Southern Shifters: Bearing the Ink (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Black & White Book 3) (2 page)

“Rebecca doesn’t deserve to die. You’re right. If he ever sees her, he’ll know and he won’t hesitate.”

“She’ll be well protected.”

They left him standing there, staring after them. Michael rushed her from the house and didn’t give her a chance to look back. Too many things had been said, but at the same time, not enough had been because she had questions. A lot of questions.

“What happened?” Gus asked, crossing the street to meet them. As soon as Bex saw him, two feelings flooded her. One, she wanted to run to him, be wrapped in his arms. Two, she wanted to run the hell away.

This was all too much. What did she know about shifters, being a shifter, confronting shifters and killers? Nothing. Not one damn thing, that’s what. She knew nothing, but she was smack-dab in the middle of it.

“The Mayor’s son is alive,” Michael said. “Rex didn’t kill him.”

“What?” Surprise laced the word from Gus.

“He’s been alive all these years. It’s disgusting, the pelts and furs all over that house.”

Bex listened to the conversation around her while Gus kept her close, petting her hair, calming her. They needed to leave the neighborhood before they brought attention to themselves. “Can we leave?” She begged. “Please? Can we get out of here?”

Gus kissed the top of her head. “Of course, pretty girl.”

“Leave?” Michael shook his head. “No. I think we should stay. I think we should wait until the Mayor gets back from whatever hunt he’s on.”

“We can’t risk being out in the open. We can’t risk being seen.”

“I’m willing to risk it. Gus, you didn’t see the inside of that place. Turns my stomach. Pisses me off.”

“Still, we can’t risk being seen or taking on anyone like him.. It’s only the three of us and one isn’t able to shift, yet. What if he doesn’t come back alone? What if he brings others? We have no one else. No, we need to go and come back another time.”

“He’s right. You should go.”

Bex looked around Gus’s broad body, but stayed close to his side when he turned in the direction of the unfamiliar female voice.

“Who are you?” Michael snapped. “How long have you been listening? What did you hear?” He took a menacing step toward her and she stood her ground.

She was pretty with silver and blue streaked black hair and bright gray eyes. “I heard everything. I followed you when you left.”

“Followed us?”

“I’m his nurse. Beck’s nurse. I’m also a —”

“Wolf. You’re a wolf shifter,” Bex interrupted quickly. “Sorry.”

The girl smiled at her. “No need to be sorry. You’re right. I’m a wolf shifter and…” She looked from one to the other. “You’re bears, right?”

“How can you work for them? How can you take care of him?” Michael rattled off the questions, inching closer to her. “How can you even stand to be in that house?”

“It isn’t easy, but I’ve learned to manage. I had to take the job. It was the best lead I had.”

“Lead?”

“I’ve been trying to find out what happened to my brother. He’s been missing for a year.”

“I’m so sorry,” Bex said softly. “That must be awful. I’m Bex, by the way.”

“I know. I know you as Rebecca. My name is Maxine. Maxi is what everyone calls me. Beck has kept up to date with you as much as he could. He meant what he said about always loving your mother. He was the money behind your college scholarship and grants. When she died, it nearly killed him, too. He has nothing to do with the evil his father creates, but his father will be angry and will be looking for you, all of you when he learns you were at the house.”

“Beck will tell him?”

“No. There are security cameras. Beck doesn’t know about them. I only do because I found them once when I went looking for supplies for him. Look, this isn’t a safe place to talk. For all I know, there are people watching us. I’ve become increasingly paranoid, but for good reason. If it’s ever found out that I’m part wolf, Beck’s father will kill me without a second thought.”

“We need to get you alone, away from here. We need whatever information you have.”

“I don’t have much, but I’m willing to share it for a price.”

“What’s that?” Suspicion lay heavy in Michael’s voice.

“That you help me find my brother.”

Chapter Two

“Do you think she’s telling the truth? That her brother is missing?”

“I can’t imagine why anyone would make up something like that.”

“What if it’s a trap?”

“What if it’s not?”

“We’ve had this conversation before,” Michael muttered.

Bex bit her lip and glanced at Gus. He hadn’t said much since leaving Bryson City. He sat across from her, sipping on a cup of coffee and picking at a donut. Much as he loved them, he’d barely touched one. Not that she could say much. She’d eaten about half of hers before putting it down.

Normally, the maple donuts were delicious. Normally, Gus downed half a dozen before he was even remotely satisfied. Now, though… Now they tasted like ash. As did the coffee.

It wasn’t Sienna’s fault. She was amazing.

No, it was life, the situation, the new knowledge they had, the pain Bex’s very existence caused.

Was Gus thinking about his parents? She didn’t know how he could be thinking about anything else given the circumstances. He’d been so strong for her, so rock solid in the midst of the changes she’d gone through since leaving Bryson City the first time with him.

She needed to be strong for him, needed to show him she could take care of him as much as he took care of her.

