Bear’s Midlife Surprise: A Fated Mate Shifter Romance (Bear Mates Over Forty Book 4), page 13
Strange, feral noises. Primitive, animal grunting.
He froze as soon as he realized what he’d walked into, and by then, it was too late to back out. Right ahead of him in the thick of the dark woods were two unmistakable shapes. Large and brown. Two bears mating.
But regular bears certainly didn’t mate at this time of year. Most were hibernating. Tavish had good eyesight in the darkest night, like most shifters did. He knew a bear by his markings like a person knew a friend by the way they looked. Every bear had unique traits and scents.
The male bear was unmistakably Kier. And that female? Another shifter. One Tavish didn’t know, but female bears were rare enough that she could only have come from Pinefall. Was this the woman he’d alluded to?
Tavish wheeled and tried to turn around. He was quiet, but not quiet enough.
Kier let out a bellow of animal rage, pawed the earth, sending up a shower of wet leaves and dirt, lowered his head, and charged like an angry bull provoked and intent on murder.
Tavish’s instincts took over. Not like the night in the alley. This shift was immediate. His clothes tore, his bones reformed. The shift was so familiar that he no longer felt the pain of his bones realigning into different shapes. His brain changed. The only way he could describe it was that it was all animal. With the bear, it was all instinct. And right now, his instinct was to survive.
He met the clash of a friend that he’d known since he was a child head on. They crashed together, Kier angry and snarling and half-crazed at being interrupted, protecting his mate with everything he had. Tavish trying to ward him off and keep from being dealt any sort of death blow.
They embraced in a hug that was more rage than it was any sort of friendship.
Tavish didn’t know how long it lasted, but eventually he was kneeling over Kier, both of them naked, bloody, and panting. They were both raked with scratches, the wounds quickly knitting themselves back together because they were shallow. They hadn’t hurt each other after all. Kier had pulled back. He’d shifted when he realized what was happening and the bear knew he wasn’t under attack.
“What are you doing out here, sneaking up on me like that?” Kier spat. He looked up at Tavish with more rage than Tavish had ever known the other man to possess. “I could have killed you.”
“Are you angry about that or about being interrupted?”
“I’m angry that I could have taken your head off. What were you thinking?”
“It was an accident, I swear. I didn’t mean to stumble on you, and I certainly wasn’t spying. I was doing my rounds. You have a shift in three hours yourself.”
“Right. But you don’t come out here.”
“No, I usually don’t. I do change it up, though, and these are Greenacre woods.”
He flung himself to the side. Neither man was particularly bothered by his own nudity or by the other’s. They’d been running wild in Greenacre since they were kids, and then shifting for years and years after. Nakedness was no different than fur. Still, he kept his eyes locked on his friend’s face and folded into himself. “Shit. This is the second time I’m going to have to let January know that I shifted and destroyed my clothes.”
“You can get a change at my house.”
“Thank you.” It suddenly felt really awkward between them. Tavish searched Kier’s face and found the same thing there. A fervent wish to forget this ever happened. “We’ll never talk about this again.”
“No. We won’t.” A short pause. “I’m sorry that I lost it. I was just… When you get between someone and their mate…”
Trace dug up a handful of wet earth. He was starting to realize how chilly the night was without clothes. “She’s from Pinefall, isn’t she?” If he didn’t ask Kier now, if he let him leave to go and get clothes, he wouldn’t have another chance.
“We’re not forbidden from seeing each other,” Kier snapped.
“No, but our alphas are basically still the only ones that are meeting. They’re notorious for sticking to themselves. They haven’t opened up like we have, and they haven’t been as accepting of us as we thought they would be. They don’t really even want anything to do with us. How did you meet her anyway?”
Kier sighed like he didn’t want to get into it, but he responded anyway. “She was walking the perimeter of her land and I was out doing ours and our paths crossed. We exchanged cold shoulders and insults and then we started laughing. We talked. We wanted to meet again.”
“How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Kier. We’ve been friends forever. You can trust me. I’m not going to go running to Sam and inform him about this.”
“I don’t know. A few months.”
“But you said—”
“Mates? Yeah. She’s my mate. You should know it can happen pretty much instantly. It wasn’t like that for us. It took a while, but the attraction was strong and immediate.”
Tavish had never been with another shifter. He’d certainly never done what he just witnessed. As he thought about that, it was clear that Kier was embarrassed. He wouldn’t meet his eye anymore. “Sorry,” Tavish muttered again. “I wasn’t spying on you.”
“I know.”
He obviously did and his bear did too, or Tavish might have found himself far bloodier than he was before it was all said and done. “Is she okay?”
“I’ll find her. She will be.”
“You should tell Sam. I won’t, but you should.”
Kier got up and Tavish looked in the other direction. “It’s complicated,” he grunted.
“Why?”
Leaves rustled and twigs snapped. Branches swooshed. An owl called out in the distance. Tavish could hear the sounds of Kier throwing his clothes on. “She’s Clay’s sister.”
Glendy’s ex-husband. They shared a daughter. “It’s not that complicated. Clay’s not so bad. He came around to Glendy being part of Greenacre in the end.”
