He was a new man. A man who was loved for who he was, a man who belonged, a man who could share his heart and his joy and never fear not being accepted. It was the greatest moment of his life. A moment he'd been waiting for since he’d lost his grandma so many years ago. He knew that Arabella felt it too. She'd been waiting for him just like he had been waiting for her, so she could be honest and true.
He his heart was ready to burst with happiness as he held her and he knew that from that moment on, nothing would ever be the same for either of them.
"We should probably get ready," Titus said. “We have a really busy day today.”
"I just want to stay in bed with you all day," she said with a laugh.
"We'll have plenty of time for that from now on.” The feeling of her in his arms was a balm to his soul.
“I'm slightly dreading having to call off the tour, now that I don’t have a manager to do it for me. But I know it's the right thing to do.”
“I'm here to help you with whatever you need."
"I know you are. I don't know how I would have gotten through the last couple of days without you.”
"You can get through anything, Arabella Fernandez. You are the strongest person I've ever known.”
“I feel the same way about you.”
They kissed again and then went off to their own rooms to shower and dress for the day. Titus couldn't stop thinking about taking Arabella home to Fate Rock. To start the quiet comfortable life together in the first place he’d ever felt at home. It was like he was getting a chance to start over. A chance to be the man he'd always wanted to be, the man he was deep down inside despite all the trauma and pain and war.
He came out of the bathroom fresh and dressed, with a happy heart. He’d almost forgotten about all of the problems they were dealing with. But when he stepped out into the living room, he heard her talking on the phone, trying to explain that she'd fired the tour manager and that the whole tour was getting called off.
"After yesterday, it's just too dangerous to go on. I can't risk my crew’s or my audience’s safety. I know that we've made agreements, but we're just going to have to deal with that.”
She looked up at Titus and rolled her eyes. He felt terrible for her that she was having to deal with this by herself.
"I'm going to have to go down to the stadium," she said, hanging up the phone. “The booking manager is angry that we’re canceling the next two shows in Las Vegas, even though there was an explosion on stage last night. I swear, some people only care about money."
"Don't you have someone else who can deal with this?" he asked.
“Not after I fired Vanessa. Maybe I jumped the gun on that. But I'm tired of people trying to tell me what to do, and I won’t work with a bigot.”
“It's not safe for you to be out right now.”
"I have to deal with this or they're going to hold our equipment.”
"They can't get away with that."
"I'm afraid they already have. I called my equipment manager and told him we were canceling the rest of the tour, and he tried to start loading out, but the stadium booking manager wouldn't let him. I'm going to lose half a million dollars’ worth of the equipment. I have no idea how to deal with this.”
"We'll get through it together."
They took the Bentley down to the stadium, and Titus walked Arabella to the booking manager's office.
"Oh, he's expecting you," the secretary said. “Right this way.”
Arabella and Titus started down the hall when the secretary told him to stop.
"He can wait outside." She pointed at a chair.
"He's my personal bodyguard."
"You’ll be perfectly fine,” the secretary said as if speaking to a child. “This is a private meeting.”
Arabella let out a deep sigh and Titus nodded. “I'll be right out here."
"All right. Let's get this over with.”
Chapter 16
"What are you doing here, Vanessa?" Arabella insisted when she walked through the door and found the woman sitting there with a man she didn’t recognize.
“I was asked to be present," Vanessa said. The man behind the desk was not the booking manager.
"What's going on here?" Arabella asked, growing worried.
She turned to open the door to let Titus in, but Vanessa blocked her path and she locked the door. The man grabbed her and covered her mouth as she screamed. She struggled and tried to bite his hand, but she couldn’t get away. She screamed again, angrier this time, feeling so stupid for having fallen for whatever this was.
"People like you are what's wrong with this world," Vanessa said. “Human women who think mating with shifters is a good idea. You think it’s harmless. Well, it's not. And you had the nerve to fire me after everything I've done for you. Well, I knew some people who would be very interested in getting their hands on Senator Fernandez's daughter.”
Arabella kicked and screamed, trying to get away from the man holding her. But he was too strong. She heard Titus yelling at the door, banging repeatedly trying to get in. A tear slipped down her face. They were so close to having their happily ever after. And she had been foolish enough to trust the wrong people. All she wanted was to do the right thing for her crew and to settle her affairs before ending the tour. She had never imagined something like this would happen.
Even after the bombing on stage the night before, she was still ignorant to the lengths that people would go to in order to further their own hateful agendas. The man began to pull her toward a rear exit. Titus banged louder on the door. Outside, they tugged her into a waiting car just as Titus burst through the locked door. She bit at her captor’s hand, trying to scream for Titus. She saw him in all his feral glory bursting through the door and running toward her, just as she was shoved into the car. He reached her just as the car screeched away.
The man holding her finally let her go so she could breathe.
"Who are you? Why are you doing this?"
"We are the Shifter Liberation Army. I thought you already figured that out. Your ex-manager informed us of your situation.”
