by Mina Carter
She had her cell half out of her clutch when it was plucked out of her hand. She gasped and turned to look up into Bennett’s face. His eyes darkened dangerously.
“Sorry, ma’am, but we can’t let you do that. So, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Please take the easy way. Cause you won’t like the alternative.”
Chapter 3
“You can’t do this,” Kait hissed for what seemed like the hundredth time as she was hauled out of the truck and shoved toward a large building. The lodge, apparently. Lodge of what, she had no idea. It looked more like one of those fancy hunting places Aiden and his lot booked for “team building exercises.” Despite having grown up in Beauty, she’d had no idea it was here, tucked away in the forest-covered hills above town.
The others had already unloaded Kacie, rushing her into the building ahead of them. Dean Sterling had been waiting at the door, lines of concern and fear written on his face. Perhaps the thing Kacie had for him wasn’t all one way?
“Hey, Bennett. Stop being an asshole and be gentle.” Lilly stormed around the truck and got all up in Bennett’s face, forcing him to let go of Kait’s arm. “She’s human and scared, so cut her some fucking slack, okay?”
“Yes, Enforcer.” The big guy rumbled, ducking his head in what appeared to be a subservient gesture. Kait’s eyes widened, as much at his manner and the casual way Lilly had referred to her as “human.”
Shitshitshit, this really wasn’t a dream, was it? She stepped to the side, away from the big man and swept a gaze around her. There was a parking area in front of the lodge, filled with all manner of vehicles, but just beyond it was the tree line. She was a fast runner, once she got rid of the ridiculous heels, of course.
If she could make the trees, she had a good shot at getting away from whatever madness this was. Alert the authorities about the attack on Kacie. She’d been thinking about it. Those guys must have had some kind of cosplay claws that fit over their hands…perhaps they were all involved in some weird live action role play world that Lilly also seemed to be involved in.
“Good, don’t you fucking forget it.”
Lilly slid a sideways glance at Kait. “Don’t run, Kait. We’re predators. We like to chase.”
Kait’s breath stuttered in her lungs. How the hell had Lilly known what she was thinking?
“I’ve known you since we were kids. It’s written all over your face. For moon’s sake, never play poker. You’d lose in a heartbeat.” The other woman chuckled. “Come on, let’s get inside.”
Inside, things went from bad to worse. The place was crammed to the rafters with people from town. Familiar faces that Kait had known all her life, like Marvis who taught elementary, and George from the store. She looked around the room, spotting face after face…hell, even Sheriff Anderson was in here, looking at her with the dark eyes she’d come to associate with whatever the hell cult this was.
None of them wore the friendly smiles she was used to seeing, though. Instead, they were all viewing her with suspicion.
The sheriff was the first to speak. “She saw? She knows what we are?”
Lilly nodded. “She saw enough, yes. There was no avoiding it. The intruders didn’t care they were revealing themselves to humans.”
There was that use of “human” again. As though these people weren’t. Kait took a tiny step toward her friend’s side. She seemed to hold some authority in whatever weird setup this was. Hopefully that would help and get them all out of here in one piece.
“She knows and she’s not married to one of us.” Anderson’s voice was not friendly. “You know the law as well as I do, Enforcer. She has to die.”
She had to die.
Kait froze in place, feeling like her feet were rooted to the floor. Her heart pounded in her ears. Did he really just say…? Her world stopped turning. All of her attention focused on that one little sentence. Surely this was taking roleplay a little too far?
Lilly inclined her head. “I do and she isn’t. Yet.”
At that, Kait’s head snapped around to look at her. “Yet?”
Lilly gave a warning shake of her head, her attention on Anderson. “You know how delicate bringing someone into our world is, since your brother had to bring his wife in. It’s a long process, and not completed quickly…unless rushed by other circumstances. Unforeseen circumstances like this.”
“You mean to tell me someone was bringing her in?” Anderson frowned, standing. “Who?”
