Protected by the Claws: A Motorcycle Club Bear Shifter Romance

by Laura Wylde

  Now I was supposed to believe that it was Baron? It made no sense whatsoever, and I couldn’t believe a word coming from my dad’s mouth. He had a motive to break us up. I never knew what it was though. I just knew that Dad had never liked Baron. I’d always thought that it was because we were dating, but now I was starting to see that it was far more personal. I just didn’t know what to do with that information yet.

  “I will stay away from him, Dad, but I just want to know why.”

  “How about the fact that he is a suspect in a triple murder trial? Isn’t that enough for you?”

  It should have been. It really should have been, and I nodded like it was. I wasn’t going to get any more information from Dad then I had gotten already, so there was no point in making him think that I wasn’t going to listen. He could think whatever he wanted to think, and I was going to do whatever it was that I wanted to do. This is how it worked with us. How it had always worked with us.

  “I guess so. I’ve got work to do, so if there is anything else…”

  “Just be safe. This is a dangerous case, and I don’t want anything happening to you. It’s becoming clear that it wasn’t a wild animal that did this. It was something else.”

  I left his office with his words on my mind. I was thinking about what I’d found the night before--the scratches on Baron’s body. Surely Dad wasn’t right. There had to be an explanation that made sense because none of this was right. What was Dad suggesting? It wasn’t a wild animal, but something else. What the hell did that mean? What else was there besides human and animal?

  When I left his office, I was far more confused than I had been before. I don’t know why, but there was something just not right with what was going on. Dad thought that it was Baron who had killed those people, but I knew better. I knew that there was no way that Baron could hurt someone like that. He was a fighter, but more that bar brawl-type, and that was when he was younger. This new Baron, the one that I stayed with last night, was different. He was so gentle and kind. There was no way that he would do something like that. There was just no way.

  I’d started this investigation thinking that I needed to catch the killer, but now I was far more focused on making sure that Baron wasn’t tagged with it. I knew that he was innocent, and if my father had his way, he would finally get him behind bars like he’d wanted to so many times before. I wasn’t going to let that happen. I just couldn’t. I loved Baron, and I wasn’t going to let my father ruin his life.

  There had to be another explanation for all of this and I was going to figure out what it was, if it’s the last thing that I did.

  Chapter 13

  Baron

  Things were getting complicated, and the fact that I’d woken up covered in scratches since I’d been back, told me that there was more going on than sleepwalking again. I used to have control over myself, had for a long time, but coming back here, bringing up all of those all memories was killing me. I don’t know what it was that was going on, but I knew that there was something that was making me like this. I hadn’t been this way since the first time I changed. I didn’t like being out of control.

  I didn’t know if I had killed those people. I had done something like that before, ten years ago, but I had memories of it. I dreamed about those two deputies most nights and though they weren’t the only ones that I’d killed since finding out what I was, they were the only ones that didn’t really deserve it. They were just following orders.

  The man who had made the orders was the one I had beef with, no one else. He was the one that had survived, and Mike was the only person that I really wish I had killed when I’d had a chance. He’d done some things to his daughter, shady memories in her mind that I knew I could have saved her from. I also knew that if I wanted the whole truth on what happened after I left, I was going to have to go to Mike. He wouldn’t shield it like Kayla did, most likely because he was proud of it. I would even guess that he was boastful. Men like him didn’t change.

  My plan was to go see him at his place that evening. I don’t know what I was going to say or how it was all going to go down, but part of me knew that something drastic was going to happen. All I had to do was get him to think about what he’d done. I didn’t care about revenge, one of the other reasons I was here. Now that I had Kayla back in my bed, the last thing that I wanted to do was mess that up. Killing her father would be a deal breaker. I’m pretty sure of that, no matter how much she was mad at him.

  As evening got closer, I started to think about that night more and more, and it made me realize that the sheriff knew more than he was letting on. The murders started when I came back into town. Was he trying to frame me? Or had I really gone back to a more primitive form of myself, like when I had first found out? I had to know, and that meant that I had to get inside of his head.

  I was getting dressed, straight out of the shower when I heard the doorbell. I liked to think that it was Mike coming to me, and now I wouldn’t have to go to him, but it was something even better. His beautiful daughter was standing at the door, and she smiled up at me. She had a couple of bags of take out from the Chinese place that we used to go to all the time.

  “Hope you’re hungry because I got one of everything that you used to like. I didn’t know if your taste buds had changed.”

  Her eyes were taking in my body, and I could almost feel the need sweep over her. It was hard to deny what it did to me and what the idea of it all was doing to me at this very second. I wanted her right then. My plans were now pushed onto the back burner. None of it matter, none of it. All that mattered was Kayla, and she was standing right in front of me, so what more could I have asked for?

  “No, they haven’t changed. I haven’t had Chinese in a while. Come in. How was work?”

  It was nice to be back to a place where we could talk about things that were normal. I wanted to be in that place where we were before. I would pick her up from school, and we’d talk about our day. It was normal. It was what I wanted back. I wanted Kayla back, and this was my chance. I wasn’t going to waste it on Mike. I would find out what I needed to find out later. Tonight was just for us.

