Shifters Forever Worlds Mega Box: Volume 1

by Thorne, Elle

Mae nodded approvingly, and every now and then looked up at Teague with a smile on her face. There was something behind that smile, like it was the smile of a Cheshire cat. Something was on Mae’s mind.

  That didn’t surprise Teague. He’d always known Mae was a planner. He didn’t want to say manipulative, because she never did anything to harm anyone, but she always had a game plan.

  Kelsey was waving to the walls, not even aware of the picture of sexuality that she made. Her hips curved just right, those jeans hugging her body, displaying the ass he’d come to love so much.

  Onion ass, he used to tell her. Ass so good it’d make a man cry. Her hips hourglassed out, reminding him of the way she used to straddle him while he held her hips, letting her ride reverse, helping her pump her body onto his shaft repeatedly.

  Fuck.

  He turned toward the window to hide the tent he was pitching. He’d better quit this train of thought before Kelsey and Mae noticed.

  He’d be embarrassed if Mae saw. He knew Kelsey would be pissed.

  He tried to think of other things. God knows he did, but behind him, Kelsey’s voice, excited about the B & B’s changes, wasn’t helping.

  At all. Damn it.

  “Teague?” Mae’s voice. “Teague?”

  He swallowed the lump in his throat. “Yeah?” He touched the sill, acted as if he was checking the work on it.

  “What do you think? How much longer? I’m not trying to rush you; it’s just that we need to schedule delivery for all this stuff that Kelsey’s got on order. Kelsey, when is the delivery supposed to happen? And the interior designer? When is she supposed to be here?”

  “I haven’t made plans for Marti yet. I told her I’d call her on Monday to solidify.” Kelsey looked at Teague, as if she was hoping he’d have an answer.

  He did. Boy, did he ever. “Schedule it for delivery in four days. I’ll be done.” He’d work 24-hour days if he had to, to meet that deadline, though the last thing he wanted was to be done. Then he wouldn’t have a reason to stay.

  Judging from Kelsey’s responses, she wouldn’t give him a reason to stay. Tanner came to his mind. Yeah, he knew what Tanner would do. But that wasn’t how Teague operated.

  “So how do you two know each other?” Mae said.

  Teague snapped his head her way. He noticed Kelsey did the same. Why the hell was Mae asking that? He’d told Mae when he arrived in the valley that he knew Kelsey from college.

  Mae wasn’t looking at him, though; she was staring right at Kelsey. Why was Mae putting her on the spot like that? Kelsey had paled, her eyes wide, dark saucers in a sea of white.

  He and his bear became aggravated, protective of Kelsey. He stepped forward a long stride, then another, until he was next to Kelsey.

  She still hadn’t said a word.

  “I know her from when she was in college,” he said. “That’s all.”

  A look of pain crossed Kelsey’s face.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  The way Teague said he knew her from college, and that’s all cut Kelsey. It tore her heart in two.

  That’s all.

  The words reverberated in her mind, repeating over and over.

  I guess that was all.

  And now it was pretty much over. She should cut him from her heart. She’d have to learn how to unlove him.

  She pushed the emotions away, as far back as she could, so that she could concentrate on today’s business. Then she’d go off somewhere alone and deal with it.

  “...and the tunnels?” Mae was asking Teague. She turned to Kelsey. “I suppose you should know, since you’ll be here full time. There’s a series of tunnels that lead out from parts of the building. They go to different locations, the forest, Grant’s land, and so on. I’m not entirely sure as I haven’t been in them. No one uses them, but I didn’t want them found by outsiders.” Mae smiled a mysterious smile. “You never know when one of us will need one. They’re designated in the real set of blueprints.”

  “Where are these blueprints?”

  “Teague has a copy.” Mae looked at Teague.

  He nodded. “The entrances and the tunnels are still intact,” he responded, his unreadable gaze on Kelsey.

