Greyriver Shifters

by Kristina Weaver

  “But…but I love her.”

  “And she loves you too, baby. So much. So much that she would rather hurt than let you be hurt by choosing between her or Bear,” he says softly, giving me a sad smile over her shoulder. “You know you always have a home here, sweetheart, no matter what. You’re one of us, and you always will be. If you need me, you call,” he says sternly, making me laugh through my tears.

  “I know. Now can I kiss you goodbye?” I ask, swallowing the lump in my throat when they both embrace me and whisper their regret to me.

  I know they wish things were different, but sometimes you have to accept things and just move on.

  This is me moving on, and I hope it’s to a better place.

  Chapter Eleven

  Meek

  “Well girlie, at least you’re not alone anymore and those relatives of yours are nice people. That Nick guy calls me at least once a week to let me know that you’re doing better, and the doctors are happy with your treatments.” Bess says, making me grin.

  In this community, the truth is what we call flexible with Nick and Prissy and most all shifters telling people what they have to when things get dicey. In Bess’s case, they were about to get violent and involve a shotgun when they refused to let me see her or for her to drive out to me.

  I get it. Having strangers invade the town would definitely have shifters kicking up a fuss and taking me there would have let Bess see that I am not in poor health, the reason they gave her for my sudden departure and indefinite stay.

  I’m just glad the old bird didn’t arrive here shooting her gun out her car window while being trailed by a pack of unhappy wolves, who would at the very least scare her stiff.

  “He’s a good guy, Bess, and after getting sick it was a Godsend to discover that I had other family,” I say, fudging a little in the name of peace.

  “What about this Logan guy? He treat you right, my child?”

  Well, the answer is complicated.

  If by “treat right”, she means pamper me and make me laugh every day, then yes, he treats me right. The only down side to living with Logan is that he’s now decided that his family are mine.

  His father—Dennis—is a huge man, who I would call a bear except that those eyes of his are all wolf, and he is so jovial and nice I felt at home the minute I stepped into their house.

  Ros, the bear shifter, who is sister to Denise and Grace, is a mother hen who feeds me as if I have never eaten a meal, fusses over me, and never stops telling me what a beauty I am.

  I so dig it.

  Logan’s brothers—Banner and Clark—are also two of the best men I have ever met, and no, it’s not because they’re hot as hell, but rather because they are and don’t seem to care about it at all.

  Looks mean nothing to them, and I once had Banner confide in me that he wouldn’t care if his Fated was three hundred pounds, he’d still want her and only her because mating is not just about biology but about having the capacity to love fully.

  That made me teary, very teary, and I spent the next few minutes sniffling and loudly asking why he couldn’t have been mine. Banner shrugged and said simply that God must not think he’s worthy of someone like me yet.

  I more than sniffled at that and baked him a dozen cinnamon syrup donuts to let him know I love him too. Logan thinks it’s hilarious that I have a crush on his brother but feigns jealousy because he’s possessive of my…skills in the kitchen.

  “He’s a catch, Bess—and I don’t ever go a day without him telling me how wanted I am,” I say, swallowing when she sighs and murmurs a “Praise God!”

  “I’m glad, honey, so glad. After the life you lived, you deserve only the best, and if this Logan guy is good to you, then I am happy you found him. I just pray that your health improves, and they can fix what they need to, so you can live a long life with your love.”

  I don’t correct her because—to Bess, a woman living with a man must mean they’re in a relationship and headed down the aisle. Besides, as terrible as it sounds, I like hearing people say Logan and I are together because that means they won’t still be thinking I’m a rejected loser who is pining for Bear.

  Of course, Bess can’t be considered in that category since she doesn’t know about Bear and the almost mating and my subsequent blood sickness. Still, the more I hear people say that I am happy and in love, the easier it is to get up and feel happy.

  “I’ll be just fine, Bess. Logan won’t accept anything else. Now, what’s up with work?”

  “Nothing good! Those slackers you called friends started getting worse after you left. You weren’t there to cover up their uselessness. Well, okay, Jo ain’t that bad, but Holly has turned into a nightmare to be around since she met this new guy. Jared quit, so now I’m having to order all my baked goods from Frank’s…and it’s not only pricey but crap. I’m losing business fast,” she admits, sighing dramatically.

  Bess’s business is all she has left of her deceased husband Beau, so this is serious to her, even if she has enough money to retire and never work again.

  I owe her so much that thinking about the business going under makes me anxious.

  “I could bake some stuff for you and use that to pay you back for the doctor’s bills,” I offer, getting a snort.

  “I don’t want your money, girl! I told you I owed you for keeping me sane for four years. I like the idea of you baking for me though. Never tasted things so good as those peanut butter things you make. Tell you what, Mika, you can supply me with stuff twice a week and I’ll pay you—”

  “But Bess—”

  “Or you can refuse to accept payment, and I’ll go back to Frank’s, and you’ll still be without an income. This way at least you make some money to pay for your mom’s care and I won’t have to have a breakdown and end up shooting Holly at some stage,” she argues.