“He used to do cage fighting,” Kier snorted. “He can be a crazy motherfucker. I’m not worried about having to fight him, but I am worried about hurting him and then she would never forgive me, and Glendy would never forgive me, and Emma would never forgive me and that would put Thaddius in a bad position, which would put Sam in one, so it is complicated. A little.”
“She’s a grown woman. She can do what she wants,” Tavish insisted.
“We don’t have surly older brothers here and we’re not females. You don’t know how it goes. Imagine if someone was pestering your mate. How angry would that make you?”
His body instantly filled with hot rage.
“Yeah. See?” Kier stood before him wearing his t-shirt and jeans. He threw a light windbreaker in Tavish’s direction. “The sibling bond is strong. We just don’t have any female siblings in Greenacre, so we don’t really understand that part of it.” He stayed where he was, but used the thing like a shield. “How deep did I get you?” The regret in that question made Tavish’s chest feel like it was going to explode.
“Oh, it’s manageable.”
“We should go to the clinic. I can get you bandaged up if it needs it.”
“It’s nothing. They’re already healing.”
“What if January notices them when you get back?”
“I’ll tell her the truth.” Kier gave him a half murderous, half pleading look. “Oh. Right. I won’t tell her the truth. I’ll tell her that…” He didn’t want to lie to her. That was no way to start anything. He didn’t want to hurt Kier, but he didn’t want to hurt January either. Proving himself untrustworthy and dishonest right at the start wouldn’t bode well. “I’ll tell her that I startled another shifter in the woods while walking my rounds and he attacked blindly, out of instinct. I shifted, protected myself, and we both kept our heads and came around within a few seconds. That’s pretty much what happened.”
“Are you sure?”
“Am I sure that’s what happened, or am I sure that I won’t tell anyone about you and your mate?”
“Both.”
He stood up, the windbreaker shielded in front of him with one hand and nodded. “I’m sure that’s what happened. You didn’t do any damage. You don’t have to feel guilty about this. We’re still friends. There’s no harm done.”
“But you’re keeping a secret from your best friend and your alpha for me.”
“I don’t have a best friend. We’re not in grade school. Sam is a great friend, but so are you. So are so many other people here. I won’t run to him because this isn’t a security breach, and no one is getting hurt. At the moment. But please, Kier, you need to find a way to bring this up with him. I don’t want anything to tear our clans apart. Anything that could put us at war with Pinefall when we’re supposed to be living in harmony together, shifters helping other shifters, isn’t a good thing.”
“Yeah.” Kier’s shoulders hunched like he was bracing himself against the sharp-edged truth. “I know. I’ll talk to him soon. You won’t have to keep that secret for long. I just need to talk to Taylee first.”
“Makes sense.”
“I’ll go and get you some clothes.” Kier’s eyes fell to Tavish’s bare feet. That was the second pair of boots he’d obliterated as of late. Years and years in the same pair and now he’d gone through his regular and his spare set. “And some boots.”
Chapter 17
January
Tavish’s bed was a little bit hard for her taste. She hadn’t noticed the first time she was here, but then, on that occasion there was no sleeping. Now, she was exhausted from a long day, travel, and stress, but she couldn’t get comfortable.
Grabbing another pillow, January thrust it on top of the soft down one, hoping to prop herself up enough that her back wouldn’t hurt. Greenacre was so quiet at night, but occasionally, through the blinds, the sweep of headlights would play over the ceiling before retreating.
The house was ultra silent, with just a few homey sounding noises. The buzz of the fridge distant in the kitchen. The sound of the furnace turning on and then shutting off after a few minutes. The occasional soft creak. She could hear the wind outside, but it wasn’t screaming.
Maybe it was the quiet that was maddening. She wasn’t used to not hearing the noises of the city. Over the past year and a half, she’d grown used to the sounds of other people living in the same building. She’d yet to know of a single apartment building where one couldn’t hear one’s neighbors on all sides.
It seemed like a week later, not just a few hours, when the door opened and closed softly.
January sprung out of bed. There was no point in pretending she was asleep. She was thirsty anyway and had forgotten to pour herself a glass of water before she’d put on a fresh pair of leggings and a tank top, her makeshift pajamas since she’d forgotten to pack a real set, and climbed into a bed that wasn’t hers.
She crept out of the bedroom in time to see Tavish hobble into the living room. He spotted her and whirled around. “I’m sorry. Did I wake you up?” There was something on his face. Guilt? What did he have to be guilty about?
“No. I wasn’t asleep.”
“It can be hard, trying to sleep in someone else’s house.”
“Why are you limping?”
“Oh. New boots. They blister the feet up pretty good. I had to borrow a pair.”
“What? Why?”
He patted the seat next to him on the plaid couch. She walked over and sat down. He told her everything, about how he’d startled another shifter and when that bear attacked, he’d shifted spontaneously to protect himself. The fight lasted only a few seconds before the other male realized that the person who snuck up on him was actually a friend. They’d given each other a few swipes, but he held up his t-shirt, showing her the thin red marks.
“They’ll heal fast. That’s something that shifters are pretty good at.”
January was speechless. “That can happen? One shifter can attack another?”