  Kelsey wasn’t going to talk to him. She wasn’t going to let him see how much he’d hurt her. She turned to Mae. “Could I see them, just in case?”

  “I need to see them again. It’s been ages,” Mae added.

  “Sure.” Teague turned toward the door. “Be right back with the blueprints.”

  “Actually, could you show them to us? It’s much better than looking at them on paper.” Mae took a sip of her latte. “I know there are tricks to opening the entrances.”

  After he’d retrieved the blueprints, Teague took Kelsey and Mae on a quick walk through the B & B. He showed them where the tunnels appeared on the blueprints, then took them to each one in turn.

  “No electricity,” he let them know. “So if you decide to go exploring, take a flashlight.”

  He was showing them the tunnel beneath the staircase when his cell phone rang, jarring the silence in the room, echoing off the tunnel’s dark walls. He looked at the screen.

  Jealousy pricked at Kelsey. She pushed it away, though it kept trying to return.

  “Tanner,” Teague said.

  “Take it. Kelsey and I will talk shop for a few.” Mae led Kelsey out of the room while Teague answered the phone.

  She smiled at Kelsey. “He’s almost done. I get the feeling there’s an issue with his being here.”

  “No. it’s not that. It’s... difficult to explain.”

  Mae nodded. “You’d be surprised by the things I understand, but I won’t pressure you for any answers.”

  “Why did you bring him here, from so far away?” That question didn’t even begin to tap the flow of questions Kelsey wanted to ask, but it was a good start.

  “He was the right man for the job. No other one would do.” Mae’s voice brooked no argument.

  Now he was going to be gone in a few days, after throwing her life and her heart back into turmoil.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Mae asked Kelsey and Teague to go to lunch. Kelsey begged off, claiming a stomach thing.

  Teague gave her a look, then Mae and Teague left together, in separate vehicles.

  Kelsey sat at the kitchen table, staring at the blueprints, sipping the cold latte. Her hands shook and she knew it was because she was close to a breaking point with her emotions about Teague. She hadn’t expected everything to come back so strongly. The love they’d shared, the depth of her feelings for him hadn’t lessened over time. At all. Damn.

  She pored over the blueprints, staring at the tunnel entrances that were marked with red.

  Screw it.

  She was going to go into the tunnels and check them out.

  Which one of the three to pick? After a minute of thinking, she picked the one under the stairway leading to the second floor.

  She ran to her bedroom, put some hiking boots and jeans on, then went to the utility room, where she picked up a flashlight. As she went back through the kitchen, she grabbed a granola bar, then another, and two bottled waters, threw them all in a little backpack, and stopped in front of the entrance.

  With the flashlight in one hand, and ready for an adventure that would get her mind off of Teague, she took a deep breath and opened the entrance, slipped inside, and closed the door behind her.

  Pitch black and total silence surrounded her. She flipped the switch on the flashlight.

  Nothing.

  What the hell?

  She tapped it against her thigh, then flicked the switch once more. A flickering light came on. She tapped it even harder against her thigh.

  Ouch. That hurt, dammit.

  The batteries shifted with a rattle. The light became brighter, though. That was good.

  Stupid me. Should’ve checked it before I got into the tunnel.

  She took a step down the tunnel, casting the light on the wall
s. Whoever had dug the tunnel out had done more than a rudimentary job. It was wide enough for two or three people to walk through, shoulder to shoulder, and more than tall enough for an extremely tall man. More than eight feet tall, if she had to take a guess. The walls weren’t reinforced with anything manmade, but there was no doubt of their sturdiness.

  She started down the tunnel. It wasn’t a straight shot, with many twists and turns, and a few alcoves. She checked each alcove out, looking for other tunnels that would feed into this one. There were none. She paused every few feet to listen for any sign of where the tunnel might lead to. She listened for cars, for running water, for any sounds of civilization.

  There were none.

  Maybe it led all the way to the mountains.

