Bear Attraction

by Jennifer Ashley

  Right now, his arms were covered by the sleeves of his fatigues, and he’d folded them across his chest. Not a welcoming stance. A delicious-looking man, but one who took no shit.

  Rebecca was an unmated Shifter female in her prime years, and her frenzy was never far from the surface. Walker was a fine and virile man, and though she was his captive, his physical presence did things to her.

  But if she went into mating frenzy here and now, she’d be tranqued again, and the Goddess only knew where she’d wake up next time. She’d have to suppress her biological urges, at least long enough to figure out what was going on and get back home.

  She wet her dry mouth before she could speak. “What the hell am I doing here?” she croaked. “I feel like shit. What was in that tranq?”

  “You’d been shot by the hunters,” Walker said, his voice irritatingly calm. “We took some shot out of you while you were out. The tranq will wear off. It’s harmless to you.”

  “Harmless? Right. Because you’re so up on how Shifter metabolisms work.”

  Walker didn’t change expression. “I work for Shifter Bureau. They know all kinds of things about Shifters and their metabolisms.”

  “Yeah, from all those experiments.” Twenty years ago, when Shifters had first come out, Shifter Bureau had rounded up many Shifters and stuck them into labs to see how they worked.

  “We still have the information.” Walker let out a short breath, the military man at last cracking to reveal the human beneath. “Rebecca, they ordered me to bring you in. The developers were making a stink about a Shifter running around on their land—one developer in particular, who has a lot of weight.”

  “Maybe he should go on a diet.” Rebecca wet her mouth again, a sour scratch in her throat. She wanted water. Or beer. Beer would be better.

  “They’re building a research facility,” Walker said. “Big pharma. Lots of money, very powerful. Theft is a huge deal for them, and they’re not happy that so many Shifters live nearby.”

  “Then why the hell did they buy land next to Shiftertown?” Rebecca snapped. “What did they expect?”

  “They’re good with it if Shifters stay away from their property and buildings. Their area is clearly marked, and they have plenty of security to keep an eye on things.” Walker pinned her with his gaze. “You ran right through the site.”

  “I was being chased by stupid human drunks with guns. Why wasn’t security all over their asses?”

  “They were. The police responded to that call. I got the one about you.”

  “Lucky you.” Rebecca lifted her hand to move her hair from her face, but she was brought up short by the chain. “What’s up with this? I could turn bear and yank it out with one pull.”

  “You might not want to do that,” Walker said. “It’s shock triggered, like your Collar. It will hurt, maybe knock you out again.”

  Rebecca lowered her hand in disgust. “Gee, you thought of everything.”

  “Procedure. By the book.”

  “There’s a book on how to confine Shifters?” Rebecca raked her hair back from her face, being careful to use her free hand. “No. Wait. Of course there is.” Her rage was a low simmer, her body too tired to let it boil over.

  Walker had originally been assigned to the military attachment to Shifter Bureau, but in the last couple months, he’d pretty much taken over as a liaison between the bureau and Shiftertown. He now worked with a Shifter called Tiger training humans and other Shifters in search-and-rescue operations.

  Walker had become a strong voice advocating for the equal treatment of Shifters. And yet, here Rebecca was, tranqued, chained, locked in . . .

  “I thought you were supposed to be on our side,” she said.

  “I am.” Walker leaned against the wall, completing the illusion of him being relaxed and friendly. Rebecca knew better—his scent broadcast that he was plenty tense.

  “Sure, I can tell. What did Liam say when you told him you’d imprisoned me? Or have you called him yet?”

  Liam Morrissey was Shiftertown leader. Walker was supposed run everything Shifter related past him.

  “Liam understands,” Walker said. “He knew I had to do what I had to do. If I hadn’t, you might now be in a termination cell. These guys aren’t messing around, Becks.”

  Rebecca winced as he used her pet name. Only Ronan and the cubs called her that, but Walker had heard it from them.

  “Fine, you made your point.” Rebecca tried to look contrite. “I’d like to go home now. Olaf gets upset if I’m not in by a certain time every night. You wouldn’t want to frighten a cute widdle polar bear cub, now, would you?” She blinked soft eyes at him.

