The Wolf and the Bobcat: (16 page)

“What?” Of all the things she expected him to say, that wasn’t it.

“Admit that I’m your boyfriend. Tell me that we’re together, and that you’ll never be with anyone else. Tell me that you will be mine, and mine alone,” he ground out trying to keep his animal at bay.

Deanna laughed bitterly. “It’s not my faithfulness that’s in question wolf.”

Casey bristled and snarled at her. “You're overreacting. I haven’t been unfaithful to you. I haven’t even looked at another woman since I met you.”

Her lips trembled. “How can I trust you? How would you have felt if it had been me in the bar, flirting with a man old enough to be my father?”

Casey shifted uncomfortably and looked away from her eyes. “I’d have been okay with that; I’d have trusted you.”

Deanna barked out a laugh. “Really? You really expect me to believe that? Okay, how about if he was buying me drinks, and telling me how pretty I was? How about if I started dancing with him?”

Casey roared possessively in unison with his wolf. “No, you will never ever do those things with anyone but me!”

“See?” Deanna cried triumphantly. “If you can’t even stand imagining those things, can’t you see how hard it was for me to watch them?”

Sadness and regret flicked over his face, but she continued unrepentant. “You told me you loved me, and that you wanted to be with me, and that you were going to change, and yet the first chance you get, you’re cozying up to another woman! Fate doesn’t always get it right you know, not everyone ends up with their true mate.”

The amber seeped out of his eyes fading to hazel. “You really believe that we shouldn’t be together? You don’t want me?”

“No… I don’t… I don’t know… I want you, physically… but I just don’t feel like I can trust you. I’ve spent my whole life being let down by the person I loved most in the world, and I’m sick of it. I can’t do that again.”

He looked at her sorrowfully. “I love you, Deanna.”

A sob caught in her throat, and Casey relaxed his body. He let go of her hands and rested his elbows either side of her. He took the weight of his legs off her and straddled her body. If she kicked him again, so be it, maybe he deserved it.

He caught a stray tear running down her cheek on the pad of his thumb. “I’m not going to lie, and pretend that I’ll be the perfect mate because I’m sure I’ll screw up now and again. But I love you, and I’ll be faithful to you, I want to try and make you happy. I thought we already were happy...”

Deanna looked away; she cursed her stubbornness, but she just couldn’t give in. “I should go,” she said, dully.

Casey waited for a few moments before, unwillingly, he rolled off her. His wolf howled in protest, but Casey lay motionless on the cold ground, staring into the dark sky.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured, and she was gone.

He squeezed his eyes shut, and a lone tear trickled down his cheek.
What was he supposed to do now?

*

Tess clambered up the bed.
Ugh, stupid Deanna! Always ruining her fun.

After Deanna’s little show, she hadn’t felt very welcome. A buff wolf shifter with strawberry blonde hair insisted he walk her back to the Bed and Breakfast. She resisted at first, but her legs were kind of wobbly, so in the end she gave in. What was his name? Axe? Axle?
Heh, axle grease.
These wolf shifters sure do give their kids dumb names, take Hunter, for example, how lame was that?

Tess invited him to come up to her room, but he declined. She told him it was his fucking loss, and made her own way up.

A little sleepy from all the alcohol, she started dozing but blinked as a light switched on.

“It’s about time,” growled a rasping voice.

Tess panicked and sat up in bed. “Fuck!”

She found herself staring at the reason she had Gary had fled Las Vegas – Gary’s boss, Milton Jones.

Tess edged away, to the end of the bed. “How did you get in here?”

His face remained stony. “Shut your fucking mouth, where is the memory stick?”

“I don’t have it; Gary does, and he left this morning,” she blurted.

Milton smiled cruelly. “I know he left, we already caught up with him. He doesn’t have it, though. He seemed to think you did. I tell you what, why don’t we both go and see Gary together…”

Chapter Eighteen

24
th
January

Deanna sniffled and hugged her arms around her. She was sat on the floor of the shower; the water had long since turned cold, but she didn’t care.
Oh god, what had she done?

How could she have been so stupid? She loved Casey, with all her heart, and now she had lost him. No, not lost him – she rejected him.
Tossed him aside.