  A rush of excitement surged through her. Who knew how long it had been since anyone had been down here.

  She was the first one in a long time. She was rediscovering something special.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Teague pushed his chair back. “That was good, Mae. Thanks.” He’d ordered the easiest, quickest thing to prepare from the menu and had eaten it with as much speed as good manners allowed. He put his napkin on the plate and took out his wallet.

  He wanted to get back to Kelsey. He needed to talk to her. He wasn’t going to leave town without talking this out. He wanted answers, and she was going to provide them, one way or another.

  “I’m buying. It’s a tax deduction, you know,” Mae said. “What’s your rush?”

  “I want to get back to the B & B.”

  “Don’t you believe in a day off, or are you in that much of a rush to leave town? I’m hoping not. I think Grant was hoping that you’d stay around at least long enough to attend the wedding. He’s short on groomsmen.” She narrowed her eyes. “Or is it not the B & B you’re getting back to?”

  He shrugged. Mae was hitting too close to home. “What do you mean?”

  “You. Kelsey.”

  “I just need to get back.”

  “I’m not ignorant, Teague. And I do have connections in the shifter world. I don’t mean just here in Bear Canyon Valley, you know.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  “You and Kelsey have a history.”

  “I’ve already told you that. So what’s the point of this conversation?” He tried not to sound abrupt, but he was frustrated with Tanner for giving him shit about letting Kelsey go, with Kelsey for not being communicative, and mostly with himself for not pushing her.

  Mae looked at him and shook her head. “Go ahead, go. Figure out what you want.”

  It wasn’t what he wanted that needed figuring out.

  Screw this.

  It was time Kelsey did some talking, and Teague wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Kelsey had been walking in the tunnels for quite a while. She took her phone out of her back pocket to check the time. An hour of walking. How far would that be? She wondered if it had been close to five miles. She had no clue, because she wasn’t exactly speed-walking.

  She noticed that her phone showed she had no service. That wasn’t a big surprise. She was underground, after all.

  With a slight downward slope to the tunnel, Kelsey wondered if she’d possibly been going deeper underground. She should turn around, but why? There was no reason to go home. It was early on a Saturday and she had no plans.

  What if I’m far from the B & B when I do find the exit?

  She could always use the phone to call someone to come get her.

  And how will you know where you are, smarty pants?

  Phones had GPS locators, of that she was pretty sure. And if they had to, the authorities could track her.

  Shoot, I hope I don’t have to pay them to save me.

  She’d heard stories of people getting lost and the military or state agencies having to find them, then charging the lost person hundreds of thousands of dollars for the effort.

  Silly me, acting paranoid. It’ll be fine.

  She trudged on, still enjoying the adventure, though her enthusiasm was tempered with fatigue. She took out one of the granola bars. No, she’d better save it for a little later, when she was really hungry. The same with the water, she thought, as her tongue stuck to the roof of her dry mouth.

  She heard a snuffling sound. Like a child sniffling, or blowing air out of its nose. Then she heard shuffling.

  She froze.

  Who would be in the tunnel? Did this mean she was close to the exit? She became happy, excited really, at the prospect of getting out of the tunnel. It was becoming a bit claustrophobic.

  She waved the flashlight, moving it around the tunnel, looking for the source of the noise. She walked around a bend, shining the light and at the same time cursing herself for being so foolish. What could it possibly be? she chastised herself. There was nothing that could hurt her in the tunnels. There was an alcove on the right and straight ahead she could see daylight. Granted, it was muted daylight, as if she were in the woods, but still... it was daylight.

  She rejoiced.

  Then she heard the snuffling sound again. She shined the light toward the deepest part of the little alcove, which was really more like a tiny cave.

  There.

  Movement.

  A small, dark form moved in the corner of the alcove.

  Was it a rabbit? A dog?

  She approached, murmuring sounds of comfort. “It’s okay,” she whispered. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  Eyes glowed in the flashlight’s beam. Tiny dark eyes, a muzzle, dark fur. She closed in.