  Walker didn’t look impressed. “Olaf is fine. I talked to Ronan. And it’s nine o’clock in the morning.”

  Which meant she’d been here all night. “Shit.”

  “I can’t let you go yet,” Walker said. “Shifter Bureau is not happy with you. They had to talk fast to the pharma company to have you released to me.”

  Rebecca groaned, sore all over. “All I did was go for a run, for the Goddess’s sake. What’s next? We’re not allowed to breathe or take a crap?”

  Walker shrugged, moving his shirt across tight shoulders. “What I’m thinking is there’s something the company plans to do in that building that’s valuable. Maybe billions valuable. Corporations are paranoid. They complained to Shifter Bureau, and Shifter Bureau’s taking it out on you.”

  “Great.”

  Rebecca drew a breath, trying to still her shakes. She didn’t want Walker to see she was scared. She didn’t fear much, but no one ever knew what crazy stupid thing Shifter Bureau might take into their heads to do to Shifters.

  “So, what now?” she asked. “They’re going to put me in a special cage and throw away the key? Or do I get to stay in this luxurious accommodation?”

  She spoke lightly, but dread bit her. Being confined was one of Rebecca’s greatest fears, the one she’d had to fight hardest when she’d been moved to Shiftertown. She’d learned how to survive and even like living with others, but part of the reason she’d been able to was that she’d go out running whenever she got too squirrelly. The thought of being kept in a jail like this made her panic rise.

  “I’ve talked them into letting you go home,” Walker said. “As long as you stay the hell away from the old airport . . . and help me out with an assignment.”

  Rebecca didn’t hear anything past letting you go home. Her heart lifted. She wouldn’t have to stay confined. She was going home. She’d hug everyone when she got there, from the giant Ronan to small Olaf to the tiny Coby, Ronan’s cub.

  “You all right with that?” Walker asked. “I have a bunch of forms for you to sign, and then we’re good to go, with you under my custody.”

  Rebecca snapped out of her daydream of a joyous group hug. “Wait . . . What? Your custody?”

  Walker was back to being the tight-ass officer. “Shifter Bureau is letting you go but only under my supervision. I’ll be responsible for your good behavior.”

  Rebecca stared at him in shock. “Holy shit. For how long?”

  “Until they decide. Probably until I clear up the mess there and prove that you helped me.”

  “Mess?” Rebecca’s brain was trying to catch up.

  “The woman, Joanne Greene, accused Shifters of abducting her sister this past summer—the sister still hasn’t been found.”

  “Yeah, I know Joanne. She’s gotten close to Broderick, of all people.” Broderick was a shithead of a Lupine, thought he was the big, bad wolf. “Joanne has changed her mind that our Shifters took her sister,” Rebecca went on.

  “Yes, but the sister is still missing. I’ve been assigned to clear up the case, and I need Shifter help to do it. You just volunteered.”

  Rebecca suppressed a growl. She wanted to shift, but if she did, fifty men might burst in and pop tranqs into her, not to mention the shock cuff locked around her wrist would go off. “All right, fine. Here’s my help—I can
guarantee you that Shifters had nothing to do with her disappearance. There. Can I go home now?”

  Walker gave her a hint of a smile, which made his blue eyes sparkle. “Nope. You need to be processed, then I drive you back.”

  “Processed. Why don’t I like the sound of that?”

  “It just means going through a bunch of paperwork. And a physical, to make sure they don’t have to quarantine you.”

  Quarantine. Another word to make her shudder. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Shifters are never sick. And I don’t have fleas.” Rebecca lifted her arms from her sides to show him she was flea free.

  Steel returned to Walker’s voice. “Just do it, Rebecca. They’re looking to take out their embarrassment on someone, and you’re right in front of them. Do what I tell you, keep your mouth shut, and you’ll be out of here today. Give them shit, and they might just put you in a cage for a year.”

  Fear of that, far more than Walker’s tone, made Rebecca back down. “Fine. Whatever. Give me the paperwork. And some clothes, please?” She clenched her left fist. “You’ll have to release me from this to sign anything. I’m left-handed.”