"How could you do this, Vanessa? I thought you were a good person.”
"There's a war happening, and it's time you picked a side.”
"If you hate shifters so much, why are you working with them?”
"Because at the end of the day, we want the same thing. Human and shifter segregation. Sometimes you have to make peace with your enemy to achieve the greater good.”
"You’re both insane," Arabella said. “You'll never get away with this. You'll never get what you want. Humans and shifters were meant to get along. Not to be separated. We can mate and have children together for a reason. We are the same.”
"It's exactly that attitude that needs to be corrected,” Vanessa said. “And people like me and the Shifter Liberation Army believe the same thing. That’s why we’re working together, for now."
“Plus the handsome sum we paid you," the man said, showing his sharp teeth through his maniacal smile.
"There is that," Vanessa said with a chuckle. "You can let me out any time." The car pulled up to the sidewalk and Vanessa jumped out. "I hope you learn your lesson.”
"You'll pay for this," Arabella said as Vanessa closed the door.
She was left with the man who’d taken her.
"Why are you doing this?” she pleaded to the man who’d taken her.
“You know very well why. Your mother's bill. If she withdraws it, you can go back to your life. If not, well then. Everyone will get a taste of the terror they accuse us of.”
"How will hurting me and holding me for ransom convince the world that you aren’t terrorists?"
"What makes you think that we want to do that?" he asked with a chuckle. “We are terrorists. We want the human population to be afraid. We want you all to realize exactly what your shifter neighbors are capable of.”
“Not all shifters are like you. Most of them don't believe in what you're doi
ng.”
"They should. Any shifter who isn’t on our side is part of the problem.”
"You don't care about what's best for your people."
"Our purpose is the greater good, whether or not individual shifters understand what that is. Someday they will, and they'll thank us. Shifters like your mate," he said, sniffing the air, “have completely bought into human supremacy. They are our greatest barrier to creating the world we want. A world where shifters take their rightful place as rulers of this world.”
"You and your kind give shifters a bad name. You are not what shifters stand for. You don't care about your mates. You don't care about your families. You go against everything that shifters have ever espoused. You only care about control. When my mate finds you, you'll get what's coming to you.”
"You have quite a bite for a human girl. It must be the shifter mate coming out. You are going to need all the bite you can get for what we have planned. Until then, I'm afraid I don't want to listen to your foolish opinions. So I’m going to have to keep you quiet." He grabbed her and fashioned a gag around her mouth and tied her hands to keep her from taking it off. "And I think that you should get your beauty sleep.” He pressed a cloth over her nose. She tried to fight, she tried to protest, but he was much too strong. She had to breathe in whatever foul concoction he'd forced on her. Within a moment, everything went black.
Chapter 17
Titus smashed his shoulder into the locked door, but it wouldn't budge. It was too strong. He growled, growing more and more frantic with each passing second. Something was terribly wrong. He had to help Arabella. His inner rage exploded from within. His body contorted and shifted. His clothes ripped to shreds. His grizzly barely fit in the hallway. The secretary who'd shown them to the office screamed. He bashed open the door and found the room empty.
He ran to the door just in time to see Vanessa and a man he could tell was a shifter shove his beloved into a car. He charged into the parking lot as the car screeched away. He was left standing, shocked and horrified at what had just happened. His grizzly raged. How could he have let this happen right under his nose? He’d vowed to protect her, and he had failed.
He charged after the car, but it sped away too quickly for him to keep up. He stopped in the middle of the street. Onlookers gawked and screamed at the sight of full-grown grizzly charging down the road.
He stopped, panting and out of breath. He didn’t want to scare anyone, especially in this political climate. He was going to make this right. He was going to find her. Whoever had taken her was going to pay. Slowly he turned, the rage in his heart boiling in his brain. He made his way back to the office where he’d just been. The secretary was standing in the door, yelling and terrified.
"What's going on here?” She turned, and then ran when she saw Titus approaching in bear form.
He walked over to his torn clothing and shifted. He needed something to cover himself and shredded clothing would have to do. He'd already drawn enough attention to himself. He quickly threw them on and hurried out of the stadium to his car. He grabbed his phone and called one of the few people he could trust.
"Hawk."
“Nice to hear from you Titus," Hawk said. “Have you been partying like a rock star?”
"I need your help," Titus said. “Arabella has been kidnapped.”
"What do you need?" Hawk said immediately.
“I need Intel and backup. I'm also going to need permission to fire my weapon if necessary.”
"You have it," Hawk said. "Now, let’s get to the bottom of this fast. Senator Fernandez is about to give a speech.”
"I'm sure it was the hyenas who have been attacking Arabella's show. They want to stop the bill at any cost. And they think attacking Arabella will accomplish that. I've been working with local law enforcement trying to identify the responsible parties. But we haven't had the most luck.”
“I got Sampson on the line."
"Tell me everything."
Titus proceeded to inform Sampson of all the events of the past several days.
