okay, Silver. I swear.”