Her bobcat wasn’t speaking to her, and Deanna couldn’t blame the animal. She didn’t deserve to be comforted. She let her anger and obstinacy get the better of her, and once again she had hurt her mate. Only this time, she didn’t know if they could actually recover. Would Casey even want her back after this?

Maybe if she pleaded with him, maybe if she asked him to bond with her…
Would that be enough?

Dejectedly, she shut the water off and climbed out of the shower. She automatically toweled off and donned sweats. It was still really early, not even Grams and Dinah were out of bed.

Softly, she walked downstairs but froze as she heard a sound coming from the living room. Carefully she sniffed, and was relieved to recognize her mother, but grew concerned as she scented two unknown male shifters.

Had her mother brought them back to their family home to have sex?!
Ugh, no way was she allowing that to happen.

Deanna burst into the living room and was startled to see her mom’s stricken face, and two brutish men, both training guns on her. “Mom?”

“Shut the door,” ordered the ugliest of the two, tersely.

Deanna stood still, and he pursed his lips. “Shut the door, or momma gets a bullet in the head.”

She licked her lips and did as he said. The other man was obviously a bear shifter and had a wicked scar running down his right cheek. The ugly man was a shifter, but not one she could decipher. Although, judging by his fishy smell, no pun intended, she would hazard a guess that he might be a shark shifter. A rarity in Virginia.

Tess was visibly shaking. Her make-up had run, giving her the look of a haggard clown, but physically, she seemed unhurt.

Deanna’s bobcat growled and encouraged her to shift; she wanted to take a bite out of these assholes! Her muscles shimmered, and she was tempted, but the ugly one chuckled. “Don’t even think about it pussycat, you’ll be dead before your paws hit the ground.”

“What’s happening?” she asked, boldly.

Tess slowly walked over to her daughter. “These men are just some friends of Gary’s; they’ve just come to collect something that belongs to them.”

“Bringing guns isn’t very friendly,” declared Deanna.

They both snickered. “Looks like the pussycat’s got claws, huh, Milton?” said the scar-faced bear.

“What do you want?”

“Pumpkin,” began Tess, trembling slightly, “where’s the bear I gave to Dinah?”

Deanna looked at her in confusion. “What? You mean the pink one? I don’t know.”

“It’s really important that we find it.”

Deanna’s claws flexed. “Why? What is going on?”

Tess licked her dry lips. “I put something in the bear that belongs to these men, and they want it back.”

She furrowed her brow. “Why would you do that? And where is Gary in all of this?”

The ugly one, now identified as Milton grinned horribly. “Yeah, Tess, where is Gary?”

Tess let out a sob. Maybe Gary wasn’t the greatest guy in the world, but he sure didn’t deserve to be shot in the back of the head and dumped in Milton’s trunk. The image of his body unnaturally packed into that trunk would haunt her forever.

“Gary’s dead, and if we don’t find that stupid bear we will be too!”

Deanna’s heart lurched as she heard a bump from upstairs. Oh no!

Milton nodded to the bear shifter. “Make sure the rest of the family don’t interrupt us.”

Deanna moved to stop him, but Milton grabbed Tess by her hair. “Not a word out of you, pussycat. I got no problem killing this dumb bitch.”

The bear left, carrying rope.
This was not going to end well.

*

Casey had spent the better part of the night mired in grief. He spent the morning moping round, doing chores for his parents. He even managed to control himself when Carly visited, with her massive bear mate in tow, to make sure he was okay.
But now, he was about ready to fall apart.

He was stood outside Bar Lunar, considering an early drink. He figured if someone other than Kim were serving he could talk them into giving him alcohol. But, just as he was about to go in, someone hurled a rock at him.

Casey whipped round to find Deanna's biggest fans, the twin bear shifters, ten feet away. “I’m not in the mood,” he growled.

“Dee’s in trouble…” started Aidan.

“Two men are in her house…” put in Arliss.

“They have guns…”

“We were watching through the window…”

“We think they’re going to hurt her.”

Casey’s wolf roared feverishly. Moments ago he was despondent, but now, he was hopping mad. Casey nodded to the boys and sprinted to the Sheriff’s station.