  “Good, well are you going to let me in or are you going to stare at me all night?”

  I was staring, but I couldn’t help it. I felt so many emotions and just to see her again, smiling at me like she used to, pulled at my heart and made it impossible for me to do anything else. I finally moved out of the way after she told me I was acting like a door.

  “What’s gotten into you, Baron?”

  “I’m just really happy to see you, that’s all.”

  She grinned a little bigger and said that she was happy to see me too. “I wish you hadn’t left, Baron. I used to think about how life would have been with you there. It was always better than the one I was leading.”

  It was a confession that made me stop. I shouldn’t have left. I wish so much that things that night had been different. If I had been older, stronger, wiser, I wouldn’t have left like I did. But I was scared of what I was, what I had become. I was fearful that Mike would tell his daughter what I really was, and I would lose her anyway. At least if I left on my own accord, she would be none the wiser and wouldn’t hate me. That had seemed like the best choice at the time, but now I wasn’t so sure that I’d made the right decision. Now I wondered what would have happened if I would have told her the truth. I could still tell her the truth.

  “Are you going to come eat, or what?”

  She was standing in the kitchen by the counter, and I was still by the door. She giggled at me like I was off my rocker. Maybe I was. Thankfully she couldn’t read my thoughts like I could hers. She would have known a long time ago what the truth was.

  “Yeah, I’m coming. Sorry. I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

  “Well I can always come back when you’re more rested up…”

  I grabbed her around the waist and told her that she wasn’t going anywhere. Kayla tried to push me off of her when my k
iss became more exuberant.

  “Stop, I thought we were having dinner. You know these Dan Dan noodles aren’t any good heated back up.”

  “I’ll just have to live with it because what I need now is not in those bags. I’m hungry for something else altogether.”

  She smiled up at me and kissed me back before I turned her around and ran my hand up the back of her thigh.

  “Oh yeah?”

  I pulled her skirt up and was rewarded with a sight that I was never going to get tired of. She had on these cute little pink panties underneath her skirt and pantyhose on top of that. I ripped the pantyhose to get to her sooner and then pushed her underwear to the side to slide a finger in. Kayla bent over the table as I pushed her down and now her ass was inches from my face.

  Tasting her sweetness on my finger when I pulled it back off, she moaned as I said her name out loud. I really needed her, and I really wanted her right this instant. I slid in quickly and heard her gasp as her hands grabbed the edge of the counter to get full control of herself. She was going to have to fight the rocking as her body moved forward in jerks. I always wanted to take her slow, but once I was inside of her, it was pretty much impossible. Kayla wasn’t made for long nights of lovemaking. She was made for bursts of passion that made a man lose his head, and I had sure the hell lost mine.

  The dreams were back, and they were again of the night that I changed for the first time. I could feel the pain going through my bones and then the feel of the chains and rope coming off of me. I had willed it off with a strength that I didn’t know I possessed. I didn’t know that I could do that, that I could change in such a way. I learned the hard way what happens when I work myself up too much.

  I could feel the fear that had taken over me and then the rage that replaced it. When I opened my eyes, becoming who I was supposed to always be, there were men in front of me that I wanted to kill. I had to kill them all. I knew that there was a part of me that would always feel this way. I would always have a monster waiting inside of me, dying to come out and cause destruction.

  The more I thought about the men I attacked that night, the more the dream played in my head, the more my heart rate went up. I wasn’t ready to feel this way again, but I couldn’t stop the change. I couldn’t stop the rage that built up, and the pain as my bones and skin changed to accommodate my other state.

  I woke up from my dream to Kayla screaming. I knew it was her as soon as I heard it, and it pulled me right back to the present. I was on the bed, now broken, and I was in a form that couldn’t talk to her. I was now a bear, and I wasn’t able to tell her that everything was going to be okay. It wasn’t, but I couldn’t even lie to her in that moment to negate the risks. She saw me as the monster that I knew I was.

  I tried to calm down, but the screaming was getting louder. I couldn’t have her leave like this, telling people what she saw in the room. I had to stop her, but I didn’t know how. She was backing towards the door and when I got up moving towards her, she started to run. Kayla didn’t realize who I was, but it didn’t matter. I had to stop her, tell her, explain to her. My worst nightmare was coming true. I never wanted Kayla to know what I truly was. I didn’t want to see the same fear I saw on her face now. I didn’t want it to end like this.

  “Stop, Ky, it’s me. I know how I look, but it’s me, Baron. You need to stop.”

  She must have finally heard my words over her own screaming in her head. Kayla looked at me shocked and said my name with a question on her lips. I know that she didn’t want to believe it was me, but she had to. I couldn’t have her running off and telling everyone what she’d seen. It wouldn’t work out well, and the more I tried to calm her down, the more she freaked out.

  “You can’t be Baron!”

  “I am. I’m sorry, Kayla. I’m sorry you have to find this out. I’m sorry you had to find out like this.”