  “The doctor’s bills—”

  “Will never be an issue because I wouldn’t take your money even if you were a millionaire! Now what do you say, honey? You want to help me out and let me help you out? I know that family of yours is rich, but that don’t mean you like living off them. I know you, Mika. You bake, I pay, and Logan can drive down here with you to deliver the stuff, so I can meet the boy,” she wheedles, making me laugh.

  This is actually perfect, I think, sighing as I eye the sparkling house and think about how it’s ten in the morning and I have nothing else to do here but watch television or die of boredom.

  I need something to keep me going, and if Bess will give me this break, then in a few months I will pay her back, no matter what she says.

  “Okay, but I insist on paying you back at some stage. Don’t argue with me! You know I will have to at some point, Bess. It’s the way I am built. This will give me a shot though, and seriously help me out since I was worrying about how to pay for Mom’s care in a few weeks,” I admit.

  “Problem solved.”

  “As for Holly…Bess, she isn’t a bad person, just scatty sometimes and maybe not doing so well with this new guy. We owe it to her to be supportive.”

  “Yeah, yeah. You know I love her. I just don’t like seeing her so out of it over a man. I’ll lay off, but if she comes to work drunk one more time I am kicking her ass.”

  I can’t blame her, I’d do it too. I should call her sometime though and try to get her to talk it out. Hopefully this time she won’t give me monosyllabic answers and rush off the phone.

  “And I wouldn’t blame you, but she’s been different these last two months and riding her won’t fix anything, Bess. She just needs time and love to get through whatever is going on.”

  Like I do. I totally get it.

  I would like to meet this guy who’s messing her up though, maybe take Logan along and see how “nice” he can be to some asshole who doesn’t know how to treat a woman.

  Speaking of Logan, that man works a lot. Every moment he isn’t patrolling the town or doing whatever it is those enforcers do, he spends with me. I enjoy it though be
cause he’s good company.

  A knock on the front door makes me grimace, and I sigh as I ring off with Bess, promising her a delivery tomorrow even if I have to drive all the way to Kalispell to do it.

  Rising from the couch, I make my way to the door, promising myself that if it is even one groupie—yeah, I have those, and it is not nice being stalked by people who think I am an oddity—I will so totally pepper spray someone today.

  I yank the door open, preparing to let them have it, only to have Bear barge in without a word, his size and the scowl on his face letting me know this is not a social “let’s pretend to be friends” visit.

  “What—?”

  “What’s going on here? Why are you living with Logan? Do you know how inappropriate this is? Mom cried all night last night, and Jules isn’t speaking to me. Again.”

  “Well, hello to you, too,” I mutter, slamming the door when my pointed look and hint go unanswered.

  Making my way back through the living room and into the kitchen, I decide to keep myself busy by checking the pantry and fridge before grabbing a pad and pen from the drawer and making a list of everything I’ll need not only for supper but to bake all through today.

  I ignore Bear and his question, knowing that this is not going to be a good visit and also knowing that with all the blessings God has given me thus far, I can’t ruin my day by yelling at the man.

  New leaf! I am on a new leaf today.

  He follows me into the kitchen to stand and glower at me, his body vibrating with anger the longer I ignore him and play at the domestic scene I have going on here.

  Logan is right, at least I want to think he’s right. No one is going to like us living together, but if I have to take the attitude I may as well enjoy some part of it. The fact that he doesn’t mind that people think the two rejects are screwing like bunnies and on the way to getting mated, or rather that he likes people thinking that, makes this so much easier.

  Look, not to sound like a liar and manipulator, but if people want to think that and I get to stand here and let Bear think I am not dying inside because he’s engaged, then call me what you like.

  “Why? What was wrong with living with my parents?!” he snarls, making me lift my head and raise a brow.

  “Nothing. Your parents are wonderful people, whom I love and consider family.”

  “Then why move in here?” he demands, stalking over to the fridge to grab a beer.

  The slam of the door shows his frustration and that ramps up the nasty little temper I’ve acquired since becoming half-blood. Today I won’t let it out though, oh no. Today, I am cool and calm and in love with another man, and nothing he says will make me humiliate myself again.

  You may think that’s an exaggeration, but let me tell you, waking up in the woods, staring at Bear’s house and not knowing how I got there is not a proud moment for me. That’s happened three times until I asked Prissy to lock me in my room at night to avoid doing it again.

  Worse, I actually found myself asking Bear to think about what he’s doing the night he came over to announce his engagement to the family. Never again will I ask him to want me, and I sure as hell do not owe him any explanation.

  “Why wouldn’t I?” I ask, shrugging nonchalantly and putting down the pen to stare right at him. “Logan and I can do what we like without me having to worry about what people think, which by the way, not cool.”

  “You want people to think you’re together?” he asks incredulously.

  “Think? Are you suggesting that I am here pretending to be with Logan?” I ask, skirting the need to lie outright by making it sound like I’m offended.

  Bear shifts on his feet, his eyes flashing when he gets my meaning and the insinuation sinks in. He doesn’t like hearing that I’m with Logan intimately—God, I am going to have to scrub my brain sometime later. Logan is like a brother—and why he feels that way makes my blood boil.