She slid her hand through the crook of his arm. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know, pretty girl. I think this thing is really big and really dangerous and it’s going to be even more so before it’s over. I think maybe we’ve bitten off more than we can chew alone.”

“Do you think Maxine is telling the truth about her brother?”

“Could be. We need to know more. Someone is going to have to meet with her and get the whole story.”

Michael stuffed the rest of his donut between his lips before stating his opinion. “Invite her to Dandridge.”

“I…” Gus shook his head. “That’s inviting even more trouble.”

“We can protect Bex there and gather others to protect the rest of us.”

“I agree, Gus. It’s better than being anywhere else.”

Gus lifted her hand and kissed her palm. “But they’ll know where you live.”

“They’ll know where you live too. I don’t imagine too many will come after me if they think they have to go through you first.” She tried to lighten the mood with her statement, but he tensed, his eyes darkened, his lips firmed.

“That’s true. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

“So, we’re in agreement that I’ll call her?” Michael asked.

“Yes. Call her. Invite her over the first chance she gets. Let’s hear what she has to say. Find out where she’s from. Find out about her pack.”

“She could still be an enemy. A plant.”

“How? Why? No one knew we were headed to see the Mayor other than our family and some of Luke’s pack.”

Michael took a swallow of his coffee. “Just seemed too convenient. That’s all I’m saying.”

It did. Bex could admit that, but at the same time, if the woman was telling the truth and her brother had gone missing, maybe they could all help each other.

“Bear.”

All three of them looked up. Gus’s arm muscle strained under her hand. Michael narrowed his gaze at the stranger and clenched his fists. And Bex? She had the urge to tear the male apart and climb all over Gus and rut. She still didn’t understand her reactions when male wolves were around. She hadn’t had that kind of urge when Maxine was near. But with the males, she still wanted to rip into them, then rip her clothes off with Gus.

“Who are you?” Gus rose to his feet. He towered over the shifter who’d approached their table. The wolf took a step back. Bex didn’t blame him. Gus was a formidable sight.

“Sarge sent me to find you. He said there’s a hunting party northwest of Bryson City and that they’re headed into the town. Likely going home. He wanted me to get word to you in case you were still there.”

“Clearly we’re not”

“Clearly.”

“You can tell your Sergeant we’re safe.”

Bex had a fleeting moment of thought, wondering how Luke would feel being referred to as Sarge.

The wolf’s next words steered her attention back to the conversation at hand.

“I picked up your scent halfway between here and there. It was stronger here so I doubled back.”

Here and there
.

Here
was Sweet Retreat. A small bakery in Deal’s Gap. Neutral territory along The Dragon mountain pass. The owner, Sienna, made killer donuts and was a human, mated to a wolf. Humans weren’t really tolerated and weren’t even supposed to know about shifters, but Bex had known based on her mother’s past. Technically, though, Bex wasn’t a human as she’d always thought.

So much had changed since she’d met Gus and most of the time she couldn’t wrap her head around it.

And
there
, was where she’d come from. There was where she no longer belonged.

“Is that all Blackwood said?”

“Yes.”

“Well, you can tell him you found us. We’ll meet up with him again in Dandridge.”

“There’s more…”

“You have my attention.” Gus’s casual tone belied the heat and anger simmering just below the surface of his skin.

“There are other scents. Human. Metallic powder. Fearlessness.”

“In the woods?”

“Yes. Hunters. Different ones. As I got closer to Deal’s Gap, I picked up the faint trace.”

“In what direction.”

“Northeast.”

She knew what it meant. She knew without Gus’s hand closing over hers and gripping her fingers tightly, what it meant. They were headed to her home.

“You know, this isn’t what I had in mind when I decided to open my own bed and breakfast,” Bex said, again trying to lighten the mood, as the three of them watched the wolf shifter walk away and disappear into the woods. “I didn’t expect I’d be housing wolves and bears, none of whom are paying, by the way.”

“Sleeping with me isn’t payment enough?” Gus winked at her shocked expression. “I’m teasing, pretty girl. I know this isn’t what you wanted, what you had planned. It’ll sort itself out and you can go on with your life. I promise you that.”

Bex smiled, but there was something in Gus’s words that concerned her, a dimness in his eyes that hadn’t been there before Luke Blackwood showed up the first time.

“What about other wolves? And the cats?”

Gus looked over Bex’s head toward Michael. “What about them?”

“Should we approach the packs and clans about this?”

“No. This is personal. It started with bears. It’ll end with them. I’m not inviting death anywhere else.”

“But Maxine?”

“She came to us. Blackwood and his pack mates came to us. There’s a difference in that and in us bringing others into our fight. There’s no telling what others would want, what restrictions and regulations others would impose on us. I rather like living free.”

“Yes. You always have.” Michael nodded. “All right. No others. Our fight. Our rules.”

“Can we rule that showers are a good thing? I’d really like to get home and take one.”

Gus popped the rest of his donut in his mouth and tossed the trash in the garbage. “I think we can do that.”