Kait didn’t miss the tension rolling around the room as he advanced on Lilly. She didn’t back down, though, glaring up at him. A shiver seemed to cover her skin, as though something moved underneath it.
“Who, Enforcer?” the sheriff demanded. “Or I’ll do your job for you. Or maybe,” he looked over, raking a glance down Kait that made her feel sick. “I’ll claim her myself.”
The door opened and closed behind them but Kait daren’t take her eyes off the little interplay between Lilly and the sheriff.
“Touch her and die,” a deep voice said behind her.
A deep, familiar voice. Creed.
With a gasp, Kait whirled around. Creed stood behind her, but this was Creed as she’d never seen him before. He’d always had that bad boy edge, an indefinable aura of danger that had drawn her like a bee to honey, but now he radiated lethality. His usually blue eyes were darkened, the color eaten up by fury as he looked at the other man.
“Kaitlyn Turner is mine. Always has been. Always will be. Anyone has a problem with that, they can take it up with me in the pit.”
Thanks to the call from Bennett, Creed knew that he was walking into a hot situation, and humans finding out about the bears in their midst was about as hot as it got. The clan, all clans, had rules everyone was required to abide by or get the Prime, the bear badass in charge, and his enforcers breathing down their necks. Enforcers like Creed and Lilly, whose fragile feminine form was the best concealment for the meanest she-bear Creed had ever known. Head Enforcer for the Prime, they all took orders from her.
All apart from Anderson, who was a dickhead. He’d had an issue with Lilly ever since she’d been named as Head, always niggling at her decisions and inciting others to argue with her. Creed wasn’t an idiot. The guy’s request to become an enforcer had been turned down several times. He was too volatile and irrational to enforce their laws, no matter what his role in human life was. The fact that his badge meant diddly-squat in the lodge obviously really bugged the shit out of him.
So, he’d expected a shit-storm when Bennett had called him into the lodge, even though he was technically rostered off tonight, but not this. Never this. As soon as he’d opened the door, Kaitlyn’s scent had hit him like a truck doing Mach 1, and the situation went from a possible bust up with a couple of local hotheads right through to outright murder if anyone so much as looked sideways at her.
Like the way Anderson just had. Rage filled Creed, boiling over to consume every cell in his body in a lightning fast reaction. His bear, normally placid and hard to reach, was there, just under the surface to feed him its strength as he glared the other man down.
“Do I make myself clear?” he growled when Anderson didn’t back down. “I claim Kaitlyn Turner as mine. Understand?”
A mulish expression crossed the other man’s face, as though he seriously considered challenging Creed for the right to claim Kaitlyn. Creed took a step forward, a warning rumble in the back of his throat. He might prefer not to shift to fight, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t take this asshole apart with his bare, human hands.
“Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear?” he demanded.
Sudden fear filled Anderson’s eyes and he nodded, dropping his gaze and refusing to make eye contact as he backed off. “Yes, Enforcer, I understand. The woman is yours.”
“Good.”
Without speaking, Creed looked around the clan assembled in the lodge’s main room. A silent challenge to them all that Kait was his. That he was claiming her in front of them all. They all
looked away, no one holding his gaze for more than a few seconds before looking away. Only Lilly smiled and gave him an approving nod.
“Get her out of here,” she leaned in to advise softly. “Let me and the others deal with this lot. You have some explaining to do.” She jerked her head toward Kait, who watched them with over-bright eyes and an expression that said she was teetering on the edge of a breakdown.
“Roger that. Kait, walk.” Looping a hand under her arm, he led her to the other side of the main room.
“Half-skin. Might as well be a fucking human yourself,” someone hissed as they passed.
He ignored them, urging Kait ahead of him. There was always some elitist fucker who hated skins, a slang term for humans, in every clan. They were best ignored most of the time.