He burst through the doors to find his Alpha, Adam, the Sheriff and Jake stood talking. “Deanna’s in danger; some men with guns broke into her house.”

The three large wolves leapt to action and followed Casey outside; they jumped into patrol cars and sped towards Deanna’s house.

His wolf whined, and Casey tried to soothe him. She would be okay;
she had to be okay.

*

Deanna dug through the toy chest.
Where the hell was that damn bear?

She looked up as the scarred bear came back in the room.

“Any of them struggle?” enquired Milton, as he idly flipped through a magazine.

“Just the bobcat, but not for long. I checked the kid’s room; the bear’s not with her; the old woman gave me a mouthful though.”

Deanna felt a twinge. Please, please, let her family be okay.

She threw up her hands. “I can’t find it, okay? I don’t know where it is.”

Milton’s jaw twitched. “Then pick one.”

“Pick one what?”

He licked his thick lips and leaned forward from his perch on the couch. “Pick the family member you want me to shoot in the head first.”

Tess let out a sob. Deanna tensed but kept herself together. “Whatever was in that bear, we can replace it, we can give you some money to buy a new one…”

Milton pursed his lips. “Money can’t replace it.”

Tess started panicking and pulling at her hair. “There’s no point, even if we find it, they’re still going to kill us. We know too much. They’ll shoot us all in the head and stuff us in their trunk, just like they did with Gary.” She pointed at Milton. “He’s a monster! Gary took a video of him killing someone, and Gary was trying to get some money out of him… but he went berserk so we had to get out of there…”

“Enough!” roared Milton. “I’m getting tired of waiting.”

The bear’s head jerked up. “Did you hear that?”

“What?” snapped Milton.

The bear’s face creased in concentration, making his scar look even more horrific. “I thought I head a noise at the back of the house.”

The bear sniffed. “I smell wolf.”

“My boyfriend’s a wolf,” volunteered Deanna.

“Shut the fuck up!” bellowed Milton.

He turned to the bear. “Go and check it out.”

They sat waiting for the bear’s return, the quiet punctuated by Tess’ whimpers. Deanna watched Milton. With the bear gone, she wondered if she could take Milton. He was middle-aged and running to fat, but she suspected his flab hid some considerable muscles. She doubted she could beat him, but she might be able to cause some damage and slow him down.

“Finch?” called Milton. “What the fuck are you doing out there?”

No answer. Milton jerked his head at them. “Get up, and move. And don’t bother trying anything, step out of line, and you’re dead.”

Tess didn’t move. Milton roughly tried to grab her arm, and Tess cried in pain.

Deanna couldn’t take it anymore. She surrendered to her beast, and her bobcat pushed forward, shifting and shredding her clothes. The feisty, little feline leapt at the monstrous man and sunk her claws and fangs into his fleshy body.

Milton screamed and began flailing around the room, trying to shake her off, but Deanna held tight onto his arm. He dropped the gun and clamped his hands round the bobcat’s neck. He roared and tore her off his body, hurling her away from him.

All at once, the room was filled with the sounds of wolves’ roars and the Sheriff yelling at Milton to stand down. Thee bobcat lifted her aching head and took in the scene. Alec had a gun trained on Milton while a huge wolf with a black stripe down his back snarled at him. She was half elated, and half fearful to see just which wolf was currently pinning Milton to the ground, angrily snapping his jaws at the shark shifter.
It was her mate.

He was here; he did still care! She desperately wanted to go to him. She tried to move but felt sharp pains jabbing at her ribs and whimpered.
She had hit the ground with quite a lot of force...

Casey’s wolf swung his gaze in her direction and howled pitifully. He dragged his claws out of the shifter beneath him, scraping as much flesh as he could, and loped over to his mate. Alec hurled the bloodied shark shifter to his feet and slapped some cuffs on him while the large wolf, Adam cracked his jaws at him.

The wolf nuzzled the bobcat’s head and whined before swiping his tongue over her face. Painfully, she forced herself to shift, ignoring the twinges.

She lifted her hand to his muzzle. “Euww, so gross, wolf boy.”

He shifted too and carefully pulled his naked, bruised mate into his lap. He kissed her forehead. “Get used to it, kitten.”