  Kayla had made it to the door, and she wasn’t walking towards me, though she wasn’t running away from me either anymore. So I was going to see this as a good thing. I wanted her to know that she was safe, and I went back to the broken bed and tried to calm down. It was the only way I was going to be able to speak to her in my human form. My emotions were hard to deal with when I was sleeping, and I wasn’t able to control myself. I tried, but I was too upset that she’d seen me like this. I was afraid of what was going to happen. How she was going to take it all? It was a lot to put on anyone’s plate, and I wish I didn’t have to do it to her. I still had days that it was hard to deal with my new life and who I was.

  She finally moved towards me slowly. She was moving very slowly, and she had her hand out like she was warding me off or keeping me from attacking her. I wish she knew, I wish I could tell her that I would never want to hurt her. There was just no way. I loved her too much and no matter what form I was in, that wasn’t going to change.

  I was looking down at the claws and fur, disgusted with myself. I hated my true form because it made everything more difficult. I didn’t want to be this way, not sure why I was this way because no one knew. I’d never met another one like me. I felt alone and now the woman I loved was never going to look at me the same again.

  “Baron?”

  I looked up, and she was sitting next to me on the bed. I thought her eyes would be full of fear, but instead they were full of love. She put her arm around my neck and pulled me to her. Finally, I was able to relax, and I was able to calm myself down. I would be able to explain it all, no matter how hard it was going to be or how crazy it was all going to sound.

  Chapter 14

  Kayla

  I was in shock. I think that was what this was. I’d woken up to the bed breaking and a huge brown bear next to me. I thought at first I was dreaming, but I was curled up against it, I could feel it was alive, the heat, the fur. I couldn’t believe what was going on. This couldn’t be.

  Then as I tried to run, the bear came at me, and I thought I was a goner. It was Baron’s voice though. He was the bear. He was talking to me without saying a word. It was all in my head, and I thought for sure that I’d lost my mind. I had to have. This isn’t really happening, is it?

  The bear, Baron, whatever, went to the bed and just sat down. I know that bears don’t have regular faces, and I know that they aren’t supposed to show expression, but all could say was that it was the saddest looking bear I’d ever seen.

  I knew that I had to go to him. Baron was confused, and he was so sad. I don’t know how this happened, how it was even possible, but I knew that he was still the man that I loved. No matter what he looked like at the moment.

  Sitting down next to him, all I could do was put my arms around him. It was clear that he needed it, and to be honest, so did I. I had so many questions and now I didn’t even know if I would find the answers. But what struck me the oddest was how I felt around him. This was still Baron and instead of being afraid like I should have been, all I could think about was how safe I felt. The beast was still the man I loved and after the last couple of nights we’d had, nothing was going to change that, not even this.

  He started to move away and before my very eyes, the bear went back to the man. He was just as sad looking as he was in animal form, and I felt horrible. There was obviously something going on with him, but I didn’t know what to say or how to fix it. I loved him, and I just wanted him to be okay.

  “Baron?”

  Finally meeting my gaze, his eyes were dark, and the depths were unfathomable. This was a side of Baron that I’d never seen before and it scared me a little bit because I’d never seen an expression like that from him.

  “Kayla, I’m sorry. I am so sorry.”

  “It’s okay Baron. It really is. It makes sense why you have all those books on shifters now. Though I don’t get why you have all those newspaper clippings.”

  “Would you believe that I am trying to find someone else like me, and I thought that maybe I could find them that way? I’ve tried for years to find another shifter, to get some answers
. I still don’t even know why I am this way. I never wanted you to see me like this.”

  “Why did you hide this from me? How long have you known?”

  Those weren’t the questions that I wanted to ask. I wanted to, well I don’t know. What does one say when she finds out the man she loves turns into a bear? It seems problematic at best. I was still shocked, stunned and I wasn’t ready for his answers.

  “I’ve known about it since that night with your father, Kayla. The night I left.”

  “Am I going to finally find out what happened between the two of you?”

  “Like I said before, it wasn’t just us. He had two deputies there, Roger and Fischer.”

  “I thought you didn’t know who they were?”

  “I lied.”

  “Weren’t those the two deputies that came up missing and never came back?”

  He sighed and looked away. There was more to it, and I knew that if I waited patiently it would come out. It was hard to think about all of this at the moment, but I knew that I was going to have to find out. This was important. That was the night he left, two deputies disappeared, and Dad got injured. I’m starting to think that they are all related.

  “Yeah, those were the two. They’re dead. I killed them. They had me tied to a tree, and the beast came out in me. I didn’t even know that I could change like that and then I did. It’s tied to fear and stress. I haven’t changed in the middle of the night in years. I think it’s since I’ve been here. I’ve been on edge, and I can’t control it like I usually do.”

  “And the scratches?”

  He shrugged and told me that he really didn’t know what happened. “I just woke up like this. I don’t know how they got there and how there is no trace of where I’ve been. I usually break things when I change inside of a house.” He motioned to the bed, and I could see how that would be something that happened. His bear form was huge and wouldn’t fit in most spaces inside.