  The animal made tiny sounds of distress. She squatted on her knees and avoided shining the light in its face, casting the rays on its body instead.

  A tiny bear. A dark brown baby bear. Fear showed in its eyes.

  “Aww, don’t be afraid of me. I love bears.” She kept her voice low and reached her hand out to let the bear sniff it.

  The baby reached its paw out, touching her hand with its soft pads.

  “Such a sweet baby.” She took the baby’s paw in her hand and rubbed it, then put the flashlight down, angling it so that she and the tiny bear weren’t in its direct light.

  Kelsey sat near the bear, cross-legged.

  The little bear shuffled closer to her, then ambled into her lap, laying its head on her thigh. She patted the baby’s head and its back, murmuring soothing sounds. It licked at her fingertips, tried to suckle on her thumb.

  “You’re hungry, aren’t you? Why are you in here all alone? Did your mommy die or abandon you?”

  The little bear grunted, rooting against her body.

  “I wonder if you could eat a granola bar.” She reached for the backpack slowly, unzipping it while the bear’s tiny, squinty eyes watched her without fear.

  “You’re not even afraid of people, are you?” A wave of sadness coursed through her.

  Was this what her and Teague’s baby would have been like when it shifted? Would it have been born human and then shifted to a little bear at will?

  She took the granola bar out and ripped the wrapper with her teeth, peeling it back. The little bear raised its head and sniffed, then licked at her fingers. She put the granola bar closer to its mouth. The cub licked at it, then nibbled on it. Within a second it had taken the bar in its mouth and was trying to chew on it.

  Did it even have teeth? She didn’t want to find out the hard way, so she’d leave that question unanswered.

  In less than a minute, the bar was gone and the little bear leaned its head against her chest.

  She held it securely, not too tightly. It would be better if she got outside of the tunnel, figured out where she was, and had some phone reception.

  She’d tell Astra to come get her. Kelsey shifted the backpack over one shoulder and rose to her feet with the bear still cuddled within her arms, like a baby would have been.

  “Come on, little one, let’s get out of here.”

  What was she going to do? R
aise a bear? Sure. Didn’t some people have pet bears? She’d seen something like that on one of the nature shows on TV. That wouldn’t be so bad, would it?

  She looked at his little snuffling snout. If it were a cat, it would probably be purring. Again, she thought of what a baby would have been like if she and Teague had had one.

  Funny, for all the times he’d mentioned wanting children, she had never thought to ask him how it was when baby shifters were born, and whether they could shift when they were little or not.

  She rubbed the little bear’s head, running her fingers down its fur toward its neck, as she made her way in the dimness with the flashlight clasped precariously in one hand. She put her face into his fur and breathed deeply.

  I’m messed up. Why am I doing this?

  Why was the little bear getting to her this way?

  More light came in from the tunnel entrance. She flipped the flashlight off and tucked it into her back pocket. Shifting the cub—the little bugger was heavy!—she fished her phone out and held it up.

  Bars! Yes! She had reception.

  Kelsey bit back the whoop of joy she wanted to release because the little bear’s eyes were closed. A smile crossed her face. He was so cute.

  A roar that was too close for comfort made her jump.

  A squeal escaped Kelsey’s lips at the same time that the little bear released a yelp.

  A large brown bear was twenty yards away.

  Kelsey squinted at the bear. Was that Teague? What was he doing out here?

  She looked closer.

  Not Teague.

  The little bear started to squirm in her arms.

  The big bear released another roar and reared up onto its hind legs.

  Kelsey looked at the baby bear, then looked at the big brown bear. She wondered if the bear meant him harm, or...

  Is that his mother?

  A flood of information that she’d heard about mother bears and protectiveness rushed to the forefront of Kelsey’s mind. She didn’t want to release the little bear. What if that wasn’t its mother? What if that big bear killed the baby?