  Walker shot her a look. “No, you’re not. Your file says you’re right-handed. Which is why I told them to chain up your left.”

  “You told them? Thanks a lot.”

  “They were going to chain both,” Walker said quietly. “I convinced them that one was enough.” He pushed himself off the wall. “First paperwork, then you get clothes.”

  He started for the door. In a moment, he’d be on the other side of it, leaving Rebecca in solitude, but locked in, trapped. Sweat trickled down her spine.

  “Walker,” she said quickly.

  He turned back, the dim light from the hall burnishing his hair and the diamond blue gray of his eyes.

  Rebecca swallowed. “Thank you. For helping me.”

  “Don’t thank me yet, sweetheart,” Walker said. “Let’s get you out of here first.”

  He opened the door and slipped out, fast enough that even if she were able to yank free of the shackle, she’d never reach the door before it closed.

  The steel door banged, the echo of the lock clicking. Rebecca pulled her feet up under her and scrunched into a ball, the bear in her howling like a pitiful cub.

  Chapter Three

  By the time Walker was able to get all the paperwork done and Rebecca out of there, it was already late afternoon, the sky darkening.

  Walker drove to Shiftertown in his black 250, Rebecca next to him in a set of clean sweats borrowed from one of his sergeants. Rebecca had her arms folded, sitting as far from Walker as she could get.

  This incident was regrettable, because Walker had thought, since he’d begun working with Tiger, that Rebecca had softened to him. That they’d started to be friends.

  Now Rebecca turned her head and stared firmly out the window, wanting nothing to do with him. Neither said a word on the drive back through town, not even when Walker turned onto the narrow streets of Shiftertown.

  It was dark, but many Shifters were out, enjoying the mild October evening. Walker had grown to like coming to Shiftertown, the community of it reminding him that there was more to life than work. The bungalows were old but well kept, yards spilling into yards, gardens neat and blooming, even this late in the year. Shifter cubs played together on patches of grass, watched over by adults from porches. Or from trees, depending on what kind of Shifters the parents were.

  Rebecca lived in a house that was bigger than many of the small bungalows that lined the curving roads. Kodiak bears took up a lot of space. Ronan, her roommate, had paired up with a human woman, Elizabeth, last year, and earlier this year, their firstborn had joined them. Ronan and Rebecca had previously taken in three foster cubs, filling up the house.

  They called them “cubs,” but two of them, Scott and Cherie, were old enough to be adults in human terms. Cherie was twenty-one, Scott, twenty-nine and almost through what Shifters called the Transition, which was the change from cub to adulthood. The Transition was similar to puberty for humans, but fifty times as dangerous. The chain in the dining room that had held Walker to the wall this summer had been put there for Scott.

  Walker pulled into the house’s long driveway, parking next to two Harleys and a small pickup. The two-car garage behind the house had been enclosed, giving the family extra living space they called the Den. The house itself was two stories, large and airy. Everything about this place was big.

  Except for the small boy who came charging from the porch to fling his arms around Rebecca’s legs as soon as she got herself out of the truck. Rebecca leaned down and lifted the white-haired, black-eyed boy, holding him close.

  “I’m all right,” Walker heard her say in soothing tones. “I’m all right, Olaf. See?”

  The boy with the too-serious expression touched Rebecca’s face. “Scott said you weren’t coming back. He said they would kill you.”

  “Well, Scott was wrong,” Rebecca said firmly. “I wasn’t going to let them.”

  “I told him that,” Olaf declared. He threw his arms around Rebecca’s neck and smacked a kiss to her cheek.

  Without looking at Walker, Rebecca started for the house, still carrying Olaf. Olaf was ten, and getting leggy, but he looked younger in tall Rebecca’s arms.

  Walker slung his duffel bag over his shoulder and followed them without a word.

  The front door was already open, the family surging onto the wide front porch to surround Rebecca as she set Olaf on his feet. Ronan, the big, heavily muscled man who worked as a bouncer, enfolded Rebecca in a body-swallowing hug.

  “You okay, Becks?” he asked.

  Rebecca nodded, her black hair glistening under the porch lights. Ronan pulled her close, hands on her back. There was nothing sexual in the hug—it was a wordless show of support, telling her she wasn’t alone. Rebecca wiped tears from her eyes when Ronan released her, and gave him a nod and a little smile.