  He has no right to feel anything. He made it clear, more than once, that I have no place in his life, save for hanging around in the family and being his friend, or rather the pathetic woman who is in love with him and is watching from the sidelines in misery while he goes on with his happy life.

  That’s not me. It never will be me. Again.

  “You’re sleeping with him?! How can you sleep with him when I warned you that he’s a player? Do you think he’ll fall in love with you and live happily ever after with you, Mika?” he laughs, his anger bleeding through when I shrug again and grin.

  “Oh, I don’t know. He hasn’t been out since I moved in, and we spend a lot of time together talking about the future. It doesn’t sound to me like he’s losing interest in me. Although…that could happen, right? Because—apparently—you seem to think I am not lovable,” I say, smiling when he flinches.

  That was just a little something I heard Hannah muttering on one of those occasions I actually had to tolerate her in my breathing space. Not that he liked it. I saw another side of Bear that day and would have sworn he even cared—if not for the ease with which he let it go when she put on her contrite sniffles.

  “That wasn’t what I meant, Mika.”

  “No, but then you don’t really know what you mean, do you? Half the time you know what is right and wrong, and yet one look from your…one look from Hannah and none of that matters. I don’t know why or how she has this hold on you, Bear, but whatever it is, it’s your problem. Me, I am doing just fine, and if you don’t like how I got to this place, then that’s your problem. Logan is a good male, a lot better than you are at least, and I will be with him and get to know him and be happy if that’s what is in the cards for the future,” I say with a strength that I like and hope to maintain.

  The truth though is so shameful that I don’t want to acknowledge it. Two months later and just being near him this way makes my body react and long for him.

  This is why I hide in my room when he’s around. I still can’t shake this lingering arousal that is present when I see him. Just a look into his silver-grey eyes and I want. I want to touch his silky-looking hair and smell his skin and run my hands all over him to learn his body.

  I want taste and touch and the feel of him touching me back. Wanting me as he fills my wet heat to capacity. Two months and I still dream about him taking me, claiming me, ruining me for any other man.

  I don’t want it, but it’s there, and the longer he stands here, glaring at me, the more it builds inside me. Even now I can feel how wet I am and smell myself, something that he can no doubt smell as well though he’s never been crass enough to comment on it.

  I see him go still and tense right before his eyes narrow, and he takes a deep breath, letting me know he smells me. The urge to turn away so I don’t see his disgust is strong, but I stand my ground and almost scream in surprise when he growls and lunges for me.

  I’m trapped in his arms and up against his chest before I can blink, and then I am moaning in defeat when his mouth touches mine and his taste hits me.

  Oh God, oh no. I can’t do this.

  And yet, I can’t push him away when he thrusts his tongue into my mouth and devours me with snarls of lust and need, I feel it fill my every pore.

  Before I can form another thought, we’re in the living room and Bear is ripping my sweater and skirt off, his eyes gleaming purest silver when he looks down at my body and sees me naked for the first time.

  “Bear—”

  The words turn into a moan when he growls and lunges for me, planting his mouth directly over my sex to suck at me as if he’s starving for the taste of me. I would be mortified at the intimacy, push him away because I haven’t ever wanted something like this before, but the minute he touches me I am lost.

  Gone are pride and emotion and sense, and in its place is that inner voice that lives within me. She doesn’t care that Bear is engaged, that I shouldn’t want this, or that it’s wrong.

  She feels and with every drag of his lips against my folds and clit, she comes awake and takes over, d
emanding more. The wet slurp of his mouth grinding into my flesh is both painful and so necessary I stop fighting before I can start, and instead, I spread my fingers through his hair, pulling him closer while I spread myself wider, the need and lust seizing me making my body desperate for more.

  He gives it to me while I pant and build between my legs, the achingly empty feeling increasing the more pleasure I feel.

  “Oh, God.”

  My gasp spurs him on, and he pushes closer, swiping his tongue away from my clit to lick lower and breach me. It feels good and so necessary that I don’t care that I’m getting wetter and likely making a mess. I want more.

  I’m greedy for it and out of control. I must show it because Bear stops sucking at me and lunges up over me, the wildness in his eyes making him look savage and brutal when he kisses me while ripping at his own clothes.

  The kiss is nowhere near long enough, and I whimper when he pulls away, the sound becoming a gasp when he latches his mouth onto my breast and starts sucking strongly.

  I want to scream out my pleasure, but it’s so intense that all I can do is breathe and feel his wet mouth on my nipples, the scrape of his teeth when he sucks harder and pleasures me as if it’s imperative to his survival.

  My sex is so wet now, throbbing and clenching and empty. I need him inside of me, filling the space, using the moisture there to slide his cock deep and touch that place inside my womb that still aches.

  My need is answered after what feels like forever when I feel him shift and place the scalding heat of his shaft at my core, the thickness giving me a split second of pause that doesn’t last because something hot and wet fills me and makes my sex go so hot I almost lose my mind.

  The bursts continue, filling my sheath and causing a chain reaction of tiny tremors to convulse my walls and drive me higher.

  “God, I need this!” he says with a snarl and plunges deep in one stroke, the pain of his cock tearing through my membrane, making me gasp before a pleasure so great it engulfs me slams through me from my core all the way to my brain.