The door at the back of the main room led to the stairs and beyond them, the bedrooms on the first and second floors. There were enough for all members of the clan to crash in case they were caught up here. Many stayed at least a couple of nights during the monthly run, when their bears were close to the surface. Creed himself stayed here, but never during that time of month. It was too much of a reminder that he wasn’t like the others, that he was, indeed, a half-skin.
Putting the slur from his mind, he focused on Kait as she walked ahead of him. Her back was straight and her movements tightly controlled. Sure signs that she was trying hard to keep it together. Pride filled him. His girl was tough as nails. She was strong and beautiful…he’d spent years admiring her from afar.
And now, through some bizarre twist of fate, she had landed in his lap. She was his. His to claim…his to bed…
His to mate.
Shit, he was shaking already.
Creed was one of them. And, apparently, she was his.
Kait kept silent as he led her up the stairs and along a corridor to a room at the end. Opening the door, he waved her through it first, his expression set and his eyes the color of the sky before a storm. Whatever was going on, she knew Creed. He wasn’t acting. And he was far too grounded to be involved in any weird cosplay group or cult.
The door shut, making her jump, and she put as much distance as she could between them before turning to face him. He leaned against the door, arms folded as he watched her steadily. He’d always done that. Watched her. From the first time her brother had brought him home when they were kids. Always watching, like something about her fascinated him.
“What?” she snapped, her nerves almost at a breaking point. “Do I have something on my nose?” She lifted her hand to rub at it, just in case. “God forbid I should have something on my nose after the complete fuck up tonight has been.” She laughed, the sound harsh in the silence of the room.
A bedroom, she belatedly noticed, with a large double bed covered in crisp, white sheets. He’d claimed she was his and brought her up to a bedroom. Even an idiot could figure out what was going to happen next.
“Creed… What’s going on? Who were those men and why did they hurt…” Her voice broke and she paused to gather herself. “Why did they hurt Kacie? Why did the sheriff tell Lilly I had to die? Please… what am I missing?”
“Fucking Anderson. I’ll rip him to shreds. He shouldn’t have said that in front of you.” Anger flared across Creed’s eyes for a moment and he pushed off the door in an explosion of movement.
She couldn’t help the squeak escaping her lips and backed up as far as she could away from him. Half-remembered things from the past swirled in her mind. Like how half the town always seemed scared of him and how he’d walked away from the accident that had killed her brother with barely a scratch. She’d put it down to sheer dumb luck at the time, but now she wasn’t so sure.
“Shhhh, I’m not going to hurt you. I promise,” he said reassuringly, approaching her with his hands held out to the sides. The care he took eased her nerves a little bit. He obviously wasn’t going to jump her right away.
Damn. Disappointment rolled through her, displacing more of the fear. This was Creed after all. He’d never hurt her… Even in this strange, upside down world, she knew he’d never hurt her. But she had to know.
“Did my brother find out about this?” she asked suddenly, surprising even herself. “Is that what really happened that night? In the car?”
“No!” Creed’s denial was immediate and forceful. Before she knew it, he was there in front of her, his large hands gripping her upper arms. “Kait, I would never do anything to hurt you or your brother. You have to believe me.”
As soon as he’d touched her, she froze, fear running rampant through her veins. But, looking into his eyes, she saw the honesty there and relaxed a little. Something deep inside her wanted to burrow into the safety and comfort of his arms and stay there forever, but her brain, always thinking, wouldn’t let her.
“Tell me what’s going on.”
He sighed, running a hand over his close cropped hair. “Sit down.”
She did, watching as he squatted down in front of her. The shirt he wore stretched over his chest and shoulders, the tight fabric hugging the sculpted muscles beneath. Tattoos covered his arms, moving as he flexed his forearms to rest them on his thighs.
“Okay, there’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to come out with it. Don’t freak out on me, okay? Just hear me out.” His deep voice was a quiet rumble in the silence of the room.
He held her gaze, his expression earnest as he reached for her hands. Like he needed the contact, and she didn’t refuse. His thumbs stroked over the backs of her knuckles reassuringly. Well, it should have been reassuring. The feel of his hands on hers sent all her feminine instincts haywire.