  Once Ronan stepped away from Rebecca, the others rushed her. Elizabeth, a small woman with blue streaks in her hair, had to stand on tiptoe to get her arms around Rebecca, who bent down for her. Cherie hugged Rebecca tightly from the other side, and lanky Scott wrapped wiry arms around her from behind.

  Rebecca hugged, kissed cheeks, smoothed hair, and finally said, “All right, all right. You’re going to knock me over, and I’m so tired I’ll pass right out. If I sleep on the porch floor all night, I’ll be cranky in the morning.”

  Laughter, strained but relieved, followed. They let her go after Cherie gave Rebecca one last hug.

  Olaf had stood off to the side, seeming to take comfort from watching the others comforting one another. He turned his head and regarded Walker with steady dark eyes.

  “Thanks for bringing her home, Walker,” he said in his small voice that held a hint of gruff bear. He looked pointedly at the duffel bag over Walker’s shoulder. “Are you spending the night?”

  “Yes,” Rebecca said. “He’s been assigned to be my babysitter.”

  Ronan, head of the household, fixed Walker with a brown-eyed stare. “I heard some of this from Liam, but why don’t you fill me in?”

  Walker had learned, since he’d started liaising between Shifter Bureau and Shiftertown, how to stand toe-to-toe with Shifters, especially the alphas, and not let them intimidate him. He knew how to show he was on equal footing with Shifters but no threat to their homes, mates, or cubs. Shifters had grown to accept Walker, because they knew he didn’t fake his respect or his understanding of their rules.

  Walker faced Ronan now, relaxed, acknowledging that this was Ronan’s territory but indicating he wouldn’t jump into his pickup and flee the moment Ronan grew annoyed.

  “The deal is that if Rebecca helps me on my mission of finding the missing Nancy Greene, the trespassing charges will be dismissed,” Walker said. “But I have to spend my nights here while we’re working on it, to keep an eye on her. I trust her not to go back out to the airport, but Shifter Bureau doesn’
t. Me staying here keeps them off her back. Off yours too.”

  Ronan thought about this in his careful way, then he gave Walker a nod. “Makes sense.”

  Rebecca put one hand on her hip, as sexy in shapeless sweats as she’d been naked under the moonlight. “Yeah, I get it, but it still pisses me off.”

  “When big money is involved, the rules change,” Walker said, trying not to think about the silver light touching her bare skin. “I’m sorry about that, Becks.”

  Rebecca let out a growl. “I know. I know. But I’m going to sulk for a while, all right? I’m also starving. Is there any food?”

  The entire family guided Rebecca inside, Olaf holding her hand.

  Cherie chattered excitedly. “Elizabeth made supper. Gobs and gobs of fried chicken. And macaroni and cheese. We had to keep Scott from digging in.”

  “Oh, right,” Scott said. “I saw you wiping your greasy fingers after you walked past that platter of wings.”

  Their voices faded as they continued inside and the door banged closed, leaving Walker on the porch with Ronan.

  “Thanks for what you did,” Ronan said, his bear timbre rumbling the boards of the porch. “Rebecca’s mad at you right now, but I know things could have been a lot worse.” He let out a long breath. “It would have been hard on the cubs if anything had happened to her. Seriously hard. They’ve already been through too much grief. Thank you.” Ronan extended his beefy hand.

  Walker unslung his duffel bag to shake it. “I wasn’t going to let them hurt her.”

  He’d have done anything to keep Rebecca safe—had done everything in his power to bring her home. The assholes at the pharmaceutical company had wanted Shifter Bureau to make an example of her. Walker had talked fast and pulled a lot of strings before they’d conceded to let Rebecca assist Walker on this mission—good PR if it succeeded. The pharma company execs could claim it was their idea.

  Walker would have kept on talking until they let her go, no matter how long it took.

  Ronan’s gaze was shrewd, and his handshake firmed, threatening to crush. “Let’s keep all this gushy stuff between you and me. Becks doesn’t need to know—it would just piss her off more. And damn, can she be crabby.”