"And have you claimed her yet?" he asked.
"I don't think that’s a pertinent question.”
"It could be."
"Yes. I have.” Titus’s anger flared anew.
He had been blissfully dreaming about a peaceful life with his mate just seconds before those bastards had taken her. If anything happened to Arabella, those hyenas would wish they'd never been born.
“I’ve got a reading on a local hyena house. It’s not far from your location. I'm sending you the address now,” Sampson said, the sound of keyboard clicking filling the phone line.
“Got it," Titus said.
"You should wait for backup," Sampson said.
"There's no time."
"You need to be careful," Samson said.
"Oh, I will be,” Titus said. “I’m never going to let my mate out of my sight again."
Titus followed his GPS to the location, but didn’t call in for backup like Sampson had suggested. The police had been unable to protect Arabella. They’d even let the shifter he’d nabbed out of jail. He no longer trusted them. He would do what needed to be done, even if the police couldn't.
Titus sped down the street, wearing nothing but the shreds of his clothes.
"Don't do anything stupid," Hawk said. He wanted him to wait for backup. But Titus wasn't going to wait. He wasn't going to hold back. All his life he'd been living a lie. Pretending to be a man that he wasn't. But today, he was going to do whatever it took to protect the woman he loved.
The house was on the outskirts of town, deep in the desert tucked between two mesas. He pulled his car up to the edge of the property. It was protected on all sides. From humans. But Titus wasn't a human. He was a shifter to the core. And even though his human relatives had rejected him and rejected his bear, Titus had never and would never turn on the human community the way the hyenas had.
Instead, he’d hidden his truth. Never again. Not now that he had found his love. These horrible animals weren't about to take her away from him. He parked his car behind a cluster of cactuses, hidden out of sight from the house. He got out, threw his mangled clothes into the car, and dropped into his bear form.
He hurried down the rocky path, his anger and rage growing by the moment. He could smell the hyenas on the air, and it only made him angrier. He didn't know what he would do when he got a hold of them. All the anger and frustration he had pent up inside him was come to a head. He might rip them the shreds and let the police sort it out later.
He began to move around the house, sniffing out the occupants. The smell of Arabella hit his nose, and the fury he’d been holding back blinded his senses. He could barely see through the rage. But his human mind convinced him to stay calm.
He needed to stay focused for Arabella’s sake. He couldn't let his anger blind him or he wouldn't be able to save her. He’d never let anything bad happen to her ever again.
These hyenas would be lucky if they lived. How he was feeling now, he didn't know if he could show them any mercy. Nor did he care to. All his life, through all his troubles and trials, he'd kept his cool. He had kept his emotions under wraps. He’d pretended to be the big bad bear that everyone expected him to be. But today, he truly was that bear.
All his frustration, all his rage, all his suppressed emotions came together in that single moment of intensity. For the first time ever, Titus knew who he really was. He was the man his colleagues expected him to be. He was the bear the humans expected him to be. And he was the lover he was fated to be, for Arabella. He was all those things.
His mind was awash with thoughts and feelings that he had never experienced before. But it made him stronger than he'd ever been. Surer of himself and of the love he felt for the beautiful human woman.
He smelled the men in the house and had a lock on their location. He had honed heightened shifter senses in the military, and they were keener and stronger than ever before. Hawk had asked him to wait for backup. Bu
t he could hear Arabella inside the house, crying for help and pleading to be let her go. He wasn't going to wait a minute longer while these creatures threatened his beloved.
With a great roar, he burst through the door into the house. The hyenas screamed and scattered. Several of them shifted, and one of them had a gun. Titus charged at the armed hyena, bashing him so that the gun clattered across the floor to Arabella's feet. She was sitting on the couch with her hands bound and her face streaked with tears.
She kicked the gun under the couch before the other hyena could grab it. One of them went down on his hands and knees trying to grab the weapon, but he couldn't reach it. The others shifted and charged at Titus, but were too small to make a dent in his iron hide.
"Titus, look out," Arabella screamed.
Another hyena had come into the room with a shotgun aimed at Titus. He was cocking the gun but was too slow. Titus charged at the gunman and the weapon went clattering across the floor. Titus stepped on it with his paw, bending until it was unusable.
The hyenas continued to attack, biting and clawing and gnashing. But Titus bashed them off one after the next. Several of them attacked at once. Their teeth bit into his skin, and he bellowed an angry roar.
"Titus," Arabella screamed. “Get off him, you horrible animals!"
"Is that what you think of us, Princess?" one of them cackled, grabbing Arabella by the arm and yanking her from the couch. “Even with a shifter mate, you can't hide your true colors.”
"He’s a hero! You are all villains," she exclaimed.
“Let's see how your hero stands up against this," her captor said, pulling out a pistol.
Before Titus had a chance to respond, a bullet flew. It narrowly missed his snout by a few inches and landed in his shoulder.
Bodyguard Bear (Justice Squad Book 3) Page 8