* * * * *

The familiar itch to keep riding had been absent for several weeks after Gus met Bex, but ever since the wolf had shown up with all his theories and troublemaking, it was back. The desire to run as far away as he could get. Only, he couldn’t do that. Not now. He was in deep and leaving Bex behind was out of the question.

She was his home.

And he wouldn’t let her fight alone. He didn’t trust anyone else to keep her safe..

He took a sharp curve, then another, and another. With each climb through the mountain pass, Bex clung tighter to him. Her thighs gripped him around the hips. Her hands clasped at his t-shirt. But she didn’t tense. She wasn’t scared or frightened on the bike with him. She trusted him and he’d never betray that.

So, he’d stay. He’d resist the urge to run from his adoptive family, from the pain of the past being dredged up, from the tethers of falling in love with Bex. He’d resist the pull of the open road and he’d stay.

Only, he didn’t know how to fight through it. He’d never had to. He’d always just picked up and left.

When the bike reached a stretch of road that was somewhat flat and straight, Gus took one hand off a handlebar and used it to cover Bex’s hands, linking their fingers. She calmed him. From the moment they’d met, she’d touched something inside him and the first time he touched her, peace unlike anything he’d ever known flowed through him.

He’d been scared ever since.

And none of it made sense to him. He was content to go with the flow, to take it however it came. But once the wolf, Luke Blackwood, had shown up, all Hell had broken loose and not only was Bex’s quiet life disrupted, but everything from her past and Gus’s past was coming back to haunt them.

He eased his fingers from hers and resumed holding onto the bike with both hands as the curves ahead came into view.

Bex leaned into him and laid her head on his back.

She was comfortable with him. She was at ease with him.

She’d never been scared of him, but she had been curious about him, something he’d relished. He’d been interested in her from the start. Her smile made him ache. Her body made hungry.

She had no idea what she did to him.

He knew for someone like Bex, trust didn’t come easy. She didn’t have many friends, no family left, had a sketchy coming into the world. She was naturally wary, but she was strong. And what she’d faced in recent weeks, was more than any one person should have to deal with in a lifetime. She wasn’t who she’d always thought she was.

But she was who he needed her to be.

The winding country roads brought him freedom. Being out and away from the closeness of a family who didn’t really belong to him usually made him feel at one with nature, at one with who he really was. A bear. A shifter. A lover of the outdoors. An artist. The forests and the mountains were his inspiration for the art he used to express himself and that he used to help others find ways of expression through ink.

Bex relaxed as he began to decelerate the closer they got to Dandridge. He loved it, the way she put her faith in him. As he turned down the side street that led to the Victorian house they were still in the process of renovating, he scented the wolves, first. Blackwood must’ve left them behind. He also scented the bears of his adoptive family, namely his adoptive mother.

Bex gripped his shirt and lifted her head when he parked his bike. Her thighs didn’t ease their grip on his hips. Her arousal was strong, the way it always was when the wolves were around. It was the craziest damn thing, that the scent of them made her angry and horny and aggressive.

If he hadn’t been on the receiving end, or seen the split second shift in her moods, he wouldn’t have believed Bex capable of it.

“She’s cooking,” Gus said, speaking of the woman who’d raised him as her own. He took his helmet off and hung it on the handlebars.

“I smelled it about a mile out,” Michael remarked as he mirrored Gus’s actions with his headgear.

“I can’t smell it. What’s she cooking? Anything good?” Bex swung her leg over and slid off the bike.

“She’s frying fish. Catfish.”

“Trout,” Gus countered.

“Nope. Catfish. It’s my favorite.”

“What does it being your favorite have to do with anything? She’s here at our house. So, it stands to reason that she’s making
my
favorite.”

Bex shook her head and took the back steps to the kitchen door. “You two are pathetic.”

“They are,” Meryl, Gus’s mother, agreed. “They’ve always argued about food. Especially fish. And sweets.”

“Other than fish, what are you making? Smells like hamburgers.”

“Yes. Hamburger steaks. The wolves didn’t want fish.”

“Why does it matter what they want?” Gus asked, elbowing Michael in the ribs. “Catfish. Told ya.”

“There’s trout too, you big baby.”

Michael grinned and hugged his mother. “I knew I was your favorite.”

“Oh, go on.” She shoved him away with a laugh. “Hello, dear girl,” she said to Bex, pulling her into an embrace. “How are you?”

Gus saw the smile on Bex’s face. Genuine. Filled with openness, most times. Other times, he knew she was still trying to make sense of the fact that she had more family than she knew what to do with. “I’m… I’m okay,” she answered honestly. “It smells delicious in here. Nice to see the stove getting a workout.”

“I hope you don’t mind. There was a houseful of hungry shifters and I thought it was better to keep them here and under foot, than to let them go roaming the town.”

“No, of course not. And thank you for keeping them contained. I don’t think the town is ready for the invasion. The neighbors already wonder what’s going on.”