“If you sneak up on a person, do they not fight back?”
“No! That’s insane. Well, maybe, but a fist doesn’t do damage like a wild swipe from a bear. That could gut a man.”
“But I wasn’t a man when it happened.”
“That was probably a near miss.” Her eyes started to burn, and her chest felt tight. She was too early in her pregnancy for hormones to be getting the best of her, wasn’t she? No matter what it was, she was suddenly looking at Tavish through a sheen of moisture, his face distorted by the tears.
“It’s okay. I’m fine. We’re both fine. He went and brought me a set of clothes and new boots. They’re half a size too small, but they’re only until I get a new set for myself.”
“That’s not the point!” One hand flew to her chest, and she massaged the spot above her racing heart. “He could have hurt you. Badly. You were just walking through the woods, doing your job, and he could have killed you.”
“It’s not like that.”
“What’s it like, then?” she snapped. “Explain it to me, as someone who is going to have a child who might have to live here one day. Should I expect that my child could be disembowelled or gravely injured and left to bleed out if he takes one wrong step?”
“No.”
She swiped at her tears, but she when she could see clearly, she didn’t like the way Tavish was looking at her. Like she was something to be handled with care. Like she couldn’t handle her emotions. Worse, like she couldn’t possibly understand what it meant to be him. To be a shifter.
Why had she come here? Why did she think she’d find help here? Sure, she might, but this was a clan of men who all shared one thing in common. They could shift. She couldn’t. She’d never be able to do that. She’d come because she was thinking only of her child.
Alright, so there was a large portion of her that longed for Tavish as well, even after just a few weeks apart...
He’d only had time to send a single letter, which had made her smile and cry, even though it just described regular life in Greenacre, a silly story about one of the men who’d come to the clinic with an infected tooth because he was too scared to visit the new dentist that had just opened up in town a few months earlier, even though everyone else was quite satisfied with his work. Tavish and Kier had practically had to hold his hand and take him back to the dentist.
She didn’t want to think about how that letter made her smile at the time. It still made her want to smile, just the way Tavish had described the whole thing. A vivid snapshot of everyday life, and the kindness in the manner he and Kier had dealt with the scared man. When it came right down to it, what did she understand about Greenacre? She thought it was a haven, but what if she was wrong? What if there was more than anyone was ever going to tell her? Injuries or even accidental death out here? Could bears be violent? What happened when a man who was also a bear got angry about something? No one was perfect. Did things like that happen? Tavish had alluded to the fact that they’d done things as a clan in the past that he wasn’t proud of. No, he’d more than alluded to how the clan got their young from the human women. Bribery. Paying off doctors. Paying off women. That is, if the woman survived the birth at all.
Terror rose up inside her. She’d felt it earlier, talking with Josephine. She’d tried to convince her that nothing would happen to her, and she could trust her fully with her and her baby’s safety, but she had said that pregnancy and birth could be more difficult with a shifter child. She’d gone on to list all the wonderful ways they had of caring for her and how a specialist could be consulted if they needed. They wouldn’t have to know the baby was a shifter. She knew many great doctors and she’d be in good hands.
She’d been fighting with that all day. She was still grappling with the idea of being a mother. Not that she didn’t want to be, but just how much change was going to be involved. It was wonderful and terrifying. She knew she’d do anything to protect her child, but what if the greatest risk came from the very clan who was supposed to keep him safe?
“I can see that you’re upset. Just take a minute to calm down.”
Were there any worse words in the world, or a quicker way to accomplish the exact opposite? She stood up so fast she almost made herself dizzy. “I’m not going to calm down when it comes to the safety of my child, and neither should you.”
“Yes, I know, but I’m telling you that—”
“I think there’s a lot that no one has told me. You’ve all tried to convince me this is a great place, but I don’t know. I don’t think it’s safe. If I asked the people here and they actually gave me an honest answer, would they tell me that there aren’t injuries? There aren’t people who have been hurt or almost killed?” She was working herself up. Maybe it was rational and maybe it wasn’t, but there were zero chances that could be taken. She studied Tavish, daring him to lie to her.
He blinked at her in surprise, like he’d never expected to see her so feral or defiant. “I can’t tell you that and I won’t lie to you. Yes, things have happened in the past. Yes, there have been accidents. We take care that those things don’t happen, but we’re not perfect. Just like out there in the world, things happen. Accidents. Injuries. Broken bones. People hurt each other on purpose. We’re not perfect and neither are they. But would our child be safe here and loved? Absolutely!”
He stood and took her into his arms slowly, touching her shoulders gently first, and then curling her in. She stood still, like a statue. She wasn’t going to be lulled into a false sense of security just because it felt so good to be near him that it scrambled her brain chemistry. But then he stroked her hair. It shouldn’t have felt half so wonderful. He shouldn’t have been so impossibly gentle.
His touch might be gentle, but he was stiff against her too. Like he was afraid that she was going to walk out that door and take his child and never return. She wanted to hope, but that emotion felt so fragile and futile and dangerous. Hope turned to panic.
“What about me?” she said thickly. “Is it safe for people who can’t shift? How would I ever defend myself or protect my child if I found myself staring down an angry bear?”