“We’re bears, Kaitlyn. Werebears.”
O…kay. Whatever she’d expected him to say, it hadn’t been that.
“Werebears?” She laughed, but the sound was unsure, dying a quick death under his steady gaze. “What…like werewolves but with turning into bears instead? Don’t be silly. Monsters like that are just made up for books and films. They’re not real.”
Even as she spoke, the memory of the men in the alley filled her mind. The weird claws she’d thought were elaborate cosplay weapons…the way they’d snarled and the darkness in their eyes.
“Oh shit.” Her hand stole up to cover her throat. “They really did have claws, didn’t they?”
Creed nodded, his expression grim. “I’m afraid so. They weren’t local bears, but occasionally we get gangs of males causing trouble. We have a team out looking for them now.”
She wasn’t listening to him, her gaze on her hand in his. His dwarfed hers, the nails short and clean.
“Do…do you have claws?” Her question was quiet, and a tendril of…not fear but, hell, she didn’t know what wormed its way into her voice. Carefully, she reached out to touch his fingers, then jumped when he moved suddenly.
“Of course. Hear me roar,” he teased softly, making a mock snarling noise and clawing the air with his fingers.
“Idiot.”
She shook her head at him, watching him as the silence settled between them. It wasn’t an entirely comfortable silence; it was one fraught with awareness. If she’d thought lying still on a couch while he tattooed her was bad, watching him watching her was even worse.
“What did you mean, when you said I was yours?”
The small smile was back, flirting with the edges of his lips. “What do you think I meant, Kait?”
“Well… It sounded like…”
Shit, she couldn’t say the words. Taking a deep breath, she blurted out, “From what they said it sounded like marriage, or something. Anderson said I was your woman. But that’s ridiculous. No one can just claim a woman like that. We’re not in the damn Middle Ages.”
His expression didn’t change as she expected. He didn’t laugh or brush it all off as a joke. The hope she clung to that this was all a setup and someone with cameras would jump out of the nearest closet and shout, “Surprise!” faded abruptly.
“In our world, no human can kno
w of our existence. If they find out, one of two things has to happen.”
“And those are?” She’d worked out the answer but needed him to say it.
“Then they have to marry one of us…or die.”
He reached out and slid his hand into her nape, stroking his thumb against the side of her neck. “And I can’t let you die, Kait. You’re mine. You always have been. You just didn’t know it.”
Leaning forward, he brushed his lips over hers gently. The merest press of his mouth against hers before he broke away. He didn’t go far though, pausing to nuzzle her nose with his. The lover-like movement melted her heart and she tilted her head up, chasing his lips.
The little invitation was all he needed. With a groan in the back of his throat, he claimed her lips again. Harder this time. They were warm and firm, demanding as he moved in, parting her thighs to kneel between them.
A strong arm wrapped around her waist to pull her closer, against his broad chest. Sitting on the bed, she was that little bit taller, but felt surrounded by his strength. Protected. Her hands collided with the broad expanse of his shoulders and stopped. She spread her fingers to explore at the same moment he brushed his tongue against her upper lip. A silent request for access she couldn’t deny.
Parting her lips, she caught her breath as he surged forward and up at the same time, thrusting his tongue in to explore the soft recesses of her mouth. At the same time, he gathered her closer, pulling her from the bed and into his embrace where he knelt on the floor. Her knees ended up either side of his parted thighs, her weight supported by his arm as she nearly, but not quite, sat in his lap. All it would take was for her to wriggle forward, or for him to pull her closer so that their hips were flush. But he didn’t, and neither did she as he slowly slid his tongue against hers. Stroking and teasing her to join him in a primal dance. The hand at the nape of her neck moved up to tangle in her hair. Not to control but just to touch. To explore. He slid his fingers through the soft strands over and again. He broke the kiss to feather his lips over hers, to nuzzle her nose with his, before claiming her mouth again, deeper and harder this time.